Livin' the dream at school

We rarely get bored here even though we have so much time on our hands because we can't leave the schools grounds really, only on saturdays mainly, we find ourselves being really active. The school has kindergarten to high school aged kids here andso we hang out with the high school kids alot. The kids here are always playing basketball, volleyball, soccer, anything you can think of. They are always moving and playing, no wonder they are all twigs! If were not teaching then were on the court, or racing them down the track or playing volleyball, no joke when I say these boys got some game! It's not often that you will see a Chinese girl playing with the guys but they will sit and watch. They don't ever really interact either which is very interesting to watch. The first basketball game we played it was the Americans versus the Chinese and to be honest if it wasn't for Natty we probably would have been slaughtered! She schooled every one of those boys! One time we were playing defense and Natty was guarding the boy with the ball and tickled him! Since the guys and girls never touch i'm pretty sure she almost put the guy through a heart attack. Volleyball is also one of the main sports we like to play, if you're looking for a professional serve then pay attention to Brit, she has mad serving skills! She literally is all over the place! Lexxy can be more a distraction and let me explain why.. One time when she was serving the ball ( all eyes of her, keep in mind, even a couple dozen spectators) she had her fake hair in (the kind you just clip into your pony tail, convenient) and well she hit the ball so hard that upon inpact her hair flew about 5 feet away from her. Lexxy froze, face bright red. No one moved, no one did anything but stare at the lump of beautiful hair on the cement. Pretty sure even the boys on the basketball courts were staring at it. Brit and Natty finally busted up laughing and eased the tension from all the Chinese people watching. So much for long lucious hair for Lex. Other then sports we find ourselves running everyday for exercise and a girl in our group is a kickboxing teacher back home and she teaches us moves and combinations and also has us do exercise rotations of different body muscles every night. We also have fun activities such as 80's dance night where our whole group dressed up in 80's clothes and put on a dance in the dance room. We found costumes in the supply room that we used and some of our own too. We looked pretty good with the bright make up and fluffy bangs. Don't let our thugish clothes throw you off, were still teachers for life! The first two weeks of school we had government soldiers here, some of the students would train with them. They were given army suits and everyday all day long for two weeks they were out on the field doing marches and karate moves. Not all the kids were involved but most age ranged from 14 - 18. At the end of the training they put on a show for the whole school, it was also the Moon festival that day so there were moon cakes galor! After our little church session we went to watch them out of the field, it was cool because they were just kids and they had the march down perfect and the karate all together and they were all yellin cool Chinese things. Also a little weird because the kids were so young and yet being so disciplined! Every night they had these loud fireworks go off, first time they went off we thought it was thunder and went out side to check it out but when it wasn't raining all three of us booked it to where th noise was. Kinda stupid of us simply because it could have been our school under attack! Sounded like guns! For all we know they could have planned this whole teaching thing just so they can have us under thier control and hold us as hostage! anyways, after the marcing and karate they had kids line up and race to these blankets where they took forever folding them! Of course it was cool and perfect folding but still, what's the point of have a perfectly folded blanket? Just imagine it.. Hey mom, I'm going to go fight and kill.. No no Ling, not until you make your bed! Every saturday we go into the city to get whatever we need such as snacks or bathroom needs, water or just to get out of the school grounds. We take the school bus into town and then usually part with the rest of the group and explore by our selves. We often go to Dong fong square where all the food and action is, they have wedding dress modeling shows or water shows and clothes and purses of sale so we like walking around there, we do a whole lot of walking. Last week we got a little lost looking for the square and ended up in the middle of no where! Were told to never look lost because people might try to mug us or kidnap us so we just kept walkin, we found a lot of cool things. Since it was a little out of the busy city we saw real chinese markets and shacks. We also found this delicious pizza place called, "Jack's." We like to eat the dumplings here but today we were so hungry we thought why not. We walked in and were greeted by the most pleasent chinese face, they sat us down at this huge booth, it looked like a lounge! We sat on a couch more comfy then our own bed filled with big fluffy mickey mouse pillows. First we were brought out these gigantic menus and warm wash towls to wash our hands with and also a tissue box.. ? (who knows) They also brought out cold lime water and sprite in a can in budwiser glasses with a bendy straw :) We ordered garlic bread and a big meat pineapple pizza! No crumbs were left. For dessert we ate sherbert ice cream with watermelon on bottom. We relaxed for probably another hour because it was so comfey. Once again we felt like Queens. On the way home we folled a guy holding two real chickens like it was suppose to be normal.. haha probably not the last time we will see a guy in nice slacks and a coat jacket takin home the days catch.

