Goodbye China :(

This will be my last post in China. I am SOOOO sad to leave! Its seriously heart wrenching. We had to say goodbye to our kids today, and it was the hardest thing I have ever done. I am so sad I'll never see these kids again. They just squeezed their way into my heart and pushed everything else out. All 38 of them have a special place, and I am so sad.

When we said our goodbyes, we all just broke down sobbing. At first some of the kids didn't understand, and they would just run around laughing and saying "Teacher sad!" but after the Chinese teachers explained that we were leaving for good, they were all upset. We were attacked by hugs and kisses and little kid tears. At one point I was sprawled out on the ground with at least eight kids on top of me giving hugs. It was super cute, but it made it so hard to leave. I never wanted to get up. It was especially hard seeing the other children crying. One of the Chinese teachers, Katie, told us that Bella's mom called her to ask when we were leaving, because Bella was at home sobbing about her English teachers going back to America. It broke our hearts even more to hear that. We seriously love these kids so much. They already feel like a dream, and I hope I can remember everything about them; their cute little quirks, and their giggles, and the funny things they do and say. I wish everyone of you could know these kids like I know them. It is probably annoying hearing me go on and on about little kids you don't know, but just trust me that these little ones are amazing.

Well, we head out tomorrow night on a super long journey home, full of huge luggage and lots of tears. But I know that I have tons of great family and friends waiting for me on the other end, as well as a steaming Little Caesar's pepperoni pizza with crazy crust and a two liter jug of Dr. Pepper. Pizza makes everything feel better haha.

Picture 1: Me and my precious Luna!

Picture 2: Cute Bella. (named after Bellatrix Lestrange, of course, but she is nothing like her at all. Such an inappropriate name.)

Spectacle!

Spectacle, our kids Christmas Program, was on Friday. They did so good after all that practicing they had to do! It was fun seeing them get all dressed up and to have their parents all come!

Before the show started, we went down early to help get the kids ready. We didn't know what this entailed when we signed up, and we had quite the shock when we got down to our classrooms. There were at least 30 Chinese girls there, doing all the kids hair and make up. And I mean ALL the kids. The poor boys, who already are doomed to look girly for the rest of their lives, were forced to put on TONS of makeup. Eye shadow, white foundation, blush, lipstick, glitter... the Whole sha-bang. Poor boys... But, I must admit that I was happy I had my camera there to capture this moment. Haha a lot of those boys weren't happy about wearing pink, shimmery lipstick, not happy one little bit. And now we have this one in a lifetime experience saved forever! But they all looked very pretty, haha.

Each class performed a skit in English, and then sang their Christmas song. All of the English teachers did a dance to "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," as well as a piano piece from Lindsay, a guitar/singing piece by Becca, Chelsey and me, and a song by Teresa. But the Chinese teachers saved the best for last when they had all the children perform. The older class did an adorable dance that melts your heart, and the younger class did a fashion show to some great Backstreet Boys music that makes you laugh until you cry. Some of the little kids' 'model walks' were the funniest thing you will ever see. No joke. Ask me to show you the video when I come home, cuz you'll get the biggest kick out of it. Gucci, Mandy , Emily and Yumi are so good at the walk that its unbelievable that they are only four. Haha its So Funny!

At the end of the show, the Chinese teachers surprised us and had all of the English teachers come up to the front. The Principal then gave us each a hug and a fan as a present. Then all the kids came in and put flower lei's around our necks. I was bawling by the end. Dang, I am going to miss these kids so much. It was a really tender moment, and I will always remember it. I love these little kids so much!!

Picture 1: Poor Anson in all his make up glory. Picture 2: Adorable, dainty Gucci all made up! Her name is really perfect for her in sooo many ways. Picture 3: Mass make up chaos. Those boys were not very happy about this make over.

Let It Snow!

You know how half way through December a lot of people are so sick of Christmas songs that they want to shoot every radio in sight? Well I have a story for you.

