#or yk they could just put all the eggs in one room and the parents have to fight a boss to get them back

[scandeniall]

love you, i guess

pairing: suna x reader

Suna is the type of bf to wake you up on your birthday and just look at you like “yk it’s your birthday right?” Like you’re not tryna sleep in 😔‼️ he don’t even tell you happy birthday at first

a/n: so its officially my 22nd birthday so heres the first (of maybe like 2 or 3 birthday!reader fics (let me LIVE)

also this is in the same relationship dynamic as all my other sunarin hc’s lol. There are several easter eggs here!

A sudden weight crushing your side is enough to pull you out of your sleep. Any attempt to push the body off yours is feeble and all you can do is groan in both annoyance and exhaustion. “Rin get off”

You’re met with a face full of hair as Suna nuzzles in face in the crook of your neck before getting up.

“Dude, what the fuck.” Trying to pull the covers that had slipped in his attack fails as he grabs the fabric and shrugs.

“It’s your birthday.” He simply hands you your phone as you double check the day and in fact are met with the day. Your eyes then drift to the time on your phone and you huff.

“It’s 9 am.”

“Whatever. I ordered some breakfast and I’m hungry.” His words come out boredly but you can see the slightest bit of nerves swirling in his eyes and you soften.

“Rin,” you drag out the end of his name as you scramble up to place a kiss on his cheek.

——

“You got any plans today?” The two of you had just finished eating and Suna watched as you straightened up. He’d settled on the couch, game all set up as he waited for you to plop now next to him.

“(Y/F/N) insists on taking me for lunch. That’s about it. Did you want to do something?” You eye your boyfriend suspiciously and he just brushes you off. Once you finish you’re making your way towards the couch before plopping down.

“Lay down would you,” before you can respond you feel a tug on your leg pulling you so that you were laying. Suna maneuvers himself so that his head rests between your legs as he turns on the game. You hand instinctively makes its way to play in his hair.

“Can you at least tell me happy birthday,” you tease only to be met with a light smack against your thigh and his mumble of he’d think about it. You’re not sure how long it took but soon the fullness in your belly, comfort from him and clicking of his controller lulled you back to sleep.

—-

“Have fun. Or don’t, since you’re leaving me here.” You let out a laugh as you look as Suna from the mirror’s reflection.

“Should’ve told me happy birthday”

“I ordered you breakfast.”

After putting the finishing touches on your appearance you turn to the body practically hovering over you to ask you how you look.

“I guess you look kind of good.” He ignored the roll of your eyes in favor of locking his arms around your waist as his lips dip to ghost along the side of your neck. “Hand me my phone.” You comply reaching into his pocket to hand him the device.

You aren’t surprised by his next action. You feel one of his hands settle on your butt and you hear the click of his camera. You have no doubt that his face is purposely covered as the reflection clearly shows his hand with a handful of your ass. (You later find out the pic is on his priv story captioned: leaving for a birthday lunch without me)

“Be safe.” The words are mumbled against your neck as you nod, hand massaging his scalp. Pulling away the two of you do your secret handshake (one that had started as a dumb joke) before heading out.

—-

It’s late afternoon when you get back to Suna still playing the game. You don’t notice the way his eyes swirl with love as you recount a few of the moments from hanging out with your friends. He’d even paused the game to hear you, this time his legs draped over your lap. “Are you tired?”

You pause, thinking for a moment before nodding. “A little. You?” At his nod you tell him you’re just gonna call your parents for a few minutes and that he can head to the room. “I dont want to sleep my birthday away either.”

“I’ll set an alarm”

—-

The sun is beginning to set then you feel someone shaking you to wake up. Your eyes are met with familiar led lights. “Hey get up”

Suna allows you a few moments to shake the grogginess. Your eyes focus and your ears pick up on the music playing quietly throughout the room. Wiping at your eyes you sit up to face Suna. “Rin?”

“I got you something.” With that he motions you to straddle him before hands cup your cheeks and pull your lips to his. You allow yourself to get lost on the moment as his tongue slips past your lips. The two of you spend several moments just getting loss in one another. Your hands pressed firmly against his chest as his slipped down, one running up and down your side. It’s you who pulls away first and your eyes narrow in on the tiniest trail of spit on his lips and the glimmer left behind under the lights.

“Happy birthday (Y/N)”

You almost want to make a joke at the fact that he actually said the words now that your day is more than halfway over. However you’re stopped by the nerves you see starting to pool in his eyes. “Rin?”

“You know I love you right?” Your nod causes him to let out an exhale you’re sure he didn’t even know he was holding. You pick up on the slightest whisper of ‘good�� before he reaches over, careful not to knock you off to pull out a box. “Open it?”

Your’e curiosity only grows as he hands you the box with shaky hands. Your attempt to meet his eyes fail as he’s preoccupied himself with a loose strand on your shorts. 

“Rin-” he only looks up at your gasp. Tossing the box to the side, you carefully hold the object up.

“Do you like it?” You don’t miss the feel of his fingers nervously druming on your skin and you almost want to hit him.

“Of course i do, what the fuck,” you exclaim voice getting choked up. You hold the gold chain up, running your fingers over the letters. His initials. You wordlessly hand him the jewelry for him to put it on, and you can’t help but feel warm inside. You let him quietly clasp the chain and adjust it so that the letters were resting perfectly.

“You look good.” Befor you could lean forward to connect your lips again he stops you. “I want to show you something else.” You notice him reach for the chain he typically wears. Its to thin, and practically permanent on him, that you rarely notice it anymore. Pulling the jewelry from under his shirt you notice an object dangling from it. A ring. 

He instructs you to look at the object and upon further inspection you’re speechless

‘love you i guess’ along with your initials are engraved on the inside. 

