Sanya Day 4: TYPHOON HAIYAN!! (74)

The Storm started to hit early this morning, but didn't reach its peak until the afternoon. It was crazy! We went out in the morning to get some breakfast from a little dumpling shop. Luckily they were open in the storm. Most things were closed up. Hayden, Brit, Allison and I went down to the beach and played in the waves for a bit. There was a strong ripcurrent, but it wasn't too bad, we stayed close to shore and got kicked out after 20 minutes or so anyway. We had to sneak under the ropes, so technically we weren't supposed to go out in the first place, but we were fine :P

The power went out at our hostel for pretty much the rest of the day, and we weren't really allowed to go outside. A few of us went out to explore, probably not the smartest thing to do, but we've never seen a typhoon before..! The winds had definitely picked up quite a bit. Candice and I got knocked over at one point when we were running back. Luckily there were no injuries, just some awesome video :)

The whole roof was caved in :O

Trees falling on cars in front of our hostel

These scooters were knocked down everywhere. Some just skidding down the street

This was our food supply. We got sick of crackers and cookies real fast, the storm let down later at night and we were allowed to go out! Muslim noodles for us! :) Luckily they didn't shut down because of the storm.

The bay area

                We all made it back safely so everything is okay :)

Sanya Day 3: Clouds and Crooks (73)

It was overcast for the majority of the day today, but still nice and warm, and the sun came out for a little while. We played lots more beach volleyball. 

Brooke and I went exploring for a bathroom and actually found a beautiful one in a little resort thing. We weren't really supposed to be there, but nobody was around so we just ran in and out together real quick. Brooke got caught a little later when she tried going back :P They were yelling at her, but she had to pee so bad that she just locked herself in, and then when she finally came out she was escorted by two Asian ladies who were waiting outside the bathroom door. 

Brooke and I really wanted some ice cream then too, (although to be honest, theres not really a time that I don't want ice cream), but everything is pretty expensive the closer you are to the beach so we just went on a walk around, and we found a brand new chocolate bar on the ground. It was just what we needed :P haha we were like kids on Christmas morning. We ended up going to Dicos to get some ice cream too, and then walked back to the beach. We stayed until the sunset and then went back and got some Muslim Noodles for dinner. That place is awesome.

We headed down to the beach a little later with everyone and dug a huge hole. We buried 8 of us together, so we were pretty squished in there. We definitely know how to attract a crowd though. There were so many people taking pictures and recording us. Some were even helping bury us too...luckily Brooke and James stayed out, in case they turned on us :P Unfortunately, they did. When we got out and were packing up, I realized that my bag was gone. Yes, I got robbed again. I have the best of luck here. Everyone else had their phones and bags sitting out too, but they only took my stuff again. My camera was in it, and that was the only real thing of worth, besides the keys to our hostel which I had to pay for, and my chapsticks. :( I was so close to finishing an entire stick ;P Luckily I had just downloaded all my pictures though, so I didn't lose those. At least now I can't take anything with me, and I don't really have anything left of value to get stolen, besides my passport, which I don't carry around with me.

Sanya Day 2! (Friday 72)

The sun was out this morning and it was a beautiful day :) Unfortunately the moon was out this morning as well... :P We woke up to one of our roommates sleeping butt naked in his bed with his blanket perfectly placed. Luckily he is out of here today. Some other ILP teachers are switching rooms with them when they get here. Its also nice being able to trust everyone in your hostel and not have to worry about anything getting stolen.

Naked man in our room...

Our other roommate and his gross little spandex

It was nice and warm with just a slight breeze: perfect beach weather. We played some sand volleyball for a few hours this morning and then played around in the water.

the shark we built :)

Muslim Noodles!

Dolphin Bar :)

Brittany in the traditional wedding box. 

Dolphin Bar for dinner again! :-P  It is so delicious. Allison and I split a chicken burrito. I havent had Mexican food in so long, and it was amazing. I miss refried beans! :( That is definitely going to be the first meal I eat when I get home: A mexican feast!

Vacation Time!! Sanya here we come! (Day 71)

Teaching was a breeze today. We did store, so it went by pretty quickly. The kids were extra good because they saw my bag of "store" goodies and knew they got prizes at the end.

