Chinese Raychel

Here I Come.......

2009-06-26T22:20:00.002+08:00

I will be home soon!!! Wish us luck as we take our last adventure through China, ferry across to Hong Kong, find our way to the Hong Kong airport, weight our luggage, get on a plane and travel to Taipei, switch planes and travel to Los Angeles, arrive on American soil (I LOVE THIS COUNTRY :) go through customs, get on a plane and head for Salt Lake City arriving at 7 p.m. tonight. It is going to be a long day! Love you all!!!

#1 Favorite Thing I Love about China - My Students!

2009-06-26T22:03:00.004+08:00

My all-time favorite thing about being here in China is the the reason I came.....the kids!!! I have loved spending time with them and getting to know them. They understand us more than most Chinese people and they have taught me more than I have taught them. I truly fell in love with these kids and I will miss them so much. What a rewarding experience this has been!!!

Me and my students. Look at those adorable faces :)

Well, maybe these faces aren't so adorable!

#2 Favorite Thing I Love about China - Shopping

2009-06-25T23:31:00.004+08:00

The shopping here is fun!!! We go shopping pretty much all the time and every time we go out someone has to buy something. The Chinese people are very talented and take a lot of pride in the things that they have made by hand. They are usually selling these items on the streets. If you walk by them without purchasing the items they holler after you yelling, "cheap, cheap." They know that American word very well :) The shopping is very cheap and just last week I got two pair of shoes for $15. I am going to miss buying things for cheap. I can definitely say that between the six of us we have helped out the Chinese economy. Pray for me that my suitcases are not overweight!

A street market where they sell their homemade items.

Street vendors selling fruit and vegetables.

Nothing stops us from shopping...not even the rain!!!

#3 Thing I Love about China - Spa Treatments

2009-06-24T23:38:00.006+08:00

We have definitely spoiled ourselves in China. We love having pedicures and manicures and it is not expensive at all. The Asians are very good when it comes to the pampering services. More than anything I loved getting my head massaged!!! The Asians spend about 30 minutes just massaging your head, it feels so good and it makes me want to fall asleep every time. When they are done with that they straighten our hair. They don't straighten it with a straightener, just with a brush and a blow dryer. They are amazing! They can make my hair straight but it only lasts for about 10 minutes until I go out into the humid weather, then it goes back to curly. I will not miss the humidity!

Me, Mandy and Jadie getting ready for our pedicures.

Guess who's feet belong to who? Unfortunately, my feet are the swollen ones. My body does not like the hot, humid temperature.

The finished manicure.

This is the part I love and I can fall asleep every time.

Here I am with straight hair.....for about 10 minutes :)

#4 Thing I Love About China - Birthday Parties

2009-06-23T23:15:00.006+08:00

I have also enjoyed Chinese birthdays! Our first encounter of a Chinese birthday was Ryan's birthday in February. He is one of our students and his parents wanted to celebrate in the evening at the school, of course, with the American girls. Birthdays here are full of food, friends, family and red bean angel cake. In our time in China Lindsey, me, Jadie and Mandy have had birthdays and we have celebrated each of our birthdays in a different way! Every birthday Annie brings us a cake. At first we were scared of the cakes because we thought they were going to have red beans in the middle but Annie has taken good care of us and she gets us cake with fruit in the middle.

Ryan's birthday party. We are surrounded by friends, Ryan's family, red bean angel food cake and lots of food.

#5 Favorite thing about China - The Bakery

2009-06-23T06:06:00.008+08:00

One of my favorite things about China has been the Bakery!!! We visit the bakery every time we go to the supermarket, which is pretty much everyday. America has better sweets than China does by far. The Chinese people do not have a sweet tooth but they do know how to make some awesome bread!!!! All of the bread isn't that good, some of the breads have meat and red beans on top and in the middle. We have learned to stick with what we know is good. Here are a few of my favorites, yum yum!!!

Here is our favorite little bakery which isn't far from where we live.

The newest add to my list of favorite bakery items. It is made with egg and that is about as far as I can explain it.

This is also a favorite. It is a sweet wheat roll with seeds on top. It looks very american but I have never tasted anything like this back home.

This is my all time favorite. I cannot explain this one either but it taste like coconut. I am going to try to smuggle some home for my family, I hope they make it!

5 Days and Counting

2009-06-23T05:54:00.003+08:00

I cannot believe that I have been in China for 5 months and it is now time to complete this adventure. These last few days will be busy ones as I have much packing to do, last minute things to do and places to visit and many goodbyes to say. It is definately a bitter sweet but I am looking forward to seeing my family at the airport on Friday, sleeping in my own bed, eating American food, going back to my job at the clinic, getting my haircut and colored and going to the doctor. Yes, I know that sounds strange but I am looking forward to going to the doctor so that I can start feeling well again. I am taking my cousin Mandys idea and going to highlight the top 5 things I have loved about China...This is hard as their are many more than 5. Enjoy and I look forward to seeing you all very soon. Much love, Raychel

A Saturday Adventure!!!

2009-06-21T00:49:00.005+08:00

Chinese grocery store. It looks pretty American except for all the asians and the interesting fruit and vegetables.

The movie tickets are pretty American looking, except they are written in chinese :)

On Saturday all of the girls went to a hot spring but I wasn't feeling good so I stayed back with Jadie. Jadie and I didn't want to hang out in our apartment all day so we went out, we had no idea where we were going or what we were going to do. We went to the supermarket, the supermarket is HUGE!!! It has 4 floors, the first floor has lots of stores like clothes stores and bakeries, the second floor is the supermarket, the third floor is shopping and the fourth floor is shopping, a movie theater and a smoothie place. As we were wondering around we went to check out the movies, we noticed they had movies in English like Transformers 2. We got our tickets to see that and as we are sitting in a normal American-looking theater the previews for Transformers 2 comes on, we thought that was weird to play the preview for the movie we were about to watch but it is China, we didn't think much about it. Come to find out we were not at Transformers 2, we were at some other movie that was in English. We got out of there and we noticed that Transformers 2 doesn't come out until the 23, we were just a little early:) We ended up going to Night at the Museum 2 which was in English with Chinese subtitles. There were about 10 other Asians at that movie with us. They also have the traditional american movie popcorn although their portion of popcorn is not like America's portion of popcorn. Their popcorn size was very small. I like going to places in China and compare it with with America. America has better, more comfortable theater seats, better portion of popcorn and no subtitles at the bottom of the movie, this was a very fun adventure!

MANDY'S BIRTHDAY BASH

2009-06-12T08:58:00.002+08:00

For Mandy's birthday on Saturday we went to the water park in Guangzhou, the water park is next to the Safari Zoo and the amusement park so it was a breeze to get there. It was a hot day, the weather said it was 98 degrees plus humidity, it was a good day to go and we could actually see the sun, usually the sun is covered with pollution. The kindergarten's vice principal's daughter came with us, her name is Agnus (I can never remember her name for the life of me!) she is 19, in high school and she speaks English very well. She was very quiet, she probably thought it was weird hanging out with a bunch of white crazy girls. The water park was huge, they had a little kid section, water slides (body slides and tube slides) a lazy river and other things! We were waiting in line to go on a slide and the line was taking forever! To keep ourselves entertained we played hand slap games like "Say, Say Oh Play Mate" and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." I guess we were entertaining not only ourselves but other people as well! There were 3 Asian guys in front of us, who knew some English, and they wanted us to teach them, so we did. They were very funny to teach, they were concentrating so hard! We were at the water park all day and surprisingly no one got burnt! It was a fun birthday bash!!!

THE ADVENTURES OF YUANGSHOU

2009-06-02T12:24:00.007+08:00

The city of Guilin

After playing in a pool of mud!!!

The rice fields - they were so amazing!

On the bamboo rafts that took us through the beautiful cliff mountains in the background.

