Annie

FYI

2009-12-13T15:10:00.000-08:00

I lived in China for 6 months.

I can beat you up with my super sweet Kung Fu skills.

I make some pretty tasty sweet and sour chicken.

I will beat you at ping pong.

I do not look like my light featured siblings.

But contrary to popular belief, I am not Asian.

I was not adopted, my mom did not get friendly with the milk man, and my genealogy traces all back to Europe.

Just thought I would clear that up. Sank you!!!

I promise I was a better teacher than this!

2009-09-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

They were just so stinkin' cute when they were naughty!

I miss them. I like them WAY better than the paper I'm procrastinating writing tonight.

Children's Day in May

2009-08-02T12:22:00.000-07:00

In the words of Kate...

The month of May was spent in a frenzy of canceled classes and song practices in preparation for capital C, capital D Children's Day.

I spent this time warbling the Hello song and vainly trying to bribe two-year-olds into singing with me. (Luckily the babies were cut from the program.) Meanwhile, the Chinese teachers labored to bring about a full-scale song and dance production, the cuteness of which was unreal.

But despite having quit childhood years ago, I was not exempt from this exhibition. For weeks we spent our afternoons in the dance room, nervously sweating on the not-yet-buckling hardwood as the ordinarily sweet Lulu turned into a dance Nazi ("YI er san si wu LIU QI ba!").

We did our best to follow her contemporary fast-paced creation, but our only directions were in rapid-fire dance-teacher Chinese. All I can say is, I am so very grateful for my back row placement. Just put me behind Teacher Iki and everything is fine. Thank you.

The final product featured belly shirts, streamers, and some very fierce running. Twas epic.

Goodbye China!

2009-07-12T16:07:00.000-07:00

I don’t miss:

China’s government blocking blogger, youtube, and occasionally gmail.
My rock hard bed.
Falling asleep to the sound of firecrackers for a whole month straight.
Falling asleep to the sound of frogs when the firecrackers stopped.
Crusty, half clean clothes from the lack of a decent washer and no dryer.
Rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Being treated to dinner and being forced to eat strange things until I am beyond full.
Chicken legs, unidentified seafood, pigs blood, tofu, seaweed, shrimp brain, pickled turnip, frog, cow stomach, mystery Chinese meatloaf which we termed “Barf bars”, and bugs in my what the Chinese say "weggitables".
Being grossed out at meat markets when live dogs were on the table with the meat then realizing that the poor dog was the meat.
Ginger
Having friends treating me to a full McDonald’s meal as an afternoon snack and expecting me to eat it all.
Public slurping, burping, loogie hucking, and nose picking.
Classy looking toilet paper rolls on tables at every local restaurant.
Durian (garbage fruit) smelling grocery stores.
Holes in the ground that are supposed to be toilets.
Men ranging from ages 2 – 85 peeing on the side of the road.
Men’s pinky fingernails that are over an inch long.
Man purses.
Weak sauce handshakes.
Chinese drivers.
No traffic regulations.
Feeling lucky to fit into Chinese size XXL.
The hot and sticky 30 minute walk from the school to the bus stop.
Sleeper buses.
Chinese opera.
Ridiculous swine flu precautions.

But I do miss:

Strangers randomly asking for my email address and for a picture with them.
Being treated to dinner by friends at least once a week, even though the food was scary.
Christmas music blasting in all months of the year.
Seeing a family of four on a motorcycle and thinking that there was probably room for two more.
Street sweepers who swept even when it’s pouring outside.
$.07 amazingly good dumplings by the bus stop.
Thinking that a $6 shirt is a rip off.
Cheap DVD stores
Cheap bakeries and our school cook’s pineapple bread.
$5 hour-long foot massages, $2.50 pedicures, and $2.50 hair washes.
Getting so used to cheap Chinese prices that I would get on someone who owed me 2 yuan, which converts to $.28.
People introducing themselves with interesting English names such as Tiger, Denial, Yoyo, Rain, Snow, and Linthy.
Our neighborhood badminton man, morning Tai Chi group, the cute old man who hits himself for exercise, and the “Ni Hao/hello” girl.
Cute old people line dancing and hanging out in parks with crazy cool outfits.
The ways we entertained ourselves on the 30 minute, hot and sticky walk to the bus stop such as the discussion of the different methods of time travel, the connecting celebrities game, and long conversations about ice cream and other Western Food.
The 30 minute bus commute to school where I listened to books on tape and podcasts.
Nerts and Chinese Checkers.
English interpretations on signs.

"Do not disturb - tiny grass is dreaming"

Getting four day vacations once a month.
Parasailing on the coast of Southern China.
Bargain shopping and knock-off everything.
Riding scooters in the pouring rain with my mom in the most beautiful place in the world.
Riding bikes in Xian and being blown away by the Terracotta Warriors.
Hiking the Great Wall of China.
The city lights in Hong Kong
Zoos with no animal rights laws.
Spur of the moment outings with Chinese friends; having no clue what we are going to do and no way of finding out.
Chinese Karaoke
The Children’s Day performance and all of our crazy ridiculous practicing for it.
Kung Fu lessons with Spring and Josh.
Chinese lessons with Candy and Tina.
Cooking lessons with Daniel and Michael.
Chinese nights with the Chinese teachers at our school.
My Chinese family, Brian, Jenny, and Tao Tao.

And mostly, I miss my kids.

Their smiles and giggles, their voices, their little attitudes, their high fives, their hugs and kisses, and their unconditional love.

