Zàijiàn, my friends
Well, after a rather exciting summer ending with a surprising week-long romance, I am off. I said goodbye to Ammon, goodbye to my family, and goodbye to the handful of other boys in my home singles ward that were still interested during the last 2 weeks I was there. (I actually had one of them tell me, "Hey, when you come home in a year, if you're still single and I'm still single, I'd love to take you on a date!" Umm...we'll see...) Unfortunately for them, I'm off on my next adventure...China!I know it wasn't that long ago that I took a posting hiatus to serve a mission, and I hate to leave you all again, but I have a feeling that my posts for the next little while will be intermittent at best. First off, blogging is a little bit sketchy in China and I'll have to be taking some roundabout measures to get on here, if you know what I mean. Secondly, I'm afraid my dating life might take a standstill. But who knows? If anything exciting does happen, such as falling for one of the other (hopefully handsome) international teachers, I'll be sure to let you know. Maybe I'll even pop in occasionally just to update you on my China adventures and misadventures. (Like squat toilets...here's hoping that's just a rumor and not a real thing!)
Oh, and I suppose an update on Ammon is in order before I leave?
I don't really know what to say, except that I'm pretty sure I just left behind the best match I've found thus far. In the 9 days that we knew each other, we spent 2 entire days together...and yes, I do mean an entire 48 hours. We spent 48 fabulous hours talking, laughing, playing carnival games, reading scriptures, making brownies, hiking, playing sand volleyball with teenagers, going to the temple, and eating Buffalo Wild Wings dessert nachos at 1 am. We got kicked out by not 1, but 2 park rangers by the end of the week. We had some of the best doctrinal discussions on the gospel I've ever had. And best of all, I was 100% myself the entire time. I never tried to impress him (since at the beginning, I hadn't wanted to go out with him anyways). I never tried to make myself appear to be someone I wasn't--and neither did he.
In the end, I couldn't have asked for a better last week in the USA. Admittedly, I probably got the least amount of sleep in a week that I have in my entire life (and that wasn't only because I had to sleep in my car one night when I accidentally forgot my house key). Will Ammon and I have any future adventures? Honestly, I have no idea. I certainly hope so, but at this point it's hard to say. I guess we'll become Skype buddies for now and see what happens from there. For now, all I can do is trust that God's timing is perfect and that we only had a week together because that is exactly what was supposed to happen.
Well, I'll soon be sending my love from China. Until then...adieu, adios, and zàijiàn, my friends.
love,
the charmer
3 comments:
Which city are you teaching in? China is great! Learning numbers is important. But if you don't understand the price they are saying when you buy stuff, no worries, they will just reach into your wallet and pull out the right change.. Haha. True. And squatters are a real thing, bring your own TP. And hand sanitizer. The kids are very cute though! (And chicken feet aren't as bad as I thought..) :)
I am teaching in Wuxi, which is near Shanghai.
And yes, I have now discovered the joys (?) of squat toilets... Luckily everyone carries around those mini tissues with them, so there's never a short supply of tp.
I taught English in Yangzhong, which is about 3 hours west of Shanghai by bus. I had a squatter toilet for the whole four months I was there. They seem awful at first, but you get used to them, even the public ones. Go to Shanghai often if you can, it's pretty awesome. Make sure you go to People's Square and dance with the old people.
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