Miscommunications

So on Tuesdays and Thursdays we have to teach two afternoon Chinese classes. There are about twenty to thirty kids and most of them don't speak a lick of English so Keegan and I mostly sing duets to the kids. They are mostly babysitting classes. So last Thursday the Chinese teacher had left and the kids went completely insane. Screaming at each other, hitting each other, running around, and anything else that 5-6 year olds like to do. While I tried to control the class Keegan left to go find the teacher. When she finally found her she tried to explain to the teacher with hand motions that when we're talking the kids shouldn't be talking. So the teacher followed Keegan back into the classroom. We thought that she had solved the problem until the Chinese teacher ran up to Keegan, clothespins in hand. For some odd reason the teacher had translated Keegan's "talking" hand motions into us needing clothespins :) I love the miscommunications here.

Just thought you'd like this picture

This is what we eat everyday :)...

Kung Fu

So this morning at 7 o'clock (which was kinda brutal for a Saturday morning) Lindsey, Amy, Emily, and I went down to the gymnastic room in our school to get Kung Fu lessons! The guy who taught us didn't speak much English but he was really nice. First we had to try and kick our foot to our hand a million times. Kung Fu is not for those who have no flexibility whatsoever and I would be considered in that category. I was pulling a bunch of different muscles I didn't even know I had. Then the guy taught us a Kung Fu routine. It was awesome! I felt so Chinese. We were all dripping sweat off of us by the time we were done. The humidity makes evaporation really hard so when you sweat it just sits on you. It makes you feel so attractive :) Anyway I'm really excited to know this routine. Mostly because I want to show the kids that I teach, they LOVE Kung Fu. They will be so proud of me for learning some sweet moves.

Noises at Night

I just thought I would write a quick blog to let you know what the night life is like here. Right when the sun goes down the bugs come out so you have to make sure that any skin that you don't want bitten is completely covered. Raychel and I sleep in one of those bug tents but it doesn't really help much when the bugs are trapped inside with you. They have quite a feast those nights! Usually the nights are hot so we have to keep the window open letting the air, but also the noises in. China is not a quiet city. Mostly all you hear is cars honking but lately we've had to deal with cats. Yeah thats right cats. They sit outside our apartment and scream at each other for hours. The sound isn't exactly like waking up to birds singing. Keegan was wondering ways today on how to kill them (don't worry.... I'm pretty sure that plan is a no-go). The absolute worse sound to wake up to is probably people though. Chinese is kinda a harsh language anyway so to wake up to someone yelling in the middle of the night can be a terrifying thing. Especially when you have no idea what they are yelling :) I like the experience of living here but I've redefined what a "good night sleep" is.

Big Family Reunion

Although my Father stated that I should name my text blog "Barf" because I have become very familiar with the word since all three of my roomies have been sick this week. I decided against it :) I could have taken some really good pictures to put onto the blog though!
So this weekend was kinda a crazy but fun one. Yesterday Jane (the owner of the Language Bond Insitute) took all of the ILP teachers in the Zhongshan area to Zhu Hai for a day trip. We really didn't know what to expect except the fact that Jane always feeds us at nicer restaurants. So we left about mid-day without Raychel and Jadie because of their illnesses. First they took us to the school in ShirQi where they gave us lunch and some prety sweet polos to wear. They reminded me of EFY counseling shirts. Once everyone arrived they took about a million and two photos of us in our sweet polos. It was actually really neat to see everyone again. Some of the people I had just said goodbye to from our trip to San Ya and others I haven't seen since Hong Kong. It was a big familiy reunion! Its also nice to be able to talk to someone who can understand you :)
Next we took a bus to Zhu Hai to go to the Yung Wing International Kindergarten School. It sounds like a weird little field trip but it was amazing!! I have never seen a school like it! It had kitchen rooms, art and crafts rooms, a dance studio, a stage, a science center, music rooms. It was just incredible. We all just ran from room to room taking tons of pictures and playing with all the toys. Made me want to be a kid again. The outside of the school was even better. There were different house/play areas. They had made castles, farm areas, waterfalls, rock climbing walls, train stations, totem polls. It was amazing! I think it might be an new ILP school which be such an awesome place to be able to teach but a lot of pressure.
When we were done at the school Jane took all of us to this cool restaurant that was placed over a river. It was a seafood restaurant and although I do like seafood I had a hard time with them food they gave us. Lots of tentacles, shrimp that still had eyeballs, and goose legs. I wasn't really in the mood and I guess either was Emily because on the way home by van she was throwing up. Poor girl. The sickness is going around.
It was so a random but an awesome day. I loved it! Hope all is going well with you. Thanks for all the comments!

