Home Time

I can't believe how fast these two months have gone by! Tomorrow is my last day as an Intern at ISNS! crazy!!!....but also that means it is officially my last day as an INTERN! THANK GOD! This year has gone by soo fast! 
   I am really sad to be leaving China, but I am also excited to get home. I am going to miss the staff here and my class so much, but it is always nice to know that you are going home. It is weird how close you can become with someone after only knowing them for 2 months! I have made some really great connections here in Shenzhen, and I hope those connections last a lifetime! 
I am mainly excited for the fresh ocean air and to run beside the ocean. There is an ocean here, but of course there is nothing like going for a nice long run along the cliffs of Grand Manan! I am not so excited for the cool weather. I have been living in extremely hot and humid weather for 2 months now and enjoying every second of it, so I am hoping that the summer weather hits NB really really soon! I am also excited for some good food! I haven't had a problem with the food here really, but I am missing my dairy! I haven't had a glass of milk for 2 months now, and that is so not like me! and of course, I can not wait for some fried dough, dulse, lobster, etc etc etc! It's always good to know you are coming home to some good home cooked food (thank you mommy) :) 
My flight leaves Shenzhen at 3:00pm Friday afternoon, and after a 15 hour flight, I will land in Toronto at 6:00pm Friday night. That is such a weird concept to wrap my head around! I am officially going back in time! My flight is scheduled to land in Fredericton at 1:00am on Friday night and my plan is to jump in my car and drive to Blacks Harbour and sleep in my car until the first boat, although I do not think I will be able to sleep because it will really be afternoon time in China, so we will see what happens! 
I am excited to get back and see everyone, especially the nieces! I bought them cute little China dresses and I think they will love them! Although I will be extremely jet lagged, I promise I will be ready to go and up for anything once I get back! I want to make this summer one of the best summers I have ever had, although it will be hard because I will be in school until July 13th (not fair, why do I have to finish my degree even though I have a job for September) haha! 
I don't know if I will make another post before I come home, hopefully I will be able to, but I am going to be busy with goodbyes and packing (how am I ever going to pack everything?) so I just wanted to take this time to say thank you to everyone that has followed my blog while I have been in China! It has been truly one of the BEST experiences of my life, and I would recommend China to anyone. I know that my view about what China is really like has majorly changed since I have been here, and it has really opened my eyes, both in a good way and a bad. Someday I will make a post about that, but not right now! I am very thankful for the place that I have grown up. Even though it has its issues, I live in a very healthy environment with fresh clean air, I am free to do what I want when I want, and I know that I am safe. We need to all take a step back and be truly thankful for what we have, because there are MANY people in this world that aren't that lucky! 
Lots of love and see you soon!!! :) 

May?... really?

First off, I can not believe that it is May already! The month of April absolutely flew. I know I say this about all months, and life in general..but I honestly do not know where the month of April went. April Fool's day was here, and now its May 2nd. This actually scares me about how fast life can go. I seems that the older you get the faster it goes. One of my goals for the year 2012 was to start living in the moment, because I am terrible at it. I am a future thinker and am always thinking in the future. To me right now, it is already July. I am slowly changing this about myself, and the realization of how fast the month of April went has really hit me that I need to start living in the moment more often.
On another note, I haven't updated my blog since our field trip to Hong Kong which was two weeks ago. I haven't updated for so long because I have been busy with school (was teaching all subjects) and I was extremely sick last week. I am finally back to feeling like myself and I have energy! I spent most of last week in the washroom or laying on my bed watching movies/tv shows (yes I finished two seasons of Vampire Diaries, a show I swore I would never watch and am now addicted) I am still not sure what I got sick with. At first I thought it was food poisoning because I had all the symptoms of food poisoning, but after I heard about a few kids getting the same sickness and a few people on the staff, I ruled out the food poisoning and realized I had some kind of crazy Chinese flu. All I know is that I have never in my life been that sick.. even though it only lasted 3 days and then came back for a night or so, I had no energy at all last week, barely ate anything, was very dehydrated and had nothing left in my system. NOT FUN!
Thank God for feeling better though because I had a great weekend. In China this weekend was May Holiday, or they also call is Labour Day Holiday. It is a holiday for people to rest, which made sense to me until I saw that all stores were open, taxis were running, thousands of people are still on the streets and life is going on like any other day in China, so I am not really sure where or if people were resting, but either way I got 2 days off from teaching so I wasn't complaining!
Saturday, Kate and I ventured to Daphen Village which was about a hour long subway ride away. It is a little village with alleys full of paintings. Every colour, every kind, original and printed paintings. It was totally not what I expected though. I got a few paintings for really cheap! I love them!
On Monday, 9 of us girls went to Evergreen Resort, which is a gem in the middle of Shenzhen. It was about 10 minutes away from our hotel, but felt like it was another world away! It was a very neat resort made into the middle of a forest. There were restaurants, pools, tree houses to stay in, butterfly sanctuaries, pottery making stations, and so much more! It was good to get away for the night and stay somewhere! The first day we were there the pool was still closed because pools do not open in Shenzhen until May 1st (even though its already 100 degrees in April). So we decided to get our bikinies on and lay beside the pool that we weren't allowed to swim in. The guard was watching us the whole time, but we all kept pushing the boundaries and eventually we found ourselves sitting in the water (technically we weren't swimming, right?) The guard did seem to mind, but he didn't really say anything, im guessing because we are foreigners. Oh, also, while we laid by the pool in our bikinis many chinese people including women, decided to stand outside the pool and stare at us. We kept saying that it felt like we were in a zoo, so then we started acting like animals. Why not give them a show right? Hhahaha it was hilarious! its not odd to look to your left or right and someone is either staring at you or taking a picture of you. I don't really mind, but when I am laying in a bikini, its a bit different! We went out for some Indian food and then came back to the resort and played a bunch of board games including one of my favourites, Things! I think we might have got to know each other a lot more than we expected through that game! Overall, the Holiday was a great experience and really relaxing!

