China Sick.

I had NO time to post those last 2 weeks in China. There was so much to do and I just wanted to soak up every minute. I've been home for almost two weeks. I think it's JUST hitting me that I'm truly home and I won't be going back. It was a sad realization!

I miss my kids so much!!! Saying goodbye to them was honestly the hardest thing of my life! It kills me to think I'll never see them again! I think a small part of me is still expecting to go to my school and play with my kids any day now....

I don't really know what to say, so here's pictures of my kids. I just can't come up with the words. A picture is worth a thousand words... right?

Sometimes they're a little crazy, but that's why I love them!

 

This is Dustin. He was seriously the funniest kid I had! He loved doing "high five... on the side... up above... down below... TOO SLOW" and would always make faces at me while I was teaching!

 Me and Heidi!

 I seriously just love them! There's nothing else to say!

 And sometimes Morgan would just get in the splits.

 You try getting these kids to pose when you barely even speak their same language... it just doesn't happen! :)

 One of the last days we flew paper airplanes from China to America. It was great fun!! :)

 Madi, Alli, Cheryl, Jess, and Anna! Love those girls!

 This is Rick. Isn't he cute?!

 Chuck. OOOOooooh Chuck! Gotta love him! He was Cierra's student at first and I was so mad when he got switched to my class. He was SO annoying! He did this screech thing that was literally ear piercing. And then suddenly one day he turned into the biggest sweetheart! I still don't know what happened! But he'd come up every 5 minutes or so (while I was teaching...) and give me a hug. :) Love him!

 This is me teaching during one of my public lessons.

 My class full of Harry Potter names! :)

 Me and Charlie! He was such a trouble maker, but I still love and miss him so much!!!

 CYD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even tell you how much I miss her! She was seriously just the best student ever!! 

 You get that candy cane, Becca!!!

 Brynn!! Such a typical Asian picture!

 These were our cooks. They were so sweet!

 My class #3. They were CRAZY, but so smart!!!

 Me and Tanner! He was by far my smartest student. He was a total class clown but I couldn't help but adore him!

 This is Leanne. She is such a sweetheart!

 This is Mike. Such a crazy little kid! :)

 Mark was such a shy, but sweet kid! 

 This is after one of the Chinese teachers translated that I was leaving...

 My girls. Amanda, Macey, and Lauren. I love them! I think I will miss them forever.

 Amanda. She is seriously the best!!!!

 Cierra and I with some of the Chinese teachers! They were awesome!

 This is the teacher that would always give me food and make sure I was taken care of! Thank you! :)

 Paul. Isn't he adorable?! At first he was such a crazy student! I couldn't figure out how to get him to pay attention! Then one day we were teaching about sports and I brought a ping pong paddle and a ball. BAM. I had his total and complete attention! I started bringing that to class every day and suddenly I had a model student! He'd do anything for his turn to play!

 Paul, Darren, and Jana! :)

This is George. Oh my gosh. I'm going to cry while I'm writing this!!! He seriously has a place in my heart forever! My classes found out the week before that I'd be leaving the next week. On my last day George brought me a letter that he had his older brother help him write. It said:

"To: Teacher Jenni

Hello Teacher! I'm George. When I heard that you are going to USA, I were very disappointed, so I cried every night and I want to write a letter to you, and a brother called Jim helped me.

I have two wishes to you:

First, I wanna hug you before you go back;

Second, when I am grown up I'll go to USA and I'll find you.

So, can you leave your email or phone number please? I hope you have a good life, and find a boyfriend at USA! Haha :) Then, Bye bye!

From: your lovely student, George"

*then there was a lovely drawing by him

Ya. It melted my heart .

Larry. You all know how much I love him! :) 

 Bill and Charlie. So energetic! :)

 Cyd, Lily, Michelle, and Heidi! :) Love them!

 This is Annette! She is fantastic. I wish you all knew her.

 Me and George! :) Yes. I did give him a BIG hug before I left!

 She is seriously just awesome!

 This was our favorite first grade teacher!

 The kids mobbed me in the hall!

 :( I MISS THEM!!!!!!!!!

