one month down

I can't believe it! I've been living in China for a month!! It feels like I've been here a day but also like I've been here forever. I still can't believe I actually live here...life is crazy. Had someone told me last year that I'd be living in China for 4 months I would've laughed at them. And yet a year later here I am. So here's a few things I've learned in the past month:

• if you ever come to china, only bring Dri-Fit Nike things. nothing else will dry. I just buy a new towel every time I need a clean one because there's no way it would dry. Is it gross that I won't wash my jeans for the four months I'm here? Probably 
• you can find kind people anywhere in the world
• having a good group and making friends wherever you are and whatever situation you are put in will make all the difference
• Chinese people are really missing out on the joy that is real pizza and that cheesy coma after you eat too much pizza
• Twizzlers and Cliff Bars taste so much better when all you eat is rice 
• mold can grow anywhere and on anything
• i swear bug bites in China are itchier than in America 
• I hate shower shoes 
• dryers are so much more useful than I ever realized
• Chinese food is actually gross for the most part. I think I'll stick with Pei Wei

On a more serious note:

• I've really come to understand how truly blessed I am that I live in America and all the luxuries and freedoms that go along with that
• We are all God's children. Even for those in China who may not know it
• I am so lucky to go to school in a place where 98% of the student body is LDS and I can speak freely about my religion and things that I believe
• My group is amazing. I'm so lucky to have made awesome friends that are always there to support one another when we are so far from home. They have made all the difference in my experience here in China
• I've really taken to heart the quote by President Thomas S. Monson that says "Never let a problem to be solved, become more important than a person to be loved." I've taken my own twist to this though in terms of teaching. I love kids but some days are so frustrating when you've made this lesson plan and then the kids have zero desire to listen to you or participate and then add the language barrier on top of that. On those kinds of days I just have to remind myself that a child to be loved is so much more important than getting that child to repeat things back to me in English.
• Like I mentioned in a previous post, my best friend Sarah is serving her mission in Nicaragua. She has always been someone who has inspired me. When she gave her farewell before she left she shared the following, "I have also had the opportunity to go on some humanitarian trips to different parts of the world. On one of these trips I was at a work site helping to build bathrooms for a school. A little boy came up to me and a group of girls as we were packing up for the day and we realized he was deaf. Luckily one of the girls I was with had taken a couple years of sign language in high school and she started to sign with him. As she told us what he was signing, my heart broke. He told her that the other children would tease him and chase him because he was deaf. I remember thinking, he already lives in a place that is poor and where his needs are not met. How is it fair that he has this disability. I wanted to badly to sit down with this little boy and explain to him that there was a God that loved him, and He knew exactly what he was experiencing every day." When I arrived in China, the first little bit I was having a difficult time adjusting and she told me,"You are there to inspire people! So start inspiring them." What she didn't know is that these kids have inspired me. I came all the way to China to try and help in what little way that I could, with the hopes to have an impact on the kids I was teaching. And yet a month later and these kids have taught me more about love, patience, and happiness than I ever could've imagined

In other news after we got home tonight I went for a run and saw some kids playing basketball at the school so I asked if I could play. We played 3 on 3, given its me and five 6th graders, and this one kid accidentally basically punched me in the nose. Long story short I got the worst bloody nose of my entire life.

Gavin & Cary

CiCi

Stanley

Winson. A total troublemaker but one of my favorites.

Adrian

our daily dose of dumplings

shenzen district conference

This past weekend we had the opportunity to go to Shenzen for the weekend to attend a district conference. The expat members here are so nice!

I booked my first hotel room in Chinese hotel room all by myself!! And guess what...I booked the wrong nights....I didn't even realize it until we got to check-in. But all worked out (thank goodness) and we stayed in this sweet apartment style hotel for the night. The beds were soooo comfortable and the floor was so clean we could walk around and shower without shoes on!!! We were all stoked to use the gym, pool, and bowling alley until we realized China is nothing like America and you had to pay to use them all. Bummer. When we got in the elevator we didn't realize you had to use your card to get to your floor so it took us up to the 21st floor. The door opened and it was just a wood panel and we totally thought we were stuck. Then at breakfast that next morning only four people were allowed to have free breakfast (no idea why) but when they realized we were trying to like sneak it to other people they stationed themselves next to our table and watched us like hawks.

That day before the conference started we went to explore "Sea World." It basically just looks like a boardwalk with restaurants and a water show at night. Nothing like the real Sea World but we found this Tex Mex place that was absolutely to die for and so delicious and tasted a million times better after eating rice and dumplings for a month. I was so happy I could've cried.

