friends.

I love how quick people are to make friends here.  Not just acquaintances but real friends.  Living here, I have come to realize that it doesn't matter how long you have known someone for.  You can meet someone one second and be their best friend the next.  It is so cool and, trust me, life is better this way.

One of our friends that we met last week at the English school, Winni, wanted to take us to the Ancient Town.  We quickly agreed and we didn't have the heart to tell her that we had already been there.  Twice.  She still doesn't know, so lets not tell her.  Even though we had already been there, it was still a blast.  We did things there that we didn't do the previous two times.  Also, to our surprise, Lily and Newbie were also along for the adventure.  Newbie is my Chinese boyfriend.  He may not know that but it doesn't matter.  So, obviously, I was happy to see they were joining us for the day.

{outside a chinese temple.}

{throwing coins into pots under the water.  if you make it inside the pot it brings good luck and happiness.  i had a few failed attempts.}

Asians are hilarious.  I think it isn't on purpose.  I think it is just their lack of English that makes them so funny.  They say things and I just die laughing and then they want to know why I am laughing.  I just can't control myself.  They also quote their articles that they read in English class all the time.  I guess that is one way to learn.

The night ended with me chasing a bus in the middle of traffic.  Everyone was just laughing at me as I am running alongside the bus in the middle lane of cars.  Thankfully we did get on that bus after realizing there was a stop just a few yards ahead.  I also may or may not have gotten caught in the door of the bus a few times before it would close.  There were that many people on it.

And the weekend ended with me getting to Skype with my cute missionary brother and the rest of my family.  It was worth getting up at 4am.  Thank you technology.

i walked

We hear that Guilin is beautiful and so much fun so we have been wanting to plan a trip there.  We have a Monday coming up that we don't have school so we are planning on venturing to Guilin then.  We looked into train and plane tickets but decided that flying is the better option.  The only problem was that the airline that we needed to book our flight on is only in Chinese.  No problem, though.  We would just ask one of our Chinese friends to help us.

We decided to go to the English school and have one of the many students there help us.  I thought for sure that they would all be dying to help us.  Which was true but it wasn't exactly going as smoothly as I was thinking that it would.  We had everything written down but the boy, Beyond (Yeah, don't ask me about his English name.  I don't know either.  You should hear some of the English names people have over here.), was struggling to find what we needed.  He kept assuring us that he knew what we needed but then he made the mistake of telling us that it was his first time booking a flight.  Side note:  I learned a while back that you never tell anyone when it is your first time doing something.  I don't care if it is your first time inserting and IV or booking a flight, once they find out it is your first time, you won't really be wanted anymore.  I know that you have to start somewhere, but I wasn't sure about Beyond helping us book our flight anymore.  We couldn't read Chinese and understand if he was booking us what we wanted.

Just then Taya, one of the English teachers, came to the rescue.  At least that is what I thought.  She got on her Ipad and was trying to help us.  She got a lot further than Beyond, which was good.  I guess she couldn't figure out how to book it online so she called the airlines company for us.  Through her translating, she informed us that we couldn't book them online and we had to do it at the airport or over the phone.  If we did it over the phone we would have to go to the bank and pay there.  She starts texting our passport information to some number but we quickly stopped her because we were confused about what was going on.  It didn't really make sense that she was wanting to text our passport information to someone and we had no idea how we were going to pay at the bank without speaking Chinese so we put an end to her helping us.  After much convincing she finally let us tell her that we would have another friend help us book the flight.  I think she felt bad because she came back with a novel written in Chinese that had exactly what we wanted on it so that we could take to the airport and show them to get our tickets purchased.

Friday rolled around and we had some free time.  After we had unsuccessfully looked for Nicole, our liaison, to see if she could help us with the ticket situation, we decided to just venture to the airport to see if we could just get them purchased ourselves.  The previous night we had seen a sign pointing us in the direction of the airport so we figured that it was close.  (We have been to the airport before but we weren't exactly sure how navigate ourselves there.)  We hopped on our trusty little scooter, got some lunch, and rode toward the sign for the airport.  Little did we know that the airport was actually about 8 miles away from that sign.  Who knows, maybe it did tell us that but if it did, it was in Chinese and we didn't know.  So we kept riding.  We rode through the longest tunnel of my entire life.  Then we realized that our trusty little scooter was going to die on us.  Call it stupidity or poor planning but we weren't going to be able to make it to the airport and back home with both of us on it.  So we ditched our scooter and decided to walk the rest of the way to the airport.  {We successfully got our plane tickets booked!  Thanks to Taya's novel that she wrote for us.}

After getting our tickets we walked back to our scooter and decided that I would walk home and Shelby would try to ride the scooter home or a least get as far as she could get.  If I got home before she did, I was going to call her on our cell phone via Skype and figure out where she was so I could help her push our scooter home.  Finally we realized the down fall of only having one cell phone so Skype was going to come to the rescue.  Shelby rode off on the scooter and I continued walking.  I walked forever.  I thought the tunnel was the longest tunnel of my life when I was on a scooter.  Well, it is even longer when you are on foot.

