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!

New name

This week has been a really good one. We've stayed busy doing lots of fun things. I'm getting use to pretty much doing whatever you want. If I want to learn guitar I can learn guitar, if I want to go play ping pong I can just go play ping pong. Its a good time just to get those things that you've always wanted to do done. There's lots of time here after teaching where you don't have to be constanting studying or working like at college. This week we have started taking Chinese lessons from a native named Vivi. She comes over like two to three times a week for like 1-2 hours for language lessons. This last time she gave us new Chinese names! My new name is Mao Yan Chun. Mao is for Amanda, and Yan Chun is for beautiful Spring. So kinda fun! Its really cool to learn the language. It is sooo intense. The same word can be spelled exactly the same but in Chinese they have four differen tones so if you say it slightly off then it has a whole new meaning. Oh! Annie also told us that we might get to have kung fu lessons on Saturday's too which would be so cool. Keep your fingers crossed that it will happen....