“Its in your handwriting. I already have a chain, but wanted to keep something about you with me too.” 

This time you embrace him in a hug, mumbling countless “i love yous” (he better take advantage of soft you. it won’t be happening again for a while)

“Trying to romance me into some forever kind of shit huh?” you tease happily.

“Of course. Who else would go half on a PS5 for me”

[cricketrigby]

* ( kristine froseth ) ⁠— cricket rigby has lived in somewhere for 23 years, which is crazy considering they are only twenty three.  you can usually find her working at the somewhere roller rink . when i think of strawberry bubblegum, heart shaped sunglasses, & twirling the stem of a rose between your fingertips, i can’t help but think of them as well. ( pepper, twenty four, she/her, est )

ABOUT THE MUN.  sick of thinking! won’t be doing that again

hello all! my name is pepper and i have never been on time for anything ever in my life so it’s pretty fitting that i’m the last one to get my intro up dkjdkj love this for me,,, always on brand. anyways, i am Returning to the rpc kind of maybe after a month hiatus and i wanted something cute and chill to try and get back into the swing of things... i’m hoping this group will be that! but yeah please bear with me i am Definitely going to be a bit rusty,,,, and i am sorry in advance. but Anyways, enough about that and onto some fun facts about me. to start, i just turned twenty four two weeks ago and i am Still in shock about it so jot that down, i hate it here. i have like,,, the opposite of a green thumb, i have killed every plant i have ever had, rip peter the succulent you were a good egg. i regularly say i’m feeling ___ in this chillis tonight despite never being to chillis. i enjoy garbage movies, like the worse it is the better (tyler perry movies, the fast and the furious series, etc). i straight up don’t get like critically acclaimed movies i’m ngl,,, like really like Great movies go straight over my head rip but Anyways moving on to who we’re all here for, ms cricket rigby ! 

BIO.  we need sluttier music….. 

cricket juliet rigby was born to arthur godwin rigby and sonya marie rigby nee bankcult right here in good old somewhere florida. the story is that her parents were actually on their way out of town when cricket decided to ‘jump’ out of her mother’s belly and arrive to the party early. her parents always liked to tell the story like it was cute or funny or something but kit always saw it a bit differently. she had her chance to get out and she screwed it up. and now she’s literally never left this hell hole since. it’s like she got impatient and accidentally screwed herself over for it. and if that isn’t foreshadowing for the rest of her life she doesn’t know what is.

it was her mom’s idea to name her cricket. she said it was because of the way she used to kick with both legs in the womb. like she was jumping. her father found her name ridiculous and insisted on calling her juliet, but that was to be expected. her mother was always the fanciful one out of the pair of them. you see, ricki’s father was a pretty successful lawyer and her mother was a children’s book illustrator. to put it simply her father was the type of person to give kids floss on halloween and her mother was the type to slip you a cookie when the ‘adults’ weren’t looking. they were complete opposites, honestly to the point where sometimes cricket didn’t even understand how her parents got together. but somehow against all odds they did, and they stayed together to boot. loved each other too. her mother always made her father loosen up a bit and her father usually kept her mother grounded. they suited each other, and they adored each other in a way cricket never really saw any other parents doing. well, until they didn’t. 

if cricket didn’t understand how her parents got together she sure understood why they didn’t stay together. you’d have to be blind as a bat to not see that one coming.

her parents fought constantly as cricket got older. the kind of loud, explosive fights that woke a kid up in the middle of the night and made the neighbors look at you with sympathy. there was no abuse or anything serious like that, or even cheating. her parents simply stopped liking each other. and that was honestly even scarier. that her parents could simply wake up one day and not like each other anymore. 

they called it quits when cricket turned thirteen. her mother broke the news to her over a shared joint on the beach. and honestly, it wasn’t really the kind of news you wanted to process while high, but well, nobody ever asked cricket. nobody ever really asked cricket anything. 

but well, her mother asked cricket one thing. to break the news to her little sister. cause yeah, she had one of those. kimberly. a regular sensible name for a regular sensible girl. not that there’s anything wrong with being regular or sensible. it’s just that cricket and her mother were neither of those things. if cricket took after her mother, then kimberly took after their father. her baby sister wanted to be an accountant for god’s sake. what six year old wants to be an accountant? 

anyways, cricket played messenger. she broke the news to her sister and comforted her in the aftermath. she listened to her mother as she told fanciful, beautiful stories about how much more she wanted from her life. and one sunny thursday afternoon, the very thursday she got her first period, the very thursday that a girl really needs her mom, like really needs her mom, she came home and didn’t have one anymore. or a sister either apparently. all she had was a dad crumpled on the living room floor around a heart shaped sticky note of all things. 

who leaves their fucking family with a fucking sticky note?

apparently dad was the only one in the family who didn’t know he and mom were over. cricket would feel bad about it if she wasn’t so busy feeling sorry for herself. because apparently her mother packed up her and kimmy’s things, picked up kimberly from school and just left somewhere forever. leaving cricket behind. just like that. cricket didn’t understand it. just the night before her and her mother were laying back on her bed, laughing. and now she was tossed aside like a discarded toy. second best in a two person race. cricket had never quite dealt with abandonment until that moment, but her first taste of it hurt like a bitch. it hurt all over. 

but things only got worse. cause then came stella. stella was cricket’s godmother. her mother’s best friend. the woman who would slip cricket money so she could buy herself a red lipstick at the mac counter or pick herself up that tube top she’d been wanting so badly. the woman who came with cricket and her mother when she got her first bra. the woman who was supposed to be there for her in the aftermath of all this. but apparently stella took the job a bit too seriously. 

