Welppp, the secret is out...everyone here now knows how weird I am. I guess it had to come out at some point. It started in class when we were working on grammar patterns. We were going around the room making an "In order to ___ we need to ___" sentence using part of the person's sentence before us. So my Lǎoshī was before me and he said "In order to learn Zhongwen, we need to have faith." I had done a little bit of studying on my own to find out how to say words such as spinach, avocado, and salad (very important words) so I thought I would get a lil’ fancy and *hopefully* impress him with my vocab. I said "Wèile xuéxí Zhōngwén wǒmen xūyào chī bōcài", which translates to -- In order to learn Chinese we need to eat spinach. This was followed by 1) awkward silence 2) awkward laughter 3) a 15 min conversation about me being vegetarian 4) everyone finding out that I am really weird. Also, my Lǎoshī was not impressed with me knowing how to say spinach. This also ended that activity because I ruined the reverence/seriousness. Some things never change I guess.
Here are some lines of the week:
1. "Mo Jie Mei you eat like a horse."
2. "Mo Jie Mei you remind me of a sloth. But in a good way."
3. "Does that filter make your water vegetarian?"
I kind of feel like I should be insulted at 1 and 2 ?? I don't know though, I still haven't decided. Let me know what you think haha. Also pray for the Elder who said number 3 because he was dead serious and I am so concerned about him.
This week was a week of breakthroughs. My first one happened when we were doing TRC on Saturday which is basically my comps and I talking to people about their lives with NO ENGLISH. We got to talk with a woman from Xiānggǎng (Hong Kong) who told a 7 minute story about her life back in Xiānggǎng. Breakthrough #1: I. UNDERSTOOD. THE. STORY. I walked out after talking with her and had tears of joy in my eyes because I actually knew what she was saying! The gift of tongues is real. :) Also studying for 6 hours a day is real. It was amazing. I can't believe how much you learn here so quickly.
My next breakthrough happened in the bathroom....
On Saturday, I was washing my hands in the bathroom and then noticed my shoe was untied. There are metal hand dryers in the bathrooms. I bent down to tie my shoe but ended up going straight into the metal blow dryer, full force. (try bending over right now to pretend tie your shoe and then imagine a metal thing stopping you IN THE EYE halfway down) I yelled "OW!!" and I hear my companions laughing outside and I was like "Come help me!!" They did not help me and laughed all the way to the training room so I could get ice. Then the trainer gave me a legit gallon of ice for MY EYE. My companions thought it was the funniest thing. (I guess you do have to make the most of these things when you spend 9 hours in a classroom each day) SO yeah. Breakthrough #2: my eye literally breaking on the blow dryer. (I am aware that that was a terrible attempt at making the story work with the topic of breakthroughs. It was awful, I apologize, please just go with it hahah)
The next breakthrough happened when my comps and I were dying one night after dinner. This has happened three nights in a row where we were crippled-over in pain. The pain would start after dinner (around 6:30) and just got worse and worse until we got back to our rooms at 9:30. Then we would just lay on the floor dying. Sister Reinhard described it perfectly. She said it was like something clawing inside our stomachs. Well by the third night it happened again after dinner and we FINALLY realized what was causing it. Breakthrough #3: DO NOT EAT THE YOGURT. It really hurts my heart because I get yogurt with granola every time they serve it and it's quite a delicacy. But now it's gone and life is bland. I would rather have bland though than feeling like I am going to die every night. I guess.
In all seriousness (or as serious as I can be), I learned so much this week. Not only in the language but also about LIFE. One of the speakers this week said that "all you need is a start." And she said it like 50 times so I think it was important lol. It's so true though. Sometimes we let (or at least I let) fear stop us from doing A LOT of things. And it can be anything from being scared to talk to people to missing out on doing something you have always wanted to do (a.k.a following ur dreamz). All you need is a start- you don't need to know how everything will work out or if it even will work out. If it is something you wanna do, pray about it and if it feels right...DO IT. Fear stops me from doing so many things but I am really glad it didn't stop me from coming here.
Mandarin Word of the Day: Jiāyóu!
Prounounced: jaiiii-ohhhh
This literally translates to "add oil", which is preeetttty sweet if you are familiar with the parable in Matthew 25! It is used to say "keep going!" "you can do it!" "good luck!" but I always think of adding oil/gas to a fire to make it bigger/better. So Jiāyóu! to whatever you are doing this week- make everything just a lil’ bit better than usual!
I love you all and miss you very much!!
Add some oil to ya life
xoxo mo jie mei
Photo is of me with Sister Clark from Sweden.
Photo is of me with Sister Clark from Sweden.
