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.