 And they mobbed me again in the cafeteria. This is Michelle and Lily!

 Jess told me she'd miss me and she loves me! :) So sweet!

 My boys made hearts out of their reindeer antlers and gave them to me. :) Sooo adorable! 

Ok. I've gotta stop. This is making me way too China sick. I can't tell you what those kids mean to me or how they changed my life. China changed me!! And I'm so grateful for it!

Turkey Day... Minus the Turkey!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I’ve had a lot of people ask me if they celebrate Thanksgiving here in China. Let me just answer all those questions from the get go. No, they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. No, there isn’t turkey here. Yes, it’s possible to get it, but not around Weihai. If we were in a big city like Beijing we could probably buy an imported Butterball or something, but they usually cost around $75 (USD, not Yuan). Yikes!

We taught like any other day on Thursday. I taught my kids all about family and Thanksgiving. I brought my computer so I could show my kids pictures of my family and Thanksgiving dinner. They LOVED that! :) And I loved teaching them about it! They kept calling my family beautiful and I’d have to say I agree! I love my family! When I showed them pictures of Thanksgiving dinner they went nuts! I think they would quite enjoy the holiday! Eating way too much delicious food... what’s not to love?! I also had the opportunity to introduce them to a great American tradition: handprint turkeys!!! :) It was quite a blast. My kids get so excited and it’s so fun to teach them! :)

My kids making turkeys!

That night our little group of Americans celebrated Thanksgiving. It definitely wasn’t a typical or traditional Thanksgiving Dinner! We went to a little nearby restaurant. We had a whole lot of stereotypical Chinese food. It wasn’t turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, pie, and all the other things you would normally associate with Thanksgiving, but it was still delicious. Emily’s parents recently moved to Beijing, so they joined us for the Holiday. It was so fun to have them with us. Emily was making us all a little jealous as she laid her head on her dad’s shoulder and her mom gave her a back scratch! We were all especially missing our families! Brother and Sister Latimer were awesome though! They brought us candy and oreos for dessert, so we did get a little taste of America on Thanksgiving! :) And then they went above and beyond and paid for all of our dinners! It was so kind of them! Thanks again, Brother and Sister Latimer! :D

The 3 of us at dinner!

Our table at dinner. This wasn't even all of us!

Even though the food itself wasn’t typical, the atmosphere was! We went around the dinner table and played the ABC game... the one where you say something you’re thankful for that starts with that letter of the alphabet. I love the way Thanksgiving makes you realize how very much we all have to be grateful for! We talked and laughed and though we’re not technically family it sure felt like it! These guys have all become like family to me!

On Friday morning (Thursday back at home) I got to talk to my family! Thanksgiving was at my house this year, so I got to see my mom, dad, brother, sister, brother in law, and all my extended family that lives in Utah (mom’s side). That was so nice!! :) I love my family so much! I’m really glad I could be able to talk to them. My cousin Annalise brought some friends with her who had nowhere to go for Thanksgiving. They are from China. So I was talking to these Chinese people at my house from China... It was pretty ironic!! :) It’s amazing how being away from my family has helped me realize how strong  and important family bonds and ties really are! On Saturday I got to talk to the Hilton’s- my cousins from Nevada. That was so fun as well! Even Maggie joined in the conversation! :) I love my family!!

On Sunday a group of us pulled our resources together and made our own little Thanksgiving dinner. We has stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, biscuits, cornbread, cranberry sauce, and Spam turkey (which surprisingly wasn’t that bad!) We even has a little spice cake for desert! :) It was delicious!! 

Here we are with our classy Thanksgiving dinner on our silver trays! Kayla decorated the table and everything!

Being in China has really opened my eyes to a lot of things. One of the biggest things I’ve learned is how blessed I am! I am so thankful for the many things I’ve been blessed with. I have been given so much. I know that where much is given much is required! I hope I can remember that and be a blessing to those around me. These are some of the things I’ve really come to appreciate while I’ve been in China:

-the technology that allows us to communicate and connect with one another

-washers and dryers

-soft beds and pillows

-heaters!!