10 miles walking and a bus ride later, I finally made it home.  Shelby was sitting outside of our apartment because I had the key.  She successfully made it home riding the scooter except for pushing it the last 5 minutes up the hill to the school so she could plug it in for a good charge.  She may not have gone very fast but she made it home.

I had no idea that getting our tickets to Guilin was going to be this difficult but we now have our tickets and the trip better be worth it.

On my walk I had a lot of time to think.  I thought a lot about the people that I was passing, or who was passing me.  I passed a worker picking up rocks on the side of the freeway.  I saw a mom carrying a baby on her back.  I saw a few people carrying various vegetables in baskets on their backs.  I saw a man pushing his scooter up the hill.  I saw some guys swimming in a river.  I saw a few police officers (who I thought were going to stop me for walking on a freeway but I am not in America anymore so I got away with it).  I saw multiple taxi drivers and others in their own personal cars.  As I passed these people I wondered what their story was.  I don't know why but maybe because it was how bizarre mine was.  I was walking home from the airport because my scooter couldn't make it home with me and my friend both on it.  Yes, it was silly and a bit ridiculous.  But I wondered where other people were going and what kind of journey that they were on.
 
When we cross paths with someone we rarely know their story and if we do, we usually only know a little glimpse of their story.  When I finally got to the bus stop and onto the bus I was tired and I really wanted a seat.  I thought to myself about the people sitting down, "I bet they didn't just walk from the airport."  They probably didn't but what if they just spent hours on their feet at the hospital helping their patients.  Or what if they just found out that their loved one has cancer.  Or what if they only have a little shack with dirt floors to go to.  Yes, I just walked clear from the airport but I bet they deserved and needed that seat more than I did.  We never know what people are going through.  We never know what kind of battle they are facing.  Nine times out of ten they are probably having a worse day and facing a harder battle than we are.  Is it really that hard to treat everyone we cross paths with respect?  It might just be giving up the coveted seat on the bus or just a smile walking past someone but we never know, that might just be exactly what they needed to keep moving forward.  It was a long walk but I am grateful that I had the time to think.

my Chinese name

A couple of weeks ago I finally got a Chinese name.  Actually, I got two Chinese names in one week.  It was a good week.

The first was from my students.  Well, Shelby's students.  I go and sit by them during class.  One day they asked me if I had a Chinese name yet.  I told them no and they jumped on it and came up with a good name.  Or at least, I think it is a good name.  They don't really understand when I ask them what it means.  They were so cute to watch them come up with different ideas.  They were very serious about it.  My Chinese name that they gave me is, Wang Ke Yi.  Now whenever those kids see me they always say, "hello Wang Ke Yi," instead of, "hello teacher".

When I was hanging out with Charm and Lilly, they also took it upon themselves to give us Chinese names.  They named me Li Si Yi.  It means cheerful, generous, intelligent, and family girl.  Apparently they both got it with the Yi.  So that must be right.  I love that Chinese names all mean something.

(Shelby's is the top one and mine is the bottom.)

hong.kong

I had to go to Hong Kong this weekend.  My 90th day in China was approaching soon and I needed to leave to get a fancy stamp so bad things wouldn't happen to me when it comes time to officially leave.  It was the best thing I have been forced to do in a long time.

Hong Kong was wonderful.  Everything about it.  From the Mexican food to Llama Island, it was all just perfect.

We had a little bit of a rocky start.  The school's driver was taking us to the airport but someone decided that it was a good idea to leave just an hour and a half before our actual flight.  It was cutting it close, especially when you are flying from a place were very little English is spoken.  And to top it off, the school's driver dropped us off in the wrong terminal.  So after rushing through the airport and standing in a few lines, we made it with only 5 minutes before our flight was scheduled to leave.  It turns out that we had no need to worry, or even rush, because they hadn't even started boarding people yet.  The airport runs on China time.  Which is, everyone and everything is late.

