A Chinese Easter

Shanghai was so much fun! On Saturday straight from the metro we decided to find Pearl City. A nice lady came out of the metro and helped us which was great and another one of our guardian angels. We found the peal city and headed to the peal store. I ended up buying even more pearls, go figure. But come on it's pure classy jewelry that will never go out of style and something I constantly love. Then it was time for more shopping and walking around. After this we headed to West Street. As soon as we got off the metro and went up the stairs I saw it: Marks & Spencer's. Remember when I lived in Europe? Remember when I went to M&S almost every day? Yeah. Okay. I was obsessed. I still am. I literally would have ran except I was behind the girls in my group who unfortunately had never been to M&S before and didn't realize this was a running experience. I was so happy in that store!

Of course I got our favorite cookies, even though they were a small Chinese fortune. The girls ended up getting some fresh baked cookies from the bakery which I had never had before. Big mistake. I tried it. Obsessed. Pure joy. Those cookies were on the American standard of good. I however, did not try them until we were at dinner which meant I had to bribe and pay those inexperienced girls to let me have half of their cookie. Totally worth it. Then we walked around and enjoyed the cute street and American shopping. Got some clothes at Old Navy on major clearance. It was just an enjoyable night, even though we were walking around lugging our suitcases.
That night we got to our hostel and they had given away our 6 bed dorm and told us we had to be in an 8. I threw a small fit and got us all free breakfast the next morning.

We ate that free breakfast on Sunday morning, Easter. Eggs. Eggs gross me out. Big time. Especially eggs that have runny yoke. It is like instant gag reflex. As if an egg is not disgusting enough then you go and make it gooey and runny. Vomit. We decided we would hit shopping before church since we were short on time.
We got off the metro where the giant shopping should be- by the way the stop is called the Science and Technology something and you best go here if you are ever in Shanghai. So we got off and to our utter dismay the shopping that once took up the entire stop was gone.... how could it be gone? We couldn't figure out what had happened. A little lady suddenly popped up and said shopping? Why yes mam how did you know? ;) She begins to lead us down a dark corridor at which I am slightly uneasy and planning my attack for when crazys come out of the dark. I told Mikelle we should stay back so when the other two get kidnapped we can call for help. Anyway turns out the market that we couldn't figure out where it had gone to was just not oepen yet. The lady was taking us to the one shop that was open. From here it got funny. She got on the phone and started calling people to come open their shops. Then as they arrived we got a guided tour from shop to shop. Finally around 10 the whole place opened up and the shopping began.
I got some Lulu lemon capris, adorable sports bras and then all hell broke loose. Before I begin I will say I am grateful it happened because it kept me from shopping or spending any more money because I was so unsettled and upset after it happen. Here we go:
Jordy in our group has a tendency to pay way to much for things. I am a hard bargain and want it for the cheapest they can go. So we walk buy and she is going to spend 260 for something we could get for 150. We tell her not to pay and to walk away. She stays and keeps negotiating. I leave and move on.We check in on her and the lady keeps shoving the jacket into her bags and holds them shut demanding money. I can tell the situation is getting heated and wish she would just leave. This continues because they can't come to an agreement.  Later I get a text: Come back to the jacket store. Okay. I go back and there is a fight going on. It was actually quite scary. The gist is that Jordy paid but the lady did not give back all her change. Jordy is yelling at the lady saying she won't leave until she gets her money back and the lady is yelling it's in my pocket what are you going to do about it. It was heated and not good. I was a bit intimidated because this lady was truly crazy. I walk and start to look for a cop or for someone to help but of course I cannot find anyone. At this point Jordy has to just leave the change, and I find out it was only 4Y which is less than $1. All this for a $? I get that it sucks the lady won't give her change but at this point I am worried about both our safety. As we finally walk away the lady is cursing F you F your family. On and on. She is livid and scary. I turn with my phone to take a picture of the shop # so we can avoid it and so that if we found someone to help us we could go back.

