Candles

Since it is Christmas time, lots of people probably have candles sitting in their homes. The same is happening in Chengdu, but for a very different reason. As almost everyone has probably heard, there is a large rumor that December 21st 2012 will be the end of the world. There is also a rumor here that there will be three days of darkness before the end of the world, and that the electricity will be out. So now you probably see the link between the two situations. Since there is "going to be" three days of darkness, with no electricity to light a person's house, some people want to have lots of candles on hand just in case. We saw an example of this on the way to church Sunday morning. Usually candles are not prominently displayed out on the sidewalk, but we walked by a large box filled with candles being sold for very cheap, approximately 16 cents per candle. Since I like candles a lot, purely for aesthetic reasons, I bought a lot of candles. I only found out later that they were for the three days of darkness. This is not just a mere coincidence, this is happening all over the Sichuan province, where there have been reports of candle shortages. It might be happening elsewhere, but there have only been reports of it in Sichuan. I'm not sure if the world will end soon, but I like the fact that candles are so cheap now.

Last Day of School

Today is the official last day of school because tomorrow we are having a big party for an hour and a half and then free time for the rest of the day. And the day after tomorrow is a half day with games all morning and in the afternoon, I am going shopping with my mom and sister. We will not have school for a whole 3 weeks for Christmas Holiday, and in that time, we will be going! ... Nowhere. But that is ok because there are lots of things to do in Chengdu.

Christmas Bazaar

Yesterday was the annual Christmas Bazaar. This year, I had to do 4 things. In the morning I had to preform for the High School Band, which went OK seeing as this was the first time we have ever preformed. Next, I had to help our school program Roots and Shoots to sell chicken nuggets and french fries. Me and a couple other students did that from 9am-1pm. Then I had one hour of free time, thank goodness. In that time I bought some earrings made of paper again, and also two homemade candles from our school. One is scented ocean and one is lavender. At around two O'clock, I went to go stand beside the  stage because I didn't know when the small groups were going to preform because the schedule was all wonky. When no one was on stage doing anything, the vice principle decided to just get the small groups preforming early, and my dad volunteered to go first. We sang a song called "Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth". Kate and dad sang Little Drummer Boy and I sang Peace on Earth. It seems like everyone liked it. After that was done I stood around the stage some more because then I had to preform with my friend for the music school that we both go to. Here is the link:
http://youtu.be/4nyJDaohutY
Anyway, we were the last one to preform any music that day, so there were a lot of people gathered around the stage area. I was surprised that more people hadn't left yet. When we finished preforming that last song, we quickly ran around all the food booths to use up the last of our food tickets, but I ended up just buying my mom a glass of German holiday wine, which I personally think was a waste of 20 tickets. If you are wondering why I didn't have choir on this list, that is because our school doesn't have a choir, more of a trio, and if it was just high school choir there would be a duet. We are going to preform at the winter concert, but the choir supervisor thought that we shouldn't preform at the Christmas Bazaar.
Other than that, I had a very good Christmas Bazaar. Well, not exactly "Christmas" because it was so hot that most people were wearing T-shirts.

Earthquake

Last Friday I felt something that I haven't felt in a long time. We were all sitting calmly at school doing our map projects, when I suddenly felt the table shaking. My face went all red and felt like it was going to explode, the way I feel when there is an earthquake. I looked around, and no one else seemed to feel it so I just assumed I was being paranoid. But then my Geography teacher looked out the window, then looked back at me. "Is that an earthquake?" he asked me. "Yes.." So he told the whole class to get under the table. The floor kept on shaking for a while, but then it stopped. We got out from underneath the table, and most of my classmates looked baffled. "There was an earthquake?" They hadn't felt any of it. Then something clicked in my brain. No one else in this room had been through the big 2008 Sichuan earthquake except me and our teacher. That meant that even after 4 years, our earthquake sensors were still very high.
When we left the classroom for the next class, we told almost everyone we passed that there was an earthquake. The next class happened to be Chinese, so we sat down and started working on a worksheet. About 2 minutes before class was over, I put my head on my hands because I was still quite shaken up about the earthquake. While I was still lying there, my face went hot again, and I whipped my head up to see if anyone else felt it, but no one did.
Class was over, so we went to go and get our lunches. When we were sitting down to eat in the cafeteria, I though I felt an earthquake again. No, I told myself, there is no way that 3 earthquakes can happen in less that 90 minutes of each other. Near the end of the school day, when I passed our Geography teacher in the hallway, he told me that there were three earthquakes, all of which I felt, and that they all happened in the same place, Yunnan province. Then he told me three numbers that I don't think I will every forget. The first earthquake had a magnitude of 5.7, the second was 5.6, and the third was 4.8. These seem like very big earthquakes, and you might be wondering why no one else felt them, the answer is quite simple, the place where the earthquake took place was 864km away.
This event brought back many memories of what it was like to be in the 2008 earthquake, and now I am paranoid, thinking that every little bump is an earthquake. My friends thought is was really cool and fun to be in an earthquake, but they just don't get it. An earthquake is a tragedy, no matter which was you look at it.

