For those of you who heard about the Typhoon here in Shanghai last week, don’t worry, I’m just fine. It actually changed directions and didn’t affect Shanghai very much. It was stormy and windy, but that’s all. We still had work, although attendance in classes was low. They were going to cancel church but decided that conditions weren’t too bad. I was glad to hear that because I don’t get to go to church this week so having no church for two weeks in a row would’ve been pretty hard. The weather can’t really make up its mind at this point. I was out earlier today and it was pretty darn hot. About ten minutes ago it looked and sounded like I was going through an automatic carwash, it was raining so hard. As of right now, it’s pretty clear, has stopped raining, but there is still quite a bit of thunder and it’s pretty loud too. The weather sure is weird here.
Christine has gone to Thailand for her annual leave, just for about a week and a half. While she’s gone I’m taking over most of her Music classes, and this is also why I don’t have Sunday off this week. I’ve been teaching lots of Music classes so far this week and am trying to mentally prepare myself for this weekend when I’ll be teaching quite a few more classes. Work has been going pretty well. We’ve been working with William a lot; he’s improving, slowly but surely. He is so nice and tries very hard, but my patience is still wearing thin, as he’s just not picking things up at a normal rate. I still try to be kind and understanding though.
Sara and I usually don’t have any of the same off days, but this past Tuesday we both had a half-day off. We went out to lunch after work and then met up with her roommates to hang out. It was Michael’s birthday but he didn’t get off work until around 6pm so we met up with William and Qing Qing until he got off work. Qing Qing’s English name is Angela, but I just call her by her Chinese name. I’m also starting to call Sara by her Chinese name, which is Chen Chen, and Michael by his name, A Du. I still call William and Linkin by their English names though. Their Chinese names are a little difficult for me to pronounce. Anyway, we hung out at IKEA and got some food until Michael got off work and then Linkin came and met up with us. The six of us then went to Karaoke.
This Karaoke place was pretty legit too. It was super fancy, like a 5-star hotel or something. We got a private room with a flat screen TV and a high-tech song list device-thing. They brought us drinks and we ordered some snacks too. It was way fun just singing and hanging out, I had a blast! I could even join in on singing happy birthday to Michael in Chinese, he was pretty impressed. Happy birthday in Chinese is “Ju ni shun er kuaile”...or something like that. I don’t know how to spell the English pronunciation, but that’s basically how you spell it. I really enjoy hanging out with that group though; they’re all way cool. I especially adore Sara; we are such good friends and I just love her. She is trying diligently to convince me to stay the whole year because she doesn’t want me to leave. She would love it if I just moved to China and stayed for the rest of my life, but I told her that wasn’t likely. She said she and Linkin would like to come visit America sometime in the next few years and are planning on coming to Utah to see me! How wonderful! At first I thought that Utah wouldn’t be too exciting for them, but then I realized that they love nature and the outdoors, so Utah is one of the best places they could come to in the states! I’m getting all excited about planning their trip to Utah and how I can take them to Zion’s and Park City and Temple Square!...But then I have to remind myself that they probably wont be coming for a while and there’s no need to plan the trip just yet :)
Before Christine went out of town she wanted to take us out to dinner, sort of as a “Thank you for covering my classes,” sort of thing. We went to this broken down, dumpy looking restaurant and I was confused why she took us there. I definitely underestimated it though! It was a Korean BBQ, so every table had it’s own grill. It’s an all you can eat place so they just keep bringing you food until you can’t eat anymore. You cook everything yourself right in front of you on the grill and then just get sauces at the bar (sort of like the Hot Pot place Christine took me to a while ago). They brought us everything, like vegetables, pork, bacon, beef, chicken, organs of some sort, crab, eggs, squid, you name it. It was really good too.
Christine also treated all of us for some beer and was a little disappointed when I politely declined, even though she knows I don’t drink. I told her that besides from everything, I don’t like the taste of beer. She responded with “Oh, me either! But I drink it anyway!” Her logic makes no sense to me, but oh well. Everyone was drinking except Sara and me. It was nice to not be the only one who wasn’t drinking; I didn’t feel so left out. I asked Sara why she wasn’t drinking and she said she doesn’t like beer, or any alcohol for that matter. She is such an amazing person and I can’t wait until I can share the Gospel with her! It’s like she’s just waiting for it! She won’t have to change hardly any of her lifestyle because she already leads such a wonderful, clean life.
Jessie and Sherry are going through training right now so it will be really nice when they come back as they will be taking some of my regular Play classes. Sherry is so sweet and a way cool girl. We’re hoping that we get scheduled the same off days so we can hang out sometimes. We can’t ask for it though because Yo yo does the scheduling and we’ve noticed that if you ask to have the same off days as someone, she purposely gives you the opposite days off as them. She’s a little bitter like that I guess. Kind of lame, but we’ll see.
Well, the summer is flying by. Austen has returned to the states so now there are just three interns in the branch. Nate only has two weeks left and will be going home just a couple days before my birthday. We’re going to try and go to Happy Valley (a big amusement park here in Shanghai) for my birthday right before Nate leaves; that ought to be fun! I’m hanging out with Nate and Chris tonight. I’m not sure what we’re doing but I’m wanting to hang out with Nate a little more before he leaves and mostly wanted some American social interaction. Nate is a way cool guy and I will be sad when he goes. Chris is pretty cool, but we don’t get along as well. I’m sure we’ll still hang out though, but it won't be as fun without Austen and Nate to make it a fun group. Austen gave me his Astril account info before he left so I’ve had access to things like Facebook and YouTube, which has been nice. His account is good until October. I’ll be able to upload more pictures to Facebook and will be doing that soon, so remember to check those out ;)
The DeVries are a family in my ward and they recently returned from going back to Utah to visit family and home for the summer. They are actually in the same ward as Uncle Eric and Aunt Debbie out in West Valley, so my mother was so kind as to send me a few things with them as they came back this last week. I asked for a couple things and ended up getting bags of stuff. I did appreciate it, but felt a little bad that the DeVries had do carry that much stuff with them just for me. My mother sent me some things that I couldn’t find here that are convenient, as well as just comforting. She sent me a Swiffer, Clorox pen, hand sanitizer, soup, and some other comfort foods. She is so sweet. My co-workers were confused as they saw me come into work with bags of food. I told them my mother sent it to me from America and so they now think I’m too poor to buy my own groceries ha-ha. I can definitely afford to buy food here; it’s just that you can’t find things like Campbell’s Tomato Soup in the grocery store. I was also approached by two people in my branch asking if I was doing OK money wise. I was a little confused until it was explained that they thought I didn’t have enough money to buy food, as I was looking too thin. I guess I’ve been losing a bit of weight while here, but it definitely doesn’t have to do with being too poor to buy food. I guess just from walking everywhere, eating healthy, and singing and dancing all day for my job I’ve lost a bit of weight. I can’t tell too much and I don’t have a scale, but I’m feeling healthier, so that’s always a good thing.
Well, it’s still technically undecided, but I’m leaning more towards only staying here in China for 6 months. As much as I love it and would love to stay and really get more of the language down, I realize that school is pretty important too. Aside from needing to get some more school done before my mission, there are also some potential weddings of my friend’s that I would like to be around for in the spring. I guess things could change, but as of right now I’m counting on not renewing my contract and coming home in December. I’ve still got 4 months here and will enjoy them while they last. I love China and I love all of you.
Love,
Alyssa Nicole Escalante
No comments:
Post a Comment