My Team Takes it!
I would normally just wait until tomorrow morning to write something about the last few days, but I'm fairly awake and I just had such a great time that I thought I would write about it now!
Well, we've been here in Wuhan for over a week now, and most of the time we're just bidding time until we start to teach next week. I haven't updated for the last few days because there hasn't been TOO much to report. Well, yesterday I got a knock on my door at about 10 in the morning from Andy "Dad" Scott telling me that he had just talked to Lory and we were supposed to meet downstairs at 2:15 to meet with the Wuhan Police and hear the "Rules for Foreign Peoples." Ahhh Communism. We I thought that if nothing else we would have something to write about after that meeting! Becky, Stephanie and I went to eat around 11:30, but I still don't have much of a desire for food, so basically lunch consisted of Becky scolding Stephanie and I for not eating enough. Poor Stephanie, she can't find any food to eat here! She's really sensitive to spicy food and such, and Wuhan food is all spicy. Back at Augie I took a class where I heard about Supertasters, and I innocently asked her which foods she doesn't like and now we all seem to refer to her as "The Supertaster." Alas, both Stephanie and I are quite fond of the bread, fruits and veggies! During lunch it started raining, but Becky and I were low on food so we headed to the A-Best to get some food before the big meeting. I felt like I was buying a ton, but in reality I spent less than $7 total. Ahhh China, way to make a girl feel rich!
Walking back, well walking anywhere lately, has become a painful ordeal since a few days ago I managed to rub off layers and layers of skin on the top of my ankle when walking around Wuhan! I was getting really nervous about the fact that Lory was taking us to this meeting - I can walk fine, just a little slower than normal! I was in no mood for a trot, so I was really lucky when the meeting ended up being on campus! It's the first time I've seen Lory in quite a few days - I STILL don't have a burner to cook on - but he just dropped us off and left, so I don't have any word yet on when I can get this cooking started! The meeting was rather boring, and a million degrees to warm! All the international students were at this meeting in addition to the eight of us, and there were more than FIFTY of us! I haven't been around this much diversity since I left Chicago, it was kind of nice! Basically we were warned to not "become drunken" several times, and then we were set free. It took a loooooong time for the meeting to conclude, and while I was very ready to get going, I hung back, because one of the girls who showed me around campus last fall, Fish (they choose their own English names....some of them are quite interesting), was working at the meeting so we got to talk again! It was neat, I have a Chinese friend! WOO HOO! She took my phone number and said she would call soon, I hope she does!
For dinner that night Becky and I decided it was high time we tried out HER stovetop! So we made ourselves some nice, plain, non-spicy noodles and cut up some fresh tomatoes. It was really refreshing - nothing fried, no excess spice, just plain plain plain. I realized afterwards that we could have been a little more creative if we had thought ahead and bought simple things, like salt and pepper! Oh well, next time! All the English department girls met one last time to go over our game plan for our first sophomore oral english class. I can't wait to start teaching, I'm ready for this next challenge in life!
At our meeting we had made loose plans to go explore one of the other sections of Wuhan (Wuhan is three different areas) but it was a fair-weather plan, we decided that if it was raining we would not go. Welllll there was a typhoon along the coast, and we're getting the tail rains from that, so it basically hasn't stopped raining for over 24 hours now! Needless to say, we did not go for an adventure! I just can't resist a good rain-induced sleep, so I had QUITE the lazy day today. I sleep most of the day away, then watched a few episodes of Carnivale (AWESOME SHOW) on HBO, Becky came over for a little while, then Becky, the Scotts and I decided that tonight sounded like a good night to break out the Catchphrase! So we called the other four teachers and all met at my apartment to socialize! OH MY GOSH! It was so much fun! I know that I'm living in Tiana's apartment (a teacher from last year) and I've looked in all the drawers and such without finding much, but just a few days ago I came across some little wooden dolls in a cupboard under the t.v.! Well, I didn't have a game board, and we decided to use the little dolls as our game pieces for Catchphrase tonight! We had a blast, all of us said our stomachs hurt from laughing so hard by the time we left! Needless to say, we will probably play again in the near future!
