Saturday 5/18:
Saturday morning I woke up at 6:30am to Geoff walking in my room and laying down on my bed with me. I figured something bad had happened or it was one of those traumatic moments in China when you just need a friend so I didn't really protest. After he left I realized I was wide awake and there was no way I could fall back asleep so I got up and started getting ready for the day. You would think that Saturdays would be the one day to sleep in here but I think that's almost always the day I get up the earliest because people aren't teaching so they bother me instead.
I was really sick of not being able to do anything with my hair so Luke blow dried and straightened it for me which was really nice. Melanie, Mikelle, and I had planned to go to the Big World and buy the wedding dress I'd been drooling over for a couple months so Melanie and I dressed up as twins. She straightened her hair and we both put it up the same way, we wore matching Chinglish shirts with matching Mockingjay pocket watch necklaces, jeans, rain boots and finished off the look with our bags with long straps over the shoulder. I'll try to send the picture.
We jumped on a bus downtown and I grabbed a Chinese taco for lunch while Melanie and Mikelle ate at the chicken shop. At Big World we went to the shop with the dress I wanted and began a very long ordeal of trying to buy it. When we asked the price a couple months ago they'd told us 800 yuan which is also what this guy started at. Kelly told us that we should be able to get it for 400. After a lot of awkward I-don't-speak-your-language moments and several phone calls the guy agreed to sell me the dress for 400. I thought that they would take your measurements and custom fit a new dress for that much. Not so. He literally took the dress of the stand and started putting it in a bag for me which was a problem because the dress is about size 0 and let's just say that I'm nowhere close to that. I tried to explain to him that I wouldn't fit and he kept telling me I could just loosen the corset part which still wasn't going to be enough so I left to go see how things were going with Melanie and Mikelle buying Chinese dresses. After walking through the store calling their names a lady pulled back a sheet in a doorway and I saw two sets of white legs with jeans around their ankles as my American friends were trying their dresses on. News flash-- we're size 3XL in China. Once they got their dresses we went to try and figure things out with my dress again and got nowhere. Stupid language barrier. We walked downstairs and randomly ran into Kelly who took us back upstairs and finally figured out that the dress had 1-inch wide seams on the bodice so you could let it out. Once that was established I bought the dress right away because that's a pretty simple fix. I felt pretty good about buying a fairy-take ball gown for $65.
Once we had our dresses in hand we headed to the noodle shop and met Sam and Jay for lunch. We had a good time swapping stories as to what had been going on all morning. We made an ice cream stop at DQ afterward (like usual) and Melanie, Mikelle, and Jay headed off to see if they could watch the new Star Trek movie in theaters and Sam and I jumped on a bus coming back home. It was crowded as usual so Sam and I had a nice awkward ride super close to each other but it was fun and I enjoyed not having to be in a big group for once. Climbing back up the steps at the school we were accosted by a waterfall of rain water pouring down the steps which looked pretty darn cool an made me love the fact that I decided to pack rain boots to China last minute.
I spent the rest of the night ripping out seams in the bodice of the dress and hand-sewing it back together. It's not perfect looking but after 5 hours of sewing it fits pretty well and looks darn good on me.
Sunday 5/19:
Sunday Ben gave a talk in church which was really nice because I could actually hear him and understand what he was saying which was a nice change. It was an incredible talk on the word restoration. I've always related the word restoration to the restoration of the church or restoring something old/antique. He talked about restoring meaning "to bring back again" and how we can have a personal restoration to God that will bring back truths into our life. He also pointed out the difference between reformation vs. restoration. "You don't put new wine in an old bottle." I like the idea that I can be completely brought back again. New wine in a new bottle. Not just a partial change but a complete transformation that lets go of the things in my life contrary to God.
After church Sam hung out in my room and we talked for a while and then decided to go to the beach. Problem was that we couldn't find a 3rd person to go. I'm on strict mormon rules, remember? So what did I do? I broke them anyway and went on my own. I honestly thought Sam would come with me or at least show up later but he never did. I found out later that he had gotten half way there and then decided against it and went back.
