Blog Comments

Thanks for commenting on my blog :) It makes me happy!! If I don't reply back its not because I am ignoring you... I am just not able!! Also, I wish I could comment on everyone elses blogs but I can't do that either! I love you all, unfortunately China has too many rules ;)

The Little Rascalls

First, I hope you noticed the amazement of my blog having pictures :D My room-mate is a genius and she is my favorite person at the moment :D

Since I am able to put photos on I wanted to show pictures of all my cute kids I teach! They are all crazy and wild but yet we love them!! I teach three different groups of 8 everyday for 3 hours straight! Its pretty exhausting when we are done, but when we go to lunch and they all yell Teacher, Teacher! It makes you happy that you teach them and you remember that you Love them!! :D

My crazy homeroom! I have 8 kids in my homeroom and they are all wild!! They were all happy when I pulled the camera out, but by the time I took the picture I think they were bored!

Kitty!! The most stylish 6 year old! Everyday she has on the cutest outfits!

The kids love to pretend fight- this would be them in action about ready to attack me

Charlie is one of my trouble makers!! He gets this evil look on his face and starts yelling at you in chinese whenever you ask him to do something! But then at times he can be really cute! He misses his mom a lot- so I think thats why he is always acting up
I love all the kids and it is hard to see that some of them stay here all week without their parents! Next week we get to start helping put them to bed, I'm really excited!

The One and Only.... GUILIN!! :)

Last weekend we took our first big trip to Yangshuo, Guilin!! Doctor Seuss town, we felt like we were in the movie Horton Hears a Who!! :D Guilin is 13 hours from our school so we got to take a sleeper bus!! I felt just like Harry Potter on the Night Bus!! Especially since the drivers here are CRAZY!! I would not have been surprised if we snuck between two other buses as tight as in the movie! The bus ride was fun, they had bunk beds in the bus, so we had a big sleepover party!

We arrived to our hostel at 4 in the morning- we get off the bus and it looks like this creepy old rundown street, our hostel is across from the voodoo bar and down a dark scary alley way! I was surprised by our hostel- it was really nice, we had nice rooms for just us four girls with our own bathroom and shower, definitely not what I was expecting!
We had such an adventure in Guilin! The first day we got to rent motor scooters!! :D Yipee!!

It was the highlight of the trip- we got them all day to just tour around the city. The city we live in is really nice and isolated so it was fun to tour around on the scooters and see REAL China! People out working in the rice fields, walking the cows down the street, old run down houses- it was neat to see but made you really appreciate America! A few of us were able to go on a hike to Moon Hill! It’s like an Arch at Arches National Park. I think we walked about 893 stairs to the top- and it was completely worth it! The view over the city and the mountains was Amazing!! We also go to go into a cave and PLAY IN THE MUD!! To get in the cave we took a little boat- which felt just like Pirates of the Caribbean. The cave was a lot like Minnetonka’s but we actually got to climb to the top of one of the formations and they didn’t care if you touched the stalactites or not. The Mud was the best! It was like High School Mud Olympics all over again, except you couldn’t throw the mud which was kind of a bummer. There was a slide that went down into the mud-which was fun but hurt a little more than expected! Sliding down was great, but landing on the rocks and mud didn’t feel to great!
We also got to take a ride on a bamboo raft

It was so fun!! 
I loved our vacation and can’t wait for the next one!!

Link To Pictures@

Whoops I forgot the link!! :) Here it is and hope it works! http://s1008.photobucket.com/albums/af204/DebbieGale/The%20One%20and%20Only%20China%20Debbie%20Stauffer/

Pictures!!

So China had decided they are funny and won't allow me to post pictures anywhere!!! But I have figured a way around all of this!! :) Photo Bucket!! I am able to post all my pictures on there and give the link- then you can go view them!! :) Let me know if the link works or not. Once you use the link it should take you right to the pictures and if you click on one to make it bigger then you can view them all that way!! We have been having fun and luckily everyone in my group loves to take pictures too!!! Hope this works and you enjoy them!!! Love you all!!