she fucked her father. and not long after that she married him. cricket fought them every step of the way, but they still did it. and well, she had to live with it. her mother and best friend was gone, and this impostor was taking her place. and her father was just letting it all happen. in fact he was happy to do it. that’s what he kept telling her anyways. to let him be happy. that he deserved to be happy. but didn’t she deserve to be happy too?

her mother sent letters sometimes, and kimmy would occasionally call the house. cricket never opened the letters, and she never really spoke much to kimmy. i mean, it wasn’t kimberly’s fault, and cricket knew that. after all, she was six. she never had a choice either. but cricket couldn’t help being jealous of the little shit. kimberly missed dad so much and she wanted to come home. but she was out of somewhere, and she was with mom. she had everything cricket ever wanted and she wasn’t even appreciating it. it was a hard pill to swallow. eventually cricket started cutting the calls short. 

cricket and her father never saw eye to eye. he kicked her out of the house when she was seventeen after an argument between cricket and stella got so bad that things got physical on both their parts. and instead of kicking out the woman who hit his daughter, arthur got rid of the daughter instead. cricket didn’t mind. she simply went to live with her boyfriend at the time (who much like all of cricket’s boyfriends in the past was handsome, cool, and most importantly old enough to have his own place). after that she never really turned back. just... moved from boyfriends place to boyfriends place to girlfriends place to boyfriends place. saw her dad on holidays or when she needed money or under duress. and stayed in somewhere. for now. 

PERSONALITY.  feeling like the prettiest girl in the crawl space right now

as you can probably tell from that mess of an bio, this is my first time playing cricket so i don’t really have her personality nailed down yet BUT

ECCENTRIC. cricket got her mother’s weird hippy gene for sure honestly. she might even be an artist lowkey because of it. definitely is the type to just say weird as hell shit without shame. your local manic pixie dream girl tbh 

PROMISCUOUS. she a hoe and that’s a fact. love that for her though! gets around and is pretty shameless about it honestly. just here for a good time. kind of charming naturally and just generally like?? flirtatious?? the type to flirt with a cop to get out of a ticket. also the type to cry to get out of a really bad dad. the type to go on a date just cause her fridge is empty and yk a girl’s gotta eat. the kind of girl who had a bunch of rumours about her in high school like that she slept with so and so under the bleachers at an assembly or that she once did something nearly impossible on a trampoline. 

CONTRADICTORY. cricket is a compassionate person but she can also hold a grudge for a long ass time. still doesn’t really talk to her mom or little sister. but if you need a ride across town cricket will just give it to you even if she barely knows you. if you’re hungry and come to the roller rink she will slip you some fries free of charge even if she’ll probably get in trouble for it. will fight her stepmom ON SIGHT and slam a bitch down during roller derby but like will get so excited over something simple like the moon being out sdkdskj this bitch makes no sense y’all. 

MYSTERIOUS. at least to other people i feel like. cricket doesn’t really talk about herself or serious things, and she will change the topic if someone is getting too close. she’s the type who doesn’t open up easy, and therefore the type that a lot of guys like... idealize and build up into this mysterious untouchable thing yk? but she’s just a dumb girl who doesn’t want to talk about her feelings underneath it all sdkjdkj she’s just stupid

HEADCANNONS. at least whatever is wrong with me is really really funny 

lost her virginity at fourteen around the anniversary of her mother leaving. unfortunately the type who seeks love and acceptance in all the wrong places. tends to self sabotage when things are too good, or literally just go for people who are bad for her. bi af tho hey~ has been in more relationships than she can count for sure. will duck behind a wall when she sees any of her exes at the grocery store.

does ROLLER DERBY! will fight a bitch in the ring! very good at it despite how cute and angelic she looks sdksdk can and WILL slam a bitch into a wall. it’s just a fun hobby for her, but she loved the camraderie of it honestly. her team is a ragtag group of misfits and i Love them 

like i said in the chat, will now put up posters around town with a cute little polaroid of herself and her number on those little tab things just for shits and giggles to see who calls. will completely prank anyone who does call for fun

idk why but i feel like the roller rink is called l8r sk8r or something cheesy like that,,, i feel it in my Soul. also imagine the type of place where cricket goes around on rollerblades serving food, so yeah, you can order food probably and some showy girl on rollerblades will serve it to you 

has been a muse before. like guys have written songs about her in high school. one guy painted a portrait of her and it went in a literal gallery. is always very flattered but very like,,, cool thanks bye! 

i totally forgot to include this but the rigby’s are rich y’all. like country club rich. her daddy’s got that big money and their house is Huge but you would never be able to tell by the way cricket acts, she’s a mess.

speaking of, her name is indeed cricket (rip) but you can call her kit, kitty, rick, ricki, jiminey,,, all of it is valid 

the vibe is madchen amick folks,,, that’s the whole vibe and honestly she’s probably cricket’s style inspo like twin peaks??? maybe her favourite show

a feel like she might also be a lifeguard as a side hustle, but she only ever fills in when no one else can you know. she’s the emergency call in, and when she’s there she spends most of her time sitting in her lifeguard chair in her little red swim suit and flirting with whoever comes by to see her like sdkjsd is she good at her job? no. does she bring traffic to the beach? probably! 

