By the time I got to school, it was 6:50, and I was feeling sufficiently hassled. I didn't know what homework to start, but decided to do Calculus because that was first up, after Chinese, and I didn't have any new words for Chinese. But as soon as it became obvious that I didn't know how to do my homework (logarithmic differentiations. Really now?) I just gave up, and contented myself to look out the window and wish for my bed. At 7:30, I did go in to see my math teacher for help, but he had an appointment with someone else and wasn't very much help.
My first Chinese class was just a review for our Midterm that is on Monday. I was having a problem staying awake in that class, and found further proof that I was probably in the midst of a breakdown. My teacher asked me why I like my Chinese family, and expected me to answer that question in Chinese. The problem is, I can't even answer that question in English, so she got a little mad at me. Ah well, what are you going to do? The second Chinese class passed without a hitch. It would be interesting to know what my grades are in both of those classes. I have absolutely no idea.
During break, I could feel myself starting to get a little hungry. So I recruited my friend Stephanie to walk downstairs with me to buy a jian bing, which is this egg wrap thing that is sold everywhere. It's pretty good, but it needs something else. I just don't know what it would be though. On the way back to school, Stephanie stopped in a shop and bought some Haichu's and a drink, and I bought my friend some Haichu's as well, because he asked. Haichu's are this chewy think, about the size of a couple pieces of gum, that are oh so delicious. I'm not sure how else to describe them.
Right after break was Calculus, and our teacher came in claiming that he was concerned because none of us could really do the homework. We spent the entire lesson trying to make heads or tails of logarithms, which I still don't understand. History was next, and we were supposed to have a class presentation, but because the girl whose turn it was had been sick for a couple days, we talked about the Opium Wars instead (which I can now say in Chinese, by the way.)
Chris, Julia, Jamie and I all went out to lunch at a restaurant in the alley next to the school. We ordered a couple things of jing jiang rou si, which is pork that you wrap in tofu rolls, some beef soup, and a plate of broccoli for Julia, who is a vegetarian. Jamie and Julia were planning on going to "How to memorize characters" meeting that Mr. Bissell was having, but they decided that lunch was just too much fun. The owner, who was also taking the orders, was not particularly friendly, but we got our orders, and were done by about 1. Then, it was back up the stairs for us.
For the half hour I had before English started, I worked on history, and wrote some more in my blog. When English started, I was ready. I turned in my essay (after having to write a title in pen) and then we just talked about T.S. Eliot until the end of class. I have to say, I am not a big fan of poetry. We have to write a poem for English, and I am not looking forward to writing it. It is going to be a disaster.
After English, I had a free period, but I didn't know what to do with myself. I thought about going to a park, but I wanted to go with someone. My problems were solved when Chris said that he was going to his martial arts school in Beihai, and invited Warren and I to go with him. It was only a 20 minute taxi ride, so I put my bag in my locker, and went with Warren to buy hair gel (for him, not me) while Chris went to drop his stuff off at his house, which is right behind the school. We met up again in about 15 minutes, and jumped in a taxi.
This martial arts was swank. There is a lot you can say about martial arts, but their training places are nice. And this place definitely was. Everything just looked professional and lovely. There really is no other way to describe it. It was also insanely cheap, and if I wasn't booked full with all of my activities, I would be tempted. Again.
After that, none of us really wanted to go home. I, stupidly, had forgotten my cell phone in my locker, so I called Shi Laoshi, who is basically our substitute mom, to get her to text my host mom's cell phone number to Chris's phone so I could call her and let her know that we were going to go out to dinner. After assuring her where I was, us 3 foreigners had to find a place to eat dinner. We ended walking back to Beihai park, and then getting a rickshaw back to where we started. It was a lot of fun, because we got taken through hutongs, which are areas where the roads are really narrow, and we had a really friendly rickshaw driver. It was great.
We basically walked in the first restaurant we found, and tried to order. Unfortunately, all of us, ranging from Chinese 6 to Chinese 1, with me in the middle, couldn't really read the menu, so we just ordered a lamb dish and some rice. It was expensive, so we just got one dish, which actually wasn't bad. If you like lamb. Although I am finding that I can handle it more. I was out of money at this point (I only brought 100 kuai with me) so Chris paid for dinner, and we started walking. (It was also around this point that I stole both of their jackets, because I, of course, didn't bring mine. Sometimes I just want to hit myself.)
