Today is a Great Day

This week has just been one of those "great" weeks. Friday night all of us girls has movie parties with each other and just enjoyed being warm inside while it poured rain outside. Saturday the 19th was still rainy and cold so we made no plans and just slept in and lounged all day. Around 4 pm we decided to adventure to this new waffle place Ugly Coffee that we had heard Branch members talking about. We got lost only 1 1/2 times before we found it but when we finally did find it, it was all worth it! We walked in and all of our mouths dropped. It was this super quaint comfy.... it was Kandice Butte to the T! The building was all cement walls, floors, and ceilings but the decorations were amazing! There were tree branches places perfectly everywhere and bead chandeliers and wood everything and Pinterest bookshelves and all sorts of fun chairs and couches to sit in. We started looking at the waffle options, but then a guy came by and told us they had a promotion right then for an all-you-can-eat sea food, pizza, pasta, and coffee buffet for only 138 yuan, but if we would take a picture with him then we could have it for 70 yuan (about $13.) We hmmed and hawed about the price and then finally made a decision: we would do it if we got free frappes instead of coffee and free waffles as well. Done! So we sat down along this wooden banquet-style table in our cozy chairs and waited, clueless of how this would work. First they brought out the frappes, then brought us pizza, then all kinds of waffles. Then they gave us the "sign" and we loaded up our plates with rice, noodles, veggies, all kinds of meats, fruits, and egg rolls. It was so much fun! There was 10 of us girls and more than 30 dirty plates when we finished. The experience in and of itself was well worth the $13. 

This silly picture was meant to show off this... sesame see waffle roll. You can buy them in packages of 10 at the cafeteria and it's just like the waffle used for waffle cones but rolled up into this burrito shape and mixed with sesame seeds. Super interesting.

Tuesday we also had "movies-night" because Wednesday classes got canceled because of mid-terms! Woohoo! Wednesday morning was the beginning of a great day. We all got to sleep in, which was glorious. Then, the group met in the hall at 10 am to go get some more of the delicious waffles from Ugly Coffee. This is some of us before the waffles...

...And us with our waffles. The "Plain Waffle" came with two different sauces and some fruit; the "Chocolate Waffle" came with Oreos, a chocolate stick, chocolate flavored waffles, and chocolate ice cream; and the "Fruit and Ice cream" waffle came with just that: fruit and ice cream.

Coming back from the waffle place I spotted this beauty, but then realized how much of China I had captured in one photo: the man on his scooter/cart carrying way more then what you would think possible, the super nice car, the super nice car parked on the sidewalk, the gorgeous greenery, and the apartment buildings in the background. China Captured.

After our delicious brunch we headed to the underground shopping center. Here you can get things for super and even barter some. The shops are small but, again, they have shops full of so many different random things. One shop is a little pet store where they had these darling puppies. Sadly, they aren't in a very nice condition and who knows how long they have been in there.

There was also this little guy in the pet store... yes, he is some kind of squirrel... 1)Why would anyone want a pet squirrel 2)how did they capture him 3)he was running around crazy in that little cage, I'm surprised he hasn't had a heart attack yet!

After shopping, my roommate and I decided to visit a little bakery that we had heard about. When we found it we were happily surprised: it was quite big for a bakery and had all sorts of fun foods and treats. She found a legit ham sandwich and I found a pizza bread thing. They were both so good! After that we looked around the bakery place and saw a door leading to a gorgeous "back yard" looking place. Who knows if we were allowed back there or not but we went and found fake banana trees, a nice pond full of the big goldfish, a rock path leading to a wooden swing under shady trees, and these turtles! Score! I feel like even if we weren't allowed back there then no one would have said anything just because we're American. We get treated like VIP here in China. When we finished there we started to head back and passed several fruit stands. I couldn't pass up the pineapple on a stick so I got one and it was only 2 yuan (36 cents)! I feel like our form of entertainment here has often been shopping and eating... because we do both those a lot.

The fun didn't end there! We found this statue of a man driving a horse-drawn carriage and just had to take pictures! We asked a random lady to take pictures of us and she just had a bawl taking pictures of us from every angle. Sadly we didn't get a shot of the whole statue but maybe we'll return there with more girls and I'll have a better picture later. After going back home we relaxed for a bit then got dinner, went visiting teaching, got Pu Pu (a smoothie shop), did some lesson plans for next week, and finished the fantastic day with a movie. We have 2 more days of teaching then we have 9 days off to vacation. Next time you hear from me I'll be posting about my adventures in Yangshuo and Guilin! 

