November 1, 2008
The past few weeks have been full of various parties. Mostly "good bye" parties because my 3 main American friends all returned to American in the past week. My roomie left and now I'm in the apartment by myself. Before she left, I took her out for lunch. Because it was her last meal in the city we ate the popular dish of this region; snail soup. We both actually like this dish a lot, and it doesn't usually have snails in it. It's really noodle soup with various veggies in snail-flavored broth. It was a fun way to send her off to her home in Texas - where she will not be able to find that dish anywhere.

My friends, "the married couple", left a few days after my roomie. Before they left, they gave away a ton of their stuff to friends in the city. One of the many goodies I got from their give-away pile was a little plastic toy of the Mr.Burns character from "The Simpsons" cartoon. He had a little button you could push and his voice would say his trademark line; "excellent".

The married couple joins me in my appreciation of the comedy TV show; "The Office." One aspect of that show is a prank one of the characters likes to pull, where he takes other people's stuff and then puts it in a Jello mold for them to find later....    My friends thought a good way to say "goodbye" to me was to replicate this prank with the Mr.Burns toy they gave me. Unfortunately I didn't find the Jello mold in the back of my friend until a week later. Once I found it I tried to eat the toy out of the Jello, but after a few bites I gave up....
My teacher, Rose, was at my house and we enjoyed the joke and our good friend's sense of humor together. It took some explaining to Rose as to why they put the toy in Jello...
    
   

My friend, Lucy, turned 30 this past week. I really wanted to have a birthday party for her but she didn't have any free time for that, so we had a small party together when she came over to my apartment for class on Tuesday. I made her birthday brownies and we had a great time together. I even got to re-use my musical birthday candle!
      

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November 15, 2008
It has been quite a while since I went out to the countryside. I’ve been busy lately with various things going on in my city and other cities, and as the weather has cooled down it’s been raining a lot. But this past week has been beautiful, and I got a few days off from school as they had their annual student track meet. Last year I competed in the track meet but this year I thought I’d take advantage of the extra days by heading out to visit my friends in my favorite small town.

I met up with my good friend, Lisa, and we headed out to a small remote town. We hung out with some of her old friends from Middle School. We walked around the town and then climbed a big hill to enjoy a view of the surrounding landscape. It was a great day with new friends.
          
   
  

I saw a dog with a really weird problem. It had black bumps all over it. Lisa tried to explain it to me but I really didn't understand her. I've never seen anything like it before.

One of the girls has lived in this very small town her whole life. She was apparently the number one student back in their Middle School days. Her brother was the top student in his class as well. But because their family is very poor, they couldn’t afford to go on to high school. She and her brother have been working to help provide a living for their family ever since they were about 14 years old. They are now both in their mid-20’s. But the family has one younger sister. She is in Middle School right now, and is also at the top of her class. The entire family is working hard so that they can afford to send her on to high school and have a better education, to have a chance to get out of the tiny town and have a decent job someday. It was really touching to me.

This girl still remembers some English, even though it’s been more than 10 years since she was in school. She was a really cute, sweet lady. It made me sad to think that the natural gift this family has been given is going to waste simply because they can’t afford to continue in their education. But I enjoyed getting to know them a little, and hopefully will see her in future trips to this small town.

After climbing up the hill, 7 of us piled on to two motorcycles and headed out of town to an orange garden. It is the beginning of the orange season here, and over the next two months I will be enjoying as many as I can eat. They are delicious and really cheap at this time of year. We walked around the garden picking and eating oranges, and took some home for later.
   

Lisa and I hopped on a “chicken bus” to head back to my favorite small town. It was really crowded and I was getting a lot of attention from the locals. They were very excited and it was fun to be with Lisa because she could understand their local dialect and tell me what they were all saying. One woman kept talking to me very excitedly. Apparently she had never seen a foreigner before in real life – only in movies. I took a picture with her and then showed it to her on my camera, which really cracked her up. We also happened to run into Lisa’s grandmother on the bus, so we made sure she got one of the few seats as the rest of us crowded together and tried not to fall over during the ride.
   

I had a great time and am heading back out for another few days this weekend.

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November 21 2008
This was a great week. Last weekend I went out with Lucy and her family. We went out to dinner and ate "hot pot", which is a favorite style of eating during the winter. It's where there is a big pot of boiling water in the middle of the table, and raw vegetables and meats that you can place in the water, boil it, and fish it out of the pot once it's cooked. You dip it in various sauces and then eat it. It's really tasty.
     

Also, when I went to Lucy's house to pick her up, I noticed that she had set up her new Christmas tree. I found it very amusing that she put up the tree as soon as she had gotten it from my American friends who returned home a month ago. I wonder if she'll keep it up all year. She has a big Christmas party planned for all of her students on Christmas night. It should be a lot of fun, and she's planning on telling them all about the origins of the holiday!

I went back out to the countryside at the beginning of the week. Lisa and I hung out and had some really good conversations together. She told me I can stay at her house rather than staying in the local hotel. This was a very kind offer, so I was happy to accept. She manages a local appliance store, which her father owns. He requires her to live in the back of the store, to deter burglars. She doesn't like her small living space, but I thought it reminded me of a really cool fort. There is a ladder next to the office computer, and her bedroom is situated in the small area in the ceiling.
                 

In the morning we had the normal breakfast food; noodle soup loaded up with veggies, meat, and spices. We went to one of the many street-side shops. It was delicious!
   

