Hello again!
I hope everything is going well back home. I will be returning soon, which is really strange. Yesterday was our one month left mark. Odd.
I went to Beijing this weekend. That was quite the experience! I went with Jenna and April, which of course made for an interesting time. They tried hard, maybe, but I was third wheel, and honestly I didn't really care. I didn't go to Beijing to make friends. I was bummed Amanda, Shalise and Janae didn't come with me. The trip would have been much more enjoyable if they had come. Anyway, we flew to Beijing. I was surprised that the man working the Starbucks in the airport remembered us from when we were there in August. He asked us if we had found that hotel in Xi'an. Quite the memory that man had!
We had heard it would be cold in Beijing, but we figured we were from Utah, we could handle a little China cold. Alice had warned us that we would be extremely cold, but she thinks 70 is cold, so we paid her no heed. So we packed light jackets and shoes, called it good. We arrived in Beijing, about 9 o'clock, and there's a little bit of snow, and it's rather windy out, but no deal. Our hostel was supposed to come pick us up at the airport and take us back. We search the airport, we can't find anyone that's looking for us. So, we decide we might as well take the bus! So we ask a lady how to get there, and she tells us take the bus to the last stop. So far so good. We find our bus and go to the last stop, get off, and no other bus is in sight. We wait. Nothing. We wait some more. Nothing. It's about 10:30 now, and Beijing is FREEZING! We were not prepared at all. So now we're cold and lost in Beijing. Not good. Luckily some man found us and told us about his hotel and we didn't have to use my backup plan of sleeping in McDonalds. But the hotel was shady none the less, we pushed our beds together and cuddled all night. So cold.
The next morning we did finally find our hostel, it was quite the ordeal, but we got it done. Jenna and April have absolutely no street smarts, and didn't seem to like any of my ideas, so we wasted a lot of time. I'm not going to turn this into a venting session, so we shall move on.... Aiya. Those girls.
So we get to our hostel and decide we should hit up the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was pretty cool, but a lot of walking in the freezing cold. It was so large! I can't imagine what they used all the space for! Every room we saw was enormous with just a throne in the middle. I'm sure they had more stuff in their when it was actually in use, but still. It was the most ornate thing I've ever seen. China truly is like no where else.
The next day we hit up the Great Wall. A great wall it is indeed! I've never seen anything that massive in all my life! Even building it with today's technology would be incredible. It was covered in snow and was extremely cold. The steps were steep and icy. It was no casual walk on the Great Wall. Parts of it you had to scale, use your arms and pull yourself up intense work out. The Wall is not for sissy's. Amy's favorite part of this story is that we sang Mulan songs on top, so I'll include that as well! We got down to business, we were there to defeat the Huns. If I was a Hun, there's no way I'd attempt to climb that wall. Heck no. One oart of the wall, these Chinese business men come up to me and start wanting all these pictures. So we had to stop for a good fifteen minutes to take all these pictures with random men. I really wonder what these people do with all their pictures of us. We're really not that cool. I wonder if I'm framed in anyones home. China. So to get down from the Wall, we took a toboggin. It was pretty sweet. A huge slide in the freezing cold. The whole front of my body was numb when I got off. All in all, the Great Wall was amazing, the best part of all of Beijing.
The train ride home was ridiculous. It took us over 24 hours to get home. That's not even including all the times our train was delayed. I was so ready to be home. Beijing made us very homesick. It was so cold and so Americanized that it just made you feel like you were back in the States. I was ready to be back in Guzhen. Beijing was cool, but I wouldn't really recommend that anyone go there. I don't really feel the need to ever go back again. Maybe it was just because it was cool. Maybe I went with lame people. It's probably the combination of those two. Maybe I'll have better luck next time. The Wall was amazing though. I thoroughly enjoyed that. But Beijing on the whole, meh. I'm glad I went and it was a good experience. I'm just glad to be back in Guzhen.
Although! We thought it would be warm and toasty when we got back to Guzhen, just how we left it! Nope! Cold as well! Not nearly as cold as Beijing, but they don't believe in heaters here in China. I broke my bed, again, fourth time now. Amanda and I gave up on the bed though. We're not going to have the man fix it. We said farewell to our wood pallets, and we've moved down to the floor. It's slightly colder, and the cockroaches now have free reign, but at least now there's body heat to keep us warm and no more fear that I'll come crashing down on her during the night! I was apprehensive about the cockroaches, but she assured me it was too cold for them to live now. I know she's lying, but I can pretend I'm safe.
The kids are doing really well! I missed them so much when I was in Beijing, and that was only 4 days! Yesterday when I saw them I just hugged them all and told them how much I loved them! They're so crazy and naughty. While we were gone Alice taught our classes, poor kids. I guess one day she took them wine to drink. Alice is crazy! She acted like it was no big deal. I guess Addison really liked the wine. Alice. China. Crazy. I'm not sure which is worse, that she gave the kids wine, or the time she took a knife and threatened the kids. I don't even know!
Alice is still her crazy self. I did miss her when I was in Beijing. I don't know what I'm going to do without her in America. She keeps me so entertained! We do such foolish things together. She's such a shady lady. She annoys me as much as I love her. That Alice.
Well I think that's about it for now! Sums up my life in China this week. Beijing, good. Teaching, good. Alice, crazy. Yep, that's about it! I love you guys! I hope everyone is doing well!
Cam
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Oh China, oh China
Hello dear friends and family!
Shockingly, China is still amazing. I thought it was just infatuation, but China and I have been through enough hard times. I know it's the real deal. I'm in love with China. It's crazy to think my time here is half over.
We had National Old People Day a while back, that was nice. We went on our usual celebratory hike with the teachers from the school. We go on this crazy hike, parts of it are like the jungle, all the way up to a pagoda. Once you're at the top, the real party starts. Everyone just hangs out up there eating and playing games. Even though it was Old People's Day, I saw maybe one old lady. China. Some random frog jumped on Alice and she freaked out. It was rather funny. When we were up there, we were ready to leave, but we couldn't find Shalise, typical of Shalise. We look around and find her in the middle of all the Chinese teachers and random Chinese people swing dancing with the principal! So we walk over to the group, and the principal grabs me and makes me start dancing with Shalise. It was a pretty crazy/good time. Once they wer satisfied with our dancing, we were able to go home.
We also had Halloween! That was... interesting. Halloween was fun, the Chinese teachers just have crazy ideas about what they want, we have miscommunications ALL the time, and everyone ends up disappointed and angry. I hate doing projects for them. They were really adamant that we make a giant bat for the Halloween party. How we were to make this bat, no one knew. But when we got to the school to decorate, there was a ladder waiting for us. Somehow we were supposed to make a bat out of a ladder. We got string, and black bags, and decorated that ladder like you wouldn't believe. It was the most ridiculous bat ever, but the teachers were somewhat happy with it. They only made slight improvements, which is rare. My kids went as ghosts to the Halloween party, but of course, even costumes didn't go smoothly. Everything is so complicated here! But, my kids were cute. Even if half the costumes only lasted an hour. We were stinkin cute ghosts.
My bed broke, finally. That was rather intense. Luckily it was when I was climbing out of the bed, and not while I was sleeping. That would have been horrible. I would have crashed down onto Amanda, and a real disaster would have occured! The breaking sound was still awful. Amanda was sleeping, but as soon as she heard that sound she jumped out of bed quickly! I'd never seen her move so fast! Luckily it's fixed now and doesn't seem as dangerous. Although I'm still sure we'll have another bed catastrophe. I mean, we've broken three beds now. Apparently we're bad luck. Apparently they don't fix the beds very well!
Teaching is going pretty well. I love my kids more and more every day. They seem to be getting naughtier and naughtier every day too. We're working on a secret handshake, it's the coolest thing ever. Even Maggie does it! That says a lot! I stupidly taught the kids some Spanish one day. Actually, I didn't even teach it to them! I said the most random thing in Spanish, bata bata chocolate. Somehow that's spread throughout the whole class! They chant it all the time! I don't know why they remember that so well, but not English! The other girls didn't know I had taught that to the kids and had no idea what the kids were saying. So I informed them of my slip up one day. Now, at least 10 times a day, I hear a Chinese kid say "bata bata chocolate!". Those crazy kids.
Amanda was really sick a couple days ago. She researched it on the internet and diagnosed herself as having Strep. At Alice's insistence, she went to the hospital. I had heard stories about the hospital and was dying to go, so we told Alice Amanda was too scared and needed me to go with her. Alice didn't care, so we headed out to the hospital. Talk about a shady place! There was no waiting room, everyone just kicked it in the doctors office while he consulted other patients. No confidentialty whatsoever! When it was Amanda's turn, he asked her what drugs she wanted and for how long. There was no tests! No examinations! He didn't even take her temperature! He just blindly wrote a prescription! Shalise and I explored the hospital a little bit, pretty shady business. They had this ghetto IV room where everyone was sitting in chairs with their IVs hanging from the ceiling. It looked like the most thrown together place. It was a real eye opening experience.
