The Adventure Continues...

I AM LOVING CHINA. I wish my family and friends were here so I could share all these experiences with them, but I have made such great friends with the girls here. Everyday is a new adventure and I never know what to expect with each new day. Yesterday the weather was perfect, as in the humidity was bearable. Today it was so humid I was suffocating. Tomorrow it will probably be steaming acid rain, but who really knows.

We got to go to Shanghai last weekend for the district conference and heard from Elder Toronto of the Quorum of the Seventy. He gave a really good talk and I heard a lot of things I needed to hear. There were actually a lot of people there, I didn't expect so many LDS members to be in China. I loved hearing everyone from different parts of the world sing the hymns together. I am so grateful I can be across the world, but still have the gospel in my life. I have a new appreciation and understanding for what I am blessed with back home.

So this happened. We were given tents to put on our beds when we first got here because the mosquitos and spiders have been known to make an appearance. Of course I didn't put mine on though??? So I woke up looking like I got beat up by the Chinese children. It was so difficult to keep my eye open and I was getting a massive headache from being half blind, so by the time lunch came around I had given up and was walking around with only one eye open.

As if getting a fat eyeball wasn't a wake up call, we got this visitor the next night. It was the size of my hand. MY HAND. America spiders are such wimps compared to these Chinese monsters. If you can imagine 8 screaming girls standing on one tiny bed, one girl crying in her bedroom, and another standing on a chair swinging a boot around then you can probably imagine how this scenario went down. It was traumatic to be honest.

I got to experience what we here in China call "The Troth." It is literally that. You squat. You do your business. You leave. A stream of water comes rushing down every couple of minutes to wash the motherload down. One girl was really mesmerized by the efficiency of it all and couldn't stop talking about it. The lady behind me must've had a bad breakfast because I got to see everything coming out of her stall rush between my legs. Sorry if thats too much information, but nothing in China is glamorous (except the street noodles we found in Shanghai. Those deserve an award of some sort.)

I RODE AN ELEPHANT. As I was walking up the stairs to get on the elephant it started to walk away and the man didn't even notice. That wasn't really all that comforting, but YOLO. I got on and as we started walking around the little path the elephant took a little pit stop and started digging in the trash. It was a little bit of a struggle because 1. Ive never rode an elephant before and 2. I didn't know how to yell "help the elephant has gone rogue" in Mandarin. Once that was sorted out the elephant started trotting and I was holding on for dear life as we sped up from 2mph to like 5mph. It cost me $5 USD and it was the best $5  have ever spent in my entire life.

I HELD A LION. The Chinese literally do not understand the concept of forming an orderly line so once the cub was brought out it became a madhouse. Luckily we were there early and were the first ones to hold the cub because he started crying and they had to take him back inside. He was so soft! When I was handed him I felt like I was being handed my first born child.

I FED A GIRAFFE. Their tongues are so long and naturally I felt some sort of connection to it. 

Feeding these fish was so mind-blowing to me. We were given baby bottles with fish food in them and sent in to feed these massive fish. They were no little gold fish. These things were jerking our arms back and forth while sucking on the bottles. One looked like an old grandpa and it was kind of weird. I wanted to stick my hand in the pond and let them suck on my hand, but they were so large I was scared they would eat my entire arm.

This is my new friend, Jennie, she's kinda cool. We have become really good friends these past few weeks and get along really well. We took this picture after the longest day ever, but we were so happy in the moment and didn't have any complaints so we decided to document the moment. Usually we both feel somewhat homesick or China smelt really bad that day, but after spending a day at the zoo, the district conference, and eating the best street noodles I have ever had, we went to sleep happy.

Three months from now I will be back home with my family and hopefully have a belly full of cafe rio, a green salad, A CHEESEBURGER, and a bean burrito.

BEIJING, CHINA

Beijing was beautiful and I will forever wish I got to spend more time there. It was a trip no words can explain and I would do it 100 times over.

We stayed in a hostel and us 10 American girls had much different expectations than what we got. Two girls and I walked into our room after wandering the dark alley to get to our hostel only to find a naked man laying on his bed reading his newspaper. It was terrifying in the moment, but now we can't help to laugh at it. Within the three days we spent there we met a guy from Canada, a couple from France biking across the continents, and another fellow American from Washington.

