My fun weekend!

So i finally did something this weekend worth writing about! Its about time we got out of this stinking apartment and did stuff. On Friday we went skating! At the arcade place i went to last weekend there is spot in the back where you can rent skates and skate around! They were those old school skates that have 2 wheels in the front and 2 in the back. At first i was terrible! You know when you loose your balance, and your about to fall so you swing your arms to try and catch yourself, all the while looking like a fool?? ya that was me the whole time! haha (but i was better than Sarah, so i didn't feel to bad...lol) jk but all the Chinese people who were there skating were legit. These guys were doing a bunch of tricks and skating backwards i was impressed. There was this one guy who would spread his legs apart like he was doing the splits and peddle with his arms..it was crazy! I definitely got a recording of it, no worries! I have something to admit tho mom....err...i might have held hands with a random Chinese man..! haha Me, Sarah, Hannah, and lacy were all just skating around and kept screaming and laughing every time we almost fell and this Asian skater dude kept laughing at us! Well i was skating and he came up next to me and held out his hand...so i took it! i don't know if that is even allowed. I didn't even remember what it was like to hold someones hand. He pulled me around the rink super fast and taught me how to turn corners. For someone who doesn't speak my language, he was doing a good job at flirting with me, haha i was impressed. But no worries, he didn't follow me home or make any moves so were good!

Saturday was really nice to. I actually slept in for the first time in forever. I woke up at 10:30! i was so proud of myself, not gonna lie! But my body has been so sore the last week because I've been laying on my sides and my board is so hard that my body just aches. I will need to see a chiropractor for a week straight to get back to normal again! I don't know what it's like to sleep through the night without waking up to a dead shoulder and hip! i feel like my body should be 90 years old. Anyways, Kelly Comes in our room at like 1 and shes like "you go today at 3 to your family house. Its last weekend so you say bye". So, we said OK. We hurried and got ready and then she calls and says not till 5, so we seriously sat on our beds for 2 hours and said nothing to each other. haha i think we are just so tired and ready to be home we don't know what to do with ourselves, or what to say. haha its' kinda funny now, looking back. but in the moment I'm sure we looked like zombies or something. Anyways, we got picked up and went to a traditional Chinese restaurant. hmm...yummy. It was funny tho cause before we left Sarah was like I'm gonna make them take us to pizza hut and were gonna feast and eat some bomb food, and so when they said where we were going i just laughed. i should have known better. We had blow fish for dinner! Did you know, that they are poisonous? and that you eat even one drop of there blood, you will die? ya. I was not excited that 2 weeks before coming home i could have died, and that i was going to have to eat seafood...I'm not a big fan of that...Did you know that to be able to serve blow fish, you have to be certified? and that the cook who makes it has to try a bite of every one he makes to make sure it's not gonna kill us? We also heard a lovely story of how one of the friends of the parents of the family we stay with, (i hope that made sense?) her husband died of eating this fish? So basically if you don't hear from me, you will know why! But do you know what the worst part of this story is? I loved it. I straight up ate that fish with those chop sticks! (the puffer fish is the pic of the nasty looking thing in the pot..) Another weird thing that they do is drink vinegar! It's in a little vile thing and you poke a straw through it and drink it..the dad made me try it..haha It's supposed to make you beautiful, but I'm not buying it...nothing that disgusting can make you beautiful!

We ate lots of seafood, more crab, clams (i couldn't do either of them) and some other weird fish on random plates. I cant wait to never eat fish again. it smells so gross. and I'm embarrassed that i don't mind eating it. After dinner we went to the dads karaoke bar and had some ice cream which was way good! It was weird tho because they put the ice cream on top of watermelon? it was an interesting way to eat ice cream! it was pretty good tho! there was two other couples who went to dinner with us and both the husbands were cops! I got nervous cause they wanted to see my license, and asked if we carried our passports on us...err nope i said! for a second i pictured us being thrown into prison and spending Christmas in a Chinese jail probably getting a tattoo for my Christmas present? or something ridiculous. but they were way nice and we ended up spending about 4 hours at dinner just talking with everyone! In the pictures the littlest girl is Annie, then the other girl is Leona (the girl who knows all the English and translates for us, and then the couple on the left the husband is a cop, and his wife just opened a English school for kids, then the woman next to me is Annie's mom, her husband is also a cop, he had to leave early, and then next to her is Leona's mom and dad)