It's been an incredible 6 months.

Squatter

2009-05-08T18:36:00.000-07:00

Since Chinese toilets look like this,

we sometimes need reminders on what to do when we occasionally come across a western toilet.

In a typical park in China you will find...

2009-05-08T17:40:00.000-07:00

more adults than children
workout equipment instead of a playground
Adult sized monkey bars
At least 4 ping pong tables cemented into the pavement.
an occasional back massager thingy
Over 100 people gathered around a stage doing Chinese line dances. It's a pretty normal thing here.

Results of humidity

2009-05-08T17:09:00.000-07:00

mold infested bathroom ceiling
moldy scripture case
moldy suitcase
moldy ipod armband
moldy flip flops
bad hair day, everyday
damp, musty smelling clothes
permanently wet couch
Mold covered Mr. Mosquito (this is Kristy and I's science experiment... he has been squashed on our window for 3 months now. )
And most recently, I found my most comfortable church shoes in the whole wide world under my bed... moldy.

CURSE YOU HUMIDITY!!!! I will never complain about Arizona dry heat again.

Some pretty cool places

2009-05-07T01:01:00.001-07:00

Chengdu

Panda Breeding Center

World's Largest Buddha -

The Giant Buddha of Leshan

Okay, I may or may not have gotten the picture below from google images... but I didn't want to wait in a 5 hour line to get a picture from this angle! But it's SO cool!

Tibetan Street

Cool Market

Swine Flu precautions were taken at our hostel. The government ordered the hostel owner to kill his pig!

Zhu Hai

We visited Debbie and Jeanette's friend, Michael. He was pretty much awesome.

Yangshuo

Biking!

Rice paddies and village

Boat ride down the Li River

Water Buffalo!

Mud caves and hot springs

This is my only decent picture of us in the mud because of the annoying nude man who decided to jump in all of our pictures! He's pretty covered in this one.

Sweet and Sour Sh**

2009-04-22T07:33:00.000-07:00

Highlights of the day:

1. Helping Spring pass out flyers for his new Karate studio.

2. Having an anxiety attack while weaving through crazy Chinese traffic when taking a turn driving Spring's scooter. We barely survived. Spring's words illustrate the scene perfectly, "Aa-nee! Be careful to cars!!!" It was a pretty fun anxiety attack.

3. When Seantay asked Spring what we were just served at dinner, he replied, "Sour and sweet sh**!" (aka sweet and sour fish... at least that's what I'm hoping!)

Hungry?

2009-04-20T01:48:00.000-07:00

This was what we were served for lunch on Friday.

And just so you know, I ate every bite.

Plus, I enjoyed it.

Today, Kate found a rather large caterpillar in her veggies.

She calmly picked it up, threw it outside, then pounded the rest of those veggies.

She also drank/ate half a bottle of ketchup in Yangshuo.

Well, she has been deprived of it for three months.

I think our food standards are dropping dramatically.

Why teaching at Bond Kindergarten ROCKS:

2009-04-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

I get to teach the cutest kids every day!

We have awesome Chinese teachers and friends at our school. Every Thursday night is "Chinese Night", where we have dinner and hang out with the Chinese teachers! We've had a karaoke night, a sports night, a dance party, a game night... the list goes on. We practice our Chinese, they practice their English, and we all have a blast!

These guys are pretty cool too, I guess:

We get Chinese lessons four times a week.
We get cooking lessons once a week. This consists every week of chopping up some sort of veggies and meat, throwing it into a large pan, then adding soy sauce, ginger, chicken powder, and at least a gallon of oil. It's no wonder all of our food tastes the same!
We have Kung Fu 3 times a week! Now a little bit about Kung Fu...

This is Spring, our Kung Fu instructor. He's pretty much awesome.

He wants us to be very dedicated and asked us to come to Kung Fu every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We compromised and so we go every Friday, Saturday, and Monday. And if I may say so myself, we are pretty intense...

Spring brought his camera on Friday to take pictures of us. He was excited because after two months of class, everyone finally started getting the splits!

Well that is, everyone except me...

So every class during "splits time" when Spring yells at me in his broken English to "KEEP DOING" the splits, when he pushes my legs down farther and farther until I am crying and laughing at the same time, even though I am not down like everyone else, I just want to say to him,"Spring! Do you know how freaking AWESOME I'm doing given the flexibility genes, or lack thereof, that I have inherited?! Do you realize that my father can't even correctly kneel to pray because it hurts him so bad?! Did you know that my mother pulled a hamstring doing a little cartwheel in front of her young women during mutual?!"

But don't worry about me, I'll totally have the splits in another couple of months. And I am going to greet everyone at home with a karate chop and a jump into the splits, so WATCH OUT! I won't look like a fool for long... I know Karate!!!

A sleeper bus ride at it's best

2009-04-08T06:12:00.000-07:00

I can't take credit for this post. This is written in the words of my witty China-mate, Kate:

Wheels on the Bus

5:31 PM - Passengers board the bus, having drank very little all day to prepare their bladders for the journey. I put my shoes in a plastic bag and try not to smell my blanket.

6:17 PM - Hoo, we're flying now! At LEAST 45 mph!

7:21 PM - Travel Scrabble ceases as it is now too dark to see.

7:59 PM - All of the food is gone. All of it.

9:33 PM - Annie really has to go and is considering the funnel option. Does anyone have an empty water bottle?

