Sunday Walks

Today I had the privilege of taking a walk all by myself. I do this often, but never with the purpose of just walking. I have to go to the bank, or to run at the park, or to the post office. There seems to always be somewhere I am GOING. But not today. Today I was going nowhere and it was one of my favorite days. I saw the sky today for the first time in a long time. I had forgotten how blue it was. There is lots and LOTS of smog here in China. It rarely ever clears, but today it did. I miss the sky, but hadn't really noticed it until now. 

I am fine. Sank you. How are you? 

I got to thinking about that. I wondered why, in the 8-9 months I've been here have I never really looked up. As I walked further I got my answer. I chose to walk a different way than usual. On our way to the Gong Yuan (park) and the Hui Yi Mei (grocery store plaza) we pass several shops and are always greeted by our friends. It takes us a long time to get anywhere because we are always stoping to talk. 

My boy Taylor!!!!

But today I went a different direction. A road I almost never walk down. I brought my i-pod with me and popped it in. I had it on shuffle and man did it play me some good tunes. We had the "Lovers in Japan" by Coldplay, "In My Life" by the Beatles, and finally "Home" by the Foo Fighters. I walked around and it was like every little thing stood out to me. It was like my own little music video. The little boy standing on his fathers scooter as the wind blows his hair straight up in the air. The old man that always walks with his hands clasped behind his back. The group of dishwashers with dirty white uniforms squatting on the top of the wall laughing with one another. The woman sweeping up trash on the street with a broom made out of twigs. I passed by a group of school kids. They still had their grimy little uniforms on and had uprooted several bamboo sticks. They were in the middle of the street going totally kung fu on each other and I couldn't help but let the smile spread across my face. On my way home I passed another group of kids outside a lighting store. (Which we have LOTS of by the way) It has started raining again here. (This weather is so confusing) So mostly everyone stays inside. But I watched as these four little kids pulled the string off of one of their shirts and used it as a game. They would hold it up by both ends and see who could jump over it without touching. I was able to jump the highest.... Just sayin'. I got skills! Haha. 

My backyard right after the rain.

I have made so many friend here in Guzhen. I have fallen so incredibly in love with our students. I love how small our little town is because it means I see them at the grocery store or that, when I'm on the street, I hear Tom's little raspy voice shout "TEEACHAAA!" out the car window. But instead of stopping and talking today... I just watched. I love just watching these people. Maybe its because I only have a month left or maybe its just because I am (although I hate to admit it) an incredibly nostalgic and mushy person...but I had a moment today. A moment. I can't describe it. But the things I saw today were committed to memory. I walked around listening to good music and walking amongst good people. Good day. 

Meet Charlie. Half Korean.Half Chinese.
WHOLE adorable. 

Who cares if you cant see the blue sky! There is beauty all around us here. Beauty in the little kids playing with rocks instead of marbles. Beauty in the smile of the fruit lady on the street. Beauty is every where you look here. Its in the people. I will admit that there are a lot of things at home that I took for granted. Staples. Things I thought I must have in order to be happy. But I am realizing that it is much simpler than that. It is much more simple than air conditioning, blow dryers, cameras and TV shows. Its people. Its the people you choose to surround yourself with that truly make you happy. 

I have sacrificed living in a place with clean streets and clean water to live in a place with happy, humble people with open and warm hearts. That, to me, is no sacrifice at all. It just makes sense to be here. It just makes sense to eat rice every day and to use chopsticks for everything. It just makes sense. I can't believe I only have a month left!!!!!!!! Yikes!

PLEASE HELP!

Take a glimpse at my adventures in China! If you guys have a minute, visit the ILP Facebook page and click on the video link on the left hand side of the page, then watch and click the "like" button on my video! (Changzhou China Fall 2010!) The person with the most likes gets a cash prize! Your votes would be soooooo helpful! Thank you!

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Its SO Hot!

This is my boy Michael. Favorite!

