Creepy Critters

Bugs. Let me tell you about the bugs here.When it comes to critters, I like to think I’m a brave girl, daring even. Mama didn’t raise me to be a city wimp, and I have often found a lot of them to be cute even. But when I don’t know what they are, nor what they do, and they’re ten times the size I’m used to? I’m not too keen on the whole “bug” idea. Oh but I have NEVER done cockroaches. Nuh uh. That’s where I draw the line on the whole tolerance thing. Oh and did I mention I just found one in the middle of my laundry room floor? Yeah…..YEAH.

A little bit paranoid right now….not gonna lie. 

Yes I took this, it's a real China Bug. Blech. And it's about 3 inches long.

....Okay so I just went and checked to see if it was still there....and it is! But...it's not a cockroach....hahaha. But let me tell you, that is one GIANT beatle. And I am NOT exaggerating when I say it's two inches long and an inch wide. It's been stuck on it's back for the last hour, so I took pity on it (and desperately wanted it gone) so I took a bowl hoping to scoop it up and throw it over the edge....but I accidentally shot it across the room and it hit the wall. Well I know 2 things now. It's shell is incredibly hard because it sounded like I through a plastic pen. And it's very good at playing dead. Either way, I'm done thinking about it. 

A weekend in Beijing

I LOVE Beijing :)

The Great Wall

Yeah....that's almost vertical.

The great wall was magnificent. Kind of a given though, right? Luckily it’s not as humid in Beijing as it is in Shanghai. It was really fun, and our quads got quite the workout….hahaha. There were stairs there that were literally so vertical you had to sit on your bum to get down them. I think the only annoying part is that none of the steps were ever the same size. Some were 2 inches, some were 7 and everything in between. After we got to the second highest tower on that end (not the tallest one there, we went the wrong way for that…oh well) we decided it was probably time to head back (plus we were drenched in sweat), but I wanted to go a bit further to the higher tower and see what it was like. 

 So I headed up the rest of the wall. At the top, however, instead of more wall at the other end of the tower, the wall was kind of abolished and there was a little trail surrounded by shrubbery and trees. I kept going and then the trees parted for a bit and it was absolutely gorgeous!! Oh man, it was breathtaking. These pictures do not even BEGIN to describe how beautiful it was. By then, unfortunately, it was almost time for me to be back at the bus so I had to run.

 But on the way down I had run into 7 girls from London, and they were so fun and cute! We all decided to take pictures together, they met an American, I met some Britts :) Then it was time to run again. I made it in time to the slide (It’s like the Alpine Slide in Park City, Utah that runs all the way to the bottom of the mountain), and it was very fun :) After the great wall we headed to lunch at a yummy restaurant, but I can’t remember what it’s called. I keep wanting to say “we went to a Chinese restaurant” but then I realize that every restaurant is Chinese….hahaha. So yeah, we went to a restaurant :)

The Ming Tombs

This is my friend Shelby. LOVE her. And that's the parasol
I bought because I want one for my future
engagement shoot....you know...when I meet a man
and everything. hahaha

After lunch we got back on the buses and headed to the Ming Tombs. They were surrounded by at least 100 willow trees (mom you would have died), and had this peaceful aura to it. It was so pretty!  They had statues on both sides of Chinese warriors, elephants (life-size), camels, lions, and dragon-looking things all very very large. After the tombs it we headed back to the buses and it was time to go home.

More New friends

 Through the course of the day I have met some pretty amazing girls, and we’ve been having an absolute blast! They’re my same kind of “weird” hahaha. So we all headed to dinner together and had delicious leek and pork dumplings with beef noodles. Mmmmmm :) Afterwards we headed to my hostel (better internet) so we could all tell stories of life and email home. It was a very good day :)

The Summer Palace

The next day we went to the Summer Palace…3 words….fell in love.

Oh my heck! It made me never want to leave! It was so gorgeous, so full of life, and culture.  I went away from the group for a little while because I found some stairs (and because I heard music hahaha). At the top was a brick trail that lead to a little gazebo on a hill that looks EXACTLY like the one on Mulan at the beginning of the movie hahaha. I kept going as the sound of drums got louder and trumpets got crisper. I finally got to a little pavilion FILLED with people singing and playing and clapping, it was so fun! (Mom you would have adored it!). A cute old man with hardly any teeth came up to me and asked where I was from (his English was surprisingly good). He told me that they meet here every morning from 9am to 11am and sing. He said that singing is good for the heart and it makes one happy. I of course agreed, and joined him in the clapping. After a while I decided it was probably a good idea to rejoin the group, so I took a set of stairs that looked like it went in their general direction and ran right into them. 