10:02 PM - Rest stop. I squat over a trench behind half a brick wall and realize I left my T.P. on the bus.

10:37 PM - Sleeping pill administered.

10:46 PM - The guy in front of me lights up.

11:15 PM - The bus isn't moving.

12:01 AM - Where the hey AM I?

2:47 AM - More importantly, where the hey are my shoes?

2:49 AM - I miss... rice...

5:30 AM - Estimated arrival time comes and goes.

6:29 AM - Rest stop. I find it ironic that I am paying someone actual money to pee in a hole in the ground. Oh well.

6:40 AM - Debbie starts singing the Alligator song.

6:40.02 AM - Debbie stops singing the Alligator song, but the damage is done. I'll be singing it the rest of the day, if not my life.

7:18 AM - iPod batteries are dead.

9:26 AM - That baby is inconsolable. Give it up.

10:17 AM - We seem to be going through a bus wash. Who knew that such a thing even existed?

10:56 AM - Katie finishes Northanger Abbey with her typical impeccable timing. I don't know how she does it.

11:29 AM - Actual blessed arrival time. I dig my shoes out of the bag (no mold that I can see, bonus!) and try not to smell myself. Guilin/Yangshou, we have arrived.

Thank you, Kate, for illustrating that so perfectly. You are a genius.

In the words of Jerry Seinfeld

2009-03-22T02:04:00.000-07:00

"I'll tell ya what I like about Chinese people... as long as we're on the subject. They're hanging in there with those chopsticks... still using chopsticks. You know they've seen the fork. Oh, they're well aware that we have the fork... and the spoon. I don't know how they missed it - Chinese farmer gettin' up and working in the field with a shovel all day... HELLO! Shovel. There it is! You're not plowing forty acres with a couple of pool cues."

SANYA!

2009-03-18T02:05:00.000-07:00

~China's Tropical Paradise~

Highlights:

Beach!!!

Mr. Alligator Man

Photo shoot with alligator

Parasailing!

Our boat driver took this exact same picture of us with his camera and these guys paid him for a copy of it! We are just that cool.

About to "drag an umbrella." Apparently, the Chinese people don't know that we already have the word "parasailing," so they use this phrase instead.

It was so fun! I only was a little scared when I dropped to the water at one point and my feet went in to almost my knees. I wasn't sure if that was supposed to happen.

Cute street vendors

Non-highlights:

The supposed 12 hour sleeper bus ride that turned into a 25 hour journey.

It was a little claustrophobic.

Looking happy during a bathroom break.

Waking up to a Chinese man sleeping in his underwear in the hostel bed across the room from me.
Chinese men in speedos.

These creepos even asked to take a picture with us. But I guess I'm creepy too because I had them take a picture with my camera also.

District Conference in Guangzhou

2009-03-01T02:58:00.000-08:00

Today we were able to travel to Guangzhou for the annual Beijing China International District Conference. It was so neat to be able to meet with members from all over Southern China and the world and to be able to learn more about the Church's standing in China and throughout Asia.

Elder Stanley Wan, an Area Seventy, and Elder Anthony Perkins, 1st Counselor of the Asia Area Presidency, were there. After Conference, they had a luncheon and a Q&A Session for the Young Single Adults, which was incredible!

The Southest Asia Mission was formed under my great-grandpa, G. Carlos Smith, in 1969. Upon returning home he said,

"The Lord's church and the priesthood are now in Southeast Asia. As the people heed the message of the gospel, this vast area of the world will grow and prosper in goodness and truth. The blessings of heaven will be evident, and the kingdom of God will roll forward. I commend our wonderful brethren and sisters in Southeast Asia and join hands with them in a humble prayer of gratitude and thanksgiving for the Lord's goodness to us all."

I am so grateful that I am able to see and experience a part of the fruit of the work that my grandpa and grandma started so many years ago.

A typical ride home from school

2009-03-01T02:38:00.000-08:00

Okay, not really. It's normal to hear Chinese people raise their voices when talking, but this was a little out of the norm. The argument had started about 5 minutes before I started sneakily filming. Jeanette didn't hear the first part of the argument but by the time she tuned in, she said that they were arguing about which one had bad manners and about who had started cussing first. My favorite is at about second 25. And the special video bonus is the attractive security guard that walks by before I zoom in on the argument.

School vegetables, caterpillars, and Cold Stone

2009-03-01T01:42:00.000-08:00

I love our school's vegetables. Maybe it's because they are drenched in oil and garlic or maybe it's because they are so very fresh. Here they are, growing in the school's garden.

We aren't quite sure how our chef cleans these vegetables. On more than one occasion, we have found bugs on our plate. This Friday, it was a caterpillar. This Friday, I also discovered that Debbie worked at Cold Stone in high school. So this Friday, after our unsatisfying caterpillar veggie meal, we indulged ourselves and spent our whole 30 minute walk from our school to the bus stop asking Debbie about her favorite flavor combinations she made while working at Cold Stone. Yes, it was a 30 minute conversation, interrupted only by the snake-looking worm on the side of the street. I don't know why I enjoy this video so much but I do.