The lady comes sprinting at me screaming full force. I literally thought I was going to get in my very first cat fight. I was terrified. I was scared that she was going to deck me. She was in my face. I was guarding my phone because that is the last thing I wanted taken and slowly started to back away and then booked it. Really. It was not good. I was ticked. I was mad that this stupid situation even happened.
Turns out the other two girls walked by and the lady said she would kill Jordy if she even came close to her shop again.
What a huge stupid avoidable mess.
Fast forward to church.

Church was great! It was so spiritual and so uplifting. I am so glad we got to go. RS was about pain and how the atonement can take away pain. I was almost moved to tears as she wrote up all our pains and sufferings on the board and we sat there together looking at the things that were hurting us on the daily and then talked about how the Savior has felt all these things and can take it away. We talked about happiness and how the Lord is looking out for us. It was great to be reminded that even through the pains of life the reason we are here is to learn, grow, be happy, and go back. I know that each day is really a gift and I am so glad I am living my dream. Even though I have so many worries about going home and getting back into reality and my future I know it is going to be okay. I am choosing to live in the present and accept myself, my situation, and look for the good.

After church this adorable lady Sister Roundy invited us to stay for a YSA dinner. She had made mashed potatoes, chicken, fruits, veggies, salad and even had little bags of Easter candy! Just like Grammy! I almost cried again. It was really hard to not be home for Easter with all my family and doing our traditions but that little bad of candy and the little furry chick she put by our plates made all the difference. We ate around a humble table with paper plates in a small room of the hotel that we rent as a church building. I had Easter with our adopted grandma, a guy from Kenya and a lady from Madagascar. Talk about one to remember. After we headed on the metro and saw these cute kids. We gave them our little furry chicks and plastic Easter egg and they were so happy.
Mikelle and I then headed to the

Shanghai Circus World Acrobat Show.
The show was incredible! People are way talented. We were on the edge of our seat the whole time fearing for their lives and wondering how they can bend their bodies like that. It was a great show!

Monday we headed back to M&S to get cookies. Mikelle appreciated the pure divinity of the cookies so she accompanied me back to my paradise.

Then we went to this amazing street called Tanzifang Art Center. It is these cute alleys all intertwined and strung with lights, flowers on every door, artist painting, art galleries, and delicious food. There was also a food court right off the metro that was huge and overwhelming for us! Ice cream and dessert places everywhere. It was a foodie's dream. In

Tanzifang Mikelle and I found this Trifelle place that had an oreo and cream trifle. It was divine. We ended up dropping 40Y for it, which was a ridiculous price but we got to keep the cute little jar and it was so good.

From here we had to head back to the hostel. It started to rain. Mikelle bought an umbrella that withing 3 minutes started to break into pieces. The whole way back to the hostel it broke more and more and I laughed harder and harder. Don't worry I offered to share my umbrella but really it was hilarious and we were soaked. Shanghai Easter weekend was an incredible adventure and one I will cherish.

Hagaha one more thing. On the way back Mikelle started talking to a lady at the train station and showing her pictures on her phone. It started with just one lay and soon turned into this:

No joke.

So we took the biggest chinese selfie yet:

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11:11 Luck.

11:11. Sitting. 11:13 train leaves. 

What. A. Mess.

The positive?

I got a lot of cardio. However high intensity sprinting with a suitcase in tow, through a sea of Chinese is not necessarily what I wanted. But we made it. 

Let's start at the beginning shal we?

We, Nichole Jordy Mikelle and myself, were supposed to leave at 9:30. We didn't leave until 9:45 and we didn't know we were going to the south station.   At 10:55 we got off the metro. Jordy realizes she doesn't have her passport. What do we do now? We pray, then we try and get on. For the only time ever they barely check our ID and they let Jordy through. It's now 11. We run up an escalator. Then we learn that our terminal is a22 the very last one. Running commences. We get there and run again. We are car 16. The very first car. We are running high speed parallel to the train at car 5. Whistles are blowing. At car 12 I start screaming just get on the train. Just get on the train. We get to our seat. 

11:11.

The train pulls out at 11:13. 

What a way to begin our trip. In good news we get to spend the weekend in Shanghai. 

Will write more as the adventure goes on. 

