fancy hotel

Today Sara and I slept in until 9 in our super fancy hotel and then went down to eat breakfast. The breakfast was incredible! There were so so so many things to choose from including onion rings and sushi. There was also a ton of fruit, toast, cereal with warm milk that said it was cold, corn with peppers in it, French toast tasting bread sticks, noodles, and so much more! It was good! Odd, but good! J We then got back to our room and I took a shower in our super fancy shower and then sat down to relax in my fluffy robe and slippers the hotel provides when we got a phone call from Orange telling us that a Mom of one of our students wants to take us to lunch. So a half hour later at 11 we went to eat lunch after our super filling breakfast. Haha Orange brought her adorable little 4 year old boy whose first name in English means Star and their last name is Ling, so his name is StarLing. Cute! We met the mom and the little girl and we all went to another super fancy restaurant. We later gave the little girl options of American names she could choose from and she picked Emily, so that is her English name. Anyway, it was really good to meet her so that we know sort of what level of English our students are going to be at. She can hardly speak at all, but knows her letters and how to introduce herself. She also knows things like, “What is your favorite color?” and “Do you like?” and things like that. She is adorable.

So this restaurant was a buffet style and was delicious. We were led into a little partitioned (is that the word?) area to eat. So we got food from the buffet and then the waiter would bring in different meats on a stick and ask if we wanted to try some. We tried lamb, which was by far my favorite, pigs heart, chicken stomach or something, and regular things like pork. I won’t ever eat pigs heart again but it wasn’t so bad. Orange is so sweet because she knows what is weird to us Americans so when she tells us some of the weirder meats she always points out that we don’t have to try. Both Sara and I are really good with trying stuff though. J

After lunch we invited Emily to go swimming with us at our hotel since she loves to swim. We had to go back to the school first though because Orange told us the representative from the United States wanted to meet with us. Sara and I immediately thought it was someone from the US Embassy or something. She said, “I’m kind of nervous.” And I said, “I will just be happy to talk to someone who speaks English... He will speak English right?” and Sara said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t honestly.” Haha Then I was thinking, “Do you think they mean Jacob (the head of China Horizons) is coming to see us?” but Sara didn’t think so. Then we were walking down to meet with him and I saw Jacob walking down the sidewalk with a ton of Chinese people who were treating him like some sort of huge honored guest. We got so excited!!! He had a huge smile and I seriously wanted to cry. Haha I yelled down the sidewalk, “It is like seeing family!” and he gave us both big hugs. And we spoke English to someone besides Orange again. Haha Jacob looked around our school and looked at our future apartments and was really happy that things were so nice for us. Then we went to the hotel and I think he knew that we were really totally fine after that. He spent time talking to us though to make sure we were ok and then he left to go see the other people in other towns. He is so kind to be traveling so far to make sure everyone is ok. Jacob is awesome.

After Jacob left we all went swimming in the huge indoor swimming pool that was ice cold. Haha It felt nice though. Oh and it is definitely a normal thing for people in the dressing rooms to shower in the open and walk around with absolutely no clothes, just for future reference if you ever come to China. We met Emliy’s friend named Helen and it was so fun playing with them! They are adorable.

After swimming Sara went to work out while I took a really long hot bath. It felt amazing. I got in my fluffy bathrobe to relax for a while Orange called to ask us if we wanted to eat at her parents house for dinner. I said yes and she gave us 20 minutes before she would pick us up. Jacob warned us about how there is no since of planning like there is in America. So you never know if you will  be doing anything until like a half hour before. So we hurried and got ready then went to Orange’s parents house for dinner. It was so delicious! I was so relaxed from my super hot bath though that it was definitely difficult to look lively and carry on a conversation, but I managed. Haha It was such a good meal and it was fun to see a traditional Chinese home.

