Looking back November was extremely busy. I’ve never had so much to do ^_^ but I really enjoyed everything I’ve done.
A basic outline of the month (by my priorities positives to negatives)
- My birthday
- Personal trips around Nanjing
- Thanksgiving
- Getting to clean my room (finally one day to me!)
- Tons of changes in my schedule
- Mollie getting sick
My birthday was wonderful… well okay it was different. I tried hard to love it but the best times were when I was with Mollie and Steven, all the other things were a bit disappointing. 1st the plan was:
- Friday: Dinner and relaxation in DaChang
- Saturday: out with Lynn doing KTV and seeing the purple gold mountain in Fall. Then hit the bars with Mollie, Steven, our Chinese friends, and Steven’s Foreigner friends…
- Sunday: recoup, have a relaxed birthday morning before going to a park and dinner with Jack and Derek…
Unfortunately… my plans have a habit of rapidly changing to end up with: one dinner and cake Friday to which I was the attendee… woooo alone party! Lynn cancled so M, S and I went on a downtown favorite food hunt. Then Cas couldn’t make it to drinks and only steven’s friends showed up… they were great but they like louder parties and WAY more drinking than I do. Sunday we were at a museum… hungover and out without having eaten… ugh I loved the museum I just needed food water and a slower pace! having to run to keep up was not fun, and everyone trying to talk to me about things other than the museum while I looked was hard. I was a bit grumpy. The dinner was sadly a bit more challenging than I usually like as it was spicy, and had a lot of jellyfish. ah well it was for Jack’s birthday too, which is a few days after mine but 13 years before.
That was the negative… now lets see the happy bits!
- I got to eat at Skyway Bakery! I loved my plain sandwich and soda so much I was crying by the last bite.
- Next we wandered to what I would call a yard sale… only it was more like a bookstore that happened to not have a building.
- I then got to eat what was essentially the American version of Chinese food…. only in a fancy Chinese restaurant with Mollie and Steven. Where we spent our time laughing about how worried the waiters were at our cleaning of each and every plate, but refusing to order more food. 😊 It is not done to clean plates or not leave a bunch of food. However when it’s just us Americans we love to do it. Leftovers we take home, otherwise we join the clean plate club just to watch the waiters sweat– oh and because we like the food.
- I got to have my birthday party cake with Mollie and Steven after a hard Monday which made me nearly cry all over again.
I love the time I spend getting to talk English but I’m also proud every time I use Chinese properly . Such as the Thursday before my birthday where I was able to get help finding something in the store, say my order in the café and greet strangers on my walk! I’m getting better I can now almost say my Starbucks order without being super slow–I just have to try it in another store to see if I’m really doing it right. I can also tell little kids that they are VERY cute, or pretty which makes Steven’s students giggle and smile very big–which makes me happy since I was starting to get a big head about being called beautiful all the time.
I’ll write more about each of the trips I took another time, right now I have to get back to working on what on earth I should do for the Spring Holiday.
Side note: Mom, Dad everyone says the month of May is the very best time to visit Nanjing, it should not be too hot or rainy. If you saw the Chinese Holiday calendar you’ll also see there are a few festivals around that time too. I hope to see you and take you to all the best places in town.
Years Gone by 