I have never been this hot in my whole entire life. I am from Arizona where we find ourselves continually grateful for the "dry" heat. Well, here in Guzhen it is ANYTHING but dry! When we wake up in the mornings the walls and floor are slick with humidity, our papers are wrinkled, and our clothes are plastered to our bodies. I have NEVER been this hot in my whole entire life. I'll be honest, its been hard. I am the person that normally sleeps with the fan constantly running. But now I wake up drenched in sweat with mosquitos buzzing in my ear. We do have a fan here and even a small cooling unit. (Which I have been incredibly grateful for) But unlike America, we can't just run the thing whenever we want. We only use it for a few minutes when absolutely necessarily and even then we run of money on our electricity bill. I can survive freezing cold winters with no jackets. But I am definitely not made for summers like this. I die. But the humidity has had its perks. The kids at our school are so cute and sweaty. We have a little playground area thats visible from where I teach. Every day, while my teachers are teaching, I walk outside to take a look at the kids. They usually have weird chinese toys they play with or are doing some kind of dance with the music playing on the loud speaker. On one particularly hot day I went to look at my ELE kids and found them all in their underwear! Haha. Mickey motioned for me to come down and join them. Then tons of  little 3 and 4 year old kids were swarming around me with no clothes on. I just thought it was so cute. It makes our school feel... like family. I love caring not only for the mental needs of our kids but even for the physical ones. I love cleaning up a cut or helping them blow their nose. The chinese teachers are always surprised when I help clean up messes or wipe a child's face. Their impression of Americans is sometimes that we don't like "dirty" things. The other day Sandy, (one of our chinese teachers), told me, "You always do the job of an auntie, but you do it for free." ("Auntie" is what they call a "Maid" here) Haha. It makes me sad that they would ever think we would consider ourselves "above" any type of menial work. I don't care if I was a freaking billionaire with golden inlaid nails... I still would help a kid blow his nose, or mop the floor or eat the slobber covered cookie that Michael offers me. Psh! I'd do ANYTHING for these kids! I especially love staying after school with the Aunties and the chinese teachers and eating dinner with them in the classroom. Some of the students stay extra long (until 7 or 8 at night) because their parents are too busy to get them. I love sitting with Auntie Tracy as they argue about how many bites Tommy has left or tease him about a girl he likes. I live for those cute little moments where I really feel like our little Kindergarten is a family. My chinese is coming along great and I feel like I really understand so much. I can sit down with these people and really communicate. I love Guzhen! Lets just cross our fingers it doesn't get hotter or they might be sending me back to the states as road kill... 

Xi'an!

By the time we got to Xi'an
we were all SO exhausted!

Xi'an had DELICIOUS street food
and lots of funny people.

After my five days in Beijing, we hopped on a "K" train to Xi'an. I had never been there before and was looking forward to seeing the Terracotta Warriors. We only had a short two days there before we needed to go home. As soon as we stepped off the train I could tell that this city was different. Even the TRAIN station is beautiful! The whole city is surrounded by The Great Wall. You can take a tour or even ride your bike on the wall. Everything is so gorgeous and all the rooftops are built in accordance to traditional chinese architecture. We visited a Masque and ate lots of good food. The next day we woke up early to catch a bus to the Terracotta Warriors. I hadn't really thought much about the significance of it. I was excited to see them because it was just one more thing I could mark off my list. It wasn't like I expected. We didn't have to hike through dirt mounds to get there or stand behind plated glass. You walk into a huge building that looks like a museum and there before you is Qin Shi Huang's army. I couldn't believe it. It was HUGE! 

Pit 1 of the Terracotta Warriors.

But it wasn't necessarily the vastness of it that struck me. When you stand there you can see all of their faces. They have different body types, facial features and garb. Each and every one is unique. I don't think I fully understood the meaning behind this. It was so amazing to be looking into the faces of men that lived in 210 BC! What an amazingly significant piece of China's history. I will be honest to admit I teared up a bit. Man, that was such an amazing experience. I know I sound like a broken record but I am so incredibly grateful for the things I am continually learning here. 

Cutest boy alive.
Sat behind me on the plane.
He is like a tiny little adult
in his suit jacket.

Xi'an was a perfect way to end the vacation. It was quiet, relaxing and fun. I had a blast on vacation! I am home now and preparing the students for their graduation ceremony. We are teaching them a dance and even have to prepare one for ourselves. (Poor chinese people have to watch us dance!) Haha. It should be interesting. There is lots of work and its busy-busy-busy trying to wrap everything up and finish paperwork non-sense. I am still loving the kids to death and having a blast. Mom, I have worked out the numbers and its official. I am bringing home 47 chinese kids with me. You might want to stock up on chopsticks. I love you!

Flew on my first plane in China!

We had extra time to explore Guangzhou 

when we got back and I just found it funny 

that this lady was swinging around 

a dead chicken. Gotta love China!

A couple of teachers from Changzhou 

told me if I went to Xi'an to get the lamb soup. 

They were SO right! Its soooooo good!

                     

Beijing!

Waterway at The Summer Palace.

The FUNNIEST baby alive. 

We always saw him around our little neighborhood. 

His parents put him on the back of a bike to have him eat his meals. 

(A little metal box they use to transport things in) 

It was just so cute to see this chubby little boy relaxing in there every day. 

Guru dude near the Lama Temple    

There was so many delicious 
new foods to try in Beijing.

