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Well, it's been pretty eventful since I got back.
First off I confirmed that I am in fact allergic to cats. I was feeling alright when I arrived, not on allergy medicine, and then I went home to five cats and slept and have been pretty miserable ever since. I even took allergy medicine beforehand! I bought some stronger meds with a decongestant so hopefully that does the trick. If not, I'm going to consider the possibility I might be sick.. again.
The day after I arrived my mom had her christmas party which was fun. It was nice to see mom's old work friends that I've now known for, like, 10+ years. The dinner was pretty awesome. I woke up that morning at 6 after going to bed at midnight but then went back to bed at 9 and didn't wake until noon. Then I took a nap after dinner and woke up around 6. My days are really days yet, they're just periods of sleep and awake. It's 2am right now and I just woke up at 11:30pm... I'm really doing the opposite of improving (I'd say the word but I can't think of it).
Then today I finally turned in my computer to be fixed. For those of you who don't know my computer was having trouble starting up and didn't like this one particular update. So after turning it in I found out it's going to need a new hard drive which means bye bye to basically everything that isn't on my old computer or the few videos and school assignments I was able to save on my flash drive before taking it in. Thankfully there's facebook but there were a number of pictures people had asked me not to put on facebook so I didn't and now those are all gone. Oh well, nothing I can do now.
I was able to see my good friend Laura today! It was so nice to see a friend after so long. We're going to see a movie tomorrow night in Atlanta. Then at some point I need to make it down to see my friends' children and give them the gifts I got from China.
I really need to start wrapping my gifts for everyone. I think I'll start doing that tomorrow night when I'm awake when I shouldn't be.
Hope everyone who's made their way back from China (I think everyone has now) is adjusting well and is happy to be back with family and friends :)

Last Full Day in China

Today will be my last full day in China. My plane takes off tomorrow around 5pm. Also, tomorrow will literally be the longest day of my life. I leave Beijing around 5pm, go back in time and arrive in Chicago around 4pm, then I have a three hour wait until my plane to Atlanta leaves around 7pm and then I finally arrive in Atlanta around 10pm. Saturday will last.. well, I'm not sure- my itinerary doesn't say how long my first flight last but it's going to be a long time! I suppose, even on a plane, having a super long Saturday is a good thing.

Anyway, so after I took my final we had our graduation ceremony. Our teachers were there and some people received prizes for, like, best picture, funniest picture, most improved student, etc. It was really nice. We also received a free T-shirt! Well, I'm sure we paid for it somewhere but it felt free! Afterward a bunch of us took pictures and then we left. I decided it would be best to take pictures of what's going on out here so we can do a comparison when I arrive in the US.

However, I become totally badass. This is what I wore in the snow.

Didn't slip or trip once.

Peking Duck in Beijing

First I'd like to say that this blog has gotten more views than my other which has been up since February of this year while this blog started in September. I'm pretty stoked and it clearly shows how much content matters.

Anyway, so our group had decided we really needed to have Peking Duck before we left. (For those of you who don't know, Beijing used to be called "Peking" but changed with the change in pronunciation.) So one night most of got together and walked in the cold for about 15 minutes to this little restaurant to eat three ducks. That's it, we just had three ducks and some tea. Kate tried to get rid of the third duck when she realized not as many people were coming as she thought but apparently they start cooking the duck before you arrive so it was too late. Because they cook before you arrive, it's also very important that you arrive on time for your reservation. By the way, if the reservation part didn't tip you off, Peking duck is pretty expensive.
So we sat down and ordered some tea while we waited for our duck and what they do is a man in a chef's hat actually comes out with the duck on a cart and cuts the duck into tiny slices for the table.

I didn't realize I had my camera on paint mode but it looks cooler this way anyway

Each duck is two plates of slices. Then they also place some steamed pancakes on the table. Apparently, you eat the dish like a burrito with some celery (or other vegetable- I wasn't exactly sure what it was) with some sauce that some compared to Korean BBQ sauce ironically. You put that on the burrito pancake and wrap it up and bam! It was pretty delicious but I wasn't in love with it. I did get a pretty nice shot though, if I do say so myself.

Again, paint mode

We even managed to finish all three ducks so it was a very successful venture!

The Beginning of the End

Today I have my exam in Contemporary China and I totally didn't study enough. I mean, I might have but I won't know for sure until I'm in the class because we've never had a test in the class so I really don't know what to expect. We do have the questions so I can go over but I don't know which questions he's going to choose.
Anyway, after this I have a paper due Sunday that has to be twenty pages and then I have to present and then I have another paper I have to also present on and then I have my Chinese final.
This really is the beginning of the end for my procrastinating, anxious, terrible student self.

