There and Back and There and Back and There and Not Yet Back

If you asked me 5 years ago what I would be doing with my life in 5 years I would not have said 'Wild China-ing it up'. I probably would not have even said 'student teaching in China.'   Yet here I am. If there are any important life lessons that I have learned since coming to China it would be these:
1.  You will get rained on in China. However, the only days you really need to worry about bringing an umbrella are the days you wear a white shirt.
2.  Trying to surf the bus is much harder than trying to surf the subway. (For anyone who is confused by that I simply mean riding without holding onto anything.) My recommendation would be to avoid attempting this feat when it is late and you are tired or when you are carrying groceries home.
3. Looks can be deceiving. What may look like an innocent, tempting, and delicious bottle of milk may, in fact, not be.
4. No matter how many times you remind yourself to grab toilet paper before walking into the bathroom stall there will still be times when you forget it and regret it.
5. Remember that the light switches are outside of all the rooms they are actually for.
6. Drying your clothes the natural way is a great way to stiffen them up a bit!  That or grab some starch for your clothes in until they can stand on their own-the effect is similar.

As you can see from these little nuggets of China gold I've learned, these last 3 weeks have not been wasted on me.

Anyway, I've officially been in China for 3 weeks now (I'm sorry I haven't blogged before.  Internet is anti-Laura at the best of times, and China, sadly, is not the best of times) and I can confidently say that the clumsiest or unluckiest thing I've done is ALMOST wipe out in front of a class of 2nd graders.  China is so fantastic.  There are some obvious accommodations I had to make when I moved here. I made a list of similarities.
China and Arkansas: A completely comprehensive list of similarities and differences based on one person's experience of 21 days in a new country

• Similarities: 
• mosquitoes up the wazoo
• fantastic thunderstorms
• humidity
• it's a great place to avoid people and read books in bed (or anywhere really)
• friendly people
• GREEN
• Differences:
• China is...
• huge and full of people
• also full of squat toilets
• skyscrapers are a thing here
• lots of Asians are also here
• I feel illiterate here
• kids have adorable school uniforms
• there's actually free public transportation (within my community)
• rice (on the daily)
• things are cheap
• I can travel 2 hours by ferry and be in a different country
• Arkansas...
• smaller
• full of English speaking people
• not a terrifying place to drive a car (which I actually have in America)
• grocery shopping is easy because I can read what I'm buying
• I can drink any and all the water I want
• I can read 

I've also started collecting a list of bad or funny English in China. It's one of my favorite past times.
*My very first day here I saw a sign that said "Milks and beans are daily routines." Loved it.
*Or the welcome sign in Hong Kong that says "Wellcome." Seems more like "Well, come on in!"
*The shop that is simply called "The Delicious Food Shop." (They seem smarter than the owners of the Awful Waffle. Just saying.)
*This bread package "Enjoy. Don't forget the things you once you owned. Treasure the things you can't get." (And while you're at it also covet everyone else's things.)
*Finally, the t-shirt that said "Just smile! Lovely Dog"

If you know me then you know I love foggy days so this weather was perfect for me! (If you don't know me then why are you reading this blog?) This is when we visited the BIG Buddha in Hong Kong.  The stairs were nice and long so it almost felt like being back at BYU again and climbing the stairs by the RB.  Ah the memories. 

Here is a beautiful garden that we went to called Nanjing gardens. It was attached to a nunnery and pretty much the best thing ever.  Although I may have been slightly biased by the fact that we got to go outside and explore the garden in the rain.  

                                                                          

I also found Batman in Hong Kong. We bonded. It was great.




Here's the Hong Kong temple. It was beautiful and the perfect start to our morning.

   

This is the view from Victoria Peak.

   







 Just casually taking a ferry from one island of Hong Kong to the other.  It's normal to travel by boat (apparently.) I've been missing out in life. Cars are so over rated.






Aunt Jan and I just met up in Hong Kong. NO BIG DEAL. (Totally was a big deal. Or in the words of Remi "A B.D.") We got foot massages together and these two ladies were so friendly and talked to us the whole time.




                          This is Hattie.  Turns out she is my adventure buddy. I can always count on her to randomly do things with me.  It was around 9 at night and the other 6 girls were like 'we're going out shopping' and we're like 'uhh no more.  We're tired.' But then we decided we really weren't that tired and the only thing to do at that point was to hop on a ferry to the other island, ride on this glowing blue ferris wheel, and share that special moment together with the couple across from  us.  (Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE ferris wheels?)


Again, I'm really sorry it took me a month to post this blog.  Expect a few more this week now that I can finally post the ones I've had hanging out waiting for pictures.