WANTED CONNECTIONS.  i’m saving my brain for special occasions. if i use it every day it’ll get dirty

i would love an ex for her honestly,,, an ex bf or gf where cricket sabotaged things just when they were getting good? an ex on good terms maybe! an ex will they won’t they thing where they almost got together but never did? an old childhood crush for either party! a childhood enemy is also sexy! an old neighbor! someone who’s sibling she used to date or something! someone new to town that she’s intrigued by! someone new to town she doesn’t get along with (maybe cause of a bad first impression or something?) a one night stand! a fwb! a ewb! a BEST FRIEND GOD PLEASE! m or f i am down either way. i would kill for a girl squad though. maybe an ex best friend who hates cricket cause she slept with their boyfriend in high school or something. a party friend! someone she does roller derby with. someone she always sees in the crowd during roller derby. idk someone who she regularly sees at the motel she has her hookups at, maybe cause they’re also hooking up or maybe cause they just come to the motel often for some reason or honestly maybe they’re a vacationer that would make sense. uh someone she saved from drowning one time! OH someone she pretended to be dating to make an ex jealous or avoid one or something at one point,,,and anything else tbh we can absolutely brain storm! like this and i will slide into your dms <3

[naevaliaakster]

( cisfemale ) haven’t seen NAEVA LI AAKSTER around in a while. the NATASHA LIU BORDIZZO lookalike has been known to be (+) ORGANIZED & (+) RELIABLE, but SHE can also be (-) UNFORGIVING & (-) IMPULSIVE. The 21 year old is a JUNIOR majoring in ARCHAEOLOGY. I believe they’re living in POTENTAS. but I popped by earlier and no one answered the door. ( pepper. twenty three. est. she/her. )

hello folks, it me, back again, to give you a bit of insight into my girl. down bellow will be some facts on facts on facts, and once again please smack that like button and i will teleport into your dms. before i forget here is her pinterest board.

naeva is eva’s god sister. their parents met in university and were pretty much inseparable since, so eva and naeva grew up together despite the fact that naeva was just a smidge bit older. naeva’s parents are also well known writers, but they’re also both therapists, which means, you guessed it folks, naeva has pretty much spent her whole life under a microscope. was psychoanalyzed at the dinner table yk what i mean. 

naeva was also her parents only child so all their energy and overbearing tendencies were focused on her. naeva couldn’t so much as breath without one of the two trying to comment on it, they would go through her things as she got older, ask borderline invasive questions about her personal life. there was really no boundaries, and it was a stifling environment but it was really all she knew.

growing up naeva and eva were two peas in a pod. they did everything together. dance classes, halloween, back to school shopping, dress up. they had more play dates together than they could count, but when they played house eva was always the beautiful wife and mother and naeva was always the family dog yk? they were never truly equal, and naeva knew it, her parents knew it. eva was the leader, and naeva was the follower, although she never quite understood how she fell into that position. 

later in life naeva would escape a lot from her parents, and she tended to do that with eva. they would take road trips to france or germany or honestly anywhere that wasn’t their home. the two were pretty much a package deal, and they told each other everything growing up. or well, naeva told eva everything. she had no way of knowing what eva was hiding from her. 

on these trips they would get pretty Wildt. they were basically unsupervised so they would do whatever they wanted, so drinking partying, seducing boys (and girls) all that fun stuff. they’d tell a lot of lies, pretend to be people they weren’t, con dumb older men and tourists just for shits and giggles. you know. just girly things. 

eva honestly wasn’t always the nicest to naeva either? she was kind of the karen to eva’s regina yk, like always kind of living in her shadow, kind of blindly and naively following her. naeva loved her like a sister though so she tried to look passed eva’s nasty comments or sharp demeanor, tried to ignore it or downplay it because she knew she had good heart underneath. it worked for years. until it didn’t. 

when naeva was sixteen her parents got a book deal and they had a big party for it. naeva didn’t know what the book was about, but her parents hadn’t written something together in about two decades so she understood the fanfare. but she was completely blindsided when she found out the novel was about her. 

it was basically a novel surrounding parenting her, psychoanalyzing her behavior and her upbringing, like naeva was nothing but an experiment. naeva was horrified and made a big scene at the party forbidding her parents from publishing it, but they refused. told her that this wasn’t about her, and that she was just being dramatic, and besides the book was already being printed so there was nothing she could do about it. naeva never felt so violated in her life. 

after the book was published naeva was completely humiliated. it skyrocketed in success, even being put on the book list for some universities for developmental psychology classes. naeva tried to stay inside and stay away from anybody who knew the last name ‘li aakster’ and could connect this whole thing to her. during that time she leaned on eva, who supported her during the event. 

however later naeva ended up overhearing eva ripping her apart to her friends, discussing the novel and fact checking it with the personal things she knew about naeva. naeva confronted her and this really put a rift in their relationship, because eva really showed no remorse.

understandably after this naeva’s relationship with both eva and her parents was Rocky as Hell. the of the closest people to her had completely broken her trust, and so she made their lives as miserable as she could until it got to the point that they had to send her away to boarding school (location flexible. could have been in the states 👀)   . she stayed there for two years before returning home after graduation, still hurt and angry but colder with time. 

it’s because of their rocky past that she picked eva’s name. she regrets it now. at the time with how angry and hurt and betrayed she still felt, she just wanted eva to feel the same humiliation she did. but she didn’t want her to be hurt, or scared, or whatever the hell the person who runs this app is doing to her. she hasn’t told a soul that she picked her, but god does she wish she could take it back. 

HEADCANNONS/PERSONALITY

trust issues, daddy issues, mommy issues, issues issues. 

naeva originally got into the hendrix psychology program, but that reminded her too much of her parents so she changed it. for a second she was in the photography program, but again she ended up changing it. now she’s in archaeology and she already wants to change it tbh. thinking of switching to paleontology, because at the moment she’s toying with the idea of being a museum curator.

has a lot of issues with her identity? she trailed behind eva for so long, and then her parents exploited her identity for money, and now she just isn’t really sure who she is as a person, hence changing her major every thirty seconds. also very insecure deep down but that’s a whole other thing. very self critical. 

since she’s such a mess, she tries to control external factors? her dorm room is always pretty much spotless, she can be kind of a mom friend, she can occasionally meddle to try to fix things. the type to give advice despite the fact that she has no idea what she’s doing with her life. 

the biggest sweet tooth. sugar is a coping mechanism. humour is too. 

knows how to speak dutch, mandarin (has some trouble writing in it though), english, and some conversational french and german from her travels. 

alcohol and drugs and partying as a coping mechanism when she’s upset??? more likely than you think!

still kind of wants to leave the country whenever she feels stifled tbh sdkdsksdkj a big travel bug though so there’s also that

doesn’t drive, bikes everywhere tbh, this bitch is a friend of the environment. 

a photography hoe tbh. takes lots of pics of her travels but pretty much burned or ripped up most of the ones with eva in them when she was sixteen. only a few were spared. 

was convinced this whole watershed thing was some sort of fucked up prank until recently. now she’s paranoid as all hell. 