This weekend was our last vacation! We went to Yuangshou which is a 10 hour bus ride. We took a sleeper bus there, I have decided that sleeper buses are the way to go, you go to sleep and by the time you have woken up you have reached your destination. When we got off the bus there were huge mountains around us, they weren't actually mountains, they looked more like cliffs! They were amazing! We got there Thursday morning around 6, we got to our hostel and figured out what we wanted to do for the weekend. We took a bike ride to the mud caves, we walked around in the cave, played in a pool of mud and laid in a hot spring. That night we went to a show on water, the Chinese know how to put on a good show! They had lit up the cliff mountains in the background and there was singing and dancing, it was so awesome! On Friday we took a bus to the rice fields, I thought the rice fields were going to be lame and as I was walking up a million stairs I still couldn't believe I was doing it. As we got to a resting point and we could look out over the valley and see all of the rice fields, it was incredible! I couldn't believe how much time and energy this place takes! We met a couple yesterday who were doing the same tour as us, the guy, Stepheno, is from Italy and the girl, Alex, is from Spain. They each know 4-5 different languages and they just travel around to different countries teaching languages. They were vegetarian so they invited us to a vegetarian restaurant, I was scared at first but the food was delicious! We ate bamboo (which was surprisingly good) and a lot of different veggies. We had so much fun hanging out with this couple and I couldn't believe they weren't sick of us! By the time Saturday rolled around we were all pooped! We went on a bamboo raft down Li River. It was relaxing and it was an awesome view, we were surrounded by the cliff mountains! We ate lunch at Lucy's Place, all of our friends who have gone to Yuangshou earlier have told us to go there and I'm glad we did! I ate the american style chicken strips and we all had a fried banana with ice-cream and chocolate drizzled on top! It was yummy! That night we hopped on a sleeper bus at 7:30 and got home Sunday morning at 5 a.m., that sleeper bus was hard to sleep on because I was holding on for my life, the driver was going about 100 MPH down a windy road. This trip was pretty fun, it is awesome to see the different parts of China because each place that we have visited has been very different.

We went to the ZOO, ZOO, ZOO!!!

2009-05-21T10:13:00.010+08:00

On Saturday we went to zoo in Guangzhou. To get there we had to take a motor taxi, get on a bus, take the subway then another bus. The Chimelong Safari Park was right next to the Chimelong Amusement Park that we went to a couple months ago. The zoo had two sections to it, one part was a normal zoo where you walk around the other part you took a train and it was a safari! The animals were on open plain with no cages! It was so awesome! We saw cheetahs running around with giraffes and zebras! This zoo had every kind of animals from flamingos to anteaters (grossest looking animal ever!) white tigers, koalas and PANDA BEARS! This was the coolest zoo I have ever been to. I even got to hold a month and a half old cheetah, it was very soft. We weren't planning on spending all day at the zoo, but we did and it was worth every minute.
A yucky anteater

Me holding a baby cheetah :)

What China is known for - the panda bear!

On the safari train ride

Me very close to a giraffe

Cute koala

Birthday Pictures!

2009-05-09T10:44:00.002+08:00

My cake Annie brought me

Blowing out candles!!!

Birthday away from home

2009-05-09T10:30:00.004+08:00

Yesterday was my birthday, my roomies made me breakfast which was very unexpected and delicious! The kids were so cute when they found out it was my birthday, they sang Happy Birthday to me about 300 times. That night Lucky's parents wanted to take us out to dinner to hear about how Lucky's English is going. Lucky is a cute 4 year old who loves to bite, pinch, scratch and pull hair. She is a wild child but she is adorable! The kids we teach come from very rich families so when they want to take us out to dinner we know we will go to a nice restaurant. Sure enough we went to an awesome restaurant, probably one of the nicest we have been to! Dinner is like a 3 hour event every time. The Asians like to chat and they eat very slowly, I was ready to go but then the waitresses brought in a cake and sang happy birthday to me, it was fun sharing cake with Lucky, Lucky's parents and some Chinese teachers! We came back to our apartment and watched Bride Wars then Annie brought over another cake!!! Having a birthday away from home is really weird but my roommates made it a lot better:)

More Pictures!

2009-05-07T14:52:00.006+08:00

Silk Market=girl's dream

Me and Mandy's olympian jump

Jumping on the Great Wall, showing my sweat and glory.

AMAZING!!!

Cartwheel ON the Great Wall!

Pictures!!!

2009-05-07T13:30:00.003+08:00

Chinese Acrobats, they are amazingly gross!

Mandy and I in front of The Forbidden City.

The Temple of Heaven.

Tianemen Square.

On the train to Beijing the people under us shared some jelly things with us, they were interesting...

My adventures of Beijing and Xi'an!!!

2009-05-07T12:13:00.003+08:00

We got a 6 day vacation and we decided long ago that we were going to spend the 6 days in Beijing and Xi'an. We left on Thursday afternoon, traffic was bad and we almost missed our train, we made it within seconds, we seem to cut things close a lot-it gives me a heart attack every time. We took a sleeper train to Beijing which was only about 22 hours long! It was so nice! The beds were comfortable and I slept pretty much the whole time. When we got to Beijing it was about 5 PM, we met up with 3 other girls from ILP and we went to Hard Rock Cafe!!! It was so good, I have never seen so many white people here in China! There were so many of them in Beijing! On Saturday we went to Tianemon square and we couldn't see Mao's body because it was closed! Then we went to The Temple of Heaven, The Temple of Heaven is where the emperors made sacrifices-there were a lot of beautiful and very Asian looking buildings. We went to the Forbidden City, I loved the Forbidden City! It was so fun! Mandy slipped on the side of the stairs and fell and cut her elbow, the Asians were concerned and we just laughed, it seems like we are always making a scene. That night we went to an acrobat show-holy cow! These Asians we saw in this show were amazing! They were so flexible and very talented! I couldn't believe all of the stuff they were doing! It was so gross and amazing!
On Sunday we booked a tour with Ben, a very nice Asian, he took us to a part of the Great Wall that is not touristy. We first had to hike a mountain for about 30-45 minutes to get on the Wall, the part of the wall we were on was crumbly and very old, there were trees and bushes growing on the part of the wall we were on! It was only 700-800 years old-not that old Ben said. It was a 4 hour hike on the wall, what a workout, there was a part of the wall where we had to climb it, not walk up the stairs but climb up the stairs, it was so cool! We then checked out the Bird's Nest, where the 2008 Olympics were! We saw that on TV not too long ago! Then we went to the Silk Market-whoa I loved that place, I got Silver Jeans for $15! The Silk Market has about 4 different floors full of random stuff. One floor has silk, another floor has pearls, one floor has jeans and clothes, it is a girls heaven:)
On Monday we went to the China and Beijing museum but everything is closed on Monday because that is their religious day-lame, why can't they do that on Sunday like everyone else!? So we just spent our day spending money at the Silk Market which was very dangerous but very fun! Then we got on a train to Xi'an, we had hard seats for 12 hours-it was torture! I will never ever take a hard seat train again. I didn't sleep at all and everyone was so miserable! Xi'an was a very relaxing trip, we did what we wanted on our time-it was nice and not rushed. We went to the Terracotta Warriors, those were so cool!!!! I couldn't believe it! 2,000 years ago and some were still in tacked! I loved it! That night we went to a light/water show, light and water danced around to music, it was very entertaining! Yesterday we only had time to go to the Drum Tower then got on a plane to go back to our apartment. This trip was amazing and I really want to go back someday to visit all of the places I have missed like the Ming Tombs and the Summer Palace.

Funny story

2009-04-24T23:52:00.002+08:00

Ok, these pictures are backwards and I don't know how to flip them around, this is the last picture, so the chicken head in the bottom picture we found in our dinner and Jadie thought it would be funny to take it to our cook, Spencer. She did (picture number 2) and he bit off the neck! We were shocked and grossed out, we didn't know he would do that! Crazy Asians and their chicken heads!

Karaoke Pictures!

2009-04-24T23:37:00.001+08:00

These are our awesome awards. The principal is the short one in the middle, the lady next to me is the former principal and I don't know who the end lady is.

