Sunday and more

I went to church again with Samuel and Anna, and this time Samuel and I were singing. We chose "Abide with me" because the theme was gratitude for Thanksgiving. I sang the first verse in Sop., Samuel in Tenor. then we switched, and switched back again. Not too difficult, but I managed to mess it up anyways. Thankfully, Samuel was ready, I got back on, and no big deal. Then I messed up again! Once again, Samuel brought his game and no big deal. Every time I messed up, Samuel covered and I corrected based off of him. At no point did we every sing the same part. It was great! Thanks Samuel!!!!! Anyways, everyone was so impressed that they asked us to sing again on the 7th of Dec. Hopefully I won't mess up the text this time so I'll be able to get the notes right. Maybe we can sing a Christmas Carol!
Oh, and there was a visiting speaker from the Beijing branch that continuously complimented me throughout the rest of church. Asked if I were taking lessons here? How was I keeping up? That was a nice little boost even if I didn't think I sang as well as I could have.

After church, we went over to the Jones' house for lunch and "the chat". Samuel wasn't feeling very well but he still managed to stay upright for through lunch. We had Sloppy Joe's and boiled potatoes and green beans. Since the bread had egg in it, I just put the BBQ on my potatoes. It was GREAT! Then, Mrs Jones made fresh oatmeal cookies, which had egg in it, but they smelled so good, and its been such a long time since I've had fresh baked cookies that i had a small one. Thankfully my reaction isn't bad and doesn't last long, plus I had taken allergy meds before church, so eating it wasn't too bad. It was at this point that Mr Jones starting talking to me about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints....while I was reacting to the egg, lol. Again, wasn't too bad but enough that I really just wanted to shut my eyes and take a nice long nap!
I'm not planning on becoming Mormon, but I figured the least I could do was hear them out for all their hospitality they've been giving me. On top of that, I'm actually starting to learn about religion, something I've never really done before.

Once we finished up, Mr Jones walked us to a cab and the three of us had a discussion about what I was just told, my initial reactions and whether or not I was actually going to pray (using Mr Jones' bible which he had lent me) to see if this was something I am "sincere" about. I still haven't prayed, nor do I think I will. Organized religion is good for responsible people who can thinking for themselves as well as with the church in mind, but to me, I'm not a big fan. Nothing against those who do, I just personally do not support everything it does to the radical religious people. That's why I don't mind talking with the folks here. Most of them are pretty down to earth and don't want to pressure me... too much. Anna and Samuel are really great though. They're just glad that I am interested in learning about the church and little bit about what they believe in. They've been absolutely no pressure, and that's been awesome.

So, I said I would take the time to learn more about the church. The Jones' are going to come to our hotel and then we are going out for Hot Pot near the hotel, since the Jones' have yet to try it. If there is time afterward, or this might be something Anna and I will attempt later on Saturday afternoon when the men of the church have a meeting, we might go to another market located between the Drum Tower and Ancient Culture street. I'm not sure we'll have time to go with the Jones', but maybe Mrs Jones would like to join Anna and me.

After we got home we all just crashed. It was about 3:00, maybe 3:30 when we got back and I didn't wake up until Anna called me at 6:00. Boy was I tired! None of us were at all hungry so we skipped dinner and watched Mama Mia instead. What a great movie! Samuel and I were laughing out loud at some of the ridiculousness of it, and watching Pierce Brosnan (spelling?) sing... how funny is that! You should watch it if you get a chance.
Then, time for bed. Darn that whole working thing!

Monday morning rolls around and I have to be ready to go by 9:00 a.m. instead of 9:15 'cause the driver needs to run an errand. By the time I receive this call I had already done my work out, which was Justin's hotel strengthening routine, and I was chatting, unpacking, I don't remember what, but the time change wasn't going to be an issue. I was downstairs at 9:00 and my driver didn't come until 9:10. No big deal. I enjoyed sitting outside. Blue sky, brisk air, a little chilly but nice all the same. We went to run the errand and between the extra driving time and the time to run the errand itself, I got to an hour and a half later. I got to sleep most of the time so I wasn't too upset with that. I was told it would only take and extra 20 mins verses the extra hour. Oh well.

Work went as usual. My new project was to look up ideas for possible new appliances-basically just giving me something to do until they can think of something else. And class, since I neither wanted to put something together, and because it had been a while since we had done something fun, I brought in movies. No prepping for class, little work to do and no meeting with the president because of a conflict kept my day uneventful.

The class decided on Batman and Kung Fu Panda. For some reason LG's computer wouldn't read Batman so we watched Kung Fu Panda by default. Then, after I got the computer hooked up to the screen, the movie wasn't playing on the large screen, only on the computer screen. Strange. I don't know what was happening there, so we my two students (one of my students left after the movie wouldn't show on the large screen) myself and one additional person crowded around the computer screen. I told my students not to read too much into the subtitles since most of them were incorrect, but wow, were some of the funny! I would laugh out loud at some of the translations even if it wasn't a funny part of the film. If only my students had understood... I guess I wouldn't be needed then!

After the movie, it was back home and spaghetti time! Somehow Anna had read my mind and made spaghetti for dinner. I was pretty stoked! Oh, and Samuel, who had stayed home from work on Monday, was feeling better. I was still really tired, as were they, so we all just crashed after dinner.

