April 5, 2016

Let me start off by saying a huge Happy Birthday to Taylor and Brett, hope you guys enjoyed your day! The Friday before Easter, we had an Easter activity with our kids. We made bunny ears with our kids, and then they went around to different activities. I was in charge of the egg toss, it didn't really work out as plan so teacher Autumn and I put them in groups and had them toss stuffed animals in blankets. Then we helped our kids with a scavenger hunt where they got an egg with candies in it at the end. That was really fun! My kids followed another group of students directly to the eggs rather then doing the scavenger hunt😂 My Birthday was pretty awesome! At first Hailey and I walked around the city, I got peach pocky ( my favorite) and pineapple on a stick! Then when I got home they sang me happy birthday and gave me cheesecake (my favorite dessert❤️). Then we went and got waffles!!!!!!! After that my roommates took me to a place called KTV, which is a Karaoke bar and they played One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer for me (no I didn't choose the songs, Josh). There was a group of Chinese people that came into our room and started singing with us. They picked "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele. And one of them actually had the same birthday! After that we went back to the apartment where I got an awesome email from my family❤️ Thanks again for those awesome presents! We went to dinner at a great noodle place, so yummy! After that we had cake that our school’s cook made for me and Jocelyn and I watched a movie, "The Perfect Man"! The next week we had a fire drill, and the Chinese teacher went around with a can that had smoke coming out of it! The kids are learning so much and are just so adorable! I love teaching them, no matter how crazy they get…and they can get really crazy😆 On Thursday, our last teaching day before our vacation, we had brunch with our kids. Since we normally don't eat with our kids, I really enjoyed sitting down and eating with them. Once we got home we grabbed our stuff and headed to the train station for our trip to Yangshuo, a.k.a. the Dr. Seuss Mountains! The whole trip was so amazing and I'm meeting so many people from all over! Our hostel roommate was an 18 year old Chinese guy name Kyler, he was so nice and spoke really good English, and on our last night we got a German roommate who has been traveling all over Europe and Asia for the past year and he's only 22! The first night we walked around the city and I got an amazing painting for 7 dollars! The city was so amazing, it was all lit up and there were a bunch of ships plus we saw this waxed figure of Obama. The next day Rae, Logan, Jessica, and I went in a three-wheeled bike taxi around the city. Then we went to lunch where I got pizza, fries, and I split a cake. That meal was so delicious! Then we rented bikes, and biked 6 miles to the banyan tree. It was the huge tree that was planted in 518 A.D., over 1400 years ago!!! In the same park I got to hold monkeys, which are one of my favorite animals!!!! I was beyond happy being able to do that! Then we floated down the river on bamboo raft which was really relaxing after all that biking! We rested at the hostel for a while that went out to dinner at a place where I ate delicious dumplings and fried rice! After that we got fish pedicures, the one where they wax your feet. I wouldn't recommend it if your extremely ticklish, but it was really cool. Then we went clubbing at a couple different places, but one of my favorites was this rooftop bar and where I met people from England, Brazil, Norway, and so many other places! It as such a surreal experience being on a rooftop in China surrounded by mountains, meeting people from all over! Oh and I beat Melanie, our head teacher, twice at fuse-ball. The next day, Saturday, we rented mopeds and went to the mud caves, and the mud was freezing, by the way. Then we washed off the mud in a shower and then hopped in a hot springs a little further into the cave! Then Jessica and I went to lunch at a cute little place kind of like George's cafe in Saint George. I got an amazing burger and fries, beyond yummy!  After that I crashed at the hostel for a bit, then I made myself sandwiches for dinner. Then we went back to Mojo bar, the rooftop bar, where I had another really fun night and a yummy chocolate milkshake.  The next day we got our bus tickets home, ate lunch at the place I got dumpling, and then hiked something called the TV tower, which ended up being more than 900 stairs (a really hard hike, especially in sandals) but completely worth it! The view has incredible. I was awestruck by it. I could see the whole city and the mountains surrounding it! Then we got ice cream, refreshing after that long hike. Before dinner we went and got fish pedicures, we even convince our 2 guy roommates to do it! Then we went to dinner at another yummy restaurant where I got a burger and fries. At dinner everyone did silly dare, for example, I danced behind someone and Jocelyn sang in the street. The next day was full of two buses, a train and a taxi to get home! Overall it was one of the best trips I have ever had. I'm so in love with China and can't believe how lucky I am to be here. Hope you all are doing great and thanks for all the birthday wishes!