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

Some of my Kids

This is Tom, Panda, and Swimmy. Tom is good when he's not with Tommy...they are devil children when they're together! haha Panda is the chairman son or something like that, he is super smart and knows a lot of English. Every time he sees me he says my name for some reason? haha he is cute. Tom and Swimmy are best friends they are always together! Swimmy keeps him out of trouble. He is the sweetest boy!













This is Mike! he is sooo funny! He causes a lot of trouble too, but you cant ever yell at him, because everything he does is hilarious so i have to try super hard not to smile when i tell him to calm down..these kids are so much fun! they're crazy beyond all reason, but i love them!









This picture i just took of the kids because they were super cute!I don't teach some of these kids so i don't know some of there names, but aren't the adorable?? One of the boys is Josh, Tony and Ringo! (from left to right) these boys are oUT oF cOnTrOl!!! Ringo is my favorite tho...he always wants to help (maybe a little too much) and is so sweet to the other kids. But he is always the one to distract others!! Whenever he sees us at dinner, he will come eat with us. he is so cute! Josh and tony are crazy as well. No one can control Tony, and if josh is alone, he is really

good! he loves to participate in the lessons. These are my Crazy boys!

The pic of all the girls, is my favorite class! they are a handful, but i love them for it! it goes Kitty, Jenna, Mary, Emma, Sarah, Miya, Ralph, and Jamie. Jenna has THE biggest attitude Ive ever seen in a little girl! she definitely knows what she wants and will cry and pout till she gets it! Her and Emma wine about everything!! but when they are happy, they are super funny, and i love them! Kitty and Jamie always want to hold my hand. they are so sweet! they hang on me constantly, and always sit by me when i teach. Sarah and Miya are never apart from each other! Sarah is the leader, and she informed me the other day that unless i brought candy to class that she wasn't going to go to my class anymore! so of course, I did:) no worries, they still love me! Ringo used to be in this class, but we switched him and Ralph, so i haven't really gotten to know him yet. he is pretty quiet in that class of all girls!

One thing I've learned about china

If there's one thing I've learned about china, it's that nothing is planned! sometimes it feels like while people are in the middle of doing something they have this idea so they say hey lets do it! and they do it. things change all the time, nothing is reliable! for instance, our vacation days! haha they have changed yet again. instead of leaving Wednesday through sun, we get mon and Tuesday off too! exciting right?? kinda. we already bough our train tickets and can't exchange them so we are still leaving Tuesday night for Beijing. but good news, we don't teach all week! haha but the bad news was we had to teach today (Saturday). it's exciting cause i have next week off, then i teach for a week, and then i have off another 10 days! when i come back from that vacation i will have hit the half way mark...crazy huh?!

Another example of this, yesterday while teaching it got pretty hectic! only half the kids showed up! so we were all excited cause 2 teachers taught 1 class and they each had like 6 kids in them. it was going great till all of a sudden, 40 min into teaching, the other kids came running in! we had no idea where they were or what they had been doing. all we knew was that we had to teach them. so, we pulled kids into rooms, split up the teachers and tried to teach, but failed miserably. They were all wound up and could not keep still or keep there mouths closed! ugghh. it was a very long day. i ended up not teaching at all. we kinda just played games with them which was a lot better than trying to teach.

Kelly came into our room and was like hey, want to go to the beach??so we got ready and were excited and we asked who else was going and said no one. haha she had only invited us (cause were her favorite!) i felt to special! her fiance came with us and we even drove in her brand new car! it was fun, we just played around in the water for awhile. the beach here is weird! like it never gets deeper? i feel like i can walk forever and my feet never leave the sand. well afterwords we all went to dinner and then we had to go back the the school for a meeting. But the funny thing was, was that i don't think Kelly was allowed to take us places like that? when we were walking she asked us to put our towels in our bag and she was wearing a dress and heels. haha she was trying to pretend like we weren't doing anything! The principal even walked by and we had to wait in the parking lot. hahaha it was pretty funny..i felt bad tho cause i definitely don't want to get her in trouble, but we had no idea!

So our branch president came from Beijing to visit us this weekend! His wife and son came, and they took us to dinner Saturday night! it was really sweet of them. after dinner we had an adult session of conference, to get us ready for Sunday. which today, we had out stake conference


















Here is my new dress I bought!

Teacher, Teacher!

