Tuesday, September 30, 2014

drag racing and a sleeper bus

Today has already been an adventure and it's only 2 p.m. Mr. Li told us a taxi was going to pick us up right at 10 o'clock sharp so we could catch our sleeper bus at 11. Well, we got outside and there was no taxi. We called Mr. Li and he said that we had to wait until 12 to catch the bus at 12:30.

We decided to all go inside and watch a movie, go to lunch, then meet the taxi driver. At about 11:15 Mr. Li calls saying the taxi driver is there so we had to go outside NOW. (It sucks trying to figure things out when people speak little or no English). 

Emily and I went to our apartment to grab our stuff and come walking outside to a very small car. Were they thinking they could shove all 8 of us in it?! We both started dying of laughter because it had to be a joke. Out of nowhere a small truck comes whipping around the corner, so we were laughing even harder We split up and crawled into the two small cars. I was in the truck with Hannah, Emily and Kelli. He was flying down the hill and we thought we were gonna die in the first 2 minutes. He pulled up to the school and told us to get into another car instead of the piece of crap truck.

What do you know, we are flying down the road!! We were going about 60 mph on a 35 mph road. I almost peed my pants from laughing so hard. We were all flying around! Wearing our seatbelts of course. We made it to a main road that I'm pretty sure you are only supposed to go like 60 mph. Nope, our driver chose to go 95 instead. Chinese people literally are the craziest drivers ever!! They don't use blinkers, and just honk at everyone to get out of the way. I felt like we were racing because he was weaving in and out of cars like it was nobody's business.


Five minutes later we made it to the bus stop. Okay maybe 20 minutes but it felt like 5. After waiting for 15 minutes this huge bus comes rolling up. They are shoving us on the bus, as they're yelling at us to take our shoes off! This bus is crazy cool! No seats, just beds everywhere! We all are on top bunks and people were taking pictures when we got on. I'm guessing it's entertaining for them to watch us look so stupid and confused.


After a few hours we finally made our first stop. Everybody and their dog needed to freaking smoke. And of course I had to pee with no bathroom around. We had to show our bus driver our Mandarin translation to find the toilet. Remember though that they don't have real bathrooms here. Stupid squatters that are nasty. And smell really bad. 

It took us a grand total of 16 hours to get here! I wanted to die. The beds weren't long enough for me to lay normally in so it was just awkward! I took some NyQuil to help me sleep because I have this stinkin cold, but nope. Didn't work very well! I was in and out of it alllll night and it was no bueno. I woke up at about 3 and the bus was parked at a gas station. I thought to myself that we stopped for gas. Nope. 3 hours we were there! I guess the bus driver wanted to take a little nap. 

I was so out of it while driving in Yangshuo but this place is gorgeous!! The mountains are so cool looking!

Today we are going on some kind of adventure so I'm looking forward to that.

loves.


Monday, September 29, 2014

jacky.

I have this little boy in my home room and his name is Jacky. Yes, I thought it should have been a girls name, but oh well!! He is so freaking cute and speaks English really well.

Yesterday after school some of us walked down to the market. When we were coming back parents were still picking up their kids from school. All of a sudden I hear this tiny voice yell, "Annie!!!" I look over and cute little Jacky is standing there with his parents waving at me. He comes running over and gives me the biggest hug ever! I told him to have a good vacation and he says, "okay" while running back to his mom. I look and she has the biggest smile on her face.

I love the moments like that when the parents get to see how we interact with their children and how much we love them. It makes teaching them that much better.

loves.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

love.

Today had more adventures for us!! We walked down to this park and there's a hidden little food place. Super cheap!! I ordered a Chinese pizza and fries. Oh. My. Goodness. That pizza thing was incredible!!! It tasted more like a breakfast burrito though. There was a tortilla for the "crust", ham, eggs, and ketchup. I guess that's their version of pizza, but it was delicious!!

Next to the food place, there's this giant statue of the word LOVE. Of course we had to take pictures of it! As usual, lots of Asians walk up and start taking pictures of us too. It's gonna suck coming back to the US and not getting all this attention;)


After dinner we walked over to where the market is and there's a lake next to it. Pictures don't so it justice though! I want you all to be here to see it. Especially at night. It's such a gorgeous place with the lights and it's so peaceful. Whenever I'm having a bad day, I know exactly where I'll end up. We walked around the entire lake and across this bridge that sits completely on top of the water. GAH I wish you guys could see it!!! I can't even begin to describe it. 



