Back to Work???

So I intended for today to be a crazy, get-a-lot-of-stuff-done, work day..... that was a silly notion and I was naive to think it would actually play out that way....do I know myself at all?

I woke up this morning after much needed sleep to of course what everyone wakes up to: a man on a loud speaker booming throughout campus with fireworks going off....does that not happen outside of your window at 6 am, EVERY MORNING (lately anyways). If it wouldn't have involved moving and putting on less comfy clothes and possibly getting fired I would have gone and yelled at both the man who was screaming and the man setting off the stupid fireworks. Today I can at least assume the "celebration" was for the 110th anniversary of the school; the other 20 times this has happened since I got here....I still don't (and will probably never) know.

I then plugged in the heater to my shower, which yes, needs to be done well in advance of when you want to shower, which explains why I shower so little (actually it doesn't, because I don't have to do this when I'm at home and I still shower sporadically [clueless anyone?]). I usually forget to put it on well enough in advance or I am silly and think maybe TODAY is the day that that amount of time will be long enough. I think I have showered 3 times total now where I haven't had to rinse my conditioner out with freezing cold water. My other personal favourite thing in my apartment: if I do not have the tap in the kitchen cranked all the way to hot then the water leaks out onto the flower instead of coming out of the tap and so I also cannot do dishes or cook while the shower is heating up or else I waste all of my hot water doing dishes....which has happened every time except for 3 times when I've plugged in the water heater...I never learn.

Then I went to the office to get the stuff I needed to be productive today, I should have just stayed there. Its like going to the library during exam period; even if I am not doing anything (as in I am blogging, creeping facebook or continuing to blow peoples' minds with how good I am at tetris [I am awesome; there are few things I am outwardly cocky about but no matter who you are, I WILL beat you at tetris]) I always felt more productive just being there, however doing the same amount of nothing at home makes it much more difficult to justify your behavior. I then stopped at the student store on the way home, picked up some Numb and Spicy Hot Pot chips (my favourite, I'm going to miss them when I come home). And I skyped my parents for a while, ordered some new winter boots online that my parents will bring with them to China when they come in a month (thanks guys)!

I actually did enter all of my students grades into the computer, which needed to be done. Then I looked at everything else I needed to do today and it all seemed like a little much...so instead I lied down on my couch with some Blueberry tea (I brought some tetley with me, and several other kinds of teas and I am really glad I did because tea is not what I thought it would be in China, it is not super duper popular and it is pretty expensive) and I read Tina Fey's book (she is hilarious and I am so glad I stole it from my cousin Kaitlynn before I came here...sorry but you're never getting it back, like the pajama shorts you bought in Australia that I ALSO brought to China...). Then I felt like I had had enough of a break (a break from doing nothing) to finally get down to work, then I started to blog.... it'll get done.

I should have bought more cheese and chocolate (mainly cheese) while I was in Hangzhou; I've had to consciously restrain myself from eating it all....it will be gone by the end of tomorrow...that is kind of gross, but I don't even care.

I have thought of a few more things from our trip to Hangzhou. I really should have waited to blog about it today, I was a ZOMBIE last night when I got home...but what can ya do right? We ordered food several times by just walking around the restaurant and pointing at pictures of things on the wall, if they nodded, we got it if they said "mayo" we didn't...because mayo means "I don't have..." Some people try to say mayo as if it is no. But if someone Chinese person is trying to sell you something and you say mayo, then they will keep trying (they would if you said Bu Shi (sp??) which means no too, but that is beside the point) because if you say mayo then you are saying you don't have it, so they're probably thinking "then buy it!"

We have had to barter for cab rides several times now. I hate it. Just because I am white does not mean I have enough money to pay ten times the normal rate and it really just pisses me off lol. Apparently we are in the richest province in China (I wondered how people could afford to shop SO much and pay such ridiculous prices) but let me tell you: those rich people are NOT white (for the most part).

At the end of our first night in Hangzhou, Solomon (one of the other teachers) ordered a water at the bar, I tiny 300 ml bottle of water was going to cost more than we'd paid for beer all night, so he decided that he'd just buy it wherever we got food. Then we went for food (to that place with chicken and bok choy I told you about; eating bok choy as drunk food reminds me so much of my friend Erica who used to love cabbage when she was drunk...) and he asked for water and the server said "mayo." I am not lying he HAD to get a beer because they did not HAVE water....what the heck? Then we went to pay and we were like oh that's kind of expensive, the beer cost more than any of the food we bought, what a weird place.

We got dropped off in 4 different places while giving the cabbies all the same card for our hostel in Hangzhou, we made it every time and they were all in the general area, but only once were we actually dropped off at the end of the driveway. Our hostel had a complimentary breakfast. It was not what I was hoping for. It was like when I went to Cuba and you'd get so much food at the buffet but you'd have to go up 10 times and felt like such a bad person because you could only eat like 2 things that you picked out. The only thing I recognized was bread, and it was not the BEST bread. The best part was that you could make your own eggs, the other stuff all looked super freaking weird. Our hostel actually had coffee, not everywhere does. So Mel and I had went on a search for coffee only to find we could have gotten it there (we did not in fact find it anywhere else that we looked that morning). We got back and ordered some but we had to wait awhile since the hostel didn't have enough mugs for the number of people who wanted coffee (I keep saying bad things about the hostel but I actually did like it there, its just the more I talk about it the funnier it is because I realize all of the weird stuff that happened).

