(6 visas if you include Dan’s)
I know I haven’t written in awhile…aaannnddd this will probably be my last blog post, at least in China. I have three weeks left before I leave, which is really weird to think about. It’s hard to imagine that I’m actually going to see people that I know really soon, even if it’s not for very long. We found out that our lease starts August 10th, so we should be moving in around then.
Story:
So in China, there are lots of people who beg for money. It’s also not uncommon to see people begging on the subway. Sometimes I’ve seen a “blind” man being led by an older hunched over man, the blind man is singing as they walk through the subway cars. One day I’m waiting for a train and I see two men sprinting up an escalator and run to a corner of the wall, definitely trying not to be seen. I thought “they look kinda familiar” and get on the train when it pulls up. Sure enough, not long after the train leaves the same two men, as the blind man with a stick and the old hunched over man with a cane go very slowing through the cars begging for money and singing. I feel like if they can run up escalators faster than me there has to be something they can do besides beg for money, but oh well. I found out later they were hiding from security cameras, because their money might get confiscated when they get off the train.
I’m sad to be going home. There’s a lot I’m going to miss in China. I commute a total of three hours a day and pay less than $1 a day on travel expenses, which I think is pretty amazing. The food here is amazing, but we don’t eat a lot of Chinese food anymore. I know there’s a lot more, but I think I’ve become so used to things here, that I forget that it’s different in the U.S. It’s nice living in the city, and being able to go downstairs if I want a snack, since food is pretty cheap. And it’s nice to look out the window and watch tons of kids playing outside with their parents/grandparents. I also like how Beijing has so many parks and paths through trees and flowers that you see people walking in with their dogs (usually not on leashes, which makes it more awesome). The government (I’m assuming) tries to make Beijing look pretty by having tons of flowers and trees everywhere.
A couple things I WON’T miss is having to look for the characters red and green in random food to make sure there’s no red bean or green tea in things. It’ll also be nice to be invisible again, and not have random people say hi and/or good morning to you just because they know how, or having strangers ask for your phone number so they can practice their English. I also don’t believe people actually flush toilet paper.
Dan’s leaving on Wednesday. The day after he leaves I’m going to take a weekend trip to Xi’an, where I went two years ago. I’m extremely excited to go back, and the people there are really excited too.
Looking back, this trip was amazing. It was lots of fun to live in a completely different culture and see how other people live and survive. I think I’ve changed a lot, and have become a more independent and outspoken person, at least when it comes to working with people and interviews and stuff. I’m going to miss my students a lot, especially the two that I’ve been tutoring every weekend since October. They’re really sad that we only have two more lessons left.
My flight back will be interesting. I’m leaving at 7:30am on Saturday (my time) and getting back at noon on Saturday EST. If I stay up all night, maybe I’ll be able to sleep on the plane and kind of help get over 12 hour jetlag, but we’ll see.
Not sure how many people actually read this, but I'm glad someone is. I hope you've had fun following our adventure, and that you were at least slightly entertained along the way.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
"Sunny With a High of 75"
Ok, so it's not really 75, but the weather is nice enough that I have that song stuck in my head when I walk outside. Now that it's nice out we'll probably do a lot more stuff on the weekends so I might have some pictures sometime, which might give me more of an incentive to update my blog.
Things are going well here. Dan just had a one week break before he started his last quarter and I had a nice relaxing 3 day weekend (after working 6 days in a row).
My job is going well, I'm able to understand the teacher's personalities better (since our communication is slightly hindered) and we have fun together. I'm able to practice my Chinese a little bit, and I'm helping the teachers learn some English. The kids aren't as scared of me as they were before. Some of the youngest ones (2 year olds) wouldn't let me play with them at first, but now they like me.
I've had some interesting things happen to me the last couple days. Some random guy offered to give me a ride on the back of his bicycle. I kinda laughed at him and told him no...I'm not sure if I could actually stay on the back of a bicycle while it's moving and not fall off. It's always amazed me how Chinese people of all ages can do that.
