Catching up!

Okay so I've been really bad at blogging lately. I don't know if it's the pressure of being able add pictures now, or that I've not felt creative enough to write about anything, or that we've been doing way too many exciting things too often that it just builds up!! Anyway, I'm just behind and it's stressing me out. But we have a vacation coming up on Friday and I feel like if I don't catch up before then I never will. So that's my goal! Before I go to Sanya this weekend I will:

1) Teach the children an Easter song

2) Endure a very intimidating "parent visit day"-- I want to run away and hide everytime I think about it

3) Buy a cute dress to go over my swimming suit for the beach

and

4) Find sunscreen-- I am going to need it :)

So I'm gonna start catching up now! Watch for the backdated posts. But first a funny story from today:
I was playing Red Rover with the kids, which, yes, sounds awful, but my first and second rotation of kids did pretty good. The rules weren't quite there but they went to the next rotation with no injuries. My third class though? Before I could even start playing the game, Fred (as in Fred and George, named after the Weasley twins so I'm sure you can guess how their behavior is) bumped into Dannis and Dannis hit his head on one of the beds. And these beds are not comfy--they are like a piece of plywood on a wooden box. Dannis started to cry. I groaned and bent down to help him up. I looked at his head and saw that where he hit it there was a very distinct red line and some swelling had started. Oh. Crap. A kid had just been injured in my class!!!! I mean there had been bumps and tattling that Peter had punched Lee but nothing like this! With Dannis still crying crumpled on the ground I picked him up (he's a lanky kid, it probably looked real funny) and took him to the Chinese teacher. Fred got chewed out majorly later, but we compared to that the rest of class was uneventful.

So later Vivi, one of our native coordinators (she's 22, majored in English and is living proof that Chinese people can indeed be blonde at heart) told me after class that she'd talked to the Chinese teacher who had told Vivi to tell us that when we line the kids up we "needed to separate the bad kids," and that "last semester the kids weren't this bad, no one ever got hurt like this," at which point Vivi told her that the kids last semester were better because they were actually afraid of their Chinese teacher last semester-- she had been a better teacher! And even before this it's been a power struggle with the Chinese teachers, with disciplining the children during class. The kids listen to them tons better than us (obviously...) but when the Chinese teachers are there to control the behavior the kids don't learn to respect us as their superiors or how to not treat us like playmates or someone they can get away misbehaving for.

So now we feel like she hates us. Great. Chinese enemy #1.

Poor Dannis, though! He didn't even get to play Red Rover :(

Two Enthusiastic Thumbs Up for Today :)

We pushed through a hard morning of teaching with the wonderful knowledge that we were going to go to our first day of kung fu lessons. Can you say awesome??? We went to the other ILP kindergarten downtown to join the other group of teachers for their lesson. The teacher's name was Spring -- like the water spring, not spring the season, he was really particular about that ;) No pictures to show from it but it was SO GREAT. A ton of fun and more intense than I EVER would have dreamed but I have two cool moves to practice and perfect so I'm on my way to greatness :) Kung Fu Panda, here I come...for reals!

From the school we walked to a monument that strangely reminds me of home-- because it looks like the Brigham Young statue on BYU campus! Expect it's a lot bigger. Sun Yat Sen (who must have done something great...founded the city, maybe?) was born here and there's a good sized park paying tribute to him. We've passed it every time we ride the bus to Walking Street but finally had time to explore.


We were a little enthused from our kung fu lesson--can you tell?

There happened to be a group of Chinese tourists there who were quite fascinated with us. We mingled around them innocently until one brave woman asked for a picture. We spent the next 15 minutes posing for pictures with each and every person in the tour group, in every combination of people possible, it seemed. My smile hurt after but I kind of enjoyed feeling famous ;) We couldn't help but sing Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" the whole way down the stairs.



Where's Waldo? Hehe

We continued downtown to Walking Street--pretty much just a big outdoor mall where store employees clap to get your attention and there are sale signs everywhere but I can't ever buy anything because I don't understand what they say. We stopped for the best ice cream I've had in China-- choose three flavors from their selection of crazy unique flavors for 5 yuan and this time I chose almond, kiwi, and dark plum. Oh. My. Golly. Goodness. I wanted it to last forever. There had better be this ice cream in Heaven.

