im just sayin

i have a recent obsession with maps. and globes. i think they can be so beautiful and they inspire me to see the world and do all the things i so badly want to do.

i hear so many of my friends say they *wish* they could go ^here^ or go ^there^.. and believe me i do it probably every single day of my life. but we need to stop wishing! im done with it... after having this opportunity to come to China iv realized how easy it really is to travel, and to actually do these things i want to do.

you just have to DO

ruv ruv ruuuuv

mmm my dreaams.

i love this map wall, i want that above my bed every morning i wake up:)

this is what my world map is gonna look like one day...

"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world." ~Buddah

a little different this year

THANKSGIVING

This Thanksgiving i didnt have the rush of relatives through my door, the clanking and clinking of pots and pans or the warm smell of a fresh turkey and stuffing. i didnt have the delicious sweet cranberry sauce, the homemade rolls, or the yummy stuffing.

I didnt get the build up from the plethora of ads broadcasting this holiday... i didnt see the decorations of turkeys in pilgrim hats fill the shelves. I was positive that it wouldnt feel like Thanksgiving at all this year, because after all these things are all I have known for thanksgiving!

This thanksgiving i had a whole new kind of rushing, clinking, and smells.

on thanksgiving day we sat around the classroom with all the kids and their parents making a turkey craft, then that night had a big chinese thanksgiving dinner with all the chinese teachers from our school.

Friday night we planned a big thanksgiving meal with our favorite ILP group in xiolan
we tried our very best to bring an american spin to our dinner. as i sat around the table i smiled as i watched my china family talk and laugh over cute costumes and cold KFC.

Although there was a part of me that was homesick for my mom stressing over a vacuumed carpet, a new tablecloth, and the table being set just right....watching my dad cut the turkey and mash the potatoes in a way only my dad can mash... THIS will be a thanksgiving that i wont ever forget, im in CHINA after all!

i couldnt think of a better place to be to open my eyes to all the blessings in my life.

I had a very thankful thanksgiving

some photos :)

turkey crafts at school

thankful tree

chinese version of thankful tree haha

our chinese thanksgiving dinner.

hahah basicallyyy.. wasnt any different than our normal dinners everynight, they just cooked a butt load of it. they are so sweet :)

mmmmmm and the real food begins! ... kinda

we may not have had fresh homemade deliciousness from our mothers like we normally do... buut boy were we excited to eat some wanna be american food, with some added chinese food for our chinese friends who were joining us!

so many mashpotattoooooooeeessss!!!!

nom nom

i basically love our xiolan group. they dressed up like pilgrims and indians.. it was adorable.

heres us eating dinner

mmm doughnuts we concocted

after din din we went out to a flower festival there town was having.. i didnt think it was that cool, but i sure did have fun with the girls!

i was so sad that i wasnt going to have these things that make it feel like thanksgiving...

but this year i had a REAL thanksgiving.

everyone brought a dish to share.. ending with things like onion rings, dumplings, mashed potatoes, KFC, broccoli, pumpkin cookies and noodles... we gathered around the table; all of us from different part of America and some from China, and we ate a big feast together
and shared with each other the things that we are grateful for.

Now isnt that a true thanksgiving?!

Feed the birds, tuppence a bag

Youv heard me talk about Freda right? Our chinese coordinator...

she can be soo frustrating and confusing sometimes a lot because of the language barrier, and a lot because shes just so worried all the time! but outside of those frustrations i have grown to love Freda so much. I get so sad thinking of saying bye to her, and probably never seeing her again. she takes such good care of us, and does way more than her job requires to make us happy.

i love hanging out with Freda!

Freda loves and i mean LOVES cartoons. she is just the cutest thing ever. we watched 'Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs' with her. you know me, i am such a happy girl watching Disney/kids movies... but Freda puts it to a whole new level. with all her giddy noises and laughing at things little 4 year olds would laugh at.

