How am I not dead?

Leaves are ominously falling from trees, thick, grey, hazy smog is filling the air, and people are starting to layer clothes. That's right, it's fall in Beijing!

It was a measure of 470 on the pollution scale yesterday, the max being 500. Here is a series of pictures depicting this absurdity:

The view from our apartment. At first, I thought that the window was just fogged up from condensation, or something. I was wrong. I was very, very wrong.

You may or may not know that this is the view from the math room. You also may or may not know that beyond the building with the red roof, you can normally see the towering Puslation building. I think that with that information, you can figure out how bad it is.

Apparently the smog gets worse in the winter, too. I can actually smell it. I tried wearing a mask, but I started to feel sleepy which I believe was as a result of breathing my own air, so I'm just going to take the risk of getting pneumonia instead of suffocating. In case my lungs shrivel up and shatter into a thousand shards, it's been nice knowing you all. Thanks for reading my blog. Write your condolences in the comment section. Write comments even if I don't die, though.

It's been over a week since I last wrote, so this might end up being a megapost.

I believe the last place I left off was my day in Shandong. Mom, Shu Shu, and I went to the cousins' house and we all hugged goodbye. I enjoyed getting to know that family, even though I only understood 2/6 of them.

After that, the three of us and Shu Shu's mom went on a two hour drive to the Anhui province, where his sister and her family live. I liked this visit more because everyone spoke the normal dialect, the bed in my hotel room was soft, and because there were dogs!!! In the grandparents' neighborhood across the street from Shu Shu's sister's apartment, there was a friendly golden retriever named Lucky and a German shepeherd named Dian Dian. They were the first dogs that I got to pet since I got to China, and I was ecstatic about it. I also liked this visit because Shu Shu's sister and her husband were easier to talk to, not just because they spoke the normal dialect, but because they didn't act like I was a deaf-mute, like mostly everyone else there. I went to a park with them at night with their precious one year old son. Every night at this park, there's a huge group of women who do synchronised dance routines in rows. It was entertaining to watch these women whose ages ranged between 45-80 dance perfectly in synch to pounding electronic music.

We also went hiking on a mountain, where this time, I was the second most athletic, right behind Shu Shu's sister's husband. I never got the name of the mountain, but it was where an emperor was being hid from being kidnapped some thousand years ago. It was a pretty hike, but not pretty enough for me to ignore the amount of stares and "HALLO"s I received. A little girl ran up to me and walked beside me for a few seconds, never taking her eyes off me. I gave her a little wave and heard delighted laughter behind me, and I turned around to see her mom pulling out her iPhone to take a picture of us. "Qie zi", I said, which means eggplant and is also the Chinese equivalent of saying "cheese", while simultaneously throwing up the peace sign. The mom giggled even more as her daughter scampered off to her side. I felt like a Kardashian! Famous, but for doing absolutely nothing besides looking a certain way.

The 10 hour drive home wasn't nearly as long as the opposite way there because I was thrilled to be going home. Is it weird that I felt homesick not for the U.S., but Beijing? I missed the apartment, and Billy, who was with his dad, even though Billy hardly ever talked to me and still doesn't. I also missed school and all of its stress, riding the crappy bus with Lizzie every day, and having to sit out in the living room in hopes of absorbing wifi. I'm already developing an attachment to this place!! What's going on with me??

Strangely enough, the day after we got back, which was Tuesday, I felt a huge bout of homesickness and a colossal craving for American junk food. I ditched the white rice for a night and walked to an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet with Lizzie. I'm not sure if they have any of those in the States, because I think the phrase "all-you-can-eat pizza buffet" is a gold mine in itself, but as soon as I get back, I better see one on every street corner. Seriously, that place cheered me up so much. Sure, it was 60 kuai, which is about 50 more than a typical Chinese, but I simply had to get my fix of Italian cuisine. My homesickness was cured with a full stomach of chewed up bread, cheese, and pepperoni.

The next morning brought forth a brief rainstorm, the perfect recipe for a terrible bus ride. It was the first day back to school. Some weren't thrilled to be back, because no one loves getting up early to walk up six flights of stairs, but I think others, like Lizzie, who went all of break without wifi with a 5 page essay to write, and Sam, who didn't know her parents were taking her camping for all of break therefore only bringing the clothes she was wearing, were happier about it. It was also nice to come back on a Wednesday, because on Wednesdays we only have Chinese class and a math test. I did a horrible job on my tingxie, dictation tests we have every other day in Chinese class, but our history class that was the next day was cancelled, so that was somewhat of a balance.

After lunch, at 1 PM I had my second music lesson playing the Ruan, the Chinese guitar. My teacher is a bubbly 28 year old woman who looks like she's 20. I got her WeChat and she said she would take me out to lunch on the weekends. PSA: PEOPLE DON'T ACTUALLY EAT DOG IN CHINA. My Chinese teacher told me that people are just as freaked out about eating dog as they are in the States. Except in the Guangdong province. The "they eat anything with four legs except a table" rule applies there. After class, Miles and I listened to some Mariah Carey to prepare for the concert because we only knew about 4 of her songs.