I start teaching Wednesday, so I'm sure that I'll have fun adventures to report soon!
Well, we've been here in Wuhan for over a week now, and most of the time we're just bidding time until we start to teach next week. I haven't updated for the last few days because there hasn't been TOO much to report. Well, yesterday I got a knock on my door at about 10 in the morning from Andy "Dad" Scott telling me that he had just talked to Lory and we were supposed to meet downstairs at 2:15 to meet with the Wuhan Police and hear the "Rules for Foreign Peoples." Ahhh Communism. We I thought that if nothing else we would have something to write about after that meeting! Becky, Stephanie and I went to eat around 11:30, but I still don't have much of a desire for food, so basically lunch consisted of Becky scolding Stephanie and I for not eating enough. Poor Stephanie, she can't find any food to eat here! She's really sensitive to spicy food and such, and Wuhan food is all spicy. Back at Augie I took a class where I heard about Supertasters, and I innocently asked her which foods she doesn't like and now we all seem to refer to her as "The Supertaster." Alas, both Stephanie and I are quite fond of the bread, fruits and veggies! During lunch it started raining, but Becky and I were low on food so we headed to the A-Best to get some food before the big meeting. I felt like I was buying a ton, but in reality I spent less than $7 total. Ahhh China, way to make a girl feel rich!
Walking back, well walking anywhere lately, has become a painful ordeal since a few days ago I managed to rub off layers and layers of skin on the top of my ankle when walking around Wuhan! I was getting really nervous about the fact that Lory was taking us to this meeting - I can walk fine, just a little slower than normal! I was in no mood for a trot, so I was really lucky when the meeting ended up being on campus! It's the first time I've seen Lory in quite a few days - I STILL don't have a burner to cook on - but he just dropped us off and left, so I don't have any word yet on when I can get this cooking started! The meeting was rather boring, and a million degrees to warm! All the international students were at this meeting in addition to the eight of us, and there were more than FIFTY of us! I haven't been around this much diversity since I left Chicago, it was kind of nice! Basically we were warned to not "become drunken" several times, and then we were set free. It took a loooooong time for the meeting to conclude, and while I was very ready to get going, I hung back, because one of the girls who showed me around campus last fall, Fish (they choose their own English names....some of them are quite interesting), was working at the meeting so we got to talk again! It was neat, I have a Chinese friend! WOO HOO! She took my phone number and said she would call soon, I hope she does!
For dinner that night Becky and I decided it was high time we tried out HER stovetop! So we made ourselves some nice, plain, non-spicy noodles and cut up some fresh tomatoes. It was really refreshing - nothing fried, no excess spice, just plain plain plain. I realized afterwards that we could have been a little more creative if we had thought ahead and bought simple things, like salt and pepper! Oh well, next time! All the English department girls met one last time to go over our game plan for our first sophomore oral english class. I can't wait to start teaching, I'm ready for this next challenge in life!
At our meeting we had made loose plans to go explore one of the other sections of Wuhan (Wuhan is three different areas) but it was a fair-weather plan, we decided that if it was raining we would not go. Welllll there was a typhoon along the coast, and we're getting the tail rains from that, so it basically hasn't stopped raining for over 24 hours now! Needless to say, we did not go for an adventure! I just can't resist a good rain-induced sleep, so I had QUITE the lazy day today. I sleep most of the day away, then watched a few episodes of Carnivale (AWESOME SHOW) on HBO, Becky came over for a little while, then Becky, the Scotts and I decided that tonight sounded like a good night to break out the Catchphrase! So we called the other four teachers and all met at my apartment to socialize! OH MY GOSH! It was so much fun! I know that I'm living in Tiana's apartment (a teacher from last year) and I've looked in all the drawers and such without finding much, but just a few days ago I came across some little wooden dolls in a cupboard under the t.v.! Well, I didn't have a game board, and we decided to use the little dolls as our game pieces for Catchphrase tonight! We had a blast, all of us said our stomachs hurt from laughing so hard by the time we left! Needless to say, we will probably play again in the near future!
I start teaching Wednesday, so I'm sure that I'll have fun adventures to report soon!