Hong Kong Field Trip

 We just got back from a three-day field trip to the countryside of Hong Kong with the Grade 4 and 5. Needless to say, I am tired and dirty… but had a lot of fun! In between the torrential downpour of rain, Kate getting over 70 mosquito bites on her legs (yes I counted) my room smelling like pee, the thunder and lightening storm while we stood outside under a metal rooftop, and the 5 kids throwing up, and one having a mild seizure… it wasn’t a bad trip at all! Haha After taking 34 students across the border to Hong Kong we got there on Wednesday around noontime. We first moved into our rooms. The kids had rooms full of bunk beds, which was a lot of fun for them (until the next night when many kids got sick). Us leaders each had our own room, although mine smelled a lot like pee, I dealt with it and slept there! After we got our rooms we had lunch, which was sandwiches that were actually really good, and then we went to the gym all afternoon. The activities were supposed to be archery and repelling, but because of the rain, we were inside all afternoon doing rock climbing and playing with the parachute (which I forgot was so much fun to play with). That night we had a BBQ outdoors for supper. I was really anxious to see how this was going to work with 34 kids from many different places all over the world, and that probably had never heard of a BBQ before. We were given corn, fish balls (which weren’t really the balls from fish, it was just some kind of gross fish mixture rolled into a ball. I took a bite and spit it out) chicken wings (didn’t try one), sweet potatoes (they were good after they cooked on the fire for about 45 minutes) and hot dogs (anyone that knows me knows the answer to that one). The kids actually made out great and no one got burned! I was surprised. Most of them said the BBQ was the best part of the trip! I think I ate about 7 ears of corn; they were too good to pass up!  After supper we went for a walk through the woods which was nice, but there was a lot of bugs, which the kids didn’t like (I can’t lie, I didn’t like it either) I came out of the woods really itchy, but didn’t get any bites.

            On Thursday morning I woke up around 6 and went for a run up the road to a village by myself. It was the first time I have gone for a run by myself and didn’t have a clue where I was going (yes mom, I made sure to tell someone that I was going for a run so someone would come looking for me if I didn’t come back). I ran through the hills of the countryside of Hong Kong and came to this little village. It was actually a really nice run because the water was along the way too. I wasn’t nervous running by myself until I came upon 4 bulls and a baby cow walking up the sidewalk towards me. I didn’t really know what to do, so I just jumped off into the bushes and let them go by. I didn’t hide myself too well though, because when they went by each one of them stopped and starred at me while they snorting. I thought to myself, “this is how I am going to die. I am going to get rammed by this bull and thrown into the bushes and never seen again.” Although I think I worked up more of a sweat letting those things go by then I did when I was actually running, I survived. I can only imagine what people that drove by thought as they looked into the ditch and saw a white girl with a bright purple top on crouched down as the bulls went by. (such a foreigner) and don’t get me wrong, I love animals, but when you’re already nervous from running up and down the hills of a strange land and you see 4 bulls coming at you with a baby, it is a bit scary!

