Anger?

I am usually a very go-with-the-flow kind of a person, which is why my anger today caught me by surprise.  Even when I realized I was angry, I couldn't help it, and wallowed in it for a while.

So here's what happened.

Going home, I have the option of taking the 10B bus from my work bus stop to a bus stop 2 or 3 blocks from my home, but that backtracks about a mile or so, taking the 10, 28a, 28bx, or 28b on a route without the backtracking, but to a bus stop 4 blocks from my house, or taking the 3 or 28a to the ferry terminal, transferring busses (which is free...and important for my story), and getting on the AP1, 10B, or 3A from there to take me back home, with the AP1 dropping me off pretty much right at my door, and the 10B and 3A dropping me off at the aforementioned stop 2 or 3 blocks from my house.  (...deep breath...)

So. Today, I took the 28A to the ferry terminal, and transferred to the AP1.  As I got on the bus, I scanned my bus card, and lo and behold, I got a long beep instead of a short beep.  Short beeps are the normal sound, and a long beep means something went wrong and it didn't scan.  I tried it again, as sometimes it just doesn't scan correctly.  I tried it yet again after receiving the long beep once more.  The bus driver told me in Cantonese that I have no money. (Remember: I am transferring busses, which is a free service in Macau).  I kindly responded in Cantonese that I have money. He then decided that my answer was not good enough, and apparently my responding in Cantonese (correctly, mind you) meant that I did not know what he was saying, so he shouted "no money" in a way that it took him 4 shouts for me to realize that he was in fact speaking English.  He then said, "PAY MONEY! PAY MONEY!" and (lightly) hit the change collecter.  I proceeded to (not quite as kindly as before) tell him in Mandarin (as I bitterly pulled out my wallet to find some coins) that I have money on the card, and I just took another bus, I shouldn't need to pay money, and I don't know why it didn't work.  I threw the change in, and walked to the back of the crowded bus.  Even if my card had no more money on it, the transfer should have been free, regardless of my account balance

I was not happy!  I realized that I actually was angry at that point.  Had I known more Chinese, I probably would have added a few more words in there expressing that frustration.  (Not the bad ones, don't worry).  But I just didn't understand why my bus card wasn't letting me transfer busses.  I of course was not angry with the driver, but he wasn't dealing with me kindly, so I didn't feel bad about not being so kind to him.  In that aspect, I was in the wrong, and I know it.

I realized I was angry, and I even tried to quell it by rationalizing with myself: it's only 3.2 pataca, which is less than 50 cents. Still: I thought about calling the bus company and complaining, and demanding my 3.2 to be refunded to me.  Then, I realized how crazy I was.  My anger subsided a little, until I went to the grocery store to figure it out.  I went and bought a few things since I was there anyway, and she rang up the groceries, I paid, and then I said in Mandarin: I want to add money.  She just ignored me completely and went to the next customer. I figured, well, maybe she just wanted to do that customer then will come back to me.  I waited 'til she was done with him, and then tried to get her attention, but she ignored me again.  AHHH

Sometimes I feel that even knowing the language, some people just refuse to help me.  I don't understand.  I learned how to say "Why are you looking at me, do I look like a monster to you" in Mandarin class today.  I need to memorize that so that I can say that next time someone stares at me because I am speaking seemingly perfect Mandarin. (I say seemingly, because supposedly my pronunciation is "amazing" but my vocabulary is quite poor.)

This all went down half an hour ago.  I'm over it now, but I just hope that next time, I don't get so angry about it.  I think later I'll be able to laugh about it and just add it to another adventure during my time abroad!

Fireworks

On Saturday I had the wonderful opportunity to spend with some friends.  We ate dinner together and went to watch the fireworks!  There were a total of 25 of us for dinner, and about 20 for fireworks!  Macau hosts a fireworks competition where different countries put on a fireworks show, and at the end there is a winner.  This fireworks are compliments of France.  It was beautiful!  Here are a few photos from the event :)  The USA will compete this Saturday, which I will attend, pending available free time!

You know it's tourist season when...

Well, the weather is getting nicer.  The rain is coming less frequently (though ironically enough it's raining now), the nights are actually cooling off, and the humidity is only at 70 or 80%.

Office: BEFORE

New Classroom: AFTER

Along with that nice weather come the floods of tourists.  I recognized the peak in the tourist season when it took me longer to go around the city on the 'beltway', if you can call it that, that it would have to go through the city traffic.  Now, don't get me wrong.  It's not that the beltway is more crowded (though it is).  The problem actually comes when the bus turns on a road that during tourist season is flooded with a sea of tour busses, large tour groups j-walking, solo tourists j-walking, city busses trying to complete their route, taxis, and private cars.  Did I mention that this is a 2 lane road?  The tour busses park on the road, and the rest of the busses go super slowly and one must stop as the other passes it, so as to not bump side mirrors.