WANTED CONNECTIONS omg listen,,, fuck me up

EXES: like i said, naeva’s got hella trust issues so things probably didn’t go the best but give me this 

CHILDHOOD FRIENDS: people she grew up with outside of eva? again fuck me up 

FRIENDS FROM BOARDING SCHOOL:  like,,, i said 👀 location flexible 

PEOPLE SHE AND EVA FUCKED OVER: let naeva’s dark mean girl’s henchman past come back to haunt her... fuck her up

FWB/EWB: realistically the only commitment she could make 

ONE NIGHT STANDS/HOOKUPS: wink wonk. 

PEOPLE SHE MET ON HER TRAVELS: she may have dkjdk messed with them or fucked them over in the past, or they might know her by a different name because she lied to them and told them she was arabella finch a competitive gymnast from dubai, but we can deal with that. 

BAD INFLUENCES: someone who eggs her on when she’s getting Wildt. or someone SHE eggs on when they’re getting Wildt.

GOOD INFLUENCE: someone who naeva gives unsolicited advice to who actually takes it? and is better for it? wild. or someone who’s trying to help her be better would also be wild. 

EX-FRIENDS: naeva has a particularly hard time trusting friendships since eva, so she definitely would have been the one to self sabotage this.

SOMEONE SHE TAKES CARE OF: honestly they might hate it. or it might be useful. naeva, honestly, probably isn’t doing it for them, she’s the girl who tends to be in the bathroom holding stangers hair you know. 

PARTY FRIENDS: this honestly also suits naeva tbh, but someone she only gets along with drunk or who parties with her would be Ace friends 

anything and everything else folks. my brain is unfortunately Fried, but i am coming around to love on you all and plot now i promise <3

[sarahinzhuhai-blog]

