Today is a Great Day

This week has just been one of those "great" weeks. Friday night all of us girls has movie parties with each other and just enjoyed being warm inside while it poured rain outside. Saturday the 19th was still rainy and cold so we made no plans and just slept in and lounged all day. Around 4 pm we decided to adventure to this new waffle place Ugly Coffee that we had heard Branch members talking about. We got lost only 1 1/2 times before we found it but when we finally did find it, it was all worth it! We walked in and all of our mouths dropped. It was this super quaint comfy.... it was Kandice Butte to the T! The building was all cement walls, floors, and ceilings but the decorations were amazing! There were tree branches places perfectly everywhere and bead chandeliers and wood everything and Pinterest bookshelves and all sorts of fun chairs and couches to sit in. We started looking at the waffle options, but then a guy came by and told us they had a promotion right then for an all-you-can-eat sea food, pizza, pasta, and coffee buffet for only 138 yuan, but if we would take a picture with him then we could have it for 70 yuan (about $13.) We hmmed and hawed about the price and then finally made a decision: we would do it if we got free frappes instead of coffee and free waffles as well. Done! So we sat down along this wooden banquet-style table in our cozy chairs and waited, clueless of how this would work. First they brought out the frappes, then brought us pizza, then all kinds of waffles. Then they gave us the "sign" and we loaded up our plates with rice, noodles, veggies, all kinds of meats, fruits, and egg rolls. It was so much fun! There was 10 of us girls and more than 30 dirty plates when we finished. The experience in and of itself was well worth the $13. 

This silly picture was meant to show off this... sesame see waffle roll. You can buy them in packages of 10 at the cafeteria and it's just like the waffle used for waffle cones but rolled up into this burrito shape and mixed with sesame seeds. Super interesting.

Tuesday we also had "movies-night" because Wednesday classes got canceled because of mid-terms! Woohoo! Wednesday morning was the beginning of a great day. We all got to sleep in, which was glorious. Then, the group met in the hall at 10 am to go get some more of the delicious waffles from Ugly Coffee. This is some of us before the waffles...

...And us with our waffles. The "Plain Waffle" came with two different sauces and some fruit; the "Chocolate Waffle" came with Oreos, a chocolate stick, chocolate flavored waffles, and chocolate ice cream; and the "Fruit and Ice cream" waffle came with just that: fruit and ice cream.

Coming back from the waffle place I spotted this beauty, but then realized how much of China I had captured in one photo: the man on his scooter/cart carrying way more then what you would think possible, the super nice car, the super nice car parked on the sidewalk, the gorgeous greenery, and the apartment buildings in the background. China Captured.

After our delicious brunch we headed to the underground shopping center. Here you can get things for super and even barter some. The shops are small but, again, they have shops full of so many different random things. One shop is a little pet store where they had these darling puppies. Sadly, they aren't in a very nice condition and who knows how long they have been in there.

There was also this little guy in the pet store... yes, he is some kind of squirrel... 1)Why would anyone want a pet squirrel 2)how did they capture him 3)he was running around crazy in that little cage, I'm surprised he hasn't had a heart attack yet!

After shopping, my roommate and I decided to visit a little bakery that we had heard about. When we found it we were happily surprised: it was quite big for a bakery and had all sorts of fun foods and treats. She found a legit ham sandwich and I found a pizza bread thing. They were both so good! After that we looked around the bakery place and saw a door leading to a gorgeous "back yard" looking place. Who knows if we were allowed back there or not but we went and found fake banana trees, a nice pond full of the big goldfish, a rock path leading to a wooden swing under shady trees, and these turtles! Score! I feel like even if we weren't allowed back there then no one would have said anything just because we're American. We get treated like VIP here in China. When we finished there we started to head back and passed several fruit stands. I couldn't pass up the pineapple on a stick so I got one and it was only 2 yuan (36 cents)! I feel like our form of entertainment here has often been shopping and eating... because we do both those a lot.

The fun didn't end there! We found this statue of a man driving a horse-drawn carriage and just had to take pictures! We asked a random lady to take pictures of us and she just had a bawl taking pictures of us from every angle. Sadly we didn't get a shot of the whole statue but maybe we'll return there with more girls and I'll have a better picture later. After going back home we relaxed for a bit then got dinner, went visiting teaching, got Pu Pu (a smoothie shop), did some lesson plans for next week, and finished the fantastic day with a movie. We have 2 more days of teaching then we have 9 days off to vacation. Next time you hear from me I'll be posting about my adventures in Yangshuo and Guilin!