San Ya

So we just got back this morning from our trip to San Ya. San Ya is the southern-most city in China so it is known as the warmest, with the prettiest beaches. It was exactly what we needed just to get out of the cold weather we've been having here for a little while.
The trip there was kind of a disaster. It was only suppose to be a 15 hour bus ride but the whole trip ended up being around 25 hours long. We switced buses four times and rode the ferry once. If you've never experienced a China sleeper bus then, you are lucky. But the point is that we made it. We got there late on Saturday so we mostly just unpacked and then went to look at the beach that was a 2 minute walk from the hostel we were staying in. The beach is amazing! The great thing about San Ya is that it is a really big Russian touristy place. So we weren't the only white people around! Yet, we still got stopped many times on the beach with people wanting to take pictures of us. It was kinda weird when a Chinese person would come up to you speaking Russian though.
Sunday we mostly spent it basking in the sun next to the ocean. I told everyone that as long as I could lay and read my book on the beach I would call it a successful trip. I got lots of amazing time to do that. Monday was the best day there. We ended up paying 300 yuan (about 40 American dollars) to take the whole entire day to go surfing!! We had a personal surfing instructor that drove us about 2 hours away to be able to get some really big waves. The beach we went to was completely empty. We had it to ourselves the whole day, it was fantastic. If there is one thing that I learned the whole day it was that surfing is hard! I got smashed pretty good by most of the waves but I actually did get to ride a couple of them which was pretty much amazing. I think every single muscle, bone, nerve, tendon, joint, etc, etc.... that is in my body hurts. I wouldn't mind just spending the rest of my life on the beach. Become a surfing bum.
Tuesday was another day spent in lesiure. On the beach we swam a little. I got to go skinny dipping which was pretty exciting :) Then we got to hold an alligator! Freaky but exciting. We spent most of the day shopping. Real strings of pearls there were lower then 5 American dollars. I've got a lot of bling to be able to bring home!At the end of the day we got to fly home. Although it had it's mishaps it was much better then the bus. I'm glad to be home though. I missed seeing the little kids, not so much yelling at them, but playing with them. What a great vacation..... I love San Ya!

Swimming through the humidity

I just thought that I would write a brief blog about one of the great perks about China... the humidity. It hasn't been bad up till now but now we are understanding the word "stickiness" in a different way. We have a washer here but no dryer so we put all of our clothes on hangers and hang them on chains to dry on our balcony. Sometimes this becomes a problem in wind storms. We've already lost a bathroom mat, two shirts, and a towel. We put out our clothes to dry on Friday and I think they were finally dry on Monday, that can be a good weekend. The advice that I received before coming here was that your clothes dry faster when you're wearing them then drying them outside. I believe they were speaking the truth. The humidity is so thick here that you never see the sky. I believe that is also from pollution though :) Even when we're inside our apartment, it won't be that cold and yet we can see our breath. I miss the days when my hair was straight. I tried straightening it the other day and five minutes after it was finished the curls springed back into their place. Its pretty fun to get use to. Makes you appreciate the dry air you left at home :)
So tomorrow (we think) we leave for San Ya. It is the furthest Southern city in China and it has one of the prettiest beaches ever. They describe it as "something like Hawaii" :) Its a much needed vacation thats for sure. I hope all goes well for the rest of you this weekend. I'll be home on Wednesday! Love you!

Bringing my camera to class...

Home Visits

So Keegan and I just got back from doing a home visit with two of our kids, Lily and Tom. I guess what the teachers do every once in awhile is go to the kid's home to visit with their parents. Just informing them about how they are doing and other such junk... It was actually really neat. It was so cool to get to meet their parents and families. Most of them didn't speak English at all but we went with Lulu and Milly, they work with us in the Kindergarten. So they translated for us when needed but most of the time we just sat there and nodded and smiled. They fed us tons and tons of fruit!! It was kinda a cool way to try out new stuff though. I think one of the best parts for me was being able to see the kid's Dads. For some reason the Chinese men here kinda scare me so it was really neat to see them in a family atmosphere. They really do love their kids. It was surprising because the apartments that they lived in were really nice. This school is quite an expensive school for the kids to be at. Its almost like a boarding school, the kids are here from 6 am to 6 pm. I don't know how they keep the kids occupied for that long. I can't even keep them occupied for 20 minutes sometimes! Anyway it was a really cool experience. Mostly to see what Chinese life is like in the home. Thanks for your comments and thoughts! Much love!