I believe that's about it for now! I've attached a picture of me, Mary and Jackson in our ghost costumes. Not the best picture, but, you get the idea of Halloween, China style. I hope everything is going well back home! I love you guys!
Cam
Shockingly, China is still amazing. I thought it was just infatuation, but China and I have been through enough hard times. I know it's the real deal. I'm in love with China. It's crazy to think my time here is half over.
We had National Old People Day a while back, that was nice. We went on our usual celebratory hike with the teachers from the school. We go on this crazy hike, parts of it are like the jungle, all the way up to a pagoda. Once you're at the top, the real party starts. Everyone just hangs out up there eating and playing games. Even though it was Old People's Day, I saw maybe one old lady. China. Some random frog jumped on Alice and she freaked out. It was rather funny. When we were up there, we were ready to leave, but we couldn't find Shalise, typical of Shalise. We look around and find her in the middle of all the Chinese teachers and random Chinese people swing dancing with the principal! So we walk over to the group, and the principal grabs me and makes me start dancing with Shalise. It was a pretty crazy/good time. Once they wer satisfied with our dancing, we were able to go home.
We also had Halloween! That was... interesting. Halloween was fun, the Chinese teachers just have crazy ideas about what they want, we have miscommunications ALL the time, and everyone ends up disappointed and angry. I hate doing projects for them. They were really adamant that we make a giant bat for the Halloween party. How we were to make this bat, no one knew. But when we got to the school to decorate, there was a ladder waiting for us. Somehow we were supposed to make a bat out of a ladder. We got string, and black bags, and decorated that ladder like you wouldn't believe. It was the most ridiculous bat ever, but the teachers were somewhat happy with it. They only made slight improvements, which is rare. My kids went as ghosts to the Halloween party, but of course, even costumes didn't go smoothly. Everything is so complicated here! But, my kids were cute. Even if half the costumes only lasted an hour. We were stinkin cute ghosts.
My bed broke, finally. That was rather intense. Luckily it was when I was climbing out of the bed, and not while I was sleeping. That would have been horrible. I would have crashed down onto Amanda, and a real disaster would have occured! The breaking sound was still awful. Amanda was sleeping, but as soon as she heard that sound she jumped out of bed quickly! I'd never seen her move so fast! Luckily it's fixed now and doesn't seem as dangerous. Although I'm still sure we'll have another bed catastrophe. I mean, we've broken three beds now. Apparently we're bad luck. Apparently they don't fix the beds very well!
Teaching is going pretty well. I love my kids more and more every day. They seem to be getting naughtier and naughtier every day too. We're working on a secret handshake, it's the coolest thing ever. Even Maggie does it! That says a lot! I stupidly taught the kids some Spanish one day. Actually, I didn't even teach it to them! I said the most random thing in Spanish, bata bata chocolate. Somehow that's spread throughout the whole class! They chant it all the time! I don't know why they remember that so well, but not English! The other girls didn't know I had taught that to the kids and had no idea what the kids were saying. So I informed them of my slip up one day. Now, at least 10 times a day, I hear a Chinese kid say "bata bata chocolate!". Those crazy kids.
Amanda was really sick a couple days ago. She researched it on the internet and diagnosed herself as having Strep. At Alice's insistence, she went to the hospital. I had heard stories about the hospital and was dying to go, so we told Alice Amanda was too scared and needed me to go with her. Alice didn't care, so we headed out to the hospital. Talk about a shady place! There was no waiting room, everyone just kicked it in the doctors office while he consulted other patients. No confidentialty whatsoever! When it was Amanda's turn, he asked her what drugs she wanted and for how long. There was no tests! No examinations! He didn't even take her temperature! He just blindly wrote a prescription! Shalise and I explored the hospital a little bit, pretty shady business. They had this ghetto IV room where everyone was sitting in chairs with their IVs hanging from the ceiling. It looked like the most thrown together place. It was a real eye opening experience.
I believe that's about it for now! I've attached a picture of me, Mary and Jackson in our ghost costumes. Not the best picture, but, you get the idea of Halloween, China style. I hope everything is going well back home! I love you guys!
Cam
I'm not Chinese, I'm American!
Hello friends and family!
It feels like it's been ages since I've written to you guys, but in reality it's probably been a week. China time is really weird. It feels like I've been gone for 6 months, when really it's been two months. Life in America really seems so long ago. I try to remember what it's like, and I usually just draw a blank. How weird is that? The other day I had a momentary freak out when I was given a fork and I couldn't remember how to use it. Janae looked at me like I was crazy and showed me how to use it. Talk about embarrassing!
Life in Guzhen is still crazy as ever. It's the Lighting Fair, which is apparently a big deal, so we have people from all over the world coming to Guzhen to buy lights. We've even cleaned up our streets and decorated a little bit for the occassion! There's not nearly as much trash in the streets. Someone finally picked up all the food garbage in the tunnel that had been sitting there for 3 weeks. It's about time!
I met a couple from Lebanon who had come to Guzhen to buy lights, that's really the only reason any one would ever come to Guzhen. It took everything I had to talk to them. It took about 5 minutes to determine that they were speaking English and then to muster up the courage to talk to them. I'd never been so nervous in all my life! Apparently I've lost my skills to initiate conversations in the English language. Which is weird, because I talk to the Chinese people in English. It's so strange. Once I got the ball rolling with this couple, the conversation flowed nicely. It was the womans first time to China and she hated it. She was apalled that when she ordered chicken it came to her with feathers and a face. I agreed with her that that was a hard thing to overcome and I had just about given up meat completely. She was amazed that we used squatters and was trying to think of every possible way we could build a toilet in our apartment. I think she was about ready to go buy us a toilet she was so disgusted. They were a very nice couple, I hope she left China with better experiences.
We had Amanda's birthday party on Sunday. Alice wanted to throw a party so she invited all the Kindergarten teachers and our headmaster. Amanda and I thought we needed to liven the party up a bit and decided to invite Bank man and post office man. We had Alice write up invitations and we delivered them on our weekly visits to the bank and post office. Both said they would come, but who really knew. So we had the party on Sunday and it was great fun. We made dumplings with the teachers and the head master. The process is rather disgusting, but they actually tasted pretty good. To our surpise, Bank man came to the party and had even brought a friend. Post office man never showed. So Bank man, Zhang Ming, was there and things got a little awkward. Our relationship had only previously consisted of bogus emails where I usually had no idea what he was saying, and random conversations at the bank with a piece of glass between us. Now we were on a date, and everyone knew it. Alice was so giddy, it was the strangest thing. Poor Bank man. I think I was far too forward for him. We watched the fireworks (by the way, China fireworks are way cooler than American fireworks) and had even linked arms! Things were getting way serious fast! He even let me hug him goodnight! It was an awkward hug, but a hug none the less. I thought I had blown my chances with him, I had been extremely bold and overbearing. I was afraid I blown everything! But then, he emailed me TWICE! I couldn't make sense of either of them, but I'm taking that as a good sign.
My relationship with Alice has evolved into something very peculiar. Things started to get weird about a month ago when she said she wanted to adopt me. I thought that was just Alice being her typical crazy self and thought nothing of it. But then this week, things got shady fast! The other day she wouldn't stop starring at me, and when I told her to stop she told me she couldn't because she was "attracted by me" and that was slightly creepy. Then later that day she told me she loved me and wanted to "put her heart in my heart". I don't even know what that means. But it creeped me out a little bit. Then last night she proposed to me! I turned her down. I don't know what she's thinking. So while Alice is falling in love with me, I've discovered great joy in scaring her. Last night we were at the school decoarting the classroom for Halloween and I hid in the backroom with a witch mask. I jumped out and she screamed! It was great. Other times, I try to scare her and she looks at me like I'm the biggest fool ever. She's plotting a revenge, I can tell. The other day she scared me pretty well, not even trying and she told me "I revenge". That was slightly creepy. Oh Alice. What a crazy one she is!
The kids are doing really well. I love them all and we have great fun together. Yesterday Davy got his head stuck in his chair, it was a little stressful, but I finally got it out. Devan is still dancing his heart out. I love to watch him. He's such a flamboyant boy. Leo and I are planning a way to get him back in the States with me. We've been practicing "I'm not Chinese, I'm American". He just needs to memorize it and drop the accent, and we're home free. I just hope he doesn't say it at home. I've been a bad teacher, I break the number one rule, No Chinese. The kids think it's so funny when I say something in Chinese. Today we were counting in English and then I just started counting in Chinese instead. Addison is always the first to catch on when I do it, and the most persistent in making me sit in the Chinese chair. The kids really are so cute and it's going to be so hard to say goodbye to them.
