Friday, January 9, 2009
Another Addition to THE LIST!
Today I had lunch with my babies and the mother's at Annie's house after tutoring, and I now can officially say that I'VE EATEN DOG!! I told them about two weeks ago that I really wanted to eat some before I left China and you better believe they made it for me as fast as they could! They are always surprised that I'll try anything. At first, they wouldn't tell me what I had eaten even after I pretty much begged, but now they just wait until it's in my mouth before they'll tell me. I ATE DOG!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
A small snippet of my life!
Here is a tiny snippet of my life, I found enough significance in it to write about it obviously.
I exit my apartment wearing my newly purchased maroon striped super thick thermal pants that I bought at a shopping district here in Wuhan that is the equivalent of a 6 block flea market. I begin my short journey to the apartment that I tutor my babies at, listening to 'Love Hurts' by Nazareth and I smell the familiar scent, which I later am astonished that I actually recognize, as cooking chicken feet. And I'm taken aback by the whole situation. First, I now recognize the smell of cooking/cooked chicken feet, I'm walking to tutor 5 year olds who are on the same level of vocabulary in English that I am in Chinese, and I'm in flipping China!!
I also shed two tears today when I received a card from my parents that only said 'I love you so much'. The card had no senders address and no one signed the card, the only things personally written in it was 'Love ya Boo' in my fathers distinct slanted handwriting and my mother's beautiful cursive that elaborated with a 'and me too'. It's weird how being away from my family for my birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas didn't invoke as much emotion as a simple card with only 6 words written in it.
I exit my apartment wearing my newly purchased maroon striped super thick thermal pants that I bought at a shopping district here in Wuhan that is the equivalent of a 6 block flea market. I begin my short journey to the apartment that I tutor my babies at, listening to 'Love Hurts' by Nazareth and I smell the familiar scent, which I later am astonished that I actually recognize, as cooking chicken feet. And I'm taken aback by the whole situation. First, I now recognize the smell of cooking/cooked chicken feet, I'm walking to tutor 5 year olds who are on the same level of vocabulary in English that I am in Chinese, and I'm in flipping China!!
I also shed two tears today when I received a card from my parents that only said 'I love you so much'. The card had no senders address and no one signed the card, the only things personally written in it was 'Love ya Boo' in my fathers distinct slanted handwriting and my mother's beautiful cursive that elaborated with a 'and me too'. It's weird how being away from my family for my birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas didn't invoke as much emotion as a simple card with only 6 words written in it.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
Today's Randomness
It's usually an everyday occurrence that I'm walking down the street or across campus and I see something that classifies as completely weird, insane, completely different, or just hilarious. After seeing these things, I'll think "You should really put that into a blog" and I never do. So, today. I'm blogging about the things I saw today.
First, while leaving campus I saw a guy somewhere within the age range of 18-21 which gloves that looked like they were intended for a six year old girl! They were white with Easter pastel colors splashed all over it! It literally looked like Easter exploded onto his manly white pastel colored gloves! It gets better, at the tip of his manly hands were huge white cottony soft flowing balls! HAHA! I tried so hard to keep in my laughter.
Second, the guy sitting behind me on the bus kept leaning up really close to me trying to get a look at my face. He was uncomfortably close, leaning over my left shoulder. Every time I turned at looked at him, he would back up but it didn't stop him from doing it again, and again, and again. The disadvantages to being a whitey in China!
Third, while sitting on the bus I saw a white guy!! I know your thinking umm... big deal, your white and you live next to your white friends, but I didn't know this guy! And he was just walking down the sidewalk with some people, so casually. After writing this, it's yet another slap in the face telling me that I can't get mad at Chinese people for being interested in me and staring at me, if I'm white and can't help but stare and be interested in the white guy!!
Fourth, I saw a Chinese guy wearing a U.S. Army jacket today. Weird.
Fifth, I ran into one of my sophomore students today, one of the really sweet ones! And he stopped and tried his best to talk to me, but his English really isn't that great. It took him about five minutes to form and get out the question if I was going to be their Oral English teacher next semester. It was so cute, how much he struggled, I think half of the problem was that he was really nervous! It was hilarious when I answered him in Chinese! He was so shocked and laughed so hard! I only said one tiny phrase but they always expect you to know nothing! It was great!
That's about it...
First, while leaving campus I saw a guy somewhere within the age range of 18-21 which gloves that looked like they were intended for a six year old girl! They were white with Easter pastel colors splashed all over it! It literally looked like Easter exploded onto his manly white pastel colored gloves! It gets better, at the tip of his manly hands were huge white cottony soft flowing balls! HAHA! I tried so hard to keep in my laughter.