A couple days later, I got off a subway train and was walking to the trash can to throw something away when I realized a boy's mother was helping him stand on the trashcan so he could pee into it...
I also (this isn't funny) heard a motor bike/bicycle accident today, it was almost right behind me on the street. I'm not sure if I've ever heard an accident before, but it looked like both of the people are alright. Sometimes I'm surprised there aren't more accidents.
There were other things that were a little more humorless that I thought were amusing like seeing a really old volkswagan police car, I think it looked like this. Or random Chinese people being completely amused by me and asking me if I like what I'm eating and if they have it in America and just kept smiling and laughing (there aren't that many foreigners around where I work if you can't tell).
I almost had to go to Hong Kong to get a new visa, but, thankfully, I was able to get out of it. I now have a new visa that will last me until I need to leave.
Here's some pictures of the outside view of our apartment:
That is a Christmas tree down there and it says Merry Christmas on it and still gets lit up every night.
We have a faster internet speed, so I can upload our Spring Festival firework videos:
Things are going well here. Dan just had a one week break before he started his last quarter and I had a nice relaxing 3 day weekend (after working 6 days in a row).
My job is going well, I'm able to understand the teacher's personalities better (since our communication is slightly hindered) and we have fun together. I'm able to practice my Chinese a little bit, and I'm helping the teachers learn some English. The kids aren't as scared of me as they were before. Some of the youngest ones (2 year olds) wouldn't let me play with them at first, but now they like me.
I've had some interesting things happen to me the last couple days. Some random guy offered to give me a ride on the back of his bicycle. I kinda laughed at him and told him no...I'm not sure if I could actually stay on the back of a bicycle while it's moving and not fall off. It's always amazed me how Chinese people of all ages can do that.
A couple days later, I got off a subway train and was walking to the trash can to throw something away when I realized a boy's mother was helping him stand on the trashcan so he could pee into it...
I also (this isn't funny) heard a motor bike/bicycle accident today, it was almost right behind me on the street. I'm not sure if I've ever heard an accident before, but it looked like both of the people are alright. Sometimes I'm surprised there aren't more accidents.
There were other things that were a little more humorless that I thought were amusing like seeing a really old volkswagan police car, I think it looked like this. Or random Chinese people being completely amused by me and asking me if I like what I'm eating and if they have it in America and just kept smiling and laughing (there aren't that many foreigners around where I work if you can't tell).
I almost had to go to Hong Kong to get a new visa, but, thankfully, I was able to get out of it. I now have a new visa that will last me until I need to leave.
Here's some pictures of the outside view of our apartment:
We have a faster internet speed, so I can upload our Spring Festival firework videos:
Monday, March 7, 2011
Over Halfway
I knew I would eventually start updating about once a month, my break has been pretty uneventful.
I started my now job today. I'm teaching 5 classes Monday through Friday from 9-12. The ages of the children are 2-6, but each class only varies by a year. My first day went pretty well, I'm exhausted though. The place is in the middle of nowhere, it's outside the city. The only reason why I'm doing it is cause I'm done at noon so I can get back by 1:40, which is a lot earlier than my other job when I got back at 6 sometimes. I really hope it works out, the people there are all really nice. There's a lady from Kentucky and I talked to her a lot today. The lady (I can't for the life of me remember her name) told me the school might be finished in early July, and she's not sure if I would have to stay that long. She's not in charge though, and the school made it sound like they want me to stay as long as possible. So we'll see.
Since I wrote a blog post about weird things about China, I'll say some things about what I like or things I might miss.
One of the awesome things about China is the street food. Besides the normal fruit, the more common things are charcoal cooked sweet potatoes, fruit on a stick covered in hard sugar, and roasted chestnuts. There are also random breakfast things that I've never tried, and I've also seen people make sushi on the street. I don't usually eat street food, but I like the fact that I could if I wanted. The potatoes and chestnuts smell amazing too.
