I don't even know where to start. I really should have kept up with this a lot better. I'll try to tell all of what I can remember, but forgive my lack of detail.
On my birthday(Jan 11th), our first full day here, we went to the school. We got to observe how the classes ran and got to meet all of the Chinese teachers. They bought me the coolest cake. It tasted great, but it had little cherry tomatoes on top. That was a little strange. It was also the Suki, the school principal's, birthday. To celebrate, the school took us all out to dinner that night. Pretty interesting food, but most of it was really good. On Tuesday and Wednesday we also observed at the school again. And we got to go to the grocery store, how exciting! We've come to find that almost everyone stares at us. We've also learned that quite a few of the men know the words "beautiful girl" haha!
Thursday was Jaimie's birthday. They sent her a cake that had sweet potatoes inside it. Also strange, but pretty good. Sarah has a brother who lives not to far from here and he offered to take us out to lunch that day. The food was also great. Although, it's not at all like the Chinese food you find at home. Sarah's brother, John, brought his beautiful (Chinese) wife, Sonia, and their two adorable daughters with them. I want an Asian baby. For real. Too bad I don't find any of the men here attractive.
Anyway, back on subject! Friday wasn't very eventful, but that night we went with our adorable coordinator, Tina, to enjoy some Chinese karaoke! It's not quite like American karaoke. Instead of getting up in front of a large crowd of strangers to sing your heart out, your group just gets their own private room. Tina brought some of her friends, so we had a group of about twelve. We had a lot of fun singing, and our male Chinese friends had a lot of fun losing against Jaimie at a dice/drinking game (Jaimie chugged Coke while the men did shots of beer). Also, I wouldn't want to forget to mention the "yummy" snacks that they served us. Spicy green beans, dried tuna, and chicken feet. Yes, chicken feet. Just one of the many ... interesting things that we have been given to eat while here.
Saturday was a complete adventure in and of itself! We went to Walking Street where a lot of the city does it's shopping. Our group split up almost as soon as we got there. A couple of the groups stayed at the beginning of the street while Brianna and I went ahead to explore the rest. Little did we know that we'd be walking right into the middle of a Chinese documentary! We're almost used to everyone staring and yelling out "hello!" so we thought little of the man who yelled out "hey!" and smiled at us. Then he walked right up to us and told us that he was a director and needed two foreigners to be in his documentary to eat some kind of biscuit/pie. We were a little suspicious at first, but then agreed to help him out. We watched as they finished up a shot of a couple on the back of a bike and while we were waiting, the rest of our group caught up with us. Two more girls in the group were also recruited, and off we went to one of the famous bakeries on the street to become stars! The biscuits/pies were more like super dry cookies that had very little flavor. A box of these "cookies" was our payment for being in his film. As we were in the bakery, everyone on the street was staring in.. and beginning to assume we were American celebrities. We'll let them keep thinking that.. After that adventure was over, our group separated again and Brianna and I ventured off to see the rest of the street. After seeing dozens of stores full of shoes and coats (it's still the "cold" season here.. even as the temperature is sitting at about 65 degrees on average) and even a little food stand that was selling something that had tentacles and looked like it was still moving.... we landed ourselves in yet another predicament. We stopped for just a moment to look at a long pink hallway that lead to a second floor. A man walked right up to us and said something like "give you facial, no money!" Again, we were suspicious. But, he repeated himself and we headed up the hallway. All of the women smiled and greeted us, some in Chinese and some in broken English. Then we laid down on the beds to begin our free facials. The two women kept trying to speak to us in Chinese. Good thing we know how to say "I don't understand", because thats the only thing we could keep telling them. After a ton of laughter, stares, forty five minutes, and even proofreading a girls written English, it was time for us to meet back up with the rest of the group. The women tried to have us pay them but we kept repeating that we were told it was free. We got out our Chinese/English dictionaries and phrase books, which they loved, and tried again to tell them we weren't going to pay. They finally understood and were still very happy that we had stopped in. So, to sum up the day, we got free cookies and facials.. mostly because we were American/different. Sounds good to me! Now on to Sunday.
The nearest Mormon branch that we could meet at is over an hour away by train, and can sometimes be a bit expensive. So, we held our own church meeting at our apartment. It was really nice and also comforting.
On Monday (Jan.18th) we began teaching. For the first three weeks, I am in charge of doing the opening exercises with all of the 100+ kids at the school. Which basically means that I get to introduce the teachers, tell the weather, and help the kids pick fun songs to sing to start the day. Not too bad. But, in a few weeks we will rotate responsibilities and then I will be teaching groups of about 5-7 kids for 5 different class periods. Right now we're really trying to get to know the kids. And we're trying even harder to create strict rules/schedules so that the kids will hopefully be able to get into a smooth routine. We've already found the trouble makers, the shy ones, and maybe some of our favorites.
Zhongshan is beautiful and I'm so grateful for the hundreds of workers who take care of the landscaping on a daily basis. Palm trees line most of the streets and there are flowers everywhere. So pretty.
Dinner at the cafeteria (not so good) is soon.. and because of this food, I already know what my next post will be about!
