Auld Lang Syne

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions.

At least, not on January 1^st.

I make my resolutions now. Maybe it’s that I get excited about new school supplies. Maybe it’s that I have been mostly lazy for two months and so I need a change. Maybe it’s that I feel like I get a new start with a fresh slate of kids. Maybe it’s that I am just meant to live on an academic calendar.

Whatever the reason, when August comes, I feel the need to make life changes. And so, here I give you my New (school) Year’s resolutions:

1. I will be TOTY.
2. I will be better at parent contact. Wait. If there is anything that I have learned from the numerous educational classes and seminars I have sat through, it is that a goal needs to be measurable. Let’s try again. At least once a month, I will attempt to have contact (phone, in person, or most likely, email) with a parental unit for each student I teach. (Note that if I am successful at this, I am making great strides at achieving goal #1.)
3. I will run a half-marathon (or the equivalent of one) by August 1, 2009.
4. I will lose weight. (Yeah, I know that this one as it is currently stated isn’t exactly measurable, but I am NOT posting my weight on a blog.)

I think that there are others, but it is probably be best to keep the list short and manageable. Wish me luck.

Now if only the first day of school came with a balloon drop and champaign toast…

Scott's Birthday

Yesterday was Scott's birthday. It also happened to be his weekly pool league night. Scott mentioned that he would love it if I would bring cupcakes to pool league. I don't think that he was expecting this:

I used decorating sugar to do the colors and stripes.


The center circle is a Necco wafer with the number done in black frosting.
And the chalk was made from two blue starbursts.


The look on his face was incredible and made the effort worth it. I am already worried that I won't be able to top it next year.

The Road to TOTY 2009

You know how the presidential campaigning starts way before you would ever expect?

I am going to take a lesson from the candidates and start now. My first step towards TOTY 2009 elections is to volunteer to stay at 8th grade parent night tonight. Doesn't that sound exciting? I get to stand behind a table and answer questions about high school math classes for next year's rising class and their parents.

The campaign begins.

Maybe Next year

The campaign to be TOTY didn't pay off. I was nominated, but didn't get the votes. Maybe next year.

New Blog

There are so many things going on right now. I created a new blog to address perhaps the biggest thing. Check it out.

My Family

We Do like to burn things.

The pile before we started:


The beginning:


Yep, it's right there. See it? Right there.


Pull Melissa, pull. But don't give yourself a black eye.


Three hours later and still going strong:

Beth's Boo Boo

It's not everyday that I have the desire to post pictures of my thigh on the internet. In fact, that never really happens. But since Rebecca asked, here it is. (I have a suspicion that she only wants to make fun of my klutziness, but oh well.)

Here's the story:
My parents are adding on to their house. Monday evening Daddy and I walked out there to see what the workers accomplished for the day. There is a board (4x10?) that you use to get into the new section since it is like 4 feet off the ground. I had just slipped on a pair of momma's shoes to go out there and going up I was fine.
One the way out Davy was at the bottom of the board waiting for us and as I stepped out on the board, daddy said, "Wait a second Davy, Beth will be down to play with you in just a minute." He didn't realize how quickly I would be down on the ground. The board was damp from earlier rain. My right foot slipped and I twisted off to the right. Most of my body landed in (and demolished) a butterfly bush and my left leg came down on the board.
Blood and tears followed quickly. Daddy insisted that we make a trip to the ER in case I needed a couple of stitches and so that they could clean it out well. No stitches were needed, but they did give me pain medication (which made me throw up all day Tuesday).
Here are the pictures that momma took on Tuesday to send to Rebecca and Melissa:
This this the main group of scratches. The dark part at the top is the section that came close to being deep enough for a few stitches.
This one shows that I managed to get my etire leg. You can sort of see the swelling.

And now for your viewing pleasure, this is what it looks like today:

Gross, huh?

103 Things about me

For the past two summers I was pretty good about blogging while I was out of the country. I thought that I might give it another try even though I will be here most of the summer.

