Minions and giggles!

The weather is going to go from near 70 today to below 50 tomorrow!!

Its rather funny, because in Michigan the weather has

taken a nose dive as well, with snow 

covering the ground! 

We had a few days of 70+ weather though, so I am thankful for it and will NOT

be complaining tomorrow!

It was rainy today, but it was a warm rain!

 Sunday I saw a friend I hadn't seen all week. I mentioned how that past Tuesday was the

first one all semester that we had not had lunch together,

She said "We may have to see to fixing that, then won't we?"

So before my lunch break today, I checked my phone 

but when I didn't see any messages I went out to get food on my own.

When I returned to the office to grab some of my stuff and head to my room

who should be sitting there with my boss, but my friend from Sunday!

She is very good friends with my boss so I figured they were there to visit.

Yet my boss turned to me and said 

"She's here for you, not me!"

Turns out, the wifi in the office is so junk these days, 

my wechat had been unable to receive the message she 

had sent asking if we were meeting for lunch. 

Though we were only a few minutes past 12, we ended up

sitting in the office most of the hour talking, the three of us.

We did go out the last 25-20 minutes though 

and she got her lunch to eat after I left, and 

got me a tea! 

I love having friends here! 

I have such a wonderful support system! 

One of the of the students was very sick today and went to the clinic.
My roommate is good friends with her and went with her.

Seems it was a pretty interesting experience for them both! 

As I am sure you can imagine!

She was diagnosed as having a stomach infection, and

was given a bag full of medications.

However, pain meds are seldom given out here! 

So hours later when she was still having stomach pain

they were asking me why she hadn't gotten better

as soon as she took the medication.

I tried to explain that taking meds doesn't actually

mean you will BE better right away, but they

insisted that it should.

I tried to go through the meds that she had been given so that I could figure out

what they were for, but there was one I couldn't understand.

I went down to ask Jean if she could explain one of the

medicines to me. 

Both she and one of our office teachers said

"She expects to be better after taking one dose?!" 

Ah...culture differences!

Anyway,

while I was down there talking with Jean,

little one was bopping around and ended up asking

when we were going to colour like we had planned.

She asked her Mom first when we could and her Mom said to ask me,

So she turned to me and said 

"Jiejie, when do you have time to colour with me?"

{Be still my heart!!}

I told her that we could colour whenever she had time...and she said

I have time now! 

And so......

                                                               I GOT TO COLOUR !!!!!

It was so much fun! 

She is such a cute kid!

Anyone that was here during the 2013

BMH camp will remember her as the little poppet that

would come in during our night time assemblies, and I think

she was around a bit this year too.

She is the spitting image of her Mother! 

We coloured this one together, and

she happily chatted the entire time....

as did I! 

She had no problems with my Chinese

and even often whispered so that it

was just us that could be in on

the plans and such, as her parents were both sitting near by,

She did not want to be done for the day,

but it was getting late and her mom said that 

one page was enough. 

We will for sure be doing that again soon though!

I said we should write our names on the top

so her Mom wrote hers on the top right corner

and I wrote mine on the left.
{It looks like a child wrote mine but that is cause I did about 

half of it upside down!!}

Once both of our names were there, Jean asked her

if she knew what my name was,

She pointed to the characters and slowly said {As if she was reading it.}

"Jie Jie"

LOVE IT!!

And Jean asked if I was going to be here for camp again this summer, 

so we made a lasting impression on them,guys! {I have not brought

up camp with her at all!} 

#ItsTheLittleThings

Chocolate is going to be the lovely death of me!

Today I was in the office talking with
one of the other assistants.
After a few minutes, she paused
what she was doing and said
"Wow! You're speaking has improved so much
since last semester! Last semester, you
would hardly talk but now you can speak a lot!"
#ItsTheLittleThings

These things are dangerous!! They are tiny and SOOO GOOD!!

Imagine a chocolate version of the cereal Cookie Crisp and you have these to a tee! 

