Can't Get Enough!

Students that Stand Out

How cute are they!

Treats =)

Mimes

There is this little old man that mimes eating to me everyday. He wants to know if I am going to eat. I think he is deaf. I mime back that I'm going to sleep because I don't know how else to mime have a rest. Hahha. That's what they call it everyday. Today he mimed more. Now he knows I eat at the school and go home to rest. Oh the nonverbal language is universal =) Love it!

HAHHAHAHAHHAH Nice.

SALT LAKE CITY — The first night in the United States for a family of Japanese tourists ended with the parents being pulled from their rental car at gunpoint with their young son watching after their confusion about American traffic laws set off a high-speed pursuit in southern Utah.

The pursuit began at 1 a.m. Saturday on Interstate 15 near the Utah-Arizona border when the couple's car was spotted going just 37 mph and swerving between lanes, said Lt. Brad Horne, Utah Highway Patrol's DUI unit commander.

More than a dozen patrolmen were working the area in a special DUI operation, and Horne said he figured the car was being driven by a drunken driver. Horne turned on his lights and siren to pull the car over.

Instead of pulling over, the driver sped up to 75 mph and began driving erratically, he said. Her speeds fluctuated between 40 and 75 mph as she weaved across lanes and into the shoulder.

Soon, there were three patrol cars in pursuit with other officers closing highway offramps and setting tire spikes miles ahead, Horne said.

"It was literally red and blue lights in every direction," Horne said.

The couple's car skidded to a stop about 7 miles north of where the pursuit began after three of the tires deflated after hitting the spikes.

A patrolmen bellowed commands from a loudspeaker in his patrol car, telling the couple to exit and walk backward. Both directions of I-15 were closed as officers prepared to encounter hardened criminals.

Instead, a Japanese woman in her early 40s emerged.

"She would walk forward, backward, spin around — obviously she had no clue what we wanted her to do," Horne said.

Still bracing for the worst, officers approached the car with guns drawn and pulled the woman and a man from the car. That's when they saw the couple's 7-year-old son in the backseat and realized the family didn't speak English.

The boy was crying, and the parents appeared nervous and confused, Horne said.

"I think they were terrified," he said.

Realizing they were dealing with language and cultural barriers, and not a drunken driver or fugitive, officers changed their strategy, Horne said. One officer consoled the boy and reunited him with his parents as others worked to get a Japanese-speaking officer on the phone.

They found one in northern Utah who spoke to the couple and learned they had arrived from Japan on Friday morning and rented a car to drive from California to Bryce Canyon in southern Utah.

The woman said she had no idea what she was supposed to do when the patrolman put on his lights and siren, so she sped up to get out of the way. She kept apologizing for crashing the car, not realizing they ran over tire spikes, Horne said. Patrolmen took the family to a motel and wished them safe travels.

Nobody was hurt and no cars damaged other than the flat tires, he said. About a dozen law enforcement officers were involved in some way.

Authorities don't plan to pursue charges.

Horne said the couple didn't have Japanese driver's licenses with them.

Horne said he's encountered many tourists in his three decades working with the Utah Highway Patrol, but he's never seen a situation escalate like this.

"Red and blue lights are a pretty universal signal," Horne said. "Regardless of nationality and language, when we put lights on, people pull over and stop."

Well Horne... In China red and blue lights are everywhere even for decoration. I wouldn't be surprised if in China you should speed up and try to get out of the way. This is exactly what the lady did. Hhahahah poor lady. Horne you need to travel more....

Read more at http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765648590/Confused-Japanese-tourists-trigger-highway-pursuit.html#rPhefrR2IE6AcMxs.99

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~Cierra~

Mornings- They are ROUGH for her! =p

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~Cierra~

Lunches.... Cafeteria Style

My Room

Happy Day

• Did three loads of laundry! Equal to 1.5 American Loads
• Rearranged my room! Now the heater can be drying my clothes since I have a portable closet I moved it in front of the heater. Cleaned a lot! I took out the trash and some of the other girls trash since it was outside their door waiting to go. Made me feel good =)
  
• Now I have counter space- I'll post pictures later.
  
