The first week have teaching has proved to be a
challenge for sure, but it has been yet another fun filled, adventure taking,
and “I’ve never met so many people in one week” kinda experience. Let’s start with the good.
The
Good:
Good news should always start out with good food,
friends, and family. This week we had
the opportunity to go to a seafood restaurant with our “headmaster” from the
school. Her friend from America came to
visit and she wanted all of us American teachers to meet her, so we did so with
TONS of food. This restaurant proved to
make all of us teachers chuckle, and wonder what the heck we got ourselves
into. When we walked into the
restaurant, we looked to the right and a huge aquarium that looked like this
appeared.
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| Ugly fish |
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| Something fishy, and some squid. |
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| Shrimp |
When we got inside, the girl from America said pick
something from the menu, and pointed to the aquarium. We were like, huh? She then pointed out crab, snails, oysters, a
stingray looking fish, pig intestines, duck, chicken, and an assortment of
other creepy crawlies. We were like
yeah, uh huh, looks good I suppose???
When we told her the things we wanted to try, she told this guy who came
over with a bucket and a net, where he then fished out the fish we were soon to
eat. It was on the table a few minutes
later. Check out the menu.
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The shrimp. Definitely one of my favorites.
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| Snails. Not as bad as you think, but I won't be craving them anytime soon. |
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| Pig intestines. Believe it or not, this was my favorite one! |
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| Chicken, and so much more! |
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| Half of the table |
It proved to be really good food, and eaten with great
company. I am glad that the Chinese are
so nice to us, and choose to give us the biggest plates with the most food on
them. J
The second good thing that happened this week was
attending a tutoring center open house.
It was a center where English will be taught as well as other subjects
for afterschool kids. It was again
filled with so much food, and great company.
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| Stephanie. A cute girl who wanted to be our friend. :) |
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Both of our headmaster's, and her friend from America.
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We also went on a few home visits to meet some of
the babies in our English classes. The
parent’s love to feed us and give us hot water…they always serve us hot water to
drink at night.
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| Mark who is in our baby class. :) |
We had a parent meeting where all the parent’s got
to attend, and learn more about our program and what their children will be
doing in class. They like to show off
their American teachers and put us in the front…for the whole two hour meeting,
in tiny chairs. It was good putting
parent faces to their children though.
The last thing that happened this week I think is
better than good, so we will say the most amazing thing that has happened this
week was the opportunity to go to church in Kaiyin. It is about a 30 minute bus ride, but since
the directions were a little vague I took my team on a little bit of a
detour. We ended up going the wrong
direction, so we had to back track a tad.
Also, we had to change buses about 15 minutes into the trip so we got
off to get on our next bus, but ended up getting the shaft on that one because
that bus only goes by every 30 minutes.
We got there at 10 o’clock. 30
minutes of boiling in the hot sun later our bus shows up and takes us to the
school in Kaiyin. We walk to their
apartment where about 30 people were smushed into a small living room. We were all huddled around a computer where
we watched a church meeting via skype. Even
though we missed partaking of the sacrament, it was a great opportunity to see
the testimonies of those who are also living in China teaching English. We sang, I
Believe in Christ, for our closing hymn, and it gave me a refreshing
feeling to start my new week. Needless
to say, I am grateful that I have a Savior who loves me, and I know is watching
over me and my family. I am one blessed
girl that is for sure.
The
Bad
So I feel bad talking about the bad in China because
honestly, there is not much “bad” that I see here. But I do feel it important to tell you my
story because you never know you may end up here one day! So after teaching on Thursday, we all decide
to go get a Washy Washy. Now if you
don’t know what this is, let me explain.
It is a hair salon, and a Washy Washy consists of a head massage of
about 20 minutes, and they blow dry and style your hair all for about 3 or 4
American dollars. Super cheap,
yeah? Well we heard such great news and
rave about these here head washes, and wanted to find out for ourselves…so we
went. We walked in and the people were
super nice, and trying to talk to us, but then one of the guys calls me upstairs
to start the washin’. Long story short,
Chinese guys hitting on you, wanting to ask you out, and saying that you have
stolen thier heart all within 5 minutes of meeting each other, and all while
they are awkwardly washing your hair was just really weird. The massage turned out to be a 20 minute head
scratch, and me telling guys that I had no interest in them. In the end, it was an experience I would care
not to have again…but on the positive side the girls were hilarious.
The
Ugly
So this part of the story is interesting. You see the Chinese people are very insistent
on things that they want you to do. You
can tell them you don’t want any more food, but they just plop another big pile
on your plate anyways. Well this was
kind of a situation like that. We were
invited to sing karaoke at a KTV, and even though it was late we accepted, and
thought that it would be a fun time. Now
those of you who know me, know that I do not sing…especially in front of
people, but I planned to go and be a photographer. I think I accomplished my goal. J
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| Emily, being Emily :) |
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| Emily and Kaytie rockin' out. |
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| The ceiling. Super cool! |
After much insistence and pressure on me to get up
to sing…I still didn’t do it! HA. However, I was happily listening to the
music, and watching others sing, and was entertained for sure.
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| Anna and one of her friends. |
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| The food. Chicken feet, peanuts, and lots of fishy stuff...these snacks were rather gross. |
However, the later it got, the more I started to
notice things. The room started to fill
with smoke (they love to smoke here) and I noticed that many middle aged men
had hard times standing up because they were so drunk. They would come over to us, and have a million
cheers with the American girls, (we drank water) but they just kept drinking,
and drinking, and drinking. The biggest
turning point was when a guy started throwing bowls at the walls, and then
started fighting another guy. It was
actually scary, and we were all ready to go home at that point. We talked to our coordinator, and she talked
the family into driving us back home.
Even though we were caught in an uncomfortable
situation, it just empowered my testimony of the Word of Wisdom. Why would anyone want to waste away a night
with alcohol, and filling their lungs up with smoke, when you can have just as
much fun on fruit juice? Seriously people! Not to mention
you will remember the good times you have, and not have them in a blur. I love that I have chosen to abstain from
alcohol, tobacco products, coffee, and tea.
It helps me to have control of my life and spirit, and not have worldly
substances take it over. I am again
blessed with the knowledge that I have of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So my tips for the week: Have fun, eat good food, love
friends and family, go to church, serve others, and don’t forget to wash your
own hair. ;p
<3 Sophia
