my favorite people-Robin

Robin is one of my favorite co-workers. I work in the GRO (Guest Recognition Office). Altogether there are 4 of us...Rose (our boss), Rainbow, Robin, and me. Rainbow and Robin work alternating shifts, but it just works out that he and I work together more often because he and I both work more evening shifts than Rainbow or Rose.
Robin used to work on a cruise ship in Hong Kong, Macao, and Singapore, so not only is his English great, but he has a good grasp of foreign culture as well. I think his English is the best of anyone at the hotel so communicating with him is fun and easy. But, he still makes mistakes sometimes and even when there's no mistake, he's just down right funny sometimes. Here's a list of some of my favorite Robin quotes:
1. We have this really important frequent guest (Chinese, not foreign) who owns a bunch of companies and is really rich. I should know his name, but I just always refer to him as the guy with the big eyebrows. (I don't mean this as an insult to the guy, it's just a distinguishing factor). So one day Robin was telling me some story about this guy and I wasn't sure who he was talking about so I said, "Do you mean the one with the big eyebrows?" He says, "Yes, right. Exactly. Just like a monkey." I pause. He pauses. We both crack up laughing and he says between laughs, "Why did I say 'like a monkey?'" I don't know why, but it was funny.
2. Our GRO computer doesn't always work properly. I often have to ask for help doing stuff because the operating system and all the programs are completely in Chinese. So one day I was like Robin, can you help me, it's broken again. He says, "No, not broken. Just retarded." I thought it was a great use of the word retarded. I'm not sure how to explain this, but even those with good English here don't normally use any kind of slang, so it made me laugh. He also told the printer, "Come on little baby, you can do it." And today he cussed at the computer in English when it froze just as we were finishing translating a 6 page document.
3. One day I was really excited about something (I don't even remember what it was) and I came into the lobby and he was standing there and said, "Why are you so happy? You are shining in your face."
4. This one is from today. I haven't been feeling well and I had just taught 2 hours of English training, eaten dinner and had just come back in the office. He asks me, "How are you?" I say, "I'm ok." He says, "No. I don't think so because you have vegetable leaves stuck in your teeth." Thanks for being discreet about that. :) But, I did appreciate him telling me before I went to the lobby to mingle with the guests.
There are so many more, but I need to get to bed. I'll also work on getting a picture of him for you.

my favorite people-Helen

I'd like to introduce you to some of my favorite people...
Helen has been one of my best friends here since we met shortly after I arrived in 2002. I love her for so many reasons. She's fun. She has taken me to fly kites in the middle of the town square, mountain (hill) climbing in a town about an hour away by train, and taken me to eat some very interesting things over the years (cow stomach!). I love her because she is willing to eat anything I cook. Sometimes people make comments about the food being so differrent, but she doesn't care, she is such a good sport about eating Western food. She LOVES salad. I love it too, so it's so great when she calls and asks to come over and us make a salad together. (This is always a welcomed change especially when most folks always want to take you out to eat lots and lots of sheep).
Helen once told me that her friends asked her if we spoke mostly in Chinese or mostly in English. She told them that we speak our own special language. It's true. Every sentence will include words from both languages. Somehow, we always manage to communicate. (Although, the cow stomach and styrofoam are examples of when our system failed us).
Recently, Helen fixed my TV/DVD player. The DVD player wouldn't play in color. Various folks (including our American guys) had looked at it and no one could figure out what the deal was. Everything seemed to be plugged in right, but it was still black and white. Helen found some button to push that fixed the problem. She helped me decorate my Christmas tree. She delievered big pieces of styrofoam to my house. I am so thanful for a friend like her.

Christmas cookies

Saturday some ladies from work came over to make and decorate Christmas cookies. So fun!
Special thanks to: mom for the frosting (much easier than making it), Aubrey for one of the cookie cutters (a few years back, tied on to the jar with a ribbon and bell), DH for the other cookie cutters, Abbey for the food coloring, and Susan B for leaving some sprinkles.

dinner with Tom Cruise

Really, I had dinner tonight with Tom Cruise...just not the one you may know. Tom Cruise is this guy who was on the volleyball team at the Sports School when I was here before. He doesn't speak much English at all, but with the English he does have, he chose the English name Tom Cruise and always introduces himself as such. We had tried to get together a few times before, but he works out at one of the dairies which is WAY out of town, so we hadn't been able to make it work. He caught up on life, dreams, and future plans over a bowl of noodles. Fun times.

