Thursday, November 14, 2013

Oct 17 2013: American Coffee

Thursday morning, Katie’s class had been cancelled so she decided us ladies should hit up the town since it was Abby’s day off and I didn’t have classes for most of the afternoon as well. Abby wanted to run by Wal-Mart and we decided to make it a girls’ day, or something like that!

Around nine or so, we met up, the four of us, for breakfast. There’s this little place sort of inside and yet outside, with the little dumplings things. Very tasty, but they had the numbing things which we’re just tired of. But otherwise they were great, and you could even step inside and fill a little dish with sauces and powders you wanted to dip your baby dumplings in.

Then Greg had class so he headed up to the school. Since the bus had just left, we wandered around the street a bit and looked at the swimsuits. There was one Katie liked for only 40 RMB! Crazy talk! And here we were thinking they would all cost 100 RMB and above. Definitely exciting and super tempting. We didn’t get one, though…

Eventually we climbed onto the bus and headed out!

Then Katie dragged us the long way around to Wal-Mart off a stop early.

Anyways, Wal-Mart was pretty fun for us ladies. We really needed some warm things since it’s been getting so chilly! We all spent a good while at the hats, scarves, and mittens. Pretty fun collection, overall, which is odd to say about Wal-Mart… but yeah, we loved it.

Abby wanted to make Mexican food so we tried to help her find a few ingredients and such. Then we wandered around for a bit longer, chatting it up, before heading to the check out line.

She had mentioned a close American coffee shop so once we were finished, we decided to check that out. Instead of exiting by KFC we went to the opposite one, with two sets of stairs, and stepping out into the brisk afternoon. We crossed a bridge, and found this ring toss thing going on! Super amusing to see adults caught up in the activity- definitely a first!

Another little bridge, turn left, and there was Highland’s American Coffee Shop!

Not as nice as the one we’d gone to the week before, but this was definitely a bit more American, including the shop owner Chris, working at the counter. We eventually ordered flavored hot cocoas and paninis for lunch. A little pricier than I would prefer, but it was worth it! Delicious sandwiches with melted cheese- there is seriously about no cheese here in China, it’s almost stressful.

We talked, relaxed on the couches, and enjoyed the afternoon for a little longer before finally heading up the street and getting on the bus home.

Abby got off early at The Corner to do some more shopping since she didn’t have to do anything for the day, lucky girl! But Katie and I made it back. Although there was some serious traffic issues right before our street- traffic jam because some guys were digging into the ground. Katie and I walked off and were about halfway home by the time the bus finally caught up and left us in the dust.

Katie went to the school but I ran home, dropped things off and changed, and ran outside just as it started to sprinkle. It’s been doing a lot of that all week, although nothing too serious… And then to lesson time!
My grade 4 went pretty well, they weren’t too bad. They talked a ton but we did manage to get through a few lesson pieces so that’s always good you know? And eventually the kids reminded me and I helped pull on The Croods for them.

Grade 3 was a little crazier for a while, but eventually they got the hint about being good! I did a fun slide with them before opening their books and working on that. We found a super busy word puzzle with all sorts of words so they spent most of class working on that, and I gave out a few stickers at the end.

After that, we were done!

Although we were still so stuffed from lunch, we didn’t do the school dinner. In fact, Katie decided that she wanted to do the water fast we’d been considering for a while for this weekend. So we started that!


We went home, read, and eventually crashed!


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