So this is one of the paths on my way home from the bus stop if I walk. (Mom/Dad - Don't worry, I know it's dark but it always has lots of people on it and at the next block the path lights up a bunch) So the reason I took this picture is because of the fact that it is very dark. Due to this, this short stretch of walkway has become the "Lovers Lane" of Xili. Almost every night I take this route there are at least five couples talking/holding hands/making out. It is this weird phenomenon that they all congregate at this one spot. I tend to quickly walk past with my head down because walking through a bunch of people PDAing is just not a comfortable thing to do.
My birthday!!
A bunch of people came out and shared dinner with me. It was a great night. We all went to the local Communist restaurant in Xili (look at my September 7th post for my info if you want). The meal was pretty good and I received three cakes from people! So we all got to try some carrot cake, some Chinese pink cake, and a chocolate cake that Jessica had ordered special. Jessica came all the way out from Longgang for the evening. So she came home with me and got to see the wondrous 2nd Senior High. We had a fun night just sitting and chatting, plus I taught her some stuff about Bridge. All in all it was a great birthday with fun friends. And I get to celebrate more on Saturday!
From the Left: Trevor, Jessica, Fuat, Courtney, Me, Stephanie, Garrett, Jenna, Julie, Genevieve, Jenny
Today was the book festival at my school. Every student brings one book from home that they like that they would recommend to others. Then as a class they try and sell all of their books to the other students at discounted prices. I was walking through and one of my classes grabbed me and insisted I buy something from them. The only book in English they had was Twilight....So, despite me having already read it and knowing it's not that great of a book, I decided to buy it so I could help them out. My deal with them was that if I bought it then they all had to sign the inside cover. Now I have a signed copy of Twilight with all sorts of Chinese names, I think it was a good deal :)
Also this night I had my first experience with KTV. In China, karaoke is really really popular. But instead of going to a bar and singing in front of everyone, at KTV you get a private room with your friends and just sing to each other. Our school treated all the Senior 1 teachers for classes 1-10 (my classes) to an evening out. So we went to a beautiful building in the center of Nanshan, had a buffet dinner, and played games and sang all night. Both Fuat and I went so we were able to support each other on the English songs. We luckily were only talked into three (neither Fuat nor I can sing and I was still sick). We sang Hello, Goodbye by the Beatles, Hotel California by The Eagles, and Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. Bohemian Rhapsody was by far the best because the other Chinese teachers got into the rhythm and were jamming out with us.
So the problem with Halloween was that I had already been sick with a cold before I went out to the party. And despite me only having half of a beer the entire evening, on Sunday I felt like crap. So....the only times I got out of bed were to get lunch and dinner, and even then I got them to go and went back upstairs and ate my meals in bed. I think I watched 14 episodes of Glee that day. Except for my annoying cold, it was a very relaxing nice day where I literally did nothing.
Halloween Celebrations!!! Cliff and I started the day out in Dongmen shopping around for warm clothes and halloween costumes. I decided to go as an autograph book (I reused my idea from last year). Unfortunately Cliff got sick before the festivities started and couldn't come out to play. So Andrew and I head to the beer garden where we were all meeting. I started the night out with a relatively blank white shirt and pair of pants and by the end of the night had signatures all over the place!
Some of the more memorable signatures:
Hello, I am Cara. I'm fine, sank you. And you?
Nothing fina than a cow in a diner! -Nora
Pity the Fool - from Mike who was dressed as Mr. T
Al says: "Good day to you sir" (he's British)
And of course there were lots of "----- was here" and things of that nature.
At one point in the night we all got on the metro to head to the next bar area. Collin decided I needed more Chinese characters on my clothing (which was true) so we started going to random Chinese people on the subway asking them to sign my shirt. Most of them thought it was really funny and enjoyed participating. One girl, for fear that we would ask her next, actually hid her face in her hands and tried putting herself as far away from us as possible until we left. The night was a lot of fun. We spent most of the time at a dance club in the more Western part of town. There were a ton of people there, foreigners and Chinese, and everyone was dressed up. So China does know how to throw a great Halloween party after all.
One of the many food options at the infamous Basketball Beer Garden.
During the Yunnan trip one of my pairs of jeans got to the point where they were beyond repair. Since this is China and we all have relatively few possessions, I didn't want to just throw them away. Jessica and I brain stormed and we came up with making a picture frame out of them. And not to seem boastful, but I think it turned out really well. All the pictures are from our trip and now I have a nice (slightly weird) piece of wall art to hang up in my room.
This has the best pizza in Shenzhen I'm pretty sure (by best I mean closest to American pizza). It takes forever to actually get your order, but it is definitely worth it.
Tuesday nights are our dinner nights either in Xili or a neighboring town. This Tuesday we went out to our friend Lisa's place which has an area of old town China that has turned into tons of street vendors and cheap restaurants. At dinner I was reaching under the table reaching for something and my friend Conner asked "What did you lose?" I came up and said "A puppy!" Not quite what he was expecting. The restaurant owner ended up also being the owner of this puppy and a cat that just wandered the place saying hello.
Every Monday the entire school goes out onto the soccer field to watch the raising of the flag. Fuat and I don't have to attend, and to be honest this was only the second one I went to in the last two months. Beyond raising the flag the Principal gets up and gives a long speech in Chinese so it's rather boring (even the other teachers say we shouldn't go since we don't have to).
No comments:
Post a Comment