Weekend Adventures

So last weekend we rode the bus over to Walking Street. It's a large, cheap shopping area in more downtown Zhongshan. Sorry, no photos.

We mostly went to take a look around and see what was there. It was also our first real experience with other people's reactions to us. While walking around, a man with a chocolate stall gave us all a free piece of chocolate. And people sneak pictures of us all the time. It's always funny to catch them and then pose for them so they know you saw :)

When we were done looking at the shopping we stopped for some ice cream at a stall Christina remembered. She talked to the owner while we ate our ice cream. The next thing we knew, there were 10 people taking pictures of us eating our ice cream. My favorite was the mom taking a picture of her husband and son, but I could tell I was in the picture too. When they realized I noticed, the husband and son just came over to pose with me for the photo instead :)

The bus was kind of confusing because you pay when you get on going one way, but you pay when you get off going the other way... Luckily we figured it out without too much of a scene and a nice English-speaking man helped.

This weekend we decided to climb up to a pagoda we could see on the hill from the bus. When we started looking for how to get up, we discovered it was actually in a large park. Where we first went in was a big rose garden.

It took us a little while, and some thinking we were going the wrong way, but we finally made it to the pagoda! And we could even climb up to the top :)

View from the top!

Once we were done there, we went down a different way and discovered a big grassy area with a bunch of families hanging out. From there, the park just kept going. There were amusement rides, two big ponds, a zoo you could pay to go in... And by the time we found an exit, we were no where near where we went in.

Zodiac animal fountain!
With the addition of a phoenix to the right.
And you can see the pagoda in the back.

While wandering around we saw the same group of guys twice. When they saw us a third time they finally got up the courage to ask to take a picture with us :) I just wish we'd gotten a copy on one of our cameras too.

After we got out of the park we took a bus to Nanlang. Nanlang is where Christina taught last year and where Korrin will be going in February. On the bus we saw a dad and little girl we recognized from the park. The little girl had been too scared to talk to us :)

In Nanlang Christina showed us around a bit and then we ate street barbecue for dinner. There's just a bunch of stalls set up on the road with different meat and vegetables on sticks. You choose what you want and then they cook it up for you. It was yummy! (Once again no pictures because the camera was full and I didn't think to use my phone until later...)

Here are a few more pictures of the park:

Koi fish!
Sorry, don't know how to flip the image...

Food, Food, and more Food

Well, since I've been here (just over a week) we've already experienced quite a range of foods (including the New Year's party).

Our second day here Jo-Jo, one of our Native Coordinators (locals assigned to help our group survive in China), took us to a little dumpling shop just down the street from our apartment gate.

All of this for 4 yuan!

They are served with a peanut butter sauce for dipping. I'm personally not a big fan of peanut butter, and find it a little odd on my meat and noodles. It's not bad if you mix in some soy sauce and vinegar though. The dumplings themselves are delicious!

We've also gone to a little place we call Muslim Noodles- because it's ran by a Muslim couple and they serve amazing noodles!

Potatoes, bell pepper, meat and onions.
Only 14 yuan!

Muslim noodle shops can be found around China and they're soooo good! You can watch the chef make the noodles in the back of the shop and your plate is apparently all one noodle. They also serve yummy lotus root soup with the meal- I love the stuff. We almost always end up taking half of it home because there's so much.

Then there's also a place further down the street called Gina's Pizza. I think it might be bad that we've already found this place. They serve pizza, hamburgers, fries, spaghetti... and it all tastes pretty good too.

Pepperoni pizza... in China!

The only down side is that it costs more, and it takes them a lot longer to make the food. We're going to have to limit how much we eat here.

Finally, Christina introduced us to Taiwan Oolong Tea. They have super yummy smoothies!

Look! Finally a picture of me!

It's a Party!

This post is a bit of a backtrack... On Friday the 17th, Bond (the company that runs the school I'll be teaching at) had their big annual New Year's party. Everyone who works for Bond was invited, including all of us girls.

The party was a lot of fun. It was at a big, fancy Chinese restaurant.

Bond employees did short performances throughout the night. Some did a short comedy play, some did a historic skit, and several did song & dance numbers. One group did a dance to 'What does the Fox Say?' (which I filmed- it took up a lot of memory though, which is why there aren't a ton of pictures...).

They kept bringing out a new food dish every ten minutes. There was so much food still left at the end! The many choices included chicken (with the head on the plate), a whole fish, shrimp (with eyes and legs), pigeon, oysters (they were yummy!), a spongey yellow pastry, and vegetables. There were also four different drink choices- soda, milk tea, normal tea, and red wine for the New Year's toast.

All of the food just went onto a big Lazy-Daisy in the middle of the table and you took what you wanted and put it onto your plate.

I couldn't quite get myself to eat one of these.
Might have if I'd had a knife instead of
just my fingers...