The beach was wonderful as usual and full of lots of Chinese families. Since I was on my own I decided to not fall asleep on a blanket tanning but instead walked around in the water for a while and then hiked up on the cliff and watched the ocean from up there. It was really nice to be completely alone for what I think might have been the first time since I left to come here. I had just finished reading Eat, Pray, Love so I was into the idea of meditating each day and chose to take that moment to meditate. I've discovered that I'm really bad at it as my mind gets super distracted really fast so I've started off with simply being still and smiling all the way in my liver. If that sounds weird to you, read Eat, Pray, Love and you'll understand. I practiced smiling in my liver while I looked out over an incredibly beautiful view and then had a nice long conversation with God. After I finished I decided to explore the trail I was on and discovered that it wrapped along the edge of the cliff all the way down to the next beach. It was absolutely breathtaking. I wish I could go there more often but unfortunately the girls I made friends with here and not super into beach time and I'm not allowed to go with just Sam.
I had forgotten to take a clock with me and therefore could only estimate the time by the sun's position so I decided to head back in hopes that I'd make it before dinner so Melanie wouldn't start worrying about me.
After dinner I was super tired and ended up sitting on the couch with Jay and Geoff. Geoff started asking me questions and I felt flooded so instead of getting upset I simply walked out of the room. Back in my room Melanie, Mikelle, and I put in Mulan which I had just bought and have been wanting to watch since I got here. As soon as it started playing Geoff walked in and I knew he thought I was mad at him and was about to start an intense series of questions and I just didn't want to talk so I asked him to leave. Well, when you ask Geoff to leave your room he just doesn't listen. After asking him multiple times to leave I tried to push him out of my room but he wouldn't get out. I attempted to hit him in the crotch to get him out and he blocked me and then thought for a split second about the glass of water in his hand before he threw the water all over. I moved into my bathroom and managed to lock the door behind me and brushed and flossed my teeth until he left.
After that event we locked the door and then went back to watching Mulan. It was really fun to watch here now that we've been living in China for 3 months. There are a couple little things they do that I've never noticed before but now recognize as very Chinese. It was also fun to figure out where they were at in the movie based on the various landmarks.
A while back Mikelle and I bought some face masks that are literally in the shape of your face that you set on it and leave there for 20 minutes or so. I still had one left and decided I wanted to use it. At some point during those 20 minutes I had a laughing fit and couldn't stop laughing. I don't even remember what started the laughing initially but it wouldn't stop. I think it might be a way my body has decided to use in response to exhaustion and stress. I approve.
Monday 5/20:
Monday morning started out like most do- me heading down the hall to hang out with Sam. I wasn't quite awake so I half-slept on Luke's bed for a while while Sam finished making charts with his goals for the remaining time here and folded some laundry.
Geoff walked in and I could tell he was still upset with me from the day before and so could Sam so Sam excused himself, saying he needed to print stuff off for class and left the two of us alone. Geoff wanted to know why I was mad and wouldn't believe me when I told him I wasn't, that I just didn't want to talk to him. It escalated to an argument almost instantly and he wouldn't let me out of the room and me attempting to leave resulted in a push back into the room. I got called a few bad names, some of which I'm sure I deserved, and was informed how Geoff has to always stand up for me here and people don't like me which is why no one wanted to go to the beach with Sam and I the day before. I was finally allowed to leave and retreated to my room where I spilt everything to Melanie, still very shaken up. We were supposed to head downstairs for a tug-of-war competition at that point and I went and found Sam up in one of the piano rooms in the school first.
The tug-of-war competition was what we'll call Chinese, AKA unfair. There were 20 ILP teachers there and the school had informed us previously that we'd be pulling against 30 Chinese teachers which was no big deal because for the most part we've got them beat in weight and strength. The 30 teachers that were pulling against us are ones I've never seen before because what I had envisioned to be 5'2'' women were suddenly big 6' men. They pulled us over easily. The next round they made the numbers even but still had these big men against us. I still wonder if they just randomly invited parents or pulled them off the street. We definitely lost that round too. So much for redeeming ourselves after the jump rope competition. The 3rd round was 20 female teachers against our 14 female teachers. We lost that one too. Finally they matched us up 14 vs. 14 and we pulled them over instantly. Kelly claimed only the last round counted so we had won and we got prizes but the thing is we still got embarrassed first. Go China..
The next block of my day was a shower, lunch, and lesson planning before I taught my kids about clocks. The projector in my 4th grade classroom was gone which made things a little difficult but I was pretty proud of how well I pulled it off using the blackboard and my memory. My 5th graders were a little ahead so I let them finally finish watch the last 20 minutes of Finding Nemo.
The night I read a book and watched the sun set from the room and then read my book until I was too tired to stay awake. I went to bed at 7 but Melanie came back shortly after from getting dinner with Mikelle and I spent the rest of the night watching Sam converting a noodle recipe from grams to cups and then attempting to make them. Once that failed I headed back to bed.
