Random Fun

I haven't really been able to write much this last week. Basically too much to explain, but I wanted to give you a little something that has made my week better. I know that the last few times that I've written, I've been complaining about how sick I've been, but this blog will be more focused on the good things that do happen in China. A few weeks ago, my teammate Rachael found out that the Old Campus (the campus that I teach on) has a dance crew. This is a group of dedicated individuals who spend their time poppin' and lockin' and doing whatever they can while staring at themselves in the mirror. Rachael has been made friends with the crew and they allowed her to take a few videos.



They are pretty good, I'm not gonna lie. However, they do have a lot of competition with the New Campus crew. I do have a video but it's quite long and I don't think that the internet in China would allow me to work on that. Anyways, the next dance video that I'd like to add is a pretty good one. I'm not sure if you all have met Howie. But Howie is my teddy bear. Before I made my journey to China, I decided that I needed to have something to remind me of home and the good times in Southern California. So I set out a few days before my departure to Build-A-Bear in Downtown Disney. I ended up making Howie. He's a pretty wonderful preppy So Cal bear, but only recently did I find out that Howie likes to dance. My team leader Joelle finally revealed, after about 5 months in, that she used to work in puppet ministry in Mexico. It was then that Howie really came alive.



This is just a little example of our team randomness. Every Friday night, the girls have Alias night. I never really enjoyed the show before China, and I'm still not too obsessed with it here, but it's great just to get the girls together to watch something every week. The dialogue is pretty bad but watching at least three of my teammates freak out for everything is quite entertaining to say the least. Usually after Alias, music is played in some capacity or another and someone is dancing. So I've grown to love Friday nights.

This last weekend was especially fun in Nanchang. The Poon family came to town from Long Beach, California to visit for the weekend. Although having 6 more members added to the group for a few days was very intense, some really good videos came out of their visit. On Saturday after the Poon's arrived, we headed out to the New Campus for some good ol' rollerskating. Now I used to be pretty good at rollerblading in my day, but I really have never rollerskated in my life. I picked it up quite quickly and I was off with my sketchy skates and all. I am very proud of myself for only falling once, but it was one heck of a fall. A few of my students as well as a lot of my friends from the Old Campus showed up for skating. At one point, I was heading towards a crowd of them and the difference between rollerskating and rollerblading became really apparent, but it came a little too late. I definitely forgot that the brake is in the front of the skate instead of the back, and the next thing I knew I was lying flat on my back in front of at least 7 students. The fall wasn't too bad, although I felt it later, but what made it worth it was my friend Lina coming to my rescue. Now a little background on Lina. Lina is definitely one who marches to the beat of her own drum, to say the least. Her English is pretty low level, but she always has something to say, even if it doesn't make any sense or relate in any way to the conversation. She is probably one of my favorite people in China. When I asked her if she had ever skated before, she turned to me and said, "Yes... yes... I love to play skating, I really love to play skating." After watching her a little bit, she REALLY loves to play skating. I hope that you enjoy these next two videos.



This might seem a bit mean, but it was too good to not post.



The last video is of my tutor Stella, in the black, and my good friend Kate (also Joelle's tutor), in the green. They were both deathly afraid of skating but decided to come anyways. This is after about 3 hours of skating with about 2 and a half hours of instruction from others. We finally let them go off by themselves and this is how they made it around the rink.



I hope that you enjoyed a little randomness from my life in China. Despite all of my random afflictions and ailments, I have really found home here. Although I do miss many things about the States, I can't even begin to imagine not having these people around for ever. I guess I'm starting to realize that I come home in 3 months. Crazy!