-peanut butter. I would have  died without it here! I’ve discovered it goes good with ANYTHING! (...even rice. But ironically I learned that BEFORE coming to China!)

-dairy products

-my home (carpet, couches, tables, dishwashers, ovens... everything!)

-the bathrooms in the US!

-the US government and the freedoms we have

-religious freedom! 

-the beautiful smell of America

-the education I received and the wonderful teachers I had!

-traffic laws 

-the temple

-my membership in the church! The support I’ve had from the church has been so sustaining. And the gift of the Holy Ghost has been SO important in comforting, protecting, and guiding us!

-my amazing friends who are always there for me!

-my loving family that has supported me through everything!

-my Savior! He truly knows me, loves me, and blesses me!

I think this is the first Thanksgiving that I’ve TRULY caught the spirit of gratitude! I hope that I can remember how blessed I am and keep that spirit with me when I come home! I hope everyone had as happy a Thanksgiving as I did! :)

Hogwarts?! I thought we were going to China!!

It all started when we put our luggage on the luggage carts (see first blog for picture) and were walking around... wide eyed and completely lost. I felt like 11 year old Harry looking for platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross! That was when we realized there would be a lot of Harry Potter references this trip! Here’s a list of why China has reminded me of Harry Potter:

-We are living at a boarding school! And there are a lot of stairs and secret passageways. Admittedly it would be way cooler if Daguanghua was a castle (although it kind of is compared to the rest of the city) and the staircases moved unexpectedly!

-I feel like Harry... everyone stares, points, and whispers at us wherever we go! We’re celebrities for something we have no control over!

-Muggle money is useless here!

-For some reason we always speak in British accents! It doesn’t really make sense- we’re American... in China. Go figure!

-Everything is new and intriguing. Going from America to China is like going from the Muggle world to the Wizarding world!

-I see Cho Chang everywhere...

-There are a lot of cats around where we live. The orange one... that’s Crookshanks!

-There is a cupboard under the stairs!

Rumors that a small boy with untidy black hair and a lightening bolt scar is living there have neither been confirmed or denied!

-We have ridden multiple night busses... and just like THE Knight Bus, the busses here in China drive CRAZY and squeeze through impossibly small spaces!

-Half of the candies we’ve tried seem like they could be ear wax flavored Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans.........

-I have a class full of Harry Potter names! :) My Arthur always wears a Harry Potter shirt!

He knows what’s up!!

-The lights in our hallway are sound sensors. How do we turn them on? Shouting “LUMOS”, of course!

-We have a common room!

-Somehow at the beginning of the trip Cierra and I were dubbed with the nickname “The Wizards”. I have no idea how we got it, but it has stuck! So being called and responding to “wizard” everyday has got to be affecting me!

Those are just some of the ways we feel like wizards! My group always makes Harry Potter references. If you know me, you know I love that! :) Haha! This past week we’ve been doing a Harry Potter marathon in honor of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 coming out. All of us were bummed to be missing the premier back home! I forget what a nerd I am until I am with a new group of people and they don’t know how much I know about Harry Potter. Ya, I shocked this group. 

 Due to a lucky coincidence we found a theater that shows english movies!!!! What a relief! There was no way I was going to be able to wait until I got home to see it! On Monday the group trekked downtown to see the movie! It was so much fun!! :) We wanted to dress up or something (too bad I left my radish earrings at home!), but we have very limited resources here in China! Kayla and I started the trend of drawing scars on our foreheads... even the Asians sitting in front of us joined in! Yes, I got made fun of once the movie started because I was so ridiculously excited. So sue me! I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I laughed, cried, and screamed out loud. Ha! And I left more than satisfied. In my opinion this is the best movie by far!!!! :) I didn’t even notice the Chinese subtitles at the bottom!

Jenni and Kayla. Ready for Harry Potter!!! :) And standing in front of the Chinese sign! I was so glad Kayla was there! She was stand in for Madi... Madi and I usually end up holding onto each other the whole movie. Haha! Truth be told I probably would have died this trip without Kayla! She’s become one of my best friends!!! :)

Heather and me anxiously awaiting the movie!

My new friends! :) 

Long Live Harry Potter!