中秋节

Yesterday was 中秋节(Zhongqiujie), China’s Mid-Autumn Festival. We didn’t have classes, so we decided we needed to go out and do something fun. Me, Abby, Adam, Josh, Tina, Brett, and Gidianny went to the Temple of Heaven together. I didn’t really know what to expect. I hadn’t even seen pictures of it really. So I was blown away at how big it was. It had a few different sections, and the path to each section was a beautiful walkway. At one point, we got attacked by some nationals demanding to take pictures with us. So we got stuck there for a few minutes until Adam forcefully dragged us out because we needed to move on before we lost the daylight.
When we got to the next section though, a small group of older people wanted a picture with us as well. But that one was much quicker. In that section, we decided it would be cool to take some jumping pictures. So we went to a building on the side and jumped off of the wall, while Brett crouched next to the wall and angled the camera so it got the really pretty building in the background.The next section was the Echo Wall. It’s a circular wall and you can stand at one side while someone else stands on the opposite side (probably like 75m away?) and talk and hear each other. Then in the next section, Tina and Adam wanted to teach us how to polka??? So they taught us all, while all the Chinese people watched us and laughed and recorded us and took pictures. And then after we learned, we went up to the top part and Tina, Josh, Adam and Abby danced in the middle of everyone while I recorded. The people around us weren’t quite sure what to think…
On the way out, we ran into a guy who was training to run a marathon. It turns out he’s run the Great Wall marathon before. Josh and Adam decided they wanted to race him and his friend, so they did. So random! But so funny, I love it! Josh won and Adam came in second. Then we just made our way home. We stopped at 勿美(wumei), the local store, to buy some 月饼(yuebing) Moon Cakes. It’s tradition to eat them during 中秋节, and we’re Chinese now!
Classes have been really good. In the beginning, I teased Xu Rungui about his pretty sister. But now he teases me about my boyfriend. I used to say “徐润闺的妹妹挺漂亮的。”(Xu Rungui’s sister is very pretty). But now he says　“文凯丽的男朋友挺帅的。“ (Kayli’s boyfriend is very handsome). And today we were learning how to use “什么的” which basically means “etc”. When it was my turn to give an example I said “冰箱里咖啡，茶，可乐，什么的都有” (Inside the fridge, there’s coffee, tea, soda, etc.), and the teacher was like yay that works, good job! And then it was Rungui’s turn, so he said “文凯丽的脑子里男朋友，男朋友，男朋友什么的都有” (Inside Kayli’s head, there’s boyfriend, boyfriend, boyfriend, etc). I laughed soooo hard. But the teacher was like …no that doesn’t work. Hahaha.
Just a few minutes ago our cleaning lady came in. We never really talked to her before, but Abby decided to ask her name. Her name is Hai Yan, and she’s 21 years old! I thought she was much older. We chatted with her as she changed our seats. She was very talkative once we got her started. I was surprised though how much I was able to understand, and was actually able to respond most of the time. When we ride subways and things, I’m always too scared to talk to anyone because I don’t think I’ll be able to understand them. But having classes that are completely in Chinese have really helped me to catch the jist of what someone is talking about. So even if I don’t understand everything, I can usually catch key words and piece together the subject. I’m so happy to be learning!