Departure Tomorrow Morning at 8:30 in the am

So weird...like seriously have i been here for a month? We've said goodbye to most all of our students and are peacin out in the morning and some of them are coming to see us off. We are going to an international meeting in beijing tomorrow morning which will be so tight and then debriefing is at 4. We are all having a hard time packing our gifts in the bags we brought we have received so many. I have given away so many school supplies and two t-shirts. Julia Lemmon should be happy to know that a Chinese kid named Silver is wearing her birthday shirt now.:) Dad your present is kind of big so i have to carry it on the planes with me and when you see it you will laugh i know:) Tonight we had this huge banquet with all the teachers and we had to do so many gambei or toasts which mean you have to drink your whole glass multiple times...and we had coke and sprite...let's just say, way too much carbonation!!!! I got a real Chinese name now complete with a stamp of it in Chinese from my Chinese teacher friend who gave it to me...it is Zhang Kai Li which means beautiful triumph or victory...and Zhang (prounouced Jung to me) is my friend Susan's surname or last name which she gave to me so it's very special...kinda like she adopted me:) so fun! i can now sign all my tests with my chinese stamp! my kids all keep bawling and telling me they will miss me forever. so sweet...we've cried a whole lot the last three days. Tonight we got to name the headmaster of the school Isaac and two of the men teachers Paul and Timothy:) We went to the headmaster's house yesterday and it was so fun. Chinese are the most hospitable people ever. I went to one of my student's houses again today and i went to another one's on Thursday. Their house is very much like an apartment in america. i think that's about it. i will miss this place terribly but i will say that i am leaning toward coming back. Oh yah and we are going to be on tv on aug 5th here with my class singing the aardvark song (aarvarks are my friends repeated over and over to the tune of yankee doodle:) and me writing on the chalkboard. Many students were interviewed too so it will be fun to hear about. I am almost done with my 6 roles of film so be prepared to see a zillion things. Now, it's time to go clean our disgusting dorm room from us living in it for a month. Triple peace from the far east. I'll be in LA monday morning if you want to call! I get home monday night. Thanks for all your encouragement and look for one last post when i get home. Tsijien or bye!

Oh what a day...and there will be some more...

We get a little leeway with the email thing since we leave Sunday which is nice! Today has been insane for sure. Let me tell you, if your love language is gifts, China would be the place for you...I have never been given more gifts in my life. Today was my last day of teaching. Tomorrow morning is closing ceremonies. We had class this morning complete with the aardvark song, have you ever, and would you rather. I got to go after lunch and take the rest of my class for ice cream at KFC. Then we had this massive class party and had all sorts of food and i gave away a ton of stuff for presents. A bunch of the kids have already starting bawling and that also includes myself. I walked out of our room today and two of the older girls i adore (Dylan and YoYo) threw themselves at me bawling...it got me started. Tonight we watched Princess Diaries on popular demand and then my girls came and chilled in my room. I had a good conversation with lots of significance. Funny how things happen when you least expect them. I got a Chinese character writing set complete with paper so be prepared to want to practice with me when i get home. Now i'm wiped so i'm heading out. We are invited to the headmaster's house tomorrow night for dinner which should be very fun. Stuff doesn't start til 9 tomorrow which means a little more sleep. I got this really tight chi pao or chinese formal like dress which is so tight. I got it for like 18 american dollars. anways, that's all i got for now, talk to ya later. it's gonna be a rough next few days but at the same time i wouldn't trade them for the world.:) night! and yes laura, i actually get up once now after the alarm goes off! something for you to look forward to and heck yes mom i'd love to take chunk to fish camp to see my laura! love you guys! night!