• Saw a student at the store =)
• One of the ladies that works at the store said hi she wanted to practice her English. I was telling Bethany a story and I said it was SO FUNNY! The lad repeated me. It made me laugh. There are 5 of them that follow us in a certain section. They think it's funny. I want to record it.
  
• FOUND SCONES!!!!!! AND Honey!!!!!!
  
• LOVE LOVE LOVE my room!!! Now I can reach the lights from my bed! =) Great day =)
  
• Bethany (friend here) got into BYU today =)
  

China!

Because I have lived in China before I really forgot how funny things are. I just read my friend Garrin's blog and laughed a lot at his experiences.  I realized I need to share more of mine.

I'm thinking tomorrow I will record me walking into some of my classes. It's hilarious to watch what happens next. The baby class has children that are not quite 2. One little boy sees me and jumps out of his chair and come flying towards me. Today I was ready. I grabbed him and lifted him in the air. The other children in the class freaked out and starting talking and pointing. It made me laugh. I continued to carry this little boy. He loves me and does this everyday. However he doesn't pay attention or participate in anything else I do that day. It makes me laugh. It is a site to see so watch FB for the video =)

We found toilet seat covers at the store. So your bum doesn't freeze. It made me laugh.

Let me describe my room to you. First off the floor is made of tile and the walls of cement. This makes it very hard to heat up and it's very cold a majority of the time. I have a huge window with a patio on the far side of my room. I never go out there because it's so dirty and usually cold. I have a student desk as my nightstand. One as a counter and two holding a huge TV that I'm thinking about moving so I'll have more desk space. I am going to rearrange my room soon. My suitcase is sitting on the floor right now. My bed is hard. It literally is a board. Imagine sleeping on that every night.

I have a bathroom in my room. It's dorm style so we share everything else. The bathroom is like ice. The water in the sink is freezing. I have two sinks but the left one is missing the pipes. The shower is tied together with a string. If I turn it on too fast the shower head goes flying off the wall. Half of the water ends up flying out the side and covers almost my entire bathroom with water. Most showers here don't have an enclosed shower. The shower head is mounted on the wall along with the water heater. My bathroom has a stand and a squatter. We do not have Western toilets. Man do I miss the convinces of back home. I truly do wish I could take turns having you here so you could experience this for yourselves.

I don't think most of you can imagine going to a country where you can't speak, read or write. You have to get food for yourself and it's an adventure every time. You struggle to communicate what it is that you're looking for. The people here LOVE us and are very friendly but I wish I could show all of you how life here is =)

Interesting Dining Experience

On our Beijing Itinerary there was a checklist of things to do. One of them was to point at a random item on the menu and order it. I thought no way would I ever do that!

Well we went to the only restaurant we have been ordering food from. I had previously lost the paper the lady we order from wrote down what we like. I was hoping if I went in there and handed her the exact amount she would know what I wanted. I thought I heard her say fan, the word for rice. I was wanting noodles and dumplings. Bethany's meal came out first and I was getting nervous.

She came back and handed me not noodles and dumplings but a mountain of rice with meat and some other stuff. I laughed. An experience I was not wanting now turned into a good one. I know where it is on the menu so I can order it again. It was food we like we ate in Beijing. Thought I should tell you =)

Nanjing- Shelby forgive me for using parts of our email!

I was sick and missed all but 2 of my classes today.  I teach the same 7 everyday.

We went to Nanjing and it was amazing! The branch their is so awesome. We stayed with a nonmember 23 year old girl that goes to church often. She's very sweet. Her and I clicked. I'm about 3 months older than her so we are very close in age. Everyone else is 2-5 years younger than I am. It's really weird.

