Long story short:
Wake up: 6:30
Breakfast: Walnut milk and some kind of pastry like substance?
Class: Our teacher was handing back out homework and she said that I did the best on it. While I wish I could be proud of this, it’s because my host sister helped me with 70% of it and would explain why I did something wrong when I did make a mistake. So while I wish I could say I’m just an expert at Chinese, it’s really because I had expert Chinese help. Ines brought some kind of cake roll to school and didn’t like it, so she gave it to me. I have no idea what was in it, but it got me frickin’ zazed. I ate it during the first class and was fine until the second class. I could not sit still and felt like I needed to take a lap around the school (which I kind of did during the second break). Thankfully, Sam Chan left his fidget spinner in our classroom and playing with that actually did help me focus while I was waiting for the sugar high to die down. I was fine mid-way through the second class. Our teacher taught us 啪啪啪 which is slang for "sex" in Chinese. This girl has no chill and I love her so much for it. I was telling Ben about this and then the teacher came up to us and “这是啪啪啪” along with hand motions. I’ve never felt so shook.
Sam Chan the man: Today was Sam’s 18th birthday, so Margie bought him a cake and we got to eat it while we finished up everyone’s IOPP.
Cultural activity: We folded and cut paper flowers. Our teacher then gave us tea candles and we got to place them inside the flower. I was trying to take an aesthetic photo, but everyone kept adding their flowers to the photo. I started counting and realized that if we added a few more, we’d have 18 and then Sam could actually blow out some birthday candles. It was actually pretty fun.
KTV: I just can’t stay away can I? This time only five of us went, which actually made the situation a lot more fun. In ranking the KTV events, I’d say the first time with my host family was the most fun, followed by this KTV outing, and then ending with the one from last week.
6th tallest building in China: After KTV, Jessica took me to the 6th tallest building in China, which just so happens to be a business hotel. It is the fanciest place I’ve ever seen, and I thought the mall at 新街口 was fancy. Like, this place had buttons to turn on and off the sink ad well as buttons to adjust the temperature of the water. If you want to go to the top floor, you have to take an elevator to the 45 floor and then transfer to the fancy elevators. You enter the floor number you want to go to and then a letter will glow indicating the elevator that’s coming to get you. And unlike conventional elevators, this one will take you directly to the floor you want with no stops along the way. It moves so fast that you can feel the pressure changing in your ears. The view is absolutely breathtaking when you’re 74 floors above the city. You can really tell how smoggy the atmosphere is from that height, but that doesn’t take away the beauty of the scenery. And then there’s the pool area. It looks like a sky garden up there, so Jessica and I just lounged in the chairs and talked for an hour. It was awesome.
Subway: The subway I entered was the blue one (bleh), so I had to do a line transfer in order to get to the purple line, but it wasn’t a big deal. I knew how to get home. When I did, my host family was really confused because they didn’t understand how I managed to get myself home without aid from someone. It’s hard not being able to speak the language because they kind of assume I just don’t know much. And to be fair, I get that, but I am 18. I think I can handle myself.
Dinner: We went to a 苏州 restaurant near our house and had the best noodles I’ve ever eaten in my life. My host family also learned that I don’t like spicy food and they got the food without spice for me. They’re so sweet.