Beijing was an experience that can never be replicated. 

The Forbidden City was such a cool experience. IT WAS MASSIVE. I didn't realize the Forbidden City was actually the size of a city (duh Dakota). I definitely did not mentally prep my feet! It was so beautiful. I loved walking the same grounds as the people who lived here so long ago.

So funny story... We found out you could dress up for like $5 US Dollars so of course we seized the opportunity. The Chinese people WENT INSANE. We were swarmed within seconds and it was absolute madness. We are stopped ALL THE TIME by people asking to take pictures with us, but this was a whole new level of fame. Each of us were grabbed by random Chinese people and we couldn't get away. After about 10 minutes we finally convinced the people we had to leave and asked someone to take our picture, but like 50 people formed a circle around us and were snapping pictures like we were celebrities. It was seriously crazy. I don't know how real life celebrities deal with it. 

I got to see the Great Wall and it was as grrrrreat. It was so green and luscious and. It was actually difficult to climb and I don't know why I didn't think it wouldn't be hard. Some parts were just directly up and my little non-fit heart was struggling. It was cool to see people from all over the world in one place. Oh and I dug some dirt up with a bamboo stick for my aunt so it's still pure.

I autographed the wall so I am cool now.

The Great Wall is indescribable. Everyone needs to see it at least once (and take me whenever you go).

We ate a scorpion. I don't know why I did it. I truly don't. It was too salty and its tail got stuck on my lip so that was gross. It's hard to see but the scorpions are between our faces.

They were alive and kicking right up until the moment you eat them. It was absolutely terrifying. You can see the sea horses in this picture too. They had snakes and starfish on sticks too :(

We spent too much money at the Silk Market and didn't have enough room to bring every thing home so this was how we had to trek home. 

Getting home from Beijing was an experience itself. We got off the subway and were immediately swarmed by the Chinese taxi drivers. It was actually kind of scary and we were all getting a little panicked. The Chinese SWAT had to come get all the people away from us and then the subway security had to keep the people away from us. I didn't tell my parents about that, but I am still alive so it's okay.

Sweatshop

     Today was the longest day of my life. I woke up at 6am because my bladder was screaming at me (my dad would be so proud of me. I never drink water back home, but there is nothing else to drink here so I drink 3742084 bottles a day). We had a nice breakfast of rice and water and then headed to our office around 8AM. We spent ALLLLLL day in the office making decorations and planning our lessons for the next week. Our office doesn't have A/C and Ningbo is so humid so it’s our own personal sauna. We didn't leave the office until about 7PM and by then some of us were at our wits end, but luckily we are all still alive. 

Tonight we caught some little boys running around their apartment butt naked slapping each other with towels and it was so funny to watch them run around although we stopped because we felt a bit creepy. If only we were that comfortable around each other already :(

I start teaching tomorrow and I am super nervous to meet all my three year olds. I am basically a babysitter because they don't speak any english and are too young to plan real lessons for. I get to give them their American names and I feel like I have my own little family! I also get to teach the teachers english and thats what I am truly nervous for because you cant just make paper butterflies with adults for an hour.

Some random Chinese children

We literally went insane being stuck in a sauna for 12 hours

It's Been Picture Perfect

Saturday night we went karaoke singing to get to know each other. It was quite the adventure. I sang Poker Face by Lady Gaga with another girl in my group and Im probably trying out for American Idol when I get back.

We attended a branch of church here in Ningbo and it was a really cool experience although it was quite the journey to get there. We had to ride the bus to the end of the route and then walk through the city for 20 minutes. It took us about an hour to get to the hotel we were supposed to meet at, but once we were there it was worth it. There is a family from Hungary living in Ningbo because the dads job has brought him here and same thing with another family from England. Our group leader, Craig, is from England and his wife is from Ghana. It was really cool to have all of us from around different corners of the world be together because of the gospel. Even across the world the church is true!

It rained real rain. Like real rain. Coming from vegas it was like seeing snow for the first time. Of course we took advantage of the rain and danced in it and did the ALS challenge.

There hasn't been a dull moment yet! We are going to Beijing this weekend and I can't wait to go sight seeing and shopping! Love and miss you all!