She was apologizing about the room and I seriously felt like I was in Heaven. The heater worked, there was a small mattress, but none the less a mattress!!! on the bed =), there was a Western toilet, and a nice shower. Oh it was lovely =)

We played games at the branch president's house =) It was so great. I'm thinking about going again this weekend. Ashley didn't seem to mind either way where we choose to stay. She said if we did want to stay with the family, and encouraged us to do so at some point since it's a different experience, then we could still hang out. She's been living in Nanjing for a bit now. She's a past teacher who now lives there and has been there for more than a year. She said she would show us around =) They have an amazing bakery that has donuts! It has other baked goods that are delicious. (PS I found scones at my store! Can't wait to try them!)

I love Nanjing and it helps a ton! I plan on exploring my city a lot more =) I'll let you know what I find!

My life has been changed!

There are these things in China that everyone has. I am considering bringing more of them home cause they simply are amazing. It's a bag you fill with water you just boiled. They stay warm all night. I put it on top of me and get so sleepy because it feels soooo goood!!!

Mine is the least Chinese looking one. The bag is black with pink cherries. Then it comes with a cover. Mine is baby blue with white polka dots. I am most likely going to buy more!

PS

Oh my gosh!!! I had a donut this weekend! 3 for 10 yuan.. which is three for a little over a dollar. It actually tasted very good. That bakery was really good! Oh the comforts of home =)

We found, well were shown, an amazing food place that has lots of restaurants in it in Nanjing.

Nanjing is where church is. It takes us four hours to get there, an hour to get to church, and four hours home. Ya stop complaining haha =P I love Nanjing though =)

Shuangpai vs Yangzhong

So if some of you have been wondering about my city I will post a few things advantages that I can think of.

Shuangpai:
Better Apartments

Easy to get to our friends

I was closer to more people there

Homey feel
Small Town

Cheaper Food

Lots of people who spoke at least a little English

Friends who paid attention to Chinese Culture

Train Station (Though it was far away)

More scenery

More of the real China
Provided us with computers
Less help from the people so more independence of trying to figure things out.
There was always a friend to help you not feel so lonely.

*** Now you have to have a passport to get a train ticket so you can't have someone get them for you if you won't be there to pick it up with your passport.****

It was 1 dollar to 7 yuan

Yangzhong:

Bigger City
Offices at the school though I have yet used my computer there.
More Access to things we need or want

Better Liaison to get things done

More English Speakers

More money for food (Food is more here though)

Kindergarten is the best!
Nicer trains and buses when traveling.

Although Shuangpai had mold I feel the apartments were much better. I am missing good old Shuangpai and Hunan. I LOVED the people of Hunan.

The Chinese people are still very helpful, curious, and happy =) I will learn to love this city I just need to go explore much much more.

Blossoms and Scenery

The Purple Mountain

Nanjing!

Nanjing is a bit more Western with a lot of university students. There are quite a few white people. Sadly they don't get excited to see you and say hi. They just look at you like you're a weirdo. haha =p

Nanjing has subways. I think there are two lines. Once we arrive it takes us an hour to get to any of the families houses we can stay at by subway. So it takes us an hour to get to church as well. There are a few families that have offered to let us stay with them. I stayed with Ashley, who is a past China Horizons teacher who has her own contract.

There are at least three of them near Nanjing who did that. There was another guy named Russell (My last liaisons name hahahaha) who was from South Africa. He had an interesting accent. He lived in London for two years as well.

Ashley apologized to Bethany and I for the rooms not being that nice. We were like are you kidding!?!?! It was heavenly compared to what we have now. There was padding on the bed so it wasn't so hard, they had a very good working heater, wood floors instead of tile so it wasn't too cold, a much better shower than I have, and a Western toilet. Wow! It was really nice. She had her room decorated really nicely. It was great!!

There is so much to talk about that I can't do it all.

The church is one floor of a hotel they rent out. It is really nice. I'd say it reminded me of the temple there was a chandler, really nice bathrooms. (Oh Ashley provided shampoo and all the things we needed) There were around 50 people at church. It was crazy to gather than many white people that were members for church. Nothing like I had ever done on a regular basis in China the first time. The virtual (Skype) branch is still here. I listened in on that last week. I don't feel like it's worth to go to church just on Sunday i feel you should go early and see people. That was nice.

