my person

"They asked me for a person to contact if I needed anything or if something went wrong. I put you down...you're my person." For those of you that aren't well educated in great TV, these are the words of Dr. Yang to Dr. Grey when they "officially" become best friends on Grey's Anatomy. This last week I have been thinking (and talking to) MY person and it's had me thinking alot about how much I love and appreciate her.

She's the person I have literally known my whole entire life. She's the person I get confused for sometimes. She's the person I want to call first when something exciting happens. She's the person I call late at night and she talks to me even though I woke her up and she has to be at work early in the morning. She's the person I can always tell the whole truth to ALL the time and never worry about her judging me. She's the person I tell all of my "I'm not supposed to say anything but..." to. She's the person that sits and listens patiently well after I've passed the TMI line, but listens anyways because she knows I just need to talk it out. She's the person I can yell and scream and fight with, but at the end of the day know that she's still there for me. She's the person that ALWAYS has my back, even to the extent of walking with me in the canyon late at night after dad kicked me out of the car :) She's the person that calls to calm me down after fighting with my mom. She's the person that I go on drives with. She's the person that can say 1 name or 1 word and have me cracking up instantly. She's the person I laugh like. She's the person that hides in the trunk when I'm throwing up, but later that night lets me sleep with her and tickle my back to make me feel better. She's the person I've gotten in trouble with. She's the person that's gotten me OUT of trouble. She's the person that knows when I'm not really fine. She's the person that takes her weekend off to drive me to Filmore to get my car. She's the person that "let's me drive" ;) She's the person that took off running to me at the airport coming home from China. She's the person I tried to drown once. She's the person that worries about me. She's the person that would stay awake at night when we were little, worried that if the house caught on fire she wouldn't be able to get me out because I'm such a deep sleeper. She's the person that I can never really stay mad at. She's the person that has always let me borrow and use her things. She's the person that always encourages me to do what I want when I tell her about my crazy ideas. She's the person I can fight with through emails from the other side of the world, but call her later and talk and laugh for 3 hours. She's the person I shared my room with for 17 years of my life and for months after she moved out, I couldn't sleep without texting "Goodnight. Love you, see you in the morning" even though I really wouldn't. She's the person that never gets mad at me for taking jokes too far. She's the person that got her finger dislocated and still wants to play "gottcha last" everytime we see each other. She's the person that always came to all of my sports games. She's the person that made me feel confident about speaking at graduation, and then followed me around for hours taking countless pictures for me. She's the person that is so much like me that we start crying at the exact same time talking about things. She's the person that I have made late COUNTLESS times, yet still she would give me rides and take me places. She's the person I go to when I hate the rest of the world. She's the person that would let me tag along with her and her friends. She's the person that is going to be an amazing nurse one day. She's the person that buys me dinner when she comes to visit even though she's poor too. She's the person I want to be like. She's the person that I freakin love She's the person that I couldn't live without.

She's the person that is my twin and my very best best friend

Apparently Dixie has weekly forums held in the Darford Auditorium! I did not even know this until last week when I was required to go to one for my biology lecture class. They are just hour long lectures with pictures to give us a broader look at the world, and quick little culture classes. Essentially, nobody goes to them unless it's extra credit or required for a class. This week, the forum was on....CHINA! Even more so than that, it was on the same Provinence that I had gone to so I decided to go and sit in just for fun since I had a break anyways. As fun as it was to see pictures of the same places I had gone, some similiar experiences and same funny food and chinglish things, I TOTALLLLLLLY miss China now! It got me thinking back on only a few of the hundreds of good times that I had there....

~"QUICKLY! QUICKLY!" Apparently no matter what time it was, we were ALWAYS late compared to the Chinese. They however could do no wrong. We would sit and wait an hour for them and they'd claim that we were told the wrong time, where if we were 5 minutes late it seemed to be a national crisis.