That night we had a YSA activity that was actually really fun which was a relief because usually things like that are relatively awkward when you know no one. After we had an adult session with Elder Zeno Chow, of the Seventy. During that meeting Rachel had accidentally left a boiled egg in her backpack that cracked open and it smelled so bad. We could not stop laughing. The next morning we had another meeting and then a fireside. It was so cool to be able to attend something like that in China. Elder Chow was an excellent speaker. A few things he said that really stuck out to me were:

"He will NEVER forget you. You are marked on His hands, sides, and feet. You are with Him wherever He goes. But we must remember to remember Him."

"Your efforts to come to church so far from home will not go unnoticed by the Lord."

"If you trust Him enough, He will lead you through."
He gave an example from when he and his wife were young and couldn't afford things like toilet paper. He told us that one particular time the toilet paper went on sale on the exact day they needed to buy some. He talked about it was a little miracle for them but such a testimony builder than the Lord knows each of our struggles, however small they may be.
This reminded me of a story about my grandparents. My grandpa had been inactive since high school and my grandma had never been a member. Long story short,one day when they were young they went to the store and after they came home they realized they had forgotten toothpaste but that they didn't have enough money left to go buy some. That day a toothpaste ad was mailed to their home and it had a small sample toothpaste in in. My grandpa said to my grandma something along the lines of 'If the Lord can look after our teeth, we need to look after His gospel in our lives.' My grandma took the discussions and they've been faithful and active ever since. I love that story because it reminds me that sometimes even the smallest and insignificant things can make such a huge difference in our lives and our testimonies.

"Reverence stems from love for your Heavenly Father."

He told us that the Book of Mormon has recently been reprinted in Chinese, one of the reasons being because the word 'always' was translated to 'from time to time' and they wanted a more exact translation. He gave the example of the Sacrament prayer and our promise to 'always remember Him.' We do not want to remember Him from time to time, but rather to always remember Him. I thought that was really cool.

I started reading the Book of Mormon here. Hoping to finish before I get home!

I spent $13 on this. worth every penny

we were stoked to find good Mexican food in China. we went back for dinner and churros later than night 

after a month of box springs digging into our backs when we sleep, this hotel bed was well deserved 

Church with my China friends
from left to right: Malia, Elli, Me, Syd, Kimberly, Rachel

missing home a little extra today

Today is March 17, most commonly known as St. Patrick's Day. But better yet, today is Morgan and Tanner's wedding!!!! Morgs is awesome, beautiful, talented, and the greatest friend. Honestly I feel bad for you if you've never had the pleasure of meeting/loving this girl. I so wish I could've flown home for the wedding but I'm already stoked to see them in August. Anyway just thought they deserved a shout out. Have the perfect day guys! Love you!

You know at home when you come home after a long day and a shower sounds like the most refreshing thing in the world? And then you get out and wrap up in a fresh, dry towel? And then get in your soft, comfy bed and catch up on some Netflix with a delicious midnight snack solely consisting of a huge bowl of Turkey Hill mint choco chip ice cream? Yeah, not in China. The water stays hot for 3 minutes max. if it even bothers to get hot at all. You have to hold the shower head because the mount makes it spray all over the walls and toilet rather than on you. Plus its so dang humid my towel hasn't dried in a month...I don't care how hot it is in DC in June. That's the first thing I'll do is take a long, blazing hot shower and then hit up Pomodoro's Pizza. It may be 3 months out but I am already so excited to do that. China really is cool and I'm grateful I get to be here experiencing a place that is so opposite from America but man, home has all the luxuries.

Guess what?!?!?! My parents are coming to China!!! Josh might be coming too! How cool is that?? Never in a million years did I ever think I'd find myself living in China or ever visiting with my family! May 3 can't come soon enough! They'll be here for almost 2 weeks and I'm pumped to travel with them and to just see them! We'll be spending a week in Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi'an before we head back down to Zhongshan.  Then we'll head to Western China somewhere for the weekend after I teach. I'll be able to have my parents meet the kids I'm teaching!! How cool is that?? I'm thousands of miles from home and I still get to share something so cool and different than anything I've ever done with the people who made me who I am. My mom told me it was weird I'm so excited to see them because I've never really been a homebody. Guess China will do that you haha. Plus I have already accumulated a list of things I need/want her to bring from home.

