On Saturday the church branch I am apart of in China invited us to their Christmas party in Shenzhen. We all meet up in the afternoon and took a 2 hour bus ride to Shenzhen. Shenzhen is a city populated with many people from all over the world. So when we arrived and saw white people playing soccer and a group of people speaking English and kids running by us yelling in English we were a little taken back. I can imagine going back to the States where people are the same race and speak the same language as me will be a little overwhelming. It's weird, but in just 4 months I'm so used to being surrounded by people of a different race and different language as me. Once we arrived in Shenzhen we watched the soccer game and helped decorate for the event. I enjoyed the decorations because  "Christmas Internationally" was the theme. There were signs in many different languages with the message "Merry Christmas" on them, there were country flags hung up and placed on the tables, and the program was a passport. It was adorable! We first ate dinner which was amazing! They served us green beans, ham, salad, rolls and potatoes. Afterwards they had people in the ward share how they celebrate Christmas from the country they are from. There were people from Netherlands, Columbia, South Africa, Siberia, Mexico, and Chile. That was by far my favorite part. It was very interesting to learn about the small and big differences countries have when celebrating Christmas. Afterwards we sang Christmas carols and then watched the children act out the nativity. Because our bus was schedule to leave before the party was over we were not able to light lanterns like they had scheduled! I was really bummed, but decided I will just have to light off lanterns at my wedding. I am so grateful I went to that party because it really got me in the Christmas spirit which I had been lacking. It was yet another enjoyable experience in China!

Our main coordinator has a friend named Alan who drives some of the teachers to school everyday to practice his English. On Tuesday he wanted to take us out for lunch as a thank you! He took us to a Buddhist temple he works at in Zhongshan! After school on Tuesday we all meet him at this Buddhist temple. Walking up to the temple there were a lot of homeless people begging us white girls for money. Homeless people here are significantly more homeless looking than in the States. Majority of them have some sort of a severe physical disability and make me feel bad I can't give them a million bucks each. When we walked in the temple a ceremony had just ended. Inside the temple there were three massive golden Buddha's with several different God's all along the walls.  Monks were walking around and people were worshiping the God's on their stoles everywhere. Once we explored the temple we were taken to another temple where we were seated for lunch. We ate lunch INSIDE the temple! We had people worshiping around us and had Buddhist God's staring at us while we "ate". We were served 10 different dishes and we knew nothing that was on each of those dishes. Alan informed us later we were eating mushrooms, seaweed, tofu, peanuts, kelp and a few other things I can't remember. Alan told us that because Buddhists are vegetarians some of the dishes are made to look like meat. The lunch we ate had two dishes that looked like chicken and steak but tasted far from it. I did try everything but only ate about a bite of it. Thank goodness for rice! I only had rice to cover up the bad taste of the food, because of course they did not provide water. Only a bad tasting tea. This was one of those meals where girls were pretending to eat and shoving food in their purses haha! After lunch Alan chatted with me about his religion. His English is mediocre so I couldn't understand everything he said, but I was able to learn some interesting things about Buddhism. Alan would get so excited when I asked him questions about his religion and I understood what he was saying. It was a really cool experience!

Thanksgiving day we still had to teach at school! I mean obviously, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving in China. I find it odd how my school went crazy about Halloween and barely recognized it was Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving I taught the kids a sweet milk experiment. You pour milk in a bowl and drop different colors of food coloring into the milk. Then you add a drop of dish soap and the food coloring goes crazy and mixes together. It was a pretty fun lesson but it was hard to control the kids because they were so excited. I was exhausted after school and was not a very good at all... so I took a nap after school and hung out with my cool roommates to cheer up. Later that night we got together for a Thanksgiving dinner. We invited our Chinese coordinators from school, our friends from our favorite smoothie store and our British friends that also teach near us. My head teacher, Karina made the everything! She made church potatoes, chowder, stuffing, mac and cheese, jello, pumpkin pie and few other random things. Sadly chicken/turkey is super expensive here and they have been diseased lately. After we ate dinner Brittany and Anna acted out the Thanksgiving story. Then Karina put together a slideshow of pictures and stories she had gotten from our parents. We had to guess people's baby pictures, family members, houses and stories. We were laughing a lot at people's pictures. It was a lot of fun :)

Wednesday we had parent day! It was slightly having our classroom filled with parents watching my every move. For my lesson I made paper plate turkeys which turned out pretty well. The kids were a little crazy because their parents were sitting right next to them though. At the end of the day all our kids ran up to me and Teacher Sarina and gave us little cards. Most of them said "Happy Thanksgiving" or "Thank you!". My two favorites were from Karmen and Aaron. Aaron's card said "This gift to my favorite teacher. I <3 teacher." Karmen's card said "I live you!" :) My kids are so awesome!

Sunday we headed back to Shenzhen for a Branch Conference! We left at 8:00 am and during the whole bus ride I had water dripping on me because there was a leak right above my head. Once we arrived at the church building the main sacrament room was full so we had to sit upstairs and watch it on the TV. We were a little upset we drove for two hours to watch church on a TV though. The main theme of conference was Obedience leads to happiness and blessings.  After conference we split up and us girls went to Relief Society. It has been so long since I've been to Relief Society... I'm going to have to get back into the the normal schedule of 3 hour church when I get back to the States. During class though we sang Away In A Manger for a practice hymn. It was during then that I realized that I really miss the Christmas spirit that China lacks. I'm going to go back to the USA on the 19th of December and will only get to experience a few days of it. I don't know how the Chinese people survive without the Christmas spirit. I feel like it's such a joyful time of the year for everyone to get rejuvenated for the following year. After Relief Society class was over we took the annual Branch Conference picture. Then we were feed very delicious Hawaiian haystacks and a pumpkin crisp with ice cream. After dinner we had a young single adult fireside with the branch president. The fireside was my favorite part. We were able to ask the president questions and he would answer them and then show us a Mormon video that correlated to our questions. He talked about qualities to look for in our future spouses, the increasing problem pornography is nowadays, and enduring to the end. Afterwards we headed back to Zhongshan!

We had to make the last day of being in Zhangjiajie count! We woke up at 6 am and headed back to the National Park we went to yesterday with the monkeys. However we were determined to get to the top of the Avatar so we went through a different entrance to get take a bus up the mountain. The bus ride up the mountain was definitely one of the most terrifying moments I've had while being in China. Driving in China is insanely dangerous because no one follows the traffic laws and there are no police to enforce the laws. I've gotten used to the bus rides in my home city where it constantly looks like were going to run people over. However, driving up the mountain in Zhangjiajie was a a lot different because of a few reasons... We were crammed inside a tour bus and I was nearest the front of the bus. If anything happened I would go flying through the front window! Also the rode we were driving on was a one way rode but they decided to make it a two way rode with huge tour buses passing each other. Also on every turn our bus driver thought it was a good idea to speed up instead of slow down. On every turn it seemed as though our bus was going to tip off the side of the mountain. Thankfully I made it up the mountain with no injuries. Once we got part way up the mountain we took two elevators up to the very top of the mountain. The last elevator we went on is known as the world's fastest elevator that can hold the most amount of people. When we finally got to the top it said we were on floor 362... It was incredibly beautiful when we got to the top! I was practically speechless, the only thing I could blurt out was AHHHHH OH MY GOSH AHHHH OH MY GOSH! Then we walked around for awhile taking pictures of the gorgeous mountains. It was way cool to see how similar the mountains in Avatar are to the actual mountains in Zhanjiajie. While hiking around we decided that we needed to watch the movie Avatar so we could all yell "I've been there before!" during the movie. Afterwards we headed out of the National Park and back to our hostel to catch our train.

