Farewell China...Zai Jian!

The last two days have been spent doing our "lasts" here in China. It's crazy to think that these four months are already up but it sure is exciting to be going home as well.
Tuesday Aimee, Kim, Sarah, Ashley, and I went back to Walking Street for our last time. I decided it was vital for me to get boots while here in China because everyone else was and it is just so worth it! There are tons of shoe stores at Walking Street just packed with boots so it was my goal to find some I liked. Don't worry Mom, I did it! I found some and bought them! Yeah yeah! :)
We pretty much just window shopped or bought other little inexpensive items. We had fun and then got drenched as we ran to catch the bus thinking we were going to miss it. Aimee, Kim, and I thought we were going to slip and die because we were not prepared for the rain whatsoever. We were in flip flops, t-shirts, and capris! It was pretty hilarious. All the Chinese people around us had umbrellas and were looking like we were insane!
We met up with the rest of our group at the Northern Chinese Restaurant because Vivi and Gloria wanted to take us out to dinner one last time. It was so great to be with everyone with those two because we have really all become such great friends with them. They are so sweet and have helped us out with everything we want to do or have concerns about. I've loved having Vivi as our Chinese teacher and studying their language with her.
We had fun at dinner in our little separate room from the rest of the restaurant. We were squished around a 12 person table with 17 of us. But we totally made it work and had a blast!
We tried a Korean dish...Kimchi. It was actually not as bad as I was expecting it to be but I didn't really enjoy it.
We also went to the bakery to grab some last minute baked goods. Those will be missed...

Today we went on a walk to get pictures of our soon to be old home. We walked to the One Plus One, took Kim's fish Ping she got a few weeks ago to drop him off in the lake, and then walked the long way home to pass a bunch of places we've been wanting to get pictures of. We stopped at the noodle place a couple times to get noodles. They already knew we were headed back to America from other people in our group so Gen told them, "Wo ai ni de mian". Which means I love your noodles! The lady loved that she said that even though she should know because we have been there so often!!
Gen and I went to say goodbye to our kids right before lunch. Their normal teacher wasn't there so we didn't want to interrupt their class so we just waited until they headed to dinner. They saw us out side of their classroom a couple minutes before it got out and couldn't wait to come see us. They were so sad. They knew it was the last time we were going to see them and it's so sad!!
It's hard to think it is the last time we will ever see them. We gave each of them our email address but who knows if they'll lose it or even feel confident enough with their English to email us. I love them and couldn't believe it was our last time with them.
For the night we decided we'd be pulling an all nighter since our bus is picking us up to take us to Hong Kong at 4 AM. So, it's now 3 AM and we're just about ready to get going! We've watched a movie and just stayed up talking in Aimee, Sierra, and Emily's room. I'm definitely planning on sleeping on the bus and the flights so I'll be catching up on my sleep there.

Well, this is the last time I'll be posting on my blog from China. Can't believe we're already going home. Four months ago seems like a lifetime ago yet at the same time it feels like there's no way it's already time to be leaving. I've loved it so much here. I love my kids so much and am going to miss them a ton. I love the country of China and have loved getting to travel throughout the country. It's been an amazing experience I wouldn't change for anything. Love you China!! We will miss many things about you!! :)

Spectacular Spectacle!

Monday was our day for SPECTACLE! And, with our school being so big we had to have two performances, one for the two kindergartens and the other for the upper classes (Primary).
The kindergarten's performance was at 10 in the morning so we were all there at 8:30 for the final practice with the kids. I helped Shantel by copying down all the words of the story, "Twas the Night Before Christmas" which was what they read between songs as the story line. I was the runner to go grab each of the teachers when it was their turn to narrate or bring their kids in to sing their song.
It was a great performance. All of the little kids had their own little Santa hats on. The invitation said to have their kids wear scarves and gloves but I'm pretty sure most of the parents don't know English themselves because only one student was. We really didn't care, it was more to satisfy the parents with wanting them all wearing costumes. The idea of wearing costumes for a Christmas performance is kind of foreign for Americans so we really didn't know what they wanted us to do but we just went with it and agreed the hats were plenty.
The little kindergarteners are all so dang cute. Sierra's been telling me stories about George and how he refuses to tell her he loves her. Everyone one else including his brother Fred (yes, Fred and George from Harry Potter, and yes that was intentional by Sierra) always replies I love you too! But no, George always tells her, "I no love you teacha". She finally got him to say it today though because he wanted to use her camera... He and Fred are hilarious.
After the Christmas portion of the performance was over we had a little extra time so we had the kids sing some songs they sing each day like Funky Chicken, Bumble Bee, Singing in the Rain, and one other. They loved performing those ones on the spot because they know them so well.
After lunch we watched Bolt and then Emily H, Sierra, Aimee, and I went to the One Plus One (supermarket) for some last minute things we wanted to take home. I got some candies for my family so they can try some Chinese chocolates and sweets! Hopefully you'll enjoy family! :)
The primary spectacle performance ran just as smooth as the morning one. My kids sang Rudolph wonderfully with little red stickers on their noses and then got to perform their dance we taught them a few weeks ago for New Years Eve at the end of the show to make it longer. They know that dance/song backwards and forwards so it went great!
The only downer was that all of us teachers sang the final number, "White Christmas" and by the time I went outside to say goodbye to my kids for the last time as a group they were all already gone.
We went back to the auditorium after dinner and had a dance party as we took down the decorations so we cheered up with that and danced away our so called sorrows!
Some of the kids came over to hear what all the commotion was about and were laughing at us. It was so fun and super funny!

Last Weekend in China!

So our last weekend here consisted of pretty fun stuff!
Friday:
We had a dress rehearsal with the kindergarten kids for our performance on Monday, "SpEcTaClE!" all morning. After that was complete we went to lunch for twenty minutes to head back to the stage to decorate for an hour and a half. Then there was a competition being held in that room for the next couple hours so we went up to our supply room and deep cleaned to prepare it for the next batch of ILP teachers to take it over. I have to say it looks pretty immaculate compared to what it has looked like in the past and even how we found it at the beginning of the semester. We each took a section of the room, I on the books, and just organized away! We enjoyed some music and blow pops while doing so which made it even more fun!
Then, it was back to work on decorating for Spectacle. Aimee and I made a Santa Claus. I have to say he was pretty flippin handsome. He looks like he's actually been working out this year though, I don't know if you guys knew he was...you'll just have to keep your eyes open Christmas Eve to notice the difference! There was also a big Christmas tree, fireplace, stockings, a snowman, and an angel. We had snowflakes hung on the ceiling and taped to the ground for the kids to stand on while singing. And even red and green chains draped throughout the room. It actually turned out really cute...especially considering the amount of supplies we had left now that it is the end of the semester.
We finished decorating just in time to head straight to dinner at 5:30. The rest of the night we really didn't know what to do but were exhausted from cleaning and decorating all day that we couldn't believe it was still so early in the night. We ended up finishing up the three remaining seasons of The Office to be caught up to the current season and Toy Story 2 while we played some card games.

Saturday:
We definitely slept in the next morning. We went straight from lunch to the bus stop to wait to head out on the town. Sierra, Aimee, Kim, Emily H., Sara, and I all went to Dafowen (have no idea how that is spelled) a.k.a. the five story mall which we really don't shop in but around. We go inside for McDonald's ice cream (yum!) and then into the basement for cheap DVD shopping. Then we head back out side to the shops outside where we can find some little stores that barter the price with you and are cheaper. We shopped around for a couple hours with the little amount of money we had left and then headed back to the fruit stop stand where we met up with Gen and Emily P. to go to the DVD store there, a bakery, and then to our favorite restaurant the Northern Chinese Restaurant.
Gen, Kim, Em P, and I shared our favorite items we've tried: green beans, sweet and sour pork, and carmelized potatoes. Emily H, Sierra, and Aims shared two plates of egg plants because that is by far their favorite. I love those girls and the seven of us just have a blast together. We've really become great friends with everyone here but those girls are always wanting to do the same things as us and we just have tons of fun together!
While we were waiting for the bus we found a little store that had a bunch of fun little nick-nacks. Gen and I bought keyboard stickers for five yuan and Gen and Aimee found little key chains that are of Chinese food that were hilarious. I also found some Valentine Chinese wrapping paper...too bad it isn't Christmas wrapping paper but for some reason they didn't have any, go figure.