            The rest Thursday was suppose to consist of  Kayaking and hiking, but after one group got to do one of each, the thunder, lightning and rain started so we had to head back to camp. Kate’s group got to go kayaking before heading back, and Jess’s group and mine went hiking. It was actually an interesting hike because we went through an old rice field, saw one of the 6 most deadliest plants in Hong Kong, and ended up on a beach where there was many different kinds of shells. It was also interesting because the rain started as we were heading back and we all were soaked by the end of it. This wasn’t good for many of the kids, and I got to see personalities come out in the kids that I haven’t seen yet!

            That night we had supper, and then went to the theatre to put on skits. Many of the kid’s skits were about death or fighting (the Dragonfly staff should have made it clear that there was to be no violence in these skits. They’re obviously not teachers) Joey, Kate, Jess and I even put on a skit of our own for the kids. They loved it.  After all this the throwing up started. We still aren’t sure why, but by the end of the night 5 kids had thrown up. I am not too good with throw up, so I sort of hung back and let the other 3 leaders take control. Hahaha! I didn’t realize that teaching also involved things like cleaning up throw up (this is why I decided to become a teacher, NOT a nurse. I have a weak stomach.)

            The next morning there was more throwing up, and one kid had a mild seizure. After finishing their last activity, it was finally time to go home! All of the kids were very excited to get home, especially the ones that were sick. We still aren’t sure why those kids were sick, could have had something to do with the chicken leg they were gnawing on that afternoon, but overall, it was a good field trip and all the kids had a lot of fun (which was most important). The only bad part for me was the food, but that’s because I hate white bread, sketchy meat and milk that doesn’t have to be refrigerated (I don’t get it). We came back to the school today and had pizza waiting for us, which made me really really happy!

             Overall, the field trip was a lot of fun, and was a great experience. It is so funny to see how students act outside of the classroom. You can really see their personality once you get them away from the classroom and home for 3 days! Here are some pictures from the past 3 days. I am not allowed to post pictures of the students on facebook, so my blog will have to do! 

hahahahhahahah this picture is too funny!

caught him mid-chew

pretty butterfly from our hike

The girls were less than impressed with the rain 

we made it back! 

           

Earth Day Poem

Each student was asked to put together a four lined poem in AABB style for Earth Week that is coming up next week. It is pretty cute what they came up with because the students are learning English as a second language, so even though most of their english language is strong, some struggled. Together as a class, this is what everyone wrote:

Save the Earth!

Vincent - Everybody knows that Global Warming is bad

It melts all the ice caps, making polar life sad

Vincent - The earth is hot

It’s like the fire under the pot

Kevin - The sun is also very hot

Like a burning pot

Kevin - We cannot live without the sun

Or we don’t have any fun

Lawrence - Make sure you have sunscreen when you are having fun

Or you’ll get hurt by the sun

Lawrence - When too much light comes through

It melts the ice, what can we do?

Joanne - Pollution is causing a huge hole

Please stop that huge hole

Joanne - Stop making pollution

Trouble is coming from pollution

Grace -The atmosphere is helpful to us

But we are hurting it with the bus

Grace - I can tell you why

If we don’t have the atmosphere, we will die

Aileen - If you destroy the plants

Where is the habitat of the ants?

Aileen - Plants are the angels in our lives

So don’t cut them, let them be alive

Lily - When the sky turns grey

When there’s nothing left to say

Lily - Where will they go?

Nowhere, we all know

Selena - Throwing the garbage on the ground

And look, it is all around

Selena – I want the sky to be blue

There are many things we can do

Lisa - Recycle is fantastic

Remember to save your plastic

Lisa - Recycle is so strong

That it should not be gone

Rachael - As I watch the sky turn to blue

I wonder what I will do

Rachael - But then as I watch the earth turn grey

My life is full of sadness and dismay

Jessica - Watch the dirty gas in the air

Humans smoke everywhere

Jessica - I don’t want to hurt the earth

I just want to save the earth

Melanie - Plants, forests and trees

Full of the colour green

Melanie - Now the forests are starting to die

It really makes me want to cry

Goldie - The hurricanes and floods

Nothing can stop the blood

Goldie - All these natural disasters

I want to stop them faster

BMW - We need to have a lot of oxygen

It is good for the children

BMW - We are leaning about the cow

We should not eat them now

Dalan - We are killing our trees

Flowers and food for the bees

  

Dalan - Trees are very tall

All the trees are starting to fall

Oscar - Rain can help the plants grow

Rain is helpful we all know

Oscar - Typhoons can stop school for a day

We can all go home to stay

Sharia - But that is not very great

Natural disasters are something we hate

Sharia - It’s really nice if the environment is good

We can do everything we should

Linda - Nature is so precious

But we are so vicious

  

Linda - Nature is slowing fading away

Lets be caring in every way

  

Christine - We want to save us scums

From being toasty buns

Christine - Earth used to be a piece of art

But look at it now, I wish it could all restart

Christine - So save the hole of the Ozone Layer

Don’t let it get any bigger

Dennis - Humans cut down the trees

And number of animal decrease

Dennis - Carbon Dioxide everywhere!

