Saturday was Teacher's Day, so we had a ceremony with hundreds of teachers... that was entirely in Chinese. Being the foreign teachers, we were sat on a stage and stared at for a couple of hours. I now understand why some of my lower-level students are always distracted- it's close to impossible to sit and listen to a foreign language that you can only understand maybe 1% of for an extended period of time; I totally became that student- texting, playing with the tablecloth, whispering to my seatmates, singing songs in my head... I don't think I'll be reprimanding those students anymore! Thankfully, I was in the back row, so no one could see me ;-)
This weekend I went shopping with 2 Chinese English teachers (one of whom is my co-operating teacher/translator). I was so excited to spend a couple of hours hanging out with these ladies, but everything is different in China, so what I expected to be a short shopping trip turned into an EIGHT HOUR shopping marathon! I think I'm shopped-out for the next year! But it was actually really amazing spending so much time with them and getting to know them; they said that we're now "good sister friends"! I was even given some opportunities to share about my beliefs :-D They taught me so much about Chinese culture and relationships- relationships here are so much different than in the States! Anywho- I want to give you a little glimpse of Chinese taste in shoes, because I'm pretty sure this is where Lady Gaga must shop:
Sunday was our first time to Foreign Fellowship, which is now our home fellowship for this year. There were maybe 40-50 foreigners there, from: US, Canada, Korea, Germany, Scotland, and Australia (in writing this, my spellcheck just informed me that I've been spelling Australia wrong my entire life (
Austrailia)!)! Fellowship was so great- I've really missed it! After fellowship, we went to a pizza place that sells foreign foods, and we bought CHEESE and BUTTER!!! Such extravagance. Also, I attempted to purchase 2 cookies from a street vendor, but somehow ended up with around 4 dozen mediocre cookies and I'm still not sure what went wrong... yay language barrier!
Today is Mid-Autumn Festival in China! It's similar to Thanksgiving, except that it's about moon worship and people eat an unbelievable amount of mooncakes and apples. We get 1.5 days off work, though, so I'm a fan!
New addition to blog posts:
"You know you're meant for China when": while eating at a restaurant a cockroach crawls up the wall next to you, you look at it, it looks at you, you briefly consider attacking it, then simply continue eating.
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