Dangerous for those of us who are not happy with their waist line!

I have made a discovery. 

As crazy as it is, 

it is not good for me to eat oatmeal for breakfast!

Every time I do, it ends badly!

Today,as the end of my first class neared

which was around 11:30, 

I started feeling so sick!

Shaking, blurry vision, feeling super hot.

My blood sugar had dropped. 

I managed to get through the

rest of class and get out to grab some food,

but was left feeling worn out and still a bit shaky even after eating.

Other days, if I eat oatmeal, 

something that is highly recommended for weight loss as it

keeping you satisfied for long periods of time,

I get hungry super early and want to eat everything in sight

at lunch. Or I just end up

not feeling that great!

That's it for now!
LATER!!!!

Meh {I hear that word gets you LOADS of points on Scrabble}

I dont have cool photos this time. So look...this is where we do our laundry! 

Today was not the best day, but I don't even fully know why.

Woke up in a lot of pain as well as just an over all feeling of 

being down. Kinda like a black cloud. 

Again, don't know why other then

it was a bad day pain wise. 

That can tend to put me in a bad mood, of course. 

I was able to get some more homework done though.

And I was given the questions for our exam on Wednesday

so I started to find people to as them to,

We are going to have to go with 

a team of five, so I now only have to ask four people.

But the girls of the team {That would be me and one other girl} 

have kinda taken over and are making the decisions for everything,

{The guys seem pretty happy to just be told what to do.} 

So we are trying to go with two of us asking four people a piece.

2 young people and 2 older people.

My 2 young people  are perfectly easy to find,

its the older people I need to find.

I've gotten two done so far. I have to finish it tomorrow 

so they can work on the PPT Tuesday since our

Speaking class is Wednesday at 8 am!

This is the door next to the elevator. Looks like it is used as a kick board more often than not!

I did get to go back to my favourite 

sandwich place to be able to ask the lady there if she would

be willing to answer my questions,

Right away she started talking with me when I came in to the shop.

We had to wait anyway, because the bread for the sandwiches was 

still cooking anyway. 

As you can imagine, a white girl standing there

holding a pad of paper and a pen, asking a bunch of questions

started to draw attention.

The other workers there have noticed that I come

in before and have also come over to talk from time to time.

It was a nice boost when one woman came over and asked

where I was from, as she was surprised that I could understand so much

of what they were saying after only a year and a half of study. 

{My friend at the restaurant was telling her about some of what we have talked

about before. Like that my parents are going to adopt, about how long I have been 

studying and a few other things.} 

She said that it was often the case that Americans

can't understand when they speak due to the use 

of the local dialect. 

It was a nice conversation and I really did enjoy 

going out to get my dinner! 

#ItsTheLittleThings

I think this is pretty funny. On the left is the mark of the sticky hook that my last roommate had on the floor for the entire semester.

It fell at some point and she never peeled it off.

On the right is the one that is now stuck to the bathroom floor from my current 

roommate!! 

Guess it is our rooms destiny to have a hook stuck to the floor somewhere. 

{Yes I know, I can take it up to...but for the one on the left, I really did 

think for a long time that my roommate had a reason for it being there, 

And it was on her side of the room right in front of her dresser

so there was really no reason for me to take it up.

I don't know why the one is still there now in the bathroom,

so I may ask at some point and rip it off if there is no reason}

These mashed potatoes are so creamy.

Look look look!!! So pretty, hey?! I love it!

It was nice enough even as late as 8pm to be out in shirtsleeves! So pretty! 

So to start off with, here are a couple of the photos I would have posted in my last blog had it not been nearly 3 and my phone wasn't such a pain. 

This is the handmade pouch given to me by a good friend of mine, 

She also got me this handmade card from the same shop in Vietnam, When she gave it to me, she said she got it because she knew I liked to write and send cards so now I could

give someone a very special one....but I really don't want to send this to anyone! I love it! I wanna keep it! haha!