Waiting patiently for dinner.

Chinese Karaoke

2009-04-24T23:03:00.005+08:00

So tonight was so fun! The principal of the kindergarten we teach at paid for all of her teachers (us Americans and the Chinese teachers) to go to a competition karaoke night. This afternoon we practiced a popular lovey Chinese song-we are pretty good. Then Annie wanted us to sing a popular Britney Spears song! Of course we said yes to that, it brings us back to our childhood! We chose Hit Me Baby One More Time-I remember all of the words and I haven't heard that song for about 5 years now!!! We got to the restaurant and we went into a huge room with a stage and karaoke set up at the front of the room. We got front row seats! We had dinner and a show, we were entertained by about 60 Chinese teachers. These Asians are crazy with karaoke-it is a new side of them we have never seen before. Dinner was pretty delicious, less fishy than other meals we have had. While we were eating everyone was singing and they wanted us to sing Hit Me Baby One More Time even though that was our competition song and the competition was not going to start until after dinner! So we sang it and it was a big hit! We sang pretty well! When we were done with dinner the competition started, it is really hard to pay attention when you don't know what ANYONE is saying. We were number 15 on the list, it took forever to get to us it felt like. All of the songs the Asians were singing all sounded the same! Very high pitch and loud. We got up and sang our Chinese song-I think they were shocked we knew that song! They all sang it with us! We thought we were done but they wanted us to sing Hit Me Baby One More Time again! So we did, it wasn't very good that time, we started too early then we were off. They still loved it though! After we sang they gave us an award for singing and a water bottle-haha it was so cute of them and our award looks very official! I love these Asians we work with! Even though we don't understand a word they say we still have so much fun with them! I had so much fun tonight, we are definitely taken care of here in China!

2009-04-20T18:57:00.002+08:00

Look how long my hair is, this Asian was really nice and friendly.

Getting my hair washed! It feels so nice!

This picture was taken after church, this is our "way to humid face."

Eventful week

2009-04-20T18:32:00.003+08:00

This past week was pretty good, it started out a little rocky, my package that my mom sent about 30 days ago never made it to me, I was bummed out about that, but don't worry, a couple of days ago Annie (the Asian that helps us) informed me that they found my package! It was a happy day! I love getting packages even though you can never trust the mailing system here. Yesterday we went to church to take the sacrament at the other ILP group's apartment. We haven't been to church for about 8 weeks now-it felt nice to go even though it is weird having church in an apartment. I miss going to church, I have taken it for granted, China has really taught me a lot about what I really do enjoy but never think about when I'm at home. I miss walking around with no shoes on, I miss carpet, I miss soft couches/beds and a whole bunch of things I can think about daily. Today was an eventful day! We walked all over town about 2 or 3 miles!!! Jadie is getting her wedding dress made here, so we picked up Jadie's wedding dress pictures to take to the lady who is making the dress. Then we went to the DVD store-we are really big fans of the DVD store, we love our movies! Then the best part of our day was getting our head massage!!! Mandy and Emily didn't want to go because they were too tired so it was only me and Jadie who went. It was amazing! They massage our heads for about 30 minutes then they do our hair! I feel bad for the person who did my hair because my hair is curly and it never straightens because of the humidity. Hair salons are weird here, the girls, there are some guys, wash our hair and then there are these older Asian males with long fingernails and button down shirts to show off their hairless chests do our hair. My hair is getting so long! I didn't realize how long my hair was until they straightened it! I'm glad Jadie and I got our head massaged today-it felt good. Thanks for reading my Blog! I will try to update it as much as possible!

Easter Day Pictures

2009-04-16T19:08:00.001+08:00

My American food!!!

Look how good it is!

Our sweet rolls-they were yummy.

Our Easter baskets-we loved the Easter bunny visiting us.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-16T07:50:00.000+08:00

Our internet has been down so this Blog is a little late. Last week we decided that we wanted the Easter Bunny to visit us in China. We picked names out of a cup and on Saturday we went shopping for that person. Before we went shopping we decided that we were going to have an amazing Sunday dinner! We decided that we would have garlic mashed potatoes, veggies, corn on the cob and we went to good ol’ KFC and got chicken. We need some meat in our Sunday dinner but we don’t want to buy the meat! It is so sketchy and scary. When we got to the store we split off, Jadie and I then Mandy and Emily. When we got home from shopping we played Pass the Pigs and Emily made us a cake that was so good! It was chocolate cake with rainbow sprinkle frosting on top! It was very American and very fatty. Jadie cheats at Pass the Pigs, I don’t know how but she does, she won both times. Mandy, Jadie, Emily and I then climbed in Jadie’s bed and we watched Jurassic Park, we haven’t seen it in a long time and it is scarier than I thought! We were trying to sneak around but it is hard to be sneaky when 5 other girls are trying to do the same thing. It was no surprise when we got up, the Easter Bunny visited all of us! Lindsey and Amy made us sweet rolls for breakfast that were very American as well. We are getting smarter in making American food. Then we watched the Sunday morning session of conference, which was really good, Jessica our friend from Ireland came over to celebrate Easter with us, she is such a cute girl. We had dinner and it was amazing! We didn’t eat the veggies, carrots and broccoli, because we found bugs in them but everything else was bugless, Mandy and I then taught the girls hand and foot-now we play it all of the time! Overall it was a very nice Easter.

Oh yeah, this picture...

2009-04-07T18:57:00.003+08:00

I like this picture because look at the lady next to me, she looks so evil!

More pictures!

2009-04-07T17:16:00.002+08:00

Cousins!

Tom and Lily-love them!

FengHuang Hunan

2009-04-07T16:44:00.005+08:00

We had another vacation-we went to FengHuang or in other words Phoenix. It was a 14 hour train ride there and then another 3 hour bus ride-very long but worth it. This is an ancient city, about 2,000 years old-it is so old that we didn't see one western toilet, they were all squatters!!!! When we got there we had a complication with our hostel, we booked it online about 5 days ago and the owner (who didn't know English) told us (through Annie on the phone-our Asian helper) there wasn't any reservations and he had no more room. I was nervous we were going to have to get a different hotel that was a lot more expensive, then a couple came in who knew a lot of English, there names were Lily and Tom. I'm so glad we met them because they translated to us and told us the guy was very sorry and he booked us a hotel and paid the difference. Asian people are so nice! Lily and Tom also planned our Sunday activity, I'm so glad we met them because no one knows English there so it would have been a nightmare to plan something-it would have worked though but Tom and Lily they helped us so much. This weekend was a holiday, it is like memorial day, they wear these flower crowns, set off candle lit boats, eat a lot of food and fireworks go off at the cemetery. We walked around town this night (Saturday night). On Sunday we went on a tour that Lily and Tom set up for us. It was awesome! We went to the South Wall, went on a beautiful hike with waterfalls and awesome scenery and we watched a Chinese show-it would be cooler if I knew what was going on though. When we were hiking this lady pushed me into the water! She was coming the opposite way we were and I was being nice and I scooted as far over as I could when I was standing on a rock and she pushed me! Then she just walked off, so I was soaking wet for the next couple hours! That night we lit a candle boat and sent it out into the river. On Monday we bought flower crowns, went shopping, went on a boat ride where we released our flower crowns and went to a grave. This trip was so fun because we usually don't see THAT much ancient culture. I'm grateful we found Lily and Tom-they saved our life's! Most people in China are willing to help, but there are those who just push you into a river...

Phoenix Pictures

2009-04-07T15:10:00.006+08:00

On the hike-SO beautiful!

Our boat we set off for our ancestors-we are getting into this culture!

At the South Wall

Gettin' ready to hike

Cruisin' the city-at night!

