"And I Love You, random Asian guy"

I'm back in China and boy do I love this country. When I was in china for the first time back from April-June of this year I was in Weihai, which in the north eastern part of the country. Now I am in Zhongshan city, in a little section of it called Xiaolan. Which is in the southern part of China. Pretty close to Hong Kong.

From the moment I landed in Guangzhou, I've been non-stop. I've been here for about 2 1/2 weeks now and its constantly been one thing after another. Between, training, teaching, evaluating, giving kids english names, juggling the school's wants and the chinese teachers suggestions while keeping with the ILP method and routine, and of course exploring, I am utterly exhausted. I kinda haven't finished unpacking yet.... oops.. but any time I have an hour of free time or a moment to sit down and catch my breath I take a nap.. and let me tell you those naps have been awesome. ;)

This time I am Head Teacher... and along with that comes A LOT of responsibility.. I honestly didn't think that Head Teaching would be this busy and stressful. I mean I knew it would be hard (I've had 3 head teachers in the past and all 3 of them gave me a heads up, so at least I wasn't blind sided) but it is also a lot of fun.

I am super close with my coordinators. Our school coordinator is Nichole, and she is so quiet but spunky. She is so much fun to talk to and she is SO helpful! Kelly has been the coordinator for our school for the past few years, but since ILP opened up a new primary school near by she spends a lot of her time at the other school. Which is why we now have the honor of working with Nichole more. However, Kelly is still at our school almost every morning to help us with teaching and controlling the kids. Kelly is a hoot! We always have fun conversations. Today her and the other Chinese teachers thought it would be hilarious if we had a conversation where I speak in English and she speaks in Chinese. I dont know exactly what Kelly ended up saying (I know maybe a handful of things in Chinese) but it was hilarious responding to her Chinese and making up what she was saying to me in my head. At one point, Kelly pointed at my Buddha necklace and my bracelets and was muttering off in Chinese and I responded by saying "Oh, I like my necklace and bracelet too." and then when she pointed and my ears, in which I'm not wearing any earrings I said "Yeah, I guess I should wear earrings more often." turns out all she was saying was that I always where this necklace and my bracelet and I still have no idea what she said about my ears.. Then at another point, she was pointing at her wallet and saying stuff and I just replied by saying, "yeah, I totally agree" turns out she was trying to sell it to me for 200 yuan (yuan or RMB is the Chinese money about 6 yuan = $1) and I agreed to it!! It was funny to have Kelly explain to me what she was actually saying. I felt pretty dumb but the Chinese teachers loved it and think I'm hilarious.. especially when I make faces and play around with the kids after class. I'm so glad that I have such a god relationship with many of the Chinese teachers and especially with our coordinators.  :)

Since I've been back in China, we started out with 6 teachers plus me and now we are down to 5 teachers plus me. ILP needed another teacher and different school here in Zhongshan (there are currently 7 ILP schools in this city). So after moving one of my teachers, I had to work with the Chinese teachers to move the kids around and make it work with only having 5 teachers. (My teachers names are Autumn, Brecia, Shelbie, Annemarie and Katy)
 Let me just say how awesome my 5 teachers are. They are pretty incredible! I'm so glad that they were all so flexible and made the transition easy from only teaching 8-9 kids in each class to now teaching 10-11 kids in each class. It is a lot of kids to handle but my teachers are pro's already! :) The first week was probably the most stressful just getting the teachers ready and making sure everything was prepared and everything, but now we are all on the right track and I'm sure everything will continue to get easier as the semester goes on. :)

As the teachers are teaching, I am constantly moving from class to class helping with teaching, and controlling the kids. I also do weekly evaluations and just help the teachers with whatever they need. I am constantly busy talking to the naughty kids and with the coordinators about how we can make teaching go smoother. It's been so much fun. One of the coolest parts about being Head Teacher is that I get to watch all the teachers teach. It's so fun being able to see how everyone approaches teaching and reacts to different situations that the kids throw at us.
All the teachers are so different and bring different strengths and weaknesses. I am looking forward to continuing to work with them for the rest of the semester. Not to mention, the kids are so adorable. We have about 50 kids and half of them are brand new to the ILP program and the other half have already done the program for a year. We see these kids everyday and already they are pulling at my little heart strings.We also just started doing afternoon classes and now we have 2 more groups of kids. We have one group on Monday and Wednesdays from 4:45-5:45 and then another group at the same time but on Tuesday's and Thursday.  Being here has made me miss my other China Babies in Weihai and my Ukrainian Babies as well. I would love so much to be able to go back to Weihai and to Ukraine to see my old kiddos again. I miss them!

