So, we decided that have a birthday party for our class. We had celebrated Valentines Day (red hearts everywhere and a heart shaped jello mold...they loved jello!), Christmas (told the Christmas story, talked about the tree and gifts), Easter (Resurrection story, bunny time), and now it was time for a birthday! So, we went in search of a cake. We found this random bakery next to the McD's, and with some creative gesturing, they figured out what we wanted. I was pretty happy! Their cakes are cooked with boil water or something like that and have fruit on them and inside...very different from American cakes. I didn't care for it, but it was a new experience and the kids liked it! We bought them little 1 yuan gifts and wrapped them up and gave them and we had candles and hats and a Happy Birthday sign and we sang to them. It was great!!! They loved it and so did we. Then we watched a movie, and they didn't really understand it because it was in English, but they understood some of the antics...it was cute! I miss those kids!

One of the memories I had was during recess when the kids were sent into the hall to play and I sat in the air conditioned classroom getting ready for the next hour, they would bang so loudly on the door and call, "teeechaaa" It was so helpless and cute, but those evil little boogers wanted it so they could make a mess and reak havoc (sp?) I started making them stay out until it was time for next period.

One student kept bringing dried squid to class and it stunk up the entire class! WHen I finally realized what was making the stench, I started making him leave it in the hall. Sick...

One of the students was talking about how she did homework all night...we never gave them homework. I'm still trying to figure that one out...

OOoo one of my most fondest (yes it is a word) memories was when we made brownies at midnight! We were in the apartment just doing nothing and Nathaniel found a box of brownies. He wanted to make them, but they were Jacob's and he had been saving them for his classs. So Nathaniel asked Jacob and he said to go for it so we did and make yummy gooey brownies at midnight! That was sooo fun!!

I went to a park with one of the girls and they had all these strange looking theme park rides but they were really small and it wasn't a theme park. They looked kinda old, but I said, "Hey, if I'm gonna die I might as well die in China lol!" So we rode them and had a blast! Then we got icecream and...guess...McD's!! We ate a lot of hamburgers and chicken nuggets. We saw these people out on the lake in these massive clear plastic bubbles just floating around...I love China lol.

When we were in the Summer Palace back in Beijing, we had to use the restroom REALLY bad. We had noooo idea where it was in that HUGE place, so I stood in the middle of the square and yelled in my best Chinese if anyone spoke English. Blank stares. So I flagged this guy down, squatted in front of him, and put my hands up in a "where?" gesture. He got it!!! It was soo proud of myself. :D We found the bathroom and it was wonderful...and gross lol!

We were on a really long taxi ride, and we were bored so we got out the camera and decided to sing to the taxi driver (who was sooo precious!!) He just laughed and had no clue what we were singing, but we sang Hey Jude, Take Me to Your Heart, and Mary had a Little Lamb lol. A random mix of songs, but we did it. It was quite entertaining. We even had harmony on the last song thanks to Richard!

One night RIchard and I went to coffee at around 11pm and we were out until about 1. Well, our curfew was 2, so I was back in plenty of time. I had a key and I was really proud of myself that I was back in time. I got to my floor and said goodbye to Richard and went to my door. Put the key in, turned it, pushed the door open, and BAM! The safety lock was on! 1am...safety lock...sleeping team mates...what do I do? I realized that I had forgot to sign out (our method of letting people know who was gone for safety purposes) and they thought I was in bed so they locked me out! I must have banged on the door and called outloudly for 30 mintues..I didn't think to go down and page them lol (which was really loud when you did it.) FINALLY the team lead--of all people--opened the door. I was let in, and I went to bed...but my goodness I don't think she was happy with me. lol...cest la vie!

We were at Walmart and decided to ride the very sketchy and apparently dangerous motor bikes to the shopping area to shop. Well, we somehow (miracles happen) communicated to them where we want to go, and we hopped on. I was in a skirt...hmmm...fill that in. Well, we got there, went shopping, and literally like 4 hours later (no joke!) we came out to go back to the apartment. About 7 guys on motor bikes were waiting for us. "We saw you come in on one of those." They said in a devious little voice with a smirk. LOL!! We never laughed louder. I had just gotten my hair washed and straightened (ahhh!!!!!!! so nice!) and so I didn't wanna mess it u.p. We took the taxi.