Next we decided to get our hair washed at a salon. It was 15 yuan, which is equal to $2.50 American dollars. Hindsight says it was the best $2.50 I've ever spent. Start off with a wash/ head and neck massage that was so incredible. There are no words to describe it so here's a picture that I won't pretend does it justice either:

Then....they dried it for us!!!!!! For the very first time in a whole month I HAD FLAT HAIR!!! Super funny to have an awkward Chinese man blow dry my hair, loved the experience immensely :)

We were so thrilled to look cute that we had to take pictures in places we had been putting off posing by-- seriously, you have no idea the hair struggles we've been having here with the humidity and a teeny tiny straightener! It felt good to look normal :)



We shopped some more and before we started getting too carried away with the over-whelming feeling of clothes, DVDs and accessories that are CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP everywhere you look, we grabbed some dinner before heading home. Debbie and I once again got brave and ordered two dishes from a little restaurant where the man knew no English, by merely pointing at pictures and saying "noodles" and "fried rice" in Chinese (that can get you far :D ). We really get so lucky with good food, I don't know how we do it!



Top it off with a mango frio and the night is a smashing success :)

Mmm Fridays :) There's nothing quite like them here!

I really can't lie: I love these kids

Are you ready for this? You're about to finally see the demon children!

Here's couple kids in my homeroom group. Hocking on the far left, about to punch Martin next to him. That's Lee with the cheesy smile and Peter who is pretending to shoot Debbie behind the camera. Charming, no?

Hocking used to be my ultimate favorite but he started being too naughty that Lee took that spot (I have a little crush--shh! ;) ). Martin....oh Martin, where to even begin...he's enthusiastic about everything that happens in class BESIDES speaking English, and when I tell him to repeat what I saw it's just, "I wa la craw yalon" ("I want a crayon"). Cute little guy, though. And Peter is one of those weird Chinese people that reminds me of someone at home who is most definitely not Chinese...my nephew Ian! Don't be freaked out, Jen, this is a bad picture but I can promise you your child is cuter. And TONS better behaved!! Peter is a menace!

Isn't this picture just oozing with mischief??? This is what I have to deal with all day!

"Eva, stop talking to Martin! English only! Everyone line up! Who's being good?? Do you need a strike??"

But one look at a face like this...

...and I can't stay mad for too long, even at the naughtiest ones. I'm a pushover for those squinty eyes!

And recently we've started going over at bedtime and helping the kids who stay the night at the school get ready for bed. It is quite possible the cutest thing I have ever seen! So fun to see them more happy than naughty and hopefully the behavior will get better as we bond with the kids!

I also love it when they call me my Chinese name... they sure get a kick out of that :)



P.S. I didn't catch up before my vacation :( Drat!

Home Sweet Home

How do you make an American who is abroad feel a little bit closer to home?


You find them a Wal-Mart!!!

Seriously, you would have thought we were on a shuttle to Disneyland with how excited we all were about going! The free Walmart bus picked us up outside the school tonight and all the way there was talk of Twizzlers, Mac and Cheese, Doritos, etc etc etc and we were all practically drooling with hopes of what might be there.

This is the sight that greeted us:



Uh, WOW??? I guess when you go straight to the source, Walmarts are tons coolers! We ventured inside excitedly only to find that it was packed mostly with the same crazy yet wonderful local food we find at the regular supermarkets here. Rats. Hopes of familiar food dashed. Although I did manage to find bubble tape, Skittles and grape Fanta to indulge in. We try as much of the Chinese candy as possible but it's nice to have a comfort food occasionally.

Another proud find: I have reusable shopping bags at home, and although I usually forgot to take them with me when I shopped I had every intent of using them! Well here? They are what you do. You bring your own or you pay for a new plastic bag. I kinda love it, I'm super motivated more than ever to continue this in the states :) So of course I had to buy a Walmart one from China! That's practically a trophy! Hot pink, please :)




Overall an exciting experience. You're never too far from home if there's a Walmart nearby ;)

One of these things is not like the other...

