Yangshuo: The Beautiful Surprise in the Mountains

Hey everyone! So I just got back from my vacation in Yangshuo, and I have to say that it was pretty awesome. I saw gorgeous views, tasted some great food, bought awesome souvenirs and had some fun conversations with other travelers. All in all, a successful vacation.

Aren't these mountains just incredible? 

Yangshuo is where the Dr Suess Mountains are located. I thought that it would be like Zhangjiajie,
where you go to a national park and then you're in the mountains. But Yangshuo is practically in the middle of the mountains. You look around and you're surrounded by these mountains on every end, and there are even a couple of large hills within the town. It's really cool! The hostel that I was staying in had a roof that you could go on and look out over the city. It was really amazing to see it at night, with some lights and the mountains in the background made it look especially beautiful.

Yangshuo is kind of a tourist town. We did go there on a holiday, so there were a ton of people. We saw a lot more foreigners (meaning white people), which was a nice change. But we still got asked to be in pictures. It was fun to do a bunch of touristy things because when I'm in Zhongshan, I don't feel like a tourist, especially since I've been living there for almost two months. But when I'm on vacation, I'm totally a tourist and it's a blast to walk around and take pictures of everything.

Me eating a sweet potato cake thingy. So good! 

So, food. Yangshuo had a lot of Chinese restaurants of course, but there were a lot of other options as well. We saw a bunch of western style restaurants, some of them even being run by Americans. We even met a guy from Missouri who co-owned a restaurant with his Chinese friend. He comes out to China on the holidays and sells hotdogs. It's kind of a genius idea because it appeals to the westerners for something familiar and to the Asian tourists for something different. My favorite things to eat actually came from vendors. I ate this Taiwanese burrito that tasted fantastic. I also had this strange sweet potato cake thing on a stick from another vendor that was surprisingly good. My favorite restaurant was this Indian restaurant that had amazing curry.

On Friday, I drove around on a moped throughout town and through the mountains. I got to see the mountains and the outskirts of town, which was interesting. Riding the moped was both fun and terrifying since the thing was pretty big and a little hard to maneuver, but I got the hang of it after a while. I can now say that I've driven in Chinese traffic and survived.

Mud Caves!! 

Saturday, we went on a bamboo raft down part of the Yulong river. It was pretty fun and the guy let us have a turn at steering the raft, though it probably worked in his favor since he got a break. It was harder than you'd think, but we got pretty good at it. After the river, we went up to this cave that had some pretty cool rock formations. The cave was pretty old since a lot of the stalactites and stalagmites had reached each other into one big column. At the end of the cave there was this thing called a mud bath, where you could go and basically swim around in this giant mud puddle. It was the coolest thing! We got covered, especially when we got into a mud fight with this other group of Chinese people. After the mud bath, we rinsed off and went into these hot springs which felt wonderful.

On Sunday, we went to Xin Ping, which is this little village about 45 minutes away from Yangshuo. It's by the Li River. Now this river is huge and even had a large island in the middle of it. We walked along the river and got some beautiful pictures. We got to see the mountains that are drawn on the 20 kwai bill, which was pretty cool.

Me out on Walking Street

Besides all of the sightseeing, another fun thing about Yangshuo is the shopping and the bargaining. They have an entire street called Walking Street that's full of vendors trying to get you to buy their stuff, and they have everything from clothes to jewelry to food to tea to little wire figurines. It's also very fun to bargain with people. Bargaining is very much a part of Chinese culture, so they kind of expect it, though they get surprised when Americans can bargain. There was this one point when I was eyeing this gorgeous little vase. The guy and I started bargaining, using what little English he knew and what little Chinese I knew. After a bit, more people started to gather around me as I'm working out a price with this guy. I think they were surprised that a foreign white girl knew how to bargain. It was pretty funny.

So yes, If you're ever in China, I do recommend going to Yangshuo. There's something there for everybody and I guarantee that you'll have a blast. I know I did. Well that's it for now. Until later, folks!

