Bad Squatter! Bad, Bad Squatter!

Wow, what an experience! Yesterday was my frist day in China nd I am definitely not in the United States anymore. I am going to be teaching English for the next four months in Changzhou with an ILP group of 22 (17 girls and 4 boys) LDS students. After a four hour bus ride from Shanghai to Changzhou, we arrived at our school and boy is it big! It could be a college campus! We go situated in our rooms and my roomate is named Nicole, she is really awesome. We have alot in common and I think we will have a lot of fun! We are in a room with two twin beds and you guessed it.. the infamous squatter! The beds that we have to sleep on are really short and they are more like crates, no padding whatsoever! The food is interesting and not too bad. We have alot of, RICE! It is my goal this semester to try everything that they feed us, enough to taste it and not die! They have fed us giant fish, my favorite.. the eye ball is a delicacy here, and lots and lots of cabbage, bean paste, and duck. I still haven't fully adjusted to this time change deal, with me waking up the last two mornings at 4 a.m. and not being able to fall back asleep until 6. Its really fun because I just sit there and ask myself "is this real life?" or I go and watch the sunrise. Yesterday was our first ILP training and it was very long, alot to rememeber! I am now the travel coordinator for my group so I will be able to plan all of the trips! Yes please! Its the best job ever! After our first meeting, we had a 20 minute break so Nicole and I went back to our room because she wanted to take a shower. As I laid on my bed, I heard a scream and I ran to the bathroom. As I walked in, I saw the worst thing possible: Nicole had accidentally broken the shelf by the connecting shower and squaater and my shampoo had fallen down into the squatter hole of doom! I was completely mortified! haha , but we got it right out and made sure to sanitize the whole thing. After lunch, we went into town to go shopping in the market place! What can I say about my frist China shopping exxperience? It was magical! The Yen is about 7 to every U.S. dollar so you can buy stuff for way cheap! In our shopping group we had me, Nicole, Brittany, Jessica and Madison and we had a blast! As we walked around, people stared at us, and we even had one guy come up and ask for a picture. While in the super market I had an old chinese lady come up to me and saying "blah blah blah blah", I think she thought that she was talking in english, haha bless her heart. I saw everything imaginable in the super market! They had huge fish swimming in tanks along with eels, snails, frogs, and turtles! Brittany, Jessica, and I sat and watched a man for 5 minutes because he was picking out the 'winning' turtle, poor poor turtle. We bought alot of chinese grocery food to see if there was a big difference between that and America, and yes there is! We bought some cheetos and grape soda, and it turns out that they were steak flavored cheetos and A1 (the steak sauce) flavored grape soda! They were really weird, but its all in the experience right? At one point, I went to go throw away something in the bathroom and there was a lady by the trash can with her baby son and the lady had him stand on the rim and she had his ...... ( I can't think of a polite way to say it!) in her hand and was directing him to pee in the trash! OH MY GOODNESS! I almost died! On our way back to the school we took a taxi and I will tell you, the Chinese people drive like madmen! They look at driving regulations as more like 'suggestions' and they drive fast, furious, and out of control! They don't drive in lanes, they honk every 5 seconds, and they almost hit bicycles and pedestrians like its a game! When we got back, a group of uswent up to the roof of our building and tried to throw rocks into the river, and we almost hit one of the chinese people on their bikes! We played alot of games, including this SWEET ninja game, and talked while watching the sun go down.. What an great way to end the day! Well, that's pretty much my life in a nutshell right now everybody! I love you all! Wo Ai Ni!

Love,

Lisa

Bad Squatter! Bad, Bad Squatter!!