Today at the fruit market downtown, we had to run to catch the bus as it headed back to our apartments. Yes we felt silly but as we ride public transportation more and more it becomes less weird and more just what you do. Not having to wait half an hour for the next bus is more of an accomplishment than anything else! The bus was crowded in the afternoon so we walked all the way to the back row of seats on the bus, which is raised a couple steps because it's over the engine. I sat there, situating myself and my stuff, congratulating Debbie and Amanda that we had successfully made the bus, and settled into my chair. I kinda let my mind wander and all of the sudden I looked at the scene before me and had to laugh.

I couldn't help but wonder out of amusement, "When did this become normal to me??"

I had to get a picture in the scene I was witnessing:



Too perfect. The white-headed people kind of ruin the effect but you get the idea. I've been waiting to get a really good picture of me in a crowd of Chinese people but this moment had to be documented-- It was just so funny that all of the sudden I realized there was a sea of black haired heads spanning out in front of me and it wasn't weird anymore! Like the days I teach I'll realize I've just been staring at half-visible brown eyes all day and that makes me smile too :)

And just in case you are wondering, I do get stared at. A lot.

Hooray for Photobucket!

It's much more amazing than I had ever imagined. Now I can do awesome things like this:



Ta-da!! Incredible! Never thought I'd see the day where I'd be posting stories and pictures from China after I learned about the Great Firewall. Thanks to Angie for helping me along the way :)

I wanted to post a picture (just because I can :D) but how do you choose just ONE??? So I decided on the picture I have set as my background! The mountains of Yangshuo on our bamboo raft tour. I decided that when I grow up there is going to be a wall in my house dedicated to landscape pictures I have taken of places I've been. This is officially the first one :)

It's all Chinese to me!

The title of the previous post is in Chinese. Not the neat symbolly kind, the kind you read. If it is spelled right or not, I don't actually know. Why? Because Mandarin is SO HARD. I've had two Chinese classes so far and I have left both with headaches. Not only is there a lot to memorize as far as vocab goes, but there are also tones. Yes, tones. Let me give you a brief tour.

Tone one: Straight tone, does not fluctuate up or down. Hum a G or an F or an Eb and you got it.

Tone two: The "Up" tone. Sounds like a question. Think," Huh?" and you pretty much nailed it.

Tone three: The tone that I hate. It starts at a certain pitch, goes lower and starts back where you started. I think. I swear every time it is demonstrated for me I hear something different.

Tone four: The "down" tone. When you say, "Yeah!" when you're really happy so it's a little pointy, that's what it sounds like.

(and I guess tone five: soft tone. You get to just say this one, no special tricks or anything Novel idea, I know!)

So if you get the tones wrong it's over. Words using different tones have completely different meanings. For example, " shi" in the title of last post (pronounced like "sure") means "am" when spoken in fourth tone (I think it is) but when you say it with tone 2 it means the number 10. Help? And you have to stay in the same "key", so to speak, if you hope to have anyone understand what the heck you are talking about. And the letter x sounds like 'sh' and 'zh' sounds like j and that's not even bring the the tens of thousands of symbols that represent all this!!! Gah! If this is how my kindergartners feel when I try to teach them English, no wonder they are ignoring me completely, more content with eating their fists, poking their neighbor, cutting up their paper into little pieces and pulling the fur off the next kid's furry coat....

I'm going to keep trying but wow this is hard!

Today as we left Chinese class we told the guard at the school "Wan an" which supposedly means 'goodnight'. We met our foreign coordinator outside and excitedly told her how happy we were to be able to say something new to the guard ('hello' and 'goodbye' get old). She asked what we said and we told her. She informed us that that can also be used for 'I love you very very much'.......um.....okay??? No idea how we messed that one up but you can bet we found a way. This language is nuts. Now we have a guard to avoid. Lovely.



And yet my knee-jerk reaction to people speaking to me in Mandarin and expecting me to understand is STILL 'no comprendo.'

