There's an ant in my burrito.

Today was not our usual day in China. Bruce was woken up by a phone call at 9am. It was our school's foreign affairs officer. She said that a Spanish-speaking parent had come to the school to consider enrolling his kids, but he didn't know very much English, and no Chinese. I (Bruce) splashed water on my face, threw on some clothes, and ran to the front of campus to meet them. The guy was from Colombia, and it was so much fun talking with him in Spanish. The school tour lasted about an hour. It was funny, because everything got double-translated. First, the tour guide would say something. Kelly would translate it to English for me, and then I would translate it into Spanish for the guy. I had been worrying that perhaps my Spanish had deteriorated too much, but I could understand everything the Colombian said, and spoke with him at a pretty fast pace. He was raised in Colombia, then went to college in Russia, then got a job in China (here), and visits his wife and kids in Spain one week every month. His family is moving here to see him more often. I can't wait to go to Houston TX and use my Spanish much more often.

Then at 11:30am we all went to the international beach here in Weihai. Today is our last Monday off ever. Katie made a sandcastle, and a little Chinese toddler with the crotch-hole pants came and played with her and helped her build it. It was so cute. He stayed for like ten minutes with his dad. There were a handful of other European and American people out there, but mostly Chinese. The girls tanned on towels while Bruce and Sam waded out into the ocean water. We swam around, and then threw the frisbee back and forth. I think maybe the Chinese had never seen a frisbee before, because they seemed entranced in watching us. Maybe it's just that we're American. I skipped a few rocks on the beach, and they liked that, too. A Chinese guy next to me decided to try it. He picked up a rock about the size and shape of a softball (big and round) and tried to skip it. It just sank; no skip. He was pretty frustrated and yelled at the rock.

After we had all sunburned ourselves, we went back to do our weekly grocery shopping (we teach all day for the rest of the week). Katie and I bought Chinese burritos for lunch/dinner. After a few bites, a black ant runs out of her burrito and to the tip where she would have taken another bite. One of the other ILP girls noticed it and screamed. Katie flicked the ant off, and I traded burritos with her. I would finish the bad ant one, and she could eat my good one. But when she was first inspecting my burrito after I handed it to her... there was a hair in the lettuce. Welcome to China.