Hally

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Trip Start Sep 05, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Jul 10, 2009

  Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China
Saturday, December 20, 2008

One morning I had a very persistent knock on my door.  It got me out of bed and to my surprise Mr. Tray was there.   Mr. Tray is the fix-it man for my building and also owns and cooks in a restaurant in the first floor of the building.  He speaks little to no English and since I speak little to no Chinese we have a hard time communicating.  His knock got me up out of bed, I did not have my contacts in and was only scarcely dressed so I was very surprised when he handed me a bowl of food and push a scared looking girl into my apt. He told me some stuff in Chinese but I had no idea what was going on.  Thankfully, the girl spoke English!  She said that her mother was friends with Mr. Tray and that sometimes she helped Mr. Tray downstairs- we were apparently suppose to talk and become friends.  She was supposed to help me with my Chinese and I was supposed to help her with her English.  The girl said her name was Hally.  She is 22 years old and a few month older than I am but acts much younger.  She just finished college in a school in the southern of China and is waiting until December to go to Beijing to go to a training school to become a teacher.  She is very nice and very animated, so I enjoy talking with her.  
 
At first she came every morning at 9am and we would talk.  Then, after a few weeks we started eating breakfast together.  Hally introduced me to some great pancake things that are rolled out on a griddle with a scrambled egg inside and it is cooked then sliced down the middle and spouts and carrots are put in.  It is one of my favorite things to eat for breakfast or lunch.  We became fast friends and will often do many things together. 
A few weeks ago we went to a temple and saw many gods and Buddhas.  One of the coolest gods I have seen thus far was at this temple.  This god had 1000 arms and hand on which was an eye. In each hand she holds a different tool.  This god was supposed to be given some medicine and she was supposed to put this medicine on her hands at night. One morning she woke up with many hands and eyes. Today people will pray to her if they want or need something that she holds in one of her hands.   We went to another place that was dedicated to a very famous solider, I think what a cornel would be in our system.  This place had many gods, which you could pray to that all were for different things.  If you needed money you would pray to the god with a red face, if you were unlucky pray to another.  It was pretty cool.  At this place we also shot two types of bows and some arrows.  One bow was very simple and weak the other bow was like a gun!  It was fun. 
 
Hally and I have gone shopping together- she shows me the great places where you can bargain and get cheap shoes!  (YEAHH but there goes all my money!!) We have gone to many restaurants- I love going to new places to eat with her because she will explain all of the food to me- what it is and it's name.  She shows me a few western restaurants too- one that is a buffet with tons and tons of pizza- it is really good but kind of expensive  compared to the rest of the food in china.
 
I have let her borrow Funny Girl- because it had Chinese subtitles- and she said she had to watch it a few times but really liked it. 
 
Last week she told me she got a call from the training school she was supposed to go to and told me that she was no longer able to go because of the economy.  She said that the training school had to close down part of it and thus would no longer be able to take her.  She was super disappointed because now she had to get a job.  She worked one week for a company that sold space on goggle- basically it sounded like she would contact companies and ask if they wanted to buy space so that when things were goggled their company would come up first in the list of hits.  I got an e-mail from her last night that said she was no longer working for them and instead working for a spa.  I really don't see her much anymore since she has started working.  I miss her!  I would always see her and do many things with her, now I have to do them myself.  L  There are other people who I have become friends with but they have not clicked with me as much as Hally had.  Most of the other people I have met are very shy or very clingy.  If I see these people for a long time I get really annoyed.   I hope that when you Mom, Kali and Taj come to Shijiazhuang I will get to introduce Hally to you. 

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gods	grass soilders	hally	headless
lots of little budas	more gods	pretty	pretty weapon...
script	shooting a bow	soilders	temple park

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