Insanity...the good kind:)

Hey! Sorry i didn't post on Tues as promised...this week is insane b/c we finish cacmp friday morning with closing ceremonies and our kids just realized we leave sunday so it's like if we don't have an activity planned we are somewhere else with them (which i love, but it's so crazy!). I just got back from ice cream at KFC with my kids and then i went to one of their houses and we watched Mulan in Chinese. I'm glad I already knew what happened:) Monday was really fun and we taught the kids ultimate frisbee...note-it wasn't too big of a hit! The boys here prefer basketball b/c of Yao Ming. Monday night my girls came down to my room to come visit and they gave me a Chinese to English dictionary complete with all their Chinese names inside of it. It's so fun! They like to sit and teach me Chinese words:) Tuesday was insane b/c we had an afternoon in the morning, afternoon, and at night...in the morning we had class like normal, and in the afternoon we played a bunch of games with water balloons which they had never done...hilarious. At the end we pretended to be explaining some game and just started pegging our kids in a water balloon fight. Amazing. Last night we talked about Easter and had some good conversations. On Wednesday mornings we don't do class with bookwork type stuff but we do skits and funny interactions with them. This morning I taught Wheel of Fortune (the wheel was made of tape and index cards and a broom:) and we made one room into our court room and i was the judge. One of the boys (Mark:) he always talks about this place he made up called Cutman Square and we joke about it all the time...it's where you go cut things. So this morning we put him on trial for cutting his friend's arm off. I have never laughed so hard as i did this morning. I bought a Chinese hat at the Great Wall and took pics of my kids wearing it the other day...so much better seeing a real Chinese person wear it than me! So anyways, it's been a really good week so far and will keep going...One of my kids is leaving today which makes me real sad but she has to go to ANOTHER English camp...that's like the cool thing to do with your summer or something. They can't believe we don't have homework in the summer, even college students. I've learned a lot about love languages and it's been amazing to see how my kids have opened up as I've been shown what their love language is. My kid that's leaving today is my physical touch buddy...she holds my hand all the time at the age of 13. We've had some good opportunities the last few days to show our kids that our love for them is unconditional which although it didn't happen exactly as we would have liked it to, it's still been cool to see. I'll write again on Saturday most likely and that will be my last time i think. We head to Beijing on Sunday and fly out Monday...so weird. I will be so excited to see you people but the idea that i may never see these people again just kills me...we'll see about that later. unity, health, discernment, love.
Shoutouts:
LZ-can't wait to trade stories with ya...you are beautiful! inside and out!
Jon T-bonnie's boys are downstairs right now making something for your mom but don't tell! i love the boys who are making them and they look tight!
Laura Ashley-I love you my dear and today is the 27th...it's quality! i'll be talking to ya soon.
DO-nope, sorry can't help ya on those.:) see ya soon enough in cs...thanks for the words
The Fam-Chaney, you're a nut. I'm glad you're going to school with me:) I'm glad to hear i was missed...the mountains would probably feel pretty good right about now, not gonna lie. I've got all your presents and i can't wait to see your reactions. Dad we gotta work on those typing skills:) Kimbo, tell your boy hi and hold down the fort at the TLF. Mom, your cleanliness is much appreciated and so is your food. FYI, have my Advair ready when i come home b/c since monday is like two days, i won't be able to take two doses b/c i'll be out. slight frustration on that note. but i have all my others. I love all of you SOOOO VERY MUCH. That's about it.
Lise-If you read this, is the 7th still good? can't wait to hear more!
Peace out all you kids. Have a fantastic day! Sorry these are so long!

Beijing and Bee Fun!:)