One of my students Maya is one of the slowest ones when it is time to change clothes. She also has very good English and is extremely sassy. I kept telling her to take her pants off, and now she likes to run around the classroom singing "take your pants off, take your pants off". Hopefully that phase ends while she's young.

Airport Fun: we successfully made it to the train station in Guangzhou without any problems; traveling with a group of five has definitely made a huge difference. Unfortunately when we got to the airport security every one of us got searched. They pulled out Hayden's football and looked at that for a few minutes, and then dumped everything in my backpack out across the table. Annoying. But the worst thing was that they confiscated Allison's peanut butter! Her...correction: OUR brand new jar of Skippy peanut butter. There was no way we were leaving our precious PB there! Brooke marched right back in and grabbed it, and asked if we could eat it right there and then. They made her trade her boarding pass for it :P so as long as we brought it back we could eat it...Luckily Brooke had a random little spoon in her bag from the bakery we had just stopped at. For some reason they didn't take Brittany's PB, and she had eaten some of it already, so we stuffed as much as we could into her jar, and then pulled out the bread we were going to make sandwiches with and loaded the PB on nice and thick. We emptied the entire jar, and only made 4 sandwiches. We probably could have made at least twice that many with the amount of PB that was on those sandwiches. We traded back the empty jar for the ticket with our sticky fingers and walked to our plane :P It was pretty hilarious.

Waiting for our bus to the train station. 

Britt on the train ;P Needless to say we had an enjoyable time haha (Mainly because it was a bullet train not a nasty regular train)

Getting my bag searched :/

Hayden Getting his bag searched

Devouring our Peanut Butter in security

Took a little nap on the plane, and then we were there. It was perfect weather just warm enough with a slight breeze.
We took a bus to our hostel and went down to the beach. The water was warm and felt so good. Some other people from our groups have raved about the Dolphin Bar here in Sanya. It is American food, and it is dang good. They had cheaper prices later, so we went back for a little midnight snack and then crashed at our hostel.

Playing at the Beach :)

The first time at the Dolpin Bar ;) 

Dolphin Bar for midnight snacks :P

Wednesday Day 70: Rain..?

The  Chinese are so funny about some things. We were supposed to be having outside time at school and it started sprinkling, barely anything, and everyone went running for cover. I come from Mesa, AZ and I could barely call that sprinkling. It was more of a "Did somebody just spit on me?" type of deal, but nonetheless we went inside and played Duck Duck Goose instead.
During Area Play today a few kids were cutting paper, and I couldn't find the last pair of scissors. I was looking around the room when I spot Ethan walking out of the bathroom with them in his hand. My first thought, was that nothing good can come out of scissors in a bathroom. Luckily, (although to my secret dismay) he didn't cut any of his hair off. He did have a little teeny tiny scratch from the scissors, which he had thoroughly wrapped with toilet paper. With a little kiss he was off and playing happily again, taking extra care not to let his self-bandaging come undone. 
These kids are just adorable :)

Ethan and his little finger ;) He is always getting hurt

Leo and I :) he can be a trouble maker, but it also super sweet when he wants to be. Pretty much how most of the kids are I guess.

I stayed up waay to late packing for Sanya, and I didn't even get that much done. I was so tired! Probably need to go to sleep earlier, but with vacation coming, that isn't happening :P

Tuesday Day 69: Exploring

School went well today. It has been pretty cool lately. It is rainy and beautiful! All of the kids come decked out in sweaters and sweater vests. They are adorable.

We ate some dinner at kaiyin that was actually pretty good. Hayden, Brooke Allison and I took a bus to try and go to Walmart, and then we realized that we didn't really know how to get there, so we just rode the bus for forever, and got off when we saw a McDonalds and park. We were who knows where, but at least all we have to do to get back is get on the same bus on the opposite side of the street. We found a little night market, and this cute little family park. There was basketball, badminton, ping-pong, and some Zumba dancing and ballroom dancing. Brooke, Allison and I joined in on some of the dancing. It was hilarious and a blast. Everyone gathered around to watch us, and a bunch of little kids kept coming up to us. We took lots of pictures with them, but they suck at picture taking, so they are all blurry. The moms were just glowing. All parent here love to make their kids talk to us and say hi. Even if they are just babies, they will wave and say Hello. We have celebrity status here. Who knows what I'm gonna do when I get back home, and all the moms don't want me to take pictures with their babies.  :(

Monday 68: Vacation Plans??

