All Things China.

I feel as if I have soooo much to catch up on. I could write novels about the happenings of the last few weeks but time is of the essence. In an effort to catch up here are some more thrilling bullet points. 

-The fruit markets over here are wonderful. So many delicious items to partake of, many which I have never seen in my life. The mini bananas being my personal favorite. 

-The meat markets on the other hand are awful. They are like something straight out of a horror movie. EVERY single part of the animal is up for display & it smells horrendous. Also, the floor is always sopping wet. Heaven only knows why. Maybe its for the fish that are often flopping at your feet. 

-We shower in a bucket. 

-There is an attractive Asian teacher at our school. I never thought I would see the day. 

-We will walk up to people who are smoking & say "You should really stop smoking it will kill you. You're dumb." and they just stare at us. They have no idea what we are saying. It's such a fun little game! I'm just worried for the day that it backfires on us. 
-They have multiflavored Oreos over here. Rad. 

-Everything & nothing goes over here. People will just pull their pants down & start going to the bathroom on a busy street but you aren't supposed to wear flip flops or chew gum in public. I will never understand. 

-I saw a man scale a building the other day. 

-We go to the salon & have them wash our hair, give us a scalp/back massage & style our hair. We call it "washy, washy." It is heaven on earth and soooo cheap. I'm addicted.  

-The people rock. 

-They are obsessed with water. Their response to everything is "Drink more water." They have a sign that says those exact words on the wall. It's hilarious. They make the kids take a water break every twenty minutes. 

-This is what most people on the bus look like. 

-I drink this chocolate soy milk every day.One of the Chinese teachers straight up asked me why I'm not fat. The people aren't afraid to say anything. Whatever they think they vocalize.    

-It was the Chinese New Year awhile back so they were constantly setting off fireworks. They were so loud. When I heard the first one at about 4:00 a.m. I was convinced that someone had dropped a bomb. They continued to set them off everywhere until about midnight & I really didn't like it. Apparently it's something they do often. 

-I feel so rich over here. 1 American dollar= 6.1 RMB. I paid four dollars for a pair of shoes the other day & I felt like I had been ripped off. It's a beautiful thing. 
-The super markets are also beautiful. They are like an amusement park in the fact that they are so colorful & fun. 

-We went to Shiqi for a Bond banquet. It is such a beautiful city. We all got to wear tacky orange jackets & do as the Asians told us. It was weird being around white people, seeing as I have yet to see a white person in our city. We all rode bikes around while they followed us in cars videoing/taking pictures of us. Then we ate a whole bunch of food. 

-They love to watch us perform. I'm convinced that they just like to make fun of the silly Americans dancing but either way we busted a move to Numa Numa in an effort to please them. On the plus side we won 500 yuan for "Most Extraordinary Performance." 

-We were given these awesome ponchos that "be easy to carry abort." 

-We never know what we are eating. We've learned not to ask. It's not rare for us to find claws in our meal.

Bye Bye now. 

Hey Baby Hey Baby Hey.

Let me tell you a little bit about my babies. I've spent two weeks with them & I can't even express to you how much I love them. The thought of leaving them already breaks my heart. I can't even imagine how I am going to feel after another four months. They are not only the cutest & smartest things ever but they also love us to death. From day one I've had a child clinging to one of my arms. They love to snuggle & have your attention. Mostly they just love to be loved & so we do just that. Not only do we get to teach them in the mornings but we also get to come back and play with them for an hour or so in the afternoon. It's the best time. Let me introduce you to a  few of them... Also I swear they come out of the womb doing a peace sign or striking Kung Fu poses. Its simply the first thing they do when they see a camera. Enjoy!  

Catherine, Cindy & I. 

Leroy. 

Emily & Catherine. 

Our German babe Kevin. He is the only white kid in the school & such an angel. 

Oscar. 

Emily & Anna. 

Sam. 

Nathan's behind. He was wearing the funniest sweater one day. 

I really didn't intend to pick a favorite student but it happened. Meet my main man Tony. He is the sweetest boy in the world. He even made me a flower one day. We celebrated his sixth birthday on Friday. It was a delight!

Catherine. 

Emily. 

Adam. 

Daniel.

Emily, Tony & Jordan. 

Jacob. 

And if I haven't convinced you that they are the greatest yet, let me just tell you that they regularly do Kung Fu. 

Nanlang.