My ELE classes are going pretty well too. With Julia leaving, I had to take an extra class. Her kids are so smart. I haven't bonded with them yet, so it's not as fun to teach them. Give it a week and I'll be in love. My regular ELE class is so crazy! I love those kids! They always swarm me with hugs and high fives when I'm leaving their class. The other day in their attempt to do so, I guess one of the kids tripped and fell and knocked over all the other kids. I look down and there's a pile of 15 kids on the ground. It was the most ridiculous thing. I laughed so hard. That poor kid on the bottom. He seemed okay the next time I went to that class. Even my screaming babies are getting better. I had a good portion of them singing Popcorn Popping about a week ago, but I lost them again. So I'm back to only 6 kids singing with me, while the rest just stare at me. At least everyone wears pants now. Well, most of the time. And only one or two babies cry. I'd much rather have two babies cry than 30. But I'm keeping the faith! By the end of the semester, all 30 babies will be singing Popcorn popping, if it's the last thing I do!
This picture is of my original homeroom class, before everyone was switched around! I miss my old group, but my new one is good too. Leo is sitting next to me, then going around the table is Davy, Josh, Kevin (who apparently didn't get the memo we were taking a picture and didn't move his head), Maggie, Lily, and Carol.
Well friends, I believe that is all for now! I believe someone counted down and we only have 58 days left. That really saddens me. But that's good for you guys! You'll be seeing my bright and shiny face again! I love you all and hope you're doing well!
Cami
It feels like it's been ages since I've written to you guys, but in reality it's probably been a week. China time is really weird. It feels like I've been gone for 6 months, when really it's been two months. Life in America really seems so long ago. I try to remember what it's like, and I usually just draw a blank. How weird is that? The other day I had a momentary freak out when I was given a fork and I couldn't remember how to use it. Janae looked at me like I was crazy and showed me how to use it. Talk about embarrassing!
Life in Guzhen is still crazy as ever. It's the Lighting Fair, which is apparently a big deal, so we have people from all over the world coming to Guzhen to buy lights. We've even cleaned up our streets and decorated a little bit for the occassion! There's not nearly as much trash in the streets. Someone finally picked up all the food garbage in the tunnel that had been sitting there for 3 weeks. It's about time!
I met a couple from Lebanon who had come to Guzhen to buy lights, that's really the only reason any one would ever come to Guzhen. It took everything I had to talk to them. It took about 5 minutes to determine that they were speaking English and then to muster up the courage to talk to them. I'd never been so nervous in all my life! Apparently I've lost my skills to initiate conversations in the English language. Which is weird, because I talk to the Chinese people in English. It's so strange. Once I got the ball rolling with this couple, the conversation flowed nicely. It was the womans first time to China and she hated it. She was apalled that when she ordered chicken it came to her with feathers and a face. I agreed with her that that was a hard thing to overcome and I had just about given up meat completely. She was amazed that we used squatters and was trying to think of every possible way we could build a toilet in our apartment. I think she was about ready to go buy us a toilet she was so disgusted. They were a very nice couple, I hope she left China with better experiences.
We had Amanda's birthday party on Sunday. Alice wanted to throw a party so she invited all the Kindergarten teachers and our headmaster. Amanda and I thought we needed to liven the party up a bit and decided to invite Bank man and post office man. We had Alice write up invitations and we delivered them on our weekly visits to the bank and post office. Both said they would come, but who really knew. So we had the party on Sunday and it was great fun. We made dumplings with the teachers and the head master. The process is rather disgusting, but they actually tasted pretty good. To our surpise, Bank man came to the party and had even brought a friend. Post office man never showed. So Bank man, Zhang Ming, was there and things got a little awkward. Our relationship had only previously consisted of bogus emails where I usually had no idea what he was saying, and random conversations at the bank with a piece of glass between us. Now we were on a date, and everyone knew it. Alice was so giddy, it was the strangest thing. Poor Bank man. I think I was far too forward for him. We watched the fireworks (by the way, China fireworks are way cooler than American fireworks) and had even linked arms! Things were getting way serious fast! He even let me hug him goodnight! It was an awkward hug, but a hug none the less. I thought I had blown my chances with him, I had been extremely bold and overbearing. I was afraid I blown everything! But then, he emailed me TWICE! I couldn't make sense of either of them, but I'm taking that as a good sign.
My relationship with Alice has evolved into something very peculiar. Things started to get weird about a month ago when she said she wanted to adopt me. I thought that was just Alice being her typical crazy self and thought nothing of it. But then this week, things got shady fast! The other day she wouldn't stop starring at me, and when I told her to stop she told me she couldn't because she was "attracted by me" and that was slightly creepy. Then later that day she told me she loved me and wanted to "put her heart in my heart". I don't even know what that means. But it creeped me out a little bit. Then last night she proposed to me! I turned her down. I don't know what she's thinking. So while Alice is falling in love with me, I've discovered great joy in scaring her. Last night we were at the school decoarting the classroom for Halloween and I hid in the backroom with a witch mask. I jumped out and she screamed! It was great. Other times, I try to scare her and she looks at me like I'm the biggest fool ever. She's plotting a revenge, I can tell. The other day she scared me pretty well, not even trying and she told me "I revenge". That was slightly creepy. Oh Alice. What a crazy one she is!
The kids are doing really well. I love them all and we have great fun together. Yesterday Davy got his head stuck in his chair, it was a little stressful, but I finally got it out. Devan is still dancing his heart out. I love to watch him. He's such a flamboyant boy. Leo and I are planning a way to get him back in the States with me. We've been practicing "I'm not Chinese, I'm American". He just needs to memorize it and drop the accent, and we're home free. I just hope he doesn't say it at home. I've been a bad teacher, I break the number one rule, No Chinese. The kids think it's so funny when I say something in Chinese. Today we were counting in English and then I just started counting in Chinese instead. Addison is always the first to catch on when I do it, and the most persistent in making me sit in the Chinese chair. The kids really are so cute and it's going to be so hard to say goodbye to them.
My ELE classes are going pretty well too. With Julia leaving, I had to take an extra class. Her kids are so smart. I haven't bonded with them yet, so it's not as fun to teach them. Give it a week and I'll be in love. My regular ELE class is so crazy! I love those kids! They always swarm me with hugs and high fives when I'm leaving their class. The other day in their attempt to do so, I guess one of the kids tripped and fell and knocked over all the other kids. I look down and there's a pile of 15 kids on the ground. It was the most ridiculous thing. I laughed so hard. That poor kid on the bottom. He seemed okay the next time I went to that class. Even my screaming babies are getting better. I had a good portion of them singing Popcorn Popping about a week ago, but I lost them again. So I'm back to only 6 kids singing with me, while the rest just stare at me. At least everyone wears pants now. Well, most of the time. And only one or two babies cry. I'd much rather have two babies cry than 30. But I'm keeping the faith! By the end of the semester, all 30 babies will be singing Popcorn popping, if it's the last thing I do!
This picture is of my original homeroom class, before everyone was switched around! I miss my old group, but my new one is good too. Leo is sitting next to me, then going around the table is Davy, Josh, Kevin (who apparently didn't get the memo we were taking a picture and didn't move his head), Maggie, Lily, and Carol.
Well friends, I believe that is all for now! I believe someone counted down and we only have 58 days left. That really saddens me. But that's good for you guys! You'll be seeing my bright and shiny face again! I love you all and hope you're doing well!
Cami
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Let's Get Down to Business, to Defeat the Huns
What a glorious week it has been my dear friends and family!
Well, actually, the week started off terrible. Dreadfully terrible. I don't think a worse thing could have happen to our dear sweet Wong family. Beloved Julia, out of the goodness of her heart, stayed after class last Wednesday to organize our cupboards. No one knew where she was until she came home in the middle of our meeting sobbing. She said she thought she had broken her arm. Two hospital visits later, it was determined it was indeed broken, she needed surgery, and would prompty be heading home.
