Yesterday was my "5* months in China" date. Haha, incidentally it was the icing on the cake to a terrible week. But actually, in retrospect, the day was really quite humorous. Let me tell you about it.
First, my heater broke two nights ago and Guiyang is FREEZING right now; my apartment isn't well ventilated, either, so it gets especially cold here. Soo yesterday was the product of two cold, sleepless nights. After I finally tore myself from the warmth of my bed, I decided to escape to a street vendor for a meal where I could at least sit by the warm cooker. However, when I reached into my wallet I realized that I had spent all of my cash (on my students' Halloween party, which I'll tell you about later) and, as luck would have it, the only ATM in my area was also out of cash, so I couldn't even afford to eat a cheap, hot meal for lunch. Every single day I eat my meals with Ricky, and we always rotate who pays, so normally not having any money wouldn't be a problem because he would just cover me, but of all the terrible timing he had a meeting and couldn't join me for lunch and I was too proud to call and ask to borrow money. So I (in spite of my lack of food at home, as well) decided I could muster something together in my apartment. I settled on popcorn.
To start, I put a pan on my little stove top and cooked the oil on the lowest heat possible. In less than 1 minute, however, the pan popped and burnt straight through. That was my first sign that I should go to sleep and skip the day. Instead, I thought that maybe the pan was defective and brought out my favorite (and only other) pan. I walked away from the stove for a moment, came back, and instantly smelled something terrible. I looked into the pan (mind you, this is also on the lowest heat possible) and could see the metal melting into a bunch of pretty, swirled colors. Just as I reached forward to turn the stove off, it erupted into a fire. Well, then stupid Fei Fei, who isn't accustomed to working in a kitchen, screamed and tried to put it out with water, forgetting the incompatibility of oil and water. Yes, the fire got worse. Thankfully, PC trained us in how to use a fire extinguisher, because I had to put that training to good use. The fire didn't do any real damage, but my kitchen certainly got dirty from the blasted fire, and my only two pans are now ruined (not to mention my stove top, which I think was broken from the get-go). Immediately after, I had a knock on my door from one of my "foreign affairs committee" members who had some things to discuss with me. When he saw what happened, he informed me that I'm not allowed to throw the pans away because they are school property and if they aren't in the apartment when I leave I'll be charged. So now I have to find somewhere to store two burnt, fire-extinguisher-juiced, oily, melted pans for the next two years.
I decided then and there that I needed to take a break from Guiyang University, and what better way to do it than to go shopping? Besides, I loved the idea of warm clothes in my cold apartment, so I decided to spend the day venturing into town in hunt of winter clothes. However, as I didn't have a single bill in my wallet, I couldn't even afford to take the normal bus (which only takes cash), so I had to resort to taking the only bus I'm not familiar with (because it has capability of using a bus card which I, thankfully, have). Yes, I got lost. To make a long story short, two long hours later, I finally made it to downtown Guiyang, where I was destined to find warm clothing, fill myself with happy thoughts of shopping, etc.
No. All shopping turned out to be was a reminder that I am large in China, cannot fit into anything, even if it says XL, and then it turned into a reason to have my cell phone stolen. Yes. My cell phone was stolen, right out of my pocket. That is phone number two. In five months. One man violently ran into me on the street, almost knocked me over, and all I thought of was "how rude, he didn't even apologize!" What really happened is he bumped into me and snatched my phone.
When I got home, I discovered that my internet stopped working, the DVD that I was going to play in class the next day (today) no longer worked (even though I just used it last week) so I had to postpone class, AND I dunno….some other things but I can't remember. It was a bad day for luck.
Anyways, now my internet and heater are fixed, so I'm chilling at home on this cold Friday. Soon Ricky and Danny (another PC volunteer) are going to come over and we're going to make chocolate chip cookies (compliments of Danny's mom sending him a lovely package with two lbs. of chocolate chips), and I'm not going to let a fire take place this time. Things are going to look up from now on. :-)
In more funny news, on Tuesday I invited all of my oral English students over for trick-or-treating. I thought for sure, at most, only 20 or so would come, get candy, and then leave. To be safe, as I mentioned in the last blog, I baked all day and bought lots of treats. Enough for, I figured, about 30 people (again, just to be safe). Well, the trick-or-treating started at 7:00 and by 7:15 ALL of the food was gone! My students, who told me they knew what trick-or-treating was because their old foreign teacher told them, didn't really understand the concept of taking a treat and leaving. Instead, by 7:30 I had over 100 students in my tiny apartment, standing in every single room, going through every drawer, looking at everything they could possibly find, and just having a good time (remember, no privacy in China…thank goodness I have nothing embarrassing here!). It was a fun way to bond with my students and attempt to share my culture with them (if only by letting them look through my things). Since the party, a group of 7 of them keep coming over to hang out, so that's nice. :-) And the sun in shining brightly today, so I'm taking that as a good omen!
Now, time for a restful weekend! Peace!
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