Wo shi yingwen laoshi -- a day in the life :)

I realize that what has become such a normal routine to me in virtually unknown to many of you! Here's what a typical day is like for me as an English teacher in Zhongshan:

Monday through Friday I wake up somewhere between 7:00 and 7:30, depending on how tired I am and how diligent I was the night before picking out my outfit. We try to be down to the school cafeteria for breakfast by 7:30 but that has become less and less the trend as the weeks go by ;) We walk down 4 flights of stairs from our floor (which 4 is a number that represents death in Chinese culture--we try to not take it too personally) and walk across the street to the school. The school is fenced off and there are nice guards that stand by the door. We usually exchange a "ni hao" when we pass them, and some of the girls here have picked out their favorites ;) We walk into a smelly cafeteria where I eat a hard-boiled egg and a steamed roll every morning. Different pastry-type things are served every day so I'll get a third item depending but it is crazy how much I've come to love and seriously look forward to my steamed roll and hard-boiled egg every morning. when we sleep in on the weekends I am honestly disappointed! From there we head over to the building where kindergarten is held. We walk up the stairs to our classroom on the third floor and split into 2 classrooms, three teachers in each. I teach 24 kids with two awesome girls named Debbie and Erin. We set up tables and such and about 10 minutes later we hear them coming--and brace ourselves. They trickle in and we get "opening" started by 8:30. Opening consists of songs, talking about the weather, asking them what day it is and going over the rules of the class. They are usually so naughty during opening, it's not even funny! One of us will lead it and the other 2 are crowd control. It was really awkward at first to lead opening and yell loud enough and be exciting enough to keep them entertained but it's getting better. We then split up, with 8 kids each and do our first rotation. For the last 2 weeks I've been teaching Shop activities, making awesome stuff like binoculars out of toilet paper rolls, playing with playdoh, launching pom poms with catapults, etc. It's SO HARD to come up with activities and start a routine at the same time but I survived--luckily. 5 or my 8 homeroom kids are boys, and let's just say I used to be afraid of having all sons someday, thinking that those moms have to be so touch to keep them under control. Now I think, yes, it would be tough, but I think now I would be able to handle it because a) they will be mine and I will love them, b) they will speak English, c) husband can help discipline, d) they won't all be FIVE!! Lesson well learned. My kids' names are Peter, Martin, Hocking, Andy, Lee, Eva, Tiffany and Lauren. I'll write more about them individually later but they are just so cute and mean so much to me already. They give me grief but I love em. We do activities for 10 minutes and then rotate twice. Then it's time for snack and start the next rotation, back to my homeroom kids but teaching Drama this time (which is NOT truly drama because they just throw the props around, so it's more like storytime ;) ). After that we have store with our homeroom kids, and depending how well they have spoken English that day they will be able to buy things with their tokens. I love store :) it reminds me of playing house with the girls at home but it's real! Not just pretending to buy our own toys ;) We count their tokens out and they can buy something with what they've earned that day or save for larger prizes. Don't forget the language barrier, that makes everything all the more hilarious/frustrating. From there we head straight to lunch...which is not at all as impressive and exciting as breakfast. I don't know why it surprised me but we really do have rice for EVERY MEAL. No joke. I mean, yes I'm in China but it seems almost cliche, you know? Haha but as much as we eat it, it's amazing to me how good plain white rice can still taste. We eat on metal trays with metal chopsticks, and the other day while I was eating I tried to think back to before I was a chopstick master and I had to laugh a little--it's just life now! We have lots of weird tasting things (plus it cafeteria food, compare school potatoes to mom's home cooking and you understand the quality...) in all textures and flavors. Eggplant, chicken feet, ham (probably my favorite! mm mm!), bok choy, pig's blood, beef, chicken, fish (with pointy little bones that really hurt the unsuspecting eater's mouth), cauliflower, lots of eggs, potatoes and the rest are unidentified, most of the time I don't really know what I'm eating, and even more often I'd rather not know. On their own the main dishes taste pretty bad but when you mix it with rice and some soy sauce we got from the market? Yum yum yum, I am all set :) We finish lunch and head up to the supply room (once again on floor 4, are they trying to tell us something??) to get our lessons for tomorrow planned and our materials together. It used to take hours but as we get more efficient it takes less and less time. We kinda do whatever all day: check the internet, take a 5 minute bus ride to a little supermarket called the "1+1", take a 40 minute bus ride to downtown Zhongshan, where we can indulge in McDonald's or KFC, shop around, etc, and dinner of the same sort of mush is served in the cafeteria at 5:30 and some of us girls have starting going over to the school at 8 to run around the track and use the hilarious gym equipment outside. Shower and time for bed! Oh and our shower? Not really a shower at all. There's a detachable hand sprayer on the wall and you just shower right there on the tile! We have a shower curtain dividing the room from the sink and the shower, but you could potentially use the toilet and shower at the same time. Lovely, right? And afterwards you just squeegee the floor! No biggie! I am still morbidly afraid of the comforter and sheet that were provided for me. The humidity is a menace and once I found black spots on my pillow it was over for me-- I went out and bought a new pillow and a sheet to keep me clean. I put my sheet over my comforter and wrap myself like an omelet. Perfect :) My bed is really hard but my pillow is extremely poofy-- I think it must compensate wonderfully because I sleep so well every single night. Then it's off to crazy dreams every night, and up the next morning to do it all again! Pretty exciting, huh?