So what to do in China when your best friend is leaving within 48 hours? Party it up. We made a ridiculous list of all the things we loved to do, and things Julia had wanted to do but we had never gotten around to doing, and set aside all of Thursday to accomplish our list! Luckily we were on holiday, National Holiday actually, and didn't have class. We ate at our favorite places, visited the bank, the post office, the school, did random bizarre things that we love to do in China. Julia and I love to gamble with out Kuai. We would place bets on everything, to which way we would turn to how many boba Amanda would by (which the answer is ALWAYS 3 and I ALWAYS win). But this day, we decided to spice it up and dare each other to do ridiculous things. Julia walked into some mans house/shed, popped a squat next to him and watched tv. He was so confused. I took a crazy mask off of a mannequin and danced around the street. Everything crazy and bizarre, we did it. All for the sake of a kuai, 14 American cents. But then Julia pulled out the big guns! 100 kuai if I kissed a Chinese man. I couldn't pass this opportunity up! I finally was going to get my chance to spend a 100 kuai just on juice. So we set out to find an attractive and willing Chinese man. I came close 3 times. But I'd get so nervous and start laughing, and there I would be, cupping some China mans face while he looked at me like a deer in the headlights. I did not kiss a China man. I let Julia down. But perhaps the opportunity will arise again. I mean, I do know how to say "I want to kiss you" in Chinese.
Tearfully, Julia left the next day. 4:30 in the morning we all woke up to say our goodbyes. Much crying was done! I've never hugged anyone so long in all my life! Julia is an amazing person and she has inspired me to do so many things. I'm so grateful I was given the opportunity to meet her. I know she and I will be friends for a very long time. Right now is just hard. I miss her terribly. She is my family. Our family is no longer complete without her. I'm so glad I have Amanda though. She is such a blessing to my life. I already told her that if she ends up going home, I'm packing my bags as well. She said the same went for me. Since Julia left, Janae has really opened up to me and Amanda, which is an amazing thing. Janae is a great girl and I'm glad she's finally starting to feel comfortable with us and is opening up.
The same day Julia left, we also left for vacation! Kinda bumming to go on a trip when you're depressed about your friend going back to America, but such is life. It was nice though to give Julia's train ticket away, the people we gave it to were ecstatic to have it. Anyway. This train ride was 12 hours, piece of cake compared to the 19 hour train ride, right? Wrong. I don't know why we always take those stupid hard seats! When will we ever learn?! This train ride, I got little to no sleep. Amanda, Janae, and Shalise slept like babies. Me on the other hand, not peaceful at all. My benadryll worked like a charm and made me exhausted, but I couldn't find a position to sleep in. So I'm drugged and ready to pass out, without any means of doing so. Very tiring. On the few occassions I was able to sleep for a bit, I kept waking up to a baby sitting on my head, and a man under the table sitting on my feet. China. So crazy. Why there was a baby on my head and a man on my feet, I'll never know. Also, babies in China don't wear pants, or diapers. So this was a barenaked baby butt on my head. I'm really perplexed as to what she was doing there. Crazy babies.
We finally made it to our destination! The glorious land of Yang Shuo! Never have I seen such beauty! The mountains were the oddest shape, like little gumdrops sprinkled everywhere. It's right on the Li River and we spent many a day on bamboo rafts floating the river. Heavenly. One day when we were getting off our bamboo raft, there was a man with monkeys! I got to play with his monkeys! It was truly amazing. One of the monkeys was even sporting some shades. While I don't condone this man making this monkeys dress up and charging 25 kuai to take a picture with them, I did play with them and Amanda snuck a few pictures of me and the monkey! I'm so stoked I played with a monkey.
Yang Shuo is truly amazing. We made dear friends there. Mickey, our little helper at thye hostel was truly amazing. He arranged everything for us! I asked him to marry me, he said yes, but then he also said he didn't understand. So much for that relationship. We also met our dear friend Jing Jing, our Austrailian buddy who I think had never met mormons before. He kept telling us that his facebook status was going to be about he had spent the night with 6 American Mormon girls. Silly Jing Jing. He was so astonished that we loved hot chocolate and milkshakes. He thought we were foolish for ordering them while he was ordering a beer. Silly Jing Jing. We spent a good deal of time with these fellow. Some drama did occur with him, but only slightly, and it didn't concern me, so I really didn't care.
Yang Shuo really is like heaven. We had soft beds, which the first night I slept in it was miserable. I had forgotten how to sleep in a soft bed. I woke up achy and missing my wooden mattress. But by the end of our trip, I had become well aquainted with the soft bed once again. We also ate Western food like you wouldn't believe! That messed with my system big time. My body didn't do so well with foods other than rice and noodles, but I couldn't help myself. I discovered passion fruit and have decided that is my most favorite fruit in the whole word. I could really go for one right about now. I also discovered pizza! Holy cow. That was the most delicious thing I'd ever partaken of. I think I ate pizza every day, I was so in love. We'll see if that love carries over in America, but in China, I'm sold on pizza! Along with amazing food and beds, our hostel had a bathtub. I think I took a bath every day. It was truly amazing. This was an amazing vacation. But by the end, I was ready to go home to Guzhen, I missed my bed. It's so strange to me to think that I missed my bed. My rickety, cockroach infested, bamboo mat, ridiculous ladder to climb, who knows when the sheets and blankets were last washed bed. My bed.
Coming home was another adventure! Oh boy... This time around, we took a sleeper bus. Which is like a regular bus, but with bunk beds instead of seats. There are 3 sets of bunkbeds, and two walkways inbetween. Janae, Amanda and I were on the bottom, I was in the middle. Lo and behold, two China men ended up sleeping in the walkway between us. Now this bus is not very big, so I was sandwiched between these two men. We talked with them for a bit before going to sleep, neither of them had English names so we decided on Kevin and Darryl. They seemed friendly enough. But then things got crazy during the night! I hadn't realized how little of space there really was between us! Darryl had his feet all up on me. Which ever way I turned, there was one of them, inches from my face. I woke up a few times practically kissing Darryl. Shoot I should have just done it and gotten my 100 kuai. I'd roll over to escape Darryl, and there would be Kevin, equally as close! So what could I do, but embrace it and cuddle up with two random Chinese men?! Oh China. How I love it.
I think that is all my adventures for now. I am exhausted. Traveling is draining. Especially in China when the bus just drops you off in some random place and you have no idea how to get home. Gotta love it. I love you all and hope things are going well back home. I love to hear back from you guys so keep the emails coming!
Cam
Well, actually, the week started off terrible. Dreadfully terrible. I don't think a worse thing could have happen to our dear sweet Wong family. Beloved Julia, out of the goodness of her heart, stayed after class last Wednesday to organize our cupboards. No one knew where she was until she came home in the middle of our meeting sobbing. She said she thought she had broken her arm. Two hospital visits later, it was determined it was indeed broken, she needed surgery, and would prompty be heading home.
So what to do in China when your best friend is leaving within 48 hours? Party it up. We made a ridiculous list of all the things we loved to do, and things Julia had wanted to do but we had never gotten around to doing, and set aside all of Thursday to accomplish our list! Luckily we were on holiday, National Holiday actually, and didn't have class. We ate at our favorite places, visited the bank, the post office, the school, did random bizarre things that we love to do in China. Julia and I love to gamble with out Kuai. We would place bets on everything, to which way we would turn to how many boba Amanda would by (which the answer is ALWAYS 3 and I ALWAYS win). But this day, we decided to spice it up and dare each other to do ridiculous things. Julia walked into some mans house/shed, popped a squat next to him and watched tv. He was so confused. I took a crazy mask off of a mannequin and danced around the street. Everything crazy and bizarre, we did it. All for the sake of a kuai, 14 American cents. But then Julia pulled out the big guns! 100 kuai if I kissed a Chinese man. I couldn't pass this opportunity up! I finally was going to get my chance to spend a 100 kuai just on juice. So we set out to find an attractive and willing Chinese man. I came close 3 times. But I'd get so nervous and start laughing, and there I would be, cupping some China mans face while he looked at me like a deer in the headlights. I did not kiss a China man. I let Julia down. But perhaps the opportunity will arise again. I mean, I do know how to say "I want to kiss you" in Chinese.
Tearfully, Julia left the next day. 4:30 in the morning we all woke up to say our goodbyes. Much crying was done! I've never hugged anyone so long in all my life! Julia is an amazing person and she has inspired me to do so many things. I'm so grateful I was given the opportunity to meet her. I know she and I will be friends for a very long time. Right now is just hard. I miss her terribly. She is my family. Our family is no longer complete without her. I'm so glad I have Amanda though. She is such a blessing to my life. I already told her that if she ends up going home, I'm packing my bags as well. She said the same went for me. Since Julia left, Janae has really opened up to me and Amanda, which is an amazing thing. Janae is a great girl and I'm glad she's finally starting to feel comfortable with us and is opening up.
