This post is going to be RANDOM and my thoughts from the last two weeks:) so sorry if I'm all over the place
It took us a whopping 44 hours to arrive in Quanzhou. PS you pronounce it "chwen-jo." It took us forever to figure out how to say it, and the Chinese teachers make fun of us still when we say it. Hahah
Once we arrived at the airport our school coordinator Mr. Li picked us all up. He is the funniest guy!!! He's in his early 30's and has the cutest wife, Sofia. She doesn't speak any English but seriously is adorable!! If we ever need anything, he's the guy to call. Water, clogged laundry drains, taxi's, speaking to the Chinese teachers; he's our guy. Sometimes I think he's really annoyed with us, but altogether we are constantly laughing when we are having meetings with him. He is a funny guy because we will ask him a question and he won't answer us, but will magically just do it. Or will send someone over to help us. He is a hoot!! And when we have meetings he let's us eat his food:)
Anyways, something we learned within the first day of being here is that Chinese drivers are the WORST drivers ever. Like seriously though! I fear for my life whenever we drive places. Our school technically isn't located in Quanzhou. We are about 45 minutes outside of the city and we are in Julong. We live in apartments on campus and walk EVERYWHERE. It takes a grand total of 10 minutes to walk to the cafeteria and to class. Our school is called Julong Foreign Language School. It's a boarding school and there are about 2,000 students. K-9th grade go here. The kids arrive on Sunday night and stay all week long until Friday afternoon. Their dorms are these tiny little things that 8 people stay in each. They live here during the week and go home for two days. If I were a student I would HATE living at school, but they don't know any differently.
Every night we walk to the market to buy fruit and treats. It is so cute!! We go almost everyday and it's an adventure. Everything is really cheap so you better believe I buy lots of treats. Okay, maybe not lots. But they don't serve fruit at the cafeteria so we buy our own!
Speaking of the cafeteria... Oh my goodness! They serve rice every single meal. And I'm not exaggerating. We've also had fish heads, octopus, chicken feet, pig ears, chunks of fat, dumplings (unreal and my favorite things), lots of different vegetable mixes. The pumpkin veggie dish is to die for!! Meals were interesting the first week and a half, but now they are getting a lot better and we love them. No more trying new things, we just have our specific things we all like.
Can I just tell you how much I LOVE my group?! I honestly was blessed with some amazing girls. We haven't been here long but we are all so close. My roomie Emily is from American Fork and just graduated high school this year. She is hilarious!!! One of the sweetest and craziest girls I've ever met. We have gotten really close and I love her like a little sister. She has such a sweet spirit about her and lights up any room she's in. I don't think it was an accident that she was placed in my life at this time. Two of the girls are from Arizona, and the rest of us from Utah. We all are completely different but we get along really well. Yes we have had our ups and downs, but altogether it's been so fun.
Speaking of Emily, she says the funniest things so we decided to start making a quote book of things she says. Nobody knows what is going on in that cute head of hers, but I'm glad she shares the majority of her thoughts with us because we are rolling on the ground laughing. I'm excited to see what happens at the end of the semester with all her crazy quotes.
The first weekend we were here it was the Mid-Autumn festival. They had a big dinner at the school and of course, the American teachers needed to perform. They love when Americans sing or dance or just put on some kind of show. We choreographed the cheesiest dance to a Shakira song and it was hilarious! Other Chinese teachers performed but the second we stepped on stage everybody in the audience whipped out their cameras and were loving us. People were wanting pictures after with their kids and we got some funny pics with the head master.
One really awkward and horrible thing.. The squatters. They basically don't believe in toilets here, so at the school and in public, you get to squat to use the bathroom. Thank the heavens above that we have a toilet in our apartment though!! But yeah you carry around your own toilet paper and squat to use the bathroom. I better have killer legs and a nice butt from all the squatting;)
Here's a funny story for ya'll... One night we didn't want to walk back to the school from the market, so we somehow managed to ask this cute little Chinese lady if she could give us a ride. They have a lot of big golf carts here that can hold up to 10 people, and they drive them all over. (And scooters, they love scooters). So this lady was driving on a main road then slammed on the breaks! We were like, "crap what did we do?!" And she says, "picture?! And holds out her phone." We almost got nailed by the huge truck since we were just parked in the middle of the road taking a selfie with this Chinese lady. We all were in the picture, then she kept on driving. It was the scariest thing but sooo funny.
One main thing I've been craving like crazy since I've been here is chocolate. Chinese people don't like sweets! Or if they do, it's weird stuff. So I just want chocolate all the time! You all know how much we Emery's love our chocolate. Every now and then I want a Dr. Pepper but I'm proud of myself for not going crazy yet. Key word, yet. They only had this at the Korean airport, but it is nowhere in China.
Last week we were able to travel to Guangzhou and it was crazy fun! We took the fast train which goes about 250 km an hour. Don't ask what it is in miles because I don't know haha it took us about 6 hours total to get there. I love the trains because you can see a lot of China. We stayed at a hostel for about $30 total. I love how cheap everything is here! I bought breakfast at the hostel and it only cost me $3. So fun!!
This is when I fulfilled my dream and rode an ELEPHANT!!! They had this safari park that had soooo many animals. I only wanted to ride the elephants though. It was nice because riding the elephant, feeding it, taking pictures and all that was only $20. I'm telling you, so CHEAP!! It was so cool riding that thing. They also have rough skin and are hairy. Never would have thought that. I think that they are gorgeous animals! Best experience ever.
While we were in Guangzhou we accidentally took the wrong stop from the metro and found this adorable shaved ice place. But it wasn't shaved ice! I don't even know how to explain it. It was heaven! They also had these bubble waffles that, oh my goodness, were delectable! Don't even get me started on how good.. Those are the kind of sweets these people need to have more often. Also, while there we found a McDonalds. You better believe we got some ice cream cones! Mouth watering.
Lucky us! On the way back from Quangzhou we had tickets for a standing train. Bleh!!! You either would stand or hop from seat to seat when people wanted their actual seat. I eventually ended up sitting on the floor with all of my friends. We were delirious and laughing hysterically at everything. I put my earphones in, and was singing every song on the top of my lungs! You better believe I'm the best singer ever!! People would lean in the aisles and just stare. I did not care what any of the Asians thought, because I will never see them again! Go Annie.
The other night we had a girls night (which basically happens every single day) but we ate a butt load of American candy, and watched movies all night. The following morning we made French toast for breakfast. Probably the best that I have ever had. Okay maybe not ever, but I forgot how much I missed that stuff!! Mmmmmmmm:)
Since the church technically isn't allowed here, we all just Skype in for church. Then they have roll call to see where everyone is calling in from, and there were quite a few of us just all over China! We are still trying to figure out how we would be able to take the sacrament, but it's a cool experience being able to still have church so far away from home.
Now that I have this blog started things won't be all over the place like this post. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be able to live here until December. There are ups and downs, but overall I feel like I am here for a reason and I'm going to learn a lot from this experience. I'm going to live my life and enjoy every second while being in Quanzhou. Miss you all.
Loves.