Week 3--gettin sick as heck in zhongguo

Before I get started, one thing about the competition on Sunday from last weeks post: one thing that really bothered me was that people were just talking/generally being loud as people played during the competition. While mostly this felt wrong to me, it was very funny when someone played Old MacDonald and a group of kids started singing along. ///////// Okay, now for week 3. Oh boy, week 3 was a LOT, so buckle up. // Last Sunday night as I was blogging, I felt the beginnings of a cough and decided to ignore it and stay up late. MISTAKE. I woke up Monday morning feeling very ~~toasty~~ and generally like garbage, pushed myself to go to school (my mom drove me), and got there very early. Since my host family didn't have a thermometer at home, Queen Isabel said we could check at school... After falling asleep in one of the chairs on the second floor, Isabel and later Sihong came. To my surprise, Sihong whipped out a mercury thermometer (!) that you put in your armpit (!!) for five minutes...that was definitely a new experience. I muddled through class, slept through every break, had some dumplings for lunch and quickly slept again until afternoon class. Afternoon class was 谁是卧底 (Who is the spy?) again (yay!!), then I went home and went directly to sleep. // Tuesday morning was worse. Now don't worry, I'm not just gonna keep talking about being sick...Tuesday morning is where the story gets spicy. My moms conclusion from feeling my forehead was that I definitely had a fever, but I went to school to check with the thermometer. After another hour long nap upstairs (which got very awkward when a random group of guys assembled for no apparent reason, we looked at each other, said no words, and then they left), the thermometer confirmed that I definitely did have a fever and we decided to go to the clinic on campus! Yay! // The clinic was nothing like any doctor I've been to in America. It was in a small house-looking building on campus, and definitely nothing like the sterile environments I'm used to seeing in the states--open windows, mosquitoes, etc. Also, while the doctor was asking me questions (and by asking questions, I mean asking questions at me as I blankly stared back until Sihong or Isabel helped me), she was also seeing another patient--a police officer with high blood pressure who she was telling to stop smoking/drinking but who kept insisting that he could just take medicine. After consulting with the doctor (nurse? I have no idea), she said they wanted to do some blood tests. Oh boy, blood tests! This was actually really cool because they have a machine that tests almost immediately (I got the results within 5 minutes) for a certain set of bacterial infections. Some fun and notable differences: Instead of drawing from the arm, they drew from the hand. Also they used iodine to disinfect, and I got to use a ~fun qtip thing~ to stop the bleeding afterwards. The final verdict: I didn't have any scary disease, just a nasty cold. They prescribed me an antiviral and some traditional medicine (a powder to mix with hot water and drink) and sent me on my way. Isabel accompanied me home (I would describe that trip as her being very productive and me being very sweaty and completely out of it) and I spent the rest of the day sleeping. // On Wednesday, Isabel gave me permission to sleep as late as I could, so I woke up around 7, got ready slowly and was late to school. I made it through morning classes and lunch, but by lunch I was feeling pretty exhausted again and I decided to go home to rest instead of pushing through afternoon classes and culture class, the reason being that on Thursday we had a trip to Shenzhen! I went home, got some much needed rest, and almost forgot to pack for Shenzhen. At one point (around 10pm), my parents were talking pretty loudly and I had to ask them if they could be more quiet. I felt really rude for asking that, but I also really needed to sleep, so I apologized in the morning. Also, the TCM tea was not as bad as everyone said it would be. // Thursday morning, I headed to school to meet up for the Shenzhen trip. I was hittin the squat pot every thirty minutes and still coughing a ton, but that wasn't going to stop me. We met at the bus stop, and after a trip to the canteen bathroom that I will never forget, we headed to the train station. We took some sort of fast rail (sorry, I only know the Chinese name), first to Guangzhou, and then to Shenzhen after a ~30 minute layover. The Guangzhou station was very impressive, both terms of size and number of people. Fun train station activities: 1) almost falling in the gap at the Tangjia station; 2) watching Anthony order one drink at the Guangzhou Starbucks and receive a very different one. Both trains were very, very nice; the first train had me seated next to some random guy, so I mostly napped when the baby in our car wasn't crying, but I was next to Isabel on train 2, so I talked a bit with her and ate some of Garrett's snacks (thanks Garrett). Before I knew it, we had arrived in Shenzhen. // The first thing we did was eat lunch at the station inside this huge food court. Maya and I had some really good soup dumplings (my first time trying soup dumplings and my fifth time eating dumplings in four days) and fruit. When we sat down to eat, we repelled whoever was sitting at the table too. After lunch, we took the metro to another area of town and headed to the hotel. The first thing we saw after getting above ground were these huge pink buildings and lots of skyscrapers. Definitely a different vibe from Zhuhai or my own town. After getting to the hotel, we spent a while waiting downstairs for rooms to finish getting cleaned. Our group is always very lively, and that day was no exception, so the wait definitely wasn't boring. Eventually, the rooms were ready and they sent us off to rest for thirty minutes. Lexi and I headed upstairs to check it out. // The hotel was definitely an experience. Like many hotels here that say the room is non-smoking, our room was very smoky, but the weirdest thing was that the bathroom wasn't its own room, it was in this outcropping of glass (apparently other rooms weren't like this?). After figuring out what was going on and checking out some of the more questionable items that were on sale in the room, Lexi and I bopped to some kpop before heading downstairs. // After our group reconvened, we headed off to this building called "Book City" and were split into groups. My group was Tully, Abigale, Josh, David and I, with Sihong as our leader. Our group was very divided [@ yk/Hannah the congruency levels were a bit small] as to what we wanted to do: some wanted to go shopping, some said they really didn't like art museums while I would have liked to see one, some wanted to make the trek to the PingAn Financial Center while others didn't think it was worth the effort. We decided to first check out the Shenzhen museum. On the way over, we got a chance to see a lot of really cool buildings, as we were passing through what appeared to be Shenzhen's cultural center; the concert hall was very neat, and I was very impressed by city hall. City hall was a gigantic metal building with a swooping yellow and red roof and a gap in the middle that framed some of the city behind it and the Chinese flag. I'll post pictures when I get the chance to upload them from my camera. Abigale also slipped in a mystery puddle, which is never good. // After arriving at the museum, I learned that Shenzhen has a very interesting history: it is the fourth largest city in China by population, but almost all of its development took place in the last 35 years, as it was turned into a special economic zone where a lot of government regulations over trade/economic ~affairs~ were lifted. Between the museums signs and Sihong answering my questions, I was able to learn quite a bit, but I would have liked to spend more time there; we only checked out one exhibit in the three floor museum. However, it seemed like my group members were ready to go, so after some discussion, we headed back to Book City. // We decided to spend an hour in Book City, and I have to say, shopping is usually boring but that was definitely not the case at 书城。