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The pollution finally cleared up this Tuesday with the onset of some pretty frigid weather! 

I have never been so happy to see a blue sky and breathe fresh air! :) 

Even though I hope I won't be needing it again any time soon, I also received the special mask with a PM2.5 filter that our teachers ordered for us. It's purple and quite stylish! I guess I've also never been so excited about the fashionable qualities of a face mask...New emotions and experiences in China everyday! 

In choir this week, we prepared for our Christmas concert at the assembly which will take place either next week or the week after (I'm never quite clear with the timing of events here). 

I'll be singing the alto part in a "Silent Night" harmony along with a smaller group of IB Chinese girls (Chenglu, Xieyi, Francis and Miu) as well as "This Love" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" with the whole group. 

I want to congratulate Miu (one of the cutest, most fashionable and kind people I know) on her acceptance to one of her top college choices: School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 恭喜恭喜！

I'm also really excited though because I found out that Xieyi runs the "Roots and Shoots" club, which I wanted to join at the beginning of the year but couldn't because their meetings coincided with my classes. Although I still can't attend meetings, I've starting helping with the school's recycling program, which is the club's main objective this year! I'm excited because I hate seeing how much material is wasted at our school. 

This week we watched The Kite Runner in our Chinese character class! I know it's pretty random, but I'm not complaining. 

It's such a devastating story though. 

On Saturday, my host sister came along with me on our NSLI-Y excursion to TianZiFang (a famous architectural site and shopping area in Shanghai), which we were supposed to visit last weekend but couldn't because of the pollution. 

It was nice that my host sister came. We had good Chinese discussions on the metro about hairstyles, astrology, and child adoption and then she got to practice her English with the other Americans. 

At TianZiFang, we walked around in the maze of little shops and ate some really delicious and genuine pizza! 

The NSLI-Y crew is also holding a "Secret Santa" Exchange on Christmas Eve, so it was a great opportunity to buy our gifts for that. I'll certainly be returning there to buy gifts before I come home to the States in June as well!