Sunday:
Sunday it was hard to beilieve it was our last time having church in Megan's apartment. We sang our opening, sacrament, and closing hymns, had the sacrament, a couple prayers and then headed down to our apartments for sunday school. We split into the usual three random groups each one having one of the boys who gave a lesson or conducted a testimony meeting.
We had a spiritual meeting with Caleb W. about things we have come to learn while being in China. I've only been with Caleb twice while he's conducted a lesson and each time has been a great lesson. He is really going to be a great missionary and is such a great one at heart already. He has been such a great friend to all of us and has made China a fun experience. Both of the Caleb's have served as our little brothers at times which also can sometimes feel like our older brothers or even our fathers. They are always taking care of us and just being great friends!
After church Kim and I and eventually Gen all got down to packing. Gen had already started the weekend before so she didn't need to do much but the packing bug was in the air so she couldn't resist! All of our suitcases have been out since trying to find a place for everything and making sure we've got everything.
That night was the infamous "ILPS". I had no idea how cool this little event we were invited to a few days prior was going to be! We did a survey the Sunday before with little questions about who will be the first to get married, where will the Calebs serve their missions, what will you do first back in the states, Team Jacob or Team Edward...all sorts of awesome stuff. They shared our answers throughout the real purpose of the "ILPS" which was everyones individual awards. We all got trophies made out of felt people for different reasons. They announced all of our different awards...there was the Hot stuff award (Kim), the country funk award (Emily P), the shopaholic (Emily H), Miss Congeniality (Ashley), Cheerleader (Shantelley), Most improved English and greatest country pride (Natasha from Canada), Go with the flow (Jessica), Father of the Year (Caleb L), Comedic Relief (Gen), and then a few others I can't think of right now...but then of course their was mine, the Tae Kwon DO NOT TOUCH ME Award! For my top of the class Tae Kwon Do Skills :) haha. We had an awesome night with all our awards, Sierra and Emily H as our hosts, pictures, trophies, and of course our random dance parties when certain songs began. It was super fun.
After the ILPS we had our last batch of our weekly American baked good fix which was Turtle brownies...yum!! We watched Catch Me if You Can while doing so and just had a great night!

Day 114

It's been one hundred and fourteen days since I first got here to China and I have to say it has been quite the adventure. We are homeward bound with a week until we will be on our flight home.
Today was our last day of classes with our kids. We still have our performance with the parents all here to watch on Monday but today was pretty much the end of it!
This morning was my last class with our fourth graders for ELE with Gen. Those third and fourth grade ELE classes have been quite the struggle for me and Gen the whole semester so it's sad to say that it was a big relief to say we were finally done. Don't get me wrong, we have made so many friends in those classes and like a ton of the kids but each of the classes is from twenty to FORTY kids at one time. Not to mention that they are fourth graders that don't know much English at all besides, "Good Morning Teacher", colors, and some animals...so really hard to communicate with them. It was a hard class to teach but I really did enjoy it. One of the kids has become one of our best little friends whenever we see him around the school grounds. His name is Barry and we talk to him all the time. He tries to talk to us in Chinese and Gen and I don't know that much so we always tell him, "Wo bu dong" (I don't understand). And then, it's hilarious, he says the same exact thing except slows down like he's talking to a two year old or an old person that can't hear you. I just bust up laughing everytime! We all get so frustrated that we can't communicate with each other like we would like to but we're laughing about it at the same time. This is the kid that told me at the beginning of the semester that I have beautiful eyes! We have become great friends : ).
Later we went to sixth period to spend our last little bit of being in our classroom with our kids. We sang Rudolph a couple times to practice for Monday and then had them all sit around the table. We took pictures with each of them and had them all write their names as a frame for a picture of all of us together.
We went down to the Spectacle (Monday's performance) practice for 7th period and got to play outside with them until it was our turn to sing Rudolph and then the song altogether at the end. After we finished the entire practice Gen and I were finally able to give our kids their presents as our going away gifts. We've been working on them for a while now. We made boxes out of construction paper, put a bunch of candies and a little eraser in them, cut out a snowflake to glue on the top of each box, tied a bow on top, printed out the picture of all of us, glued it to green paper, wrote each of them a note on the paper with our email addresses in hopes that we will hear from them, and then put them in clear sheets to protect them kind of like a picture frame.
It took a few hours to get everything put together but it was really fun and the kids loved it. They were so excited all day asking us when they would get their gift.
We had a lot of fun with them and then completely deep cleaned our classrooms for the next set of ILP teachers to inherit. Fun, fun, fun!

10 days til America!

It is so crazy to think that this is our last week teaching. Next week we have our kids on Monday but that is just for the performance so this is it. I can't believe it's already here! As I got up onto the fourth floor before class today some of my kids came up to me, gave me a hug, and told me they didn't want me to go back to America. Annie, Wendy, and Josephine...they are so cute. I told them I didn't want to leave China either. I really don't want to leave them but I am getting really excited to see everyone at home again finally and get to be home for Christmas. Maybe I'll just steal some of my little 7 and 8 year olds and take them home with me! Does that sound like a good idea? haha, I know I know it really doesn't because I'm pretty sure they're parents don't want to share but oh will I miss them!
After classes and dinner last night we all went to Shantel's room and practiced the two songs us teachers will be singing for our performance, Spectacle next Monday. We're singing Winter Wonderland and White Christmas since most of the other songs are being sung by our kids. Ashley and I were lying on our backs on one of the beds singing and laughing at our little variations we were making to the songs.
Later we watched Julie & Julia which was a great show...kind of long and don't know if I'll see it again but I am glad I saw it once!
It's crazy how fast these 4 months flew by, never thought it would happen this fast!

Our Christmas Party and Walking Street

This weekend was filled with shopping, shopping, and more shopping. After kindergarten on Friday the four of us headed to the Amethyst for lunch. We went back to the apartments where we met up with Aimee, Sierra, Emily, Shantel, and Caleb L. and we went to Walking Street. There was lots of shoes, clothes, and little trinkets that we went through. Em, Kim and I found this little shop that had the craziest little toys. There were these phones that looked like basketballs, soda cups, and other every day objects...I couldn't believe they were phones when we figured it out. There were also these soda bottle looking objects that were actually umbrellas inside. Then there were key boards and calculators that were flimsy and see-through. They were all pretty cool! There were tons of clothes and shoes but the hard thing about shopping here is the style and the size unfortunately. The shoe sizes don't go up to size 8 and a 1/2 or 9 which is actually a pretty average size in America! But not here. And then the Asians have quite a different fashion sense with clothing so it takes a little sifting through the clothes to actually find something you like. We had tons of fun though and found a few things.

Saturday night was our Christmas party and it was a blast. It was an "ugly sweater/festive attire" party which made it all the more better. We had some pretty awesome outfits and even some yummy treats. We had a white elephant gift exchange. I got to go first and went for a tall gift wrapped in red and green paper and what was inside?...Christy stole Caleb's shirt he bought in Xi'an and that's what it was and also packaged chicken feet, yes disgusting chicken feet. So gross! Haha. There were a lot of wacky presents and luckily we got to steal once it came to our second turns so some of us did and some of us didn't get what we wanted.

After that Kim, Em, and I sang the song we had made up while waiting for the bus on our way back from Walking Street. We had realized it was 12 days until we went home and it was almost Chirstmas. So we busted out the song and everyone loved it and agreed with what we wrote.
We played "I've never" after almost everyone left with drinks and watched Transformers II when we got back.

So I'm sure you wanna hear the song...so, here it goes:

It was the 12 days of Christmas China gave to me...
On the 1st day of Christmas China gave to me, a single square of toilet paper
On the 2nd day of Christmas China gave to me, 2 peeing babies (on the sidewalk)
On the 3rd day of Christmas China gave to me, 3 jerky buses
On the 4th day of Christmas China gave to me, 4 honking horns
On the 5th day of Christmas China gave to me, 5 squater toilets!!
On the 6th day of Christmas China gave to me, 6 smoky cigarettes
On the 7th day of Christmas China gave to me, 7 corn ice creams
On the 8th day of Christmas China gave to me, 8 "Teacha, Teacha"
On the 9th day of Christmas China gave to me, 9 vats of rice
On the 10th day of Christmas China gave to me, 10 smoggy skies
On the 11th day of Christmas China gave to me, 11 chicken feet
On the 12th day of Christmas China gave to me, 12 people staring

It may not make any sense to someone who hasn't been here but us Americans living in China sure got a kick out of it. It was a fun night.

Today was a great day. I'm not tootin my own horn or anything but I made the cutest Christmas tree out of the options I had this afternoon! It's pretty much a tube with pipe cleaners as the branches, plastic beads for ornaments and then a foam star on top. It actually worked quite well and my kids loved it too! I was just excited that I'd figured out a way to have a Christmas tree!
In class we wrote letters to Santa to tell him what we wanted for Christmas. My kids were very enthused to do it and were throwing out words left and right for what they wanted so that I could write it on the board for them to be able to write it in their letters. They said they wanted candy necklaces, kites, Christmas trees, toys, teddy bears, candy, and even some ice cream and hamburgers. I'm pretty sure they were just saying foods because they didn't have anything else they could think of to receive as a gift in English but it works, right? I mean, Santa only delivers what...ten hours before we open our presents so I'm sure the ice cream wouldn't melt by then. But then again, maybe Santa would just put it wrapped in the freezer for ya since he really does know what he's doing.
If they had time they drew pictures of what they wanted as well on their letters which really just ended up being Christmas trees or snowmen but it was still very cute! I hung them up right after class so that they would already be there the next time they come to class.
We had a lot of fun today. I took a few pictures between classes and recorded them doing their New Year's Eve dance we've been working on for weeks. Some of them just love being in front of the camera and getting in every picture while others like to dodge out of them...Emmy, which kills me because she's one of my favorites! But don't you worry I did get a couple shots of her today anyways!