After dinner we came back to the hotel and waiting for us was a ton of fruit and milk that Emily’s mom had left for us. It was the sweetest thing. Everyone is so kind. I rinsed off in really hot water to feel relaxed and clean again and we settled down for the night to watch a movie. There are some of our China Horizons friends that are teaching at a nearby school and staying in the same hotel as us right now who came over to watch a movie with us. It was so fun to see them! They are teaching at a middle school and their apartments are being remodled which is why they are here at the hotel. It was so fun to talk to them and see what their experience has been like so far. Even though we are in the same city and at the same hotel it is amazing to see how completely different our experiences have been so far!

In case you are wondering, I so far haven’t had any problem with getting sick from the food. Annie was right as usual! I have been just fine! J

Sara- what is your email? Email me. I love you!

pictures of Yangzhong

first day in Yangzhong

Today was just so unexpected in every way. Everything that happened was just so far from what I had imagined.

We left this morning at 6:00 this morning. We got on a high speed train Daddy and me googled before I came. It went so fast! We got to our stop 6 hours later. It was so hot and humid!!! Even more than Beijing. There were about 14 of us who got off at that stop. Jacob got off the train with us but that was the last I have seen him. I thought he was coming with us but he went with some other girls and hasn’t been by. We went down the escalators and as we were going down there slowly appeared a huge group of Chinese people pointing at us and staring in awe. I immediately saw a sign for Christina and Sara. When I got off the escalators people were saying to me, “Beautiful! Beautiful!” and “Beautiful face!” and this one Dad (I guess it was his Dad) pushed his son to try to talk to me all jokingly. I just smiled and said hi to everyone like I was Taylor Swift. That’s seriously who I feel like all the time here. Haha Sara and I went up to the lady holding our sign who is our helper person for our time here. Her English name is Orange. J She speaks really good English and will be living next door to us. The vice principle of the school we will be teaching at was there to drive us and he didn’t speak any English at all. We started our drive to Yangzhong which was about an hour from the airport. Orange asked us if we wanted something to eat and we said we were fine but they stopped at KFC and she went in and got us a huge thing of chicken and some Pepsi’s. haha So we drove to our city and when we crossed a beautiful river I knew we were close. We went to the police station where they checked out passports and then we went to the school. It is a brand new school! It’s called The Primary Students Foreign Language School. It is opening for the first time this week. It smells new and everything. Our apartments aren’t ready yet so they told us they were putting us up in a hotel for a couple of days. We saw our unfinished apartments and they are so cute! They are just there on the campus of the school and they have a balcony and everything. I will take pictures when we can move in. Orange will live next door to us and is going to teach us how to cook Chinese food too. J So that will be fun. I was disappointed we couldn’t move in, until Orange brought us to our hotel. It is the fanciest hotel ever!!!!! I could stay here forever. It is SO beautiful. It has a way nice bathroom and fluffy robes, it has a swimming pool that is really nice and tennis courts and ping pong tables and everything. And the view... AMAZING! It is so nice!!!!

We dropped our stuff off here then went to have a dinner with the Principle and other leaders of our school. It was absolutely the fanciest restaurant ever. I didn’t even think restaurants like this existed. We had our private room that was so fancy!!! NOBODY besides Orange speaks a lick of English here. So nobody understood us at all. I’m glad Orange speaks so well. The Principle asked us if we wanted wine and we said we don’t drink alcohol so they filled everyone’s fancy wine glasses with our choice of corn juice or orange juice. I tried some corn juice just cause I want to be adventurous. It is just a hot drink that is kind of foamy and tastes just like corn! Haha It was fine but I got orange juice after I finished it. So they had plates of food set out on the table when we got there but little did we know those were only the first 6 dishes of like 50! They just kept bringing them out!!! And all of it was exotic food, mostly fresh seafood. They served shrimp that had its whole body still, including eyes. The only other eyes on the table belonged to a fish that was in its whole body as well, but was delicious! The poor sucker stared at me every time it took its lap around the table. The middle of the table atomatically spins. The way it works is you take a little bit of everything then if you like it you take more the next lap around the table. It just continues spinning! And the fancy waitresses just continually bring out these way fancy dishes that are never ending. You think that they can’t possibly be bringing anything else and they bring out more! The dishes included goose, duck, many different kind of fishes, pigs feet (which wasn’t as bad as I was expecting- and Orange said it is good for girls skin which gave me some hope… haha), lots of veggie dishes, chicken, pork, seaweed, eggs that were black served in a sauce, and many many more. It was so delicious and fancy!!! Everyone kept toasting us! The principle toasted us first. She came over and stood by us and Orange translated for us and then we toasted with our orange juice. Then when she sat down Orange told that in Chinese culture it is the polite thing to stand up when someone toasts you. Oops! We felt so bad. Then everyone else kept toasting us throughout the meal as well. Haha It was so fun! We ended the meal with fresh fruit including little slices of watermelon, cantaloupe, and grapes the size of ping pongs. It was so delicious! I seriously don’t know how Chinese people are so skinny. Anyway, they brought us out like seriously at least 20 super fancy dishes (probably a lot more honestly) and all of us together only ate a few bites of each. What do they do with all of those leftovers? It was incredible.

