1 week, no internet, so much to say.

First of all, Merry Christmas! Sorry it's a couple days late, but my internet decided to grant me with the pleasure of not working Christmas morning while I was trying to FaceTime my family. It was great. I hope all of you got everything you hoped and dreamed of and ate lots of Western food for me! The 24th consisted of hanging out with the one and only Linda. We got head massages and went to the Friends Cafe. This cafe is a replica of the one in the "Friends" TV show so it was pretty cool. We spent our day watching reruns and eating things that make us happy :)

The 25th Linda was sick so she couldn't go to lunch with Patricia's family which was sad :( but I had a blast and I can't wait to go to Spain and hang out with them more this summer.

Next on the agenda was walking around aimlessly until I had to go back for "Christmas Dinner."

Note: Just in case it ever comes up, never break in heals walking around Beijing....

uhhhhh I taught my babies how to rollerblade! I 100% believe that every child needs to own a pair of rollerblades before they are old with bad knees. I remember as a kid cruising around on those things like I was James Bond. I'm pretty sure Tab, Kev, and I could take on the world as long as we had our skates. 

Next on the agenda: I'm a professional bargainer. I have them wrapped around my finger! Even though at the time the whole place smelled like garlic and cologne you couldn't get me out of there. It's so fun fighting with Chinese people! haha I never knew I would enjoy something so much. Anyway, I got some killer stuff!

Friday was our agency Christmas party. We got to stay in a hostel for the night and just chill out with everyone. We met two noobs, Seamus and Jessica, they don't live in Beijing. So now everyone, mark it down in your journals or whatever you have, LUCY HAS TWO NEW FRIENDS! haha I can tell you are all so excited about it :) and get this, Seamus has a British accent...... so I'm in love. Anyway..... we ate pizza and dumplings, played this game, went out, tried to take two umbrellas off the ceiling but then felt guilty, everyone fell asleep in mine and Linda's bed and ya! It was a good time, nice to get away from the house for once.

 

Linda and Danny

   

The umbrellas....

and my new best friend, Seamus

On Sunday I got to sleep until 8:30! That was probably a once in a lifetime thing to happen, but I sure did enjoy it! After breakfast they said we were going iceskating so I grabbed my coat and went out to the car. Next thing I know we are at this hill with snow all over it. I guess they mixed up skiing and iceskating. haha It was so fun though! They have the worst fake snow on Earth and I had to ride a righty snowboard even though I'm goofy, but I wouldn't take it back for anything. It was so nice being out there again. It's weird not to get to go whenever I want when I'm used to having a ski resort in my back yard. I taught my host dad how to board and Jerry got a ski instructor for an hour. There was one really small hill (green), a medium (blue) and a "large hill (black)," but I wouldn't really call the large one a black. More like half a green. haha After the hour was up I had about 30 people at the bottom of the hill cheering for me like I was a professional. I really don't think girls are very athletic here.

After skiing we went to this spa place. It's really hard to explain but pretty much it just has hundreds of hot tubs everywhere. It was legit. I have to take my mom.

soooo ya! Those are what my life has been consisting of! Sorry to keep out of touch for so long, not really anything I can do about the internet though. Love you all!

oh and one last thing - my life = food baby.

xoxo

Sunday, December 22nd.

I have come to realize in this crazy, crazy life that we are not grateful enough for the things we have. What has caused this realization? Sitting in the play room of my new China home feeling sorry for myself due to a bad day. Just that sentence itself is sad - I’m in China for heavens sake, having an experience that 90 percent of people won’t ever have in their lives, and I’m about to have a meltdown. Really not being in the mood to break down in front of my host family I get up, and walk away shouting that I’ll be back in an hour. Walking up the stairs, almost in tears, I know there is only one thing that will put this emotion aside. Run like I won’t be able to feel my legs tomorrow. Well that or eat a box of Cheez-its, but that isn't really an option since I happily ate my last serving a week ago… So running is what I did. Layer after layer was packed onto my body  and I cautiously stepped out into the 10pm, polluted night. The first step was medicating, already releasing the bad energy of the day. Thoughts came and went - why do they think I’m their pack mule? Why can’t they figure out how to say thank you when I do the dishes every night without being asked? Why can’t I have any space? Why won’t the host mom stop trying to hold my hand? And then it suddenly stopped. And instead of feeling sorry for myself I felt foolish, foolish for only taking in the negative while i am having such a beautiful experience. And then I felt sorry for them due to my rude thoughts and awful attitude. This needs to change. Everyone is granted a bad day every once in a while, but don’t hold that bad energy in you. It is so unhealthy. Get it out, think about all the great things you have to be thankful for. We all have way more than we need but seem to keep asking for more.

