Exploring Guzhen!

Fireworks from the new year are 

strewn all over the city.

Since the flood I haven't had the chance to take any pictures because I lost my camera. But we have been having loads of fun getting to know our city better. I LOVE it here in Guzhen! Four months is definitely not long enough to see everything. This city... its made for me. Its small enough that I can really get to know the people here, but big enough that there is always something to do. 

Some neighborhood women taking 

the kids home from school.

    Almost every day we walk to the local plaza for groceries. Yesterday as we took this walk, I realized how many friends we have made since being here. On our walk we pass by our favorite noodle place and all the girls come out waiving and smiling. There is one girl that works there... she has the BIGGEST smile I have ever seen. She is my favorite. She is about 4 feet tall and the most precious thing you have ever seen. Every time I see her she just lights up. SO smiley. I love it.

Katie, Me, Alice (our awesome coordinator we spend 

most of our time with), Roxann, and Stevie.

Then as we keep walking we pass our favorite palm readers. They sit on the street and tell you your future. (In chinese of coarse) But whenever I walk by I sit down, grab their palm and proceed to tell them, (with very very VERY limited chinese), what I see for them in this life. Hahaha. They crack up every time and always try to offer me whatever food they are eating at the time. We wave at our friends at the mechanic shop. They always ask us if we are eating. To which our reply is most often, "yes." We are American. They think its all we do. Then we walk by the most fabulously dressed chinese men at our favorite hair salon. The girls usually stop by once a week to get "washy-washy." For one american dollar they massage your head, wash, and style your hair. They love our hair because its a different color. They will spend so much extra time playing with our hair and listening to music with us. Its a fun, cheap thing to do and we have made such good friends with them. 

One day I was looking around and not 

paying attention, as usual, 

and I fell into a hole in the ground! 

I got some awesome China juice 

all over my clothes. It was great!

Then after a ways we finally get to my pineapple lady. There are several carts on the corner selling fruit. But this one lady... she's so adorable and always remembers my chinese name. She knows I will buy a pineapple EVERY time I walk by. She always tries to give me a discount by throwing in a few peanuts in my bag. Sweetest lady ever. Its people like her that remind me why I came back. Why I never want to leave. 

Incense from a nearby temple. 

This old man always invites us to come pray 

with him on Sundays. He's so adorable.

It would be impossible to write about every person we see on our short little walk to the market. But just know that its a walk filled with friends and smiles. I am so grateful for the small town feel here. I really feel like Guzhen is officially home to me now. The people here are so amazing and I am so grateful for the many friends I have made and look forward to the ones we are bound to make in the future.

My prayers are with the people in Japan. Our kids have been doing earthquake drills. It has everyone here a little frazzled but I am sure we will be safe. I love you all. I miss you family! 

Flood.

This past Friday was parents day. We have been preparing for it for days. We have been preparing lessons, cleaning, and lots of paperwork. The teachers have been nervous and stressed and we all couldn't wait for the day to be over. The night before I went to bed really late with plans to wake up early, shower, do my hair, and dress up nice. After parents day I was to have a meeting with the parents in which I explain our program and answer any questions they have via a translator. That morning one of my teachers woke me up at 5 o'clock in the morning. I was disoriented and couldn't quite hear what she was saying. I swung my feet around to get out of bed and found myself wading in about 4 inches of water. We had a flood. We have a fairly large apartment for China standards. We have three bedrooms, a living room, and a small sliver of a kitchen. The WHOLE place was filled with water past our ankles. 


I quickly ran to the kitchen to find the source of our newfound swimming pool. A pipe beneath our sink had burst and the water was spraying out like a hose on full blast. I held my hand over it while we woke up our chinese coordinator to figure out how to turn off the water. After some struggles... it was off. And there we are. Seven soaking wet teachers standing in water on the day we most needed our rest. I looked at katie... and then we just started laughing! Of coarse. Of all days for this to happen. That was the day. We had no electricity and no water. Showers were not an option and all of our things were wet. (Including the clothes I had laid out for the day) One of my girls had left her computer on the ground and my camera was on the ground as well. So there were some casualties. The girl that lost her computer was not laughing nearly as hard as I was. I feel so bad for her. But... there are more important things in life. At least now we know not to leave anything on the floor! It was impossible to ignore the humor in it all. I looked awful for parents day. Hopefully they were able to look past my appearance and see how much I love and care for their children. That morning after we scooped out some of the water into the sink, I got a call on my chinese phone from my friend Natalie! It was so cool to talk to someone from back home. Its been far too long since I have talked to a friend. We got to the school and it was like the stresses of the morning melted away. Those kids. I love them so much. They are learning so quickly and it never ceases to amaze me! The kids are doing great, the teachers are doing great and, (despite the flood), I am having the time of my life! Thanks for all of your support and interest in my adventures. I miss you all!

Going Back Home! (CHANGZHOU)

Finally back home in Changzhou!

     This has been, by far, the best weekend of my entire life!!! Last semester I taught at the most wonderful school on earth, Tsingying. This school is further north in Jiangsu province. (About an hour out of Shanghai) For those of you that don't know... I am currently teaching in a Kindergarten school in south China. I am in the Guangdong Province and my city name is Zhongshan-Guzhen. The point of all this useless information is to explain to you how EXTREMELY FAR AWAY I am from my old school. I miss my kids. There really are no words to describe the way I feel about these kids. I love working here in Guzhen and the kids are so precious... but I miss that special bond I had with my babies. 

