The imaginary break-in

I have sleep issues. It takes me forever to fall asleep, and then once I do I'm a super light sleeper so any noise or light wakes me up! It's worse when I'm stressed (it takes even longer to fall asleep and then I have nightmares or toss and turn a lot, etc.) Right now I'm under some stress (I don't know why... I'm only leaving China in a month and moving to a new place... and thinking about a job, apartment, car, finances, etc... what's to be stressed about?) All that to say that last night I was tossing and turning and just on the brink of falling asleep when I heard a noise. It sounded like a thud... almost like someone had just shut the window. I got a little scared, but turned over and began falling asleep again. A little while later I heard the noise again. This time I totally woke up... and I was terrified. I looked at my clock. It was 1:30 am. I was certain someone had climbed in our window and was in the apartment ready to steal stuff and hurt me. I wanted Vanessa to be IN my bed next to me... but she's in the other room... in HER bed, where she should be. "Ok," I thought, "I can do this. I'll just get up, turn on my light, and go out into the living room and check to make sure everything is ok." I sat up. I heard the noise again and was now paralyzed with fear. I needed a weapon. It was dark in my room and my head was reeling thinking about what I could use to knock someone out. My trumpet! YES! I grabbed it! Now I was sitting at the edge of my bed holding a trumpet on my lap in the dark. I just couldn't muster up enough courage to get up and go out into the living room. I finally chickened out and laid back down, holding my trumpet to my chest. And somehow I fell asleep. Imagine my surprise when I woke up hours later, cuddling with my trumpet. Oh dear! I am totally going to be one of those women who wakes her husband up in the middle of the night saying, "Honey, did you hear that? I heard something. Go check it out." But have no fear... I'll offer him my trumpet to use as a weapon!

A new name

My boss here is a Canadian guy. He's married to a Finnish woman. They met in Yemmen. Now they live sometimes in China and sometimes in Finland. Did I lose you yet? Such is life when the world is your community! Anyway, they are here now and they have 3 adorable little girls! Today we babysat the girls so that their parents could go on a date (apparently it's been over a year since they were on a date... good grief!) We painted our nails, played outside with bouncy balls, watched a movie, and made chocolate chip cookies! It was both fun and exhausting! So apparently "Tanya" in Finnish sounds something like "Tiny-ya." And to the girls this apparently sounds a bit like "China." Yep, that's right. They think my name is "China." I had to leave this afternoon to teach a class, and when I came back home, all 3 ran to me with their arms outstretched yelling, "China, China!!!" Oh dear! Miss Hamburger has aquired a new nick-name! From now on, you may all refer to me fondly as "China."

Workout or fun-fetti... I choose BOTH!!

I seriously just worked out and then sat down and ate a huge piece of fun-fetti cake!!! A tad counterproductive, I know, but yummy nonetheless!!!

A "new type" blog!

I've finally decided to give up on Xanga and enter a new world of blogging. For some strange reason, China blocked Xanga (someone probably posted an entry that called Mao ugly or something). Anyway, here's to new blog beginnings! I've certainly saved up my awkward, ridiculous, and insane stories from the past couple 0' months. I'll try to pace myself in retelling them all. For now, I must learn the ropes of blogspot. Be back soon...