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!

Easter Celebrations!

Lily and I before the Easter Celebration. 

(Its getting SOO hot outside in Guzhen)

We had a rockin' Easter celebration this past Friday. The kitchen staff here at Happy ABC's was nice enough to boil us 60 eggs! We colored them with the kids and then Alice and I ran downstairs to hide them while the kids were still in class. I set up stations all around campus. Amongst the activities were a parachute egg toss, spoon races, easter egg hunt, sack races, and even a dancing station where the kids learned the "Bunny Hop." It was awesome! If you thought you were good at the bunny hop... try watching a group of 500 adorable chinese four year olds hopping around and you will find you were sourly mistaken. They rocked it!

For those of you who don't know. Our school is a kindergarten. We have kids from ages 2-6 years old. Our program, the International Language Program (ILP), teaches every morning 5 days a week. Later on in the day we go into other classrooms and guest teach. We call this "ELE."

Me, Mickey, Fanny, and some of my ELE kids

    Basically we just give the chinese teachers a little break from teaching and give the other students some time with a native speaker. I am the "Head Teacher" here so technically I am not supposed to teach. I am to assist the other teachers with their teaching, oversee the program, and coordinate with chinese staff.  I LOVE my job here.  It means I get to see the students performance in each class and really get to know them better. (And I get to goof off a bit) One of my teachers was assigned to teach an ELE class 5 days a week. (The other American teachers only teach 4) So I volunteered to teach her class for the whole term so that she could have a day off. It is a class of about 40 students from ages 3-4 and I teach it every Wednesday. I can't even describe to you how much I am in LOVE with these kids! Their Chinese teachers name is "Li Pei En." Her english name is "Mickey" and she is the raddest person on earth. We were MEANT to be best friends. She lives just down the hall from me and happens to be an excellent violin player. She always has the coolest clothes and I would love to just BE her. Anyways... I could go on and on about my class and how amazing they are but I promise there was a point to this story.

   See, the Head Master had noticed how much time I had been spending with my ELE class. (I always go eat my rice porridge with them in the morning) I always make sure to stop by and say hello at least a few times a day. She knows how much I love them so she personally invited them to our little easter celebration. I was SO happy! So the ILP kids and my ELE class all went around from station to station playing games and having an excellent time. It was supposed to be just a small celebration but the Head Master loved it so much that she had the WHOLE school come down and play with us. It was SO much fun! 

The BEST bananas on EARTH! 

(Seriously... they aren't even bananas, 

they are like liquid gold. Mmmm)

This is Ting Xu the Banana Man 

(He is normally MUCH happier than he is in this picture)

      Spring time is one of my favorite seasons. I love the smell, the sunlight, and all the delicious chinese fruit! But because Easter is a holiday we normally celebrate at home with our families... some of the girls have been a little home sick. But when I was looking around Friday at these beautiful little kids... I realized there wasn't anything in the world I wanted more than to be with these sweet little spirits. I dare you. Come to China... look into these little guys faces and try NOT to smile. Its impossible. They are the best Easter present in the world!

Sanya Island!

I just got home from what has been, by far, the best vacation ever! We took a sleeper train on friday afternoon and got to Sanya early Saturday morning. The train had three levels of beds. The topmost bunk was the cheapest one so that, of course, was mine. Across from me was the sweetest chinese girl ever. She is 23 and doesn't speak any English at all. It gave me a great chance to practice some Chinese!!! We became good friends. We ate dinner together and she laughed with me every time I would clumsily climb 15  feet to get to my bed. It was a very clean train and it seemed we arrived in no time. (14 Hours) I woke up to find the sweetest note which read something along the lines of, "Hello Rose, This stop is mine and I am afraid to wake you. I want you to know I am happy to make friends with you. You I will never forget." I almost choked up when I found it. I wished that she wasn't gone so I could have given her a big hug. I loved that she said, "Hey Rose." My chinese name,  translates to rose. But when I read it in English I thought of my dad. Thats what he calls me. "Rose." 

First day at Dadonghai beach!