The rest of the day was filled with dinner, Chinese class learning animals and objects around the classroom, and hanging out in our apartments like usual! We watched The Office with quite the crowd today..Shantel, Sierra, Ashley, and Sara joined us which was great to have more than just three or four of us.

Officially December

Today it is officially December. I can't believe it. We told our kids we're going to be leaving in two weeks and it is so sad! I don't know if all of them really understand the whole concept but I sure do and I don't like it haha. Little Wendy has been running up to the calendar at the front of the room and will say, "Teacher, you leave this day?" and will point at the 17th and then she frowns and hugs me. She's such a cute little girl! Chris has told me that he is going to go back with us jokingly and Bell has had to do her own confirming to make sure she knows when we're leaving. It is going to be hard to say goodbye to these kids, that is for sure.

Today was an almost normal Monday. We didn't wake up for breakfast but got up for ELE, headed to our class, and found out that we weren't having class today. Gloria went and talked to them and apparently they might be changing their schedule so we won't be having our ELE classes with our third and fourth graders this week but we won't really know if that's going to change until the last minute. I've learned to not even care though while I've been here and to just go with the flow because the schedule changes all the time.
Speaking of which, after three months of being here, a couple days ago Gen and I were walking to our class and the music that is usually going on for "eye exercises" during the beginning of our class was already playing. I was wondering if the bells and music were just off that day or something but we got up to the fourth floor and sure enough, our kids were already in our classroom! Apparently the schedule was moved up ten minutes and we were informed about this until after we were already late for class. I felt bad we were late but their Chinese teacher was still with them so it wasn't a big deal at all and we knew to go even earlier the next day. It's just funny because the schedule gets changed or performance practices or cleaning periods come up and we don't find out about them until right before they are about to happen. No one really informs us of anything until two seconds before, it doesn't bother me...it just cracks me up how sporadic everything is.
Anyways, I went to my kindergarten ELE class at eleven and we read the book, "Five Little Penguins Slipping on the Ice". They liked that one because they know the 5 little monkeys songs so they were very involved and then wanted to sing it afterwards. Those kids are so adorable but also very hard to teach with the language barrier and the fact that I only teach them for 20 minutes a day. I don't know any of their names because of it so I can't really talk to them directly. I wish I could give them English names though because I know all their faces now that we are so far into the semester. It's just that the class is always pretty hectic so I couldn't control the class long enough to tell each of them their names I don't think so I wouldn't be able to do it. They are so cute though. When ever I walk in the room they say, "Good morning Teacher Heary....Teacher Heary, Teacher Heary". Haha, it never gets old...even after the 50th time I've heard it that day between class and meals in the cafeteria and that is not an exaggeration haha.
After lunch we finished our 4th or 5th season of One Tree Hill ( :) ) and then headed to class. Gen and I have been trying to teach our kids Rudolph for the big performance our last day teaching (Spectacle) but they all mumble most of the words. They sing the tune but don't really know the words and don't really care to learn them so it's kinda hard. Hopefully they'll start getting the drift these next few days though because we only have seven more days with them!
One of the subjects we do in 2nd grade is Skills and Strategies which is just vocabulary and different activities to help them understand the English language. Well today I was doing that subject with my kids and one of the activities out of the book to choose from was tongue twisters. I introduced the phrase to them: Three thick brown pretzels, and we each tried saying it three times fast. It was pretty hilarious. We were all laughing and each of the kids wanted a turn at trying. They were cute at their attempts of saying these new words really fast. A lot of them couldn't even get the right words out but it was fun to see them try. Cathy and Wendy got the most points in the two classes which was good because Cathy doesn't win that often. She is a good speaker but just has a quite voice so I don't hear her over all the other kids trying to answer all the time. She's a sweetheart though and was excited to get the chocolate candy and sticker today. Wendy on the other hand is one of the smartest and best behaved students in B class so she is always winning. It is a good thing for her to win though because it forces the other kids to try even harder to beat her. Thomas is very quiet but he and Wendy were neck and neck today. They were tied when Leah came to have them line up so I had them do a tie breaker to see who got it.
After dinner we had FHE which was really just a s'mores making party. We went to the convenient store got some ducky marshmallows and pooh bear cookies, grabbed a second microwave oven, Natasha's chocolate chips, and headed to Shantel's room to start our smores. We were all crammed in her kitchen trying to get our turn at roasting our mallows but we had a lot of fun doing so. Kim and I were sittin on the counter/sink, Natasha was crammed into the water cooler, and Sierra, Shantel and Caleb were all turned sideways so they could fit in to roast their marshmallows at the same time! Total there were probably 9 of us in Shantel's 4 by 3 foot kitchen making it work, and I'd have to say...we were pretty successful.
We had a lot of fun and got pretty talented at getting a lot of chocolate chips on some cookies to melt them on the rack while we roasted the ducks.
Kim and I went to the One Plus One to get out more money from the Bank of China and pick up some stuff for her kitchen classes the next couple of days, did our work out videos, and went to bed!
It's unbelievable our days in China are coming to an end so quickly. We are getting so excited to be back in America with our family and the Christmas holidays but also can't believe we have to leave so soon! It doesn't seem like it has been four months already but I do have to say it has been one of the greatest experiences I've ever had.

Turkey Bowl and the Ghetto

So we decided we HAD to have a turkey bowl for Thanksgiving weekend so the time and date was set for Saturday at noon. Everyone showed up at lunch in their football attire, we ate some food, and headed out to the field…only to find it not ready to be played on because it has been under construction along with the track that surrounds it. You may wonder how we knew it was out of bounds…well, there was a sign with Chinese characters that we obviously could not read. But, whoever made the sign must have known that we wanted to play some football because the sign also had drawings of grass on the bottom with crossed out footprints!
So we took the hint and headed to the big cement area in front of the school. A lot of us had black or blue shirts on so we used that to split up into teams. The black team consisted of Gen, Emily P, Caleb L, Sierra, Kim, Natasha, and Sara. The bleeding blue team (Go Cougs!) was made up of myself, Shantel, Emily H, Aimee, Caleb W, Ashley and Charlotte. We decided on the end zones and let the games begin!
We had such a blast. I was blocking Sierra when we were on the defense and she was so hilarious. Instead of running to an open spot to catch the ball she would start dancing around, no frolicking would be more like it, flailing her arms around over her head. She was saying that she was a great distraction to some of the blue team so her team could score and it’s true, it actually worked on me most of the time! She was cracking me up.
My team was actually losing horribly because Caleb L. was on the other team and he was forgetting he was playing with girls haha, but I didn’t care it was still fun. I was cheerin like a crazy person when we would score or someone would successfully finish a play. I jumped on Sierra’s back out of no where after the play had already ended and scared her half to death. Emily H is a die hard football fan so she was really into the game. Gen and Shantel were throwing passes like there was no tomorrow and Kim was playing even though she probably shouldn’t have been with her hurt ankle. We were all smack talkin each other in a completely joking manner and just had a blast.

Later that day Shantel, Aimee, Kim, Caleb, Sierra, and I went on a walk to the “ghetto”. There are some pretty run-down streets in China that can be pretty interesting to venture through so we decided we’d go meander through for the afternoon. Kim and Aimee had a few of the street vendor foods and we just looked around at the different shops. We weren’t scared for our lives whatsoever but the people in those areas definitely stare at you even longer than most Chinese people do just because it’s even more rare for them to see white people. The whole trip was about two hours since it’s kind of far away to walk but we had fun and got noodles at our favorite noodles and dumplings place and then watched Elf when we got back.

Gen taught the lesson in Sunday School today on family history and the rest of the afternoon has been filled with napping for Em, Gen, and Kim and emailing a bunch of people for myself. I have to say…I was on a role and just didn’t want to stop!
We’ll be making our weekly Sunday treat tonight which is always a highlight and then some Turbo Jam to make the night complete!

Thanksgiving continued...

So, our Thanksgiving celebrations didn't end Thursday night. Friday we went to the shops by the five story mall in our city and went shopping for a while there. Then we went and ate at the amazing Pizza Hut. I swear it is better than Pizza Hut in the states. We could be wrong but it seriously seems so much better! We loved it though! Sierra, Aimee, Emily H, Gen, Shantel, and I all just wanted cheese because it tasted so much better than the supreme last time so we split two large cheese pizzas and two mashed potato side orders. It was delish!

We had a blast shopping and dining out together. Our whole group went shopping and then everyone minus Caleb W. and Jessica went to Pizza Hut so we enjoyed ourselves. The cute waitresses and waiters were wearing Santa hats, vests, and green aprons. It was very festive!

