Another Weekend Has Come And Gone

The rest of my classes went fantastically! I had three classes on Thursday and they all really seemed to enjoy the dice game. I learned that instead of going in a row if I randomly picked my students they listened better and seemed to laugh more, especially when I picked the people that were hiding behind the large stack of books on their desk. I went to my second class of the day and one of the other Chinese English teachers, Tom, met me there. He said "There are some headmasters that want to come and listen to your lesson if that's okay." It was not okay in the slightest but I obviously couldn't say that! I told him that was fine but I was only doing introductions so it wasn't very exciting. So I had three head people sitting at the back of the class room during my lesson. They seemed to enjoy the dice game just as much as the students. When they left they said thank you and that was all. So I assume that it went okay... Then in one of my other classes a boy stood up and said "I don't like any of the girls in my class." I enjoy embarrassing my students so I said, "But why? They are all so beautiful!" He looked at me, looked around the room, looked and me again and whispered in my ear "I do not think so." I busted up laughing and said "Oh sit down!" and went to my next victim. The rest of the class started asking what he said to me, as far as I know he didn't tell them.
I went to Alyssa's school after my classes finished up and took a shower. It was so warm and better yet she let me use her straightener after. It was wonderful. One of the teachers at the school called me and told me to get in a taxi and meet her to go shopping. So the four of us, Alyssa, Andy, Josh and me got in a taxi and went shopping with Ling and Joan, the gym teacher. They took us all over and I bought a hair elastic that all the Chinese girls wear that looks like a telephone cord and a purple blingy clip. They treated us to some kind of soup thing. You got to pick what you wanted and then they boiled everything. It was pretty good. I'm pretty sure I ended up with a seafood dumpling though and that wasn't good.
Friday was a fantastic day. I went and taught one class with Alyssa and Andy taught in Josh's class. One of the students in Alyssa's class gave me one of the miniature oranges they eat here. I love them, they are delicious. There was a group of kids in Alyssa's class that were acting out so I went over and stood next to them. One of the boys was using his pencil as a gun. I took it away from him and boy did he get mad. He looked up at me and started speaking Chinese. I was thinking "Go ahead. Curse me out in Chinese. I don't know what you're saying so it's not like I'm going to care!" After we went to get Josh and he was being attacked by all of his students. I pulled out my camera and they all go so excited! One of the boys came up and gave me a kiss on the cheek. It was adorable!

Andy and Alyssa were going to Zhenjiang that weekend so it would be just Josh and I. We went back to my school, said good bye to Andy and Alyssa and Josh and I were just starting to cycle back to his school so he could shower when I got a phone call from my friend Spring asking where I was. She said her and Apple were going to meet me at my dormitory in 10 minutes. Josh said he could hold off on the shower and we went back. They started playing exercise music and Josh and I went to watch. We were accosted by a bunch of Chinese girls all wanting to talk to us. The gym teacher, Joan, came over and said "You will run with them." I was super excited  because I haven't been able to run since I got to China (Except those times in Hong Kong when I was really late). We did two laps around the track across from the school. I have never heard so much laughing while I was running before. I wanted to laugh too though, it was funny seeing all these Chinese people running in their boots and heavy coats. I loved watching everyone smack their friends to get their attention as I ran past (The Chinese turned out to be not very good runners so I passed them a lot). Afterwards Josh and I were talking to our new friend Lily. I commented on her hair clip and she asked if I really liked it. When I told her yes I loved it she took it out of her hair and gave it to me. That was a shock. I protested of course but you also have to be conscious of the culture so I ended up taking it. We met Spring and Apple and headed back to my dormitory to find three other Chinese girls hanging out outside the door. The girls here love Josh, especially when they find out that he's only 18. Really they just go wild!
Everyone left for class and Josh and I headed back to his place so he could finally shower. Except we didn't make it that far because we ran into a group of Chinese boys who yelled at Josh to come play in broken English. They played for about 10 minutes and then told Josh to come play with them tomorrow at 3. I took a picture of the group and said, "Say cheese!" A Chinese man on the side told me after that everyone thinks I'm saying eggplant because the two words are very similiar.
We finally made it back to the school and Josh got his shower. The plan was to head back to my place and find a restaurant Andy and I had found that had waffles, we've all been craving waffles very badly, and then finish the night with a movie. The first part of that plan went through. We made it back to my place and headed out looking for the waffle joint. It had disappeared. Josh and I wandered the street and we were never able to find it. We finally decided to go into the restaurant that had some other people in it. It's easier to order when other people are there because you can just point at their dishes. The doors were closed and there weren't any handles so Josh kind of pried the doors apart. The table of people already there stopped eating and stared at us for a good 30 seconds before they started going off in Chinese. They proceeded to stare some more before leading us over to a buffet thingy and I used some broken Chinese to ask what the food was (Really I was pretty proud of myself for that moment). They put it in the microwave and then went back to their meal. After some talking Josh and I decided we interrupted a family meal and the doors were closed not to keep the warmth in but to keep people out. Yeah, that was great. We made it back to my place and ended the evening with "Meet the Robinsons".
The next day was seminormal. I did some cleaning, had breakfast, visited Josh etc. The real excitement came that night when I was hanging out with Spring and Apple. They came to my dormitory and took me to Apple's house (Spring lives at the school and Apple's family rents a house nearby the school). That was such a humbling experience. Her house was smaller than my dormitory. It had a very small kitchen, a tiny bathroom, Apple's room, her parents' room, and a tiny hallway with a sewing machine. They told me it was only so small because they are renting, they don't really live there. After eating dinner we went to a park and took tons of pictures and ate treats we bought at the supermarket. We went back to my dormitory and they taught me origami. At 11:30 I kicked them out and went to bed.

The next morning Spring came over and we went to get Josh (Apple has extra classes on Sunday) so he could come to Apple's house and learn how to make this food (It sounds like honda and I would probably spell it hunda but I'm not sure). It was filled with meat and green stuff and we wrapped it in rice paper. Then Apple's mom boiled it. It was so much fun and actually pretty easy to make. While we were there Apple's neighbors came over and took pictures of us making the food. That was exciting. Apple had another class and Spring was going home to shower so Josh and I crashed at my place and attempted to watch "Tangled" but I think we slept through most of it.

Later in the afternoon lots more Chinese girls (The boys are more shy so we  mostly see girls) came to visit. One girl talked to Josh about finding her a husband in the US. She is quite determined to marry an American, that's why she studies English so hard. It was pretty funny watching Josh try to tell her in a round about way that he couldn't really do that.
Dinner that night was at another English teacher's house, Cassy. Cassy is such an amazing woman! Spring, Apple, Summer, Josh, Andy and I all went to eat there. Cassy's husband was there for a little bit but he had a business dinner to go to. In China you only drink when you toast people. I kept forgetting and drank my drink whenever I was thirsty. So poor Cassy's husband kept toasting us. I'm sure he thought I was really dumb. :) I was brave enough to ask what one of the unidentified meats on the table was (After I'd eaten it naturally). Turned out to be pig foot. It was actually surprising good so I had another piece. The rest of the food was fairly normal, well by Chinese standards of course. Cassy sent us home with lots of treats and boiled eggs for breakfast. All in all it was a fantastic weekend!