Another thing that's fun in China is the people who sell things on the street. There are a lot of different things from mugs to books to toilet brushes to bunny rabbits (they're so tiny!). The best part is when a cop drives up and all the people scatter (they don't have licenses to sell things) on their bicycle carts, but they're laughing the entire time that they're pedaling away from the cops. I've only witnessed it a couple times, but it's really funny.
We have Netflix again...probably not a good idea...
We will probably be in California in the fall. I get excited thinking about the awesome weather...and blue sky...
Skyping with people since my last blog post has been fun :):):)
And for those of you who've said we need to skype soon...3 months ago...we should probably do that sometime.
Not sure what else to say...enjoy the snow hahaha :)
I started my now job today. I'm teaching 5 classes Monday through Friday from 9-12. The ages of the children are 2-6, but each class only varies by a year. My first day went pretty well, I'm exhausted though. The place is in the middle of nowhere, it's outside the city. The only reason why I'm doing it is cause I'm done at noon so I can get back by 1:40, which is a lot earlier than my other job when I got back at 6 sometimes. I really hope it works out, the people there are all really nice. There's a lady from Kentucky and I talked to her a lot today. The lady (I can't for the life of me remember her name) told me the school might be finished in early July, and she's not sure if I would have to stay that long. She's not in charge though, and the school made it sound like they want me to stay as long as possible. So we'll see.
Since I wrote a blog post about weird things about China, I'll say some things about what I like or things I might miss.
One of the awesome things about China is the street food. Besides the normal fruit, the more common things are charcoal cooked sweet potatoes, fruit on a stick covered in hard sugar, and roasted chestnuts. There are also random breakfast things that I've never tried, and I've also seen people make sushi on the street. I don't usually eat street food, but I like the fact that I could if I wanted. The potatoes and chestnuts smell amazing too.
Another thing that's fun in China is the people who sell things on the street. There are a lot of different things from mugs to books to toilet brushes to bunny rabbits (they're so tiny!). The best part is when a cop drives up and all the people scatter (they don't have licenses to sell things) on their bicycle carts, but they're laughing the entire time that they're pedaling away from the cops. I've only witnessed it a couple times, but it's really funny.
We have Netflix again...probably not a good idea...
We will probably be in California in the fall. I get excited thinking about the awesome weather...and blue sky...
Skyping with people since my last blog post has been fun :):):)
And for those of you who've said we need to skype soon...3 months ago...we should probably do that sometime.
Not sure what else to say...enjoy the snow hahaha :)
Sunday, February 13, 2011
RANTING POST! (with normal post at the end)
Ok, so I've been wanting to do this for awhile. I think sometimes I just assume that you all know what it's like over here, but since most of you don't, I'm going to make a random list of things I've noticed or random things I've experienced. I want you to know, I'm being completely biased, and I know that not ALL Chinese people are like this, but oh well.
Chinese people don't know how to stand in a line. The only time they stand in a line is when they need to buy something, and even then I have had people try to get in front of me, and tell me (at least I think they did) that they should be allowed to cut in front of me because they were only buying one thing (I'm 99% sure they would have just cut if I wasn't paying attention). I've also had an experience where I ordered my food first but two people behind me got theirs first. I'm not sure what happened there.
Because China is so crowded, Chinese people have this sense of urgency that they have to get places as fast as possible. This means that people push and shove to get into buses and subway cars. It doesn't matter if it is empty or full, or if there are a lot of people waiting to get in. Someone was trying to push me one time when we were the only two people waiting to get into a car that had more than enough empty seats for the two of us.
When the crosswalk sign is red, it means you shouldn't cross because you will probably die.
When the crosswalk sign is green, it means you have a slightly better chance of surviving than if it was red, but you probably still shouldn't cross the street because you will get hit by a car.You also need to watch out because motor bikes and some cars go through red lights.
