I'm Still Here!

Sorry it's been so long since I updated this! My birthday and Christmas were lots of fun and doing some travelling while on school break was also great. It's good to be back home though! When I arrived back, the first thing I discovered was that our water had been turned off, even though we'd paid our bill. Home Sweet Home!! Called the apartment complex guy and he looked around and found a water leak in the pipe to our solar water heater on the roof. They must have found it while I was gone and just turned off our water. So my first day home I got the water repaired. It only took one day!!! (this is extremely impressive because our leaky sink took two months) The two weeks before vacation our house's four little space heaters each broke. So my second day back I went and got some more. By about the third day, I was cozy again. It's good to be home despite the mafan (meaning trouble-one of my favorite words-it's use is way better than in English. It also communicates "Ackkk!!!!" "Grrrrr...." "Oh brother!", and a host of other random things I like to say when frustrated). I hope that Valentines Day went well back home! I didn't know it was Valentines Day until the day was half over. When there aren't any supermarkets selling candy hearts and boxed chocolates, how was I supposed to remember???? Don't worry, we're ready for the early Easter. We have plastic eggs spread on some plastic pink grass on our coffee table. What else could we need?? :)

My Birthday

I thought I'd update you all on my birthday. It was great. I woke up and my roommate had hung large snowflakes from the dining room ceiling, put out all my presents and set out chocolate chip birthday muffins! Definately a good start! I opened presents from my family, roommate and friends. Then went to lunch with my roommate. But she tricked me--it was a surprise party lunch at a western restaurant in town. All of my foreign friends were there. I ate pizza, salad, and some chicken stuffed with bacon (REALLY GOOD). I rested for the afternoon and then had a rollerskating party with my local friends that evening. After rollerskating we came back to my house and ate cake and ice cream (my second birthday cake that day). :) Overall, an excellent day!

Merry Christmas

Christmas has finally come to my city! I was out today and saw a Christmas tree in a store! ...Along with all the America-rejected Christmas ornaments (this is our theory since they're all so gaudy). But, I was so excited to see those cheesy santa claus signs and banners and wreaths! Only in a couple of stores, it's true, but it made me happy. Yeah- it feels a little like Christmas here. Please don't misunderstand, we've had our Christmas tree up a good while already....hehe. It went up a few days before thanksgiving because we got it and didn't have anywhere else to put it! I'll have to post a picture for you. It's huge-almost touching the ceiling, but get this, the bottom tier of the tree has already been thrown away! Yes, the tree is so tall it wouldn't fit in our house had we kept it!!! (we didn't buy it, a friend gave it to us....) So, it's very nice, but in need of some more ornaments! We have so few for such a huge tree! I've never even had such a large tree in America!
So with Christmas approaching, we're gearing up for Christmas parties with our teachers at school, our national friends, and of course, with our American ones too. The Christmas season is pretty busy around here as well. Our first party is this Thursday (I'll have to take pictures). Our teachers are coming over to help make ornaments for our tree out of the flour-salt-water recipe (or something like that) that you bake till it gets hard. House cleaning! By the way, we've had someone come over to fix our leaking sink seven times. Literally, no exaggeration. I was just counting on my fingers. It's leaking worse now than it ever has! When you walk into the kitchen and cause ripples across the floor, you know it's bad. I miss my dad! (he can fix anything) I've made so many phone calls trying to get it fixed, all in Chinese, that I'm very very tired of it. I do now know how to say "sink," "leak," "lots of water," and "not fixed!" :) So I suppose I should think of this as a positive experience, however, I learned all these words when the second fix-it man came! I think I've had enough review, lol. Well, now you are very updated on all the mundane things in Amber's life at the moment.