About a month and a half ago, the Chinese teachers told us that we needed to start teaching our classes a Christmas song for the big end-of-semester program we have. I decided to teach my kids one of my favorite songs, Let It Snow. I thought it was funny that we had to start in October, but we did as they said. So, instead of teaching our first and fifth class rotations, we had our home room class to sing the song with. My class is all 4-5 year olds, and it was CRAZY trying to get them to sing the same boring song for 40 minutes a day. 40 minutes! I even get bored with that! By December, my kids were SO BORED with the song. I felt so bad.

That's when the Chinese teachers came up to us and told us that our songs were not good enough. They said the kids don't know the words well enough. I thought they were crazy for saying that, because I thought my kids were doing great for learning a whole song in English when they barely know any words. But the Chinese teachers thought otherwise, and we had to come before and stay after class with the kids who were "struggling" with the words. Some of these kids were now singing the same song for over and hour a day. They were getting so restless. But, we got through the extra practices and I gave them all hugs and told them they were doing great.

That's when the Chinese teachers came up to us and told us that our songs were STILL not good enough. So, the last week of teaching our beloved students, they canceled classes! We were now practicing the songs for three hours a day! The kids' poor attention spans were seriously shot. At one point one of my girls, Yumi, actually started banging her head on the table in boredom. Haha it was actually really funny. But dang, they were cute singing all the songs.

I found it funny that the Chinese teachers were okay with cutting so many classes, when earlier in the year they were upset at us when we missed one day of teaching because we were stranded in Beijing, and they were making us make up that teaching day. And now here they are cutting two weeks worth of classes in the end. Weird, huh? At one point I asked our coordinator, Annie, that

"Isn't it more important to be teaching them English, then to be teaching them Christmas songs?"

And she got a shocked look on her face and replied with a sharp

"No! Our production is more important!"

I really don't see their logic at all... but there wasn't anything I could do, except try to entertain my kids as much as I could through the three hours of grueling Christmas song singing everyday. Sometimes I wondered to myself if these poor children would ever forgive me for inflicting this torture on them. So much Christmas music in such small children haha.

They ended up doing very well at their Christmas Program, and I think most of the kids have forgiven me, but more on that later. Here are some great pictures of the kids being bored out of their minds. Enjoy!!

Picture 1: Emily fell actually fell asleep singing the song. Poor girl. She is super cute when she sleeps, though, so I didn't wake her. Picture 2: Ron was showing me some of his pent up frustration. Haha.

Thanksgiving in China

Happy Thanksgiving from China!

We had a Thanksgiving dinner with some of the teachers, cooks and guards from our school on Thursday and we had a wonderful night! It was so much fun showing them some of our culture for a change. (They probably think Americans are obsessed with food haha) We were able to cook mashed potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin cookies and pumpkin pie, and all of our Chinese guests seemed to really enjoy out American food. We sat and talked, ate good food, listened to a teacher's husband play the guitar while their adorable two year old sang along, and had a turkey piñata. It was a blast! I am so thankful for these wonderful people and all of the new things I am learning from them! You'll never meet a nicer, more giving people. It was such a neat experience sharing Thanksgiving with them!

Pictures:

First: Me and my Thanksgiving feast! Delish!

Second: Me, Kati (one of the teachers here) and her son, Ryan, who is one of my students. He is super cute and smart!

Rice Terrace Photos

I know I've put a lot of pictures up lately- I'm sorry. But A picture is worth a thousand words, right? And I definitely don't have the right words to explain this beautiful place. So enjoy!!

Village Pictures

It was so pretty here I just have to add more pictures! Enjoy!

More Village Pictures....

Couldn't resist... Picture 1: A shot of the misty mountains from the rock steps up to the rice terraces. Picture 2: A view of the village from the top of the mountain. Picture 3: Some of the local women climbing the steps to go to work. Such dedicated farmers.

