Buddha Island

Last weekend we went to an island off the coast. We hiked around the trails and saw too many Buddha's to count. Every trail led to another Buddha prayer temple. We woke up super early and still almost missed our bus as usual. We got on the bus around 5:30am and drove around picking up randoms all over the city. It took a couple hours for our bus to get to where we were going so a ferry could take us to the islands.

We finally got onto the ferry around 9am and took a short ride to the islands off the coast. I have never gotten sea sick or motion sickness before, but being in the dungeon of that boat with no windows and swaying back and forth did me in. It was not my finest hour. As we were getting off the boat we saw this warning. I don't know why, but I could not stop laughing at it. We read it as oh-stackles and my sleep deprived body said it in as many accents as it knew and it was the funniest thing ever at that moment in time. OHSTACKLES!

Our first stop was a Buddha prayer temple. The people could pray to Buddha or they could pray for their wishes to be put into the atmosphere.

We put our wishes into the atmosphere rather than praying to Buddha. We got incense to burn and knelt to concentrate on what we wanted. It was kind of weird, felt like I was praying to a false God or something. I wasn't praying to Buddha, I just put positive thoughts about what I wanted out in the open. Once we were done we put our sticks of incense into a pit to let them finish burning. 

These were some of the crazy reincarnated Buddha figures we saw. The second one had some crazy eyebrows going on and I felt I could relate to him. Although his were a mile long and braided, mine are just getting bushier the longer I'm here.

Madi and I. She was my buddy throughout the day. We had a deep conversation about slugs that day. It was along the lines of how we are so grateful we aren't slugs and don't get stuck to tires and spin in circles all day. We wondered if they have couches in their shells to rest on at night. I felt enlightened afterwards. Whole new outlook on life.

This girl and her group of friends found us every where. Every 30 minutes or so we would see them around and it was funny to wave and smile each time. I mainly got a picture with her because of her super awesome hair cut. She has a bob, but her extensions went down her back. Super stylish!

These ladies were hilarious. It started out as one lady, then two, then three. We were just smiling and taking a hundred pictures when one grabbed Madi's hand and held it out. Everyone else just kind of followed along. It's funny how the women here always fight over us. Like who gets to stand next to us or who holds our hands or who has to take the picture. These ladies were super happy we took pictures with them and it took us ages to escape them and their giddiness. 

America is somewhere behind me! I looked really hard, but it was too foggy for me to see you guys :(

This was a fence kind of like the one in France where you lock your love onto the gate and throw the key into the river. You did the same thing here except it was in a forest and there was no where to throw your key. You could carve your names into the locks and put them next to others who locked their love to the fence. There were so many locks lining the walkway, I loved it. So much love!

It may be hard to tell, but that is a huge swarm of goldfish (koi fish?). There were so so so many of them. I was mind blown. There were even more on the other side of the pond near a bridge we crossed to reach our next adventure. 

This Buddha was huge. Like huge huge. No one could stand directly in front of it so I didn't get any good pictures of the good ol guy.

I snuck a picture of these monks. I surprisingly don't feel bad or guilty about it! Real life monks! It wasn't as serene and peaceful as the movies made them seem. It was actually pretty loud with lots of loud prayers and music.

Yes, Folks..... the beach. We strayed away from our group and went to Thousand-Pace Beach. It was so much fun to be on a completely new coast on the other side of the world, but still be playing in the same ocean as I do back home. It wasn't as clean as the beaches back home, but it was still just as exciting. The water was a bit browner and the sand had a bit more trash (and bones?) in it than any California beach Ive been too.

(One of the world biggest Buddhas is behind me and so is America)

Madi, me, Jennie, Kenzie, and Kaylie

We made some friends. They were so excited to take pictures with us. They were a bit photo-challenged when in came to us asking them to take pictures of us. They were all crooked... made the memories even better!

My favorite part of the whole day was walking along the beach. We put our cameras away and just sat on the beach and lived in the moment. We took it all in and it was so great. We are always having photo shoots wherever we go and it was nice to sit down for five minutes and just watch the waves trickle onto the sand.

Winter's Coming!!!

It's beginning to get chilly here in good ol Ningbo! I have proven I do not know how to dress for cold weather nor did I bring any clothes suitable for anything under 100 degrees. Moving to Idaho when I get back is going to be rough considering me and the cold aren't really the best of friends!

Here's a few of our adventures through pictures....

We went to Moon Lake last weekend and rented paddle boats for a little while. It was so pretty and serene and fish jumping out of the water made the experience that much better. It was the first time we had done something as our whole group in a while and it was a lot of fun to have everyone together for a bit.