We've also decided to attempt to learn a dance from a Chinese music video Vivi showed us the other day! She wants us to learn it and then teach it to her but it can be pretty hard learning from the music video. A bunch of us tried for an hour or so before we went shopping but we'll have to see how it goes after trying it a few more times!

Thanksgiving!!

I wasn’t expecting Thanksgiving to be anything like it was. My hope for a good Thanksgiving all started when I got a package brought with Kim from home from my Mom. We were going to have mashed potatoes, rolls, corn, and chicken because of that and that is plenty for me! Well it didn’t stop there! We rounded up our food last night and had a few brownie mixes, a cake mix to make cake cookies, chocolate chip muffins, cornbread muffins, yams, carrots, onions, eggplant (not quite American but they wanted to do it anyways), and an oreo pie that I brought from home. We were very excited about our American Thanksgiving feast!
Much to our surprise, Sierra’s Mom sent her a Thanksgiving package and we got it today! Just in the nick of time! There was more mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy. After lunch we started cooking certain things and didn’t finish until dinner time! Shantel was in her kitchen the entire afternoon while we were teaching and helping out when we got the chance.
Well, it was honestly such a treat to have all of that American, homemade food after three months. It was such a treat! We got three of our desks and took them into Shantel’s room and figured out how to get all 15 of us around them. It was so much fun! We loved it.
After we stuffed our faces with tons and tons of food compared to what we normally eat we all got a piece of paper and passed it around the table to have everyone write something you love most about them. We had a great time talking about a few remember when’s from the past three months and then ate our desserts which were piled high.
I really was so grateful this Thanksgiving. It made me realize how much I love all the amazing things I have at home. The simple things really do add up to make holidays what they are and so much fun.
But, we loved our Thanksgiving here and even loved the food because WE made it. You really do appreciate things more when you actually have to work to get the job done.
I just have to say how grateful I am for my family. I miss them so much being here for Thanksgiving and knowing exactly what they are doing back at home…but I will be home in three weeks so I’m not wishing I was there quite yet because I will be in no time! I wouldn’t exchange this experience for anything but I do love my family and can’t wait to see them!

I also have to mention our kids in class today. Gen and I figured that since we hadn’t spent our November budget that we’d buy them a Thanksgiving treat for them. We have been telling them that we celebrate Thanksgiving by eating lots of food so we didn’t want them to be disappointed. We got them the same cakes we had for our St. Patrick’s Day gold and hid them in Gen’s bag.
Gen brought her half of the kids into my classroom at the end of class and we showed them what we had for them. They were flabbergasted! Haha. They loved it! They had the biggest smiles on their faces and just kept saying thank you over and over again. We even got a few hugs from the really ecstatic ones as they were leaving.
I have to say the cutest part about it though was the fact that all 23 of them were sitting at the 12 desks together. They were all huddled together anticipating what they would get. I never knew it would be that easy to get all of our students sitting in 12 seats but apparently it’s possible! They were so darn adorable. Love them dearly.

A little taste of China for you...

One of the items on our bucket list here in China was to venture to a meat market. One of our friends Sara from the group that lives up the street told us there is one not too far away that they went to not long ago. Well, we went to it! Never been so grossed out in my life and I'm pretty sure that is not an exaggeration.

I have to say my tolerance for disgusting stuff has definitely gone up while living in China but wow. Nasty stuff. I'm sure I saw almost ever part of the animal imaginable. There were full fledged faces-bones, meat, eyes, and teeth sitting on one of the counters. Another table had an entire lamb skinned lying there...the entire thing. There were strings hung up above each of the table with all the different pieces of meat/body parts to buy.

We then went back to the fish section. I don't like fish in the first place so I'm sure you understand how gross that was for me with even just the smell. I saw a lady holding a fish that was still squirming in her hand slice it's body in half. I swear it was still moving through most of the procedure so it felt all of that. There were tons of little sea creatures like crabs, turtles, squid, you name it.

There was also another section of the market where all the live birds are. You choose which one you want and then they kill it for you so you can take it home.

Now don't get me wrong, I know this is how it works and everything...but it's another to see it and have it be a market that everyone shops at. It was quite the site for my stomach to handle but don't worry, I didn't add to the slipperiness of the floor if you know what I mean.

 

New Moon and sweet students

Okay, I wasn't expecting to get to see the Twilight Saga until I got home which at first I was not very excited about but then became content with. I've been noticing on Facebook that everyone and their dog has been to it and loved it or liked it or all of the above and just thought man, it would be nice if that were a possibility but since it's not who cares...

Oh...was that changed tonight!

At dinner I was informed that we were having a combined FHE at 7 pm a.k.a. everyone was invited. I thought this was a little strange since I am an FHE group leader that I wasn't informed whatsoever but thought nothing of it and was just a little relieved by the fact that I didn't have to plan anything for the night.

We were told by Shantel that it was a surprise about what we were doing, that it wasn't really a spiritual FHE so she'd make up for it later ;), and that we couldn't know who had planned it.

Once again, didn't know what that meant but didn't really care! haha. I didn't have any idea what was going on even when everyone started freaking out when we were all meeting in front of the school. I just couldn't figure out what could be that excited that everyone could be that thrilled, I mean if it's something like free ice cream or even an American treat no one knew was coming I still wouldn't be THAT excited. It was so funny. It was supposed to be a secret so no one was spilling the beans but people just kept figuring it out by connecting the dots.

I seriously did not have any dots to connect though! Sierra turned to me and said, "Hil think about it." And I responded, "Think about what?? I haven't heard anything to THINK about!" Haha. Then she said, "K...Old Sun." I stood there for one second and then scream out loud!

Don't ask how we got the chance to watch New Moon in China...just know we absolutely loved that we got to! It was all thanks to Caleb W. and his mad skills. It was an amazing movie but I can't wait to see it again in a few weeks when the quality is a little better...

I gotta tell ya, you don't know what you've got until you're in a foreign country feeling completely disconnected from your world and can't even watch a movie that you've known about for months to come!


Today was also a fun adventure for classes as well.
Gen and I teach the same 23 students and just split them up and then rotate. Well, today we got to class to discover that we wouldn't be having class 7th period so we'd just be teaching them for 40 minutes instead of an hour and 40 minutes. The entire school would be cleaning their classrooms during that time so there ya go!

Our Chinese Teacher told us she's have a couple students stay with us to help clean and Annie and Emmy were the lucky ones! So, we got some brooms and a mop and got to work! We started in Gen's room but once Emmy and I were both done sweeping in there we moved to my classroom.

Well, lets just say not TOO much sweeping actually happened. Don't worry, we got the job done but we laughed so hard my insides hurt. We were racing back and forth seeing who could touch the wall first for no apparent reason. Then, we got our brooms in the air and would try to touch the ceiling...I would obviously reach so Emmy had to get a stool to try to touch it too. She was just giggling the entire time. I helped her out and lifted her up cuz she was only a couple inches away.

She coughed once while we were sweeping so I asked her if she was sick and she said she wasn't then I coughed so she asked if I was sick. We went back and forth doing that for a while too! Even with a language barrier I just can't resist these kids and just trying to talk to them as much as possible.
I asked Emmy how to say I love you in Chinese even though I secretly already knew. She told me so I said, "Wo ai ni Emmy" and she giggled and said nuhuh! So apparently she doesn't love me back but I know she's lyin. We have too too much fun for her to not love me like I love that girl.

St. Patrick's Day...?

My awesome Head Teacher is pretty spectacular. We just have too much fun because of her. She is a fake holiday lover and takes them pretty seriously which makes them all the more better. We had St. Patrick’s Day yesterday so I have to send a shout out to my little brother whose birthday is St. Patrick’s Day!!
Shantel and I came up with a riddle clues for a scavenger hunt to the pot of gold! We also cut out a bunch of little green feet…leprechaun footprints to hidden starburst. Our clues were pretty awesome though. We sent them to the convenient store, ice cream shop, ping pong table in the school’s courtyard, dinosaur statue, cafeteria, kindergarten screen door, and lastly the supply room where the gold was hidden. The gold was some chocolate cake type things kind of like ho ho’s in the US but not quite, wrapped in yellow crape paper in a cooking pot.
Once they found the Starburst and were on the trail of the leprechaun we sure had some laughs as we went from one clue to the next. Kim was super excited, so much in fact that Caleb L. was saying that her enthusiasm made him not even want to try to get there first because he knew he didn’t have a chance of reading any of the clues. That did change from one clue to the next. Different people kept taking the lead in running to the next one while others would just walk and talk. It was a lot of fun.
I know you are just dying to hear some of mine and Shantel’s brilliance with our clues so here you go!...

At the end of this journey you may find a treat but first you must look under the pink, fuzzy feet! (The door mat in front of my apartment bedroom)

If I step on you you will be sore…Hear my prehistoric ROAR

We come early and then stay late
To see of what mysterious substances we will partake

At this table Chinese children become pro
So obviously we need to practice some mo!