Today I need to do my course outline, a couple of unit plans and getting everything read for my lessons tomorrow. I also really really really need to go to the market so that I have some healthy food to eat; instead of just cheese and chocolate which are making me very happy right now.

The school; all decked out when we got back!!!

It is kind of sad not being home for thanksgiving. On the plus side it is 26 degrees here right now (six in Peterborough; I looked it up) so it doesn't really FEEL like thanksgiving. It is also sad because today (well yesterday in china but tonight at home) is my cousin Jodie's bday, so I hope they are all having lots of fun! Of course with it being October I also need to soon figure out what I am going to dress up as for Halloween (which is also sad to not be home for since its (a) so fun (b) my friend Amanda and my friend Vee's bdays) luckily I got to dress up with my friends and family for Halloween at the going away party they had for me in August, best-time-ever! Anyways, I should go get some stuff done.

Catching our train in Jinhua!

Our train; looks fast!!

The dudes, trying to figure out where we're going...
Mel and I were not super useful!

Hangzhou!

So Pretty!!!

we made it to the hostel!!!

At the hostel

Looks totally legit

The common area

This was just outside of our hostel and I thought
it was the coolest thing ever

The Hangzhou crew: Sol, Mel and Terrence

Some hostel bbq

Our best friend at the hostel,
there were seriously so many cats and
they were all SO gross

Mel liked it more than me and look at her reaction,
i swear to god she had no idea the photo was being taken...hilar!

Some tiger beer...a little wierd to have full
alcohol beer after 3 weeks of 2%

West Lake at night

At Club 79, this was on the menu as  "BUDWELSER

Me being super pumped to be at Club 79

Club 79, the bartender was a cool cat.

You order Harbin by the 12.......

We can literally have fun in a phone booth; it
entertained us for a solid 5 minutes.

The phone booth at the Latino bar, where the
band sang Call Me Maybe and T-Swift

Our drunk food; Erica would be so proud!

What a stand up establishment; no water served and beer
is more expensive than the food lol

Me posing with my favourite house

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Our building at the hostel

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One of the servers at the hostel, funny guy

Tim also worked at the hostel!

Another of our furry friends!

the breakfast at the hostel....yummmy???? no

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Sanitary lol

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So I may take after my mother a little too much; I took
so many photos of flowers. Mainly because I thought her
and my friend Amanda who I worked with at a greenhouse
would like them

They had some red salvia; they actually have it everywhere!

And some coleus and portulaca!

More flowers!

At West Lake, right before an Asian girl snapped
like 30 photos of us...the tourist attraction is over THERE
my friend! lol

A temple from afar

A temple we went to

The entrance to the temple

A very very large Buddha 

A monk (I think??)

Still at the temple; it was HUGE!!

Back to walking along West Lake
these buses were EVERYWHERE and
did not slow down or yield to pedestrians
I thought I was going to die.

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Another near death experience

More flowers

Another Nancy shot

Clown flowers!!!

There were lots of places along the lake with literally NO railings
I don't know how one of us didn't push another one of us in!

Pentas!!!! Yay so many flowers that we sold at
Burt's Greenhouses in Odessa!

Elephant ears!

Lunch one day

These were EVERYWHERE! I wanted to rent one
so that I could just let my friends pedal me around! They
didn't go for it :(!

I got a blizzard!!! It was the best!

Hungout with Ronald!!!

I was SO excited. I have never been so happy
to go shopping. I bought a shirt and a cardigan
It was the best! I had to go by myself because
no one else felt like shopping, that was probably
for the best!

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Mary's shirt was there!!!!

I wore this dress on the trip; so exciting lol!

Some good ol' Mcdonalds coffee...yummm

Back to West Lake

Strictly selling creepy mac products I guess?

does that need to be specified IN China???

Tequila sunrise

At our hostel

The cat just helping to make dinner; love that they
hungout by the food...and by us lol

The 4 of us enjoying some hostel BBQ

Spanish restaurant dinner..in china...delish!

The next day we all got McDonalds, people who know me well
would have known pre-photo what I got there, but for those who
didn't this is a McDouble (only one guys lol)

My dad kept saying he was surprised at how clean it looked in all of my photos. Thats because I tend not to take photos of gross things so here you are dad; a dirty photo of China <3

People rocking out at the lake

Me walking on water at West Lake
Rocking the Queen's Math shirt, obvs!

More of Hangzhou

At the Wushong Square..not sure what was with
these dudes, but they were funny

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So crowded

China is definitely my first stop when looking
for things with shamrocks on them.....

SO CROWDED (worse because of the
holiday, but I think its always pretty busy)

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Nice crocs, said no one ever!!! I saw a bunch of people
with crocs, the Chinese do seem to like things we hate... but
some of us love. I have friends who like crocs, like I like Avril
and Nickelback (so do Chinese people..)

My last photo taken in Hangzhou
before we caught our train back to Jinhua