 The night before everyone was really tired but we all went over to the branch presidents house. They watched Frozen and played games. I helped him and his wife make caramel popcorn and pass it out. I had a headache so I went and laid on the floor for the move. it was so fun to have everyone gathered. They are so nice. They have two boys on missions and in July they will have 3. They have three kids  that moved with them in China. They have only been here for a few months. Their oldest son moved his senior year, then their daughter is 16ish and their youngest is 14ish I'm not sure...  I had a wonderful time and really didn't want to come home.

KTV The Beach

KTV Transformers

KTV

What is KTV you might ask. Well it's Karaoke TV. The Chinese are serious about this! It's all over China. I posted pictures below. Each room has a theme. We got Transformers and The Beach. The beach room is where I hung out. It was really cold in our room and really hot in the other room. They have all sorts of songs: old ones, new ones, Korean ones, Chinese ones, and English ones. 

The transformers room people would go up in front of everyone and do a performance type thing. I HATE That! In our room there were more shy people and everyone kind of sang alone and it was a nice relaxing feeling. Shelby: This was much much better! It was fun. We actually stayed for 5 hours! Woah! It as 20 yuan each which is a little over 3 dollars. We had a big group. The rooms were really cool. It's a newer place in Nanjing. I really really like Nanjing.

Weekend Trip

We are headed to Nanjing this weekend. I have one more class to teach then we are leaving. It's a 2 hour bus ride then an hour on the subway. This is one of the shorter trips we will take. We are staying with a past China Horizons teacher. I still need to write about my classes. Write me and let me know if there's something you think I should write about. Talk to you all later!

Thought you should know

The walk to my school is 10 to 15 minutes each way. I got to school in the morning, come home at lunch, walk back about 2:15, then home again at 4:00pm. That's just part of my daily things that I do.

Today I calculated that I do 40-50 flights of stairs a DAY! That's 450 to 500 stairs each day. Whenever I want to leave it's 4 flights down the stairs and 4 flights back up.

We have squatters in our apartments. Each time we have to go to the bathroom we have to squat. Let's just say I have gotten very fast at using the bathroom. Not to mention it's the coldest room in my apartment.

Just going to school and out to dinner is about 1-2 hours of walking. If we go to the store it's more than that. I'm not eating as much and when I do it's much healthier. I have already gone down almost two belt loops and that's with wearing long johns underneath.. Wowza!

I wish I could post the videos I take. Then I could show you!

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~Cierra~

School

I have started teaching. Today was my second day. I was told not till Friday then yesterday at 9:12 I was informed I was supposed to be teaching at 9:00 with it ending at 9:15. It was frustrating for me because i was late to most of the classes and I hate being late. I found them all okay.

I'm fine with teaching. Most of the time I just show up and they tell me what to teach. The first two classes are hard because the teachers don't really help and expect me to know their routines. I know they will get better. I really like the rest of the classes. I go from the youngest kids (3) to the oldest (7-8) which these two classes are actually some of my favorites. The babies class is only 10 minutes.  I just have them come up and act out and move the body of which child is in front of me and just repeat myself over and over again. Jump! Jump! as I pick them up. Today I was tired. I run up and down the stairs all day. I think I have already lost weight. Then at 11 I go eat lunch. I get a 3.5 hour break before coming back to the school =) It's fun! My classes are so short I have an idea of what they want me to teach. The two classes I don't like want me to teach about 4 kinds of flowers for a week. I don't like their workbooks. I don't agree that's how children learn but I will do it because that's what they want me to do.

The first three classes are either recording me the entire time or taking pictures of me all throughout the lesson. It's funny because here in China I could care less. In America I would be super annoyed about it.

As you notice in the pictures below the don't heat the schools. The kids stay in their coats all day. Yesterday it snowed all day. You could see your breath in the classroom. I felt grateful for heating in our school systems. I love the kids but I still wish it was Friday. We are going to Nanjing =) I'm excited!