2009-03-31T20:13:00.001+08:00

I have been in charge of arts and crafts and for arts and crafts we have been working on caterpillars, putting them into a paper cocoon and painting coffee filters for the wings. When the wings are dry I’m going to transform their caterpillars into butterflies. This video clip is my home class, their English is aMaZiNg and they are the cutest class I think, other than Mandy’s. In the video clip they are making the cocoon to put their caterpillars in. Listen to the way they say cocoon, it is the cutest thing! Ray is the one in pink, he is very smart and he is the “leader” of my group, all of the kids follow him and do what he says. Wendy is in the white shirt next to Ray, she use to be a little trouble maker, I don’t know what happened to her but now she participates and she enjoys learning. Lake is the big boy, he is a teacher’s pet and he has a very wild imagination. Peter is the small one, if there was a crowd of our students; Peter is the first one I look for. Peter has my heart ever since day one and I love him! He is cute, he makes me laugh and I want to take him home! Lucy is the one next to me, she has a very spunky attitude and she is very fun. Rebecca was missing today, Rebecca is half Spanish/half Chinese-she is beautiful, very funny and she loves the teacher’s attention. These kids are so cute! I love them more and more everyday! They are so smart, I couldn't ask for anything better. Enjoy!

2009-03-31T18:35:00.003+08:00

Pictures!

2009-03-29T10:06:00.003+08:00

Cousins! Here we are at pagoda park! We look like tourists, we bought those shirts at the supermarket for cheap cheap cheap!!!

This is the pagoda on the hill-so beautiful!

We went under that bridge in the background coming out of my head-we are talented on paddle boats even though the Asians were telling us what to do:)

At the hospital getting blood drawn. I think that was a clean needle they used...

This picture is funny-Something is out of place here. This tells people who is next in line to pick up their prescriptions.

Pagoda Park

2009-03-28T23:14:00.003+08:00

Today was a fun day! It might be Jadie's last weekend in China so we did fun things today. We went to pagoda park which is just down the road from us and as we were walking there there was a lady selling jewelery on the side of the road. We stopped and bought a couple things from her, I love to buy things here because they are so cheap and everything is beautiful here! The pagoda park is a beautiful park with a pagoda that sits up on a hill and there is a lake, we (Mandy, Jadie and Emily) rented a paddle boat and spent the afternoon on the lake. As we were paddling on the lake there were Asians following us on their paddle boats or there were Asians on land taking pictures of the Americans in the paddle boat. Occasionally we would have Asians yell at us and tell us how to paddle-they are very helpful Asians even though we already knew how to paddle. I swear they think we don't know how to do a lot of things. After the paddle boats we went to Little Italy. Little Italy is the place we went for Lindsey's birthday-it was so good so we went back and I got the same thing I got last time. Tendon, bone and fatless chicken with potatoes-very delicious! Then to top it off we went to the bakery! I love the bakery and I haven't had it in a while so it was especially delicious tonight! I love China and I am glad I'm here, it is cool to see different cultures and how they do things!

Crazy day!

2009-03-27T19:17:00.004+08:00

Yesterday was a crazy day! I went to the hospital because I have been sick for 8 days now, come to find out I have enteritis, inflammation of the small intestines, and they gave me a lot of different pills to take and some powder to put in my water. I hope the medicine works because I am sick of being sick! Last night Susie and Jimmy's parents took us out to dinner. We figured they would be pretty rich because they have 2 kids in this top notch kindergarten. Sure enough we get to the restaurant and it was nicer than the restaurant the mayor took us to! They put us into a single room, there were about 7 Chinese teachers, Ryan (we went to his birthday party-his mom is a teacher) was there and Susie and Jimmy's parents were there. They asked us what we like to eat, we told them we liked fried rice, pot stickers and veggies. Sure enough they brought out fried rice, yummy non-fat meat, pot stickers, veggies and shrimp with the head and legs still on! Fish food freaks me out! One of the last things they brought were sweet rolls, there rolls here are sketchy because you never know what's inside of them. They usually have meat in them and it just ruins the yummy sweet roll! Come to find out there was brown sugar inside of the sweet rolls! They were my favorite! Good thing I won't get those ever again, that could be dangerous. When we go out to dinner it is usually a 2 hour event, they love to socialize! I loved getting to know Jimmy and Susie's parents, they are a cute family and they are very nice, down to earth people.

Dinner with the mayor of Xiaolan

2009-03-24T21:08:00.003+08:00

We just got back from dinner with Jane, (the owner of the Bond Institute, she is very rich and she has a house in Canada) she invited our ILP group and another ILP group that lives about 2 minutes away from us, Jessica (the girl from Ireland) was there and other people who teach English for Bond not ILP were there. We knew that we were going to have dinner with someone from the "government" so we knew this would be a really really nice restaurant. We met at the Bond Office which is about a 45 minute walk, so we took a motorcycle which takes about 5 minutes. Then we took a really nice van, it was black with very tinted windows, the seats were soft, it smelled new and it had seat belts! I miss seat belts, all the buses we get on don't have seat belts, it is a comforting thing to have them. I felt like I was on a top secret mission being in that dark van. We get to the restaurant and it is amazingly nice! There were separate rooms where people eat in, we got our own room with 4 very large tables. When everyone got there an Asian translator got up and started welcoming us, he made me laugh because he has a feminine voice! He sounded like a feminine native Asian! He introduced us to the mayor and someone else who is important (he is so important that I don't remember) and told us to enjoy our stay here in China and if we need any "hairp" (which is help) just to talk to him. He was a funny guy, then the mayor got up and talked about how he likes us teaching English and to enjoy our stay as well. He didn't speak any English so the feminine Asian translated, it was so funny. Then we ate, it wasn't too bad, we had steak, fried rice, sweet and sour sauce, veggies and normal rice with chicken tendons on top (don't ask me why-they are weird). The not so good things black chicken, it was chicken but it was black and the inside looked like there was pepper in the meat of the chicken, it was good I just couldn't get over the blackness of it. I heard the fish and shrimp were really good but I didn't try it because I'm not a fishy person, some pork fat (they love fat) and some other things I wasn't too sure about. There was a guy on our table who was from England, he has been here for over a year and he was drinking his beer and wine and he had to go out for a smoke break. He was a funny guy and for some weird reason he knew we were from Salt Lake... They love to do cheers here, they walk around table to table with their wine glasses and say, "cheers, cheers!" I love seeing the different things they do in this culture, it is so fascinating. I love going to dinner with Jane, she knows everyone and everyone knows her, she has connections, she lives a pretty sweet life and I'm glad she likes to show off her American friends:)

Home Visits

2009-03-19T21:50:00.002+08:00

Tonight we went on home visits, they told us this afternoon we were going to visit Jim, from Lindsey's class, and Peter from my class. I was pretty excited to see them, Jim is the most Asianist Asian, he looks like a cartoon character, he is so cute. Peter is my favorite kid, if there was a group of kids and I passed them, I would look for Peter, I like him a lot. Yesterday he moved closer to me while we were sitting down and he grabbed my hand and just held it for the longest time. So cute! So we went to Jim's house first and it was at a really nice apartment, big screen TV, a maid, nice furniture, it was just really nice! His mom knew some English and she was really soft spoken and really sweet, come to find out Jim is half Korean, his dad owns a business in Korea and they have a house in Shinzhen (where we go to church). Jim was really quiet and he just watched Ultra Man on TV the whole time, he is a good kid at school, very polite always says please and thank you. So after Jim's house it was Peter's turn, just kidding, the Chinese teachers who were with us told us that Peter's parents were busy tonight so we were going to Vinson's house, Vinson is Emily's kid, not ours! Oh well... We should have known plans would be changed. So we went to Vinson's house, I was expecting it to be nice but it was just average, it is probably nice for Chinese people but it was very messy and cluttery. We looked at pictures of Vinson's Beijing trip, while we were doing that Vinson's mom was cutting a fruit, I kept smelling a gross smell, it smelt like puke! I didn't know what it was, Vinson handed me a piece of fruit and I went to taste it and it tasted and smelt like puke! I couldn't eat it! It was too hard, it made me want to puke! Vinson is a good kid in class, he is quiet but he can be crazy if you put him with his friends. I think home visits are to show off the Americans, which I'm OK with because it is good to see the kids in their own environment. I had a fun time tonight, these kids are so cute!