New desk: AFTER

This one block of traffic makes it take a very long time to get to work.  I failed to remember this this morning.  Though I was not late, I did not have the time to stop at work before going to the restaurant for a team meal.  Speaking of team, we have a short-term team here, and I am super pumped for them!  They're so energetic, and it's encouraging to be around them!  They were determined to finish 2 days' work in one day (which they did!) by converting the teacher office into a classroom, moving the assistant principal/teacher into the main room with our secretary, moving the secretary's desk to the pastor's desk, moving the pastor's desk to a new place to be my desk, and moving the 2 part-time teachers' desks behind me (our backs are to each other).  Now, I share a room with 5 others: 3 part-time teachers, 1 pastor, and 1 accountant.  I think that I will have the room to myself a lot, though, as they all work other jobs or go to school.  I just added the photos, as you can see to the side.  Some of my friends made my desk ;)  I used to have a bulletin board, but now I had to get rid of it, but now I have a glass cover on my desk so I can put the photos right inside! :)

Penguins, anyone?

I saw this craft project on the Internet, and thought I'd share it with all of you.  It's too cute to keep to myself!  I was trying to think of who to try it with, and I am thinking that maybe I'll suggest it for a youth night that we have coming up, or maybe with a group of friends my age.  It could be fun either way! :)

We had our Friday night Bible study tonight, and I think that it went well overall.  We have 4 classes, and I teach the little ones.  I was running a little behind with my planning due to a last minute addition of a science project, and a frantic search around town for matches, so I was tracing and cutting patterns 'til the last minute.  Some students came early and offered to help.  It was kind of fun doing the crafty projects with other people, so maybe that's where the urge to share this penguin project came from!  Speaking of from, I learned how to say it in Chinese today.  It's 从, pronounced cóng (but the 'c' makes a 'ts' sound.) Anyway, I think this post has gotten random enough!  Enjoy the pop bottle penguins, and be sure to send me photos if you end up making them!

New dish rack! :)

Today, I finally bought a new dish rack, which I've needed for a year to replace the old rusty one, but just never got to it.  I finally realized that it's probably not the most sanitary thing to be eating out of dishes that had been resting on rust for a few hours at the least.

Inspired by the shininess of my new dish rack, I ended up cleaning my counter and tidying up a little, and then I made cookies! (After which I had to clean again haha!)

Classes begin tomorrow, so I should be getting to bed about 2 hours ago!  I hope that you all have a wonderful day, and for those of you starting school, I pray that it goes well!

The Adventures of a typical Monday!

So today was semi-typical.  The title may be slightly misleading, but the events that happen happen quite often, and Mondays are always a surprise as to what's going to happen that day! :)  Here's this Monday's adventure!

Today, I went to meet up with a girl that I had corresponded with via Facebook...a friend of a friend.  We met up with each other at a hotel that I did not know the name of in Chinese.  Being the not-so-punctual person that I am, I was running late, so I decided to take a taxi.  Someone had told me that the taxi drivers normally know what Rio Hotel is in English, so I decided to try it out.  I said, in English, "Rio Hotel", and he said, "hai bin doe?"(where?) I said, "Rio Hotel... le ji mm ji?"(do you know?).  His reaction came in Chinese (which I missed because all of the above is Cantonese, but I am learning Mandarin.).  I realized I was gonna have to work for it.

In Cantonese I told him a street that was near, and then I switched to Mandarin which is more comfortable.  I told him. "wo bu yao qu 'ba king guy', wo yao qu 'rio hotel', dan shi wo bu zhi dao pu tong hua zhen me shuo" (I don't want to go to Beijing Street, I want to go to the Rio Hotel, but I don't know how to say it in Chinese.).  His Mandarin was significantly better than mine (go figure) so I didn't understand all of the response, but he was still determined to get an exact location out of me.  Our conversation continued like this, but eventually I said, "wo xia liang zham yao xia che" (I want to get off in 2 stops...and then I said in Cantonese..bus stop).  (I'll stop writing the Chinese Pinyin...just know that this conversation was all in Mandarin).

He asked me if I wanted to turn after the bus stop, and I said no, no, go straight.  He went straight, and I told him, TURN LEFT HERE! and then at the end of the road, I said, "This is the Rio Hotel.  This is where I want to go.  Turn right and I'll get out."  He was like, "ohhhhh Rio Hotel" (slowly, as if trying to memorize it for next time).  He said, "Your Mandarin is not bad!"  I responded "I'm really sorry. It's very bad!" (It's not proper to say thanks for a compliment.)  He then insisted that it was really good and easy to understand.  I was flattered, but honestly, I felt overwhelmed at that point.  I was just glad that I knew how to say left and right! :)

I ended up meeting the friend, and it was great.  We went to a new Starbucks that I had no idea existed, and we enjoyed some lime and berry refreshers and a wonderful conversation!  Earlier today I had also had lunch with a friend, and we officially became prayer partners and partners in evangelizing to our group of friends that has been forming recently. Now, I'm off to make a sweet potato and chili with a side of veggies, compliments of my mother who bought the chili for me, and taught me that sweet potatoes and chili are amazing together!  Thank God for a great day :)

Back in Action!