Hong Kong is pretty much a huge busy city on an island.  So picture New York in Hawaii.  Well, at least I think.  I have never been to New York before but I imagine that Hong Kong is what it would be like.  There are so many different cultures in Hong Kong.  It was so fun to hear all of the many different languages that everyone was speaking.  It was so cool.  Everyone knew English too, which was very convenient.

Our first night there we rushed to the temple because when I called, the lady told me that we could do baptisms at 7:30 pm.  As soon as I saw the temple I couldn't stop smiling.  It was beautiful and I was so excited to go inside of it.  Well, she was mistaken and the temple was actually closed.  I was pretty disappointed but we still had a good time taking pictures outside.

We then went on a search for Mexican food.  If there is one thing that I really miss from home, it is the variety of food.  Chinese food every day for every meal of the day gets old.  Whoever told me that you could find Mexican food on every corner was most definitely wrong about that.  It turned out to be a much more difficult quest than I thought it was going to be.  We asked so many different people where we could find just a simple taco or burrito.  We were pointed in so many different directions.  We even had to get back on the MTR and get off at a different spot where it was suppose to be common.  After searching for over an hour, we decided to give up on our search.  We sat down at a place that we passed on our search.  They handed us a menu and they had Mexican food!  I was in heaven!  A burrito had never tasted so good in my life.

We walked down the Avenue of Stars, which  is along the coast.  It was great hearing the ocean waves and feeling the ocean breeze.  Every few yards there were people playing and singing.  I loved it.  Street performers have become one of my all time favorite things.  It was a great first night in Hong Kong but things just kept getting better.

We were able to go to Hong Kong Disneyland!  It was a blast.  It is very similar to Disneyland in California but just smaller so it didn't have as many rides.  Mostly all the rides were the same ones that they have in California.  We spent all day in the park.  The last hour we were able to just walk on all of the rides because no one was there.  It was an awesome day.  Am I crazy to say that I want to go to all of the Disneyland parks in the world?  I have two down so far.

(Don't worry, I have the classic Asian pose down.)

Saturday we got up early and were able to go inside the temple and do baptisms for the dead.  It was such a special experience and one that I won't ever forget.  Of course, it was beautiful.  It was cool to hear it all taking place in Chinese too.  I loved seeing the Chinese youth there too.  You always here of members of the church all over the world trying to live the best as the can like you are trying to do.  When you actually see it in action, it is awesome.  The Hong Kong temple is beautiful.

After the temple on Saturday we took a ferry to Llama Island.  Ferries are so much fun!  I think it would be sweet if ferries were apart of my everyday life.  Llama Island is a cute little island with no cars on it.  There were fun little shops and a hike to the pier on the other side of the island where another ferry leaves from.  Of course, we did the little hike.  It was worth it.  I wish that I had worn my swimming suit but going out into the ocean to my knees had to be good enough.

 

(You know you have lived in China when you choose a squatter over a Western toilet.  Yes, that happens.)

We ended our stay in Hong Kong with sitting down by the ocean again, listening to the street performers, and enjoying a fun drink with bubble ball things in it.  (We may have gotten one of those drinks every single night while we were there.  Don't judge.)

I didn't want to leave Hong Kong and come back to reality.  Our stay in Hong Kong was way too short.  It was such a fun place to visit.  I think everyone should get the chance.  I love meeting people from all over.  I love experiencing new cultures.  I love eating new food.  Basically, I love everything that my life has in it now.  Hong Kong may be over but my reality rocks so I am happy to be back in China for just a couple more short months.

this weekend

We met a girl, Charm, on the bus last weekend.  She was so sweet and studying to be a nurse so we instantly bonded.  The only problem was that we struggled to communicate with her.  To the point where the bus ride got kind of awkward because no one knew what to say.  But she was so sweet and wanted so badly to be our friend.  It turns out that she told her entire class about us and the next thing we knew was that we were committed to going to their school on Friday.  Not going to lie, I was kind of dreading this because I didn't want another awkward situation like the bus ride when we met her.  We went anyways, hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

Turns out that I actually had the best time ever.  I felt like I was in college again and I just have to admit that I kind of miss the college life.  (So for those of you that are still in college, don't wish away these days.)  We met her entire nursing class and, even though I couldn't communicate with them, I felt right at home.  It was awesome.  Also, it turns out that when we committed to coming to their school, we committed to spending the night with them.  We didn't know that when we left our apartment but we just went with it and it was a blast.