The following day we headed to the other National Park in Zhangjiajie to see the Avatar mountains. When we first entered into the park we saw a few monkeys and we all started freaking out! Next thing we knew we were constantly surrounded by monkeys. The monkeys were everywhere! We took pictures with them and tried feeding. They were very entertaining but some of them mean so we had to be careful. After playing with the monkeys we began to make our way to the hike that was supposed to take us to the top of the Avatar mountains. However it took us hours just to make it to the bottom of the hike. It was SO beautiful just walking around in the park though. Many parts of China look like a jungle and I love it! As we began this "Hike to Heaven" it was torturous! It took us about an hour and half to get to the "top" and the whole time we were climbing stairs. Once we got to the "top" we were confused because we weren't actually on top of the Avatar mountains and it wasn't the cool outlook we were expecting. We figured we had taken the wrong pathway and headed back down. Unfortunately it was getting late in the day and we didn't have time to find the other hike. Although, we didn't make it to the top it was an enjoyable day anyway. Afterwards we ate dinner at McDonald's because it is one of the few places we found to eat at. Immediately as I got home I went to bed because I was worn out from the hard day of hiking.

Last Thursday we left for vacation to Zhangjiajie! After school Ali, Nikki, Holly, Ashlee and I immediately headed to the train station even though our train didn't leave until 8pm. Due to the bad luck we have had on vacations in the past we wanted to make sure we wouldn't miss our train! We got to the train station successfully 5 hours before we were actually supposed to leave, so we chilled in a smelly, dirty and packed KFC. We talked for hours asking each other random questions. A few hours later the rest of our group meet up with us and we made it on the train. Thankfully I got a sleeper for the train ride. Immediately as I laid down on the hard bed that was to short for me I fell asleep! It was a 14 hour train ride that was exceptionally better than the previous train rides I have been on just because I was in the horizontal position. 

We arrived in Zhangjiajie around 9 in the morning and made our way to McDonald's for breakfast. After breakfast we found our hostel and rested for a few minutes. Ali and I got the "honeymoon suite" but it was an older version of one because it had two beds. We definetly had the most comfortable beds. We actually had a mattress...everyone else slept on a plank of wood with a sheet.

After we had rested for a little bit we made our way to the National Park in Zhangjiajie that has the walk of faith. It was the craziest thing because while we were in the city we couldn't even see any mountains around us. China is so hazy and when its rainy its even more foggy! We took the world's longest cable car ride from the middle of the city to top of these hidden mountains. It was a 35 minute ride and it was gorgeous. Along the way we saw the world's windiest rode! Once we made it to the top we began our hike to the walk of faith. It was a very pretty hike, but it was hard to capture the beauty with pictures because it was still very foggy at the top of the mountains. As I got closer to the walk of faith and saw the ledge of glass I got a little nervous. However, while I was walking on the glass I was fine. It was a pretty short walk but it was a fun experience! After the walk of faith there were a lot of red flags that were tied to the trees. We were a little concerned as we noticed all the red flags and made the joke that each flag represented someone who died on the walk of faith. A little later we read that each of the flags have prayers have blessings written on them. We bought a red flag and signed our names on it with a message. I wrote my quote "You think you love your life? I love my life!" Ever since I said that in Yangshou people always bring it up and say it needs to be my life quote. Afterwards we hiked for awhile until we found the perfect place for our flag! I want to back in a few years to see if it is still there. We continued hiking around the national park until we found some temples and decided to explore them. It was interesting to see all the different idols in each temple and the many inscents they would burn. We headed back and went exploring for food. Oddly enough the city had very little options for food, so we eat at a restaurant near our hostel and got some fried rice. Typical us. Later that night Ali and I had some deep conversations and I was able to really bond with her in our honeymoon suite :)

Halloween day was insane! It was mismatch day so I wore my hot pink tights and my elephant shirt with two different pairs of socks and shoes. Because the Halloween party was later that day all the classes needed to practice their performances, so we did not have to teach out kids a lesson. During lesson time I played duck, duck, goose with my kids and did a puzzle. At the end of the lesson I gave each kid a piece of a chocolate cracker. When they ate the crackers they acted as if they had never tasted anything so good! They all yelled "TEACHA! YUMMY!" with their thumbs up. They are the cutest :) After school we had to get real busy and finish the haunted house. Thankfully, we finished well before the party started. Our Chinese coordinators claim that our haunted house was the best they have had so far. At the start of the haunted house we had a scary person open the door for the kids and then the kids walked under a curtain. Then they walked into the polka dot room, which I was in! The room had polka dots all over the room, while I was dressed in all black with polka dots on me. As the kids walked in I would sneak up on the kids and scare the kids with my scary face paint. One kid I scared so badly he just started at me for a whole minute with his eyes wide open not saying a word. Once his heart started beating again he yelled "TEACHA! HI TEACHA!" It was the hardest not break character with hm yelling that at me. After the polka dot room Nikki popped out at them from inside a coffin and then Alison would run at them down the hallway. Then they walked into a room with a bunch of balloons on the wall and on the floor. Holly would pop the balloons as the kids walked in and freak the kids out. Then the kids walked into a room with a long table with zombies crawling around it. As they walked by the table Carmen would lift up a bowl and Brittney's bloody head looked like it was laying on a platter. After the kids were grossed out by Brittney's head the next room was Anna as a mad scientist cutting open Karina with a meat slicer. We really pulled off a cool haunted house considering how little time we had. Later that night we got ready for the performance. I dressed up as a zombie construction worker and I looked super scary! Our teachers first performance was Party in the USA, then I danced to This Is Halloween with my class and my last performance was Time Warp with all the teachers. Everyone loved the performances! It was a super fun night!

zhōngguó - china

Today was black and orange day at school it was also the day the board of education came! This was a big day because the board of education was watching everything we did. The Chinese coordinators were beyond stressed. They had everything planned to the T. They told us we could only sing 3 songs during opening and we could only sing Old McDonald, BINGO and Wheels on the Bus. We also had to play "What time is it Mr. Wolf?" with the kids during opening. We normally don't play a game with them during opening. I must say the school I go to is well known for being one of the best schools around, but it also really bugs me when my school acts hypocritical about certain things. Today was a perfect example. They made us plan every little detail out and add things to our routine which we normally don't do! Another hypocritical example is the way my Chinese teachers sometimes act. Every Wednesday we are videoed while we teach so the parents can see us teach their children. During the time we are being videoed the Chinese teachers are these super strict teachers that are on top of every misbehaving child. Once the camera isn't rolling though they are so much more relaxed about the kids misbehaving. I got on a big tangent about that, but it has been bugging me lately. Thankfully my lesson went quite well! I had to teach drama today about the book Dinofours. I had never heard of the book, but because it was the "special" day our Chinese coordinators practically gave us no choice for what we would teach. The kids loved all the funny props I brought and participated well in my lesson! After teaching was over we had Chinese class and had to start decorating the haunted house for the Halloween party on Thursday. We barely got anything completed before we had to leave, so tomorrow we will probably decorating all day long...

