Red, Yellow and Blue!!!

Today was such an awesome day of teaching! :) I loved it so much!!! I am teaching arts and crafts this week and its my favorite thing to teach! well... that and kitchen! So today we were doing stuff with paint! (everyone called me crazy and thought I was daring) Can't be a good teacher without taking a risk i guess! haha just kidding... i totally made that up! oops! so anyways we did straw paintings today! I had three colors, red, yellow and blue! We talked about which colors make what colors when mixed and just had fun painting! they loved blowing through the straws and seeing the paint slide across the table! every class loved it! :) This one kid Michael... he is pretty naughty started talking in Chinese and that boy loves the Chinese chair! so we had to think of something else he would have to do if he spoke Chinese... we came up with him standing in the corner with his nose in the wall. So I had him do that and don't even worry! It didn't work! He blew into the wall so it made LOTS of noise! I was like oh geez! It was really funny and I had to hold in my laugh because I couldn't let him see that it was funny!...but it was! darn that kid! haha So the rest of the day went well...then I had my 5th and last class. They are all four year olds and there are 12 of them! they are supercute but there are a couple of them that love to make mischief! One of them would be Eva! Towards the end of class Eva said to me.. "Teacher! I like to paint!" I replied... "I like to paint too!" Then she took her hand and wiped the paint off of someone Else's paper and I was like "Eva! Go wash your hands!"Well she did...but just not in the way I wanted her too... before I could do anything she takes her hand with blue, green and yellow paint ALL over it and turns to the kid next to her (Eason) and wipes it ALL over his hair! Oh my gosh! I was freaking out! I didn't even know what to say (and plus I was trying to hold back my laugh!) It was almost time for rotation so I took Eason and Eva and had them by the hand so they couldn't touch anything while Jessica came in to rotate the kids into the next class! So now I had a problem... My class was here and I had two kids with paint all over them! what was I to do!? hmm.. A Chinese teacher ended up coming in and taking over my class while I took the two little kids into the bathroom. I washed Eva first and sent her back to class and then I had Eason to deal with... haha I put Easons head under the faucet and got his hair wet... (oh p.s. their bathrooms have showers in them because some of the kids sleep at the school) So i got some Johnson and Johnson soap and I scrubbed him down! (Poor boy!) I felt so bad! but it was really funny! I was laughing so hard! It was a good/hectic day of teaching but on days like these...that's when I love it the most! :)

gettin down and dirty!

This was for sure one of my favorite things I did in Yangshou! We did this on our fist day and we rode our peddle bikes to the cave! It was a way cold ride!! We rode for at least 3 miles I would even maybe say 4! it was really fun though because we were taking pictures and making videos on our bikes...we almost crashed a few times but hey...its all fun and games right!? :)

The mud cave was so cool! we had a guide take us into the cave and everyone was like are you serious!? because he kept saying... "look! this rock looks like a beautiful girl!" or my favorite... "this looks like a hand but with two thumbs!" we were like what the! he basically BS his way through the cave. We climbed this rock called snow mountain and its really steep and wet.. (that would be completely prohibited in America!) they would probably make you sign a release form saying if you died it wasn't their fault! haha but it was way fun! we were so high up the pictures are way dark so we will have to lighten them up. After the tour we got to go play in the mud caves and that was rockin! I was caked with mud! I was even finding mud days later! After we got done playing they made us wash off..but no worries..the water was FREEZING! it was so cold that after 5 seconds under it you got a brain freeze! I don't think I have been that cold ever! it was not fun! they made me go back 3 different times to wash off even more because I never passed the inspection! I was so mad! haha they took us to an all natural hot springs after and it probably really wasn't that hot (prob luke warm) but since we were so cold it was a little piece of heaven! :) so so fun!

Will you look at those mountains! :)

This is when I was in Guilin/Yangshou! It was absolutely gorgeous!!! We got to see a lot of scenery because one day we rented mopeds one day we rented peddle bikes and then we rode buses and walked everywhere! It was a lot of fun! We took so many pictures! It was insane! :) I have never seen mountains like this before! We did go see moon hill. Its the mountain that's shaped like the moon and where you stand depends on what shape the moon is. It's really cool! We stayed in Yangshou and traveled to Guilin. It wasn't very far but Yangshou was so fun! Yangshou was more what I had in mind for China. Its defiantly the more poor and ghetto places you think about when you even think the word China!

Circus Day!

