One. One night we found ourselves at Cat Love. It is a little coffee shop down the street. This coffee shop, with an English name doesn't have an English menu. We were told that it did. Nope. We struggled more than we have struggled ever before ordering. It was painful and we didn't know what we were getting. We should have this ordering thing down since we have lived here long enough. But apparently we don't. Somehow we ended up with the most delicious mango smoothie so, I'd say that the struggle was worth it.
Two. I made the poster at our school. Not the greatest picture but I am practically famous now. They choose the right shape of the picture. Because, it is true, I absolutely love my students.
Three. Thursday we were hungry for lunch and we had an hour to kill before class so we thought we would head out early and stop and grab some jiaozi on the way. The owners of this little jiaozi hole in the wall place decided it was a good idea to not be open without even informing us. They do know that we eat there at least three times a week and that we would probably starve to death if they didn't feed us, so I don't know why they didn't have the heart to tell us they were going on vacation or something. (Maybe they did and it just got lost somewhere in translation. I can't be sure.) So while we were stopped there on the corner staring in disbelief, a group of guys were waving, saying hello, and taking pictures of us. We were kind enough to pose for them and wave as we tried to figure out what to eat for lunch. They kept motioning for us to come and eat with them. So, why not? We parked our scooter and joined this group of guys for lunch. It was a blast and slightly awkward because we weren't really sure how to communicate with them besides playing a game of charades. But what is new, right? Of course they wouldn't let us pay for our portion of the meal either. Sad is going to be the day when we don't get fed by random strangers on the street. Also, they got our number and then proceeded to text us, in Chinese. Did they not get it from the hour that we spent with them that we don't really understand Chinese?
Four. I finally got to visit a Chinese hospital. It has been on my list of things to do here before I even came to China. As I have mentioned before, my friend, Emma, is a surgeon so she kindly took us to her hospital to show us around. First she took us up to her floor where she works and had her nurses talk to us and show us around the floor. The nurses at the hospital here work eight hours a day, five days a week. We found out that there are two different types of hospitals in China. There are tradition hospitals that use traditional Chinese medicine along with modern medicine and then there are the hospitals that just use modern medicine. Emma works at the Chinese tradition hospital. It was interesting to see some of the traditional medicine that they use there. They had these long worms on sticks that they boil and make into a drink. Worm tea. Nasty. We also proceeded to practically stop on almost every floor of that 19 story hospital. The kids were getting pretty sick of it. I don't blame them. We stopped on the Acupuncture and Massage floor. Best decision of my life because Shelby and I got a free massage. The hospitals in China were not as bad as I thought they were going to be. It was clean and nothing too weird was taking place there. Well, that is besides the worm tea. I still don't want to find myself as a patient inside a Chinese hospital but if by chance I had to, I wouldn't be as freaked out as I previously would have.
Five. Saturday we were invited by a girl, Amy, who lives a few floors below us to go and get pizza with her. We met her down in the parking garage. I hate to admit this but we didn't exactly remember what she looked like so when we were waiting for her it was hard to spot her in the car. Good thing she rolled her window down and motioned for us to get inside. Her English was very limited but we had a good time anyways. Also, who invites people to go out to lunch and then decided that they aren't hungry and that they just want to watch us eat? I feel like that happens all the time. After we had been home for a couple of hours, I was outside reading and Amy came and found me. She wanted to go climb the mountain behind our apartment and look for berries. Unfortunately, none of the berries were ripe yet but I will be going back. After our hike we went and got BBQ fish with Amy. Eating BBQ fish was long over due. One problem, though. I was still full from lunch. At least Amy jumped in and actually helped us eat it this time.
{the chinese are master gardeners}
Seven. Yes, that is my student and yes he has a rats tail. Gross.
No comments:
Post a Comment