Sanya- Forever Tropical Disaster

Death. Destruction. Sadness.

That is what Typhoon Haiyan brought the Phillipeans, Taiwan, Southern China, and Vietnam.

I have contemplated over this past week what to write and what exactly I should say in this post. I know that the horror that I felt was nothing close to the despair that was felt elsewhere in the world because of this horrible storm, but the horror and terrified feelings that I did feel will always be with me and I will never be able to forget the night the storm hit China.

                                                                                    --

Sanya was a vacation that had been looking forward to for weeks. Finally, a weekend to get away, hit up the beach, enjoy the sunlight and to relax. Other vacation times that I have had with ILP have mostly been trips to explore new places and are generally go, go, go so I can see everything that I want to see in the limited time that I have in those places. Sanya was different. I was still going to explore the island some but for the most part, relaxing on the beach would be where you could find me.

Only 4 out of the 6 people in my group decided to go on vacation, the other 2 stayed in Zhongshan for the few days off. Brecia, Shelbie, Autumn and I left Xiaolan (Zhongshan), on Thursday night and arrived in Sanya on Friday.

We traveled to Sanya, which is located in the Hainan Province of China, by train. Since it is on an island, our first 15 hour train got put on a ferry and crossed the water to get there. That was pretty cool and kinda freaked me out when I had no idea what was going on, but after I figured out our train got put on a boat, I was pretty Amazed! Lets let that sink in... my train was on a boat... and crossed the water for about two hours.... pretty cool right?!? Then we arrived in Haikou, the capital of the province and from there got on the final train 2 hour train ride to Sanya.

Sanya is beautiful. Our Hostel was right on the beach, that was really nice especially because we only spent $5 a night to stay there. Our hostel was in a tiny little village that was about 20 minutes away from the super touristy downtown section of Sanya. The beach we were on was so beautiful and my group and I enjoyed going swimming and enjoyed the water. I went swimming at a beach in November. <3

Our first full day of vacation, Friday, was spent getting there and then enjoying the beach and water and also exploring the little village a little bit to find somewhere good to eat. Potatoes and rice is always a safe meal to find, not to mention I know how to ask for it in Chinese so I don't have to point at some random Chinese and pray that I get something edible. 

Our second day in Sanya, Saturday, we went to the main touristy section and feasted upon AMAZING WESTERN FOOD. We went to Dolphin Bar, which another ILP group that we had run into said was amazing. The menu had everything you could imagine, from all types of sandwiches to Mexican food, to pasta. I got the Chicken Parmesan, with mashed potatoes and potato wedges. After eating a lot rice and chicken on the bone (where it is mostly just bone), chicken feet, all sorts of weird and not very tasty veggies, you would be as excited as me to eat this food. A few tears of happiness may have escaped my eyes. It was a very delicious and a very expensive meal (for China). It was about 60 Yuan or $10 for my meal... I justified the purchase because if I was at Olive Garden I would have spent about $13 on the Chicken Parmesan.. and also, I was hungry and waiting another month and a half until I get back to the states to eat this was just tooo long.

I don't regret the purchase.

We then enjoyed a beautiful day on the beautiful and crowded beach. Sanya is a hot tourist spot for Russians and I enjoyed using the few sentences of Russian that I know... aka "ya ne ponimayu (I don't understand), menya zovoot Cherish (my name is Cherish), ya ne govoryu po Russi (I don't speak Russian), privet (Hello), nyet (no), da (yes), spasibo (thank you) and dasvidanya (goodbye)" <<Those probably aren't spelled right, but you get the idea ;)>>

This is a Russian guy who I guess thought I was Russian so he started to talk to to me.

Once I informed him I didn't understand what he was saying, and that I didn't know any Russian besides those few phrases and words he told me "I am Russia" and that his name is "Pasha" of course. haha and he laughed at me when I stuttered to remember how to say "my name is Cherish" in Russian. When I told him I was from America he said "wait a moment" and he ran over to his stuff and pulled out a USA #10 Jersey. It kinda looked like an Olympic Jersey to me, why he had it, I have no idea, but it was nice to meet Pasha and to talk to him for a bit.

I'm glad we had at least one (and a half) day(s) to enjoy the beach and Sanya, because the days that followed would turn the tropical paradise into a tropical disaster.

