Just gotta find a place for Axle.

I have a quick personal story to tell. I'm not sure who all I've told it to before, but I know not a lot of people have heard it, so. Here it is, don't judge. It's important to me.

When I first went to China, I left late August. Every month, we had a vacation, and in November we spent our vacation in Beijing. I had 3 other teachers I was with, and we spent virtually all of our time together. Since it was just the 4 of us, and we were required to go places in groups of at least 2, we almost always went out with all of us together.

My group went to Beijing with the girls from 2 other schools. We had the Xiaolan girls and the Da..kdjf I never remember their city's name... haha. Anyway, while we were there, I wanted to buy Scooter her souvenir. Based on a gift her teacher had given her before, I decided to buy her a traditional Chinese hat. It was one of our last nights in Beijing and this market, I went off with some of the other girls to look around and see what I could find. I did end up with a pretty sweet hat that I was very excited about and continued to wear the rest of the night.

Since all of us had split up, though, we agreed to meet back at this one random place at a certain time. When I saw Anna (my head teacher), I ran to show her my cool find.

"Look what I bought for my sister! It's her souvenir!"
Anna gives me a weird look. "Cool, it's nice."
"... what?"
"Nothing. I just don't think I've ever actually heard you laugh before."


I am so excited to go to China again. I really just can't wait. About 5 more months, and then I get to go back to my favorite place I've ever called home. I grew so much in China, and learned a lot. I made some great friends and learned to love an entire people. I look forward to being a leader to new people and possibly getting to see some of my old students. I'm trying to learn some Chinese sign language (I've got 6 words down) and I'm going to be brushing up on my Chinese, at the very latest when classes are over. This is going to be such a great experience.

And I hope that the previous experiences I've had will help me to connect with my teachers and help them have a great time.

But I'm only 22.

Ah, the Mormon culture. It makes me laugh.

School started up recently! My classes are pretty chill. A couple are pretty easy, one is totally a joke (unfortunately that's my criminalistics class, where I was really hoping for something a little more thorough than what I have) and the last one is a little intense, but it's interesting.

But. I have a funny story.

Last week I was riding the bus home on Thursday, and I saw one of my trek brothers, Daniel! It was exciting. We were talking and catching up, and he asks me if I'm dating right now. Which is not really a question I get very often, but I said, Not really. He asked me why not, and I'm starting to kinda wonder about his motives here... Is he going to ask me out? (The answer is no, he's not. He's just asking. He has a girlfriend in CA) But I didn't really know what to say to that, so I started rattling off something about not really having time, being busy with school and work, and then I decided to give a real answer.

Part of the reason I don't really date much is because most of the new guys I meet are Mormon (with the exception of my classmates, but that's an entirely different story). Now this is not a problem for me. I do not care if they are Mormon. What a strange thing for me to pick a bone with. Hey, I know I go to church every week and see you here all the time, you've probably sat in on some of my fantastic lessons, but you're one of those ones... so no thank you. Haha. That would just be the strangest.

However, it tends to be a problem for them. It's nothing personal, I know, and I'm not upset about this. But every time I meet a potential date, we'll start talking and he'll be interested and whatnot, but as he get to know more about me, he realizes I'm just not quite what he wants. Oh, you have tattoos? Oh, your ears are pierced? Huh. Well, I can work with that. Wait, you want more tattoos? And your shorts are how short? Tank tops, too, huh? Hmm... Etc etc. It's nothing personal against me, it's just that I'm not quite as Molly Mormon as they want me to be.

And I'm ok with this. It's up to them what they want, and if I don't line up, then I don't line up. And honestly, if I don't line up with what they want, they probably don't line up with what I want. Getting my tattoos was my choice, and if these are part of the consequences, I will gladly welcome it. (For the record, I'm sure not every Mormon guy is like this, but most of the ones I meet are. I can think of one guy who it wasn't a problem at all for.)

Anyway, so I told this to Daniel and he was so sad to hear that this is something I have to do deal with (which is refreshing, compared to the last person I talked to about it), haha, then he told me, "Don't worry. You'll find someone who's right for you."

Haha. Thank you. Only in the Mormon world would someone be consoling someone my age for not having found the person I want to marry, yet.