Ni Hao: 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.