yi bei niu nai - a glass of milk

Today we had crazy hair at school! Because it is the week of Halloween everyday we get to dress up! When we first walked into school the Chinese teachers were blown away with our crazy hairstyles. I don't think the Chinese really know what the definition of "crazy" means, because putting a ponytail on the side of your head is not crazy. We helped them fully embrace crazy hair day by doing their hair for them. Once I walked into my classroom not only did my students go crazy but my Chinese teachers went crazy. They loved my hair. I had two cups on the top of my head with my hair pulled through them, two bows on either cup and a baby ponytail in the back and not to mention I was wearing glasses with the lenses poked out. My kids rushed up to me in amazement and said "Teacha! Beautiful!" I was laughing so hard. Only a few of the kids in my class had "crazy hair". The ones that had "crazy hair" were two guys who actually styled their hair with gel for the first time and a girl with her ponytail on the top of her head. Teaching was a little difficult because the kids kept getting distracted by my hair, but because they loved my lesson of making paper planes I was able to divert their attention. After school I rushed home to sign up for classes for BYU! Thankfully I was able to get all the classes I wanted!

niupai - steak

On Saturday we had a party at the park! Most of the people from the Kaiyin and the Shiqi group joined. We first started our party by singing in the shuttle while we were headed to the park. Taylor Swift was definitely a crowd-pleaser, so we continued singing after we got a big applause from singing Our Song. Once we got to the park and layed out our belongings we immediately had Asians on all sides of us watching our every move. Staring at white people seriously never gets old to the Chinese. We played football and ultimate Frisbee. During our Ultimate Frisbee game an Asian gym couch joined us. He was actually really good at playing and said "Let's go!" in his cute Asian accent every time it was kickoff. Then James, Noah and John set up their slack-line. They are really good at slack-lining so I was trying to learn, but it takes a lot of balance! Of course once the slack-line was setup the Asians turned it into a community slack-line. Once the slack-line got crowded with Asians we started having hand-stand competitions, playing ninja, building human pyramids, flying our kites and playing twisted twister. Pretty much anything you can think of, we did it at the park....it was a perfect day! A little later in the afternoon we started playing games with a big group of Asians students. The students were college aged so most of them could speak decent English. I played their version of hacky-sack with this weird weight thing with feathers attached to it. Some of my other friends were playing a card game with the Asains. The person with the lowest card had to sing a song, do a crazy dance, or kiss someone! Our visit with the Asians eventually turned into an awesome "talent battle". We first began by teaching them the macarena and the totty ta dance, then we gathered in a big circle as one of the Asians did a little dance for us. They also had a guy show us his kung-fu moves, so we obviously had to show off and do our kung fu moves for them. Then we performed a few of our dances we will be doing for our Halloween party at school. To add to our talent battle James did a handstand on his skate board while rolling down the sidewalk. We also built another human pyramid which really impressed them! After we had gone all out they pulled two girls from their group who were models and said they would show us a model walk. They did their sassy little number, so obviously Hayden and Noah had to mimic their sassy model walk. We eventually had to go our separate ways, but we all quickly became friends with them! It was an awesome day.

qu - go

Today I didn't have to teach! We went on a field trip with our kids to the park. After eating breakfast we all lined up and walked to the park that was across the street. At the park we played games with the kids, ate snacks and took lots of pictures. I am starting to really enjoy my class. I love that I am able to communicate with them more. The little things they do every day makes them even more adorable! I still love to visit and say hi to my old class though! After we spent a few hours in the park we headed back to school. We ate lunch, had Chinese class and worked on our dances for our Halloween party at school! After school Melissa, Alison, Karina and I all went to the hairdresser. We supposedly just went to the hair dresser, but I seemed as if we went to a massage therapist and a chiropractor as well. I got taken to the back to get my head washed, but instead of sitting in a chair they had me lay on a massage bed. They began by rubbing my head, then they washed my head and continued massaging my hair and upper back. After they had washed my hair 4 times they placed hot rags over my eyes and underneath my neck. Then they massaged my arms and hands. They had me flip onto my stomach and massaged my back and neck. I finally got seated for the lady to cut my hair. Due to the lack of English the lady spoke I just showed her with my fingers how much I wanted cut. I was nervous we didn't discuss anything.... Thankfully she did a good job on my hair! The best part of the whole experience is it only cost me 48 yuan. That's about 8 US dollars!!! It's insane how cheap things are here.

qiézi - eggplant

The following day Carmen, Ashlee and I decided to take a tour of the Terracotta Warriors. The other girls wanted to go the warriors without a tour guide. Our tour guide was pretty sassy to us in the morning so we didn't really enjoy that part of the tour. She first told us we were going to visit some guys tomb, but when we got to the "tomb" it was very far away. She pointed to a hill in distance and told us it wasn't that exciting. Then we headed to the Terracotta Warriors. There are three 3 pits where warriors have been found, the first pit being the largest. The pits were filled with scattered and broken pieces of statues. The tour guide explained the difference in ranks in warriors and showed us how we could tell the difference between a warrior with a high rank and one with a low rank. We got to see the man who first discovered the terracotta warriors too! He was a farmer and discovered them in 1974. For his reward he only got 10 yuan!!! That is not even 2 US dollars! I learned that the first emperor of China built these warriors because he was VERY afraid of death. He wanted the warriors buried with him to protect him in the afterlife. The Emperor died due to ingesting mercury pills. Ironically, these pills were meant to make Qin Shi Huang immortal. During our tour guide we meet guys from Germany, France, Switzerland, and Ireland. It was fun to get to know people from all over the world!

kuàizi - chopsticks

After spending some time in Beijing we headed to the city Xian. The train ride from Beijing to Xian was 14 hours and wasn't nearly as bad, because I upgraded to a sleeper bed. Once we arrived in Xian we got to our very nice hostel. The hostel was setup similar to a hotel and had the most comfortable beds I have ever slept in! Because we were exhausted from the train ride we were lazy most of the day and just rested at the hostel. At night we explored the city and got dinner. Afterwards we went to a light show. There were still a mass of people because it was the last day of their holiday. When we arrived to where the light show was supposed to be located, we couldn't see anything because there were so many people. While we waited for it to start Brittany, Anna, Ashlee and I all stood on a big rock to see over the people. We didn't know we would attract half of China by doing so though. While we were standing up flashes were going off constantly! The Chinese would come stand near us and take pictures and laugh at us. After awhile though a group of policemen walked by and got mad at us. We played dumb so we wouldn't get in trouble. Next thing we know a group of Asians are standing on the same rock we just got kicked off of. We are such trend setters here.

zhongbian - middle

One of the days while we were in Beijing we took a tour to the Great Wall of China! The started by taking us to a place called Mr. Tea. There we tried the Chinese specialty tea... which I forgot the name of. We tried four different types of tea. They showed us how they make the tea and how to hold the cup properly. I really hate the taste of tea but it was a cool experience. After Mr. Tea the tour guide took us to the Beijing Olympic Park. There we only got to walk around the outside of the park for a few minutes. After the Olympic Park we were taken to this place where they make and paint pottery. We went from building to building where they showed us each step of the process. My favorite part was the part where they painted the pottery. The paint was mainly powder with a little bit of water, and they were able to place the paint in the tiny creases of the designs they made. After the pottery place we go the bottom of the Great Wall, where we ate lunch. After lunch half of the kids took the cable cart to the top of the Wall, while the other half of the kids and I decided to hike to the top. It wasn't as hard of a hike as our tour guide made it sound. It was only a 15 minute hike climbing up stairs. Walking up to the Great Wall was an unreal experience. We didn't get to walk along the wall for a long time, but we were able get some good pictures. Afterwards we took a toboggan ride down to the bottom! It was pretty scary but SO fun! Next the tour guide took us to an acrobatic show. It wasn't as good as a cir dis ole show, but it was still entertaining. For the finale they had 5 people riding motor bikes in a big metal sphere!

