I'm back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello!

Sorry that I haven't been writing for a bit.  I really appreciate everyone who checked in on me!  A few weeks ago, I stopped getting Internet on my computer.  My landlord helped me discover that it wasn't the Internet connection, but my computer!

Uh oh!  Not having a working computer so far away from home is no fun. 

I spent a few long mornings at the Apple Fix-It place.  Luckily, when I looked up the hours to the Apple store in Beijing, I learned that I had to go to another place for repairs.  I spent a long taxi ride getting there with a taxi driver who had no clue where she was going and kept stopping the car to get out and ask people where she was taking this crazy foreigner.  Well... that's how I imagined their conversation going!  She eventually just dropped me off and I went around begging people with help with my Beijinger guide book in hand.  People were super helpful, and a few people called people to translate!  Eventually, I made it to the Fix It place.  

The Fix-It people were very helpful.  Luckily, there was one person who was able to translate for me.  He told me that there was something wrong with my motherboard, but if I bought a portable hard drive, saved everything I needed, I would be able to go back and have them re-install my computer.  They were nice enough to tell me where to go to buy a portable hard drive since they thought that the Mac ones were way too expensive.  It made me trust them more.

I spent one crazed Saturday night finding the mega computer parts store!  My friends at work told me how to get the subway mostly there and then told me to take a taxi the rest of the way. I was able to buy the hard drive pretty easily, and even bargained the price down, which is something I'm not good at or known to do, but the adorable Apple Fix-It dude told me to not pay more than a certain price.  I got back into another taxi after I made my purchase feeling victorious!  I asked the taxi driver to take me to the subway in Mandarin and, of course, he could not understand my awful Mandarin.  A lot of random hand gestures and clarifying went back and forth between us, and he finally said, in English, "Subway, line two!" and I was so excited that I said, "Si, senor!"  He looked at me like I was a crazy foreigner, which, I am!  It was hysterical.  You just can't make up stuff like that!  

Last Monday, I made my way back to the Apple Fix-It place and they reinstalled a new system on my computer, which I appreciated greatly.  My landlord came back over that night and after an hour of us staring at my computer and both of us phoning friends for help and translation, we got the PPOE installed again onto my computer.  I was with Internet again, but lost a lot of my applications.  

Eventually, with some help from friends at work, I now have an "American" computer again, but now set to Beijing time, and a VPN again!  I can now surf the Internet as I please!  It's amazing what they block over here.  I couldn't check most of the news sites I look at... even parts of The Oregonian were blacked out for me.  

So... the big events lately in my life.... I really missed being home for Thanksgiving.  I had to take a test in the morning of Thanksgiving and had to think in a British accent in order to attempt at getting the stress syllable questions right.  I had to memorize the phonetic chart, which was quite an undertaking!  I've been learning a lot of phonics in the last couple of weeks.  However, when I came back in that day after a little break, a package was waiting from home!  My mom sent me a microwaveable box of turkey and stuffing and potatoes.  It was pretty awesome, and had such perfect timing.  I ate my sent turkey dinner, along with some dragonfruit (had to have something Chinese in my Thanksgiving meal) and watched some "Everybody Loves Raymond" Thanksgiving episodes.  Bit of a lonely Thanksgiving, but I think it will help me appreciate being at home more during my holiday!

This past Tuesday, I ran a special workshop on free writing in late elementary and high school classes.  It was at Claire's new school, which is absolutely beautiful.  It took forever to get over there.  Marie, her boyfriend, King, and I took about two hours to get there by subway!  I am so thankful I don't have to take the subway to get to work every day!  Not having a bathroom in the school is odd, though, but there is a public restroom not that far away.  The school is in a huge mall.  We were all excited because there was a nice bakery on the first floor.  Anyways... the workshop went really well.  The only people who came to mine were people from my school and Nick's girlfriend who works at another school.  We shared some our own writing and talked about the writing we do with our students.  It was really special.  Miles taped it for me, and he showed me an edited cut of it today.   I really feel proud of it, and I hope it will be useful when I start my next job search.  

I came home that evening and had no electricity, and the banks had just closed!  I went out to run errands, and came back to read by candlelight!  My sister sent me a book about a girl who is forced to live on a pioneer farm for a summer, and it was quite fitting!

Yesterday morning, I got up early to get to the International bank to transfer some money over and to buy some electricity.  When I got home, I was so psyched to have electricity again!  I went to teach my ladies at the shelter.  My intermediate class was as lovely as ever, and my beginners are learning the parts of the body and are learning so quickly, it's pretty amazing!

That evening, I met my friend Cindy and a few of her friends to celebrate her birthday.  We had dinner at the hippie Western restaurant that I adore in the Lama Temple Hutong.  I had another yummy garden burger.  We ended the night KTVing it, and a few other girls from work were able to meet up with us!  It was a fun night!

I'll end this obnoxiously long blog with a cute story.  One of my Thursday evening classes has decided that my name is "Coco" now.  They scream with laughter over it.  Tonight, during our special welcome circle time were I ask all the children their names and "How are you?" they all said, "My name is Coco!"  with maniacal giggling following it!  They would whisper to each other, "Say Coco!" while I was asking them the question.  It was actually pretty heartwarming...

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!