Before we left to go on vacation I had heard about the Typhoon and knew that it was going to hit the Philippines. I checked the projected path and it was suppose to go pretty south of where I was going to be, so I was only expecting that we would get hit with a little bit of rain on Sunday. That was not the case. When I checked the path of the typhoon on Sunday morning, it was heading right towards us. The eye wasn't projected to hit us but it was suppose to go in between the island we were on and Vietnam. AKA... even though the eye wasn't suppose to smack into us, we were still going to get hammered with wind and rain. I knew things could quickly go bad so we left our hostel right on the ocean and headed to the train station. Keeping calm even though it was pouring rain and it was progressively getting windier and windier. I was hopeful that we would be able to get on our train that night and get out of there before it got too bad. Wishful thinking...

We arrived at the train station, ran through the pouring rain just to discover that all trains for Sunday and Monday were cancelled because of the storm. We decided to just stay at the train station for the night and pray that the storm wouldn't get to bad so that way we could leave on the first train back to Guangzhou the next day. Again, wishful thinking.

The storm got worse. A lot worse.

Soon, the electricity went out and the storm was hammering the train station. I kept pretty calm, until the roof of the train station started to blow off. As soon as the roof started to blow off, I got really freaked out and I seriously had no idea what to do. I didn't want to stay there because of the obvious reason of the roof starting to come off and I was worried it would get worse and then the whole building would collapse. But it got to the point of even when we decided to leave and grab a taxi and go to a near by hotel for the night. We didn't want to run into the terrifying storm. The rain was so heavy and the wind was so strong. We decided to stay and just pray that we would survive the night in the train station.

I have never in my life wanted to be somewhere else in my life. In those lon hours I spent in the falling apart Train Station, I was terrified for every second that the worst would happen and that none of us would make it or that the other 3 girls in my group would die but I would make and have to live with that. I hated that I was head teacher and responsible for all of the lives of my group and I hated everything. I hated China. I hated that I was confused and had no idea what the right thing to do was. I hated that my family and friends probably didn't even know that I was in danger and could possible die. I hated that my Chinese phone wouldn't hold a charge. I'm usually pretty positive so I hope ya'll can realize the magnitude of this situation and truly how awful it was. Although the doors were chained closed and had stuff in front of them to keep them closed and to keep the water from flowing in under the door, the wind was so strong that the doors busted open. The hole in the roof kept getting worse. It was loud. very loud.

I was scared out of my mind and bored. I ate all my snacks. I also wrote in my journal A LOT. Most of what I wrote was about how scared I was. When I started writing about the situation, it began with "When we get out of here.." and quickly became "If I get out here...". No lie, my sister Autumn, who is one of the bravest people I know, was so scared as well and even started writing her goodbyes in her Journal. I started thinking about the last conversation I had with my family and loved ones. I don't really have any regrets in my life but one thing that I did wish was that I had kept in better touch with such and such person and that I wish that I talked to my parents and siblings more often.
Although I was exhausted, I couldn't sleep. I tried and dozed in and out for hours. It was too loud with the rain and wind and crashing sounds that I couldn't manage to actually sleep. Around 4 am. My whole group and I were in some sort of terrified delirium that suddenly everything was hilarious. It was hilarious that we saw a rat looking for food, hilarious that the roof was coming off, hilarious that we were crammed on these itty bitty couches trying to sleep even though we were really uncomfortable and freezing, hilarious that we were writing our goodbyes in our journals. That lasted for about 20 minutes before we got silent again and went back to be scared.

At around 6am on Monday morning the rain started to let up and we were so glad that we were alive and that we had made it. But, we were left with the dilemma on how to get back to Guangzhou. Finally when the power came back on, I was able to call Kelly (my coordinator) and she talked to some people at the train station for me and they said that trains wouldn't be up and going until maybe Wednesday. To be honest, we wanted to get the H--- out of there ASAP. But we settled for finding a hotel and then figuring out everything from there.

Finding a hotel wasn't hard. We had our other coordinator, Nicole, find one for us and she texted us the

address in Chinese so all we had to do was find a taxi and we were set. Well, at 7am.ish there were no taxis to be found. We ran into a random guy from Michigan who said their were no taxis because a lot of the roads were closed from awful flooding. He told us the water was up to his chest and that he had to take 3 different taxis' and walk/swim through a lot of different roads to get from his hotel to the train station. The aftermath of the typhoon was bad. Besides the horrible flooding, there were tons and tons of trees and signs blown down, houses destroyed and lives were taken.