~Walking around the Birds Nest (award location for 2008 olympics) singing the National Anthem and talking about how cool it would be to be in the olympics and watch the flag get raised there being so far away from home. We started off singing as kind of a joke but it was actually a REALLY cool feeling!

~Quingmen Hostel: Beijing Round 2. There were counttttttless good times here! The building that we stayed in was where the workers lived when they built the Forbidden City so it is unbelievably old! It was ghetto and creepy and I had such a blast! This was where we thought it'd be a good idea to add extra security by pushing the trunk in front of our door so people couldn't open it....little did we realize that the door opened out the OTHER direction, and we didn't even lock it to begin with! Brushing our teeth out the window, too tired to run down to the bathroom.

~Yes I saw the Great Wall. Yes I hiked 10 miles on it. Yes I ziplined off of it.

~"YEAH?! Well guess what! My night is STILLLL worse than yours!"

~Allie and me had so much fun with the subways in Beijing! "Bunch me! Bunch me HERE! ....Bunch me softly!"

~"When do I get to taste you?"....oh Jack!

~ ERRRRRIC! I am now deteremind to go to Germany one day!

~ Flowers Hostel in Guilin was a week of the greatest nights of my life! I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe, almost peed, and literally got a bloody nose!

~"WHY ARE WE ALWAYS RUNNING?!" Seriously the story of our lives! Seems like we couldn't be on time if our lives depended on it.

~Ever been on a train with over 100 people in one cart, in over 100 degree weather? Imagine if you had HUGE bags with you that you were trying to balance between your ankles. Imagine if you were in a country where people didn't believe in personal hygiene. Imagine if you had already missed your first train so you were emotionally tired and scared because you don't actually know what these people are saying so you don't know if you're going to get to the right place. And did I mention that on top of all of this funness, you're STANDING while packed in with these people for SIIIIIX hours? Yeah....we did that! I have an all new appreciation for the Jews.



I seriously had a BLAST in China! It is hands down the greatest thing that I have ever done in my life and I'm back in one of my stages where I just miss it like crazy! I miss my kids SO bad some days that all I can do is sit and watch videos and look at pictures. The next group leaves in 2 weeks and one of the girls is asking me advice and what it was like etc. On one hand I'm happy to help but the true me is inside screaming "Eff you! Those are MY kids!" There's so many countless memories that you could not even begin to understand without having been there! I LOOOOVE the girls I went with and miss them like crazy! I know that China was where I was supposed to be. I grew incredible amounts while there, learning more and more about myself and life and other people. I grew spiritually in ways I'm still understanding. Thank you Alana and Ameri and Anna for telling me about your experiences and getting me informed and then so excited to go! :)

"I still miss you!..."

...I miss you picking me up... I miss texting you... "Okay you can't just leave me in there like that!"...I miss you freaking out when you drive... I miss traveling with you... I miss you hiding in my room to avoid crazy parents... I miss going to Panda Express... I miss you laughing hard and making ME laugh even harder... I miss you scaring little kids..."Why are you sad? It's a celebration!"... I miss going to Pier 49..."Cool Jess! You can go shave your BACK now!"...I miss you trying to hide your itunes password from me and Jess...I miss you being awkward with parents...I miss you randomly showing up at my house...I miss you letting me drive your car...I miss those moments when you'd catch my eye after someobdy said something stupid and just CRACKING up about it...I miss you surprising me with breakfast...I miss swim/pizza parties..."You don't understand okay! I was in an accident! A real accident!"...I miss you being mad at me for always being late...I miss you always giving me your coat because I'd never take mine...I miss going to Krispy Kreme...I miss you always randomly paying for me...I miss being out all night just driving around...I miss driving all the way to Heber just to get ice cream and drive back..."You never listen to me! SIT DOWN!"....I miss how funny it is when you'd get mad...I miss you sucking up to my mom...I miss you dancing EVERRRRY time you'd hear music...I miss our Walmart runs that were an everyday occurance..."No crying!"...I miss you always burning me CD'S...I miss our Wendy's runs...I miss going to get rainbow sherbert and then you sitting there and making fun of me the whole time I ate it...I miss you taking pictures with me all the time..."Okay...that's a grouch point. You only get 5 grouch points and then you're an UBER grouch!"...I miss how respectful you are...I miss you sucking up to authority...I miss you going to stupid movies with me that nobody else wants to see...I miss going to Haunted Houses...I miss your SUPER awkward moments..."Channnnnnn"....I miss you always helping me carry my stuff...I miss how good you always made me feel...