To get it started, here are 103 things about me that you may or may not have known:

1. I hiccup.
2. A lot.
3. I hate bananas.
4. I love anything chocolate
5. Except chocolate covered bananas
6. I consider myself to be a smart person.
7. And a funny person.
8. And generally a pretty cool person to be around.
9. I’m also surprisingly insecure.
10. Social situations make me nervous.
11. I have a thing for numbers.
12. I love prime numbers.
13. I once made a roommate change our number because it had too many even numbers.
14. My childhood ambition was to be a pediatrician.
15. I failed biology my sophomore year in college.
16. I use to swear that I would never teach. No matter what I did, it wouldn’t be teaching.
17. I just finished my 4th year teaching.
18. I love coffee.
19. I also love skim milk.
20. I usually read 4 books at once.
21. During the summer, I can average a book every 4 days.
22. My family goes to the beach every year.
23. I love vacations with my family.
24. My favorite vacation was the time we went to Louisiana and just drove around. We went on a tour of a rice cake factory.
25. Also, at Thanksgiving and Christmas, we usually go out to the woods and shoot guns at various inanimate objects.
26. I am the oldest of three girls.
27. Most of the time, I like being the oldest.
28. I adore my sisters. And my parents.
29. I can make fun of them, but I will get ticked if you do.
30. My youngest sister moved to Minnesota this year. I miss her.
31. My middle sister is getting married. I miss her too.
32. I am vain about my eyelashes. They are perfect.
33. I sing loudly.
34. I love to bake.
35. I would love to open my own bakery and make cookies all day.
36. My favorite cookies are ginger snaps.
37. 37 is my favorite number.
38. I love to take baths.
39. I love someone playing with my hair.
40. I would pay someone to wash and brush my hair everyday.
41. seriously
42. I love traveling.
43. I have to take anxiety medication to fly.
44. I have been to 6 foreign countries.
45. I am going to go to 2 more this summer.
46. I wouldn’t mind living overseas at some point in my life.
47. I speak a little Chinese.
48. I have a fantastic group of friends.
49. The last time I got angry at someone it was because he called my friends judgmental.
50. I yelled at him.
51. I never yell.
52. I can count on one hand the number of time I have yelled at someone.
53. I avoid conflict if at all possible.
54. I have a hard time saying no if someone asks me to do something. Even if it is inconvenient for me.
55. I am really easy to get along with.
56. Probably because I am a pansy and avoid conflict.
57. I really want people to like me.
58. I want to be described as nice.
59. I am not nice.
60. I screen phone calls.
61. I’m not good at returning phone calls.
62. I don’t like to do things that I am not good at.
63. I am learning to play pool.
64. I am not good at it.
65. I can’t spell.
66. Or type.
67. I wish that I were a good writer.
68. I can’t stand it when people use quotation marks inappropriately.
69. Air quotes are even worse.
70. I love Sunday afternoon naps.
71. especially in the summer when it’s hot outside and the sheets are cool
72. I am pretty independent.
73. My greatest fear is being alone the rest of my life.
74. I am dating an amazing man.
75. I have flat feet.
76. I had to wear corrective shoes as a child.
77. If I stand for too long, it makes my knees hurt.
78. I wear a digital watch.
79. It drives my mom crazy.
80. But not as much as the rubber band I wear on my other wrist.
81. I am a bit of a dork.
82. I like to think that you wouldn’t realize it by looking at me.
83. I suspect that I am wrong.
84. On a daily basis, I read the blogs of several people I don’t know.
85. I recently found out that my boyfriend knows one of the girls I blog stalk.
86. I am a little jealous that he knows her and I don’t.
87. And a little worried that if he starts reading her blog, he will like her more than me.
88. Did I mention that I am surprisingly insecure?
89. My favorite flowers are daffodils but they make my sinuses go crazy.
90. I hate running but I try to like it.
91. I took about 12 years of piano lessons but I know I can’t play a piece all the way through.
92. I also played the trumpet but wish I played the cello.
93. I like to have conversations when I am tired because my barriers are down and I will really say what is on my mind.
94. I am more of a morning person. I get much more done in the morning.
95. There are days in the summer when I don’t get out of my pajamas.
96. Or if I am at home home, out of my bathing suit.
97. I hate to do laundry.
98. I will wear clothes dirty.
99. The jeans I am wearing now are dirty.
100. I am going to start to blog more.
101. Like the summers when I was in Asia.
102. I probably will forget to blog by next week.
103. I am glad not to be in Asia this summer.

Differences

I think that we all want to make a difference. And sometimes we do make a difference and don't even know it.

Today, I watched one of the members of my 7th grade small group get baptized. And after thanking her parents, she said that she would like to thank her small group leader, Beth.

Wow.

A difference.

But really I should be the one thanking her. For being an incredible 12 year old. For reminding me what simple faith is. For encouraging me to walk with Christ in a more authentic way so that I can be an example.

