Sonya!

This has been my latest and greatest adventure. Sonya is this city right on the bay of the east china sea. it is absolutely gorgeous. comparable to Hawaii says everyone in my group who has been there. 

The beginning of Oct. is china's birthday so it's a really big holiday. well we got some plane tickets out for really cheap, probably about $50 American. so the traveling there was a breeze! we found this great hostel on the 12th floor of this building right across from the beach so we have a great view, and the walk to the beach is not far at all.  so the first day was spent eating fresh fruit sold in the little tent stands, and chilling on the beach. While at the beach a guy came around and let us hold his Alligator, that was exciting! i learned how to body serf, boogy board, and even got the basics of surfing because of great flirting skills shown by me, and my friend Jessica.

it's great how many people speak English! there also were many English teachers there in Sonya, since it's everyones time off, there were many cultures to encounter. we met a few Americans, some British, and some other European cultures. it's always weird and cool to find a white person. you kind of have an instant bond you know, knowing the same language and all, so we made a lot of friends, and met some really great people. there was a pretty big typhoon like our 3rd day there, but it was OK, we swam in the rain for a little bit. then chilled at a restaurant with some of our new pals. the power went out and all, it was intense. 

the next day we went to Monkey Island. there were monkeys every where. Jessica a girl in our group accidental brought a peach in with her and got attacked, it was really funny after the whole fact, she just through the fruit so don't worry no harm done. under trainer supervision we had the monkeys climb on us. i tried sitting next to one to take a picture but it bore it's teeth at me so i got scared. we saw this crazy monkey show while we were there. They road bikes, walked on tight strings, road bikes on tight strings. straight up circus act. my favorite of the things was this mountain goat climbed across this tight string with a monkey in a hand stand on its head. Amazing, but i was a little worried about animal cruelty the whole time. One messed up and we could hear it crying backstage after the worker took it off stage. 

after we went to monkey island we took a boat out to a fisherman's village. it literally is a village all on Styrofoam, crazy! we ate some great sea food! real fresh, just pulled out from the water right in front of our faces. we got to hold a puffer fish, and some other big creature. i pet a sea turtle, and some other big fish. ha, i know a lot about what i got to do hu? sorry. after that we took a ride to a secluded beach and played around for a couple hours just the 7 of us. we played "Lost" ha, we are not obsessed with that show at all (ok so we haven't missed a night of watching it this whole china trip, and we have a real hard time stopping, even after 2... or 3 episodes) 

We had train tickets to leave on Fri. so the rest of the trip we just played at the beach. they made the BEST ice cream i have ever had! they just smoothed up some mango's, and banana's and whatever else you want then just put it on this freezing board and mix it up oh wow! heaven! anyway fri comes. we go to the train station. there is another typhoon, so the train is canceled and there isn't another one leaving until sun night. we check out prices and there insanely high because of the holiday. so in the end we were lucky enough to get back into the hostel we were staying at before, and got plane tickets for Mon. afternoon. the rest of the trip was rainy till the last day was beautiful. The taxi ride from the airport home was difficult, but we survived. we ended up having to spend a lot more than planed because of the holiday and other complications, but in the end it was an incredible trip, that was life changing, and definitely memorable.

1st Vacation

The first vacation we went on was to gualine. It is absolutely beautiful there! it's actually the place Dr. Suess got his insperation. the mountains look exactly like the ones he draws! its so green and lush. We got to go bike riding through the mountains, and hiking. There is a cave there that is a big touristy spot. you enter the cave in a canoe type thing in an itty- bitty opening. then start to clime through the cave at one point there is a big mud hole. so we all striped down and jumped in. it was sooo fun. Did you know you float in mud? we played in there for quite a while, then washed off in this stream of water. we continued through the cave and finished washing off in this other pool of water. i never thought i would go swimming in a cave, it was a lot of fun. then at the end there was this beautiful water fall, it was basically just mist, but it still just drenched you. we stood at the top of it and sang. The Chinese thought we were crazy, but I'm sure they loved it! we took a sleeper bus to and from Guiling. The way people drive here it really is a miracle more people don't die here. It's  a miracle we're still alive. oh and on this trip i finally conquered my squatting fears. i squatted in some pretty nasty places too. All over china in smells like pee, poo, cigarettes, and nasty fish and meat. I'm starting to get used to the smell but at first i really felt like i could never breath. now i just breath the acid air deep into my lungs haha.

Teaching

We arrived in our city, and i absolutely LOVED it. Our apt. looks like one of those trashy New York apt. you see on T.V. We live right in the kindergarten, there are classrooms right below us and all around. The grounds are so cute. They are full of animal statues, play equipment, pools, and plenty of fun rooms where they learn to play these cool chinese instrements that look like harps but horizontal. They have a small gymnastics room, and even a.......... DANCE ROOM! (it just barely got finished being re done so i can finely go play on it!)

we get our meals prepared by a cook. we just go down to the kitchen and shovel some rice on our plates, then he always has some kind of vegitable dish and a meat dish. I'm getting more used to it now, and i usually like what he makes but in the beginning it was hard to get myself to eat some of the stuff, it definatly takes some acquiring.

The kids are so cute! many of them can be little brats, probably the most obnoxious children i have come in contact with but you can't blame them. they are in school from 8 am-7:00pm. and they go to school on sat! we only teach them from 8:30-11:30. i can't imagine having that much school, and 3 hours of it being someone speaking at you in another language. but some of them are little smarty pants, and they speak as good as a kid that age from America! oh yeah the kids are from 3-6 years old. I love playing with them, that is much more enjoyable to do than teach them. but the teaching is very rewarding when you can see their progress. i LOVE to hug them. i wonder how much love these kids get with always being in school, so when the little brat of the class lays their head in your lap, it's too hard to resist just loving them.

the begining

well I've been here a month so it's hard to start from the beginning, but i will try.

the plane ride was not so bad at all, i love flying, and i fall asleep easily... OK no matter where i am i fall asleep easy, but traveling is even easier. We flew to Taiwan, where i had my first encounter with a squatter... which after much time squatting i couldn't make myself use. luckily there was also the option of a western style toilet, so i was in luck. The other cool cultural difference was there was no drinking fountain, just paper (literally paper) cups and warm water. From Taiwan we flew to Hong Kong. A tour guide picked up the whole group (there was probably about 50 of us). a typhoon was brewing so he told us we needed to just go in the hotel because everything would be closed. we were so thirsty though so we walked around a little bit found a little shop that was open, and just enjoyed the rain for a bit. When we did get back to the hotel it was about 3:00 so we took showers, and then just fell asleep. i woke up at about 9 that night and the wind was pretty crazy. i got acquainted with more of my group then fell right back asleep. the next day it was still raining but we got a tour of Hong Kong in a bus, it's a very interesting place.

the next day was sunny, and the city was swarming with people, it blew my mind how many people could be on the streets, and there still be people at work and at home. i didn't understand what they all were doing, and why there would be so many people shopping at once. But when you look at the buildings and how crowded and tall each one is i guess it all makes sense, there is just A LOT of people in china.