Bus #35

Well, today was an exciting day. I woke up around 8:45am on Wednesday for a class that starts at 10:20am. This gives me enough time to get ready, walk to the bus station, wait for the bus, and hop on bus #35. This has pretty much become a daily routine for me, however, my routine changed a bit today. After having thought that ALL buses with the number 35 on the front went the same route every single time, I figured I could walk to a different bus station (because I missed the one I usually catch it at :/) and catch bus #35 right across the street from the usual stop and it will take me exactly where I need to go. WRONG. This bus took me in the COMPLETE opposite direction of my school. After realizing that I was going the wrong way and this bus didn't seem like it was going to turn around anytime soon, I called someone who would know what was going on.  If fact, there are different bus #35's that go different ways. Needless to say, this turned into an adventure.
After realizing I was indeed going the wrong way, I got off at the nearest stop (having no clue where I am). Since I carry a cell phone with me (which I actually went back to my room to go get because I forgot it, good thing) I was able to have someone text me the Chinese characters for the school I was supposed to be at. So, catching a taxi and showing the driver the characters, we were off. End of story? Not quite. Since I don't know how to read characters, I was just trusting this driver would get me where I needed to be since I speak no Chinese. He took me to an entrance about a 40 minute walk AWAY from my school. Great. Now what? I'm already 15 minutes late to class, and I have a long walk to get to my school. I quickly called my co-teacher and told her that I was hurrying to class (she is super sweet, so she was okay with it). Of course, this day had to be one of the hottest and humid days...so a fast walk quickly made me look like I had just gotten out of a swimming pool. It was nasty. Finally! I had arrived. When I walked through the door my teacher looks at me with surprise and asks "Are you okay?! You do not look well". After convincing her I was just red and sweaty and not dying, she let me teach the 5 minutes that were left of class.
After my first class is over I have a 2 hour break to get some lunch and "take a rest". My second half of the day went much better than the first half. I was able to order lunch by myself and it was super tasty! After I got my lunch I took it to a bench in the shade near the river and pulled out some chopsticks and ate. I felt super Chinese today because after I ate my lunch, I took about a 45 minute nap on the bench :) It was great...until I got woken up by a lady touching my arms, and a caterpillar tickling my leg. I was more weirded out by the caterpillar than I was the lady.
After waking up from my nap I look out to the river and I see three naked men bathing themselves...this didn't surprise me either, but it did make me get off of my bench and leave because it was a bit awkward.
After my 2 hours were up I went and taught my last 2 classes (which went very well) and headed back home...getting on the right bus #35.
The moral of this true story....learn how to read a Chinese map to see where the bus is going before you get on the wrong one.

Long time no blogging

Well, here it is....my first blog while I'm actually IN China. I finally have access to this website so I will be able to keep you posted on my happenings here in Shaoxing.
I have been here 3 weeks and 1 day, and it sure has been exciting. Almost every day old women pet my arms or hair, I get stared at (to the point where people hit others on their motorized bikes), and people speak to me in Chinese all the time and I have NO idea what they are saying...so I just nod my head and smile.
I now teach 1st graders at one of the primary schools in town. I have 4 different classes of 1st graders, each having about 50 students making that a grand total of about 200 students. I teach 16 classes a week and each class is about 40 minutes long. At the end of the day, I usually have no voice.
The discipline here in China towards the students is much different than those in America. The teachers are allowed to hit the students on the head, hit them with rulers, and throw them around a bit when they are not being cooperative.
The food in China is pretty tasty (most of the time). I try to avoid all of the food that just happens to be staring back at me, I like picking the little shrimps with eyeballs out of my soup. I did try chicken heart, it was surprisingly very delicious. It tasted like chicken, who would have thought?
China has a Walmart. I had to throw that in there. It's underground, and nothing like the Walmarts in America. But it's a Walmart! Cool. It's going to be weird going back to Walmart in America and not seeing dead chickens and ducks hanging everywhere. :(
On Friday (the 30th) starts one of the Chinese holidays (I don't remember what it's called, that's probably not good), but for this holiday I'm going with a few others here in Shoaxing to the Gobi Desert. This little vacation includes a 36 hour train ride, hopefully a camel tour, and being up north, eh. It should be pretty entertaining, 4 of the 5 of us going have Ipods so we can keep ourselves busy playing games against each other on the train. We also decided it would be exciting to make a video of the soon to be long and tiring train ride.
I am going to be learning Chinese tonight with my new tutor! I'm very excited to learn some of the language so I can actually communicate with people here instead of having a blank stare on my face all the time.
I will try to update this blog a lot. How often is a lot? Meh, hopefully every day? But we'll see.
G0-d is doing wonderful things here in Shoaxing, I can't wait to see what will happen in the months to come!
And yes, I'm sure as you are reading through this you are wondering if I miss you! Of course I do! China is wonderful, but I think that if everyone that was reading this right now were here, it'd be a blast! *hint hint*...visitors are always welcome :)
That's all folks.

48 hours and counting!

It is official, my flight leaves on Sunday! I am supposed to leave the ground at 12 noon from Chicago, from Chicago it will be a 14 hour flight to Seoul, South Korea..this will put me I Korea at 2am Monday, but remember!..there is the oh so wonderful time change making it 2pm in Korea on Monday afternoon. I have a 4 hour layover in Seoul putting me at 6am until my flight leaves, or 6pm in Korea. Sounds like fun, right? I think so. At around 6am (or 6pm depending on what time zone you want to follow), I board my next flight for Shanghai, this flight is only about 2 hours. I should be reaching Shanghai around 9am or so on Monday morning, if you haven't figured it out by now, that's 9pm on Monday in Asia. From Shanghai I will have about a 2 hour train ride to my city in Shaoxing! I should be in my apartment by 11am (or 11pm in Asia). The end! :)

First Blog Attempt

Here is an attempt to use this blog thing. I don't really know how it works, and I'm not all that great with technology...but here it goes...
I don't know when I leave for China yet. I either leave on Friday or on Monday depending on when my visa arrives. I don't really know what else to say besides that yet, I'm sure when I actually get to China I will have much more exciting things to say. This is my practice post, I'm sorry it's boring. :) More interesting ones to come, so stay posted!