Best moment of the day.

A young woman sighed deeply. "He's just so handsome! I can't look at him enough! And today is my last chance to stare at him all class!" This was the sound of her despair before class started.

She wasn't talking about me. She was talking about our teacher, Professor H. And the crush that she's had on him since the beginning of the semester. As she mourns the nighness (that's not a word) of the end of the semester, she continues to say "I just want to stare at him all the time!" She peters out mid-sentence as she catches sight of Professor H. (who had just walked in) as he walked into the room.

She was not speaking quietly.

Professor H. looks confusedly, as we all start ROARING with laughter. Professor H. suddenly comes back from the world of his brain. He looks at us confusedly and says "What? What just happened?" Which only has us laughing more.

The following facebook conversation ensued (Can you tell which one came first for my practicing? It only gets better from here.) Colors coordinate cross-conversation. I'm brown.

The deaf man.

Story time:
My companion and I were doing our English tracting. Meaning, we wandered around and put tracts for the free English classes in mailboxes. As we were going down a street putting tracts in boxes, we saw a small apartment complex with a superintendent (kind of. A “guanliyuan”) out in the office guarding the gate to get in.

There were some guanliyuans who would let us put the flyers in the mailboxes of their apartment complexes (or dalous) if you asked, or at least let you put a stack of them out on the counter for residents to grab if they were interested.

So we pull up at this dalou, and since I was new, I just start putting these little flyers in the mailboxes. My companion starts on the other side. After we get probably 15 of the 30 done, the guanliyuan notices us and starts signaling at us to stop. My companion starts explaining to him what we’re doing, but then the guy starts trying to sign to us, as if he’s deaf.

Granted, we both started to trust him about it because he wouldn’t talk. But we’re still a little wary. He walks out of his little office and grabs all the English tracts out of the mailboxes and throwing them at us and on the ground. My companion starts to get defensive and picks them up. The man kind of ignores him, but waves and points at his own ears every time my companion talks.

My companion was standing directly behind him.

At about this point, the guanliyuan’s friend shows up and starts calling his name. The guanliyuan turns around to look at the guy, and talks to him. Mr. Guanliyuan waves frantically at him to get him to stop talking. Mr. Friend says “Why are you acting so weird? What’s wrong?” Mr. Guanliyuan mumbles “Later.” Or some equivalent to his friend. His friend gets all confused and is like “umm… okay? Weirdo.”

We walk away as Mr. Friend walks into Mr. Guanliyuan’s office. We get on our bikes and ride away to the sounds of two friends laughing together and chatting from the building behind us.

Many confused looks were exchanged that day.

Long time no see!

So, I don't know if anyone still comes around here ever. But I'm still alive and kicking.

What have I been up to, you ask? Oh wait, you didn't ask? That's okay, because I'll tell you anyways!

I got home from the mish about 4 months ago (July 3rd, to be exact). At that point, I immediately (Seriously. July 5th) started school (an online class).

And now I'm back in the full swing of it. I'm at (My State) State University, studying Accountancy. I'm also going to get a minor in Chinese, because it's easy, and after next semester is over, I'll only need 6 more credits for it in the next 2 years.

I was doing engineering before, but I realized that I didn't really care about it or find it that interesting, so I left and went to the business school. I think it was a good decision so far. Now, if only I could force myself to actually study. That would be really good.

Other than that, I'm just working for my parents a little bit. Livin' at home, not really doin' anything. You know, the RRM (Recently Returned Missionary) life. But yeah. It's a good gig.

That's about me. What about you? (Once again, if you're still around to read any of this. Not to sound desperate or anything, but if no one replies to this, I'll just write in my journal. It's a better place to write to myself if no one is interested.)

And if you do want, I'll keep y'all updated on what I'm up to, some of my favorite mission stories (I promise. You'll never meet funnier people than Taiwanese ones) and anything that catches my interest (like the whole Apple-Google-Samsung-Motorola-Microsoft debacle. I'm a tech nerd. What can I say?)