Easter!

This Sunday is Easter, so we decided to do a bit of a party for all of our kids. We have 3 groups of kids: morning (my group) then 2 in the afternoon. There are 6 different classes the kids attend during our 2 hour teaching period, so the Arts and Crafts teacher dedicated 2 days of their lessons to making Easter eggs. We decided to be wise and use paper eggs instead of real eggs with the 6-8 year olds. Each child got to color and decorate 3 paper eggs.

It's always interesting to learn more about how kids work because no matter how much the teacher explained that if they give the eggs back to her after class then they get to hunt for them and get candy in return, they insisted on taking the eggs home to show their parents. It's hard to explain the future to the kids and it's even harder to explain why they should wait for things. My roommate was the Arts and Crafts teacher for the week so the night before she had to make 42 eggs for all the kids that took them home or that snuck back in and stole their eggs later. I wish I could go back to grade school now and give my teachers the credit they deserve.

Our Plan: 

Teach 4 rotation from 9 am- 10:50 am. Retrieve our homeroom kids, count tokens, and explain to them what Easter is and why we are doing a hunt. Then have all of the kids come back into the big gym and line up by class like Opening (10 minutes before classes were we sing songs, go over the day of the week and the weather, and talk about the rules). Then have our Chinese-speaking Head Teacher explain the strict and exact rules of the Hunt. I'm going to insert in right here that it was really neat to watch the excitement grow in the kids' eyes as they listened and prepared for the hunt. Then we let the loose one class at a time and joined in on the festivities once we got outside. The paper eggs were laid out everywhere all around the building and the kids just had a ball! After they found the 3 eggs they exchanged them with our teachers for candy, then they got to continue playing and have fun until 11:30. I'm happy to report that amongst all that fun only 2 kids got hurt and that's merely because they tripped and scratched their hands a bit. Other than that it was so fun and enjoyable. It had been raining for days before the hunt so the ground was a bit wet and the eggs got a little soggy but the rain had stopped long enough for our hunt. Tangent: when it rains here, it pours! There have been lightening and thunder storms these last couple of nights and they are so exciting! The ground just gets flooded when it rains because it rains so much and so heavy! When it's not actually raining but it's stormy the air is misty... super different!

I'm glad the Easter Egg hunt went so well because honestly I was NOT excited for it. The week of the Hunt had been a really hard week. The ILP Director had warned us of this because at the half-way point the kids always start testing boundaries because us teachers often start to become lax and less strict with our rules and routine. The day right before the Hunt day was by far the worse. I had no control of the class, the lessons were a disaster, and the entire class period was spend of me frantically trying to regain control. Thank goodness for wise mothers! Mine shared with me some keys to parenting: immediate discipline, consistency, and reward the good ones. This sounds simple but they were my keys to success; the classes on the day of the Hunt were perfect and my lesson went exactly as I was hoping. Thanks Mom!

Pictures!

Fashion, Church, and Parties

Here are some fun tidbits about China that I've been collecting through the week for you guys. First is the fashion:

The style in China is to have no style. There are a lot of mini skirts with tights. I rarely see Asian legs because they almost ALWAYS have them covered with tights. Lots of people look like their G-ma dressed them, but it's totally socially acceptable. This girl on the left is the perfect example, she has a fabric maroon headband, floral shirt that is buttoned all the way to the neck, a bright yellow blazer, plaid pants, plastic kitten heals with a big bow, and a mega colorful bag. Every style works in China.

I spotted these beauties near the metro the other day. They are bright orange... penny loafers... with sparkly golden heels.

The branch "rented" this super fancy hotel for us to watch all of the session of Conference in so we gathered here Saturday and Sunday this week.

After the Saturday session we went out for hotpot for Madi's birthday. You get this pot of broth and let it boil on a heating pad and cook all sorts of different fruits and veggies in it then dip the cooked food in different kids of sauces. It's SO much fun and super social!

The dessert after hotpot was provided by satan... well Lucifer Yummy Land that is.

Also last week I finished my online math class so we went out to celebrate! We watched Captain America in 3D at the Cinema (which is half-off on Tuesdays and Thursday with a student card) then had these delicious crepes afterwards.

