I am finally recovering from a nasty cold that has lasted two weeks, including a fever and several days off from school and some weird Chinese medicine that I actually think works a bit. I got a card today from both my Chinese teachers (everyone in the class did) and both of them mentioned "taking care of myself" and watching my health...so I'm already known as the sickly white girl - zen me hao de.
I did manage however to make it twice this week to the school I teach at in Minhang, and taught two different classes, even with a very scratchy voice. One of them was a "demo" class, in which parents attend and decide if they want to enroll their little Chinese haizi in classes. I was basically there just to look white, because I took the place of a guy from Holland who was supposed to teach, and taught for only about 20 minutes, stared at with fascination by all the parents the whole time. I guess thats why they pay me the not-big bucks - to look and sound Western. I do it well.
At XiangYang Lu here, we have a new roomie. Emily, who I met only a little while before she left, has returned to the U.K. for at least a month to work out issues with her passport and visa, so now we have Mariann, a Danish girl, living here for about two months. She's really cool, and I think living with two English-speaking roommates is good, because she is still working on learning English I think. Unfortunately we are both having to deal with our mice problem - there have been four in the time that I've moved in, and I've had to throw away two of them myself, which I do using a long mop and a lot of squeaks (from me and the mouse) - how do you say exterminator in chinese? Mariann isn't too disturbed by it though, which makes one of us.
By a really weird coincidence, she is dating the best friend of a guy that is in my Chinese class. It's really incredible how small the expat community can seem here sometimes - I bought my scooter from Fabi's roommate's (Mirna) boyfriend. It is supposed to be a rather numerous community, but I think a lot of people are older business people, imported by their companies, so people my age, coming here looking for work or just for an experience, make up a very interwoven and familiar group.
Fabi a couple of weeks ago met some guys at a U.S. Alumni Mixer that we call the "Americans". It's rather ironic, considering we are both Americans, but there are so few other 'Muricans that it is easiest to refer to them this way. I finally met them last Friday after hearing how great they were via Fabi, and I must say we agree. In a night where we started out fairly early at a disappointing happy hour at Cantina Agave, we made a pit stop at O'Malley's to meet up with a friend of Fabi's, then onto Kangaroo Bar to have Long Island Ice Teas with the Americans. Not only are the extremely large LIITs only 50 kuai (about 7 bucks), but the guys were so much fun, and for me, it was great to hang out on the weekends for the first time in weeks and not trying to translate Spanish very poorly (Many of my friends here speak spanish). We then went to Mural's 100 kuai all-you-can-drink night (again), and got crazy until we were kicked out at 2? 3? am. Made a little trip to Zapata's, where Fabi realized she left (and lost) her iPhone at Mural (no way any of those people get paid enough to resist selling an iPhone on the stolen goods market), and I ended the night around 4, taking pretty much of the rest of the weekend off, because I totally lost my voice after that night.
Needless to say, we hung out with the Americans again this weekend - having dinner at my apartment (my first, very successful attempt at cooking chicken wings in a homemade glaze), then going out to the Apartment the bar, which was probably not as fun as last weekend because it was so crowded and didn't leave much room for hanging out so much as getting drinks.
One of the guys, Hans, recommended a Muay Thai gym to me, so I'm going to check it out here soon, that I might continue some of my kickboxing training that I was doing with Kylie back in the states - I just love punching stuff so much.
Another unexpected close group of friends is my beloved chinese class - I've become pretty close with all the people in it, going out with them and going to their parties lately. Last week we all (and everyone else's significant others) went to a nice Indian restaurant where Sonu, an Indian girl in my class, ordered for everyone. I was actually surprised with how much I liked everything and ate a little bit too much. We then went out to a Chinese club, and some of us (me, of course) danced like fools for a bit. Unfortunately all the dancing on a very full Indian food stomach (actually NOT from drinking) made me sick later that night, but I still went out the next day, which was the night I met the Americans.
Yesterday however, was a bit more chill, and one of my classmates, George, had a housewarming party at his apartment. It started out as a patio barbecue party outside his apartment, with lots of food, mosquitoes, trash can punch, and King's Cup, then we moved it out later to a bar for dinner, then drinks with George's roommate's dad at the Swisshotel (sp?) later. I really like George's friends - his roommate, Erin, and Erin's girlfriend Amy are so great, and I met a new guy named Steve who, in addition to being so funny, speaks the best Chinese I have ever heard out of a non-Asian mouth. I am totally jealous.
Right now, in lieu of having classes, I'm signing up for a tutoring website that will match me to students (adults) who will hopefully pay me a ridiculous amount of money to practice speaking with an American accent with American idioms. As a girl, and a very white girl at that, I have high hopes for getting clients, as I need to collect money for my shopping fund. Oh and maybe to sign up for more semesters of Mandarin, but do we not have priorities here?
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