Normalcy

I'm feeling much better today. I took the lazy route teaching and just read them some stories to pass the time, so that helped since I wasn't having to run all over creation to catch them or yell "NO CHINESE!!!" in my mean voice. Okay, so I still yelled the no Chinese thing a few times. ELE went smoothly today also, but I'm still dreading tomorrow. I'm with the teacher who likes to smack her kids with a stick. The anxiety over teaching this dumb class is enough to keep me awake at night. I hate feeling inferior or like I'm not doing a good enough job. Here are some cute pictures of my kids! Prepare for your heart to melt...

Frank! Probably my smartest kid. 

Sweet Colin.

Ricky and Angela. Second grade lovers for sure.

Audrey and Apple. I love these girls.

Ricky. He was in Chinese Chair. You can tell he is so upset about it.

Aaron, Apple, and Jason.

Apple and Jason. Two of my favorites. 

After teaching, I decided I was tired of starving to death. I've lost 17 pounds since I left home two weeks ago. I'm all for losing some weight, but that's a little scary and extreme. So me, Kate, Megan, Laurra, Alec, and Paul went out for Muslim food and ice cream. We hardly ever go into town without coming home with a story.

So it was a little drizzly on our walk tonight and Megan had her umbrella out. We crossed an alleyway and when we got to the other side, these two guys pop out of the shadows and get under Megan's umbrella with her. One of them says, "Do you speak Chinese?" and Megan says, "No... Do you speak English?" "A little". Well, if that doesn't tell you it's about to be an interesting night, just stop reading now. About 23 seconds had gone by when we pass a building and the man says, "Here! Come into my office!!!" and points to the doors of this random building. Megan politely explained that we were on our way to dinner and of course they took that as an invitation. At this point, I was personally wondering what "my office" was code for.

When we get to the restaurant, they make Megan sit with them. Of course being the darling soul that she is, Kate sits with her so she's not with the creepers by her lonesome. The man wasn't kidding, his English was really limited. Megan told him we were from America, and like all Chinese people, he said how he really would like to go, but didn't have the opportunity. Megan starts thinking that they want to marry us in order to get them into the U.S. Around this time, another guy walks into the restaurant and just so happens to know the two guys that followed us in there.

Megan and Kate with our new friends.

Megan says out loud to our table (because they couldn't understand anything we were saying), "Well this is a scene straight from Taken. There's the getaway driver." I was dying laughing. Eventually it comes out that the man just wants to learn English from us, and he is a student at a local university. When we were done eating, he insisted that we come to his "office".

Guess what? We were crazy enough to do it. We walked into this building and up some stairs, Laurra freaking all the way out the entire time. "Guys, this is NOT okay!!!" We get to the top of the stairs and he opens a door. What do you know? It's an office alright... Laurra still stood up against the door in case anyone tried to "lock us in from the inside."

So now we know where to meet this guy to teach him English on Tuesday. Oh, and his name is "Thanks." Welcome to China.

I also rode in a Tuk Tuk for the first time on the way home!

The best way to describe it? Like riding a lawn mower.

There was ice cream on my lip.

Hysterical and I don't even remember why.

There we go :)