qian - money

We spent the next four days in Beijing doing a lot of shopping! We did all our shopping at the pearl market and the silk market. Bartering is a lot easier at the pearl market because the people at the silk markets are outrageous and try to rip you off big time. I really improved my bartering skills during these four days of shopping though! I learned to stick to my highest price and walk away if they didn't give it to me for the price I wanted. One day after shopping Trent and I got lost from the group AGAIN (it's seriously a curse we have when were together!) we went looking for a place to eat for dinner. We were both craving some really good Chinese food! You might imagine that would be an easier request since we are in China, but surprisingly we couldn't find any Chinese restaurants near the silk market. We ended up trying a Mexican restaurant we walked by. We made friends with the owner of the restaurant, Alex, and he gave us 20% off of our meal. Alex calls himself a "red neck Asian". He lived in the States for 30 years, a few other countries for a few years and has only lived in Beijing for a year. His restaurant had the BEST MEXICAN FOOD EVER!!! I never thought it would be possible to even find Mexican food in China!

jiàngyóu - soy sauce

Sunday we made our second attempt getting to Beijing on a train. We got up at 6:30 to make it to the 9:45 train. It was a good thing we were so early because getting through security and everything takes a lot longer than it should in China. The Chinese don't believe in lines so wherever you go you have to be very pushy to get to the front of the crowd. As we were "in line" to get our passports and tickets checked for the train people started jumping the gate, which made it even harder for us to get to the front of the crowd. Sometimes it's insane here! As we were all trying to mentally prepare ourselves for a 21 hour STANDING train ride, we started to boarded the train. However as we started to board the train the aisles all filled up with people, so me and three other people had to move to a different cart on the train. I honestly had a small panic attack trying to get on the train. As I was approaching the inside of the train I felt as if I was entering a sauna room that smelled like smoke and body odor. My friends literally had to push me in the train. I think it is safe to say I got a small glimpse of what the Jews went through during the Holocaust as they were crammed onto trains.

As the train began I immediately got a headache because I was pushed into the smoking zone of the train. It almost seemed as if I were in the middle of a tiny circle full of Chinese men smoking in my face. My friend and I were smart enough to buy little 10" x 10" benches before getting on the train. We sat on those and held our luggage for the first few hours of the ride. A few hours into the ride we made our way out of the smoking zone and stood in between the seats. I really don't understand why they sell standing tickets on trains if there is no room to even stand... the whole time during the train they roll trolly's full of food and drinks on them back and forth. So the people standing in the aisles have to somehow maneuver around these trolly's they roll by every 5 minutes. The Chinese people I was standing by were very friendly to me and let me squeeze on their seat with them. They even happily offered me their food, which I noticed they didn't have a lot to offer! I have really began to admire the thoughtfulness of the people here. As it got later in the day one of the Chinese officers from the train came by trying to sell items. Of course I quickly became center of attention and he tried using me to sell his items. He wanted me to get my hair wet and dry it with his "special" towel, but I had no desire to get my hair all wet with his nasty water. I kindly refused to get my hair wet, which made the Chinese people laugh. After I thought I was done being the center of attention a girl around my age came up to me and said "My friends and I would like to invite you to a chat". She sat me down in a circle of people all very happy to be by me. They were so happy I joined their circle to talk. They asked us a lot of questions like where are you from? what is America like? and how we liked China? They also wrote down my Chinese name and taught me how to say it. Apparently it means good and beautiful. One of the Chinese men insisted we exchange e-mails!

When night came everyone fell asleep on their chairs except for me and Carmen. All the other girls I came with got offered chairs to sleep in for the night. Carmen and I definitely got the short end of the stick. We would alternate from sitting on our benches with our faces on knees to standing every few minutes. It killed our backs to sit hunched over on the benches but it was the closet we got to sleeping. I ended up only getting about an hour of sleep.

chǎofàn - fried rice

Saturday I woke up planning on going to the amusement park with some of the girls, but the more I thought about it the more I didn't want to go. This is not an ordinary amusement park, this is a genius book of world record amusement park. It has many rides that have world records, such as the ride that has 10 loops. I like amusement parks but I seriously think I would have gotten sick if I had gone on those cray rides. Also, I was extremely tried from traveling in Yangshou and then immediately leaving Zhongshan for Beijing so I decided I would relax in the hotel room with some other girls. We took naps, read and ate food! It was so enjoyable.

xiao - small

After getting back from Yangshou on Wednesday we only had two short days of teaching until we left for Beijing. Those were my first two days of teaching my new kids. The older kids are able to talk a lot more than the younger kids so my lessons are more fun, but I still think the babies I used to teach are much cuter!

On Friday after school we left for our long journey to Beijing. We took a shuttle, bullet train and subway just to get to the train station. After arriving in the train station we discovered we had been mislead to the wrong part of the train station. By this time we only had 30 minutes until our train left and we had about a 25 minute subway ride to the other part of the train station. We sprinted to make our train and along the way we were all laughing loudly and ran over many people with our suitcases on accident. I think this is why Americans have such a bad stereotype. Unfortunately, we missed our train by 4 minutes!!! We were very bumbed to get a late start on our vacation. We then waited in a very long line to get new tickets. Because we were traveling on National week all the trains were completly booked until Sunday. It was our only option so we got STANDING tickets for a 21 hour train ride to Beijing. Afterwards we all ate at KFC and came up with a new game plan until Sunday. We decided we would stay at a hotel near the train station, but we did not want to waste money on buying multiple rooms for 12 girls. We ended up getting only two rooms with only two full sized beds in each room, so 6 girls were crammed in each room. There is apparently a law that only 3 three people can stay in one hotel room, so anytime a Chinese worker from the hotel came to our room we had to hide three girls in the bathroom. I doubt they noticed the three girls in the bathroom, but I'm sure they noticed the excess luggage that took up the whole room.

shi - yes

Tuesday was the least eventful day out of our vacation because ILP gave us the OK to leave YangShou and head back to Zhongshan. For the morning and afternoon we just shopped, ate food and watched movies. It was nice to relax though because we were so tired from the previous days! When we were about to leave, the hostel owners took lots of pictures with us and left two spots on the wall for us. The owners are a young couple who are about 30 years old. I decided it would be really cool if I started a hostel in the States because you would get to met so many cool people from around the world, but then as I thought about it there aren't nearly as many cool things to see in the States then there are to see in China.