A guess that making a difference always effects both parties.

I like teaching. Really I do.

And I like high school. I remember the fun stuff that wasn't learning and so I recognize how important that kind of thing is. That is why today I dumped my geometry plans to review sine, cosine and tangents in favor of taking my classes to the auditorium to watch the One Act Play. (Plus, who really wants to try to fight the Homecoming Friday Hype in order to review trig functions?)

But just now one of my trig students came in to critique my teaching. He means well, but I don't think he has a clue as to how badly he hurt my feelings. And it isn't that he was wrong in what he said. On the contrary, he was far too spot on. He accused me of not being personal enough and pushing them too hard. (In turn, I accused him and the class at whole of always misbehaving and not putting forth a valid effort.) And he is right.

I like teaching, but there are some days I hate me the teacher.

I hate being stern. I hate threatening to call home. I hate pleading with students to try. I hate being forced to cut out the fun things of high school because they can't behave during the non-fun parts.

Thank goodness it is Friday afternoon and I don't have to be me the teacher until Monday.

Day 2

Again, high intentions of writing something worth reading. I even started some drafts yesterday that I thought would be pretty good entries.

But one of the boys has a bottle of Nautica Echo cologne in his bag and it broke. My head is pounding. I can barely think past the smell.

Sorry. It will have to wait until tomorrow.

Since it turns out that only my sisters and momma are reading this, you might find it interesting to know that I got flowers sent to work yesterday.

Day 1

I have been thinking that I needed to write more, but honestly I don't know where to find the time. And I feel pressured to write something of value. I am fully aware that you don't want to know what I had for breakfast. And while me slicing off my finger trying to pit an avacado is mildly funny, it does not a good post make.

Still, I read about a challenge to post at least once a day, everyday in November. And I am always up for a good challenge.

As lame as it is, this counts for today. Stay tuned for updates.

I would ask this- drop me a comment so that I know who is reading. Since I haven't written in a really long time, I don't know who is randomly checking. It would be nice to know.

Class

Lest I actually have a month of vacation solely devoted to nothing but laying by the pool, strongly encouraged by my departement chair and my new principal, I enrolled in the gifted endorsement course offered by Cobb County.

What was I thinking??????

I like the material (after all, I spent all of my school years in gifted classes) and I think there are a lot of ideas being presented that will make me a better teacher all around. Not to mention the promise of actually getting to teach the advanced courses. (I recently found out that this year I am going to get to teach Analysis- the gifted Pre-Cal course. I am excited and terrified all at the same time.)

But the work required for this class has been overwhelming. It only lasts for 8 days- all of last week and Mon, Tues., Wed. of this next week. Class is from 8:30-3:15 everyday with a 30 minute break for lunch. But then I come home (a new home for me, by the way, but that will have to wait for a different blog when I am not feeling so overwhelemed), and I have to read between 30 and 50 pages of scholary journals. I love to read, but scholarly journals make me want to cut my own eyes out with a grapfruit spoon so that I will have a reason to never have to read them again. And on top of that we have to write 6 annotated bibilographies. I am on the 4th and so far have written 10 pages worte of work. I swore after grad school that I would never to another annotated bibilography. I can't believe that I let these sneak up on me.

After this class ends, I have to take another one that meets twice a month during the school year and follow that with another week and a half course next summer. Finally I will be gifeted endorsed.

But the question I am thinking about now, as I procrastinate these papers, is does this mean that I intend to stay in education longer then the 4 years I said I was in it for?

Jet Lag

I once heard it said concerning jet lag that it takes 1 day to recover for each hour of the time difference. 1 day down out of 12.

Sunday, after getting home around midnight, I was wide awake until 3AM and then woke up at 8. I think that my body assumed that I was just laying down for a long afternoon nap.

Last night, my goal was to stay awake until 10 PM. I managed to stay out of bed that long by watching the first episode of LOST (I picked up both seasons in my DVD run so that I could catch up on the hype). After that I went to bed and thought that I would try to read for a while. After I literally dopped my book twice, I decided that I just couldn't do it.

As I drifted off, I thought to myslef that I would surly sleep through the night becasue I was so incredibily tired. But no. 2 AM wide awake.

I managed to go back to sleep about 3:30, but only to wake up every 45 minutes or so. I finally got up at 6.

I am pretty sure that you didn't want to know so much detail about my sleeping patterens, but it may do you good to understand why I am no fun at night. Give me a week.


Happy 4th.