This Friday, I also decided that I would eat a caterpillar for a bowl of Cold Stone ice cream, if given the opportunity. I would maybe even eat the snake-looking worm. And if Debbie and Kristy weren't willing to eat their caterpillars, I would eat Debbie and Kristy's caterpillars too so that I could eat their bowls of Cold Stone ice cream. With these three caterpillars, I could get three bowls of ice cream! One with half chocolate ice cream and half mint ice cream with brownies and Reeses. And I could get one with cheesecake ice cream with graham cracker pie crust, strawberries and almonds. And I could get one with chocolate ice cream with carmel, coconut, brownies and pecans. Speaking of pecans, I want Pecan Praline Aggie Ice Cream. And speaking of Aggie Ice Cream, I want Lemon Custard Aggie Ice Cream. And on that note, I am now going to go eat some rice.

Valentine #4

2009-02-14T03:51:00.000-08:00

I thought my Valentine's Day adventures were over. I was wrong. Kristy and I walked to the market after dinner and randomly ran into a Chinese attempt of a Valentine's celebration. A rather toned man was performing what I can only describe as a Chinese tribal/ballet performance. It was INCREDIBLE. And I fell in love. Unfortunately, this is the best picture I got of it.

After, Kristy and I got the courage to ask to take a picture with him. Unfortunately, he put his shirt back on before we took the picture. We received roses and then were asked to go on stage with him to take a group picture. We couldn't stop laughing.

Oh, the random happenings in China.

This is a Valentine I got today from, Lulu, a Chinese teacher at my school.

Ha! I love her.

Introducing Valentine's Day to my Valentine(s)

2009-02-13T21:05:00.000-08:00

Valentine #1

LEO

Valentine #2

LUCAS

Valentine #3

WILLIAM

We have a Chinese cooking class every Thursday with our cook, Michael. This Thursday, we taught Michael how to make sugar cookies for our Valentines Day party instead.

We made millions of Valentine's for the Chinese teachers and kiddos.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

I LOVE China and I LOVE Chinese people even more.

Time off teaching means...

2009-02-08T00:16:00.000-08:00

Adventures at Walking Street:

People stare and take pictures of us all of the time because we are Americans. We decided to give them a better reason to stare and take pictures of us. Please notice in this video the applause I got when I shimmied. Yep. China loves me.

8 lunch/dinner appointments:

I gave up taking pictures after the first few meals. I can't believe how often people want to take us out to eat! The restaurants they take us to are usually Dim Sum style restaurants, which basically means family style. They order a million different things for us to try but hardly eat anything themselves. And they expect us to clean our plates... over and over and over again. If we don't take more food ourselves, they make sure we get more by putting more and more and more food on our plates. The food is great, but I get SO incredibly stuffed, because in China it is rude not to eat everything that we are given. I thought that I would be starving in China, not complaining that I am getting fed TOO much! Poor, poor, me. Life is rough here.

Two red envelopes from Jane and her friend, Allan, earning me a total of 45 yuan:

Bowling:

It was Amy and Kevin's first time bowling.

This is Jane's mom, who tags along with Jane everywhere. She can't speak one bit of English, but she is so darn cute and we all love her.

Potsticker cooking lesson from Amy:

This is Amy.

Her parents are friends with Jane so she came down to visit Zhongshan for the past month. I LOVE this girl! These are my top three favorite "Amy" stories:

1. She went out to McDonalds with some of the girls I teach with. She came back home with them at around 8, holding her stomach, and saying she was SO full. I noticed she had a bag of KFC in her hand. I asked her what it was and she said that she was saving it for her breakfast the next morning. Got to love day old KFC for breakfast! About an hour later, she pulls out her KFC and started to eat it. I said, "Amy, I thought you were stuffed!" She replied after she swallowed a bite of her chicken sandwich, "I am, but it just tastes SO good." I'm afraid she has been "Americanized" by us.

2. Me and my roommate Tiann have a favorite Chinese song on my Chinese version of Now 21 CD. Tiann asked Amy for a translation and she said it was about a girl's "nipple." The singer thinks about her "nipple" at work and at school and before he goes to bed at night and he gets distracted by it when he's with her. Umm. What?! Our FAVORITE Chinese song is DIRTY? We later found out that Amy got the words "nipple" and "dimple" mixed up. So I can still listen to my Chinese dimple song, thank goodness!

3. Our potsticker making adventure! Me and Amy went to a sketchy meat market where we purchased fresher than fresh pork and shrimp. As I was staring in disgust at every body part of this poor pig, I glanced to the side of me to find a lady chasing a rat down the drain with a broom. Amy asked me to hold the bag of shrimp for her while she purchased the pork. I grabbed the bag and about freaked when the bag started jumping! The shrimp were still alive! As we were leaving, Amy said she was grossed out because she just saw a dead "dinosaur." I looked and saw a dead alligator, right next to live snake, turtle, eel, and something that looked like a sting ray. I also saw a chicken's head get cut off. It was great. And traumatizing.

Don't let these things fool you like they fooled us. They are definitely still alive in this picture. When we poured cold water in the pan and put it on the stove to boil, they started jumping out of the pan and onto the counter. We were all screaming like a bunch of little girls. In my opinion, shrimp look much cuter pink.

I cooked. I ate. It was the most delicious pork and shrimp potstickers I have ever had. And I didn't get even get sick from the dirty, sketchy, traumatizing meat market meat. That was a pleasant surprise.

Dr. Sun Zhongshan Museum, Science Museum, and mini amusement park:

Planning, tours, and transportation were all provided by Allan. We are spoiled and we know it.

I guess this is how chinese people ski without snow. Arizona could use this amazing idea.