Besides a gigantic bookstore and music store, they sold everything from milk tea to wooden toys to instruments. Josh and I spent the majority of our time perusing the books, the music offerings, and playing some of the instruments at the music store (as well as tuning others）. We also found a dinosaur egg to take pictures in that was 100% intended for little kids, but that didn't stop us. After meeting up with the group again, we decided to go walking around and check out some more of the neat places in Shenzhen. // At first, we stayed close to Book City. We checked out some of the nearby buildings and went back to city hall. In the space in the middle of city hall, there were lots of people; some were practicing some sort of performance, others just hanging out. [Side note: The use of public spaces here is so different from America; here, I see people on the street and meeting with friends at all hours, and ladies dancing in the squares....in America, at least in my hometown, I don't think I've ever seen something like that. Anyways, back to Shenzhen.] While we passed through city hall, a group of kids came up and talked to us. After realizing I could speak enough Chinese to talk to them, they immediately began asking lots of questions, wanting to know where I was from, how old I was, why I came here, how I got here, etc. They were all very nice and excited to talk, and we took some pictures together before my group headed off. // While some of us were okay with staying relatively close by, a couple kids really wanted to go check out PingAn, since it is one of the tallest buildings in the world and has an observation deck that is almost as high as the one in the Burj Khalifa. First, we agreed to head in that direction, but eventually we just ended up going all the way over. On the way, we saw the Shenzhen stock exchange, which was a very imposing black building. There were several really cool statues around it, designed by a famous artist who designed the Beijing 2008 Olympics logo. Then we continued on our way to the financial tower. // The tower was, as expected, gigantic. I had to look at an almost 90 degree angle to see the top, and when the wind moved the clouds around it, it felt like the tower was moving. We couldn't stand too close to the building (the security officer kept having to tell us not to do things), and the observation deck wasn't open, but it was still a sight to see. // Then it was time for the trek back to Book City to meet the other groups. Long story short, we went the wrong way, started to correct our mistake, then got lazy because we had walked 7+ miles that day and ran across 8 lanes of traffic instead of finding an underpass or crosswalk...when in China. // After dinner, we went outside and did a little bit of 广场舞，which translates to "square dancing" and refers to the groups of people (typically older ladies) who dance in parks and squares in the morning and night. This particular group, however, was going hard and doing all sorts of aerobic stuff, so I was lowkey exhausted. After a few minutes of that, we went back into Book City and watched a bunch of kids singing. I have to say, our group was probably the most supportive of the performers, but we also got a lot of attention ourselves...throughout all of our time at book city, I caught several people taking pictures of us (at this point, instead of ignoring it I do a peace sign so they know I saw). // After watching a couple acts, it was time to go on a "hike" to the top of this hill/mountain. My group joked that while the mountain had looked like a hill this morning, after our walking adventure it looked like Mt Everest. As we walked up the stone steps, Maya and I were the caboose of the group, also known as the feeling-sick-and-trying-not-to-drop-crew. But we made it up, and it was absolutely gorgeous! You could see all the city lights, and it was overwhelming to think that all of that development happened in just a few decades. There was also a pretty big statue of Deng XiaoPing (the guy who took over after Mao and is responsible for the Shenzhen development). There were also bats, which I've never seen. We took a picture and some of the other people on the mountain also took out their cameras to take a picture of us as we posed... // We also had a mini birthday party for Zack and Maggie on the top of the mountain. We got yelled at the police officers because we were definitely not supposed to have flames up there, and someone commented that it's not really a complete trip to China unless you get in an encounter with the police (hmm). Anyways, no real trouble was had and we continued with our festivities under the watchful eyes of the officers. Now, for this next bit, you need some context. Here, a lot of guys (particularly older guys who have a bit of a belly) will pull up their shirts over their stomach because it helps to keep cool. Queen Isabel told us that her study abroad group one year had taken to calling this the 北京肚子(běijīngdùzi，aka the Beijing Stomach or Beijing Belly if you like alliteration)...well, our group found this hilarious so we adopted the name. There's also a phrase, 小鲜肉，which literally means small/young fresh meat, and means exactly what it sounds like (specifically used to refer to younger men). So you can imagine the hilarity that ensued when, under the watchful eye of the officers, we convinced Garrett (and maybe David, I can't remember) to whip out the Beijingduzi while saying "小鲜肉”. // After a little bit, we headed down the mountain and Maya and I once again took the back. While we were heading down the mountain,Zack went into the woods and then hopped out to scare Princess Isabel, which was very effective and very funny. On our trips up and down the mountain, we saw people doing everything from Taiji to singing Karaoke, despite the fact that the sun had set long ago. I love how active and alive public spaces feel here, and that's something I'm definitely going to miss. // Before I knew it, we were at the hotel. After some more kpop and a quick shower, I was asleep and ready for the next day. // The next day (Friday) was incredibly different and probably one of the most perspective-altering experiences I have had here. After a breakfast of 包子 (at a restaurant whose publicly posted health rating had the "😑" emoji on it), we first headed to this street called 华强北 (Hua Qiang Bei, these are probably the wrong characters..oops) which is the number 1 electronic products street in China. 130,000 people work there and it's a place for a lot of young people to start businesses. Between the weather (a bit of wind and not so hot because we were shaded by tall buildings), I had a great time. Anthony and I explored, taking in everything from the dozens of fake Apple stores to this internet café/bar we found that had a full competition and competition viewing setup. My only complaint: the McDonalds ice cream machine was broken (was it 10am when we asked? Yes. Am I ashamed? No). // After meeting up again, we took the bus to an area called 百石州，where we met with an American anthropologist who was going to guide us through the area. As we started the walk, she asked us to not speak and to quietly document what we saw, whether that be with writing, drawings, pictures or video. What we saw then was like nothing I've ever seen before, which says less about the area and more about how much privilege I have had. 百石州 was a poor and very, very densely populated area. The buildings were what were known as handshake buildings, which means that they are so close together that you can shake hands through the window with someone in a neighboring building. Wires upon wires were strung across the alleyways, and rubble and trash were ubiquitous. During the time we were walking, I'll be honest: I wanted nothing more than to get out; it smelled awful, I was uncomfortable on many different levels, and I wanted to go back to the comfort of the day and weeks before. One of the most striking sites, for me, was when we were on the roof of a building and could see the contrast between the building we were on (and the ones surrounding it) and, probably less than two miles away, the ever growing set of brand new buildings that are the trademark of Shenzhen's rapid economic development. Other things that I saw on the trip: lots and lots of people going about their lives, whether that be storekeepers, the people at the meat market we passed through, or the little girl in a pink dress who I saw heading off to school; empty flat houses that, according to Mary Anne (the anthropologist), were inhabited several decades ago after a history that I'm not super clear about (it involved supplying water to Hong Kong, different local and immigrant