Faves Day 1

Since I am leaving Wuhan on Monday, I have decided to bring my camera to work with me every day so I can take pictures with all my favorite babes :)
First up is Cheng Cheng. She is the cutie who calls me Pisa Lǎoshī. She isn't very smiley but I promise she does love me.....she regularly grabs my hand and takes me with her everywhere she goes.

Next up is Chuen Chuen. He is at the center almost every day. His smile is the cutest thing EVER, but unfortunately he was being a little grumpy today.....

We also have Meng Meng, who is Mr. O's daughter. She is usually the most smiley thing and will get a big ol' grin on her face whenever she sees me but, as seemed to be the trend today, she was slightly grumpy. Candy got a cute picture with her though:

And then there's Quan Quan. The first time he came to class, his mom looked like she was pissed the whole time and I was really worried that she was going to hate me the whole time I was here. BUT now every time she sees me she smiles and tells Quan Quan to say hi to me! He isn't a very expressive kiddo but he is so good in class all the time and always says hi and bye to me. I also love that EVERY art project we do that involves paint, his mom will paint his hand and have him put his handprint on it. So cute :) He was a little grumpy today too and didn't want to take a picture at all so we had to pretend to give him a Rompy stamp just to get him to stop freaking out.....he caught us hahahaha

Last but not least for today we have Yang Yang. He is one of the older kiddos and is such a great helper. Not only does he help me put the lids on all the instrument bins during class, he also will help Candy and I clean up after whatever class is before his - he puts the knobby balls back in the bag, will collect baby toys and put them in the bin, and basically knows where everything goes just as well as I do. He was also the only child to smile for a picture with me today :)

For his picture with Candy he started with a  normal smile that just got bigger and bigger and more ridiculous and by the time the picture took, he looked like this:

More faves to come tomorrow!

Last Tuesday in Wuhan

Today was my last Tuesday in Wuhan and I chose to celebrate this by heading to the mall....this proved to be easier said than done. The first cab driver I got didn't know where it was, despite the directions I handed him. The second cab driver seemed to have an idea where to go but about 10 kuai into the ride he handed me the phone and an English-speaking Chinese woman on the other end told me I needed to switch cabs. Holy cow. So the guy pulls over and motions to the cab that has just stopped behind us. I had no idea what was going on but he seemed like a nice guy so I paid him and headed to the other cab. This guy took one look at the directions and I asked him "hao, bo hao?" (it translates to "good, no good" but it's essentially the equivalent of asking: is it okay?) and he said hao (good, or okay), so we were on our way. He took sort of a round-about way but we got there eventually. I was sooooooooo happy to curl up on a Starbucks chair with a delish vanilla latte and my current book: Little Women. I'm entranced by this book.

Love my nook!

After about an hour and a half of reading I headed to H&M to do some shopping therapy. Unfortunately there just wasn't anything that caught my fancy there and I was a bit bummed heading out of the store. Then as I was walking past another store a sign for a shoe sale caught my eye. Now I may be the kind of girl who wears my rainbow sandals 364 days of the year, but for that one other day I like to have a decent selection of heels to choose from. So in I went. None of the heels were too awesome, but just for fun I decided to try on a pair of low-heeled boots.....and fell in love. For 129 kuai, they were a steal.

I guess somewhere in me there is a little bit of a country girl trying to get out.
Dinner time rolled around and brought with it a bit of a shameful indulgence: McDonald's. It was so disgustingly delicious. I am ashamed, but I have to post photographic evidence so I myself will actually believe this happened when I look back on it......

I also got a scarf at the same place that I got the shoes, and it is pictured here with the guitar that I bought a couple days after I got here. I have yet to really learn anything about playing the guitar....turns out trying to learn the guitar is more frustrating and disheartening when you're lonely. Perhaps I will try more when I get back to Beijing and Chelsie can encourage me :)

As this is my last week in Wuhan, I am going to take my camera to work with me every day and get pictures of my favorite kiddos. I have lots here and I'm actually going to be sad to leave them - they have captured my heart in a way that the city itself was not able to do....

Picture

All that I have to offer today is a picture. Plain and simple.

Pisa Lǎoshī

This is what one of the little girls at the Wuhan center has started calling me, because my name is too hard for her to say. Every time she comes to the center she asks everybody "Pisa Lǎoshī?" until somebody leads her to me. I love it. There's not much to report about today, other than some regular, every-day things that added up to make a pretty good day.....
Today:
*I woke up to an email from Cody.
*I talked to Cody AND my mom on skype before going to work.
*2 moms started breastfeeding in the middle of class
*I ate delicious green beans for lunch
*My countdown of how many days until I return to Beijing went to single digits
*A new little boy was so obsessed with me that he literally climbed on me like a monkey in the middle of class and didn't want anybody else in the gym with us when we were playing after class. He kept telling his mom and dad and Candy to go away. Hahahahahahahahaha.
*I watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy
*I made a playlist of songs that will be used for Grey's Anatomy-esk dance parties.
*I saw 2 small children "cheers" their sippy cups
*I peed in my squat toilet without peeing on my feet

Yep, I'd say today was a decent day.

East Lake

A couple weeks ago I went to East Lake with Lisa, one of the marketing girls from Zhongguancun (Beijing) center who was here visiting and helping the marketing people here. I took lots of beautiful pictures, but was feeling so blah that I never got around to posting them. So here they are....the park was beautiful and HUGE! It went on forever; we were walking for a couple hours and still were not at the end. So many twists and turns....oh man, I wish I hadn't been in such a crabby mood and could've appreciated it more. Well, anyhoozle, here it is:

The first glimpse I got of the lake....I loved that lone tree on the top of the hill.