I may have to give it to my sis or Mum when I go back so that I can still see it for awhile! :) 

 ***

So even though my alarm didn't go off when I thought it would,

 I ended up waking myself up around 9 this morning!

Now, that does not mean I got out and started doing things at 9!

ha! Nope!

But when I did get my butt in gear, 

I jumped into high productivity!

I got my bed made, changed for the day

swept the floor,

made strawberries and cream oatmeal,

had a cup of raspberry lemonade next to me

and then did about half or more

of the homework I had assigned for Monday!

Later, I got dishes done,

did some hand washing of some clothing.

went shopping for cleaning supplies and some food

cleaned the bathroom,

and even swept the floor again. 

Then! It was time to start dinner prep and set things up for my work out!

I decided I wanted mashed potatoes for dinner. 

All peeled, cut up, and soaking. That is three potatoes worth. No...I did not eat them all!

That's not apple juice!

While at the store earlier to get some cleaner for the toilet, 

I picked up sugar and body wash. 

When I am in the States, I use a Saint Ives Pumas almost daily.

But it is too hard to pack a whole years worth and it just isn't cost effective to have it

shipped to me. 

Did a little searching online and found this suggestion!

I love it! 

Got a good work out in, and actually stuck with it a LOT longer then I expected to!

When I got up from my last crunch and looked at the time, half an hour had passed.

To anyone reading this that actually WORKS OUT, that time and my silly 

little numbers of 15 leg lifts and 150 crunches seem like nothing.

I know. And I am truly proud of all of you that are doing 

more, kicking butt and working hard!

I am amazed by you! 

BUT

I can't do that. Even though I sometimes wish I could.

And today, my number of 150 crunches is HUGE! :) 

I am happy. 

My abs, no so much. But they will get over it. 

Actually....they better not, I hope they hold a grudge.

One that makes them all huffy and uptight.

Dinner is served!

I had hoped to be able to make pan fried lemon pepper chicken tonight. 

Sadly, or probably fortunately, the stores were all out of chicken breast.

So instead I went with a chicken pop from my little booth.

I also dolled up my mashed tatoes with lemon pepper, basil, garlic powder, and paprika, and a small spoonful of mayo. 

I love productive days!!

#ItsTheLittleThings

Late night, no photos!

I had the day off of work.

Fridays are the day of the week I have no classes.

Plans were aplenty as to what I wanted to do with my 'free day'.

Big chunk of homework 

Clean my room.

Go to a ladies study.

Go to dinner with a friend.

Catch up on an episode or two of shows.

Work out. 

With the exception of going to dinner with a friend....everything got chucked! 

I did NOTHING today!

I'm pretty bummed about the study as I had been looking forward to it. 

Sadly, the time got messed up in my head and by 

the time I realized that I had it wrong, 

it was too late to go and figure out where it was. 

There is still next week. I will try again!

{My boss knows about it and said that if I wanted to go on a day

I have to work, I can take the last class period off to go.}

Other then being bummed about the study, I really loved the day!

It is going to mean tomorrow needs to be a day where I show a lot of self discipline to actually get

what feels like a mountain of homework done.

But I am up for the challenge after being

able to take an entire day of nothing!

Dinner was fun!

There is a teacher here who not only use to be an international student

but lived right across the hall from me,my first year here.

We were really good friends then and we have remained good friends.

It has been awhile since we hung out though,

and she sent a text Monday telling me we needed to fix that!

We had Korean food {Her home country fair!} 

And it was really yummy!!

Then we went back to her apartment and she gave me

a handmade little pouch/bag that she got me on her 

winter break travels, as well as a handmade card.

They are so pretty and I love them!

I took pictures and will have to upload them later, as my phone 

no longer wants to send them using bluetooth, to my laptop.

Anyway. 

While we were sitting talking, she brought up some of the work outs she has been doing.

It ended up with her saying she wanted to learn how to do 

a handstand. 

So I got to show her how to do one and helped her with her

first.

We laughed so hard!