Once we made it all the way across the lake, we heard some music. Walk over to this little amphitheater and you better believe we started having a dance party:) Then out of nowhere a bunch of old ladies show up, and they have choreographed moves to the songs! It was like Zumba, but a lot more weird hahaha. We didn't dance for very long then just came home and had a chill night. Which was much needed after walking around so much!

Another little tid bit... After teaching English corner some of the students were following us to lunch. This kid was creepily following behind me looking at my butt. I kept thinking the little pervert!!! Then my friend realized he was wanted my phone out of my pocket. Hahahah We were dying laughing! This kids can be  crazy sometimes.


I'm looking forward to next week when we take our vacation! That will be more interesting to read about;)

loves.

Monday, September 22, 2014

eyes, butts, and english.

Today was an interesting day! I don't understand these kids and their behaviors sometimes.

This morning Emily and I taught English to a class of 2nd graders. Holy crap they love poking our butts!! We try and get mad but we just die laughing because we know that we have big butts. And the women here don't have curves at all. We are probably the worst teachers ever but we are constantly laughing because of the butt poking!

Also, in that class there were some hilarious things! Background first.. You know back home when people pull their eyes to make them look Chinese? Well, some kids were looking at Emily while I was up reading sentences, and the would pull their top eyelid and bottom eyelid really wide because apparently that's what we look like! There was a group of them and they wouldn't stop doing it or laughing! I had no idea what was going on but Em and I got a kick out of it:)

Today we started something new! It's called English corner. They picked certain kids throughout each grade that can speak English really well, or hardly at all. And for 45 minutes we go and just hang out with them! It's nice because we don't have to make up a lesson or anything, we go and play games, sing, or just talk. There are some funny kids in there so I know I'm really going to enjoy that this semester.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

xiamen.

Today we were able to take a short vacation and went to Xiamen (pronounced sha-men). We wanted to go there because apparently there is this absolutely gorgeous beach there! Long story very short, we didn't make it to the beach. 

We first got off the bus because one girl wasn't feeling too hot and saw a Walmart!!!! Best. Day. Ever. There are none around us so it made us all so pumped to see one. Embarrassing I know! Haha All I could think of was a giant bag of Peanut M&Ms. I searched that dang store until I finally found them! I was the happiest person ever:) My favorite candy of all time.

After going to Walmart we got some lunch at McDonald's and got ice cream cones. Can I just tell you that they have the best ice cream cones ever?! They are only 4 Yuan, which means they are $0.65 in the U.S. 

It was really a super chill day of a lot of walking! It helps so I hopefully won't get rice cheeks and gain weight while I'm here. That would be the greatest. We saw this gorgeous temple through a little crack of trees and decided to go check it out. It was really cool to see that place and watch people walk by and say a little prayer. Cool experience for sure.

Funny story.. They have these buses that run all day long and are really cheap to ride. Only annoying thing is that they shove as many people as they can into one! There's no such thing as personal space here. And you have to push your way through people to make sure you are getting on and off! Like a have said before, the drivers are awful!!! Even when there are a million people shoved onto a tiny bus. We were being thrown around everywhere and it was the funniest thing! People look at us like we are absolutely crazy, but clearly we don't care.

loves.

Friday, September 19, 2014

ally.

Mom I found the sweetest little girl and I'm bringing her home with me!!! Her name is Ally and she's the youngest in the entire first grade. She's only 5 years old and weighs as much as my pinky finger.

I'll be honest though, when I first met her, I thought she was a boy. So the first day we met all the kids we were able to give them English names and I tried giving her a boy name. My bad!!! Then Mr. Li told me she was a girl, and the name Ally just stuck out to me. Once I said it, her eyes lit up and she really liked it!

The first few days of classes she bawled her eyes out because she missed her mom so much! I wanted to cry with her because it was so sad. She actually never cried in any of my individual classes though. When I saw her I told myself that I was going to get her to like me. After a little bit she began opening up a lot in my classes and has the softest voice ever. Whenever I see her, or when she talks she always melts my heart!!

Today I just had to take a picture with her because she was so happy to see me and totally made my week!! Hopefully more pictures to come with this munchkin:)

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

what my days are like.