More Numbers

10:38 AM Wednesday: Time and day here
10:38 PM Tuesday: Time and day there

____Monday afternoon in numbers____

2: friends I met

4: approximate distance in miles into town where we needed to go

1.75: US dollar equivalent of amount it would have cost to take a taxi

12: approximate minutes to get to where we needed to go in a taxi

15: minutes if we had the slowest taxi in the country (and there aren''t many slow ones)

100: percent of the time that students here perfer taking a bus over taking a taxi

15: minutes we spend looking at the bus board determining how to get where we needed to go by bus

1: calls to the bus/transportation dispatch place to find out which busses we should take

38 & 79: the two bus numbers that got us close to where we needed to go

3/4: approximate distance in miles that we had to walk after getting off the bus to get to where we were going

75: minutes it took to get to where we were going

$0.75: dollare equivalent of whet it costs all three of us to ride the two buses

2: hours we spent in town

1: miles we walked to what we thought would be the correct bus stop to begin trip home

25: minutes we waited for the 79 bus to come

0.5: miles we walked to a different bus stop

50: number of bus that we would take in order to meet up with...

336: bus that would bring us back to campus

15: minutes we waited for 50 bus

7:00: time 60 bus stop running

7:20: time when we realized that we missed 50 bus

97, 001, 41: series of buses that we then decided to take

10,000: taxis that passed us during this time and could have taken us home quickly

3/4: miles we walked after getting off the 97 only to realize that it didn't match up with the 001 bus where they thought it would

15: minutes spent waiting on a 336 bus at the new stop

0.1: miles we traveled on the 336 bus before it died in a busy intersection.

5: minuutes the driver spend looking at the engine (you can access it from inside the bus) before asking everyone to get off and push. One of my friends said that he only meant for the boys to get off and push

2: number of boys on the bus

3: times the driver repeated his request before people got off and started to push the bus (I didn't but one of my friends did.) The driver was able to jump start the bus.

135: minutes to get back to campus by bus

$1.75: dollar equivalent of what we saved by taking the bus instead of a taxi

3: extra hours it took for us to travel by bus instead of taxi

87: times I almost told my friends that their idea about taking bus was stupid but I refrained becasue they have this whold saving face concept.


____Other numbers_____

3: square footage of the bottom of our shower

5'9'': approximate height of shower head

2: times I have shaved because it is impossible to do anything other than stand perfectly upright in the shower and besides I can claim to be culturally relavent

3: times I will end up having done laundry

6: hours it takes laundry to dry on an overcast day.

2: hours to dry if it is sunny and there is room on the outside line

5: days until we come home

Have a good rest of the week. I will see you soon.

Last week

So on Thursday when we went to get a simple hair wash, the girls talked me into getting a hair cut as well. I should have listened to my inner voice that was yelling "NOOOOOOOO!"

And so now I have a hair cut that I hate. If for the rest of the summer I only wear it in a ponytail, you will understand why. Be nice. Even my friends that I made here will say, "It looks, well... okay."

And on top of the bad hair cut is the monster zit I got on my lip last week. My fireds would point and say "Oh, what is that?" They, of course have perfect procelin skin. We almost didn't go to eat Hot pot on Friday becasue they think that the spice is bad for your skin. I kept assuring them that it would be okay & that the disease on my face would go away whether I ate hot pot or not.

So we went to eat Hot Pot and it was really good. We went to a place where you picked your own meal on skewers and then out it in the bolining pepper soup to cook. After it was cooked you then put the food in a dish of oil to cool down both in heat and in spice. (I honestly think that if anything was bad for their skin, it is the cup of oil bit.) My friends ate weird stuff like Chicken feet and what not. I stuck to mostly vegetables because they were recognizable. I did try one stick of imitation crab b/c it was one of the girl's favorites. And it tasted just like nasty imitation crab. I ate lots of potatoes and what I thought were sweet potatoes but turned out to be pumpkin. My stomach only complained breifly and even it calmed down after I drank 3 yogurts.

On Saturday all of the Americans went to KTV. Chinese Kareokee (sp?). Really that is all I need to say. There were only a limited number of songs in English (including of course celine dion's "My Heart will go on.") and most were old. Sara, sadly they did not have any Christmas carols or even any dixie chicks.

We will be here until Thursday and then begin the trek home. This time next week I will be sleeping of some serious jet lag.

Hey momma- my knee is actually feeling much better. Do you think I should cancel the doctor's appointment or wait to see how it is doing after climbing on the Great Wall and sitting on a plane for 14 hours? I will call you this week.

