Sunday, March 14, 2010
Well, this week has been interesting for sure. The weirdest part was probably that we didn't have to teach because the other teachers didn't have the new schedule and so there was just a huge mix-up. First of all, on Sunday night Nikki and I decided to build an awesome fort out of her couches and some blankets I found in my room. It was pretty epic- and we decided to sleep in it because we could. We had a really good time- it was funny because although we've had many sleepovers (when we've had people come over and stay in my room), they haven't really seemed quite the same as they used to. Sleeping in our awesome fort was a really nice flashback to our childhood. Monday Mr. Zhou was going to come to Nikki's to bring a rice cooker but we didn't really know when. Later in the day, Sam and Nikki needed to go look for some propane stuff and since Mr. Zhou still hadn't shown up, I stayed behind just in case. During that time (there was like an hour where no one came) Twinkle came over to talk for a little bit, then a little while later (about ½ to ¾ an hour) Mr. Zhou and Luke came with the rice cooker stuff, almost 2 minutes after they came in Nikki and Sam got back, soon followed by Evie coming by. She gave me this really cute little rose she grew herself; I decided to press it in one of my China books. Tuesday I had begun like normal: teaching my first couple of classes of the day before lunch then Sam called right before I was about to teach my 4th hour (the 2nd class I had that day) to tell me we weren't supposed to be teaching anymore because of some confusion with the other teachers. So, I taught that class then I didn't teach anymore for the rest of the week. We were supposed to be waiting for Luke to let us know when we would start teaching again so we were on a day-by-day basis for whether or not we taught; meaning that we couldn't go anywhere for any extended amount of time. However, on Tuesday night Twinkle came over to Nikki's and decided that she would sleep on Nikki's couch then we'd all get up in the morning and go to Lengshui Tang the next day. Well, they had me come down and sleep in Nikki's room too, but before we could go to bed (11pm) she decided to make me exercise for an hour- hardcore exercise at 11pm… yeah. Well, the next morning Nikki and I slept in until like 10 (Twinkle got up at 7, went running, came back, showered, then went to do more PE stuff) then took showers and got ready. We left for Lengshui Tang at about 12- we got there 45 minutes later, went looking for a gift for Twinkle's boyfriend YY's mom, then went to visit her at the primary school she teaches at. We ate at Dicos (basically an American fast food kind of place) then went to visit one of her classes. It was awesome! There are like 120 kids in each class, and so we went in to the class then we all sang the ABC song together. After that we decided to play "Duck, Duck, Goose." It was the most epic game I've ever seen in my life. Trying to get 120 kids to all sit in a single circle was basically impossible- they would either bunch up, or else when we would move to another part of the circle they would stand up and group around us. We had to give up on trying to explain the rules or anything; so we pulled out our cameras- insanity ensued. Seriously, the moment they saw our cameras they ran to us to try to get their picture taken; they would push, pull, shove, jump, anything to get themselves in the picture. Many would stick their peace sign right in front of my camera so all that showed was the kid's hand. They'd get as close to me as they could, actually pushing me into the kids behind me so I was trying to avoid stepping on their feet while getting pushed backward by the mob of kids in front of me. They all were so cute! Nikki was in one place and I was in another and sometimes there would be a crowd of kids running from one to the other. Sometimes Nikki would run ahead of the kids and they would all run behind her- it was like a parade. Those kids would go anywhere we did, and they loved it! One girl came up to me to have me sign her paper but then other kids laughed at her so she ran away. Another time a kid came to have me sign my name and as I was writing my name everyone started pulling both the pen and paper out of my hands, so I hope that the right kid got it. We had to leave then and we said our goodbyes and started heading to the gate. All the kids followed us as we went until we finally left through the gate. Then we went looking for random things, but neither Nikki nor I actually bought anything. Thursday was a pretty chill day, but I finally had my first guitar lesson from Sam! Sam is so awesome- he really does so much for me (us, really) and I really appreciate it a lot. He started me out with "Christmas Bells are Ringing" (later he gave me "You are My Sunshine" to learn as well). After my lesson Nikki had us come down to eat some of the fried rice and tomato egg stuff she made for dinner. After Sam had gone upstairs to work on his resume, Twinkle called us and told us to come down to go to her friend's birthday party. Well, we went… and got plastered with cake in return. See, they started eating it like normal but that's not how they do it here in China- so one girl came up to me (nikki was next, but she was in the corner) and covered my face with frosting. It seems to me that they really wanted to get us as messy as possible- they even shoved some so that it went up my nose. We were basically as covered in frosting as the birthday girl… I think they just wanted to get the laowai as messy as they could. Well, after the fighting was over, we went to Sam's to have him take our picture- Twinkle decided she wanted to cover him with frosting too, but he escaped from that fate; his door got a bit messy though. We then went and cleaned ourselves up and finished out the day. Shelby, Cierra, Quincy, and Lawrence came here on Friday evening so we could all head up to Dong'an on Saturday for church. We had a rather enjoyable time. OH! Sam finally gave me Les Mis to read! I'm excited about that one. The bus ride up there was fun- it was a good 2 hours or so, then we went to Matt and Krystal's, had lunch, went shopping for books and groceries, then went back, had dinner, played games… it was pretty chill. Church this morning was very good; we also got to have pancakes! That was really yummy; later Nikki and I went back with Cierra and Shelby to Lingling and they went on to Shuangpai. I may not be able to send this for quite awhile because our internet is being really strange so I'll see what I can do. Love y'all!
Madi