groups, and the communist/capitalist conflict); and poop just chilling on the road. I have many pictures of what I saw that definitely do a better job illustrating than I am doing here, but I have a problem with the pictures as well: Garrett pointed out that taking pictures of people and their way of life there, treating it as a sight to be seen or a microenvironment to be examined, feels bad and wrong, and I agree...yet I took those pictures anyways, which has left me with a lot of bad feelings and is part of the reason this blog is so late. // At the end of the trip, we met up at a coffee shop, and Mary Anne had us write about our thoughts and feelings. Mine were all negative, and continued to be so until Mary Anne told us that the whole place would be destroyed in 5 years as Shenzhen continues to develop. She then explained to us the rich history of the area, and how hundreds of thousands of years people live within this tiny area. She mentioned the many different sites that we had passed, and I realized that in my discomfort and general not-wanting-to-be-there, I had missed out on so many great things. She also talked about some of the logistics of having an area like this, which I would have never thought about, i.e. getting food in and getting trash out. One of the most interesting things to me was the Christian church that we passed (couldn't go in that day)...apparently, churches have to register with the government and follow certain rules, but from what I understood, enforcement of those sorts of rules isn't really a thing in 百石州, so the church continued to exist. // After she spoke with us about the area, Mary Anne showed us a video on a project they did where they tried to get the 白石州 community involved in an art project, and then got that art project into the Shenzhen Art Museum, which is a big deal because apparently the art museum is pretty boujee. I also got to meet a dancer who is visiting from Uganda and choreographing a dance that combines different cultures' styles, and a PhD student who was very nice (I can't remember what he was studying because as I'm this part of the blog 2 weeks after that day). Anthony, Maya, and I stayed back a few minutes to talk more with MA, the dancer, the PhD student and another lady who was living in 百石州，but then we had to go...after waiting with Emily as others bought some snacks, we headed on the bus and started the 3 hour drive (traffic) back to Zhuhai. As quickly as it had changed to the atmosphere of 百石州，Shenzhen first became the highly developed area I had first seen it as, and then morphed to ports and mountains as we exited via bridge. On the ride back, we talked about what we miss most about America and the time we've had here. I accidentally went into a guys bathroom, got some weird looks, and before we knew it, we were back in Zhuhai. I headed home, exhausted from the last 48 hours. // On Saturday, my family told me they had to go to Guangzhou to see a contact lens specialist, so I was on my own to either stay in or go out. After falling asleep while trying to do homework, I made plans with Lexi to go to Gongbei again. On the bus there, I noticed this girl was wearing a BIGBANG bracelet, and then I ended up spending a few minutes talking with her and her friend about which kpop groups they like. After arriving, I met up with Lexi and her little brother (and later her sister and sisters friend) and we explored and shopped. This time at Gongbei was very different from the last...everything was much less overwhelming and confusing, nor did it seem as unusual as it did when I had only been in China for three days. My bargaining skills, however, were just as bad as before because I have had 0 practice....oh well. I got a Luhan (a Chinese pop star who I am a fan of and whose face is literally everywhere here, including all the line 69 buses) hat that has a 0% chance of being real, and Lexi got some glasses that her sister helped us bargain down. Her little brother was bored out of his mind. We also got this really cool ice cream that had this a cooling liquid underneath it that was letting off gas (like dry ice but not), and generally had a great time. After we finished, we walked all the the way over to this hotel because it has literally the best public bathroom I've seen in China, and then headed home. That night, I watched my sisters favorite TV show with her, and they played "Who's the Spy?"! This was very exciting because I was able to understand almost the whole thing, which was a first for TV watching (usually I just stare at the screen and pretend I have any remote idea of what's happening). // Sunday, we went to the second round of my sisters competition, and she blew the other kids out of the water. One of the judges even took a video of her as she played. For context, she's playing a famous Mozart sonata (and not one of the simpler ones) at age 9 while other kids are playing The Happy Farmer. Later, we found out that she scored a 9.5/10 which was the second highest score across the entire competition. Tl;dr, my host sister is awesome. After her performance, we picked up one of her piano teachers (apparently she has two? Language barrier stopped me from understanding more), and met her friend and friends mom for lunch, which was a bunch of delicious small dishes (from roasted goose and chicken feet to sweet walnut buns). I spent most of the lunch not understanding, like I do during most meals...I feel like I tend to just tune out if I'm not being spoken to, which is not great for my language skills or socializing. Eventually, I did talk to the piano teacher a bit, and she used a lot of words that I had definitely never heard before. // After lunch, we saw Macao across the river as we drove the piano teacher home. Then, I met up with Lily (Katie's language partner), Anthony, and Nina (Anthony's language partner) to go do pottery. Lily also brought two Egyptian guys who are here doing volunteer work involving 3D printing and the disabled. They were very funny and friendly, and we later met several other people that were part of their program. It's a good thing everyone had a good sense of humor, because our pottery was a mess. After the teacher helped me (aka basically made it himself) create a nice looking pot, I wanted to try myself...by the end of my tries, my clay was so wet I couldn't form it and I came full circle: I had to ask the teacher to help me make something that wasn't just a blob. Anthony actually ended up creating something pretty cool (after the teacher rescued his piece), while Ahmad...well, Ahmad tried his best and made a smooth solid blob 😂😂 Anyways, we had a great time. I decided to write my language partners name on the pot, but the clay was so wet that the writing was a mess...it's the thought that counts. // After we were done and my legs were sufficiently splattered in clay, Nina, Anthony, Lily and I headed to dinner inside a close-by mall. We had buckwheat tea (I think), dumplings, this vermicelli noodle dish, and a not-a-pancake-but-called-a-pancake that actually reminded me of Mexican food. Everything was very very good, and we talked about our high school lives in America and how they differ from China (aka we talked about Anthony's love life). After dinner, we went around the mall because Anthony needed to buy hairspray, I had another bathroom experience I'd like to forget, and Nina and I both got ice cream. Then we headed over to Maan coffee, which almost everybody in the program but me has gone to, and now I understand the hype--it was gorgeous, filled with lots of different lamps and chandeliers. I was full after my somewhat disappointing ice cream, so I just had some water, but had a nice time relaxing there. // As it was time to go home, I crossed the street with Lily and Nina to go to the bus stop. Now, when you have an 8 lane road like this one, there's often two crosswalk signs, one in the middle and one on the end. I didn't realize the middle one was red as I saw the green on the far side, so that's how we ended up walking into 4 lanes of moving traffic. I felt grateful that I was in a group, because I think traffic might not have stopped if it were just me...I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but in China cars don't really stop to let pedestrians cross, pedestrians find a way around cars. Luckily, besides a few honking cars and a deer-in-the-headlights moment, we made it across unscathed and I headed home!!/ Okay, that's it! Only two weeks late, woohoo!