wake up at 6:15,
eat fried rice/knockoff honey nut cheerios that Ma Ma put out for me,
head down the elevator and out the gate to meet lizzie at 6:45,
walk to the bus stop,
get to school at 7:30,
cram for tingxies till the bell rings at 8,
persevere through the school day till 3:30
either: go to my internship, the gym, water color, or stay at school to study,
get home around 6-8 in the evening
do homework till 10:30, because I can't stay up later than that or else I will crash,
and repeat.
I'm so familiarized with the bus that I can sleep the whole eleven stops home and wake up when we arrive at Hua Hu Gou, my bus stop, simply because I feel like I've arrived. it's like a sixth sense.
getting to see my dad for break was great in many reason. the obvious reason was that I finally got to see him after 4 months. we also got to meet up with some old Taiwan friends that my dad nor i haven't seen in years, except he actually remembered who they were. one of his friends lived in the suburbs of Beijing, if that's what you could call it, and it very closely resembled Las Palmas, a gated community where a few of my friends in Salinas live. it was the first time I had been inside a house in four months, and it was very weird. the experience of being in a western house, I mean. the house itself was glamorous!
we also got to see a few parts of Beijing that I had been meaning to see for awhile. we went to houhai, which is where lakes were frozen over enough that people were ice skating. i forced a heartbroken miles, whose wonderful girlfriend,dehlia, had to go home because she was a semester student, to finally leave his apartment and have Peking duck. I had never had Peking duck before, but I must say, it was delectable. we also went to ritan park with brown and crispy, post-Hawaii Jing, where a bunch of locals were relaxing and we slid around the frozen pond with a bunch of little kids and their parents. we struck up a conversation with a older Chinese man writing calligraphy the ground with a giant paint brush-like sponge dipped in water. we spoke to him in Chinese (including my dad, who to both of our surprise, was able to retain a lot of the Chinese he hadn't used in at least a decade) and he asked where we were from. we said we were Americans and he began to speak to us in English, and just to show off, Spanish. we were joking and laughing with him and all seemed well until he started telling us about how the US embassy denied him citizenship and therefore he planned on bombing the embassy. after that we inched away from the conversation to ate at a local restaurant. we also were able to get some great bargains at the silk market. my dad spent about 15 minutes arguing with a saleswoman who was asking for too much money for three "north face" jackets that he was getting for Cory and my brothers, and ended up getting the three jackets for a total of $50. his persistence was quite admirable and effective, because the sales woman was begging for him to give her at least 10 kuai back, and out of the goodness of his heart, he gave it to her. she was unbelievably lucky that happened, for my dad is a serious, cold hearted, relentless businessman.
all in all, it was a great trip, despite being harassed about college stuff in taxi rides. I guess I missed my dad a lot, because I found myself shedding a tear or two in the cab ride home on the airport. of course, I would never admit that to him. wait, this blog isn't public, right?
after a week of getting free cab rides, it was time to go back to school. classes resumed as if we never went on break, therefore, the stress kicked in immediately. my last visit to the retirement center where I taught English was this Wednesday, and it was a bittersweet goodbye. the community center had an afternoon luncheon for me and the three other teachers, where about half of the about 35 students gave a goodbye/appreciation speech for us. a couple of the old ladies and dudes even sang us some songs, and they all wanted us to sing a song, so jon, amy, kit, Kevin, and I sang a disastrous arrangement of Halo, by beyonce, which was the only song on my iPod that all of us knew, and we received about three claps from an audience of confused old people. I'm going to miss teaching those guys, especially ms. Wu with the musty breath who gets within inches of my face every week and persistently INSISTS I come to her house again.
as for the future, I am going to Taiwan for Chinese New Year break! I'm staying with my relatives, the majority of whom I have not spoken to in eight years. prior to those eight years I spent a joyful summer living with them, so hopefully things will pick up from where they left off.
random things:
this is how safe beijing is: I was riding the bus to the subway this evening when a woman on the bus told the ticket collecting lady that she found a purse in the seat in front of her, instead of stealing it. if only that happened with my poor wallet.
there's a new subway stop two bus stops away from my house, instead of 8 bus stops away!!! this is exciting because it cuts out about 30 minutes from my commute on the weekends. the floors are so new and slippery that I can ugg skate down the halls.
my new daily lunch is called shou zhua bing, which basically translates to "wrap that you grab with your hands." it's basically this really greasy Chinese taco with ketchup and some meat that I assume is pork, but I can't be sure about that. it's better than any taco you get in the world.
host family update:
so I found out that shu shu's works as a driver for the army. by army, I really mean security guard who doesn't have a gun, because there are pretty much zero guns in china. not even the police officers have them, I hear.
me and billy talk once a week, pretty normal of a 13/16 year old brother -sister relationship. he spends 99% of the time in his room. I asked mama what he's up to in there, and she said he just plays chess by himself. all. the. time. pretty lonely if you ask me. I spent all my free time as a thirteen year old at my friends' houses. maybe I'm just an old geezer, but I feel like that's how most 13 year olds should be living.
it snowed for around .5 hours this week. it was on Wednesday, and started and ended during our weekly assembly in the math room. everyone was excited about it, not just the Californians and Hawaiians. it's so far been the first and only time this freezing weather has been exciting.
that's about it for this month. stay tuned for another post in a few weeks/months/decades.