A Birthday Party

So today was Lindsey's birthday. It was a really fun day!! It has actully warmed up here a little bit which has been a complete blessing. It was the perfect day to be able to go get some bikes!! We've been planning on getting bikes since we got here but I guess we just weren't motivated until now. We found this cute little ghetto shop and totally cleaned the place out with the six of us. The bikes are well.... kinda like the shop. Cute little ghetto bikes :) The man we bought them from put them together right before our eyes. He even used his own spit to get things to stick together :) Although I thought his skills were really impressive we've had three pedals already break off by the end of today. Now instead of watching the insane traffic we get to be apart of it! We feel a lot more Chinese.
We went to an Italian place for the Birthday dinner. It was really fantastic. Jadie and I picked up a birthday cake and put it on the back of Jadie's bike to bring it to the restaurant. She looked just like a cute little delivery girl :) She was a really good delivery girl until she took a spill off the curb sending herself and the cake into a wonderful heap on the ground. Poor Jadie.... and cake. We pushed the cake back together though, all is right with the world again. There's nothing like celebrating a birthday in China! It was a really fun day...

Our Chinese Fashion Show

So all of you who were not already aware, Keegan, Raychel, and I were in an Asian Fashion show tonight. Every year all the schools from the Xiaolan area get together and have a Fashion Show that everyone comes to see. Random I know. This year our school asked the three of us to be in it with them. They took us to go find Chinese dresses and then we've had practices on how to walk/dance all week. The Chinese put us to shame on the runway. They are just naturally beautiful and graceful, they hardly even needed practice. All of the school had to perform numbers that had the same three themes: Work, play, and elegance. We got to be in the elegance part of it which was so fun. So this evening we did our makeup then some Chinese lady did my hair. The greatest part about it was the chopsticks holding the bun up :) We were one of the first schools to perform which was good because the show ended up being hours long. The three of us were soooo nervous before we got on stage but right when we walked on everyone went nuts!! There was tons of whistling and cheering (probably from our other four girls in the audience but we like to pretend it was everyone). It was hard not to laugh on stage at the craziness of me modeling a dress in China. What are the odds...It was a great night. It was such a neat experience that I am so glad I got to have.

Little Lucas

So I have to tell you the story that happened today in class. The kids have been really good this week mostly because we started a "Three strikes and you go to the Chinese teacher" rule. The Chinese teachers are pretty brutal so all of the kids try to avoid that as much as possible. Anyway, today in one of classes there is this little boy named Lucas. He is adoreable. He has glasses and knows almost perfect English. You forget you're teaching a six year old how to speak. Today he walked in and said "Teacher Mandy sick". I've been sick for the last couple days but I haven't ever said anything so I'm not sure how he knew that. He probably saw me coughing, he's a very smart kid. Anyway when I replied that I was sick he came over and sat his chair next to mine and said "I will take care of you". He perceded to hold my hand and warm it up with his own hand. The whole time just mumbling "You are so cold I will warm you". When he was done warming up my hand, and I had to get up to teach the rest of my lesson, he put his arms around me, said "I love you", and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Way to become the teacher's pet! Pretty much made me never want to yell at him again... he knows how to work the system :)

A Christmas Story in China

Today we all went down to the cafeteria to see what was for dinner. There was rice (no surprise there) and cooked cabbage. At first I thought that was all there was when the chef (we always call him Spencer) pulled out this whole cooked chicken. You could see it's legs, wings, body, and head. We weren't sure what he was doing at first but then he pulls out this HUGE butcher knife, grabs the chicken's head, and chops it off! Right before our poor innocent eyes. He thought it was so funny that these little while American girls were freaking out over a chicken head. We were more freaking out at the poor decapitated chicken. It reminded me of "A Christmas Story" when they go to the Chinese restaurant for dinner and their duck is "smiling" at them. I guess the Chinese take care of "smiling" animals all the same way :). Needless to say, none of us took the head to eat...

The Best day!

So today we got to go back to GuangZhou to go to a District Conference that is only held once a year. It was held at the Ramada Hotel and the District we are in consists of all of Southern China. Out of all of Southern China only around 200 people were there, a lot of them from our ShenZhen branch that we attend on Sundays. It was eye openning to recognize that no, China is not open to the gospel right now but the people that are members here are strong valient members who are great examples to the rest of their country. It was a two hour meeting where we got to hear from Stanley Wan of the area Presidency and Elder Anthony Perkins of the quorum of the seventy. It was really cool to hear from him because he talked in General Conference a couple years ago. All of their talks were amazing.
After our meeting was over they served us lunch (which was spagetti and ham and cheese sandwiches!!! Heaven!) and then Elder Perkins and memebers of the district presidency had a Young Single Adults fireside for a hour. It was really neat experience because it was mostly a question/answer session. It didn't go as most of my question/answer sessions have gone with Bishops as a youth. Most of the discussion consisted of clarifying China's role in this gospel, and our role as examples in China. Just being in the same room as these men you could feel the spirit testifying that those men were men of God. They were called by Him to help prepare this nation for what it will soon receive and to prepare the world for when we come to know China. I'm so incredibly grateful for this opportunity that I got to have. I'm glad I'm here in China, to make sure that I'm not taking for granted the truths that I've known since I was in Primary. The gospel isn't any less true here then it is at home.
Thanks so much for you love and prayers! I miss you all!