weekly wonderment

I think sometimes we are so worried about everything being perfect that we forget to look at all of the wonderful things in life. And I think we also forget that life will never be perfect. Yeah, it is a hard fact to face. But I think as soon as we can face that fact, life might be a little better. 

Social media is hard. It can be wonderful but not wonderful all at the same time. We usually showcase all of the good things in our life -- a friend's wedding, a good date night, a pretty flower, a birth. Then when looking through everyone's good moments, we tend to compare their "perfect" life with all of our hard things, our downfalls, and our "imperfect life." We often ask ourselves why our lives can't be that perfect. 

It's so hard. 

We forget to showcase our piles of work and laundry and dirty dishes, our fights and breakups, our heart ache, our flaws and downfalls. I mean, why would we? We don't want to be negative. And I'm not here to say that we should start showcasing all of that. I am here to say that we all need to realize that we all have these things in our lives. Someone's life may seem perfect on the outside, but the fact is that everyone has their things, their trials. 

We have to remember that. 

If we start looking at all of the positive things in our life -- all of our blessings, and stop focusing on the negative, then life will be wonderful. Not perfect, but wonderful. Wonderfully imperfect. 

And who wants a perfect life anyway? How boring would that be? 

XO Ken

teaching -- about the harder things

I think sometimes we make things out to be better than they really are. I think that is a big problem with social media. We all make our life out to be perfect. Or that's the way we want people to see it. Sometimes I think it's important that we also talk about the harder things, the struggles. 

I am going to school to become an elementary teacher. I have wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember -- always forcing my siblings to be my students so I could play teacher. I loved it. And something Gretchin Rubin says in her Happiness Project book is that often times the things we find truly fun are the things we enjoyed as a child. This is something I enjoyed. I have my Associate's degree and I will begin my Bachelor's program when I return from China. 

I'm stoked. 

But that doesn't mean that I have doubts. I have doubts that I will be a good teacher, I have doubts that I will be liked by my students, doubts that I will adore my job. Coming to China, I hoped to be able to get a small glimpse of what teaching would be like. And I have. Some days are hard. I'm going to be honest. Some days I want to throw the towel in and start crying. Sometimes my students will not listen, they won't stop speaking in Chinese, won't stop running around and throwing things and doing homework. I just want to give up. And then it causes me to wonder if I am doing the right thing with my career choice. 

But then there are days like yesterday. 

Days where I feel so loved and wanted and welcome. Days where the students listen and speak English and actually learn. And have fun -- that, too. 

And then I realize that it's all about my attitude. That the students perform better when I perform better. When I take time to plan exciting lessons, when I explain myself clearly. I put myself in their shoes and learning a foreign language is so tedious, especially at their young age. So I have to give myself credit for my best effort that I am giving. I don't know if I could teach English as a career. It's hard. Really really hard. But I love the experience. It has truly taught me so much and the students are like my babies. I don't know how I will leave them.

I think the most important thing I have learned so far is that not every day is going to go perfectly. And it would be boring that way anyway. 

XO Teacha Kenzie

operation "get lost"

We just wanted to get lost. That simple.

So we took the 330 bus the opposite way, all the way to the end of the line and got off. We first ran into a monastery, which ended up being so cool. WHO KNEW that we had a monastery so close to us in Ningbo. We walked around and looked in different buildings. It felt so peaceful in there. The Chinese people didn't even mind that we were walking around. They would just smile at us and carry on with what they were doing. I loved being on their sacred grounds.

We walked around a little after that and looked in some cool shops and drooled over new noodle places that we didn't know about. Dak spotted a cross quite a ways away and we wanted to make our way over there. Once we arrived, it was this really big Protestant church. A lady on a mo-ped was coming out of the gate and she just started talking away at us in Chinese. She talked to us for a good five minutes and I still don't think she got the hint that we did not understand a word she was saying. We kept saying, "wo bu ming bai," to her which means "I don't understand." But she still didn't get it. She was just talking talking talking our ears off. Anywho, after we escaped that trap, the guard was kind enough to let us in and we got to walk around the church. No one was in there, so it was so quiet and I loved being in there. It was nice to just be in a church because they don't have any here really. I have missed that feeling. I think we really take churches for granted because we literally have them at every corner at home.

When walking out of the church and back out to the street, I about died. There was a giant semi that came right towards me and it was inches away from me and Pita as it sped by. I was so close that I spun around in a circle and everyone was so freaked out. I kept picturing myself getting hit by the semi for about thirty minutes after that. So freaky!

We found some REALLY yummy dumplings later near the old market we used to go to all the time. You got about ten dumplings for only 5 yuan, which is less than a US dollar. I love cheap street food. So much. We also explored the old market for a while. It was such a fun day. I kinda really really love the days where we have nothing planned, so we just do whatever.

It always ends up being a blast.

XO Kenz

weekly wonderment

Just a thought for the day 

This was something that really hit home to me as I have been home alone all day from not having to teach, so I've been blog stalking... and this was on one girl's blog.

Sometimes we can be so hard on ourselves. We all want to be liked, we all want to be the go-to friend, the best friend, the person everyone adores and loves to be around. Right?