Overnighter with Mandy:

Debbie and Jeanette had some Chinese students stay over at their house last summer. One of them was Mandy, who lives on the other side of Zhongshan, and she invited us to go spend the night at her house. We spent the afternoon at one of the coolest/prettiest parks I have ever seen.

Her grandpa, Mr. Leung, was SO nice and friendly. He gave me my Chinese name, Hong Fu, which means "very lucky and blessed". He also invited us into his room where we all sat on his bed and watched him perform for us on his karaoke machine.

The next day, we went out to lunch and went shopping. I spotted a rather funny looking hat and I was pretty amused by it. It said "Chinese (then, Chinese characters that I later found out meant Kung Fu), wonderful!" I even asked how much it was because if it was under 10 yuan (about $1.50) I was willing to buy it at a joke. It was 50 yuan. And the lady wouldn't bargain. Sad. Later we walked by the stand again and I picked up the hat again and tried to bargain again. The lady wouldn't budge so we went to a different stand. 3 minutes later, Mandy tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a bag. Inside was my HAT! She said, "I got it for you becarse it is very special becarse it has English AND Chinese characters and I know you will be happy if you have." She was right. I am very happy with my special "Chinese Kung Fu, wonderful!" hat. And very grateful that she bought it for me.

Oh. And she asked me if I was Chinese. That's three!

17 more ILP teachers living just a 10 minute walk away from us:

More ILP teachers means MORE fun! We have been playing indoor soccer and basketball in the mornings and I couldn't be more happy about that.

Can you GUESS the cost of ALL of this entertainment?!

$FREE.99

Like I said, we're spoiled and we know it.

Fun in Foshan:

We went on a day trip this past Saturday to Foshan, a city a couple of hours away from Zhongshan. Not a free trip, but very cheap. We explored the Ancestor Temple and the Ancient Nanfeng Kiln. It was a blast!

Other Shenzhen adventures

2009-01-27T21:15:00.000-08:00

We went to the Chinese Cultural Village all day on Monday. It was SO cool and interesting to learn more about China's history and culture. I loved it!

We went on a zip line off this ledge. It was SO fun.

We were the "Mickey Mouse" of the Cultural Village. Parents would shove their kids at us to get a picture. Because we Americans have a lot to do with the Chinese culture, you know.

Before we caught our bus back to Zhongshan on Tuesday, we went shopping in the hugest market I have ever seen! Oh, how I love bargain shopping. I was feeling a little guilty because I bought a purse, knock off Tiffany's earrings, and two rings. And I still have 5 months left here in China to cave and buy more things! But all guilt was swept away when I realized that the American equivalent to the 70 yuan I spent was $10!

Chinese New Year Traditions

2009-01-27T20:40:00.000-08:00

Red Envelopes: THe Chinese "trick or treating"

On New Years, children go to elder family members and say, "gong xi fa cai" which basically means, "Happy New Year, I wish you wealth this year." The elders will then give the child a red envelope filled with money.

Orange trees: The Chinese Christmas tree

Orange trees are a symbol of good fortune

Dragon and Lion Dances:

Dragons are believed to bring good luck, which is reflected in their qualities that include great power, dignity, fertility, and wisdom. We saw three dragon/lion dances on the streets

Firecrackers:

Yes, they are so loud that you can't even hear the dragon music. Yes, they go off ALL night. And Yes, they are still going off at night and will be going off all week. No, I am not sleeping well.

Apparently, fires everywhere in the streets and car alarms going off right and left are not concerns here.

New Years Eve

2009-01-27T20:10:00.000-08:00

Sunday night was New Years Eve. We got back to our hostel in the evening and headed to a plaza nearby to watch fireworks. Cormick's mom was so kind and bought us sparklers and fireworks.

I feel guilty for ever being bugged that Cormick and his parents invited themselves on our trip. They were only helpful and kind to us the entire trip. They helped us purchase bus tickets, helped us find our way around a Chinese speaking city completely foreign to us, let us borrow their cell phones during the hostel mix up, took the other group out to dinner while we were at the concert in the middle of nowhere, and then bought us sparklers and gave us detailed instructions on how how to use them (maybe they didn't know that there are fireworks in the United States? Yes, Cormick's dad, I know the sparklers are intense, but I figured these things out a while ago)

I still don't know why they wanted to spend their New Years with a bunch of random Americans, but I sure am grateful that they did! I don't know how we would have survived without them!

This isn't anything new, but there were more people staring at us than at the fireworks. We have had stares before and crowds before, but this was the most INTENSE paparazzi we have ever had. They followed us wherever we went. These people might have seen white Americans before but white Americans WITH sparklers just threw them over the edge.

I think this might be my favorite picture. I had to squeeze through our crowd to get a picture of our paparazzi from the outside because it gives a much better perspective. Realize that just 20 feet from this group of people, the plaza is pretty much empty.

Guess what we were doing when all of those people were crowded around us? Purchasing cotton candy at a cotton candy stand! No wonder they closed in on us and took all those pictures and wouldn't let us out. We were doing something really cool. My new goal is to give them a real reason to stare. Any suggestions?

