Kate's Greats!: October 2011

So, I don't know who's gonna be reading my blog... but whatever! If you want to read it, feel free... if not, then I suggest you stop reading now! :P Well, tons of stuff has happened through out the last two months of my life! I think when I first got to China I was trying to keep it together, but was freaking out inside because it smells SO bad here... like poo, pee, fish, rotting flesh, and cigarettes all combined together. On top of the smell it was really hot and humid so that made it that much more pleasant. ;) I figured that there wasn't really anything I could do about the smell, so I just pretty much had to suck it up. We were then introduced to the school and I was shocked by the size! It is enormous! I was thinking we were going to be in this small elementary school, but I came to find out that this was the school for elementary, jr. high, and high school kids. These kids basically go to school here there entire life! I know if I had to go to school at the same place for that long that I would run away! Ugh! Their school schedules are so intense here too! These kids have class from 7:15am until 9:00pm!!! It's insane! I'm grateful that I don't have to teach that long! I teach Mon.-Fri. from 8am-11:30am and on Wednesdays, Em and I teach English Corner for a hour in the afternoon. Ok, I seriously love these kids, but teaching them is probably one of the hardest things I've ever done! Just imagine trying to teach a bunch of deaf kids how to speak English.... That's pretty much what we try to do here. The kids really do work hard, but they get distracted pretty easily and a lot of them fight with each other. It's a constant battle.... but, I really do love these kids! When a bunch of my group went to Shanghai for a week long vacation, so many of us missed our kids so much! When we got back our kids were so happy to see us! They literally all tackled us with hugs! I almost fell over! That whole day of teaching was wonderful! I don't think they ever behaved so well! Too bad that didn't last long! ;)
Well, I've been able to do quite a few things here in China! Some things we've done has been traveling, which has been really fun! We had only been here a couple weeks when we were able to go on our first vacation... It was pretty much just a long weekend, but we made the most of it! We hired a tour to take us to Beijing. The bus ride there was SO long!!! It would have been the equivalent of driving from central Utah to Southern California, but it took us about 3 hours extra to get there because we drove at night and China has a law where you cannot be on the roads between 2-5am. Ugh! So, our bus driver pulled over and we had to just sit in the bus and wait. I tried to sleep, but the bus and I don't get along so well. Finally, we got to Beijing and we were praying we could go to the hotel, but the tour guide people wouldn't let us go there... so we had to just stay in our crappy condition and walk everywhere until 3 pm. It was fine though because it was raining so hard that no one could tell that we were totally exhausted and dirty. :P We got to see Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City! The square was cool! There were a bunch of soldiers walking around and they do a flag ceremony. The Forbidden City was incredible! It is huge and there are tons of guardians and statues all over the place. From afar the buildings looks really cool, but the closer you get the better they look because they have tons of intricate detail on everything! It's very beautiful! I only wish that it was better weather that day. It was so rainy it was hard to see everything and also to get good pictures. Oh well... not much I could do, again. After they took us there we got lunch at some super ghetto restaurant. It makes me laugh because our tour guides kept telling us that they were going to take us to a bunch of really nice Chinese restaurants, but everywhere we went was WAY ghetto and the food was always exactly the same. Rice, rolls, and a bunch of boiled stuff. We finally got so sick of that food that we ended up protesting! We said take us to McDonalds or take us home! :P Just kidding... not really, but pretty much. haha! So, they ended up dropping us off at the Hotel and we just ended up going to some mall place and eating there. Seriously, shopping here is the greatest thing I ever!! It is so much fun because you get to barter with the sales people! It took most of us a while to figure out how to do it the right way, but once we got it it was so awesome because you could get stuff for ridiculously cheap! I think I got over 20 different things in Beijing that if I had gotten it at home would have spent three or four hundred dollars on combined, but I got all of it for about seventy. I was stoked! It really is so much fun because the people get so mad at you when you tell them to go lower, but the harder you play the better the results! I got a 100% long silk robe for only $8 when the lady wanted almost $400 for it. It really is awesome! Anyway, the next day we were able to go to the Great Wall, which was incredible! I thought it was pretty cool too because it was 9/11 that day. We also hit up the Summer Palace, the Olympic Stadium, and the Temple of Heaven while we were there! All of it was amazing! When we had our second vacation, we had a lot more time off, so we flew to Shanghai and stayed at a really cool hostel. It was super cheap! Only 50 bucks for 8 nights. The most expensive thing that we had to buy there was food though. We would eat Muslim Chinese food a lot though because they give you a ton of food and it's really inexpensive. But, I'm not gonna lie, I hit up McDonald's a few times while we were there. I've never been a fan before in my life, but here it is pretty much the greatest thing I've ever tasted! Hahaha! We could also eat in the lounge at the Hostel, but that was probably the most expensive place to eat... and I tried to avoid that area after the first couple of days we were there because I met a couple of guys and one of them turned out to be a stalker. Fun! Anyway, while we were in Shanghai we mostly shopped because it really is so addictive and fun to do! I got quite a few things for some of my friends and my family. My favorite thing that we have done so far though, was going to the water village! I absolutely loved that place! It's beautiful, crazy, and is kind of like how I expected China to be. It's very oriental and there are these gorgeous boats tours you can go on. We actually met this old man from Amsterdam and he came and hung out with us the entire day at the water village. I felt like I was hanging out with my Grandpa! He was so nice! He paid for our boat ride, our lunch, and later on, bought us all a bunch of bananas! Good man! Hahaha! Well, Shanghai was really fun... There were a few other things that we did, like going to a history museum, the Hershey's store, a Chinese Catholic cathedral, and the Shanghai civilized park. I seriously love Shanghai! There is so much to do there and things to see! If I ever come back to China, I want to stay in Shanghai!
Well, that's all we've done for vacations so far. I think we'll have another one in November for Thanksgiving, but I don't know where we are gonna go for this one. We have a little bit of time to plan something though. I honestly wouldn't mind staying in Weihai. It's a lot bigger than I imagined it to be and we've only seen a small part of it. I want to see all of it because I really am beginning to love this place. It's extremely different than anywhere I've ever been and even though the language barrier is pretty frustrating, it's just cool to see how these people live and get by day to day. The Chinese are very dedicated to work and very little to play, so they don't really know how to take a bunch of crazy American's who are constantly looking for a good time. It is pretty weird walking the streets because they really think that we are celebrities. They are always hollering at us, trying to take pictures with us, or forcing their children to say "hello". It's flattering when it happens (most of the time), so we just kind of go along with it.
Anyway, I'm sorry for the novel. That's my fault for
not writing consistently, so, I'm sorry and I will try to do better. I have more stories to tell, but I'll have to add them in some other posts because I gotta go! I'll write more later! Loves! :)