home

This is home to me now, well, at least for a while. Wow. I am so overwhelmed with joy and with peace. And happiness. That, too. The people, the new friends, the students I will get to teach, the culture, our place to stay, buses, everything. I already know that this experience is going to change my life, in fact it already has. I feel like I am on a different planet. I can't even remember what day it is or what time it is. But it doesn't matter, because I am here to lose myself in the people.

We bought laundry soap today. It was hard. We couldn't read the labels. In fact, we couldn't even tell which was laundry soap and which was fabric softener. We stood there on the aisle not knowing what to do. Place yourself in a new city, a new country, a new continent. Try to buy something you would think would be simple and you are bound to have a humbling experience. I think we will have a lot more of these humbling experiences as we travel throughout China.

I have no idea what people are saying. A nice man talked to me on the bus today, but I had to have an interpreter. I had to rely on someone. I am a very independent person, so depending on others is harder for me. I can't buy things on my own. I can't go anywhere on my own. This is all so weird. So very foreign.

I have to carry my own toilet paper with me everywhere. I have to bag my own groceries at the grocery store. We have to learn that things are not weird here; they are different. 

Madi, Jennie, and I went to the Santa Monica Pier during our nine hour layover in LA. We dragged our luggage along the pier and along the sand and got a lot of looks. We drooled over all of the in shape LA-ers and wished we were them. We had our last American meal - a big juicy burger on the pier. We laughed silently in the back of the shuttle. The traveling was actually not too bad. Jet lag has not been too bad. We may have eaten weird Korean plane meals, but they treated us like royalty and we all slept like babies, open mouth and all. We made it to Ningbo after a long bus ride with a honk-happy driver and slimy, mayo plastered, KFC sandwiches. The school is amazing. When we arrived, the people couldn't speak our language, but they smiled so big and they helped carry our heavy luggage up three flights of stairs, sweating so badly. I seriously could have cried watching them be so willing to help.

We used the buses for the first time today and they were crowded as ever. But the girls would stare at us and wave to us and I could have died. We got bus passes and we exchanged some money and we went grocery shopping. Everything was so different, but so cool.Tonight, our group had a meeting and then we played Quelf. We all laughed our butts off until we could have cried. My group is amazing. We are so close and we have only been here for two days. Insane. One of my bags may be currently missing, but I feel so blessed. I could not have done anything better than this for my life at this time.

I love China. I love the people. And the children, well, they melt my heart into smithereens.

Last American meal - nice juicy burger on the pier. 

Not what I had in mind for dessert

Mistake #1 - First foreign spend and we buy tiny bags of candy for ten dollars. Yikes!

She really got into Endless Love on the plane 

Our shuttle to Ningbo

Excuse the urine - IT'S NOT MINE, I PROMISE

This is my home for now. And I love it. 

Farr Better

Last night was a good one. So was tonight. This week has been wonderful. There are so many people I have gotten to see and spend time with. It's close to me leaving, so I'm grateful I have had the time to spend. Jennie, Will's younger sister, Abby, Becca, Erika and I all went to the Ogden temple open house. The temple was beautiful and I am so grateful we were able to walk through. I love that the temples are open to the public after they are built. You can really feel the spirit in there. We went to ice cream at Farr's and it was delightful, especially my Green Pineapple. We all had such a good time together.

Tonight was so fun. Erika and I walked around the mall while waiting for dinner reservations and got stuck taking a tour of Lush in the mall. We became good friends with the girl who gave the tour and boy did she love us. She kept coming back to us and making jokes and fluttering her arms and throwing soaps in our face to smell. She was very sad when our table was ready. We met Tim and Jorjann over at The Cheesecake factory once the reservations were ready and we had such a great time catching up and eating yummy food. I sure love them, each of them, so much. They are family to me. After we got home, I talked at the bar with Erika and Jorjann for a while just about life and my preparations to go. Then Erika and I had deep chats for like three hours. We always do that. I am so grateful for all of them. I am so grateful that Erika and I are so close. I know I can confide in her and I am so grateful that she confides in me. She is one of the nicest and prettiest. I love that she gets me and I get her. She is my sister and one of my best friends. She walked me out to my car around midnight and we bawled as we realized I am about to leave. But we'll keep in touch, we'll Skype and she can tell me all about Skylar, or whoever the next boy is that she crushes on.

My heart is full. I am so grateful. So extremely grateful for the wonderful people in my life and good nights, good heart warming nights like tonight.

L A V A

Lava Hot Springs is always a blast, especially when you have your girls with you. We all put on our Tevas and Chacos and headed up to Idaho for the day yesterday. We had a blast talking about Wayne's World, singing our lungs out to Love on Top by Beyonce (yes, we memorized the entire thing), relaxing in the hot springs, floating down the river, carrying the giant tube, Gator, above our heads, doing "foxy" from Wayne's World, taking self-timer pics, eating lunchables, and laughing our butts off. We wanted to have one last shindig with Tay before we're off to China. I'd say it was a good one. I love these goons.

This is Loyd. (Trying to be Wayne on Wayne's World)

Reenacting the Foxy dance on Wayne's World