We have arrived!

When we finally arrived in china, one girl didn't get her luggage. We all waited around for it for about two hours. This is us waiting.

 Then we got on a bus for a two hour drive to our apartment. 

People always told me china was humid but I didn't realize it was this humid! I take a shower then walk outside and I feel like I need to turn right around and take another shower.

When we got to our apartment it was 6 am. Two girls, amber and carry, were waiting for us. Carry helped us "carry" our luggage. Haha. Amber helped too. We stopped between several buildings and amber said "guess which apartment is yours" I pointed at one and she said "you are very clever!" Booyah! I'm officially accepted by the Chinese people... Or at least amber. When we got in front of our building they told us we need to take a picture, so we did 

Then amber said "ok now do your ugly faces!" And this was the outcome of that. 

Our apartments are.... Let's just say I appreciate my home in America much more now! 

Here is our living room

Not too shabby.

Here is our kitchen.

A little bit shabbier 

Here is our bathroom.

That thing on the floor, that's a toilet. They call them squatters in this part of the world. You place your feet on the white part of the squatter and do exactly what the name says, squat. The way I see it is it's a work out machine: you lose weight by emptying out your system and you work your thighs out by squatting. And that my friends is why Chinese people are skinny and Americans are fat. 

Oh and that thing hanging on our wall is the shower. The water drains in a tiny whole by the wall. As you're showering you kind of have to scrape the water into the hole. 

Here is our washer and drier.

I have no comment. 

Here is mine and Amanda's room

It's a little squishy, but we shall prevail!

Here are our decorations in the home 

Can't go wrong with a bunny and a tiger and... Petrified wood? Brown seaweed? I don't know. 

And last but definitely not least, here is the view from my bedroom window.

It kinda makes the whole apartment :) 

Well there is my home for the next four months! Bring on the adventures!! Oh and teaching... That will be fun too! Haha 

Plane rides...

The plane ride from salt lake to Cali was great. There was a total of about 15 people on the plane so everyone could have a whole row of seats to themselves.

 After we landed in LA we had a four hour lay over. Me, Amanda, Kate, and Emily entertained each other. We went on long walks thru the airport, we played cards, we raced to see who could sit on all the chairs the fastest, and most our time was spent on the moving sidewalks. We tried to do tricks on them when no one was watching. This is us trying to lay on both hand rails so we spin in circles. As you can tell, it was a complete fail. But a funny fail. 

The plane ride to Korea was a little more squishy. We had a huge plane, but every seat was full. We each had our own tvs in front of us. (So cool!) our first meal on the flight was interesting. I couldn't understand the flight attendant when he was asking what meal I'd like so I just said "I'll take the first one" it ended up being a thing called bibimbap. We didn't know how to eat it, luckily it came with instructions! I had to watch the Korean man sitting next to me to make sure I was doing it right.  The meal was spicy but it was very good. It came with soup, seaweed soup. It tasted just like you would think seaweed tastes like. Definitely not my favorite thing, but you gotta at least try it! 

The 12 hour plane ride was exhausting! Who knew that sitting down doing nothing could be so tiring. By the end of the ride my feet were swollen, my butt was numb, and I just wanted to stretch out. 

Saying goodbye

Well, saying good bye was a little bit harder than I anticipated. As my nephew gave me a slobbery kiss on the cheek, my eyes watered. When I called my grandma to say good bye, I even said the "L-word" to her. Saying good bye to my mom wasn't as emotional. Not because I don't love her, but because we were in a public place with people watching.

Amanda Johnson's parents are taking us to salt lake. (They are so sweet) On our way we decided that we better get as much American in us before we head to this foreign country. So we stopped at mccdonalds! We ordered the mccnasty. Aka a mcchicken stuffed inside a mcdouble. Aka a heart attack in a bun. 'Merica! 

peace out America

I have known this date for many months and it has finally arrived! I'm headed to China! Now, I'm not too excited about the 20 hour plane ride, but I'm definitely excited to start "The Great Adventure of China".  get it... like The Great Wall, but The Great Adventure. clever. Today is the 25th of August and I'm heading down to Salt Lake tonight and then I will fly out tomorrow morning at 7 am.
 My feelings: excited! My fears: getting sick.
I know a total of two words in Chinese, thank you and hello... I guess that's three words. I know three words in Chinese! But don't ask me to write anything in Chinese, the closest thing I know to writing it is the pie symbol.
Well, peace out America!