Because...China.

All of the days are blurring together. Seriously, I know we have done a lot but I just can't think of anything! So here's all I got. We checked out Sun Yat-sun Memorial Park. This park is across the street from our school and from what we could see it had a ton of stairs and a giant statue.

So we asked our coordinators if the bus could pick us up later so we could go to the park one day. When they told us what time the bus would take us home I was a little confused because they gave us a ton of time..to go look at a statue. Turns out it was definitely not just a statue. It was a GIANT park, including tunnels, forests, ponds and of course a giant statue of Sun Yat-sun.

 

Sun was the founding father of The Republic of China...he's kind of a big deal. And he was born in Zhongshan, which we are told is the only city in China named after someone..I am still confused how Zhongshan is named after a guy called Sun Yat-sun but like everything that confuses me here my only explanation is..China. Just China. It's a weird place man. After the visit to the park we actually got dropped off at the Lunar Market-a big market on the lunar calender days..it wasn't a lunar calendar day. Side note..did you know China has a whole different calender? Because I sure didn't. MIND BLOWN. Seriously, my mind was blown when I found this out last week..turns out it is like common knowledge. Who knew. But really, they are like still in July. How does that make sense? China. ANYWAY, we were at the Lunar Market when we found a meat alley..let me repeat that. Meat. Alley. Where they  kill the animals right there and have meat hanging everywhere...CHINA. This is one of those experiences that makes me happy I am a vegetarian. It was sick. Well, after that traumatic experience we went home and probably ate at some noodle shop. This week we also did family pictures because we hit our one month in China mark! I feel like I have been here like 2 weeks. Crazy. But, they were not just family pictures. Awkward family pictures. The theme for this month(because ya this is now a monthly thing) was 90's. So denim on denim and big hair was our thing. And of course we had to include our faithful fish Space Cowboy. How Space Cowboy is still alive..the world will never know. So we definitely had a hoppin Friday night.

Saturday we headed out early and went downtown to go to Sun-Yat-sun Memorial Hall. (this guy is a big deal) Turns out his museum was all in Chinese..so we went across the street and found some more museums..I love museums. We went to a sound and pottery museum but only a couple of us were really interested. Hey I thought it was sweet.

Then we went to lunch and split up. Some of the girls went to the Buddhist Temple and 4 of us went to walking street. Then the 4 of us split up so it was down to me and Stacy. We found a store where everything is 10 yuan ($1.50) so I got some earphones, phone case, and a plant. It was a sweet plant. Then we found another sweet museum that was actually in English! Sadly we had to go before we could really see anything but we will be back..sike we tried to go back and it was closed. So of course Stacy found a sketchy street and wanted to walk up it, what else is new. It actually just was a trail to the pagoda we had been to before but we did find a path in the trees..so we followed it. It was like an abandoned old path which was cool! I got 4990 bug bites. But it was cool.

For dinner we had a really authentic meal..at Pizza Hut. It was the best pizza I have had since being here. SO GOOD. Sunday we had our skype church which is weird. Real weird. But..China. So that was good. The rest of the day we just kind of chilled then went to dinner to a place called Gina's. It is a westernized restaurant close to our apartment. I got a veggie sandwich that was SO good. Because it had wait for it..barbecue sauce. I didn't even know that existed here. I was one happy girl. Today we started our last week of summer camp:( I hope these kids come back for the school year! I don't know what I am going to do without them! Today I also got all of my classes worked out for the semester..so that's fun. One more week of freedom! Then real life starts..well as real as it can get in China.

-Also if you read this whole post you are a champ. I am sorry it is so long and like has no pictures...China. 

Committing fraud in China.

Friday was the last day of summer camp! It's crazy that it has already been 6 weeks. Time is flying! The last day of school was parents day so it was a little chaotic but the kids were all so excited to show their parents everything they were doing. Every time I would give Bosco or Eason an object they would run it over to their parents to show them what they had. Then there is Bosco refusing to look at me..because he's Bosco.

They also had a performance for the parents which was the cutest thing ever. I love these kids. 

After their dances we played games with the parents and the kids. 

After games the parents left and we found out that most of the kids that were there for summer camp do not come back for the school year because they go to other preschools. That made us all real sad. Like I said..we love these kids! 

Saturday we decided to go to the beach...kind of. We went to Zhuhai which connects with Macau and just across the river is Hong Kong. Sadly because of our dang visas we can't go to either. Seriously we live like an hour from Hong Kong and we cannot go. Same with Macau. I didn't even want to go to Macau but now that I can't I want to. All I have to say is..China. 