205! That is the total amount of stairs it takes to get from the front of the school to my board (my bed). yes, I counted!

Anyways, my first vacation is the 22nd of this month, and we decided to go to Beijing! I'm so excited. it is a 5 day break, but i'm not sure of everything were doing there yet...i will give you more details.

The other day i found a McDonalds! I have never been more excited in my life to eat there. i was literally jumping up and down giggling when i saw they had fries, hamburgers, ketchup, and McFlurrys!!! I ate everything on my plate even though I didn't think i could eat it all. i have never been that full in my entire life!! it was pretty much the best lunch ever!

Teaching is going...uhm? I don't really know the word! every day is different. I swear the kids are bi-polar! some days they are little devils and i yell and put them i time out, and i give dirty looks, but some days they are angels! they are so good in lessons and they participate, and it is so much fun!

for example, Wednesday. i swear i put half of my class in time out because they are just out of control! I made this one girl cry because she got put there, and this other kid just about made me swear to never have kids! he was being sOoOoOO bad! he wouldn't stop talking, he was making animal sounds, he was touching and hitting everyone around him, and by the time i took away all his stars, i was fed up! i grabbed him and yanked him from his seat and started dragging him to the hallway to call for someone to take him away. but no. (this kid is probably the same, or heavier than me) he plops himself on the ground and starts panicking with fear in his voice he starts to yell NO CHINESE TEACHER over and over and over. (the Chinese teachers don't mess around...) by the time im finishing yanking him to the doorway, i am completely exhausted, ad he is almost in tears. (by this time all the other students are silent and staring in amazement, probably at my super strength because he is so massive!) well, i bend over and grab him by the shoulders and say if you promise to keep your hands to yourself and don't say aNoThEr word i will let you stay. he immediately got up and ran to his seat and was silent the rest of the class. yes, i felt terrible, but he deserved it!

Today however, was amazing. the kids were so sweet and i actually had fun with each of the students! this little boy named Tony started tickling me during opening so i tickled him back...not a good idea. soon everyone around us had joined in and they were attacking me with there little fingers! it was cute, but they should have been paying attention. another kid was messing around with some boys around him while the rest of us were singing a song, so i went behind him and grabbed his arms and made him do all the movements. soon, people were shoving him out of the way so that i would help them with the movements...(i should not be allowed to sit with these kids!) after opening Ringo ran to me and held on to my stomach and would not let go! so, everyone followed. we were trying to get kids to there classes but they were all hanging on me. i don't think the other teachers like me for playing with the kids...but what can i say?? I am just the favorite!

i am in charge of rotating the kids to there next classes. so today while rotating a group of girls huddled around me and started feeling my stomach..weird right? it gets weirder. so after trying to get them to line up and failing miserably, they all start chanting something in Chinese over and over. they chanted what sounded like a curse or something the entire way to their next class. luckily, we passed Kelly and I asked her what they were saying, and this is it. "teacher teacher you are so pretty, teacher teacher you have become so skinny!" I laughed so hard when Kelly told me that. these girls are so cute! i want to take one home! but peter said no...haha i hope they will continue to get better for us now that they know what to expect.

Tomorrow is teacher appreciation day! i guess all the teachers have tournaments with basketball, badminton and ping-pong? We are invited so I'm hoping it will be pretty fun!

Karaoke in China and an praying with the Monks

I am still doing pretty good here! I'm finding new things all the time! I got a jacket that I love, and a couple more shirts and a dress! I'm having good luck with clothes here. I love shopping and I don't even feel bad cause it's like $2 for a shirt! I'm lovin it. I haven't had to take anymore money out yet, i think I'm set for a long time! (well hopefully!)

Tonight was tons of fun! We went to a karaoke place and jammed out all night! The building was gorgeous! It looked like a hotel or something! I guess they take karaoke seriously here! hahaha We had our own private room with sound proof walls, so we blasted every song! We had pretty much every song we could ever want to sing to, AND we had strobe lights and flashing lights and a huge comfy couch and it was all just amazing! I'm excited for tomorrow, we are finally going to the temple! We leave early in the morning at like 8. yes this is early! I've finally stopped waking up at 6 every morning.