Locals take giant paintbrush-looking-things and dip
them in water. They then create beautiful calligraphy
all over!

My beautiful friend McCall

A dreamland for a portrait photographer.
Engagements here would be magical!

We waited in a little square for another boat to come, we were going to go to an island. In the course of waiting, I was standing on a set of stairs looking over the square when I saw a guy taking a picture, and it looked like he was trying to get me in it haha (very common). I looked to my right, and saw another man trying to sneak closer subtly so he could be in a picture with an American. Our eyes met and he looked down really quickly, trying to hide what he was doing. I laughed and motioned him forward to take a picture with me. BIG mistake. I was literally stuck for 7 full minutes (which is a long time when you’re doing this) taking picture after picture after picture with person after person. A huge line had accumulated and moms, brothers, friends, children were trading out holding cameras and taking pictures with me, I felt like a celebrity! Hahaha. After a while my smile hurt and I started to walk away and more people started following me and asking me to turn around, it was the funniest thing. They liked my white skin and curly hair. Hahahaha (to be honest though, I looked like I popped out of wizard of oz. hahaha my hair had curled funny that day, and I looked like Dorothy).  I finally got away and we started loading the boat. Off we went on the….sound (I’m gonna call it that, because it kind of looked like the Puget Sound) back to the main island that we arrived on.

The Silk Factory

Next came the silk factory.  Not gonna lie, it was pretty amazing to see how an itty bitty egg turns into a worm, which can make a beautiful 100% silk tapestry. Silk worms create a cocoon by spitting silk that wraps around them. They spit about 1,200 meters of silk. There are two different kinds of cocoons. The smaller ones have only one worm inside, and you can unwind it very easily into thread. The bigger ones have two silk worms inside and because they both spit different directions the silk is tangled so they can’t spin it. Those ones they create into blankets and pillows. They take the cocoons and put them in water, and stretch it over a little arch. They do that with about 18 layers and then they start over. They then take those layers and stretch them out to the size of a blanket. Because there are 18 layers, it doesn’t break apart (kind of like that Sunday school lesson they do with the string). They use about 1000 of these larger layers to make a blanket. It is SOOOOOO soft :)

Pearl and Silk Markets….Time to start your haggling talent!

Oh man, stressed me out SO bad at first. Hahaha. They are huge markets full of anything and everything you could possible want, and they start their prices SUPER high. At first I felt bad going too low, but then I realize their reactions are how they get more money, and most of the time they’re ripping you off by a LOT (I just had to think of all the stories daddy told from when he went to Peru and Costa Rica). Hahaha So I started getting the hang of it, and it was really fun!  I got quite a few of things I really wanted :) (Yes Hope, I got you Red Toms for $8 :D). Afterwards it was time to hit the subway and head home. First time riding the subway went very well!

When we got home I was beat, so off to bed I went :)

My Paradise: Not what you would expect ;)

           So everything changed SUPER fast. As soon as Anna, Caralyn, and I got home after school yesterday (Thursday)  we had a phone call from Jacob asking if we still wanted to go on the Arrival Tour that we had previously not been able to go on because of our specific school. We wouldn’t be able to go on the whole thing because we have to meet the parents of our students on Monday, but we still would be able to go for the weekend. So about an hour and half later, Bella came upstairs and gave us our Chinese phones which was very helpful . Jacob sent me a text saying he was waiting for a confirmation, and then all of a sudden Bella came back upstairs and said the taxi would be there in 5 minutes.

            So we fumbled around trying to throw things into a backpack and ran downstairs. We took a 20 minute ride the airport and boarded a plane at 8:55 for Beijing. Our flight got delayed for at least an hour, if not more, and we didn’t get in until 1:15am. Spencer was there to pick us up and took us to our hostel (the hostel with the other 65 kids on the arrival tour was already full), and we got in at about 2:20am. At night it all looked really sketchy, but I was kind of thrilled at how old it all looked. He told us to get a good night’s sleep as we were going to be leaving at 7am for the Great Wall :)….So we slept for 3 hours. Hahaha.

Pretty much I’m in Paradise, hahaha. Not exactly what you would think of when I say that word, but I could not be happier. I'm living in a ghetto, falling-apart hostel, in an old alley filled with people, smells (most of them bad), food, dirt, and life :D

Chinese Valentines Day

Hello!

