Bowling, Karaoke, Beer, Art...a China Weekend

---

Well, you'll soon see a hiatus in the blogging due to more visitors from the USA! My dad and sister land in Beijing tomorrow evening! I teach one class in the morning and then will take my own 3 hour flight north to meet up with them. We'll sight-see in Beijing for 4 days (Great Wall, of course) and then do the same 23 hour train trip back to Shenzhen that Martin and I did at the beginning of this year. It'll be a great bonding experience for the three of us and a wonderful way for them to see a little bit more of China than what Shenzhen offers. I can't wait!

This past weekend was full of random China adventures and lots of laughter. We'd been hoping to go out of town, as we had an extra day off for the Chinese holiday of Qing Ming, which loosely translates to "Tomb Sweeping Festival", or a Chinese Memorial Day of sorts. Of course, prices for plane tickets skyrocketed and trains were sold out more in advance than we thought to look, so going too far for the weekend was out of the picture. Our backup plan was to head to Hong Kong and explore one of the outlying islands we have yet to see, but the heavy rain that came on Friday made us reluctant to even do that. Just like the Chinese do, we made a last minute decision on Friday afternoon to go back home from Chinese class with Cali and Jimmy. The four of us enjoyed an amazing vegetarian meal at a nearby Buddhist Teahouse before bussing home, buying beer and barging into Kris and Kelly's apartment for 'list-making and planning of our long weekend adventures'. As you can imagine, planning was quickly set aside for beer-drinking, game-playing and tons of random conversation. The six of us ended up staying awake until 4am, taking a break from game-playing at one point to venture outside for food and being happily surprised that there was still a woman out making street noodles in her wok on wheels at 2 in the morning. Oh China, how I love you and your delicious street food!

It's not surprising that we didn't get our Saturday started until nearly 2pm. When the four of us got up, we immediately headed out to eat at the standard Yantian Sichuan restaurant that has become a favorite over these months. What could be better than green beans, potatoes, eggplant and cabbage all served with five thousand hot peppers? The rats that occasionally run around really do add to the experience, as does the friendly owner that knows and loves all the foreigners. The rest of our weekend was spent doing very random and very perfect China things, including but not limited to the following:

-Playing badminton and velcro-ball-catch-thingy in the courtyard of C,J,K&K's apartment complex and having 2 young Chinese kids join in the fun with a sword and gun that constantly was yelling "Fire, Fire!"
-Eating hotpot for dinner and having a very intoxicated police officer named 'Norman' approach us all for tutoring. Though none of us have time, we took his information, noting that he wanted a female tutor because they can 'give me more adjectives'. He even called over the manager of the restaurant at one point and negotiated us a discount on our meal, though we tried to refuse. Ahh, awkward China interactions.
-BOWLING for the first time, boys vs girls. My velcro shoes were slightly too big, we cheered each other on in Chinese and had our own Chinese attendant to refill our beer needs or clap for us whenever we got a strike.
-Singing very awful, very old English songs at a karaoke bar named "Ear Bar" and getting oranges from the group of Chinese men next to us.
-Venturing out to Da Fen Oil Painting Village in a nearby district, where you can buy art reproductions of basically anything.
-Getting 'the noodle guy' to make us noodles at 2am rather than go to bed like he had been planning to do.
-Having to spend a 3rd night at C&J's place after standing at the bus stop for 1.5 hours and having each bus pass us by completely jammed with people.

We may not have gotten out of Shenzhen, but we did some things we had yet to do here this year and had a blast with our friends, so it was well worth the sacrifice. We did miss E&P though, who were on their own vacation to Yangshuo, the city we visited back in October for National Day! You can see pictures of our weekend here:

This very short week of teaching was made even shorter today for me- I went to teach my one class, my most advanced students and got wild cheering when I walked in. Sort of unusual, but not all that unexpected as they sometimes just get really excited to see me. Martin had been observed by some other teachers in his earlier period, so I expected the same would happen to me, as it's an 'open campus day' and there are lots of visitors from all over Shenzhen here. Suddenly, my student's biology teacher (whom Martin and I often make fun of, as he chain-smokes in the cafeteria every day and never looks happy) came bouncing in happily, started making hand motions at me and said "Class change! Class Change!" I tried my best at repeating it in Chinese, to which I got even more wild cheering and laughter from students, other teachers and random spectators as well as a big slap on the back from chain-smoking man. Alrighty, China. Thanks for informing me in advance! Wait...why would I EVER think that would happen after 8 months of living here? 😊

We've been thinking a lot lately about our return to the states- how we will adjust again, what we've learned this year, how China has changed us. It's been an incredible year...but we also can't wait to see where life takes us next!

---

Comments

[Elyse]

Sounds like Fun
You guys made the best of the crappy weather and enjoying friends during the holiday. Have fun in Beijing and really want to meet the family this trip.

[mama clare]

change change
Sometimes new adaptions to things are difficult and sometimes the changes are welcome transitions...to more adventures...hopefully your new changes will delight you both...enjoy your dad and sister and both of you savor the last months there:0 I lv you and send you many hugs :)