Life as a teacher

Who would have thought that cute little Chinese kids with their terrible English, Chocolate brown eyes and cuddly ways could be such.. trouble makers. We were so excited to start teaching these little kids under the impression that they had the same discipline as the older children we teach. Little did we know that these kids run around crazy and don't understand a word you're saying, the language barrier is so hard to get around. We find ourselves using alot of hand motions and using chinese when we really shouldn't. wuh oh. The first week was so hectic because we were also so new at this, calming down kids and finding ways to get them to understand English. We also thought they would know atleast the basics of English but most couldn't even say hello or their own name. Some kids didn't even have a name and so we were able to name them ourselves which was fun! We all have our assignments for each class and do a five person rotation with things like arts and crafts, kitchen, shop, reading and basic English. Brittany got lucky with arts and crafts, it's one of the most toughest subjects because you have to find things to create that they have never done before, and explain every little detail to them such as scissors, cut the paper, glitter Etc. It may not sound hard but once the kids have glue in their hands they go biserk! Splashing glue of the walls, glitter on their clothes and hair, they are always so hyper. Brits room is definantly decorated with the kids projects. Good thing Brit got the privlage with this, she seems to have the most patience! Were also not allowed to discipline, were not even suppose to hug them let alone tell them to sit in the corner haha. Natty has basic English which is teaching the alphabet and constants, she gets to use games and flip cards, the kids seem to pay alot of attention to the games and racing each other to spit out the letter first. We have never seen a girl with so much energy as Natty has with the kids. Lexxy gets to read to the little munchkins, books like, "The three bears," "Hansel and Gretel," etc. and she gets to dress them up into character. She loves being animated with the kids while reading and if you happen to walk into her classroom you might find her just as dressed up as they are. The Second week was much more of a breeze because were finally starting to get a hang of it and getting to know the kids better is such an amazing thing. At the end of each class they get to have shop time, (through out the day we hand out tokens rewarding them for the English they learn in class) the usually end up getting the candy but the big talk of the school is Natty's sports balls she has on sale. Quite frankly she makes us look bad. Triton (Natty's Child) aka (Lexxy's boyfriend) makes sure that she gets a candy if he gets one in shop, such a stud. The joy of having your kids run up to you and hugging you is such a blessing.

Kunming Nationalities Park

About three weeks ago we decided to travel into the city to the Yunnan province nationalites park for one last free day before we started teaching, We heard there were elephants so we couldn't say no! When we walked into the park we were amazed how huge it was! Rows and rows of people trying to sell you things like fans and statues carved from elephant trunks and what not, it almost felt like lagoon to us with out the rollar coasters.. We had something better.. Real, huge, hairy Elephants! We saw woman in cool dresses next to the elephants and wanted to take pictures with them until we found out we could wear the dresses they were wearing and then take pictures with the elephants. There is a rope you hold onto around their neck that you hold and then you lift up your leg and lean into them and their trunk lifts you up with ease. Although we must say that once your up there their trunks get a little curious and start sniffing you leaving a trail of who knows what on your clothes! Then while your still dressed they take pictures of you in your outfit and make you do these ridiculous poses. Once into normal clothes we found a zip line that went across this really pretty lake, we have never seen someone so glorious then Brit strapped in from every angle, flying down that line with every limb soaring out. It was getting closer to lunch time so we all went to a resturant, it was beautiful! They had dumplings and pineapple rice, sprite and noodles! It was like a three dollar meal! We all split up until it was time for the elephant show later that day so we went exploring, we saw cool chinese statues and buildings and a million different kinds of chinese cultures! They live there in the park, so in reality if feels like your just barging in on them during dinner time, they pretend to not notice you. Apparently they get paid to live in there and show you their culture. There are about 56 different cultures in China and 27 are just in Kunming. Two o'clock came around and we hustled to the Elephant show. We were told not to sit front row because they blow things that.. well.. shouldn't. There were 4 elephants, 3 females and 1 male. What was cool was that you could touch them and take pictures with them and feed them and there was no threat, in America it seems like you can't even get within 10 feet of them! The first audience participation Lexxy was called up and she was able to ride in between two elephants as they held trunks and walked, She, of course, waved and blew kisses and we swear it that just because you're American they will laugh and clap at everything you do. They made the elephants shoot hoops and sit down cross legged, walk a little board and even dance! The next audience participation they called up Natty, they made her lay face up and put a blanket on top of everything but her head. The elephant starting to "massage" her with his ginormous foot, gently patting her front side. The elephant was getting a little fiesty in our opinion. By this time Lexxy and Brittany were in tears they were laughing so hard. Just watching Natty's face and body move so helplessly was hysterical! It got even better when the elephant starting to.. we wanna say slam.. her body with his trunk on her chest! hahaha! Good Lan it was funny. Apparently they were seeing if the elephant could tell if it was a boy or a girl. Shows how smart an elephant is! After the show we were able to actually ride the elephants, (is it cool if we said for a couple miles? Sounds better) Once you ride an elephant it's no going back to horses and rollar coasters. It was on of the best ways to kick of the school year!