Teaching is going OK! We got our first evaluations and Lauren said I had one of the highest scores! That made me so happy because I thought it hadn't gone that well! I'm still teaching arts and crafts this week and next and then ill switch to something else. some of the kids drive me crazy. they are out of control! i put a kid in time out today because he wouldn't stop making animal noises and he was distracting everyone and touching everyone around him! i felt a little bad after wards.Today I was teaching a class and i asked them what my name was, and one of the little kids said Lady Gaga..! haha I busted up laughing and then the kids got out of control. some of the things they say is just so funny! Today peter (the Chinese boy) was really emotional and he started crying and kept saying he wanted his mom and he missed her. is was so cute..he's the cutest little boy!




We finally went to the temple!! it was soo pretty there. but it was nothing like i expected?? idk for some reason i thought it would be just one building and really clean and idk something like our temple? haha but it was nothing like that! it was still soo pretty though. it was surrounded by beautiful mountains that had fog all around then, and they had amazing flowers everywhere. they also had really weird statues of people..? i took tons of pics of those!

There was this cool water show thing there also! i guess its the biggest water show in Asia? When i heard that i got super excited. (but it wasn't that impressive..) it was actually kind of weird. there was this big Buddha thing and it spun in circles and then it opened and this naked baby Buddha came out with purple smoke....haha it was really weird. and then these statues breathed fire and I don't know the whole thing was weird!! but kinda cool at the same time!

after walking a bajillions flights off stairs we finally made it to this little temple, kinda off to the side, and there was this massive Buddha stature in it (with a swastika sign on it's chest...weird?) and there was a monk in there praying on these little cushion things, so me and Sarah joined him! well kinda. we definitely weren't praying to Buddha. it was kinda a cool experience to be honest. i knelt down by myself and finally had some quiet and my own space. i hope that's not sacrilegiouss...!

It was kinda funny cause me and Sarah went to buy and ice cream cone and when we turned around, our group had disappeared! they totally left us. so we walked around eating our ice cream and saw a tourist group walking around, so, we joined them! it was pretty funny because everyone laughed at us and i know they were thinking to themselves where did these white people come from?? the tour guide spoke only Chinese, so when we followed everyone we just pretended like we knew what he was saying, nodding our heads and such! i couldn't help but giggle to myself!

so i made a terrible mistake! the other night i was at the supermarket, and there was this stand and the people were making what looked like a pizza-burrito! so of course to our excitement we all got one!! i was soo excited for something other than noodles and rice. well it wasn't that bad tasting, but it wasn't as good as i was hoping or either. i swear 3 minutes after eating that thing my stomach started grumbling and i knew i was in trouble! i knew i had to get home fast! all that night and the next morning i had THE worst diarrhea Ive ever had. so i decided i was never eating that food again! me and Sarah went to the market and we found some bread, peanut butter, jelly, butter, and milk! so pretty much i will be eating bread for the rest of my 4 months. we want to make tortillas here..lol does dad have a recipe? we also want to make salsa! i need dads recipe for that too!!

i am going to try to call tomorrow after i teach will be like 8 or 9 at night your time! i hope you are all doing good, i miss you all!

Another day in China...

I taught my real kids!I was really excited to finally have my own kids and have my own rules and have a routine and everything! We have 2 rotations, the first is primary level (these kids have never done ILP before) and it's from 7:50 to 9:50. and then the 2nd block is from 9:50 to 11:50 with students who have only been with ILP for one year. The first rotation went really good!The kids are adorable!,They actually listen and participate and want to learn! We got to give English names to these kids. I was kind of sad because I was so rushed in naming them that I forgot to name one Jamal... :( but i guess that's good for the kid?? lol I named one after Peter, and he is soo sweet! he's definitely the cutest little Chinese boy ever! The second rotation went good too. We are supposed to be very strict the first couple weeks so they wont walk all over us like the other hellions did!I think I'm going to like teaching only in the morning.It will be super nice to be able to go into town and leave earlier when we travel.

We are going to the temple this Saturday! it has stopped raining finally, so it's a for sure thing that were going! i will take lots of pictures:)

So Sarah and I went back to our favorite noodle place, and we were sitting at our table when all of a sudden, this grungy old man comes up to the lady who took our order and starts yelling, and shaking his cigarette (eVeRy OnE here smokes...its annoying) in her face and just pointing and yelling in Chinese. Everyone in the store stops what they are doing and just stares! now this is all taking place about 5 feet from our table!! we didn't know what to do, or what he was saying, so like everyone else, we just stared. Then, out of no where, the "mama cook" lady comes out and she starts yelling at HIM in Chinese, and is pushing him away from her! she shoves this old man away, but he kept coming back. he would not leave this poor girl alone, who was now in tears. Now she starts whipping him with her towel...I was freaking out by this point. she is whacking this old drunk man! finally some other kid grabs his arm and takes him away..but it was just crazy! We had no idea what any of it was about..

