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| For dinner my teammates and I went to the new food court next to Carrefour where we all had our pick of the many delicious Chongqing foods, a few that have now had time to become old favorites. Our advice for next time: for spicy dumplings, go back to the Chengdu place. For chicken, pick a dish with different sauce. For spicier noodles, steal the pepper condiments from another store. And do try the savory meat and fried egg with rice. They are all available in plastic models for your dining selection so you don't have to know their names or even say anything!
After dinner I bought tissues, paper cups, color bleech, Land O Lakes extra sharp chedder cheese (not an everyday find), and picked up my blanket from the drycleaners (my cat threw up on it on Sunday). Then I wizzed by and bought a new notebook for my first Chinese tutorial tomorrow by John's student. I think my team will agree that I did all this very effeciently, and with no hassles, just many smiles.
When we got home I expected to hem some fabric while watching an episode of Monk with my team leader for a class project, but instead I happily sang along to almost the entire movie of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Yes, the Donny Osmond version. The movie is quite terrible, but I know all the words because I sang along to the original soundtrack in my childhood again and again. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed and identified with Joseph's story. My friends commented that they had not seen me this happy and content - ever? "Bop shawah-de-wah, bop bop shawah-de-wah..." (the regional theater version can be amazing).
After another harrowing (just the scary music) episode of Monk I got back to my place and gave Perdita a huge bowl of food so she'd stop crying. I was still singing when we stopped by the window for our looking-at-the-cars routine when who did I see through the window but the cat who lives next door. He saw us before Perdita caught on. I opened the window and waved her all around while he crept closer along his windowsill. He finally reached the nearest corner and had been staring for several minutes when Perdita finally caught on to what we were still doing there. There were many tense moments. He sat idle and lonely while Perdita stared him down and swished her tail. When I started petting her she loftily rolled her head back and stretched out her feet, and he never stopped looking. Even when she needed a bathroom break I kept him entertained by waving my arms everywhere and popping up from the curtains. She returned expectant, but did not linger to amuse him. He eventually retreated to watch television while we continued singing and dancing the night away. | | |
| Ho Ho Ho! Christmas in China! It's been an interesting day. Very quiet. I played some football, and got some new stuff. Oranges, bowls, soap. Oh - I forgot to give a present to someone. Shoot. I'm just too busy. 6 more days till vacation!
Merry Christmas xanga! Celebrate the birthday gift today. | | |
| New friends in Beijing! Megan, Susanna, Erica, and me.
Chopsticks Sculpture in Chongqing
Sophomore Tourism Students - my fun class
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| I can really see him working in my life lately, changing my attitude and giving me grace. I'm listening to the 2004 Workout Mirror CD - the first one.
"Feel the city breakin and everybody shakin,
And we're stayin alive, stayin alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin alive!"
I'm so grateful to all of you who have inspired me and encouraged me and given me meaningful, respectful hugs. I have received so many blessings from you.
If you know Margaret Ritchie, tell her Happy Birthday tomorrow. I'm lifting her up in my heart - and I do envy you who get to physically do it. | | |
| It's the end of my third week in Chongqing, and I've taught 12 out of 16 scheduled classes. Some of my friends haven't even started teaching yet. I'd be really bored, but I'd know a lot more of my city than Starbucks and Carre-four.
I've been at Starbucks for over 6 hours now, with a 1 hour break for buying a plate to have breakfast on. Diana is here with me researching how to have internet in our apartments so we don't have to buy coffee all the time. For the price of 1 month of internet we can buy 6.5 small coffees. That's way fewer than how many we're buying now.
It's time to go. | | |
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