Hello hello! Today was a really fun but really long day! We played the part of tourists for the 2nd day...This morning (bright and early of course and Laura you should be really proud that i only listen to my alarm once and get up:) we crammed in the van to go to Beijing...first we went to a sunday morning meeting which was extremely formal. As we stood in the doorway one of the girls on my team had a bee fly up her skirt and sting her on her rear end...absolutely hilarious. Then we went shopping at this international store and ate McDonald's too...Then we got in the car and went to Tianemen (sp?) Square and saw all that stuff...which included buying a kite and flying it around there. The Beijing Olympics will be right across the street so we saw the sight of that which was cool. The headmaster's daughter at our school just graduated from college and she is like our 10th person on our team. She's so funny. She does the best impressions of all of us. Weird to think that a week from today I'll be spending the night in a Beijing hotel for debriefing. Any time we see a person who looks American we ask where they are from...we followed this one guy by the school almost two blocks one day but thought that was a little too stalkerish so we stopped. Yesterday in the pouring rain, we saw some guy wearing a Lance Armstrong shirt and he happens to be an engineer from Austin who went to UT. Then we saw him again today shopping...such a small world let me tell you. It's really interesting being a teacher here b/c in China that position holds a lot of respect. The kids live at school during the week upstairs from us. I have played more uno, go fish, and speed than i have ever played in my life. Kanakuk songs flow from me in abundance whenever I don't like the material i have to teach my class...my kids love those. Oh yes and imagine all of us (13) in this van which is 2x as small as a normal van you think of...the uplander in canada was massive compared to this van! We also bought a ton of stuff...and crossing the street in Canada? now i understand why mulan's grandma called her cricket "lucky" when she closed her eyes and walked across the street. k i think i'm pretty much done for now...to the fam, glad you're back safe and chunk don't die, you have to come to college with me in a month:):):). love you guys, and triple peace from the middle east...be back tues morning early your time.

SOGGY Great Wall...but still great!:)

First, even though my fam is in the mountains without me, Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Yes i did not forget, even halfway across the world:) Like always, lots to write! Thursday was a great day and Christmas went pretty well. The kids liked it although they didn't understand some of the important stuff...Friday was really tight! In class I had them make timelines of their life in the future which was really interesting. It's amazing how much they/we want our life to be planned out to a tee. Kinda like the Zimbabwe convo mom:) It's so cool to see where my kids are in life and how far i've been brought, yet I realize how much farther i still have to go. We made several KFC ice cream runs along with this other ice cream shop we found. We take our kids a lot which is good discussion time. On Friday afternoon we had movie time...We watched Princess Diaries 2 (needless to say the boys weren't huge fans). The funniest parts of it though were when she pulls out the crown jewels from a drawer and everyone freaked out...they also freaked out when some famous Chinese singer came on and sang a Chinese song...even if they weren't paying attention, they totally perked up at that:) Friday night was so tight however...all my little 13 year olds pitched in and took me to this really nice restaurant we call a hot pot restaurant. They light a fire in the middle of the table and put a pot of boiling water with different sections on top of it. Then they brought us raw food we could then cook ourselves right on the table. It was REALLY good. I had some good bonding time with my kids. Then we went and got ice cream with some of our other kids and there are two who totally remind me of Elise and I...their names are Fish and Dylan. so hilarious...Back to today. We got up at 6 on this saturday morning and drove in a van for 2 hours...and until we got back at 4 it was POURING! Yes we went to see the great wall of China!!! It was so tight. We are now real men according to the saying. We climbed to the top of our location which i think was about 2 miles or so and then we took the gondola back down. It took 2 1/2 hours to get up there and we counted 1,027 steps plus MANY uphill ramps. Being the hiking nerd i am, i loved it! My team was ready to head though so we didn't look around much. I just keep thinking to myself, at least i'm not hiking in snow, over and over.:) We spit off the top b/c bonnie and i are always thinking of funny things we can say we did in china for 2 truths and a lie:) we're really goofy. On a slightly sad note, i left my nalgene on the gondola darn it. I'll see about getting a new one soon. On a side note, in my book from miss nutter today i opened it up and there was a picture of DO with his combover from wed night. It was a good way to wake up on an early morning like today. Another random thing, for about a second today i considered going after this woman who was eating a snickers on the great wall...i have to say i can't wait to eat one of those! Tomorrow we are going to Beijing to go shopping for presents and stuff which should be so fun. Our kids went home this weekend so it's just team time right now which has been nice although i totally miss my kids. I'm getting really sad it's getting close to being over but i'm staying focused. You guys are totally wonderful.
Shoutouts:
The Bearer of the Community of Kindness and Necessity Award 2 times!- you are such a servant and have such a beautiful heart. I love you SO VERY MUCH! I told my team your singing Russian man story and they loved it:) thanks for your writing consistancy...it's much appreciated! Can't wait to talk to you more and hear about life!