"Find Out Who Your Friends Are"

It's funny how quickly everything can change in life. About 1 1/2 weeks ago, everything was going GREAT, I was oddly optimistic and annoyingly happy. Then one day you wake up and something "hits you." So...you shake it off and keep going. Then the next day, I wake up late and find out I bombed a math test. I go outside in the POURING rain to walk across campus for my probation meeting and try and figure out summer school. Then friend drama. Then I find out I still don't get to have a car down here (Yay probation). Then stupid boys mess things up. Then I get sick. Then family stuff comes up. Slowly, things are bringing me down and I'm not able to really shake it off as much. When I FREAKED that our garbage disposale broke, I realized that it was time to get away for a little while.



I love that song "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" and believe it to be absoulutly true! Here is another little "shoutout" or thank you or whatever to the people that I love that much more lately! ......

Penny, Veronica and Dom. They have ALWAYS been there through all of my stupid drama and crap! They (and Ashlyn) are the biggest reasons I made it through high school the way that I did and they've stayed my best friends even since graduating and everybody starting to go their own ways.

Shay Harvey. I met her down here about this time last year and she's hilarious! I love "Shay moments" when she says the stupidest things and doesn't get mad when I make fun of her and take things too far. And she always drives clear over to pick me up for school, then back to campus, then back over the hill AGAIN to go home after. Thank you taxi girl!

BRIEZY! She is so awesome! She's a new roommate I met just a couple weeks ago when I moved down here but she's pretty much in the "best friend" category as well at this point. I LOOOOOVE talking to her! I feel like we're on the same page with a lot of things in life right now and she always has the perfect balance of listening and input. I love our dance parties, driving in her adorable car, going to Durangos, going to Coldstone, studying in the library, venting late at night, camping in the hallway and belting out our favorite songs! And of course laying on a blanket outside while we make lunch and attempt to work on homework :) (Yes this picture was at the end of January and yes we're in shorts and t-shirts)

SAAAAAM! This was on his "hater night!" One second we're yelling and he claims he hates me (which is a LIE always), then the next second he tells me I'm his best friend :) WOOH! He's like a brother to me! He always has my back and is so helpful whenever I need ANYTHING! He's the best! Except he needs to work on watching movies because so far all we get to see is "just the best parts"

J-FARNS! I realize that this picture is in 2 posts in a row but I do NOT even care! :) Like Dom, Ron and Pen, I met Jess in high school and have not only stayed close, but have gotten closer since graduating. She seems to always call at the perfect time and always knows what I need to hear whether I'm ecstatic, pissed, crying etc. And she's a good influence for getting me to do nicer things ;)

The BRANDT fam! Jake, Ashlee and Keznee girl. I love them! Ashlee and I haven't been close until recently but I'm really glad that we are now. I look up to Jake and her SOOO much! (Kinda because I'm taller than both...but figuratively speaking!) Jake is in the military and a few months ago he found out that he was going to be getting deployed. On top of this, having a new baby, moving, and change of military plans at the drop of a hat, they have handled everything SOO well! They have stayed so optimistic, and have kept the big picture in mind the whole time and just trying to make the best of the crappy situations that keep getting thrown at them. And Keznee is just adorable so she's thrown in here just for kicks :)

Brittany Cal. She sucks at "gottcha last" but I guess she's cool overall. We're 15 months apart and so obviously I've known her my whole life and she's always been my best friend. Sometimes I forget this, but at the end of the day it's always her. I can always tell her ANYTHING and she sits and listens to all of it without judging me or interrupting me and matching what emotion I need right then. And of course it's always fun saying that we're twins (like in the picture on our 21st birthday at Texas Roadhouse). She's always excited for me with whatever random thing I have going on, or whatever trip I'm talking about taking.

