A Late Introduction + Other Thoughts

Over two months down and less than two months to go... sorry I am not very good at keeping my blog as up to date as I should :( But anyway, I realized that I failed to introduce you to one of the most influential parts of my China experience: my American classmates. I can tell you all about Tibet, Hong kong, my purse getting stolen, etc. but the people behind the experiences really make or break the trip, right?

What a good-looking group, eh? From the back to the front, left to right: starting with Andy in the white shirt, Raeder, Phillip, Zach, Luke, Joey, Tyler, Dylan, and Troy. In the middle: Justin, Thom and Kay McDade, Lexi, Anna, Emily, Erin, and Colin. In the front: Maria, Me, Tiara, Sarah, and Hillary. ...Whew! Once we got to Chengdu we met up with John, Ashley, Eva, and Micah. I hope I'm not forgetting anyone....

So Tiara, in between me and Sarah is my roommate. Sarah's roommate Lexi is next to the McDade's. Sarah's and my roommate hang out with each other a lot which is kind of interesting. Given another month or so, Sarah and I would have ended up rooming together and Tiara and Lexi. I still get along with Tiara, we just didn't click like her and Lexi. Or "clique" I might say...

Overall, I think our group is pretty good--of course it doesn't come without the average amount of drama which is totally to be expected: you know, she likes him, but he doesn't like her and vis versa. Or, "lets have a 'Girls Night,' but exclude some girls." blah, blah, blah. I used to be annoyed by it, but now I don't really care. In my opinion, I don't think you can expect twenty some people to all be "best friends." I try to be on one side of the spectrum or the other: stay out of it as much as possible or be as inclusive as possible . Personally, I don't understand how some people have it in their hearts to exclude others while they are in the same room. If you are going to have a "girls night" then, come on guys! --don't talk about it when there are others in the room who you don't want to invite. Common sense. I've always had the mentality that we are all in this together, so why not include everyone? Some of my Chinese friends have expressed to me that they don't feel comfortable hanging out with "the American group" because they don't feel welcome. That is just downright immature and makes me feel bad. Of course people are creatures of habit and cling to what is familiar, but to be creatures of habit at the expense of others feelings, especially our Chinese friends who don't deserve to be treated like that, is not okay. Alright, I'll get off my soapbox, but I guess I just wanted to give you more of a personal insight of being in China, instead of expository blogs telling you the basics on traveling, historical sites, and what not... Don't get me wrong, I like our group though.

So now that I have told you a little about the Meiguo ren (Americans), let me tell you about some of my Chinese friends (sorry I don't have pictures yet). First of all, Winter is probably one of the smartest people I have ever met. She speaks English very fluently and even has a slight British accent. She helped me sooo much, especially when my purse got stolen. She helped me buy a new cell phone. When I first arrived in Chengdu, Winter also took us shopping at Trustmart for all our basic necessities. Then there is Alex. I met him at English Corner, a popular place to go on Friday nights for Chinese to practice speaking English. His British accent is worse than Winter's. He talks in puns and idioms a lot like, "five finger discount" and "I'm just shooting the breeze." It makes me laugh when he uses them incorrectly, but sometimes I wonder if his English is better than mine. He is so diligent in learning English. He carries a notepad around with him everywhere. He is a Sichuan cuisine chef. One of his hobbies is reading BBC and studying the economy. Alex thinks my facial expressions are amusing :) Abby and Rita are two very cute girls who helped me pick out my halloween costume. They are very nice and I hope to hang out with them more. I met Michael Xiang and Bruce at church. Michael is obsessed with playing rugby and likes NBA. He was the guy I met the first week or so and very candidly asked me if I was a Christian, which I thought was brave for China. I admire his discipleship. After church this week, a bunch of us went to hotpot with Michael and his family. Bruce is a really cool guy. I think he is kinda cute ;) He is a baby Christian and we have been hanging out a lot lately. I am going to karaoke with him this afternoon. He is a chef like Alex (I think I have a magnetic forcefield for chefs), but he does Western pastries! mmmmm..... :) Who else? Sissi, Ivy, and Cherry are college students who I am giving English classes to. They want to learn about money and business and hope to be able to improve their English enough to apply to Western universities. I met a great New Zealand couple named Roselle and Peter who Michael introduced me to. They are really awesome people who I go to church with and have great fellowship with!

So as you can see, I have a very diverse group of people I am spending time with. Sarah and I still do a lot together. Recently we serenaded the chinamen with some Chinese songs at English Corner...now they are joking that we need to give them a new song each week lol. That is one way to motivate me to learn Chinese :)

My roommate is leaving this weekend so I get the room to myself this weekend again (she went to Hongzhou once too) Like, 11 or 12 people are going to Xian this weekend and 5 people are going horseback riding somewhere else (my roomie and co.) so I will be one of the few people left in Chengdu. What will I do? I haven't gone on a shopping spree lately. Maybe I'll make my roomie come back to copius amounts of room decor or jinianpin (souveniors). If you know of something specific that you want me to bring you, let me know.

So that is pretty much all for now. This next week or so will be consumed with registering for next semester's classes and studying for my Chinese midterm (hen rongyi- really easy). I wish I was learning more new material. I only had two choices: go into a class for people with absolutely no Chinese whatsoever, or the class for people who have had any remote amount (I mean...even only a year, and I'm on my 6th year) of Chinese, so I'm caught in the unfair compromise...oh well, it gives me more of an excuse to go back to China :) But not too soon, don't worry! I miss you guys too much to stay here too long.

PS- Obamarama, as my dad said. I am kind of indifferent to the presidential candidates, but I'm anxious to see what "change" Obama has up his sleeve. One of my friends joked that the US will be renamed the USSA- United Socialist States of America :P We'll see, won't we?