"Bunch me! Bunch me SOFTLY!"

It is under the craziest and most bizarre circumstances that we become closest to those that we love in life. Exhibit A: Allie Hinckley. Dear sweet Allie was the first girl I met that I was going to China with! To say that China was a bizarre and crazy circumstance is an understatement :) Therefore, she falls into the super close/love category. Allie was the first one that added me on facebook. She was the second person I actually met at the airport. She also soon became my roommate. There are many great and wonderful things that could be said of this girl but in order to keep this blog under control moderately I will try to sum it up. One word: laughter!

We laughed as she broke not only the shower but also the fan AND the bathroom light...all within 20 minutes of each other. We laughed as we danced down the streets of China while belting out Mulan songs. We laughed as we danced through the cafeteria singing Disturbia. We laughed at some of the other girls in our group (sad but...true.) We laughed as we continually heard girls eating and at the mighty tissue tumble. We laughed at the funny accents the Chinese have as they try to speak english. We laughed as Allie chased 2 of her students outside around the builiding, trying to get them to come back in. We laughed over peanut butter and oreos.

We laughed as we ziplined off The Great Wall. We laughed as Lou creeped on us at the mud caves. We laughed as Jack showed up at our room drunk at 3 am, to tell Allie he had been thinking about her :) We laughed as we had Jamie [also drunk] propped up in our doorway and none too excited to move too quickly. We laughed at countless nights of karaoke. We laughed when we ended up in strange places on the days we hopped on buses to see where we ended up. We laughed at how many movies we watched. We laughed when Shelley always walked in on the dirtiest parts of Grey's Anatomy. We laughed at "The Tissue Tumble." We laughed as we tried to figure our just how Ruth got into our room in Beijing. We laughed as Allie creeped on people through the walls of the hostel. We laughed as it took Allie 2 months to pee in a squatter. We laughed as we ran clear up to the dorms from the teaching building covered in cake and FREEZING. We laughed as we ran down the hall to make our secret treats. We laughed to read emails out loud from people back at home. We laughed to think of how weird "real life" was going to be when China time came to an end.

We laughed as "WHY ARE WE ALWAYS RUNNING?!" soon became the stories of our lives. We laughed as Allie got locked onto the patio. Okay..I laughed. Allie didn't. We laughed when Allie thought she'd won our nightly fight, then proceeded to go heat her noodles and found herself locked in the hallway while I showered. We laughed at running through the POURING rain to get to our precious KFC. We laughed as Allie fell off the top bunk, straight to the ground on the train. We laughed when Eric got stressed learning new card games "DO NOT SHOUT AT ME!" :) We laughed when "it would be funny if he didn't turn and just kept going.....WAIT he didn't turn!" We laughed when the old old lady literally chased Allie on her bike for just 5 yuan. We laughed when Allie had her first experience driving scooters and pinned my leg between the 2. We laughed making music videos at the top of Weihai Capital, ho-downs for assemblies and at the Olympic sites, and "Farmer and the Cowman" on the top of Mt. Taishan.

We laughed when we [frequently] embarrased Ruth and made scenes out in public. We laughed at Chinese filth. We laughed when we couldn't understand what taxi drivers said to us. We laughed when we heard awful re-mixed American music. We laughed as we used my yellow knife for everything from cutting fruit, cutting cardboard to even cutting down our Christmas tree. We laughed during boardtalk as we talked about stupid guys and bad dates. We laughed about "the misunderstanding." We laughed at hiding Ruth and Shelley's stuff and writing them funny ransom notes. We laughed as we BLASTED "Only in America" and "It's America" while we packed and cleaned our room and soon found ourself in tears. We laughed as our pranking with Melba got more and more intense. We laughed as Ruth always had great timing for talking to head teachers. We laughed as I repacked and repacked and repacked my bags, trying to fit everything in to make the journey home. We laughed at pretty much everything!

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY my dear Allie aka Alabama aka Alba. You are honestly a HUGE influence in my life and I love you to death! I can not imagine how China would have gone without you and all the amazing times we had. Happy 21st! Wo ai [you]!