As we started heading to the bus stop to get on another sleeper bus it started pouring rain again. It was unfortunate because we were all wet on the bus so it was a little stinky. We made it back to Zhongshan safely but as usual we looked liked a massive mob of stinky sleepy white people walking through the city.

gongyuan - park

Monday morning we relaxed all morning and did some shopping. Majority of the group left to see the cave we had found yesterday, so the rest of the group and I decided we were going to go hiking in Xing Ping. If you look on the back of a 20 Chinese dollar bill you can see where we hiked to. Once we got to Xing Ping we started hiking up the mountain. The hike consisted of very steep stairs and ladders we had to climb up. It took us about 30 minutes to hike up but it was TOTALLY worth it. It is definitely the prettiest view I have ever seen. As we got to the top it started pouring rain! It made the hike even better though. Although, as we started hiking down the stairs got super slippery. It was a little bit dangerous but we made it down safely. When we got down the mountain we chilled inside a hostel for a while and ate pizza. Then we caught a bus back to YangShou. We were completely soaking still so we took showers and watched movies in our hostel.

shui - water

Sunday morning we went to the bakery to get breakfast and then we rented motor scooters. I was too scared to drive so I made Anna drive me. Anna, Brittney, Mckenna, Trent, Zach, Sabriana and I all rode on motor scooters and drove back to the same bridge jumped off of on Thursday. It was awesome because we got to see more of the city! I eventually got brave enough to drive the scooter... almost crashed a couple of times, but I got really good! As we were exploring we came across this really cool cave that was filled with water. I still had a cold but the other kids I was with jumped in the water and swam in the cave. We did some more exploring and after a while we stopped to get lunch and then headed back to the hostel. As we started driving back it started raining and was super windy... we got a little piece of the typhoon.

xia zai ji dian - what time is it now

When we woke up on Saturday we were told that we wouldn't be leaving that day because of the typhoon. They said the typhoon was going to hit while we would be traveling back. Zhongshan was supposed to get hit pretty hard and all the buses and shuttles would be shut down. I was very excited we would get to stay longer in YangShou, but some of the other people were mad because they wanted to see the typhoon hit.

After hearing about the good the news we went on a bamboo raft ride. It was a 45 minute bamboo raft down the river. Along the way we saw Chinese guys swimming in the river looking for valuable along the river floor. When we got halfway we motioned to our driver that we wanted to hike along the shore. He some how understood our charades and so we stopped along the shore a walked around for a little bit. We were scared he was going to leave us so we couldn't go far.

After the awesome bamboo raft we got breakfast, did some more shopping and took a much needed nap. After our naps we rented some more bikes and biked to the mud caves that were about 40 minutes away from our hostel. When we made it the mud caves they took us on a 15 minute tour of the cave. The cave was lit up with lights and during one part we had to bow to a Buddha. I didn't know what they were saying to me but I bowed three times with an incest stick they gave me. Once we made it far into the cave we jumped into the pool of mud! It was pretty cold but it felt like swimming in thick chocolate milk. It is every kids dream to swim in chocolate milk! After soaking in the mud for a while we rinsed off and headed to the hot springs. The hot springs were in the cave as well but we had to walk a little while to get to them. The hot springs made the whole experience! We relaxed a while in the hot springs and met some people from Australia. After we biked back to the city and got some really good dumplings. It was definitely one of the funnest days I had in YuangShou!

ke min - Camille (my Chinese name means smart)

On Friday me, Trent, Carmen, McKena and the camera a crew decided to go to the rice fields. We were the only ones that wanted to go because the others didn't want to go on a three hour bus ride to get to Guilin. We had a bus pick us up at 7:30 in the morning and we drove for three hours until we got to Guilin. Once we got there we decided to pay extra to visit the Long Hair village. At the long hair village there are a bunch of women with hair as long as 2 meters. They did a few dances and acted out one of their bridal ceremonies. Afterwards, they showed us one of their homes. It was a cool cultural experience, but we were a little rushed during the whole thing. We immediately got on a different bus that took us to the rice fields. Once we got to the rice fields we started hiking up to the top with our tour guide, but a long the way I got distracted... I saw some cute bracelets that I wanted. Trent stayed behind with me to look at them too. It took a while to buy the bracelets because I had to barter with the lady. Once I finally purchased the bracelets Trent and I had completely lost the group. We wondered around for a while looking for them, but we had no luck. We didn't know what time we had to be back at the bus so we decided to just hike to the top of the mountain by our self. It was very pretty when we made it to the top... of course! However, once we made it to the top we were scared we were going to get left so we hurried down. As we were headed down we found part of our group and they didn't even know we had been left behind. Trent and I felt really loved...not. Since we headed down early we stopped to get some lunch. After lunch we had another three hour bus ride back to YangShou. Once we got back to YangShou it was around 7:45 so we met up with others for dinner. It was awesome because we found this place that sold hamburgers! I got a hamburger because I can't remember the last time I ate protein. It wasn't very tasty but I felt like I had a lot more energy after eating that much protein!

xianxin - careful

Once we arrived in YangShou we walked in a huge line along the side of the rode till we made it to our hostel. When we got to our hostel it was about 6:30 am and we wern't allowed to check in until 1:00. So we decided to rent bikes and bike a river. Ever since I got to China I told myself I would never drive, because of how crazy it is here. There are no rules to follow when it comes to driving and there are zero cops to enforce laws. However, when we rented bikes I broke that promise I made to myself... when we were in the city there were defintely a few close calls. We all swevered in and out of the cars, motor scooters,  and people. After getting out of the city a little bit though it was very pretty! We made it to this beautiful river with bamboo rafts all along it. We saw a bridge over the river and decided it would be a great idea if we jumped off it. It was pretty funny because there were so many bamboo rafts floating in the river we had to wait for them to pass and then hurry and jump in the water! Once the first person jumped in the water we had a huge crowed of tourists and Chinese people watching us. The Chinese on the bamboo rafts were so excited to see us jumping off the bridge they would tell us to jump while they were right below us in the water. We tried explaining to them that they had to move before we would jump, but that language barrier is still an issue for us. After bridge jumping for a few hours we ate some lunch and biked back to our hostel. Once we got back we showered and went shopping. While we were in YangShou, China was celebrating the Mid-Autumn festival, so there were a ton of people! YangShou is tourist city so they had a lot of shops and vendors a long the street. After shopping for a while, my friend Carmen and I got seperated from the group and had to find our way back to the hostel.

Later that night we went to a fish show. It was very interesting because we piled onto a bamboo raft when it was pitch black outside. As we started driving away another bamboo raft with a small light pulled up along us with a man standing up rowing it. Attached to the front of his raft were about 10 ducks. The ducks would swim for a while under the water catching fish and then would come back up to breathe. After a little bit the man rowing the raft would grab a duck, squeeze it's neck and empty all the fish into a basket. Apparently the ducks don't sallow the fish because they have a rob tied around their necks. Our tour guide was a very loud and funny man which made the experience even better.

 On our bike ride we passed this health clinic with people sitting outside with their IV's

 On our bike ride to the bamboo river. The mountains in Yangshou are amazing!

wǒ xiǎng nǐ - i miss you

Alright I am way behind on my blog, but that is because I have been in YangShou the past few days and didn't have access to my blog. I will re-start my blog from last Wednesday.

Last Wednesday I was told by my head teacher that I would be changing classes. Apparently ILP has a rule that every teacher should only be teaching 8 kids. Since me and a few of the other girls have more than 8 kids, ILP had to hire 2 more teachers. These teachers are not ILP teachers, so they get paid, don't teach the kids through the ILP method and are allowed to teach more kids at a time. The two hired teachers are from London. On Tuesday and Wednesday one of the teachers watched me teach all day because he would be taking over my class. Wednesday was my last day with my Junior A class and my Chinese teachers were super upset. They kept grabbing my arm telling me not to go. I kept telling them I didn't want to leave their classroom either and I told them to convenience my head teacher to let me stay!