The same day Julia left, we also left for vacation! Kinda bumming to go on a trip when you're depressed about your friend going back to America, but such is life. It was nice though to give Julia's train ticket away, the people we gave it to were ecstatic to have it. Anyway. This train ride was 12 hours, piece of cake compared to the 19 hour train ride, right? Wrong. I don't know why we always take those stupid hard seats! When will we ever learn?! This train ride, I got little to no sleep. Amanda, Janae, and Shalise slept like babies. Me on the other hand, not peaceful at all. My benadryll worked like a charm and made me exhausted, but I couldn't find a position to sleep in. So I'm drugged and ready to pass out, without any means of doing so. Very tiring. On the few occassions I was able to sleep for a bit, I kept waking up to a baby sitting on my head, and a man under the table sitting on my feet. China. So crazy. Why there was a baby on my head and a man on my feet, I'll never know. Also, babies in China don't wear pants, or diapers. So this was a barenaked baby butt on my head. I'm really perplexed as to what she was doing there. Crazy babies.
We finally made it to our destination! The glorious land of Yang Shuo! Never have I seen such beauty! The mountains were the oddest shape, like little gumdrops sprinkled everywhere. It's right on the Li River and we spent many a day on bamboo rafts floating the river. Heavenly. One day when we were getting off our bamboo raft, there was a man with monkeys! I got to play with his monkeys! It was truly amazing. One of the monkeys was even sporting some shades. While I don't condone this man making this monkeys dress up and charging 25 kuai to take a picture with them, I did play with them and Amanda snuck a few pictures of me and the monkey! I'm so stoked I played with a monkey.
Yang Shuo is truly amazing. We made dear friends there. Mickey, our little helper at thye hostel was truly amazing. He arranged everything for us! I asked him to marry me, he said yes, but then he also said he didn't understand. So much for that relationship. We also met our dear friend Jing Jing, our Austrailian buddy who I think had never met mormons before. He kept telling us that his facebook status was going to be about he had spent the night with 6 American Mormon girls. Silly Jing Jing. He was so astonished that we loved hot chocolate and milkshakes. He thought we were foolish for ordering them while he was ordering a beer. Silly Jing Jing. We spent a good deal of time with these fellow. Some drama did occur with him, but only slightly, and it didn't concern me, so I really didn't care.
Yang Shuo really is like heaven. We had soft beds, which the first night I slept in it was miserable. I had forgotten how to sleep in a soft bed. I woke up achy and missing my wooden mattress. But by the end of our trip, I had become well aquainted with the soft bed once again. We also ate Western food like you wouldn't believe! That messed with my system big time. My body didn't do so well with foods other than rice and noodles, but I couldn't help myself. I discovered passion fruit and have decided that is my most favorite fruit in the whole word. I could really go for one right about now. I also discovered pizza! Holy cow. That was the most delicious thing I'd ever partaken of. I think I ate pizza every day, I was so in love. We'll see if that love carries over in America, but in China, I'm sold on pizza! Along with amazing food and beds, our hostel had a bathtub. I think I took a bath every day. It was truly amazing. This was an amazing vacation. But by the end, I was ready to go home to Guzhen, I missed my bed. It's so strange to me to think that I missed my bed. My rickety, cockroach infested, bamboo mat, ridiculous ladder to climb, who knows when the sheets and blankets were last washed bed. My bed.
Coming home was another adventure! Oh boy... This time around, we took a sleeper bus. Which is like a regular bus, but with bunk beds instead of seats. There are 3 sets of bunkbeds, and two walkways inbetween. Janae, Amanda and I were on the bottom, I was in the middle. Lo and behold, two China men ended up sleeping in the walkway between us. Now this bus is not very big, so I was sandwiched between these two men. We talked with them for a bit before going to sleep, neither of them had English names so we decided on Kevin and Darryl. They seemed friendly enough. But then things got crazy during the night! I hadn't realized how little of space there really was between us! Darryl had his feet all up on me. Which ever way I turned, there was one of them, inches from my face. I woke up a few times practically kissing Darryl. Shoot I should have just done it and gotten my 100 kuai. I'd roll over to escape Darryl, and there would be Kevin, equally as close! So what could I do, but embrace it and cuddle up with two random Chinese men?! Oh China. How I love it.
I think that is all my adventures for now. I am exhausted. Traveling is draining. Especially in China when the bus just drops you off in some random place and you have no idea how to get home. Gotta love it. I love you all and hope things are going well back home. I love to hear back from you guys so keep the emails coming!
Cam
Oh Guzhen!
Friends and family!
Nothing too exciting has been going on lately. No trips. No shadiness. Just living life in Guzhen. While every day is still an adventure, it's nothing too exciting. Ha ha. That makes China sound lame. It's far from lame!
Teaching is going... okay. Some days are really frustrating. Other days not so much. The drama with the ELE classes seem to be subsiding, and one of my classes is going better. The one with the babies is still awful. I hate Wednesday because I dread going to that class. I can only sing popcorn popping by myself for so long. A half an hour of just listening to 30 babies scream is insane. However, last class, 4 of the kids did appear to be doing some of the hand movements. Only one of the kids, one I dubbed Oscar (he just looks like the cutest old man), seems to be slightly interested in what I'm doing. He's a cutie. The rest of the kids just cry. Wednesdays are long days.
My ILP classes are going pretty well! Maggie is doing amazing! She's really opened up and talks a lot. Leo is such a stud. I love him more and more every day. We aren't supposed to talk to them in Chinese, but sometimes, well, every day, when he's giving me his amazing hugs where his little head just rests on my stomach and he squeezes so tight, I tell him I love him in Chinese. And.. I love him. He might be coming home with me. I'd be okay with that. Josh is doing really well too. Kevin, he's just a perv. He's always pulling my shirt down and well. He's a perv. Love him to death, but he's got issues. Davy is the perfect parrot. I wonder how much he's really learning. Carol seems to have opened up a lot. She's much more social now, which isn't a great thing. She's always talking in Chinese. Lily is just Lily. So smart. So beautiful. She doesn't need to help out as much with Maggie now, which is really good for both of them. I love my kids. I think they're amazing.
But then tragedy struck!!! We had Parents Day where all the parents came in to watch us teach the kids. Talk about pressure!!! After they had a meeting with the Chinese teachers and they said the teachers last semester were better because they had more decorations. Of all the ridiculous things to judge a teacher by? Seriously? Ridiculous. They also didn't like how the school had separated the classes. All the parents thought their kids were being held back by the other kids in their class. So.. Now we have new classes. We're all really bummed about this. They gave us this bogus list of the new classes, and there was no rhyme or reason to it! They put babies with advanced kids! Maggie with kids who had been in the program for two years?! What were they thinking!? She won't learn a thing! She'll be so lost! So we came up with our own list, I'm not sure how well that's going to go over. I just really want Leo in my class. And Josh. The others, I love them, but I can just see them around during rotations. Josh and Leo are mine. I want them.
We ate at McDonalds the other day. I never thought I'd get to the point in my life where I considered McDonalds real meat. It was like heaven. The best hamburger I've ever had. Hands down. Instead of a dollar menu, they have a 6 Kuai menu. That makes me laugh so hard. So the rumors were all wrong, you can eat at McDonalds for way cheap. I got a hamburger and an ice cream for less than a 1.50. What a steal.
We also went to chruch yesterday. That was great. I enjoyed it immensely. 2 hour bus ride there and 2 hour bus ride back, definitely worth it. Surprisingly there were two of men there who weren't ILP teachers. It was a real shock to me to see them. Especially since we weren't at the branch, just our own random set up. One of the guys had to take a 4 hour bus ride to get there. What dedication. Part of the Sunday School lesson turned into the telling of random experiences that had happened to us the past week in China. Julia shared ours of our sink breaking and we had to do dishes in the bathroom, dump the food down the squatter and wash them with the shower. It was quite the sight!! Luckily, we got their sink fixed, and now mine and Amanda's is broken. China.. A girl from the other school told a story about how she found a huge spider, she said tarantula but who knows if thats what it really was, on her balcony and what a dramatic thing that was. That girl is a sissy! A spider on your balcony? Not that big of a deal. Find a cochroach in your bed, then we can talk!
It's true, I found a cochroach, in my bed. It was rather traumatic. He was huge too. Uhhh.. I freaked out. It was embarrassing. I even uttered the most fowl words of my life. I hate China. Everyone was stunned those words had come from my mouth! I didn't mean it, but the cochroaches were just too much for me to take. I can handle them in my bathroom. I can handle them in my kitchen. I can handle them watching me shower. But in my bed? Heck no. It was bad. I had nightmares for days about cochroaches in my bed, and I'd wake up constantly through the night and swore they were crawling over me, I'd even search my bed for them in the middle of the night. Oh man. It was so bad. I've gotten over it though. I choose not to think about it. I do still live in fear though that they will return. Shady.