ER Bear! She was my first ever roommate and I love her to death! Our first "bonding" moment was when we found out that my name is actually her middle name. She got me to see a whole new perspective on life. She is such a good example of keeping your priorities straight and knowing what's most important in life. She's so loving and will do anything for people in need. Not to mention that we have had COUNTLESS good times of laughing hysterically! No matter how mad/sad I can be in a day, hanging out or talking to her will flip a 180 for me. Her family totally adopted me since I've moved down here and just totally accepted me as "one of their own." Now she's married but she still always makes time for me and thankfully we've stayed really close.

Thank you for always being there for me! Even when I know that ALL of you have much better things you could be doing with your limited spare time. Love youuuu!

Just what the doctor ordered!

So for the last 5 days I was able to go home for a little while...it was AWESOME! I was going up for my friends wedding, then I wasn't going, then I decided to go again and I'm SOO happy that I did! I was frustrated with a lot of things and life wasn't exactly going as well as I wanted it to be, so it was nice to kinda get away for a little while. It ended up being even better than I expected and it was exactly what I needed as a little break! Here's some of what happened...

FINALLY wrote missionaries back for the first time in 6 months! Sorry about that boys!

Dom and Losi! I met him down here at Jessica's wedding but not for very long and we didn't really do anything so it was nice to get to meet him "for real" and of course I always love getting to see Dom! They are such an adorable couple!

J-Farns! She is such a good friend to me and everytime I talk to her, I feel like she puts things into better perspective for me! "So...we're doing in but being nice? THAT"S NEW FOR US!" I had to crop out what was going on in the rest of the picture but just know that it was a really fun night! lol

Keznee turned 6 months! I freakin love this little girl and I do more and more everytime I see her again. I not only heard her laugh for the first time, but got her going hysterically! These overalls were so cute but they wouldn't stay on her shoulders for the life of her! LOVE YOU KEZY GIRL!

Roni, Lavi and me bowling at Fat Cats! Roni and me both won out of our lanes! Not only did we break 100 (which NEVER happens for me!), she got 114 and I got 120! And of course...a GREAT NIGHT!

Princess Roni...my colored sister! haha It's ALWAYS fun when Veronica's there and she cracks me up, especially when she's venting or kinda making fun of somebody. We went to Sconecutter and she was putting a drop of ketchup on each individual bite of her fries so we thought it was funny...sorry Ron but I had to!

Pesi and Dom! And the stupid pita sandwich. We sat there laughing and talking for so long that the worker came over and kicked us out. Before this we'd gone to sports night where we were graced with a quick appearance by Ms. Ashlyn Unga, but she was gone before we got a picture. "Well hello! Happy Halloween Dom!" haha

Kez and grandpa G. We took a quick trip down to pick up Kimber and figure things out with her so Kez, Ash and me stopped there while Jake went to meet up. Both grandma AND grandpa had work done on their knees this week so they were on recovery. Grandpa is always so cute with Kez! I didn't put it up, but there's the funniest picture of him comparing his bruised, scared and bandaged knee to Kez's little tiny white one. "Let's get a picture of the old AND the new!"

Like any other weekend, there were other people that I didn't get to see and some I WISH I didn't see, but overall it was great! I love that I got to see everybody and hangout again for more than just a quick overnight trip. Now onto my 6 math assignments I should have done....

LOVE YOU ALL!

"A penny for your thoughts..."

I'm in the library trying to do homework (shocker I know!) but I've got a lot on my mind that is distracting me....



-I WANT THAT XTERRA!!

-I have a new found love for cleaning my apartment

-Sam is a great guy to talk to about whatever!