But get this - no matter how hard, how insanely hard we try, there will always be the people who don't see the best in us, the people who look at our flaws first, the first people to point out our mistakes, the people to stab our backs and belittle us. No matter what, there's always the people who won't like peaches. 

But if we all try to be a little better, to love a little more, to be a little more light-hearted, to rest easy, to laugh more, to not be so quick to judge, and to truly see the absolute best in people, then we can change this... at least in our own tiny part of the world. 

-- Be YOU --

Really, that's all you can be. And if you are trying your best, your very absolute best, people will love you - the people who matter at least. And there will even be the people who will love you when you are not at your best. Those are the real keepers. 

At the end of the day, you just have to realize that you can't please everyone. And for goodness sake, stop trying to please everyone all the time and please yourself.

AND WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND DOESN'T LIKE PEACHES?

XO Kenzie

a million and one updates

So there's lots to talk about. Lots has happened and blogging, well, I've gotten behind. 

Well, so, Madi and I rearranged our room several weeks ago and I was having trouble sleeping about every other night for a while because the bugs really think that my blood tastes good, every other night. Not Madi's, apparently. It's dumb. We took our nets off of our beds and pushed them together so we can snuggle all night every night and have pillow talk while we face each other and smell each other's retainer breath. It's the best. The nets being taken off had caused the swarm of bugs over me. But it's worth it because I get to put my retainer case smack dab in the middle of our pillows so I don't forget to wear it each and every night, like I am supposed to. Madi hates that I do that. A while a go I got bit by so many bugs. I had bug bites all over my back and shoulders. I was up itching for two hours and started having a major panic attack. It was 2 AM when I looked at the clock. I woke Madi up and told her to help me. She gave me moral support and checked my back only to see a gazillion bites. I changed my shirt and put bug spray on and somehow fell asleep eventually. Then, a couple nights later, I couldn't sleep again because I had bugs on my face. Again, I was up for a couple of hours after everyone had gone to bed, tossing and turning. Around 2:30 AM, Jennie comes in saying that she can't sleep, so I invited her into my bed of misery. We cried and laughed together for so long and I peed laughing so hard. I had like three bites on my face and Jennie was so itchy. We finally put peppermint oil on our faces and that burned our eyes so much that we went to sleep. About an hour and a half later, it was time to wake up for the islands. Soooo... basically, the no tent on my bed thing was not going so hot, but I guess it's worth it, Madi. It has gotten much better, probably because it's getting so cold and the bugs don't like it.

Halloween was a lot of fun. I don't teach on Fridays, so I dressed up as a zebra and helped everyone in their classes. The kids were so adorable as they played all of their halloween games. After teaching, we all slept for a while and then had our own little halloween party consisting of eating donuts off of a string, carving pumpkins, and making snickers salad. OH and of course we had to walk down the street for some muslim noodles, which we get several times every week.

We've also celebrated lots of birthdays this past month-ish. For the birthdays, we serve the princess with oatmeal and a fruit. Then we give them their favorite treats and we all write notes to them. We have gone to dinner for every birthday, so that has been fun to try some new places. For Brooke's birthday, we went roller blading and boy was that a sight! It was a tiny rink and the Chinese people really loved to stare. But we didn't have to pay, so that was a plus! 

We went to Moon Lake one day. We got to ride on paddle boats and we danced with old people and the whole day was so fun. We hadn't done something as a whole group for a while, so that was nice. What a gorgeous lake, and it was in NINGBO. 

We also took a day trip to some islands! They were so cool. Although it was an early start getting in the van at 5:30 AM, we had such a great day. We were able to walk around and see a bunch of cool Buddha statues and people praying to Buddha. It was a great experience. We even saw some monks praying to Buddha. Plus, we got to walk on the beach and that was the best part of the entire day. AH!

Funny story with these pictures - I thought since I had a striped shirt on it would be fun to play Where's Waldo. So I set out to hide from Madi and Dak. Little did I know that Dakota was watching to make sure I didn't get kidnapped, so when I turned around after hiding I thought she had already found me. Nope, Madi was the looker. So I just started coming back and as I got close, Madi asked where I was while I was standing right there. FAIL. 

We've been eating lots of cafeteria food, getting gel nails, eating at "the chicken place" and muslim noodles, flirting with Chinese men, staying up way too late, waking up too early, receiving a surprise package from Tay, running around Wanda Plaza to get bags of rice, laughing too hard, peeing my pants, teaching the children, and just having such a wonderful time. 

The Chinese people going crazy over rice. They were running and waiting in lines for bags of uncooked rice. We joined them and their craziness.

Dakota trying not to poop her pants at the market. 

The boy who loves me at our favorite restaurant

A nice little gift from my best buddy, Tay

Oh and we have also been playing David at the Dentist, but Madi at the Dentist because she has a plaque ball -- SEND HELP. We can't get it out. 

SO that's my life in a nutshell. It's a crazy life. A good but crazy life. One that I am so grateful for. 

XOXO Kenneth (that's what they call me here)