Pics!!

Remember to be checking my Photobucket occasionally for awesome pictures to match what I blog about! It's not ideal but it gets the job done :)

http://s956.photobucket.com/albums/ae49/andrealamb64/CHINA/

Actually I may or may not be able to get one on here using the HTML code.... let's do a test run! Let me know if there is a picture on this post!



Yes? No?

A very Chinese weekend

There is one social activity that shines above the rest in modern Chinese culture, and this is it:

KTV.

You know it as karaoke. It is a big hairy deal here! Not big and intimidating like in the states; you go do karaoke at a karaoke place where you rent a little room with a big screen equipped with everything you need to jam out with a bunch of friends on a couple couches. Totally cool!

Our foreign coordinators, Vivi and Gloria, took us downtown for some KTV this weekend and it was a much-needed break after a week filled with crazy Chinese children. I wore my first Chinese shirt I've bought here and before we even hit the streets I thought my eyes may have started to point at the sides and the bridge of my nose slowly vanishing-- I felt so Asian!

There was luckily a good selection of English songs so we all had an awesome time jamming out to Chris Brown, Lady Gaga, Backstreet Boys, the Spice Girls and more. Nothing like music to make you feel at home :) We ran out of time before we could end with an electrified performance of "Party in the USA" but I'm hoping we go again because I really want to have that experience in China.


Vivi showing us how it's done. Couldn't understand a word she was singing :)


Lounging on the couches :) We should totally have these in America!


This is as awesome as it gets, folks. "No Air"--I was being Chris and Amanda was being Rihanna. So fun!

Afterwards we treated ourselves to...Pizza Hut!

Okay so maybe this wasn't an entirely Chinese weekend but in my defense there was a line of Chinese people waiting to get into Pizza Hut when we left. It was sit-down style and they had to wait a long time to be seated! If they're waiting in line it must be an "it" thing to "go out for American" on a Friday night. Which really makes me laugh-- on the flipside, we say "Let's go out for Chinese!" at home and I will never think of that statement the same again. It's like how I smile every time we eat McDonald's because it'd be like going to Panda Express in America and seeing Chinese people there! What a change in perspective to think about!

Posting from China--booyah :)

So I sent a missionary-like email to friends and family and RIGHT after I realized that I might as well be blogging in place of that! That way I'm still referring to my photobucket for pictures and you can read as you please. Good right? Well I don't want to re-write this so it's a copy and paste sort of thing.
-----------------------------
Hello all :)

I decided I don't write to my lovely parents enough so I sat down to do that, and then I figured as long as I was emailing them I could let my sisters know what is up :) okay and my grandparents too! Oh what the heck, I'll just make it a full on "missionary email" :) It will be kinda long but just read at your leisure, I guess!