Thankfully, I did not walk out into the streets and see dead bodies everywhere like in the Philippines.

Hopelessly, we stayed in the train station for another couple of hours. Around 11ish we noticed some taxi's pulling up to the train station. We packed up our stuff, eventually found someone to take us to the hotel and made it. 

We show up at the Hotel and this is what we see:

"Oh, Dear Lord." were my exact thoughts. The inside was fine, but they had someone moping up some water so I assume that there had been a little bit of flooding inside. We got our room and we all crashed. Hard. We took like a 4 hour nap. There was no running water or WiFi. So, not only could I not text my family and let them know that I was alright, but I couldn't shower or brush my teeth either. I got a little desperate later on and used my water bottle's water to brush my teeth though.

Later that night after talking with Kelly, we all got plane tickets to leave the following morning (Tuesday) at 9am. Praise the Lord. We were so happy that we would finally be able to get home and out of there. Especially because we had run out of food and our water supply was almost gone and a majority of the restaurants around us were closed because of flooding and other damages. I am glad that we were able the very next day.

When we we finally made it back to our apartments on Tuesday. We were all relieved but so exhausted so we crashed. After surviving 2 terrifying days, where you seriously thought you were going to die. You would be tired too. It took a few days for me to recover the sleep loss and getting over the shock of the events that took place. Today, I am just very very grateful. Grateful that I survived, grateful that the train station didn't fall down, grateful that a sign didn't spin into the glass windows/wall of the train station, grateful I got a full refund on all the train tickets. Grateful that it wasn't any worse. Grateful. Grateful. Grateful. Never in my life have I ever been so scared and legitimately thought I was going to die. But, here I am alive and doing well. Even though this experience was terrifying and I never want to be in a similar situation I know that things happen unexpectedly. Things change, life takes an unexpected turn and life can even be taken away from you before you know it. Live life to the fullest. Do the things that make you happy, be around people that make you happy and ultimately, have fun. Life is too short to be grumpy and upset about life and all the negative all the time. That's what I am doing and even more so after this near death experience. 

Xoxo

Halloween, China Style

I want to start this post off by saying: I LOVE CHINA. and here is a super cute picture of me and Jimmy and a picture of me being kissed on the cheek by Rebecca and Spencer. After flag ceremony, I was sitting on the stair way and I pointed at my cheek when Spencer walked by, he leaned in and I thought he was just going to give me a little peck on the cheek.. boy was I wrong. He kissed me long and hard for a good minute, about 5 seconds after he started to kiss my cheek, Rebecca decided to join him and she started kissing me on my other cheek. It was the cutest thing ever. Thank goodness Autumn had her phone nearby so she could capture the moment. After that, 4 the kids grabbed onto my hands and arms and led me to class. They are just too cute to handle. Seriously, the cutest kids in this world!

Anyways....
Halloween has always been one of my favorite Holidays. Celebrating it here in China was a blast. After Vacation, these past 3 weeks has been soooooo crazy busy. We had to prepare for all the Halloween festivities, which was actually a lot of work. We also had to start getting our student profiles done and inventory done to prepare for mid-semester visits coming up here in 2 weeks. All of that on top of the normal every day lessons that we have to do and be prepared for. Although I do not teach everyday there is still A LOT that I have to do and have to take care of as well. Long story short, it had been an extremely busy past 3 weeks. 

However a few fun things we have done include: Getting Chinese massages, having a rooftop party, celebrating Nicole's Birthday and exploring People's Park. 

The Chinese massage was amazing and only $10. I was kinda nervous because anyone that I ever talked to about China massages have told me that they are ridiculously rough and that I will basically come out of it in more pain and with more bruises than before I went. Also, when I was living Weihai early this year, I got the Chinese cupping Massage where they take a jar and light some sort of fire in it for a second then they twist it onto your back... it is suppose to help remove the toxins from your body.. but IT HURT SO BAD. The welts left on my back looked like elephant hickeys. I was miserable for the following few days after that experience. Here is a picture of my back: 

Day 1 and Day 2. 

Regardless, I decided to give a normal Chinese Massage a try. It felt AMAZING. My lady was hilarious and only knew like 2 English words which were "head and turn". Those were at least helpful and thankfully, she wasn't too rough and I left feeling relaxed and better than when I had come in.  

