Things I have learned, advice, etc.

I am sad this experience has come to an end but so grateful I did it! I had the best time and loved China more than I thought I would!

This blog post is dedicated to things I wish I brought or knew, and things I did not expect.


I feel like even though China is way different, I did already expect many of the things I came across simply because I did a lot of research before I left. Not sure if this is really a good or bad thing. In a way it is nice to know what to expect so it isn't as much of a shock but at the same time not knowing anything would have made it a little more interesting.

-I came to China thinking I would never want a host family because it would be weird especially if we couldn't speak the same language. I wanted to live with the other foreign teachers and hang out with them but now I think the exact opposite! I wish ILP had volunteers living with hosts families. Chinese people are so sweet and kind and I love them! And charades isn't actually that bad either ;) I feel like why waste time in a foreign country hanging out with other Americans when I can really be immersing myself in the culture and local people? It truly makes the experience.

-I didn't expect to make many friends with the locals. Not really sure why I thought this. Maybe because I was living with the other foreign teachers and not with a host family. I figured I would be spending most of my time teaching and hanging out with the other foreign teachers and that I wouldn't have a way to meet locals. But I met a ton of people and made lots of friends! At our school the chinese coordinators who spoke English just happened to be around our age so we became really good friends with them. Lots of times random people would just come up and start talking to me and that is how I made friends, or friends of friends. Anyways the point is I made a lot more friends than I thought I would which is amazing!

-Which brings me to my next point: I wish I brought more "american" gifts to give to the people I met. In the ILP training packet they suggest bringing gifts for your local friends (especially in China because the chinese love to gift you gifts). And I thought I wouldn't need them. Now I seriously wish I had brought some things to give to my friends here. Not sure exactly what though.

-I really wish I learned Chinese! At least a little bit before hand. I actually picked up quite a bit. I have to say out of all the girls in my group I definitely think I learned Chinese the most and fastest. I am no expert still but I am pretty proud of myself. Most of the other girls had a hard time with certain things but I am amazed how well I picked it up, and Chinese is easier than I thought (from the little I have learned). But I still wish I had learned some beforehand and studied it more while I was there so I could have more conversations with people.

-I did wish I brought more american food like oatmeal or something. I did bring some but ate most of it within the first few weeks....

-But I didn't expect to like the food. I was never a big fan of asian food and I actually hated rice....and yes there are some weird foods but there is also good food! Especially tomatoes and egg which us a huge dish in China...who would think that's chinese food??


Some things I am glad I brought!
-hand sanitizer and travel tissues!!!!!!!!!!( Squatters...enough said.)

-student ID card! ILP did give us this student travel card that is supposed to give us discounts but not every place took it (since it did not say where we go to school) so I am glad I brought my BYU student ID card. I lost track of how much money I saved from activities during our vacations

-flashdrives: not sure why I brought these but they actually came in handy many times transferring files from computers and to school and stuff. it is much easier than having to email files.

-nice camera: I was a little worried about bringing my nice camera because I didn't want anything to happen to it but in that case why have a nice camera if you aren't going to use it? glad I did because I have to admit I got some amazing photos, and my friends sure appreciated it too

-laptop: used this more than I thought I would for lesson planning, blogging, keeping in touch with america, but more importantly for storing my photos on here. Because I took so many pictures and videos it could not possibly fit on my camera so I'm glad I had my computer to immediately download photos from each trip onto my computer. And just in case anything happened to my camera I could still have some photos.

-iphone: again wasn't sure if I should bring it since I couldn't have cellphone service at all in China (there is a way by getting a special sim card and international plan but I didn't find it necessary). There are so many great uses. This was great for taking pictures when I didn't have my camera, using imessage to keep in touch with people who have imessage and especially the girls in my group. I got many different chinese/translating apps. And I ended up getting an app called wechat to keep in touch with my chinese friends. There was a girl in my group who didn't bring her smartphone and everyday she regretted it so even if you don't have cellphone service I think it is a must bring item!

-flipflops for the showers, not in my apartment but in the hostels we stayed at because the showers can be pretty gross so it's always nice for that

-warm clothes! I looked at the weather for my city and even in november/december it stays in the 50s/60s so I thought I wouldn't need clothes for cold weather. But I brought some just in case we went north where it was colder. So glad I brought some jackets and long pants because we did go up north when it was cold AND even though it was only in the 50s and 60s in southern China it still felt really cold so warm clothes came in handy (OH and hot cocoa mixes)



Well that about wraps things up! Thanks everyone who has read my blogs and I hope you have enjoyed them! Thanks for everyone who has supported me! I finally have a video made of some of my video clips from my trip so check out my video on youtube here.