Can you find the head? It can see you!

The party also included a raffle to win money. Everyone got a ticket before the party and their number got put into the box to win. As the night went on the pulled fewer names and the amount to win got higher. Several people from our group won!

My raffle ticket! Sadly I didn't win anything :(

At the end of everything, they had everyone get into a big group picture on the stage. It was kind of confusing for a while because they wanted us in the back on chairs, and then said get off, and then wanted us back on the chairs... Eventually everything was arranged. I felt a little bad being in the picture when we'd only been in China for two days. And sadly I don't have a copy of this picture :(

Home Sweet Home

Well, I've been here almost a week now (sorry I'm behind!), so I guess it's time to let you know about where I'm living.

I am living in the town of Zhongshan. I'll be teaching in the Shiqi area of the town starting in February (I'm currently teaching a winter camp somewhere else- more later), and our apartments are located in the Kaiyin area (we're down the street from the Kaiyin school).

Because there are 7 of us girls, we have two apartments. Each one has three bedrooms and can hold up to six girls. Right now, 4 are living in the downstairs apartment and 3 upstairs. I'm in the upstairs apartment and have my own room! At least until the rest of our group arrives...

Our two apartments! With the drying blankets...

The apartments are pretty nice. The only real issue is that they're freezing. It's light sweater weather outside, but we all turn into ice cubes in the apartment. The only temperature control we have is air conditioners in the bedrooms, so we've been piling on the blankets!

The beds are also much firmer than I'm used to... We'll just say my hips are sore.

Here's some pictures of the apartment:

    





Our door with a cute decoration the neighbor boy made for us. I'm pretty sure his grandma tried to tell us we needed some the other day, but she only spoke Chinese... I don't really know what it says either...

                           


They're the only neighbors we've really seen so far. I have heard someone practice an instrument (I think it's the piano) and there's an annoying yappy dog that lives downstairs.


Our apartment building is located in what's basically a large gated community with many apartment buildings. These gated communities are pretty common in the area. It's a pretty nice place with some great landscaping. I love the trees!

One of the gated entrances to our apartment complex.
There's always guards at the entrances.
One's particularly happy and always says
'Hello!' and "How are you?' when we go by :)

Part of a big pond between buildings outside my window.
There are ponds, fountains and plants all over the place!

And we're off!

To the airport that is. My flight wasn't until 5:45 PM, so I spent a lot of time sitting around the house ready to go and not having anything to do. When we finally got there Dad made me prove that I could carry all of my stuff by my self.

Then he was kind enough to help me :)

Chillin' before going through security:

I flew from Portland to L.A. where I met up with the rest of my group. The L.A. airport is super confusing. It took me about an hour to get from where I landed to the gate for my next flight. I had to leave the airport, walk up three terminals, up a floor, and then I had to go through security again :(


Leaving Portland

From there we flew to Seoul, Korea and then onto Guangzhou, China. Overall the trip took 26 hours and 19 were spent flying. This meant that we didn't really experience Wednesday- we left Tuesday and arrived in China on Thursday afternoon. All I have to say about the flights is that they were long and boring...


Our flights to Korea and China were on Korean Air. Probably the best airline I've been on. Everyone gets a blanket, pillow, slippers, toothbrush, and personal media center.

Not to mention the stewardesses are adorable!

By the time we got our luggage we had asked 5 people for directions (one of them twice) and gone through security 3 times. At least in Asia you don't have to take off your shoes!

But in the end we got all of our luggage (no missing bags!), found the ILP representative, made it to the bus, got everything loaded and drove to the apartments where we'll be staying.

Packing...

I am not a fan of packing. And I found packing for such a long amount of time to be especially hard. I was told it would be chilly in the beginning, but that the majority of my stay in China would be hot and humid. It's no easy feat to pack for both kinds of weather, add enough clothes that I don't hate my wardrobe too much, and take all of the teaching supplies- all in three suitcases that have to stay underweight to avoid outrageous charges.

Needless to say, things kind of exploded all over the house for a while and I was skeptical about it all fitting.

Eventually I got it all in...

... until Dad came home and wanted to weigh the unzipped suitcase.

T-7 Days!

It's crazy to think that at this time next week I'll be on an airplane to China! Actually, I think I'll be waiting in an airport... BUT this is happening :) I'm going to China- for 6 months. The reality of this is beginning to set in and I'm starting to get a little worried about finishing everything in time. 

Any-who, I figured a blog would be the easiest way to keep everyone who cares up to date about what I'm doing (not to mention I get to use the wonderful blogging skills I picked up at work). 

My goal is to post once a week while I'm in China; it could end up more and hopefully not less, but I'm making no promises ;)

I will do my best not to bore you with my ramblings and stick to the interesting stuff- and of course post many pictures of cute children and all things Chinese!

Feel free to spread the word to anyone you think would be interested!