   My Canadian friend Stevie at
People's Square in Shanghai!

       Anyways... we had our first vacation this past weekend. The girls decided they wanted to go to Shanghai! Which... (of coarse) I had abbbbbbsolutely NO problem with!!!!!! (Because it means that we would be only an hour away from my old school!!!!!!!!) So I called Hillary and told her I would be coming by. She said that she would keep it a surprise for the kids. There is one student, Harry, who she said had been talking about me this semester. I love my Harry. Unfortunately I only had time to stay for one day. We are given a four-day vacation. We lost two days in travel on a excruciatingly long train ride. 

Two of the MANY cup of noodles we ate on our

 train ride. The chinese think we are soo fat!

Lots happened on our train adventures, but for lack of time, I will simply state that I ate 4 cup of noodles, my feet were swollen like balloons, I cuddled with a chinese man, and we made LOTS of friends during our 26 hour long train ride. It was awesome! I only spent one day in Shanghai. It was cool to be back there again. It was nice to know my way around. I took my group to see the antique market and the bund and all the fabulous Shanghai attractions. It was weird to be back with different teachers. I would always want to mention something about coco or cream puffs but knew they wouldn't understand. That only left one measly day for me in Changzhou. But I will take what I can get! Hillary invited me to stay in her apartment and I couldn't have been more excited.

Carrying all 3 bags so we could get to Tsingying on time!!!

I had been looking forward to this for weeks! Due to some troubles getting our train tickets... my time in Changzhou was growing shorter and shorter. The earliest train from Shanghai to Changzhou would get us there at 9:30 in the morning and we had to leave for Guzhen at 5:30 that evening. With travel time to get to the school I was left with very little time. But I was determined to go. And when I say determined... I mean... My teachers were walking slow so I carried all their bags and practically RAN to the bus stop. Stepping off that train into Changzhou was like a breath of fresh air. I just felt... home. We hurried to the DVD store were we saw Eric our old buddy and Stevie and Roxann bought some DVD's. We found out that Jackie moved cities!!! SO sad. He was my favorite. 

But we got a quick dua bing and hopped on the 302 to Tsingying. When I arrived at the gate and waved at leo (the security guard) he seemed very confused. He doesn't really speak English but just made his eyes real big, pointed at me and said, "Woooooooaahhh." Hahaha. It was so funny. I talked with him for a minute and then started to walk in. I was only on campus for about three seconds when I hear someone scream..."MY BABY!!!!!" There was Jude... running towards me. It was like a movie scene or something we ran and hugged each other. Oh how I miss my favorite Chinese friend. (He taught me and a friend chinese music lessons last semester) 

My Baby Jude and I!

(Best Hulusi Teacher in the world!!!)

The teachers had planned to take me and the two other girls out for a big dinner and then go to KTV but since my train left so early... we had to cancel. It made me wish that I had more time. It would have been soooooo fun to spend the night and go out to dinner with all these people I love. But that wasn't the objective. The objective was the kids. 

To be honest. I was scared. It has been almost a full three months now since I have seen these kids. I thought... they might not even remember me! They have new teacher now and new names to learn. So I was nervous. I start walking up the stairs and at the exact same time I reached the top. Blake walked by. (One of my older Elementary students) His mouth dropped to the floor. I wish sooooooooo badly that I had it on tape. His face. Oh my goodness his face was precious. He screamed, "TEACHA ASHurLEY!," and tackled me. The rest of the classes were right behind them and came running. They MOBBED me. I honestly couldn't think of a happier moment in my life. THEY REMEMBER ME!

  

MY FAVORITE BOY HARRY!!!

Anyways. There were far too many experiences like this to write them all. But there is one last one that I can not go without writing about. I had not yet seen any of my younger kids. They were still in Chinese class. So Hillary took me down to pick them up. When I walked around that corner... Luis and Harry sprinted from their class (without permission) and ran to give me a hug. Harry would NOT let go. He made me lean down and in his sweet little raspy Harry voice said, "I knew you'd come back." These kids. I LOVE these kids. I was on the verge of tears the whole day. GAHHHHH! They were just SOOOOO amazed that I was back. It was almost as if they thought America was some black hole that teachers never come back from. I feel so bad that these kids fall in love with their teachers and every four months... they leave. It most definitely made me recommit myself to the goals I have in life. I want to DO things like this! I want to be a part of something bigger!

Okay so after seeing all the kids I walked them up to their ILP classes where the teachers allowed me to sit in on their openings. The kids were so distracted and couldn't pay attention to the teachers so I felt a little bad. When it came time to pick a song the kids started shouting..."THE BUTTERFLY SONG!" Hahahahahaha. Oh my goodness I about died. The butterfly song was my corny rendition of Miley Cyrus', "Party in the USA." The kids only loved it last semester because I would dance all goofy in front of the class. Anyways... the new teachers definitely didn't know what the "Butterfly Song" was so I went to the front of the class to sing it with the kids. I guess I just... I'm happy to know that even just for a short while... they remembered me. Because I know without a doubt... I will never forget them.

The sweet lady I bargained with

for about 30 minutes. We bargained

15元 for a buddha head. I gave her

a 50. She would give me back my

change 1元 at a time! (Each time

pretending to walk away like the deal

was done) Haha she was hilarious.

I LOVE China!

It was an amazing weekend and I went home refreshed and ready to teach these sweet little spirits here in Guzhen. Teaching here in China has been... by far... the most rewarding thing I have ever done. 

A girl had on the same vest as my best friend Cyd! I miss her!