Another scary thing that happened to us was when we went down town. Our whole group had to go to another school to watch our head teachers teach a lesson, but after that we all went down town, to the night market. it was crazy there! they just line the streets with little shops everywhere. they sell the most random things too,it's pretty sweet. well we were shopping and just kinda looking around, when everyone decided they wanted to go home, but 6 of us wanted to shop still, so we stayed and was going to take the 30 city bus back to the school at 8. so we shopped and shopped, I found the cutest skirt ever!!I cant wait to wear it..and then we went to dinner. ohh my! i didn't realize how good the food was here?!? i had some fried rice that made panda express taste like poop! Mmmmm:) well after dinner we went to the bus stop and waited..and waited...and waited some more..and waited. it was now about 8:20 and we had no idea what to do. it was dark outside now and everyone was shooting off fire crackers? (we found out later it was because they were celebrating something about the moon? if a store shoots of fireworks they believe there business will do better?) so we decided to see if anyone could help us, and lo and behold, Jimmy. he spoke pretty good English and he asked people around us if they knew which bus to take, after giving him the schools address. well he told us to get on bus 15..so, we did! we stayed on that bus for the 40 minutes it takes to get back home. if the maximum occupancy was 50 people, we broke the rules by at least 3 times that many people. so with me standing squished, an armpit in my face, and the bus driver texting, i thought to myself I'm never making it home alive to see my family. i cant remember a time where Ive been more scared in my life! and to make matters worse, Jimmy wouldn't stop following us. he wanted to make sure we got to the school safely...i wanted to run away as fast as i could but my feet hurt to bad from shopping to much! so, i stayed with the other 5 girls. we made it to the school finally, and thankfully, my friends the guards, wouldn't let jimmy in! i was saved and so happy to finally know where i was at. me and Sarah sat on our schools steps for about 20 min just watching fireworks, i was finally able to take a deep breath.

Tonight i had dumplings! they really weren't That bad...except now my stomach kinda hurts. i thought they were going to come alive. they look like aliens...like those pot sticker thingys! i also bought 2 long sleeved shirts. I'm preparing for this winter that is coming...i hope i don't freeze.
Bye for now

Finally some answers

On Sunday, we were going to skype into the branch in Beijing, but the connection wouldn't work for some reason, so we had our own sacrament meeting. We just had some people share some thoughts and favorite scriptures, I
really enjoyed it, I felt the spirit strongly. It's always an interesting experience having church when its not in a normal setting.

I'm not really sure whats going on with the itching, but last night I broke out in hives pretty bad..luckily Matt had some cream stuff to put on it that made it better.

I finally got my schedule for teaching!! I will teach the little kindergartners! I'm in charge of arts and crafts for 2 weeks. I start Wednesday and I'll teach from 7:50 to 9:50! I'll switch off from that time and 9:50 to 11:50. I'm pretty excited cause I'll get to name them, and I get to stay at this school. A lot of the other teachers have to go to other schools. which is like a 40 min drive..so I'm pretty excited!

We went to the beach today and it was a lot of fun! The water was kind of cold but not to bad! The beach was pretty nice, everyone stared at us, like always, and they video taped us playing down by the banks. The whole group went, and we got to meet Kelly's fiance! she getting married in October? So we'll be here for the wedding! i hope were invited..it would be sweet to go to a Chinese wedding!

After the beach we all went to this really nice restaurant and it was really cool, cause they just had a hot plate in the middle of the table and they brought out a bowl of broth with lots of herbs and spices, and then they brought out plates of raw meet noodles and veggies and tofu and lots of other things, and we would put them inside this dish and it would cook it all super fast! It was the first time that I've actually been full here. The food was soo good:)

Tomorrow we are finally going to go to the night market! I'm really excited. I budgeted my money to try to make it so that I won't take out any more money...we will see how it goes! Ii can spend 400 yuan a week. which is a lot here so i think it will even out when Ii go on trips and such! Dad would be so proud that I'm managing my money wisely!