Last semester when I came to China I went to Beijing for one of my vacations. It was really fun and I got to see lots of cool historical sites...but I wouldn't have ranked it on the top of my list. It truly is an amazing place to visit. But it is so much more common to find clean-cut chinese businessmen with briefcases than adorable wrinkly old men wheeling around carts of food. The carts of food guy is more my style. So... I'll be honest to say, I wasn't necessarily expecting greatness from this trip.

Soldiers at Tiananmen Square.

Tiananmen Square. 
(We even got to go see Mao's Frozen Body!!!)

Just after getting off the subway... Backpacks in the front! 

Beijing has sooooo many people you really have to watch your bags closely. 

But boy was I wrong! This was one of the funnest/busiest/most hilarious vacations I have ever been on! I went with a group of 13 teachers from the Kaiyin school. (About 1 hour away from us) Originally I was assigned to be their Head Teacher until they made a last minute switch about a week before we left. These girls are amazing and hilarious and just so much freaking fun. I love them sooooooo much! We actually ended up staying at the same hostel that we stayed in last time. Its called 1 Hai Inn. It was so weird to be able to help the girls find the place and to have the ability to navigate my way around a bit. It sort of blows my mind that me, this Arizona girl, who frequently uses map quest to navigate her own city... can find her way around in this HUGE-overpopulated country. We hit up all the usual places on the Beijing to-do list.  We went to Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, The Summer Palace (New and Old), Hoa Hai Lake, The Antique Flea Market, Confucius Temple, Lama Temple, Olympic Nest, Pearl Factory, Tea Ceremony, Silk Factory. We did it all! 

Cute baby bum in the crowd.

Siesta time in China. 

(Everyone goes to sleep right after lunch)

HaHa

Little chicks they were selling on the street.

We even got the chance to go to a viewing of Mao's body! That was soooooo cool to see the masses of people coming to show respects each day. (They have him frozen in a glass case) I did a lot of shopping. Beijing is where you can usually get the cheapest prices. We spent almost an entire day at the silk and pearl factory looking for clothes, backpacks, and souvenirs. I'm preparing for a mission so it was nice to buy a few skirts and shoes for cheap. The sales ladies were especially aggressive this time around though. The first part of the week was holiday for the chinese so it was a mad house. I swear a couple of those women bruised my wrists when I walked by. "Come on. Looka Looka. Want to buy purse? Purse lady?" Haha. They are funny little women. (With VERY strong grips)

The Wall.

My new chinese friend I made on the wall. 

He was walking on all these sketchy parts 

and kept asking for pictures with me. 

I love his traditional chinese uniform. So cute. 

I also got a chance to go back to The Great Wall. This time I visited the Mutianyu section of the wall. It is a fairly popular section for most tourists. The chinese holiday had just ended so it wasn't even crowded. The wall was absolutely gorgeous! There was a time where I broke off from my group and just sat there on the wall for a while, staring out at one of the prettiest scenes I've ever seen. I kept thinking about how many people in the world will never get to see this. Its one of the 7 wonders of the world and here I am dangling my feet off of it for the second time. I am so lucky to be here. Just chillin' on The Great Wall of China, no big deal. Knowing that I only have about a month left in China made it all the more significant. I can't help but promise myself that this won't be the last time I sit on this wall. You never know where life will take you, but as I sat there, I couldn't help but hope that life might someday bring me back to this beautiful country. Anyways... We hiked up to the top, spent some time hiking on the wall and then guess what we got to do? TOBOGGAN DOWN THE MOUNTAIN! It was awesome! I have never ridden on a toboggan before so it was super cool. 

One of the Temple doors by our Hostel.

The GREAT WALL!

Only the CUTEST mango lady on earth.

My vacation was a total of 5 fun-filled days. You would think with five days to spare we might have found some time to lay back and relax... but we didn't. The whole vacation was go-go-go. But if I'm being honest, I kinda like that. It means we were taking advantage of our time there. We always woke up really early and stayed out really late. Spending time with the Kaiyin girls was definitely the highlight of the trip. They are all so fun to be around and are so low stress. Those are my kind of people. I also had some really cool Uruguayan roommates at the hostel! I walked in to hear them speaking spanish and there was a cup of matte on the table so I knew they had to be South American. I got to spend a little time with them and practice a little of my spanish. We had a blast!

Shelby, Talesha and I at the Olympic Nest!

For dinner one night we ate from a random street vendor.

 I asked him what kind of meat it was and was unfamiliar with his response. 

Later we came to find out it was Donkey Meat! Welp... 

I can add that to the list now! Go China!

My favorite fruit ever! 

We made friends with a fruit market lady and 

usually bought a little something from her each night.

Sugar covered Hawthorne berries. 

A Beijing specialty.

Fluff from a willow tree. These little guys were floating 

in the air everywhere all over Beijing. It was so pretty to see it all slowly float by.

I'll eat anything wrapped in a leaf!