From the moment that I arrived in Nanlang I was absolutely in love. The busy streets and friendly people make for an amazing place to call home. Here are some things that I realized within the first few days. 

-Being a foreigner is insane. PEOPLE STARE & STARE & THEN STARE SOME MORE. You would think we are aliens or something. When we go anywhere every single person on the street, across the street, in their car or anywhere within a one mile radius is looking at us. Not only do they stare, they follow us and tell us how beautiful we are or say inappropriate things to us. 

-The weather over here is unreal. Much like California weather. Regardless of the amazing temperature the people wear winter coats? They think it's freezing. Our native coordinator once told us she was hot but didn't want to take off her coat in fear that she would get cold. Riddle me that? 

-They love to give gifts. This is one of the things that they gave me. 

-Everyone honks their horns here. If they change lanes, they honk. If they speed up, they honk. If they breathe, they honk. It's terrifying & quite frankly annoying. [Although I'm already getting used to it.]

-We live in a nice gated area and I was able to have my own room. Which is rare. I feel blessed! 

-This is a dirty, dirty country. There is trash everywhere.I'm constantly seeing people walk outside and throw their trash in the street.  The first thing I did when we got to our apartment was clean. I hope that doesn't make me high maintenance.  

-Red lights mean do whatever you want. I've almost been hit by a car more times than I can count. 

-Our school is absolutely darling. They even have itty bitty toilets for the kids. It wasn't long before it began to feel like home. 

-I'd say at least 90% of the people over here smoke. They also smoke wherever they want. It's not a rare thing to see a thirteen year old lighting one up in a restaurant or on a bus. 

-China is full of underwear ads. Its the weirdest thing. 

-There is this little Muslim noodle place down the road that quickly became my favorite. [They now know our orders] Their fried rice is my favorite. Puts Panda express to so much shame. 

-I think that places like the one pictured below are so beautiful & all the natives think I'm straight crazy. Last time I said I can't get over how lovely this is Anna [One of the Chinese teachers] said "Are you kidding me?"

-Ordering food is either a complete gamble or pointing to something someone else is eating that looks good. 

-I learned that people name their kids the weirdest of things. At my school we have a firecracker, source, tiger, stone, seven, gogo, miffy, hard, cookie, angle, & petter. 

-The police carry big guns but they also wear high heels. So I have a hard time taking any of them seriously. 

-Here are a few more random shots from around the city. 

So much more to come. Till then! 

Airports & Stuff.

Greetings my darlings! I am happy to announce that I am now living in China. Things have been nothing shy of unreal since I got here! For the sake of organization I will start by telling a little about my excursion over here. [Maddi if you are reading this you will notice that I copied and pasted some stuff from my email to you. It only seemed logical but I apologize for being redundant nonetheless.]

-Over 36  hours of straight traveling is hard on the body. But when I was been able to sleep it was wonderful.

-I love airports.

-My 13 hour flight ended up being pretty painless thanks to the AMAZING perks of Korean Airlines. The planes are so dang nice and massive. The flight attendants looked like the Beauxbatons from Harry Potter and they did nothing but feed us food the whole time. Also we each had our own TV. So I just watched a ton of movies, listened to Korean pop music, & played Tetris. I was also able to sit next to my friend Cinnamon [who has the coolest dreads in the world], so that helped too!

-The Korean city lights [at night] are the most amazing thing that I have ever seen in my life. They have legit light shows on some of the buildings. Everything there is so colorful and well lit.

-We stayed in the nicest hotel in Korea. They fed us like royalty & even had a couple of fancy Koreans perform for us while we ate. The shower and toilet were weird though.

-The airport in Seoul was crazy cool and apparently one of the biggest in the world. There was a full mall, movie theater and ice skating rink inside.

-They tried to give me wine on every flight. Although I kindly declined I kind of liked it because it made me feel old.

-Shortly after arriving in China we hoped on a bus. I literally thought we were going to die. They drive like mad men over here. I felt like we were constantly cheating death.

-We stopped a few times before we reached our city to drop other teachers off. At one of the stops we ate dinner & I was able to experience "peanut butter noodles" [that's just what I call them] for the first time. They are delicious! I also realized how poor I am at using chopsticks. I was only able to eat 1/4 of my meal as a result. I still have not been able to figure them out & I fear that I will starve if I don't get the hang of it soon. We joke that I should make a fork necklace so that I will have one with me at all times. If that doesn't scream foreigner I don't know what does.

 That's all for now.. peace playas!