Way high in Weihai.

Once I got back from the Ukraine:

-I spent a wonderful Christmas with my family in Virginia. 

-We then drove cross country to Utah. Once in Utah, we picked up my older brother, Zach. Who had just finished serving an honorable 2 year mission for our church. We hadn't seen him in 2 years and boy was the reunion great! It was so wonderful to finally have my whole family back together again. Even if it was just for a few short days. 

-I started going to school again at BYU and got my on-campus job back. 

-By the end of a long stressful semester, I was spent. I felt like I was stuck in a rut and found myself really missing the Ukraine and the crazy adventures and stories that seemed to happen almost every day. I had gotten bit REAL REAL REAL bad by the travel bug. haha Seriously though, I was ready for something. anything. Then the Monday before finals, I received a phone call from ILP asking me if I would be willing to leave ASAP to replace a teacher that had dropped mid-semester in Weihai, China. By Tuesday, I had agreed to go and by the following Tuesday I had finished taking all my finals, packed my bags and was on a plane to Weihai, China. 

While in China I had the opportunity to visit:

Xi'an - The Terracotta Warriors

Guilin 

Xingping 

Shanghai

Jinan- Hiked Thousand Buddha Mountain

Taishan-- Hiked Mt. Tai, which is roughly 8,000 stairs

Liugong Island 

Weihai- Where I lived and taught English

Main differences between my time in the Ukraine and my time in China: 

-In China I taught 52 kids. It was a big change from teaching only at the max 10 kids in the Ukraine. However, I found that teaching this time around was way easier and it didn't matter that I taught 6 classes a day with about 8-9 kids in each class. My kids were the best. I love them all so much.
 -My group in China had about 24 people in it.. that's double the size of my group in the Ukraine.

-I didn't live with a host family. Instead I lived in the apartments at the school that I taught at, it made traveling and getting to class much easier everyday. ;) 

-A majority of my kids lived at the school during the week and I could go tuck them in. This made me bond with my kids on a level I never got to feel with my kids in the Ukraine. Don't get me wrong, I love my Ukraine kids but getting the extra time outside the classroom to see

my kids was AMAZING. There were a few days when I would feel down and just plain blek. But, as soon as I would walk into my kids building they would jump for joy and run and hug me and beg me to read them bed stories or get into a tickle war with me. I loved tucking in my kids, it always brightened my day and made me feel so loved. 

-There are many differences between China and Ukraine and the USA but that's all I will list, for now. 

-I made so many wonderful friends. I was really nervous about going to China mid-semester and having to try to fit in with a group of people who had already been together for 2 months before I even got there. But, my group never made me feel left out and I love love love all my friends that I made there. :) 

-Leaving China was hard, but I left knowing that I would be back in a few short months. This Fall I will be heading back to China to be a Head Teacher! I am super excited but also kinda nervous to Head Teach.  Although I am heading back to China at the end of August, I will be living in Zhongshan, China which is in southern China, and will not be going back to Weihai, which is in Northern China. I am super stoked to get to go to Zhongshan and I can't wait to be back in China again.

-The hardest part about leaving China was saying goodbye to my kids. On my final day teaching, I told all my kids that I was leaving that night to go back to America. After class, my kids hugged me and were pretty sad that I was leaving. Yet, I somehow managed to keep my eyes dry.However, nothing would prepare me for that night. My final time tucking in some of my kids. When I walked into their bedrooms that night, they leaped for joy and ran and hugged me and kept saying, "Teacher no go to America!!". Boy, did i feel like a heart breaker when i had to explain that I was leaving a couple of hours from then. They then latched onto me, hugging me. They cried, I cried, they cried some more, I cried some more. It was tough to finally let them go and say goodnight and leave. Even though I may never see any of those kids again, they will forever have a strong hold on my heart.

-Although I was in China for a short 2 months. I can honestly say that they were the most meaningful 2 months of my life and could not have come at a better time. I needed to get away and find myself. There is no better way to forget about my petty problems then while serving the Chinese people. While in China, I found out so much about myself and met so many people who have made such a powerful impact on my life. When I left, I balled my eyes out. I was sad to leave so quickly and sad to leave my friends, my kids and mostly I was pretty scared that I would come back to the USA and find myself stuck in a rut again. 

-However, since I've been home from China life has been nonstop busy. My brother, Zach got married to the wonderful and sweet, Megan. I started up with classes again for the summer semester and I am still working at my same on-campus job. Every weekend I have done something fun and I have been able to hang out with some of my friends from both my ILP adventures, along with some BYU friends, and of course, adding in a few sibling dinners here and there and boom, never a dull moment.

-Words cannot describe how blessed I feel. I just barely turned 20, yet I have had so many amazing opportunities to travel around the world and experience so many different things. Needless to say, although life has thrown many different curve balls my, I know I am blessed and I love my life. 

It's Been Awhile...

So, Obviously I haven't blogged in a long long long time... since October 2012 to be exact. Yet, here I am almost 10 months later blogging again. There is so much to catch up on but I'll try to keep this post pretty short. Since my last post was about going to Odessa, I guess I'll just pick up from there.

- After Odessa, it was crunch time to get ready for mid-semester visits. Steve one of the Directors of ILP came to visit and it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be to have him watch me teach.

-Then I visited:

L'viv, Ukraine

Budapest, Hungary

Vienna, Austria

Prague, Czech Republic

Dresden, Germany

- While visiting all those wonderful places a few things happened that I think are very relevant. First off, I love my group. The great thing about traveling to all these places is that we all got to bond. 

-Second. Dimples. He was our tour guide. Obviously, Dimples isn't his real name, that's just what my group and I called him. <3 He didn't speak any English, which lead to a few fun situations of trying to figure out when and where to meet back up with our Bus. In fact, no one on our bus spoke any english. Somehow we ended up on a Russian Tour Bus.... Don't ask me how that happened. Another funny thing about our tour was that the bus was leaky. I grabbed a window seat so I could lean up against it and get some sleep, but before long water was dripping on me, it was like a tsunami actually. A really cold tsunami. So I ended up moving and leaning on Taia for most the nights when we were actually sleeping on the bus.
( Dimples Photo Credit: Jenna Millington)

- During the Vacation, my knee randomly started to swell up and made it difficult to walk and was pretty painful. Straight up, it sucked. But, I didn't let it slow me down too much and I still had a great week touring and seeing new, beautiful places.
-After the Long Vacation, I went to see the Doctor and that was a pretty traumatizing and painful experience. But, I survived and was on crutches for awhile...which was not fun especially because I had to walk everywhere. The Doctors in the Ukraine couldn't figure out what was wrong with my knee or what caused it to swell up. Since being back in the USA, the doctors here couldn't figure out exactly what was wrong.. but after a few months of Physical Therapy my knee has been doing great and hasn't gotten that swollen again. Thank Heavens! 

-Post Long Vacation there was a lot of Harry Potter watching and reading and preparing ourselves and our kids for the final performance.

-I also had the opportunity to Visit:

Chernobyl, Ukraine

Krakow, Poland 

Auschwitz, Poland

-When the time came to leave the Ukraine I was sad to leave but was so happy when I landed back on American Soil. Being in the Ukraine for those 4 months was a challenging time for me but I learned and grew so much. I will never ever forget my kids, the challenges and joys of teaching, the places I saw, and all the people I came to love. I will forever be grateful for ILP allowing me the opportunity to live in the Ukraine, and to travel to different parts of Europe.