Today I was t-boned by an E-Bike...

From the diagram that I have made, you can see that I, the red "X", was stopped at an intersection. I was tucked back from the main flow of cars in the tree lined bike path, and then all of a sudden I was SLAMMED into by a man on an e-bike. He RAMMED into my leg, which is now bruised and throbbing even after 8 hours.

There was a debacle with him talking in Chinese and laughing (which is the way that Chinese people deal with confrontational conversations -- they think it makes the situation lighthearted, I find it incredibly condescending), and me shaking in shock and pain.

A girl noticed that I didn't understand what he was saying and started asking me in English if I was okay. It was so nice of her to even stop, but as she did, the guy zipped away on his E-bike.

I feel like this situation sums up China in a nutshell.

Tibetan Dance

In theory I teach at Hebei Normal University (the Provincial University). In reality, I teach at a smaller, lesser known sister school that claims the Hebei Normal name. It is called the Nationality College. It has this name because half of the students are Tibetan, and once I am no longer employed with them, I plan on going into more details about my school life...

Regardless, every Saturday night my school hosts a Tibetan Dance, and the other week a few of us went to go and see it, to Dance, and then, of course, to get some PopLand.

They dance in a giant circle, and slowly rotate around. Nobody touches each other. It is definitely interesting. I am glad that I went though. My students were all so happy to see my friends and I.

Of course, there were rounds of pictures being taken...

And all of the girls wanted a picture with the American Boy. Haha. Schwa-guh.

Chinese Mutt Dog.

Where ever you go in China you come across these horribly cross-bred dogs. Here is a prime exemplification of one of them. You never know the breed, just because of how horribly mutt-ish they are. You can always spot them by the "jacked-in-the-face" look they always portray...

Seriously.

Check this out.
Haha. :)

I took a video of it walking. It was hilarious. It looked like a moving mop!

It stopped walking for awhile to stare back at me... and if you listen closely, you can hear Paul say "it looks like it's going to die...".

Baby Dragon Slippers!

A friend of our family is having a baby, so my mom asked me to pick up something for her. I found a pair of baby slippers that look like dragons! They're so adorable. In all honestly I am probably going to keep them for myself... haha. I will just have to find something else. :)

Women's Day.

Every year on March 8, it is Woman's Day. And the men are supposed to buy flowers or chocolate for women in their lives, or to tell them that they appreciate them. This year Bence bought Megan and I flowers. :)

Eileen and Andy's Engagement/Wedding Party!

[ Eileen and her new husband Andy ]

[ Amit, Lena, Bence, and Alissa ]

[ Seong, Sophie, Hugo, Sable, Josh, Amit, Lena,
Bence, Alissa, Jane, Me, Paul, Eileen, and Andy ]

[ Me, Amit, Josh, Hugo, Sable, Alissa, Paul, Jane, Eileen, Andy, and Sophie ]

Our Chinese friend Eileen just recently got married. They went to Middle School and High School together, and hadn't seen each other since they both graduated High School. Eileen had to go home for her Spring Festival, and she and Andy met each other again. Long story short, four months later they were married. :)

Eileen is the cutest, and her English is also incredibly amazing. I hope that they will be very happy together.

Around Shijiazhuang.

In China, you can get tattoos on the street.
Oh, yes, that's right. Doesn't that sound like a good idea?

The brooms and carts of street sweepers.

50 Yuan puppies in boxes on the stairs.

When you buy a puppy, you can take them home in a plastic bag. Yep.

Adorable and heart wrenching all rolled into one.


China.


Mr. Mao and I shopping.


Oil paintings.

I'm climbing the Great Wall! Again!

A pet crow. Um, cute.


Passing the day.

Sexy.

One of the news stands that litter the streets.

China's solution to overpopulation.
Sketch.

A bicycle station which line every street corner.
Think: gas stations in America.

Hot water bottles.

Clothes Lines.

This is just for BC.

Hot Water fill up station.

Our Campus bakery.


Milk: unrefrigerated, being sold in pouches on street corners.

The dorms. Think: Bratislava from "Eurotrip".