Rice Terraces

 

The last part of our trip was taking a bus to the rice terraces! I've seen tons of pictures of the rice terraces growing up, so I was really excited to see them, and they most definitely did not disappoint! They were awesome!

 

We had to take a three hour bus ride out to the terraces, which wasn't too bad compared to any of our other transportation stories haha. When we got there we were able to walk around the villages and see how the farmers live and what their houses are like. Their houses are three stories high. The bottom floor is where all the animals live, the second floor is for bedrooms and "living" as they put it, and the third floor is for food, a.k.a. the kitchen. I thought their houses were really pretty, and had a nice rustic Chinese mixture, which was neat to see.

 

We also got to see a show demonstrating some of the local culture for us. In this village the ladies only cut their hair once- when they turn eighteen. So, as you can imagine, they had really long hair. They also have different ways of wearing their hair depending on where they are in life, such as single, married and a mother. In the show they demonstrated how they make their buns with over 4 feet of hair. I have no idea how they live with their hair that long. Can you imagine the up keep? Wow.

 

After the show we went to a different village that was higher up in the mountains, right up with the terraces. There we ate lunch, which consisted of "Bamboo Rice" which is a hollowed out bamboo stick filled with a rice and veggie mixture and then cooked in the fire. It was delicious. After we ate we started climbing the rock paths up higher into the mountains to get to the rice terraces. This village was literally on top of the mountains, and we were immersed in the clouds, and it felt like we were on top of the world. It was gorgeous.

 

There were a few places that you could stop along the path to take pictures of the rice terraces, which went on and on in every direction, with thousands of "steps" all over the mountains. They look sooo cool. Its crazy to think that people actually managed to make all these terraces, and then farm on them. It blows my mind. Its got to be so much work. They do get to look at one of the most beautiful places in the world, though, while they work , which has got to be a plus. It really is so beautiful there. You can just look at it for hours and not get sick of it. I was sad to leave, and wish we could have stayed a little while longer!

More Rafting Pictures

These mountains were so beautiful! I've missed mountains a ton since coming to China. It was nice to see some and feel more at home again!

Bamboo Rafting

On the second day of our trip we were able to take a bamboo raft tour of the stunning karst mountains along the Li River. It was soooooo cool. It was raining that day, and so there was a lot of fog and mist surrounding the peaks, and it gave a wonderful effect to the scenery. It was like we were traveling through the Misty Mountains in Lord of the Rings haha. Sadly, the fog made it really hard to capture the mountains on camera and still give them justice. They are so hard to describe. Just trust me that they are astonishing.

 

Our guide was really funny. He had laminated pictures of the mountains we were seeing, and every few minutes he would hand us a couple pictures and start going off in Chinese, like we knew what he was saying. He would just sit there, talking and pointing up a storm, while we just nodded our heads at him. And then he would light up a cigarette. I swear he went through a whole pack on our boat ride. It was gross. He was a funny old man though.

 

Another funny story on our boat ride: It was raining, right? And there were lots of other rafts going up and down the river while we were. We passed another raft going in the opposite direction, and one of the guys had put a plastic bag over his head to keep the rain out! A plastic bag! Haha! I thought it was common sense to NEVER do that, but... it seems like a good idea, I guess... until you pass out lol. Too bad he was going the other way.. I really wanted to see how that whole plan worked out for him.

 

But it was so cold! It was about 8 degrees Celsius (I'm not sure what that is in Fahrenheit..) and all we had were thin jackets. It was freezing in the rain on a raft in a river. We loved that bamboo raft, but it felt nice to get off and get warm and dry again. We all ended up buying North Face coats at a market that night, along with hats, gloves and scarves. We were really cold, if I didn't get that point across very well. But the next day we were all snuggly and warm in our coats!  

More Pictures!

Pictures:

First & Second: More of the beautiful mountains from the top of Moon Hill.

Third: A nice, juicy burger from Minnie Mao's!