Still, no one wanted to go home, so we went to a lake to rent a boat. We stopped at a place where Warren's "lady friend" worked, but she wasn't there. Instead, we rented a boat for 70 kuai and motored around on a lake for an hour. It was pretty fun. Chris drove, because apparently, and I quote him here, "Stereotypically speaking, women and asians can't drive." Isn't that nice? Yeah, that's what I thought too. Hmph. We did a stealth run to an island in the middle of the lake, dropped Warren off, circled around, and then picked him up. He probably wasn't supposed to be there, but he was anyway. We only got honked at by the "harbor patrol" once, which is pretty good.
By the time we got off the boat, it was about 7:40. Warren called his lady friend, and she said stay where you are, I am coming. But I was getting restless, and didn't want to wait. Then, again, I was saved. Ian, another friend, called Chris, and invited him to the Night Market. Chris, in turn, invited both me and Warren. After another quick call to my mom, I decided to go, and we started walking to get a taxi. Warren, however, didn't come, because he didn't just want to leave and not tell his girl that he wasn't coming (even though she stood him up before.) So Chris and I took a quick 10 minute taxi to the night market, and started the next adventure.
I had no idea what the night market was, but then was informed that this was the place where the weird food was sold. Chris wanted to eat scorpions (and informed me that I too would be eating scorpions) so we set off in search of scorpions. There are food stalls that stretch on for about a 5 minute walk, so we walked up and down, looking for some. We found beetles first, and Chris bought some, because I was out of money. You buy 4 on a skewer, and then the fry it and hand it to you. I ate one, and Chris ate 2, and we gave the last one to a French couple. Beetles actually aren't that bad. They are just crunchy, and because they are fried, they don't really taste that bad. It was good. We attracted the attention of a french couple, who took pictures of Chris eating his beetle, and then we coerced them into splitting the 3rd one. They in turn pointed us towards the scorpions.
We bought 3 small scorpions on a skewer, and these too were fried. Scorpion was a little harder for me to eat, but eat it I did. Again, not a whole lot of taste. It just tastes like something with legs that has been fried. It wasn't that bad. We kept walking up and down the food stalls for about 15 more minutes (Chris ate the last beetle, and I ate the last scorpion, bring the total up to 1 beetle, 2 scorpions for me.) We crossed the road, and started looking in at shops and supermarkets on the other side of the road, while we waited for Ian to get there. We saw this little toy car that could break dance, basically. There is no other way to describe what it was doing. It was amazing.
We went upstairs to the top part of a camera shop, where the owner had set up his painting studio. It was amazing. He showed us a lot of his paintings (I think he wanted us to buy something) before we could extract ourselves. It was about that time that Chris got a call from Ian, who said he was at the Night Market, but didn't know how to get to where we were. (Little background. He is in Chinese 1, and he had taken the subway to get there, by himself. It was pretty ballsy.) We started walking down the road in search of him, and found him 10 minutes later under one of the big red arches of Wang Fu Jin.
Another 10 minute walk later, and we were back at the scorpion stall. Ian bought 3 of the small scorpions, and ate all of the them (although he got pictures, lucky guy) and attracted a crowd of Chilean tourists, who couldn't believe he was eating it. Then both him and and Chris bought a big black scorpion each, and ate them together (or they planned on it, but Chris ate his before Ian had even finished buying his.) The tourists were disgusted with this, but we just laughed it off. By this point it was about 9:30, and we had to be home.
Finding a taxi in that part of town was hard, and so we just started walking, and kept one arm out incase a taxi showed up. I knew where we were (I did, I swear on my life) and so we just kept walking down the street. Eventually (ie, 30 minutes later) we got a taxi, and headed back to school. We (although mostly Chris) talked to the driver, although we were distracted by a phone call from Warren, who was just leaving the lake, and had no money to get home via taxi. I'm actually not sure how he got home, although I have the sneaking suspicion that he ran home. Oops.
A few blocks before school, Ian hopped out of the taxi and started walking back to his house. Chris got out right before school, but asked the taxi driver to take me home, because I lived past the school. Thankfully, he knew my road, and had no problems taking me home. Chris gave me money, and hopped out of the car. 5 minutes later I was home.
I didn't have my key, as it was in my backpack at school, so I just knocked on the door, and was let in. I have the sneaking suspicion that at least my mom stayed up waiting for me to get home, which I feel bad about. I was absolutely exhausted, so after eating an apple (I eat a lot of apples here) I told them I'm sorry, but I have to go to bed. Now, I am in bed writing this, and I have to go to bed. This day was absolutely crazy. What started out as an innocent trip to the martial arts school snowballed into a much bigger adventure. It was a great night. How about those scorpions? I know what you are thinking, what have I been smoking right? Don't worry, I'll share. Later everyone.
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