Peace Out.

So I thought I should write a little note before I take off on my week long ADVENTURE! And let me tell you, it WILL be an adventure. Tomorrow at 2:43 me and four of the girls will be embarking on a 25 hour train ride to Xian on a HARD SEAT. (dont worry, i'm bringing a little pillow for my rear)  If all goes as planned we will then train from Xian to Beijing, train from Beijing to Shanghai and then fly home from Shanghai. OH MY WORD. It's gonna be awesome.. If we make it alive I'll post pics in a week! Love you all! 

Our Favorite Place in the World: The Cafeteria

Thought I should post a tribute to the Kaiyin Cafeteria since we spend so much of our time there. Really its not that bad, there are usually a couple options that are decent and occasionally one or too that are really good.. and of course there's always white rice!

oh so many choices... 

Just adding a little more to my rice pouch... :)
mmm.....! 

Just teachin' a little english..

Philly the Colorful Frog...thanks mom:)

I can do the splits, can you do the splits? Oh wait.. no I can't. 
Just getting a back massage from Jill :)
Five little speckled frogs sitting on a speckled log...
Nite: this kid is a genius.

To add to my silly china signs collection....

Don't hurt me for your pretty...

Vomit Basket
You should be dabbled with water...??
Resting place for unwell people
Friendly Reminding: For your comfort, please twist the wheel appropriately..

Moon Lady Moon Lady, Grant Me My Wish!!!

Yuexiu Park!

The whole Guangzhou crew
i made a dang good wish and it better come true.. thats all i have to say. 
We love Moon Festival!

Chimelong Paradise

Guangzhou

Our trip to Guangzhou was a BLAST! We took a bus there Saturday afternoon. Its about a two and a half hour bus ride. We were able to figure out the metro system there and find our hotel and everything ran smoothly so we were pretty proud of ourselves. We were also able to attend the branch there on sunday and it was amazing. International branches are so fun to attend. It was such a blessing because the branch president emailed me back right before we headed out the door for our trip and let me know the address and meeting time for the next day! Everything just worked out! We spent three nights with six girls crammed into a two bed hotel room.. not the best night's sleep but it was much cheaper and much funner this way. It was pretty much a party. We got to celebrate the Moon Festival at one of the many gardens in Guangzhou and we made wishes to the "moon lady" that night with our little chinese lanterns. On monday we went to "Chimelong Paradise" which is an amusement park comparable to six flags. It was a blast. Tuesday we went shopping for wedding dresses because Natalie is engaged and she found her dress!! It fit PERFECTLY and its gorgeous. She was glowing :) I can't wait to attend her wedding in May. Overall it was a perfect four day weekend and I'm looking forward to our next vacation where me and some of the girls are taking our big trip to Xian, Beijing, and Shanghai. Can't Wait. Here's some pics of us messing around in the hotel room and there are more pics to come..

The sleeping arrangement... Jessi was taking the pic but she slept on that chair on the side. ha.

Nacho Libre?? What.

Little Hellians...

So my kids have not been keeping these rules AT ALL as of late...

For example, today my kids locked me out of my classroom. The room has two sets of double doors- one on each side. They bolted one door with like eight chairs and bolted the other door with the table. Technically they were trying to lock some of the other kids out of the room but I went to throw away their trash after snack and when I came back I had to push through the chairs to open the door. The chinese teacher came in and made them line up and apologize to me. Hahaha. We have all kinds of mischievous behavior going on lately- hitting, pulling hair, biting, flooding the bathroom, spraying milk everywhere, the works.  

Mmm... Mooncake

We took a field trip with our kids to the mooncake factory and learned how to make almond cakes. They were a lot better than the mooncakes that our apartments gave us that have duck egg yolks in the middle...

Pathetic, I know.

Yes, we are eating brownie batter out of a bowl with chopsticks and bread. This is the only logical thing to do when you're having a chocolate craving late at night, your teaching supplies consist of plenty of cake mixes but you don't have an oven to cook them in, and the light in your kitchen is burnt out so its dark and too difficult to find normal utensils in the overflowing sink full of dishes. Mmm... 

English Corner

We're going to start having "English Corner" every Wednesday night. This is where we go out on the school field and play games and interact with some of the older kids. The other night we played red rover and a hilarious game called chicken that some of the boys taught us. I wish I could describe it in words. I almost peed my pants I was laughing so hard. 

My dinner was happy to see me!

So I ordered "fried rice with egg and cheese" thinking the egg and cheese would be scrambled up in the rice like normal and this is what i got. Yes the smily face was the restaurant's doing. Only in china.. 

Where's the cheese??

There it is! (yes thats a square piece of processed cheese sitting on my fried rice)

Mary's Bday Dinner

Happy 22nd Mary!

Mary Happy Everyday. Hahaha.

Us with our two lovely coordinators Mary and Kathryn. Kathryn is leaving us next week to work at another school :(
The crew

a few more..

Jimmy
Hal
Leo
Jill

Making Self Portraits

Yesterday we made self portraits in my class. Here's a few. So cute.

Here's mine. Ha.

Madison

Forest

Kyle

Julia