Home Sweet Home

After a 26 hour beautiful train ride and a one hour bus ride, we arrived at Kunming Guanghaua school. Before we go into this a little more i want to tell you what we were expecting when we got our rooms of living. They told us that we would have our own computers, a washer and dryer, a nice track and stadium, a full bathroom, and so on. We half expected a clean college dorm! instead of rooms we were assigned to a little house but they are all really really close together. All three of us were able to get a hut (or shack as we like to call it) together. It looks oh so decent from the outside but when we took our first step into the shack we were all welcomed by a gust of dust and dirt. We found the light switch to turn on the lights, You know in scary shows how the lights flicker and make creepy sounds before they actually turn on? thats what it was like. We took a look around each room and it was so dirty, no one has been living in these huts for about 7 years, so first things first, we grab the broom and dust pan and get to work. We couldn't help but notice that there was no washer or dryer, no computer, no full bathroom, In fact the bathroom was pulled together with duct tape! There was no shower curtain either, hence no privacy! The walls have shoe tracks everywhere and holes in the ground, walls, and ceilings. We'll be honest with you, this is probably the coolest place we have ever lived! at first we were like this is a joke but you seriously can't help but laugh! after a while we gave up cleaning and started to move the beds together into one room. We moved one bed away from the wall and low and behold a spider the size of your palm! We thought Brit was gonna grab her bags and catch the next flight! So While Brit was chillin on a table, Nat grabbed the camera, gave Lexxy the broom and said, "Let's do this!" We took some mad prep time for mind and body evalutaion before proceding to kill this Spider which in the U.S. not even Arnold Schwarzenegger would dare cross. Since Lexxy is so strong and tough she ended up breaking the broom against the wall and leaving guts bigger then the size of your head splattered all over. After that life changing event we pushed two beds together to form one so we could all snuggle up, the bed of course is in the middle of the room not touching any walls and layered with tons of blankets for that soft cushion feel. So now we have a Spare room for Guests.. (Dont ask why) An exercise room, and a study room. We share one closet and we ended up finding peices of a computer in a storage room that we managed to put together. Getting ready for bed was such a relief! We Unpacked our bathroom needs and got to work cleanin up ourselves, at first we hated the spiders that dwelled there but then we meet a jumping spider and deceided to embrace him and call him petey, He's actually now in our family photo, We feed him Crumbs, Did i mention that we eat with rats? But were always so hungry that the rats don't bother us any. Beside the point, were ready for bed and we hop in our triple king sized bed and start crackin jokes and slowly drift off to sleep only to be awakened by Natty jumpin out of bed, Natty has a tendency of talkin in her sleep so we first ignored it, as if things couldn't get much funnier our ceiling was dripping water!! And on to Nattys Face!! haha We taped it up next to the silly string left from years ago and left it at that. This was all a first for us but i think we are thirsty enough for it :)

Stuck in Gwuanzhou

So get this, we were stranded in a city. Apparently our train didn't leave until the next day in the afternoon so we were stuck in the city of Gwuanzhou (guan-joe). We were all clueless of what to do since we werent suppose to be there but then a guy from our school showed up to take us around, his name is Collin. Must i remind you that our bags were already being sent to Kunming so none of us had a change of clothes, It was our second day in the same clothes.. After and hour of walking and waiting we settled in to our first hostle. All three of us shared a room, the beds were as stiff as a board! The best was the bathroom simply because it was the sink, toilet ( squater) and shower all in one haha terrible! After getting some chinese money from the ATM we all decided we were hungry for a hamburger and what better then McDonalds.. We have never eaten so much Micky Dee's in our life haha. It was in this huge mall, once done eating us three went exploring. We found this cute little hair place and once the Chinese girls caught sight of us they beckoned us in, sat us down and got to work. They asked where we were from and we said, "America." they just smiled and giggled to each other. We felt so bad watching them stroke our hair and comb through it, like it was part of King Tritons robe, since our hair was so gross and unwashed. They did these cool twists and poofs and then stuck these hair jewels in expecting us to buy them.. nay.. they were like 20 american bucks for a little pin! But we took advantage by taking pictures and making them feel special. We took out the pins and offered them a tip but they are not allowed to be tipped. It's strange. But with our convincing words they finally took the tip we offered. They were so cute!! We left the mall to explore some more and found a park filled with people and dancing so of course we couldn't help but to jump right in! At first we just watched and tried to catch on but there was this lady with a whistle who dragged us in and tried to teach us. It was funny though cause it was like american rap music they were doing like line dancing and fan dancing to haha not more then minutes later of us 3 dancing did we have a huge group of chinese watching us, they would clap for us and wha who when we wha whoed and point and smile. Whenever we stopped dancing and leave the little circle we accidently formed they would follow us saying things like, "Your very good dancers," "What's your names," and such things like that, they would light up like the fourth of July. Then we would jump back in and our crowd would come back, we felt famous!! haha. We danced for proabably an hour. We ran back to the hostle to tell everyone about our great find and as soon as we walked in the door one girl said, "Wow, its really raining hard our there." How embarassing.. Nope, Its pure sweat! haha we were sweating so bad from the humid and dancing we looked like we rolled around in puddles! And to think, two more days in these clothes. We magically feel asleep on the wooden boxes claimed as our beds and woke up to journey back to the train station.