Fool of a Took! Throw yourself in next time, and rid us of your stupidity!

Ah...it's almost the weekend.

Fortuna's wheel is just that: a wheel. For every up there is a down.

I've had some great downs, lemme tell ya.

Yesterday (Wednesday for you state-side readers), I got a little overwhelmed by...well China. Typical, I know. Fun? Absolutely not.

Let's recap though. When I returned from my fantastic trip. I found out that my toilet was no longer functioning properly. I'd been told that we'd have no water when we returned, so when I got to my apartment, I tested the toilet to check for water. There was water. An incredible amount of it, in fact, that flooded my bathroom. The toilet was not draining.

So, I called my foreign advisor about it. She sent 4 old guys to come look at it on Wednesday after I got out of my class.

For the record, I don't understand plumbing talk in English. Why the hell would I understand it in Chinese? *sigh* So these guys were yelling about the shower first, thinking that was my problem. I said No, it's my toilet! It's broken! I can say that much. They laughed. They always laugh when I try to speak Chinese. That's fine. But then they started motioning at the toilet and me and saying stuff that I honestly didn't get at all. So I called Mike who lives right downstairs and begged him to come help because he's fluent in Chinese.

Now, to understand this next part, you have to know how my bathroom is set up. There is a traditional toilet in the floor (a "Stooper"), and the Western toilet is placed directly above it. Brilliant right? Can you feel the sarcasm? And, by the time these people arrived the fix the toilet, the water really was cut off because a pipe had busted somewhere in the vicinity. Awesome.

So Mike tells me they want to get rid of the western toilet permanently, and I'll just use the extremely disgusting traditional toilet underneath. Okay. I do know how to use them, but this particular one is...well let's just say it's not pretty. Mike was angry about this on my behalf so he started yelling that we should be able to have western toilets. Every tenant in the apartments has a Western toilet. The guys responded to that by saying that Foreigners can't use traditional toilets because we're too fat. They told Mike that about us two specifically complete with hand gestures.

**sigh** Okay, gang. I understand that China is made up of small people. Not just skinny people. But small people. My bone structure is roughly twice the size of a chinese person's. And yes, I'm a chunky girl. I get it. No big, right? I also understand that people say "fat" the way they say "Foreigner". It's not so much an insult as just something they say. And I've been called fat enough times since I've gotten here that I just don't care.

But these four old guys, surrounding me in my own apartment, telling me that I can't use a toilet because I'm too fat was really a little much. And *everyone* heard this, because by this time, my foreign advisor and her husband had gotten there, and my neighbors Pat and Beth had walked outside (the door to my apartment was open). So everyone was just standing there yelling about my ability to use which toilet!

Ugh. Eventually, they fixed the damn toilet, and this morning I was able to use it because the water was turned back on. Great. That was the big Toilet Incident. I also had some major trouble with my formerly best-behaved class yesterday. The Nursing Majors. God, they must have been on drugs or something, because it was absolute torture for three hours. They said nothing. Did nothing. They were all completely unresponsive. It was ridiculous!

*sigh* So that evening, I got back and ranted to a couple people before I cooled down a little. I admit I wanted to cry a bit, but I didn't. These things just happen, I know. Fortuna's wheel, remember? And put into perspective, the day's events really weren't all that bad. Just overwhelming in an emotional way.

Today was better, I think. My chinese medicine majors were eager and interested. My lecture was the same today as it was yesterday, because I teach College English to all of them, and each class is roughly in the same places in the books. I talked about Halloween, and gave them an easy Ghost Story that they really liked. Next week I'll adapt trick-or-treating to the lesson, because we're discussing likes and dislikes in the book. I'm working on dialogue practices and writing exercises right now for that. Well, the kids loved it! Completely different from yesterday (thank God)

I took a nap in the middle of the day to recharge. That's one of the perks of having early morning classes. Then, Mike and I grabbed dinner at our favorite place, and it was good. He ranted about his less-than-ideal day, and I felt very glad my bad day was over.

I feel better now. Hopefully, tomorrow will follow the same trend. Then, Saturday, Mike wants to go find shoes that fit, and I'll probably tag along. Then Sunday, he's going to go into town to help some kids, and he said I could go too. Things to do! Awesome!


On a different note, Nim's Island is a beautiful little movie. I absolutely adored it. Now...I'm a writer. I may not be famous, or even largely published yet (I have a few silly poems in some anthologies...somewhere...and does publishing on online journals count? LOL), but this movie really struck home in my heart, because...well...like Alex Rover, my characters come alive in my head too. I talk to them, argue with them, and yes, they are like dear dear friends to me that I hope I'll never lose.

This movie was not a "Girl's version of Peter Pan" as some reviews stated. It was much more real than that, and yet so perfectly childlike in fantasy. I loved it and will probably watch it again.

Okay Lady Fortuna. I'm strapped into this Ferris Wheel, you call fate. Stall at the top for a while, won't ya? Thanks.