I hope to hear from you all! Loc07001@byui.edu
And thank you again to April for posting my pictures!!
On my birthday(Jan 11th), our first full day here, we went to the school. We got to observe how the classes ran and got to meet all of the Chinese teachers. They bought me the coolest cake. It tasted great, but it had little cherry tomatoes on top. That was a little strange. It was also the Suki, the school principal's, birthday. To celebrate, the school took us all out to dinner that night. Pretty interesting food, but most of it was really good. On Tuesday and Wednesday we also observed at the school again. And we got to go to the grocery store, how exciting! We've come to find that almost everyone stares at us. We've also learned that quite a few of the men know the words "beautiful girl" haha!
Thursday was Jaimie's birthday. They sent her a cake that had sweet potatoes inside it. Also strange, but pretty good. Sarah has a brother who lives not to far from here and he offered to take us out to lunch that day. The food was also great. Although, it's not at all like the Chinese food you find at home. Sarah's brother, John, brought his beautiful (Chinese) wife, Sonia, and their two adorable daughters with them. I want an Asian baby. For real. Too bad I don't find any of the men here attractive.
Anyway, back on subject! Friday wasn't very eventful, but that night we went with our adorable coordinator, Tina, to enjoy some Chinese karaoke! It's not quite like American karaoke. Instead of getting up in front of a large crowd of strangers to sing your heart out, your group just gets their own private room. Tina brought some of her friends, so we had a group of about twelve. We had a lot of fun singing, and our male Chinese friends had a lot of fun losing against Jaimie at a dice/drinking game (Jaimie chugged Coke while the men did shots of beer). Also, I wouldn't want to forget to mention the "yummy" snacks that they served us. Spicy green beans, dried tuna, and chicken feet. Yes, chicken feet. Just one of the many ... interesting things that we have been given to eat while here.
Saturday was a complete adventure in and of itself! We went to Walking Street where a lot of the city does it's shopping. Our group split up almost as soon as we got there. A couple of the groups stayed at the beginning of the street while Brianna and I went ahead to explore the rest. Little did we know that we'd be walking right into the middle of a Chinese documentary! We're almost used to everyone staring and yelling out "hello!" so we thought little of the man who yelled out "hey!" and smiled at us. Then he walked right up to us and told us that he was a director and needed two foreigners to be in his documentary to eat some kind of biscuit/pie. We were a little suspicious at first, but then agreed to help him out. We watched as they finished up a shot of a couple on the back of a bike and while we were waiting, the rest of our group caught up with us. Two more girls in the group were also recruited, and off we went to one of the famous bakeries on the street to become stars! The biscuits/pies were more like super dry cookies that had very little flavor. A box of these "cookies" was our payment for being in his film. As we were in the bakery, everyone on the street was staring in.. and beginning to assume we were American celebrities. We'll let them keep thinking that.. After that adventure was over, our group separated again and Brianna and I ventured off to see the rest of the street. After seeing dozens of stores full of shoes and coats (it's still the "cold" season here.. even as the temperature is sitting at about 65 degrees on average) and even a little food stand that was selling something that had tentacles and looked like it was still moving.... we landed ourselves in yet another predicament. We stopped for just a moment to look at a long pink hallway that lead to a second floor. A man walked right up to us and said something like "give you facial, no money!" Again, we were suspicious. But, he repeated himself and we headed up the hallway. All of the women smiled and greeted us, some in Chinese and some in broken English. Then we laid down on the beds to begin our free facials. The two women kept trying to speak to us in Chinese. Good thing we know how to say "I don't understand", because thats the only thing we could keep telling them. After a ton of laughter, stares, forty five minutes, and even proofreading a girls written English, it was time for us to meet back up with the rest of the group. The women tried to have us pay them but we kept repeating that we were told it was free. We got out our Chinese/English dictionaries and phrase books, which they loved, and tried again to tell them we weren't going to pay. They finally understood and were still very happy that we had stopped in. So, to sum up the day, we got free cookies and facials.. mostly because we were American/different. Sounds good to me! Now on to Sunday.
The nearest Mormon branch that we could meet at is over an hour away by train, and can sometimes be a bit expensive. So, we held our own church meeting at our apartment. It was really nice and also comforting.
On Monday (Jan.18th) we began teaching. For the first three weeks, I am in charge of doing the opening exercises with all of the 100+ kids at the school. Which basically means that I get to introduce the teachers, tell the weather, and help the kids pick fun songs to sing to start the day. Not too bad. But, in a few weeks we will rotate responsibilities and then I will be teaching groups of about 5-7 kids for 5 different class periods. Right now we're really trying to get to know the kids. And we're trying even harder to create strict rules/schedules so that the kids will hopefully be able to get into a smooth routine. We've already found the trouble makers, the shy ones, and maybe some of our favorites.
Zhongshan is beautiful and I'm so grateful for the hundreds of workers who take care of the landscaping on a daily basis. Palm trees line most of the streets and there are flowers everywhere. So pretty.
Dinner at the cafeteria (not so good) is soon.. and because of this food, I already know what my next post will be about!
I hope to hear from you all! Loc07001@byui.edu
And thank you again to April for posting my pictures!!
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