It’s deadly…It’s clear
And in little Fred’s heart it should strike fear
(Kindergarten screen door…this little guy ran full speed into it about a month ago thinking it was open and fell flat on his back, busted the screen!)

I think Shantel and I had the best laughs out of our riddles but hey, we loved it and they had fun too so that’s all that matters!! :)

Beijing, Beijing, are our days together already over?

The rest of our trip was filled with shopping, shopping, and more shopping! It was so much fun and insane at the same time. We went to the Silk Market which did have silks but had anything you would want to buy as well. This place was huge, five floors of shoes, purses, wallets, clothing galore, jewelry, ties, scarves, and then all the Chinese souvenirs you could hope for. The insane part about it though was the people haha. The sells men and women barter the price with you and are extremely pushy about having you come into their little booth to buy something. Every time you walk by they either say something about what they are selling or something about you! “Hey pretty girl, would you like to come try a jacket?” “I remember you from yesterday, very pretty, come in come in.” Or, if you have bought something from them they ask you to buy another one. They’ll even start bargaining with you again if you walk by someone that you didn’t agree on a price with or even get mad at you. I tell ya, conversations there can get pretty heated. Sierra had a lady tell her if she left she would cut off her eyelashes… Emily H’s life was threatened. Of course they are not serious whatsoever but really? Haha.
I had a lady that would honestly not let me out of her booth for seriously five minutes after I told her I didn’t want to buy a second jacket. I had already bought one thing from her but once I started looking at a second she was devoted to getting me to buy it. She was lowering the price without me even saying anything. I just kept telling her I didn’t think I wanted it and that I was sorry and she had the price down to lower than the jacket I had already bought. I would try to walk around her and she would take my arm and keep me inside, she had me cornered! I didn’t end up buying it but man, was she intense haha.
So, if you understand how persistent these people are you know then how tiring shopping really can be! We really did have so much fun and could get some people so low if we tried hard enough. But I gotta say, they do not like you too much after that. They say, “You are very hard” or “You go too low” “You’re a good bargainer” or anything just to make you feel guilty for being so stingy but it’s totally worth it. They seriously crack me up…oh, our favorite, “You’re breakin’ my heart!” Haha, they know how to get you to pay up, it doesn’t work though if you can take it! Which don’t worry Dad, I took it and dished it right back to them or else just didn’t buy anything. Bargain shopping is seriously the best way to go, they make you feel so bad but if you’re persistent enough you can get it! It wears you out though! Gen and I kept saying to each other, “K, ten minute break.” But of course that never happened because if you so much as take a second glance at whatever you are passing then the sells people start talking to you and won’t let you even stop to think. Fun stuff right?? Haha, it really is pretty exciting.

Some of us also went to a Chinese Acrobat show. It was an awesome show! I don’t know how those Chinese girls can bend like that, Em thinks they have pieces of their vertebrae removed because it is so impossible haha. There were some really awesome acts though. We loved it.
That night we also ran over to the Olympic Park to see the birds nest and tower. It is lit up with colored lights at night so it was really cool! We didn’t have much time because we didn’t want the subway to be closed but we got some fun pics and then ran back underground to catch it.

Our last day there we went to the Lama Temple. There were tons of shops on the way there where you could buy incense. You also had to pay to get in…25 yuan. We had our student cards so we got in for half price and with the exchange rate it was like less than two US dollars but to them, 25 is pretty pricey.
There were tons of different buildings with statues inside. A lot of people were there worshipping with their incense. It was a cool experience for me because it made me appreciate the fact that I know the truth about the gospel. I’m so grateful I don’t worship false idols and that the temple is a sacred place to worship where tourists can’t just meander around as services are going on. It definitely made me appreciate the knowledge I have and the freedom I have to worship.

Beijing was such a fun vacation for us. I love some of the girls I am here with to death and can’t believe we have less than a month left to be with each other. They are seriously some of the greatest friends and I don’t know what I’m gonna do without them each day! We just have too much fun. And I also have to say I have come to love three of my best friends even more. Gen, Kim, and Em are such amazing people and I’m just so glad I was able to come here with them and spend so much time together. The good and the bad, we’re in this together. Love you girls!

 

Beijing Baby! Day 2

Who woulda thought I’d ever walk the Great Wall? I definitely didn’t but yet there I was! It was seriously so cool! We went to an area that isn’t open to the public through our Great Wall guide Ben. It took us about two hours to drive there and then we had to hike up to the Wall which I wasn’t expecting but it made sense. We climbed up a rickety old ladder to get onto the Great Wall and then started our hike on it!
The Great Wall is said to be 4,000 miles long so of course we didn’t walk the entire thing haha but we were up there for a good two or three hours. Many of the pictures you see of the Great Wall are nothing like the area we were on. There were areas we were climbing UP the wall…no, not on, but up. Other areas we would climb down into tunnels to get to the next part. It was so crazy and awesome! The pictures really do speak louder but unfortunately it can be really hard to get pics onto my blog here but I will try!
We had a blast though, it wasn’t anywhere near as cold as the day before so it was great. We bought food at a grocery store on the way there and then had our lunch on the Great Wall. After lunch you’ll never guess what we did…again…haha Hoedown Throwdown! We’re in the process of putting a video together, hence the dancing in various places. I’m sure it’s going to turn out great.
After we got to the end of our area of the wall we hiked back down the mountain where the vans were picking us up. It was a slippery hike with all the snow, many people took a number of falls, especially Kim haha. Don’t worry she wasn’t hurt or else I wouldn’t laugh. I did slip once and it was a good one! Flat on my butt! Those moments always make you feel so good about yourself haha, but no one actually saw it cuz I was in the back of the group I was walking with and apparently I fall quite quietly!
We FROZE the entire ride home in our vans. Kim and Emily were in a van with heat but ours definitely did not have any. Our toes were numb the entire time even though we had three pairs of socks on. Gen and I were huddled together for the last hour of the ride just trying to keep warm. It was pretty miserable but Christy and Sierra were cracking jokes behind us which kept us pretty side tracked. Emily H. was laughing her head off the whole time.
We went on a hunt for a hot chocolate place that night that someone told us about. It was supposedly going to be 100 flavors and really cheap so we were really excited. There were 12 of us from our group going so we got in three separate taxis and then walked around til we found it. It wasn’t 100 flavors and it definitely wasn’t cheap haha. No one really ended up getting anything but we did enjoy the warmth and a couple of the little pastries and a few sips of hot cocoa.
It was a fun day seeing the Great Wall and one that I will hopefully never forget!

Beijing Baby! Day 1

Beijing was quite the trip. On Friday elementary levels don’t have classes but kindergarten does so after lunch we were free to go. We got on the bus singing our, “We’re going to Beijing, we’re going to Beijing” song pumped and ready! Three hours later we were at the airport awaiting our flight. The airline we were on was very nice. We got served drinks before and after our meal and there was even a movie playing. It made the three hour flight fly by.
Emily H. and I were getting off the plane together and we were prepared for it to be cold since it was 30 degrees there. But, right when we stepped into the walkway off the plane we felt the frigid cold and simultaneously felt like we had just arrived in Utah home from China. It was so crazy! I had a rush of emotions…excitement, anxiety, warmth, sadness that our trip was over…then I whipped myself back into reality and got immediately excited that I was in Beijing, China.
We could not believe how cold it was. Us, southern China folk were dying of the heat just two weeks ago and now we could see our breath. We also did not come to China prepared with the apparel for this weather either. So once we went to our hostel and slept in the freezing cold we went shopping right when we woke up for gloves, hats, and scarves and had on layers upon layers of long sleeve shirts and hoodies. It was pretty hilarious the amount of time it took us to get dressed each morning in Beijing…honestly, probably ten minutes at the least.
Our first adventure was to Tian’an men Square which is famous because it is where Mao declared 60 years ago that they were starting communism. It is also the place where hundreds of thousands college aged students protested the government in 1989. They were shot at with army tanks for doing so and 2500 people were killed. It was a very cool sight to see knowing its history but it was also kind of eerie to think that so many people were killed there protesting for their rights especially because they were my age.
We went into the building which is said to be Mao’s tomb and sure enough there he was. He was embalmed in a clear coffin so you can see his face kinda like Snow White. People walked through in silence to be respectful and almost everyone bought a flower just outside and then put it in there to pay their respects.
After we got the chance to do so we went into the middle of Tian’an men Square and…you’ll never guess…we pulled out the Hoedown Throwdown! We danced (and sang) our thirty second thing and it was so hilarious how fast we got a crowd. There were people with their tape recorders and phones out filming or taking pictures of us. We were laughing so hard. We had Caleb record it…wish we would have had him turn around and show how many people were standing there after that short amount of time watching us, but it’s still a great video of us bustin out the moves on Tian’an men Square!
Next, we went over to Forbidden City which was conveniently right next door. We had a guy offer to be our ‘tour guide’ as we went through for a couple dollars each so we accepted and he was able to tell us all about each of the buildings and all their different meanings. It was much better than if we would have just walked through it ourselves. He made a lot of things make sense for us and pointed out little details we wouldn’t have noticed without him there. Forbidden City is where all the emperors of China used to live. It was their home and everything. The buildings are huge and immaculate and there is so much detail in every little corner. It took about two hours to go through the entire thing. It was really windy that day which made the cold even more cold. We were dying by the end! I was honestly mouthing to people as our guide Jon was talking that I was done…we needed to go haha. It was at the very end and everyone was huddled together not even listening to him anymore really. We walked all the way back to where our hostel was and ate a restaurant just next door. It was a little pricey so we didn’t go there again but oh my gosh…that food was amazing. Em and I shared a dish of chicken curry on rice and a plate of vegetable tempora. It was delicious. So I’ve come to the conclusion that I really do like Chinese food. There’s always something great you can find…it’s just the cafeteria food at our school that is getting a little old. But hello, even if I were in America eating just cafeteria food I’d be sick of it.
After we warmed up at our hostel for an hour or so we decided to head back out into the cold to go to the Night Market. We rode the subway across town and found it pretty quick even though it is a tiny road in the corner of expensive shops. There was tons of food every one was excited to try: burrito type wraps with sprouts inside, corn on the cob, scone things, starfish, scorpions on a stick, pineapple with sweet rice and sugar on top…tons of everything! It was pretty fun. There were a few guys that were vendors that were loving the fact that we were there! They asked to get a picture with us and one of the guys hoped over his counter/stove to do it! Then they kept saying, “You are my girlfriend” in English and would put there are around us. It was really funny, they were laughing at themselves so they weren’t serious but we got a laugh out of it too. Sierra was getting mauled by one of ‘em. He kept putting his arm around her out of no where and would turn her around to show her off to someone new that she was his girlfriend and she just kept saying no I’m not! Haha. It was hilarious.
So that pretty much sums up day 1 of Beijing. Our power was out the day we got back so it’s taken a little longer than usual to get this up but day 2 will be shortly on its way!

