Busy weekend past, busy weekend future

Hey hey bloggers! This past week was the first long week we've had in 3... count 'em... THREE weeks! So as you can imagine, I'm running off of adrenaline. So let's discuss last week. I'll admit I don't remember much from the week except for my culture class is down to four students and every now and then three show up. I receive work from a student who's traveling with her family via email but she hasn't been in class all month. This is typical of the grade 12 students. They already got the scores they need and the school will fake their transcript grades to show that they did well in their second semester of senior year. So none of them go to class. They watch movies on their iPads and play games on their phones.... ALL DAY LONG!!! Or they just don't come to class. It drives me nuts. But enough about the negative. Let's move on to the positive :D

On Tuesday or Wednesday (I forget which day) my boss's boss, the director of the school, asked me to go to a single's party on Saturday. Here's a little background for those of you who don't know Chinese culture. A girl who's single at age 27 is considered "left overs." You're past your prime, you're no longer desired, your parents (or in this case your boss) should arrange a marriage for you. It's old fashioned but the culture still exists. I'm 24 and will be 25 in a month. My boss is worried about me because I'm not finding Chinese guys to date and potentially marry. So she asked me to skip work and attend the single's party. The party was an event that the school hosted. They asked for RSVP's from all teachers and then matched numbers with townies. So for example, 60 female teachers said yes so the school found 60 males from around Jinan to participate. Mostly everyone was around 24-30. I told my boss that I didn't want to participate because 1) I don't speak Chinese and 2) I don't want to be matched up by my psychotic school. So she said, "Ok you can just be in the audience and cheer on the girls from our center. I hope they can find love." I don't think she knows what love is. Then she asks me to make signs (the kine you see at sporting events) for each of the girls. I made cheering signs and each teacher from our center who was in the audience was able to hold one for each of the girls who was participating. So basically this whole event was a game show to match up JNFLS teachers to random Jinan townies. They played a few games and if the couple won, they got matching mugs as prizes (keep in mind the couple has never met until this day). Then the women had to display a talent for the men to judge them on. Then the men had to write their number on a card and give it to a girl and if the girl liked him back, she would give her card to him. If you exchange cards, you're successfully matched and you begin your relationship after the event. Three teachers from my center were given cards but only two of them gave their cards back. My boss went ape sh*t when guys weren't choosing the girls from our center. She almost left in tears because she's genuinely worried that there will be girls who won't get married at her center. I swear this whole thing was bizarre! My boss said that if I don't have a boyfriend next year, I will be required to participate. I'm kind of afraid that she might actually fire me for not participating.

Moving on to Sunday. I PERFORMED! It was fun but also very Chinese. It was an outdoor event with no line up or schedule really. They kinda just had me stand around and then said, "You're next!" So I said, "Oh! Uh Ok!" I got a reaction out of the crowd and they seemed to love my dance. No one came up to me and talked to me after so I just left with my friends from work and a student who came to watch. We went to Melena's for dinner and had a blast celebrating Easter, 4/20, and my "successful" performance. But I think what really made the day come to a fantastic close was when my friends said, "OK let's book tickets for Labor Day Holiday!" We book our tickets for Suzhou so we're officially going! I'm so excited :D

This week is pretty chill even though it's a long week. The seniors are leaving for their senior trip on Thursday, which means no classes for me. Then Saturday I'm headed to Beijing for a party and I'll be back to work on Monday. My next holiday is May 1-3 (of course I have to work Sunday-Saturday the following week but we won't think about that just yet). It's a busy few weeks ahead of me but it should be pretty fun! I'll definitely keep you updated on all that happens as time goes on. Until then... Laters!