Alligator!!!

2009-03-18T15:09:00.002+08:00

This is the coolest picture! Look! There is an alligator on my back!

Sanya Pictures!

2009-03-18T14:51:00.003+08:00

Girls doing what we do best, SHOP!!!

Me drinking coconut milk on the beach!

Me and my beach buddy, we entertain each other so well!

Blegh, the second sleeper bus we were on...

Me under the bunk bed in the sleeper bus, I was so crammed! That's why I moved to the isle bed, more room!

Beautiful Sanya

2009-03-18T13:52:00.002+08:00

We just got back from a 4 day vacation to Sanya. Sanya is the most south city in China, it is an island and it is known as the Russian's Hawaii. We were planning on taking a 12 hour sleeper bus, you can sleep on the little beds on the bus. We left our apartment at 1:45 to catch the sleeper at 3:30, the bus was more crammed then I thought it would be. They were little bunk beds that were probably about a foot and a half wide and about 4 and a half feet long. I slept in the isle in the back of the bus, it was cushioned so I was OK with it, I was feeling like I couldn't breathe under the bed because there is seriously NO room. Plus I could spread my legs out when I was in the isle. Our group of 7 went and another group from ILP came and there were 6 of them, a total of 13 Americans. We rode until about 8 and we had a little pit stop, at the pit stop Mandy paid 1 yuan (Chinese money) to use the bathroom, a couple seconds later she came right out. Mandy said they were squatters and Keegan (who has been here a month longer than us) said that those squatters were the sickest she has ever used. I don't know why Asians like squatters, they are gross and they stink really bad. We got back on the bus and at 6:30 AM on Saturday we got up because we had to get on the ferry. I hated the ferry ride, I probably hated it so bad because I didn't know what was going on so I left my camera, iPod and other things on the bus, I thought it was just another pit stop. The ferry 4 hours long and I couldn't get to my stuff so I could entertain myself!!!! It was cold because the wind was blowing so hard and they had a weird show playing, Asians are very interesting. When we got off of the ferry we got on a different sleeper bus, which was gross because there were white sheets on the beds and you could see food crumbs and Asians dark hair. We got to Sanya at 2:45 PM on Saturday, that was a 25 hour bus ride! I was so pooped when we got to our hostel, but we played on the beach and went to see around the city. On Sunday we played on the beach ALL DAY! Jadie was my swimming partner, which was nice because no one else wanted to swim with us! There were so many Russians and they are fat! All of the women wear bikini's, it is so gross and the men wear speedos and they have the biggest beer guts! They are just nasty. On Monday we played on the beach all day again and we also went shopping! When we would pass some Asians selling things on the side of the road they would say something to us in Russian, it was really weird to see and Asian speak Russian to an American. Most Asians could tell us apart though, I don't know how but they would yell, "hello!" The pearls here in China are so cheap! I can't believe it! We went to the Rainbow Cafe and had real American food! I was so excited because I miss my American normal food, I got a crispy chicken burger and fries, it was good. Tuesday we played on the beach and shopped as well and got a picture taken with an alligator! This guy was walking around the beach with a little alligator so we got our picture with it, it was awesome! We left our hostel at 4:30 to catch the plane at 6:30. Planes are the way to go, they are cheap and they don't waste time. It took us an hour and a half to get to the airport 2 hours away from our apartment, but it was too late when we got in last night that there were no more buses. We had to crash at the other girl's apartment and take the 6:15 bus this morning, we got to our apartments this morning at 8:15 and we had to teach at 8:45. We were very rushed and it was kind of a weird morning but this trip was well needed and I loved being on the beach soaking up the sun! It was worth going!

Lindsey's Birthday Pictures

2009-03-09T21:37:00.001+08:00

Birthday Cake!

The special drinks they gave us...

2009-03-09T21:05:00.003+08:00

Lindsey's smashed birthday Hello Kitty cake:)

This was at Little Italy, so good and very fun!

Me modeling the bikes we were buying. The red one is mine.

Lindsey's Birthday

2009-03-09T19:56:00.002+08:00

Today is Lindsey's birthday! She turned 19! It was an eventful day, after teaching we went and bought bikes. We bought our bikes for $150 Chinese money, which is pretty good, that is about $20 in America. We love our bikes, they will get a good use for the next 3 and a half months. We rode our bikes to Little Italy for dinner, we were the only ones in there, they are never really busy. It is a real Italian place, they had pizza, pasta, steak, chicken, salads and dessert, and they have a real Italian Chef! He had a greasy ponytail and he was a bigger man working with a bunch of skinny Asians. Me, Mandy, Jadie and Lindsey got the chicken but Jadie and Lindsey shared. Emily got Lasagna and I'm not too sure what Keegan got, something with noodles and red sauce. Amy, our head teacher, wasn't there because she is out of town until Thursday. My meal was so good! The chicken was tender, it didn't have bones or tendons in it, it was normal good American/Italian chicken. It also came with potatoes, those tasted so good, we haven't had potatoes in a long time. All of the sudden the waitress brought out a cheese pizza! The chef cooked us a pizza! We didn't even have to pay for it! It was so delicious, cheesy and it had very little red sauce, which I like. We bought Lindsey a Chinese birthday cake, the last birthday cake we got was at Ryan's birthday party and it had beans in the center! We were praying that the cake we got Lindsey didn't have beans in the middle. We were going to eat it at the restaurant, so the waitresses put it in the fridge for us. We decided that we were too full to eat Lindsey's cake there, while we were talking and laughing they bring us out a little drink. It was green and it smelt very limey. Jadie took a little sip and we could tell by her face it was bad, then Keegan said it burned. Sure enough, we came to the conclusion it was some kind of alcoholic beverage! That was very nice of them to share their very strong drink with us but we left with our glasses full. Don't worry, we know better. Plus who would want to drink that crap? It smelt so strong and Keegan said it burned! Sickos. As we left, Jadie hooked the cake on to the back of her bike and we drove away. Jadie was having a bad day anyway, and as we left the restaurant, she hit the curb wrong on her bike and she fell, with the cake. We all ran over, the cake was smashed but it was still OK, oh and Jadie is ok as well. We got back to the apartment and ate the cake, it was so good and it had fruit in the middle! Not beans! We were so relieved. Annie, our Asian who helps us with things, called after we ate our cake and told us that Mandy, Emily and I had packages at the gate of the kindergarten we live at!!!! She is also coming over around 10 tonight to wish Lindsey a happy birthday and to give her a cake:) Me, Mandy and Emily ran down the stairs, I knew what I was getting because I have been waiting for over a month, but my parents only sent it 3 weeks ago, it was my CAMERA!!!! We got our packages and ran up the stairs and opened them, I have my camera that my family took a cute picture and a video, THANK YOU!!! It also had a shirt which is new and very cute, THANK YOU!!! And Altoids, THANK YOU!!! This package was highly needed, I'm glad I finally got it, now I can stop bugging the other girls to take pictures for me. Thank you again! You guys are the best! Anyway, I'm pretty sure there will be a lot more stories to tell on my blog now that we have bikes, they are pretty entertaining! Thank you for your love and support!

Fashion Show pictures!

2009-03-06T23:28:00.002+08:00

Ending pose, we did kissy faces, I was a little late as you can see.

We were walking to the back after this pose, I love my shoes!!!

We were so happy!

The 3 of us getting ready to go strut our stuff on stage.