I've officially finished two full weeks of teaching and it's getting better....I think. As of today I'm still yelling a lot to keep them obedient but the behavior is still not amazing. It's frustrating but it will hopefully get better. I hope I can get a picture of my homeroom kids soon so you can see who I hang out with for three hours every day :) Oh and I can't forget to share this: when the kids start learning English their teachers give them names. And I am really appreciating the sense of humor that the group before us had because we have a kid that's a head taller than the rest of the group named LeBron, a set of obnoxious twins named Fred and George, and a cute little girl with a short bob named Dora. Classic :) Every time I have to yell any one of those names I can't help but smile (at least on the inside) at how awesome the whole situation is.

And I took my first vacation! Last weekend we went to Yangshuo (we keep calling it Guilin but we never actually made it into Guilin really, although they have the same things both places) and it was so fun! I bought a lot of souvenirs that I don't know if I will go into detail about because some of them are gifts and I want to make them surprises....but the shopping was awesome and so cheap so it was all I could do to keep myself from becoming a shopping fiend.

but I'm getting ahead of myself....we knew we were taking a bus to Yangshuo, but when we boarded it we noticed there was definitely something different about this bus....it was a sleeper bus!!! Like the night bus on Harry Potter!! But the beds were definitely not moving around crazily like that ;) but it was so cool! I think it's my very favorite mode of transportation ever up to this point! We got on the bus at 3 PM Friday afternoon after teaching that morning, and arrived in Yangshuo at 4 in the morning to an eerily empty street where we paid a two guys in little golf-carty things to drive us and our luggage to our hostile. Which is like a really cheap hotel--someone described it to me as somewhere between a motel and staying at someone's house, decide if that description works for you ;) So the little guys drop us off in front of, seriously, this space in between two buildings that is PITCH black. It is marked about it that it's Monkey Jane's Rooftop Bar and Guesthouse but it looked like how you get into Diagon Alley on Harry Potter (it's weird how everything relates to Harry Potter here...I can't really explain the phenomenon!).

So eventually we figure out that our hostile is at the very end of this dark pit of darkness and all stumble to the end just hoping there weren't spiders or other crawlies getting one us. Our hostile was the nicest one our head teacher said she'd ever stayed in, although I have nothing to compare it to so I don't really know! Anyway, it was about 5 when we got to bed, just in time for a darned rooster outside our window to start crowing. we slept in until about 11 and went out looking for something to eat. You have to understand something about my group--most of them crave American food all day. Ice cream, chimichanga, Wendy's, you name it, they want it. I have had McDonald's more times since February 23rd that I think I've had in the last year, no joke! I've decided to try as much food as possible because food is definitely a part of the culture so it's really hard for me sometimes when they think I'm weird because I don't want Pizza Hut everyday! It seems a little backwards but I'm a tolerant person so it's not like I put up a stink about it. So I decide I want local food so we go out and look for some. And you should know, my head teacher's husband speaks Mandarin so it makes a lot of things super convenient most of the time, it's so nice. So for breakfast, Amanda and Debbie and I (we're roommates) oh and another girl in our group, Raven, go trooping for some food. We ended up finding a place with dumplings and fried rice that our group ate at a couple of times, so it was kinda fun that I was the one that wanted Chinese food in the first place and found it :D I just don't want to spend extra money on food that I can get in the US because I miss it! there are days that I want Cafe Rio SO BAD but getting sick of rice and spicy food while we're here doesn't make anyone happier. So yes, dumplings on vacation, and everyone was happy :) Our cafeteria food is nasty though, but I'm enduring it pretty well. Sooooo after breakfast/lunch that day we....rented scooters! Like the motorized ones! It was SO AWESOME!! It made us laugh that in America you'd have to sign waivers and show licenses but here, you pay the 80 yuan and you're off! It was such an amazing way to tour the city, and although it was a little scary to actually be IN traffic with the crazy drivers, they are really good at communicating with eachother about being crazy so I felt pretty safe. Some people in our group drove up to a place called Moon Hill but I stayed with everyone else and just explored. We found a random cave in one of the mountains, drove through the countryside and just had an awesome time. I took some pretty great pictures so refer to those :) That night we shopped a little and mostly just ate....it's weird how much I want to eat here, I don't know if it's because I never get full or the food is different or what but it's so bad..