So it was kinda hard cause when we were at dinner with the family Annie was talking to her mom and asked if she would be with her forever and the mom was like yes but i will grow old and die eventually and it broke my heart to see how sad she was and for me not to be able to say anything to comfort her! While we were sitting there They mom asked us if we had ever drank or smoked.and she was happy to hear that we hadn't, but was surprised we'd never even tried any. Then she asked is our dads drank or smoked. You should have seen the look on everyone faces when we said no. They were completely shocked and wanted to know why. I wasn't sure how to answer them without sharing The gospel with them. Sarah said it's because of what we believe, and they started to ask more about it when the police mans phone rang and everyone got distracted and changed the subject. I'm convinced that if the gospel was allowed in china that everyone would want to be converted! they are such humble people and i think they know that something is missing in their life. I'm also convinced that's why they want us in their home. Not just the fact that were Americans, but because there is something different about us that they see and want. If missionary's are allowed in china in the next couple years, I'm going on a mission and demanding to be sent to china so i can come back and find everyone that I've met here. and convert them! I'd baptise all of Weihai if i could!

Well, I'm sad to say that I have been having some weird digestive problems..i don't know what's been going on with me! china is finally catching up to me or something. I've had diarrhea all weekend1 when i taught on Friday my stomach started hurting and i knew that something bad was gonna happen..lol It was the last day we taught, and probably the worst lesson i taught because i was trying to just breath in and out.haha everywhere we went on Friday i had to be sure a bathroom was close. it's a good thing I'm a master squatter! Whats weird tho is i lost my voice on Friday and still haven't gotten it back? i souled like a dieing something. i don't even know. Anyways, when we got dropped back off at the school all the girls were doing their hair and makeup all crazy and had decorated our common room, to have a dance party! so me and Sarah joined in! it was fun to just dance around with all the girls. They are all so sweet, I'm gonna miss them. I guess that's really all i did this weekend? I cant believe i only have one more! aHhHhHh! haha well, i have a lot to do this week that i need to start planning! I love you and miss you all so much.

This is pictures of the older kids we teach. The last one is of me and Rose. She always want to hold my hand, and she calls me mommy. She is another one of my favorites! She is so cute and always makes me feel good!


























We went to the families house and it went really good. we went and picked ping guo, (apples) and we even packaged some! the place where they grow the apples is disgusting. there was trash everywhere. but, the apples are so much better here than home! maybe the trash adds some extra flavor. Well after that we went to the beach again, and then the hot pot. there, i are a crab..it was so gross. like i are the brains and intestines and everything....they just cracked open his body and sucked it up! i had to force myself to eat it..and again, they kept putting more and more food on our plates, so we were stuffed again! after dinner they took us to a mall, where they insisted on buying us Halloween costumes, so we got a mask and witch hat. then, the insisted on buying us more stuff! like we said we didn't need anything, but the mom was offended that we didn't want her to buy stuff for us, so we got some candy and a little game thing, and this thing to wash our face with. they wanted to buy us books and lip gloss, but we said it was to much..these ladies are crazy! it was fun tho. they gave me the recipe for dumplings, so I'm gonna try and make them for you guys when i get home...we will see! it's a rough translation of the recipe..














These are my Spaghetti-O's that forgot and left on the shelve before vacation

Ijust had to show you how much skill i have at cooking now! I have given up my spaghetti-o's days and moved on to bigger and better things..! hahaha OK maybe not, but i was so proud of me and Sarah so i had to take pics. The other night we were bored, so, we looked on our food shelf for something to eat! and had a brilliant idea, we decided to use our pudding mix to make a pie! So we went to the jaja and bought some cookies and crumbled them up for a pie crust. (china doesn't know what gram crackers are yet...) we didn't really know what we were doing, we just kinda guessed what to do the whole time, but it turned out to be really good!! we put the pudding in the cookies crust we made and then stuck it in the fridge and wha la! it was fabulous.

My adventures staying with a family in China

I just wanted to say that this weekend with the family was so much fun! They were the nicest people, and took really good care of us. We got to the house and the mom was making dinner, so we got to kind of see how dumplings were made! I even got to help make a couple, and they laughed at how horrible I had made mine, but it was a lot of fun helping! We laughed the whole time. Dinner was amazing! Guess what?? I tried octopus! eww...it was not my favorite, but they put it on my plate, so i ate it..The rest of dinner was delicious though. We had chicken wings, fruit salad, crawdads, tons of fruit, octopus, and dumplings. The dumplings were the best thing I've ever tasted, but I was so scared to eat the crawdads..like i chopped off their heads with scissors, and peeled off their shell, with my fingers..!!! It was so disgusting mom...i didn't think i could eat it! i felt like it was still alive, but they weren't that bad. The mom kept putting more and more food on our plates! she was like we need to get you fat, eat it all! so, we really did almost eat it all! after dinner we played hide and seek with the kids, and some other Chinese games that they taught us, it was a lot of fun being with the little girls. there were two 13 year olds and an 8 year old. so it reminded me of playing with Madison, except Madison is so much more mature than these little girls! After the games we had a snack, even though we were still so full! we had yogurt and fruit which was delicious, (so we went and bought some more yogurt for us!) and then we went to bed. We had our own room, which was nice, and the mom came in and brought us water before bed, they were so nice! I loved talking with the girls! The mom didn't know English, only the girls.