(Hey Karry you will like this story;))

After a fun day, 5 of us decided we wanted to stay longer and see what it is like at night and shop around. We thought the last bus left at 10:20. So we got there at like 9:15 to purchase our tickets when the lady just shook her head no. Me and Stacy both just stared for a minute and asked again when she said "No, last bus 9. No more bus." It wouldn't have been so bad but 3 of us had to teach the next morning at 7:30. So we were a little(alot) stressed. We called our coordinator to see what we could do. They told us to find the rail station to see if we could catch a late train coming home. So we ran over to the train station. Another problem- In China anytime you take the train or travel outside of your providence you have to show your passport. Luckily me and Clara brought ours but Taylor didn't have hers. Kirsten though had a photo copy of hers. So the plan was to buy Taylor's ticket with Kirsten's passport. which worked fine. Then we parted ways so we could make our train that was leaving in fifteen minutes and they could go find a hostel for the night. Well, we got over to security when we realized they were checking our passports again. The guy at the checkpoint checked me and Clara's carefully but when it came to Taylor's (Kirsten's) he barely even gave it a glance...OK China. Cool. Actually really it was cool. We walked away and me and Taylor just looked at eachother and said "We just committed fraud in China..we just committed fraud in China. Run." Finally we got on the train and found out it was only a 25 minute train ride. It was a two hour bus ride. Safe to say we will be traveling by train for now on. Sadly when we got to the station all of the city buses were done for the night so we had to hop in a taxi and hope for the best. It was a crazy day. But a good one. 

Also can I just say I miss these people a whole bunch.

Hey guys, talk to me. 

Buddha Buddha Buddha

This week we decided we needed to not be lazy and actually do things. Because ya know..you only China once (probably.) So yesterday when we got home from school we hopped on a bus to see where it took us. Well, turns out that bus went no where cool we went the full loop and ended right back at the start. So we jumped on the one we knew would take us downtown then got on a random bus. 050 to be exact. Then we jumped off and started walking around. We found a memorial but it was after 5 so sadly it was closed. As we kept walking we came up to a sweet looking building. 

We had no idea what it said but we could

hear a ceremony going on so we figured it was a Buddist temple. We walked all around trying to find an entrance. The grounds were sooo pretty, so we explored a little bit. I saw a rad tree so of course I had to climb it. 

After exploring around the building we got a text from maegan and Allie telling us they found a way in so we ran down and went entered the temple. It was so cool. We walked around a little and tried to take part in the ceremony but I think because we came half way through the gaurd made us get out of that room. Or just because we are white. Who really knows. 

It was an awesome thing to watch though. When we finally left we decided to grab some dinner. We usually choose by walking down the street, pointing, and taking a lot of chances. Because it's hard to read the menus I have a picture on my phone that says "I am a vegetarian" so the waitress usuay points at the dishes that don't have meat. Well, Stacy showed the picture and waitress just nodded and wrote down something sooo we really had no clue what we got. Turns out it was Alfredo pasta. IT WAS SO GOOD. We defiantly ate all of it. Which is an accomplishment..do you know how hard it is to eat Alfredo with chopsticks?? Let me answer that one for ya. Hard.  After dinner we followed another random path and somehow ended up back at the temple. How? I don't know. But we got some chill pictures with Buddha. 

And of course me and Kirsten wanted to get pictures of us riding the lion. 

So we were planning to get home by like 6..7 max. Well we were home at like 9:30. Kind of close right? The rest of night we just chilled and got ready for teaching today! Well, I actually didn't teach today. The other school needed a room painted so since we have some extra teachers we are going in a rotation. They wanted the room to be themed around the UK so I was working on the phone booth today. 

After school we had Chinese lessons which I love. I just want to be able to speak to people already. So frustrating. After class we came home got ready and went to a foster home in our neighborhood. They have about 12 kids with special needs so about once a week we are going to go play with them and just have some fun!! They are adorable. I want one. Sadly because the kids are in the Chinese orphanage system I could not take any pictures to post. But take my word for it. They were adorable. Also today was Stacy and Debbie's birthday! We had Bella, Serena, and Debbie join is for a birthday dinner. We ended up going to W-oggie. An awesome pizza place. 

After we of course had cake with candles  and we played some games before the girls had to go back to their apartment. IT WAS SO FUN. We hit the jackpot with coordinators that is for sure. Well that's it! I LOVE CHINA. 

Ok that is all. 

