Attack of the mei guo rens

Clearly I’ve been MIA for a while. Super sorry! Internet failure / VPN failure are a commonality in China., especially in rural Youxian. Google Youxian…you will not find much (if anything.) I suppose I should start where I left off: The last days of August & MY BIRTHDAY!!! I was worried my birthday would be depressing since I wasn’t at home with the fam and friends. However, it turned out to be one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had. Joan and I went to Zhuzhou, one of the tri-cities in Hunan. Zhuzhou is home to 11ish WTers. Somehow Joan and I managed to not only find the bus station, but to actually buy 2 tickets to Zhuzhou! I was amazed since we both lack the proper Mandarin skills. So, we were off…following the metaphorical yellow brick road. The 3 hours bus ride was very relaxing as I slept the entire time. Our first stop in Zhuzhou was McDonald’s. Ahhhhhh!!!! As we were devouring our double cheeseburgers and fries, we glanced up to see…A WESTERNER (not with WT)!!! Maybe this doesn’t sound too exciting to you, but believe me, for us it was the most exciting moment of the day. The man, Sal, was a teacher of teachers who had been living in China for 4 years. After speaking with us for a few moments, Joan told the man why we were in Zhuzhou: my birthday. Well, he made everyone in McDonald’s sing me Happy Birthday in Chinese (I actually have a video). I was mortified.
After McDonald’s we met up with some other WTers living in Zhuzhou. As it turned out there were about 15 people currently in Zhuzhou and another 15 people coming from other cities to the Birthday Bash (there were 3 birthdays that weekend). It was decided that we would go to dinner, then go bowling (yes…there is actually bowling in China), and then go to a bar or club. Dinner was amazing (dumplings and sweet and sour pork). Bowling was hysterical. Beers were too expensive so a few of us went outside to buy some beer and drink it before returning to the game. Imagine this: 6 Americans sitting at a bus stop drinking beers attempting to communicate with the locals. Yeah…
Moving on: After bowling we found a decent dance club and danced the night away…After an amazing night, Joan and I returned to beautiful Youxian to prepare for our classes.