My day began rather early this morning, as I restlessly tossed and turned in my bed. I couldn't sleep, and I believe it was because my room was filthy hot and the fact that I've been sleeping for the past two days straight, I was all "sleeped" out. I sat there, singing songs in my head, then tried counting sheep, then tried counting the number of students I had in my class, gave up quickly, and the decided to look out my window (which is strait in front of my bed) and count the hangers out on our drying rack. I had done laundry the day before, so all of the hangers were being used by clothes of mine, which made the task of counting them, in the dark, much, much easier. I counted them several times, and kept getting different numbers; I wasn't sure why. So, I decided to venture outside, only to notice I had an empty hanger. I figured that one of my shirts had blown off or something, and landed in the bushes four floors below us. I looked over the balcony, saw something draped over the bushes, and figured it was a shirt of mine. I obviously wanted my shirt back, so I quickly devised this plan where I would run downstairs, bring our broomstick, and fish my shirt out of the bushes. However, I saw one of the guards pacing back and forth, near the doorway and I reevaluated my plan. I figured that a tall white girl, charging towards the bushes, with a broomstick, at two thirty in the morning, might just possibly startle him or maybe get me arrested, especially because I cant explain myself, I don't speak Chinese. I decided it was a lost cause and that I would just check in the morning. So, when I woke up round two, I looked over the balcony with a little bit of daylight, and realized that the cloth draped over the bushes was just a rag; I was then reassured with shutting my operation down earlier.
I have been teaching shop for the past two weeks and have rather enjoyed it, actually. This subject involves making something that has a specific function, so not just a craft, but when completed, it "does" something. I've made things like a television, a flashlight, a wristwatch, etc. All were such great successes in class, but I must admit today's lesson trumped all: the sling shot. Preston helped me come up with an idea where you clip two popsicle sticks to a half cut toilet paper roll, with a rubber band between the two,so overall a pretty simple project. The kids went crazy for it, they couldn't wait to try it out. We made a target and shot all sorts of things from it, including: their tokens, pom poms, eraser caps, and my favorite, crayons. When the crayon would hit the target, it would leave a little mark, so the kids knew exactly where they hit on the target. It was a great time, and I also got a lot of language out of it.
After lunch, we decided to take Amanda's mom to the Lunar market. It is only open during certain days of the lunar calendar, (I think I've written about this before) but today was the first day of the calendar that it was to be open. So, what better place than the Lunar market is there to take someone who just arrived in Zhongshan to?
We arrived at the market, got a fair amount of shopping in, bought some funny prizes, and then it began to rain. In Zhongshan, afternoon showers are a pretty typical thing, so we figured it would rain for a little bit, then slowly clear up. We waited, and waited, and waited, and then we finally realized, after we were standing in about an inch of water, that it was just getting worse. I'll tell you what, this was not a typical afternoon shower ladies and gentlemen, this was a full blown raining cats and dogs storm. The roofs above us were made of tin, and others just tarps, so water was leaking in, and occasionally dumping on top of peoples' heads. Jenna and I got separated from our fleeing group, so together we tried to find our way out of the market. This is a much trickier task then it might seem, there are several markets like within each other, and several entrances, but only one that takes you to the bus stop.
After a good while of searching and plowing through the rain, we ran into Chloe and Tyler, found the entrance, and couldn't have been happier! We ran together to the bus, with now about four or five inches of water below us, and herded our wet bodies aboard. It was insane, I have never seen such a strong downpour in my life! I feel like we almost could have we almost could've boogie boarded this body of water!
After we made it onto the bus, we all just laughed at how wet we were (except me, I had a poncho:)) and then began to make the journey home. As we got closer to Kaiyin, we noticed some of the people out walking in the streets. They were nearly calf deep in the water; I couldn't even believe it, I'd never seen anything like this!
After we all got settled back at our apartments and dried off, Courtney and I began to practice our new ukuleles. We have actually been pretty consistent with practicing, I am very happy about it! I love when my purchases are validated, it makes my shopping and bargaining much more worthwhile. Anyways, we began strumming and singing to Colbie Calliat's song, "Bubbly", when Konner came in and began to listen. He started out standing up, but then gradually began to move towards Lexi and Courtney's spare bed. Let me just add that some of these beds don't have the best frames, and most of them are broken, actually. So, one might say you're quite lucky if you have one that's not broken. Konner began lowering himself towards the bed, as Courtney and I just strummed away, oblivious to what was happening outside of ourselves. Then, as Konner was finally firmly planted onto the bed frame, he ever so quickly fell through and it collapsed around him! The first thing Courtney said after he fell was, "don't move, I need a picture"! I always wonder why people getting hurt, or potentially getting hurt, makes me laugh so hard. In the end, Konner walked away unharmed this evening, so all was well.
Finally, I was putting tomorrow's lesson supplies together, when Konner, Brent, and Lexi walked into my room. We all began casually conversing, as we always do, when the conversation suddenly changed to Konner asking Brent if he could borrow his heelies -- the shoes I bought in maybe fifth (?) grade that turn into roller skate shoes. I asked if he was referring to the shoes, and he said yes, and I instantly busted out laughing. I was laughing so hard, actually, that my eyes began to tear up and my laugh sounded more like an old man's than my own, thank you beautiful respiratory infection! Brent told the story about how some lady suckered him into buying them in Shanghai, but I still couldn't believe that heelies were coming back into the picture! If that news wasn't exciting enough, these ones even light up! My life is now, COMPLETE!
Gosh, today has been so good, comical, but good. I love days like these.
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