They took us to their English school which was a bus ride away from their nursing school.  This English school/Coffee Bar was the place to be.  It seems like that everyone just goes there to hang out.  I walked in the building and everyone stood up and cheered for me.  It was weird and uncomfortable but it was okay.  Twenty people grabbed me and sat me down.  Before I knew it, I had a crowd of college kids around me dying for me to introduce myself.  The rule at this place is, if you speak in Chinese you have to be punished and the punishment in paying money.  Good thing I don't speak Chinese so I didn't have to worry about that.
 
One of the teachers really wanted us to come to their VIP English class.  I can guarantee you that this class had never been so well attended before.  The crowd of people I had downstairs came with me and the crowd of people that were with Shelby outside joined us too.  People were wall to wall standing and even flowing out of this little classroom.  It was awesome.  We joined in on the class which was pretty much just discussions about different topics in small groups, or big groups in this case.  My group didn't want to discuss the topic and just wanted to "free talk" instead.  So that is what we did.

Some how I was convinced to sing an English song with Shelby in the middle of this crowded classroom with so many eyes and ears locked on us.  I also was volunteered to give an impromptu speech at the end of the class.  I am not sure how that happened but before I knew it I was up on stage in front of everyone.  If you would have told me that I was going to be singing in front of a bunch of people and giving a speech that I hadn't prepared for, I would have told you that I would rather die than do either of those things.  But both of those things have happened and have happened on more than one occasion.  And I am actually okay with it.  Weird?  Yes, but this is only one of the many ways that China has changed me.

There is a chant that these friends of mine taught me.  When their classmates are afraid to speak they say, "Don't be shy.  Just try.  We all support you all the time."  I really love it.  It is so true about everything in life.  We don't have to be afraid to do new things or even try old things that might be hard.  We shouldn't worry about what others around us are going to think or say.  We just need to try and do our best.  If we are truly doing our best, then that is enough.  There are so many people around us that really are supporting us, whether you realize it or not.  And we all have one big supporter that we shouldn't forget about.  Heavenly Father is always cheering us on.  So just try.  Try whatever it is that you have been wanting to try.  Get out of your comfort zone.  Trust me, great things are waiting for you, if you will just get up and do those things that might be a little bit awkward or uncomfortable at first.  I never knew how much on life I was missing out on until China.

This weekend with these people that I have gown to love in such a short amount of time was great.  I will definitely be going back to the Coffee Bar really soon.  Also, I don't know if I should admit this or not but I may or may not have caught the Yellow Fever when I was with these guys...

 (So. Much. Tai. Chi.)

(Nurses in China still wear all white and cute {or dorky} little hats.)

Last weekend we found ourselves at the zoo.  It was awesome and a perfect zoo day.  With the help of Charm we were able to get there safe and sound.  Here are some pictures...

(The camel attacked me.  It was gross.)

(This is the zoo map.  They advertise that they have pandas but they definitely do not.)

a lesson learned

Living in China has been an eye opener to many different things for me.  

I have never realized how good I have it until I have come here.  And I have never realized how much I have to be grateful for until I have come here.  

On my very first day in my city, on my way to my new home from the airport, I saw a women walking on the side of a hill with a basket on her back full of vegetables.  I'm sure that she was on her way to sell said vegetables on the side of some street with many other competitors also trying to sell the exact same thing.  

During the cold first month of living here, I constantly saw many people sitting on their baskets, gathered around a small fire trying to keep warm.  All this was happening while I sat in my apartment complaining about the heater that I did have.  

Almost every day I see disabled people begging on the streets for money or teenagers with no limbs singing to the people passing by hoping someone will take pity on them.  I am constantly walking on streets that are poorer than poor, wondering how people are getting by on what little that they have.  There are always people rummaging through the trash cans collecting the plastic bottles that others have thrown away.  There are always people dragging carts down the road with, what is probably, their only possessions.    

Today I was out on a walk just about a mile from where I live.  We were walking by the river and came across the above pictured house.  The first time I walked by it, I didn't think anything of it and continued with my conversation I was having with Shelby.  On our way back was when I realized that this is someone's home.  Someone lives there.  In fact, the happiest little boy ran outside to get a better look at us and then quickly ran back inside the door.  The door, that wasn't even a door.  Just some plastic that was draped over the side.  That is when I realized that someone lived there and someone called this little place their home.  When the little boy ran back inside I got a glimpse of what it looked like.  It was dark and tiny with only a few things inside but the little boy was happy.

