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

Arriving in China

After a 1.5-hour flight to Las Angeles then a 12-hour flight to South Korea then a 3.5 hour flight to Guangshou and a 2 hour bus ride we finally made it to Zhongshan, CHINA! We were dropped off at the bottom of this hill and had to roll all our bags to the top of the hill. It’s unbelievably humid here, so everyone was dripping sweat by the time we got to the top. In my apartment there are five girls with two bathrooms. We apparently live in one of the nicest places in China… We have AC but we can’t turn it below 26 degrees Celsius (78 degrees Fahrenheit). We have a washer (that can only wash five items at a time) but we don’t have a dryer. We are supposed to hang all our clothes on the balcony, but I’m not so sure they will dry considering how humid it is.

Once we got into our apartment I tried unpacking but I was so tired I had to take a nap. I took a nap, but in between my nap I had a slight panic attack because I felt like I couldn’t breathe. So logically I opened the door to my balcony to get some fresh air outside. However, its so humid outside it didn’t even feel like I left my room. After my nap I ate dinner with some of the girls in my apartment. Our coordinators here made us fried rice for dinner. Then I took a much-needed shower and hung out with all the girls for a little while. We then had a meeting of all the rules and precautions. After the meeting our power went out, which means no AC. I feel like I’m going to have another panic attack during the night…

 The tour of my fancy apartment in China

Living room

Kitchen

My room - my bed is the one on the left and yes the manikin came with the room

 

Bathroom - thankfully we don't have a squatter toilet, but we can't flush toilet paper down the toilet