Week 3

I can't believe that it looks like I am only going to be able to write one blog a week. What an utter dissapointment. Last year I was so good about writing. Oh well.

Things have been much improved since the bus accident last week. it turns out that one of my American friends was close by and saw the child awake with only minor injuries.

Let's see if I can catch you up on my week.

Friday we went to what was being described as a farm. We made bets as to who would catch the bird flu or some other non-curable disease from being in thr rural area. It turned out to be a place maybe 5 minutes away and more of like a farm-reenactment (think colonial williamsburg, but smelly and farm like and in an Asain country). We had tea and learned to play Majohng. Then we got to help make our lunch. It was hot.

Saturday, I wento to the tailors to pick up some things and even though I swore that I was going to not have a lot made this year, I put in another order for a skirt, 3 pairs of dress pants, and a dress all from a JCrew catalog. They will be ready on Monday. and it will cost all of about $40. Nice.

Sunday was a lazy day.

Monday. Class. And then ping-pong. And more ping-pong. I don't think that I have played ping pong since Calico peed on our ping pong table and warpped it. Even then I wasn't very good. When it comes to me verses a chinese person, there is simply no hope for me. But I am getting better because I have played so much this month. I have also been suckered into playing basketball, but I am not improving there.

Tuesday. I was sick and I stayed in bed all morning. It is mostly a sinus thing and I think that I am about to kick it. And I think that it has something to do with the beautiful irises that my roommate received from some of the guys she is traveling with. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I think they were making me sick. Especially in light of the fact that she feels she has to take her bananna peels down the hall to throw them away. And she has been the source of much entertainment since she has started talking in her sleep in Chinese. It's great.

Wednesday. Same old thing. Class. More ping pong.

Today. This morning I had my exam. It was okay but not great. We all had to wait in a holding room where we were suppose to study a few more minutes. We had to draw numbers and one at a time go to take our exam. I got number 12 out of 12 and so I had to wait for about an hour and a half. The first thing I had to do was read some words from a card. They were written in pinyin (pheonetically) and it was just to check my pronounciation. And then they held up flashcards with characters and I was suppose to give the word. I think that I got 5 out of 6. And then the simple questions. "What are you studying?" "What is this?" (A magazine but I forgot the word for it). "Whose magazine is this?" (I don't know, maybe his?) And finally the role play were I had to pretend that I was going to the market to buy some fruit. I did really well on the role play bit. I think that tonight we are going to go back to the hair washing place and pay someone the equivalent of $2.50 to wash (and massage) and dry our hair.

It has been raining again all day long. It is either sunny and incredibly hot. Or cloudy and muggy and hot. Or raining and miserable. A lot of the walking surfaces are marble and so I have more than once almost fallen. (I did fall once yesterday but that was inside on the stairs and had nothing to do with slick surface, just my clumsiness.)

Abd on a final note, I can count 30 bug bites on my arms and legs. And I promise that is no exaggeration. I have never been eaten alive like I have the past 3 weeks.

We will be headed to Beijing next week and then home on the 2nd. My how a month flies.
I will try to write at least once more.

Bus

This evening I was on a bus that hit a little boy who lookd to be about 4 years old.

The bus was really crowded like every bus in this country. I was standing in the aisle near the front because if I can see where we are going it makes me less nervous to be alone on a bus in a country where I understand very little of the language.

We weren't going very fast becasue we had pulled away from a stop. We were on a very crowded and narrow street where there are many vendors and students.

I didn't see the little boy until after we had completely stopped and people rushed out into the street to lift him out from under the front of the bus. There was just a lot of screaming and everyone fell forwards like dominoes when the driver slammed on the brakes. We all fell to the ground. I have minor bruises across my shins where I landed on the raised part of the bus that covers the engine. My fall was broken by the grandmother next to me and her bruises are worse.

But know of that is significant in light of the anguish of the mother, child and bus driver. The little boy was not moving as she carried him away in her arms to get help. But there was also no blood and I am hoping that is a good sign.

I didn't know what to do and so I just followed the lead of everyone else on the bus; I got off and walked the rest of the way to my stop where I was meeting a friend for dinner.

When I got on the bus to come home, we passes the scene of the accident and the bus was still there waiting (I assume) on an investigation. The driver was sitting in one of the seats and there was another driver with him. He looked like he had been crying.

It is truly one of the scariest and most sad things that I have experienced here.