On the way home we took this covered carriage thing pulled by a bicycle. Hahaha It is so funny how they treat us so well yet no one really talks to us but Orange!

We are now back at the hotel and did I mention our view? J We are on the 10^th floor with a beautiful view of our new city. To top the night off there were just fireworks outside of our window. J

the little girl we met this morning is here. we gave her an english name of emily. her mom is getting her swimsuit and we are all going to go swimming together, so we are just waiting for her mom.

Last Day In Beijing

Right now I am eating some delicious bread that I have eaten so much of here in Beijing. It tastes a lot like Mommy’s rolls that she makes at Thanksgiving. There is a little tiny corner grocery store right outside of the alley of our hostel called Dia that we have been buying necessities at such as bottled water (you can’t drink the tap water here) and any snacks that we have needed.

I can’t believe it is our last night in Beijing. It was such a good week!! We all had a meeting with Jacob about details for departing to our cities and things. He stressed how the easy part of our China trip is over and how relaxed Beijing is compared to what we are about to get ourselves into. He stressed how we need to stick it out. He said that he loves us and he really has a hard time after this first week sending us out because he knows how hard it is. Oh great! Haha I seriously have no idea what it is going to be like where we are going. Jacob hasn’t given Sara and me any details because he doesn’t even know! So he is coming with us to our city to help us get settled. I am scared though. But it will be ok.

Last night we went to the Kung Fu Show! It was so awesome!!! They had people balancing on swords all different ways and doing cartwheels on their heads and flying through the air! Just really amazing stuff. After the show our tour guide, Climate, took a few of us girls to a gorgeous lake! He bought us dinner and frozen yogurt and we walked around the lake. There were so many fancy restaurants and classy people and it was just beautiful!!! And the frozen yogurt was delicious. It almost tasted like frozen yogurt in America. J Climate is just so awesome!!! It was such a fun night.

Today it took us all day to go to church and come back. Church was held in conference rooms of a hotel way far away from here. It was actually a pretty big branch! It was so fun to go to church again. I didn't meet anyone the Bakers know because we got there a little late and then didn't end up eating at anyones house afterwards. It was such a long way to church. I can't believe people who live in Beijing have to travel that far. It made me feel so blessed that in America we have nice church buildings all over that are so close to us. It was just really nice to go to church again. It felt like a long time since I had been last. It was a long week. I just miss having temples and everything all over. I am excited to get to our towns and be a part of a ward and institute again.

It was such a good week. I love Beijing. Now another adventure begins!!! Yangzhong here I come!

