Banana Rupture and English Speech

First of all, I came back to my bananas ruptured. Like, literally, one opened up and leaked... banana juice (??) on my desk. Luckily nothing was seriously damaged and I cleaned it up and threw them out. The thing is I just bought those bananas two days ago!
Anyway, the story I wanted to really tell is about my lunch today. A while ago I was sitting at lunch by myself when this Chinese girl came over and asked if she could practice her English with me. I said sure and we talked for a bit and then she returned to her friends. I wasn't sure I'd see her again but I ran into her while leaving the cafeteria. We exchanged numbers and I found out her English name is Jasmine. So I again saw her on Wednesday and she invited me to sit with her so I did. She said she needed to ask me a favor. She was participating in an English speaking competition and she wanted me to look over her speech and make sure it was "proper." I said of course and we agreed to meet Thursday afternoon. I had forgotten I had my make up test so we switched it to today.
The topic was "a word that changes the world" and she picked laziness! Her explanation was that laziness is the reason we create things, like cotton mills, and washing machines, and cars, and so forth. It was actually pretty cute. There were a couple sentences that needed tweaking but overall it was really good. I thought it would be though because her English is pretty good already. We got on the topic of TV shows and I found out she watches Big Bang Theory, 2 Broke Girls, Vampire Diaries and some other ones. After I finished and said it looked good she said "Oh, I have something for you" and gave me a postcard as gratitude for helping her!

I totally wasn't expecting that! I could tell she was surprised I was so thankful because she was like, "oh, I bought it over there at the ice cream." I just found it such a sweet gesture. Anyway, we talked a bit longer and then we both returned to our dorms. She's part of this association that creates events for students and so she told me she'd let me know what was coming up.
She's so sweet. I'll give her one of my Chicago key chains before I leave.

Oh No!

I'm at 666 page views! Must change the number! I know, I'll post an adorable picture of the campus cat!

OMG

Not having a VPN is the absolute worst thing over a break from school and no one is around. I swear, I didn't realize how much time I waste on facebook and youtube and here. I haven't gotten my original VPN due to Astrill being... uncooperative. I finally caved and got another one since my mom informed me I didn't read the email completely and I won't have it back for another week. I have friends getting married this weekend in the states (my boyfriend is the best man) and there is no way I am missing photos of their wedding. It says I have a 30 day return policy so let's see how this goes. All I really care about is that I can now see the pictures whenever they're posted.

So what have I been doing? Well, since Wednesday (in China, which means Tuesday in the States) I've been trying not to lose my mind because of course that's just when I started to feel better. I did go out have lunch, try some new dishes, but nothing too far out of my comfort zone. I've basically been trying to find this dish I first had at EastWheat in Datong (大同) that was a pork sliced noodle dish (刀削面 - sliced noodles). Apparently, EastWheat is only in Datong which sucks because Beijing is really no where near Datong and I really want their food. The place I went to near me has something similar but it's not as good and more expensive. The dining hall doesn't have it either, at least not like how I'd like it. They also had something similar but the restaurant still has the closest.

Anyway, I haven't been into work but I did finish my report on the interview I did. I haven't heard back on what the producers think of it and don't expect to. This is the holiday week now so I may hear something when I go in on Tuesday but I don't know if they'll be there. We'll see.

Yeah, nothing is really going on- the others aren't back yet but return tomorrow night. Theo posted one picture when they first arrived but I don't think he's posted anything since and neither has anyone else. Not that I would really know, not having Facebook for a week and all. It'll be nice to hear how it went and see pictures.

And now that I have my VPN settled and ready for the wedding, I'm going to bed!

Qing Hai

You know how I said feeling the way I am I didn't want to go? Yeah, I just watched the van leave without me and I feel so left out :(
Erin just texted me: "Hope you feel better, we'll miss you this week!!"
Man.... This was the week everyone was going to become really close- you know that's what is going to happen. And I'm already fairly isolated in my own room- this is going to make everything so much worse :(
Oh, well. What can you do? I keep telling myself that I came here to learn Chinese whenever I feel lonely. Well, I'll just have to take this time to really learn it. The thing is, I'm fairly certain they're going somewhere very few people speak English which means they're Chinese skills will be tested and they'll improve.
Ok, I can't think like that- onward, Courtney, onward!

Laundry

A few days ago I did laundry for the first time!
So it wasn't as big of an adventure as I thought it might be. I had to buy these coins from the convenience store in our building which was four kuai per coin(!!) and some laundry detergent. Marketus had said we should buy liquid detergent but all they had at the convenience store was powder and it was too late to walk to the supermarket. Anyway, so I bought two coins and went back to my floor.
So I can read next to no Chinese and this is what I'm confronted by:

 Thankfully, Devin walked out of her dorm and I knew she was familiar with the washer. She told me to just turn it on, put a coin in, and press the "start" button. So that's exactly what I did- I manged to press the correct button to turn it on, out a coin in, and found the start button. Just as I was walking back to my dorm I realized I had forgotten to put in the detergent I was still carrying in my hand. Luckily I was able to put some in. I don't think I put in enough however because my pants still smelled like smoke after the wash.
There's supposed to be a dryer around her somewhere but I just decided to lay out my clothes to dry in the window since it was sunny out and there is the ledge and, of course, it's free. I'll have to check to see if my pants still wreak of cigarette smoke once they're dry.

Once Dry:
So I now understand the importance of fabric softener... my clothes are really stiff and certainly don't feel soft... question is.... where am I going to find it in China and how do I use it?!

I feel like crap

I'm sick. I'm pretty sure it's just a cold but I don't have Campbell's chicken noodle soup nor my mommy so it sucks pretty bad.
The sore throat started Tuesday night so I got some herbal tea to drink while I did my homework. Then Wednesday I felt pretty bad and my voice was pretty soft so I called in sick to work and class. By the end of the night I was feeling worse but I had been drinking water all day, staying inside, and even resting my voice.
This morning I sleep through my alarm and through my Chinese class (receiving a text from my teacher about it). I then tried talking and my voice was not only soft but going in and out. So I text Marketus looking for advice on what to do.
Normally I would have just said "hey I don't feel well but I think it's just a cold;" however, tomorrow my group is supposed to go to Qing Hai. I don't know exactly where it is but it's at a higher altitude which means breathing is going to be difficult which means a girl with asthma and a cold has something to worry about. He made a doctor appointment in the city for me and asked Xiao Zhang (I think I have her name right) to escort me.
I just got back and basically he said it was a cold and just to rest. That's when I brought up Qing Hai and how they want to know if I can go and what not. He goes "Do you have to?"
"No, I don't think so."
"Then you shouldn't. If something happens it will be very difficult for you to receive medical treatment."
He was Chinese but his English was good. He wrote a note explaining my situation and even told Xiao Zhang.
Honestly? Right now I don't want to go anywhere. I just want to stay in my dorm and rest. Last week though I was definitely looking forward to the trip! I mean, it seemed like we were going to be really roughing it (he gave us sleeping bags!) and experience "real China." The only thing that worried me was the high altitude (mostly because Marketus was making such a big deal about it). But on top of experiencing "real China" this might be the only vacation I get to take! We have a week of independent travel but I'm pretty sure I can't afford to go anywhere which means this would have been my one chance to get out of Beijing.
Marketus said to tell him how I'm feeling before class tomorrow and we'll go from there.

Highlight of the Day

In Chinese class today we talked about the Spring Festival and the Mid-Autumn Day Festival in China. I compared the Mid-Autumn Day festival to Thanksgiving and so my teacher (我的老师) told us the Chinese word for turkey.
It's "huo ji" 火鸡
That translates to "fire chicken."