Packing Up

I'm insanely tired so please ignore spelling, grammar and any other type of mistakes that happen during this post.

Today was packing day.  Evan made pretzels and we made some cookies just to try and get rid of a lot of ingredients I have here.  Peanut butter gallons have been condensed into a small tupperware and my counter has a nice assortment of food just laying out.

We hop on a bus tomorrow morning.  I am officially done tutoring AND teaching.  Grades have been turned in and my last day in LC is almost complete.

On Sunday, Evan and I went up to the farm just to hang out and see how empty it was I guess.  We ended up staying til late in the evening and Evan cooked dinner for everyone.  He made jambalaya while I went with the older kids to free their frog and it's tadpoles.  We threw in some JustDance and then got a ride from them back into town.  It was quite a lovely day!

Yesterday, Evan, Locke & I went up to see Jenny now that she's back in her hometown.  I love going there and was really excited for Evan to finally see it.  We spent the majority of the day there and it was really nice.  I love that girl so much.  And Locke also.

We picked these little plums from her yard, went down to where the market is usually running, made our way to the lake, learned how to play mahjong, went to dinner, and then headed back to town and went on an insane hunt for mahjong tiles because I desperately wanted them.  Of course, we didn't find any until this morning!  BUT, all is well.  I finally found them and they are wonderful, but all packed up sadly.

Tomorrow we are off to begin a 2 week project of digging/plastering/installing septic tanks in a village about 5 hours away from here.  That should be some intense work, but on the weekends we get to head to the 'old city' and be tourists and relax for a few days before we go back for another week of work.

I'm sad that my time here trying to blend in as a local is over.  Very, very sad.  But, I am excited for the next few weeks, and excited that I get to do it all with Evan.  I am extremely thankful for him and have been enjoying every single second I get to spend with him.  It has been flying by too!

I'll attempt to post something next weekend when I know I'll have internet access.

-6 weeks-

Also, here is a random picture of Evan playing Jenga.  Ok, I'm done now.

Basketball Camp & Scavenger Hunt

Evan's week of slaving over multiple grills is over now and he's actually back in town.

Things went really well for him.  The cooking facilities were definitely different from what he's used to, but he got things figured out pretty quickly and then everything went great.  The kids loved him.  He had a nice group; not too big and chaotic.  I got to spend the last 3 days up there for most of the day.  I had to come back at night to tutor and then would just go back up in the morning and help him out.  LONG days of cooking they were.  I don't know how he cooks for a living.  I would die.

Evan's kitchen for the week. 

Evan decorating Alli. War paint status. 

Summary of us.

It's finals week for me now.  I am officially done with 3 of my classes. One more final next week and then grades to finish off and send to my boss.  It's almost done!

The huge camp is going on now.  Evan and I put together a pretty cool scavenger hunt in town for all of the kids at the camp.  That happened this morning.  It was part photo scavenger hunt and part timed challenges at various locations in the park.  A few of our tasks were removed due to their potential to frustrate some parents (we wanted one challenge to be an eyebrow shaving station.  Each team would get 70 pts for every eyebrow shaved off of their team members, but each member could only shave one eyebrow, not both.)  We also had an egg thing that would carry on through the whole event but I guess one of the kids is deathly allergic to raw eggs so we had to scratch that also.

One challenge required a player from each team to fit a whole order of baozi in their mouth (7 pieces). 

Hop scotch.

Evan and I rented a little paddle boat and cruised around the lake while the groups were all finishing their tasks.  It was fun.  Those boats are pretty strange.  If I paddled, it was fine, but if we both tried to we didn't really go anywhere.  It was fun though.

There are ALWAYS people napping on the benches in the pagoda in the park. ALWAYS. Sometimes homeless people, sometimes business men. Sometimes people play violin and sometimes women are knitting. It's quite great.