Supper

When my parents go out for supper, I have to babysit my sister, and we usually go out to the restaurant across the street. This time, my mom wanted us to eat only vegetables. So we walked to the restaurant, and surprise surprise, it was closed. So we phone our mom asked if we could go home and have Kraft Dinner. She said yes, as long as we stopped by the fruit place and bought some fruit to eat as well. So we walked to the fruit place, and that turned out to be closed as well! So we called our mom again, and she said to go to the vegetable place and get some cucumbers. We went there, and thankfully, that was still open. So we got our cucumber and went home. When we got there, I was about to start making Kraft Dinner, but I couldn't find any! So I called our mom again, and told her there was no Kraft Dinner. By this time, mom was practically rolling on the floor laughing at the restaurant she was at. She told us that we should just have sandwiches. So I opened the fridge and found...no bread. So I picked up the phone yet again, and told her there was no more bread. So she told us to have scrambled eggs. I looked in the fridge, and yes, there were three eggs in the fridge. I scrambled them, and peeled the cucumber, and we sat down to finally eat supper. After so much work, you'd think that we should have a little more than scrambled eggs and cucumbers for supper. Luckily, we also had Jelly Bellies!

Rain

Yesterday, as I was walking to the bus stop, it started to sprinkle a bit. I was not that concerned so I didn't go back home to get a umbrella. I was on my way to buy cat food for our kitten. When I got in the bus, the sprinkle turned into a storm. The rain was hitting the ground so hard that white sprays of water shot up every time a raindrop hit. The people in the bus were looking with their faces glued to the window. As we passed the indoor market, we could see a whole crowd of people standing just outside the door, waiting for the rain to stop. As we were going over the overpass, there was so much rainwater rushing down that is was like driving in a raging river. When we got to the next bus stop, people had to jump from the sidewalk to the bus because the rain was so deep it covered their feet completely.
When we finally got to the supermarket, it was raining so hard that almost as soon as I walked out of the bus I was drenched. I walked into the supermarket, because I like the feeling of rain, and just like at the indoor market, there were people standing right inside the door. I quickly bought what I needed, and then left the supermarket. As I was leaving, I saw this 10 or 11 year old boy, holding up one umbrella for himself, and one umbrella he was not doing anything with. As he got to the door of the supermarket, an old grandmotherly person walked up to him, and he gave her his extra umbrella. I guessed that she was his grandma and he had come to make sure she got home without getting wet.
I continued my walk because I still needed to get some more cat things. As I was walking in the pouring rain without a umbrella, people gave me the weirdest looks. One person walked past me, and for the look he gave me, I might as well have been walking down the street in my underwear!
When I finally got to the pet store I was going to, it was closed! I decided to skip the pet store and go straight home. I waited at the bus stop for about 10 minuets, but there was no bus! So I walked back to the pet store to see if they had opened. There was a lady standing outside, and she said that the store would open in a few minuets. As soon as I walked into the store, I was able to find everything I needed. I quickly ran across the street to the bus stop, and took a nice long bus ride home.

Kitten

A few days ago we got a new addition to our household, a little kitten. Her name is Mimi, because that is what the people at the shop called her. She is grey and white, and is very curious. She is actually sitting on my lap while I am typing this. At the beginning of when I was typing, she kept on batting at the fingers that were typing, so if there are any spelling mistakes, it is because of the kitty. She seems to enjoy licking our fingers, and sometimes  play biting them as well. Just now she went a little out of control, and kept on jumping all over my lap. She is very cute. She likes to sit on people's shoulders, as you can see from the picture.