Sorry for the lack of posts. Internet access is really hard this year.

Some Numbers for you

1: The number of days that the sun has been out since we got here. Today is that day.

98: the percent humidity everyday

407: my room number

59: number of stairs to get to the 4th floor

2: the number of cokes I have had in the past 6 days. Coke light is still not popular over here and is still really hard to find.

1.12: the amount in US dollars that my lunch cost

1: the number of times that I have eaten a western meal. It was at McDonald's.

2: the amount in US dollars that my McDonalds meal cost.

37: the number of times I have thought that it would be nice to go to Chick-fil-A or Moes for dinner.

2: the number of times I almost threw up at dinner last night.

6: the number of times I had to chew in order to swallow the nasty duck egg that made me want to throw up at dinner last night.

2: The number of takes it took to get our voice recording correct today.

So, out of those numbers, probably just the last two need more explanation.

Last night the girls and I went to eat with some friends and they said that they were going to treat us to traditional food. (I am sure that the words that they used was actually "some very famours food." Here is what was on the menu:
baotzi- these steamed dumpling type things that aren't too bad. It is a big dough ball with something in the middle. A surprise if you will. meat or veggies or seseme filling. Supposdly, Marco Polo had them and when he went home from his travels he couldn't figure out how to reproduce them and he ended up with pizza. Strangely, they don't taste anything like pizza. At all. Not in the least bit. hmm. pizza would be good.
the rice balls wrapped in bamboo leaves- I don't remember the techinical name. I had these last year and liked them. They are also very famours. you unwrap the bamboo and inside there is a sticky sticky rice ball with again another surprise in the middle. Last year, I had meat ones and fruit ones. They were good. Last night it was some whit substance. I asked my friends and they shared that it was "meat fat." Yup. One big glob of melted fat. I know that my cousin Robbie would love this one.
gelitin soup- cold. sweet. weird in texture.
some sort of wonton soup- good but extremely spicy. I drank a yogurt after dinner to hopefully head off any indigestion.
And then the eggs-
There were two different eggs, both prepared differently and cut into about 8 slices. One was perserved in salt and I think that it may have been what they can the humdred year egg. I don't think that it was every cooked, I think that the salt just cooks it. You don't eat the white part, only the yoke and it tasted like sand.
The other egg....I am not sure that I can write this without gagging.
I always use to say that I could be on fear factor and do the eating challenges. And when Rebecca and I talk about the Amazing Race, I am always the one to do the eating things. I am not so sure after last night.
They said that it was just duck egg, and I am not sure how it was prepared. they also said that it is okay to leave this kind of egg out for 6 months.
The yoke was the same color but the white part was translucent yellowish orange and had a consistancy of harden jello. When you think that it is going to be an egg, there is just no preperation for what I put in my mouth. You should all have the same joy.


And then the recording. So, there is a high school English teacher in the city that needed some English voices recorded for her classes. From what I understand, it is for an exam that her students will have to take. She needed us to do the part that the students will listen to and then answer questions. A guy friend and I went with her to a recording room today and read the very cheesy script. There were 10 texts total. This was text 2:

Female: I would like for you to go shopping with me on Sunday.
Male: Why do you need me to go?
Female: It is very difficult to buy shoes for you without your feet being present.

We got paid 200 kuai each to do it (about $25 USD). But to me the best part is that all over this part of the country, there will be high school kids learning English with a Southern accent. I will be very very FAMOURS.

That's it for now.
Zai Jian

Crazy

Well, classes are going well. It is harder to learn when things are going so fast, but I think that I will probably learn a lot. Everything is in characters which is completely different for me.

It is really weird for the other students to defer to me.

Yesterday we went to eat and I was trying to order dumplings for us to eat. I thought that I was ordering 20 for the table, but it turns out that I ordered 20 for each of us. And these things were spicy. I managed to eat about 12 of them, but 2 of my friends could only eat like 5. We left a ton on the table and I am sure that the owners/waitress were just munbling- stupid Americans.

It has been raining a lot here and I haven't actually seen the sun since we were on the plane before landing in Beijing.

What else?

Right now, I don't think that there are any other super funny stories- I am still fighting jet lag pretty bad (today I actually managed to stay asleep unil 6 AM) and I think that it is affecting my ability to be funny.

In a closing note, I read the first card that momma sent with me, and it made me cry. Wendy, I am sorry to say that I think she has you beat.

I am sure that something good will happen soon.