-Ashlee is a lot stronger than I am

-The military is freakin ridiculous

-Keznee is getting unbelievably big

-School is totally different when you're actually GOING to school

-3 hours is WAYYYY too long to sit in a biology class

-Sorry missionary friends! One of these days I will FINALLY finish that massive pile of letters and get them all mailed off. It may be right before you come home, but it WILL happen!

-I love getting to talk to Jessica on the phone...even if she is making fun of me for most of the conversation

-According to my own "self evalutation" last night, I'm getting a little bit better at trusting people

-I really need to get caught up on Grey's Anatomy for this season

-Ericka and Brett are an adorable couple

-I have eaten a lot of chicken these last 2 weeks

-I can not WAIT for that stupid puzzle in our front room to finally be finished

-Watching movies has been a lot more fun lately ;)

-I love my sisters! I look up to both of them a lot and think that they are great :) Thanks for listening and talking so much this last little bit

-I still need to rematch Brad to beat him at Phase 10 since I killed at UNO

-I LOVE St. George! Only here can you lay out in the middle/end of January!

-For the first time in a LONG time, I feel really good about ALL aspects of life. Life is great right now! :)

First of all MERRY CHRISTMAS to everybody! Since I've been home, things have been crazy and a little weird but I've been meaning to blog again about our adventure coming home and what it was like to leave China. Right now is still not that time :) But I did want to hurry and do just a few things about it.

When we said goodbye, it was a totally new feeling for me. I have told missionaries goodbye, bye to my family and friends for 4 months abroad, bye to high school friends when I go to Dixie and bye to Dixie friends when I go to Provo. With all of these, I have never had the feeling of "This is it! I will NEVER see you again...." but in China I did. It broke my heart and was definetly one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Be prepared for more blogs within the next few days but for now here's just a couple pictures and little stories!



I was so excited to do presents (after keeping everything a secret for 4 months!) that I couldn't wait any longer! Even after flying for 3 days, I was wide awake and wanted to talk and show my family everything I got. This was the jersey crew when we finished.
The airport ended up being a lot more surprising than I thought it would have been. I thought that just my parents would come, and with the exception of Taylor (who was at work), my whole family was there! It was so good to see everybody and get such big hugs. Mom of course cried :) I was coming down the escalator and was surprised to see a poster, balloons and krispy kreme waiting for me! It made it even nicer coming home! The third and finally surprise is the left hand side of this picture. My neice Keznee was born 15 days before I left and I was only in Provo for about 8 of those days so I hardly got to see her. Ashlee told me that they weren't coming to the airport because of all the germs and stuff and they didn't want her to get sick. Understandable..I was bummed but I understood. After talking with everybody else for a little while, I turned to grab a bag and there was the Brandt family! I was SO excited I screamed. (Sorry again about that Kez!)
Our last meal in China! :) If you look really close you can see a reddish/brown thing off to the side of the cabbage. That is our beloved duck blood :) However, the cooks did pull through for us and made us our FAVORITE meal to send us off: chicken, potatoes and of course mantow, mifan!
This was the last time I saw Colin :( He was so sad and really didn't want us to leave. This was Sunday RIGHT before we loaded up the bus. He went home that Friday night (knowing we were leaving) so when he got back Sunday and saw that we were still there, he was SOOO excited, until we explained to him that we were leaving within an hour. He started crying. "No teacha! No go! No go! No go!" When I took this picture, he kept refusing to smile and you can see how he's holding onto my neck and shoulder. He gave me a HUGE hug after and I walked out of the building SOBBING!
Kelly oh Kelly! This woman is amazing! She spoke english pretty fluently and she was our coordinator between us and the school officials. We would have DIED without her! She was a life saver and our best friend. I hope that everything goes great for her in life because she definetly deserves it! The hardest part of our first airport was saying bye to her with all of US crying and her sobbing.