I keep getting so off topic but oh well :) So the next day we woke up at 9 and went on a bamboo raft! It was way pretty! We met a little fisherman who was hilarious and we paid him some money to take a picture with him and his fishing bird. We rafted down to a little village and bargained for stuff there. Everyone tries to rip you off and tell you their stuff is the best quality so it's over-whelming sometimes. And they can somehow see when you REALLY want something and are sticklers about it, but when you just ask a price non-interested-like and walk away, they drop 30 yuan in price as you are walking away. It's so weird. They're little temptresses and it's definitely a new experience for me to be sneaky and act non-chalant and aggressive and persistent and smart just because I want to buy a souvenir! So weird.

Then after the bamboo raft, we took a bus for a tour of a cave where we played in the most awesome mud hole ever. I paid for a couple pictures (they wouldn't let us take our cameras in) but pretty much imagine a mud hole with light brown sticky mud, and smearing it all over your body, and sliding down a little slide into it and that's pretty much our experience. But when we first walked in? Oh my heck there was a naked guy and it ws so awkward....we were all freaking out but luckily he sat down the whole time we were in there so we could play safely. Wow that was more than we bargained for though! Oh I forgot to mention it's been pretty cold lately, so all through the vacation Debbie and I have been swapping a couple of my jackets to at least look different in pictures from day to day but using as little suitcase room as possible. Brilliant, I know :) So it was SUPER cold after the mud but so worth it. From the mud cave we went up some stairs to a natural hot spring and it was wonderful! I'd never been to one but it was Heaven. And this one had a bunch of little crater things to sit in that only fit 2 or 3 people in one and it was so great! Like our own personal hottubs. We left there and went back to the hostile to clean up, and because it was Sunday we didn't do a lot of shopping after but walked around the shops anyway. Monday we finished our shopping and just enjoyed the city until catching our sleeper bus home at 9 that night! The first hour or so of the bus ride, I was on the top bunch right behind the bus driver and there was a man smoking up by the front, which he shouldn't have been doing anyway but he dind't have a window opening or anything! So Debbie and Amanda and I were dying--it smelt so bad and we tried putting our sweaters over our faces and breathing like that but it didn't help at all. After our first bathroom stop they smarted up and opened a window, but after that all three of us still feel really heavy in our lungs and it hurts to breathe in really deep, and yelling at the kids is painful and walking up stairs to school and our apartment makes us feel so out of shape! It was a rotten deal that those guys were so inconsiderate to the rest of us! But I slept for a couple hours on the bus that time and it was way nice. And now I'm back in my apartment! And I feel like it's more Home now that I've been away and wanted to be back with my own pillow and sheets. Funny how that makes you feel more attached to a place :) But yeah that's what I've been up to! I had shrimp that was looking back at me for the first time today,that was exciting :) And I thought it was weird and a little freaky but I definitely wanted to eat them because hello, shrimp is relatively normal compared to other things we eat! I was the only weirdo at our table who did....am I crazy? Oh well, I guess the Chinese are rubbing off one me ;) Well that's it for now, eventually I'll write about Hong Kong but this will at least get me going for now :) Haha I really do feel like a missionary, it's a little silly but in a good way. Xai jian until next time!

Love, Andrea

P.S. I promise I can still speak English...I just get lazy so I'm not going to proofread this, please excuse any mistakes :) Thanks a bunch!
P.S.S. Here's the link for my photobucket! I can't organize them worth anything because I don't know the program very well so just bear with me. Let me know what you think! And I think the link might possibly change everytime I add pictures so I'll try to send the new one regularly. It's all new and exciting to me :)

http://s956.photobucket.com/albums/ae49/andrealamb64/

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The End :) More to come!!

Because I can :)

What I was hoping for secretly happened :)

Blogger is accessible through a website that goes around filters!! Booyah!

The only downside is no pictures...which stinks because I'm a picture blogger but I am going to try to get around that as well. But exciting! I apologize to my blog in advance because it will take a backseat to my journal and emails (because pictures as attachments are tons more effective) but I'll probably still post from time to time. I'm just happy I can see blogs and pictures of friends and family! I'm half a world away but there's still that sweet luxury :)