10 days!

Today is my friend Mike's birthday so a few of us went out for dinner. Partway through we started singing Happy Birthday to him and when it finished I saw a Chinese guy standing a little bit away looking at our group. I wasn't surprised because there were 10 foreigners singing in the restaurant but when I looked closer I realized it was one of my students; he had heard us singing in English lol!!! He chatted with us for a couple minutes and then went to eat. Everyone I was with was really impressed with his English. They said: oh my god he made a joke! and said the word coincidence! Apparently their kids don't do that (he is probably one of the best at English in my classes to be fair...and I'm an awesome teacher, obviously :) ).

I forget whether I've mentioned the joy that is a "Chinese Air Conditioner" AKA a "Beijing Bikini." While I was getting street food the other night I was able to sneak a picture of one...here it is for your viewing pleasure:

The back...

The front

I swear to god, so many of them do this! I wish I could have gotten a better shot; this doesn't quite capture it as well as I would have hoped; but I was trying to be stealth.

Mel and I went shopping the other day when it was beyond hot. Just sitting outside you would have died from the heat. We went into one store and the lady gave us fans...they weren't helpful. But Mel was like I am tempted to just lift my shirt up like they do....she didn't of course...we haven't been here THAT long. Also that day we had been looking at paintings and I liked one of them and asked the man how much and he wouldn't sell it to me because he didn't like it....why have it out then?

While we were shopping we also came across these....why buy this in China?....

Oh my gosh I completely forgot something else too. So when my student was leaving he came over to say bye to us tonight and one of the guys who had come later is from Toronto and is like 6'4'' probably. I was like hey Jay is from Toronto (because my student is going to U of T next year). So Jay came over to say hello and my student says "Hello..." then he got nervous and said: "are all people from Toronto so tall?" I nearly died laughing!

This was my entertainment while marking the exam. I put my family members names in the questions (this one was about how Nancy can fence in her garden for the cheapest price; Jimmy was helping her). It makes it fun because then some of them write their names in the answer and it makes me laugh!

I found another place that has oysters...mmmmmmm....still not as good as our go-to street food place though

I got a few pictures of Jinhua that look nice. This is from when Mel and I walked from our lunch places to the old city

Those buildings are near the old city. That's where Mel bought her paintings and Jade

In other news, I have started packing! I have basically just packed clothes I know I won't wear before I leave (Jeans, scarves, teacher clothes, sweaters...since it's like 50 degrees) and random souvenirs I've accumulated. I'm going to end up leaving a lot of stuff here, like old shoes and clothes but that was kind of my plan to begin with. 

I can't believe it's only 10 days until I come home! And I know it sounds silly but it still feels like that's really far away! Also it's my dad's birthday tomorrow; Happy Birthday Dad!

We had a meeting this morning about the graduation on Saturday.... I think it will be chaotic but it'll still be fun. I wouldn't normally be a person to cry at graduations but it will be sad since I may never see most of these kids again; here's hoping I still don't cry though!!!