Chinese Fashion Shows

2009-03-06T23:09:00.003+08:00

Tonight was the big night! We were so nervous about getting up in front of everyone and having them make fun of our American bodies, very different from Asian bodies. Last night we had rehearsal at the place where the fashion show was being held. That was so confusing, they added more to our routine and they were speaking Chinese 90 miles an hour. The lady teaching us knows some English, she just wasn't using it so we were confused, angry and frustrated. We just had to follow everyone around us and hope that we were doing it right. They didn't have the music on and they were counting, in Chinese, when we didn't go, they would yell at us! How were we suppose to know!? We don't speak Chinese! They kept saying, "hello teachers!" It was very annoying. We didn't know how tonight would go over. We had to meet them in the dance room here at the school at 6 tonight so they could do our hair and make up. They weren't going to do my hair because they just wanted it down natural, blond and curly. They love curly hair. So I go down in my dress with my hair done and no makeup on, thinking that they were going to do it like they said they would. Nope, we had to do our make up, Asians are very funny like that, they always change times and what they are doing, all of the time! It is so annoying! So we went back up all of our stairs, in our dresses, to get back to our apartment. We did our own make up, which was weird because I haven't worn make up for a very long time. Then we went back down stairs so they could do Mandy's hair. They pulled it back and I could tell Mandy was a little afraid, it turned out so cute though! They even put chopsticks in her hair! It was awesome! At 7 we practiced and by 7:30 we were off to the show. We made it just in time, we were 3rd in the line up. We did well! When we got on stage everyone in the audience started cheering and whistling, that's not like Asians, they are usually very quiet and emotionless. We strutted our American stuff and it was awesome!!! I thought we did really well. After we did our thing we went and sat in the audience. Asians think that posing in athletic gear with tennis rackets, basketballs and soccer balls is really cool, everyone did it! And they played the same song over and over and over. They also like dressing up as flight attendants, I know they probably don't mean to, I think they just want to look professional, but it looks very flight attendanty. It started at about 8 and we stayed until about 10, by the time we left they still had 15 numbers to go! We weren't going to stay for people posing in athletic gear that we already saw about 10 times! So we left. It was an awesome experience! It was very fun and they loved us! They really like our American bodies:)

Fashion Show

2009-03-02T22:14:00.002+08:00

The schools in Xiaolan (our city we are in) have a fashion show together. The teachers at our school wanted 3 of us to be in it. Keegan, Emily, Mandy or Me. Today we went to a dress store, our school will rent our dresses we try on and like the best. So we went the the dress store today, they had beautiful Asian silk dresses. The first one Keegan tried on fit her perfectly and we liked it a lot, she got that over with fast. Emily tried on a couple and decided that the dresses fit her weird and she didn't want to do it. They kept giving Mandy and I long dresses with slits on the sides up to our butts! We kept telling them no and they would give us sleeveless dresses to try on. We tried on about 7 dresses each, they have weird body shapes, I'm surprised any of us fit in anything! I felt so big being there, they had to get bigger sizes for us Americans and I'm so glad I couldn't speak Chinese because I know I would be offended by what they were saying about us being so large. The dresses would be big around our chest and waist area but tight around our butts, like I said, they have weird body shapes. Nothing fit right. After we tried on a lot, they liked a peach shorter (to my knees) dress. I don't look good in peach but it actually fit normally and it was modest so I didn't care what color it was. They wanted Mandy to wear a long dress with slits up to her butt, she told them no so they gave her a dress that was really pretty but it was sleeveless. They gave her a shrug (a scarf thing) to put over it and we called it good. After being there for about an hour and a half, Mandy and I needed shoes to go with our dresses so we went shoe shopping and we found perfect heels, I have white ones and Mandy bought black. We then had a fashion show practice at 6:30, we had to practice our walk! There are 3 or 4 other Asians learning a slow walk to a very Asian sounding song we were standing next to them in our heels and we are a whole head taller than them! They are so small! I am excited for Friday, we will take a lot of pictures to show you guys our beautiful Asian dresses.

2009-03-01T21:03:00.002+08:00

Some guy inbetween Lindsey and I, he is getting cozy with Lindsey, if I were her I would freak out. He was stinky-see my head? It is turned away from the stink.

Walking to the metro to go home after a long day. The girl to the very left is Jessica, she is from Ireland, she has a sweet accent. She isn't LDS but she is looking into it.

2009-03-01T20:31:00.000+08:00

Us ILP girls with Elder Wan and Elder Perkins of the 70

District Conference

2009-03-01T19:21:00.003+08:00

Today was awesome! We got up at 6 am to go to District Conference, it happens annually and we happened to be here in China to go! I don't think that was a coincidence. We traveled by walking, bus, metro and taxi to the Ramada Hotel in Guangzhou. It is about 2 hours away from where we live. It started at 10 and we were on time! In fact we were early-that is not like us, we usually are late because of unexpected travel issues. It went until 12, there were about 8 speakers consisting of 2 youth speakers, the President of Beijing China international district, a young women's president, some other people from different branches and 2 men from the 70 were there! Elder Stanley Wan from the 70 and Elder Anthony D. Perkins from the 70. We didn't know what they looked like, but when we saw them we knew they were from the 70, they have a different light to them. Elder Wan talked about if the Savior were to enter the room, would we recognize him and we should keep the commandments. Elder Perkins spoke about how Satan is trying to hold back the gospel to non-members but the gospel is still moving forward. There were about 200 people in the conference, a black person, white people, children and Asians, it was so awesome to look back on the congregation and see the different people. It was an amazing experience, afterwards we walked across the street and had lunch, which was spaggettii and hot ham and cheese sandwiches! The ham and cheese sandwiches were so amazing! I kept eating them! When we were done eating, we stayed in our seats and Steven L. Toronto, President Beijing China international district, Scott L. Bayles, 2nd counselor district presidency, Elder Anthony D. Perkins and Elder Stanley Wan spoke to us single adults, there were about 40 of us. We had a question and answer with them. We got to ask any questions we wanted and they would answer it. For example: How could we meet in a Ramada Hotel when the gospel is prohibited in China by the government? The answer is that the church works closely with the government and they permit us to meet but we need to be careful so we don't teach the Chinese people. The government, in a way, trusts us. Or What do Chinese people think about before and after life? They believe that if you go throughout your life being good you will be a king or a queen, if you did poorly through life you will be a dog or a cat. It was very interesting and I learned a lot about church in China, I loved this experience!

Yummy Yummy Food

2009-02-27T19:16:00.003+08:00

Hello, I haven't written on my blog for a while because I don't know what to write about! This week of teaching was hard, the kids were so out of control. They don't listen to us anymore, I'm very annoyed with them even though they are adorable. The school feeds us breakfast, lunch and dinner, I don't eat the breakfast because it is usually boring gross bread that has no flavor, so lately I have been eating Frosted Flakes! The milk is not too bad, I like to refrigerate it because I don't like warm milk. Lunch is always a surprise, they feed us rice and usually strange things like chicken gizzards and who knows what else. I just get rice and sometimes choy and I put soy sauce on it. The dinners are always pretty good, tonight they had beef that was boneless and there wasn't very many fatty pieces! I was so surprised! Our chef's name is Spencer, he just doesn't know that yet. That's what we like to call him though. Amy, our head teacher, informed us that the school is taking away our dinners because not enough teachers eat dinner, so he is basically only making dinner for us and a couple other people. That made me so sad because now I have to make my own food and waste money on food. Come to find out they will still feed us, I was relieved. Overall what we eat is pretty OK, sometimes it seems really good and other days it seems not good at all. Just depends on the day! I will write on my blog some more later! Hopefully we will do something cool tomorrow!

