In all the wandering around China we all do, we come across many things a day were you have to do a double take because you're not quite sure what you just saw. Was it your imagination? a mirage?...nope it is very much real. So I will say it again...Welcome To China
10 oddest things we have seen since moving to China
1. Babies wear no diapers and their pants have the bum cut out of them so the little bare bums are always sticking out...no diapers...your questions were the same as ours! Where do they go to the bathroom?! The parents hold the kid in a odd position with their little bottoms inside the public trash cans ** Note to Self: Never touch the tops of said trash cans!**
2. I think the Chinese don't think American's eat because every time we eat anything around the Chinese in public they look at us like they have never seen a white person eat food before. You can imagine the looks we get when 10 American's are eating at McDonald's, doesn't get more cliche than that!
3. When waiting in a line, do not worrying if suddenly there are 3 new Chinese people shoved between you and the guy in front of you. They don't believe in lines in this country, if there is room for a small child, 5 people will appear.
4.This one ties in with #3. "There is always room for 1 more"...a philosophy the Chinese live by...You thought the subway was crowded on the 3rd stop, just wait till the 10th!
5. When ever cars, trucks, or even scooters drive by they have to honk at us...as if to say "hey look! an American!" You would think after 2 months they'd be used to us being here, but no. I am thinking of getting a shirt made that says "Yes I know I am white, no need to honk!"
6. If the only word someone knows in English is "Hello" you can be sure they have driven all over Weihai to find us to use that word, but as soon as we say hello back they run away as if they are afraid of us.
7. Don't be hatin' on the Ping Pong...very serious stuff that ping pong in China.
8. Most things in China say "Made in Japan or Taiwan"
9. Being healthy is very important to the Chinese, advertised everywhere! Exercise parks, gym class for kids, walking/running everywhere, no elevators or escalators, small portions of food....and yet EVERYONE smokes cigarettes...
10. When walking down the side walk, if you have the urge to pick up a rock and throw it in the road just make sure it isn't brown...because that ain't a rock. The word "sidewalk" in Chinese means toilet, my translation dictionary must have been wrong.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN!
As of tomorrow morning my new life in China is half over. In 62 days I get to come home!!! Not a whole lot has been happening since we came home from Shanghai, this is the long haul though. The longest time we will continuously be here in Weihai without a vacation. It has gone by relatively fast. We were told last week that due to unhappy parents on parents day we would be switching all of our students for the next 2 weeks. So the downstairs kids are who we teach these next 2 weeks and our kids go downstairs with other teachers. It is really dumb actually seeing as ILP drilled into us that routine with these kids is EVERYTHING, and now the school is ruining the last 7 weeks we've had them in a set routine by switching the to another room, another teacher, another routine. I am just praying they remember their REAL routine when they come back in 2 weeks. It was very cute today though, I had to walk my new kids down to the main floor to go to lunch and after they left my real group of kids came running down the stairs all excited to see me and they all are giving me a group hug and it almost knocked me over! There are still the select few kids who still have to walk by and smack me as they leave...just to remind me they are still not little angels. When we came home from Shanghai a bunch of us decided to go running with each other every night and thought it would be fun to call it "Biggest Loser-Weihai" so now every night you can choose from running a 7pm, Jillian Michael's 30-day shred at 8pm, or Zumba at 9pm. It is pretty crazy and funny :) I have run 2 miles everyday thus far! HUZZAH! haha haven't run that far in a very very very....very very long time. Kate and I were doing P90X, but seeing as we have to climb like 300+ stairs ever day we decided to quit because walking is very necessary here and after 2 weeks of P90X you don't walk anymore, you waddle. Well we received packages from home a few days ago! Thank you to all who helped get them here and to our parents! We love you guys and appreciate the treats you sent! My sister got 2 bottles of vitamin C...If any of you have seen the TV show "House" then you will know Dr. House walks around and pops one or two Vicodin every hour...that was Abi with her bottle of vitamin C alllll weekend. Today is definitely a nap day! Love me some afternoon naps!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Mid-Vacation post
Well we have been in Shanghai for a total of 5 days now and we are all loving being able to relax and just do anything we want! We have hit up quite a few tourist-y things such as
The Shanghai History Museum
Nanjing Street (expensive shopping district)
Peoples Square Civilized Gardens
Hershey's World
Shanghai Art Museum
A very big, cheap, shopping market.
