Catching Up in Xiaoshan- May 30th

Day 2 – May 30^th

A Yi jut made breakfast. It was this white noodles, eggs, tomatoes, spinach? Soup. Wow that was good. We also shared pictures. She showed me her brother and her son and I showed her a picture of Omma and her step Halmony. I can’t get my external to work so I can’t show her more and any recent pictures that aren’t really silly are online on Facebook. Augh :/ Still it is nice to share that. She said omma is beautiful. She knows a bit of English and has a small book with words translating to English and Chinese. I wonder if she’ll be willing to learn more with me around. Or if she’ll practice the ones she knows. A lot of our communication is gesturing and facial expressions, which thank god are fairly universal.

Went to the Linkman Institute in Highland Plaza. All I know is I take the K716 5 stops and across the street should be a funny looking pink castle like thing and a lot of green scaffolding covering the building. I know I passed a Lotte Mart as well. I think I spent a good chunk of my time doing a whole lot of nothing at the institute because there weren’t any classes for me to sit in on much less teach. Kind of frustrating but I reviewed all of the books I would be using in the classes. I have a business class tomorrow, a review class for adults on Wednesday, and another review class on Thursday. No kids just yet but if I’m lucky I might be able to catch J.C.’s class.

Met Zach and J.C. today as well. Zach came in probably around noon or closer to 12:30. He had a class to teach but no one thought to have me sit in on that. Go us. We chatted for a bit and he mentioned helping me out later on. I sat around for a few more hours reading the students’ books and homework then Zach came back. The people who had brought me to the institute Alva and I’m not sure what the other girl’s name was, ended up leaving without much of a note. Alva ended up returning after Zach asked me to call Jim to find out what I was supposed to do or could do. At this point Zach took me to the Lotte Mart and around the area. He even showed me the apartment I would be sharing with a Sarah also from Ohio. Crazy how many Ohioans have popped up in China. In fact, Midwesterners in general seem to have popped up in Hangzhou.

After that little trip we decided hey let’s meet up with J.C. and possibly head into the city. Alva had given me the address of where I was staying with A Yi so I could take a cab if ever needed. The apartment they are in is really nice although it has some parts that don’t make any sense; like a door to nowhere and stairs to nowhere. Other than that it’s quite pretty.

After grabbing J.C. we grabbed the 301 into downtown. Apparently the 515 also does that but it takes you to a scary part of unfamiliar badness. Ewwww.. Don’t want. It was a bit of a long ride but surprisingly traffic wasn’t that bad. We walked through the area to see West Lake and meet up with Zach’s friend who couldn’t go much further into the west lake area because of his bike and a policeman apparently. It was kind of odd but I guess whatever your job is you just gotta do it. So after parking the bike we headed back towards the shops and stopped at a place where you bought meal tickets that you gave to the cooks for your food. It was kind of like a fast food place in a sense. Like holding your receipt at different stations. Or maybe an odd cafeteria. Yea maybe that. Had soup dumplings, which unfortunately exploded on my first try because I didn’t think they were literally containing soup. That was a pleasantly hot surprise on my lap. Luckily it wasn’t like I had an accident though counsidering the way they dress their young boys I wouldn’t expect anyone to look at me funny for my liquid retention problems.

Which reminds me. The little boys here where pants without crotches. This is so they can pee and poo wherever they please. Awkwardly enough this allows the little ones easy access to their junk, which they have no shame in playing with in public. It’s kind of funny and weird. While we were leaving the park we ended up passing a little boy who was about to poo. We quickly hightailed it out of there before it became really smelly. There are just some things I don’t need to see of other people. Yea sure I’ll have to clean up after my own kids but not like that at that age.

Before the park we had actually stopped at a Dairy Queen. OMG DQ. Mmmmm blizzard. Definitely started singing M.C. Chris in my head when I saw it. Got a banana strawberry blizzard which had actual banana bits in it. It was sooooooo satisfying after dropping hot soup in my lap. MMMM. And for once they asked me to give them enough to break the change evenly. Wow. That’s never happened before. Every time I’ve tried that in the states the cashiers are unable to handle the extra math and just derp. They assume I can’t count or read. I tend to assume they haven’t finished high school and probably don’t plan on it. Terrible I know but hey it’s not that hard to understand when I hand you 13.05 for a meal that was 8.05 I want a 5 dollar bill back. Don’t hand me back my 3 ones damnit.

After our fun adventure out Zach and his friend left while J.C. and I headed back to where we actually lived. J.C. helped me get a taxi back to A Yi’s place and just as we had gotten on the bus and were about halfway through the trip Jim called asking where I was. Poor sweet A Yi was worried. She’s such a sweetheart. She even bought a towel for me, which is surprisingly small. Not meant to cover one’s body as you leave the shower for sure.

The shower was pleasant though maintaining heat was a drag. Or getting some sort of temperature that was pleasant. Ended up with a bird bath in the end because of the sudden lack of hot water. A Yi is watching a movie on the computer right now actually. I’ll probably send out emails tomorrow during the day. I think I’ll probably spend most of my money on fruit while I’m here. The mangos are delicious.

AUGH MOSQUITOS ARE SUCH A PAIN HERE. I have like 20 bites on my legs. What the hell. Everyone seems to own some form of mosquito killer. I guess with all of the waterways, lakes, creeks, and etc. it’s hard not to have such a bad problem but aaaugh. They’re such a pain. D: 

I’m going to lose so much weight from bloodsuckers, walking, no meat, and fighting the bus to maintain balance. I’m eating healthy even when it’s Chinese fast food.