A Few Thoughts on China

Hey guys, this post is a bit short, since not too much has happened since our vacation. We've just been teaching the kids and developing our teaching more. We just had a visit from a higher-up from ILP, to check and see how we're doing. According to him and our principals, we're doing well in teaching, which is good to know. So now, I'm going to talk about some things I noticed about China.

Traffic in China is pretty crazy. No one really pays attention to traffic rules, and yet there aren't
many crashes or accidents. That's mainly because even though people don't really follow traffic rules, they're hyper aware of everything that's going on around them. So if a car suddenly pulls in front of truck, the truck can usually avoid a collision because the driver is aware of the car and has quick reflexes. Also pedestrians will just walk everywhere and anytime. I've become an expert jaywalker. It seems like the only traffic rule they follow are the traffic lights. But they don't have stop signs and people just honk whenever they're turning or if someone's in the way. It's crazy.

Biking! 

Last weekend, we went biking with some teachers in these gorgeous hills. The trails were really fun and it was great to spend some time with our fellow teachers. It was also full of people riding bikes. The Chinese ride bikes more or less like they drive: you stay aware of everyone around you, and you keep moving forward, which are about the only two rules. So yeah, pretty crazy. It was still a lot of fun and, of course, people wanted pictures with us.

Something that I've been thinking about is that despite the fact that I'm in a very different part of the world with a culture very different from my own, I can't help but notice the normalness of it. Even though these people do things differently from me, they're still people with their own likes, dislikes and quirks. I mean, I've had some hilarious conversations about boys and dating with some native teachers. Even though we come from completely different places, we can still bond and have fun.

Our little get-together for Women's Day back in March

I think that sometimes we get hung up on the whole "cultural differences" thing and we don't really appreciate the fact that we're not so different. We still laugh at funny situations, we get embarrassed, we feel awkward sometimes, and we go through our lives hoping that we can contribute something to this world. Forgive me for sounding sappy but I think if we remembered that more and focused less on the things that are different, we could solve a lot of potential problems. I'm not saying that we should be ignorant of cultural differences (it's good to know about them to avoid potential misunderstandings); I just think that's not the only thing we should focus on when living in a different country. We should be seeing how we are similar to people in different countries, and how we can relate to them.

Well, that's all I've got at the moment. We're leaving for vacation in Yangshuo this week, which should be really fun. Until later, folks!

Zhangjiajie!! My Crazy Adventures in the Avatar Mountains

Hey everyone! I finished my first vacation and what a vacation it was! We went to the Zhangjiajie Mountains, which are also called the Avatar Mountains. This place is absolutely gorgeous, but more about that later. Let's talk about how we got there.

So we had to take a train for 14 hours to get to Zhangjiajie, which was a bit miserable, but an interesting experience. We left Saturday night around 8:30 and got there at around 11am the next day. Let me tell you something about Chinese people: they can fall asleep in any position. The seats we sat in were these straight-backed uncomfortable seats. People could just sit up and fall asleep. As for me, I had to at least lean my head on one of my roommate's shoulders.

Me on Tiamen Mountain. You can see the huge hole behind me. 

So when we got to Zhangjiajie and stopped at our hostel, we went over to Tiamen Mountain, which is this large mountain range with an enormous hole in it. It's where you can go to this attraction called the Stairway to Heaven, and walk up a bunch of stairs towards this hole. We actually didn't do that and instead rode a cable lift up to the top and hiked around Tiamen Mountain. Well, hiked in that we walked up and down a bunch of stairs. The Chinese people seem to prefer to put stairs in their trails. Anyway, the mountain was so cool. We walked this patch that skirted around the mountain and saw fun rock formations and sights. The cable lift ride was incredible as well since it takes you really high and over some smaller mountain ranges which are absolutely beautiful. Definitely worth the 155 kwai that I spent.