Tuesday 5/21:
Tuesday morning Melanie was talking to her family on Skype as soon as we got up so I went down to the common room and laid down on a blanket in the sunlight to read a book. Sam came to visit me and said he and Luke were running to the beach which worked out well because Melanie and I had been planning on going that day for a while. I told them I'd meet them there and went to get Melanie. She was still Skype-ing and said she still needed to do her Insanity workout so I left through the construction site behind our buildings and went down the dirt road again to avoid the guards at the front gate.
When I got to the beach Sam was attempting to tan and read but it was super windy so there were all sorts of sand storms going on. We moved the blanket over to an island of sand that was damp but at least it didn't blow sand in our faces. I was quite enjoying myself reading and tanning when Luke brought over a Chinese man who wanted to talk to me and I politely refused. I enjoy going to the beach here but I get really tired of creepers demanding my attention so they can take pictures of me half naked. Sam had gone to change into his Speedo and when he came back brought me a rock that I am still not satisfied on identifying. On our way back home I showed Sam and Luke the cool path along the cliff I had found on Sunday and we passed a snake about 3' long. Later along the path we found a perfectly intact snake skin, probably from the same one. It was trapped in the grass it must have slithered through.
Back at the school after lunch I had one of those days when I remember that I'm not camping and can't look like I am 24/7 so I showered and shaped up my eyebrows and did my nails. I had a bunch of stuff I needed printed off for class and headed downstairs early but the printing room was closed until right before class started so I ended up being an entire 10 minutes late to my 4th grade class. Oops. I had to pass Geoff's classroom with the other half of 4th grade on the way and they all opened the windows and yelled at me that I was late which was a little frustrating since I was still mad at Geoff. Classes went well but when it came time for the 3rd period all the kids left and went to watch a movie. Apparently they had just had midterms and that was their reward. I had to find this out from Sam right after he found out last minute too. No one bothered to tell us ahead of time that classes were cancelled (as usual) but we always take it well because whether we were were previously informed or not the idea of no class always leaves us in a good mood.
So.. the last 2 classes were cancelled so we talked in common room for a while and then I went to the with Sam and Luke so Sam could buy stuff to make cookies and breakfast burritos. I ended up buying 6 rolls of Oreos after cutting them mostly out of my diet for the past month but that's just what happens when you take me to a grocery store when I'm starving. About a week ago I decided it was time to actually get around to losing some real weight here and made the choice to stop eating the mentos (rolls) they give us at every meal because its an easy way to cut calories and I'm really not missing anything. However, I grew up in a house where you finished everything on your plate (which is probably the biggest reason I haven't lost much weight here) so instead of just throwing these mentos away I've begun building a ferris wheel out of them with chopsticks. It's coming along nicely. Anyways.. right as we pulled out of the parking lot in a bongbongshua we passed a truck announcing something in Chinese that had zoo/circus pictures on the side. And guess what it was pulling? A full grown lioness in a cage on wheels. The best part was that it's tail was dragging on the ground and she just didn't care. It was one of those moments that I was once again mind blown at the wonderful world of China.
After dinner Melanie was still gone so I enjoyed the emptiness of my room for a while by looking at videos and pictures from China, some of which I realized I've never actually watched since I recorded them in person. Jay came in while I was doing this and we talked for a while and then she showed me where the lint filter was on my washing machine and we pulled it out to discover it covered in mold. Yummmmm... Our bathroom has started smelling something fierce which is not abnormal for here but we were fortunate enough to have a pretty good smelling room for the first 2 months and don't know what has caused the change. It smells like an animal died in the corner, molded, and was then peed on. That's also what our water has started smelling like so some showers are more refreshing than others. Now that I write it out I realize how gross that sounds but it's really not a huge deal here. That's just China and you get used to it. In fact, I think I might actually miss being disgusting when I get home. That is one perk of being here-- no matter how disgusting you feel/look/smell... you're still better than China and no one hardly notices.
I was going to make salsa with Sam for the burritos in the morning but he'd already made it because apparently I hadn't listened that he was making it right after dinner. Oops. Jay and I hung out with him in the kitchen and we made cookie dough and then Sam attempted noodles again with dough he had bought at the JiaJiaYue. Still didn't work so as if I didn't think those Muslim workers were already masters at the art of noodles.... now that's gone up a few notches. Have I described this process before? They take a blob of dough and work it around rolling it for a while and then stretch it out, twist it together in the air, fold it, roll, repeat... and then they hold it up and do this thing where they whip it and it suddenly appears in to a huge handful of noodles. Like magic.
