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.