Friday, April 24, 2009

New Friends & Adventures!

It was raining this morning and I watched from inside the taxi a sea of umbrellas and people with ponchos on their scooters and bikes. I got to HSH and Christina told me I was to teach English today. Let me just say that I was excited and a bit nervous. I was given a back room and a white board and was to start with one girl who was struggling, Josephine and she is 17 years old. My first thoughts were oh my goodness my Chinese is defiantly not good enough to teach somebody who is already struggling!! I asked God for clear understanding and “jumped in” so to speak. I was able to speak and understand words I never thought I could! We spent a couple hours working and practicing; she is so smart and has such a want to learn. I know realize the importance of my work with the people in the factory the first couple of days, I was building relationships and trust. It was pouring by the time I was supposed to be heading home, they were very nice and took me in the van – I was a bit nervous that I would have to be on the back of some guy’s bike in the pouring rain with crazy driving!

So after getting off at my bus stop I grabbed a bite to eat at Carrefour. I went safe and had a salad, tea, and a friend’s twitter message said to eat your favorite desert so…. I had Crème Brule. It was so good, practically melts in your mouth! I walked around a bit and tried to find postcards. Ms. Evelyn didn’t know where to buy them either! I went and walked around upstairs Carrefour, there is a giant Walmart like store up there. No luck! Hopped in a taxi and headed home. I attempted to take a nap but that was shot down as soon as I got on facebook and started chatting with people. I then attempted to get caught up on e-mail… thank you so much all of you! Your e-mails are so sweet and thoughtful and I promise I will eventually write you back!!

A couple of you had asked me questions about the bathrooms…. Well most of you who know me know I don’t like using public American restrooms let alone a hole in the ground in China!! I would rather not drink very much or hold it then go haha, sorry that was probably TMI for a lot of you! I did however make the exciting adventure TO the bathroom. This was a nice one, but the picture does not do justice for the lovely mess that was really there. I will try and find other ones, but to be honest it’s a nasty adventure I’m not sure how often I will be able to bring myself to walk in there. A lot of bathrooms here don’t have doors, sometimes don’t have stalls, some have windows on the stalls, and a lot have ashtrays sitting next to the toilet paper-that is if there is toilet paper!! Now I have not experienced those yet but so far I have pretty much managed to stick with just going at home.

So after a relaxing afternoon I headed out to Lee and Kristen’s house. Kristen and I headed out to meet up with bunch of expats and I met a lot of people. It was a lot of fun and afterwards 6 of us went out and ended up running into some of their other friends. Around 11:30 we decided to go to KTV…. Karaoke baby! Hahahhaaha ok this is not like American karaoke…. Well it is and isn’t. We got there and it’s a nice place, you’re taken to a room with nice seats and you basically karaoke with your friends. But it isn’t like getting on a stage, everybody sings, and it’s all songs we choose, and there are mics but everyone is singing so it’s not like it’s JUST you. It was so much fun; we stayed until close to 3am! Shiloh’s driver amazing driver picked us up and we headed home. I had told Ms. Evelyn via text I would be home late and not to stay up, she was fun with this, and said she would leave a light on. I dragged myself up the 3 flights of stairs to our house and quietly came in and turned off the light. I made my way up another set of stairs to my room. Talked to dad for a few minutes then went to bed – so sorry yesterdays post is today! Anyways the sky is the bluest I’ve seen since being here so I am going to go enjoy it.








Chelsea

1 comment:

  1. Hey Chelsea, yet another fun and yet totally different blog!?! You just blow me away with how much you are experiencing! I've missed talking to you these last two mornings since i had to leave early...we'll catch up soon. Keep posting!!

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