It is now 2:30 in the morning and I looked over at my textbook,

well the one that is laying on the bed and not helping keep my laptop from overheating on my lap...

and realized once again that today has been Friday.

Not Saturday.

I feel like I gained a day!

I don't have to cram everything into an already busy 

Sunday to make up for taking a day off!

I got to relax today and still get my homework

completed....I hope! haha!

*happy sigh*

#ItsTheLittleThings

I love victory!!

So....I wonder what my roommate's plans are for her strawberries! *cringe*

Actual "Did she really say that?" conversation from today.

Her: So after you are in America, will you ever come back to China?

Me: Yes, China is home now. I want to live here. 

{There was talk about me missing or not missing my family, etc

why I want to live in China and what I will do when I am here for good}

Her: But what about when you get to the age that you want 

to be married? When you start thinking about that, what will you do?

Do you like Chinese guys?

Me: How old do you think I am?

Roommate goes nuts jumping up and down screeching "Yes yes yes!! Guess guess!!"

{It should be noted, this is not a teacher. I have known this girl since my first semester here. She was friends with my first roommate.}

Her: 24 or 25 I'm thinking.

Roommate giggles uncontrollably and tells her to keep guessing.

{It went on for awhile like usual}

Her: What are you doing sitting here? You should be out trying

to find a husband! Why do you never come 

to Zhengzhou with us?Do you like black guys? 

There are a lot of black guys in Zhengzhou...and you know, they like girls who are

bigger. Like, big butt, big boobs....you've got it all. They will love you!

We can find you a black guy.

She says to my roommate: I always knew she had a boyfriend

back in America! 

Roommate: How many boyfriends have you had before.

Me: None

Her: Oh come on! How about in High School?

Me: Nope

Her: So you are a virgin?

Me: Yes

Her: Wow! We could sell her for like a million bucks! Really! You would be so 

popular....

{Still not sure if she actually meant sell me as in a slave trade

type of a thing or if she meant that would be a good 'selling point' 

along with the butt and boobs for the

guys she wants to set me up with.

I will be locking my door tonight!! ;)

In much BETTER conversations I had today, I just got back from

grabbing something to eat! {I had planned to go out at an actual better

and more normal dinner time, but just as I was about to leave, she came

here to ask if I could exchange some USD for RMB, and she 

just ended up staying to chat....about my state of singleness as it turns out.}

I went to get the pulled pork sandwich I love off campus. 

It is always the same lady there and we will often

strike up a small conversation. 

While she was making the sandwiches, I pulled up a 

chair and told her that I had been planning on

'treating' my parents when they were in China
to her food, but now I would return to America before they

came so I couldn't. 

She told me I could just turn around and come back with them. 

This led to me explaining why they were coming

and why they would not be in Xinzheng if I were not here.

{Its been very helpful, this week in class we have been talking

about words such as 'pregnant', 'adopt' , 'raise a child'} 

She kept going on and on about what great parents I have

to want to have more children when they already have

six, and they are now 'older' {She actually never said

anything like 'So old!" or anything that I might normally expect, which I was

pleasantly surprised about! She just said she thought that with grown kids they

wouldn't want to start over again and how tiring it would be 

to have children again.} 

It was cool! I loved getting to talk to her and have her actually understand me!

I am so happy lately that I am talking with people and going into more then just

"I'm tired, the day is nice, my name is, I like the colour blue" 

#ItsTheLittleThings

It was also good to have this kind of a conversation after my class today! 

OY!

Turns out I was suppose to have done this for homework but I only heard her say 8, not 7. We went through it in class though. This is a chart on the two kinds of wives/mothers that we were talking about.

Work outside the home wives and full time house wives. 

You are to choose the letters that fit in the boxes for each. 

Basically it is a pros and cons for each. 

