Besos on a Saturday... What?

My mini Christmas tree with a few gifts underneath it!

my students being goofy

peace signs in China

students and I

Jack Black dropping into the splits!

Cheeseeee!

this is Susan, read the story below.......

Jack Black's hair cut!!

It was a typical Saturday morning. I had woken early, cleaned my apartment, prepared for students coming over later that afternoon, made the usual "two hour" trip into the city to Wal-mart, bought some super cheap "knock-off" uggs, and nestled back into my warm apartment until my students arrived. I even got a chance to skype with my dad briefly before my students arrived. The sun was shining, I was humming a little song, and my feet were finally warm in their new uggs! My students arrived. I have had this group of students over before, and today I was planning to show them how to make chocolate chip cookies. So, five of the girls and I began the process... I explained the ingredients to them and we baked away. It brought me such pleasure to share my favorite dessert with them! Two of the boys from their class joined us a little later and the cookie party turned into creative cookie making where they began molding different shaped cookies. In the middle of the chaos, one of the boys, Jack Black, took off his hood and I gasped!! He had the most RIDICULOUS haircut on his head!! HE had one patch of hair on the crown of his head about an inch long and then it was buzzed all around with one other 1-inch patch on the very back of his head! What on earth?! He got such a kick out of my dramatic antics over his haircut. I told him that he would get in trouble with the school, but he shrugged it off... ha ha typical boy! Anyways, we carried on the afternoon. Once the cookies were baked, I taught them all the game of Uno. And this, brought such warmth to my heart! Uno is a game I play often with family at home and being able to bring this game to my students for a couple hours gave me a piece of home here in China. What a gift in light of the upcoming Christmas Holiday that I will be sacrificing spending with family in order to remain here. Somehow, the game turned into a half performance game where the loser of each round would have to give a performance of some kind. I'm still really unclear what it is about the Chinese culture that makes them so "performance" oriented! Everything has a performance of some kind attached to it! Well, unfortunately, there came a point where I lost. I performed a solo to Justin Bieber's "baby" song....and what concert I gave my students haha! One of the boys did a little dance routine dropping down into the splits- oh boy! Gotta' love when they just pull that little number out! Well as dinner time came around, my students announced their departure. They began grabbing their coats and putting on their mittens and hats for the brisk winter weather waiting outside. During this departure, I had the BIGGEST culture clash of my life occur. I was saying goodbye, and one of the girls' named Susan came over to me and grabbed my face between her hands. You know, I thought, no big deal, I do this to my friends sometimes.... but then out of nowhere and with complete unawareness to me my student Susan came in and gave me a kiss on the lips. Yes. I just said that. It did happen. She kissed me on the lips. It was so fast it was over before it happened! I could not believe the reality of the situation- what on earth?! Everything inside me was screaming out, but I held it all in as I shooed them out the door. I closed the door and the tornado of "freak out" hit. I began to scream, and pace, and re-play the scene looking for some angle that would prove me wrong that it didn't just happen. Unfortunately I was left with the truth that yep, I have been kissed by a girl and I was completely unable to anticipate it or control it. All I keep saying in my mind Grosss Gross Grosss....  I ran over to my teammate Abby's apartment, proceeded to give her a play-by-play (as she laughed) and then continue on my screaming freak-out session. I am still reeling from the violation I feel, the awkwardness of trying to discern what on earth happened... is it a culture thing? Is she innocent in realizing what the heck she just did or is this a situation that is a BIG red flag?? I believe I will go for her being too innocent to realize that's not really appropriate... but, well, with China I'm not quite sure I will have an answer to this, but I do know I am now scarred for life with people grabbing my face between their hands. I will no longer permit it because ya never know where it might end and in that situation you have NO control to what happens to your lips! I mean for pete's sake, each person's lips should be sacred! Gotta love living in a completely foreign culture... you come across situations you never in all of eternity thought you would be in....welcome to China friends and family! I sure hope there aren't anymore surprises like this one that comes in my path again or at least anytime soon...