Willymo-sorry i didn't leave you a shoutout last time...such a jerk am i. I hope work's going good and i can't wait to hear more about your summer when i get back. Take care of my fam!

DO-hey! thanks for being so constant in your writing! you need anything here?:) can't wait to hear details of your time here. your combover was priceless this morning. keep persevering!


And one last thing, with tomorrow we are going to an approved meeting on sunday morning in beijing so i'm pretty interested to see about this. Easter night is Tuesday night and Thursday night is our last program with Teach the Teacher about China night. You'll hear more tomorrow. Take care guys! Keep writing if you want! I am so thankful for your encouragement. Peace out til tomorrow night.

Shen me? aka...shemah (that's how i say it! it means what????):)

Hello all...ni hao ma or how are you? Since we last chatted lots of really exciting stuff has happened! I am absolutely loving it here. Monday i taught my class the rousing games of go fish and speed with cards and they absolutely loved it! I think we live off of card games here...we get lots of questions from everyone around us as to why we are so happy...:) Tuesday was a really interesting day. We have "visitors" come and talk from history and Hitler came to visit and we discussed the Holocaust and all that stuff. That blew my kids' minds. It brought out a lot of good questions for discussion. Then that afternoon we played the all-american games of Kickball and Whiffleball... i laughed so hard at these 12-16 year old high school boys who played kickball...they totally whiffed the ball about 5 times and then tried to skip bases in their running...hilarious. I had to go over the fact that you must run over all 3 bases! Last night was really good...we talked about Thanksgiving and what it means to us and we read songs of praise and thanksgiving.:) We reenacted the first Thanksgiving and i was a turkey (aka a person with a balloon taped to her nose and balloons taped to a towel:). We played the neverending game of uno also which lasted about 45 minutes and had to be stopped b/c the kids had a curfew! Some other fun stuff that's happened is that some of the upper level kids are using this idea i had the other day which i think i might now be obsessed with. They hear the Switchfoot song, "Meant to Live" and they are working on comprehension of it and gaining a good understanding of what it means...so tight:) Sheegua means west melon or water melon because it comes from the west and hollyo we have it EVERY meal...you definitely need to come to china you watermelon obsessor:) My little friend mark who is about 13 or 14 told me yesterday he can speak the English, the Japanese, the African, the Europe, the dog, and the cat...so funny. Today our afternoon activity was Logan's favorite game, the Hot Seat...i can now say i have been grilled by over 85 chinese middle schoolers about my love life (or lack of:)...i don't think my team has laughed so hard yet as when we shared these stories today. and one of my 13 year old boys is obsessed with having a wife. amazing. Our evening activity tomorrow is Christmas and Easter is on next wednesday so we have some major good stuff coming up. We get to go to the Great Wall with our kids on Saturday!!!! They have a saying that you are not a real man until you have been to the Great Wall...welp, i think that's about all i got...love, boldness, openness, set apart, focus, health, fear, obedience. tight. thanks. you all are so awesome and it's so strange to think that about 11 days from now i'll be in dallas. it's go time. peace out and take care...i can't wait to hear more from you. later!

chillin like a villain

Heyyy...today has been a great chill day as it is SUNDAY! today in my awesome little book from miss nutter the words of today were from nick and jessie, so fun! we slept in and had a good sunday morning meeting and i jammed out to some shawny mac for a bit. This afternoon some of the girl teachers and some of our students went shopping...pretty tight. i got your present kimbo! that's all i bought...my kids are great at telling me what's too expensive and they know i like to look a lot before i buy:) that hasn't changed much from the states:) frugalness is in the nall genes. some random things i thought you people might find interesting: they like to use the words beautiful and interesting to describe things...like they might say, "I think that is very beautiful and interesting.":) I have to try very hard to wear my shoes all the time b/c i think my feet are forever dirty and my chacos pretty much reek...we're attempting to wash them tonight b/c a few others have the same prob:) I'm pretty much in love with tea and am on the hunt for a really awesome teapot that's cheap. People in China all want very white skin whereas in America most people want really tan skin so a lot of women carry umbrellas in the sun. Mom and Laura Nut you will be proud to know that i have not succumbed to the pressure of biting my nails but once so they are very long! They all call us teacher...they will walk up to us and say "Teacher, can we...." so funny:) We are developing this bad tendency of talking in single words or using large breaks in between words even with each other...so yah, now ya know:)

