Comfy

Sorry for the long silence, but I’ve needed some time to relax and regroup. I haven’t been feeling 100% the past few days, but after some rest, I’m doing much better. In fact, I feel ready to tackle China again.


On Friday, I had two classes, ate some Taiwanese pancakes, I started knitting some convertible mittens for Jean-Jacques, we watched the Nutcracker (it was strangely more depressing than I remembered from my childhood), and I took an hour-and-a-half-long nap. Oh yeah, we also started watching the new season of Dr. Who.


On Saturday, we woke up at around eight o’clock, Jean-Jacques was brave and went to procure some groceries and Taiwanese pancakes; I had milk tea with a student (the same one who I had spoken with about applying to a Swedish university; yesterday's conversation was equally entertaining because she thought people in Colonial Williamsburg currently live the way the colonists did back in the seventeen hundreds), grabbed us lunch, worked on the lesson that we’ll teach two weeks from now, continued knitting Jean-Jacques' mittens (my goal has been to complete them by the weekend because he needs them for his commute to No. 2 Middle School). We took a walk by the Yangtze (it was extremely romantic and entertaining; we even saw a building on a stilt-like platform, with a door, but no way of getting up to the door), ate dinner at the Muslim noodle shop, and watched Romancing the Stone. 


Today we basically much did more of what we did yesterday. I called my grandparents, talked with my grandmother through the gmail phone calling program and Skyped with my grandfather. 


I’m practically finished with the mittens, so I’m happy. 


That’s truly all the news I have at this point. It’s nothing too thrilling because life has settled down considerably. Tomorrow should be interesting because Jean-Jacques is giving a speech at the No. 2 Middle School during the flag-raising ceremony (I want to witness the event because it should be educational) and we’re going to visit a kindergarten for an advertisement photo shoot; one of our helpers at the school asked us if we were willing to help out a friend of his and we agreed. We’re assisting the friend by visiting a kindergarten s/he runs, briefly speaking with the children, and then posing for pictures that will be used to promote the kindergarten. Westerners are good for business, even if they don’t actually frequent an establishment.