It's GREAT to be home! I'm definetly missing it though. I think I have more culture shock coming home than what I did when I got there. I tend to cry a little bit at random times. I went and picked up pictures I had printed and totally LOST IT flipping through them! Just you wait...lots of China stories coming up! Or if anybody had 7 or 8 free hours and are bored...give me a call! ;)

"You bray-kuh my heart!"

This is the common (and overused) phrase of the crazy women at the silk and pearl markets of Beijing. When you try and barter with them, they insist that you are bray-kuh their hearts because we go low even though "we friends, we friends!"

Last night however, this phrase took on a new meaning to me. Last night was the our end of semester/Christmas performance with the kids. We knew that when it was over, their parents would take them home for their winter break, and with us leaving tomorrow, it meant that it was our time to say goodbye to them. What we didn't realize when we started the perfermance,was how quickly they were going to disappear as soon as we were done.

For the last song, half of the teachers were on stage singing Jingle Bells with the kids while the other half of us were "elfs" throwing candy to everybody. I was an elf that ran out of candy before the kids were done and I had wanted to give them some. I knew I had a bag of it in my backpack backstage so I ran to grab it really quick. When I came out, I handed some to MAYBE 4 kids. Looking around, I saw a lot of the other teachers already crying and a nearly empty auditorium. We were so confused and everyone asking each other where the kids were. It was so sad and almost a little chaotic at the same time, everyone desperate to find their kids to hurry and say our goodbyes.

Ask any of the 18 and they will probably tell you it was NOTHING like what we had imagined! All week we were dreading having to say goodbye to them FOREVER, because there's no way we'll ever see them again, but the fact that we didn't get ANY closure to it, made it worse than how sad it would be to talk to them.

Some of them really started to get the idea of us leaving this week. Take Kim's class for example: Tuesday she drew a picture of America and a picture of Weihai and then an arrow that showed how we would be leaving Weihai. They started to get mad and cross out the arrow, telling her no. After that they just got depressed about it. I was helping Shelley the same day and Ruth came in to have somebody take a picture for her. When I walked into her room, Colin came BOOKING it across the room screaming "TEACHAAAA!" and just totally threw himself on me! It totally made my week :) I am definetly going to miss that little guy! He has always been my bud and it kills me I didn't the closure I needed.

Thursday night, Allie, Ruth and I went down to tuck the kids in for 1 last time. I'm so glad that we did! I have the most ADORABLE picture of Dave just grinning and so happy! I was able to spin around with Jesse and Emma again. Ben and I had another "kung-fu" off. It was fun to see everybody else too and see how excited they were to see us!

These kids have been AMAZING and ADORABLE and just all around great! I am going to miss them so much! It broke my heart though the way that things ended with them.



I'm off to finish packing! For as excited as I've been, I'm actually really sad now to be leaving tomorrow :( China has been such a huge thing and has changed me so much. It's sad that I won't be with these girls all the time, and it KILLS me I'll never see my kids again! It's been great though and it'll be good to get home. Both of my bags are 10 pounds over right now....BOOO weight limits!

..inside the mind of....

So 3 am tends to be the best time to get internet connection in China! Which works out great since I'm much more of a night person anyways. Checking my email tonight, I once again came to a very interesting one. Apparently I don't let people get to know me very well and nobody gets to see the true me...??? WELL, ok then! I used to be an extremely open person to anybody that I was close with, but yes that has changed quite a bit in the last year. So for the sake of the email, I figured I'd do a quick little "get to know" me list of a few very random things about me...

I would rather slit my wrists than go running "just for fun"

I only go running when I'm so pissed that nothing else helps. At this time, it's best to just completly avoid me

I know that good music+good food can fix anything!

I believe that everything looks better in the morning

I live off of Mt. Dew, chocolate milk and pink lemonade

I say I'm fine...I'm lieing

I believe All American Rejects, The Veronicas and Daughtry are the best songs to vent to

I don't care how attractive you are, you still don't get to act like an ass

I have only tried on skinny jeans once in my whole life

I actually really ENJOY driving in the snow

I get super attached to people

"There's never a right time to say goodbye..." (Chris Brown)

I love love like what they have in movies and books.