Today

Life here continues on…I’m excited about Christmas already!!! (I always am…). Just listening to Christmas music reminds me of home and good times, and makes me happy. Today was Halloween. My big celebration was bringing a candy corn mix my mom sent me to language classes. All the foreign students liked me a lot today! Hehe. Oh, and a goofy classmate wrapped toilet paper around his head and hands and came to class as a mummy. I think he definitely receives the most-inexpensive costume award! What else did you miss from my life today? Hmmm….Milo is our dog, and he ate the stale tortilla out of my bedroom trash can today, while managing to drag trash all into the room. He is very talented. We have one of those press-the-pedal-with-your-foot-and-the-lid-opens trash cans in the kitchen (do those things have a name?). Milo can open it too (it’s not very tall). We have to be rather studious about taking out the trash frequently. You also missed the fourth day in a row that I went and worked out at the gym! For those of you who know me really well, you know that this has never happened in my life, and as such is a huge achievement. I joined the gym cuz I figured the couch potato diet just wasn’t cutting it. Really, it’s true. I went. Not lying!
I also found real whole wheat bread today at a bread store. AND it tastes good! As you can tell, this has been a very important day.
Oh, here’s a picture of Milo. He was all dressed up for our barbecue last summer.

The Big City

I recently was able to do some travelling to see some famous sites! I went with some friends and a great time! We saw the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven, Tianamen Square, and the Forbidden City. Oh, along with seeing (and eating) some great food! I got to eat a bloomin' onion from outback. That's pretty special in this part of the world...lol.
Now I'm back in my city and back in everyday life. I have to say that traveling is wonderful, but one of the wonderful parts is coming home. I really like being home a lot. Living here is my home, at least for now, and I love it. Father has truly blessed me to be able to live here and do what I do. I miss the States and my family and Walmart, but all the sacrifices are worth it. My daily life consists of studying language, visiting and spending time with friends, walking and biking through villages, running after buses, and deciding what to eat besides rice (this may be the most difficult part....). My hobbies have become playing the piano (i just bought an electric piano, yeah!), reading, painting, playing games, taking pictures, and crafting (knitting, crocheting, cross-stitch), oh and interior decorating (my living room has been given an overhaul! my bedroom's next) :) I enjoy it here and I know I've been placed here for a purpose!

Western Food

Just recently I travelled to a bigger city. It's the only place I can buy cereal! I'm not a big cereal fan, but it's still exciting. You can find pepperidge farm cookies and goldfish (but hey, they cost about 6 US$ and so I didn't buy those...however I splurged on laffy taffy, ravioli, corned beef hash, bacon, bagels, a starbucks cold frappacino (no starbucks there, just those kind you buy at the grocery store), spaghetti and pasta elbows, hotdogs, and pepperoni! Yep, I'm living the life. You can get a lot of western food in the bigger cities. Still no cottage cheese or Munster cheese no matter how much I look. But- I found Welches Grape Juice. It didn't last long. It was gone before I arrived back here in my home town. You know your craving Western food when going for a meal a McDonald's is the highlight of the entire trip! The other highlights were taxi-ing alone around a city of 5 million people, getting my ticket changed after missing a flight (on purpose), and arranging for my hotel by myself (though they did speak some English...). Yeah, I feel like I'm growing up! So you are now updated on my most recent adventures...

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

It has rained every day for the past seven days, and this is lucky for you, because then I wouldn't be stuck inside at my computer! It is actually a good thing though, because I did do eight hours of studying yesterday! And today I emailed, did finances, and copied down all my cell phone numbers so I never lose them (I'm pretty sure that some of you need a rainy day for just this reason!). I think I did everything BUT clean my room and do laundry (only clotheslines here).
My thoughts have been on home often lately. Taco Bell...Walmart...my dog Lulu...central heating (it's freezing here at the moment-very random even for here). I wouldn't quite call myself homesick, but I definately have a touch of occasional nostalgia. On the other end of the spectrum, the other side of the world feels...normal. I'm even beginning to get better at the language (not amazing by far, but better). On the language note, I currently have Spanish music playing on my computer. I didn't have many language confusion issues at first, but the other night I watched part of a movie in Spanish. I was trying to turn it on in the language I'm learning here, but the only languages were English and Spanish (rare). I figured, Oh, Well, I'll watch it a little. I've had language issues for days. Whenever I didn't know a word, the first thing in my head is the Spanish version. I don't suppose the music I'm listening to now will particularly help! :) To my credit, it was next on the playlist; I didn't particularly pick it out!