15

There was a lot of rain at the beginning of this week.  Although it felt cleansing, it was also a little unfortunate because it was also accompanied by a huge temperature drop and I'm not a huge fan of damp cold. However, it made me greatly appreciate my tea and fried-egg-and-vegetable noodle soup every morning:

it also provided me with the opportunity to snap this cool shot in our school building's lobby: 

The weather cleared up on Wednesday for our 月考 (YueKao: monthly test), which went well! 

Thursday, during our culture class, we got to make and taste the traditional Chinese dish: 火锅 (huo guo: hot pot). Because the city of Chengdu (famous for its huo guo) was my first Chinese home, I have a special love for this spicy spicy dish. Although it wasn't as good as Chengdu, it was pretty great! It was also fun to get to go back into the school cafeteria kitchens and help the "ayi's" ("aunt" is what everyone in China uses to respectfully refer to cleaning/cooking staff as well as middle-aged female strangers in general): 

(Reo, Carmen, and Maike)

(Yasu): 

Thursday we also had a fire drill, which was an interesting experience. They actually had fake smoke and we had to run from the dorms with a wet towel pressed to our faces. They also had a fire extinguisher demonstration after we all successfully "survived". 

This week we wrote middle-school-esque essays about The Kite Runner for our Writing teacher. They're going to put them up on the wall too which is kind of embarrassing, but I am also surprisingly proud of my work because this type of thing is a kind of a language milestone in Chinese. Next up is my semester research project presentation, which will take place on the 30th of December! 

On another note: I mentioned before, I have discovered a new love of jazzercise while in China. I want to share the best jazzercise song that my PE teacher plays for us. It could just be the best song, period. Enjoy! 

加油歌 (jia you ge or "go go song") 

Also I wanted to share some evidence of the burgeoning recycle system:

I'm so proud of the Chinese IB Roots and Shoots Club! 

This Saturday I went to bustling shopping district XinTianDi （新天地）for another NSLI-Y outing. We got to visit a museum that exhibited the gorgeous intersection of historical Chinese/French style architecture and interior design:

I then took Tilden to a flow hour class at the Y+ Yoga Studio at XinTianDi, which was awesome. 

After class, we celebrated the Solstice with some delicious apple crumble pie and explored some. We found a lot of really excellent street art: