"We gonna light it up, like it's dynamite!"

Hannah and I took our daily power walk (don't judge me, the air pollution is horrible here) but we went a little further to a kind of park by their man-made lake. It's not the kind of park you picture in your mind, because there is hardly any grass in China. Bless you America. Anyways, so at this park they have the big section that looks like a playground, but it's not! They are devices (not electric) used to work out. I'm sure little kids could play on them if they wanted, but they are there for everyone to get some exercise. So Hannah and I had tons of fun going around and trying everything.



Of course there were many people just standing there, watching us. One cleaning lady was standing like 5 feet away from me, just blatantly staring. But... you can't get too irritated over it because it's not rude to stare here in China. Which is something I really think should be changed immediately. There was this guy probably about 75, who was amazing! Seriously, he was pretty much more flexible than I was, and was super strong. He could hold out his legs parallel while holding onto bars, like they do in the olympics! Over yonder there was another older man doing a bunch of sweet flips on the high bar! What the heck? I could barely do the monkey bars, I don't how I did that when I was a child, those things hurt my hands. But it was fun to mess around, everyone thought we were so funny. One guy even was taking pictures of us with this super nice camera, yes I did some model poses for him.

When we were leaving we went around the corner and both turned on "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz, on our ipods and had a much needed dance party by ourselves. It was SO fun. There was a group of 20 people just standing there watching us, but we didn't care, we were just dancin away! It had been building up for both of us for a while. Dance parties really are the best.

What??

Yes I do love it here in China, and I am having tons of fun. But... I'll just tell the truth. I'm ready to come home. Mainly because of all the annoying attention I get. Of course everyone likes attention, but this is gross attention from men and both Hannah and I get so irritated. And it's not just guys, it's everyone. Everyone stares at you like you're a piece of meat, and they shout "Hello!" at you in kind of a cat callish way. It's getting so old.

Today I went out to exercise, Hannah wasn't with me because she was teaching, and everyone passed me just stared and gawked at me. I don't know why, but today I was especially annoyed. I was just annoyed at everyone looking at me. I know that's a bad attitude, but I was. I went even as far as shouting "what?!" to one girl who kept looking back at me. Haha.. sorry. Some people give you really positive attention though, being really nice and genuinely just want to say hello and want to try and talk. I love people like that. The other day Hannah and I were standing at the bus station and a guy came up and asked if he could talk with us. Normally that means the person will start talking to you in bad English and then ask for your "mobile" number afterwards, which is always really awkward because we never actually want to give it to them. But this time he actually just wanted to talk and practice his English, which was pretty good, and he didn't even ask for our cell numbers afterward. Our bus came and he said, "Ok good-bye!" I was so happy with the situation that I even waved good-bye to him on the bus.

So other than that things are going splendidly. But I'll be happy to get home in December (heh heh) and see my family and good friends. But for the time being, I'm still lovin the land of China!

Something that did make me smile today was when I was eating my kiwi. I just love Kiwi's. They are so delicious and juicy here and I love them.

What makes me smile :D

My lovely sister Jillian did a blog post about what makes her smile. So here are just a few things that make me smile:

1. Being with my family

2. Attending a great college that I love

3. China and everything in it

4. Watching people trip (don't judge me, you know you laugh too)

5. Remembering that I've finally figured out what I want to major in

6. Clogging

7. Bike rides with my Dad

8. Cooking or baking something new

9. When two lovers in a movie or book finally kiss at the very end

10. Watching my dogs try and get their ball from underneath our entertainment center

11. Seeing one of my friends that I haven't seen in a long time

12. When my Dad does his dance moves that make him look like a Peanuts character

13. Looking at old pictures

14. When my Mom calls me and asks if I want to meet up with her for lunch

15. Knowing that there are so many people who truly love me and care about me

16. Dancing, singing and performing

17. Quoting lines from movies (especially when someone knows what movie its from)

18. My best friends

19. Christmas

20. Just life in general :)