Happy Birthday, JNUlia

Today was Julia's birthday. I woke late having gone to bed even later than normal, I awoke at 6:30 and quickly readied for school. WE left early, wanting to get yo tiao for Julia as a special treat on her birthday.

We arrived at the yo tiao stand, a full basket of yo tiao lying uneaten on a school day, when everyone was rushing everywhere, we quickly bought five yo tiao, and huried onward. Stufing the rest of the greasy subsence into our mouth we were ushered into a throng of chinese children. I dropped Julia off first addressing her teacher to the fact that it was Julia's birthday. Immediately as I left her classroom was transformed into a singing frenzy. I continued onward with my new chinese friends at my sides. I was first in the hardest class of the day, chinese. Trying desperately to read symobols that all looked the same I struggled through the first hour of the day. Then came ten minutes of lets see if we can confuse the american frenzy, where I was dragged this way and that, everyone murmuring chinese phrases that I was deaf to. Before finally being led up to the second level where my new friends were wqaiting to play a game with a string. Then to math, my second best subject, for at least I could understand what problem they were doing! But the hardest part was how you had to write the answers. Either way it was fairly easy and the day contionued we going outside to do the movements required. Then I had to sit through songs in english about you school, about eating in the canteen, a new word for me, since we have not used the word canteen for lunchroom for a long time. Then I barely managed to get by during another lesson where you had to read from a chinese book and listen to the teacher reading. Although it was hard I managed to survive the day, and I hurried out the gate to where faced my dad armed with the camera, and my mom with a happy Julia having received a few birthday cards. We went home strait away, my mom cleared up her work and we waited amid the vehicles streaming by, waiting for a taxi. Finally one emerged from the chaos, and we were taken to a korean restaurant. We ate in front of a grill positioned right in front of us, we grilled mushrooms and meat, we wrapped them in leafy lettuce and dipped them in a hot sauce, we cooled our mouth on some potato pancakes, snacked on slipperly noodles. Then we walked down the street to the wall. We paid a small fee and continued on to a world class site, where 3000 years ago Xian had been the largest city in the world. We biked around the perimeter of the wall, feeling the fifty degrees air, as we struggled to enjoy the sites that flickered around us but meanwhiel trying to get done with the 8 miles fast enough so that we would not be late. Construction surrounded us, where before had stood many building all positioned around the wall now in their place stood piles of rubble, we were surprised by the amount of places that all seemed to be under construction, we passed a train station that seemed flooded with over 10000 people, sitting on luggage, some from remote places, that you could tell due to there wear. After the wall we walked around looking at the typical masks and puppet s and asking prices for stamps with dragons on them. Then we ate in a cafe, and hurryed home to learn how to play badmitten, we enjoyed hitting around the ball before it became too daqrk and we went inside and started the real popcorn party for JUlia's birthday, which included watching National Geographic.
By Hana