My Kindgergarten/Home for 5 months!

Welcome to where I spent time teaching for almost 5 months! This is our cute kindergarten!

To the side of the school was an area full of random statues and animals... I am not sure what they were there for... but we enjoyed taking pictures by them!!


I think it was supposed to be educational... they had lots of different worlds-here I am with my hands on my two favorite places!! :)


The rest was pretty random, but cute!!




Our school had a whole courtyard of ping pong tables. It was amazing, after dinner they would fill up with all the students! I loved to go play with them, even though most of the students could usually take me!

If you have seen the Karate kid, you will have seen their playground/exercise equipment! It is exactly what they have at all the parks and schools :) It is really fun to play on!


I loved my school; the children were adorable, the teachers were amazing and it was always fun to be at!

Lions and Tigers and... Pandas?!

Guangzhou China is home to the most AMAZING Animal Park I have ever been to in my life!!! :) I Love animals, so I really enjoy zoo's... this one tops them all off!
One of the first things we see coming into the zoo are BABY TIGERS! Now I was pretty happy about this, they were so adorable, I wanted my own. Then we find out, not only did we get to see them but we could HOLD THEM!!! :) :)

We each got time to hold and pet the tiger while feeding it- it was so precious to have its little paws on my hand trying to get more milk! I fell in Love!

It is too bad they have to grow up and be scary... even though they are still gorgeous as they get bigger


Growing up, along with being obsessed with dolphins, I loved Monkeys- so I really enjoyed seeing all the different monkeys at the zoo. They had the cutest baby monkeys which had so much area and had fun running around everywhere!


Here is us joining in on all the monkey fun!



Our Head Teacher Tiffany LOVES Giraffes, so we had fun going to see them with her :) I think it made her whole trip to China!


Another amazing part of this zoo was the ELEPHANTS :) They actually had one elephant you could take a ride on!!! So yes, we did ride elephants!


Amanda and I took a nice little stroll on our elephant... actually it was pretty bumpy :) We went on a trail that eventually took us down into a little pool!


My favorite animals in this zoo were the white tigers! They are the most beautiful and graceful animals I have ever seen! I stayed watching them for a long time, completely content with life!


I got really lucky and was able to be at the very front when they started the feedings! They first would hang a piece of meat over a pool of water- as the tigers would jump for the meat they would grab it in mid air and go splashing into the water! It was so much fun to watch!


I also had fun watching when they put the meat at the top of the pole for the tigers to climb up to! It was so impressive! :) I was able to catch a piece of it on camera!



And of course... Last but not least :) We saw PANDAS!!! They are not the most exciting animals, but they are so cute and fluffy I just loved them. It was really fun to see them while living in China, that made it even more wonderful!!


This was a very happy day in my life!

Because I knew you... I have been changed for good!

—John 15:12-13 “This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends..."
For most of my life I have been blessed with two best friends-Michelle and Kristal. Throughout Junior High and High School we were inseperable, we played every weekend, doubled on almost every single date, laughed together, cried together and were there for each other throughout everything. In January Kristal left to attend BYU Hawaii, this was the first time the three of us were apart and not much later it was my turn to leave. I have always had my friends with me, so there were times that were difficult with out them! Luckily while in China I made two friends, Tina and Mandy, who were the Best Friends anyone could ask for while living away in another country.
They also had left their families, moved into my same dorms to be English teachers at my school! We were able to make each other feel at home as best as possible! They helped me learn Chinese as I helped them improve their English, they fed me food all the time, and invited me over all the time to laugh and joke like I would with my friends at home!

I have never been more thankful for two people in my life! These two girls helped introduce me to the culture and made living away from home in another culture much easier than expected! I am thankful for these two everyday and for the friendship they gave me, the compassion they showed me and for how much they helped me grow!
It was difficult to watch them struggle in life and yearn for something more when I knew something they didn't- I had exactly what they were missing, i have the Gospel and I really hope to share it with them someday!