Students =)

A text I got from a girl I met..

dear cierra i want to change my English name because joy sounds queer. can you give me some lovely, special, and unusual english name? i need you advice

I told her I have a good friend named Joy and I like that name. She said she will think it over. haha

Exhausted

Today was my first day "teaching" I just got introduced to three classes then hung out in my liaison's classroom the rest of the time. Visiting the other classes was weird because some of them they wanted me to talk to the kids. Some wanted the kids to sing to me. One class made all the kids come up and hug me. A few of them literally ran away right after. It was kind of sad. I guess i look like a past teacher so that helps with some of them =)

I really don't teach a lot. I teach from like 9:45 to 10:45 then 2:10 to 3:00ish in the afternoon. My favorite part of the day was going back at 2:10. The kids all have long johns on under their mountain of clothes. The teachers make them take everything off but the long johns. We spent quite a bit of time helping all the students put back all of their layers. Some of the kids want me to help them and keep calling me to them. I taught them, "Teacher help!" haha. One little boy, Oscar, comes up and talks to me all the time though I have no idea what he is saying.

Sitting in my liaisons class for the first hour before I had to teach made me feel very overwhelmed. They learned some poem or something in Chinese. It was hard and I didn't understand anything at all and I couldn't ask questions. They did say Sit Up Straight! and a few other things. I got in trouble (haha) for crossing my legs. My liaison told me not to and said I was setting a bad example for the kids. She was very nice about it though.

Glory (my liaison) gave me and umbrella since it was raining all day and an extra blanket. I went back to the school and had no umbrella at the time. The guards (all the school gates are locked and they have "guards" whose job it is all day is to sit their and open them) felt bad for me so they told me in Chinese to take it and bring it back to them when I came. I am getting very good at figuring out what people are saying. Glory tells me I am very clever when I guess what she wants when she is struggling finding the English words for it.

Later, Bethany and I went to the store. It's a pretty hilarious experience all the time especially when we go upstairs. I need to take a video of it. There are ladies whose job it is to help you find what you need. They follow us around or they just come over to stare at us because they have nothing better to do. People will just stop what they are doing to watch us. It really is funny. I want to take a video to show you. They have these cool escalators that aren't stairs it's like a moving walkway on a tilt so that you can take your shopping cart upstairs. It makes me laugh.

Bethany let me shower in her room It was so much nicer! The water stayed hot longer and it didn't go all over the bathroom. I'm laying in bed with my new blanket feeling warmer already. I'm so happy =)

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~Cierra~

3&3 Bilingual Kindergarten

If you haven't figured out by now from the pictures My School IS AWESOME!!!! If I ever opened a school it would look like this one. My favorite rooms are: The art room, the science room, the game room, the music room, the calligraphy room, and the play room (this has a fire-station, police-station, hotel, hospital, news stand, and airplane in it). It's so sweet!!!! My school is soooo cool! I love it! They have the same teaching philosophies that I do and I so wish I could transport the entire thing back to America. I LOVE it! The apartment not being so nice is worth it to me to be at this school. I am one happy girl =)

Ah Yeah!

More hallway art!

Fwd: Economically Friendly Hallway Art

I found out that my school rents half their building to another school for one year. The other school has more money and has more decorations out in the hallway. I took more than 150 pictures of my school today!

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~Cierra~

Funny Signs

Read the sayings. Then with the baby. It's a Chinese school with only one baby from China on the sign.

What a Week

Wednesday, February, 12^th, 2014

This was travel day. We traveled 8 hours by training to Nanjing. Then we took an hour bus ride to Zhenjiang. Then we took a 45 minute car ride to Yangzhong. It was a long day. We played cards on the train. Spencer, Brad, Charlene, Sierra, and I played Skip Bo I ‘m not good at playing that game. Many of us played Wits and Wagers I really enjoyed being on Spencer’s team. I didn’t think it was as fun playing by myself. I ate a lot of crackers. I wasn’t smart planning food to bring on the train this time.  This picture was of a card game going on in my car. The bottoms were converted into seats and the tops were for our luggage. This was a really nice train. It even had western toilets on it. I totally walked in on an old man because he didn’t lock his door. Great….