Shanghai Acrobatics Show
They have all been very interesting and fun. We hit up a new favorite food place here in Shanghai and they even have a branch in WeiHai! It is a Muslim Noodle restaurant. They are homemade and fresh noodles, made right there in front of you, and they taste so good! Pretty sure we can just walk in the shop and they already know our orders, that's how often we go. The greatest part is...it only costs $1.50! For a big plate of it!! Aside from doing all sorts of tourist like things we have been just hanging out here at our hostel. I have never stayed in a place like a hostel before and it has been a great experience so far. We have met quite a few new friends in the past five days and were sad to see them go this morning! Kate, Cami, and I have an extra bunk in our room so we have been having lots of random room mates all week. Our first was a girl from Poland, whose name was also Kate, she is living in the Northern most city in China teaching English! Crazy how that worked out. We didn't really see her much though because she came with a group of friends but she was fun to talk with. Our second and current roomie is Linley, she is an older lady who in from New Zeland. She has been in China for almost 8 months now....teaching English to 1st graders! It is fun to hear the stories of what she has and doesn't have at her school and how she teaches compared to us. Although last night I think she woke up every hour to ask me if I was hearing that noise or this noise or telling me she thought we had a mouse in our air conditioning unit and then turned on the light and made me get up and turn it off! Ah! I really hope she sleeps all night because I do not want to be up all night again telling her that the noises are not mice or gun shots. So we found a old guy who sells DVD's and the greatest chocolate ice cream bars just down the street from our hostel. I got all the seasons of the tv show House for $8!! So excited to start watching them! Today we hit up the fashion markets and bartered for all kinds of stuff. I got a pair of real UGGs (boots) from Australia for $16. These originally cost $148 in the states!! It was a steal! I may go back tomorrow and get the pink pair too :) I also got a bunch of stuff for gift but I won't mention those on here ;) Well we are going on a water village boat tour tomorrow morning bright and early so it'll be exciting!
The Shanghai History Museum
Nanjing Street (expensive shopping district)
Peoples Square Civilized Gardens
Hershey's World
Shanghai Art Museum
A very big, cheap, shopping market.
Shanghai Acrobatics Show
They have all been very interesting and fun. We hit up a new favorite food place here in Shanghai and they even have a branch in WeiHai! It is a Muslim Noodle restaurant. They are homemade and fresh noodles, made right there in front of you, and they taste so good! Pretty sure we can just walk in the shop and they already know our orders, that's how often we go. The greatest part is...it only costs $1.50! For a big plate of it!! Aside from doing all sorts of tourist like things we have been just hanging out here at our hostel. I have never stayed in a place like a hostel before and it has been a great experience so far. We have met quite a few new friends in the past five days and were sad to see them go this morning! Kate, Cami, and I have an extra bunk in our room so we have been having lots of random room mates all week. Our first was a girl from Poland, whose name was also Kate, she is living in the Northern most city in China teaching English! Crazy how that worked out. We didn't really see her much though because she came with a group of friends but she was fun to talk with. Our second and current roomie is Linley, she is an older lady who in from New Zeland. She has been in China for almost 8 months now....teaching English to 1st graders! It is fun to hear the stories of what she has and doesn't have at her school and how she teaches compared to us. Although last night I think she woke up every hour to ask me if I was hearing that noise or this noise or telling me she thought we had a mouse in our air conditioning unit and then turned on the light and made me get up and turn it off! Ah! I really hope she sleeps all night because I do not want to be up all night again telling her that the noises are not mice or gun shots. So we found a old guy who sells DVD's and the greatest chocolate ice cream bars just down the street from our hostel. I got all the seasons of the tv show House for $8!! So excited to start watching them! Today we hit up the fashion markets and bartered for all kinds of stuff. I got a pair of real UGGs (boots) from Australia for $16. These originally cost $148 in the states!! It was a steal! I may go back tomorrow and get the pink pair too :) I also got a bunch of stuff for gift but I won't mention those on here ;) Well we are going on a water village boat tour tomorrow morning bright and early so it'll be exciting!
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Shanghai
We arrived late yesterday afternoon in Shanghai! We are staying in the City Central International Hostel and it is way nice! Our room is good sized with 2 bunk beds in it, 4 beds total, and has all amenities. There is a common room down stairs where we can access the wi-fi and it is like a common room. Open bar and just a large room with couches and tables/chairs. The bar has got drinks obviously but the best part is the cheap food!! It is all western style! Like pasta, lasagna, french toast, pancakes, soups, salads, sandwich's, onion rings, garlic bread, etc!! So many good american foods! Free breakfast with our stay here...toast with jam, rolls, cereal, oatmeal, juice :) It is going to be a glorious 8 days!! We met a lot of cool people thus far, met some scottish guys last night that we talked to forever, they teach English here in Shanghai. Also we met a guy who has been traveling since February all over the world, he is from Great Britan and his name is Matt!
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