I am so glad that I came to China earlier this year. I feel better prepared and more knowledgeable about Chinese culture now which I feel has helped me transition better, and has helped me focus more on the teachers needs than freaking out and adjusting to squatter toilets (which thankfully we don't have in my apartment) and showering while standing next to the toilet. I knew what to basically expect food wise and although I've eaten some strange things I also know that Muslim Noodle Houses are the bomb and that anything with potatoes on it is delicious! Granted eating some of the meals the school has provided hasn't been the best, I mean day one and I get a chicken foot... I still don't really know how people eat them or get full off of them.. but I have been trying to keep a positive attitude about everything I eat and I have grown to like more and more of what the school makes us... and Peanut Butter and Honey sandwiches are saving my life. ;)  Also, Knowing how to barter has really come in handy,
I've enjoyed showing my teachers how its done and explaining to them not to feel to ask for something at a way lower price because in the end they aren't going to sell you something unless they are making a little bit of profit off of it. I've saved myself a lot of money already. I got this awesome snoopy china shirt for 20 yuan when they guy originally was asking for 85 yuan. Saved myself a good $10. Heck Yeah!

Another fun thing about China is that the people are so friendly. People are constantly staring at us and yelling "Hello!", even if they are on a motorcycle speeding by. They also aren't shy and will take pictures of us and not even try to do it sneakily. I think on a daily basis my group is asked at least once if we can take a picture with someone. Even the guy who came to fix our AC this week wanted to take a picture with us. It is definitely a self esteem boost when you get called beautiful ever single day by complete strangers. One time, Autumn and I took a Motorcycle Taxi home and when the guy dropped us off, as he was driving away he yelled after us "I Love You", Autumn and I started laughing and I yelled back "And I Love You, random Asian guy!" It was pretty funny.

 One day we were in a bakery near by and one guy looked at us and so one of my girls said hello to him in Chinese, he looked to shocked and said "You speak Chinese?!".. I think we were even more shocked than he was and we replied with "You speak English?". We ended up having a decent conversation with this guy and he gave us his QQ and told us to contact him sometime so we can all get dinner.  Another time, Annemarie and I got on a Motorcycle Taxi and the poor guy went to the wrong school twice until finally stopping and asking some people where our right school was. It was pretty cool because we got to see parts of town that we probably wouldnt have had the opportunity to see. It was neat to also see the guy take us on his Bike even though he clearly had no idea where we wanted to go.. no worries, we eventually made it back and he charged us less than expected. Yeah, he was nice.

Xiaolan is such a cute town and I love Zhongshan City. We've done tons of neat things in the few weeks that we have been here. We've explored the RT mart and One plus One mall which is a nice 7 minute walk from our apartment (ps. our apartment is on the school campus right above where we teach everyday.. it's nice not having to travel for an hour to get to the school everyday like I had to when I was living in the Ukraine.). We went to the movie theater for one of my girls birthday. We saw Monsters University in 3D, it was in English with Chinese subtitles. We went to an awesome swimming spa, where there was a fun water slide, hot tubs, lavender pools, and a whole area full of places that shoot you with water that is suppose to massage you.. it was freakin awesome! We explored Beer Square, named because that is were the Chinese teachers go to get beer, and bartered a little.. this is where I got my awesome snoopy shirt. We also went to a park near by, Longshen Park, and did paddle boats and hiked to the top of a  gorgeous pagoda there.

 We also went to the River Walk, which was about a 45 minute bus ride away and explored that area of Zhongshan. It was so fun just wandering and finding our way around. We ran into a random gorgeous park, at this park there were tons of groups of men playing Chinese checkers or some Chinese game. It was hilarious because there was this one group that was being particularly rambunctious so I inconspicuously joined in the back of there group and once a guy made apparently a pretty good move, I joined in with all their hooting and hollering. They all were shocked by my sudden appearance and all of us got a good laugh out of it.
We also all jammed out at KTV which is Karaoke, but way classier and different than American Karaoke, thankfully they had a lot of American songs and I had a lot of fun singing some Celion Dion, My Heart Will Go On; some Black Eye Peas, My Humps; and of course my JAM.. Yeah! by Usher! KTV is sooooo much fun and I am sure we will go back many more times before we leave China.

This Elephant Statue is right outside the school:

My Group and Nichole on top of the Pagoda in Longshen Park:

 Autumn and I trying Durian for the first.. and last time:

The river walk bridge and views: 

Wandering around Zhongshan and what do we find?

