Best View of the House

The Shanghai skyline! The Bund is the largest TV tower in China and it looks pretty weird but also pretty cool. Because we went there on the busiest day of the year (literally) it was a bit of a task getting to where we could actually see the skyline rather than the back of people's heads. The pushing, shoving, and putting my bag under my shirt to keep from getting robbed was worth it in the end. It is a gorgeous skyline!

What I am thinking...Elephant Style

Ok, I gotta take a selfie of me on this elephant. You can't really see the elephant in the picture but that's ok

Wahoooooo no hands! This isn't scary and this will be a cute picture.

Yusssss I'm wearing my elephant pants that's so perfect!

Cool. I get to feed this elephant! He'll love me forever.

Oh my gosh, I did it! He took the carrot!

Oh. My. Gosh. I'll buy more carrots and feed it with my mouth!!

I'm kissing an elephant. This is the most exciting thing I've ever done. I love China.

Mid Autumn Moon Festival

Our pre-dance selfie. The school had us preform the hokey pokey and "if you're happy and you know it" with our students on stage in front of about 600 people… so fun! And actually quite nerve racking. Totally worth it though!

 All these seats were filled, plus many, many people standing. It was a full house! 

I won a moon cake eating contest on stage in front of the aforementioned 600 people… that's what you get for being an exuberant American that raises her hand without hesitation! I won a selfie stick and a water bottle… good win!After I got on stage I remembered that moon cakes are really not my favorite. Thankfully the ones for the competition were super yummy! No black means or suspicious meat inside.... Thank goodness. I'm a fairly adventurous eater but I don't like hidden surprises. 

Our super cute student dancing their little hearts out. I love these kiddos!

Round Two??

So as most of you know, I recently came home from my mission for some health reasons. While I was sad to be come home, I had a lot of comfort in knowing that it was the right thing for me to do, and that it's, well, not the end of my life. Just because a trial comes up doesn't mean in time to stop moving! So my was of moving on and continuing to focus on others is going back to China! This time I'll be going as head teacher, which means I won't be directly teaching the kids, but I'll be over seeing the teachers. It's a lot of responsibility but I'm really excited!
At first I was assigned to go to a city called Changzhou where I would be one of two head teachers. But now because of some changes I'll be in a city called Changsha and I'll be on my own as far as head teaching goes. It will be me and five other teachers, so the size of the group sounds great.
I of course have been researching Changsha, and it looks awesome! So, a little bit about it;

Here it is, in the south east corner of China in the middle of the Hunan province. It's the capital of Hunan, so that's super cool! In 2010 it had a population of 7,044,118. Seven million! And I mean, that was 5 years ago so I'm sure there's many more!

Another highlight of the Hunan province is Zhangjiajie! These are the mountains where the Avatar (the blue people) movie was filmed. From what I've heard, they are absolutely amazing and I can't wait to see them!

See you soon, Changsha!

This is Not Your Average Zoo

Saturday morning we went off on our first major Chinese adventure!  Our coordinator Kelly rented a big van for us and we drove about an hour and a half away to get to the zoo.  My first impression once we got there was that there was a LOT of stairs.  Since we don't have enough stairs at school already.....
So we got to the entrance and there was this huge cliff with animal decorations covering it.  It was enormous, and super cool. 

The bathrooms by the entrance were also impressive; I have never seen giant hippo and rhino bathrooms before but hey, this is China.

Due to the impressiveness of the bathrooms, we were all pretty sure the zoo would be great, too.  There were tons of animals but some of the coolest included:

These beautiful tigers:

Red Pandas:

This crazy looking emu:

And of course super exotic animals such as raccoons, bronze turkeys, and llamas!

There were all of the above listed *normal* exhibits, plus tons more average zoo animals.  But, there were also many more not so "average" things at this zoo.  The first thing we noticed that confirmed we were in a zoo in China was that next to the big cat exhibits, they had cages of live chickens (and a random duck.)

 

 We found out from the lady standing be these foul friends that for 50 kuai (another more commonly used word for Chinese yuan) you could throw one of the chickens down to one of the lions, leopards, tigers, ligers, or wolves.  I wasn't interested in doing that but some of the people in my group were so they bought a chicken and threw it to the leopards. It was crazy and a little sad, but that chicken was dead long before she hit the ground. 

A lot of the animals looked sad, but most of them looked ok. I got to sit in an elephant trunk and on the back of a camel, and hold a HUGE snake around my neck. I wish enormous zoos in the US only cost 5 dollars to go to....

