Superstars

Recently, Les and I have been very busy with some extra jobs we have taken on around Huangshi. One thing we have learned about ourselves is that we can't say NO!  haha We think the people of Huangshi have realized this as well and now target only the two of us for tutoring/teaching jobs because they know we are the foreigners who agree to anything!  

One of the jobs we recently had was to judge an English competition at a school in Yangxin.  Yangxin is a village on the outskirts of Huangshi, about an hour and half away.  Our school basically volunteered us to judge the competition, so we did it.

Honestly, we were made to feel like celebs all day.  We were picked up in a very nice car and driven to the village with our waiban Diana, one of our headmasters and his daughter.  They fed us breakfast and then took us to the school.  We were told the competition was very small with 15 students, so when we walked in to a huge auditorium filled with hundreds of students we were a little shocked!  Most of the village students had never seen a foreigner before, so when we walked in they clapped and cheered for us.  

We then judged the competition, which I have to say the students did an excellent job speaking English.  Then they got us to award all of the students with certificates.  Oh wait and right when we thought we were done, they told us we were giving the closing speech for the competition.  WHAT???  Oh man!  So Les and I headed onto the stage, mics in hand, to give a speech.  We thought we were done, but no...it was now question and answer time!  Students came up and asked us questions mainly about how to improve their English, can they take a photo with us, do we have boyfriends, all the usuals etc.  The last student asked if we had a QQ number (instant messaging used in China),  I said yes and immediately regretted my response!  Next thing we knew we were surrounded by hundreds of students, signing pieces of paper with our name and QQ numbers.  They had their phones out taking pics of us and everything!  It was insane and a definite celeb moment! I wish I had a pic of the mob surrounding us!  At the end, Diana looked at Les and said, "Ready to go Superstar!"  haha We really were Superstars that day!

A dance during one of the intermissions at the competition to the song "Lovey Dovey"!

The contestants at the end of the competition.

One of the contestants giving her speech!

 The judges table!

During the autograph/picture taking session.  Did I mention we had to get up at 6:30am and we were looking rough!

 Lunch with the teachers from the school.  Diana is sitting next to me and Zhu Ming next to Les.  They were our bodyguards for the day. haha I'm sort of kidding, but not really!

L.I.F.E.

So the past few weeks I have just been living life here.  Nothing too special has been going on, just the day to day usual stuff.  My typical week consist of teaching my high school classes Monday to Friday, tutoring a few nights a week with two students, working at a training center with some young kiddos, hip hop class, working out, Fellowship on Sundays, and hanging out with the Zhong team and our Chinese friends.  I do have a few fun stories from the past few weeks though that I'll share with y'all now!

We got invited to one of our friend's homes for dinner a few weeks back.  Her name is Yuki and  we take hip hop class with her.  She is an English major at one of the universities here, so her English is very good!  

Lesley and I with Yuki!

Yuki invited a bunch of her friends who are also English majors.  It was so nice to be at a dinner with Chinese people who all spoke English.  This is a very rare occurrence, so Lesley and I enjoyed it.  They were all so sweet and very excited to practice their English.

Yuki's mother and grandmother cooked a very delicious meal for us.  (I'm not sugar coating this either.  It was actually really good!) There was a beef dish that was so good!  This is a picture of us with her grandmother and mother.  They were both so excited to meet foreigners and were very hospitable.

Erin, Les, and I took a day trip to Wuhan with my waiban Diana.  Both of our schools were testing that day, so we didn't have to teach.  Diana needed to work on her visa for her summer trip to Germany and the three of us decided to tag along.  Honestly, we only went to eat Western food, which we did!  We went to a restaurant (I think it was called Grandma's Kitchen) and ate a Philly cheese steak sandwich with fries.  All three of us ordered it and devoured all of it!  Here are some pics from lunch.  I think Diana was running around chasing her daughter, so I didn't get any pics of her. 

Erin posing with her sandwich

The two of us chowing down!

We promised the Randall girls a while back we would have a sleepover at our place.  So many things kept coming up, but we finally had one!  It was so fun and girly, including dinner, a movie, music, snacks, and smores!  Erin and Chels came over for part of the night to hang out.  Overall, it was a great night.  I didn't get any pics, but stole this one from Hope's facebook that she uploaded. The theme song of the night was "Call me, maybe?"  if you couldn't tell by the picture.

Hope, Mercee, Grace, Erin, Chels, and me (Les was taking the picture)

So I'm missing crawfish season back home, but I did get to eat a few.  Yes, Chinese people love crawfish as well. At first I was very apprehensive about eating Chinese crawfish because that is a big no no in Louisiana.  You only eat the ones from LA, but that's not possible this year so I had to make do.  The crawfish were not that bad!  The seasoning was not cajun obviously and very Chinese tasting, but overall they were decent.  Our friends Wang Hao (hip hop teacher) and Wu Xia (hip hop teacher's wife) brought us because they knew we ate them in Louisiana!  

On a random note, Oreo is celebrating their100th birthday and have a special birthday Oreo!  I love them!  They are way better than regular Oreos.  I have no idea if they have these in the states, but if not America is missing out. The cream in the center is just like cake icing with sprinkles.  Yum! 

Next up on the blog, judging an English competition, Erin's birthday, and a sad farewell.