Summer Palace, pearl and silk markets

This morning we woke up and went to the Summer Palace. It was so awesome! It was huge and as always a million people there wanted a picture with me for some reason. After the Summer Palace we went to the pearl factory. Just so everyone knows and isn't expecting anything when I come home I didn't get anything at the pearl factory or the jade factory. Not even for me! I am so sorry! I really regret it but it was so much money I just couldn't. I want to go back though just cause I really think it is worth it. :) I probably won't have the chance though. Then today we went to the pearl and silk markets which were amazing!!! It was so fun! Not at all what I was expecting and so so fun! We have just shopped all day basically! I got a tonnnn of stuff. And all for so cheap! I am really good at the bargaining :) I got a ton of new clothes and presents for people! One of my favorites was when I went to look at some shoes that were Chinese looking but still simple and cute that I was thinking of getting for Annie. The lady started out at like 700 yuan (which you have to keep in mind there are about 6.33 yuan or so in 1 dollar). I said there was no way and got her to come down to around 500 yuan before I decided that Annie probably wouldn't like them so much and started walking away. She followed me and was yelling down the hall and within seconds I had her from 500 yuan to 50 yuan! And then when I said no again and waved bye she yelled, "Ok ok! You name price! You name price!" haha i didn't get them though. But it was hilarious. It was all like that and just so much fun, I loved it! I think the thing I did the worst on was a present I got for Jay. Don't get me wrong, from the starting price I still got it down a tonnn but I think I could have gotten it down more. But I made up for that purchase with buying Mommy a present that was worth a ton and getting it for way cheap! It all evened out :) It was so fun! Definitely my type of thing. I got so so so much stuff for less than 150 US dollars!!! It was the best shopping ever!!!! I felt rich and I seriously felt like I could buy whatever I wanted! haha It is so much impulse buying but I came home and I am so happy with everything I bought! I wish I could go get more! I got a super cute summer hat which is one of my favorite purchases. I walked into a booth area cause Aimee wanted to buy something and the lady turns to me and says, "Oh you are so cute! You are so cute!" and smothered me with compliments about how my eyes were so cute and my hat was so cute and my hair was so cute and I was just SO CUTE! hahaha She asked my name and when I said Tina she said, "Oh that is so cute!" hahaha She was so cute. It was such a fun place. I was way nervous about it, I was afraid the people were going to be mean about it! But if they were mean it was so easy to just walk to another booth and find the same thing! You all need to come. I don't ever want to do my shopping anywhere else ever again! :)

I am sending a video of probably the most random thing that has happened to me so far here in China. A ton of people were gathered around at the Summer Palace singing really really loudly! Like a choir and band was singing some sort of Ode to the Palace or something. I don't know. Anyway, we went over to see what the singing was and the conductor saw me and grabbed my arm and made me stand in the middle of the choir! People were dancing and it was just so funny! I don't even know. But it was fun :)

I love China! Although today out of dire need I had to use a squatter for the first time. It is about 500 thousand times worse than you would imagine it to be trust me. I am never using one again... well, I will probably have to... sigh.

I wish I could tell you all the stuff I got today!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it all so much!!!!! I really want it to be a surprise when I get home though. I can't wait for you to see :)

Tiannamen Square, Great Wall

I have so much to say!!!! I’ll start out with Tiannamen Square yesterday morning. We walked over there and we had about an hour and a half to look around at stuff. Sara, McKenna, and I got some fruit bread for breakfast which was amazing!!! Then when we finished it some people asked if they could take a picture of us with their kids. We thought it was the most adorable thing ever! We took that picture and then we took one with the Dads and then with the Moms and that continued with other families that came over! That was all we did the whole time was take pictures with people. It was so funny! The little girls were the cutest. They would come up and stand really close to me and so I would put my arms around them and they would do the same. One little girl (I’m thinking she was around 12) took a picture with us and after the picture was taken she got so excited and started stroking my arms and yelling, “You are beautiful! You are beautiful!” And her little sister started stroking my arms as well. It was the cutest thing ever. Anyway, things like this happen all of the time. I’m pretty sure like a thousand people I don’t know have a picture of me now. It is so fun!