Our schools met us in Zhenjiang. We were rushed away from each other so fast we didn’t have time to tell anyone goodbye. Glory (my liaison) and her boyfriend picked me up from the school that we were dropped off at. There was a lot of good conversation on the ride back. She told me that my school was a five hour walk instead of five minutes. I asked what and she caught her mistake and couldn’t stop laughing. She’s 24 and one of the best liaison of the group!!! I love her!

I was asking about her boyfriend’s job and she joked saying he was her driver. She is actually studying to get her license. They have four tests and she’s on the last test. I taught her the word chauffer. I told her it was a fancy word for taxi driver that it’s a driver for rich people. She started calling him that. She thought it was really funny.

Later I texted her perfect and she used it in a conversation we had after and she told me she learned that word from me.

There is a huge fish. If you google Yangzhong, China you will see the balloon fish. I guess it’s a famous food here. This is Glory’s hometown but she says she won’t eat it because if you scratch your neck to much you will get smallpox. That was a new one for me…

Glory had to go to her apartment to get my phone and key. I tried talking to her boyfriend while we waited he said his English was poor and handed me a snickers to eat so I’d stop talking to him. It made me laugh.

We had noodles for dinner. Then her boyfriend picked up my 60-70 pound suitcase and ran up four flights of stairs. I was impressed. I was exhausted but my place was freezing so I didn’t actually sleep a ton.

Thursday, February 13^th, 2014

On the way to the store there is a place that sells flattened pig heads. I’ll have to get a picture. We got cleaning stuff and food. Charlene bought another heater and we decided to sleep in the same room to share body heat. (It worked quite well actually). I called my dad. Kaylee has been letting Addys and I use her computer. She’s so nice!

Friday, February 14, 2014

The other girls have been doing a lot with their liaisons. I haven’t done anything except for that first night. Oh my cord made a pop and a huge flash of light and killed the entire floors power. I blew a fuse. It destroyed my cord. The wires were hanging out (this was yesterday). I was worried because Kaylee paid 600Y or about 100 dollars for a new cord. I don’t have that kind of money on me. I texted Glory and she took me to get a new one. Luckily half of my cord still worked. I got a Chinese plug in though so I’ll have to buy another one in America. It works in the outlets here though. It was 15Y or a little over 2 dollars! I was so relieved!! =) I’m thinking I might go sleep in the other room. It’s not bad if I hold still in here but I’ve been alone almost all night so I just want to hang out. There room is way warm.’

Oh I met an English teacher named Kelly. She was so kind to show me a few restaurants since I have not eaten a real meal since Wednesday night. Now I know where to get food =) Oh she also showed me where we can take our trash. On the way to dinner I saw a paining classroom. Each student had an easel. I want to go see it when I have time and the lights are on. It was cool!

New City

Our apartments were freezing when we got here. The first few days were very rough. It is getting a lot better. The girls bought a heater and almost all of us slept in one room last night because it was much warmer sharing our body heat. 

We also went to the store and bought cleaning supplies and some food. Today I am going to try and find a computer cord to charge my computer. It's dead. Kaylee is being great and letting me use hers. 

The store is not too far of a walk. I need to find out how to get to my school from the school we are living at. School starts Monday. I am so glad because sitting in our apartments can be very boring. Gotta go!

Fwd: =) SOO MUCH FUN!!!!!

=) SOO MUCH FUN!!!!!

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~Cierra~

Fwd: A few more

Fwd: A few more

Fwd: This is for you Mom

This is for you mom

Fwd: Beijing Zoo

Pandas!

The Great Wall

I did the lift up and the toboggan down and I had such a great time! It was really fun =)

Acrobat Show Stage

Sorry guys I really need to move pictures from my camera to my computer!

Forbidden City and one at the Temple of Heaven

Friday

Friday, February 7^th

Today I woke up at 6:35 am on my own. I had the hotel give us a call in the morning to wake us up. I decided that since I felt awake I’d get up and read my scriptures. It was really good and I did have a bit better day. I really enjoyed that. We then had training till lunch. Spencer explained the Amazing Race Beijing that we were going to do and I knew I had an hour after lunch. It snowed and covered everything then lightly misted all day. After lunch, I stayed with Tawny and watched Josh play in the snow. Tawny was asking me lots of questions about my life and I pretty much told her my life story.