Also March Madness starts tomorrow!! I hope y'all have filled out your brackets!
"Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing."

On a China note we have a district conference in Shenzhen this weekend and I'm honestly so excited! It'll be such a cool experience to go to something like that in China. The Church is so cool and true that I'm all the way in China and it's still the same! Plus the hotel with a pool, gym, and a REAL(ish) shower we're staying at won't be too shabby either. And a sister in our ward is taking us to Sam's Club to buy some American snacks because we're fresh out. I definitely didn't think I'd blow through those so fast. Crossing my fingers they have Dr. Pepper and Brookside Berries. Oh, and milk. It's weird the things you crave when you don't get them for a while.

zhangjiajie

We finally got to travel after being here for 3 weeks so we headed up to Zhangjiajie in Northern China!

The trip started off a bit on the rough side when we discovered just how nasty trains and train stations in China are. I used my first public squatter and might I add it was quite possibly one of the grossest things I have ever done. Worse than mulch delivery and port-a-potties in DC in the summer. We were all super dehydrated this trip because we didn't want to have to use the squatters. 

People in the train station were all taking pictures of us from afar. Rather creepy if you ask me. If you ever want to be a celebrity just come to China. They love white people even though we definitely don't understand the fascination. And people will just whisper about you in Chinese and stare right at you. Its really annoying because you know they're talking about you and you have absolutely no way of figuring out what they're saying. 

The bathroom was literally a hole in the train car that you could see the train tracks moving underneath you and smelled absolutely vulgar. Men were hacking loogies and spitting them on the floor and smoking packs and packs of cigarettes. The train floor was wet and dirty and the seats has food basically ingrained into the fabric of them. There were loiterers and beggars walking up and down the aisles the whole time at all hours of the night. This one beggar in particular had one leg and he was crawling up and down the seats and through the train car. He was singing this Chinese song really loud at 2 am and would hit our arms begging for money. He hit my arm when I was asleep and it scared the absolute the crap out of me. This other guy  sitting across from my friend Malia was super drunk and kept head butting her when she would lay down. It was soo weird and creepy. 

After 14 hours on the train we finally arrived in Zhangjiajie where we met up with our host, a Chinese woman named Jane who hardly spoke any English. The family we stayed with was so kind and hospitable. They didn't speak a lick of English so there were lots of smiles of gratitude and using our very limited Chinese to communicate. By limited I mean we can say 'thank you' and 'hello.' It was probably four or five generations of a Chinese family living together in rural Northern China. The grandma made us dinner every morning. It was pretty much a feast of rolls, different kinds of dumplings, noodles, and boiled eggs. She just kept bringing out more and more food and we couldn't communicate to her that it was already plenty. They didn't have power the first night and they felt so bad about it. Every night they would give us a few grapefruits which were delicious. The grapefruits here are the size of a toddler's head, its nuts. One day when we were going hiking my friend Syd was wearing Chacos and Jane thought she didn't have any shoes (sandals here are considering shower shoes)so she tried to give her the socks and shoes off her feet. Its humbling to see that they have everything they need, although still much less than we have, and are still so willing to give. The driver we had this weekend was someone from the village and I swear I saw my life flash before my eyes a few times when he was driving. 

On the first day we got there we headed to the host's house and then we went to the Yellow Dragon Cave. Totally overrated. It was a cool cave but I could've been in there 5 minutes rather than 4 hours. It a freaking maze and everything was lit up with these weird colored lights. It was like a rave in a cave. I'm willing to bet money that we hiked 20,000 plus stairs all straight up in the  humid cave. We were all super bundled up because it was cold outside and by the end of the of the cave we were all drenched in sweat. We also didn't shower for 4 days because the house we were staying in was so dang cold haha. We all got real snuggly at night to stay warm. "It feels like we're camping. The house is freezing and Hadley has french braids in her hair," Syd. Anyway the rest of the park we were in was pretty but we knocked in out in a solid 30 minutes. 

Our second day there and the only full day we were in Zhangjiajie we went to the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park or better known to those of us that can't pronounce that as the Avatar Mountains. And yes it looks just like the movie. The mountains just shoot out of the ground in random spots and its so cool. Its unlike anything I've ever seen. We saw a few wild monkeys and one was super close so we were trying to take a picture with it when this dumb Asian lady decided to grab the monkey and it slapped her and swung away. Funny but annoying. To get to the top of the park we had to take the world's longest or largest or highest (can't remember) glass elevator which was 369 stories high. We were standing against the glass inside the mountain flying up when all of a sudden you shoot out of the rocks and you're so high up in the air. It totally took my breath away. To get around the park we took these free buses and this one tour group in particular LOVED us. They swarmed us asking for pictures and shouting 'I love you!!" Then on the bus they would cheer anytime we said anything so my friend Kimberly yelled 'I'm an idiot,' in a really excited voice and they would all cheer and laugh and take more pictures. 

