i couldnt help myself....

being in China = best experience of my life. I love every minute here, and get so so sad when i think about leaving. there is one thing that cheers me up when i get sad though. and that is FOOD! hahha oh dear, how sad is that? i actually really like most of the food here. wev been really blessed to have really good dinner every night, and decent food at our school. Buuuut wouldnt you get sick of rice and vegetables all the time?

i just know im gonna gain like 30 pounds when i get home, because im gonna be way to over excited to see these foods that i miss oh so much!....

someone will need to help me control myself

recent happenings

We got to go on a field trip with the school to Sun Yat Sen Park!

it was a cute little trip just to have a picnic and see the park

I fell in love with one of my students, Peter, that day. Hes the smartest 3 year old, and was making me laugh the whole time. he was singing and asking me tons of questions on the bus.

uhdoruhbull.

Heres some pictures from Sun Yat Sen

after we sent the kids back to the school we got to play and shop around :) we found a store that had costumes.. sooooo we got in the halloween spirit!

we voted anna should be .. uh, scary clown?

this would make my kids cry

long day in china = you can sleep wherever and ON whoever you want. thankyou bus

aaaaaannnnddddd this is how bad we miss american food. well, i guess variety of food.
one of the girls got a pizza kit in her package, we were SO exciiiiteeeeddd! so we invited freda over and made her these..pizzas? ok.. china doesnt have ovens, so this is the best we could do with a microwave.
they look pretty ick but they actually were delicious.

freda hated it

of COURSE we hung out with our chinese friends

we took a weekend trip to visit our friends (another ilp group) in xioulan

it was fun to see their town and hang out and have a big sleepover

i honestly think some of the funniest times have been in taxis, motorcycles, or bike taxis. for some reason they just always show us a good time...

this guy tried to drop us off at some deserted road----3 separate times.

this portion of the blog should be titled

CHICKEN FEET

we were taken out to KTV (karaoke) by one of our students parents. and some others from our school came too. not gonna lie... the dad was pretty creepy after a few drinks. but we had a good time

aaaand I DID IT. i tried chicken feet. it was the nastiest, most disgusting thing iv ever done. id rather eat a spider than even smell a chicken foot again. seriously, no idea why anna and i so willingly tried it suddenly.

too much watching 'How I Met Your Mother'

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!!

we told them we like fries... so they gave us like 20 baskets of fries. for some reason were laughing hard in this picture.

i was grateful for these fries after eating the chicken foot. bah

if you get the chance to sit it out or dance... i hope you dance

maaaaaaaaaan. i wish i could video tape my life here sometimes!

last night we took Freda to get her hair washed. can you tell we really love doing that? well freda told us shes never done this before.. so DUH we had to take her!

now. this guy. this guy i DID get on video. but only a few seconds, and of course blogger wont let me put it up. this guy was a crack up. for some reason he really enjoyed saying "mahn-dee i love yew" "mahn-dee i miss yew". i guess those are the only english things he knows how to say. but for some reason throughout the night he started calling me jenny? and no matter how many times i corrected him he kept saying it. but it twas funny funny and i laughed pretty hard. thankyou sir for making me laugh :)

This morning i woke up with things on my mind that i didnt want to be thinking about. I decided after waking up sad that i would do everything in my power to switch that emotion and put everything i had into my day. And i must say... i had the best teaching day ever! i gave 100% to my lessons, and iv never seen the kids so excited and enthusiastic! somehow those children took every negative feeling i had in me and made me so happy and forget all about my worries in life. After teaching Anna, April and I rode our bikes to our new favorite discovery. mmmmm JIAOZI! aka: dumplinnnnnnnggsss. i love my dumps. you get about 10 dumplings for less than 1 american dollar. china rocks my world.