We got back and did the race. We had three places to go in three hours and a picture scavenger hunt. The mentors got put in a group together. Ben pretty much led us and got lost a lot. We walked a ton more than we needed to and couldn’t find half the stuff. The one thing we found is because Clement told us where to go even though he wasn’t supposed to. We spent an hour looking for his travel agency. We made it back in a little over three hours. Spencer told us if we weren’t done in three hours to come back.  I was super frustrated because walking fast makes my legs hurt really badly and give me shin splints. Ben and Sabrae were walking so fast. Every once in a while they would stop and wait. I was very annoyed because I walked alone for three hours. They would even get farther ahead in the subways and not wait. I felt it was super rude of them. It was frustrating. This could have been fun.

I came back and went to the bank with Whitney and Chelsea. I really like Whitney. I love that I can be honest with them. She wanted McDonalds for dinner and that was fine with me so we went again. I got an apple pie because she was going to and it was AMAZING!!!! Soooo good! I’m exhausted. I’ll add pictures later.

Tues and Weds

Tuesday, February 4^th

Today we got up early to do Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We were also switching hotels. They didn’t have our rooms ready for use so we left all of our stuff in the lobby and they put a giant yellow net over it. (They messed up all the assigned rooms). Then we left for the day. We were confused as to where to go in the Tiananmen Square because there weren’t many places to go. The line for the Mao Museum was super long. Will, Abby, and I (they are married) ended up crossing the street and going in shops. We went there mainly because it was warm. Abby bought a hat because it was freezing and she didn’t have one.

We were supposed to go to the National Museum but the line was very long. We skipped it and went straight to the Forbidden City. One girl had to go the bathroom really bad and asked Spencer what could she do. He told her she had to wait. She said, “Well what if I can’t?” Spencer just laughed and said, “Well, I don’t know what to tell you.” Later we were walking and they told us we had to take a picture first and she literally shoved me! Rude.

We finished more than most people in our group. Spencer went home to work and Brad was the next one done. After the Forbidden City a group went up to a park and Saebra and I lead the rest of the group, with Neo’s help, back to the Hotel.

We had a group dinner and an Awesome Acrobat show! I loved it as always. They added 3 more motorcycles to the thing at the end. I can’t figure out which guy is crazier the first one or the last one.

Wednesday, February, 5^th

Today was super chill. I didn’t wake up early (well I did, I woke up on my own) but I didn’t want to go to the Olympic Park. My legs hurt extremely bad so all the free time I can get I relax in the room and just kind of hang out. I have been going to bed on time.

Then we had an amazing training by Brad. For the first time I finally understand the numbers. He taught us all in Chinese and we sang a song. It was really fun and I guess the video was really good. I still haven’t seen it! Dang. He’s a good teacher.

We had another group dinner then went to this shopping street. We found out about a festival and tried to go but then it closed at 5pm =(

The last few days Bethany has come over when she got locked out. We walked down a shopping street together. I didn’t want to buy anything. She was looking around more. We went in this hat and shirt shop and she asked about a hat. The shop guy was like a college student and said wu shir kuai. Bethany said what is that? “50?” He said yes 50 and proved that he had very good English. We said we’d come back and left.

I found a place that sold cotton candy. I really wanted some so I got it! It was huge!!! I should have taken a picture but it was cold and I didn’t want to.

We ended up going back to the shop and I found a really cool shirt that says I love Beijing with the characters. I found out this guy helped design the clothes and has his own company. The shirt is really good quality. It has a huge heart and has all the love languages on it. It’s black and makes me look good.

Bethany bought a necklace and Spencer and Brad bought some really cool looking Buddahs. It was a good day.

Oh and now I’m roomed with Velancy who is Savannah from last times little sister. 