Last night was my last night of tutoring with my little ones.  It's pretty awful knowing I won't see most of them again.  We had a really fun night though.  We always do though.  Two more nights of goodbyes and then it'll be easier for a few days.  I am very anxious for our next few adventures once we leave LC.  And then Evan and I (really just Evan) made deep fried oreos and decided to throw some nutella & peanut butter and then roll them in cinnamon sugar... because we're healthy like that.

Oh, Gordon. Cutest little Chinese boy ever. 

Meditation after our ninja fight we had after class. 

If you see her wandering around America, it's because I snuck her back with me. 

The best part of this week has been seeing Jenny 2 days in a row.  Yesterday she brought Nicole with her and the 4 of us (those 2, myself and Evan) went to get ice cream and do some shopping.  Today Jenny met us at the park and we hung out for a bit.  We are planning on going to her hometown (near the farm) early next week.  Evan hasn't been there yet and it's one of my favorite places to go around here so that will be a fun outing.

AND... Evan bought a remote controlled helicopter. He's currently flying it around my apartment. I'm a bit paranoid. 

It's 3 million degrees here right now!  WAY HOT!  It's supposed to be rainy season but apparently all of the clouds have died and the sun is just beating down on us.  It's crazy.  It's gorgeous outside but insanely hot.

That's about all for now.  Time to start packing up the apartment and figuring out how much stuff I've accumulated in the last few months on top of what I already brought home in January. AH!

-Hails

Closing Time

(That was a song reference.  For those of you with it now stuck in your head, you're welcome!  For those of you who are confused, continue on like this never happened.)

Today reality really hit me.  First it was just telling someone on Facebook that I'll be home in 8 weeks.  Even typing that now is hard for me.  Then I finished giving all of my classes their instructions and sign-up times for their final exams.  The worst one was this evening.

Tonight I had to tell one of my closest friends here about my last day of tutoring - next Friday.  I almost cried while telling her and then she was trying not to cry as I explained my schedule for the next few weeks.  She was so sweet about it.  She said my last day was fine and she just wants me to enjoy my time here.  She told me that I am always welcome here and I can come to her house whenever I'd like.  I never thought this woman and her super shy daughter that I got connected to through a friend last September would turn into such a close relationship.

I have 8 weeks left here.
2 weeks from today my apartment will be all packed up and I will be making my way to another city for a few weeks of work.
6 weeks from now I will be back in LC again, leading the same english camp that started my year long journey.
8 weeks from now I'll be getting on a plane (with Evan by my side) and beginning the transition back to the states.
8 weeks.  That's all.

I am SO excited for home life.  There are so many things to look forward to.  There are tons of people I can't wait to have around me again, simple things I've missed, luxuries I can't wait to have again (like cereal), and just the atmosphere of home that I long to have.  But leaving China... is going to be tough.  This is my other home now.  

I'd keep this to myself, or share it with only a few people, but this is my journal for the year and I want to document it all.  This is part of the process, and I want to have this to look at one day when I relive this trip, which will probably be quite often.

I'm trying to soak up my last few weeks of adventures here.  It's not like I'm leaving this place behind forever, but it will definitely not be the same when I come back only for short periods of time.  Who knows what the Father has in store for me though.  The options are always endless and, if called back, I would be obedient!

QiShan & Squid & Jiaozi

Week 2 with my guy is almost over and then I have to release him to the farm where the wild animals - I mean jr. high and high school kids - will attack him as he tries to feed them.  Poor guy.

I can't remember all we've done since my last post.  We DID climb the evil mountain in town.  It's a fantastic workout - one which we are still feeling in our calves - and brutal on my pasty white skin.  The purpleness on my back is starting to fade to a deep red.  It was supposed to rain all day but of course the sky was blue and there were few clouds and the sun shot onto us like it was trying to cremate us before we could get down the mountain.  (I've been in a decent amount of pain the last few days in case you weren't understanding that).  Basically, Amanda and Evan kind of hate me for making them climb the mountain but I think they are sort of proud too.  I don't feel too bad about it considering I'm the one who was/is closest to full cremation.