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The Beauty of Spring

I LOVE spring. I love it. The weather is nice. The sun is out. Flowers are blooming. Here in China the blossoms and beautiful. As we walk to class there is one area that is gorgeous! It's a cute little trail with purple flowers scattered on the floor and trees in bloom with countless white blossoms. Everytime I walk by there I smile. It's simply perfect. 

This is what it looked like last week. Doesn't look so special but this week the flowers have gone crazy. 

Anyway spring is also incredible because it means our tai chi classes are outside!

It's so fun meeting with out cute Chinese teacher and learning the tai chi movements. Even if I look like a fish out of water, I still enjoy it. But seriously, I was born with no coordination. 

What's new lately? It is week four of exercise and we are still going strong. Today was the strength program and kung fu. It is also Cierra's birthday. We made her an Oreo, brownie, pudding trifle that was delicious despite the nasty oil we used to make the brownies. 

This week I also got to get back into the classroom and teach for someone who was sick. 

We made shamrocks. 

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A Spiritual Shanghai

When we heard that our church was having a district conference in Shanghai we immediately jumped on the opportunity. We started planning and after many failed attempts finally got tickets purchased and a hostel booked. We set out Friday after school and survived the K train. K trains are the worst. In fact I am sitting on one right now. They are slow, they smell, and they are hot. People and smashed in and EW. It is not a pleasant experience. People smoke and right now there is the most annoying music ever. The good? It's only 49 yuan which is $8. Sweet. So how do you entertain yourself for four hours? MASH, cootie catchers and stories. Get this in MASH I live in a shack in provo. I drive an old beater truck to my job at Walmart where I am a greeter. I have a pet cow and six kids who I support on welfare. The good? I'm married to Damon. If you don't know who Damon is then you don't watch vampire diaries obviously. Anyway When we got off the train we booked it to the metro because it was 10:40 and the metro stopped running at 11. Problem was we got on yellow and we needed to be on purple. By the time we realized and got off we missed the last one. Thus we had to pay to take a taxi. I was cranky AF and needed to sleep. We didn't get to the hostel til midnight. 

The next day the church had organized tours for all us younger people. We got In a group and headed out with our guide Sunny. She took us all over. We went to people's square, a beautiful garden, nanjing east street, the bund, a ferry across the bund, and more. It was a really fast tour but awesome because it gave us ideas of what to do when we come back.

After the tour we high failed it to the teachnology and science stop which is full of shopping. Of course I bought too muh but this time I put myself on a budget and stayed in it. Finds included lulu lemon headbands and sports bras, Rosetta Stone spanish, a Zara sweater and toms. From there we headed to the afternoon session of our conference. It was a very uplifting conference. I felt inspired to get home and get back into volunteer work, to focus on serving one another and a renewed effort to keep positive and enjoy life and help others to enjoy life as well.

Oh! On our tour we went to this park. I kid you not it was a park where parents put advertisements on the walls for their kids. Like their kids who are not married. They list he year born, the height, the salary and what they are looking for. Part of the park had the parents sitting there holding signs. I died bc I can see my parents doing that or going together to shop for a husband. 

That night we went back to the church for a dance which was great because cookies were involved. I will tell you though for the last three weeks I have been working on 7 servings of veggies a day and 8+ glasses of water. Then saturday I had no veggies and hardly any water and let me tell you my body was NOT happy with me. It's amazing the difference. 

Sunday session was equally awesome. I felt really touched on Sunday about slowing down and enjoying the journey. To live and love life. To help others and serve everyday. To put down the phone, get out of the virtual world and live in the actual world. Church was really great this weekend. 

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From the Words of Nick

Nick is a volunteer in my group. 

He is also a talented and hilarious writer. 

If you want to know what teaching is really like. Please read. 

Even if you don't, read it anyway. 

Laughter is good for the soul.

http://nickinnanjing.blogspot.sg/2015/03/tales-of-teacher-nick.html?m=1

Go to his blog. Follow it. 

Here are his words:

Tales of Teacher Nick

Let me first take a moment to point out how diligent I am at blogging consistently about my adventures in China. Aka I literally haven’t written anything since the first week I got here. If it weren't for the pictures I’ve randomly posted, you’d assume I was kidnapped and trafficked, which probably wouldn't be all that bad because I have light hair and I’d be worth a lot of money. I’d probably live in a really nice house or on a yacht somewhere. Seems like a decent trade-off for slavery. 

