Where am I?

Yesterday I went to hang out with 10 americans and 3 indians; for lunch  we had indian food and there were only indians in the restaurant after a while I forgot that I was in China; especially since I was eating with my hands Indian style and all. The food was really good and was just as spicy as I like it. 

Then to further confuse myself or forget that I am in China, at night I went latin dancing! It was so much fun!

It gets crazier, for dinner- I cooked Italian food :)

This whole cultural experience was not planned, it just happened to be in the same day

Visit to the dentist

Today I only had one class so we made a group trip to the dentist to have my cavity filled. Mary is in the corner, she couldn't look because I kept screaming. I have heard that most chinese doctors do not understand pain so we made it very clear in the beginning that she needed to be sweet. She nodded her head and proceeded to drill through my tooth to get a shape fitting to her. Despite my screams and dramatic cries for help, she continued on telling me to "hold on" in chinese. The process was way than an hour, cost 52RMB and was very successful.

It was a bit strange that I did not have to fill out any paperwork and I was not asked a lot of questions; I paid 5RMB just to see the dentist and then she worked on me and gave me the bill after. The only time she asked my name was when it was time to pay; but go figure there are 600,000 people in my city alone- imagine doing paperwork for everyone who visits for just a walk in...

No Class Today

I have no classes today and only one tomorrow because of a Math competition. 

845am Supervisor: Rose, do you know how to play ping pong?

Me: Not really but I want to learn

Supervisor: OK come back to the office at 9am and someone will teach you how to play

So at 9am I learned how to play ping pong; I had a great time

10am Mary and I went to see our students in the Math teaching competition

11am  She went to class and I wandered around the campus

12pm We met up for lunch

2 pm  Sleep

3pm   I studied Chinese

4pm Spoke to my friend in Budapest, Hungary

5pm Met Chinese teachers to go to dinner at someone's house

Conversation on Friday- dinner invitation Monday

Me: I tried making chinese dumplings today and it tastes delicious but they fall apart very easily :(

Chingjing: OK I can teach, I can ask my mother to teach you how to make dumplings. She is very good

Her father displayed his skills of peeling an apple in a single peel

Her house is so beautiful- her mother said that when I have nothing to do I can come and play there. Except I would be very fat because while we were there my Chinese parents constantly told me to eat. Her mom made over 200 dumplings! The food was so delicious and her family is great.

The parents live on the first floor, I think maybe I will live on the 3rd floor because its has a beautiful balcony to enjoy the sunshine! 

We went to a local chrch and then we decided to try a new restaurant, we chose to eat mutton, beef, tofu, mushrooms, potatoes.... Look at Mary's reflection! 

The chef added some oil and that thing started popping like crazy. Like a big drama queen, I jumped up and the chef asked "is this her first time coming" as if you eventually get used to being burnt by hot oil!

After we ate, we came back to our house and decided that we would play cards outside for about 15 mins; that turned into a picnic and Mary brought her dog Lemonte.

Then my friend Yuan Mao came to visit me and we stayed together from 3-10pm

Thankful for Technology

So my friend sent me an email and asked me if I am really doing OK despite the blogs, this was my reply "of course I miss my nieces, family, Word brook, my friends, our spontaneous dinner meet ups, etc but there is no embellishment on the blog"

I am really happy that we have technology like email, IM, etc because I still connect with my friends so in essence I have the best of both worlds :)

Dancing Competition

Dancers from the nation would compete so the school bought us tickets to see the competition. Pics are of random kids and some scandalous dancers :) It was very entertaining!

Twins

As if its not strange enough that our birthdays are only a day apart and we have the same interests; hobbies, habits and expressions- I walk into the grade 8 office and we are dressed alike! So being that we are so similar, we both thought it necessary to take pictures!

Da twins: Jinjing and Jamerican Jewel

Sports Day Bonanza

Jinjing (Mira)









They take this tug of war serious

This is what happens when I give one kid my phone










and this is the result of taking out a camera- the kids I was originally planning to take pics of are buried somewhere under...
Some of the students asked if they could be my friend, its kinda tough because I teach them and don't want to show favoritism...but I dont think its a big deal Noelle is the student who always sends me cards when we get a day off or there is a holiday
The one in the red stripe shirt and pink solid shirt asked me to be their big sister, they came and said "we want to be your little sister" - the other one asked me if she could buy me a fish and I told her no because I dont want her to spend any money but I appreciate it, she got very sad and said in Chinese, "I really want to just give you a fish" lol
She decided that she wanted to sing a song for me...she started in some high pitch..almost operal like!