I've had some people what my days are like here in China so I'll give you the low down...

On Mondays and Wednesdays Emily and I teach 40 minutes of English to some second grade classes. We just have to give them sentences and repeat them over and over again. It's actually rather boring and not my most favorite thing..

The days we aren't teaching English sentences, we kind of just hang out and finish up our lessons. We don't teach our ILP students until 2:30 and we only have them for 3 hours. We have a 15 minute opening where we say the rules, the calendar, talk about the weather, and sing songs. After that we break up into our smaller classes that have 8 students each. (Total we have over 40 students that we see!) Each week we are assigned something to teach them about. For example: this week I have kitchen so we are just making small snacks. We only have them for 25 minutes then we rotate classes. 

The kids have gym, arts and crafts, games, drama, kitchen, and shop. But they are able to see each class everyday all week. Then at 5:00 we count their tokens and they leave! We give them tokens based on how much English they are speaking during class. Then at the end of the week, we add up all the tokens and they get prizes. We want them to only speak English in our classes so they can earn tokens. It sounds kind of odd, but it works and the kids love it!

Most nights we all eat dinner together and then just hang out! We usually just sit around and talk and watch movies, or we go to the market a lot. We love that place!! On the weekends we are usually busy on vacation, meetings, or hanging out! We have a LOT of downtime, but that's when we have the most fun:)

If anyone ever has any questions they want me to answer then feel free to ask away!

loves.

such a good day.

Oh my goodness!!! Today literally was one of the best days for me so far. It was so simple but I accomplished so much and I feel so good about myself.

This morning we decided to wake up early and try breakfast at the cafeteria. I am NOT a morning person so I was praying the food would be good. Holy crap it was sooo good!!! They had a bunch of different rolls and this watery/milky/soupy thing that you put sugar in. It sounds so strange but it was delicious! Pretty sure I ate about 10 sticky rolls because they are so addicting. I'm not quite sure what the milky stuff was, but I know if they have it again tomorrow to get more!

After breakfast we wanted to go try out our new gym memberships but apparently it didn't open until 9?! Strangest thing ever.. Instead we went on a walk around the sports center and little river they had. I find new surprises each and every single day that I'm here! The scenery is gorgeous and they have some pretty weird statues just chillin.

I was able to talk with my parents and Nick this morning which is always a highlight of my day. It throws me off being 14 hours ahead of Utah.. I'm going to be in trouble coming home!! I'm so grateful for the technology that we have so I am able to communicate with my friends and family back home or I'd go a little crazy. I finally was able to FaceTime my BFFFFFFF Kylie and that was so great!

We didn't teach until 2:30 this afternoon so I finished my lessons for the week, and took a nap. (Doesn't sound like me at all, huh?) teaching today went SO WELL!!! I'm teaching kitchen for the next two weeks so I just have to come up with a snack they can make in 25 minutes. I bought some Oreos then we put licorice on the inside of it coming out to look like legs, and marshmallows to look like eyes. Basically, I was wanting them to make a spider and they all were thrilled!!! "Teacha  Annie good job!!! It's very yummy." I love when the kids are happy with how a lesson went. Every class was absolutely perfect for me! I haven't had that at all since I've been here and today was perfect. I was the happiest person ever when I waltzed into dinner tonight. 


After dinner I finalized some lessons, and hung out with my girls!! It really was such a good day, I don't think any of you understand that. And the best way to end it... Watching Baby Mama:) my all time favorite movie.

I am so lucky I have this opportunity to be here this semester in China. At first I don't think I really understood what I was getting myself into. Each day I learn something new. Whether it's about one of my students, China, or my friends I'm teaching with!! We have so much fun. Some days I want to strangle the kids, and other days (such as today) I want to kidnap them and bring them back to Utah! (I'm sure Patti would love that! Haha just kidding mom). I miss everyone back home but wouldn't trade this experience for anything else.

loves.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

update thus far..

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.




Saturday, September 13, 2014

china!!

Hello everyone!!

A lot of people told me to make a blog but I didn't have a VPN (gives me internet in China) to do so. I figured out how to make this all on my phone though! I'll catch up on everything so far then continue to update you on my day to day activities. I'm excited because it will be like my own personal journal and I can also put pictures along with stories!

loves.