Day 18-19 ~ Gurl Gotcha Nails Did

Heya!  So This weekend was very interesting!!  Okay, so girls will be girls.  I went ahead and got my nails done.  No particular reason.  I just felt like being independent and roaming the streets and checking out the shops.  Prior I had just gotten lunch with my engineering friend Adam from Gana.  He had helped me carry my luggage the first day I got here out of the taxi.  Quite a nice fellow, I’ve never known a Ganian? Ganese?  Somebody correct me on that one?

Exploring by oneself once in a while is a must while being here, adds confidence in general. The reality of being speaking a different tongue sinks especially when making appointments in a different language.  At 3:15 I was escorted to a lovely little corner in the nail salon.  To my surprise, they had an array of OPI colors (first time I saw that in China) AND they do acrylic and gels, <GASP>.  Two hours, a Korean sitcom, and two cups of tea later.  My nails were finally done.  My goodness she was detailed!  I didn’t do anything special.  There was a little 5 year old girl who sat next to me staring the entire time.  “ Is this your  xiao pengyou “小朋友” (little friend)?”  Ha -no I don’t have a little five year old tag-along yet.  Two teenagers came in as they probably do every four days, and started smoking while picking out colors.  At least I had already finished my two hours and I could zou “走”(go).

I met Natalie 丁盈 (Dingying) and Luke 戴宁(Daining) – (ha , I always mix their names, Dinying Daining Dingning Daiying? Help!)  and at our favorite coffee shop 雕刻时光 “Sculpting in Time” – we call it “sit” for short.  After studying very rigorously, the three of us, though white-as-‘Wonderbread’ spoke Chinese the entire night amongst ourselves to the shopping alley 新街口, where we had AmAzInG Japanese Ramen for dinner.  I bought some new black boots and a yoga mat for my room so I can do Pilates on days that I’m not running!  That night I stayed up until 2 studying!  INTENSE 挑灯夜战 burning the midnight oil! 

This SUNDAY morning at the kind hour of 7:00 AM I woke up to my neighbor drilling in his wall –the wall directly behind my bed.  Good morning indeed… No need for an alarm clock.  But seriously, I do not complain about much so far, but excuse me, sir, SEVEN in the MORNING on a SUNDAY asdlfja;lsdjfalsdjfaldskfjas;dsfjasld!!!!!!!!!!!!!  <Censored>   lol  this was me:  (X_X)

 I just put on a smile and said calmly, ” Jesus must really want me to go to church today”  –he just didn’t want me to miss it, so he allowed me to have a free alarm clock service for church this morning.  Dinying had invited me to church with some of the Johns Hopkins kids to an international church nearby.  Only foreigners, Taiwanese, Macao, and Hong Kong people were allowed to attend.  But the funny thing is, upon entering the church, I once again realized my wonderbread-whiteness as the majority of the people inside where African.  Not from America.  Fascinating, Chinese is never uninteresting to me.  But it was similar to a Baptist’s church.  Being raised more on the Catholic spectrum of Christian faith, it is a little much for me sometimes, dancing… the Blues Brothers comes to mind, but it was by all means, not to that extreme. Like I said, Jesus really wanted me to go today. 

When I got home, my roommate invited me to go study with her and her boyfriend in the science building.  That let time go by, I got to see Christian on Skype!  Other than that, nothing else fancy happened today.  I believe that my friend Kaytlin Holding is getting married today.  Please send her my best wishes.  I wish I could be there to see it, and I don’t have her skype. 

Love,

Caitlin