This is when I was reminded that I don't need "things" to be happy.  I have enough.  Actually, I have more than enough.  I think most of us do.  There have been times in my life when I thought that I had it hard.  Like when all my hair started falling out or when I spent months studying for the hardest test of my life and wondered if I would ever be able to pass it.  No matter how hard I think I may have it at times, there are people who have it way worse than I do.  Yes, it is sad that I had to come all the way to China to figure that out.  I'm ashamed that I had to come clear across the world to realize how much I have to be grateful for.  I know I don't thank the Lord enough for all that He has given me.  I don't have to carry vegetables on my back to a street corner to try to earn money.  I don't have to huddle around a small fire on the side walk to try to keep warm.  I don't have to sing to the people walking by on the street.  I don't have to rummage through garbage cans looking for plastic bottles.  And I don't live in a house made of plastic and a couple boards.  I have it so good and I need to remember that.  I shouldn't have had to come all the way to China to realize my blessings but I am grateful that I finally have realized them and I hope I never forget.

This is only one of the many lessons that I have learned while living in China.

Church in China

I hope that I never take for granted actually going to church ever again.  For those of you who don’t know, this is how church works for me over here in China….

I am part of a virtual branch.  The Central China International District Branch, to be exact.  It functions just like any other branch in the church would function; except for it is all virtual.  “Going” to church for me now consists of me sitting on my couch and logging onto Skype.  Yes, you heard me right.  I Skype into church.  It isn’t a video Skype, just one big conference call.  Before I came to China, I decided that I would still treat sitting on my couch and listening to church like I was “going” to church.  That meant that I would still get up and get ready and not just lounge in my pajamas even though no one was going to see me.  I am glad that I decided that before I came here because the temptation to just lie on my bed and listen to church is definitely there. 

There are actually four of us that meet together in our little apartment to participate in church every Sunday.  There is me, Shelby, and then married couple that is here teaching at the school with us.  Other than all of it being over a conference call, it is just almost just like a normal church service would be at home.  All four of us struggle through the Hymns that are statically played over the computer speakers.  We all participate in sustaining and releasing people from callings.  (There is a slight difference with this one.  If anyone opposes, then they are to text the Branch President.)  We still get to partake of the Sacrament because we, luckily, have a Priesthood holder with us.  There is an eight minute pause in the meeting for the passing of the Sacrament.  After that, the meeting goes on as scheduled.  If you are giving a prayer or a talk, you just unmute your microphone, make sure that people can hear you, and then proceed with the prayer or your talk.  Oh yes, make sure your microphone is muted or things can get out of hand pretty fast. 

Every Sunday before the meeting actually begins they remind us of the regulations that we meet under.  Like how you have to have a foreign passport in order to attend the Branch and how we can’t share the gospel in conversation with Chinese nationals.  (Which I have actually found to be very hard.  There are so many good people here who are prepared to here the gospel but that is a post for another day.)  Church is only two hours long, instead of three.  We alternate Priesthood/Relief Society and Sunday School every Sunday.  We stay on after the line for a few minutes and do a role call to see who attended church.  I think that it is safe to say that virtual branches actually work quite well. 

And that is what I love.  I loved it when we could go to church in a different state and it was the same thing being taught but “going” to church in a different country, and virtually, brings a new perspective to it all.  I love that the gospel is the same no matter where you are.  Whether you are at your home ward in a completely different country you can find comfort knowing that you will get the same lesson in Relief Society and the same doctrines are going to be taught during Sacrament meeting.  I love it.  I love that, even though I am in a country where we can't freely share the gospel, I can still "go" to church and feel the same spirit that all of you are feeling in meeting houses all over.  At first it was really weird putting a dress on and sitting on my couch while I get the Sacrament passed to me in our bright orange cups but it isn't at all weird anymore.  It is totally normal and it is awesome.  It is awesome because I get the chance to renew the covenants that I made at baptism every week.  It is awesome because no matter where you are or what the circumstances are, you can still feel of the spirit.  Yes, it may be hard to pay attention because you are in the comfort of your own home but I do know that it is worth it and it is possible.  

With that being said, I will admit that I do actually miss "going" to church.  There really is something about meeting together and assembling together in one heart and one mind.  There is power in numbers.  I felt it as I was watching the General Relief Society meeting early one Sunday morning while everyone else was watching it Saturday evening.  When I saw everyone gathered together in the conference center I wished that I were there too.  Then when they welcomed everyone at that meeting at during the rest of General Conference who were participating all over the world.  That put a new meaning to things.  I mean, I always knew that people all over were watching conference but when you are part of what they are talking about it puts it all into a different perspective.  

Anyways... I hope that what I have said makes sense.  I have been wanting to post about church in China for a long time but I didn't know how to put what I was thinking and feeling into words.  I know that I probably didn't accurately describe what I am feeling but I hope that the gist of it is