Moon Hill!

 

After exploring the Mud Caves on Saturday, we stopped for lunch at a little village nearby. We got some great sweet n' sour chicken, and then wandered through some shops set up along the road. Guess what we came across in front of one of the shops?? A baby monkey all dressed up in a costume! And the man let us hold him! It was really funny, cuz my hoodie has fur around the brim of the hood, and the monkey immediately jumped over to me and started to stroke it, and then he just grabbed out a fistful of it and started to eat it! Haha it was funny. Something even funnier was that when Becca came up to try and hold him, the monkey tried to slap her in the face, repeatedly. Haha he just loved my fuzzy coat so much he didn't want to go anywhere else! He was adorable. Sadly we couldn't get a picture of him without paying.

 

Next, we rode our bikes over to Moon Hill, which is one of the 'Dr. Seuss' mountains with a huge circle in the middle of it that is shaped like a moon. You can hike up the mountain and take pictures from inside the moon, and it was really neat. But it was a lot of steps up to that moon haha. At the top we got some great pictures though! We also met some cute kids from a nearby city, and one of the girls knew some English. We walked back down with her and her mom, and they were very intrigued by how large American families were. The girl, who we named Samantha (she reminded us of one our really sweet girls we teach named Samantha), kept saying how she was an only child, but then she would talk about her brothers and sisters, so we are still confused on exactly how many kids are in her family. Maybe the other 'siblings' she was talking about were really cousins or something.. who knows. But she was a really cute girl!

 

We rode our bikes back to our Hostel after that, and then went to a restaurant named Minnie Mao's for dinner, where we got Burgers and Apple Pie!! Oh I love American food! After getting a belly full of food, we went and crashed. We were SOOO tired. It was a ton of biking and hiking that day, and we had been up since four! Man, a hard bed never felt so soft!

 

Pictures:

First: The little village we ate at, with the mountains in the background.

Second: A picture of Moon Hill from far away.

Third: View of the mountains through the "moon" in Moon Hill.

MUD CAVES!

We went to one of the coolest places in the world last weekend. Seriously.

 

It's a little town called Yangshuo. It is home to some of the neatest places and sits on the west bank of the Li River nestled amongst beautiful karst peaks. These mountains have been nicknamed the "Dr. Seuss" Mountains for apparent reasons, and they are the stunning mountains I have EVER seen.

 

Anyways, I'll get back to my trip. We left Friday afternoon on a sleeper bus (Woohoo it was like riding on the Knight Bus!) for about 11 hours and got off at a street in Yangshuo around 4:30 in the morning. Apparently we got off on the wrong stop. (But can you blame us? We cant understand Chinese... at least it was the right city..) Thankfully, some other Chinese people who got off the bus with us knew a little bit of English, and they had a cell phone, so they helped us get a hold of our Hostel and get to where we were going. One of the best things about Chinese people is that you are always automatically friends, and they will always, always help you.

 

By the time we got settled at our Hostel, it was around 6:00 in the morning, so we waited for some of the restaurants to open so we could get breakfast. We found a great little place really close by that had amazing noodles in peanut sauce, fried rice and dumplings. We ate there a few times on our trip it was so good.

 

The next thing on our agenda for the day were the Mud Caves! The Mud Caves are huge caverns inside some of the 'Dr. Seuss' mountains, and we couldn't wait to play in that mud. To get there we had to bike, and we found a place that rents bikes for 5 kuai, which is less than a dollar, for the entire day! How crazy is that?? So off we went on our bikes. It didn't take long for us to get lost, however. Our Hostel lady didn't give very good directions (a common occurrence, sadly) and so as we circled around a few different round-abouts and rode down a few roads for a long time, we finally found the right way. Luckily, the ride was breathtakingly beautiful. This town is seriously nestled right in with these incredible mountains. The landscape was seriously beyond description. I wish I could post my memories on my blog so you could see it all so much more vividly.