Also, I want to share some ways that I've found how to save money: walk instead of paying for the metro, taxi, or bus; hoard free food from lunch for meals or snacks; invest in a filtered water bottle instead of always buying water bottles; put up with the 4 hour smoke filled K train instead of taking the clean fast train; eat only at mealtimes instead of thinking you need to snack all day; know what you want to buy BEFORE going to the Suguo; and last but not least barter like crazy at all the fun shopping places!

Beijing!

            Is this a dream or did I really just go to Beijing?!? This weekend was a 4-day weekend because of the tomb-sweeping holiday (Chinese Memorial Day) so our whole group went to Beijing to see all that it had to offer. We took an 11-hour sleeper train, which was an adventure in and of its self. The train was made up of several walled off sections along the length of the hallway. In each section was 6 beds, 3 on each wall stacked on top of each other. We spend the extra money to all get the bottom bunk, which was SO nice. At 10:30pm they turned off all the lights and everyone went to sleep. For a sleeper train, I was surprised how well I slept. The next morning we woke up around 7 and then only had to wait around for 2 hours until we arrived in Beijing. Sleeper trains is the way to go for long distances.

Once every once in a while an Asian would come sit on our beds.

             

This trip was all about experiencing Beijing and touring all of its famous sights so of course we had to start with Peking Duck! It’s usually very expensive because Beijing is known for it but we found a little place that was less expensive and closer by our hostel. The chairs were couches, the tables were buffet length and the ceiling was covered with kites. It was a super cute place! We ordered 4 Peking Ducks to share amongst the 12 of us girls but long story shorts the lady thought we had only ordered 3 so three of us girls that had waited for our duck didn’t get to eat. We were getting faint and shakey from not eating since the night before so we hurried to the closest street vendor and bought some kind of egg and mystery meat wrap for super cheap. Thank goodness for reliable street food!

I didn't get a picture of the actual Peking Duck but here is our appetizer: fried duck skin. Not too bad tasting surprisingly.

            Next we made our way to the 2008 Olympics buildings: The Bird’s Nest and The Water Cube. We didn’t get to go inside The Bird’s Nest but it looked incredible from the outside. They had booths set up along the sidewalks like at the fair that were selling all sorts of knickknacks and cheap souvenirs.  We were able to go inside The Water Cube and look around there for a while. They still have all of the warm-up pools available for use but the actually competing pool has been turned into a massive water park for little kids. It was pretty neat, actually, I could have stood in the exact same place as Michael Phelps!

Outside the Water Cube

The practice pool inside the Water Cube

The Olympic Bird's Nest where all the track and field competitions took place.

  Last we took the scariest taxi ride of my life to the Acrobatics Show! Holy smokes, China knows how to entertain. That was so much fun! Photos weren’t allowed, unfortunately, but they were doing some fancy stuff. I was actually more impressed with this one because every once in a while they would accidentally mess up so you knew they were doing their performances all by skill instead of by optical illusion or hidden tricks. I have been hoping for an authentic cultural experience and this just hit the spot.

The beginning curtain for the amazing Acrobatics show.

The next day was our major touring day. Our tour guide picked us up at 7:30 and we headed off to the Temple of Heaven, Forbidden City (where the last scene in Mulan is made after), a pearl market, a tea ceremony, and the Summer Palace. After that we went to The Pearl Market for some shopping and intense bartering and then back to our hostel.

Outside of the Temple of Heaven

Inside the Temple of Heaven

I finally found a lady doing Tai Chi outside the Temple of Heaven

This guy would dip his stick in a little cup of water and write Chinese with water outside of the Temple of Heaven

          

Sometimes we like to have picture wars with the Chinese. At big touristy places they like to gather in front of us and take pictures and we take pictures of all of them taking pictures of us!

The Forbidden City (which isn't so forbidden anymore because there is no reining emperor).

In the middle of our tour they fed us the most delicious lunch! It consisted of Orange chicken (which actually isn't common here), corn peas and carrots, seaweed and egg, baked potato strips, fried fish, cooked greens, cubed chicken in veggies, fried breaded chicken strips and rice.

The Summer Palace! The man-made reservoir was made for the emperor to cool down on warm summer days. The palace in this picture was burnt down by enemies and then was refurbished so it actually cost extra to get in so we didn't see inside but outside was actually gorgeous with this HUGE 17 arches bridge. 