After school on Wednesday we headed back to our apartments and packed for our vacation. We met up with the Kiayin group and headed to the bus stop together. We all made it to the fruit market on one bus, but we had to separate onto different buses when we got to the fruit market. Everyone made it to the bus stop expect one group. We had no clue what to do because we couldn't get a hold of them and they only had 15 minutes to get to the bus before it left. It was scary because one of the girls that had gotten lost had all our tickets for us girls. Thankfully, they made it the bus stop with 30 seconds to spare.

Once they arrived we all crammed on the sleeper bus. This was our first experience on a sleeper bus. The bus ride was 12 hours from Zhongshan to YangShou.  I wasn't able to get a picture, but the inside of the bus had two levels of beds. The beds are very skinny and are a little shorter than me. I ended up getting the bed in the very back corner. It was actually a lot better than I expected, but during the middle of the night the ride got extremely bumpy. So bumpy that I caught air as I was laying in bed. I thought I was going to throw up but fortunately I kept it together and didn't throw up. While I was a little sick I looked out the window to the BEAUTIFUL landscape. I can't get over how pretty it is here...that's saying a lot since I have lived in Canada.

xiao - small

On Saturday I woke up and started doing my lesson plans for the following week. As I was finishing them the girls in my apartment were leaving for the water park. I wasn't finished with my lesson plans so I told them to go without me. Thank goodness I didn't end up going because while they were at the water park they got a tablet, an iPhone and 900 Yuan.

After I had finished my lessons plans a few of the girls from the apartments below me and I went to walking street. I bought some crazy Chinese pants, beats earphones cute hair ties. Along walking street there was this park we decided to explore. Holy smokes. That is one of the prettiest parks I have ever been too. It was a massive park that was so peaceful and green. Within the park there were Chinese structures that looked really cool. I didn't have my camera at the time so I'm going to have to go back and take pictures. After we left the park we went to get our to nails done and went out for diner.

gongyuan - park

On Friday after teaching we had kung fu class! If I heard right our instructors name is Spring. He made us warm up by doing a lot of stretches, push ups and sit ups. He thought it was funny to see us complain about doing warm up. After we were warmed up he showed some legit moves. I don't know what they were called but we were swinging our arms,  punching our fists and doing kicks. He made us go to the front of the room and practice our new moves in front of the whole class. Afterwards he showed us his pro moves.

After kung fu class we went downtown to a Karaoke place. It was way cool because we reserved a room for my group, the Kaiyin group and a few of the Chinese coordinators. It was a room full of couches and a big TV. We karaoked for the full 4 hours! And of course he we karaoked/ danced to Gangham Style. After karaoked we went to dinner at McDonalds.

gonggong qiche - bus

Well I have gotten behind on my blog and can't remember everything I have done...

On Thursday our filming crew came. Yes, we have a filming crew that will be following us around until the end of November. ILP hired them to help advertise for their program. Because of the missionary change they don't have has many volunteers as they once had. Tell everyone you know about ILP and tell them they need to be volunteer! Our filming crew consists of one couple and a married man. All three of them go to BYU Idaho and are very nice people.

They showed up on Thursday as we were teaching. After school we had cooking class with the cook at my school. Our cook's name is Michael and he is the BEST! He is so nice to us. He makes awesome food everyday for us and everyday he gives us a bag of fruit. On the weekends they make us a bag full of rolls. (This is why I'm going to gain weight while I'm here). During cooking class Michael showed us how to make fried dumplings. They were dang good!

Later that night after dinner we played badminton with the Kaiyin group and their coordinators. We thought we would challenge the Chinese coordinators to a game of badminton! We taught them how to play around the world. It was way fun!

bu young xie - you're welcome

Tuesday was TEACHER'S DAY! When we got to school kids were handing out flowers to all the teachers. One of my students mom came up to me after giving me a flower and said "Nicole doesn't know English yet." I was a little thrown off by her comment because I have literally only had lesson with my homeroom twice. What does she expect after the first week? For her daughter to be fluent in English.... Out of all my students she is one of the hardest students for me to get to speak. So i'm really going to have to focus on Nicole and getting her to speak. As my kids were lining up today to have outside time, little Bosco grabbed my hand and put it in his pocket of his pants. I think he was just trying to show we me he had pockets, because he grabbed the Chinese teacher's hand too. He is SO cute!!! After school we had another training meeting of how we can improve our teaching.

When we got home from school a few of us girls did some insanity! I get so lightheaded working out here. We sweat pools of sweat, so we have to drink a ton of water. After my apartment did some major cleaning. Then we got ready for our teachers day dinner. My school took all the teachers our to eat to this very nice restaurant. There were at least 50 teachers there (including the Chinese teachers) and there was a ton of food! They probably brought out around 20 platters full of food one right after the other. I ate duck, shrimp, beef, mushrooms, and chicken (the was included). However, majority of the food I ate I had no clue what I was eating... After they gave out prizes. The Chinese teachers acted COMPLETELY different at the dinner party then they do at school. They were singing, dancing and doing the splits at the party. At school I am sometimes scared to talk to them... The Chinese sure know how to party!

 Anna and I at the dinner

 All the ILP teachers at Bond

 First thing they brought out was this soup

 This plate had duck and bacon... the rest of the meat was mystery meat

 Mushrooms and mystery meat

 There is the chicken head!

 The shrimp... I had troubles peeling everything off

 Yummy soup with sprouts, beef and I don't know what else

 This had corn, nuts and some random things in it. It was pretty good!

 This was straight up beef so it was legit.

 Fish... I actually didn't try it because I got distracted with the prizes they were giving out

 Anna and I both won a bottle of windex... oh yeah!

 This was the dessert they brought out. It was some weird sticky jelly cake.

 This is me trying the dessert... 

 Me and my Chinese teacher! She is AWESOME. I'm so glad she helps out in my class, because she is very helpful and she is good with the students.

dui bu qi - i'm very sorry

Monday was a good day! School was good...no exciting stories. After school we had our first Chinese class. Daisy, one of our coordinators taught the class for about 40 minutes. She told us briefly about the Chinese language, went through how to pronounce certain letters, and taught us some words.

After school all the girls at my school decided we would go to a Chinese spa. We walked up to this huge building with a Ferrari parked out front. We attempted to explain to the people at the front desk that we wanted to go to the bathhouse and get massages. It was a disaster... not one of them could say any English. After 15 minutes of no success, we put our technology to use and used Google translate for our entire conversation. It was pretty funny, we passed our phones back and forth with the Chinese to communicate. After we got everything situated, we got escorted back to the women's spa area. The fun part about living in China is we are millionaires here! The spa was so legit. We got our own lockers with our own flip flops. After we changed we took showers, which included nice shampoo and body wash and face wash! And the showers were so clean (unlike our apartments) Then we swam in this huge hot tub with fancy seats and bubbles. They also had a counter full of fresh fruit and drinks. We lounged around eating the food, swimming and sitting in the sauna rooms. After we all decided on a different service to get. Majority of the girls, me included, decided to get a head massage. A few of the girls did cupping...it was terrifying to watch. They had the girls lay down and then they lit a cup on fire and placed it all over their backs. It looks like the girls have 16 massive hickies on their backs.  Thankfully, I decided against getting the cupping. For my head massage they took us to the top floor of this building and took us to this huge room full of comfortable recliner chairs with TV's. In the middle of this room they had a long bar of more fresh fruit. If there was any fruit we saw that hadn't been cut, we just handed it to the workers on the other side of the counter and they would cut it for us. The massage felt awesome of course. The lady massaged my face, head, and shoulders for a whole 45 minutes! Afterwards we lied around in our recliner chairs for a couple of hours. After we got sick of the fruit and wanted a real dinner we showered again and left the spa. I should mentioned I spent an evening at this spa and got a head massage for less than 50 US dollars! Wassup! After we went and got pizza.... and then we went swimming at the Kaiyin pool.