Church in China

2009-01-27T19:53:00.001-08:00

We won't have guys in our group until February and until they get here, we can't take the Sacrament in Zhongshan. We have been having "church", but it is just not the same without the Sacrament. I was very grateful to be able to go to church and take the Sacrament in Shenzhen. After taking a two hour bus ride the day before, spending much more money than budgeted for unplanned hostel costs and taxi rides, and waking up at 6 so that we could make it to church by 10, we had a couple of mix ups with taxis and bus schedules Sunday morning and almost didn't make it to church on time for the Sacrament. By some miracle, we made it right on time as they stared singing the opening song, "Come, Come, Ye Saints." Did the pioneer saints realize as they crossed the plains and suffered severe trials that in less than two hundred years, a group of Latter Day Saint girls would be coming from Zhongshan to Shenzhen, CHINA so that they could attend the same church that they were members of? Did they realize how fast the Church would grow and what an impact they were making on the generations ahead of them?

I learned that there are 2,000 native Chinese Latter Day Saints who are "miracle members." They somehow find out about the Church on their own, make the journey to Hong Kong to get baptized, and then return to mainland China where they are then allowed by the government to be a member of one of the Chinese branches, which have more regulations than the Chinese international branches. Our church is in very good standing with the Chinese government because we will only go into China through the front door. I can't wait for them to completely let us in! And what a huge responsibility these "miracle members" will have when they do! The entire three hours of church was amazing and made me realize how much I take for granted a church building that is in walking distance from me.

Our friend, Jess, is from Ireland and is also a teacher in Zhongshan. She decided to come to Shenzhen with us for the weekend and even went to church with us. It couldn't have been more perfect for her. One of the speakers talked about Magonus Succetus (St. Patrick, who she was very familiar with) and our Sunday school lesson was on the first vision. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said that she would read it. She couldn't believe that a three-hour church meeting could go by so fast and she was very glad that she came. This is Jess and I on New Years Eve.

Oh ya. And the government also lets Chinese spouses of LDS people get baptized so maybe I WILL find my husband here... HA.

My first Chinese concert!

2009-01-27T19:37:00.000-08:00

So late Saturday night, we are bummed about our hostel situation, we are starving because we haven't had dinner yet, and we are in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do. We walked about two miles and much to our surprise ran into the most amazing thing ever: a free outdoor concert! When we got there it was just barely starting so we had a pretty good position in the crowd. I noticed a few things while at the concert:

1. More people were staring at us than at the performance.

2. We were not following Chinese concert etiquette. When we clapped and screamed after a song was over, we got the same reaction that we would have gotten had we clapped after a song in Sacrament meeting.

3. The singer was absolutely thrilled that Americans were at his performance. His back up singers carried him on a piece of wood off the stage and over to us so that we could touch his hands. Later, he gave Tiann a ring and he personally put it on her finger. It was hilarious!

4. I recognized one of his songs! It was the Chinese rock version of "If You're Happy and You Know it Clap Your Hands". Except I don't remember being taught as a child to do a pelvic hip thrust when I'm happy. He threw that little shocking twist in himself. Please watch and enjoy this as much as I do:

We left a little before the show was over because it was after nine and we still didn't have dinner. A backup singer ran after us when we left, gave us his number, and told us to call them in an hour when their show was over so that we could get drinks together. Well, we didn't call. We were too afraid of the pelvic hip thrust. Unintentionally getting it on video was enough for us.

We went to a restaurant and we were thrilled because they had American food! I got pizza but it tasted like quiche. But the quiche tasting pizza didn't not taste like noodles or rice so I was very happy and satisfied.

Xin Nian Kuai Le or in other words… HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2009-01-27T17:22:00.000-08:00

Chinese New Year was this Monday so we went to Shenzhen for a long weekend trip. We went mainly so that we could go to church (there is an international branch there) but we found that there is so much to do in Shenzhen. We LOVED it!

A little background information... Jane is a Chinese lady who owns the school that we teach at. Her friend, Cormick, is a college student from Hunan (about 6 hours away from Zhongshan) and he came to Zhongshan before the New Year to visit Jane and her family. He was then planning on going back to Hunan to be with his family for the New Year. Cormick really really wanted us to go back to Hunan with him. At first, it sounded really fun to have a guided tour of Hunan (it's where Chairman Mao grew up) but he was really persistent to the point that he was being really annoying and almost creepy. We told him that we wanted to go to Shenzhen because that is where our church was and he kept saying "Shenzhen is a very bad place to go" and "do not go there, come to Hunan with me". He told Jeanette (who can speak Mandarin) that he would even let her drive in his car to Hunan for free and that she could stay in his house. She said, "Really? For eleven girls? You have a car big enough to fit eleven girls and enough room in your house for eleven girs?" He replied, "Whaaaaa? No no no! Just for you! Just me and you!"

Obviously, Shenzhen it was. But when we got to the bus station, guess who was there?! Cormick and his parents! They said that they were going to go to Shenzhen with us for the New Year. Why they would forgo their holiday to be at home with extended family to invite themselves to hang out with a bunch of random Americans at "a very bad place to go" is beyond me. We still can't quite figure out their motives. Cormick's parents don't even speak English. So off to Shenzhen we went, Cormick and his parents, included. Here is Cormick, Tiann, and Candace and I on the bus to Shenzhen.

We had to split into two different hostels because all hostels were booked for the New Year. Because none of us were familiar with the area, we had no idea where in the city our hostels were located when booking them. Unfortunately, my groups' hostel was in the outskirts of the city in the middle of nowhere, which was a very costly mistake: It cost us a lot to get to and from the main part of the city and it cost us a lot to get our money back so that we could join the other group who was in the city for the other two nights. Oh well. What can you do? Now we know for next time.