I visited BinBin's family later that day, before heading back to my city. I stopped by the vegetable market where the mother works. BinBin's little brother, DiDi was there with his mom for the day. BinBin was at school. DiDi is getting so much bigger and as he gets older he looks like BinBin did when I first me her a year ago. Very cute and friendly.
   

Today I got an excited call from Lucy. She was really fired up about what she had been learning in the Book, and wanted to talk and study together. I was happy to hear her enthusiasm. We had lunch together and then I went to hang out with my friend, Apple, for a while. Apple owns a small shop and can speak a small amount of English. We studied the Book together and had a great time.

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November 28, 2008
Ahhhh, another Thanksgiving Day.
Happy Thanksgiving!

I tried to document my entire day so you could see what Thanksgiving is really like over here. I took pictures every step of the way, as much as possible.

At around 6:30am I began my day with a big cup of coffee, cereal, and some good reading. First things first, you know. I haven't turned the heat on in my apartment because the nights are cold but the days are warm, and my apartment isn't what you'd call "heat efficient." So I bundle up in the mornings.
  

Next it was time to head to school for 4 hours of language class. It was chilly so I wore two thermal shirts, a long-sleeve shirt, my North Face jacket, and my motorcycle jacket. I had two layers of pants, and my leather motorcycle boots. Ready to ride!
   

Now all I have to do it hike down six flights of stairs to the ground level. So down I go.
  

I park my bike right in front of my apartment building. I have a box in back to load my purse and school books into. As I drove to school I passed a man on a motorcycle who had a full grown pig that had been chopped in half and hung by a rope on either side of his bike. I wish I could have taken a picture, but we just passed each other on the road.

Because it took me some extra time to take all the pictures along the way, I arrived 6 minutes late to my class. My teacher was waiting to tell me "you're late" in her sweet little way.
Then it was time to begin class.
   

This is the view outside of my private classroom window. My classroom is in the teacher's administration building, and I park my motorcycle right next to the door. It's very convenient.
   

After the first two hours of class, there's a short break. My friend Lucy stopped by to visit with me and we all took pictures together.
   
   

Just before noon my class was finished and it was time to head back home. I had a lot to get done today so I needed to move quickly. I always take the same route to and from school. I like to head down the steep dirt road behind the school and then drive along the riverfront to avoid traffic as much as possible. The roads here are seriously crazy and I have found that I can get a bit stressed and frustrated when I drive in busy traffic, so it's better for my emotional and physical health to take the roads less traveled.
  
  
     
  

Once I got home it was time to head back up six flights of stairs to my apartment.
   

When I arrive home I have to go through my "Mr. Rogers" routine of removing my outdoor shoes and putting on my indoor shoes.

I made a quick lunch and then spent a few minutes checking my email while I ate a classic Doug Davis sandwich. I won't tell you what it is. You'd probably think it's gross.
        

I changed into my daytime warm weather clothes and headed back down six flights of stairs.

I drove the motorcycle to the market near my home. I was trying to find some celery to stuff with peanut butter and bring to the Thanksgiving potluck later that night. I couldn't find celery, but I found some stuffed peppers that looked okay, so I bought those instead. I also stopped by a small bakery to pick up my standard party food; sweet corn muffins. I also found some tasty peanut brittle! I figured this would be a great thing to bring to a party.
   
   

I drove a few blocks away from the market to a large sports stadium where I like to go to run around the dirt track. I drove right on to the track and got ready for a quick run.
      
    

I drove home and took my groceries back up the six flights of stairs to my apartment.

At this point I only had 40 minutes to shower, pack up my guitar, prepare the food, and meet my friends at the apartment gate. It was a rush job, but it all worked out okay. I tried to spruce up the stuffed peppers by added spices and a little cheese to each. My party-standard muffins I always drizzle with blueberry syrup.
   

My hands were so full of food dishes, and my guitar, music book, and purse were hanging from my back, that I couldn't take pictures as I headed back down the six flights of stairs to go to the apartment complex gate. I met my friends and we walked over to another American family's new apartment. It was beautifully decorated, and it really felt like an American Thanksgiving celebration inside their home.
   
There were lots of little kids running around playing rowdy games. They had a kids table and an adult table, which was really cute. One of the adults had all the kids gather around and listen to the story of the first Thanksgiving. Then they played "pin the hat on the turkey."
   
   
   
We ate multiple plates of delicious food, and then sat around talking and watching "football follies" on TV, which was almost like watching a real football game! After desert I was ready for a nap, but just when I was about to fall asleep on the couch, they called me over to play some songs on the guitar. We all sat around singing songs about thankfulness for a while, and the kids found various things to bang on to accompany our singing. It was a blast.
   

After about five hours of Thanksgiving celebration, I headed home. After hiking back up my six flights of stairs, I quickly put away my leftovers and changed into my most comfortable clothes. I got all tucked in on the couch and by 9pm I was ready to chat with my parents on Skype and watch a little TV on my computer. My dad had made up his own version of Family Feud to play with my relatives during their Thanksgiving Day together. The people surveyed about the answers to all the questions were my parents. I convinced them to let me contribute my answers as well. I cracked them up with how little I know about the names of professional basketball players, the crops grown in Iowa, the machines used on a farm, and the characters of the movie; "It's a Wonderful Life." I'm so glad I got to spend some time laughing with my parents during this special day. Our fun times together, cracking each other up, is my favorite part of Thanksgiving. Once I had this, my day was complete.

Overall I had a really fun day, full of activities, friends, food, and climbing up and down my stairs.        Of course, I do that every day.