     

Sailboat on Yalong Bay

Anyways after some bartering with the taxi's we made our way to the Lama Temple Hostel. This place was SO perfect. It was only 3 dollars a night and a  ten minute walk from the beach. We dropped off our backpacks at the hostel but it was too early to check in. Rather than waste any time we just went straight to the beach! I was expecting it to be a little rocky and dirty, especially since our hostel was so cheap. But this beach, Dadonghai, was the most BEAUTIFUL thing on earth. The sand was so soft and the scenery was gorgeous! There is nothing I love more than a beach!

     I had no idea I would have this opportunity in China. When I think China I think street food, rice fields, and chinese pagodas. But this was like the Hawaii of China. The rest of the four days were filled with coconuts on the beach, clear waters, parasailing, diving for shells, eating LOTS of fresh fruit and smiling. Lots and LOTS of smiling! 

Found a rad fruit market with the BEST bananas!

   When we arrived we tried to book our train home and found there wasn't any until the day AFTER we needed to leave. Seeing as we are English teachers, this was not an option. So we decide to book a flight instead since it would get us home in only an hour and a half. Sleeper trains cost around 350RMB and our one-way flight was 550RMB. Its a bit more expensive but not nearly as bad as in the states. This way we would have more time to relax and enjoy Sanya! 
We didn't think about it again until we got up at 4:30am to take a taxi to the airport. We get there to check in to find there is no record of our flight. After much struggling and using my phrase book as a crutch... I found out that Shannon had booked our flight from Guangzhou to Sanya. (Instead of Sanya to Guangzhou {Home}) Haha. Oh boy that was not good news to hear an hour and a half before your "flight." Shannon felt SO bad but we told her it could have happened to any of us. So I will spare you the details but there was a lot of run around. A lot of checking other airports, prices, times, finding out if we could get refunds. All of which are things far beyond my maturity level. No, but in all reality. No matter what goes wrong... there is ALWAYS a way out. So I found this shady little bus station where, after some prayer, we found a sleeper bus that would get us home ONE hour before we taught the next day. MIRACLE! We were out 500RMB and then on top of that had to pay another 300 for the bus. (Plus Taxi Fares) So we all ended up being out of a lot of cash by the time we were done. But it had been a learning experience. I will from now on check, double check, and triple check all the bookings my teachers make. 

Holding a Crocodile!!!

The mangos are HUGE in Hainan. 

That was all I ate the whole trip!

     Its funny how things work out though. We got to the bus station and still had a little bit of time to wait. A man had stepped on my hulusi. (A chinese instrument I bought on the beach) It broke the gourd and he offered to pay for it but I told him it wasn't a problem. He persisted until he walked away abruptly. Thirty minutes later the same man comes back with a brand new Hulusi! He had ridden on his motorcycle to go buy me a new one. People in this country never cease to amaze me with their hospitality! I also sat next to a mom with her baby strapped to her back and her little five year old squatting on the ground next to her. I held a conversation with the mom for quite sometime. I really feel like my chinese comprehension level is really improving! I could understand everything she said! Her kids were munching down on mangos. Their faces and hands were all slimy and dripping with juice. At one point she was trying to wipe their hands off with a dirty rag. She couldn't reach the baby on her back. I had some tissues in my bag and got up to wipe the baby off. That baby. Oh that sweet sweet baby. She was grinning from EAR-TO-EAR! It was the greatest thing ever! I was wiping her off and playing with her chubby little hands. It was just proof to me that wherever you go, there you are. Doesn't matter if you book the wrong flight and can't find a train... your still somewhere. Somewhere where something amazing could happen. 

Met some girls from THAILAND! 

(They were very impressed I knew how to say a 

bunch of food items in Thai. Thanks mom!)

                  Usually sleeper buses are... not so glamorous. We got our bus and there was techno music bumping. The floor was shellacked, the beds were SO clean and all the comforters were cheetah print! It was like a party bus! So the lesson we have learned this trip is that good things happen. Even when things go wrong, you can find the good in anything!

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!