When we woke up in the morning we had the best breakfast ever! It was a bunch of different pastries and more fruit! they fed us so much food. lol after that we went and played tennis! haha it was embarrassing cause we were terrible..the dad was playing and he showed us some tips, and after that, we went to the beach! We just sat and relaxed there for awhile. it was really nice. we just talked and got to know the girls better. it was funny cause people showed up while we were playing tennis so they came to hang out. so there were like 4 girls and a little boy and the mom and a teacher from our school. well after the beach we went and ate again! we had lunch at a Korean place, which wasn't my favorite, but still pretty good. After lunch we dropped everyone off and then went to where the dad worked, he owns 2 KTV's, which is like a karaoke place? so while one girl had keyboard lessons, Sarah and I sang our hearts out in our very own VIP room..haha. I lost my voice from singing so much! It was a lot of fun. We went home after that, but they want to hang out again next weekend, they said they want to take us to the island that's really close to here? so we might go do that next weekend, I'm not sure! I had so much fun with them! I didn't get pictures cause i forgot my camera in the room, but they took some so i will have them email me some, or take more pics next time i see them!

Guilin Trip and pictures of Xian trip

This Vacation was such a great experience for me! It was so much fun, and I definitely have good stories from this trip. I think over all it was good, even though some parts weren't what I wanted, and just crazy. The Xian trip wasn't my favorite just cause of how crowded it was, and so when we got to Guilin, it was so nice! i love it there. it reminded me of being in the states? it felt like i was walking down California or something?? except 10 times more beautiful. and there weren't many people there. It was nice too cause we just relaxed the whole time in Guilin. Me and Sarah have been hanging out with "the Cousins" their names are Hannah, Danny, Kristi, and Lacy. These girls are so much fun! These girls are my favorite! I'm going to miss them so much when we leave.

We went to the mud caves/hot springs in Yangshou which was so much fun! we got all muddy and then sat in the hot springs! it was sweet tho cause we went on a raft ride through the Dr. Seuss mountains for about an hour and a half, it was gorgeous! it didn't even seem real, i felt like i should be watching the scene from a movie or something! I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. after that we crawled onto this little van thing and it took us on a ride through a little town with farms and little shack houses which was beautiful as well, that led to a bus ride to a bike shop where we rented tandem bicycles and rode to the mud caves! haha it was so much fun. they were a lot harder than it looks...! The funny thing about this trip was that Sarah and i had to carry our luggage around with us that whole time! hahaha cause the guy told us at the hostel we would be able to lock our luggage up in another hostel (because we were planning on staying in yangshou instead of going back to Gulin) but no..they didn't let us put it anywhere till after the raft and van ride and bus ride! The bike guy finally let us leave it somewhere...I'm not really sure where it was either?? but everything turned out good.

When we got to Yangshou we only had like half a day so we just walked around our little area and then got on a van to drive to the airport. I thought we were going home the next day, but no. plans changed, like they always do in china, we flew to Shanghai and got there around 12:30 am. well after a long debate, we decided to get a hotel instead of sleeping in the airport. so we hoped in a taxi and took off. but, our taxi drivers were ridiculous! they tried to take us half way across shanghai to a hotel so that it would cost more. we passed like 12 hotels and i kept yelling at the taxi man to pull over but he wouldn't! he just kept driving and he started laughing! when he finally pulled over we called someone to translate for us and told him to take us back the other way to a closer hotel. when we finally got to a hotel, the taxi ride ended up costing 200 yuan. i was so mad cause we were all stressed and it was late at night and i didn't have that money to just give to a rude taxi man! And to make things worse the hotel was not cheap. we asked a guy in the airport how much a room would be and he said about 200 yuan a night, and there was 6 of us so we decided it wouldn't be that much to split it. but no. this hotel cost 660 yuan a night! but there was nothing we could do at this point. The guy wasn't even going to let us have 6 people in a 2 person room but we literally begged him cause we had no where else to go. Everyone that night was just falling apart. Sarah had broken down crying in the taxi, i was yelling at the man to stop laughing and everyone was exhausted. The beds were tiny too. me and Sarah shared, Emily and Kayla shared a bed, and Matt and Braden slept on the floor. it was ridiculous! but it was nice to get some sleep.