AMERICANS CAME TO VISIT ME! Jordann had been in Bali for a couple weeks and then was staying in Shanghai with her aunt. Kelsey flew to Shanghai to meet up with Jordann and they were traveling together when it worked out for us to meet up. It was so nice having a bit of home be with me for a couple hours. I got to show them around the school campus and they came with me to teach my little babies. We went to dinner at our favorite restaurant and then I sent my little slice of America on their way back to the homeland. I loved seeing them and am so glad they donated some tootsie rolls as well.

We have newly discovered a bargaining market of sorts near our apartment and spend quite a bit of time there. It appears to be a bit sketchy to the newcomers, but it is full of surprises and lots of treasures to buy. I tend to buy nail polish each time I'm there and so far I have bought 24! 2 for 5 yuan? That's 40 cents for each bottle. How can I ever turn down such a great deal!? *That tower behind us is a Pagoda. I don't know much about it yet, but I do know I have finally found something that rhymes with my name!*

This was just another one of our treks home from church. It takes us two hours to get to church each week by riding the bus. We meet at a Hungarian families home and they are the sweetest family ever. Its like our home away from home. They are so welcoming and do everything they can to make us feel loved. We have sacrament meeting and class with their family and another family from England. If we all go, there are 20 of us at church. I love love love that although I am far far far away from home I can still feel loved and be blessed with the opportunity to take the sacrament and learn more about our Savior. 

I got bit on my eyeball...... again. It wasn't as bad as last time, but it was definitely there. Those dang mosquito's just love me I guess.

Jennie and I had this really super awesome great fabulous idea to scare everyone for Halloween and then make a video of all our scares. Our plans were so fool proof and beyond perfect except it was an absolute fail and no one got scared and it was lame and now we just have this mask sitting in the office reminding us of how bad we are at scaring people. It could've been epic.

Halloween came around and we decorated and celebrated with our little kiddies. My babies were adorable and I was dying to take them home while I was watching them dance to the Halloween music. 

My ADORABLE twins Peter and Paul. They have the cutest raspy voices and melt my heart each and every day. Their costumes fit them perfectly but they are so cute you can't ever get upset with them for being little stinkers. All the time I'll talk to one and be like, "Peter?" "NO I PAUL. HE PETER!" Gah, I just love them so much.

This is Jack, James, and Mckay. Jack is the cutest thing ever and is so smart. He has the cutest smile ever even though he isn't quite proving himself in this picture. I got to name the other two boys. James is my all time favorite boy name everrr so of course I had to name him that. The other boy I named after good ol Elder Cathcart. Except he's having a hard time understanding his name is Mckay so we are working on that day by day. He only knows how to say "I want to pick a song!" and some days it drives me bonkers. It's like that scene in Nemo when all the birds and yelling, "mine! mine! mine!" except Mckay and James say, "I want to pick a song! I want to pick a song! I want to pick a song!"

This is Penny. She is my favorite. She gives me hugs all the time. Whenever we sing happy and you know it she always wants to "beep" my nose and its the cutest thing ever. We have a secret handshake and Im probably going to find a way to adopt her.

Our little Ningbo group <3 We had a Halloween party with our kids that morning and then came home and took naps. Once we all woke up from our deep sleep we played the donut game where you try to eat the donut off the string without it falling. We carved little pumpkins and then made snicker salad. It was nice to have everyone together and having fun for a night. 

My mom sent a package and it got to me on Halloween so it was like an early Christmas present for me. I should stop forgetting how great my mom is because once I opened that package up I was reminded how lucky I am. Who else can say their mother shipped a toilet seat across the pacific ocean for them? I can. Among the toilet seat there was a "Thanksgiving meal" for us. She sent stuff to make pizzas which included dehydrated cheese and I am quite excited to try that. She sent a million more stuffed animal dogs. I have so many here in China with me that I really don't know where to put them anymore. (It's a joke between us because I would always beg for a puppy and in return I would get a million stuffed animal dogs to make up for the happiness my parents refused to give me.) Everyone in my family wrote me letters and I absolutely loved reading them all. I'd been having a rough couple days, wishing I could be back home with everyone and that package made me feel so much better. (I love you mom! Thank you!)

5 more weeks and I'll be back in the USA! Love and miss you each more than ever!

China Lyfe Updated

We are all out of vacation time and are now on the home stretch until we return to America! October was full of traveling and days off from teaching, but now as we head into November we have no more vacation time until the end of December :( Crazy to think I only have six more weeks here!