We were fortunate enough to get a month long vacation right at the beginning of our stay here in China, hence my long absence from the blogging community in which I’m so highly esteemed and established. Now that I’m back from dreamland and doing what I came here to do, I’ll be combining my weekly experiences of teaching, with stories from my travels to make the most enthralling online experience you've ever been a part of. 

Let’s begin. 

My days of teaching have become blurred together in one giant exhausting whirlwind of screaming children and sore vocal chords. Think of it as the scene from the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy is right in the middle of the tornado seeing all those scary things flying past her window. One moment I see a cute, squinty eyed angel saying something adorable that melts my heart. In an instant the angel is gone and replaced by a squinty eyed hellion who places his hand down his backside, then smells his fingers for dramatic effect and loud reactions from his appalled audience. I try to remove the latter experience and similar traumatic events from my memory permanently. 

This week I made harmonicas with my classes. At the beginning of the week we constructed a big one together out of empty plastic bottles that were different sizes. We lined them all up and taped them together from tallest to shortest. The kids let out audible gasps followed by oooos and awwwws when I demonstrated the use of our instrument by blowing in the bottles quickly from left to right. In that moment I felt like my invention was worthy of a Nobel prize. 

I made the mistake of letting the kids make their own harmonicas days later with straws. Despite my specific instructions NOT to touch the straws upon handing them out, they were all over the floor and in mouths and noses in a matter of seconds. With my glasses hanging off my face and sweat dripping off the ends of my hair, I rounded up the all the pieces and we made beautiful hand crafted instruments that resonated stunning melodies through the cold dirty walls of our school. We’re going on a summer tour so keep a close eye on smithtix, because it’s going to be a sold out show. 

When the kids speak we reward them with tickets that are redeemable for prizes. After tallying the count for each student, I went around collecting the tickets. When I came to Spring (my favorite), she claimed that she had already put the tickets in my bag. I had only just come to her, so I knew this wasn't true and I argued it. She INSISTED that she had already given them to me. I gave her that head down, looking up with your eyes look that mothers give you when they catch you in a lie and said, “Spriiiiiiing... Give me your tickets.” She smiled slowly and unzipped the pocket on her sleeve to reveal all of her tickets. Who even uses the sleeve pocket on their coat?! I’ll tell you who. A thief. Spring is a downright thief. And I love it. She scavenges the most random objects. On my birthday she gave me a happy meal toy. She didn't know it was my birthday beforehand. It just seemed like a suitable gift for me among the other things in her coat.  Last week she pulled a carton of milk from her pocket and set it on the table like it was lunchtime. I asked her to put it away. When I turned my back to help another student, I heard her breathe a sigh of satisfaction that you hear in a coke commercial after that first initial gulp of goodness. I turn around to see spring sipping her milk happily like a suckling baby from its mother’s tit. I couldn't even be mad at her, because her sneaky deception keeps me entertained. 

Here she is plotting how she's gonna pick pocket me

Ahhhhhh these kids keep me young. And by that I mean they're accelerating my aging process immensely. Good thing they're cute. 

Stay tuned for more laughs at my expense.

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IKEA

Remember how we found ikea in Lithuania and it reminded us of home? Guess where we went today? 

And it made me just as happy and just as excited. First stop? Ice cream of course. And when we found out it was 1 yuan... Aka 15 cents you know we double fisted that. 

And the best part? Putting the coins in the machine to fill your own cone!

Except after filling my first cone I was so excited that I put a tad too much pressure on the second cone and it shattered in my hand. This meant I had to suck the ice cream out of the original cone and then refill it. Fun. Then began the walk through ikea. What was different? The kitchen spaces were tiny TINY and the mock apartments were also super small. Other than that it was good ol ikea. After walking through the showroom it was time for the cafe. Mikelle of course was freakinv out because the whole reason she wanted to come was for the meatballs. The other girls got spaghetti. There were SO many people finding seating was impossible. Therefore we improvised.

