My cultural rollercoaster

From the computer chair of Allie.....

Whew! It has certainly been a busy week.  Since our teammate is still sick, I took 7 of her classes for the week.  Plus my own 2 training classes...it was a doozy.  Here are some of the ups and downs.

Up :)
While running the other day, I had my first person come up to me and scold me.  Well, not really scold me.  It was an older gentleman who kindly came up and, in Chinese, asked if I spoke Chinese.  When I said no, he pat his own stomach (kudos to his awareness of personal space), said pao bu (run), and shook his head no.  I took this to mean, "Ma'am it is medically and culturally unwise for you to partake in vigorous exercise while with child."  I smiled, said pao bu (run), pantomimed running slowly, said OK and nodded my head, said pao bu (run), pantomimed running quickly, said bu (no) and shook my head.  He smiled, I smiled and said xie xie (thanks), and slooooowly ran away from him. 

Successful communication with a stranger! Huzzah!  The real victory here is that I didn't want to yell at him for his overbearing advice, I actually felt cared for.  I was not expecting that, so praise Him!   

Down :( 
On my way to go running, I took my earphones out saw this:

It had been a long day, and I ended up screaming "But I bought you in America!" repeatedly before realizing that it just pops back into place. Oopsie, rage cage.


Up :)
Ordering delivery in Chinese.  We wanted to get food from a restaurant we go to quite often and every time, the boss will give us the card and say deliver food in Chinese.  Feeling a little risky, I decided to call the restaurant and order food myself. Here's the video of my ordering: 
Side note:  My Chinese is horrible and it had been another long day so I look like I just got back from the pool where I swam in my clothes.

And here's what happened a short 50 minutes later:

So we got half of the dishes we wanted.  Wait....50% would be a failing grade in any class?!  Well, I'm just happy that the guy made it to our place and actually brought food.  So I will take the 1/2 victory as an up.

Down :(
While teaching a class of 50 freshman, I was in the middle of a point (I am very animated when I talk or teach) and I hopped down off the small platform in the front of class.  Like a step.  All at once, 50 sweet kids gasp and I hear an echo of 'take care teacher!' throughout the class.  Oh, if they only knew....  Anyways, I took about 2 minutes to reassure them that I was, in fact, pregnant but that did not mean that I was dying. 

So that was my week.  On a related note, I have been really bad about posting pictures of the Youngster.  So here's some I took today after an outing to Wally World.

Week 29

Stuff is getting real.