A hello and goodbye to Catherine

2009-01-23T06:56:00.000-08:00

Catherine is a teacher here in Zhongshan but was only at our school for extra holiday help. She went home today for Chinese New Year and will be going back to the school she normally teachers after the vacation. I LOVE her and am going to miss her SO much! She is so genuinely nice and I am so sad that she won't be at our school for the whole time that I am here.

My camera pooped out on me last week so I unfortunately had to buy a new one. I asked Catherine where a good place was to buy a camera here and she offered to go with me to find a camera. Our schedules didn't work out though so I got a camera without her, but she said she would take me shopping sometime instead. I told her I wanted to get some cheap "hip Chinese music" and she said that she knew just the right place: Walking Street. Some other teachers decided to come with us and it was so fun! Walking Street was so festive and decorated for the New Year.

And now I have my Chinese version of Now 21, thanks to Catherine. She picked it out herself. Cost? $1.90 American dollars. I've been listening to it ever since I bought it and it's pretty catchy.

Remember how I told said that we were a big deal? Well, these boys were following us on our way home with their phones, snapping pictures of our back sides. They finally got the courage to ask for a picture with us. I think I look more like them than Lindsey in this picture.

Getting pumped for Chinese New Year

2009-01-23T06:17:00.000-08:00

This past Monday night we had a "hot pot" dinner at the school with the Chinese teachers for the school's Chinese New Year party.

A "hot pot" is a traditional Chinese meal in which a pot of boiling broth is in the middle of each table and a variety of raw foods are available to put into the pot to cook and eat. We boiled sea food (including octopus), dumplings, pork balls, bok choy (Chinese cabbage, my new favorite vegetable), and cow stomach (that was an accident and it was disgusting).

The food was a little too different and a little too raw looking for my taste but fun to try and definitely a crazy fun experience!

Today was the last day of teaching for us until February. Happy Chinese New Year! Today we made cookie spiders in class.

Yes, I know. It doesn't look remotely like a spider. Don't judge. We had very little to work with.

We also had to say goodbye to Kevin and Jenny today. They were just here for the winter holiday camp and are going back home. I will miss them and Kevin's Tai Chi lessons, of course.

P.S. The cook at the school asked if I was Chinese today. That's TWO!

Sugar Cane is the Chinese Churro

2009-01-23T05:44:00.000-08:00

Kristy is a sucker when it comes to street peddlers and beggars. There is a huge fruit stand right next to our bus stop and even though we were told not to buy anything there because we would get ripped off, Kristy buys stuff there anyways and she gives her spare change to the homeless. How could she resist this cute little man? Even if the fruit did taste like cold canned peas...

One day, a girl pulled up on a bike carrying this little boy, peanuts, and what we thought was bamboo.

Kristy said that she swore that she saw someone chomping away on bamboo at the park the other day so she decided to buy some. How could she resist this cute little face anyway?

Well, she got ripped off, of course. She meant to buy one stick but the girl cut three for her and shoved it in her hand. Then Kristy just stood there, puzzled, on the side of the street with three sticks of what looked like wood. It was hilarious.

She gave me one and we couldn't quite figure out what to do with it. If celery and wood could make babies, this would be the texture of their offspring.

So we looked around and tried to figure out how the heck to eat these things and we noticed that there were a million people watching us. We were making quite the scene and one lady was seriously pointing and laughing at us. We looked around to see if anyone else was eating it and we finally saw this man.

He bit into it, sucked out the juice, then spit the rest of it out. We copied. It actually tasted really good! Later we found out that it wasn't bamboo that we were eating, but sugar cane. Good find, Kristy! I will definitely be buying sugar cane again. And thank you for making me laugh to tears for the first time in China!

A glimpse of the kiddos themselves...

2009-01-18T04:20:00.000-08:00

This is William. He is the Chinese version of my sister, Elizabeth. He is incredibly energetic and out of control, but that spunk is what makes me love him so much. He calls every teacher "Teacher bebe." (He completely understands that he is calling us "babies") and then he puffs out his cheeks and makes spitting noises, like so:

We got to name the kids who have never been given American names. (Their Chinese names are too crazy for us to say or even remember) I got to name two! Meet Hannah and James.

This is Belinda, the smarty pants:

Charles, definitely the baby of the group. And he SO loves me.

Becky and Ada.

"Tee Cho" Kristy

Mandy and Tim

Are they stinkin' cute or what?! I'm in LOVE! I'm in LOVE! And I don't care who knows it!

Introducing: Kevin and Jennie

2009-01-17T00:58:00.000-08:00

Meet Kevin and Jennie.

Kevin graduated from the ILP program but he and his cousin, Jennie, are getting tutored from Jeanette, one of our head teachers, until Chinese New Year. So they get to hang out with us quite a bit after we are done teaching. Kevin has been teaching us his Tai Chi skills. One day, we went to the park to practice. We started in an empty field.

By the end, we had quite a crowd. Take a look at our audience.

They even applauded and I felt super.

I'm kind of a big deal

2009-01-17T00:30:00.000-08:00

Well, maybe not me, but white Americans in general. We went exploring at a park next to our school and got bombarded by a group of people on their lunch break. They asked us to take a picture with them and were pretty excited when we said "yes". Like, seriously excited. They were squealing and jumping up and down. One said, "We can do tums up!" So here they are, demonstrating the "thumbs up" sign.

Then, they each wanted to take an individual picture with "the Americans". So twenty pictures later, we were good to go. One of the girls asked for my email address. The next day I got an email that read:

Hello Friend,

when we meet again? I will show you the girl places. Let me know about that.

