2 weeks!

As of this very hour I've been away from home for exactly 2 weeks now! It's incredible how much has happened since then. How much I've travelled. How much I've grown. How much I've learned about China's culture. How much money I've spent. How many times I've sharply yelled, "HEY!! BE QUIET!" 

But it has been good. Coming to China was in a lot of ways a split second decision but it is one of the best ones I've made in my life. It's incredible how being lost in the world has helped me find myself. I got a fresh start to be myself without the parts of my life back home to influence me. Here I am simply Miss Amanda. The woman who rolls out of bed 5 minutes before breakfast starts and likes wearing simple outfits. The person who has no problem being strict and yelling but who is also there to hold you through a rough moment. The one for uncontrollable laughter and serious pillow talk. And I love myself. I'm starting to believe that I am enough for myself. 

Yesterday (Monday) I spent the morning lounging around my room. Emailing, writing, reading conference talks, putting away laundry, tissue papering my windows... After lunch we had an in-service training meeting which basically consisted of all the primary teachers asking what they're supposed to do when their child kicks a hole in the wall or punches another child in the face... those questions made me feel a little bit better about my children. Then I taught 3 classes. My 4th graders are from hell. My 5th graders are from heaven. The problem is that the Chinese teacher doesn't usually sit in with the 4th grade class so they're insanely loud with just me. Another problem with teaching in China is that we have SO MANY BOYS. My girls are all angels. Some more angelic than others but compared to some of my unruly boys.. much better. After class was dinner and then Family Home Evening where we played Grunt Piggy, Grunt and then Signs. It was really fun and nice to laugh as a group. We have an incredible group. There are a few people who stand out but I'm one of the few people who is on good terms with one individual in particular. After FHE I killed time until it was an acceptable time of night for me to go to sleep (10pm) and then crashed. 

This morning I went to breakfast (which was practically pointless) and then took a shower using my flashlight as a light because half the bulbs are burnt out in our room. Then Melanie and I caught the bus to the JiaJiaYue in town and picked up a couple small things like Oreos, bananas, and salt. I (and everyone else in the group) are obsessed with Oreos here. They're less than $1 a box (10-ish to a box) and they have a bunch of flavors. I don't like Oreos back home but here I love the birthday cake flavored ones and I tried mango/orange today which are really good too. They also have plain, vanilla, green tea, blueberry/raspberry, coconut, and probably a couple others I can't remember. Bananas are for when I decide its not worth it to get out of bed in the morning for breakfast in the cafeteria. Salt is for anything and everything we eat. I never realized that I was taking salt and pepper shakers on the table for granted until I discovered there aren't any here. Oh- here's the typical (and by typical I mean always) breakfast they have in China- 1. rice porridge (which has a lot more water than it does rice.) Sometimes it will be a reddish/brown color (I don't know why... dirty water?) or they'll put some ground up corn in it too. I bought sugar to dump in it which helps but is still something I only eat if I'm desperate and up to the challenge. 2. boiled eggs. This is my manna each morning because they've only screwed this up for me once when they cooked them way too long. Protein. Calories. Flavor. Yum. 3. boiled rolls. We bought honey and today I also bought strawberry (supposedly) jam to put on them which makes them a million times better but to be completely honest, rice and boiled rolls make up 2/3 of the food I eat from the cafeteria and that's not because I'm being picky. That's just because that's what they always feed us. 4. sometimes cooked cabbage or another pickled topping. Cabbage is meh but not so bad so I'll eat it over half the time although it probably doesn't do much to fill me up.

When we got back from the JiaJiaYue I was starving so I made 2 packs of Chinese Ramen (which I couldn't finish so I gave the rest to Sam) and went through some of the clothes/shoes/random things the last ILP group left in the kitchen. I now own a bag from Forever 21, a new pair of flip-flops and tank top for the beach when it warms up here, and a nice pair of white Pumas which Luke cleaned with bleach in exchange for a back rub. Oh and tons more hand sanitizer. I brought a bunch with me which was completely unnecessary because there's tons here. Wish I would have known that so I could have packed something else. 

Classes went pretty well again (other than 4th grade) and I played games with my 5th graders all day. Yesterday we went over vocabulary words from last week and then played a spelling game. Today I did a game asking them questions using the words for the first half and then we played hangman for the second half. Fun and educational. My 5th graders actually know the words really well now and can tell me what they mean, how to spell them, and can answer questions about them. Tomorrow I plan on working on how to use them in a sentence. 4th grade was rough again. I tried a new discipline method which didn't work. One boy, Luke, wouldn't stop talking so I tried to have him move seats but he refused to sit next to the two "crazy, stupid" kids so he got to sit on a chair at the front of the class facing the wall instead. While I was trying to teach he wrote something in Chinese on his paper and then turned around and was showing it to the class without me knowing so I took his paper away. Then he wrote it on his hand and was showing it to the class so I took his pen away. Then he just turned around and kept talking in Chinese. Melanie and I both agree on physical punishment as the obvious solution and I'm pretty sure that's actually okay here. Luke (the teacher) is going to sit in on my class for a little bit tomorrow to see if he can help fix the problem.

Apparently Luke told one of the Chinese teachers how disgusting lunch was so when we walked in to dinner we discovered that they had made us chicken nuggets. CHICKEN NUGGETS!!! Too bad we were wrong. They were fish sticks but made of the stench-i-est fish smell I have ever encountered and 2 bites in I abandoned that Fear Factor round. The rest of dinner was really good though so I felt better about it. They made this vegetable mix that we've had twice now and I love it. It's corn, carrots, onions, and chicken. DELICIOUS and healthy!

After dinner half the group took off to go to the night market which I would love to go to but it's raining outside and really really cold so I'm hiding in my room under a few blankets with my back against the heater instead. 

Whelp.. there's my update for the last couple days. I'm alive and well. The food still often tastes like China (dry and tasteless). Everywhere still smells like China (outhouse/port-a-potty). and I'm still in China and happy to be here.

Amanda.