{dave and lucy loved the kites we made}

This afternoon we had chinese lessons with Freda, which we have twice a week. wow chinese is a hard language. i cant believe how con-freaking-fusing it is at times, and all the different meanings one word will have.but were making progress! were remembering little phrases and words, and have some basics down. sometimes we just blurt out random things we remember to people who try and talk to us. gives us a giggle errryytime.
my favorite sentence to say is "ni chi fan le ma" which means "have you had lunch today". hahah random yeah? the tones of it is just really fun.

after our lessons we decorated our classrooms some more. were decorating for halloween! they dont celebrate halloween here so they are all very interested in all the decorations. they are worried they might scare the kids. tee hee

{annas lollipop ghost she made}

{principals}

we had our usual dinner with the teachers tonight. so many of the dishes are questionable, and really i have no idea what im eating. but i must say most the time its pretty delicious! ive never eaten so much rice and vegetables in my life. i pretty much stay away from the meat. but tonight they made COKE chicken. mmm it was the best.

im learning quickly how much your attitude can effect everything. i could have had a really awful day. and of course i still have things lingering in my mind, and get moments of not being able to push those back ... but im working on really embracing everything thats in my life and having a good attitude about my future

happy list

todays list of things that makes me happy

1. snickers and icecream

2. figuring out that toothpaste on mosquito bites= cure to the itching

3. chatting with my family and friends as if theres not an ocean between us

4. laughing till my tummy hurts

5. knowing that my favorite holidays are just around the corner

6. listening to the Weepies and Pedro the lion. maybe they are all i want to listen to as of late

7. bins of fresh flowers at the market

8. the feeling of the wind in my hair when riding my bike. finally, its cooling down!

9. planning our next vacation...Beijing!

10. hearing the kids yell "teecha mahndee!" every morning

11. playing charades with the people here, trying to communicate.

12. staying up way to late with april laughing at the dumbest things

13. modern family

14. looking like a fool learning kungfu

chinese temple

We went to a local temple here in Nonlang this weekend!

Before our adventure we had a little time to hangout with our new bestfriend (ok chinese crush). Hes our security guard at our apartment gates. I may or may not look to see if hes there everyday. what? look... hes like the chinese prince charming ya?

.Blake.

ok so we hopped on a motorbike taxi and headed off the the temple! This was a really nice drive, and we went down some back roads we never knew existed in our little town.

the temple wasnt the prettiest building iv ever seen. but i talked to Freda about their beliefs and the different symbolism and i learned why! most other temples are tall and grand and beautiful.. the chinese believe this is to make people feel small and helpless compared to the powerful Lord. so chinese temples are smaller, and more compact to give you the feeling of a harmonious environment, feel comfort, and feel your ancestors around you.

One word to describe the temple: INCENSE The smoke and smell were coated thick all around us. The smell was SO strong i couldnt really be insde for longer than a few minutes. they had cool wick spiral burning incense hanging from the ceiling and special stands with incense. I loved the hanging ones, i want one for my future home... i just wont light it :)

{entrance into one of the rooms. so pretty and peaceful}

worshipers come and light the incense, waive it or raise it above their head while bowing to the statues of a deity or their ancestors. its supposed to be a method of purifyiing the surroundings. and then the incense sticks are placed in plaques in groups of 3. freda didnt giive me a reason why they did that.

Bridget and I of course had to participate in this unique buddist culture!

This is where you sacrifice something, and offer something to the gods/ancestors. Most things were small candies, flowers, etc.

The monk outside the temple. April and i are 90% sure he was smoking weed. that or some chinese "incense" :)

obvi im not buddist. i dont know a lot about their religion.. but i loved being here. it was so peaceful to see the chinese people come and bow and worship something they truly believe in, and show gratitude towards whatever that something is. i could really feel their sincerity in their prayers and i loved how open they were with it. it was open to the public and you could walk around wherever you wanted as long as you were being respectful

iv absolutely loved the people in china. they are the most kind-hearted people, who are so giving and helpful all the time. it was good to see whats in their hearts and see something they were passionate about. i wish i could share with them my beliefs, and my passions.

dang china.

someday.