I finished off the night with watching/sleeping through (mostly just sleeping) the end of Mean Girls and then headed to bed. I still think it's a stupid movie. Sorry guys.
Wednesday 5/22:
Wednesday I woke up at 5 and decided to watch the sunrise. After climbing up to the roof I realized it was super foggy/smoggy and there wasn't actually going to be any big globe of light appearing over the horizon so I went back to bed. I was hoping to go to sleep quickly but couldn't and then Melanie rolled over and upped her snoring level so I tried drowning out the noise with some headphones/music and eventually gave up and retreated to the couch in the common room. Sam woke me up about the time everyone else left to go teach. I must have really been out because he managed to open the door and walk over to the couch and sit on it before I became aware of his presence.
I didn't do much that morning and ended up in Sam's room talking to him while he cleaned his room for the room check later that day. After lunch we were supposed to go to inservice and practice the dance we're doing for the end of the year performance but I bailed and took a shower instead and then ended up talking to Mikelle who also decided to ditch and then heard my music and joined me.
The first round of classes went well because my kids were so psycho I decided to start off with a wordsearch of the vocabulary words for the week. When I created it I made sure to not only include the right words but wrong spellings for all the words too. I enjoyed my kids' reaction to that. The second set of classes I had printed out cards for a game on telling time where each person has a card with an analog clock on it with their time and a question on the bottom that says "Who has 9:39?" or another time. My 4th graders loved it and we ended up playing it for most of the class. When I got to 5th grade I made sure to tell them to not write on the cards or tear them up and they're plenty smart enough to understand what I had just said. By the time I got to the second person a few of my kids had already started cutting their cards into snowflakes. Not only did this do its job to make me lose my patience but it ruined the lesson for the remaining 40 minutes of class. With nothing else to do and psycho kids and me being so frustrated I put in Iron Man and let them watch it for the rest of class. I know its horrible to reward them for being so bad but I just didn't want to deal with them anymore.
Dinner was gross so Sam scavenged what he could and made fried rice in the kitchen while I talked to him. Maddie and Hannah came in and the 4 of us hung out and talked for a while and I gave Hannah my bag of red Mike and Ikes (her favorite) that remained from my stash I brought to China. At 8 I went to tuck my kids in and then came back and watched the end of The Help with Luke. When it ended I headed back to my room to discover Sam chilling on my bed reading a book so we read our books until he fell asleep. I kept reading until 10:30 which is basically the official bed time here and had to wake that poor boy up and send him to bed.
Thursday 5/23:
Thursday morning I started playing Solitaire on my phone because I wasn't quite ready to get up and wanted something to do while I laid in bed. I've started playing drawing 3 cards at a time instead of 1 and surprisingly won the first couple games. I told myself that I would get up after the next game I won and then had a very dry spell to the point that I gave up because I had to pee so badly.
I hung out in my room for a while and then went to talk to Sam and discovered him and Luke reading scriptures together. Sam left to go tan on the roof and said I could join him so I changed clothes and grabbed a blanket and book and headed up there only to discover that Sam hadn't gone up there. Since tanning is on my list of goals I decided to just stay up there and only made it half an hour before it was so hot I was super uncomfortable and headed back downstairs and finished the 7 Principles for Making Marriage book I've been reading since EFY last summer. That brought me up to finishing 2 books in a week and I was pretty impressed with myself.
Before classes started Luke pulled me out of my room and played mediator between Geoff and I up on the roof. I'm pretty sure I just made the situation worse rather than actually getting anything resolved.
When I went to teach my 5th grade class they were outside getting class pictures done and I was added in with all the kids and Chinese teachers. It took forever but I didn't mind too much because it ate up class time.
Thursday nights are when we usually go out to eat so I headed downtown with Melanie, Mikelle, and Jay and we got noodles and then hit the night market. Mikelle and I both bought t-shirts with rock, paper, scissors on it. I also bought a long-sleeved black shirt with a big Gangam style patch sewn on the front. I can't wait to wear it when it gets cool enough. After searching for a couple months for a blue dragon to buy the guy who does my taxes (that was his fee this year) I finally settled on buying a glass one made by this guy who sits on the street most nights making them. I also picked up a bag of fresh off the farm apricots that were absolutely delicious.