 

After about a 45 minute bike ride we got the Mud Caves place. We had to take a very fast and bumpy ride in a van along a dirt road to get to the actual caves, and I must admit I was terrified that the van was going to fall apart on every bump it hit. (Side note about Chinese people: There is that misconception in American that Asians cant drive, and I just want to set that straight. They can. They sooo can. They might seem fast and crazy, but they are in way more control and waaay more vigilant than any American driver)

 

So, to get inside the caves you have to take a little row boat through a small entrance in the mountain, and follow that river a ways inside. Then you get out of the boat and you get to literally walk all through these HUGE caverns. Some of the rooms were at least 5 or 6 stories tall, and super wide. They were amazing. And the rock formations were so neat to see. They also had little wooden paths they had made, crisscrossing the river and climbing over the rocks. We felt like we were in several different movies haha. (To name a few: Walking through the Mines of Moria in 'Lord of the Rings', exploring our pirate cave where we dump off all of our pirate loot like in 'Pirates of the Caribbean', Working in the mines like the Seven Dwarves in 'Snow White' Hi Ho!!, On our way to find One-Eyed Willy  like in 'The Goonies', walking through Batman's Lair in 'Batman Begins', Finding the horcrux in 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince', rowing our way to Queen Mab's Dominion in 'Merlin', etc., etc.) 

 

We were able to go on a tour of the whole cave, which goes through 4 of the mountains, and the go back and play in the mud! So we changed into our swimsuits and dove in! It was WEIRD. You can float on the mud, and it is such a weird sensation. It is probably the closest I have ever felt to flying haha. You just are suspended, and it doesn't feel like you are touching anything! We got some great muddy pictures! (We had to buy them from the workers though, which was kind of lame, but of course they were way good pictures so we had to do it.) It was so weird. So after floating, rolling and flopping in the mud, as well as sliding into it, we hosed off and then made our way to the hot springs that were also inside the caves. The hot springs felt SO good! It was kind of like a waterfall, with little bath-shaped pockets on different levels with the water cascading down. You just pop a squat in one of the holes, and soak up the heat! We were able to relax in there for 30 blissful minutes before being ushered out into the cold.

 

That was the first adventure on this trip! Stay tuned, for there are many more to come!

 

Pictures:

First: Some of the mountains in the background of the Li River. Beautiful, huh?

Second: Me, Becca, Chelsey and Lindsay inside the caves. We got to climb on top of the formations!

Third and Fourth: These are two of the pictures we bought in the mud caves, so I had to take a picture of the pictures with my camera, so that's why there is a slight glare, but it was the best I could do until I get home to a scanner. Aren't we muddy? haha

23

That's how many times I was hit with a stick today.

 

So how did I get in this situation?

 

I have one word:

 

Piñata.

 

I don't recommend having a stuffed animal piñata game while teaching a whole bunch of unruly and boisterous five years olds, unless you are looking for some kind of torture.

 

There I was this morning, unsuspecting and excited while I prepared for today's lesson, reminiscing over all of the childhood memories I have of hitting a piñata. As I sat tying that stuffed monkey to a long bamboo stick, I had no idea that in 30 minutes time I would be cornered by a little four year old boy named Ron, who was blindfolded, walloping a stick, and VERY determined to hit that stuffed monkey. I might add that Ron added eight of those whacks to the "Hit List."

 

The problem was that these blindfolded and dizzy children would follow the sound of my voice while trying to hit the stuffed animal piñata, so as I was telling them to "hit the monkey!" the kids would come right over to where I was standing, brandishing that stick the entire way. I dodged where I could, but I will most definitely have bruises tomorrow.

 

It was still a very enjoyable day. The kids were cute as always. I just have one more word for you: OUCH.

 

Photo: This is Ron. Imagine that running at you with a 2 foot plastic stick. It's a good thing he is so dang cute.

Are YOU a Fat Kid?