The rooftop party was held at the other ILP school near by. It was to celebrate Kelly moving into their complex. The roof top was gorgeous with great views of the city. It was the perfect place to have a party. We had soda and chips and some goodies as well. There was music playing and it was so great hanging out with the other ILP group who we have loved seeing and hanging out with on numerous occasions. We also got to hang out with some British people who work for BOND (BOND is the main institute that hires English Teachers for lots of different schools around Zhongshan, and is also who ILP works with to have their teachers here in 7 different schools around Zhongshan). It was nice meeting them and hanging out for a bit. 

Old couch we made our own

Shelbie :) 

Brecia :) 

Nicole, who I have talked about before, is one of our coordinators who is simply, AMAZING. She is always there and so helpful. Her birthday was on October 24th and we bought a cake and celebrated with her. Happy Birthday Nicole, This picture is of Kelly and me making a birthday cake out of our hands for the birthday girl. :) 

Last Saturday, the 26th of October, my group and I decided to get out and to go explore People's Park. We took a rickshaw there and then enjoyed a peaceful walk through the park. It was so beautiful. There was so much beautiful Chinese architecture and even a waterfall. After wandering around the peaceful and relaxing part for a bit, we came across a mini amusement park. There were a few rides, one really small roller coaster, a rocking boat type ride, a carousel and even some bumper cars. There was also a big cage with some monkey's in it. It was really random to find but still pretty neat. Of course to top off the amusement park feel, I just had to buy some cotton candy. :) 

Now onto Halloween festivities... Leading up to Halloween we set up lots and lots and lots of decorations. We were a part of 2 Halloween Parties. The first party, was at our Kindergarten and we did a few different games; fishing, musical chairs, making pumpkins, trick-or-treating, and some face painting. The party at our school was so much fun. It was nice being able to enjoy having fun with the kids while still getting some language out of them instead of trying to keep their attention during normal classes, or in my case only really talking to the naughty kids who get multiple strikes throughout the lessons. Even though the kids were a lot crazier than normal it was an enjoyable time. Plus, the kids were all dressed up and they looked so stinking adorable. 

Some of the Decorations: 

Trick or Treating: 

Fishing: 

Making Pumpkins: 

Musical Chairs: 

Some of their cute costumes: 

Cocoa and Twinkle: BFF's

Nicole and Lin: Disney Princesses

Charlie and Angel: Devil and Angel

Joshua: Spider man

Andrew: Cute pumpkin

Oscar: Swooping in as Superman to save the day.

Later that night was our second Halloween Party. BOND was hosting it. My school and the other school near by were in charge of the Haunted House. We again set up lots and lots and lots of decorations. It was so much fun to set up and even more fun to run. It took a lot of time to decorate the inside of this creepy old abandoned building but it turned out great. It was so great scaring the kids and their families. Whenever a really bad kid from our classes would come through me and a few of my girls would shout the rules at them. That was funny, haha. Not to mention, pay back for all the times I've been kicked, spit at, or hit... I promise most the kids like me though. ;) Also, I don't know if I mentioned this earlier but the Chinese love to have us perform for them. So we danced to The Nightmare Before Christmas' Theme Song: "This is Halloween". It was a lot of fun putting the dance together and the Chinese loved it. 

Haunted House: 

I decided to be a Black Cat.. The Chinese LOVED it. It was so fun on the way to the Haunted House we had to walk for a bit and then take a rickshaw. As we were negotiating prices for the rickshaws some taxi drivers near by where looking at me so I "scratched" at them and acted like a cat. They dieddddd laughing and then decided to take a million pictures with me. It was so much fun and I love making people laugh.

My group: 

Me and My Amazing Coordinators: Witch Nicole and Zombie Kelly

The last thing we did this Halloween weekend, was go across Zhongshan to the Kayin, which is one of the other schools ILP has here. Us and I think all the schools in Zhongshan were present to watch some fun ILP videos. ILP recently hired some people to make new ILP videos for advertising, training videos and the like. They had come to our school for a day and got some great pictures and videos of us teaching and of my sweet kids. It was fun working with them and this party was put together so we could all see a few rough drafts of the videos that they have been working on. We also got free pizza, which was really really nice especially because pizza is pretty pricey here in China. It was a fun time seeing the other ILP groups and just hanging out. 

Next weekend I am heading to Sanya for my third and final ILP Vacation time. I am pretty excited to hit up the beach and enjoy some fun in the sun. I love China.