Click on the photo.  Can you find the green
blob?  That is a friend of mine!

When I went home for home service, I hit the ground running.  When I came back, I thought I was going to have a nice quiet 2 weeks to get over jet lag, and to test out some new computer programs for my newsletters. (By the way if you have any suggestions, I'm open to them!)  Key word: thought.  The day I got home, a friend met me at the ferry terminal to help me get my bags home.  The next day, I met up with some missionaries coming and going, and we all spent a jolly day together eating Japanese food, watching bungee jumping, and playing Zilch (a VERY fun game, by the way!)  I haven't really played that game outside of home, so I was ecstatic to be able to play dice.  I am a HUGE fan of games.  Especially ones including dice and cards, so I was happy to have people who would play with me!


The next day was Sunday, so I went to church with 2 other GEOs (from out of town), and then we went to the English Center, one for an exit interview, and one for orientation, and me to...well...hang out!  We played more Zilch, we worked on setting up a new laptop, we ate Chinese food, we ate Portuguese food, and I feel like we did more, but I can't be too sure.

Monday was fun too.  The new GEO had never been to Macau before, so I showed him around the city, starting in Taipa, and working our way to Macau proper.  For lunch, we met up with a friend of ours, and we went to a hotel...for Portuguese food, I think...probably more like Macanese.  Then, we walked over to a Christian book store that I had never been to yet, and it was cool to look around and see familiar CDs and books and such.  Then, we headed over to the deaf center to see what our friend does at work.  It was nice to see her at work.  While we were there, we planned a party for that Thursday.

Sharon and I pose with a free class student: the
same one that I'll be playing badminton with on Sat.!

Tuesday...When I left America, I left without a China visa.  I was sad to do so, because the best visas are gained whilst in America, but long story short, I had to get my passport back before they could attach a visa to it.  So, on Tuesday I prepared the paperwork for the visa, and on Wednesday I went to the embassy to turn it in.  It won't be a great one, but it will be multiple entry, which will be good.  Later that day, I taught free class. It was such a wonderful class!  I felt in control of the classroom, and I felt like the students really learned, and were interested in what they learned.  I feel like it was a success!

Wednesday was an early morning, and I observed our new teacher teaching a class.  He did well, but we only had one student, so we threw plans to the side and worked a little on that, and she helped with Chinese as well.  And we did some free talk.  Then she and I went to grab some "da bao" (take out) and we brought food back to the center to enjoy.  It was soooo delicious!  We had dumplings and some wonderful combination of noodles and spice.  Yumm :)

Thursday started out as a semi-lazy day.  I finally got to rest a little in the morning, but then I darted over to the store to figure out what I was going to make for the party that evening!  I made a chicken-rice casserole, which translated in Chinese as cheese rice (cheesy fan.... yes, cheese in Chinese is cheesy! Just not spelled like that).  It was good, but I added a LITTLE too much rice, so it was dry.  Oh well...better luck next time! :)  The party was AMAZING!  We went to Sharon's house because there was plenty of room for hosting.  I brought my guitar, and we sang some great songs!  We ate a potluck dinner (as pictured below), and we had lots of fun! We listened to some people share about Christianity, and why it's important to them, and we had a lot of fun!

Friday was a day for me to play miss fix-it.  I had some lights that weren't working for one reason or another, my shower hose broke that day, and my garbage can had been broken for about 6 months, but I finally decided to get a new one.  I believe there were a few other things as well, but I don't remember.  I was very proud of myself for fixing everything.  It was a day to get all of that done, plus relax a little, and then I had free class in the evening, where we finished watching Soul Surfer which they had started the week before, but not finished for technical reasons.  It all worked out, and we were able to watch, and then share how the movie showed someone relying on her faith after a tough situation, and how through that she was able to get back on her feet...or in this case, her surf board!

Today should be fun as well.  At 5, I am meeting a friend and we are going to play badminton.  I am super excited, as I haven't actually played badminton in the entire year that I have been here, even though it's the most popular sport in China!  So I am prepared to be laughed at, and to fail, but it will be fun nonetheless!

I hope you were able to make it to the end of this gigantic post, and I hope to keep you updated more often in the future, and not one entire week in one long post! :)