(From something Dan saw one time). The shoulder on a highway is not for people whose cars are broken down or who get pulled over by cops, it's for people who want to go the wrong way on the highway without getting off and getting back on.
In America, cars usually honk their horn when someone else is in their way or about to get in their way. In China, people usually honk their horns when they are about to do something stupid. They honk their horns because they're about to switch lanes when there is absolutely no room to switch, or, like today, because they're speeding through a red light (that did not just turn red) while I'm crossing the street and want to make sure I don't walk in front of them.
One of the things that I still haven't gotten used to and probably never will is the spitting. Spitting outside is whatever, after seeing it multiple times a day (and seeing it all over the sidewalk) it doesn't bother me as much; it's the spitting in doors and the fact that it's completely acceptable is what is disturbing. And the hacking right before the spitting (which everyone does) makes me want to throw up.
I can't remember what else there is, and I really do like it here, a lot. I don't want it to sound like I'm complaining and I hope it was somewhat amusing. I could take time to write about all the awesome things about China, but I'm not sure how interesting that would be. If you want me to, just say so.
Last time I came back from China I remember I had to take some time to readjust, and I was only gone for 6 weeks...I wonder what it will be like this time.
I'm still looking for a job, but I have a promising interview sometime this week. Dan's classes start up tomorrow (boo!). I have lots of videos from Spring Festival. I'm glad it's mostly over, it was a crazy time. Chinese people definitely know how to celebrate. The festival, in my opinion, is Christmas mixed with the 4th of July, except they sell fireworks on the street and anyone can buy them, so you don't have to go anywhere to watch fireworks. Right around the new year, we could see fireworks going off everywhere, and I mean everywhere. It was one of my best experiences ever!
One of my students had to go to the hospital for burning his hand really bad while setting off fireworks.
Grad school update: Dan got accepted to UC Irvine! Since it's CA, we don't know the money situation with it and what they will give us, so we're not sure if it's one of our choices, but I'm really happy he got in.
Chinese people don't know how to stand in a line. The only time they stand in a line is when they need to buy something, and even then I have had people try to get in front of me, and tell me (at least I think they did) that they should be allowed to cut in front of me because they were only buying one thing (I'm 99% sure they would have just cut if I wasn't paying attention). I've also had an experience where I ordered my food first but two people behind me got theirs first. I'm not sure what happened there.
Because China is so crowded, Chinese people have this sense of urgency that they have to get places as fast as possible. This means that people push and shove to get into buses and subway cars. It doesn't matter if it is empty or full, or if there are a lot of people waiting to get in. Someone was trying to push me one time when we were the only two people waiting to get into a car that had more than enough empty seats for the two of us.
When the crosswalk sign is red, it means you shouldn't cross because you will probably die.
When the crosswalk sign is green, it means you have a slightly better chance of surviving than if it was red, but you probably still shouldn't cross the street because you will get hit by a car.You also need to watch out because motor bikes and some cars go through red lights.
(From something Dan saw one time). The shoulder on a highway is not for people whose cars are broken down or who get pulled over by cops, it's for people who want to go the wrong way on the highway without getting off and getting back on.
In America, cars usually honk their horn when someone else is in their way or about to get in their way. In China, people usually honk their horns when they are about to do something stupid. They honk their horns because they're about to switch lanes when there is absolutely no room to switch, or, like today, because they're speeding through a red light (that did not just turn red) while I'm crossing the street and want to make sure I don't walk in front of them.
One of the things that I still haven't gotten used to and probably never will is the spitting. Spitting outside is whatever, after seeing it multiple times a day (and seeing it all over the sidewalk) it doesn't bother me as much; it's the spitting in doors and the fact that it's completely acceptable is what is disturbing. And the hacking right before the spitting (which everyone does) makes me want to throw up.