老师

Shao Laoshi (邵老师) is a petite young woman with long black hair that reaches the small of her back. She wears contacts to lighten her eye color but one can only tell when sitting close to her and the ends of her hair are permed to be wavy. She dresses in the typical Chinese fashion, very cute with interesting combinations. Normally she wears a short skirt with tights and a nice blouse with heels. Her voice isn't overly soft but it isn't very commanding or loud either. She takes the lessons seriously but laughs when Theo lists off his sentences to practice the grammar that all are about how hot he is (excuse me, "aesthetic"). She is absolutely adorable and she is my Chinese teacher.
Lately I've missed a lot of classes due to illness and so Marketus and those in D.C. suggested I make up class time with Shao Laoshi. So now I meet her twice a week for an hour and I just had my first session with her yesterday. When I arrived I saw she was writing the new vocabulary on sheets of paper for today. We discussed my exam and what I got wrong and why. Afterward I found out she needed to soon go to Tsinghua where she teaches as well. Actually, the times we meet are the only times she has available. Today in class she admitted she had a sore throat. Afterward, she admitted to me she hadn't gone to bed until five am.
You remember when you were a kid how you felt the teacher's life was at school? Wondered if maybe they lived at the school and were shocked when you saw them outside? I feel like Shao Laoshi is pretty close. It really seems like, besides her weekends, her life revolves around teaching and she's not a special case. Some teachers actually live in special dorms on campus that are specifically for professors. From what I've seen, there's no way you would ever find a teacher who didn't feel passionately about teaching in China like you sometimes find in the U.S.
Maybe it's just Shao. Either way, I have a totally awesome teacher who deserves to feel better soon.

Buying Clothes in China

So last night I went to the Chinese Wal-mart to buy some pants. I only have one pair that doesn't have a hole in them and since it isn't getting any warmer I thought it necessary. So I went in and found some jeans but they were mom jeans... meaning that the pants came up to my belly button instead of staying on my hips like most pants in the United States. That, or they weren't real jeans; they had like a stretch band which kind of reminded me of maternity wear.
Anyway, I ended up not finding any pants. The reason I went to Wal-mart to find clothes was because most places don't have fitting rooms except expensive places in malls and foreign stores like Wal-mart. A classmate of mine actually bought pants at a market without trying them on but they were American Eagle and she knew her size already.
This seriously makes me wonder- do Chinese always know their size for pants?? Because from what I've been hearing most buy in the markets or online- both ways you can't try the clothes on before purchasing. However, they can't possibly know their size for every store because when I started my search for pants in Shanghai I tried on pants in, like, six different stores and each fit me differently! And the markets don't have return policies I don't think. I mean, I don't get a receipt. So what do they do when something doesn't fit? Just give it to a friend? I mean seriously, I see many different body shapes here so how can you buy pants without trying them on? I should ask Xiao Hang, Marketus's assistant, what she does because she told me she buys almost all of her clothes online. Perhaps you can return things bought online?
I don't know, all I know is I need pants, and fast.

Doctor Visit

I think I found something about China that I really like much better than America.
When I went to the doctor's office last week it was the second time in less than a week and I was running late. I wasn't sure what to expect- maybe they would send me away? Maybe I would be there for an hour just waiting to see a doctor!
I arrived at 11:15 am, 15 minutes late for my appointment. I sat down and waited for a bit until the doctor came. When in the room, I told him the whole story, even the really stupid part about how I'd actually suffered for a week before going to the doctor because I didn't want to leave Shanghai early. He wanted to take blood to make sure whatever infection had been in me was gone as well as an x-ray to see my stomach. He filled out some paper work and then called over a nurse. He spoke to her in Chinese so I didn't understand what he said. I just followed her down the hall. It turned out to be the x-ray. It all went really quickly- the only weird thing was because it was my stomach and abdomen, I had to lower my pants. I didn't realize until after I thought about it for a bit that whenever I've had an x-ray I've never been in my normal clothes- always a patient dress. Luckily I was wearing my really long sweater so nothing was ever visible but it was kind of weird.
After the x-rays were finished and printed the nurse returned and took me to another room to have blood collected.
I thought she was just going to prick my finger but instead she collected a vial full of blood. After about five to ten minutes the doctor called me back after receiving the results and looked over my x-ray. He gave me some medicine and then I was off.
I looked at my phone. It was 12:15.
All of that done in just an hour.
First of all, I'm fairly certain that I've had to make another appointment to get x-rays done and usually somewhere else. Then they would send the x-rays to my doctor, the doctor would call me and I'd have to go back in and talk about them. And I've had to get blood drawn recently. I have to go to a completely different place and then about a week later my doctor will have the results. If I had been in America the same treatment would have taken a week at least (probably longer) while here it took an hour (and I was even late for my appointment!)
I know China can seem backward in a lot of ways but we really need to emulate them in the speed of their treatment and diagnosis!