Tuesday, I tired Windsor's "Fat Burning" routine. There was hardly enough room in my room to do all the moves to the proper extent so it wasn't the greatest workout. Afterward, since I felt like I had only warmed up I also did some Pilates for Abs. That, combined with being a little stiff from Justin's routine the day before seemed to do the trick.

I left the hotel at 9:15, trying to beat my driver downstairs who was already there-I found out this morning that he gets to the hotel about five after nine. Not going down that early!
Work, since I had exhausted more of the "new appliances" sites, was pretty dull. All three of our group supervisors left on business, so I spent a few hours of work showing my remaining co-workers my College life through Facebook. Granted, most of the pictures on Facebook are of parties, but they were just as interested in the pics of my study abroad and Choir tour to Spain as they were in the party pics. They were probably a little more comfortable looking at the non-party pics, but regardless, I don't think their view of me changed much... I hope, lol.

At 4:00 p.m. I went downstairs to the second floor and had an hour long conversation with the president about a number of things, mostly about providing the consumer something they only know they want on a subconscious level. He asked what I was working on now-collecting new ideas for products-and promptly told me that there was and entire center devoted to that and that I didn't need to do it. I told him it was something for me to do until someone could give something actually purposeful to work on. He just laughed at that. It was a pretty fun conversation overall.

Since I didn't need to prep any for class-we were going to watch a movie on MY computer so it would actually work-it didn't take me long to prep for class. I got everything set up and at 5:20, when people should have started rolling in, or at least been visible in the office, no one came. I quickly packed up, told the director I had no students and ran down to meet the bus. When I got there, the bus had already left. I called Samuel to make sure they were still in the complex, which they were, and told them to pick me up. I caught the bus at the gate and headed home with Samuel and one of his co-workers, the infamous Steve. Steve is the name Samuel gave him in part because he's hilarious! I wasn't sure what Steve was doing with us until Samuel told me that he had been accepted into BYU's Business School and that we were going to out celebrate. Woot! Dumpling time! Because we were going to the dumpling place, I offered to pay. The food there is very inexpensive and also goes a long way. On the bus ride home, Steve gave me a non-traditional Chinese name. Basically a couple of characters put together which seem to resemble my given name. Roughly translated my name means Blue (that's the last name) Happy Graceful.. or something like that. The characters look pretty cool so I might have a Calligrapher write them out for me before I leave.

We got to the hotel, I dropped off my stuff and we picked up Anna, then met up with Steve's girlfriend/fiancee Jessica on the way to get dumplings. Jessica is very sweet and like most Chinese women, quite reserved. We had a really nice dinner, good egg free dishes, and free entertainment watching the cooks stare at our table. Every time one of the cooks looked at our table he would also pretend to whistle, or something similar to that. Sleaze... No thank you. Anna told me when to look, when not to look, and I'm not sure what provoked the following action from me-maybe it was when all three cooks had nothing better to do than stand in the door way of the kitchen and stare at the back of my head-I did a hair flip... the obvious flirtatious flip used far too much in the in the States. Anna and I nearly died laughing! If we didn't stick out enough earlier, this definitely did! And Steve said I was "quiet as a mouse". Ha! He doesn't know me very well. Oh, and Jessica thought I was 20. Wow... I want to stay young but not that young!

After dinner we waddled home, both from eating too much and because the wind was so flippin' cold we had to waddle to keep most of our bodies covered from the wind! We parted ways with Steve and Jessica and I almost went to the store to pick up some milk. But, with the promise of a movie, a warm room and Swiss Miss hot cocoa, I decided that was one more thing to keep me from achieving comfort... so I didn't get any milk while I was out... meaning I'll probably have to go out tonight and get some... so I don't eat cereal and water for breakfast any more!

We got back home, watched Step Up, which has lots of GREAT dancing and an uplifting story of overcoming hardships and poverty, and after that, Anna and Samuel went back to their room to get ready for their early trip to Beijing for a conference today (Wednesday) and I chatted with mom and dad for a bit before going to bed. Oh, and I forgot to mention that when I get home, the family is going up to the Dells for a week to hang out at an indoor water park and go Skiing and Snowboarding. I'm going to try to Snowboard! Hahahaha! This could be painful!

As for today, I've basically been blogging all day. Dad told me to put more up, so here it is! :) I was asked a couple questions on what a 2x4 is, and what siding is... basically had to re-explain my "how to build a wall" report. And spoke with another co-worker about an up coming survey they would like me to prepare. I'm hoping this will be better than the last one!

It's almost 3:00 pm now, which means break time-a break at ten and three-plus an hour for lunch, which was veggies and a dry piece of pork, sadly I think this was the best lunch I've had here yet! Conversational English with the president at 4:00 p.m. and class at 5:30 p.m. I'm running out of ideas for class, which is good that I'm doing it now and not earlier, since I only have five more classes to prepare which includes tonight. I asked Vivian and she suggested doing class on my college experience. Facebook here I come! Again, I'm secretly hoping that no one shows up! Probably won't happen tonight, but I'll be excited if it does!

That's all for now. I'll try to get pictures up, but those darn western movies after dinner always seem to get in the way ;)

Stay warm! I know I'm trying to!