I forgot it was Thanksgiving!?!

This week was sort of intense, but I'm not sure I can tell you why. It just was.

Monday- I was having a bad day. I was a lot frustrated. Sometimes I have trouble being content with the way things are. I am learning a lot about trust and patience right now. So after school, instead of the regular nap, I decided to go get my nails done. Sometimes a little pampering makes me feel better. This time (the second time) the nails were black with silver hearts-rock star fabulous. It did help a little, but not as much as I had hoped. I went to the usual meeting and then came home and tried to get myself ready for the rest of the week.

Tuesday was pretty normal. I still wasn't in a really awesome mood, but I was coping better than Monday. After school I went to chinese class, and did my first lesson with vocabulary!!! This means that I officially know some words now. Whether I remember them or not is a whole other story. My teacher is awesome though. I now know how to introduce myself, sort of. Then I got dinner with some friends, and went to English Corner! The girls I normally have in my group were not there at the beginning, so I was a little sad. When I did find them they were as happy to see me as I was to see them. I am definitely starting to really be connected there. I named a few more people. There is now a Jonathan and an Elizabeth! Some of the girls mentioned wanting to hang out over the spring break so I guess you could say I have made some chinese friends now. My favorites are Yolanda, Alice, and Joy. Them and a few of the other girls are currently working on me a chinese name. It is definitely time I had one!

Wednesday I decided it was going to be a good day. I did a few things to make that happen of course. After school, I wanted to go to Joe's for dinner, because Joe's always makes me happy cause it feels like home. But much to my dismay (and brad's) Joe's was closed. I am afraid that it might be closed forever:( So instead of Joe's we went to the SIT cafe for dinner-it was the place we had gone to try out chinese corner, but hadn't been successful. So wednesday night, we had dinner and were chatting and this guy walks up to us and asks if we want to attend the chinese corner! So we went. It was a little weird, but I think I will go back. My chinese is very limited still, but I feel like things will go faster now. Chinese corner was a little overwhelming, but I think it might be helpful for me to acquire the language.

Thursday- hmmm....what was thursday? oh yes, it was thanksgiving...Went to school, and skipped chinese class. Then went to dinner at Carrie Jones's House. The meal was delicious and very similar to what we would have at home! When we first started eating I was a little sad, cause it just didn't feel right, but I didn't cry cause I didn't want to ruin the party. Just know I really missed being at home for about 15 minutes, and then I decided that it was awesome that I was in china and was experiencing a new way of doing thankgiving. I do have a family here that is awesome! When I come home over the summer, I want fried turkey!

Friday- I really didn't want to go to school...mostly cause I was tired...I stayed up till about 2am talkin to some of the fam, and then got back up at 5am to talk to the rest...I really enjoyed getting passed around the family (well technically the phone got passed around to the family) I got to talk to lots of people and got caught up on the festivities of the day. I went back to bed at 6am and got up at 7:30! Needless to say, I was tired all day. After school, we went back to check on Joe's-still a no go. Then our second choice was McDonald's! It was awesome! Then I went to a lady's house so I could help stuff goodie bags for our trip to the orphanage on Saturday.

Saturday- Up early to go to the orphanage! We did a Christmas program and it was awesome. We also took them a pair of shoes and a pair of long underwear. There are 80 kids at the orphanage, so we took 80 of each. It was awesome! I feel like we are really meeting some needs there! When I got back, Brad and I began on an adventure to get his computer fixed! We went to several places and then on a hunt for a few others, and finally got it fixed. I really was only there for moral support. We had tea and coffee at a coffee place called No No Coffee Time which is right next to the No No Club #2(didn't go there, but I am sure it is awesome) Then we went across the street to this restaurant we thought looked cool. The name of the restaurant was something weird, but part of it was Du Du...I know that is not the way it is spelled in the states, but it is pronounced that way in china. So we thought that was funny, but didn't really understand (and still don't )what that meant. We were shopping through the menu when we came across Du Du flavored chicken...so of course we had to order it! But it turned out that they were out of Du Du flavored chicken that night :( We will probably go back and try to figure out what that means sometime soon. At some point brad and I were discussing what we had done this week, we usually do a recap before we write our blogs, and we both forgot-even if only for a minute- that thanksgiving was thursday...sad I know.

Sunday was a great day...I went shopping for some gatherings that we have planned for this weekend, and bought a lot of stuff! It was an adventure for sure...

So I guess one thing I am learning is that I can't expect things (fingernail paint, Joe's...) or people to make me happy...it is only my dad that can.;)

love from china!