Yummy Yummy Food

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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!