For now I am going back to school. But I hope to be able to have more adventures and when I do you bet I will blog about them here!

Great Wall + Beijing

The next day after Forbidden city we went to the Great Wall. We got a late start in the day unfortunately but ended up doing a tour package that included the Great Wall, Jade Factory, and Ming Tombs and lunch was also included.

So first we got on a nice bus with just us and the tour guide and she told us some cool things about Beijing as we headed to the jade factory. 

We got to learn a bit about jade and how it is cut. Jade is very hard so they use diamond to cut and design it! Then we got to wander around looking at the jade for sale until lunch.

We had lunch in the jade factory in a special fancy room. Very yummy and my favorite- moving tables!

Then we made our way to the Great Wall!

We only got about 2 hours on the wall which was too short for my liking. It was great while it lasted though. We took a tram up and hiked a little ways down. Very beautiful! And very steep.

We went to a part of the wall that was more new and reconstructed. It would be cool to see an older side too though.

While we were driving we could see the wall and we got SO EXCITED. This part you can tell has not been touched for centuries!!

another view as we were driving there

Me and Kayla

Totally candid photo- I love this I think it is so cute!

Posed like this just to be dorky but it actually turned out really cute/funny. I love it too

"WE'RE INSIDE THE GREAT WALL!"

Me Maegan Carina

After the Great Wall, it was getting late since we started the tour late but we were still able to head to the Ming Tombs for a few minutes. This is where all the emperors from the Ming Dynasty are buried. We just happened to be there right as the sun was setting which made for beautiful lighting and pictures. :)

These pillars are made from a single piece of wood/tree!

Carina Me Kayla

Thought this was a pretty cool shot!

Beautiful

As we were leaving the ming tombs we had to go through this archway, first "shaking off" the ghosts and spirits and saying a certain phrase as we use our right foot first to step through the arch.

Some other pictures of things around Beijing!

All the city buses run like electric cable cars

Old Traditional Chinese homes

There is a famous night market in Beijing that we went to. The street is lined with street food stands galore. It was really on my bucket list to try some street foods so I tried several things, including a starfish.

Notice the progression of my face as I am eating the starfish....

It was really hard. It wasn't disgusting but it definitely wasn't good.

Our last day in Beijing we had a half day before we went to the airport so some of us went to the National Museum of China. It is the largest museum in China and it was free. And it was actually really cool, I learned a lot and it was so interesting to see ancient Chinese artifacts. 

Last Days of China

Monday it was Sarah's birthday. We actually had plans to go biking that day anyways- I didn't even know it was her birthday because she never said anything. But Susan found out it was Sarah's birthday and decided to plan a big party and invite a bunch of people so word got out and instead of biking we went to dinner at this really fancy restaurant. So fancy that I had lamb, beef, pork, goose, shrimp, clam, and more all in one sitting. It was Carina and Me and the two girls who teach Laura. It was nice having the families there without the kids (except laura and yoyo). Whenever food was put on the table they always let us teachers go first. They refuse to take food until we have, and they are always serving us! Everyone takes turns feeding each other (putting food on each other's plates). Of course there was cake and Laura of course blows out the candles before Sarah has the chance.

These ladies even have their own group colors and jackets.

Hot corn juice. Actually really yummy :)

Sarah with her husband and daughter. Guess who blew out the candles? Her daughter Laura

We finally go around to biking, and what a beautiful day it was! This biking place I went twice- once with the other girls in my group and once with Sarah. It is so beautiful, farmlands and mountains.

I also went biking a third time at a different place with Sarah's family, Susan's family, Carina, Kayla, and more. This trail was a lot longer and a lot more secluded, we didn't go to the end but still biked about 30km.

They have scarecrows here too apparently!

The girls who were with us for summer camp but left for Changsha came back at the end of the week since they were flying out with us! We went to our favorite restaurant, called the Muslim restaurant because the owners are Muslim (but it is still Chinese food). It was a cool way to end the semester with them back since we haven't all been together since summer.