 This is my school I teach at! It's such a nice school to teach at! It is one of the few schools in China that teaches English all morning.

 Anna and I getting pumped to go to the spa

 Inside the Royal Spa

nǐ hǎo ma - how are you?

I really love Sunday's here. Some might think that we don't gain much from church while we are in China because we only have sacrament meeting over Skype. However, I believe I have gained a lot more from church while being here. I feel the spirit so strongly. I feel as if living in China is kind of like living in a spiritual "fog" that you must penetrate personally. I am thankful I am able to still attend church here. My first counselor here sent out an e-mail on Saturday night and I really liked this comment he made, "Let us fill in the spiritual gaps in the environment here with more fervent prayer, scripture study, service, and attention to the living prophets and apostles." It is my responsibility to fill in those spiritual gaps.

After church I still wasn't feeling great so I hung out with Anna while some of the girls took naps. Later we went to Kaiyin for dinner and then walked around the track and played on playground with the Kayin group. After we had the Kaiyin group over for snacks and games!

cèsuǒ zài nǎli - where's the toilet

On Saturday I relaxed all morning and then started planning my lessons for the following week. We have to turn in all our lessons for the following week on Saturdays by 4. After I finished my lesson plans me, Karina, Anna, and Brittney took the shuttle downtown to get some food. We went to A-Ok to get a smoothie and then we got some noodles at a restaurant. After we walked around and did some shopping. While some of the girls were shopping I was on the street taking pictures when I noticed a boy around 11 years old was peeing! He was with his mom just peeing on the sidewalk! How is that normal here?! After we did some shopping we decided we needed to go back to our apartments to get some more money. However, we must have taken the wrong shuttle because we got lost for two hours. We finally rode the shuttle back into town and got on the right shuttle. Once we got home it was time for dinner so we tried a different pizza store. It was SO good! In the pizza store they had some American food like tortillas, cheese and nutella! We got back to our apartments and the other girls wanted more pizza and food so they went back. I was kind of in a bad mood and I had lost my money so I just stayed home. After they got home we watched some more how I met your mother.

 The traffic here is crazy scary! Every time I get on a shuttle bus I feel like we are about to crash.

 Peace out.

 Smoothies at A-Ok with Anna and Brittney! Mmmm SOOO good!

wo ai ni - i love you

On Friday I taught my kids how to make pizza. It is kinda hard to get my kids to talk and when they do it's in Chinese. I told one of my kids "No Chinese!" and he freaked out and started speaking more Chinese really fast. While I was in the baby class today I was helping Nikki with her lesson and I was holding this little boy named Tommy. Nikki was trying to get the kids to say "I want a turn." So while I was holding Tommy, I kept saying "I want a turn", "I want a turn". Next thing I know he started stuttering for a while and then he said 'I want a turn". It was the highlight of the day!

After class on Friday I unintentionally took a 2 hour nap. After waking up from my two hour nap we went to Kaiyin for dinner. After dinner we played some more soccer. When we were playing soccer two Chinese guys started taking pictures of us. It's so funny people will stare forever at white people here. They don't care that it's rude. We are just so foreign to them! After playing soccer me, Anna, Brittney and Karina went back to our apartments and watched how I met your mother.

zàijiàn - goodbye

Today I was actually able to teach my lesson in my homeroom class, because we had enough time. I taught them how to make ice cream cones. It was a little difficult because they didn't talk much, and when they did it was in Chinese. I get evaluated by my head teacher tomorrow, so she will be able to give me some pointers. I have this one kid in my class named Colton who is very disobedient. He often times is in a corner doing his own thing because the Chinese teachers can't get him to do anything. So today I tried get him involved and went over to him and started giving him high fives. I started walking backwards while giving him high fives to get him to sit down at his seat. As soon as we got half way he realized I was tricking him and ran back to his corner...

After school today we meet up with the Kaiyin group and hung out with them for a little bit. Then we took the shuttle to McDonald's again because we were craving an Oreo McFlurry. Then we went to the bakery to get some bread and peanut butter. Afterwards we relaxed at our apartment since we haven't done very much relaxing.

 This is part of my group and the part of the group from Kaiyin!

 This is the Kaiyin school - it's a lot bigger than my school because it's a boarding school.

 This is very common in China.

The entrance to our apartment complex. It's so pretty here!

buyao - no thank you

On Wednesday we had another day of school... some of the kids still cry when they come to class, but they are warming up to me. I know I'm not supposed to have favorites, but my favorite right now is this little boy named Bosco. He will grab my hand when he walks in line with the class and waves to me when I walk past my classroom. And when I change him he likes to grab my head and hold it against his forehead. I'll have to get a picture with him. Also during class today one of my girls, Nicole, banged her head on something. I don't know what happened because I was not in the room at the time, but when I got back in the classroom the Chinese teacher made me hold ice on her head. While I was tending to this little girl Bosco went on a long tangent in Chinese about Nicole's head. I know he was talking about her head because he kept pointing to it. It was so cute watching him try to explain to me what happened to Nicole in Chinese.

After school some of the girls from my school got together and did insanity with Shuan T. It's even harder doing insanity here, because there isn't AC in the living room! It's a good thing we worked out though, because we eat so many carbs here. We have rice and noodles for every meal, but we don't get full so we like to eat bread with peanut butter for a snack....I'm definitely lacking on protein here. After we worked out we ate dinner at Kiayan and then played soccer with the ILP group from Kiayan. It was SO much because the grass was super damp so we were sliding every where. I completely with collided with this dude and now I have nasty bruise on my knee. After we were done the Kiayan boys offered to take us home on their newly purchased scooters. (here in china you don't have to have a license to drive an electric scooter) So I braved getting on a scooter on the crazy Chinese roads. No worries, I survived! :)

wǒ bù zhīdà - i don't know

The second day of classes were a lot better because I knew the schedule. One of the kids in my class had his named changed to "Sparkle", because his parents didn't like the name Hayden I gave him. I feel bad for that dude.

After school we went to McDonalds and then to Walking Street for some major shopping! I got three shirts and pjs for my little brother. I love and hate the shopping here. I love it because a lot of the items are one of a kind, but that means things only come in one size.

 McDonald's delivers here in China! It's so cute seeing these guys walking around and riding on their bikes.