I want to tell you about yesterday but I have to tell you about hiking the Great Wall this morning! It was the best ever. To start out the hike you climb up about a billion stairs (that is no exaggeration) to get to the wall. Seriously there are so many stairs. When we got to the wall we were SO excited. It is so amazing. There is so much detail to it just like all of China. Nothing is simple. It is all so charming and has so many little details! I thought it was just going to be a plain wall! It was so amazing that I don’t even know what to say about it! It was breath taking. We hiked along the wall forever and took like 500 pictures so I will send some. I seriously can’t think of what to say about it but that it was amazing. So if you have questions about it just ask! All I can say is that you have to hike the Great Wall at some point in your life. J

I remember someone telling me before I left that the pollution in China isn’t that bad… but it is SO bad. There is a thick smog ALL the time. I can’t even imagine how amazing the views would be from the Great Wall if it wasn’t so polluted. The views we could see were spectacular. But really, you can’t see the sky, the sun is always so dim, and you can’t see like more than 2 miles in the distance, maybe less actually. Haha I think by the end of the 4 months when we fly out of the smog I am going to be so excited to see the beautiful sky. So when Annie said that there will still be trees and cars and streets and clouds in China, that was a little wrong. There are definitely not clouds! Haha But as we are driving around I still think about how she said that. She is so true that even a foreign country can still look like home in a way. It is still the same beautiful world Heavenly Father created! Only I think the trees are prettier here. J But anyway, one day Jay asked if there were mountains in China and I haven’t been able to see any. But there are! We saw shadows of them through the smog on the way to the great wall. And I’m pretty sure the Great Wall is on one? Maybe I should look that up. If it’s not on a mountain it is at least on a really big hill.

When you hike down from the Wall and start getting about a mile from the bottom there are little booth things that people are selling stuff at. As you are walking down people are shoving things in your face saying “Twenty dollar!” and when you don’t respond they say, “Ten dollar, I give you for ten dollar!” and when you still don’t respond they continue following you and going down in price until you can get “Three for one dollar!” haha “Hello!?? Hello!?? Hi!?? I give you for one dollar!!” Everyone is yelling that. Haha it is hilarious and kind of stressful! Tomorrow we are going to the silk market and pearl market so I think I am ready to get some good bargains. J

The Great Wall was amazing. I can’t wait for Annie and me to add it to our list of hikes to do together someday!!! We also went to the jade factory today which was incredible. I saw so many things there that I wanted to get my sister but it was all just so expensive. Which is funny to say because nothing here in China is expensive! I feel rich and I love it! J But the jade factory really is expensive, so maybe tomorrow I can get some good stuff at the markets. I am thinking about you all J

Oh and Carianne, tell Nathanael that I see pandas all over!!!! (Just not real ones J) But I am going to try to go sightseeing at the panda zoo place at some point in the next four months and I will take lots and lots of pictures. J

pictures

I AM IN CHINA!!!!!!!

We made it to China!!! I cried all the way from Korea to here but I made it. When we got here we went through security again and then exchanged our money and got our bags. Then we rode in a big tour bus to our hostel. The first thing I thought as I looked out the window at China as we flew in was that it was really really smoggy. I couldn’t really see a lot because there is so much smog in the air! Anyway, we got on the buses and wow. the driving is CRAZY!!!!!!! Nobody stays in the lines and everyone basically just holds there horn down as if they're saying "MOVE CAUSE I'M COMING THROUGH!" hahahaha  I'm pretty sure the goal when driving is to see how much space on the road you can take up all by yourself. haha Anyway, I love it here so much already. After we got to the hostel we went out to eat. We had a TON of food and it was all SO delicious. Then we went to an acrobatics show. Oh but first I have to tell you about the tour guide on the bus. He talks so cute!!!! When we passed Tiananmen Square he went like this. "Dead person there people worship like asleep you know?" hahaha I took a video of it. And then the acrobatic show was amazing!!!!! I took a video of the signs at that too which was hilarious. It was amazing what they did! The last performance was of a person ride circles on a motercycle inside a caged cube. Like what was on Americans got talent? Anyway then it was even more intense in real life!!!! We were all screaming basically. Then as it got too intense to handle another motercycle person came out and went in. Then as that got almost too intense to handle another came out!!!!!!! And as we were all screaming to stop, another one came out!!!!!!!!!!! It was so scary. hahaha But so exciting and fun!!!!!! Ok so I have SO much more to say but we are going to these shops and lake we saw as we passed on the bus earlier so I will tell you about more later. It is so fun. So that was my first day here!!!! And already love it. :)