Me just chilling in the Avatar Mountains

Now on to the Zhangjiajie Mountains. I have one word to say: Incredible! I got to hike through these mountains that are famous and absolutely beautiful. I mean it all still felt pretty normal; I was just hiking a mountain. But every now and then, it would hit me that I was hiking some famous mountains in China! It really hit me when I got to the top. We could see all the different mountain peaks. Not to sound cliché, but I felt like I was in another world. That was easily the best moment so far in China.

There were also a bunch of monkeys at the Zhangjiajie Mountains. Apparently they're wild and they just live there. I found out from a sign that they're called Makaks. You can feed them but be careful, because they'll jump you if they see you with a package of food. I kept my distance since I'm not that fond of monkeys, but they were fun to watch and there were a couple of adorable baby ones.

The ride back to Zhongshan wasn't as bad, even though it was still fourteen hours. I guess I was actually tired enough to fall asleep. We had fun playing cards with this ten-year-old Chinese boy. He kicked our butts at Scum. Overall, the vacation was completely awesome and worth all of train hours and tired muscles (I was pretty sore the next day from all that hiking). I'm so glad I got to go there even for a few days. If you get the chance to go to Zhangjiajie, I highly recommend it. The mountains are incredible and it's so cool to be sitting at the top, looking over all these crazy formations and thinking, "Yeah, I'm really here. I really just did that."

Well that's it for me. Here are some more pictures from the vacation:

Tiamen Mountain! 

Do you see that railing hugging the mountain? Yeah I walked that. 

Gorgeous sunset I caught while on the cable lift. 

Zhangjiajie Mountains! 

The view from the top

Another view from the top. 

Me hopping on these pillars in the fountain by our hostel 

Monkeys! They were pretty cute, actually. 

Spas, Dancing, Hiking and More Teaching

Me with one of my students, Billy! 

Hey everyone, sorry the post is a little late, things have been fun and crazy over here! Teaching is actually going a lot better for me. This week, I'm doing arts and crafts for the kids, which has been so much; we've done paper dinosaurs, pom-pom mice, and paper jack-o-lanterns. I like being with the kids and they're so fun when they're actually paying attention.

We went to a spa where I got this awesome massage. It felt good, and at the same time it was kind of painful. It felt good because massages always feel good, but getting the knots and tense muscles worked out was painful. Overall, though it was a nice experience. I'll have to go to spas more often when I get back to the U.S. It's a little hard to do it here since I can't really communicate with the attendants.

I discovered the coolest thing last week. So every night, a large group of people gather in this park area and basically do Zumba. The music is more Chinese and Indian, as are the dances, so the dances are way fun and remind me of Bollywood. It's so cool and there are all types of people there: men and women, older and younger.  I plan on going there often.

Big Pagoda! 

So today all the teachers went hiking around these mountains by Zhongshan. We did it to celebrate the holiday Women's Day. So the teachers, including us foreign teachers, got to go hiking then out to eat at a restaurant. I got some gorgeous pictures of the mountains and of this really cool pagoda that's at the top. It was a great day filled with beautiful scenery, fun people, and good food. It's moments like these that make me really happy I came to China.

Anyway, tomorrow the ILP teachers in Zhongshan are gathering together for lunch and we're performing for each other. My group is singing and dancing to a mash-up of songs, which should be fun. Then we're leaving for our first vacation!! We're going to Zhangjiajie, the mountains that were used in the movie Avatar. I'm super excited, even though we're taking a fifteen-hour bus ride. Well, that's all I've got. Until later!

1st Week: Teaching, Strange Foods and More!

Hey everyone! Whew, one week down, and it was a long and crazy one. This was my first week of teaching and while it was rough at first, I'm getting better and more confident. The little students are so adorable, it helps make up for any rough days that I have.

Nasty pond with nasty trash outside my apartment. 

So here are some things I've learned about my city Zhongshan: first of all, it's loud and dirty. Some places are pretty clean, like the main shopping areas, but other places have piles of trash everywhere. I know that around my apartment building, there are areas that are covered in trash. As for it being loud, people don't really follow much traffic rules and just honk when they want others to get out of their way. And with cars, a lot of people have super-nice cars like BMWs and Lexus and Porsche. There are also these super old rickshaws and so many people have motor scooters. It's an interesting combination of vehicles.