I can't remember what else there is, and I really do like it here, a lot. I don't want it to sound like I'm complaining and I hope it was somewhat amusing. I could take time to write about all the awesome things about China, but I'm not sure how interesting that would be. If you want me to, just say so.
Last time I came back from China I remember I had to take some time to readjust, and I was only gone for 6 weeks...I wonder what it will be like this time.
I'm still looking for a job, but I have a promising interview sometime this week. Dan's classes start up tomorrow (boo!). I have lots of videos from Spring Festival. I'm glad it's mostly over, it was a crazy time. Chinese people definitely know how to celebrate. The festival, in my opinion, is Christmas mixed with the 4th of July, except they sell fireworks on the street and anyone can buy them, so you don't have to go anywhere to watch fireworks. Right around the new year, we could see fireworks going off everywhere, and I mean everywhere. It was one of my best experiences ever!
One of my students had to go to the hospital for burning his hand really bad while setting off fireworks.
Grad school update: Dan got accepted to UC Irvine! Since it's CA, we don't know the money situation with it and what they will give us, so we're not sure if it's one of our choices, but I'm really happy he got in.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Spring Festival
Soooo I'm not sure what's going on with my job right now, the school is having problems hiring me through the University (Beijing Foreign Studies University). If worse comes to worst I'll go home when my visa expires in April, but that probably won't happen. I'm applying for more positions, but it's a little hard since everyone is on vacation. I have a month to find something though. Last time I was able to find something in a week. I'm not too worried about it for some reason.
I had winter camp last week (7 days). It was 10 10-12 year olds who were practicing for a speech competition. It was extremely exhausting and I'm so glad it's over but it had its small amounts of fun. I feel like I'm being a little biased, but if I was judging a speech competition on a favorite book (written in English) I would choose Uncle Tom's Cabin over a Garfield comic book. Just saying.
A couple weeks ago I went to a tv station and helped them translate the Golden Globes. It was a lot of fun, I think it was the first time I watched more than 15 minutes of the Golden Globes. I translated 5 awards; just basically helped a Chinese person with very good English understand some things that he doesn't understand. It makes so much sense that they need help when you have to explain why people are using the words insemination, gesticulation, and birth to explain how a movie was made and how to translate it into Chinese.
Spring Festival is coming up. There are random fireworks/firecrackers going off multiple times a day. It stinks cause the fireworks aren't very high, so whenever I hear something I rush to the window but I've only ever seen them once. I think Dan is getting annoyed with me. You can buy fireworks on the street, but Dan doesn't want me to. I think it would probably be a disaster if I tried to set some off anyway.
The new year is the year of the rabbit. Apparently that means that everyone is buying a rabbit as a pet...and having them shipped to their homes in boxes...and the rabbits are dying on the way there...it's a little sad.
Dan just started his two week break for Spring Festival. I have some tutoring that I'll be doing during it, nothing too hard or stressful or anything. The 13 year old girl I've been tutoring got into an international school!
I can't remember what else is going on with my life. The Superbowl is coming up! It will be our first football game here, so we're excited. Dan should be hearing back from grad schools soon, which will help determine the rest of our life...for the next couple years anyway, so you can pray that at least one comes back positive (I'm rooting for the East Coast).
I always remember my funny stories after I publish my blog, so I'm sorry if my blogs are boring.
Random Stories:
I composed my own Chinese sentence a couple weeks ago. I was buying something and realized I had one more yuan than I thought I did and the lady realized that and tried to sell me some coffee and I said "wo yi ding you" and I was really proud of myself and she laughed at me and repeated what I said. I said yi ding instead of yi jing so instead of saying I already have one I said I certainly have one. Oh well, it could have been worse.
I had a demo class with this 17 year old guy whose English wasn't really good. At the end I told him he should watch English movies to improve his English but not listen to music, because people use words improperly sometimes in music and he started talking about black people English and started saying "wassup".
