...last week... not much happened. On Thursday we had the finals for the girls running championship thing. There were twelve of us and I managed to get 6th place, which meant I had to go in front of the whole school and get this award thing. My class was really happy that we got an award thing.
On Saturday I got to see my friend Maddie's dad who works in Shanghai. That was really great to see him. He is so amazing and we had a great time. First, though, I had the challenge of trying to find the hotel he was staying at because it was on a stop I had never been to before. Once I got on the street I stood in one place for about 10 minutes trying to decide if I should go left or right, only to find that after I walked about 3 feet to the left... there was a huge sign for the hotel! Then we just talked a ton, and went to this lake that is in Nanjing, and walked around. It was super crowded, but it was very pretty, and there were so many, huge, lotus leaves in the water. I've only eaten lotus root but have never actually seen the actual plant. Surrounding the lake were these trees that had hundreds of red prayer ribbons on them where people had written stuff. It was very cool. It reminded me of when in the USA you get TP-ed, but it was super pretty instead of gross.
We also saw the funniest thing! There was this big blowup pool that a bunch of people were crowded around. When we walked closer to investigate we saw that they were fishing for goldfish! It was so funny, and really weird. Who fishes in a blowup pool for goldfish in the middle of a public park? I guess Chinese people do. Another odd thing was that we saw TONS and TONS of couples taking wedding pictures. Every way you turned there were about ten women in wedding dresses with their husbands or fiances. It was really sort of beautiful, but also random. Then we went to the Confucious Temple. It was also packed with people, as you could imagine. We found a restaurant finally, after banging a huge bell and possibly disturbing some praying people nearby. It was coincidentally the same restaurant Mr. Duckhorn had been to last time he was in Nanjing for business. The food was very good, we didn't get anything weird. It was wonderful to visit with Mr. Duckhorn. I'm so lucky to have such great friends with such amazing families. I love all of my friends in the USA's families so much!
On Sunday I spend the whole day with foreigners as well. It was a foreigner weekend! In the afternoon I hung out with an American exchange student who goes to a different school. We had a really good time. We wanted to go to Pizza Hut, but the lines were SO long, and we would have had to wait a half an hour in line outside. So... next time (or I might perish from lack of Pizza)! Then I got a package from my friend, Finn, and it was so adorable. It was a picture of some of my USA friends in a frame. Now it's in my room and I love it so much!
Then afterwards I went to volleyball, which I am so glad I did because I almost didn't. It takes about an hour to get there by the metro and so I was probably going to be late, and then I would have to leave about an hour after that...so I was a bit reluctant to go. But I did motivate myself and it was so fun. The adults who play there invited me to go eat with them afterwards but I had to get home, so I will probably go this coming Sunday. A funny note to all this was that in order to get into the school to play volleyball this whole time I had been hopping a fence, but I found out on Sunday from the others that all I have to do is sign in and they would give me a pass! The adults thought it was so funny that I had been hopping a fence for the past two months.
Now onto this week, which has been exhausting but fun. It has mostly been the normal routine of waking up at the crack of dawn, going to school, doing math and Chinese studying all day, and reading during breaks. My language classes are going a lot better and I have been frantically trying to remember all the new characters, which is super hard! I think as of right now, I can speak a lot more than I can understand because people talk so fast here. I think I can also read better than I can write, but my level is about the same in both. I feel like I have been learning more and more, and I love it when I have class one day, and then the next day when I get back to class I start recognizing more words. I's a great feeling!
So you all must remember how I was signed up to do that race a while back? Well we have the "Athletics Meeting" in the beginning of November, and I have somehow conveniently been signed up to do the relay! And I'm first! What a surprise. I actually don't mind, though. I found out I'm also going to do the Jump Roping competition too. The jump roping is like: how many people can you get to run though a moving rope? It's pretty fun, actually, but I mess up sometimes. On top of all that stuff-I-didn't-sign-up-for-but-was-"volunteered"-for-it-by-other people-anyway, was something that happened today. During the Class Meeting today I kept hearing my name. So I asked why the heck I kept hearing my name, and my friend told me that I have been chosen to be the person who holds our class sign before our meet starts, instead of the usual boy who does it. Then I found out that the rest of the class is doing some sort of "performance," and I was relieved because I would way rather hold the sign, anyway! I asked my friend why I was chosen, and she said, "Because you are special." I started laughing, because I know it's really because I'm like eye-candy. Everyone looks at me.
One last random thing. I take the same subway home every day, and I always walk past this one sign that advertises watches. Yesterday I kind of paused to look it it for some unknown reason. I thought something was weird about it, and I realized that in huge letters it said "SWISS WATCHES." Then right below that was a picture of a watch. And then below that was a picture of... the Colosseum.... Major fail. I thought it was so funny. I started laughing and people were looking at me, like, "What the heck is she laughing at that sign for?" Ahh, good times.
So I hope I am not too lazy to write again soon. I hope everyone is doing well! And if you ever want me to reply to you personally you can email me. 再见!
爱,
India