As far as food goes, it's very different from what I'm used to but my body seems to be adjusting to it fairly well. I haven't gotten sick yet, but we'll see in another week, ha ha. It's true that they eat rice with practically every meal. The breakfast we have usually consists of rice porridge or noodles, which is actually pretty good. Lunch and dinner is usually rice with some time of meat and cooked cabbage, with soup. We also had to get used to picking the bones out of meat, especially the fish. The most surprising thing that I've had that was really good was this snack called cow ears. Yes, they dry cow ears into these chips. I tried them and they're really good. Another thing I like about China's food is their bread. It's really different because it's really soft and often spongy, but it's quite good. There's this bakery we found that sells a lot of different types of bread that are amazing!

Barbecue!

I think my favorite thing I did this week was going to a barbecue. Saturday night we were invited by some of the teachers and the moms of students to a barbecue, and it was so cool. We separated into groups around these fire pits with a grill over them and we cooked our own meat and veggies over them. It was a lot of fun and we ate so much food! There were the usual meats like chicken, pork, and beef, and then there were some interesting things like squid, these kind of sprouts that looked like mushrooms, and these odd cheese-filled balls that were really delicious when cooked. It was fun to talk with some of the teachers and learn Chinese words for different foods. We also had a group of little kids there and it was a blast playing with them and teaching them songs. Definitely my favorite thing so far.

Me eating a squid leg. It actually wasn't bad.

I've decided that being in China gives you a bit of an ego boost and it's also very humbling. It's an ego boost because everyone is fascinated with you because you're the only white person around. People keep staring at you and asking for pictures and what not. And when you say hello, they get the biggest smiles on their faces. You seriously feel like a celebrity. But it's also humbling because you're in a country where you can't understand anything and something as simple as ordering food can turn into a hassle because you and the cashier can't communicate. So yeah, it's interesting. But so far I'm enjoying myself even though teaching is still nerve-wracking for me. Sometimes I sit back and think, "can I really do four months of this?" and then I think, "when those four months are over, will I want to go back?" It's too soon to tell but I'm just living day by day and trying to get used to this new world I put myself in. It's totally crazy and scary, but it's insanely fun at the same time, and that's just how I like it! Until later, folks!

Arrival!

I got to see a gorgeous sunrise in Korea! 

Hey everyone! So I've decided to keep a blog of the things that happen to me while I'm teaching English in China. I'll probably update it every week or every other week, depending on how much craziness happens.

So I flew out of Utah at 3 pm on Friday, February 13, and I arrived in Guangzhou at 12 pm on Saturday, February 15. We flew to LA, then to Korea, then Guangzhou. I then had a two hour bus ride to get to Zhongshan, which is where I'm teaching. The flight wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I slept most of the time on the really long one to Korea (13.5 hours!), and they had individual TV screens where you could watch whatever movie they had available.

It's really strange being in a place where you're one of the few white people around. A lot of people will just stare at me and the other volunteer teachers because we're white and we stick out. It's funny. They're super nice and will often say hello to us and smile.

Here's the bathroom

Anyway I'm in an apartment with five other girls. The apartments are small but functional. The bathrooms are a bit strange since the toilets are basically a hole in the floor (they call them squatters) and the shower is just a shower head that you use in the bathroom. If you want hot water for showering, you have to flip a switch on five minutes before you shower. Like I said, it's all very different but not bad really.

The city I'm in is called Zhongshan, but it's split up into different districts. I'm in the district Guzhen. It's very smoggy and overcast here. I haven't seen the sun since I got here, but that will probably change when it warms up a bit. It's a little chilly right now, especially since the humidity makes it a bit colder. Anyway that's all for now. I'll post again in a week or so. Until next time!

The view outside my apartment.