Zhengzhou, Zhengzhou! 郑州，郑州

Today I spent the day in Zhengzhou. While there, I saw this shirt that reminded me of my brother,

which is fitting as today is his birthday!
Since I wasn't sure if he would ever actually want to wear it,

I just took a picture of it!
Tonight's blog is going to be a BOATLOAD of pictures!

Before getting to my day in ZZ, lets start with last night. 

Photo credit to my friend M! I hope she doesn't mind me posting them! heh

On the way to the restaurant!

The group that walks together, eats together!

Every time I see little jars of jams, jelly's, and preserves in the red checkered tops like this, 

it reminds me of my kindergarten teacher! 

Spent a few hours at 360, a very Westernized mall

that makes me feel at times like I have been transported back to

Great Lakes Crossing!

Many of the stores are even Western brands such as

H&M, Addidas, Nike, Sephoria and more

I took this one with my sister in mind. 

The name of the store, as you will see in the next photo, is Chocolate!

The store front is made up of blocks that look

like chocolate bars!! 

*drool*

I found my favourite aisle! 

Candles and frames! 

But, I was good...I didn't buy a thing!

As if Orion Pies weren't addictive enough, 

they made another one with even more

chocolate?!

 This made me think of my sisters!

It was in the Import aisle of 

Carefour

Yes ladies and genteleman,
just what you have always dreamed of!

Seaweed Pringles!

I've got four more months in the country,

I will be taking orders for these bad boys now...

they will be delivered upon arrival back State Side!

;)

This was my lunch! 

I know, super healthy huh, :/

But it was so good!! 

It was cheddar cheese bread!

Tasted a lot like Hungry Howeys 

cheesy bread, without the dipping sauce!

I sat here for awhile, people watching.

I was waiting for my friend to come back from

having lunch with one of her friends. 

So happy that the day was nice enough to sit outside!

Construction is not only a common sight in 

China, but I think this place would be a little strange

without it, to tell you the truth!

Can't think of a time I have not seen a great deal any area

I am in under construction!

I just thought these were pretty cool! 

Marvel Hero juice boxes!!

Well what do you know?! 

China sells sanitize now!

In case you can't tell by the

blue tag its hanging under,

this is at Walmart.

My sweet friend! I have such a good time 

every time we hang out!

Such a fancy little bakery!

They are making our Banana and Strawberry smoothies!

Can you see my head?

So yummy! I could smell the 

banana the second I took off the lid!

Smile!

 At the subway

She was pointing to which subway stops she knew and what was at them. 

"This is where we get dropped off, this is where we go to Walmart, this is where you can go to

such and such a shopping center"

Its good to go into ZZ with someone who knows what they are doing!

Ok, so I didn't know that my phone was taking such

blurry photos!

These next ones are all from Metro.

Many have heard me talk about the place so much, and I wanted you to see

what kind of a store it was. 

I know a few people who just LOVE this stuff!! 

This is a pretty large jar too!

How big is it, you ask?

Well.....

Here it is sitting next to a regular sized

jar of peanut butter.

That's a whole lot of ouch in one photo 

for me!

Look what I found Mum! And the price wasn't actually that bad!

But I didn't get them. I wanted to spend the money on

chocolate spread!!

Aren't we all? 

haha!

Its a bit of a cheesy grin, but can you blame me?

That is a cranberry bagel, with chocolate spread and banana's!

It was my dinner!

I warmed the bagel up in my brand new

FRY PAN!!

Probably my favourite purchase of the day!

Its cute, and small {Just the right size for a single gal! I will be able to

fry up a chicken breast, or heat up left overs and such! Or...warm up

a bagel!} and blue! 

I was suppose to come home and meet 

up with two classmates to work on another

group project at 7.

{We have to create a PPT of a city we have chosen, ours being 

Xi'an, and then give a presentation about it

on Tuesday. It has to have how we would get there

what we would do, where we would go,

what we would see, what we would eat...etc.

This is for our

"China Tourism Geography" 

class.}

The other girl in my group wasn't feeling well after 

eating something that didn't sit well with her, 

so we have rescheduled for tomorrow.

{Really shouldn't be that hard to put together really!}

That was a relief cause I am beat and want to just curl up in bed now!

#ItsTheLittleThings!

Later everyone!

Good things happen at the Donkey place!

I had another really full day! 

And it was great!

Because my boss wasn't in the office today I didn't have to go in! 

So I checked and replied to email from my room!

I also did a bit of homework. 

Most of the words on the page were not making sense to me

and since it was more frustrating than anything else,

I decided to only do my listening homework today.   

I hope to be able to step away from it for a little and then be able to have it click when I got back!

We'll see how well that goes.

At 2:30, I went over to actually make it to the ladies meeting!

It was really good! 

It was rather convicting as well! My hope is to be able to continue going,

as I think it will be good for me to spend time around

'like minded' yet different background women! 

I am saddened that the Message is 

referenced at times, but feel I will be growing none the less!