Vacation in 2 days! Apparently there is yet another typhoon here in China, the 59thish one this year, (or something like that) which is kinda a bummer since we're going to Sanya. It's supposed to rain the whole time were there :-(  Both vacations we've been on had typhoons happening. The girls downstairs had to evacuate from Sanya and leave early because of the last one. Hopefully that doesn't happen to us, so far this typhoon is much smaller and is already weakening. I just hope that we get at least one day with some sunshine!
It was super nice and beautiful here though. It hasn't rained here in a while. I love rain!

Playing some little hand game with the Chinese teacher

Leo

In PE the kids play a game where they all hide under the tables and hide, everything they do is like preparing for the military. They have to army crawl, hide behind and under tables, jump and roll, and carry big sacks over their shoulders. 

Eli hiding in Ethan butt :P

Cody :) 

Fast Sunday: Day 67

I took an hour nap, and it wasn't even that bad. I usually hate naps, but I didn't get to grumpy when I woke up from that one. We hung out at our apartment after church and played some hand and foot with Brooke and hayden. Allison and I won..finally haha :P We decided that it was time to break out the Reese's PB pie that we brought from home. We froze it and came back a few hours later to eat it, it was sooo good...I know what I'm having for breakfast tomorrow!
The day even ended with some rain :-) We watched the three wives club with Karina and then passed out.

Its the Weekend!! Days 65 & 66 November already!?!

Friday: How did it get to be November already! Time is going by so fast! We cleaned up the whole apartment for once, and it is a very nice feeling. We also had to clean up the Kindergarten which was pretty disastrous after the night before. Luckily it was a pretty easy day.

Saturday: Pizza Party!!
We played card games for quite a few hours on Saturday. I got up early and went running for a bit, and then Brooke came over and we made banana bread and garlic pasta. We haven't eaten at the school in a few weekends :P but we have more food from home, so why not use it?
Rex and Jessica, the film crew couple put together a video of all the vacations and interviews that they have taken so far so we could have a little movie night. They look pretty good, and are definitely going to be way better than the ILP website that is up right now. They also went and bought us Pizza Hut pizza and some soda for a pizza party at the school. It has been so long since I have had real pizza, we still didn't have pepperoni, so it wasn't the best, and honestly Little Caesars sounds amazing  right now. Pepperoni ended up being a lot more expensive than any other kind of pizza, so we just got some Veggie, Hawaiian and BBQ chicken, the Hawaiian was pretty good, but I actually liked the veggie the best; corn and pineapple on a pizza, who knew? The BBQ chicken definitely tasted Chinese though. It was a little funky. But it was free so I'm not complaining.
We played some games outside at the table, it was a perfect night, we even got some rain :) and after that we watched heavyweights! Such a good movie, haha I love it so much! Kyle had never seen it before either, so it was even better. Definitely a good night!

The hand game

Hayden and I tied for the winners

Thursday Day 64: Mismatch Day, aka HALLOWEEN!!

Its Halloween!!  :)  We have some pretty scary masks for our haunted house..

Today we didn't even have to teach our real lessons because of Halloween perfomance practice. We watched the kids practice on the stage and in their classrooms, had snack, played some games with the Chinese teachers, and then just had a small vocabulary lesson at the end. We had to stay all day at school, so we just worked on the Haunted Housee for a bit, and then went for a McDonalds break for some ice cream. The school fed us fried rice for dinner and then we broke out the Halloween makeup. We all looked pretty good, and we ended up doing all of the Chinese teachers makeup too, and a few parents who had wandered upstairs. They were loving it.

The stage setup for our Halloween performance. It was awesome!

Hayden and Brooke at their school :)

Our haunted house...and Nikki's coffin

Anna and her mad scientist costume

Karina spent hours on this gem of a costume. She was the hit of the night! The kids (and teachers) loved her.

Zombies 

Sarina, Nikki, Holly, and Daisy

Camille looking dashing as ever

Shiqi group 2013!