Heres my China life through some random pictures... enjoy!

I celebrated my birthday here in China. The big ol' 19. It's a weird age. Im no longer FINALLY AN ADULT, but I am still a teenager so... The day was rather uneventful. A couple girls surprised me with breakfast in bed (complimentary tasteless china oatmeal with a mini china orange fruit that isn't even an orange but still tastes more alright that chicken feet) and hung streamers in my doorway. I taught my kids as usual and they sang happy birthday to me; it was adorable. We went to dinner at our favorite restaurant (we go there at least once a week) and everyone let me have the extra pancake.  I finally got to open my birthday cards my mom snuck into my suitcase. Ive been excited to open them and was so glad the day had finally come. That was about it for my big day!

It happened. I broke my year streak of not eating McDonalds. It was so not worth it. Still disgusting. One night we were gnawing on our arms because we were so starving and it turned into a few girls going to the mall to fetch everyone some food. It took them about an hour to leave and return with our food and while they were gone I laid on some wooden boards and prayed I wouldn't die of starvation while waiting. It was rough.

I have continued my bad habit of stealing other peoples beds. I have "can never lay in my own bed because everyone else's bed is always comfier" syndrome. Ask my mom... I was banished from her room because I took over her bed. And now Ive done it to Kenzie. We've had a few sleepovers in the past couple weeks... usually because I'm already lounging in her bed for a couple hours prior to bedtime and then find myself too lazy to walk across the hallway to my bed. It's always a great time because our beds are so super itty bitty tiny and then I force her to squish with me each night. 

"Let's get facials."

These are only a few of the kids in our church branch. I got to teach primary last week and these three were in my class. Cutest, most wild kids ever. The girl with the curly black hair has the cutest English accent and is adorable. Her family is from England. The other two are brother and sister and their family is from Hungary. They make each week at church an adventure every time. 

How could I come to China and not hold a panda!? We went to the international mall and there were a hundred or so plastic pandas on display. I think they were celebrating something, but everything is in Chinese so I'll never really know.

 This little girl was toting around a poor little bunny in the tiniest cage I've ever seen. That poor rabbit probably has shaking bunny syndrome.

idk...

Coolest building ever. It changed colors and different designs and was just really awesome. I loved it when it looked like the galaxy ^^^

China always smells so badly. The stinky tofu smells worse than poo. It's so unbearable as you can tell.

My classes got new pets.................................

We went roller skating for Brooke's birthday and it was quite comical. The language barrier was a blessing at this time because all ten of us got to skate for free. It was a tiny tiny rink, like half a basketball court big. When we got there everyone was staring as they do anywhere else we go. These people were so mesmerized that they were standing over us as we were putting our shoes on. They started showing off with their cool cool tricks and going super fast and it was just chaos. None of us were very good at skating and it was probably really funny watching us try to skate. 

Two girls asked if I would skate with them and it turned into them each holding one of my hands and dragging me around the rink. It was really funny and adorable that they were just pulling me around the rink and I didn't even have to do anything haha

 "Kenzie let's take a picture."

 "Ah perfect okay smile even though this creeper is staring into our souls."

 "I have a great idea! Lets each put one leg up and look all cute!"

 "Oh no. TIMMMMBERRRRR"

"Help me."

RANDOMISMS:

• I broke up a fight. It was exhilarating. This girl, Tina, started beating a boy up and were all stunned and couldn't move until it got really bad and then we finally realized we should step in. We broke up that fight and as we were breaking Tina and her victim, two other boys started fighting and it turned into a wrestling match between five teachers and four kids. It was a little embarrassing when a Chinese teacher finally came in to help us and I was straddling Tina trying to get her into the hallway and she was hanging onto the desk for dear life. Her death grip broke the desk... that girl did some real damage that day.
• ***We sleep in bed tents because the mosquitos and spiders think we are friends*** We have been wanting to camp out in our courtyard for awhile and last night we finally decided to do it because its the weekend and all the kids are gone until monday. Of course, me with my brilliant ideas, suggested we throw our beds off the balcony in my room so we didn't have to carry our stuff down the million flights of stairs. We shoved my tent onto the little balcony and then three of us lifted it over the edge and it was dangling there about to drop (hoping it was heavy enough to not get stuck in the tree). We were about to let go when Brooke ran up informing us police officers were on campus looking for a little boy and they were headed towards our building. We stood in absolute silence praying the guards and teachers wouldn't look up and see a bed hanging out of the American teachers apartment. It took us forever to get my bed over the edge, but we got it back on the balcony in record time!
• While we were at the mall, Jennie got picked to dance in some random show. It was even funnier because it was Chinese Michael Jackson impersonator. She won an umbrella and we were all jealous.

