After two straight days of being in bed, I am finally well. :) This is quite a relief as Janell kept mentioning things like parasites and amoebas! I was really bored, but I did watch the entire first season of Prison Break (which is HUGE here in China) and now am addicted. Everyone was so sweet to me, which was wonderful since I was feeling very far from home. Mom will probably like that. ;) I told them that, at least.
So it's Janell's story to tell, but I'll tell a brief part- yesterday she met a college-age guy who wanted her to read a religious book to her (something about Boo-ha-la or something?). He then proceeded to tell her that his teacher (who is from Springfield, IL) told him that Jesus only loves Americans and that is why we are so rich and have everything we want. Also, we are supposed to be the policemen for the world. I won't tell the rest of the details (partially because I can't remember them right now) but it was one of the stranger things I've ever heard.
We are now signed up with QQ, which is basically the Chinese version of Instant Messenger. We are on a group with our friends here so we can talk to them...we just used it to ask Jackie to please order us a pizza. ;) We tried to do it ourselves but they couldn't understand us! So yum, we have pizza coming soon and I can finally eat again. Lunch today was actually pretty good...fried rice, stir-fried green beans (yuummmmm) and corn. We then took a bus to a Japanese supermarket with Crystal so that Janelle could get more cereal, and we walked around in some stores. I can BARELY fit into Chinese clothes because they are so small! I have to have a large...I've only bought one shirt so far, though, and that was mostly because I liked the necklace that came with it.
I'm still loving the dogs here. I wish Riley could be here. :( They are not usually on leashes, though- they are just running alongside their owners. I wonder how they do not get run over? I feel like I'm going to be run over every time I cross the street!
Today I got diet coke, oranges and bananas so I am quite happy. I have been trying to find self-tanner but they do not sell it anywhere here, even the western brands like Clinique, Clarins, Lancome, etc. They sell whitening cream instead! All of our friends want their skin to be lighter, not darker, and they even carry umbrellas when the sun is strong.
We are going to see the pandas tomorrow and I'm so excited! We're leaving at 8 AM with Jackie, Julie, Egg and maybe Fung, because we wanted to get there at feeding time. Then in the afternoon we are going to Jackie's parents' house to eat dumplings. I'd send pictures but I'm finding it impossible to do so as of yet.
We set up the workshop schedule today. We are going to be doing workshops/discussion groups with undergrad and grad students twice a week, on Monday and Wednesday evenings. We are discussing things like caring for the elderly, AIDS and disrimination, the American and Chinese healthcare systems, etc.
My main goal for the weekend, however, is to find Prison Break season 2... ;)