Shoutouts: I'll see how many i can remember...sorry if i'm a jerk and i miss you-it's hard to go back and forth between screens
To the Fam- Kimbo you'll love what i got you i know...Chunk still looking for you, mom, and dad. I'm slightly jealous you'll be in the mountains next week. Enjoy the cool air for me. Love you guys a lot. Dad everyone's dad is an engineer so i instantly have something in common with these kids:)
LNut-you are continually amazing! i'm so glad lz will be back for you to play with and i look forward to telling you all my crazy stories and eating noodles with our new chopsticks.
Lise-have a blast at kamp! i love you and i'll see you august 7th unless you read otherwise on your first 2-4
Amy westerbelt-i can't wait to hear about your kamp experiences! i am going to kamp aug 7th if you want to roadtrip with me! i need some company!
Holly O-have a blast at k-1 third term! i hope to see you on the 7th too!
DO- tell all my kids hey and tell group bottom hey especially. i hope you're adjusting ok to summer school-it pretty much is no fun but i know you're making the most of where you are like always. tell the fam on rock prairie hey. i think miss lauren rouse is in cs too so tell her hi!
Chris and Josh (since i think you two live together or you did first half?)- thanks for your messages. josh you and j spence totally would've torn up in the cake fight. can't wait to see all you onaph kids i like to hang out with back in cs. you guys rock!
Tori- if you check this one:) i hope you are having a blast in europe! we're studying that in class this week! love you!
PG-thanks for the message-how are you doin in a-town? how's your dad?
Allie Nelson- such a good cuz...i had a dream last night that dad was my teacher and lindsey brown was in my class...so strange. can't wait to exchange stories with you!
I think i got everyone...
i am so thankful for your encouragement. i can't wait to tell you all about my experiences, conversations, and everything in person. Over tea preferably:) later yo.

Li Qinzhao...that's me:)

Hey!!! So you guys totally win! 22 comments! Keep em coming! i love them! I'll try doing the shoutouts tomorrow night so be lookin for those...so many things to tell you! Oh yah, the title of this is my new Chinese name my kids gave me-it's the name of some famous woman poet or something...i like it a lot...So let's just start with my birthday...Chinese people know how to party...My roomie made signs in our room for when i woke up and then all the kids sang Happy Birthday to me...Later I got flower tea (yep with real flowers), lays potato chips, and oreos from my team b/c those are our luxury items here:) What really touched me started with all the gifts the Chinese people gave me. My 12 kids skipped their daily nap and went out and bought me this cool wall hanging (expect to see it in cs:) and put little pics of themselves on the card and then my 3 boys in my class brought me gerber daisies, roses, and carnations! i really like flowers so i was pretty much freaking out! Then our 10 year old sidekicks brought me candles and i got the large noodles at dinner like i talked about when it was bonnie's b-day. That night we did an "American wedding" which was absolutely hilarious...we had the dating game first and my friend summer was the girl and the contestants were her students...winter, autumn, and spring:) After we finished our program that night, they brought out my MASSIVE CAKE...don't worry i have pics! My new fav china tradition for birthdays? to have a cake fight as you eat it...i was COVERED in icing-amazing:) i think i want to bring this tradition back with me:) So all in all, a super tight bday! We've gotten to see a lot of other sides of China since we've been here which has been really good! Friday afternoon we did American Idol and i sang Avril Lavigne's Skater Boy for lack of a better song available...who am i? i never sing in front of people...we're working on getting past that fear-because love drives out fear. I got the Jay cd who is like the NSYNC rage here and i also got the Westlife cd which is a British pop group who i like a lot. I've been hanging out with my kids in their room a lot...i feel like uno is my life but i love it! they're coming out of their shells more every day and i'm so thankful. Oh yah and yesterday, we were passing a DVD shop and they were playing Numa Numa! It made me so happy:) Today we went to the Qin Dynasty King Tombs which are underground with these HUGE buildings...our kids went to and it was really awesome. Good quality time with them. There were cornfields everywhere on the drive there...so pretty. We got to see some different life than what i see here which i liked. I want to get a good feel for all of China, not just where i am so that's been cool. Well, that's about all that's going down...if anyone is friends with Josh Owen, today is his birthday so you should tell him happy b-day and tell him it for me too! Unity is key right now and so is knowing when i'm supposed to be doing what. Openness is really good too. Oh and something to be excited about, my allergies are totally good now which is so wonderful b/c i can do lots more stuff now that i'm not trying to sleep a lot! Sorry this is so long...Kamp kids, have a blast! Tell all that i know there hi and that i love them! I can't wait to touch base with yall when i get back! peace out...