I taught my second class at the Deshengmen community center, which is the teaching old people English thing. So far it's been really fun. Christina and I had a class of four students and eventually we split them into two. The younger of my two students was physically incapable of pronouncing her "R"s and "L"s, and it was entertaining to help her try. Does that make me evil?

The women have our next three Wednesday nights planned; we are to go to each one of their houses every week. This Wednesday, we went to Alice's house. Christina and I had dinner with her and her husband, who took out his Canon 5D Mark I, the exact same camera that I use, to take a group picture of the four of us. Alice told me that she is a retired elementary school teacher who taught math, and her husband is a retired calligraphy teacher. He wrote scrolls for the both of us! I have yet to figure out what they say, but I'm going to assume it's something cool and insightful. It was a pleasant experience getting to know the two elders and Christina, who has the same birthday as me and also lived in a foreign country, Brazil, for a part of her life, and speaks a second language fluently, Portuguese. We did have our differences, though. I'm obsessed with pop culture, and she doesn't know who Mariah Carey is. Alice walked us all the way to the bus stop, which was about a mile away from her house. On our way to the stop, we passed a couple grocery stores, a park, and a row of people selling clothes on the street. There was a lot going on where she lived, but in the most pleasant way. I look forward to seeing a different neighborhood every Wednesday night.

Thursday was the due date of the dreaded APES essay and Unit 2 test. I felt nervously while taking it because it was so hard, but I ended up getting an 85%, which is better that I expected, and we get to make test corrections, so I'm not complaining. A lot of us tried speaking Chinese for the whole day for  an SYA immersion challenge, but I think only a couple people lasted.

Yesterday, while I was studying for the tingxie that I failed, my Chinese teacher called me into the office where 3 other Chinese were waiting to tell me that I am being moved from Chinese 2 to Chinese 3. This is a bit nerve wracking in that they know a lot more characters than I do but also a relief because in Chinese 2 I just sit and braid my hair and draw to keep myself awake because the discussion part of the class is far too easy. The Chinese words for Chinese 3 is San Ban, which the teachers kept saying and is also San Benancio Middle School's nickname. Bits and pieces of Salinas seem to follow me everywhere...(shoutout to the SBMS Clutch Crew and Fran, Jordan, Alex, and Sofia, if you're reading this I love and miss you all ok I'm done).

The Mariah Carey concert was at 7:30, but I got to the stadium at 8 because I was rerouted on the subway (okay I got lost). The concert was really fun, despite that our group of 11 knew a total of 5 songs. The concert was the weirdest experience. The stadium was about 1/4 full, and our group was without a doubt the loudest people there.

The pollution made it a bit difficult to see the stage, and it was just about impossible to see Mariah's face because the screens weren't big enough for us to see from where we were sitting. Nevertheless, Mariah was as good at singing as everyone says she is and we had about six rows to ourselves. Yesterday was also Jackson and my 11th month of dating. It's hard to be happy about it when you're not physically together but it's so worth it. It really is

I took the SAT with 5 other fellow students this morning. It was my first time taking the SAT, so I don't think I'll be sharing my scores with anyone else who I took it with, as they all have already scored above 2100. I imagine that that was the most relaxing environment for taking the test. With hardly anyone else taking it, not to mention the people in the room were all people I knew fairly well, I didn't feel as much pressure taking it as I probably would have taking it with 30 strangers. I thought it was easier than expected. It was basically a 4 hour long, more challenging version of the state testing that we've been doing from second to ninth grade. But at the rate I scored every year... that means I'll be scoring around an 1800. I'm choosing not to think about it until I get my scores back!

You know how I said people here don't eat dog? I was wrong.

At dinner tonight, my mom put a mysterious plate of bones in front of me. As usual, I dug in, only to find that it tasted a little strange. "This takes kinda weird, what is it?" I asked.
"I'm not gonna tell you what it is," she responded.
"Is it dog?" I asked, panicking.
"How did you guess?" she said.
With that, took 10 napkins from the napkin holder and grabbed the chunk of meat that was still in my mouth and scrubbed my tongue. I sat there in shock. Before coming to Beijing, I had vowed never to eat dog, and it happened. It was the first time I was angry at my mom. "I didn't want to tell you because I was afraid you wouldn't eat it." I kind of just stared at her with my mouth open and ready to throw up. She tried covering it up by telling me it was horse like animal meat. I asked her if she was kidding about it being dog and she just started saying bushi bushi bushi! It's not, it's not, it's not! But the bones were far too small for it to be any type of horse bones. I've officially eaten a murdered dog. I've eaten man's best friend! I'm practically a cannibal. I think I'll go die now.