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

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