Amie graduated high school today! We had to leave our place at 8:00 because she had to be there at 9:15, but we were all a little early because traffic wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be. Her graduation was really nice, and a lot shorter than my graduation was. :) Her graduating class had 117 students in it, and I think mine had 751, or around there somewhere. But it was nice because the ceremony was in an auditorium rather than a basketball arena, and it was personalized for the students.
After graduation they had a little reception with some goodies, but we didn’t think they were that great, so we went straight to lunch. We ate at a place called Bellagio, which is Taiwanese Chinese food. It’s the type of place where you order a few plates of things and then everyone just shares the meats they brought out. It was good. And the best part was the passion fruit sorbet we got at the end. It was huge! The amount of ice cream was probably almost a quart. It was piled high into this glass bowl and they brought out 5 little bowls and spoons. We just served ourselves. It was awesome.
After lunch we went to walk through what’s called the Painter’s Street. It’s exactly what it sounds like. :) It was pretty short, and if you walked straight through would probably only take 5-10 minutes, but it was full of little art shops of things the owners had done. Some of them were so amazing! Rob even liked it all. He told me he wished we already had a house so that we could buy all the paintings for it while we’re over here. Haha, but when I told him we could still buy them and hold onto them because they are such a good price, he decided he didn’t want to buy anything. (He just wanted to dream about having a house and tons of money we could spend on awesome paintings.) But we did buy two little ceramic vases. I got one traditional blue and white design and then I got a different, almost tope colored green small vase/jar. I only paid 30 kuai, which is about $4.50 for both of them! It was awesome.
After the Painter’s Street we headed back home to relax until dinner time. Then for dinner, we went to a place called the Dolar Shop. (And yes, that is how it was spelt.) It was a hot pot place. We each had our own little burner with boiling sauce in it and we ordered tons of different meat plates, which were all raw. We cooked the meats in our little pots, and seasoned them how we wanted from the seasoning bar. (We each went over to the seasoning bar and filled little saucers with what we wanted. I got soy sauce, sesame seeds, and garlic. It was delicious.) My hot pot had a mellow broth in it, kind of similar to chicken broth. Rob’s and Amie’s had sichuan broth, which was super spicy!! We’d invited Benny to come with us because he was the one who suggested that particular restaurant. We told him we wanted hot pots and that’s where he took us.
Benny is so sweet! He takes such good care of my family! At first, our table only had 5 chairs, so my dad asked them for one more. Instead of another nice chair, they brought out a folding chair. But my dad didn’t want Benny to feel weird and be the only one in a bad chair, so he switched chairs with him. My dad sat on the folding chair before Benny even got there, because he had to go park the car. Then when my dad got up to get his sauces, Benny realized he’d been sitting in a nicer one than my dad, and switched it back, without knowing my dad had put it there on purpose. It was so sweet! My mom even tried to stop him, but he wouldn’t. Then, during dinner, Amie’s mouth was starting to burn really bad because her juice was so spicy. She told my dad that she really needed the rice we were debating ordering because her mouth was starting to burn. But while we were waiting for the rice to come, Benny went and found her some watermelon which completely cooled her taste buds. And lastly, I was trying to get Amie to fill up my water glass because the pitcher was in between her and Benny, but before she saw me, Benny did. He brought it right over and filled my glass up along with almost everyone else’s. My mom told him how nice he was and that he always takes such good care of them, and he told my dad in Chinese that he just wanted us to be happy. (He understands a lot of English, but doesn’t speak a whole lot in return. A lot of the time he talks to my dad and my dad translates.) Benny is such a nice guy.
Benny left the restaurant a little earlier than we did because he said he was going to wash the car. When we left and found Benny, we headed over to Nanjing Road. It’s a walking street that is similar to New York City. It’s full of stores and lights, and especially tons of people. It really is almost like walking out of China and right into New York, but with more Chinese people. We bought some chopsticks, and then got some McFlurries. I decided that my McFlurry was better in China than the ones I’ve had in the states.
We were there for maybe almost an hour, but then we headed back home and it was almost 10:30 when we got back. Everyone else went to bed, but Rob and I packed because he was supposed to leave the next day. It was a great way to spend Rob’s last day.
Funny story of the day:
After the graduation ceremony was over, we were standing out in the huge mass of people. All of the sudden, this lady comes up to me. Here's how our conversation went:
Her: "I don't know if you remember me, but I was your school nurse for your first 2 years here."
Me: Blank stare
Her: "We know each other."
Me: Hesitant smile, but very confused look.
Her : "No?"
Me: "I don't think so."
Her: "Oh, then you look an awful lot like one of the students around here. I'm sorry."
Me: "Oh, it's ok. It's probably her." And I pointed to Amie, right next to me.
Her: "Ohh! Haha, yes." And then had the conversation she had been hoping for with Amie.
It was hilarious. I know we look alike, and have gotten that a lot since I've been over here. But I have never, in my whole life, actually been mistaken for Amie. It was so funny!
No comments:
Post a Comment