My legs seemed to be moving faster and faster and my thoughts were pouring out of my mouth. That’s right, I was actually speaking out loud to myself. I don’t know what had gotten into me but poor Chinese people that had to witness the American sprinting down the road talking to herself. As my legs began to tire all I could think about was the homeless man that I pass on my way to Chinese class every Tuesday and Thursday. He has no feet. Suddenly my legs weren't tired anymore. I thought about the bed I sleep on that doesn’t have a mattress, just wood, and then remembered the old woman carrying the two children on her bare back, begging people for anything. I doubt she is worrying about a mattress. My belly is full for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. I have the most amazing family that would run around the world for me. I have friends that would capture a star for me if they could. I have the free agency to make the universe my adventure if I want to and become my hopes and dreams. I have a happy personality and an overused smile. So what’s the problem? Why am I letting this day overwhelm me to the point of tears? Because they don’t thank me? Shouldn't we be doing service without expecting anything in return, even if it’s as simple as a thank you? They throw everything at me like I’m their donkey but I need to stay strong somehow right? Why won’t they give me any space? Because they like me! They enjoy spending time with me! Why am I thinking about this in a bad way? Lets all just be a little more thankful for the things we have in our lives. The hard days teach us and the good days reward us. Just remember my motto - it could always get worse.

xoxo

Long time no see!

It has been awhile and I am sorry, but there is absolutely nothing I can do about my internet not working for a week. China seriously gets the first place award for WORST INTERNET EVER!

Christmas is just awful. haha it's so sad because there are some decorations, but they have no idea what they are even celebrating! They just want to be like everyone else. It will be sad waking up on Christmas and it just being a normal day to everyone here. I'll hang in there though. Always do. Wouldn't mind if anyone FaceTimed me (wink wink nudge nudge). oh, and p.s. this post is just going to be a whole bunch of random nonsense. Have fun! 

I run past this soccer field everyday, and when I went past there were about 5 Chinese guys just passing the ball around and shooting. Me not being a shy person went up and asked if any of them spoke English (which is a dumb question because they never do) but one of them miraculously did! I was pumped! I asked if I could play with them and he was so excited. They got really nervous which was cute. By the end of it though there were about 50 other Chinese guys playing with us. It was so entertaining and felt so good to be back on the field. I still got it :)

I made these flash cards for Jerry because he really struggles with reading and making words and when we were practicing them he started screaming that he didn't want to do it anymore and just wanted to play. I sat there for about 10 minutes trying to calm him down but it ended up to a pair of scissors launched at my face and a screaming boy telling me to go back to America. haha so that's going really well. But after Grandma wrote on our translation app that their fist au pair would go crazy with stuff like that. She wouldn't handle it well but she has noticed that "I have a very calm spirit which is loving and stable and she really appreciates that about me." It was awesome getting praise from her because it's hard to come by. 

My Chinese name is Mu dan (minus the tones) which means Peony tree flower. This flower is the king of all flowers and stands for beautiful and gentle. So I'm pumped about that too :) haha I gave grandma and grandpa an English name because they said I could choose anything I wanted and I ended up with Barbra and Bobby. hahaha it fits them perfectly. 

Merry Christmas!
Xoxo

Dalian Peking Opera

The Beijing Opera is named a "must see" by many tourism sites and people. Lucky enough Linda's host mother gave her two tickets and she was crazy enough to invite me! The first thing I said to her, "This is me warning you that I am going to laugh through the entire thing. I can't control my giggles with normal opera music so I can't even imagine it in Chinese!" 

She told me that she would just pretend she didn't know me :) Oh boy was I right though. The first person that walked onto the stage was applauded with my laughter and snorts of trying to keep it in. And don't even get me started on when someone opened their mouth. I was in tears trying so hard to keep everything under control. At least when I looked over Linda was in the exact same state of chaos that I was dealing with.

Now lets get to the point. Do I think the Beijing Opera is a must see? Well considering we walked out half way through because we couldn't handle it anymore (and not because we were laughing), no, I don't. It was AWFUL! The most entertaining part about it was whenever the audience would think something was cool or they enjoyed it everyone would yell/grunt EUH at exactly the same time. The first time it happened the look that Linda and I exchanged should have been on television. We completely lost it. But ya, there was hardly any singing and when there was it was piercing and gave me an automatic headache. It didn't help that we had no idea what was going on either…. There were two scenes in the whole entire thing and they hardly moved or did anything. Let me tell you about my version of the story was:

Some woman is fighting all of these random people and then they leave and she twirls batons for an hour straight while the audience is grunting. Then she becomes some maid for an old, creepy guy and they flirt and it gets weird and that's about another hour. So that just about sums up the "must see" of Beijing. I left feeling at a loss of my life. At least we didn't have to pay for the tickets ourselves :)

 

This is the best bakery ever.

That thing on the left is considered a baked potato

These seats right here are 800 yuan!

We were going for the "sophisticated/tourist" look

First scene.

 The baton lady….

and the second scene

Yuanmingyuan Park