Random people will come up to us and just start talking to us, pretty much because we are white Americans. A boy about our age came up to Kristy, offered his hand, and said, "Hi, nice to meet you." Before she could say hi back, he ran back over to his friend about 3 feet from us and started talking to him, in a very excited way. Jeanette, another girl I teach with, speaks fluent Mandarin and said that he was saying, "I talked to an American girl! I talked to an American girl!" I'm pretty positive that she made his day.

When we walk down the streets, parents will always push their kids over to us. The kids will say, "hello!" to us, then run back to their parents. The parents look so pleased. I think that they want to show off their kids English to us.

I have also noticed that any time a bus stops at a light , that every Chinese forehead, no matter what age, will be pushed up against the window with their eyes locked on us. It's great.

Poor jello deprived China

2009-01-16T23:42:00.000-08:00

Me and Kristy are teaching "kitchen" to the kids right now. We premade jello in our apartment on Sunday night and we use a "magic refrigerator" at the school when the kids make the jello. We had very little to work with in our apartment so we refrigerated the jello in a big orange bowl and off to school I went with it uncovered (we didn't have plastic wrap or tin foil) to catch our bus into the city where our school is. Well, it's no big deal to carry slaughtered pigs on the back of bikes (we see that all the time) but apparently jello is quite the phenomenon here. People just can't figure out what it is. And how do you explain jello? And in simple terms so that Chinese speaking people can understand? My responses to the many people who came up to me... "It's like candy"..."BBQ? No, I'm not going to a BBQ"... "No. Not blood"... "You eat it. EAT. FOOD." Chinese people would spot the bowl of jello in two seconds. I was amazed. One time, the 8 of us teachers were all standing on the side of the street. The jello was kind of hidden in the middle of us and a Chinese lady darted straight to the jello, pointing and yelling at me in Chinese and at the jello. The, Sparky (he drives us to our school from the bus stop and happens to be freakin awesome) pulled up and I got in the van. The same lady started pounding at our window, still screaming! Sparky said, "Se wan tu no what is." I said, "It's jello, Sparky. Like, gelatin?" Really. How the heck do you describe jello? Poor lady, she will never know what jello is! The next day, Kristy sat next to a Chinese man on the bus. The first thing he asked was what that red thing was in the bowl from the day before! They still can't get over the jello.

Zhongshan: My home away from my home away from home

2009-01-16T23:01:00.000-08:00

So this is where I will be living for the next 6 months.

I was expecting to be living and teaching in dirty shacks in China so this was quite the shock and a surprisingly ritzy upgrade from my apartment in Logan.

The courtyard.

The view from my balcony. Yes, I have a balcony.

Can you say Oceanside, California?

This is the school. Pretty cute, eh?

And my first school meal.

Not bad at all. Except maybe the chicken feet.

As you can see, I have nothing to complain about. I am living too comfortably.

THE China Town of all China Towns!

2009-01-16T21:10:00.001-08:00

We flew into Hong Kong and we got to spend two nights in Hong Kong before we went to Zhongshan. Some highlights...

Victoria's Peak

Hong Kong Temple

Fisherman's Village

We hopped in one of these.

Threw on these sweet hats.

And chilled with this lady.

It was pretty sweet.

Lady's Market

These sick child molesting man thongs

were quite popular and very disturbing.

Everything else was great, though!

My first purchased meal in China: KFC.

Lame, I know. This is actually not a highlight

and I'm not proud. But I was told to eat American food while I could because I would get enough Chinese food to last a lifetime within these next 6 months.

Light show on the Pier.

Old but intense Chinese women doing Tai Chi in a park. On a Friday night.

You Chinese?

2009-01-16T20:58:00.000-08:00

My first conversation with a Chinese person was with a 74-year-old lady on my plane from LA to Taipei. It went a little something like this:

Chinese Lady: You Chinese, you American?

Me: I'm American, with actually no Asian background at all.

Chinese Lady: Whaaaa? I say, I say. Se Chinese? Se American? Me no no! Me no no!

So the first Chinese person I met thought I could be Chinese! I felt pretty legit. She started asking me about my family so I told her about them and pulled out a picture I had of them in my wallet.

Chinese Lady: Oooo. So Butiful. Hahahahahaha!

Me: Um, what's so funny?

Chinese Lady: You no lookie like dem.

Me: Yep. I get that a lot.

I'm coming, China!

2009-01-05T08:49:00.000-08:00

I’m leaving for China TOMORROW and I'm pretty darn excited! I'm going to teach English for 6 months and hopefully I'll be able to post all of my adventures here for you to see.

Examples of posts that you will never see on this blog:

Well, this week was really annoying…So, this week was lame… Not much happened this week…I would love some chips and salsa if you could find a way to transport it…
My name is Annie and I’m married to my amazingly cute and romantic hubby _____. We are so super busy but we just love married life and the joy, happiness, excitement, struggles, growth and triumph (triumphs times ten million) that come from it! My life is the definition of happily ever after!!!! I’m SERIOUSLY SO BLESSED!
Hi guys! This actually isn’t Annie posting this, but her mom. I figured since I get on her facebook all the time, I should be able to post on her blog, too. If we’ve chatted on facebook before, DON’T TELL ANNIE!

Things I will blog about:

Fortune Cookies
Wantons
Asian looking people
The price of rice in China

And this would be my much practiced and perfected "excited Asian face"...

PEACE OUT!!!! See you in 6 months.