Teaching Around the World : Hannah Banana Changzhou

Hannah and I lived together in Lithuania. Then we both came to China as head teachers. Her school is 1.5 hours by slow train or 30 min by fast train from my school. So when I had the week off and decided last minute not to go to changzhou it seemed like a great chance to go see Hannah! This would also be my first time traveling alone through China. Okay it barely counts beacuse I just had to take an hour ride on the metro, wait an hour in the railway station and then take an hour train to her which I am on now but hey I'm still solo in China. It's quite intimidating this country.

Hannah will be meeting me at the train station. Right now I'm wishing I had spent the extra $2 to take the fast train especially since I'm sitting backwards. But hey this is part of the experience being squished between a bunch of chinese on a smoke filled train with food scraps all around me. Puuuurfect.

Have you ever tried to get on the metro when everyone is trying to get to work!? Neither had I, until today.

I thought this was crowded. Ha. The chinese laugh. This is very open and spacey. At this point we still had 6 stops till downtown. Six. Each time I though no way, there is no way one more person is going to fit on this train. I mean when they open the metro doors people literally fall out. But oh how I was wrong. More and more and more kept squishing in.

I must interrupt because I quite literally might vomit right now. The lady across from me just busted open her vacuum sealed chicken foot and is going to town. As if the smell alone wasn't enough to knock out a full grown man the sounds she's making as she slurps the preserved skin off this bone is gut wrenching. I've only been on this train for two minutes. I might not survive.

Okay so back to the metro. Check this out:

This is what it is like to try and board the metro. You saw what it looked like inside but look how many people are about to get in there. For reals. China has so many people.

Oh now a man is coughing up who knows what is in his lungs. Oh the smell. I may pass out. I don't know how to discretely plug my nose and keep my face in a neutral position. She literally just bit off part of the mest and is sucking it then spitting the grits on the table. Wueezy. Queezy.

Blah!

I survived. Got off and headed out to look for the McDonald's that Hannah and I were to meet at. Went in no Hannah. Decided to wait outside. No Hannah. Went back in mcdonalds and checked all the levels. I waited outside until about 11:25. I got in at 10:50. Then I decided to wait inside McDonald's. She didn't show. I started to panic bc what if she forgot or get lost etc. I had no idea where her school was. I would have to figure out how to buy a ticket and go home. I prayed and prayed and then started texting her. But I never got a response. At this point it was 11:40 and about an hour has passed. I decided to wait until 12:30 and then go back. I kept texting and saying all sorts of things. Finally at 12 i headed out and saw Hannah walking up! Woohoo! Turns out the bus she normally takes got canceled and she tried a different bus and got kicked off and then had to figure out how to take a taxi. What is even funnier is she was getting all my messages and responding. I wasn't stying any of her messages but the way I was responding made it look like I was.

Too funny! I am so glad we found each other! So then we had to figure out how to get back. Her city has no metro. I will never complain again about our metro. I'm so blessed to live in a city with a metro! So an hour and a half later we get to her school and she takes me on a tour. Her school is significantly smaller than mine and very different but so cute.

These are their bedrooms! They are HUGE! Their beds are also HUGE! But they have squattwrs 😂 they also have common areas which are great and an industrial kitchen they can cook in which I am so jealous! But they only get cafeteria food which is nasty. We are so blessed in nanjing to have so many food options and to get a monthly living allowance which allows me to do my own food. I would have died if I had been assigned to Changzhou. They have a rock wall which is awesome! They also have adorable eating areas outside and their building is so pretty! They have wrought iron stair rails and peacocks! Even a garden they can pick food from!

The kids at the school are so cute! Everyone walks past and says hello teacher and gives you a high five! Adorable!

They also have had a lot of teachers paint the walls of their school which is so fun. I got to stay and watch their openings and how their teachers teach. Got some ideas for our school and loved seeing ILP in place at another school.

That night we went to the night market. It was awesome! They have little tuck tuck. Cars that you can use to go close distances for 5y and we took that about two min to the market. I tried this amazing food that is like an english muffin kind of:

Like a dough with an egg and green onions in it. It was so good!

After that we came back and played cards. The next morning we went to lunch and then went and watched their elementary classes. After that we headed into town on the bus. The bus that was so hot and moved so much I was sick and miserable. Again I will never again complain about our metro. We are so blessed.

Once we made it the hour on the bus we went to the most beautiful park I've ever seen. We spent hours walking around and exploring this gigantic park.

There were two huge pagodas and tons of quaint little bridges and walkways.

This one area was covered in green algae. There was a rose garden with roses bigger than my outspread hangs.

As we walked through the rose garden this cute man was taking our picture and then became way into Hannah.

I don't blame him bc she is beautiful and look at her hair! So he wanted to take some photos of her:

Then he found another photographer and they took more photos of her and an Asian model.

I was totally fine with being the DUFF in this situation. So funny to watch this unfolding. After this we continued our walk.

After walking around we hit up the grocery store partially bc it was one I have not been in and also to find dinner. we got some 1y oh I don't know what they are called. It's basically a huge bread dumpling of dough and sometimes has things inside like meat. They cost thirty cents.

I forgot we also went to a candy store and picked out a whole bunch of candies and then tried them all. They were delicious. So much fun and they lady in there thought it was hilarious to watch us. One time I bit into one candy and it shot chocolaye all over my face and hands and the lady laughed and laughed. Too much fun!