Day in the life

This week has been super chill. We got back Monday so we started teaching again on Tuesday. This week I switched to arts and crafts so I got to help the kids make crafts which was a BLAST. This week we made braclets, goldish, crowns and rockets! I sure do love these kiddos of mine. ..even Bosco. :)

So pretty much our daily schedule goes like this:

7:30 bus picks us up for school 

8:00 eat breakfast and get supplies ready for lesson 

9:00-12:00 Teach and eat lunch

12:45 Chinese class

1:45 take bus home

This is usually when we have free time. Depending on how tiring teaching was that day we either take a nap or go find something to do. Because the other school where we eat dinner isn't open for the year yet we get money everyday for dinner. Sometimes we go to the market and buy supplies to make dinner but a lot of time we go find a noodle shop to eat at. Then we play some games. Usually scum. We really like scum. 

Sometimes we make up our own games. We like to call this one Chubby China. Pretty much me and Clara just have contests to see how many lychee we can fit in our mouth. 

Also heads up. Pretty sure we kept the whole building awake last night with our screams. But don't worry no noise complaints were made. 

Today me and Clara decided to take an adventure. Our adventures usually just consist of us walking around and usually getting lost. Today did not disappoint.  

But it can't be a normal city outing without getting a little lost. As we were finally making our way back home we did get on the right bus! Going the wrong way. So we finally got back going the right way and started looking at our phone. 5 minutes later we looked up and realized we completly missed our stop. Soooo we had to backtrack and find the right stop. Let's just say our 20 minute bus ride home turned into 90 minutes real quick. But we made it!! Got some noodles and ice cream and we were set!

Yangshuo

This weekend we went on our first vacation! We left on Thursday night expecting to take a sleeper for the expected 12 hours..well the bus was not a sleeper and the 12 hours turned into a 3 am wake up call. So we got there..but it was 3 am. We knew we were not far from west street and where our hostel was so we decided to walk. Turns out our hostel was impossible to find in the dark..like impossible. So we found a random hotel that looked nice and walked into the lobby. The night receptionist looked up from behind his desk then went back to sleep..such a blessing. We were able to relax and we also got to use the hotels free wifi to get better directions to our hostel. So when the sun just started rising we were ready to go.

 Turns out we were SUPER close. But it also turns out our hostel was up a sketch ally. SKETCH. Finally we got checked in and went to get some breakfast..American breakfast. Don't get me wrong I love the school food but noodles and rice for breakfast just don't cut it. 

Also look at this view from the rooftop of our hostel. 

After breakfast we met up with the other girls and went to the mud caves! 

After mud caves we did some more walking on West Street. By day it is a nice place to barter and shop around..by night.. It turns into party central. 

After accidently going to a gay bar and getting kicked out (we don't speak Chinese.) We decided to end our adventure at McDonald's and head to bed. 

Saturday:

Hiked to beautiful moon hill. To get there we walked to the bus station and found a tuktuk. The driving is insane. But sooo fun. And these mountains are amazing!!! 

The rest of the day was chill. Me and Clara explored down by the river. It was so cool.

After dinner we decided to enjoy the shopping and crazyness of west street..I have never seen so many people on one street before. We also got fish pedicures!! Tickeles like crazy but hey, it's an experience everybody needs! 

Sunday:

Our last day and probably the best. We rented bikes and rode over to the river to do some bamboo rafting. Everyone has heard how insnane Chinese streets are ya? Now imagine riding a bike. Holy Cow. It was so fun. Weaving in and out of cars was a little terrifying at first Haha but so fun. 

Once we got there we left our bikes at the bottom and hitched a ride up on a ..,well I actually don't know what you would call it..it was a vehicle. 

Once we were up there we met up with the other girls and got ready to float! Each boat had a driver and not to be biased..but me and Clara defs got the best one. I mean..he let me drive, push? Paddle? Whatever. A lot harder then it looks. 

After the rafting we rode our bikes back and got some dinner! It's funny, we have had a lot of Western food this trip because we were in such a touristy spot but my favorite dinner was the Chinese! It was definitely westernized a bit but it was sooo good. Guys. I love China.  Although today I found out China sun does not love me. SO BURNT. -pray for me. 

Also can I say how much I just love these girls? We are going to have an amazing 5 months that is for sure. 

We had such an awesome time! And I found out I am quite the barterer..even though I didn't even want anything haha. I would ask how much something was just out of curiously really, but they thought I was interested. On more then one occasion I had the shop keeper running down the street after me trying to make a deal. But for some reason it was only me. Maybe they knew I was weak. But hey. I got a dress, wallet, Toms(prob fake)  and a big Buddha for 215 yuan. So like 33 dollars. I thought that was pretttty sweet. I also found out that if I wear my hair in a bun less people ask to take pictures of me. I guess when my hair is up they can't see that my hair is lighter. Soooo hair in a bun everyday it is! Jkjk it isn't that bad. Bit of a self esteem booster haha. Well first vaca was a success! I am excited to get back home and start teaching again! Because I mean how can you not miss these faces..