Wow, what an experience! Yesterday was my frist day in China nd I am definitely not in the United States anymore. I am going to be teaching English for the next four months in Changzhou with an ILP group of 22 (17 girls and 4 boys) LDS students. After a four hour bus ride from Shanghai to Changzhou, we arrived at our school and boy is it big! It could be a college campus! We go situated in our rooms and my roomate is named Nicole, she is really awesome. We have alot in common and I think we will have a lot of fun! We are in a room with two twin beds and you guessed it.. the infamous squatter! The beds that we have to sleep on are really short and they are more like crates, no padding whatsoever! The food is interesting and not too bad. We have alot of, RICE! It is my goal this semester to try everything that they feed us, enough to taste it and not die! They have fed us giant fish, my favorite.. I've heard that the eye ball is a delicacy here, and lots and lots of cabbage, bean paste, pig intestines, and duck. It is really hard when you're trying to smile and say that something tastes good when they are constantly sitting there watching us and our reactions to the food. I still haven't fully adjusted to this time change deal, with me waking up the last two mornings at 4 a.m. and not being able to fall back asleep until 6. Its really fun because I just sit there and ask myself "is this real life?" or I go and watch the sunrise. Yesterday was our first ILP training and it was very long, alot to rememeber! I am now the travel coordinator for my group so I will be able to plan all of the trips! Yes please! Its the best job ever! After our first meeting, we had a 20 minute break so Nicole and I went back to our room because she wanted to take a shower. As I laid on my bed, I heard a scream and I ran to the bathroom. As I walked in, I saw the worst thing possible: Nicole had accidentally broken the shelf by the connecting shower and squaater and my shampoo had fallen down into the squatter hole of doom! I was completely mortified! haha , but we got it right out and made sure to sanitize the whole thing. After lunch, we went into town to go shopping in the market place! What can I say about my frist China shopping exxperience? It was magical! The Yen is about 7 to every U.S. dollar so you can buy stuff for way cheap! In our shopping group we had me, Nicole, Brittany, Jessica and Madison and we had a blast! As we walked around, people stared at us, and we even had one guy come up and ask for a picture. While in the super market I had an old chinese lady come up to me and saying "blah blah blah blah", I think she thought that she was talking in english, haha bless her heart. I saw everything imaginable in the super market! They had huge fish swimming in tanks along with eels, snails, frogs, and turtles! Brittany, Jessica, and I sat and watched a man for 5 minutes because he was picking out the 'winning' turtle, poor poor turtle. We bought alot of chinese grocery food to see if there was a big difference between that and America, and yes there is! We bought some cheetos and grape soda, and it turns out that they were steak flavored cheetos and A1 (the steak sauce) flavored grape soda! They were really weird, but its all in the experience right? At one point, I went to go throw away something in the bathroom and there was a lady by the trash can with her baby son and the lady had him stand on the rim and she had his ...... ( I can't think of a polite way to say it!) in her hand and was directing him to pee in the trash! OH MY GOODNESS! I almost died! You can just imagine my face! On our way back to the school we took a taxi and I will tell you, the Chinese people drive like madmen! They look at driving regulations as more like 'suggestions' and they drive fast, furious, and out of control! They don't drive in lanes, they honk every 5 seconds, and they almost hit bicycles and pedestrians like its a game! When we got back, a group of uswent up to the roof of our building and tried to throw rocks into the river, and we almost hit one of the chinese people on their bikes! We played alot of games, including this SWEET ninja game, and talked while watching the sun go down.. What an great way to end the day! Well, that's pretty much my life in a nutshell right now everybody! I love you all! Wo Ai Ni!

Hold the phone, that is not a toilet.

Well goodbye Utah and hello adventure! Right now I am sitting in the humongous airport in Seoul, South Korea.. wow, is all that I have to say. After a 14 hour flight, I am exhausted but excited! The flight over was amazing! It was like I was staying in a hotel that was flying! They gave us blankets, slippers, and tried to give us lots of weird food.. hey, when in China be Chinese right? Oh wait, I'm not there.. yet. Anyways, I'm almost done with my journey, thank goodness. Sitting in one position for almost 15 hours is not one of my top 10 things to do, but its all in the experience. The moment I realized that I was not in the U.S. anymore: I went into the bathroom and they don't have toilets, they have squatters.(NOOOOO!) For those of you not familiar with the term squatter, it is pretty much a hole in the ground, and hopefully you can use your imagination to determine how you use it. Also, they have a little button that you push when you go to the bathroom that masks the noise, called the etiquette button. Oh heavens, I'm ready for this. I will keep you updated as soon as I get to China! wo ai ni! (As translated in my survival Chinese book) :)