This is Brittney! she's really shy but she does really well when she talks!Leo walking the "tight rope" and Hula Hooping. This little boy has so much energy and can be naughty! but I love this kid! He is for sure one of my favorites! :)

This is Lee being the Penguin! He is so stinkin cute! He's a good student and laughs at everything! but put him and Leo together...and your just askin for trouble!


Circus Day Story!

I am teaching drama this week! So for today we had a Circus Day! I brought in costumes for the kids to dress up with and I also had a book about the circus. We all read the book and we talked about whats at the circus and what they do and just stuff like that! After we read the book I let them dress up and they got to walk the "tight rope" they hula hooped and had crab walk races! In my older class the 5-7 year olds, we did the same thing but added in cartwheels and walking on your hands.

Funny Story!

It was pretty cute...in one of my classes we were talking about how clowns walk on their hands! This kid named Nite got really excited and was like "Teacher! Teacher! I can walk on my hands! Let me try!" So I was like "Ok Nite! stand up and show me!" well so I was watching and he gets up and guess what he did?! He stood on his hands! like... I mean LITERALLY stood on his hands! his feet were on top of his hands! I was laughing so hard! It was pretty cute! :) It made my day! It made it even better because he was innocent about it and was so excited because he could stand on his hands! I love my kids! He didn't quite understand "standing on your hands" so I showed them and they were laughing so hard! They thought that was the funniest thing ever!

This is Kyle! He was the monkey but he wanted to wear the hat too! He is so dang cute! He loves to give hugs and is so nice! He is also not afraid to try anything and to get up and do things in front of the class. He is always the first to volunteer! I love him! (also one of my favorites!)

This isn't my home room class but its one of the classes I teach during the day! This is the 3-5 year old group and they are so freaking cute! This class is hard because they don't understand a lot of English but they still do very well! They loved the Circus!

This is me helping Peter! He couldn't quite figure out how to hula hoop! it was fun! He would spin his hips really really fast from side to side and the hula hoop would fall right off! he's such a funny kid! (again... another one of my favorites!) :)

Probably the difference between man and the monkeys is that the monkeys are merely bored, while man has boredom plus imagination! -Lin Yutang

When Jess and I get bored....don't even worry! We will come up with something to do! So Friday night rolls around....and here we sat at home with nothing to do! My head teacher Jeanette was going to go to walking street (this big shopping place) So we decided to go with her! We treated ourselves to McDonald's (some treat!..) haha and we were just walking around trying to find something to do! Then my eye caught the coolest thing ever!!! It was this retro makeup! every color you could want...but wait! It gets better! its all glittery! haha So we both looked at each other and thought of the same idea! So we bargained the girl down to a awesome price and we were on our way! haha

When we got home I did Jessica's makeup and then she did mine! it was pretty funny! We even put on fake eyelashes! :) (oh and our whole outfits are from china....) we were going for the more Chinese look! (you should see some of these models over here! haha I think we hit it right on!) So then we were just crazy the rest of the night and it was so much fun! everyone was like "Oh no! what are the twins up to now!??" (everyone calls us the blondie's or the twins...) Then we showed are head teacher and her face was PRICELESS! we had a camera ready and we took the picture right as she opened her door! haha all she said was "ahh! Barf!" haha it was so funny and really fun! So that's what I mean when that quote says "Probably the difference between man and the monkeys is that the monkeys are merely bored, while man has boredom plus imagination!" Lin Yutang

Haha we may be bored but we do got some sort of imagination! :)

Me cooking my first chinses meal! (and pictures from the fish market...)

Picking out the fish I want at the fish market!













Yes...this is indeed an alligator! mhmm!














Octopus!! This taste kinda different but its not bad!

Me cutting the nails off the chicken feet! haha

Me cutting up a huge piece of shrimp for our dinner!!

Someday my Prince will come!!

This is at the fish market we went shopping to for dinner! yummy! They let you hold everything so you can"check it out!" haha Jessica couldn't do it! it was hilarious! She was freaking out! But I wanted to try frog so that's what I chose for dinner but she said that that kind of frog isn't good.... so next time she is going to order this really good frog and she will cook it for me! I'm pretty excited! :)So I picked up this frog and I was thinking!..."How wonderful would life be if all I had to do was kiss a frog for my prince!...hmmm wonderful! lets see...? should I try it!!??" haha Christine was freaking out! she was saying "Don't Jodi! Don't really kiss it!" she thought I was serious! It was really funny! And for all of you who are wondering... I didn't really kiss the frog! But I will find my Prince one day!!! just not in china! I haven't gotten yellow fever yet! ;)

A night out with my Chinese Fam!

