Chi Pao

So today we spent about three hours in a dress shop. Jadie's wedding dress was completed which was the most exciting news ever! I was a little apprehensive to see the dress since we have a hard time trying to communicate with people but it was absolutley stunning!! It was everything she wanted and she looked beautiful in it. She ended up getting it, made to fit her body, for around 120 American dollars. That makes all of us just want to get a wedding for no aparent reason! All of us went because we were getting our Chi Paos made. A Chi Pao is just a Chinese dress. We looked through the books they had there and found the Chinese dresses that we wanted and got measured for them. I'm really excited! I've never had a tailor-made dress before. While we were waiting for everyone to get their measurements Amy found this amazing frog costume! It was for little kids but we forced Emily to try it on anyway. Probably the greatest thing I've ever seen. I think we all about peed our pants. Our dresses are going to be done in the next two weeks! I can't wait!

Some more pictures

Pretty much the Coolest picture in the world I think. All of us jumping on the Great Wall of China!
After running through the Water Show
A whole army
The army men and me :)!
Em, Jadie, and I in front of the Temple of Heaven (looks like a fake backround huh? :))

Beijing and Xi'An

On top of the World

The Forbidden City

My Owey from falling in the Fobidden City

Em and I

We just got back from one of the coolest vacations of all times! I'll go briefly through the days:

Day 1: Arrived in Beijing. Went and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. If you've never been you totally should its the bomb. It made us a little homesick since it reminded us what America does best... Rock n' Roll
Day 2: Went to see lots of cool dead people's houses. First we went to Tiannemin Square. No, riots or anything just a really busy big place to walk around. There was a place where you could see the remains of Mao's body but it was closed so we'll just have to imagine what what it looked like. Next we went on to the Temple of Heaven where Emperor's use to give sacrifices. It had some of the neatest looking Temples. We were running a little late through that one so we ended up doing "running photography". Those pictures turned out great :). The next place we went to was the Forbidden City (all that studying last Semester on it really paid off Katie :)). It was HUGE!!! We walked through it for what seemed like forever. They have an amazing imperial graden where we got to make a wish on a coin and throw it into a pond. The only sad thing about this was that I took a fall of the Forbidden City stairs and banged up my elbow pretty good. I landed on my camera so it was a miracle that my elbow was the only thing that felt broken :). How can say they've fallen on the steps of the forbidden city? At night we went to an acrobat show and if you've never seen these Asian people bend then you're really missing out.
Day 3: Climbed the Biggest Wall in the World!!!! The day before Amy found a guy named Ben and he was offering to take us up to a part of the Great Wall that is not filled with tourist (not to worry it was safe). When he said that it was going to be a hike I really didn't think it was going to be... a hike. I thought we would walk up to the Wall, take a bunch of pictures, and then head back down. I for sure what wrong. First it took a straight up climb to the wall and then we had a 4 hour climb on the wall after that. Probably the coolest thing I have ever done in my life. I did my cartwheel (although it wasn't that pretty) and got lots of pictures. The pictures don't do that place justice. The Wall was probably one of the most incredible things I have ever seen in my life. We spent the whole day hiking out in one of the Wonders of the World.
Day 4: Becoming dirt poor. We spent most of the day before our train to Xi'An shopping in what is called The Silk Market. It is like the biggest shopping area with floors devoted to certain objects (ex. Pearls, jeans, silk, jewelry... pretty much a girl's Heaven). A good finale to Beijing.
Day 5: Saw an Army. We went to to see the Terracotta Warriors (labeled the 8th Wonder of the World). It was SO cool. They are over 2000 years old and they were just recently found around 40 years ago. They're still uncovering new stuff everday. There are over THOUSANDS of soldiers and horses in the pit and none of are replicas of each other. All of them are unique and completely amazing. A whole army just hidden underground. That night we went to a water show in the park. The water would shot out with the music playing and for some reason we got the brilliant idea to run THROUGH the show. So there is us five Americans running through the show with no shoes on screaming like little girls. We give America a good name :)
Day 6: Went to see a Drum tower and performance in Xi'An and went home. It was fantastic!!!!

I loved being there but I'm excited to be home. I miss the kids. They're my life here. I hope that all went well with you this week! Much love!

Doing a cartwheel on the Great Wall

Hey everyone! Just wanted to say "peace out" for a week. In two hours we're on our way to Beijing!!! The trip we've been looking forward to since we signed up to go to China. Hopefully all goes well. I'm really excited to go. Raychel and I have a goal to do a cartwheel on the Great wall :) We'll see how it goes! I love you all and wish you the best of weeks.

Pow! Right in the Kisser!

So on the bus on the way to church today all of us were sitting comfortably listening to our ipods to church music when the unthinkable happened. There were these people in front of us yelling at each other, which wasn't really unusual, until the volume went up a few notches. Then a woman that was probably in her 60s stood and and started screaming at this guy sitting next to us. The man, probably in his thirties stood up, grabbed the old lady's head and threw it into the seat. The old woman was popped up, though, fists a-flying. She wasn't going to let him have the last say in that fight. She was going to punch him right in the face! He was done though. He sat back down in his seat and cleaned his nails as if nothing had happened. Then they got off the bus together. Maybe it was a mother-son feud of some sort :)

Emily, Leo, and I

Kareoke Night

So last night our school put on a Kareoke Night. All of the teachers and staff that we get to work with were all invited to this really nice restaurant where you can eat and listen to people sing. The Principal made it into a compeition and told us Americans that if all six of us sang she would give us something. So we practiced really hard (like only two hours before the performance). Annie, our native coordinator, came over and taught us this really famous Chinese love song. We weren't very good at it so we had to write it on a white board to take with us but the song is really pretty. We had two numbers we were performing. The second one was "Hit me Baby One more Time" by Britney Spears. I knew there was a reason I listened to her so much when I was younger :) They love Britney here. They also love Michael Jackson, Kelly Clarkson, and "My heart will go on" by Celine Dion... they play that song like every time we're in the supermarket. Anyway so we got a little choreography going with our Britney song and got dressed up and left.
It was so awesome to see all of the school's staff. They are so great to work with. It was just a fun night. Even though we couldn't understand anything the people were singing they had the music videos playing right next to them (just like SingStar!) so that kept us pretty entertained. Our performance rocked the house!! Everyone went nuts when sang our Britney song. We even threw off our jackets and pulled down our hair. While singing onstage they came up and gave us watermelon (weird.... must be a Chinese thing) and Spencer, our favorite cook, brought up fake flowers. They even wanted an encore. Well if the people want an encore....an encore is what they shall get!! At the end of the night they gave out awards to everyone. They gave us each a really nice folder with a certificate inside for an "OK" job :). It was such an awesome night. I just love these people.