{she thought it was really funny taking pictures on my computer}

This weekend we took her to our all time favorite noodle and dumpling restaurant- slash hole in the wall that you can buy food for hardly any pocket change at all

just like a baby, we love giving Freda different new foods and watching her reactions!

this is her trying a sucker for the first time

Saturday she took April and I to a "park" but this "park" ended up being like a little zoo! freda got so excited when we got there and she saw on the map that there were animals

"i wan to see da aminals!!"

{beautiful park}

im 100% positive that this kind of "park" would be completely illegal in America. although it was fun to see cute animals it was really sad the environment they were in. they had no access to the outside.. no trees, grass, bushes, flowers, nothing. they were just chained in these cement tiny cages

{bears}

{pretty pond with paddle boats}

{where they have the water shows with the sea lions}

{cute little cars you can rent to drive around the park}

my favorite part!

we came across a ton of pigeons so of course i wanted to feed them! Freda and April were hesitant at first, i had to talk them into it... and they loved it!

Freda was so adorable feeding them.

April is deathly afraid of birds so this was a pretty big deal for her to not just get close to them, but let them touch her.

aaaannnnnddd it was possibly one of the most hilarious moments for me to watch. she made some pretty um... unflattering faces. but once she got past the fact they didnt want to eat her or peck her eyes out she was lovin it

at times it was so calm and cute to feed them.....

dont i look like a crazy bird lady?

and at other times we feared for our lives....

Beijing pt 1

BEEEEIIJJJJIIIINNNGGGGGG!!!!!!

beijing was... amazing! Basically to tell it all really short, we had a 20 hour train ride there AND 20 hours back... whiiiichhh i never need to do again in my life :) it was kinda miserable at some points, but really it wasnt TOO bad. it was a good experience... to have once. hahaha. thankfully there was about 15 of us travelling so we had fun and got to lay all over eachother.

we were the entertainment on the train....

we finally made it to Beijing. even though we only got a scattered 20 minutes here and 20 minutes there of sleep that night we were stoked and ready to go!
This is our cute little hostel down a random alley we stayed in.

i luh hostels.

crowded subway

DUN DUN DUN... and here it is folks. the best part of it all.

the great wall of china.

to say that is was awesome is the biggest understatement. i cant really describe to you how breathtaking and epic it was

these pictures are gorgeous right? doesnt even do it justice!
here goes......

we took the tram up to the tippy top

the market

tada! our big group on the great wall

my feet on the great wall of china :)

...look how ginormous this stairway is compared to me climbing them

the wall

this was a moment i dont think i will ever forget. looking out from the top of one of the watch towers and seeing for thousands of miles the Great Wall on these mountain tops. it went on and on for as far as we could see

we went into a "No Trespassing" area and this was really mythical to see. it was obvious it was a portion that wasnt being well kempt. Most of the wall was eroding and falling apart, and there were trees and weeds growing out of it.
but this was maybe the best part to me. it was so amazing to see the original parts of the wall, and the view from where it took us... ..

well see for yourself....

stunning, amazing, beautiful... right? i was on cloud nine being up here. i was filled with so much peace, freedom, happiness, gratitude, and awe being there.


and heres so more pictures

i dont have any idea what this guard was trying to do to me..

DID YOU KNOW?:

• The Great Wall being a continuous wall built all at once is a myth! The wall was a discontinuous work of wall segments built by various dynasties
• While being built it was called "the longest cemetery on earth" because so many people died building it. Its said to have cost the lives of over a million people
• you can NOT see the great wall from the moon
• When the wall was being built the people believed that a helpful ancestry dragon traced out the course of where to build the wall to keep invaders out
• During the Ming Dynasty nearly 1 million soldiers would be in the watch towers to defend China from barbarians and "non-chinese"
• it is said that in the 17th century every family had to put their family name on a piece of stone on the great wall, and if that stone ever broke the head of the family was killed because it was weak