Massaging Blind

2009-02-21T18:38:00.003+08:00

FINALLY!!!! We went and got massages! Annie, the asian who shows us around, she showed us this massage place and she said it was really good. Today we set a time and went, it was me, Mandy, Jadie, Emily and Keegan. We get there and I was so excited! There were 5 of us and the lady wanted 4 of us in one room and 1 of us in the other room. We didn't like that plan so Jadie, Mandy and I stayed in one room, Emily and Keegan in the other room. Mandy and Jadie's massagers came in, Mandy's looked blind, he was running into things. I thought I was in the wrong room so I walked out into the hall to find Emily and Keegan in the other room, when I went out there I saw a guy he was running into things and he was feeling the walls like he was lost. I went back into my room and sure enough he was my massage guy and he was blind-they all were blind!!! The massage felt so good, at some points it hurt so bad I wanted to barf! He started massaging my forehead/head, when he was done with that he stuck his fingers in my eyes-that felt weird, I really did not like that part. He then massaged my arms, he popped my fingers and yanked on my arm so it popped-that was strange as well, so when he got to my other arm I didn't relax my arm so it wouldn't pop. Then he motioned me to lay on my stomach, he massaged the back of my neck and ow! did that hurt. I really was not a fan of that part, he then massaged my back, most of the time that tickled like crazy and I tried not to laugh, I liked when he massaged my legs and feet the most because it didn't hurt or tickle. Massages are very strange but it made me feel so good and tired:) We are planning on going back every once in a while.

2009-02-19T21:28:00.002+08:00

Jadie with her kids

Me teaching Emily's class, we made happy face sandwiches!

Cute little Jackey in drama, he is adorable! He looks good in those shades!!!

Emily teaching my class, Peter is in the orange (he is a wild child, I try to get mad at him but I can't do it, he is just too stinkin' cute!), Rebecca (she is half Spanish, half Chinese) to Peter's left, Lake's head is being covered (Lake is a big boy) Lucy (is probably the tallest girl at this school) and Ray, he is one of my personal favorites-he is so cute and such a sweetheart.

Mandy teaching Lindsey's class. Lucas is sitting next to Mandy, he is the one in the glasses-he is so cute and very smart! Suzie is the one to the left of Mandy, she is very smart as well but very stubborn.

2009-02-19T21:13:00.002+08:00

After the awesome motorcycle ride!!!

Ok, this is a picture of Emily on a motorcycle, but if you look close, I'm right in front of her in a gray t-shirt:)

Us girls walking to the toystore

In the little bus coming home from church

Yummy yummy Pizza Hut on Valentine's Day!

A Smell from Home

2009-02-18T18:06:00.004+08:00

THANK YOU MOM, DAD, CELS, and TANNER!!!! Today I got a package!!!! Finally! It has probably been sitting at the "Bond Institute" for about a week now. The Bond Institute is about 30 minutes away on bus. My package had my retainer in it-which still fits:) Valentine's candy, letters, a project for the asian kids, my watch and underwear. The undies were new, they smelled like home and they were freshly washed!!! All the girls were smelling them-it was funny and so not weird. We miss the smell of home, we use Tide here, our things get clean but they just don't feel so clean. I don't know why-probably because China is so dirty and humid:)
This week of teaching has been so crazy! The kids were very naughty on Monday and Tuesday, I couldn't even bribe them with "yummy treats!" as they would say. They kept speaking Chinese,which is a big no no, they were stealing and they wouldn't sit down!!! I don't like when they misbehave but when I look back on they day I just laugh to myself because they are just kids and they are so funny to be around. Like Peter, in my home class, when we tell him to go to the Chinese chair he does a little dance there, it is like a girly, swing your hips kind of dance. I would be mad at the moment but I would try so hard not to laugh at the same time. Then after teaching the other teachers and I will talk about the naughty/funny things the little kids were doing.
Today was so much better! Today Lake, he is in my home class, said, "Teacher, I want to go to America." he said it in such a sweet voice. I wanted to pick him up and hug him, it was the cutest thing! These kids really are so innocent, I will try my hardest to sneak one in my suit case when I come home:)

Going to Church

2009-02-15T16:35:00.003+08:00

We got up early today to go to church. We went down stairs of our apartment and there was a very small bus that was going to take us to Shenzen where church is. It took 2 hours to get there and when we got there we had to take our shoes off because we were in a really nice building with AC and a normal toilet. Most of the people there were White and from America, they live here with there families for business, there were Asians from Singapor-it was just like normal church at home except the children there were more loud and naughtier than at home, the bread was extremely soft and it seriously melted in my mouth, yes that is possible:) There were about 90ish people in the branch and about a 3rd of the members were ILP people! There were about 25 of us-we didn't even plan on going the same day! It just happened! After they fed us lunch and it was normal American food! They had BBQ beef sandwiches, chips, cookies, cheese cake, fruit and a lot more! It was so good!
I'm very glad I'm at this school. The other groups were telling us that they get charged $50 Chinese money if they don't eat everything on their plates at their school and they were fed pig's blood last week and they aren't suppose to teach the ILP method so they are teaching out of textbooks to 1st-3rd graders and they are giving them tests and quizes!!! Amy, our head teacher, said that the last ILP group must have left a bad rep. because now this school doesnt like ILP. Sad that people had to do that. I have a lot to be grateful for here (at our school) and I would never change it for the world! We get along with our teachers, we get to teach the ILP method and they feed us but we don't have to eat it if we don't want to. I'm also glad to know we have church kind of close by that we can go to once in a while, it was good to go and see white people and to hear English:)

Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T18:53:00.004+08:00

Valentine's Day was awesome!!! We didn't do anything but play on our computers all day. We did dress up though and we went to Pizza Hut. Whoa, that was amazing! The Pizza Hut here is like Olive Garden at home, it was so good and very American! My favorite part was that there was no red sauce and a lot of cheese!! It is my new favorite place. We got a Hawaiian Pizza with real non-fatty ham and pineapple on top and we got a Super Supreme Pizza-that was not my favorite. I'm not a fan of pepers/onions/sausage, so I picked it off and ate it anyway because it was American and very yummy:) The waitress at Pizza Hut was crazy! She wanted pictures with us, on our cameras and she wanted our head teacher, Amy's, email address after the waitress touched Amy's curly blonde hair. She did give Amy her email address, she was very nice. We were going to get massages but the other girls didn't want to, who wouldn't want a massage? I'm going to go another day after teaching this next week, no one will stop me!:) After Pizza Hut we got chocolate to bring back to our apartment so we could eat it while we watched Beauty and the Beast. Tomorrow we are going to church. We will leave Sunday morning and come home Sunday night. It will take about 2 hours to get there and it will cost around $120 Chinese money. It is so expensive! That is why we are only going to go to church once every month, but we do have Sunday School and Relief Society here and our apartments. I'm excited to go to church, there will be white people and they will speak English! I will let you know how that goes!

Chinese Birthday Parties

2009-02-13T21:42:00.003+08:00

We just got back from Ryan's party! Whoa, it was so much fun! Ryan's mom is a teacher here and she invited us, she told us to come at 7:30. We got there at 7:30, that was weird, we should have gone later because we just stood there and Ryan and his friend, Ricky, were running us over with this tricycle. There were a couple other Chinese teachers and family there. Ryan ran around screaming in people's ears, I think they just wanted the Americans to come to the party, I'm cool with that. There was goodies galore and there was a huge box in the center of the table, we knew there was cake in it, but what kind of cake? We were nervous because they like to eat weird jelly cakes. When they opened the box, it was a cake with noodle things on top. Weird. We got a piece of cake and it was like angel food cake, whipped cream and fruit, including tomatoes, on top. It was good other than the beans that were in the middle of my cake. They put the weirdest things together, like meat in yummy sweet rolls. It is just nasty. I felt like it was a party for the American's instead of for Ryan, we went around and told the Asians about ourselves. I told them I play the piano and they made me play because there was a piano in the room. I played very poorly. Oh well, I will practice and redeem myself later. Then we learned about the asians who were in the room. Ryan's dad is a police officer, his name is Eric, he is very nice. Overall the asians we were hanging out with were normal, I like them a lot. And Chinese birthday parties are exactly like American birthday parties. They have cake, candles, singing and talking. Oh and camcording, they enjoyed filming Ryan and the Americans, it was really weird but whatever. I'm glad we went and I'm glad Ryan's mom invited us. It was culture-enriching.

