Nov 18 2013: Happy Lemon

Monday, yay!

We didn’t do much because I was to skype with my family! And I did, for over an hour! Katie tried to do the same with Face Time but unfortunately, it wasn’t really working for her.  All the same, it was a pretty chill and relaxing morning.

Lunch was decent and then I spent a while trying to sort out lesson plans and prepare after my five day weekend! Eventually it came together though, thank goodness. I started teaching the kids directions like ‘on top’ and ‘under’ and such, and brought up an I Spy page.

Which worked well in both of my Grade 3 classes. The first, I only had three enthusiastic kids at the beginning, running around and jumping at the pictures, and then towards the end I had a line of 8 kids all waiting anxiously to spot something on the board and squinting to make sure they’d be able to find everything. It was pretty funny, and luckily they didn’t get too loud about it!

By the way, the kids had been out playing with the teachers at the start and so I wasn’t even sure if I would end up teaching again, but eventually they all trickled into the classroom in a line, and several of the girls on the way to their seats stopped to give me hugs. It was so cute! And one of them was telling me how very, very happy she was. Adorable!

The next class loved it even more! It’s all we did. Seriously. There were only a few minutes towards the end when the kids were wanting a DVD, so we had to cut the game short because I did a count of who wanted what- Katie does those all the time in her classes so I wisely copied- and the DVD won out. It was funny video clips of dogs. Which the kids love. One boy was nearly falling over me, laughing, saying the “dvd was interesting” which to me was hilarious, because he knew no other English words to describe it [which is nonsense because I’m teaching them a ton of words], but it was fun to watch!

I began reading ‘Divergent’ while Katie taught her classes. The moment she finished, we headed out! I had grabbed extra apples during lunch and eaten them while she was teaching to hold me over for a bit. We wanted to head into town for the evening and have some fun. We love street food!

We got off at the ‘Temple Stop.’ Super close was a little dumplings spot so we grabbed them- the stuffed roll kind, and started walking. Kinda spicy vegetables with some mushroom or weird meat, I don’t even know. But they were still great! We only bought one each and looked for more food. We wandered past H&M, and then back up and right into an alley, where this lady had a cart of food.

Since we hadn’t yet tried their funky potato dish- looks like funky fries covered in lots of stuff- and we bought a cup for 4. However, we were confused with her words- obviously- and we thought she was making something for the other girl first even though we were there before her… Anyways, so we didn’t get the chance to tell her no chili sauce. So we ate them with chili sauce.

My tongue was in agony. My taste buds didn’t know what to do and I may have almost cried. Seriously, my entire mouth was beginning to turn numb because I couldn’t take it. And yet, I still ate the rest of our spicy fries. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? BECAUSE IT NEARLY KILLED ME IT WAS SO DARN SPICY.

So that was fun. Still kinda looking for something, especially to clear our mouths out, we ended up walking by a lovely bakery on a corner and saw two girls eating a piece of cake… so we went and got a piece of cake! We shared a piece. It had berry filling in the center which Katie ate and chocolate shavings on top which I ate. It was a lovely bakery with twice as many choices as our bakery on our street has, and it was delightful!

Finally, we wandered over to H&M which yes, I knew was a bad idea. I knew it, and yet… we entered. We wandered around, and of course I found the sales rack, and of course Katie found things for us to try on which of course we fell in love with so by the end, of course we were walking out with a shopping bag each. Darn…

It was part of a mall which we hadn’t gone through. It was a bit American, too! Just for being a mall, anyways. Pretty cool… anyways, a short distance across H&M was Happy Lemon, a little drink stand! We started browsing and either our choices are popular or something like that, because there were soon about 6 people trying to order while we were looking at their options. They even had an English menu and there were so many options! Some hot, some with ice cream, some with shaved cheese on top… I’m serious. I didn’t try it, but I swear it said just that. Or something about cheese, I’m not too positive.

Anyways, I decided to get their chocolate drink with pudding, hot.

It was not very hot at all. And kind of watery. Katie got milk tea with [soggy] oreo crumbs. I found out while we were waiting for our bus in the cold, that yes, there is a “pudding” inside my drink! It was so surprising, I just stared at my cup and left the… thing, in my mouth for a good moment or two until Katie asked what was wrong.

Basically gelatin, or something! I don’t even know! I was so weirded out, I didn’t understand. It’s like when something happens in the universe that just totally throws you off- it was one of those moments. I could barely compose myself. Katie tried it, and the same thing happened!

Anyways, I didn’t finish my drink after that. It was cold, anyways. And weird. Not bad, but too weird for the moment! Haha….

Still, it was chill. Luckily, the bus soon came and somehow we even got seats in the back! It was a fun ride home, discussing if we ever got amnesia and whether or not we’ve changed whilst in China.