I was talking about music with a 13 year old girl I tutor and I asked her what her favorite band was so I could find it on the internet. She said it was a Russian band (she's half Ukrainian) and told me the name of the band. I wrote it down (she pronounces it like Spanish) and saw that I wrote down Viagra. I felt bad that I didn't like the band, but it's hard to like something when it has that name and a 13 year old girl likes something with that name. In its defense, it's actually Via Gra, but still.
OH! And my English is getting worse. I pronounced Haiti with the last I being long a couple times one day, and my grammar is pretty bad. I can't spell anymore either. It's because the majority of the people I talk to don't speak English well, so it's making mine worse.
We're doing well, we're having a nice break. I still need to publish my ranting post sometime.
I had winter camp last week (7 days). It was 10 10-12 year olds who were practicing for a speech competition. It was extremely exhausting and I'm so glad it's over but it had its small amounts of fun. I feel like I'm being a little biased, but if I was judging a speech competition on a favorite book (written in English) I would choose Uncle Tom's Cabin over a Garfield comic book. Just saying.
A couple weeks ago I went to a tv station and helped them translate the Golden Globes. It was a lot of fun, I think it was the first time I watched more than 15 minutes of the Golden Globes. I translated 5 awards; just basically helped a Chinese person with very good English understand some things that he doesn't understand. It makes so much sense that they need help when you have to explain why people are using the words insemination, gesticulation, and birth to explain how a movie was made and how to translate it into Chinese.
Spring Festival is coming up. There are random fireworks/firecrackers going off multiple times a day. It stinks cause the fireworks aren't very high, so whenever I hear something I rush to the window but I've only ever seen them once. I think Dan is getting annoyed with me. You can buy fireworks on the street, but Dan doesn't want me to. I think it would probably be a disaster if I tried to set some off anyway.
The new year is the year of the rabbit. Apparently that means that everyone is buying a rabbit as a pet...and having them shipped to their homes in boxes...and the rabbits are dying on the way there...it's a little sad.
Dan just started his two week break for Spring Festival. I have some tutoring that I'll be doing during it, nothing too hard or stressful or anything. The 13 year old girl I've been tutoring got into an international school!
I can't remember what else is going on with my life. The Superbowl is coming up! It will be our first football game here, so we're excited. Dan should be hearing back from grad schools soon, which will help determine the rest of our life...for the next couple years anyway, so you can pray that at least one comes back positive (I'm rooting for the East Coast).
I always remember my funny stories after I publish my blog, so I'm sorry if my blogs are boring.
Random Stories:
I composed my own Chinese sentence a couple weeks ago. I was buying something and realized I had one more yuan than I thought I did and the lady realized that and tried to sell me some coffee and I said "wo yi ding you" and I was really proud of myself and she laughed at me and repeated what I said. I said yi ding instead of yi jing so instead of saying I already have one I said I certainly have one. Oh well, it could have been worse.
I had a demo class with this 17 year old guy whose English wasn't really good. At the end I told him he should watch English movies to improve his English but not listen to music, because people use words improperly sometimes in music and he started talking about black people English and started saying "wassup".
I was talking about music with a 13 year old girl I tutor and I asked her what her favorite band was so I could find it on the internet. She said it was a Russian band (she's half Ukrainian) and told me the name of the band. I wrote it down (she pronounces it like Spanish) and saw that I wrote down Viagra. I felt bad that I didn't like the band, but it's hard to like something when it has that name and a 13 year old girl likes something with that name. In its defense, it's actually Via Gra, but still.
OH! And my English is getting worse. I pronounced Haiti with the last I being long a couple times one day, and my grammar is pretty bad. I can't spell anymore either. It's because the majority of the people I talk to don't speak English well, so it's making mine worse.
We're doing well, we're having a nice break. I still need to publish my ranting post sometime.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
*Yawns*
Sorry, again, I would usually write blog posts at work during my crazy long breaks, but I'm not working there until March so my schedule's been all thrown off.
