The first few days

I have been in China for one week, and it has already been life changing. I've done/seen things that I'll never forget, I ATE A BUG (cooked, of course), almost got hit by a few crazy drivers (sorry mom- traffic laws don't exist here), and met some amazing people. I am 14 hours ahead from Texas, and my internet access is a little difficult. China has recently banned foreigners from internet cafes. Bummer. They also have like every website blocked, including this blog site- but no worries, I have naturally found a way around it.  Anyway here is my first blog post. I'm not really sure how to do this. I don't want to bore everyone, so sorraaaay if i do!

My flight was SUPER long. I got into Beijing late, which forced me to run (literally RUN) with all my luggage to my connecting flight. When I got there I was sweaty and frazzled and literally minutes before the plane took off the only chinese I could think of were the words "sorry" and "thank you". Naturally my luggage didn't make it with me, but don't worry, I did get it and I have changed clothes since.

We as a group this week traveled to the small city of Tonghai, a few hours away from Kunming. It was INCREDIBLE. We had orientation meetings in Buddhist temples on Xiu Shan- a holy Buddhist Mountain! Words cannot describe how amazing it was. Honestly the most beautiful place I have ever been.

Dis is meeee, at one of our orientation meetings inside one of the many temples on the mountain! See the Buddha behind me? After our meetings we were released to explore the Xiu Mountain on our own. We were reeeeaaalllyyy high up in the sky so uhhhh the altitude kinda kicked my butt. For the Austinites it was like Mount Bonnell on mega steroids. It hurt my athlete pride that I was so out of breath while climbing the stairs up the mountain haha.

There were countless temples on the mountain, and each one was a hike to get to, but every single one we went to was so breathtakingly beautiful.

I even saw a REAL MONK. He was playing Chinese Chess in a garden outside one of the temples. SO COOL.

The other half Asian on the trip and I also ran into a few of our ancient warrior ancestors... hahaha










Off the mountain and back in Tonghai, the owner of an English school invited us to his school to teach his students English. THIS little boy was my favorite! He was so smart. We spoke some in Chinese and he looked like a normal little boy, then when I made him laugh, his face transformed into this HUUUGE grin! You cannot look at this little boy and not smile.

At the English school I got put in charge of a group of five 11 year old boys...uhhhh. Boys are the same everywhere. Keeping their attention was a challenge! I spoke with them a little in English, then we switched to Chinese where they taught me really valuable words in their village dialect like Spiderman and "you're stupid".  I in turn gave everyone appropriate nicknames.

From left to right: Spongebob, Michael Jordan, Lady Gaga, Me aka "haokan" (literally means "goodlooking"), Spiderman, and Michael Jackson.

We also went to a small village called Liuyi where we met some of the last women in all of China who have their feet bound. The Chinese formally believed that the smaller your feet were, the prettier you were. Well they must have been really freaking pretty cause their feet were TINY. These were absolutely amazing women. They were in incredible shape, their feet were outrageously small and none of them used anything to walk with, and they danced for us! They were all in their upper 80s or 90s. The most amazing thing was not what great shape they were in, but how HAPPY they were. They loved dancing for us and taking pictures with us, one of them held my hand in my picture with her. She was 96?! Adorable.

What incredible women!

look how tiny their feet are!

Another one of my favorite things that I did this week, was dance in the Tonghai street with a group of mostly middle aged women doing what I interpret as the Chinese version of Zumba. It was right after I ate the bug in the restaurant we had dinner in, so I was feeling brave and adventurous.  Most of the girls in my group were too shy to jump in, but me and two other girls walked right up and joined the Chinese Zumba group! There is an instructor at the front, with a boom box blasting music and rows of women dancing with her. It is choreographed so we were uhhh really bad. But we got the hang of it. By the end I was NOT the worst dancer in the group! We danced for 3 songs, and when we turned around to leave, there was a CROWD of Chinese people just watching the 3 American girls dance haha.


Now we're back in the city, and classes start Monday. I'm excited to begin classes and improve my Chinese. If you're still reading this...wow thank you I know this was long, but I have one more really good experience to share...

When I arrived in Kunming, I was nervous and alone. While waiting for my luggage (which never came..) I met this American girl. She was HUGE. Seriously she was taller than probably all the boys I know. I would say she was close to 7 feet. She saw me, her face lit up and she started a conversation with me. I too was relieved to speak English amongst the unintelligible Chinese that was being spoken all around me. I learned that her name was Lindsay, and she was originally from Arizona, but was playing professional basketball in China. She told me of all the places she has played pro ball (Turkey, France, and others), and I could tell that she wasn't thrilled at all with being in China. She hadn't learned any Chinese, and there was an obvious disconnect between her and her teammates. She also advised me to eat KFC instead of McDonald's while in China (ew). She was very nice, but meeting her made me think a lot about being overseas, and how much control I actually have.  If I want, I can speak English and eat KFC and Pizza Hut, like Lindsay, or I can really try and be a part of this society and culture, eat the food and speak the language. This experience is what I make it, and I do not intend on being like Lindsay.