Well.. I just back from teaching.. Leo is not in my class. Talk about disappointment. I almost cried, which is ridiculous because I'll still teach him, he just won't be in my homeroom. I had to cross his name off my apron, and he came up to me this morning and saw his name crossed out and said "oh no!". It was the most depressing thing. He looked so betrayed when we were calling the names of our new kids, he starred at me in disbelief when I didn't call his name. Oh man. It was so depressing! And then when he came around to my class, he just sat there with his head down. He wouldn't talk, he had no energy. It was so depressing. I love Leo. I do have Josh however, but he's no Leo....
Other than cochroaches and student swaps, everything is great. I love China. I took back my "I hate China" statement. National day is coming up and we have a week long vacation. I'm pretty excited. We're going to Yang Shou. It'll be amazing. Rumor has it our hostels have bathtubs. I'm so excited to take a bath. I don't remember the last time I felt clean. Truly clean. Well I love you guys! And I do love China oh so much!
Cami
Nothing too exciting has been going on lately. No trips. No shadiness. Just living life in Guzhen. While every day is still an adventure, it's nothing too exciting. Ha ha. That makes China sound lame. It's far from lame!
Teaching is going... okay. Some days are really frustrating. Other days not so much. The drama with the ELE classes seem to be subsiding, and one of my classes is going better. The one with the babies is still awful. I hate Wednesday because I dread going to that class. I can only sing popcorn popping by myself for so long. A half an hour of just listening to 30 babies scream is insane. However, last class, 4 of the kids did appear to be doing some of the hand movements. Only one of the kids, one I dubbed Oscar (he just looks like the cutest old man), seems to be slightly interested in what I'm doing. He's a cutie. The rest of the kids just cry. Wednesdays are long days.
My ILP classes are going pretty well! Maggie is doing amazing! She's really opened up and talks a lot. Leo is such a stud. I love him more and more every day. We aren't supposed to talk to them in Chinese, but sometimes, well, every day, when he's giving me his amazing hugs where his little head just rests on my stomach and he squeezes so tight, I tell him I love him in Chinese. And.. I love him. He might be coming home with me. I'd be okay with that. Josh is doing really well too. Kevin, he's just a perv. He's always pulling my shirt down and well. He's a perv. Love him to death, but he's got issues. Davy is the perfect parrot. I wonder how much he's really learning. Carol seems to have opened up a lot. She's much more social now, which isn't a great thing. She's always talking in Chinese. Lily is just Lily. So smart. So beautiful. She doesn't need to help out as much with Maggie now, which is really good for both of them. I love my kids. I think they're amazing.
But then tragedy struck!!! We had Parents Day where all the parents came in to watch us teach the kids. Talk about pressure!!! After they had a meeting with the Chinese teachers and they said the teachers last semester were better because they had more decorations. Of all the ridiculous things to judge a teacher by? Seriously? Ridiculous. They also didn't like how the school had separated the classes. All the parents thought their kids were being held back by the other kids in their class. So.. Now we have new classes. We're all really bummed about this. They gave us this bogus list of the new classes, and there was no rhyme or reason to it! They put babies with advanced kids! Maggie with kids who had been in the program for two years?! What were they thinking!? She won't learn a thing! She'll be so lost! So we came up with our own list, I'm not sure how well that's going to go over. I just really want Leo in my class. And Josh. The others, I love them, but I can just see them around during rotations. Josh and Leo are mine. I want them.
We ate at McDonalds the other day. I never thought I'd get to the point in my life where I considered McDonalds real meat. It was like heaven. The best hamburger I've ever had. Hands down. Instead of a dollar menu, they have a 6 Kuai menu. That makes me laugh so hard. So the rumors were all wrong, you can eat at McDonalds for way cheap. I got a hamburger and an ice cream for less than a 1.50. What a steal.
We also went to chruch yesterday. That was great. I enjoyed it immensely. 2 hour bus ride there and 2 hour bus ride back, definitely worth it. Surprisingly there were two of men there who weren't ILP teachers. It was a real shock to me to see them. Especially since we weren't at the branch, just our own random set up. One of the guys had to take a 4 hour bus ride to get there. What dedication. Part of the Sunday School lesson turned into the telling of random experiences that had happened to us the past week in China. Julia shared ours of our sink breaking and we had to do dishes in the bathroom, dump the food down the squatter and wash them with the shower. It was quite the sight!! Luckily, we got their sink fixed, and now mine and Amanda's is broken. China.. A girl from the other school told a story about how she found a huge spider, she said tarantula but who knows if thats what it really was, on her balcony and what a dramatic thing that was. That girl is a sissy! A spider on your balcony? Not that big of a deal. Find a cochroach in your bed, then we can talk!
It's true, I found a cochroach, in my bed. It was rather traumatic. He was huge too. Uhhh.. I freaked out. It was embarrassing. I even uttered the most fowl words of my life. I hate China. Everyone was stunned those words had come from my mouth! I didn't mean it, but the cochroaches were just too much for me to take. I can handle them in my bathroom. I can handle them in my kitchen. I can handle them watching me shower. But in my bed? Heck no. It was bad. I had nightmares for days about cochroaches in my bed, and I'd wake up constantly through the night and swore they were crawling over me, I'd even search my bed for them in the middle of the night. Oh man. It was so bad. I've gotten over it though. I choose not to think about it. I do still live in fear though that they will return. Shady.
Well.. I just back from teaching.. Leo is not in my class. Talk about disappointment. I almost cried, which is ridiculous because I'll still teach him, he just won't be in my homeroom. I had to cross his name off my apron, and he came up to me this morning and saw his name crossed out and said "oh no!". It was the most depressing thing. He looked so betrayed when we were calling the names of our new kids, he starred at me in disbelief when I didn't call his name. Oh man. It was so depressing! And then when he came around to my class, he just sat there with his head down. He wouldn't talk, he had no energy. It was so depressing. I love Leo. I do have Josh however, but he's no Leo....
Other than cochroaches and student swaps, everything is great. I love China. I took back my "I hate China" statement. National day is coming up and we have a week long vacation. I'm pretty excited. We're going to Yang Shou. It'll be amazing. Rumor has it our hostels have bathtubs. I'm so excited to take a bath. I don't remember the last time I felt clean. Truly clean. Well I love you guys! And I do love China oh so much!
Cami
Monday, September 7, 2009
Hello again!
This letter is to let everyone know that I'm finally home from one of the shadiest adventures of my life. This vacation was crazy, absurd, and ridiculously shady. But hands down the best vacation I've ever had. Where to begin, where to begin......
Okay, so there was that executive chef, One Loose Shoe, I have no idea how to really say his name, but that sounds close enough, that invited us to his restaurant for dinner. Saturday we call his assistant Sunny, and arrange a time for us to come and eat, for free. We dress up, supposedly this place is super fancy. We take a taxi to get there, which in and of itself was quite the adventure. The taxi driver, which was actually just a guy with a bike and a wagon, took us to the wrong place, some other man yelled at him and we had to load back up and try again. We finally get to the right place, and all the workers are in formals. Good thing we dressed up. We start talking to people, no one speaks English, and no one has heard of us. No one can find Sunny or One Loose Shoe. They take us up to the restaurant anyway and lead us into this private room. The table was beautiful, there was this huge tv, and huge couches. We were extremly confused. Finally we find Sunny and establish we can eat at this 5 star restaurant for free. So we're eating, some things good, others disgusting. We finish eating and Sunny and our waitress tells us they want to take us clubbing. We agree, it sounds like a good time. So we wait for them to change and they come out and bring the su chef, who is quite the stud, and of course I tell him this in Chinese. They take us to this bar and buy us all this stuff. They were really bummed we didn't drink alcohol. But we loved the smoothies! So we stay at this bar for a while, and then they decide they want to take us clubbing. We still have no idea where One Loose Shoe is.
We leave the bar and attempt to find a taxi, which I have discovered is the most difficult thing in the world to do. And there are 10 of us so we need a few taxis. We finally get one and they take us to Club Salsa, which they all prononuce as Sarsa and it's hilarious. We get there and they take us to this VIP room and there's even more food and karaoke, Chinese love karaoke. Still no sight of One Loose Shoe, who we have now dubbed Daddy Warbucks, our wealthy emotionally detached father. We go out to the dance floor and the Chinese people LOVE to just be near us and to touch us. Everything we do, they imitate. Somehow I lost my friends and was surrounded by a million chinese kids with their eyes glued to me. I start doing ridiculous dance moves and they all follow me! All the boys tell me how beautiful I am and pay me a million compliments. Some of them try to talk to me in Chinese, but I have no idea whats going on. But they love me and it's great.
We go back to the VIP room and Daddy Warbucks has finally showed up. He's so stoked to see us, and all these people keep coming in the room just to look at us. So we do karaokee and hang out and finally decide it's time to go home. Daddy Warbucks begs us to come back tomorrow and to go to his other restaurant. We can't figure out for the life of us why this man loves us so much. Why he would go to such lengths for complete and total strangers, people he randomly met at the airport. We can't even remember why he started talking to us in the first place. It seems kinda shady to me.