Hittin up the McDonalds

jiǎozi - fried dumplings

First day of school... I was pretty nervous starting the day. We got picked up by a bus from our apartments in the morning and went to the school. We had a few minutes to prep for our classes. Afterwards I had to lead opening with my kids. During opening we are supposed to go through a weather chart and a calendar explaining those things to them. But since I have my own classroom with 12 kids I have to do opening by myself. For the first two weeks my head teacher just wants me to sing songs with them.... so I sing in front of 12 children while they give me a confused look. Afterwards the kids go to the bathroom, wash their hands, and get a drink of water. Then they eat breakfast in their classroom with the Chinese teachers while I eat breakfast in the cafeteria with the other American teachers. After breakfast I go back to my homeroom class and I am supposed to teach them my lesson, but we ran out of time for me to give my lesson because I had to give them names. I named all the kids who didn't have an American name. Some of the names I picked the Chinese teachers thought they were too hard to say (example: Tanner). I also accidentally named a girl with a boy name, so they made me change that... And then to make things better one of the parents requested that their child have a name with a "x" in it. The only thing that came to mind was "Exodus", but I knew if the teachers couldn't say Tanner, Exodus was going to be a stretch. He ended up getting named Harry. After they go through the same process again of going to the bathroom, washing their hands and getting a drink of water. Then they went outside for an activity. After we brought them back into the classroom and changed them into different clothes. I don't know if I mentioned this but IT'S SO HUMID HERE, so that's why we change them. Once again they go to the bathroom, wash their hands and get a drink. Next they have a snack. During this whole time there are 2 or 3 Chinese teachers instructing them, but I tell them what to do in English after the Chinese teachers finish talking. In the chaos of everything I turned my back on two kids playing and next thing I notice was one kid biting the other on the shoulder. Poor kid had an intense bruise!  After snack time I went to the Pre-K classroom while Anna rotated to my homeroom class. It was so hard teaching the little 2 year old's, because they don't pay attention. After teaching/ watching the pre-k for about 40 minutes I went back to my home room for playtime. Then as they started lunch I was finished for the day and went back to the cafeteria to eat lunch. My school has the yummiest food! The bus picked us up again and drove us back to the apartments.

After school we met up with the boys from the Kaiyan school and went downtown to explore. We tried stuff at the bakery and tried smoothies from a store called A-OK! The Kiwi smoothie is the most amazing smoothie I have ever tasted. After exploring for a few hours we went and ate at a yummy restaurant! It was a long day, but it was fun!

 It's so pretty here. I never knew it was so jungle-like and green in China!

 All the girls teaching at my group!

wǒ chī bǎole - i'm full

On Sunday we had church at 10 am. We crammed 25 people into a tiny living room. In China we have to Skype into a branch and listen to their meetings. It was a very neat experience. Experiences like these make my testimony grow for the gospel. As I was sitting in our tiny living sweating during sacrament meeting I felt the spirit so strongly. It's amazing that even in a country where religion is less tolerated by the government, that people still gather for church. I am grateful we have a group of men close enough to us to administrator the sacrament to us each week. I was talking to the girls that have been here for a month and they said they haven't been able to take the sacrament because there weren't any guys here. This Sunday it was testimony meeting so we were fortunate to hear from people from all over the world. I enjoyed the Stake President's testimony about repentance. He explained that it is a hard process because of Satan's temptations, but yet it is so easy if we just reach out to Christ for help.

After church we ate lunch at the Kiayan school and then we headed back to our apartment for a training meeting. At our training meeting I was assigned the "Junior A" class - they are  3 - 4 years old. I then planned my lesson of the 3 Little Pigs for my drama lesson.

Afterwards me and the girls in my group went out to get pizza. We were craving the pizza we had had from the night before... As we sat down we noticed a white man in the resturant.  In China when you see a white person there is an automatic connection. As a result my head teacher walked up to him and invited him to dinner. He accepted the invite and joined our table full of girls. Come to find out he is from Switzerland and was in China because he doing an internship for some business. It was entertaining as Anna talked to him...

ba ba - papa

Today we woke up early again and decided to try to find the swimming pool in our community. Alison, Melissa, Carmen and I went exploring for a while and only found multiple groups of people doing tai chi outside. After having no luck finding the pool we decided to do charades for some Chinese guys to see if they could help us. Surprisingly they pointed us in the right direction and we were able to find the pool. However, when we got to the pool we found out we had to pay so we just went back to our apartments.

After our head teacher, Karina, woke up we walked around town to find some breakfast. We ended up walking into this pastry store. I got this Portuguese Tart that was super good! We walked around the town for a little longer and looked around at some of the stores. Afterwards we ate lunch at the Kiayan school that just down the street from our apartments.

After lunch we went to get smoothies… again. The ILP group from the Kaiyan school joined us. The guy at the smoothie store speaks pretty good English so we are able to have conversations with him. He enjoys our company / business everyday! The girls in my apartment and I then went exploring to find our head teacher, because we had lost her. In the process it started pouring rain! We thought she might be at the apartments for the Kaiyan school so we ran over there. Along the way we found two of the guys from the Kaiyan school and started playing basketball with them in the rain. It’s fun having two ILP groups live so close, because we are able to meet and hang out with so many people.

We ate dinner at the Kaiyan school and then took the shuttle down town to meet our coordinators.  We wanted them to show us a good store with Chinese dresses. They took us to Walking Street, which is basically multiple streets with lots of awesome stores.  I ended buying a cute little Chinese dress! I probably got one of the biggest sizes they had, but it actually fit me. If I understood them right the red Chinese dresses are meant for the Chinese weddings. We did some other shopping, but had to leave at 9:15 pm because the shuttles stop running at 10 pm.

On our way home we walked past a store called “Pizza and Coffee”. When you are in China and have Chinese food 3 times a day and you come across an American restaurant, you better take advantage of it!  A few of us girls stopped to get some pizza and fries. We dominated that food!

 Some of the girls in my group - (left to right) Melissa, Brittney, Carmen, Karina, Anna, Alison

 The fruit market - this is where we meet Carlos

 They randomly pile trash in the steets

xie xie - thank you

Struggling to adjust to a 14-hour time zone change, I woke up at 5:30 am.  At 10:00 we meet up with one of our coordinators, Brinna, so she could show us around Zhongshan. We fist stopped at a smoothie store and all had smoothies. Then we went to the bank to exchange money. After we went to the One Plus One market to buy a few things for our apartment. At the market a few of the girls needed to use the restroom…. So they had their first experience of a squatter toilet. Then we headed to the school we will be teaching at. The school is way nicer than I was expecting. It is three floors and very well organized. They have a ton of supplies previous teachers have brought. Apparently this school is the nicest ILP school in China, so I am lucky to be teaching at it. We then ate lunch at the school and I had my first experience with chopsticks. I wasn’t a pro but I managed to eat all of my food. After that another one of our coordinators, Mary, went through a presentation of rules and things we should know for teaching. Next Mary wanted to show us where the food market was so we got on another shuttle. The shuttles here get so packed! They don’t have a limit on the number of people… Also the Chinese don’t wear deodorant and the girls don’t shave. So when you’re stuffed in the shuttle it gets quite smelly. After getting lost on the shuttle we found the food market and met an 85-year-old man who looked like he was 40, named Carlos. He approached us and started talking to us. He taught us how to avoid a kiss and self-defense. When we finally got the Kiayan school where we were supposed to eat, it was closed. So Jojo, another coordinator, took us to get dumplings at a restaurant. They were so good! While we were in the restaurant we noticed a drying rack right next to us with some ladies clothes drying on it (including her underwear and bra). After dinner we headed back to our apartment and all cramped into my room to watch You’ve Got Mail.

China's finest squatter toilet

Buying pineapples from the back of a man's bike

This is the drying rack with the ladies clothes on it in the restaurant we ate at

Our favorite smoothie store we go to everyday