Partial Bucket List for our Chinese Lives

So ya, the other night we sat down to make our bucket list which actually turned into something specific we're going to do each day until we go home. Well, we haven't finished it yet and it might be kinda sound kinda weird but we're excited about it! We gotta live up these last few days so here are some of the fun things we'll be doing or more like places we'll be going one last time...
-Make caramel popcorn
-Movie night every Wednesday
-Try their one of their weird ice cream flavors
-Go to the "Ghetto"
-Shopping day at Walking Street
-Karaoke night
-Chinese Coke & mentos experiment by the lake
-Pizza Hut! and the 5 story mall again
-The meat market we heard about that is just around the corner once you get in the city
-Our favorite Chinese restaurant is on there twice haha
-Rice Krispy Treat making contest
-Visit anothe ILP group that lives in the city of Zhongshan but is probably about an 1 1/2 away
-Go to one of the random soccer games we've seen going on in town
-A restaurant called the "Amethyst" for lunch one day
-Venture to the high school the kids that live around here go to
-Sun Yatsen Memorial Park and Pagoda
-Shenzhen
-Ping Pong tournament
-The Office reruns
-And more to come!

 

Yum

American Betty Crocker Brownies...they are the BEST thing ever.
Who woulda thought I'd love them so much?
Ask my dad, I've told him before that I prefer other desserts over brownies.
But no, while in China after three months of rice, veggies, and more rice...
yes, they are the BEST thing ever.

 

Today I went over to the school for our short morning class at ten a.m. to find out that our two hour afternoon class was cancelled…
That’s how quick the schedule changes and how last minute you find out about it.
So then we spent the afternoon relaxing and found out AT 4:30 (when we should have been in class already for an hour) that they needed us to be at the school teaching, our students finished their fire drill early and were ready for class. Haha.
We just go with the flow here!

So for our Family Home Evening tonight we ventured out into our little neck of the woods, well neighborhood, and did a picture scavenger hunt.
We decided we’d split up into our “families” and take a picture with something from A to Z.
It ended up being a blast, I was running around with Ashley, Sierra, and Sydney trying to come up with anything that would count.
We took a lot of fun pictures and don’t worry, our fam totally won!

 

Random China Quirks

So today was just like any other Sunday with sacrament, a great Sunday school lesson, grilled cheese sandwich for lunch (that part actually isn't like any other Sunday here in China but it is at home :) ), afternoon nap, scripture study, dinner in the cafeteria, and an evening stroll around the neighborhood with Sierra and Aimee. When we got back we had some delicious brownies we made and then Aimee, Sierra, and Emily H. came over and we planned pretty much the rest of our Chinese lives. We decided since we only have a little over a month left that we need to do something fun, crazy, or adventurous every day before we go home and we have a pretty good calendar going. You'll just have to wait until each of those things happen to find out what they are!


I do have to say though that there are some things in China that are not very common in the states...some "Random China Quirks" that we find interesting. Here is a list of a few:

1. Men grow out their fingernails...(We don't know if this is because they think it looks good or if they are just being lazy but so many guys do it and its not just a little long, they are long!)

2. No raspberries?-We found out this week that Vivi has no idea what a raspberry is and haven't ever seen them anywhere. They aren't in China as far as I'm concerned because nothing is flavored to be raspberry like so many things in the states are.

3. If you stick your chopsticks straight up in your rice it means death and is extremely offensive.

4. The number 4 symbolizes death-because of this we don't live on the fourth floor we live on 3B and of course the foreign teachers teach on the fourth floor, the whole floor is just for us! It is a bad sign if your phone number or license plate has a 4 in it, they are very superstitious with that number.

5. When they bring you food at a restaurant it is served family style with a turn table in the middle of the table. It is impolite if you don't finish most of the food on your plate that you dish up but not necessarily if you finish all the food in the big dishes they bring it in.

6. In the province we live in the dishes at restaurants are sealed together in plastic to show you that they are clean. This is only at sit down restaurants but after you open your dishes you are supposed to pour tea into them to sanitize them and then there is an empty bowl you pour it into. Weird? I know.

7. Anything is considered a taxi-There are men sitting on street corners on their scooters/motorcycles or even motorcycles with carts attached on the back that are just waiting for anyone who needs a ride!

8. The laundry hung out to dry in front of people's businesses, yep right on the sidewalk for everyone to see underwear and all.

9. You DON'T sit on the curb-if you are tired of standing you squat

10. White skin is beautiful so everyone, even men sometimes, use umbrellas to stay out of the sun...I've even seen people shimmy against the wall to stay out of a five foot patch of sunlight. Oh, and even whiting commercials with masks to make your skin whiter.

11. Face masks, taking your temperature to go into school, to go through customs...they are freaked about the swine flu but yet this brings me to my next one...

12. No soap in 90% of public bathrooms

13. Where's the milk? We haven't found much milk unless you want soy milk from off the shelf

14. Fruit markets are where the good fruit is at not necessarily the drug stores

15. No cold drinks anywhere-they serve most drinks room temperature, especially water

16. Our kitchen is on the back porch...what? haha :) We love it anyways

17. Weird ice cream flavors-corn, green bean, red bean, you name it...that's one of the things on our list that we have to try before we leave!

18. It's now 70 degrees here, the perfect temperature if you ask me...no, all our kids and their Chinese teachers think its freezing so they have their long sleeve uniform shirts on with jackets and maybe even a long sleeve shirt underneath while I'm still in a skirt and t-shirt. They think we're crazy haha.

19. I've seen kindergarten teachers take their kids to their apartment with them because their parents haven't come to pick them up yet...

20. Discipline-lets just say it's much different here

21. School schedule-Our kids are in school from 7 a.m. until after 9 p.m. they get served all their meals and get an hour or so nap time in the middle of the day but I'd sure hope so with how long they are in
class for.

22. There are little three year olds that sleep at the school without their mommies

23. You have to wave down a waitress when you want to order, pay, or ask a question

24. Some buses have girls on them that take your money and give you a ticket instead of just putting your money in the box

25. Doesn't matter if there's a double yellow line...you drive on either side of the road!

26. FOUR grown men/women on ONE scooter, that takes talent I tell ya

27. Trains...I don't want to talk about those

28. Babies with their split crotch pants haha

29. Once again, women wear jackets on their arms (so they have it on their front instead of the back) in the BLAZING heat while riding their scooters so they don't get tan

30. And finally, squatters...you just never get used to them haha (for those of you who haven't experienced them, they are holes in the ground to go to the bathroom in instead of a seat to sit on) BUT Chinese people are SO used to them that you'll see footprints on the seats of western toilets because they don't know how to NOT squat.

Yep, thats all folks.

