The
weeks are starting to fly by now, which coincidentally I am beginning to be
okay with. While this has been an amazing opportunity and I am so thankful for
the opportunity, I am really starting to miss home; the familiarity, the
variety of food, the people, and just the general atmosphere.
Though
Christmas has come upon China!!! Last week we had Bible study at Starbucks and
to my surprise they had peppermint mocha’s, Christmas cups, and Christmas music
playing. It made me so excited! I literally jumped for joy! I was starting to
get jealous of all the people with Christmas cups at home. I’ve only had
Starbucks four times since I’ve been in China and two of those were in the last
week and in Christmas cups. Bible study was amazing, but the Christmas cups really
didn’t hurt either.
Over
the weekend we had a typical “college weekend” of sorts… or at least an SPU
College weekend. Friday night we ordered pizza with the intent of watching
Madagascar 3 and eating McFlurries. The pizza was amazing! The guy who owns the
pizza place is from the US and is married to a Chinese woman and together they
run their pizza store and it tastes like good ‘ol American Pizza. When Texie,
my roommate, ordered the pizza she also happened to order cookie pizza which
was amazing. So we ate pizza, put Reese’s (thanks mom, dad, and Emily for the care
packages by the way!) and cookies in our
McFlurries, and watched Madagascar which was fun. Nice relaxing night. Saturday
we slept in and did some homework. Then Texie and I became “tourists” for the
afternoon. We went to JinLi Ancient Street, a small old ancient street in town
that is a popular tourist site. Then we went to People’s Park (人们) which is the largest park in Chengdu, located in central Chengdu.
There we found people dancing, singing, an orchestra, a celebration of Single’s
Day, and postings. Single’s Day is a day celebrating all the singles in China
and is a really big deal in China, so there were people celebrating everywhere.
The postings were an interesting thing all on their own. There is a place in
the park that is essentially a dating classifieds section. Parents post
advertisements for their kids including age, good qualities, height, etc. and
wait for a potential husband or wife to see the advertisement. If the person
sees an advertisement that they like, they call the number and speak and meet
with the parents who are sitting close by watching the people passing by. It
was a fun adventure for the afternoon and it was nice to get out. I got yet
another Starbucks drink, a treasured peppermint mocha. :D That night we got
some food and went to Bookworm to study and be productive. Surprisingly that’s
the most productive I’ve been yet – working on my resume, cover letter, and internship
applications. (Which by the way I could really use prayer for!)
Sunday
night we went to church for the first time in a few weeks which was awesome! It
makes our week every week. And coincidentally, the family who hosted church
this week opened up their house for Thanksgiving which is a blessing. They
wanted to especially focus on the college kids who have nowhere to go for
Thanksgiving. We are really excited for it, even though it’s not our real families;
we still get to spend time with other families and people on Thanksgiving. That
afternoon we studied some more and that night we had a farewell dinner from our
site director. She took us to individual hotpot that was extremely different
than any hot pot yet. You choose your own soup ranging from shark head to
mushroom to lily soup. Then you mixed your own sauce making it as spicy or
sweet as you wanted. From there you boil your meet and vegetables in the soup
and then dip them in your sauce. It was actually pretty tasty! But took forever
since there were about 18 of us.
Monday
morning we went to our 3rd Zumba class which is taught by one of our
American friends here. She is a Zumba instructor in Texas so she decided to
continue on here. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we all make our way over
to the track and start Zumba at 6AM. It is a great workout and is actually
really fun! This week we had two Chinese girls join us as well as two of our
boys (they got free pizza from me and Texie out of it.) Then last night I taught
my second class and boy do I admire teachers these days. My little kids are
adorable, but they are a handful – especially the boys!!! They are fun though
but after only two 40 minute classes I am always exhausted when I get home.
Lucky for me though I do have a 19 year old Chinese Kindergarten teacher who
helps me out which is a great help! She is able to explain to them in Chinese
what I am saying in English as far as directions go.
Last
work went pretty well also. Getting there was a pain. I was tired and a little
depressed because I was (and still am) simply ready to come home, which in turn
put me in a bad mood. Then I tried to catch a taxi because my roommate sold her
scooter to our friend and he was using it tonight, however there were no taxis!
They were all full due to it being rush hour. So I did what any Chinese person
would do and hopped on the back of some guy’s scooter; scooter taxis are very
common, don’t worry mom, dad, grandma and Chase! It’s safe. When I got on the
guy told me 30CNY and since I was in a hurry I didn’t argue, however he didn’t
know where it was. So I had to give him directions in broken Chinese. Since he
does this every day, he was a good driver. When we finally arrived, he told me
that it was so far that I owed him 70CNY but I told him I didn’t have any and
gave him 40CNY instead. It’s more expensive than a taxi but much faster because
it can maneuver traffic. Work went really well! The kids were cute and my
trouble child in my second class wasn’t there which made it better. I don’t
think teaching is one of my gifts, while I love little kids, my patience runs
out pretty fast. But the kids are so cute and teaching them helps me to get my
mind off of things and puts me in a better mood. I then took the bus home which
was interesting and had to walk a ways back to campus. I’ve never been almost
ran over or hit by a car as many times as I almost did last night. One taxi in
particular turned a corner, swerved straight for me, and then last minute
swerved back. Other cars came really close to running over my toes – it was a
real life game of extreme Frogger. But I made it back safely so it’s okay. J
But
I leave in about 17 days which is bittersweet, but I am ready. The next 3 weeks
or so are going to fly by. We are going to Shanghai this weekend, next week is
our last week of school, and then we have finals. Finals will be easy I think.
I have two tests, two 3 page papers, a 15 minute presentation, and a 5 minute
presentation which in comparison is much easier than finals in the states! Gotta
run to the airport. Zaijian!
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