EASY MAC

Preface: This is one of those posts I hope doesn’t freak my parents out (or anyone else for that matter). So let me begin by saying that I am lacking no necessity in life here and am well-provided for. Let me also say that I can eat ALL of my meals at the hotel if I choose, so if I starve to death, it’s no one’s fault other than my own.

As am I working on updating this blog, I am multi-tasking while I also eat lunch. I am having easy mac for about the 5^th meal in a row. Here’s why:

Today is Thursday. I get paid on Monday. So, I really don’t have any money to spend until Monday. I’ve sort of been playing this game with myself the past few days to see how long I can go without spending any money at all. (I can ride my bike or walk and eat most of the time at the hotel). Also, it’s freezing outside so I never really want to go out and buy anything so I’ve been trying to put together meals out of stuff I already have at my house.

I put my Christmas tree up a while back. It was here when I moved in (left by the guy who lived here before me) and was stored in the bottom section of my kitchen pantry. When I took it out I found some pretty weird stuff underneath it. Some detergent, some bowls, and a bunch of packets of easy mac. I thought to myself, these have been here since at least before the tree was put away, which has been about a year. But then I thought about all the preservatives in easy mac and decided there was no harm in saving them to eat when I was in a hurry or something.

So, the past few meals that I have been too cold and lazy to go outside, I’ve been eating the very old easy mac that I found in the depths of the pantry under the Christmas tree.

I love my life here!

weekend fun Dec 1-3

Friday evening and Saturday morning, I helped one of the American girls move from one apartment to another. This is always quite an experience. Normally, you walk out to the street and look for guys with empty flatbed tricycles and hire a few of them, and we all take loads of stuff in various taxis until all the stuff is moved. This time, another American girl had scored a business card of a moving company...sort of. Basically, it’s a couple guys to move the stuff and another guy who owns a big truck. These guys were especially helpful since all but one of our foreign male friends were out of town this particular weekend. (Convenient for them, huh?) Anyway, these moving guys were AMAZING. One guy carried the refrigerator on his back up three flights of stairs alone. And these are not big guys. They would just tie all sorts of suitcases and stuff together with rope, throw it over their shoulders and go. None of us had ever seen anything like it. Someone took pictures, but I don’t have any.

Saturday night some of the foreign ladies came over to my house to have a slumber party. I don’t think I’ll ever outgrow having fun staying up late, giggling, and just hanging out with girl friends. All of us are 20 or 30 something and I think we all had a good time. There are pictures from this event, but you can’t go posting those on the world wide web.

So here’s a story about preparing for said slumber party: I have one double bed and one couch in my apartment. The couch is large and L-shaped, so two people can sleep there. That still left 3 people with no place to sleep. Something I had wanted to get for awhile is a big piece of foam I could put on the floor to sleep on for events such as this or for when guests are here.

I know these pieces of foam exist, because my old apartment had one, and since mattresses aren’t very common (most beds are just a piece of foam on top of wooden slats placed across the bed frame), I see them often. But, I never see them in stores and therefore, didn’t know where to buy them. So, on Saturday morning I called one of my best local friends, Helen, to ask her where I could buy one. (Later, I would somewhat regret this decision).

We often talk about how occasionally, our local friends “over-help.” This was one of those cases. Helen tells me not to buy one, that her dad’s friend owns a foam factory and she can just have one delivered to my house for free. I really just want her to tell me where I can one, because I don't want the "Over-help" nor do I want to trouble her. But free is good so, “This could be a sweet deal,” I think to myself. She said she would call me back if she could find a guy to deliver it (see aforementioned guys with tricycles). She calls back to say the factory doesn’t have anyone who can deliver it today (Saturday) but they will delver it tomorrow (Sunday) at noon. I need the foam for Saturday night, but now I feel bad that she has gone to a lot of trouble to help me so I can’t bear to tell her that I don’t need it. This means I’m still going to have to go out and buy something to use for the party and then have an extra one delivered on Sunday.

It’s a good thing I did, because what was delivered to my house on Sunday was 3 twin-bed-size pieces of STYROFOAM!

I’m not sure where our communication breakdown occurred because I know I said “foam” in both Chinese and English and said that I wanted it for a bed. So, if anyone needs any styrofoam, I know who can hook you up.

Now I am facing the problem of storage. I called my mom to tell her this story and she suggested maybe I could insulate something with them. My mom is great! So, I cut one of them and put in my bedroom window to block some of the cold wind. The other two are currently behind my couch just hanging out until I think of a way to use them.