There will be no trees, no animals, no humans, anywhere!

Kev - Please stop hurting the Earth

We’ve been doing it since our birth

Kev - Don’t pollute the air

For every living thing, it’s unfair!!

STOP GLOBAL WARMING! 

Yo-yo

I started to teach motion and forces to my Grade 5's this week. I had them all bring in a toy that showed linear motion (and yes they were not allowed to touch the toy until Science class, or I told them I would take it back to Canada with me!) After demonstrating how the YoYo showed linear motion, a boy in my class decided to show us all his skills!! Enjoy! 

The Past Week & Mountain Climbing

My mom informed me that I have been really slack lately with my blog updates. sorry about that! haha The reason that I have been so slack is because 1. I am getting busier with school, and 2. I wish that there was a way that I could take in every moment that I am experiencing and share it with you guys. I am trying my best, but it is true, that you have to live the moment to fully experience it. But here is what has been happening since my last blog update about the hair wash:


Last week I started Language Arts. We are working on Procedural Writing, but for a break, last Thursday I did a little activity with them. I put up a picture of something and they had to write about it for 4 minutes. They could make a story out of it, describe it, tell me what they thought it was, etc. After the 4 minutes went by, some of the students would share their writing with the class. After I would tell them what the picture was about, who was in the picture, where I was, etc. It let them know a little bit more about me as well. Here are some of the pictures that I put up



It was hilarious to see what they had to say about this one. Especially since some of their english is pretty low. The responses ranged from.. "Miss R was trying to make birthday cake and shocked herself" to "Miss R went to sleep with pretty hair and woke up and this is what her hair looked like, so she took a picture of herself" hahaha! it was cute

The main response to this one was that "Miss R went to a farm and fell in poop" or somewhere along those lines (ps. it is not poop, it is mud from the U2 Concert last summer!)

They were very interested to hear that my father was a fisherman! one of the boys named Dennis from Korea said... "Miss R, you so lucky! Lobster so yummy!" hahaha

They absolutely loved this picture. They were so happy when I told them that it was two of my brothers puppies! 

Other than Language Arts, I have also started to teach Social Studies this week. We are doing a unit on Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt. I think they are really going to enjoy it! They haven't really done anything about Ancient Rome, so hopefully I can make it interesting for them!