Funny story from that day. So people here have absolutely no sense of personal space so we were waiting in line for the bus and the bus doors opened and these elderly people started throwing elbows like savages. Well of course we didn't want to miss the bus with half of us on it and half of us left at some random bus stop so we started throwing some elbows and boxing out these people. All those basketball practices as a kid finally paid off. It was totally insane and hilarious and something that would only happen in Asia. 

At the end of the day we had to take this cable car down for about 10 minutes and you got the most spectacular view of the mountains. After the park that day we went to this restaurant not knowing what to expect. No one spoke any English so we were basically playing cherades trying to get them to understand what we wanted. Elli tried to type in fried rice into our translator app but it translated to "'we want to have sex' Thai slang translation.'" We didn't notice for a minute though until we had been pointing and saying 'we want this,' and the restaurant owners were all laughing really hard. It was hilarious but so embarrassing. Luckily we got the point across though and had some of the best fried rice. Tasted almost as good as the shrimp fried rice at P.F. Changs.

On the third and final day we only had a few hours to go to Tianmen Mountain so we bought tickets, waited in line for 3 hours, took a million pictures with all the people in line, and then had to bail out because we were only halfway through the line and we were going to miss the train. So that was a total bummer that we didn't get to see that park. Then we headed back to the train station for another disgusting 17 hour bus ride.

Now we're home and back to teaching again tomorrow. 

All in all pretty impressed that we navigated China on our own though! (with the help of the translator app and Jane of course)

I know I say this literally every time but I really lucked out with the girls in my group. We get along great. Some of the other groups in Zhongshan do not like each other at all which totally sucks,

Funniest quotes from this weekend: 

"I think Taylor Swift and I were friends in the preexistence." @maliamonks

15 minutes into California Speed and Kj says "wait am I supposed to be getting rid of my cards?" hahaha

zhangjiajie national forest 

in the cable car heading down the mountain 

after hiking through the yellow dragon cave 

everyone wants pictures with us

the avatar mountains

calligraphy in the park

there is a love lock bridge in the park like the one in paris

wild monkeys

the stereotypes are real people. everyone here has selfie sticks

miscellaneous

Today the cafeteria served fish heads with the eyes still in them!! Definitely gagged when I saw that. I'll be sticking to my rice and soy sauce for the next four months and then I'll probably never eat rice again. At least the fruit here is really good!

During class today this kid stuck his entire head under my dress....like WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! The kids have zero perception of personal space. yikes.

Our Chinese coordinator, Marine, gave us all our names in Chinese. Mine is ha de li with all these crazy accents that I cant figure out on an American computer. It means good character, very pure, and beautiful.

Today our students gave us all flowers because its Women's Day which was totally adorable.

Its starting to get really humid here so everything is damp or wet all the time. Even the sheets which is gross so you always wake up feeling extra sweaty. Good thing I was raised in humidity or I'd be dying already.

There is a mop in the classroom that the kids can use to mop up if anything gets spilled and yesterday I saw a kid PEE ON THE MOP and then proceed to mop up spilled water with it.....

The Chinese teachers will yell at the kids in Chinese if they're misbehaving and they shut right up and low key look terrified. I have no idea what they yell at them but I need to learn what they're saying so the kids will listen to me.

The kids have absolutely horrible teeth. Chinese people don't drink milk so maybe that's why but its sad. They have holes and brown spots everywhere and a ton of missing teeth. It still catches me off guard when they smile sometimes.

We found this red bean bread stuff that looks really weird but is the closest thing to normal bread here so naturally we always have a stash of it.

YCLing has come in so handy with teaching and the kids. We sing a lot of songs to keep the kid's attention and most of the time its girls camp songs haha.

Weird/random thing about the kids. A few of them wear sweaters and shoes and with the Playboy bunny on it...its so weird and kind of disturbing.