On the left is work. The top box is for the pros, the bottom for cons. The correct pro list for working included 'Fulfilling' {as in it is a fulfilling lifestyle} and "Can make money"

The correct cons were to be "Busy", "Tiring", "Gone all day/working from morning to night" 

Those deemed by my classmates and teacher as the correct pro list for 

full time house wife were:

"Relaxing", "Can write a book", "Can play games/hang out"

The cons were chosen as 

"Boring", and a mixture of what pretty much means "Once a house wife always a house wife" 

That if something were to happen, they would never want to do anything or be anything but

a house wife. {The 'something' that could happen was determined to be, hubby looses his job, he dies, or he leaves you...what are you going to do now?!} 

In my chart, I wrote the pros as "Fulfilling","Can earn {or my meaning was save} money","Can write a book","Busy" "Tiring" 

and for my cons I wrote:

"没有" 

which means 'none' 

No one saw it so they didn't get to gasp at me or anything! But I smiled to myself as I wrote it.

This same group also said later that the best school teacher, or things that make the best school teacher is someone who is pretty, gives out high marks {deserved or not} does not scold or criticize for a job poorly done or being late. Those were the top three choices. 

Save me! ;) 

Couldnt resist taking a picture of this little one on my way home from picking up dinner! SO CUTE!

 For speaking class, we have a team assignment due next Wednesday.

We had to make teams of 4,

One person writes three questions about the subject of those that stay at home {kids, not wives} and don't want to get a job, just rely on their parents to pay for everything.

One person then asks 8 Chinese people to answer these three questions. {Must get their name and age, and a photo with them is best}

One person must then put together a PPT given this information.

One person must give the presentation on Wednesday.

I was passing on the information to a girl who had skipped class

yesterday when we were told about it.

She said "So who is on our team? You, me, how about that other guy....who else?" 

We decided we will ask if we can have a team of only three since there really is only enough work for three people and we are pretty sure our fourth person wouldn't have done it anyway. 

She asked me what I wanted to do,and I said I had no problem being

the one to ask the 8 people the questions if no one else wanted it.

She said "I think that is the choice that fits you best anyway!"

The funniest part? She was the girl on my team last semester who was worried because our team had no one that was outgoing, funny, and willing to make a fool of themselves when we made the movie. 

I'm changing minds about me, people! Changing minds!

Wonder what they are going to think about when it gets out that I am a 30 year old without a boyfriend!

LOL!!!

All the pretty little horses.

Lets start with a Chinese lesson shall we?

So today in our speaking class, the teacher was talking,as often is the

case,about relationships. 

She said if you are around 25 and single you are called a

 剩女

Our teacher said that she herself was still a single girl of this age and 

so she was that, but it was ok cause she was still pretty young. 

Then someone said 'But what if you are like 30 and over, what are you then?"

She said, "Oh! Well, if you are THIRTY and still single you are a 

老姑娘 " 

Lao, gu niang. 

Lao, means old. 

Gu niang is the term for girl, woman, etc. 

Put them together and literally translated it means

Old Maid.

I had to laugh! I am very sure she has no clue that I am both single and 30 {soon to be over} 

when she went on for a few more seconds about how she 

didn't have to worry about that because she was

still young! 

I bring this up not because I am bitter or because

I want to moan and cry again about being an old maid. 

Today, I am in the kind of mood when I can laugh about this!

I think it is hilarious that it happens

ALL THE TIME. 

And it actually led to one of my happiest moments of the day.

For various reasons, I mentioned it to another teacher later.

One of these reasons was to be able to bring up a subject with her that
I have been wanting to talk to her about. 

She knows what I am and Who I talk to.

She often brings it up in class even. 

We had a nice long conversation {all in Chinese!! w00t #1!!}

about things such as being single, being engaged, 

my plans for the next year, my little brother, and then

finally how I had been worried about her due to some

things she had said last term. 

Long story short,

I was able to tell her that I have been buzzing for her. 

She is someone that I really hope to be able to stay in touch with

even when I am in America.

I am so thankful for wechat for this very purpose!

We have great teachers here, and I am really going to miss them when I go back! 

