In Yinchuan

I
met them at them at the airport with this sign welcoming mom and dad to China. We went to bed around 1:30am and woke up the next morning around 9:00am. We took the morning easy and get ready for lunch with my local friends, Lily, Hediah and Christina, at one of my favorite noodle restaurants. As you can see the noodles are long and they found it difficult to use the chopsticks. But they did well; noodles is the hardest thing in China to eat with chopsticks. We all had a good laugh! That gorgeous bouquet of flowers is from Lily (the taller one) to my mother as a gift.

They're here

...and sleeping. They got in last night at 11:15pm (China time). So 25 hours later they arrived at their destination. They both looked great! I usually look like I've been swung around by my limbs for days and then hit by a truck when I arrive in another country, but they showed up looking great! And now...they're sleeping! If they aren't up in an hour I'm going to wake them. (Got to help them get over jet-lag!)

Pics later...

In China

Mom and Dad are in China! They arrived into Beijing at 3:20pm where my friend, Julie, met them. I talked to them as they were enjoying a drink at Starbucks. I'm leaving my house in 30 min. to go to the airport to pick them up! They haven't slept since they left NC yesterday morning at 8:00am.

Bagels

Check out the bagels I made yesterday! This was a new recipe and they turned out beautiful and tasting delicious. I made cinnamon sugar bagels and everything bagels.

Today is the day!

Mom and Dad arrive TODAY!!!!!! Tonight actually. Here's the scoop...they arrive into Beijing, China at 4:00pm my time (that's 4:00am for you on EST). My friend, Julie, who just happens to be at the airport at the same time (dropping off friends headed back to the States) and will meet my parents there, give them their domestic tickets, help them exchange money, and help them check into their domestic flights. They have a 5 hour layover in Beijing. They will arrive into Yinchuan (where I live) at 11:00pm tonight. At least they're supposed to. This flight from Beijing to Yinchuan is notorious for leaving late. I, of course, will be there to pick them up! I'll try and take pics and start posting as soon as I can! We're going to have so much fun!

Lots to do! Make bed, make bread, buy groceries, wash dishes, put money on my phone, pack, etc. Whew! Got to go!

1 Day

Mom and Dad will be here tomorrow!!!!!! Agh! I'm so excited!

When I was coming back from my run this morning some of the men at my gate asked when my parents were coming. I told them and they really want to meet them! So Friday is the big introduction! Hopefully I can get some pictures. Those old guys are so sweet. Always watching out for us foreigners (laowai).

2 Days!

Mom and Dad will be here, in China, with me, in two days!

Ordering gas

So this is a picture of my stove as well as my gas tank. Funny story...as I told you earlier, I ran out of gas about a week and a half ago. Well, I only ordered more gas yesterday. I called the guy to bring me another tank. When you first get one you pay a deposit for the first tank as well as the gas inside (similar to buying propane in the States). He brings and replaces the old one with a new one and you pay for the gas. So he lugs this tank of gas on his bicycle over to my house and then up two flights of stairs. I hooks it up and I realize I don't have enough cash on me. I had gone to the bank earlier that day to get money but the ATM had run out of cash (it's typical if you get there after xiuxi (similar to the Mexican "siesta" time). So I didn't have money. We agreed that I would go and get some and come back to pay him. So I hopped on my bike and peddled over to a friend's house to borrow 100 Yuan. The gas cost 70 Yuan. I peddled back over to my complex to pay him but I couldn't find him anywhere. So the nice men that guard the gate helped me look for him. We still couldn't find him. Eventually he called me wondering where I was. He had been hiding in the shade behind some trees all along!

Sick

So yesterday I got sick. I woke up feeling fine, but by noon I was feeling week and then by 2:00 I was really sick. I got food poisening from something. So laid up in bed for the rest of the day. I had a friend bring me some drinks and then I went to sleep around dinner-time. Slept all night and woke up this morning feeling good! Back to my old self. Thankfully because I have my exam this morning. Aagh!

Paying up front

So last week when I got back from Xi'An I found my house...well not like I like it when I'm coming home from a trip. I came home to a bad smell. It was the food in my refrigerator and freezer. Apparently on Friday (I returned on Monday) I ran out of electricity. So the fridge turned off and of course, none of my lights worked, including my hot-water heater. So I also couldn't take a shower after being on a stuffy train for 16 hours. I also realized that I had run out of drinking water in my tong. So nothing to drink. I had also run out of gas for my stove and toilet paper. So no food, no water, no gas, no toilet paper. The picture above is of my tong. And the cup that's there is on purpose. It leaks so that's there so I don't get water everywhere and so that I don't waste that precious water!