Extra Americans and more Tae Kwon Do fun

So this week was quite the eventful one with Jared, one of the ILP directors here, to see how we're doing a little after mid-semester. They go around to all of the schools in China, Russia, and Ukraine for mid-semester visits each semester, which is a ton if you ask me! It was fun to have him here though. We got some advise on ways we can improve our teaching for the kids benefit and got to go out to dinner with our entire group, Megan's group, Jared, Steve, and a few of the Chinese teachers and the headmasters of our two schools. We had our own private room in the restaurant which is actually pretty common in the restaurants I've been in here in China but we filled that room, that is for sure.
I have to say though...wasn't my most favorite meal here. Everything was extremely spicy. It was almost unbearable to eat any of it. I'm not sure if the headmaster ordered specific things or how that restaurant works but they didn't give us a menu they just started bringing out dishes and it's family style so everyone just takes whatever they want. Well dish after dish it was all spicy! Spicy noodles, spicy green beans, spicy this, spicy that haha. And it wasn't just that I didn't prefer the taste...it was the fact that my lips and entire mouth were on fire! We ended up going to a supermarket after and getting a couple snacks to tide us over because we weren't full. We felt bad that we left so much food but there were a few spicy food lovers on our table that were able to make it look a little more picked over.
But, the best part of the day was the ending when Jared brought out his bag of GOODIES. We had a questionare we filled out over email a few weeks ago and one of the questions was which American candy do you miss most right now. Well, I haven't eaten candy the past few months ever since me and Skyler decided we didn't want to eat any of it so I said what I would really love were some of those Grandma cookies that come in a two pack in vending machines. You'll never guess it...he brought me home made cookies from America! Everyone that didn't put a candy bar got reese's, then there were snickers, butterfingers, starbursts, swedish fish, but no...I got cookies! It seriously made my week that he or his wife or whoever went out of their way to get me cookies instead of candy. I loved it!
After that the weekend was finally underway, I slept in Friday morning until my kindergarten ELE class that I have for 20 minutes three times a week. It is usually an insane class because I am only with them for such a short amount of time that it isn't really possible to reward them and discipline them with tokens and strikes like the normal kindergarten classes. But, this Friday went pretty good! I was able to keep them entertained by a book for an entire 15 minutes and then I pulled out a "shaker" from my bag which was a toilet paper roll, beads, and taped shut but I tell ya they loved it. And I got almost every single one of them to say, "I want to shake it". Haha it was pretty cute.
We ventured across town to Subway for some American food for once and enjoyed that for dinner. Afterwards we headed back to our school for Tae Kwon Do. Our instructor has a performance coming up that he wanted all of us to perform in. Megan's whole group is doing it and he wanted ours to too, well Shantel made sure with everyone that they didn't want to and had Gloria tell him that. Ashley volunteered to do it but he wasn't too happy that the rest of us didn't want to. Well...Emily and I offered to do it because he really wanted us to. So, instead of having the normal class with everyone else, the three of us learned this Tae Kwon Do dance sequence. Oh...and he wants me to do a round off with five back handsprings at the performance! Yep...don't worry, I'll just bust them out after years of not doing any haha. I did 4 at the practice but was scared of running into the wall so I haven't done 5 yet but he was pretty excited about that. The performance is supposed to be Thanksgiving weekend and we're going to be in Beijing next weekend so I don't really know when we're going to get to practice but supposedly this performance is going to be on national TV but who knows!
Other than that we had a pretty relaxing day after practice Friday and Saturday. We played some games, What If and a drawing game like What If and then watched the Prestige. It was a fun weekend but we just can't wait until the next!

Halloowweeeennn China Style!

This weekend has been quite the eventful one! I was thinking that Halloween was going to be so boring and lame compared to being in the US for it but boy, was I wrong.
It started off Thursday in class because my kids don't have class with us on Fridays. So all of us teachers were wearing our costumes, I myself was a stylin' pirate. We had class, which actually ended up being a little more insane than it should have been...it was also Parents Day! So a bunch of parents were sitting in the back of the classroom evaluating our teaching even though most of them probably don't know much English themselves. Well, Gen and I had the kids sing some songs for them and then do their dance because their Chinese Teacher, Leah, told us to. We then split into our separate classrooms and did a Halloween word search. My kids did a great job with it and were talking up a storm just like they should. Hopefully their parents were impressed but I'm not sure because I don't speak Chinese so I didn't even talk to them! For the last 15 minutes we took them around to all the other classrooms for trick or treating and oh, were they excited for that. They LOVED getting a bunch of candy! We had fun even with the parents making me nervous in the back of the classroom.
The next day was spent in the kindergarten decorating from lunch until dinner. We hung up decorations our 2nd graders had made from our classrooms upstairs, painted haunted houses on the mirrors, hung our hilarious tombstones, made a huge spider, and made a haunted house for everyone to go through. It took forever and everyone was exhausted but it turned out awesome. When all the guests arrived we started off the party like the Chinese like to with of course...a performance! We did the "Hannah Montana Hoedown Throwdown" and the ILP kindergarten kids did their "Ghostbusters" and "Disturbia" dances. After everyone showed off their costumes on the red carpet they trick or treated to us through the front doors and trampled into the haunted house with the lights on and without us there to escort them through it! It was pretty hilarious because we had to make them all leave so we could turn off the lights, resituate everything, and get in our hiding places to scare them. The haunted house ended up being a success though and we scared adults and kids all around.
The next day we had to be at the Bond Kindergarten at 10:30, which is the school some ILP teachers that live up the street from us teach at. We had our Kung Fu lessons which were awesome besides the fact that it was Halloween and I was almost dying from heat exhaustion it was so hot outside. I mean come on, Halloween...it's usually impossible to not bundle up because it's so cold. Well that is not the case in southern China on Halloween! You can be sure about that. It was noon while we were having our practice outside and I was seriously dying of the heat. Mind you, I was in my awesome new Kung Fu outfit that added to the heat, but still!
After that we decorated the entire day making the dance room a haunted house which was much more elaborate than ours since they would be having a lot more people attending. The party began the same way as the night before with a performance in which we did the "Hoedown Throwdown" yet again. Lets just say we can't get enough of Hannah Montana! Then we had trick or treating around the building in various classrooms. Emily P., Christy, and I were supposed to be helping conduct the store to give out prizes but the Chinese teachers had it all taken care of and didn't speak any English so we got to go help out in the haunted house. It was a blast scaring everyone. By the end I was lying on the floor under the dance bar 15 ft. after the entrance with a cloak draped over my legs so I was really hidden. I popped out and scared so many people! It was awesome hahaha. We had fun. Their party even had cake and cookies at the end which was a treat after a long day of being at the school decorating.
It ended up being a weekend to remember. Since one was at Bond and the other was for the kindergarten kids of our school I only ended up seeing two of my 2nd graders. But, I wasn't expecting to see any of them so it was a treat to see them. They are so adorable. I love my kids and all the kindergarten kids I know and teach ELE classes for! One of my kids was there because her mom is the kindergarten principal and the other has a little sister in the class Em, Sierra, and Aimee teach so it was fun to find that out. I got the most adorable picture with Emmy trying to get her to smile for the camera. She didn't want to take a picture but then she made it up to me the next night at the Bond party by asking me to get a pic with her and her mom. Only problem was I didn't have a camera on me at the time! It's okay though, I still love that little girl!! :)

Fake V-day, Kung Fu, and of course some of my cute kids

Kung Fu Fightin' and fake Holidays

We officially started our Kung Fu lessons this weekend and I have to say it was awesome! We are becoming more and more Chinese as these four months progress. We learned some sweet blocks, punches, kicks, and had some sore muscles the next couple of days. It was actually pretty hilarious because our second teacher was Korean. He brought a translator that translated what he said into Chinese which was then translated into English by our coordinator Gloria. We got a laugh out of that once we realized what was going to have to happen the entire class. They were great lessons though and I'm excited for them to happen again this weekend. We'll be Kung Fu masters by the time we come home!
Then there's also the topic of fake holidays. Yes, while living in another country away from the normal world you live in you tend to start doing different things to celebrate the day. So as of last Wednesday, Happy Valentines Day! Each of us had a secret admirer and got a card and treats for our special someone. We even had a card contest with prizes because that made it all the better! Now we didn't get to make a bunch of baked goodies because we don't have the luxury of American products but I do have to say we enjoyed ourselves anyways. We listened to love songs throughout our party and just had to watch a chick flick to call the night a success. We had a great time. Happy Fake V-Day!