        The last day in Beijing was The Great Wall! It was a 2 hour bus ride there. Let me insert a little tidbit about China driving right here: if there are 2 lanes on the highway, then the Chinese turn it in to 5 lanes. We were in a smaller bus and it was literally weaving in between cars and squeezing through the smallest of spaces. At one point when traffic was at a stand-still the driver got frustrated, went off the road, and went flying down a “do not enter” street. Holy Hannah if the air here doesn’t kill me then the drivers will! Ok back to the great wall: then a 10 minute walk followed by a cable car ride all the way up to the Mutianyu section of the wall, hiking up tons of treacherous steps (which I think would be terrible for the soldiers running around on it), so many pictures, and a toboggan ride back down. Never in my life did I think I would have climbed The Great Wall… but I did it! I really wish I had brushed up on my Chinese history before coming here because all of these incredible places that I got to see would have so much more significance and meaning to me. Still, though, it was all incredible and amazing! I have been so blessed to be able to come on this trip and experience and see all that I have seen. I love China! 

Never in my life did I think that I would climb the Great Wall of China! But I did it!

My awesome roommate and I on the Great Wall, no big deal.

Then we got to toboggan all the way back down!

These guys were posing at the bottom of the mountain for pictures. Naive little me didn't know they wanted money for it!

           

Spring Festival/Field Trip

          Wednesday, the ILP teachers didn’t have to teach because all of our kids were going on their Spring Outing/Festival/Field Trip. We met at the building at 7:45, grabbed our lunches consisting of bread rolls, fried peanuts, drinks, and packaged meat and headed onto the buses. I was a bit hesitant at first to go because why would I want to spend another day with these kids, but the closer it got the more and more excited I got to see their real child side and bond with them in a more relaxed and fun environment.

Only a corner of all of the students lined up, and so orderly!

We arrived at this place… I have no idea where we were at… and ALL of our kids (the school I’m with has 2 campuses, so I think there were kids there from the other campus too) lined up so orderly in this big open square in front of a mega statue. There they had a little ceremony where a child read some Chinese to everyone, and then some other children marched around the flag. The younger children (my class’s age) lined up in the front half of the group and the slightly older kids lined up behind them in the second half. At one point the child announcing had all of the older kids do their salute and chant a memorized thing. Some music started playing and all of the kids sang the song, perhaps an anthem or something.

The mega statue everyone lined up in front of.

These are the older kids (only the back half of the entire group) saluting during their chant.

Can I just insert right here how impressed I was about the behavior! Holy cow, Chinese kids know when to be good! The younger kids were instructed to hold this red scarf a certain way in front of them the whole time and every single student did without even playing with it. In America, that kind of ceremony wouldn’t go down in such and orderly manor, especially with 6-9 year olds. Then the child announcing said something abrupt and all of the older kids marched forward into the younger children’s line and folded the red scarves around their neck and tied them in a traditional way. Come to find out this was the "Pioneering festival" and it's been a tradition for students (not sure if just at this school specifically or everywhere....) and some of the parents even remember doing it.

The older kids tying the younger kids' scarves.

Then the kids took a class picture, so cute! One of the ladies said told us ILP teacher that we could be in it so of course we jumped in! I stood next to my little girl Ana but then Alice, the cuddly one, couldn’t resist the opportunity to kiss the teacher. These guys can be crazy but at the end of the day they are always more adorable.

After the ceremony we all gathered at this big grassy area and ate our lunches and played games for about 2 hours together, which was an absolute blast! That was definitely my favorite part.

The kids were putting blossoms in my hair but scattered when I tried to take a picture of them.

Jessica's mom brought her little sister... so CUTE!

Next we went to this museum that was for the Revolution… I didn’t really know because everything was in Chinese, and we hustled through it. It’s neat to see the children learning when I’m not the teacher, because you can sit back and appreciate their intelligence. Some of them were really interested, which was super cute!

Declin, whom I'm going to learn to love, saluting.

Last, we walked to this mega monument. I have no clue what that is for because after hiking up the stairs we were there for like 10 seconds then hiked back down. At this point, though, all of the kids were roasting because they had on their long sleeve shirts, sweaters, coats, and backpacks. In China, they bundle their kids and all, even the parents, still wear winter coats when it’s warm outside. The parents didn’t think anything of the sweating and complaining kids so one other ILP teacher and I hustled about stripping off everyone’s coats and putting them in their backpacks. Then a little while later when we sat down under some shade to wait for the bus, some of the students put the coats back on. What? Haha, I don’t understand, China!

This monument looks like the one in DC with the long water in front of it and everything.

All in All it was a super fun trip, and I’m really happy I got to go, plus I didn’t mind adventuring away from the school and getting a little sun ;D.