Rain Rain Go Away

I hate the rain. It's been raining nonstop for a little over a week (which may be slightly hyperbolic, but whatever), and I'm tired of it. The floors are wet, my clothes won't dry, and the bottom six inches of my pants are continually damp. Today we get the added bonus of thunder. It's hard to get up the desire to go out and do stuff when it's wet and cold. I have a friend here that loves the rain, and whenever I complain about it, he laughs and says it's great. But he's from England, so I guess you have to like rain then, as it rains all the time there.
In other news, I have to go judge an English competition tonight, which is kind of a joke, but I get paid for it, which I didn't know, so that's a nice bonus.

I saw on Erin's blog that she made a desert island playlist, which I thought was kind of a cool idea. And as I was reading hers, I was thinking about what songs would be on mine, so here they are:

Bleed it Out - Linkin Park
Don't Stop Believin' - Glee
Let it Be - The Beatles (but I agree with Erin, and I'd probably choose the Across the
Universe version)
Here Comes the Sun - Bob Khaleel
Old School - Hedley
Take Me or Leave Me - Idina Menzel and Tracie Thoms (from Rent)
Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Hallelujah - either by K.D. Lang or Alexandra Burke, both versions are good
That's What You Get - Paramore
Ignorance - Paramore
What Have You Done Now - Within Temptation
Headstrong - Trapt
Halo - Beyonce
Mercy - One Republic
Happy - Leona Lewis

Nothing else to report as of now. Toodles

My speaking has changed since I've been in China, which I was not expecting. For example:
1. I say "supermarket" now. It's never the "grocery store."
2. I pronounce my 't's. If I say "Beddy" instead of "Bet-ty" for example, my students protest that it's not their name.
3. I say "fond of" much more than "like" now. I think this may be the result of British friends.
4. In general I articulate my words more, especially when speaking to my students.
5. Sometimes when I'm talking to my students individually I don't conjugate all my verbs or change tenses. I use the grammar I know they'll most easily understand. This is probably a bad thing.

On Saturday a bunch of us went to the Japanese all-you-can-eat restaurant in Guangzhou. Yum. They have this steak and onion dish that is the best beef I've had in China. Mmmmmm.

MJ, some guy who worked at our school last year that I don't know, Andrew, and Kimi
Julie and April
Alex and me

Stuff

Life in China is good. I'm enjoying my classes and I've started doing more things with other teachers. February was our holiday, and I went to Thailand and Cambodia with my friend Stephanie from Church. It was fabulous, and I loved it absolutely. I bought a ton of books, since there were a ton of English bookstores : ). We went to the beach for a week, sat on the sand and swam in the ocean (but only a little for me... jellyfish. I stuck to the pool more). Cambodia and the ruins at Angkor were amazing, and almost out of this world. It was hard to come back to the cold weather in Guangzhou after the heat in Thailand.

The ruins at Angkor; specifically, Bayon.
The view from our hotel in Phuket
Aranyaprathet ruins; it used to be the capital city of Thailand, and I really liked this Bhudda head encased in the roots.

The Grand Palace in Bangkok.

March wasn't very eventful other than the fact that I applied for a job at a new school for next year. I'll be teaching at Clifford School, which is a better school, and they will pay me double what I'm making now. They also have a curriculum for me to follow, which is nice, so I won't have to teach blindly anymore. There are a lot of the members of the branch in Clifford, and the complex has a lot more stuff to do: stores, restaurants, and more frequent buses to the city. I'm pretty happy with my decision to stay another year; I'm having a lot of fun in China, and I'm looking forward to staying.

Last week Andrew, Kimi, some other teachers, and I went to see the circus at Chimelong. Wow. It was really cool, and I saw people do things I would not ever in any lifetime be brave enough to do. Sadly, I forgot my camera that night, so no pictures. It was really fun, and nice to finally get to Chimelong, which is close. I still have to get to the amusement park and safari and water park. It's a fun to do list.

One of the teachers at our school, MJ, is leaving on Monday to go to the Shanghai Expo, so there was a farewell party for her last night at a bar that's closeby.


The girl in the white tank top is MJ, the teacher that's leaving.
April, Julie, and Alex

January

Tomorrow I am going to Thailand. It's Chinese New Year break and Stephanie and I are celebrating by spending two weeks baking in the humidity of Thailand. I'm packed and ready to go, and excited, but calm at the same time. Kind of like I was right before I came to China. It will be a lot of fun.