This is the amazing cook!!! All the food is put in the middle of the table and everyone digs in! (using chopsticks!) yummy!!

This is the Fam! Jessica and I are going to give them English names next time we hang out!

So as you can see we do a lot with our new Chinese family! We love them! They are pretty much amazing!!! So one night Christine and Lawrence invited us to go hang out with the "fam" we went and choose our dinner at this fish market (oh man was that fun!) and then we went home and the cook went to work! (p.s. they don't have English names yet so at the moment you won't know their names because I can't spell their Chinese names) this girl was incredibly fast at cooking! holy cow! she cooks for this many people every night! (well minus Jessica, Lawrence, Christine and I) but she cooks for her mother in law, her son, her cousin, her brother and then her sister in law! It's insane! and did I mention her cooking is AMAZING! it was the best meal I have had since I have been here and I have eaten at a lot of places! It was really funny because Christine was telling her that we had chicken feet so she assumed that we liked it and went to the store and bought us some chicken feet to surprise us! She was excited because she said... "I know I am actually cooking something they will like!" haha Jess and I were like uh...crap! and you can't not eat it! I mean really.... So dinner was served and there was a whole bowl of chicken feet just for us! (the rest of the family doesn't like them!) so Jess and I dung right on it! biting of the toes one at a time...the crunch of the bone breaking was the worse part...but now get this! They were so freaking good! i couldn't believe it! I had no problem eating them! It was so good! After dinner I got the recipe and i am so excited to make them for you guys when I get back! they are so awesome! :) That night was really fun! They were all shocked at how good we were at chopsticks! haha ya....Jess and I are pretty much pros! ;)

My Chinese Dress!

So when we got here Jess and I really wanted a Traditional Chinese dress and we looked and looked and we couldn't find any tailors! We were totally bumbed! But then when we met our Chinese "parents"/family they took us where we could get some dresses made! We were so excited!!! :) When we got there, there were tons of fabric to choose from and it took us about an hour to decide what we wanted haha after we chose the fabric we got sized....(we will keep those numbers confidential!) ;) It took about two weeks for our dresses to get made and these pictures are us getting our fitting done! :) it was so fun! haha it was funny though...they said now when you loose weight you can bring your dresses back and we will refit them for free! (if that's not motivation enough to loose weight I don't know what is....) before the end of the trip I will be going back! :) yay!

Lets Shop!

Christine and Lawrence took us (Jessica, our other friend Kylee, andI) shopping and out to dinner one day! they took us to this HUGE shopping place and everything there you bargin for! Man I was awesome at it!!! haha There were these one pants I wanted and they wanted me to pay 200 yuon for them and I talked him down to 50 yuon! It was really fun! I quite enjoyed myself! Then they took us out to dinner (it was a pretty nice place) and they wouldn't let us pay! They are so good to us! We love them! :)

Tea Time!

Tea is very popular over here in China! Whenever we go out to eat they ALWAYS give us some sort of tea or if you ask for it (in chinese...of course) then they will give you water! But wait!... Not just ANY water...they give you HOT BOILING WATER! its just wonderful! I love the feeling I get when I burn my tounge with the freaking water everytime! It's just awesome! haha I usually let it cool for a while but by the time its cool enough to drink your meal is gone and your so thirsty that you don't even feel your thirst anymore...gotta love it!

Christine and Lawrence (Her husband) took us to meet some of their family and we had tea time! they did this tea ritual I guess you could call it and its very special its kinda like a prayer and something sacred so it was really cool to see! and the china sets they have here are absolutly beautiful!!

Meet my China mom!

Meet my China mom!.... Her name is Christina Wong and she is absolutly awesome! :) we love her so much! She is in her 50's but sure doesn't act like it! haha I am so glad we met them because they have been such a huge help! They do all our communicating for us and show us around town! They have taken us to some pretty sweet places! We love hanging out with them! Its so funny though because she is TINY! my hips go to her waist! haha she hates it when I stand next to her...she says it doesn't help that i'm white! (shes not use to all the attention!) ;) I look so fat when I stand next to her though so thats the only down fall but we love spending time with them! They are pretty protecitve...they told us..."As far as we are concerned...you are our kids!" haha (they don't have any kids) We were telling them about our vacation plans and they said.."well we don't like the sound of that..its to dangerous for you guys..." its pretty funny! I am so happy we met them! :)