 Things are going much more smooth, and the negative atmosphere has started getting a tiny bit better :) Tomorrow is the Chinese Valentines Day so Anna, Caralyn, and I decided to make American Valentines for our co-teachers. It's an origami heart my older sister taught me to make when I was like 10. We wrote the Chinese Characters for "Happy Valentines Day" on the front (I asked Queeny how to write it).  We then wrote it in English on the back. 

There's a cool story about Valentines Day here. The legend goes that many many many years ago, the daughter of a great spirit fell in love with a human, but her mother was furious so she built a river to separate them. Every year on Chinese July 7 (which translates to August 23) birds would fly together and create a bridge for the two to meet for one day. 

I like the Chinese story behind Valentines Day much better than the American one...haha :)

A New Perspective

Day 3! Better.
                The day after speaking with Spencer and Jacob and expressing all the frustrations and confusions, we were able to get more direction. Pretty much everything that went wrong was because of miscommunication, or misunderstanding the communication (aka they were at our disposal, we just didn’t understand that) haha.

                The next morning after the breakdown, Anna, Caralyn, and I headed to the RT mart to get bowls for our lunches at school (which by the way, are very yummy, we all like it. It’s usually rice with some form of meat and vegetables). We felt quite accomplished for finding, buying, and getting out of there in a timely manner without talking to anyone who even remotely spoke English. :)

             At school we’ve been preparing our classrooms for our students. We were informed today that our students are actually 3 and 4 year olds, which does make it a little better. The girls I work with are so funny! Oh man, I love them to death, we have been able to connect and we even joke with eachother. They’ve been teaching me a little bit of Chinese, and I help them with their English (mostly LeeAnn because Queeny is practically fluent, they just talk slower). Queeny (age 24), is hilarious. She and I laugh all day long, and LeeAnn (also 24) is the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen. We all get along very well, which has been helping with the stress.

                I’ve been struggling lately with the increasingly negative atmosphere that we’re in with things going wrong. I’m trying to keep my head up, but I feel very alone in all my views and optimism. Finally I was so exhausted from everything I fell asleep for a much needed nap. I’m praying things will start to get happier, otherwise I might run away….

But I’ve decided to look at the age group differently. After the fallout, I skyped Spencer by myself because I had slightly different concerns than the other two. I realized that me teaching this age group could be a huge blessing. First of all, I think they will surprise me. I’ve been thinking about my little nieces and nephews that are two, and they are extremely smart. And from the decorations and preparations we’ve been doing in the class, I would think I was teaching 5-6 year olds anyway. Spencer told me that something these kids don’t get a lot of at home is affection and physical examples of love (hugs, kisses, lots of smiles, etc). And getting that from school, and from me will change their life. Second of all, Spencer said that it’s not uncommon for the Parents to take special interest in you. We may be able to teach them some great things. Thirdly, not only the little kids will be taught. I’ve met tons of other people here (that I see on a regular basis) who are hungry for more knowledge. Take Bella for example. She asked me to teach her how to read an English children’s book, and we’re having our first lesson this Friday. She wants to improve her English, and so does LeeAnn.

 My conclusion? I have the most wonderful opportunity to go be in China and teach my brothers and sisters, and the little children. And though I am not allowed to speak of my faith (which is gonna kill me), I have the glorious opportunity to teach them that they are so loved, beyond their wildest belief. That someone cares, that someone knows their name. And hopefully, someday when the laws of the land are shifted, they will remember the light that was in our eyes when we taught them through the example of the Savior. They will recognize their worth and the beauty of the companionship of the spirit, and that’s why I’m here. Everything else can just fade away, because it’s not really important.

Frustrating is kind of an Understatment

So obviously nothing is going to go as perfect as it does in your head.  But Anna, Caralyn, and I are all pretty torn….but in totally different ways. My idea of perfect, your idea of perfect, and everyone else's idea of perfect are completely different.

Today was our first day at the school, getting the classroom prepared and learning how to teach. We learned a bit more about our job description and were alarmed to find out that “kindergarteners” means2-year-olds. Not 5-6 year-olds who can carry a conversation with you.  And we only teach for 1-1.5 hours a day. We finally were able to call Spencer (one of the directors). When he found out the people we were living with weren’t teachers he said “that’s odd”, which kind of freaked us out…a lot.