Do you find yourself wondering

 

"Am I a TRUE fat kid?"

 

I am pleased to announce that the Fat Kid Presidency has created a new way of testing your Fat Kid Level. You can now take

THIS 

quiz to test your skills. The only question now is

are YOU ready?

Kids & Halloween

On Friday we had a Halloween party with our students!

 

All of the teachers dressed up in costumes and the kids loved it. I decided to be a fairy and made wings out of hangers and garbage bags and when the kids saw me they all shouted "butterfly, teacher, butterfly!" I decided to just go with it instead of try to teach them what a fairy was. So now I am a butterfly. Lindsay made a way cool pirates sword, and even put beads in her hair. Chelsey was a witch, and Becca and Teresa were cats.

 

We also taught them how to Trick-or-Treat! We decorated paper bags and then the kids went from classroom to classroom knocking on the doors and chanting

"Trick-or-Treat, Trick-or-Treat!"

while we dropped candies into their bags.

(FYI Chinese candy = Gross)

 

After the Trick-or-Treating, we played the Donuts on a String game where you have to try and eat all of your donut without using your hands. At first the children were okay at not using their hands, but after a couple minutes they got restless and started to cheat. They were SO FUNNY to watch. Most of them were sticking their tongues out as far as they could reach, trying to rope in the donut. The donuts also had sugar on top, and so the kids' faces were covered in little white granules. Haha they were adorable.

 

The kids had a ton of fun learning a new Holiday from us, and we had a ton of fun teaching them about Halloween. All in all, It was a

BLAST!

 

Photo #1: All of the teachers in our costumes with our foreign coordinator Annie.

Photo #2: Cherry and her donut.

Photo #3: Adorable Yumi with her sugar face.

 

 

This is Halloween!

Woohoo! Its that time of year again! I love Halloween, and this year I got to help make a Haunted House!

 

The Chinese teachers here asked us (well, demanded is more like it) to make a Haunted House for the Halloween party that was being thrown for all the International schools in the area. We were really excited, but of course we were a little overwhelmed. Haunted Houses are a lot of work, ya know? So we designed a layout of sorts, and decided what we wanted in the house and got to work! It took FOREVER to make but we got it all done!

 

I'll walk you through the Haunted House. You enter through some black cloth and come upon a creepy zombie rocking in a chair (that would be Chelsey) who then follows you. All of the sudden a ghost pops up out of nowhere, and frightens you. Then the zombie pushes you into a room and locks you in. There you find an insane clown, draped in chains. There is banging on the doors and walls, and the clown is clanking the chains and staring you down. The door then opens and the clown and zombie push you into another room. On the wall there is a sign saying "crazy doctor" (China's version of a mad scientist) and there are bowls with eyeballs and a brain. There are jars filled with ominous colored liquids, jars filled with floating animals, and jars containing animals with too many legs. On a different table you find half a head and a knife, covered in blood. The Doctor has been working.... You find yourself caught up in looking at all these disturbing scenes, peering into the bowls and touching the brain. And, before you can register what is happening, a skeleton (me) pops out from behind the open door, and you go screaming back into the hall with the clown and zombie close at your tail. You now find yourself in a dark hallway, and you can barely see. The monsters behind you are pushing you onward, but the steps you take are small from the fear of the unknown that lies ahead. You scuffle into another room where 3 coffins lay. On the wall hangs a sign and a mirror.. the sign tells of the 3 dead who lay here, and to turn around 3 times and look into the mirror, where you'll see one of their ghosts. Being a curious person, you follow the directions, and after you come to a stop from your spinning, nothing happens. You look around in disappointment and hear a scream. You then realize the scream is coming from your own mouth, because one of the dead bodies (Teresa) is now sitting up, and moving towards you. You run out of the room and down a new hallway. You make a turn and see before you a slight glow. As you move closer and closer you find a room filled with glowing sticks. This is a most interesting room, you are thinking. All of the sudden some of the lights are moving towards you. You are confused, and scared, because glowing sticks shouldn't be able to move. You then understand that it is a monster (Lindsay) jumping out towards you. After some more screaming and running down dark hallways, you see the exit ahead. You bolt for the door, and as you cross the threshold a giant spider drops onto your head from nowhere. You brush it aside, yelling as you go.