I'm typically an optimist

I miss my Red Dragon more than you'll ever understand

I used to be very self consious that I have 2 fake teeth

I get addicted to things very easily

I take more pictures in a month than what you will in your whole life

I would listen to Rascal Flatts all day everyday if I could

"....we adore who ignores us and ignore who adores us"

I cry more than I like to admit

I think that rumors have more power than the people that start them care to admit

I LOVE motorcyles, take off on planes and rollercoasters. They make me feel alive

"I'm annoyed" is a phrase I use a lot but I get over things super quick

I am down for almost anything people suggest so if you say it you better mean it

I can think of 2 specific times I've laughed so hard I've peed my pants and countless time that I've cried

I may forgive but I never forget

I have never before tried drugs or alchohal

I have changed between wanting to be a doctor, teacher, actress and banker. The one thing that remains is that I've ALWAYS wanted to be a mom!

I would marry any man on SPOT that got me Rascal Flatts concert tickets

I want to travel to at least 1 country on every continent

I can eat more than you on almost any given day

I LOVE photography and writing

I laugh hard and you can hear me over a mile away

I do not care what other people think of me

I like getting dressed up but I like my sweats even more

I love sports and every single day I miss playing them

I am excited to go to school...for the first time in my life

I am loud and random and spontaneous

I can down Mt. Dew like you wouldn't believe

I know that I'm incredibly far from perfect, but I like to believe I'm becoming better and better

6 days and counting....

2 posts in 1 night...I'm on a roll! :) I've already watched 8 hours of One Tree Hill today and Allie is sick so I'm trying to avoid our room so I figured why not blog again?

Things are so crazy right now! AHHHH! Only 6 more days and my 4 months in China will offically be over. In fact 1 week from right now, we will be landing in the Beijing airport. From there we will board a plane to Hong Kong. From Hong Kong we go to Taiwan. From Taiwan, to LA and from LA to SALT LAKE! It's 24 hours of flying, and 24 hours of lay overs so it will once again be QUITE the trip!

This week was interesting. It started off as HELL but today I'd say it ended great, with maybe just a touch of sad. We had TONS of chaos Monday and Tuesday morning. Our teaching schedule got changed to early morning instead of mid afternoon and nobody told us that were actually teaching so we were awakened to POUNDING on our doors at the crack of dawn, told the car was waiting for us and that we just had to take off with whatever we had. I HATE mornings as it is. The earlier they are, the worse they are. The "meaner" I'm woken up, the more I want to kill whoever did. And the STUPIDER the reason for the mistake, the more pissed I get why I think about it. Needless to say, there wasn't much pleasant talk in the car that morning.

Wednesday and Thursday were okay but Friday was a BLAST! Ruth and Shelley have been great about making sure that everybody that had a birthday over here, had a great day. Ruth's birthday is Decemeber 29th and Shelley's is December 27th so we'll just be getting home for theirs. We decided to throw them a surprise party here also. We have our big Christmas/end of semester performance coming up this week and Friday we had a dress rehearsal for it with the kids. After that, we all went down to the teaching building to surprise them while Melanie lured them down with a story that the rooms had flooded (Sadly not too far from the truth since this has happened TWICE) It was sooooo much fun! It was a great break to a crazy day and it's always fun when all 18 of us get together because it's pretty rare. Like anything else we do, we immediately started dancing and eating. About 20 minutes in, and Melanie starts up a huge cake fight....OF COURSE! It's a long story but lets just say there was cake alllll over the floor, down the hall, smmmmmeared in Allie's hair and ALL OVER Ruth, Allie, Kim, Melanie, Reili, Shelley and me. An interesting fact about China is that there are very few hours in the day where they turn on hot water for showers. We had no idea what time it was so we all were immediatly depressed thinking that we'd have to go shower in ICE water to get the crap out of our hair. I was against it enough that I was literally just going to wash my face and pull my hair back and sleep with it. I DO NOT do cold water!

