District conference in shanghai

What a great weekend!! I was very blessed to attend district conference in China this weekend. While at the conference I came to realize how blessed we are to be able to meet as saints in China. To be able to have a meeting that big in mainland China is a miracle. I know Heavenly Father is watching out for His saints all over the world. I love the gospel!

I got the chance to stay with the wonderful Hayden's and attend the conference with them. I can see why my parents are such good friends with them. They emulate the spirit of Christ and their home felt so good. I am so grateful for good people all over the world. Elder Toronto from the Seventy spoke to us. My favorite message was that of feeling at "home" wherever you are living. Bring the spirit with you wherever you go.

Because of the conference we didn't really get the chance to see any of Shanghai. So I am already planning a trip back to visit the Hayden's sometime in November or December. I did get to visit a neat little old water town called Qibao. That was fun and it was there that I got myself those cute Chinese shoes.

The yellow mountains

Going to a national park in China over their mid-autumn festival was a bad idea. I have never waited in so many lines just to get inside a park. The bus left our hostel at 6:20am and we got to the base of the mountains around 7:30 and then we waited in line for about three hours before we saw anything! So, crazy.

My little group decided we wanted to take the cable car up and then hike down. But, once we got to the top we could not find the way down by hiking so we had to take the cable car back down. Oh well. Just to get inside the mountains cost about 60 bucks! But, it was worth it. I cannot even begin to describe the beauty that I saw in those mountains. They were like no other mountains I have ever seen. Plus, hiking with a million Chinese people was quite the experience. And in the sea of black- haired people, older Chinese men were carrying older people around on chairs. Insane!!

Ancient tunxi was the city about 40 mins away and that was where we stayed. It was such a beautiful city. Our hostel was right downtown and I loved that! Seeing the full moon here was breath taking. The fishy pedicures was such a strange feeling. Not sure I want to do that again. I could not stop laughing from the moment I stuck my stinky feet into the water. I am sure I was quite the spectacle for the Chinese. My feet did feel heavenly after I took them out. So, it was worth all the tickling.

I would say that my first vacation here was a success. It was a good one to see the difference between living at a school in China vs. traveling in China. They are very different. All the bathrooms are squatters and smell really bad and take some talent. Haha. I had my first experience with dropping my whole pack of tissues in the hole without being able to use it first. Yuck. I am going to be much more careful from now on. And I have never gotten so many stares. Seriously, I am sitting on the train back to Nanjing right now and I have three Chinese men just staring at me. Oh, boy. Hand sanitizer is my best friend. Oh, and trying to buy clothes here that fit me is quite difficult. In fact last night I had one Chinese women run after me saying she had "big red pant" for me. Haha. I didn't want them. People here call me big all the time. I think it is super funny. And that's all folks!

2nd grade VS. 7th grade

I know now that I will always prefer 7th graders to 2nd graders. Chinese 7th graders are soooo cute. They are very respectful and stand up when asked a question. I love them. Every week I will have the chance to teach two seventh grade classes and I can all ready tell that they are going to be my favorite part of my ilp teaching experience. We have them for 40 minutes and teach them English out of their workbooks. We also will get the chance to play games with them and tell them all about America. 

Second graders are fun, but they just don't listen as well. And we have to plan out some kind of fun activity every day to do with them. This week and next I will be teaching drama. We have six different categories that we teach; gym, games, art, kitchen, drama, and shop. Every week we teach a different subject. 

Yesterday, I taught the three little pigs story. I had them all make little pigs out of paper and put them on Popsicle sticks. They really enjoyed doing that. Then I put on a "wolf" mask and acted like I was going to catch them all. That was fun. I had all eight of them screaming and running around. Haha. Then we made houses to protect them. That was a fun lesson. At one point in the lesson though I looked down and had all eight of them grabbing onto my legs acting like little pigs. Haha. Priceless. 

Life here is good. I love being a teacher and being with the kids every day. 

Last night I went out on the town with a couple of the other teachers and found the best store! Everything was super cheap and I was told that I could even barder cheaper! I am learning. I got myself a cute yellow bee shirt for only $5. I think I will go back tonight! I love it here. 

Chinese 2nd graders

Wow. That was harder then I thought it would be. Chinese kids like to speak English and I could tell that they just wanted to impress me. And because of that they would yell at me saying, "teacher, teacher look at me!!" Class was very loud.

I had a great lesson plan with props and such. But, It felt like I didn't get through it all. Tomorrow will go a little better. After the first day we all looked like zombies walking to dinner. And the worst part about that was we all knew what our dinner would be. Not good. Chinese cafeteria food is pretty interesting. I never know what I am eating. There is always some strange meat, rice, and tofu. Yum.

But, on the flip side I did eat my first moon pie today and that was great! I had a dessert one and a meat one.  We also went grocery shopping and I got fruit!

 I am super tired tonight. So, I think that is going to be all I will write about my first day teaching. What a day. Night!