I Have...

Friday was such a fun day! Bond paid for us teachers to take a bus to Guangzhou and go to the opening ceremonies to a week-long Guangdong province tourism convention. The show was a ton of fun and Jackie Chan even sang! I was thrilled to see him in real life. I'll post more about this with photos when I get Katsumoto (soon to be Kaito) up and running. According to the company from which I purchased his new drive, the package cleared customs nearly a week ago and should be here any day now.

For now, I'll just post something that doesn't require pictures.

Have you ever done anything on this list? The ones I have done will be in orange.
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity ('course, that was in high school when more than I could afford was twenty bucks. actually, that's still more than I can afford. huh.)
7. Been to Disneyland (wo ai Disneyland!)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo (karaoke ^_^)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (does the art of sock knitting count?)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (been to it, was unable to go to top)
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train (heh - "slept")
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Ran a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (again, back in high school before I came to China. twice. >_<)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant (though I might have by the end of the day. long story.)
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance (after the wreck, right, Mom?)
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (not a pleasant memory. having a nervous breakdown underwater in full scuba gear is unsettling.)
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China (YES!!)
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class (VERY YES!!!)
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (not allowed, as we lived in Holland when I was a wee 'un)
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi concentration camp
67. Bounced a check (technically it was an online payment via my checking account)
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square ("Yatta!")
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible (working on that. Chronicles 2, chapter 5)
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (best turkey I ever ate)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous (Ray Park = Toad from the X-Men movies and Darth Maul)
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee (heh - first time was on my rear)

Kung Fu Photos!

Photo time!

Tara was kind enough to let me load some of my pictures on her computer so I could post them here. Thanks, hon!

Kung fu was a blast tonight. We spent the beginning half of class going over our form, and then we filmed it. Then we all took pictures together and goofed around. It's times like these when I most wish I could speak Chinese. Laoshi and Kyle don't speak any English, which is a bit of a hassle, but does come in handy sometimes when we're gushing over them like teenage girls. ^_^

From left to right: Tara, Jessie, Laoshi Steve, Paulina, Cherstan, me

Kyle and I

Isn't he cute? Mmm.

Kung fu pose!

Laoshi and Kyle show off their sweet side kicks. They're not as solid as Mr. Tatton's kicks, but still pretty nice.

Knitting, Kung Fu, and More

Living without Katsumoto, I have discovered, really stinks. I've had to use the school computers for emailing, and when I want to talk to my family I have to borrow my friends' lappies. It's been a big hassle. You never realize how much you love something until you have to give it up.

Let's see. Much of this past week has been occupied with more knitting. Since I finished my scarf, I haven't been doing a lot of knitting, especially because I could not find needles or yarn anywhere here. I've seen ladies knitting here a lot, but I just didn't know where they were getting their stuff. Last week I found this great little shop that has tons of yarn and needles for cheap. Yarn in the States is really expensive, so I'm going to stock up before I leave.

I've been working on a pair of socks the past few days. It's my first attempt at making socks, and so far it has been going well. Of course, I've only been doing the easy part. I have just gotten to the part with the heel where it starts getting tricky. I will be able to figure it out ok, I think.

Tonight for kung fu we're going to be doing the form we learned and Laoshi (teacher) is videotaping the class. Should be a lot of fun! I've been going to the school-offered kung fu classes every week. It's not the same as taekwondo with my friends back home, but it's still martial arts. It's really cool, because the school kung fu teacher teaches this class once a week for the ILP teachers and we can go for free.

Actually, in addition to kung fu, Laoshi does Olympic taekwondo. I'm not bragging or anything, but I have always been the best in our class, which is perfectly natural considering my martial arts background. When Laoshi found out that I also do taekwondo and am a red belt, he was really excited. One night, after he had shown us a new move in our form, he had me come up to the front of the class to be part of a demonstration. The move was something like an outside block that you do with your foot behind your opponent's leg so they fall backwards. Laoshi's assistant, Kyle, stood behind me, and Laoshi did the move. As expected, I fell right over. Instead of Kyle catching me, though, he lost his balance as well and we both went toppling into a hedge. It was embarrassing.

Then, to further the embarrassment, the next week in class Laoshi made me spar him. Yep. I had to fight this teeny Chinese guy who's been doing taekwondo since he was a kid (I asked him). The worst part (other than everyone watching me make a fool of myself) was that since he does Olympic taekwondo, my technique and style is drastically different from his. The whole time he was trying me to do the kicks like he was, which goes completely against my training. It was awful!

Other than those humiliating incidents, kung fu has been great. Even though Laoshi thinks my taekwondo is rotten, I'm still best in the class and Kyle the assistant laoshi has a crush on me. :) Tonight I'm going to take my camera and get some photos of everyone. I'll post 'em when I get the chance.

Computer Woes

RATS!

My hard drive failed last night.

I was watching a movie while uploading photos online for my blog (I was going to post about my weekend in Chengdu with my aunt and uncle), when my computer suddenly started acting all slow-ish and stuff. I tried to quit the other applications, but it just froze up. Restarting it obviously was not the thing to do, for when my beloved Katsumoto booted up, all that was to be seen on the screen was a flashing '?' symbol.

Great.

It isn't as bad as it could be, because I have an external hard drive and I'd backed up my lappy the day before I'd left for Chengdu, but I did lose the photos I took there. *sigh* Oh well. I ordered a new hard drive online, and hopefully it will get here in the next two or three weeks. The irony in the situation is that I've been looking into upgrading my hard drive for about two months, as my old 80-giger was dangerously close to being full, and I had to keep deleting things to keep it all going. The one I've got coming is 250 gigs, and I got it for a pretty good deal.

Man, this bites. You have my apologies, as this blog will be significantly less exciting for the next few weeks. Text-only posts... mmm.

See?! See?!

My leg totally looks like plastic in this picture.  Sick.

I told you it was bad.  Gah - and right before I go on vacation.  Totally not fair.  For those of you who can appreciate this reference, I feel like a koloss  - my skin all stretched and stuff.  I'm probably going to have stretch marks on my shin now.  Just what I always wanted!

Because My Students are Just Too Cute

These are some Halloween worksheets that my students did last week.  I just loved the drawings!

Simone (pronounced Simona)

Nicole (this is arguably my favorite)

Catherine

Michelle

Stephanie

Ken, my only boy

Shareena

Aren't they cute?  

Ouch

I mentioned in my Halloween post that I'd fallen while getting out of some exercise equipment and bruised my shin pretty badly.  Ta daaa!  My humongous bruise.  These pictures don't do it justice at all.  Unfortunately for me, my bruises tend to stay nice and normal flesh-colored, so they're never very obvious.

The whole thing has swelled to the size of my hand and is very tender to the touch.  It's painful to walk very far or quickly.  So much for my promise to run five days a week, Mom.  My only consolation is that it looks worse as time passes, so hopefully it will be downright horrifying in a few days.  After all, what's the point in having a minor injury if you can't show it off?

You can kind of see the swelling in this photo.  It really is bad - my shin is now convex rather than concave.

It's lame, but this is probably the worst injury I've had in several years.  I am lucky in that I've never broken a bone or needed stitches.  Heck, I don't think I've ever properly sprained anything, either.  Hopefully that luck continues for the rest of my stay here.