• This one time I FaceTimed my family and they wouldn't talk to me... only their hands would. 

VACATION: DAY SEVEN AND EIGHT

Sunday was spent walking around West Street and getting our las minute souvenirs. We found a place that sold normal ice-cream. NORMAL ICE CREAM PEOPLE. I accidentally had to two, three scoop cones but thats besides the point. We thought we were leaving two days from then, but had an epiphany and realized we were leaving the next morning.

Monday was nothing short of an adventure. We woke up at 3am. 3am. Who even knew that time of day even existed. My alarm went off at 3:00 and my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandpa face timed me at 3:02. Weirdest thing ever. I was totally not coherent and probably a little grumpy, but it was nice to talk to them. They wanted to see the toilets, but very evidently forgot about the time difference.

We checked out of the hostel at 3:30am and walked down the alley ways to the van that was awaiting us. Very drug dealer type stuff. We had called and rented a van for seven people. This van only had 6 seats and no trunk. We had our huge bags stuffed to the brim with our souvenirs plus... us. Only the Lord knows how we fit everyone into that van.

Please note there were four people squished in the backseat. Kenzie sat on Maddi's lap the whole way to the train station!

We began our two hour journey to the train station cramped nice and tight. The driver took some crazy back roads and yet again we found ourselves off roading. It was too early for my mind an body to be bounced around at such high speeds. It was quite eerie traveling through a forest in a van with a Chinese stranger, but we survived (barely). There was no AC and a couple of us began to get really car sick and then the sharts hit and it was chaos from that moment on.

Ahh, more pictures of how little leg room was available from two different angles for your enjoyment ft. Courtney aka Cocaine aka mom

We arrived at the train station and hour 24 hour train ride back to our temporary home began. TWENTY FOUR HOUR TRAIN RIDE ROUND TWO. This time we were not as fortunate to have beds. We had to sit straight up for the entire ride. The seats didn't recline at all because the backs were shared with the people behind you. Straight. Up. Twenty. Four. Hours. And just because its China, they sell tickets for standing room. Our train was jam packed. Because there were so many people standing and laying on the floor it was impossible to get up and walk around to stretch your legs out. I will never again complain about the 6 hour drive to visit my family in Salt Lake. 

My neck pillow became my best friend. I do not know how I ever lived my life without one. I would spend good money on a neck pillow if I had to. Those things are life savers. 

Hours rolled by and my sanity did too. As the hours passed we made pb and j sandwiches and that was much more hard than it should've been. People were falling on us and leaning on us, eyes were staring into our souls silently begging for a bite. It was really difficult. Later I got my cards out and we played go fish for like 12 hours. Kenzie got up to go to the bathroom for the 347084708 time and the lady sitting across from me (who I was sure hated me for numerous reasons) stole her cards and began playing go fish with me. This led to a lady sitting on the floor joining in and before you know it we had a nice little game of go fish/charades going. 

People were ALWAYS leaning on us. At one point this lady with one eye fell asleep leaning over Kenzie and it was quite uncomfortable in many ways.

Hour 3 of our adventure..

 They were always staring at us. The whole train ride we were stared at and it was a joke between us, "1, 2, 3... All eyes on me."

I think this was only like hour 9...

Hour 15....

 Passed time by scraping our teeth with Oreos...

Hour 18.... idk.

It was so miserable. I would never wish this train ride on my worst enemy. It was so cramped and hot and uncomfortable. My butt was screaming for help by the end of it. My back was croaking. I was an 18 year old when I got on, but I felt like an 80 year old woman getting off the train. I remember waking up at 1 in the morning and like whimper crying to myself because we still had 5 hours left on the train. I began praying with everything I had in me asking the time to pass by quickly. God and I became real close during that train ride. I prayed so much. I barely made it out of there alive.

I don't know why, but my feet swelled up so huge while we were on the train. I left my flip flops on the entire time because the floors were absolutely disgusting and I had bruises along the straps of my shoes because my feet swelled so big. It was the weirdest thing ever. 

I swear my toes are not that chubby and I really don't have kankles! 

I don't even know how I am alive to share the train stories with you. Writing about it makes feelings of hatred and anger come back. I could never do anything like that ever again. My great friend Jennie made a really great video describing our train rides if you would like to watch it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9na-TjwjhdM

She has made videos of every adventure we have gone on. Feel free to watch them over and over and see all the cool things we have gotten to experience!