We gave our Chinese teachers and coordinators flowers and cards to say thanks for the semester and all they have done to help us! Afterwards our teachers said something to the kids in chinese and before I know it I am being mobbed by kids! They start hugging us and giving us kisses on the cheek. It was one of the best moments ever- I wish I could have gotten pictures but it happened so fast. And sometimes it is better to just enjoy the moment. Also Kris came up to me and handed me a roll of paper she drew on with tape. It was a little present she wrapped for me! Inside was a random pencil, crayon, and fan. It was if she found random objects and packaged them up for me but I absolutely love it. Especially her drawings on the "wrapping" paper which include random letters from the English alphabet. Along with her name spelled "Kirs" with some letters backwards haha. These kids seriously make me so happy :)

Ami! Our awesome Senior A coordinator!!!

I picked out these flowers for ami- pretty cute right?

Kris's gift for me:

 

my first flower arrangement I have ever made. I really like it!

Senior A chinese teachers! Jenny and Yanny, they are the best!!

 Saturday night Susan's friend invited us for dinner. We played with the kids until dinner was ready. There was a little snake in a bucket that is their "pet". Susan was super scared of it and I would pick it up and pretend to throw it at her and she screamed and ran around, it was great. We also climbed on the roof and got a great view of the town at sunset.

The family has a neice who lives with them and she is 17 and in high school. She is telling me that she goes to school from 6am to 10pm six days a week and still has homework when she gets home! I ask what she likes to do and she doesn't have many hobbies, because she doesn't have time! It is really sad, their schooling is rigorous. Even the teachers at Bond (my school) work too much! They are there usually until 4 or 5 and work six or sometimes seven days a week. They don't have much free time which is sad because we don't get to hang out much outside of school

-Our last day of teaching (Thursday) most of us stayed after school for the kids' dream stage. It is where all the kids show off the English songs they have been learning to the parents. Well earlier when my kids were practicing they started singing "we wish you a merry Christmas". It was so adorable and that is the first time I started getting teary eyed and after my student Linda came up to me and said "Teacher why are you sad?". It was really sad. But I am glad I stayed after to watch our kids perform on the dream stage and I even got to meet one of my students' mom. Judy is really quiet and her mom spoke some English and she told us that Judy wants to talk and play with us but he is really shy and doesn't know how to communicate. She didn't even want to go home until we had left!

Also at the dream stage I found out one of my students takes drum lessons so he played the drums for us. It was pretty cool.

-China doesn't celebrate Christmas but because we live in a more "westernized" city and there are more foreigners they like to put up Christmas decorations in our school and around town.

 

-Tuesday of our last week I got to ride with Allen, along with Maegan and Allie. He told us he is going out of town for a few days and that's when we realized it would be our last ever car ride with him! So of course we got a picture. Getting to meet Allen was actually really cool, at first I thought it was a little weird. But we have lots of great conversations with him and learn about the Chinese people. And he is taken us out to nice dinners a couple of times. Glad I got to be there for the last ride!

-Our last day was Friday and we got to go to the park and play games. It was really fun and then we got tons of gifts and cards from our students. Then we went to the classroom and played with them until nap time. I thought I would cry a lot but I was actually happy all day until right before we left. As the kids were getting in bed, they all said bye and I love you, making little hearts with their hands and then that's when I started to cry a bit. But me and Carina decided to surprise our kids the next Monday. Truth is we left some things at school so we grabbed them and guess who happened to be having outside time? Our class! They were so surprised and excited to see us. It was nice to see them again, some gave us hugs, and we got to leave on a more happy note. I'm grateful I got to see them one last time!

Monday the 15th was my last full day in China. Like I said I stopped by the school and saw my kids again. I also got my hair cut and washed at a Chinese salon- they even massage your head and neck and it feels wonderful.

Carina, Kayla, and I went to the Sun Yat Sun park one last time. They hadn't actually gone through the whole park and there are some cool things like caves so I took them there and we enjoyed our time taking in the city and beautiful scenery.

Of course I had dinner with Sarah and then headed over to Susan's house where I met up again with Carina and Kayla. We played with Susan's crazy kids and took pictures of course and said goodbyes!

Melanie, Hans, Susan, and Yoyo

Me and Phoebe! She is another friend, unfortunately her daughter wasn't here so I couldn't get a pic of her