Oh Internet =(

My adapter is not working in my room. It worked at the last place. The internet takes forever to log onto. Sorry guys! Once I'm able to charge my laptop I'll upload some of the pictures I'm taking.

It's freezing here!!!!! This was when my laptop died awhile ago. I'll just copy and paste some of my journal I have been keeping on here then post some pictures. This is the best the internet has worked so far and I'm sooooo grateful for it!

Monday, February 3^rd

It was kind of hard finding Jacob at the SLC airport. 

Our first flight went great. I talked to Mo about the Mitchells and other things in our life. She’s down to Earth and has traveled a lot.

The second flight I took Ambien on and was asleep before we had finished inclining. I was only awake less than 2 of the 13 hours. The people I was with were amazed. I slept through the whole first meal; they moved my head to close the window, and I also slept through the flight attendants passing out the arrival cards. I had a middle seat but because I wanted to sleep Ben and Mo let me move to the window. That was great! =)

Everything after that at the airport went really smoothly. We found Spencer and the other half of the group and found out that Kaylee’s bags got lost since her flight got delayed. (It finally showed up on Thursday).

We got on the bus and got told that the hotel we were staying at messed up our rooms and so we were going to another hotel for just one day. I got roomed with Molly. When we got to the hotel Molly found out that she left her brand new camera at her sister’s house and didn’t want to go out to eat. We were given 15 Yuan for breakfast. I went down to try and find Spencer to tell him and by the time they were about to figure it out Brad came.

This trip to China has been crazy busy so far. I couldn’t figure out how to get my laptop or my camera to charge. My camera made it three days on the very last bar. Dang! It was crazy! This trip has been hard so far I am not super close to anyone in the group. We have done a lot of really cool things though. Spencer is leading the group. He’s married to Tawny and they have a three year old little boy named Josh. He just turned three. Brad is a teacher who served a Chinese speaking mission in CA and came with China Horizons a year after I did. He is doing part of the training for use because since then he has stayed here in China. He has his degree from BYU in geography. He’s probably the one I like hanging out with the best.

Brad brought a high school student, Neo, with him. I asked if I could join them for breakfast because I knew they would be getting some good food. I was in a long sleeve and Brad wanted to know if I needed another jacket I said no but I could go get one if that would make him feel more comfortable. He said it would so I went and got one.

We ordered xiao long bao. It is like a breaded dumpling with soup in the middle. These ones were made different and with less soup. I had Brad order for me. On the way back he was asking if I had any other jackets. He was worried about me.

Later we went to the bank but it was still closed because of holiday. (It’s now Sat. and I still haven’t been to the bank). The first group lunch we had was amazing! The food was sooo good!!!! Then we went to the temple of heaven. I went with Will and Abby. We didn’t take our tickets but couldn’t get into the main part because you had to pay extra (though the tickets worked). It was so huge we walked all over. It was really cool.

Dinner was supposed to be with the mentors but it was super cold. I knew if I went back to the hotel then I wouldn’t go get food. Spencer, Tawny, and Brad were going out to eat and invited us so Whitney, Chelsea, and I joined them. We went to a Muslim fried noodle place where they had pulled noodles. Those were good but the sauce it had on it wasn’t. It was a super long day!

Hello From Beijing

Hey everyone! Well our first experience in China was very Chinese. The hotel messed up the dates that we were supposed to stay there so we had to go to another one. We are now at the hotel that we were supposed to be at. There is wifi but only in the lobby. Right now only my email is working. So sorry everyone I hope that things are well...

I am extremely exhausted. I was able to sleep about all but 2 hours on the flight over. I slept through the first meal. I was asleep as the plane was still inclining. They had to move my head to close the window. I thought that was funny.

We have walk a TON!!!! My feet are killing me! We went to the temple of heaven, Tienanmen Square, and the Forbidden City. Tonight we get to eat dinner and go to the acrobat show. I'm so grateful that we are going to be sitting.

Also, SURPRISE the beds at this hotel are soft. What a miracle! =) 

--

~Cierra~

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LAX Group!

Hahhahaha Love this one!!!