I tried to remedy the electricity immediately. I went down by the gate of my complex to buy electricity. The way they do it in China is that you pay up front. They put the units on a card and you insert the card into the slot that's in the hallway and then you have electricity. You know when it's going to run out because it tells you, but you can't put more money on until you've run out completely. So that's why I had to wait. I did the whole thing. Bought the electricity and put the card, but it wouldn't work. So I had to call an electrician to come down. He didn't know what was wrong with it either. Two hours later he comes back to my house and tells me to come with him. I follow him back to the place where I buy electricity and they talked and laughed about how I don't understand what they're saying (little do they know, but I DO understand! :) ). Then it was fixed! Voila! (Pictures are of the box where I put the card and the card itself. This is the box that I broke the first week I was here and it made my neighbor mad. Whoops!)

Learning all the new processes here does make for the experience! Most things you do have to buy upfront. China doesn't operate on credit like the US. No bills. It's kind of nice! You don't get into debt or behind on payments that way. Of course, when you run out of gas and water and electricity all in the same day, it's kind of annoying.

It's a Hot One

Last Thursday was one of the hottest days. So Diao Laoshi (male) taught us how to make paper fans. Then we had fun posing together with them. And these have come in quite handy since. It really is hot in that classroom. And Wei Laoshi (female) is trying to teach us the midst of the heat. It's so weird going to school all through June. The last time I was going to school was in college and we got out for the summer at the beginning of May. So yes, our minds wander a bit and we play some. But in the end it helps us to focus better if we're having a good time. We do have so much fun! You can see Diao also teaching us using Chinese characters. I can't believe I can actually read some now! Last semester when I started I remember thinking that this was virtually impossible! It was so hard! But now I can read and even write some characters and I can carry on conversations with the older people that live in my complex (sometimes they're hard to understand because they don't speak standard Mandarin).

Chasers

Welcome to China! I went out this morning at 6:00 for a run with two of my friends. Around mile 3 a guy on a bike is yelling at us from afar. As we get closer to him we realize it's the landlord of a friend of mine who lives in the same complex. He had been riding his bike around town looking for us. (The people at the gate know we go running in the early morning and told him.) He found us, stopped his bike and asked us to stop as well. We continued to run and told him to ride the bike alongside. He was chasing us down to find out where his tennants had gone to. Their visa was about to expire and he was concerned so he came to fine me to ask. Yes, we were running and talking in Chinese. Then around mile 4 this man comes running up next to us. Yes, he was literally running to catch up with us to give us something. An Amway card! He hands us each his business card, yells "Welcome to China!" and continues running on past us. :) Only in China I tell you.

Closing Ceremonies

The Chinese are very into the formal side of things. So we had a "closing ceremony" at school on Wednesday. They called it the "close ceremony" but that's Chinglish for you. The first picture is of my class (Diao Laoshi, Jackie, Ty, Myself, Hediah and Wei Laoshi). And the second picture is while Meng Laoshi was giving a speech. Meng Laoshi is the dean of the international students. And we all got KFC gift certificates to celebrate. But oh, they surprised me on Tuesday with telling me that I have another exam this coming Monday. It's a written one. So be thinking of me. I'm practicing my Chinese characters!

Forest Park

Girls' night in the park. This is the new park in Yinchuan. You have to pay 5 Yuan to get in and walk around, but it's worth it because there aren't that many people there and...there's grass to sit on! We all headed out for a picnic and some girl time and had a ball doing it!

Xi'An

In Xi'An-some of the columns near the Big Goose Pagoda (a Chinese guy is posing in front of it) and I'm having a cup of real Indian Chai. Oh so delicious!

Thriller

All the international students performing "Thriller" by Michael Jackson for the entire student body of Ningxia University.

Sports Day at Ningxia University

This is Sports Day at Ningxia University (where I go to school). It was full of performances by each department (including ours) and dancing shows (pictures shown) as well as an actual torch run and then real sports races. The international students carried flags in from our countries (most of us anyway, Americans, Romanians and Koreans carried their own flags, but everyone else had to carry Chinese flags :) ). We were the last department to walk in. Our group performed the "Thriller" dance by Michael Jackson. Everyone loved it! These are the pictures from the day. I'm going to try and post the video. It will have all of us from 16 different countries. So funny!