Today was not a day filled with WONDERFUL things, 

But this 'blog series' is not called 

"Everything Is Great!"

There was a lot of really cool 'little things' about today.

That cup of hot chocolate that I have in the picture up top!

I was chilly today and kinda frustrated that I couldn't get the 

internet in the office to work for me. 

In my room awaited a packet of hot chocolate lovely sent to me by 

my cousins! It was just what was needed, hit the spot, and made me smile!

Last night, due to playing around/doing homework till late

I was up when a large fight broke out in the halls.

Because I was already awake, and being kept up by the

commotion, I got the wechat message Kade sent me, as soon as she sent it!

We then spent what had to be close to an hour talking about

anything and everything....ok mostly TV shows we both watch and

hockey

of course!

But it was so nice to be able to be up late having one of our girl

talks, thousands of miles away! 

She will always be able to make me smile like no one else!

A friend came down {to my dorm} after I had worked out, and

helped me move my hip back into place a bit!

The right hip was burning earlier in the week, and today

my left was really bothering me. 

While she was here, she asked to check her facebook.

We then proceeded to chat for over an hour! 

It was so good!!

Out of the blue, I got a message from a friend I have not 

been able to contact for two months!

We have talked off and on all day. 

Had lunch with my roommate! 

We had fried noodles 

{Hers with egg, mine without! ;) } 

at one of my favourite places in castle! 

{Packman, anyone?!}

As we were walking back she said

"We should do this more....hang out like this."

I got to talk to Jean's little girl today!
Have I mentioned how stinkin cute this kid is?

Her smile just lights up a room!

Plus, Jean always reffers to me as her 

姐姐 {big sister}

which I just love cause I like being that

rather than 

阿姨 {auntie} 

just cause! haha!

I did another work out tonight! 

yes!

I didn't want to! haha! 

The best part about it 

{aside from being able to take a hot shower after!}

was that my first 30 crunches or so seemed so much

easier then when I started this!! 

So much so, in fact that I completed 100 instead

of my normal 45.

Also did 5 burpees {I'm sore...leave me alone!}

3 or 4 hand stands

my PT leg lifts and stretches,

and some random time filler/heart rate 'uppers' 

stuff. 

PLUS, I was able to do five, yes FIVE double straight leg lifts!!

This sounds like nothing, I know, but to me it is huge!

I took a video and I will be *gulp* sharing it as soon as it actually loads! haha!

Being able to do any double leg lifts like that less than 2 months

after blowing a disc, as well as just in general for me, 

is big news! It means I am going to beat this!

I WILL not let the pain get to me and keep me from my goal!

Smokin 31!!! 

Or abs, I could handle just having abs. :)

#ItsTheLittleThings

Its late ya'll! Goodight!

Oh look what decided to upload!

Cringe, I'm a little worried that I should not subject you all to this

but it really is exciting to me, so I am going to share it.

Watch at your own risk!

We all have them

I had a good hair day a couple days ago. And the sun was really neat through my window. 

Today was......a day. 

That's about it. 

Nothing too bad.

Nothing too great.

It was just a day. 

Classes went OK. I felt I understood a good portion of the lesson 

and I had gotten my homework done.

But I have a cold, though I tried so hard with taking all

those vitamins and drinking tons of water!
{My roommate has had a cold for a week or so.} 

That is a bummer. Here I am trying to get in shape

and get healthy and the vitamins dont 

even protect me from a cold like they are suppose to!

Work went pretty well, but it is a rather 

stressful time in our office. 

Again, nothing bad, but nothing overly great,

I did see the little girl, 'Hannah's' daughter....although because
I am going to be hanging out more with a girl name Hannah, I guess

I need to change what I call the woman at the front desk!
Not sure if she has an English name.

Ok, I will call her Jean.

I saw Jean and her daughter today and 

talked with them a little bit. 

I asked little one if she wanted to colour 

in a HUGE colouring book, so the

plan is to try to do that tomorrow. 

