We got to sleep in again! It’s such an exciting activity,
seriously. I adore it.
Anyways, I was in bed until nearly 9, glorious 9.
Oh, reason why: the following week Abby and Greg would be
taking off early for their anniversary trip, so we traded and they would teach
our classes so we didn’t have any obligations this Friday! And we may have been
at a slight loss of serious activities to do. But we endured!
I caught up a little bit on journaling about China, for one
thing, and that definitely took forever! Seriously, it’s a lot of effort. I’ve
written about every single day in China, however, eventful or uneventful as it
might be, and that’s pretty freaking awesome if I do say so myself.
Okay off the pedestal.
Katie got up soon enough and so we headed into town!
At first we were going to do alllll these activities but
then we realized we didn’t want to do all of them right away but spread them
out… so we cancelled most of our activities, basically. But at least we had a
few things to do: we went to do some shopping around Hebin Park!
First, food. Food is most important.
I got a fried-like burrito with sprouts in it. And it’s the
first time sprouts have ever actually tasted decent [because it’s just weird in
American chow mein and the sprouts dish at school is super sour I just can’t
stomach that], and it was pretty swell! There was a slight mix up while getting
Katie’s dumpling though- lady paid, gave it to Katie, Katie had to pay for
mine, lady got hers, and we paid for her dumpling once she got it. Very awkward,
yay.
Oh and we also got me another fried patty with spices and
meat inside, yum! Although I may have worn out my welcome with those, they’re
getting a little old, which is super sad.
Then we were walking around in the cold! Lots of cold, not
fun cold. There wasn’t too much as expected, although we did finally get black
high top fake converse together- about 38 RMB each which is pretty awesome.
We’d talked a ton about getting them together so it was great to finally get a
pair. The issue was Katie’s big feet- although she had to get another size
bigger as well because the shoe size runs small and I had to wear her normal
size. In the states, our feet are fine. Here, they’re huge. It’s weird.
We also stopped outside another shop and I finally got my pretty
ivory tights like I’ve wanted since forever! Booyah! And for like 5 RMB less
than expected, which is always awesome to me anyways…
After that, shopping was pretty much done. Not much else on
that street, unfortunately. It just sort of… died away…
Still, like the white people we are, we had Wal-Mart to go
through! Katie found a side entrance over this bridge thing which we had NOT
done before so I was VERY confused and I’m just glad ONE of us knew what we
were doing. I really put too much trust in that girl… eh, she may have deserved
it by now. Maybe.
Anyways, wal-mart, side entrance. We tried to take our time,
although Katie’s a bid of a speed demon so it didn’t take too long. We ran into
a white guy who works at another school, said hi in the Christmas aisle. Then
we got a bunch of candies and stuff to take home and share with a few treasured
special people but mostly ourselves because no one will appreciate it like
ourselves and no that’s not selfish we’re giving ourselves what we deserve.
Right?
Lots of wandering around until we grabbed enough things to
buy! Luckily we had brought our bigger bags- I literally brought my normal
school backpack and after the shoes and I also bought a plum soda [NOT half as
good as it could have been! It was gross! And I thought I liked plums! Now it’s
just left me really confused], my bag was definitely stuffed!
There was a sale on the drinks to the side of the store for
like 3 RMB which is 50 cents in America so obviously we had to get them. There
was a little crowd around which was annoying so Katie barged through to buy
drinks for us. Except I’m picky and they didn’t have chocolate [that we could
understand anyways], so she got me a basic milk tea which kinda turns sour for
me so she ended up keeping.
She had a super strawberry one, though. We sat outside while
she enjoyed that and I finished my spicy fried patty. It was so nice to relax
and watch the people and see the river nearby. It was great to take in a
moment, breathe in, and not think about the past or future but just enjoy the
now.
Then some cute school girls tried talking to us. Their
parents pushed them towards us. We tried! Didn’t amount to very much, but I
think they liked it and their parents were super proud, so hopefully that
turned out all right for the kids….
Unfortunately, we were still home by three.
Trying to stay busy, we dumped everything and went to the
nearby grocery store to get a few final things, trying to pull together THE
pile of food to take home. When we were finished, we were only missing a thing
or two but that’s okay because we were still under budget, yay!
Back by the heater, we took the time to rebudget both of our
wallets, tied down to the final dollar which probably won’t do me very good
since I’m spending more time in Shanghai than she is… oh well. Something works
for now. Hopefully we’ll stay wise, stay smart, and it’ll work out for the
better!
There was still a mess of stuff, but we really didn’t want
to be adults and deal with everything so we left it all be and watched The Last
Shot which took about 30 minutes to set up, stupid computer. It’s an issue and
Katie’s tried to convince me to leave it, but since it still technically works
the majority of the time, I can’t throw it out the window and kick it and burn
it. Yet.
After that, we took freezing showers and it may have
convinced us to be cool hippies and not shower till we’re back in the states
because that was COLD! By then, we pulled ourselves together, pretended to be
adults, and then unloaded and organized and packed most of our things! The good
news, we’re doing good on space. The bad news, not so good on weight. I think-
we don’t have a scale, yikes!
Of course we did spend a good amount of our time goofing
around with everything, sorting through and then finally repacking. Yikes!
We settled down for the anime film Spirited Away. Katie’s
been getting into all sorts of movies, yay! I’d like to think I’ve really
educated her on the good ones… okay most of them, I’ve been around for most of
them. It still counts.
There were hot drinks to enjoy as well! We found small
packets for a third of the price than with the cups, so we had bought a ton of
those to take home. They work but it doesn’t come with straws and there’s not
as much but it still works. Not too bad.
And then bed time! My favorite part of the day!
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