However we realized it wasn't as late as we thought it was...THANK HEAVENS! Realizing we had only 20 minutes before it turned off, Ruth and Allie and I just take off running without thinking twice. China is FREEEEEEZING! I honestly have never been more cold in my life! We were in such a hurry and so disgusting that we didn't even think to put on our coats. So we jump out of the building in our t-shirts, into the RAIN and take off running! Our teaching building is at the bottom of our massive hill we have to climb to get to our dorm building. Once we've reached the building, we then have to run up 5 flights of stairs before we get to our rooms. We counted once...it's about 400 stairs and it is hell!

Once we got cleaned up and got back down to the building, we played Catch Phrase with Lauren, Laurne, Reili, Rachel, Kim, Melanie, Shelley, Ruth, Allie and me. This has become a favorite here! We play it a lot and it always gets extremely competitive. We had hauled our microwave down there so we made popcorn and just hung out. Then Reili pulls out this baggy with a bunch of papers in it to play "The Question Game." It was HILARIOUS! We talked about everything from people in our group, to wedding nights to first kisses to getting married 1 week after getting home etc. Really just EVERYTHING! It was sooo much fun! One of the questions was what will your first food be once back in the States? We spent 2 HOURS talking about this question alone! That's how ridiculous we've gotten :)

Kim, Rachel and the Laurens headed back up and we stayed. Back on Halloween the rest of us decided that at some point on this trip we were going to sleep down in the building, for what reason I don't know! China has sound activated lights...NOT pleasant when you're trying to fall asleep and the wind is blowing so hard that it's blowing doors opened and closed all night. Luckily though I'm an extremely deep sleeper so I was out quick and out for the night. UNTIL a little Chinese man awoke us in the morning by trying to get into our room. He was banging and rattling the handle and looking in our little window. It probably would have been scarier if we weren't so tired but none of us cared enough to even get up.

Yesterday and today were also a great days! I'm burned out from typing the last part so I'll just summarize a lot. Last night, we ran into Kelly (school coordinator) and some of the Korean boys. She told us that they wanted to take us out to sing...karaoke! A classic China favorite :) It was SOOOO much fun! I loved watching them try and sing the American songs and was impressed when they actually turned out to have really great voices! I got some great videos I'll have to try and post later. We went to church with the O'Briens for the last time today. DEFINETLY went out with a bang...as to expected! It was hilarious and it's one of those "had to have been there" moments for the most part. The Muchada boys (from Brazil) were there and they are ADORABLE! I would love to take them home with me! :) After, we went over their house and had dinner and did a white elephant gift thing. It was hilarious and it was the perfect note to leave on.



This week is going to FLY by! I already have 1 of my 3 bags packed. As excited as I am, it really is so sad to be leaving here. It's had a HUGE impact on me! It's weird to think that 4 months is already over. Friday night when we were talking so long, it started to hit me how weird it's going to be to not have these girls with me anymore. I've learned so much from them and have become such good friends. We've spend 24/7 together (literally) for 4 months, so I can guarantee it's going to seem lonely when I first get home. I'm going to miss them a ton! And don't even get me started on my kids! :(

Run down for the final week:
Monday-cleaning and packing. Pick up DVD's at market
Tuesday-party with the kids. Rehearsal for assembly
Wednesday-hitting up Weihai sites one last time. Kelly's birthday! Going skating and to dinner
Thursday-rehearsal ONCE again! More cleaning and packing
Friday- Christmas performance! The kids have semester break starting that weekend so when their parents come to watch, they'll take them straight home after so that afternoon will be the last time we see them :( Christmas party with US that night before Bree and Reili leave the next morning.
Saturday- lucnh with school officials. Last night in market, hang out in dorms
Sunday-last chance to pack! Load the bus and head out! Final goodbyes with everybody :(




Anybody that even remotely knows me, knows that I do NOT do well with goodbye so this should be interesting.... see ya in 7!:)