Satan Makes Chinas Tires

The city I am in is Zhongshan China and it’s Gorgeous! We are only 1 hour from the beach so we are in a very tropical area, I love how beautiful it is here… the humidity- not so much!! The first 2 and ½ weeks here were almost miserably hot… which is bad because it’s only going to get worse! Mold is everywhere! It already started growing on my backpack… it may have to do with the fact we had no AC at first so in our room everything was wet. My school is really nice- most of the students live at the school and so do most of the teachers. So when we were little and thought our teachers never left the school… it’s true here in China! Teaching is much more difficult than any of us imagined- It has gotten better and once we understand the teaching method better it shouldn’t be as crazy! The kids are cute but WILD! You lose their attention for 1 second and the class becomes a jungle! It can be exhausting but then it’s all worth it when you see the kids later and they run up to you yelling teacher teacher! We hopefully will get to go over at night and help tuck them in, which will be fun because they don’t have their moms here to be with them.
I was officially called to be our branch’s Relief Society Coordinator, the ILP teachers have permission to have a group connected to the branch 3 hours away. So we have a Group Leader and Relief Society Coordinator. We have church in our rooms and we are able to bless the sacrament. Last Sunday I was asked to go to the branch so I could be set apart- and we decided Satan did not want us to go! My room mate Andrea and I went into town to buy bus tickets- it was our first time in town so we did not know the area and on our way back to the school the bus blows a tire!! Nobody on the bus spoke English and we had no idea where we were!! Andrea and I both felt like hiding in a corner but we didn’t feel that would really get us back to our dorms!! Luckily we had our coordinator, Vivi’s, phone number and we were able to borrow a girls phone so we had Vivi tell the girl to make sure we got on the right bus back to the school- so then even though we couldn’t communicate she stayed with us and got us on our bus! Then Sunday heading to church we are in skirts, sandals and short sleeves and for the first time we are here… it decides to rain!! Then our shuttle came late which made us almost miss our bus… We just don’t have good luck!! But the bus ride into ShenZhen where the branch is was Beautiful, so we were happy. We get off the bus and there is a man that motions that he can take us to the address of the church… so we follow him thinking he is a taxi driver! NO! he is trying to just take us in his car!! Then when we said no he tried grabbing our arms… luckily there are guards everywhere in China so we just ran to them till we got a real taxi!! Well in all our luck… the taxi half way there got a flat tire, by this point we all just sat in the taxi laughing our heads off!! The taxi driver was upset, and then got lost so when we got to the church he undid my seatbelt to help me get out faster!!! Church was all worth it though, it’s in a home that’s very big, especially for China. Sacrament was in the living room and it was fast and testimony meeting so it was a good experience. It was fun to go to church in China with all these other foreigners who have to travel 2 or 3 hours just to attend church. All of the branch members are really nice and it was fun to meet them!! Our branch president works for Walmart so he said he would send some Macaroni and Cheese our way!! :D

My Trip To Hong Kong

I have officially decided I am not a good blogger!! I keep putting it off and now I have SO MUCH to write! It doesn’t help that we only have on computer working at the school right now either, so I have borrowed a laptop and I will now Blog and be a better blogger  I wish I could put pictures because I’m not good at writing and everything I have to say would be so much cooler with pictures!! When we came into China we flew into Hong Kong which was SO BEAUTIFUL!! I don’t know what I expected China to look like but it’s not what we flew into! The island the airport is on is so tropical and green and clean! We felt like we were in Hawaii. The island our hotel was on was more what we pictured Hong Kong to be. Buildings EVERYWHERE and they just go up. Our hotel was not far down from the temple it was right on the street crammed in like everything else, but it was really nice! Its funny how the street works, no spaces between buildings and walking down the street you would see a dumpling shop, car wash, hotel, 7 eleven and pet shop right next to each other- it makes life very convenient. Our hotel had the cute bell boys in the typical outfits that took our luggage up and opened the door for us every time!!  We instantly found a bakery down the street that we fell in love with- especially the fact that for a couple dollars you could get 4 or 5 delicious treats!! We were able to visit some neat places while in Hong Kong- we went over to Victorias Peak which is a view of Hong Kong and the Harbor on the way we got to see Jackie Chans house!! I liked that! At night they do a light show on the harbor… which really wasn’t that cool but sitting on the edge of the ocean at night across from all the lights was cool! We got to go shopping at Ladys Street and try out our bartering skills which we all need to work on! I got a cute Strawberry Shortcake watch that all my kids Love! We took a little boat ride and saw all the fishermens boats. My favorite part of the trip was getting to do baptisms in the Hong Kong Temple! Just getting to the Temple was an adventure! We had a big group and for some reason everyone got taxis before me and three other girls- so we are out on the street at night trying to get a taxi to the temple which we don’t even know the exact address of just the street names! Well we got our first taxi and luckily we didn’t let him leave before we knew he could get us there… and he had no idea where we were going- he tried looking at maps but it was a failure, so we tried for another one and he speaks no English! So again no luck… By the time we are getting our third taxi we have gathered a group of people on the street trying to help us get one, the third taxi again had no idea he was calling people but no- so finally we decided to be smart and have our bus boys wright it in Chinese and of course this gets us right to the temple! It is a beautiful temple- very small! The dressing room is about the size of a normal bathroom with a small shower, changing room and some lockers but it works perfect for them. We met some elders a few from Utah- one was Elder Lockworth who either served with Clint Waddoups or just knew him. We were able to do baptisms with a youth group and it was a very neat experience! When we left Hong Kong we were all ready to get to our school- I was even more excited for the way we were getting to our school!! We got to take a ferry to Mainland!! It was fun  I like boats a lot! It kinda made use all sea sick but it was worth it!! I loved being able to visit Hong Kong but I’m very happy to be in mainland China and in my city where I don’t feel so claustrophobic