I enjoyed the time with them.

Then, I had enough time to run back to my dorm,

pick out a nice dress up outfit and

put on some makeup before heading

right back over to the teachers building.

There was a large Family dinner to celebrate this weekend

and a group was going to walk to the restaurant. 

{Those of you that might wonder and worry about my back, 

I wore my runners for the walk and packed dress shoes!}

It was such a fun {and delicious} meal! 

And we of course took time to Remember properly with bread and grape juice

and even sang a few songs!

SO AWESOME!

Then most everyone at our table returned

to one of the teachers apartments to watch a movie together!

I had to leave about half way through to make it back

to my dorm in time to still take a shower

and get in before the doors were locked up,

but it was a great way to end the day!

#ItsTheLittleThings

You know what ISN"T a little thing?

He is Risen!

He died, 

For me

Though I do not deserve it. 

 He did not stay dead!

He has risen again!

He is Alive!

He is here!

考试

This was my lunch! I love how often China surprises me with new foods I love!

#ItsTheLittleThings

Today was my last day of classes and work in the office

until Tuesday!

I have a nice bit of homework that I need to get done, so I am

going to try to get that and also get some

preview done. However,.,,,

I think this every time I have a few days off!

We shall see how well that works! haha.

I have plans to go to dinner with my 

Sunday group, tomorrow night. 

And then Sunday morning there is a big family meeting

in the morning to celebrate the day! 

I hope to find some fun things to do on Saturday and Monday

as well as doing my homework! 

This is my '听写' Dictation. I did really horrid, but my teacher wrote

“没关系 加油 我相信你”

Pretty much, she said 

"No worries, keep going up, I believe in you!"

Our teachers here are so cute! 

I had a Listening Exam last night 

and my comprehensive reading exam tonight. 

Nothing like a test to make me feel like a five year old!

As always, I was sure I had bombed on my listening quiz. 

Got the results back today.

Out of 45 questions I got 28 right. 

The bright side to that is that this was from the HSK 5 exam. 

I don't want to take the exam but I really didn't think

I could get that many right for this level. 

{She hit play, and they went at HSK level 5 speaking speed, give a dialogue  and then asking questions, then pausing for a moment to let us answer the question before moving on to

the next question.}

Again, 28 is not a good amount out of 45, but it is better then the

 3 I was confident on! haha!!

Still trying to work myself out of this blah, meh, and downright AAAAAAA 

mood I have been in this week. 

Everyday is not lived on cloud nine...

but all days have something to make me smile and 

realize that I have a wonderful Father who 

has not forgotten me! 

And further more....

HE IS RISEN!! 

And that, ladies and gents, is no Little Thing!!!

I love being a jiejie!

I just love the cups they put the tea in!! Tee hee hee!!

When I came back from picking up some dinner, my 

little buddy was in the lobby. {Doing the splits on the couch actually! haha!}

I heard her telling someone else that we had been colouring last night.

She then asked:

"Jiejie, can we colour again tonight?" 

I told her that I had an exam tonight and so I couldn't.

She replied

"Ok! Tomorrow then!"

Once again I had to tell her that I had another exam tomorrow night.

"What night DON'T you have a test?"

She said.

I felt bad that I had to say that the next night I was 

free was Saturday. Even more so when she said 

she didn't know if she was going to be around.

But, we decided that the next time I was free and I 

saw her in the lobby, we would colour. 

I can't tell you how happy I am that she

has two parents who love her so much

and who are even giving her a little sibling!

It's nice to have a little buddy again, though! 

She is too stinkin cute I tell ya!

{I will get a picture with her as soon as I can!}

#ItsTheLittleThings

There is no place around here called Donut King. Yet....I can still get tea in a cup with the name! 

I <3 China!

When talking about my everyday life, I feel like I am pretty good with my

Chinese listening skills. 

But as far as class goes, Listening is always one of my 

worst subjects.

Tonight we had a Listening Exam. 

Our teacher was sick all day and so she was late

to the classroom! :( 

I loved what she did with it though!

She started asking the students if they were all upset that she was

late and how what they thought about it and all.

As soon as they saw where she was going with it they

all changed their tune from 

"We were upset and thought it was bad"

to

"We were very happy! Its no problem at all!"

{Though they had been saying that she should give everyone

extra points or at least high marks to make up for waiting on her!}

She then said "See how I feel when you are late to class everyday?"

She also pointed out a few people and said

"Its so nice to see you finally! This is like, what, the second time you've been to class?!"

She pointed to each person that makes a habit of skipping class, to tell them she

was glad they showed up to the exam but that they should start coming to 

see her teach! {She did it in a funny way, which I think sometimes

I think the students like a bit too much! Fame of any

kind is better than no fame, right? So they 

are known as the student who doesn't show up...their name is known!} 

While we waiting, I tried to help focus my mind where it should be.

I know, Im a grown up, I should have learned long ago not to draw on myself, but

oh well!