So we go back the next day and it's all the same. I really can't figure out why this man spent so much money on us. It's the most ridiculous thing. We didn't even see him yesterday. They were really mad that we left early, but we were tired and had an early flight to catch the next morning. But it was more food and more clubbing. They taught us this ridiculous drinking game, about a pretty girl and a bad man and a cop. It was really lost in translation. And it was just dumb, drinking games aren't nearly as funny when you only have a coke. The Chinese people all loved it.
The whole situation was just so bizarre.Why did this man love us so much? I think they thought we were someone famous or something. Not 7 random girls from Utah. I don't know. So many miscommunications. We kept asking why he did all this stuff for us, but we never got an answer. It was really shady. But, free meals are free meals! I'll take them where I can get them! Oh man. Emailing this story doesn't even do it justice. It's still just so surreal.
On Sunday we went to Church which was amazing. It was the smallest branch. 21 people. 7 were us. But it was great. I'm really glad we went to church. It was such a great expereince.
One of the lady's in the branch ran a foster home so she took us there to play with the babies. I'm so in love with them. I found the one I wanted, Nick. He was adorable. 8 months and 25 pounds. I love his little chubby body! I could not put him down to go home. I love him. I'm so glad we got to play with the babies. The foster home was really nice, I was surprised. There was so many babies though. One of them had a seizure while Janae was holding him, it was so scary. He turned blue and I thought he was going to die. He wasn't responding to anything. Luckily he pulled through.
The bus ride home from the airport today was ridiculously shady! These random guys came up to us and said they would take us home for 600 yuan, it's a 2 hour drive. We bargained and bargained until we settled on 420, this was a very tedious process. So these guys just seemed really shady off the bat because they were taking us in some "mini bus" and their price kept changing. They spoke very limited english. Reluctantly we got on their bus which was a mini van, and this other guy we'd never seen starts driving. After about 15 minutes, he pulls over on the side of the road next to some other van with 3 other guys we'd never seen. Things got shady fast. This other van then pulls over next to us and our driver gets out and starts talking to them. We decide as a group to lock the doors and not get out of the car. The driver comes over and he's kinda mad we lock our doors, for some reason someone lets him in, and he tells us to get out of the car. Again, for some reason I'm not sure why, we all get out of the car. The driver tells us to get in the other one, but we say we'll only do it if he comes with us. He tells us he will, which was a total lie seeing how he had left his car running on the side of the road. Somehow we end up in the car with some man we'd never seen and didn't speak any English. We have no idea where he's taking us. Our address does not seem familiar to him. This is all too shady for me. We're driving and then he pulls over too! We have no idea whats going on! He gets out, and I suggest we say a prayer. Things were really scary and really shady. It sounds really funny and dumb now, but at the time, we were pretty scared for our lives. So I said a group prayer asking that we make it home safe and not be killed. The girls made fun of my prayer, I guess I worded it boneheadly, but in my denfense, I've never had to say a prayer before begging not to be killed. But we did make it home and everyone was okay!
Moral of this story. Think things through. I put myself in many a boneheaded situation this week that could have ended very poorly. The movie Taken was flashing through my mind the whole time, as well as the other girls. Ha ha ha. This whole thing just sounds so ridiculous and I love it. Perhaps I can do this story better justice once I am home. I love you all and I will try harder to be a little more safe!
This letter is to let everyone know that I'm finally home from one of the shadiest adventures of my life. This vacation was crazy, absurd, and ridiculously shady. But hands down the best vacation I've ever had. Where to begin, where to begin......
Okay, so there was that executive chef, One Loose Shoe, I have no idea how to really say his name, but that sounds close enough, that invited us to his restaurant for dinner. Saturday we call his assistant Sunny, and arrange a time for us to come and eat, for free. We dress up, supposedly this place is super fancy. We take a taxi to get there, which in and of itself was quite the adventure. The taxi driver, which was actually just a guy with a bike and a wagon, took us to the wrong place, some other man yelled at him and we had to load back up and try again. We finally get to the right place, and all the workers are in formals. Good thing we dressed up. We start talking to people, no one speaks English, and no one has heard of us. No one can find Sunny or One Loose Shoe. They take us up to the restaurant anyway and lead us into this private room. The table was beautiful, there was this huge tv, and huge couches. We were extremly confused. Finally we find Sunny and establish we can eat at this 5 star restaurant for free. So we're eating, some things good, others disgusting. We finish eating and Sunny and our waitress tells us they want to take us clubbing. We agree, it sounds like a good time. So we wait for them to change and they come out and bring the su chef, who is quite the stud, and of course I tell him this in Chinese. They take us to this bar and buy us all this stuff. They were really bummed we didn't drink alcohol. But we loved the smoothies! So we stay at this bar for a while, and then they decide they want to take us clubbing. We still have no idea where One Loose Shoe is.
We leave the bar and attempt to find a taxi, which I have discovered is the most difficult thing in the world to do. And there are 10 of us so we need a few taxis. We finally get one and they take us to Club Salsa, which they all prononuce as Sarsa and it's hilarious. We get there and they take us to this VIP room and there's even more food and karaoke, Chinese love karaoke. Still no sight of One Loose Shoe, who we have now dubbed Daddy Warbucks, our wealthy emotionally detached father. We go out to the dance floor and the Chinese people LOVE to just be near us and to touch us. Everything we do, they imitate. Somehow I lost my friends and was surrounded by a million chinese kids with their eyes glued to me. I start doing ridiculous dance moves and they all follow me! All the boys tell me how beautiful I am and pay me a million compliments. Some of them try to talk to me in Chinese, but I have no idea whats going on. But they love me and it's great.
We go back to the VIP room and Daddy Warbucks has finally showed up. He's so stoked to see us, and all these people keep coming in the room just to look at us. So we do karaokee and hang out and finally decide it's time to go home. Daddy Warbucks begs us to come back tomorrow and to go to his other restaurant. We can't figure out for the life of us why this man loves us so much. Why he would go to such lengths for complete and total strangers, people he randomly met at the airport. We can't even remember why he started talking to us in the first place. It seems kinda shady to me.
So we go back the next day and it's all the same. I really can't figure out why this man spent so much money on us. It's the most ridiculous thing. We didn't even see him yesterday. They were really mad that we left early, but we were tired and had an early flight to catch the next morning. But it was more food and more clubbing. They taught us this ridiculous drinking game, about a pretty girl and a bad man and a cop. It was really lost in translation. And it was just dumb, drinking games aren't nearly as funny when you only have a coke. The Chinese people all loved it.
The whole situation was just so bizarre.Why did this man love us so much? I think they thought we were someone famous or something. Not 7 random girls from Utah. I don't know. So many miscommunications. We kept asking why he did all this stuff for us, but we never got an answer. It was really shady. But, free meals are free meals! I'll take them where I can get them! Oh man. Emailing this story doesn't even do it justice. It's still just so surreal.
On Sunday we went to Church which was amazing. It was the smallest branch. 21 people. 7 were us. But it was great. I'm really glad we went to church. It was such a great expereince.
One of the lady's in the branch ran a foster home so she took us there to play with the babies. I'm so in love with them. I found the one I wanted, Nick. He was adorable. 8 months and 25 pounds. I love his little chubby body! I could not put him down to go home. I love him. I'm so glad we got to play with the babies. The foster home was really nice, I was surprised. There was so many babies though. One of them had a seizure while Janae was holding him, it was so scary. He turned blue and I thought he was going to die. He wasn't responding to anything. Luckily he pulled through.
The bus ride home from the airport today was ridiculously shady! These random guys came up to us and said they would take us home for 600 yuan, it's a 2 hour drive. We bargained and bargained until we settled on 420, this was a very tedious process. So these guys just seemed really shady off the bat because they were taking us in some "mini bus" and their price kept changing. They spoke very limited english. Reluctantly we got on their bus which was a mini van, and this other guy we'd never seen starts driving. After about 15 minutes, he pulls over on the side of the road next to some other van with 3 other guys we'd never seen. Things got shady fast. This other van then pulls over next to us and our driver gets out and starts talking to them. We decide as a group to lock the doors and not get out of the car. The driver comes over and he's kinda mad we lock our doors, for some reason someone lets him in, and he tells us to get out of the car. Again, for some reason I'm not sure why, we all get out of the car. The driver tells us to get in the other one, but we say we'll only do it if he comes with us. He tells us he will, which was a total lie seeing how he had left his car running on the side of the road. Somehow we end up in the car with some man we'd never seen and didn't speak any English. We have no idea where he's taking us. Our address does not seem familiar to him. This is all too shady for me. We're driving and then he pulls over too! We have no idea whats going on! He gets out, and I suggest we say a prayer. Things were really scary and really shady. It sounds really funny and dumb now, but at the time, we were pretty scared for our lives. So I said a group prayer asking that we make it home safe and not be killed. The girls made fun of my prayer, I guess I worded it boneheadly, but in my denfense, I've never had to say a prayer before begging not to be killed. But we did make it home and everyone was okay!