Gorgeous Park my group wandered into. Also the place where the Chinese Checker games were taking place:

China is such an amazing place. I have loved wandering around and finding random things that just remind me how blessed I really am. I'm on the other side of the world then my family (well, besides Autumn who is here in China with me). I am in China. I love it. I love everything about this country. I can't wait to see what other adventures are waiting to happen over these next 4 months that I am here.

Seriously, what's there to complain about...

La Republica Dominicana

The Dominican Republic, what an amazing country, what an amazing week!

Let me back up a little bit... I have so many wonderful people in my life, one of those is Rafael. Rafael has been there for me for a lot over the past couple years. We have dated on and off for about 2 years now and one thing has always remained intact, our friendship. So after a tearful goodbye at the end of June, Rafael returned to his home country, The Dominican Republic (or the DR). As we stay connected through texting apps and skype, Rafael asked me if I would like to come and visit and meet his family, friends and to see his country. How could I say no to this opportunity?! I LOVE TRAVELING and seeing new places... in case you didn't already know that from my previous blogs... So plans were made and luckily I had a free week between Summer Semester Finals and my departure to Head Teach this Fall in China..

So off I went to the DR. Even though I was only there for a little over a week, I saw and did so many things. I went horseback riding to a waterfall, El Limon; I went to the Haitieses Island and saw a few caves there; I went to the Colonial Zone in Santo Domingo; and last but certainly not least I went to a ton of gorgeous beaches, Juan Dolio Beach, Playa Ricon, Samana, and Las Terrenas.

 I love the DR. It is seriously not anything like I imagined it would be and I am so glad that now I can have my own opinion based on my own experiences there and not just on what others have told me. 
It's a beautiful country. I feel as though the DR is more European looking in its buildings and what not but also has a majority of the American amenities that weren't available to me when I lived in the Ukraine, which is awesome. ;) The DR has many different sides... From the traffic filled city to the quiet quaint villages to the beautiful, perfect beaches. The Dominican Republic has so much to offer and so many different things to see. 

The Capital, Santo Domingo, is truly a gorgeous city. It's way different than NYC but still has many different aspects that make it beautiful. Beautiful buildings. Beautiful Areas. As well as poor areas and neighborhoods. Rafael lives in the center of the city so we were close to lots of things. The Malls were awesome and pretty pricey with a lot of European stores. The Colonial Zone was one of my favorite parts, with different types of clubs and full of incredible history. History has always been my favorite subject and one of the reasons I love traveling so much is because I get to see all the amazing places where significant historical events took place or where famous people use to live. In the Colonial Zone, I got to see Christopher Columbus' House! Loved it! 

Besides the Capital, the DR, seeing as it is an island, obviously has gorgeous beaches. I went to a ton of different beaches, every beach took my breath away! The sand was soft and warm and the ocean was warm but refreshing as well! The warm water was the best part.. The past beaches I've been too have all been freezing. Because the water was warm, yet refreshing I could enjoy swimming and playing in the water much more than I have in the past! Some of the villages I went to, to go some of these beaches, were very small and Rafael told me the saddest part is that a lot of those places don't offer the best education and so it never really gives the kids an opportunity to get out of that living situation. That really made me appreciate the education that I have been given and the schools that I went to.. I didn't always enjoy going to school and definitely did not appreciate my education, but now more than ever I am grateful for what I received and all the opportunities that have been offered to me.

The Dominican Republic is full of wonderful people who are so nice and caring. Rafael's family treated me like a princess and I felt really welcome into their homes and hearts. They fed me like a Queen.... Seriously... Every meal was the best meal of my life. I think I gained at least 20 pounds... And I was only there for 11 days! Rafael's friends also welcomed me with open arms and with lots of delicious food. Not to mention the random people who would run out the car with an umbrella to make sure I didn't get soaked when it was raining. ;) Royal Treatment? I think yes. ;) Even though I don't speak Spanish and couldn't talk with some of Rafael's friends and family we would all try to communicate and had really nice conversations, even if Rafael was doing a lot of the translating. And I was really grateful for his friend and family that did speak English really well! I really want to learn a second language and want my future children to be bilingual. Looking back on my life I have met so many wonderful people and have such great friends because they took the time to become bilingual and learned English so we were able to communicate and connect. I love it and I want to be able to do that.. Who knows who I am waiting to meet and all I have to do is learn a new language. 

So yeah, that's a brief explanation of my view of the Dominican Republic. 

I am so happy I was able to go and spend a nice relaxing, fun packed week in the DR before entering into the crazy world of Head Teaching.