Christmas Tree in April.

I haven't blogged in over a week. That is a bad idea when you live a life as strange as mine and want to remember all the quirks and daily happenings. That is the main reason I keep this blog...to be able to look back and laugh.

Lat week's blog hiatus was brought on by the fact that I was angry the whole week. Teaching a class on "stereotypes" to Chin.ese college students is like teaching mice they shouldn't eat cheese. It's just not possible to get through to them. All in all the week was fine, my students are presh heads even when they say awful things like, "black people are so pity" and "all Japa.nese are evil." It has been a long road learning to not judge them personally for the things they have ingrained in their minds and it causes me to take a hard look at my own prejudices. It was in interesting week. And I am glad it is over.

This week was fun and interesting.

On Monday I went bowling with a few friends to say goodbye to our Chin.ese friend Siyana. She moved to Libya on Wednesday to be a translator for a Chin.ese contruction company. Siyana is the third Chin.ese friend I have had move to Africa in the past 2 years. It is interesting because just last weekend I was reading an article in the New York Times about Chin.a and Afri.ca's relationship. And then the next day I was at a goodbye party for someone whose live exactly reflects the news article. Surreal. Living here is like living in the "international" tab of the New York Times.

It definitely makes the news stories more personal.

If you don't know about the relationships between Africa.n countries and Chin.a it is worth looking into. I would post a link here, but I don't want to draw attention to my blog. :)

Yesterday was poetry group, dinner with the girls, and a night out at the winery. At Poetry we read "My Life" by Billy Collins in which he compares his life to various things like a hallway with a thousand doors or a breeze touching everything on a lake. We talked baout what we would compare our lives to and I said, "A Christmas tree in April." As you can see from the photographic evidence, the coffee shop has just decorated for Christmas. Not quite sure why now in April they have decided miniature Christmas trees would be a good addition to the decor. Our Chin.ese counterparts didn't quite see the humor in it, but I was giggling through the whole meeting.

I also had an interesting experience yesterday, I went and bought Chin.ese contacts. i just took my old boxes into the store, asked for contacts and asked them if htey had my "number". They sell Acuvue, but not the same exact kind I am used to. In about 10 minutes I walked out the door wearing new contacts.

This weekend I have nothing planned. I have been contemplating going somewhere because Monday is a national holiday so I have 5 days off (well, 3.5 now). I am thinking I might get on a bus tomorrow and go somewhere alone.

Now I am sitting here, eating a mango, trying not to drip it all over my computer, and wishing I had given more detail to this post. Missing so many days of blogging makes all the events watered down! Oh well.

Here's some photographic evidence:

Off to Libya she goes!

Poetry group and the Christmas tree:

my "foreign friends." When we are all together Chin.ese people often say to each other "they are all a different color" and try to guess where we are from: AMER.ICA (all but the Danish sweet pea to my left). Little do they know we all understand them and laugh:

Walk Slow. xo