Getting a Passport: Not for the Faint at Heart

Time for a passport! I was (finally) able to get an appointment. Yay! The only place I could get an appointment in a reasonable amount of time was almost an hour away at the passport agency in San Diego.  Not yay! But it all worked out. My mom is great and drove me to San Diego for my appointment at 10:30. We parked in a minuscule parking lot that charged a (ridicules) amount. $11 dollars for two hours of parking? I guess that's what it's like in a city, and considering I'm moving to China, I'm going to have to get used to it. After a little adventure of fitting a mini van into a spot that looked like it was designed for a smart car, we proceed to the huge shiny building.

After taking the gut dropping elevator to the tenth floor, we got in line for security.  So, you know those little kid's scissors that are about 4 inches long? Did you know that you can't bring them into secure government buildings? Whoops. I keep an emergency kit in my purse and I completely forgot about the scissors. After the X-ray machine went off and the security guy started digging through my purse, I remembered the scissors, 'fessed up, and found them myself. My purse is far from clean, and I wanted him to spend minimal time digging through it. The security guard then instructed my mom to throw the scissors away, "just not on the tenth floor." Because as we all know,  little safety scissors like to jump out of trash cans and and poke people, but they of course can not use elevators. Anyway, we made it successfully through the first stage of applying for the passport, then sat down to wait. The passport system is very similar to the DMV, but as previously mentioned their appointment system is even worse. Wouldn't it be fun if healthcare worked with such efficiency? 

After waiting for an hour, I raised my right hand to give the little oath they give, signed a paper, and was out of there! It was perfect because we made it back to the car just before our expensive two hours ran out. I'll have my passport very soon because we expedited it, then I can get my visa!

Moving to China is starting to become more and more real!

Passport Pictures

This week I discovered it is much easier to get passport pictures taken than to get an actual passport.  I can now recommend Walgreens as a place to get passport pictures taken, they did a great job and made sure to do the job right.  After attending a delicious garden party, my mom, siblings, and I trekked off to get my picture taken.  I had carefully done my makeup and picked out a cute top to make sure I looked nice in my picture- I'll have this passport for ten years, after all. We got to Walgreens and a nice worker there took my picture, then disappeared to print it. My family stood around waiting for him and entertaining ourselves by looking at old DVDs, he was taking a long time.  About ten minutes later he came back and told me he would have to retake the picture.  Why?  Because the cute shirt I was wearing was so light colored it was blending into the backdrop. He showed me the picture and I had to laugh. He had tried to darken it and change the contrast so I didn't blend in so much, but the editing turned my skin orange and made me look slightly martian. Even if passport pictures are never hott, I'm pretty sure you're at least supposed to look human.  The guy told me he would go find a sweater to put on for a retake. I was okay with that, but so much for my cute outfit!  He came back and said "here, I got you some options to choose from." These options were an XL neon pink hoodie, and an XL black hoodie. They were pretty cute, but more of "cold windy day on the beach" cute, opposed to "this picture will be on a legal document until I'm 28" cute. I picked the black sweatshirt and he retook the picture. Considering how fair my skin is I'm surprised *I* didn't blend into the backdrop!
 So, one silly story later I have my passport and visa photos and I'm ready to go to the passport agency tomorrow!

Speed bump number one

Speed bump number one! It has come! Unfortunately, this first speed bump is one that's a pretty big pain. To sum it up: I was unaware it takes so long to set up an appointment for a passport. That's it. I didn't know. In order for ILP to get my visa so I can go to China, they need my passport. And to get my passport, I need an appointment. And to get an appointment… I need to wait two weeks. Two weeks might not sound like a lot, but when you're leaving in thirteen weeks, two weeks matter.

The way to a passport is weird. I think it's a little silly. First, you call the post office. The post office then tell you to call a random 1-800 number to set up an appointment. But the 1-800 people take a long time to call you back. When they do call you back, they tell you there's no appointments for two weeks, so, call the post office back! It's so silly! The DMV is not a prime example of efficiency, but at least they have a online appointment making system. Oh, and post offices close at three. What time did the 1-800 people call me back to tell me to call the post office again? Exactly three twenty one. That was frustrating. I called the passport agency in San Diego, (an hour away) but they were not super helpful on their whole system is automated on the phone. You press numbers on the key pad to make an appointment. Let's just say it's more confusing than talking to a person. 

So. How will I overcome this roadblock/speed bump/challenge? Calling the post office, weird 1-800 number, and passport as many times as I need to in order to get this passport as soon as possible. I can do it! It just might be a pain. But I know that going to China is in no way going to be easy, and it's not supposed to be. Passports, visas, weird food, rowdy kids to teach, long days, and long nights will all be part of it. But it's all part of the adventure because after all, I'm not just a tourist.