Little Julia in Big China: Living the China Life

China. Where do I even begin? China is blowing my mind with its beauty and amazingness! I was not expecting to love China so much, especially after only two weeks.

Last Friday I headed over to the cafeteria with the other girls, but to our dismay it was closed. We were starving by this point, after teaching and having multiple meetings that afternoon. We were disappointed to say the least. We found our coordinator and she told us that all of the teachers were having a barbecue that night and they wanted us to join. I was excited, but wary, because I had no idea what a Chinese barbecue consisted of. That night was probably the most american meal I've had here. They had little metal bowls up on stilts with a grill face on them. And they had hot dogs, pork, sweet potatoes, corn, bacon, chicken wings and bread that everyone was cooking over the grills. . All the teachers there found out I loved chicken and so they kept cooking more for me and wanted me to eat all of them. I ended up eating 13 chicken wings. Haha.

On Saturday we just hung around town, went shopping, and then the others went to a park but I was exhausted so I went home and took a nap! My favorite!

Selfies on the bus are always a necessity!

On Sunday we were able to participate in church. We traveled 2 hours on 3 different buses to meet with some volunteers at a different school. We watched sacrament meeting over Skype and then we had the sacrament. I am so grateful that I was able to do that. You don't realize how much you need the sacrament until you don't have the opportunity to have it. The spirit was very strong. I especially loved when we were all singing. It is very humbling being here in China and realizing that so many people don't have the gospel and even if they knew about it they wouldn't be allowed to practice it. I am so grateful for the gospel and for the freedom to worship Heavenly Father and Jesus. The apartment we went to was very, very small and there were probably about 30 of us in there. I was standing for the whole time, but I'm just glad we got to be a part of the meeting.

On Monday was Kim's birthday. She is one of the girls that lives here with me. One of our students parents heard that it was her birthday and took us out to dinner at a resturaunt that they own. It was so fancy! I don't go to resturaunts in America that are that nice. The decor screamed the British flag and the guy who helped us out had a British accent. It was half Chinese food and half American, so we had some very good Chinese food, but also food like spaghetti and pizza. Yum!

So much yummy food!

There was also a cute Chinese baby who took pictures with us!

Caley showing us how talented she is!

We also felt like models that night because of the stage and awesome lights.

Monday we also started our cultural classes. Our coordinator, Amber, teaches us Mandarin on Monday and Tuesday and I already know how to say "hello", "what's your name?", "my name is____", "thank you", "you're welcome", and "I would like to get off here" (for when I'm on the bus). On Wednesday we take calligraphy and I felt so uncoordinated because all we practiced this week was lines and all the kids in the room with us were doing intricate Chinese symbols, but I will learn. On Thursday we do cooking classes. This week our coordinator came to our apartment and showed us how to make dumplings.

Friday some more of the parents took us out to eat.

These kids are so cute

Saturday we went shopping again at the mall to get groceries and also to look around for shoes. We found some good deals, including Converse AllStar shoes that were 55 yuan (which is less than 9 American dollars)!!!!