We Love Chickie! (This is matt's spelling)

Heyyyy...thanks for the mad props, i like you kids-so encouraging and i'm very thankful for that! i won't be on til saturday in the am your time but tomorrow is my birthday!!! i'm really pumped about that! the big 2-2! no really nothing happens when you turn 22 i don't think...the last two days have been way fun! we've just chilled with our kids and yesterday we played teach the teacher and i learned way more about china than i ever thought possible-did you know that the great wall is 6300 kilometers long? Tonight we were walking to dinner and one of the 16 year olds, alex, was really sweaty from basketball and my friend adrian (stickland for all you asc girls:) told him you look very hot (referring to the sweatiness) and he said thank you! or shall i say zank you! the th sound is not their favorite:) we have curriculum parties pretty much every night to get ideas from each other...oh and fyi the chickie is a hilarious dance we make our kids do and my friend matt uses it as his cheer for his class. Mikey, you and Matt could be best friends i kid you not! Your humor is very similar...we can rarely go about 10 minutes without cracking up thanks to him. Today we had a carnival with games and i got to do basketball toss-they were so good! they're all about yao ming let me tell ya. I keep looking for some good tea and our headmaster's daughter is helping my find the good stuff...mom they can't believe you like iced tea-they think that's gross. Oh i keep meaning to tell you about my kid's names here...they get their English names from random things so we have people named fish, water, ice, spring, autumn, and winter (their teacher is my friend summer:), sunny, green, meanie, haver...they crack me up. We have these 3 or 4 10 year olds that follow us around when we're in our rooms and when we say something they don't understand, they just leave and come back in 5 minutes like clockwork...last night we had one of them sing adelweiss from sound of music, another salsa danced, and the others sang twinkle twinkle little star. Amazing. My kids are still pretty quiet and they live close so it's hard to hang with them after class...there is so much vocab i hope they get some of what i say...some bright spots keep appearing though so i'm not loosing heart! the allergies are decreasing (victory!) but be thinking about other thorns for me...
Shoutouts(i'll try and remember all of them):
to the fam-i love you guys and i spill something at least once a day, so know i'm not changing too much:) chaney, i sympathize with your pudding story on kimbo-hilarious kimberly...just think, it totally could have been me:) tell your boy hey! chaney i'm glad to hear you didn't look like a chipmunk like me!
laura ashley-your pics so totally rock! jess looked beautiful like always but especially on her wedding day! i hope your bruises are healing quickly! hey? who needs a shower anyway?:)
Lise- get the 7th of august for your 2-4 ok fool? i be bransoning it then i hope...any volunteers for this mandatory road trip? get so pumped...your kids will be crazy about you...i know:)
tor-i'm so glad to hear you are doing well and i can't wait to trade stories with you about our foreign countries:)
cass the payne- hope you are doing well and i plan on having a tight tea party with you when i come home:)
Ingels- if you get to check this, i love you and can't wait to hear about what's up with you!
J Harris-if you actually read this, i think we should roadtrip on the 7th up to third term? let me know!
Colby-if you check this, welcome back to the states! can't wait to exchange china chat with you and the brothers...
Fairview boys-i was so tempted to buy you a volleyball net so you could have one for your backyard...let me know
Luther House Boys as a whole-i almost got a ping pong set to come dominate you at your house...yah that's right, total domination. no not really:) i can't wait to hear about your summers!
and to you who didn't write messages this time, i hope to hear from you soon b/c you are such amazing people...each and every last one of you...and i want to hear about your life. peace out and take care...and know i'm on this end of the world and you are thought of a lot...but know i do LOVE it here:) i would love to see more of this country and see how the rest of its people live b/c i know there are some differences-take care til next round on the blog...Kelly