This trip was really a testimony builder. It made me realize how much heavenly father loves me and to know for a fact that i was being looked out for. Every time something went wrong and i didn't think we were going to find a way to stay somewhere or have enough money, it all worked out. i was scared because after all the money i had to spend on he taxi and hotel i wasn't going to have enough for the bus ticket home. and i prayed that i would be fine and that the ticket would be less expensive or something. and when we got to the place it turned out to be more. it was 322 instead of 278. i wanted to cry cause i literally had no money left and there wasn't' an ATM, but i reached in my pocket for something and in it was another 80 yuan, which was perfect for the ticket and lunch. i don't even remember putting that money in there. That wasn't the only time i was being watched over either. i never knew where i was going and what i was doing, but somehow we always found our way. we always took the right turn or asked the right people. This trip has defiantly strengthened my testimony. I haven't ever once felt afraid here.

Pictures of Xian Trip-

Just when you think things can't get worse. lol

All I can say about Xian is wow! This was definitely
the craziest vacation! I've been thinking to myself,
how am I am even still alive!? Haha so we wake up
early to go to the Terra-Cotta warriors. We had to
take a bus there so we went to stand in line and it
was PACKED!! Like the line curved every which way,
it was like a Disneyland ride line on crack...ridiculous!
Well we were standing there and all of a sudden the
people went crazy! They all started running towards
the bus so, we all run to! Everyone was packed in so
tightly in this line. I've never been so close to am
Asian before...! I really think that if I would have
picked up my feet, I would have been able to stay in
the same position it was that squished! Well, this
angry Chinese man by me started yelling and shoving
his way through everyone. When he got to me he grabs
my side with his long nasty fingernails and pulls me
back and scratches my whole side! I thought I was going
down but Sarah saved me! The whole thing was just
ridiculous! When we finally got to the terra-cotta
warriors, it was the same thing! There were just so 
many people there and we had to wait in lines for
everything. So I actually got to see the warriors
for a total of 7 min. I got a couple pics, nothing
to exciting! So after that whole adventure we still
had to find a bus ride back to our hostel...we waited
for an hour crammed pack in the same. I was literally
on top of Amanda (my head teacher) the whole time. I
helped a deaf Chinese woman find her lover when they
got separated tho which was cool. One of the girls
in my group Ellyisa started like convulsing and crying
because she was so stressed out about being in this
line for an hour...it was bad. We couldn't do anything
either! And when we finally got to he bus it took 4
hours to get home because the traffic was Terrible!
We were stopped on the road forever.  We even had
to switch buses for some reason?? Oh my gosh it was
seriously like the worst vacation day ever!! Here's
a word of advice, don't ever go to Xian! I'm hoping
that tomorrow after our 27 hour bus ride to Guilin,
we will be able to relax and have a good vacation!
Were planning on going to some mud caves and a zoo
and just see some pretty scenery! I'm crossing my fingers!

The Xian Experience

So we finally made it to Xian After the 24 hour
bus ride here. It was definitely not as cool as
the last bus that we took! The squatter was broken,
and therefore clogged! It was soon over flowing
and splashed when the bus shook... Que asco!  It
was interesting too when we would stop and pick
up random people off the road... they would sleep
in the isles of the sleepers, which was crazy because
the isles were so small. I don't know how they did it.
We made it to the hostel of most our group. But when
the last 6 of us tried to get in it was booked, so we
were trying to either find our hostel by ourselves..
It was pretty interesting! We couldn't find a cab so
we got into this car thing..I don't think it should
even be cAlLeD a car...it was a motorized  tin box...
Lol it was soo funny tho! Only 3 of us could
fit so we sent off the first 3 hoping to find another.
But, before we had time to look, the other tin cab
came back with another empty one following right behind!
He had gone and gotten his friend for us. We were bustin
up about the whole thing!  And then, the first tin cab
died!!! So we turned around and started pushing it
with ours. I thought we were going to push it the
whole way, but I  guess it just needed a little jump
start. I thought that I loved those tin cabs! Until we
found our hostel and they wanted us to pay 100 yuan
for each cab! Sarah and the driver got into it bad..
she straight up was like "NO" in his grill and so finally
we payed 35 which I thought was reasonable.. We couldn't
believe they wanted to rip us off that much! Oh well.
Well we got to our hostel finally and saw that we have
combined bathrooms and the shower has no divider...yup
I could be showering next to some hairy old nasty china
man...! Hahah I'm just kidding I rather have greasy hair
and smelly armpits! Well other than that my day has been
laid back!

Beijing Trip

This is of me at the Olympic stadium! We rode our bikes
there from the hostel.















Setting on the part of the great wall! It is amazing.










This is Tiananmen Square