How do you solve a Rubik's cube?

I have the most hilarious tan lines.

I probably haven't actually been outside (while the sun is shining) for more than 30 minutes, but the sun is suddenly very harsh.

The tops of my forearms are sunburned. I have a farmers line from my shirt sleeves. My chest is dark from my V-neck t-shirts. I have a white line where my watch sits while I'm holding onto the scooter handles. I even have tan lines on my feet.

I'm lucky though.


I wear these flats all of the time, so at least I don't have random dots all over my feet. That would be truly spectacular though.

I didn't sleep very well today and that led to today being the longest day ever. I wouldn't let myself take a nap though. So instead, I studied Chinese for something like three hours today. It was slightly ridiculous — not to mention exhausting.

I bought a bunch of puzzles yesterday. I'm really excited about turning them into QA games for my classes. All the kids here solve Rubik's cubes super fast and I really thought they must be the best problem solvers ever.

Turns out that's not always true. I saw this kid today playing with a Rubik's cube and he was just going around and around and around and suddenly it was perfect again. I asked him if I could see it and if he could show me what he did. Then I started to mix it all up so that he could show me.

I quickly learned that they can solve it if they're the ones that mixed it up. They know how to back track basically. It took him about five minutes to fix what I had messed up (which is still insanely faster than any other kid I've ever seen).

They're still better at puzzles than most American kids I've seen though.

The only other thing today that I thought is worth mentioning is how cute and competitive kids here are.

We play Paper, Scissor, Stone (ahem, Rock, Paper, Scissors) something like 100 times a day. I taught the kids in one of my classes today how to sing "Sailor Went to Sea." At the end everyone Paper, Scissor, Stones.

I beat this little girl five times in a row (I tried not to I swear).

At first I was changing every time, but then I felt bad so I kept throwing the same thing (scissors) but she kept throwing paper! At the end of classes she was laughing and whining at the same time.

Winnie: "Teacheeerrrrrrr! Five times!"
Me: "It's OK. I'll be here next week. You will beat me then."

Hopefully she does.