Zhongshan! Mainland China.

Zhongshan! ... First of all, Zhongshan is much coooler than Hong Kong so I take back what I said earlier about a light jacket... not the case here :) So two of the coordinators from ILP in Zhongshan got us and took us to the ferry on sunday afternoon. Their names are Tina and Lola. Tina is tiny. I swear she's like 4 foot something, and so adorbale. Tina speaks great english and Lola spoke very very little. But both of them are the sweetest things, just like every other Chinese person i've met thus far :) While we were waiting for the ferry, Tina and Lola taught us a card game they play with face cards in a random restaraunt, and it was
absolutely histarical! They are a hoot. I hadn't laughed so hard in a long time. And we learned a lot of new chinese. They're so
patient with us and our very beginner chinese :) I'm so excited to learn the language better. About an hour in a half later we were in Zhongshan!!! Oh my goodness, so beautiful. I'll forever remember the smell right off the ferry. It was so yummy, it smelt like some kind of sweet flower, and it was delightful. A big yellow bus was there waiting for us to take us to our flat. So we did just that. The ride was beautiful. The sky was very very foggy but the vegitation is beautiful. Everything is so lush and green just like Hong Kong, but different in the sense that everything was far more open and rural, less crowded and busy than Hong Kong which is a beautiful thing. Our flat is actually very nice. It is all tile which is sort of a down fall especially during the winter season and without heating inside but the apartment itself is quite nice. I feel spoiled actually, it is nothing like what I had expected.

So.... this should not be a surprise to anyone because I did warn you, I'm no good at this blogging thing. Because I'm so behind, I'm going to just post a few highlights from my experiences thus far to catch myself up to where I need to be :)

-serving hot water (which really isn't so bad considering it's so cold) but still not exactly used to drinking steaming hot water with my meals :)I'm sure i'll get used to it
-The air and the people smell funny. Not necessarily bad, but very strange. But I'm sure in just a short time I will be smelling the same way.
-Eating with chop stix. They just don't serve meals with utensils, it's not an option. Chop stix is where it's at and I'm so okay with that. I'm already well on my way to becoming a champ at eating with them.
-Transportation. There are buses galore, and bikes. Pedal bikes, motor bikes, scooters, you name it! There are bikes EVERYWHERE! and I LOVE IT!
-Chinese music rocks! I don't have a clue what they're saying, but I LIKE IT! I'm kind of notorious for singing along to songs I don't know the words to, which presents a problem because #1, I don't have a real... hmmm..... good (for lack of a better term) voice to begin with, and #2, this is a different language so I find myself creating words that sound somewhat chinese just so I can sing along. BAD BAD habit, I need to stop. Tarah, Rebekah and Catie know what I'm talking about :)
-The Food.... it is interesting. I'm always game to try anything, so I do, and I'm not a real picky eater, but there have been ups and downs on this trip so far I will say :) Some stuff is delicious! Such as, the steamed vegetable, fruit, dumplings, noodles, etc. And others, not so much... pig skin, dipsum a.k.a ball of fat. All the same, its growing on me and I'm excited to try many new and crazy things!
-The language is I.N.C.R.E.D.I.B.L.E! I love it! It's so exciting! English is so boring compared to Chinese. The tones and sounds, it's just fun. I can't wait to learn more.
-The School we will be teaching at, Bond Language Kindergarten, is way nice. It's a newer school and it's great. We spent some time there this week getting familiar with the chinese teachers and the school coordinators and the kids... it was fun. The kids are so adorable, I can't even explain. I'll get pictures up soon so you can see for yourselves :) It actually kinda makes me want to fall in love with some Asian man which puts me in a little bit of a pickle considering how much I'm determined to marry either an African American or a man with a foreign accent. :) ha. This is a problem. Those kids are just too much, their little big cheeks, full lips, and dark eyelashes. I LOVE it! I'm only kidding though, about all of that. Well, sort of. I'm half kidding anyways.
-The cooks at the school are so nice, and just funny. Michael and Jenny are their American names. Their really sweet, and they try really hard to make us feel comfortable with the meals and try to Americanize things for us every now and then. Michael will be teaching us a bread making class starting next week which I really cannot wait for. The bread here is DELICIOUS, and i'm afraid it might just get in the way with our lofty goals we've set to come home skinnier than we came:)and Jenny... she is a gem. Two of the girls had birthdays this week and the cooks made cakes both days and sent them home with us. It was so nice. I'm excited to become better friends with them and get to know them better.
-One night the coordinators at the school took us all to dinner at this spicy restaurant with the other English teaching teachers at the school. There were about 3 from London, a couple from Canada and four other Americans. Most of them have been here for a little while so it was really cool talking to them and getting familiar with things through them, if that makes sense. Anyways, the restaurant was actually a really spicy place and I wasn't aware of that to begin with. Once we started eating, my face was beat red, my lips were flaming, and I had tears rolling down my cheaks before the end of the meal. That is how uncomfortably hot the meal was. And it only made it worse that I was THE ONLY one who seemed to be responding that way. So, we've had one other hot meal since then and it went a little better... I'm thinking I might just come home with a liking to spicy things :)
-Workouts with Tony! I brought this workout with me on my laptop called Ab Ripper X and one of the other girls brought the whole other set of workouts that go with that cd and the guy that leads it is Tony. He's pretty hilarious, and we get up every other morning and work out with him:) It's a fun thing we've started that will hopefully keep us in shape a little bit :) And once it warms up outside, we can go running and do some other cool things hopefully. My knee is doing pretty good. I'm super nervous and hesitant to run on it but in a couple weeks I'll give it a try and we'll see how things pan out.
-So I get along lovely with all the girls in our group, which is great. They all seem to be really great, positive and somewhat frugal which is good because I am SO very frugal. Jillian is our head teacher and she's pretty funny. At first she didn't say more than like 3 words to me which were, "Hi I'm Jillian." and on top of that she seemed to never be smiling and very stoic... but she has definitely warmed up. She's my roommate right now and she does this funny austrailian impression in a big announcing voice everytime anyone says anything worth repeating. It's really quite funny. And she walks around the apartment with her earphones in singing and dancing like she's the only one in the apartment. So entertaining. We're glad she's around. Mikelle and Abby are the other two that are in our apartment right now and they room together in the other room. I get along well with Mikelle and Abby. Mikelle is very practical and Abby reminds me a lot of Tarah. Very happy go lucky, sweet, happy, positive. She's fun. Shaila is actually sleeping in our living room right now because she's waiting to take Jillians spot in my room while Jillian is waiting for the other room to open up so she can move in with the other two girls. Shaila is more quiet and reserved but once we get talking she warms up. Brianna and Jaimie are the other two who are staying in a dormitory at another school right now because the second room is still occupied at the present moment. Jaimie is suuper funny, kinda reminds me a little bit of Carly because she's just down for anything, funny, random, but her voice and the way she talks is totally a Barbara Clark. If I were closing my eyes and just listening to her in the same room I would think Barbara were here. WAY weird. Brianna is definitely a thinker. She's always the last one in the group to agree with the rest of us because she's disecting it for any problems. She's more the pesimist in the group, not to be negative because sometimes when you have 6 other girls who are just way excited to get and do and try everything it's good to have a logical thinker. It should be an adventure getting to know all of them better.
-We got wi-fi in our apartment which is great besides the fact that we pay for it every month and considering we have access at the school, that's the last thing I want to be spending my money on, but... it is bigger than me decision, so I'm okay with it.
-We end every day with family prayer in our flat, which is kind of a neat thing. So far I've enjoyed it. Our Father in Heaven has definitely been a part of our lives since we've been here and I love Him so much for that.