Dan and I had a nice relaxing Christmas. We ended up with three new movies so we watched some of those. We now have a kindle and a spiffy case which is useful when you're on the subway or a bus for awhile, which is pretty much every day for me. You can't get to very many parts of Beijing without taking a bus or the subway, and buses take a little while because there's almost always traffic, so the kindle is amazing. Dan's Mom also sent us lots and lots of food, which is not gone yet and it's tasted amazing. Mint brownies, shortbread, cheese, fudge, maple syrup, and some candy. I didn't think it was possible to send home-made stuff overseas, but I guess it is. I'm looking forward to making my Mom send us stuff *cough cough*.
We're the type of people who would rather stay home and watch tv than go out on new years, so on new years we DID stay up until midnight (two hours later than usual) and toasted the new year...and then went to bed...Someone was also setting off fireworks around 11 Saturday morning which didn't make much sense to me.
Right now I'm tutoring a 13 year old half Ukrainian half Chinese girl every weekday for two hours so she can get into an International school. She speaks really good English, but just has trouble with some grammar. I tutor two Chinese kids on Sunday afternoons, and a girl during the week and I'm doing a Saturday class one more time this Saturday. I'm also going to be doing a winter camp and help primary school students write speeches for a competition. So I'm a lot less busy than when I was teaching, but I feel like I'm traveling a lot more. I was really worried about work before but God has completely blessed us and worked everything out (in a matter of days). Basically every place I applied to did nothing, (I was also telling people during this time that God wanted me to chill, but I guess I didn't want to) besides the winter camp. I got all my jobs from this other place that has Americans (and they're also Christians) working there.
Dan has a week off because it's in between semesters. We decided to compromise and play a computer game together instead of fighting over the computer, so that will probably be a lot of our week next week.
It's also FREEZING over here. I can't wait for spring. It's also really really dry, 0% chance of precipitation. every day.
I want to write a blog post about random things about China, but I'm sure if it'll be a good post, or just me ranting about random things.
Dan and I had a nice relaxing Christmas. We ended up with three new movies so we watched some of those. We now have a kindle and a spiffy case which is useful when you're on the subway or a bus for awhile, which is pretty much every day for me. You can't get to very many parts of Beijing without taking a bus or the subway, and buses take a little while because there's almost always traffic, so the kindle is amazing. Dan's Mom also sent us lots and lots of food, which is not gone yet and it's tasted amazing. Mint brownies, shortbread, cheese, fudge, maple syrup, and some candy. I didn't think it was possible to send home-made stuff overseas, but I guess it is. I'm looking forward to making my Mom send us stuff *cough cough*.
We're the type of people who would rather stay home and watch tv than go out on new years, so on new years we DID stay up until midnight (two hours later than usual) and toasted the new year...and then went to bed...Someone was also setting off fireworks around 11 Saturday morning which didn't make much sense to me.
Right now I'm tutoring a 13 year old half Ukrainian half Chinese girl every weekday for two hours so she can get into an International school. She speaks really good English, but just has trouble with some grammar. I tutor two Chinese kids on Sunday afternoons, and a girl during the week and I'm doing a Saturday class one more time this Saturday. I'm also going to be doing a winter camp and help primary school students write speeches for a competition. So I'm a lot less busy than when I was teaching, but I feel like I'm traveling a lot more. I was really worried about work before but God has completely blessed us and worked everything out (in a matter of days). Basically every place I applied to did nothing, (I was also telling people during this time that God wanted me to chill, but I guess I didn't want to) besides the winter camp. I got all my jobs from this other place that has Americans (and they're also Christians) working there.
Dan has a week off because it's in between semesters. We decided to compromise and play a computer game together instead of fighting over the computer, so that will probably be a lot of our week next week.
It's also FREEZING over here. I can't wait for spring. It's also really really dry, 0% chance of precipitation. every day.
I want to write a blog post about random things about China, but I'm sure if it'll be a good post, or just me ranting about random things.
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