Day 4, 5, and 6

Day 4 started with French Toast of course, that I could never pass up each morning while in Xi'an and then heading to see the Great Mosque in Muslim Street. It took us a little while to find the entrance but out of no where behind all these streets of markets there is a huge Mosque that has been there for years and years. The entire place was gorgeous with all the intricate details in architecture and design. I love seeing old architecture like that that has been preserved for all of us to enjoy for years to come. We had some fun spending some time there and taking pictures until we headed back to our hostel to check out, store our luggage in the luggage closet, and then go up to the city wall. Xi'an has a city wall that surrounds what used to be all of Xi'an but now Xi'an extends many miles outside the wall on all sides. The wall is probably around or more than 50 ft. tall and about 20 ft. wide and you can walk around on top of it. Eight of us rented bikes on top of the wall and biked around the entire thing. It was so fun! It was pretty funny because the wall is made of big bricks that aren't exactly put together perfectly so the surface we were riding on was pretty bumpy! We were getting jostled around as we rode but we had a blast. We then met up with the rest of our group, I went to Muslim Street with Aimee, Ashley, and Emily H. for some fruit, and then we headed back to the train station to go to Hangzhou. We were told a few days before that the train ride was going to be a 13 hour ride. We were scheduled to leave at 10 PM and get there a little before noon the next day. Well, come to find out...once we are already on the train mind you, it is a 24 hour train ride again. Luckily this time we got sleeper tickets so we had the option of lying down and sitting up if we wanted to which made all the difference! I slept through the entire night and then took another 3 hour nap later the next day. It was an easy ride compared to the first one but it was still pretty funny when we figured out how long that train ride was going to be. Five of our group members decided to stick with the cheaper price and ride in the hard seats and man, I felt bad for them! It really wasn't bad at all for us though, I could do a 24 hour train ride again easy as long as I have a sleeper!
Once we got to Hangzhou at 10 PM of Day 5 we went to buy our train tickets and found out the ONLY train back to our city would be in eight hours...yes, e-i-g-h-t. Our hostel we had booked was supposedly a half hour away but we didn't really even know since we hadn't been there yet so there was no way we could go all the way there, sleep for four hours, and then go back to the train station. You would think with a group of 11 girls (and three guys) that we would have all broken down at this moment, freaked out, or something...well, we did the exact opposite: we went to our newly found Burger King in the train station and were all super hyper/happy/care-free fanatics. We ordered a bunch of food and danced in the upstairs to the American music that was playing, and even ordered 2 ice cream cones at once! Haha, it was seriously the funniest experience ever. Normally, I would have been so upset to hear we traveled 24 hours just to be in a city for 8 hours (DURING THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT) and hop back on another train with only sitting tickets available for another 22 hours. But, no...we were seriously having the time of our lives in there! After an hour of messing around and getting free Chinese flags from the Burger King workers we left because they were closing and decided why not go to West Lake (what Hangzhou is known for) in the middle of the night?? We walked all the way there and sat by the lake for a couple hours and took tons of crazy pictures before we walked back and waited for our train. The next train ride you of course don't want to know about. I was honestly on the verge of tears getting on that bus because I knew how bad it was going to be and I just didn't want to even try to do it! This time we weren't even sitting together either since we got our tickets so late. But, what can you do. We survived!! Well barely...
Caleb ended up having to go to the pharmacy the next day because of something horrible he caught on that train and 3 of our other teachers weren't able to teach our second day back either. Caleb was hyperventilating, had a high fever, and would even stop breathing every few seconds. We would have to hit him to get him to start breathing again. It was pretty scary. He was really out of it. But luckily after a few days in bed and lots of pills and HORRIBLE cough syrup he is back to his full health and strength. The other three girls that got sick had something else and got pretty sick too but nothing that you would go to the pharmacy or hospital for. Don't worry, none of us have the Swine Flu, if Caleb did have it there is no way they would have let him leave that pharmacy haha.
It really was a great vacation though and it was a blast to see so many new things in China. I love it here and can't get enough of everything around me!! China has been amazing!

I figured out how to email pics onto my blog! ha:)

 

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Day 3

Our next venture in Xi’an was to find the LDS branch there because it was Sunday! It was kind of a weird experience for me because it was actually General Conference going on at home and I didn’t have access to watching it while everyone else was for once. The night before I was getting in bed and had my Ensign from April’s session of conference and was reading one of the talks when I realized that the first session of Saturday morning was going on right then because of the time difference…and I was in Xi’an in our hostel no where near the prophets and apostles speaking…but I also thought it was really cool that I was in fact reading talks from the apostles and that was good enough for me at that moment. Anyways, after we enjoyed French toast again for breakfast that morning we got with Megan’s group which made it so there were 19 of us and got in 5 separate taxis hoping we would all end up at the same place after we showed them the address. Luckily, each time we did so that day it did work because without cell phones there really isn’t anything you can do about it to figure out where the rest of your group is. We met one of the branch members outside the university where they hold church and headed to the classroom. It was a good thing we were there that Sunday because if not they would have only had 5 people there since everyone was out of town touring or visiting other cities just like we were. It was a really cool experience to get to have church with them. The two older women in the branch had such strong testimonies of the gospel and knew without a doubt that they were in China for a reason even though they can’t talk about the church with any of their citizens. We just had testimony meeting and Sunday school and then we went out to lunch at…once again, a place that wasn’t Chinese food. Amanda, one of the ladies in the branch, told us she would take us to this restaurant because it had Mexican and lots of western entrees so we were really excited about it and it was for good reason. I got a chicken quesadilla with chips and salsa and a banana milkshake and it was delicious. We all enjoyed our lunches and then we caught some more taxis to head to the orphanage Amanda owns. The babies there are not adoptable yet because of physical impairments such as cleft pallets, heart problems, exposed bladders, malnutrition, or other things. Once Amanda finds the doctor that can do the surgery for free or for a small price they are able to get the operation taken care of and then eventually the babies are finally adoptable. She has about 40 or so babies there that she takes care of with some American volunteers that are living with her and then probably about 5 or so Chinese nannies that are hired to work there. The babies are so adorable and we just couldn’t get enough of them. The first one I held was Carmen and she was just the sweetest little thing. We had a lot of fun together and she was intrigued by every little thing I would do for her. One of the little baby girls name’s was Libby and a couple of my friends named her Monster Baby because she is soo big!! She is such a little chunker but that is how we’d rather them be than have them be malnourished! We played together for a while on the floor with a ball until she started getting fussy so I walked around with her for a little to calm her down and she fell asleep. I had to sit down to support her weight because she was so big. Haha, she was so adorable. I couldn’t talk while she slept because she would start to wake up every time I did but I didn’t mind just sitting there holding her. I could have gone and put her in her crib but I didn’t want to. I’m sure with the amount of nannies they have the kids get enough attention when they need it but I’m pretty sure they don’t ever get held while they sleep so I couldn’t resist. I think we were there close to three hours, no one wanted to leave but we eventually had to because some prospective parents were visiting and it was getting a little crowded since our group alone filled the room. It was so fun to see those kids though and spend some time with them that they don’t usually get. That night we went to Muslim Street again and bought a couple souvenirs. I didn’t buy much at Muslim Street because of the train ride and just having my backpack to store stuff I didn’t want to buy things that could get stolen. But I did find some cute, small things I had to get. One being a watch because the last one I got accidentally got tossed on the floor because it was on my bed. This happened a few weeks ago and the glass was starting to fall apart, the watch still worked, but I was nervous about the glass breaking somewhere I wouldn’t want it to like in my skin so I got a new one. I bargained the lady down to a pretty reasonable price and then went on my way. Shantel, Caleb, Emily P, Gen, and I went to McDonalds for some cheap ice cream cones and then I realized my watch wasn’t working. So we went back to Muslim Street which was right around the corner and the guy put a new battery in it. I figured that would work so we went on our way. Well, come to find out in the morning it was still only 3 A.M. according to my watch so we had to go back again and fight the lady for a new watch with a new battery and got some of my money back. They weren’t very happy about it but they were honestly just trying to rip me off with the first one. But after we got the battery fixed the night before we went to a couple more stores and then decided we were done for the night. We decided that if we went out the back instead of heading to the entrance of Muslim Street that we’d actually get to our hostel much quicker and it would lead us right there. So we went that way and after about ten minutes of walking down this road we realized we had no idea where we were and were actually in the ghetto of China. All the people were staring at us like we were very out of place. I mean, stares are a normal accurance here in China for us Americans but these people definitely didn’t see Americans going down that street very often. It wasn’t creepy whatsoever since we did have a boy with us but we didn’t know where we were that was for sure. I finally voiced my opinion in that we should probably just turn around and back track but someone else thought it’d be a good idea to go down a new road instead because it probably led out to the main road. Yes, it did lead out to a main road, we weren’t in the slums anymore, but still…nothing was lookin familiar. Haha, after about 2 hours we were totally on the opposite end of the city we were supposed to be on. We didn’t want to get in a taxi because there were 5 of us so that would split us up and who knows if they’d take us to two different locations and we didn’t know which buses went where so we didn’t want to get on any of them either. Luckily, as we were nearing midnight we finally got into two taxis, told one to follow the other, and told the first to head straight down the road to the opposite end of the city which is exactly where our hostel was at. After a long voyage of hysteric laughs and irritability at the same time we made it to our hostel in one piece. After staying up for about another hour at the two hostels we crashed and awaited the next day!