 

Our Haunted House was a pretty good hit. We made several kids cry and leap into their parents arms. It was pretty fun haha. We also had a performance at the party. All of our kids sang songs for their parents. They sang the Itsy Bitsy Spider, One Two Buckle my Shoe, and the Witch Song. After that we had the wonderful experience of performing Thriller again. This time was more fun because we used the whole song, not just a segment from it. We started out going through the crowd and scaring them, and when the chorus would come on we would brake out into the dance steps. For the last two minutes of the song we went up on the stage and performed the whole routine. It was really cool because we were all dressed up and had our creepy face paint. The face paint was lots of fun to have, except a lot of the children were too afraid to come up to us and say hello, which was sad. A few of them would warm up to us as soon as they heard our voices and realized it was us. One of my favorite students, a 4 year old named Yumi, saw me and wasn't afraid at all! She just yelled "Teacher!!" and came running over to me to show me her costume and give me a hug. It was super cute.

 

The party was a lot of fun! After it was over we had to walk home, and it was the funnest walk I have ever been on. If you ever want a good laugh, paint your face really creepy, and then go walking on the streets of an unsuspecting China. You'll love it haha. The Chinese don't celebrate Halloween, and so as we were walking home we got a lot of funny stares. We decided that we should try to scare people while we were at it, so when we would pass shops we would just stand there looking through the window at people until they would look up and when they finally did, they would jump sky high. Sometimes they would cower into a friend of theirs and wouldn't look up again for a few minutes, hoping we would be gone when they finally sat up. These were the most fun because we would move even closer to that person and wait, and when they finally looked up again we would scare them even more than before. Haha it was way too much fun. And when we were walking, people would avoid us as much as possible, walking on the road to stay as far away as possible. When we got to a really crowded area where all of the shopping places are, we were able to scare a lot of people. But after a little bit they all started whipping out their cell phones and began to take pictures of us and with us. This turned into a 15 minute photo shoot, and we ended up being "escorted of the premises" by the guards. It was so funny.

 

Halloween is

SO

MUCH

FUN!

 

(Pictures: #1: All of the teachers and our foreign coordinator Annie inside the Haunted house. #2: Me and Yumi, one of my favorite students. #3: Part of the Mad Scientist's room. Note- All of the things in the jars are REAL. We found them in a box in a creepy deserted room. #4: Becca and I in our face paint.)

The Love of My Life

My whole heart belongs to him. I would marry him without a second thought. Who is this, you may ask?

 

Michael Buble.

 

He sings to my very soul. I LOVE his voice. I have all of his CD's, and every song memorized. I can listen to him for hours everyday and never get sick of his wonderful, crooning voice.

 

And guess what. He has a new CD out, Crazy Love, and I want it SOOOOO bad. How many times can you listen to and iTunes sample? I've already listened to all of his new CD's samples like 10 times. And there is a music video on the Deluxe version, and I have watched that clip probably 100 times. So why am I not buying the CD?

 

Cuz its $14.99, which is about $150 kuai. And I really need that $150 kuai. Isn't is depressing? Trust me, it is. So I'll buy the CD in a couple months. (Unless I just break down and buy it haha, which is definitely a possibility)

 

I guess the point of this post is, if you haven't heard Michael's new CD, go listen to it! And if you haven't heard Michael Buble at all, then, well, there's no point in living until you do. So go listen to him, and you'll know EXACTLY what I mean. Ah... I'm listening to him right now, and my ears are so happy...

Forbidden City

 

Lama Temple

This temple was right by our Hostel and it was AMAZING! So many beautiful colors!