Last night we met Shirley. She is one of the coordinators for living around here. Apparently she was supposed to be there at the airport to pick us up, but I’m not entirely sure what went wrong.

So when we got home, we Skyped Spencer and told him a long list of things that were very much bothering us. He was very upset about MANY things that happened. He told us that Shirley should have been there at the airport, and that they never put teachers in with locals.And even if they did, that would be something discussed and agreed upon by all tenants, native and teacher. He said that relocation could be very probable, and that no place would be as nice as what we’re living in. Here’s just a small list of things that have gone wrong:

1)      When we arrived, no water was available to us, and neither was food. We didn’t have breakfast the first morning, and we didn’t know how we were going to get food.

2)      There was a lack of explaining what we should be prepared for (age group, lessens, etc)

3)      The people we’re living with aren’t responsible for us, but they feel bad so they’re trying to be, that’s not fair to them, they even bought stuff for us.

4)      We were told there would be a place to go shopping and we don’t know where to go, what places are good, what prices are good, there are lots of things we didn’t pack because we were assured we would be able to buy them in China. We still do not have those things.

5)      The people that picked us up at the airport were not associated with the school at all.

6)      Everything we’ve been learning is from here/say.

If we were to only have one thing changed, it would be the age group. Like I said, we were under the understanding that we would be teaching kindergarten....5-6 year olds. 2 year olds will never remember us, and probably not really retain and English anyways. We’re not totally fond of the idea of babysitters….As a volunteer, our payment is the reward of seeing what our knowledge does in their life for the better; when a student understands what we're teaching. The sign on the school says "day care", that was a major concern.

There’s been so much frustration; it’s wearing on all three of us. Anna and Caralyn have were great and dived in, but at this point their perfect world would be a plane ride home. Mine? Living in a hut in rural China, with no internet immediately assessable, eating rice and vegetables all day, and teaching in a school that’s falling apart with students who have nothing to their name, but are richer than kings because of their hunger for knowledge….and me being able to share a piece of it with them.

Umbrellas, Chicken's Feet, and Bee Fire Men

Lunch :)

Dried dove and Chicken Toes....yum.

Here it goes!

           So today we had our first Chinese meal :) I don't think it had a name, but it was pretty yummy! It was rice in a bowl with vegetables, fried eggs, and meat on top. The green beans that were prepared were SO good. All three of us (Anna, Caralyn, and I) all agreed. I want to find out how she prepared them and try to replicate it ;)
          After about 10 minutes, Helen went and got a bunch of small green packages (3x2). We all picked one up and tried to open them, while Anna and Caralyn guessed what they might be. I picked one up and could instantly feel a bone surrounded by something a little squishier. We had seen chicken's feet earlier today when we went to the super market, and that's the first thing I thought of.
            Helen took the packages back and started opening them for us (we were struggling....haha). And then squeezed them out on to the table. Anna's face was priceless when she realized what it was. Helen went to through the wrappers away, and Caralyn pointed, "is that-"
           "Yes. That's a chicken nail," was Anna's reply.
             I laughed so hard! But I decided this trip to embrace the culture in it's entirety. That meant I would need to try the chicken's foot!
 It actually wasn't that bad! I didn't really like the shards of bone that got stuck in my teeth, nor the explosion of fiery spiciness....hahahaha but it wasn't too bad! I just had to get past the fact that I could see the nail on the end of it.... and you know, the fact that it was a chicken's foot. :P
       So another funny thing we noticed is how people keep cool here. Because it's 94+ degrees, but with over 60% humidity, it feels well over 100 degrees. The funniest one is the towel. Tons of men wear hand towels on their heads. They just drape it over their heads! It's kind of genius....just saying.

      Another difference is the use for a sturdy umbrella. Through back to the olden days, sitting in a canoe with a pretty laced umbrella to block the sun. Minus the lace, the hot dress, the canoe, and the water, and you've got China! hahaha. It's pretty darn smart if you ask me!

Last but not least, our little friends: I accidentally moved a door in our laundry room (which is more of like a greenhouse connected to the house) and angered a beehive.....oops! so we quickly closed the door so none would get in the house. Well, today, I woke up to lots of thugs coming up the stairs. I opened the door to see 5 fully clothed firemen, boots, hats and all walking towards the beehive. This is serious stuff people! Hahahaha. So they came, sprayed a spray paint-sized can of something in the whole, closed the door, and left! hahaha. But I'm loving everything more and more :)


Blythe