Second, the guy sitting behind me on the bus kept leaning up really close to me trying to get a look at my face. He was uncomfortably close, leaning over my left shoulder. Every time I turned at looked at him, he would back up but it didn't stop him from doing it again, and again, and again. The disadvantages to being a whitey in China!
Third, while sitting on the bus I saw a white guy!! I know your thinking umm... big deal, your white and you live next to your white friends, but I didn't know this guy! And he was just walking down the sidewalk with some people, so casually. After writing this, it's yet another slap in the face telling me that I can't get mad at Chinese people for being interested in me and staring at me, if I'm white and can't help but stare and be interested in the white guy!!
Fourth, I saw a Chinese guy wearing a U.S. Army jacket today. Weird.
Fifth, I ran into one of my sophomore students today, one of the really sweet ones! And he stopped and tried his best to talk to me, but his English really isn't that great. It took him about five minutes to form and get out the question if I was going to be their Oral English teacher next semester. It was so cute, how much he struggled, I think half of the problem was that he was really nervous! It was hilarious when I answered him in Chinese! He was so shocked and laughed so hard! I only said one tiny phrase but they always expect you to know nothing! It was great!
That's about it...
Thursday, January 1, 2009
My New Years Events
I got home last night around three in the morning from my New Year's Eve crazy events which included be chauffeured around by the parent's (Annie and George) of one of the children I tutor. I had no clue what was planned or where we were going!! We ended up going from tutoring to a fancy super packed dance club where I proceeded to simply stand in a corner because I was overwhelmed with newness of the situation! I had no clue where I was, I couldn't talk to anyone, I had no clue what was going on. But, I still had a blast! We left there and headed to a Karaoke place where we met up with two of their friends. We had our own huge private room where we sang karaoke for hours, ate food, talked, and I died from cigarette smoke. We finally were kicked out of there at closing around 2am. From there we went to eat 'breakfast' at some 24 hour chinese fast-foodish place. And I got back home around 3am!! To make it better, I stayed up until 6 am talking to Felicia, my Dad, and Cameron! I went to bed at 6!!
Today I woke up around 11:15 to a ringing phone. Boo. Anyways, I sounded like a man because of all the smoke I breathed in last night! I spent all day relaxing, talking to Stateside friends, and cleaning my apt. I had two of my freshman students come over for dinner tonight. I feel really distant from my freshman students and there are two students who are great at English, they really try hard, and they are really nice to me. So, I wanted to invite them over which honestly is an honor to them. And we just talked like friends would, it was really nice. I cooked them Chinese food and they were surprised! I got to know them both better and made plans to do dinner again with some of the other students. OH... one of the students, Will, is the one that bought me Runts, his picture is about three blogs down!
Lastly!! And coolest of all. The Chinese TV show that Jeremy was on finally aired!! So, my students and I went up to Jeremy's apt ( my TV is unplugged and shoved in a corner in my office) to watch the show. They laughed so hard every time that my face came on the screen!! Which is came on quite a bit! Jeremy did a really good job but obviously stumbled for words a few times. It was hilarious to see one of your friends on a game show speaking in another language and then to see your own usually white face to flash across the screen suddenly!! I only wish all of you could have seen it!
Today I woke up around 11:15 to a ringing phone. Boo. Anyways, I sounded like a man because of all the smoke I breathed in last night! I spent all day relaxing, talking to Stateside friends, and cleaning my apt. I had two of my freshman students come over for dinner tonight. I feel really distant from my freshman students and there are two students who are great at English, they really try hard, and they are really nice to me. So, I wanted to invite them over which honestly is an honor to them. And we just talked like friends would, it was really nice. I cooked them Chinese food and they were surprised! I got to know them both better and made plans to do dinner again with some of the other students. OH... one of the students, Will, is the one that bought me Runts, his picture is about three blogs down!
Lastly!! And coolest of all. The Chinese TV show that Jeremy was on finally aired!! So, my students and I went up to Jeremy's apt ( my TV is unplugged and shoved in a corner in my office) to watch the show. They laughed so hard every time that my face came on the screen!! Which is came on quite a bit! Jeremy did a really good job but obviously stumbled for words a few times. It was hilarious to see one of your friends on a game show speaking in another language and then to see your own usually white face to flash across the screen suddenly!! I only wish all of you could have seen it!
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