Quiteze! Ok so more inventive spelling...

Today was so tight! Quiteze is Chinese for chopsticks! I decided they were one purchase i would like to make while i'm here...more about the name in a minute! Today we had our team meeting and then this afternoon we went to KFC to get our tri-weekly ice cream-amazing on the throat and in the mouth... with a bunch of our students. Then we went to a photo shop where you take pictures in the little booths and took pics with random backgrounds we chose...so funny. Then i went to the music store and bought this really popular singer jay's cd...apparently the song i wrote about earlier is really old in china and it was so old they didn't carry it anymore:) It's all good though...i came back and my student who i thought had cancer (she doesn't by the way...miscommunication) came over and invited me to her house for dinner...we had lamb shishkabobs, peaches, noodles with eggs and tomatoes, peanuts, and i think green beans:) you can never be sure what you are eating here sometimes:) Her mom is a Chinese English teacher here and she had been given Scrabble but didn't know how to play so i taught them how to play Scrabble. That was really entertaining since i had hardly ever played in the first place! Then her husband whips out his cell phone...his INTERNATIONAL cell phone (he's a very big leader in the china oil company) and tells me to call my parents because he has it very cheap...craziness, so i called my rents and chatted at 7:30 am your time on sunday morning. So i got to talk to my parents which was really nice and then they gave me the tightest gift! 10 sets of really nice wood chopsticks in this really pretty box!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i was so excited i just sat there for like two minutes thanking them for it. wow. chinese understand the meaning of practice hospitality. i was amazed. i am so thankful for the relationships i am forming with these people. I think i am seeing a very rare part of china that most people don't see. I really want them to see a difference in me. Keep thinking about that for me. And i want details on J Ward Silvester's wedding please:)
Shoutouts:
LNUT-I look at your book every day!!! I love it and the kids love to see it and ask questions:)
Lise- You head to kamp soon...i want an update from you on here before you go!
DO-tell my wednesday night fam hey and that i can't wait to see them in august! i hope you're adjusting good back to cs!
Kelli Cook-thanks for your message girl! I love hearing about you holding the fort down in good old CS!
Jon T-i adore bonnie! she is amazing! i hope summer school isn't too gross for you! i can't wait to hear from you!
And to you who haven't written comments and are reading this, shame on you! leave me a short message at least please so i can hear about your life! you guys are amazing and i can't wait to tell you more! i'll be back on at 6am on tuesday morning your time so look for updates! peace out!

Joutze...ok i have absolutely no idea how to say it...i'm doing inventive spelling:)