The month of January has been a good one, and a particularly easy one, work wise. As the end of the semester neared, students were madly prepping for exams, as were the teachers. Because of this, I had many unexpected days off while the Chinese teachers reviewed with the students. And then of course I didn't have classes while the students were taking their exams. My students are very high achievers, and would come and tell me their scores, expressing disappointment with anything less than a 95. When I told some of my fourth graders that I got an 83 in math when I was in school, they were all like "whoaaaa!" It was really funny for me, and I kept trying to tell them to chill out about their grades. My students are really funny, and come and talk to me before classes and after classes, so much so that I almost can't finish getting ready for my lesson. I really enjoy it though, in spite of the distraction.

After exams it was babysitting time for a couple of days, and then vacation. All of my students went home or on vacation, and I've had the entire week off. It's been really nice, actually. I've had some days that were productive and well spent, and some days where I've enjoyed just being lazy, watching tv and reading.

Hi there! The big news of the month is I no longer have a broken ankle!! My cast is off and everything! (Longest 6 weeks of my life). I'm doing well here; I've made a new friend at church and we click really well. So Stephanie (which is her name) and I decided to go traveling during winter holidays together. We're going to go to Thailand and Cambodia. I'm pretty stoked about it. Teaching is going well; I've started to teach my students some slang (what's up, whatever, cool, etc...) and most of them really get into it. When I was teaching them "Whatever" (in the sense that you use it to say you don't believe someone) I would tell outrageous lies and they would respond. Some of my third graders still do it to me, giving me outrageous lies to which I respond "whatever." It's a lot of fun. I've been exploring more; I got a bike and I'm learning cycling proficiency again. It's been a while. I went to Hong Kong a couple times and played; got some new clothes, went to Disneyland and such. I found an English bookstore (thanks dad!) and so I splurged and got some books. Thank goodness. Here's pictures!

The third grade had an "English Star Arena" where they played games and sang English songs. I was asked to 'host' it.
This is Ella. She was my co-host. She's probably one of my best students. Such a sweetie.
Thanksgiving dinner at the Aufderheide family residence. They kindly offered Stephanie and me a place to go.

Not quite sure what this was, but the girls were all frantically tying their hair...

Stephanie and I went to Hong Kong for a weekend of revelry and shopping.

This is us on the metro. It took us a while to get there. The guy on the right is Joey Christensen; his family are old friends of my parents, and they let us stay with them.Disneyland!!! It was a lot of fun.







Some kind of yumminess...





The Star Island Ferry to Kowloon

China Post

Hi everyone!
I realize it's been a while and I haven't yet posted about China, so here it is. I don't have very many pictures of me going places because of my broken ankle, but hopefully that will change soon. I am working at a school in a suburb city of Guangzhou, and the bus ride into the city is only 40-ish minutes so it's not too bad. I'm really enjoying all the good food and cheap living. Last week I went and got an hour massage for six US dollars. It was nice. At my school I teach graes 3, 4, and 5 Oral English; basically what that means is I help them develop their speaking and conversational English. It's kind of hard because the kids don't get grades or marks for my class, and so they're not invested in it and they don't focus. Some classes are getting better though, thank goodness. There are two LDS couples down here at the same school I work, which is kind of unheard of! It's really nice, and they've been great helping me get around and situated. They've shown me all the good places to eat down here, and where different things are. I am going to Hong Kong this weekend to sort out my visa, since I broke my ankle the day before my last planned trip. Hopefully everything will go smoothly! Stuart and Brooke live right in the city, and it's nice to be able to go and visit and see them so much; they've been great helping me get started and find a job. Well, here are some pictures of my school and my apartment!

This is the front of my school. If I turn right like 45 degrees, there is my bus stop and the street down to my apartment.
The inside of the school entrance. My section is on the right hand side here.
This is the building I teach in. I have the top two floors.

The whole elementary school gathers everyday for morning exercises.


This is my apartment. It's kind of messy in these pictures, but whatever. This is what you see when you are standing in the doorway.

My bedroom.
A very teeny kitchen

That's all for now; it takes forever to upload and post!

Graduation!

On August 14, 2009, I graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Arts in French Teaching, and a minor in English Teaching. It was a very cool ceremony, and I had a lot of fun that day. Mom, Dad, and Erin were there, and we went out to Carrabba's for lunch. Then in the evening a bunch of friends and I went to the Cheesecake Factory (which is my favorite restaurant...). It was a fun vacation overall, and the next Friday Dad and I drove my little car across the country before I left for China.






Ravioli at Carrabbas. Yumminess beyond belief.

Colin took us shooting during our stay, before which I had never even touched a gun. It was a lot of fun, and really loud.