啤酒（pi jiu)

That’s "beer" in Chinese. So, I have decided that a day in class has not gone by where pi jiu isn’t mentioned. Often the teacher starts the class by asking in Chinese, “What did you do last night?” The response of at least one person is always, “Wo qu le Wu Dao Kou, he pi jiu.” (I went to Wu Dao Kou and drank beer.) Yeah, we are really living amidst the stereotypical college life. Everyone drinks and smokes. Our bathroom often smells of smoke, from the Korean guys next door. Yup, Kayli and my neighbor’s know us really well because when our bathroom smells of smoke, I often go tell them my feelings on smoking and remind them that they are not allowed to smoke in the rooms.

The other day in class, one of our assignments was to show a picture of our family and talk about them. One of the Korean guys in my class got up and said…

“这是我的爸爸. 他喜欢喝啤酒. (This is my dad. He likes to drink beer.)

这是我的妈妈. 他喜欢喝啤酒. (This is my mom. She likes to drink beer.)

所以我喜欢喝啤酒. 在我的家有和平. (So, I like to drink beer. There is harmony in our home.)”

And then he sat down, and there was a giggle through out the room. So life is exciting! Friday night was way fun. So, we went out to dinner to a pizza place at Wu Dao Kou with my entire class. (There’s about 20 of us) My teacher even came. How cool is that? Only in China, you go to a party with your teacher. Anyway, so the four of us from BYU Idaho explained to them why we don’t drink as the others downed their glasses of beer. It’s actually really neat how people respect it and are completely shocked at the fact that we have never drank in our lives. It was actually a really fun night though and all of the people in my class are awesome! They are from Italy, Japan, Korea, and one from Dubai. Once they started getting drunk, that’s when us American’s peaced out.

When we got back to the University, I stopped in the lobby and talked to some of my friends from Italy. They were celebrating someone’s birthday with beer of course. I have never been offered beer so many times over and over again in my life. This is how one of the girl’s and my conversation went.

“Oh, please drink some.”

“Oh, no I don’t drink.”

“You know you want some.”

“Oh really, I don’t, thanks though.”

“Oh, you know you do. Just drink some.”

“No, I really don’t.”

It was quite exciting. She gave up after a while, trying to offer me some. So, I’ve decided that the BYU- I crowd is getting pretty well known around the school these days. A lot of us have been asked lately, “So, you’re the Mormon’s?” I think it’s great, I love standing up for what I believe. Do you want to know what else I’ve realized? “Not drinking alcohol saves so much money!” What a blessing! I love being LDS. The church is so true!