Flight to Korea

Well, I am here in Korea!!! The flight from SLC to LA was normal. I got a window seat on the side where I could see SLC and Provo and everything, so I kissed everyone goodbye again! :) When we got to LA we took a bus to the international area or whatever and then had to go through security all over again. Our flight was a little more than 12 hours. It went by faster than I was expecting it to! The flight attendants were ADORABLE! They all wore the exact same outfit which was a khaki pencil skirt, a white button up blouse, a light blue scarf tied around their neck that stuck straight out on both sides, and their hair in a bun with these blue chopstick things stuck in it. They looked so cute! And they were super nice. When we got on the plane their was a pillow, slippers, headphones, and a soft purple blanket in our seats for us to use. I really wanted to keep the blanket but the flight attendant came on the microphone before landing and asked that everyone please leave the blanket in their seat. So I didn't take it. We had dinner about an hour into the flight. We had options of what meal we wanted but I decided to go with the flow of all the Korean people around me and eat the authentic Korean meal. It was a bowl of rice and veggies and then you put a packet of this oil stuff on it and a tube of spicy paste. The flight attendant showed me what to do with everything. She was so cute! All of the flight people barely spoke English too which was cute as well. The meal also came with these pickle things that were so gross!!! They were hot pickles with these spices on it that I just didn't like so much. The looked like pickles but didn't taste like it. It also came with this soup stuff that kind of tasted like the egg drop soup that you get at Snow Dragon but instead of egg it was seaweed... I think.  I thought the meal was really good at first but then just really wanted something with the American taste to it, which is why I was really glad they gave us a bowl of sliced oranges, peeled and everything. They also offered me wine, but I didn't take it. And tea or coffee for dessert which I also didn't take. haha Everything was just so cute! Then I started watching that movie Soul Surfer but fell asleep for a while I guess. It was so uncomfortable though that I was surprised when I woke up and had apparently been sleeping. I watched another movie then slept some more then it was breakfast time!!! Oh and this whole time the flight attendants walk around with trays of water, orange juice, or pineapple juice. haha Ok so breakfast we had the choice of pourage (I don't know how to spell that), an omlet, or just a muffin meal thing. I got the omlet which was really yummy. It was very American, so yummm. It tasted like something you would get at McDonalds or something, so just normal. Then I watched another movie and another movie and then it was time to land! It went by fast actually. I had a little bit of a breakdown at the end of the flight because really, what am I doing??!!! The whole flight I was thinking I couldn't wait to tell yall about it and feeling like I should just be going home right after this. But I'm not. I am so alone. Then we got off the plane and Korea was sitting in a cloud, so I couldn't really see anything outside. But besides the huge pictures of Korean fighters and stuff all over the place it is very normal. Just like every other airport, but cleaner and quieter. It is EXTREMELY hot and humid here. Like Texas!!!! Just my clothes touching my skin is making me sweat like crazy. But just like Annie said, so far there are familiar things all over the place. And everything here is still written in English so that helps in the familiarness of it all. Well, 6 hours then off to Beijing!!! There is internet here but everyone is at church right now so nobody is on Skype. It was funny how we left on the 20th and when we landed it was the 22nd! No August 21, 2011 for me! :) I miss you all and love you

My Trip To China

On Saturday I am leaving for four months to go teach English in China. I am going through a company called China Horizons so I am flying over with a lot of other teachers. We are flying into Beijing and spending a week there before we all go our separate ways. The first few days we are just doing a bunch of touristy stuff! We are going to hike the Great Wall, go see a live acrobatics show, go to the Forbidden City and the Ming Tombs, go to the silk and jade factories and so much more!!! Then we have a training and orientation the next few days after that. Then we all leave for the city we are assigned to teach in. I am assigned to teach in Yangzhong. It is on an island surrounded by the Yangtze river a little north of Shanghai. I am teaching middle school, so 12-16 year olds. I have no idea what to expect at all... but I am so excited! Let the adventure begin!!! :)