Moral of this story. Think things through. I put myself in many a boneheaded situation this week that could have ended very poorly. The movie Taken was flashing through my mind the whole time, as well as the other girls. Ha ha ha. This whole thing just sounds so ridiculous and I love it. Perhaps I can do this story better justice once I am home. I love you all and I will try harder to be a little more safe!
Hello friends and family!
Lets start by saying I love you all and miss you all quite terribly! We took a trip to Xi'an this week, I wish I had pictures to show right now, but I'm just using a shady computer right now, no pictures. Xi'an is beautiful and crowded! It's a complete mix of old China and new.
We're staying in a hostel, my first, and I'm in love. While it reeks of pot, I still love it. Our beds are so comfy and I don't feel completely disgusted using them like our apartment, there are western toilets, and legitimate showers that produce hot water. Thats sad when you're hostel beats your home. I don't ever want to leave. I'm considering moving in.
Our trip to get to Xi'an was long and very adventerous! We used just about every mode of transportation to get here. We started with a jaunt on motor bikes to get to the bus station. A two hour bus ride, and while on the bus it started raining and the bus leaked. Poor Julia was drenched. Finally a chinese woman hung her umbrella up to catch the rain. It was the most ridiculous thing. Then we took a taxi, we weren't sure where we were going and prayed it would get us to the airport. At the airport there was more confusion. But we got on a plane. Two hours later we were back on a bus, and finally at our hostel. Quite the traveling day.
When we were at the airport we ate at Starbucks. That was the best ceaser salad wrap I've ever had. We also met a couple from Chicago who had just adopted a baby. It was way nice to speak English again. It feels like we've been here months, not a week. I can't belive it's only been a week. America seems so long far away, well, technically it is. Ha ha, right now there's Justin Timberlake playing in the background, maybe it's not as far away as I thought.
Also at the airport we met this man who was an executive chef at some restuarant in Xi'an. He was very adament we come to his restaurant while we're here to get a free meal. He found every person he could to translate for us. He was in love with April and did not want her to get on the plane. He had her talk to his assistant who spoke English to set up an arrangment. Supposedly we're getting our free meal today. We shall see!
Xi'an is amazing. It's such an exciting place! We took a tour yesterday and saw such amazing things! I need a new word other than amazing. Hmm.. We saw the Terrocota soldiers, they were spectacular! We also went to the Banpo musuem. I'd never heard of that, but it was cool. It was ruins of their ancient homesteads and apparently they were terrified of tigers back then. We saw how they made silk, and got to help a bit. Not much though. Our tour guide, Urma, who hated us, dropped us off at this fancy restaurant and we had no idea what was going on. They just kept bringing us food and we had no idea what was going on. Half of it wasn't that great, but it ended up costing us 300 yuan. Not really that much in American, but a lot for China. Our tour guide seemed very annoyed with us throughout the day, but she did tell us we were like a picnic "always laughing and singing". I don't know what kinda picnics she goes on, but I'll accept that as a compliment!
Last night we also went to a dance performance! It was so beautiful! It was set in the Tang Dynasty and included dances and music from that time period. The costumes and setting were gorgeous, and the overall expereicne was great. Getting there and getting home, more adventures. By this time it was POURING! And we had to take a bus. We waited 20 minutes in the pouring rain for a bus that never came. We then waited 10 minutes for a taxi that never came. We then walked back to the hostel and waited for a driver which took another 5 minutes, in the pouring rain. We finally got to our show, late, but it was all okay. When the show was over, it was still raining. We needed to catch a taxi. We stood in the pouring rain for another 20 minutes trying to catch a taxi. I waved down every car I saw. Finally I told the girls whatever car stopped, we'd get in. I said this somewhat jokingly, but finally a car stopped, and we got in. I'm not sure he really was a taxi. He only had one seat in the back. So most of the girls had to stand in the back of his car. I rode shot gun! This man had no idea where we were going and it was just crazy. Luckily we made it home. I was somewhat concerned at first, but I told the man I loved China and he took good care of us!
That is another thing I've learned to say in Chinese. I love China. The people love it when I say that. I think they're more just laughing at how boneheaded I am. I say it wish so much enthusiasm and I love it. Urma told me I was confusing the children when I said it. But I say it to everyone and they instantly become my friend!
Well the girls are ready for breakfast! I must be going! I love you all!
Cam
Lets start by saying I love you all and miss you all quite terribly! We took a trip to Xi'an this week, I wish I had pictures to show right now, but I'm just using a shady computer right now, no pictures. Xi'an is beautiful and crowded! It's a complete mix of old China and new.
We're staying in a hostel, my first, and I'm in love. While it reeks of pot, I still love it. Our beds are so comfy and I don't feel completely disgusted using them like our apartment, there are western toilets, and legitimate showers that produce hot water. Thats sad when you're hostel beats your home. I don't ever want to leave. I'm considering moving in.
Our trip to get to Xi'an was long and very adventerous! We used just about every mode of transportation to get here. We started with a jaunt on motor bikes to get to the bus station. A two hour bus ride, and while on the bus it started raining and the bus leaked. Poor Julia was drenched. Finally a chinese woman hung her umbrella up to catch the rain. It was the most ridiculous thing. Then we took a taxi, we weren't sure where we were going and prayed it would get us to the airport. At the airport there was more confusion. But we got on a plane. Two hours later we were back on a bus, and finally at our hostel. Quite the traveling day.
When we were at the airport we ate at Starbucks. That was the best ceaser salad wrap I've ever had. We also met a couple from Chicago who had just adopted a baby. It was way nice to speak English again. It feels like we've been here months, not a week. I can't belive it's only been a week. America seems so long far away, well, technically it is. Ha ha, right now there's Justin Timberlake playing in the background, maybe it's not as far away as I thought.
Also at the airport we met this man who was an executive chef at some restuarant in Xi'an. He was very adament we come to his restaurant while we're here to get a free meal. He found every person he could to translate for us. He was in love with April and did not want her to get on the plane. He had her talk to his assistant who spoke English to set up an arrangment. Supposedly we're getting our free meal today. We shall see!
Xi'an is amazing. It's such an exciting place! We took a tour yesterday and saw such amazing things! I need a new word other than amazing. Hmm.. We saw the Terrocota soldiers, they were spectacular! We also went to the Banpo musuem. I'd never heard of that, but it was cool. It was ruins of their ancient homesteads and apparently they were terrified of tigers back then. We saw how they made silk, and got to help a bit. Not much though. Our tour guide, Urma, who hated us, dropped us off at this fancy restaurant and we had no idea what was going on. They just kept bringing us food and we had no idea what was going on. Half of it wasn't that great, but it ended up costing us 300 yuan. Not really that much in American, but a lot for China. Our tour guide seemed very annoyed with us throughout the day, but she did tell us we were like a picnic "always laughing and singing". I don't know what kinda picnics she goes on, but I'll accept that as a compliment!
Last night we also went to a dance performance! It was so beautiful! It was set in the Tang Dynasty and included dances and music from that time period. The costumes and setting were gorgeous, and the overall expereicne was great. Getting there and getting home, more adventures. By this time it was POURING! And we had to take a bus. We waited 20 minutes in the pouring rain for a bus that never came. We then waited 10 minutes for a taxi that never came. We then walked back to the hostel and waited for a driver which took another 5 minutes, in the pouring rain. We finally got to our show, late, but it was all okay. When the show was over, it was still raining. We needed to catch a taxi. We stood in the pouring rain for another 20 minutes trying to catch a taxi. I waved down every car I saw. Finally I told the girls whatever car stopped, we'd get in. I said this somewhat jokingly, but finally a car stopped, and we got in. I'm not sure he really was a taxi. He only had one seat in the back. So most of the girls had to stand in the back of his car. I rode shot gun! This man had no idea where we were going and it was just crazy. Luckily we made it home. I was somewhat concerned at first, but I told the man I loved China and he took good care of us!
That is another thing I've learned to say in Chinese. I love China. The people love it when I say that. I think they're more just laughing at how boneheaded I am. I say it wish so much enthusiasm and I love it. Urma told me I was confusing the children when I said it. But I say it to everyone and they instantly become my friend!
Well the girls are ready for breakfast! I must be going! I love you all!
Cam
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