2009-02-13T13:35:00.002+08:00

Whoa, this week was only a 3 day week and I'm glad it is over. Teaching is a lot harder than I expected. You never know what kind of mood the kids are going to be in. Yesterday (Thursday) they were angels, they were so good! I didn't have to send them to the Chinese chair that often, they were paying attention really well and teaching went by fast. Today was a whole other story! They were so naughty!!! They were fighting all the time, I had to split kids up, James barfed, I couldn't send everyone to the Chinese chair at one time, so I took away their food, Peter and Jonie were cry babies today and teaching went by so slowly. It was so much! I think it was a combination of Friday, they were tired and it was cloudy/warm and humid more that usual. (Amy, our head teacher, said that the weather affects kids' behavior) Oh plus it is Valentine's Day tomorrow-maybe that has something to do with it. James came to my class today, he did not look good at all, he wasn't talking, he had a runny nose and he didn't have much color to him, as they lined up to go to Teacher Lindsay's class, James bent over and threw up. Jonie kept speaking Chinese and I would send him to the Chinese chair but he would not go! So I had to force him over there and he would cry the whole entire time. The Chinese teachers will stand in the classroom with me and they baby all of the kids when they are doing something bad! When Jonie was crying about being in the Chinese chair, a Chinese Teacher went over to him and put him back into his normal chair. The Chinese Teachers baby these kids and give them whatever they want. I'm excited to see the kids again next week, but I know they are going to have their good and bad days, I am more mentally prepared. There is a new student who started yesterday, his name is Harry and he is my favorite! He is so little and he has dopey ears! He is very smart and he doesn't follow the naughty crowd. Tonight is Ryan's birthday party. Ryan is a naughty boy but he gets away with a lot because his mom teaches at this school. She invited us to his party tonight, I'm excited to go and see how Chinese parties are! I will let you know how it goes!

2009-02-11T13:36:00.002+08:00

Today was our first day teaching-whoa that was crazy. Last night it seemed like we were all running around with our heads cut off because there was so much to do, so little time. With all said and done, we got everything done we needed to and our head teacher and all of the chinese teachers were very proud of us. I think they were expecting us to not be as good as we were. It is good to expect the worse. The kids are so cute! They are naughty though! We have 6 different rotations for them, kitchen, arts and crafts, shop, gym, drama and games. I was in-charge of kitchen and I will be for about a month, I think. Today we made fruit kabobs, most of the kids knew quite a bit of English already, if they speak Chinese they sit in the Chinese chair and watch us while we have fun. My "home" group is pretty good, these are the kids I will spend most of my time with. There is one little boy named Peter, he is a hellian because he is spoiled at home so he thinks he can be spoiled at school. The Chinese teachers put up with it, but our head teacher, Amy, said we are not going to put up with it and I agree! He is always crying for no reason. It is so annoying. But the other kids are so good, so far. I'm excited for tomorrow, even though I am nervous again. I'm thinking about making them something with peanut butter for tomorrow, peanut butter is always good. They kept yelling "peanut butter!" today, so I think they like peanut butter so we will cook with it! Anyway, I am worn out! Thanks for reading my blog!

2009-02-11T13:26:00.002+08:00

A real lion!!!

Getting ready for a sweet ride:)

Budas they worship, they are huge!

These guys at the circus were amazing!

2009-02-07T21:33:00.002+08:00

Yesterday (Friday) we left at 8:30, we rode the bus one hour and 30 min to Guangzhou. When we got there we saw signs to an amusement park, so we got on the subway and went. When we got off the subway, we went up the stairs and the amusement park was right there!!! It was totally empty we rode "the biggest rollarcoaster in the world" 7 times. It was a straight up and down drop, it dangles you there for a couple seconds and you can just feel the suspence! We met a very nice Asian worker, his name was Darren. When the ride stopped, we stayed in our seats because there was no one in line behind us! It was the best day to go to an amusement park! Then we rode other rides like a halfpipe one where you sit in a chair and you spin while you go up and down on a half pipe, that was probably one of me and Mandy's favorite ride. Then the group wanted to go to a show but Mandy and I didn't want to go so we went on more rides, just me and her, she loves her rollarcoasters which is sweet because I do too! We went to a LumberJack show, it is a show where Americans cut wood. Pretty boring and now the Asians think we are a bunch of hicks that just cut wood and we wear very short shorts. It was very disapointing, but nice to see Americans. After the amusement park closed, we went to the circus which was just right in the park! It was so amazing! We saw lions, elephants, hippos, boxing bears, flipping monkeys, guys standing on a ferris wheel doing tricks, trapeze people, and divers. When the performers saw us in the audience they stopped and waved because I think they liked seeing white people! I felt very special. We stayed in a hostle, it was pretty nice, better than what we have at our apartment. Today (Saturday) we went to 3 different Asian Buda worshiping places. They walked around with insence, I think that's what pollutes their country, then they bow down to huge buda sculpures. After we went shopping, we got cute jade friendship rings for $1.50 American! I also got pearl ear-rings and a pearl necklace for $3 American dollars! I love shopping here! It is amazing! I have learned so much about this culture in only a week! I'm excited to learn more! I will keep you guys posted!

2009-02-05T22:09:00.000+08:00

Victoria's Peak that looks over Hong Kong Island-so beautiful!

2009-02-05T22:06:00.000+08:00

Look, real Asians imitating Asians!

2009-02-05T22:04:00.000+08:00

2009-02-05T22:00:00.000+08:00

2009-02-05T21:37:00.002+08:00

Hello everyone!
These past couple days have been really relaxing, we made our apartment more homie by cutting out things out of colorful paper. We cut out polkadots for our living room/dining room. Jadie has triangles, Emily has randomness like snowflakes, stars and friendship people, Mandy and I have hearts in our room hanging next to Edward's poster:) we went to the supermarket again this day, we love the supermarket, they have cool things like Chinese candy, real frogs, fish, snakes and some other weird animals. A couple days ago we were standing in the check out and the Chinese lady standing next to us was getting a fish that was in the bag, as we were standing there her bag with the fish in it was flopping around!!! It was so scary and creepy and gross! Today we were at the supermarket again, we walked past the place were the real fish stay, one of them jumped out of the water and back into the bowl, Keagon (my new friend) started screaming! It was quite dramatic and we got even more looks. We went to a park today, it was beautiful, there were pagodas that were lit up all over the place, it was so pretty! I loved being there! Tomorrow we are headed to Guangzhou, our bus leaves at 9 AM, we will be shopping and going on the biggest rollarcoaster in the world! I will let you know how that goes, thank you for your love and support!

2009-02-03T15:13:00.002+08:00

Here I am in China!!!!! We first stopped in Hong Kong, there we went to DisneyLand, watched a light show where the buildings lit up to music and we went on a tour of Hong Kong, we saw the biggest buildings! They don't have very much space to build new buildings so they build up and they get very very big! We are now in China, we don't start teaching until the 10th of this month or so. We are just sight seeing in our city, we got head massages today for only $1.50 American money. I can't believe it! We also went to a cute little bakery this morning, it was interesting but good. They put meat in there pastries! I think it is better not to know what I'm eating, it makes things better. I love the people here, they are very nice even though they creep me out, they stop and stare at us. We were eating dinner yesterday at a nice place, people were staring at us through the window! I guess it is ok, I will take it as a complement:)

2009-02-01T05:40:00.004+08:00

Raychel has landed safely in Hong Kong and it sounds like they are having the time of their lives. They went to Hong Kong Disneyland yesterday and had a blast! Once she gets to Xioalan, the city where she is teaching, she will take over her own blog and keep us all updated on her adventures. As a parent, thank you for all your love and support you have shown towards Raychel. We all look forward to seeing pictures and reading stories!

At the airport, Wednesday Jan. 28, 2009

2009-02-01T01:10:00.003+08:00

2009-01-22T02:26:00.002+08:00

Hey everyone! This is my mailing address:

Bond Language Institute
for Raychel Long
Building No. 7, Song Mao Ge
Bai Yuan Xin Cun, Dong Qu
Zhongshan, Guangdong
PR China 528400

Or you can email me at raychie_lou@hotmail.com