Nifty little boat

She was cleaning the lake and Lisa laughed at me for taking a picture of her

This lovely man took us on a speed-boat ride. He was a crazy driver but I had a good time :)

This slinky little guy was hanging around the table that Lisa and I stopped to rest at. This picture is for the 2 people in my life who have a strange and irrational love for cats - Meredith and Chelsie. You're welcome.

I love how they're all lined up perfectly.

<3 love <3

A little shack off the path that was very picturesque

Yes. I climbed the mountain goat. And yes, Lisa was impressed.

Being stupid....what's new

Lisa brought her sun-brella and it created this beautiful photo op.

Well, there you have it. Wuhan's East Lake.

Chinese mama

You know how sometimes something happens to you and you think to yourself "I can't believe nobody I know is here to witness this"? Well, tonight that happened to me. I decided not to go for a run because the book I'm reading is absolutely captivating and I just want to sit and read. I had to take a break for dinner though, so I headed down to the little supermarket across the street. I went to my noodle stand and saw a guy getting some noodle soup, so I pointed and said "wo yao jega". I usually have no idea what exactly it is that I'm telling them I want, but it's a break from the regular and looks pretty harmless. The lady made me some noodle soup which was haochir (delicious). I sat at a table and ate across from the stand and smiled at people who walked by and gawked at me. Then the lady from the stand came and sat across from me with several bowls. One of them looked like spinach, the other....I'm not sure what it was, it could have been brussel sprouts or the stalks of asparagus or some funky green bean....who knows. Anyways, she motioned for me to eat them and so I did. Mom, I don't know how you did it, but I firmly believe you had something to do with my new Chinese mama getting me to eat my vegetables. I don't know what it is, but the Chinese have a way with vegetables. They make them so delicious I just can't say no! Anyways, she kept trying to talk to me and we would both laugh every time I said bu gee dao (I don't know). Her friend also came over and tried to talk to me to which I responded: __________ .......you can fill in the blank. Well, it's back to my book now. In other news, I return to Beijing August 15th! I can't wait to FINALLY move in with my roomie!

Shopping? Why yes, I think I will

Hooray for days off! I started the day by sleeping in until 10:30 and when I finally woke up and turned on my computer, Cody was on skype. We talked for about an hour and just being able to see his face and hear his voice was the best start to my day I could ever ask for, I miss him bunches. After we said goodbye I decided it was time to shower and start my day, which was going to involve shopping, and shopping, and some more shopping. Now anybody who knows me knows that I love to shop, my mom especially knows this because when I was in high school we used to go on shopping trips almost bi-weekly :) I even straightened my hair and put on a cute outfit for this trip! This may not seem like a big deal to you average people, but just know that this is the first time since I got to Wuhan that I have blow-dried and straightened my hair AND wore something other than athletic shorts and a t-shirt. Be impressed. Evidence:

I headed to the mall and hit H&M first. You know how sometimes  you see something and you immediately know you love it without even trying it on? That's what happened with this shirt:

I also impressively found some jeans that fit me, and even though they need to be hemmed up a bit because my legs are so short in proportion to the size of my waist, I kind of love them:

I also found a pair of nude wedges at H&M that were beautiful and I wanted them soooooo badly, but they were 299 kuai (about $50) and I couldn't bring myself to get them. I am now on the hunt for some nude pumps or wedges. After acquiring the shirt and jeans for my wardrobe it was time for some good American-style indulgence, so I headed to Starbucks and got myself a peanut mocha frappuccino. It was so good. I just sat and sipped and read a book for a whole hour, enjoying the American feeling. I walked through the mall several times and popped in several stores that were having sales. There were many things that tempted me but I resisted the urge to buy everything. I also reminded myself that the night market and numerous bargain markets would have similar things for much cheaper (my dad would be proud). There was one store that I walked by several times and I giggled every time...........

They couldn't have possibly chosen any other way to say "really small"? Yet again, I found myself thinking "almost China, almost". I indulged in some truffles. I say indulged because they were expensive little boogers. At See's Candy in the US these might have cost me $3. Here in China they cost me 36 kuai, which is about $6. But they were delicious nonetheless.......

From left to right: dark chocolate with dark chocolate filling; dark chocolate with hazelnut filling; dark chocolate with strawberry filling. I have a thing for dark chocolate :)

6:30 rolled around and I figured it was about time to grab some grub, so I headed to the one Western restaurant in the mall other than KFC and McDonald's and DQ: Teddy Bear's Kitchen. I got some blueberry rolls which turned out to be blueberry filling with crispy fried stuff around the outside, some honey mint soda which tasted like a lemon drop mixed with a peppermint, and some lasagna. All 3 were delicious and I left with a full belly and a big smile on my face.

After this I decided it was time to head home since I had done enough damage to my wallet for one day. I headed outside only to discover it was RAINING! I found this incredibly ironic and I'll tell you why. Chelsie told me that it rained in Wuhan ALL THE TIME, so I specially bought rain boots and brought them with me.....and haven't even used them once. I was complaining to Candy about this yesterday and lo and behold, today: rain. Sadly, I did not have my rain boots with me and got my poor rainbow sandals soaked hailing a cab (which I'm really good at - I just show a little American leg and the cabs line up hahahahaha just keeeeeding). Overall, wonderful day. Oh, I forgot to mention that WalMart is in the same place as the mall and I snagged myself some stupidly expensive peanut butter and a snicker's bar. Yeeeeeah buddy.