earthquake!

First typhoon, then earthquake... I think

haha, my roommate and I are fairly certain we just felt a teeny tiny earthquake.  I just so happened to be standing in quite an unfortunate place for my first earthquake. 

HERE

        

The thought of looking out the window from the 12th floor is scary, but I actually didn't even realize that's what it was until Cassandra said something.  I thought I was just feeling a little light-headed or something from being so high up LOL  If that's all it is for their weekly earthquakes I can definitely handle that.  However, we're on the 12th floor of our 15 floor building so "Please God" do not let them be any worse in my year here!

I went to my school yesterday and met a lot of other teachers and the principal.  They are all ecstatic to have me here and to practice their English on me (and laugh at my attempt at Chinese).  The women keep touching my cheeks and saying "so beautiful, so beautiful" hahaha, and everywhere Cassandra and I go people just wave and wave at us.  It's weird to think that someone like Paris Hilton could be here and not be treated any more like a celebrity than we are (because they wouldn't know who she is lol).  People are so kind and will bend over backwards for "guests" in their school/town/country.  Today I went back to school and was able to meet some of my kids =)  They all gave me their English names and what grade they are in.  Turns out most people here just make up an English name, and can change it if they feel like it.  A lot of times they will tell me their English name and it's not actually a name that we use or I've heard of and when I tell them that, they change it haha  Either that or they've been pronouncing it wrong and I have to tell them it's actually Michelle, not Mitcher  lol

So far I've been taken to experience "hot pot" or some other name that I forget right now.  They put a pot of water on the table in front of you that has a little heating stove thing underneath and then bring out a massive plate of vegetables and your choice of meat or fish, and you cook your own soup.  YUM!  I loved it!  Then, Cassandra and I ventured out on our own for the first time and walked into the city (about 10-15 mins) and around our own neighborhood a bit.  I didn't realize we were going to be walking so far and had flip flops on.  I got some blisters on my feet so I really need to find some tennis shoes here.  But we had a good time checking out different shops and the night market.  And last (so far), today we got to experience the ever so famous, KTV.  Holy crap do these people take their karaoking seriously.  OMG, we went to this place where you have to make a reservation, it is soo nice inside, and you get put in a private room with a big wrap around leather couch, table, karaoke system, and huge TV.  There is a buffet outside the rooms where you go and pick out your food and take it back to your room.  LOL, they are so serious here about their KTV's.  We introduced them to quite a few American songs and artist such as, Taylor Swift, TLC (they were impressed with my rapping skills in Waterfalls lmao), Brittney Spears, Mariah Carey, and Pussycat Dolls.  One woman wanted to know what "cha" means after we sang "Don't cha"  hahaha... we explained to her that it was slang for "do not you"... I don't know if she got it lol

That's about it.  There are some other things we're wanting to do but we have to wait until things get cleaned up from Typhoon Morakat which apparently was way worse then I realized.  I heard that it was the worst typhoon in over 50 years and that in the south their was a huge mudslide, entire towns under water, and buildings and bridges collapsed.  The death toll is up to 30 I believe but hundreds more are still missing!  There are actually people from my group who are supposed to be going to that area.

I was going to add some videos I took out the window during the typhoon, but I can't get them uploaded onto wordpress.  I'll have to wait until my super savy techie boyfriend wakes up to help me ;)