Friday 5/24:
Friday morning classes consisted of a spelling test and then Jeopardy for 4th grade and Iron Man for 5th grade. While the movie was in I was working on reading with individual students and the Chinese teacher walked back in and shut off the movie and then talked/yelled at the kids for a few minutes. It was super awkward because I didn't know why she'd done it and there were only 10 minutes left of class so I didn't have time to start something new. I ended up just continuing to read with kids individually while the rest of my kids pulled out Chinese books and read.
There was an earthquake drill at 10am which was quite the experience. Fire drills were so boring as a kid but in China-- those kids run out of the building with their hands over their heads. They even keep their heads covered when they get outside, far away from anything that could possibly fall on them. We all booked it out to the field and laid flat on the ground. I really enjoyed it.
Everyone had to go back to class after that but I was done for the day so I took a nice long shower until lunch and then went to dance practice which ended up being a flop because there were people in the auditorium and no one really knew what was going on. Typical of ILP and China. Melanie, Mikelle and I were assigned to clean/inventory the kitchen and finished that up right before the deadline. We did everything we were supposed to but by the time the head teachers checked it I guess it was dirty again so we got a note asking us to do several things over which all 3 of us automatically ignored.
When the kids got out of class I went on a home visit with May, my sweet 5th grader with the longest hair I have ever seen on a kid. I'm pretty sure she's never cut it. Her mom (who was wearing a black bra and drapey lingerie shirt) took us to the Lotte mall and we walked around the supermarket area and picked out food (that was later all given to me, surprise!) and then May and I walked through the rest of the mall looking at random things. They had a Cinderella's carriage on one of the floors and these cool balloons on another. This place was amazing and I wondered where it was at. One we got up on the roof I discovered we were across the street from the noodle shop, at the same bus stop we'd been getting off on for 3 months.
Before May and her mom took me home we went to a steak restaurant for dinner. The plates looked exactly the same as the other place we go but they were a little more expensive and not quite as good. May ordered me this weird little drink that didn't smell like alcohol but is what I've always imagined alcohol to taste like. After a tiny sip I gave her the rest.
Back at the school I made it in time for the tail end of BYOB night. Bring Your Own Bananas. Hannah and Maddie pulled recipes off the internet for banana face masks and hair goop. Jay helped me slap some on and it took me about half an hour of washing to get the majority of it out. It was fun to do but it seriously stripped my hair and made the bathroom nasty (the bathroom is the shower, remember) with banana chunks so that's a no go ever again. I'm still glad I did it though. It was nice to have a girls night. Sam came in my room and talked to me until Melanie got back and told him to go wash the stupid off his face. Then he left. Can't imagine why :)
I spent the rest of the night looking up ideas for the last vacation coming up and made the mistake of making fun of Melanie and Mikelle hugging in the hall (lesbian joke) without first realizing that Mikelle had just found out her grandma died. It seems like a lot of people I know are losing their grandmas and it seriously scares me and makes me appreciate mine even more.
Saturday 5/25:
Saturday I was supposed to go on another home visit with May because the night before was cut short due to her mom having to work. Sam decided to join me and we were 5 minutes late getting to the gate (7:35am) and thought we had just barely missed them. (I found out later they never showed up at all.) We stood out there for half an hour waiting and then gave up and ended up watching some kindergarden event on field. My guess is it was a bunch of schools that will feed into Daguanghua this upcoming year. The kids were marching around the track and one was swinging a wreath and hit himself in the face which was unbelievably hilarious. They also had a baby marching band and it was cute to see the kids all head nod to the down beat. Once that wrapped up Sam and I sat on the steps under the main building and talked while we watched the rain. The way it hit the cement looked like we were watching static on a TV screen.
After a while we headed upstairs and put in How to Train Your Dragon but there was enough reflection that it was hard to see the screen and Bayli came in and was flirting with Sam so let's just say it was a less-than-sensational movie and I retreated to my room a little grumpy after. Lunch sucked so I took a nap and made Mac and Cheese when I woke up and talked to Luke for a while and then Jay before she, Melanie, and I watched Sinbad. I even put out the effort of painting my nails while we were watching. I was supposed to get noodles that night with Luke, Dellany, Geoff, and Chan (the head Korean teacher at the school) so I skipped out on cafeteria food but had to hang around for final performance practice after. We worked on singing Edge of Glory and then I was finally released with a sliver of freedom. Chan bailed on us so Dellany and I ended up getting these Chinese burritos off a stand by the JiaJiaYue and then I got my hair cut and dyed blue by a couple Pings for only 40 yuan ($6.50!) Luke and I were there until almost midnight and then walked home in the dark. I was extremely impressed by how well they did and am considering getting it cut and dyed again before I leave.
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