My little brother is cuter than your little brother. HANDS DOWN.

Here's your helping of warm fuzzies today.
My little brother made a blog about me being in China. Check it out. It's ADORABLE.

I got on Spotify today, thanks to my handy VPN, (cheating the Chinese internet popo hehe) and he had created a playlist titled "i miss justine this is lucas." Oh my heavens, my heart just melted to pieces. I even got a little cryish about it.

Oh I love him.
xoxo,
Justine

FOOOOOOOD

Here's a picture book of what I've eaten so far here in Chinaland:

Barbecued chicken feet in Hong Kong.
Also misleadingly known as "Phoenix Claw." (see previous post)

Duck.

Whole fish. 

Durian aka Jack Fruit (smells and tastes like onions; although, it's not bad dried)

Asian Pears. So good.

Sugar apple. It tastes like banana custard and has a similar consistency.

Sugar cane. Yes, it is difficult to eat. Thanks for asking.

Panda Toast!!

Moon cakes. Some are soo good. Others, not so much...

Honey dew with coconut milk and Mango pancakes. Heavenly.

Pork knuckles. Less heavenly.

Frog. Kind of tastes like chicken. Really.

Speaking of chicken...
This is actually completely normal, except for the little guy's head is smack dab in the middle of the dish. Ehem......your wing tastes real nice, Reggie.

Dragon Fruit!! I love it.

Watermelon. Sometimes I play with my food...
Give me a break; I teach 4 year olds.

We made wontons:)

So yummy:)

Yes, I do put sprinkles on my oatmeal.
It's quite wonderful, as you can tell by my emotional picstitch. 

Trying to make a cake in a rice cooker.

 This was the result. I have cute roommates.

 Mostly I eat peanut butter.

A lot.

xoxo,
Justine

Changsha

We visited a city north of Zhongshan the other weekend and went to a temple, which was the greatest.

Micah kissing the dragon

Got my fortune told at the temple and had this cute girl translate. It said to slow down and not try to do everything at once. Hmm sounds familiar HA mom

Watched 27 Dresses in Chinese at the hotel :)

Xoxo,
Justine

New Hurrs

Second post about hair. Sue me. I got a haircut in China, and that's a big deal. Let me walk you through it step by step.

First, they had me lay down on a cushy bed instead of sitting in a chair like Murica. 

Next, massage: head, neck, and shoulders. It was divine. 

For 30 minutes.

Oh and you know how you sometimes get cold when your hair gets wet? They gave me a fuzzy bear blanket, in case I got cold. 

Then the snipping began.

The ladies at the salon were talking to my friend Jenny and said in shock, "she cut her hair like a boy." 

Yep. 

So now it looks like this:

And I love it.

xoxo Justine

Nakey Time

First day of school nightmare: coming to school in your underwear. Oh wait, it happens every day in China. At the school I teach, I lead a parade of naked children outside every day to go play on the hot playground. After fifteen minutes of playtime, the kids get a little sponge bath with a damp towel before starting English class again. Oh to be a little kid in China.

            The little babies don’t have diapers here in China. They either go completely pantsless or wear a breezier variation of pants complete with a gaping hole, so they can pop a squat wherever they please, whenever they please. 

Alright, China, alright.

            The other day, I was in my towel, hanging my clothes to dry outside, and my towel fell. My roommates dance on their window bench in their underwear. Our neighbors love us.

           

We took a train to Changsha last weekend, (which is a city north of the city I live in, Zhongshan). In the hotel, the bathroom wall was glass but had a curtain for the prudes, like my roomie, Micah, who pulled the curtain while she showered. When I went in to take my shower, I realized the curtain was a one-sided curtain, so you could see through it from inside the bathroom but you couldn’t see anything from the room. Um, kind of creepy? I was taking my sweet time getting undressed, taking a pee, brushing my teeth, and I kept looking over at Micah through the curtain, because I was just so weirded out. As I'm turning the water on, I look over and see the flowery opaque curtain bunched to the side. The curtain had been pulled to the side the entire time, and I just thought it was a one-sided curtain.                                                             I prudishly pulled the curtain and finished my shower.

Embarrassed kitty.

Loves,

Justine 

I may or may not be gaining weight.

All through training for English teacha (yes, teacha not teacher) training, I was informed to bring my crappiest clothes, because I'm just going to end up throwing away all the clothes I bring anyway. The washing machines are in the middle of the bathroom, and you have to hook it up to the water heater, and you can’t shower while washing clothes, because the water heater hose is the shower; they leave stains, they’re tiny, they ruin your clothes, etc. etc. Being the attentive, obedient English teacha I am, I bring my poopy clothes that I don’t care too much for; although I’m still hoping I don’t have to throw any away. Then ILP decides to plop me in the ritzy fashionville of China: Zhongshan. Yeah oooooookay. Everyone and their dog walks around in crazy heels, wedges, darling froofroo dresses, and MC Hammer pants (jumping on that bandwagon stat), while I’m just walking around in my ratty t-shirts and leggings. And our washer works just fine even while the shower is running.

Good thing I was born with a powerful gift for throwing money at vendors for cheap Chinese clothing that I have to fix afterwards with my nifty sewing kit (thank you, Grandma, for throwing a white elephant Christmas party last year). So I’ve been buying things left and right to make up for my lack of decent clothing. It’s actually supah fun. No complaints here.

While we’re talking about shopping, let’s talk about the other day when I was perusing the One Plus One Market here in Zhongshan, China. Two funny things happened:

1.     I was looking for a dressing room to try on this darling dress I found and asked a girl where I could find one. Actually. Let me clarify. I didn’t ask the girl; I mimed my urgent question to her in an intricate and intense one-sided game of charades. I say one-sided, because after my elaborate dance, the girl responded with a curt “no.” After stumbling out “entschuldigen, uh, I mean xie xie, no, um crap I don’t know how to… uh sorry,” I kept browsing. Oddly enough, the girl gradually hedged closer to the clothes I was looking through until she was just standing in front of me, waiting for me to move so she could look through the clothes. Puleeez, girl. You just made me look like an idiot by not playing along with my game of charades, and now you want me to move so you can look through these clothes and find the jackpot before me? Uh uh. So I keep looking through the clothes as if I don’t see her. Finally she looks up at me and starts to mime something back. I can’t quite understand what she’s saying until she points over to the maternity clothes.

She thought I was preggo.

In my defense, I was wearing a maxi dress and holding up a baby doll top while trying to ask where the dressing rooms were.

Turns out dressing rooms don’t exist in China.

2.     Second funny of the shopping trip: Chinglish. It’s everywhere.

If you can't read it, that last shirt says, "Before I die I wart to..."

Adventure time in China.

Lovelove, 

Justine