We also found out when our vacations are!The first 3 day weekend is September 17th, and then we have a week long break October 1st, and then another 3 day break in November sometime! Everyone has started planning what they want do. I just want to buy some cute cheap jeans!! I'm so good at bartering now,everyone makes me buy things for them.I got Sarah a swimsuit for 25 yuan cheaper! boo yah! haha I'm lovin this here. I want to come back with peter sometime.

Shopping

So yesterday i didn't get to go to the temple because it was raining, so me and Sarah went on our own little adventure!! We found this amazing noodle place!! They were amazing...like it was better than panda. if only they had orange chicken...but they had beef in it? and it was really good! we made friends with the people who worked there. they laughed at us as we tried to order in Chinese, and act out certain things that we wanted. I'm surprised at how nice everyone is..like no one tries ripping us off (well at least what we know of..) and they all try to help and understand us. its awesome. we are going back to the noddle place at least once a week...! it was kinda funny cause everyone stares, and Sarah went up to get a box to put our food in, and I'm sitting alone at the table and some guy come up to me and he says "hello" in his thick accent, and he says something in Chinese, and then points to his phone...and tries handing it to me. like he wanted my number? i was like uhm i don't have a phone! sorry, and then i showed that ring on my finger and he kept trying to hand it to me anyways and so we said sorry and left...crazy Chinese people!

we also got our nails done, and the ladies who did it were soo nice! we used there computer to go to a translating site and we would type messages in and they would read it in Chinese. it was awesome! we asked them where good shopping was and they wrote down on a piece of paper the name of it in chinese so we could give it to the taxi driver! and they also gave us one so we could come back! we left them a huge tip for helping us and they said to come back cause they liked us. i have to admit i was a little paranoid that they wrote down a wrong address and we were gonna get stolen or something, but no worries, it was right!!

Shopping was soo much fun! i found some jeans, a shirt, and some shoes! i even got to practice my bartering skills...it was exciting! i tried one this one shirt and it was really cute but i didn't want to spend that much, so i said no and she lowered the price, and then i gave her a price and she was like no no! so i walked out and she followed me out of the store with a lower price! haha it was really funny, she really wanted me to buy that shirt. Its funny because these stores are so little so when you try them on the hold up a sheet in the corner of the store and you just get undressed! it's crazy..everyone wanted us to come in there store. we met a lot of friends there.

i calculated it out to see how much i spent and it was only 50$ in U.S. money..which i thought was really good! i bought food, ice cream (yes, i actually found IcE cReAm!!!!) the taxi, jeans, a shirt, shoes, and got my nails done. that would have been an impossible feat in mesa...! i was super excited:)


so I've been itching really bad lately, and i have bumps all over my body...someone said they think i might have bed bugs...I'm really nervous about that, i hope it's not true...i would cry...

we made our cake last night too!! we bought a pan and everything but then realized once we got home that it wouldn't fit in the microwave..lol so we used a Tupperware dish and put the cake batter in it! we had to do that like 5 times and we still have left over cake mix. it was sooo good tho...maybe i wont need those top ramon after all!! haha I'll just be like Kami and Jami and eat cake!

i don't know when my first vacation is? and i get my kids Wednesday or Thursday of this week. my first break probably wont be till the end of September? I'm not really sure!

oh i found a jacket that is really cute but it's not that warm...i need to keep looking for one. i love you and miss you!

You just have to laugh.,..or cry

So picture this- It's raining outside, cold dark and damp. Everything is moist, your clothes, the walls, and the floors. You climb the the 3 flights of stairs, huffing and puffing, and when you finally reach the level ground you barely catch yourself from falling on the slippery floor! the entire cafeteria is a massive water puddle. So, without thinking you start running as fast as you can without slipping, and then thinking your super cool, you skid across the room and come to an abrupt stop, because you have fallen, HARD, on your left knee, banging it on the cafeteria floor! Embarrassed, wet, and in pain, you sit there and join in with everyone around you that is laughing- That is what happened to me knee. ha ha sorry for the random story mode, i just felt like it needed to be done!

We didn't have the chance to go to the Temple today because of all the rain. so me and sarah went into town to get grocery's. my first experience grocery shopping! I'm just full of new experiences here. we got eggs, pans, and oil for our cakes! Question-is vegetable oil the same as corn oil? we couldn't find anything except corn, peanut, and fish oil? eww! Anyways, after that we came home to find that everyone had left us to go to the main street. we talked to our head teacher Lauren and told her we'd be back, but no.