Hey you people living 12 hours behind me...as i write this, i think jess is getting married within the next hour or so-insanity! i just finished my first week of teaching today and as tired as i am, i absolutely loved it! thanks for all of you leaving messages for me! i get to check again tomorrow night so feel free to write more! i love the encouragement...do and jon i'm glad you got back safe! colby i know you come home soon, so i hope you get home ok too and can't wait to china chat with all of you! so let's see if i can recap this in the short amount of time i have here as my whole team waits to use the computer...I was asked on Wednesday in front of all of our kids along with the rest of the team if we all had boyfriends or girlfriends...that's basically the first question they ask after your name:) Thursday night was the most priceless night i can imagine! I was in charge of Wild West night where we acted out a cowboy and indian skit, followed by teaching the words yall and howdy, and explaining what jeans and bandanas were. Then here's the killer. We taught the electric slide to achey breakey heart, the texas two step to my personal fav of randy travis "i'm gonna love you forever", and me singing home on the range in front of all these people by myself...who am i? craziness... i am asked to sing constantly here because i am a never ending flow of disney songs, which they love, especially the sound of music...need i say more? i'm slightly addicted to that movie! I got pics of all that for sure! We have guards at our front door of the school we have become good friends with and my students are finally opening up, they're just a pretty quiet group...I made them write about their biggest obstacle in life and one of them told me at the age of 13, that she has cancer...i need to make sure b/c she wrote it (long story) but i'll keep you informed of that...it made me think of my friend callie who died from cancer and david gilbert as well...Last night we had an American birthday party! Since my birthday is wednesday, the party was for me! sooo funny! I got about 80 birthday cards in broken english calling me helly, telling me i hope you get more beautiful than before, and i hope you have a good boyfriend. we laughed for a long while. today i dressed up during class as a visitor, aka nelson mandela and made my skin black with a marker and a towel as a turban...hilarious! This afternoon we were invited to our translator alice's house to learn to make dumplings or joutze...so fun! i like using the rolling pin and chopsticks to make it...as i sit here my skirt is stained as usual from chopstick accidents:) but i love it...Lift up openness, appointments, team unity (i love my team), and allergies (too much snot. enough said)...ok i miss you kids but i am doing really well and enjoying this! more coming tomorrow! now i'm headed to bed! triple peace from the far east!

oh the washing machine adventures...

Hey! So much to write, so little time! I am finally here in China!!! so fun! After a long flight to Japan (complete with complimentary robes and slippers in our hotel there) we spent the night and flew into Beijing! Our students were taking exams on sunday and monday so today was my first day of teaching my kids! i have 9 students, 7 girls and 2 boys! they are quiet but i like the challenge of pulling them out of their shells. I've been sick with a cold but am finally feeling a lot better! Our school is sooooo tight! this is the first year they've had this program and so we are the first "foreign" English teachers. Some sweet foundation laying...they love basketball which is fun and their school is HUGE! It's like Highland Park High School times 6! In the middle of it is a track (like a real one) and about 6 basketball courts (getting my game on for sure:) and soccer goals, a badminton/volleyball court, and a huge playground! Wow. We live in offices converted to bedrooms in the administration building behind the school...and our accomodations? Way above par! I was definitely not expecting this much hospitality. The Chinese know how to do it! We have hard wood floors, a western toilet, sinks, huge jugs of water for washing and drinking, new and VERY NICE furniture and AIR CONDITIONING only in our rooms. Royalty treatment i tell you...crazy...i'm definitely feeling inadequate of this amazing treatment. Our food is another thing...I'm becoming quite an adventure, a good one! I am becoming a chopstick expert! We have banquets for every meal, with a lazy susan in the middle and about 18-20 dishes to eat from...along with tea and coke or sprite...they think we live on cokes and fast food and just want us to be happy...way too kind...today, being the clutz i am i spilled my soup all over me at the meal...on the first night i dropped food on this nice table cloth in front of the head master and everyone at the table cracked up...so funny! Our washing machine adventures come from the fact that our new chinese washing machine has to drain somewhere and our only drain is in the bathroom floor but the water won't flow down...so our bathroom is always flooded and my friends bonnie and adrian were frantically trying to empty the buckets of water before they overflow...hilarious! We go to the market and buy food for breakfast now...i bought a really cool visor that are the fad here...they are UV ray protective and move up and down over your face! they crack me up! keep the comments coming! they are such an encouragement...i'm learning more than i ever thought i could imagine and keep seeing more and more as to why i am here. peace out and take care...i'll be back on this weekend for more updates! take care in Texas and jess, HAPPY WEDDING ON SATURDAY!!!! to the fam, i love you guys...chaney i told them about harry potter quoting today-"happy chirstmas harry..." so funny! they loved it! they love titanic, harry potter, and the incredibles, and mulan! amazing! DO and Jon sad i didn't see ya at the airport but i hope you had a good flight home and are re-adjusting ok...peace out kids!