But you know what,
Tomorrow is a brand new day with no mistakes in it....yet. 

And that is worth being thankful for!

#ItsTheLittleThings

Like father like daughter.

When I was younger I remember Dad use to bundle his socks up at his desk.

Mum would gather them up later for the laundry and laugh

that there was a pair or two always under the desk or by the couch,

Early on I started being just like this. 

You would find mine next to the couch in the basement,

under my chair at the kitchen table,

by my bedside, 

This is what I found under my desk today. 

I had to laugh. 

That's two pair!

He might not think it is so funny, but it made me think of my Dad

and how much like him I really am.

I also got to thinking about that when I was finishing up my letter to the agency for my little brothers paperwork. 

But that is a story for another blog. 

I was going to write it in tonight, but then I got caught up in trying to get photos on here and my cell was being a pain. 

For dinner, I went to a little shop that I go to quite often, to get

Chicken on a stick!

That's even what its called in Chinese. 

棒棒鸡

Bang Bang Ji

Bang Bang is the same word used for things like Sucker and Lilipop, Ji is chicken. 

So its a chicken pop!

I gave my order, paid, and went to the near by store to buy 

some instant noodles.

When I returned, one of the regular workers was

there, and she had not been when I first placed my order.

She called out 

'美女！！你好！“

Mei Nu means pretty girl, it is a kind greeting for women who's names you do not know

and wish to be polite to.

I greeted her back and she went on 

to say 

"I have not seen you in a long time! Where have you been?

I have missed you!"

AAAWWW!!!

#ItsTheLittleThings

These are all from tonight, before my workout. I am trying to keep up with the same clothes I took the first ones in so that it is easier to track the difference. However, that cool orangish pink top has a strange double pocket in the front and so I feel like it does not really show any difference at all. 

Can't say I notice anything in the gray top either, but hey, I am trying! lol

These are the first ones from back in September. 

                                                       

I hate to see you all alone, you won't find what you're looking for!

 XinZheng is filled with what has to be the cutest coffee shops ever! 

I stayed up till 'are you crazy' AM 

{that would be 4 in this case}

 enjoying the fact I didn't have work or class in the morning

only to then realize that I had to be up at 8:30 in order to tutor in English again!

Our start time of 9 am came far too quickly! 

But it was fun! 

After, we went out to lunch again along with one of Emmalyn's friends who had also come 

to class in the morning. 

While we were hanging out in the lobby of Castle talking, I decided to make a trip

back out to the street stand that had some tank tops for sale, and Emmalyn came along with me. {Some of mine are getting tiny holes in them and I saw some like the kind I have bought here before.} 

It was decided by the two of us, that since we had the afternoon pretty free, we should hop a bus and head down to the larger shopping area. 

The shopping itself turned out to be pretty disappointing as we didn't find anything,

but we did stop at a super cute coffee shop.

She got a cappuccino and I got a chocolate drink {of course} but was {not so pleasantly} surprised when my first big gulp also included Red Beans.  

And I mean, a LOT of red beans! *cough*

They have their time and place, but in my hot chocolate is not one of them!

But really, I mean , look at this place! 

Super cute, right?

If it weren't for the fact that it is either a 15 minute bus ride or 30+ minute walk

down the road, this would be another place I could see myself spending time.

Then again, I don't spend any time at the cute coffee shops around here, 

so what am I talking about?

This sign was probably one of my absolute favourite parts of the place, though, I gotta be honest!

No kissing

And don't express your love in this space

But don't go!

I am really enjoying spending time with this girl and getting to know her more! 

If this is how we spend every Sunday the rest of the semester, I would not mind at all. 

It would seem that I am suppose to have a thing for Elephants! I was given another gift with them as a prominent feature!

This is from another 'since first semester' friend. Isn't it cute?! I love it!

I am just trying to figure out if there is

some 'message' with all the Elephants I am getting 

just as I myself am trying NOT to be one! ;) 

#ItsTheLittleThings