Chicken...Mmmmm Chicken Feet....Hmmm

School lunch was always an interesting experience in China! Every meal was served which rice... which I Loved along with what we called "mystery meat" We usually had no idea what we were eating and I was happy that way. When I did ask I usually got answers like intestines, pigs ear, skin... the good stuff :s

I usually had something I liked each day, the scary food days were when the chicken feet were pulled out! It wasn't until about half way through the semester we got brave enough to eat them!

It took a lot of preparation physically and mentally :)

They really weren't too bad... it was more the idea! I had a hard time realizing I was sucking on CHICKEN FEET :) I felt pretty proud of myself though, before coming to China i had a difficult time trying anything weird and by the time I left China I would eat anything!!

If was definitely something we had to try before leaving China and I am glad we did :)

"Those Who Teach Children, Learn More Than They Do"

Before leaving for China, during training, we were told "If you do not have a good teaching experience, you will not have a good foreign experience" This was completely true with every teacher. I LOVED my children, everyday I was happy to get up and see them- Children are always happy, loving and forgiving. The 3 hours I spent with them were the craziest, but happiest hours of my day! My class consisted of twenty five naughty, crazy, loud, amazing adorable 5 year olds!

“The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn.”
Each child I taught had an impact on me and after 5 months with them everyday-they changed my life. I learned patience, a love for different cultures, how to just laugh and many more lessons. I tear up every time I look at pictures or watch videos of my kids- they are the loves of my life
I had a home room which consisted of 8 children!

James, Kitty, Minnie, LeBron, Charlie, Hall, Bella and George. They were all so intelligent- I could hold conversations with most of them and they LOVED to tease me! We gave strikes for naughty behavior and they loved to steal them and give them all to me :) We had fun in our class and several crazy moments!


Doesn't that just make you want to smile?!
Several of the students lived at the school all weekend long, it was fun for us, because we would see them during play time, at all the meals and around school. However, it was difficult on the children. There was one room off the class room full of beds. The children that stayed all week had a nice stable bed with a mosquito net and then there were beds for the other children during nap time. We were able to go over at night a few different times and put them to bed- it was difficult to see them acting so grown up, getting ready by themselves at a young age! I loved giving them goodnight kisses, it always made them so happy!!

Toward the end of the semester, our children picked up on something they thought was hilarious!! Anytime we asked them a question- no matter what we asked the answer was always "Eat The Teacher!!!!" I have no idea where this came from-but it made me giggle!

The little boy James on the right with Glasses was my absolute favorite!!! I love him so much!
One of my favorite things to do at the end of class was pull my camera out! These children are experts at silly faces- they make me laugh everytime!!






I love these children and will never forget them :) Their smiles will always make me smile!

I See You Like to Chew. Then Perhaps You Should Chew... On My Fist

One of the promises of going to teach through the ILP program is that you will be offered Chinese Nights... which can be anything from karaoke to calligraphy. One of my favorite "Chinese Nights" was Dumpling Night!
After coming back from Beijing several people started to get "trunky" it almost felt like it was time to go home even though we still had another month left! Dumpling Night came at a perfect time- we were able to get together with everyone and have our foreign coordinators Vivi and Gloria teach us their mad cooking skills :)


I love all my friends I spent 5 months with in China!! :) They all knew how to make every situation fun, we spent the rest of the night of course eating our creations and enjoying each others friendship! I love the quote "Every person is a new door to a different world" it definitely has a double meaning here! Each person in my group made my China experience, together we all had something to offer and we made a great team!



After we finished cooking and we were hanging around we had a bug attack!! The bugs in China were pretty big and scary! they also were good at attacking you, i had several dive bomb me! :) we were able to get on a camera a nice freak out by all of us over 1 nasty bug!!

I love looking back on all my experiences and remembering the fun times we had. There is something about being away from the world we know that really teaches you about yourself and draws you close to those around you.
"Friends are the most important ingredient in this recipe of life."