I'm in a routine...

I go to bed at around 9 or 9:30 every night, and I wake up at 6... it's crazy, this never happens! like I've never felt this good before. It's crazy! I walk everywhere and I'm getting excessive everyday and I'm not eating fast food junk and other stuff so Ii just feel good. I want to keep this up when i get home! ?

The time difference is 15 hours. I taught today for the first time! I was so nervous, but it went really good! I taught arts and crafts and we made tambourine things and they loved it! Ii was super nervous cause this one kid named Kevin was really bad for Sarah, like he would hit himself on the head non-stop and run around the room and she said he climbed in a cupboard and wouldn't get out! hahaha. So I was nervous, so when he came in my class he ran to a corner and started hitting himself but a teacher came in and talked to him and I guess he was just really bad because his feelings were hurt so I had to talk to him the most and let him do things first and once I did that he was so good! He is really smart. All the little girls loved me!They wanted me to sit with them, and one time I was sitting on the ground, and white powder stuff got on my dress and the girls on either side of me started to wipe it off and so I stood up and it was all over my bum, and so one girl went and got a Kleenex and wiped it off for me. it was so cute!

I like a lot of the people in my group, they are all pretty cool. We normally hang out with Matt, Branden, Aaron, and Kayla. they are all fun! We also met this Chinese guy who always talks to me and Sarah in the lunch and dinner line. He always is so nervous to talk in English but he likes to practice. It was funny cause the second time we saw him we waved hi and he was so shocked that we remembered him! He was like "you beat my expectations that you remembered me!" it was funny. we couldn't remember his name so we named him Tony. i think he's like 21? but he looks 16.

funny

This is of me and Sarah riding in our rabbit! (taxi) i was so scared to get in it but its the best thing ever! After walking 15 minutes to the market and then walking for a couple hours, its nice to just get home fast. Its only 4 yuan, which is like 50 cents!















This is just a picture of the crosswalk sign, we thought it was funny cause the pic looks like they are running across the street, instead of walking...which is funny because pedestrians really do have to run, the cars will just run you over if you don't move! it's crazy!

Some Pictures fo the trip so far...

This is looking over the school from Leslie's dorm room















Looking out the other side of the room.















This is food that Leslie got on the bus! She wasn't sure what it all was.















This is Leslie's first squatter she used! We are so proud!















Eating at the mall, she doesn't know what it was but it was good!















Leslie's room. The day they arrived.















The mall (like Wal-mart) is walking distance.

The Long Ride....swollen feet

Traveling here was very long. i thought the day would never end! after the first 2 hour plane ride, we slept in the airport for like 3 hours until our next flight left. but then we realized we didn't have our boarding pass, so we had to hurry and find our terminal and get our pass, and check through the line in an hour. i was freaking out that we wouldn't make it. Nobody would really help us either! by the time we figured everything out we barley made it onto the flight! that flight was about 11 hours? then we made it to Korea and the next flight was 3 hours. THEN, we got onto the bus for another 13 hour drive to Weihai...it was the longest day of my life! we got to our school and unpacked then went to lunch. everyone stared and smiled at us. the food was alright? we had to order in Chinese to the people so Kelly, out Chinese helper told me how to say noodles. it was Wei-fan? or something like that! and they really weren't that bad. after lunch we went back and i showered in my bathroom, with freezing water. it was THE best experience so far. i was so excited to finally get clean and wash my hair.
Then we went into the town to the police station and they took our pics. then we went shopping!!! we walked down this shabby old street and walked into the supermarket and walked into this HUGE mall type thing? like a Wal-mart, but a mall. it was crazy.
it was crazy how everyone just stares at us and waves, i feel like a movie star! someone even took a pic of us as we were walking through the store..kinda creepy! lol i really do like this town tho, it's pretty cute.
my feet and back and everything else is so exhausted. we walk everywhere and there are tons ot stairs, i couldn't make it up the 4 flights of stairs with my suitcases, i almost broke down in tears after tripping and dropping my suitcase halfway up the flight and watching it fall all the way back down. whats even worse is that it's been raining non-stop since we got here. Maybe i should have listened to you and got a poncho...lol