Imagine this for 2 straight hours going up. Stairs and slopes and stairs and more stairs.

That was Wednesday.  Monday and Tuesday... don't remember.  I had class, we did lots of laundry, ate good Chinese food.  Nothing exciting there, oh, except for going to my boss's house and making jioazi.  Jiaozi everywhere.

Thursday and Friday we went back to the farm.  We cleaned the outdoor kitchen area Evan will be using starting tomorrow.  Thursday morning we went to one of the bigger markets in town.  My sunburn was making me want to cry and there wasn't a whole lot in the market but we some good fruit and a few veggies for dinner.  Plus, it's just fun to walk around markets.

They call these dragon eyeballs. They're super sweet on the inside and have a pit. Addicting, sweet, and expensive. But we don't have them in America so the splurge is worth it!

It's opium! Yup, just scoop some up and eat it like peanuts. 

FRIDAY was squid day!  We went to this grocery store in town that I had never seen or been to.  We had a van driver who pretty much was a stranger who stopped and picked us up.  Hitch-hiking in China!  He didn't know where the place was that I asked him to drop us off so I just told him to stop at some point and then we spent almost 2 hours in this Walmart looking paradise that had been hiding from me all year.  We bought a squid (one of my favorite things to eat) and then my awesome chef of a boyfriend figured out what to do with it and we had a delicious dinner 2 nights in a row.  One happy girl is what I am!

Isn't she pretty? I think she's gorgeous!

Evan's new baby that he bought and spent 2 hours sharpening. It's quite lovely I think.

Saturday was another day at the farm.  We shad trouble getting a taxi so we walked up tot he grocery store that has the vans.  Then we had a drunk guy hop in our van and he started talking to me.  He was slurring his words a lot but I understood a lot of what he said.  He asked if Evan could speak chinese and I said no so he just said "Oh, he's handsome".  Then he explained why people take vans.  Later, he told our driver she was going too slow so she sped up and THEN, when we needed to stop after our driver started taking us further than we wanted, she didn't hear me so he yelled at her to stop the car.  Drunk men in a van with you doesn't sound ideal, but he was quite a nice drunk, and very helpful.

We then ended the day with a ride back to town in the back of a truck (driven by one of our American friends - I saw 'our' because Evan has been working with him since he got here on menu stuff and they had dinner one night and seem to be pretty good buds by now.  Evan wanted to high-5 someone on the road but nobody got close enough.  We just waved to everyone and watched them freak out at the white people trying to get their attention.  It was great.

Today we went to get jiaozi partially because we're obsessed with it but mostly because I needed to order some for him to pick up for tomorrow's lunch for the start of basketball camp.  I'm pretty proud of my Chinese right now.  I'm doing more than the basics at this point and it feels so nice to be able to say what I want in Chinese.

Fatty (Evan) thought he was sooooo hungry.  To put this all into perspective: one basket of jiaozi has 7 pieces (it was 8 but recently they changed it to 7 I guess).  A normal human being eats about 1-2 baskets for a meal.  The other day we got 4 baskets and I ate a little over 1 and he finished the rest.  That was a little shocking for me.  TODAY, crazy guy said 6.  SIX BASKETS OF JIAOZI.  Unfortunately he didn't eat breakfast prior to our outing so his stomach was all tiny and he only made it through about 2 1/2 baskets.  Somehow I ate the same amount.  A lot for me, a little for him.  But then we managed to get mango milk tea, made a grocery run so we can deep fry some oreos later (because we're healthy like that) and tonight we are having dinner with some American friends who recently moved here.

Only 2 more weeks in my apartment and it's time to pack up and start on our massive summer work adventure.  I'm starting to get details of what we're going to be doing and it looks like a lot of hard work and a lot of fun.  I can't wait!  Home is getting closer and my time here is winding down, but I'm feeling really good about it all.  Having Evan here makes all of this feel a lot easier so I am very, very thankful for that.

(And now he's just showing off and making sourdough.  This. Guy. Is. Awesome.)