The bus drivers drive with their hands on the horn and they honk allll the time for absolutely no reason at all. Dad its just like you!!!!

peaks & valleys

My cousin Jonette has lived abroad a lot with her family and she told me before I came to China that it would be a roller coaster of 'I LOVE CHINA' and 'I HATE CHINA.' She literally couldn't have been more right. I'm definitely adjusting better than some girls in my group but the first morning I woke up in China I couldn't think of a single reason of why I chose to come to such a foreign place 6,700 miles from anything familiar to me. Sometimes I just have to take it an hour at a time or I get way too stressed out that I'm going to be in China for four months.

I got a blessing at church from a complete stranger and it was basically everything I needed to hear. How cool is the priesthood?! I love that I am halfway around the world with people I have known for 2 weeks and Heavenly Father still knows what I need and somehow makes it happen. I truly need Thee every hour.

I've started listening to church music before bed (I've literally never done this but there's no Netflix in this country) and its so calming. I highly recommend it. And sometimes the lyrics will just come into my mind during the day which doesn't usually happen when I only listen to my 'sunday' playlist on Sunday.

Someone in church today was bearing their testimony and they shared the scripture Deuteronomy 31:6 which reads: "Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee, nor forsake thee." This really hit home for me since being in a foreign place can be really scary sometimes. God is always aware of me even though I'm so far from home.

Rachel and I have made this Chinese friend named Nikki. She speaks pretty good English and she is the nicest lady! She told us of some places we can go in Zhongshan. She comes and sits with us on the track sometimes. Its cool to be able to talk to her and ask her things about the culture and the school that we don't really understand. How cool is it that we can make friends in all corners of the earth?!

Wise words from my cute best friend Sarah on her mission in Nicaragua: "you are there to inspire people! so start inspiring them"

Sister Cassie Underly: "keep on and look for the miracles"

I was reading a conference talk from April 2013 by Sister Wixom and she said "to speak to a child's heart, we need to know the child's needs." I love this especially now that I am working with little kids everyday.

"Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God."

too much rice

I survived another week of teaching! It really is starting to get easier and the kids are beginning to listen better which makes the classes run so much smoother. I've been teaching gym for the last week and its so interesting to see how different cultures do gym class. Obviously in this case I'm here to teach them English so its more about the speaking and less about the games. But one thing I did notice is that the kids don't understand the concept of being 'it' or teams. Its all about being equal and not really winning the games. Weird. America is so competitive.

I saw this article about this man living in space for a year and taking pictures for NASA and my first thought was 'well china can't be as bad as living in space for a year,' haha whoops.

The food in the cafeteria is absolutely repulsive. I tried cow kidney this week...yikes. They also served chicken feet and duck vertebrae. gross. The floor is always sticky and definitely not because its clean. They also serve us rice out of this huge garbage can. We bought our own soy sauce to put on the rice so that's what I eat for lunch and dinner.

Every time we come back to our room the stench of mildew assaults your nose so that rocks. But I sure am grateful we have western toilets even if they're always wet from the shower.

We started Chinese class this week. So far I can say 'hello, my name is Hadley." They told us to practice our Chinese with our students so I tried it with one of my kids Kevin. His eyes got huge and then he started speaking Chinese really fast and I was like woahhh I don't know anything else haha.

We also started a Kung Fu class. It was hilarious. My friend Malia is really good at Kung Fu. She learned everything she knows from Po the Panda in Kung Fu Panda. He likes dumplings, she likes dumplings. Its a match made in heaven.

We go to the One+One almost everyday which is the local supermarket. Its our daily outing haha but we found this really good lemon bread stuff and we finally found some salt!!! Chinese people don't salt anything...yuck. They also don't really eat dairy. Basically they don't eat anything delicious. No wonder they're all so dang skinny.

We went to church today in Shenzen which was an hour and half drive each way and cost $25. I'll never complain about having to walk or drive 15 minutes to church again. This super nice family, the Jacksons, fed us dinner. I literally teared up when they brought out the pot roast because I was so excited to eat American food. They gave us a ton of American snacks that were so good holy crap.

The motto for the city we were in was "Time is money, efficiency is life." China is crazy.

Syd:
"I feel like I'm at fat camp. We walk 12 flights of stairs and don't eat anything."
"Do you think its a turnoff for guys that I can't drive on the freeway?"

We're going on vacation on Thursday to Yangshuo!

Also my group rocks. It could've gone either way and I definitely lucked out.

Miss you mom!

Winson & I

Winson, Andy & I. Andy looks like an 80 year old man in a 5 year old's body

we found fresh coconut and lychee on the street. clearly we were too excited to take a normal picture

first time going to church in china. don't mind our hair...its crazy humid