Other than school, I have been doing the usual. The park just down the street is amazing. I love it there cause I feel like I am out of the city for a bit! I went for a good run around the park one day last week and then decided to do some planks, stretching, etc in the middle of the park when I was done. Many chinese people decided to stand there and stare at me, but I didn't care. The is the BEST thing about China to me. I love the feeling that I can do whatever I want and never feel like an idiot for doing it. I can pick my wedgie and not give a shit if any sees me! hahaha its honestly the best feeling. You know that when you go to a park and there are people running backwards, slapping their arms while the run (i'm guessing for circulation?), clapping their hands when they run, run with dresses and flats on....you can do whatever you want and never feel stupid about it! Anyways, the park is one of my favourite places. I went there two evenings ago though and the bats started coming out when it got dark. I am not scared of many things, but I DO NOT LIKE BATS! maybe I should stick to going there in the day time! :) 
We also had a boy teacher vs girl teacher volleyball game last Thursday night. That was a lot of fun. We lost, but thats okay.. we will beat them next time!
On Friday I decided to go "scrimmage" against the Chinese High School boys basketball team. I didn't bring my basketball sneakers to China so I just wore my runners because I didn't think it would be to serious of a game. But I was wrong. The school came out to watch and those high school boys had some talent! there were 5 guy teachers and myself that played against them. There was two boys that had some serious talent, but their coach was also the ref so there was a lot of missed calls! But the teachers ended up winning by 6, and I got a good workout out of it! They play against them every Friday so I will definitely be doing that again soon. 
On Friday night we went out for pizza. The boys had heard of a pizza challenge that if you can finish a 16inch pizza in an hour you get it for free from one of their high school students.. so we thought we would go to that. I discovered a new part of town called Costal City. The architecture and lights there are amazing! once again, its hard to explain, but it's a really nice part of town. Me and Kate shared a pizza and it was delicious! out of the 6 boys that tried to finish the 16inch in an hour, three of them did it! and they weren't feeling too good after! hahaha! It was the best pizza i have honestly ever had (or maybe I thought it was so good because I haven't had pizza for so long) either way, it was delicious! After the pizza we went for a foot massage. It only cost 5$ CAN, but it was more painful for me then enjoyable! haha It was an hour long back, neck and foot massage. They also did some weird technique called cupping on my feet. They put oil inside this little cup and lit it on fire and then stuck it to the bottom of my foot and would rub it up and down along the bottom of my foot, and then do it again! Apparently it is suppose to get all of the toxins out of your body! Although it wasnt to enjoyable, it was a great experience.
Saturday night - we sat around on campus and sang some songs to the guitar for awhile and then went out. Dancing in China is definitely different than dancing at Zees in Fredericton! hahaha! there will be many more nights out dancing I hope!!
o also, Saturday I bought a phone so I could keep in touch with people on campus. that was an experience and a half trying to barter with the women for a phone when she couldnt speak ANY english. I was trying to tell her that I didn't care if it had a camera, or music, and all I wanted to do was text. She didn't get it and I ended up buying a phone that has a camera, music and sim card for 30$ CAN when the one that I wanted that had nothing to it but a key pad was more than that. haha! but o well, I spent 30$ CAN to stay in touch with people here and in case of an emergency sometime. You never know, I might need it sometime!!
Sunday- KAYLA LAM came to Shenzhen! I showed her around the city for a bit, we went to Louhu (the big market) and then back to her hotel room (her dad spoils her) haha jk KLAM (but seriously) and then went to Shekou and had some Mexican food! It was my first time out and around the city without someone being with me that knows their way around! We took the subway and a taxi and made out fine! I think half of it was thanks to Kayla's mandarin skills tho (people back home in freddy, Kayla is getting very good at speaking chinese, don't let her tell you different) I wish I had more time to spend with Kayla! It was a great day that I needed! 

I know I need to update my blog more now, because when I wait awhile I have way to much to write about! haha but last thing - Today there was no school because it is Qingming (pronounced Ching-ming) holiday, so I decided to wake up at 630am and go hiking with some people! there was a group of 8 of us altogether. This hike was like the red trail on the back of Grand Manan but about 10x harder. There were parts that were easy, and then there were parts were you had to slide down on your butt or you'd fall, or you had to use a rope to climb up the side of the hill. It took us around 3 1/2 hours altogether to finish, and we only stopped once to grab a quick snack. I am a little scratched and bruised up, but I am fine. The whole hike was along the cliffs of the ocean and I couldn't stop thinking about how much it looked like the back of Grand Manan. Besides all the Chinese people we met along the way, I thought I was on the red trail on the back of the island. People kept saying how beautiful it was and I was like ya, I see this everyday when I am home! We take Grand Manan for granted a lot. It is definitely one of the most beautiful places on earth to be. The scenery there is beautiful! At the end of the hike we made it to the beach we were aiming for.. we started at Dongchong Beach, and hiked until we got to Xichong Beach, or it might have been the other way around, hahaha i dont remember! but either way, the clouds cleared off when we reached the beach so we put on our bikinis and went for a swim in the China sea! The chinese people just stood there and stared at us thinking we were crazy because the water was cold and they were dressed in long sleeved shirts and pants, but as I said... the best thing about China is I can do whatever I want and never feel stupid about it! The very best part of the day though was our 30 minute boat ride back to where we started. It was blowing about 50 knot today and we took a skiff back to the beach through the waves! it was wild. I sat in the front and was just loving it. It reminded me of the time dad took me and mom out around White Head one day in the skiff when he shouldn't have. we would go up... and then BANG... come back down off the wave and hit the water. It was great! haha! Some pictures from the day:

The beach that we started at... and no that is NOT pollution, they are clouds! I am glad it wasn't sunny and hot during our hike! (ps, I am still badly burnt) 

You can see where we went up and down and up and down and up and down, etc! Between each climb and descent there was always a little beach like this one! 

We made it to our destination!

Not a tan line but a dirt line from the hike! haha 

The boat ride back! so much fun!

I hope this post isn't too too long! next time I wont be so slack! (okay mom?) I will post again soon ! :) I will leave you with this lyric from a song I have been obsessed with lately - Benjamin Francis Leftwich - Atlas Hands

"I've got a plan
I've got an atlas in my hands

I'm gonna turn when I listen to the lessons that I've learned"