Table for 6 Americans? ✔️ I had a roll. And my carrots from my purse.

Speaking of which I've done two full weeks now of our exercise regime. Cierra, kenz and i interval run every morning. Then we come back and on MwF we do a strength training with Ligga. Yes, Ligga is a girls name. Her real name is Melissa. Anyway I started cooking for myself again, all meals and am back up to 5+ servings of veggies each day and am feeling great again! 👊 take that China. 

Okay so after eating it was time to go to the warehouse, oh how I love the warehouse! I'll blame my mom for te fact that I love the napkins and have an urge to buy them in every color every time. 

I got Tupperware! I love Tupperware so much. I know that's weird but it's bc I love grocery shopping and food prep. I love opening my fridge to have all the food sorted and organized in Tupperware. Amazing. It's also great for the environment so stop using plastic bags! 

IKEA was a success! WOOHOO!

What else is new?

The other day we went to find blossoms at a lake. Except the lake was surrounded by a wall and you had to pay to get in, and there were no blossoms. 

However we did find the coolest open food market! A big one! Finally! Too bad it's like 18 metro stops away! 

But we got delicious breads for 1 yuan. I loved this place, just wish it was closer. 

On our way out of the school I saw this: 

Reminded me of my dad. Could totally see him selling cotton candy to kids in China lol. Although his would be pink. 

That's about it. Right now I'm on our 23 stop ride to church. The metro is getting a little old lately but at least it is clean. 

Until next time....

Oh! I don't know if I posted but we got permission to paint the walls in the school and we are going to do murals. Here is the one I did in our office:

Double oh! I forgot! This week we started kung fu/ tai chi classes and calligraphy classes! Next week we strt mandarin classes! I also got to teach a few classes this week for sick people and to demo for others.

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Lighting Up China

We heard the lantern festival was supposed to be pretty amazing with some sites saying 50k people and others reporting 500k people. Well, if that many people go then it must be pretty cool. Some girls thought it would be the lanterns that you light and send into the sky so they went and bought them. We knew it wasn't that kind of festival but we wanted to check it out anyway. 

We hopped on a metro and away we went. First problem was the metro stop was closed due to way too many people. So we got off a metro stop further and found some people to help us get there. 

Once there all we saw was a sea of people. Oh and cops. Cops everywhere every SWAT. More cops that we have ever seen. 

Look at all these people. As we walk around we were very disappointed because there was nothing but people and just a few lanterns on the street. We could barely move due to the amount of people. Finally we got to a place where you had to pay to go in. So we decide to pay and head in. There were some large lantern sculptures but it was actually pretty lame. 

So we pulled over and decided to spice things up by lighting our lanterns and sending them in the sky. We got close to the water in case of a fire. Then we tried to do this inconspicuously. That is very hard to do when you are a group of white people with fire. Lighting the lanterns was very difficult. The instructions made no sense and the and let had no wick. We had a broken lighter and so it was quite the situation. We finally got one of these lanterns lit and sent it off. By this point we had a crowd watching us. 

We tried another one but it burst into flames and landed in the water. Then again we tried. By this point the lighter was melting and we were running out of fuel but we wanted to try one more time. 

So Tara gets hers lit and tried to send it off. Well it starts going towards people and we are yelling duck! Then it goes into the bushes! The chinese run for it, grab it from the bush and start stomping. I knew it was time to get out of there so I pack my things and then I see the cops. I pull up my hood and walk off. I am not going to chinese prison. 

My girls on the other hand all stay there. From my vantage point I took photos to document this experience. Luckily they 

Just told tem we don't do this type of thing in China and sent the girls on their way. Good thing. 

What an experience. Almost lighting China on fire and ending up in Chinese prison. 😂

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Birthday Buffet

We were invited to a Chinese Birthday. Of course we said yes and were super excited. We waited at the gate at 3:30 and Arthur's mom came to pick us up. We divided into cars including a Porche Cayenne, a BMW 7 series and so forth. Then the caravan of expensive cars started on a 40 minute journey. We arrived at what would be compared to a club house in America. This club house though was like an atrium and I indoor garden. It was beautiful. 

We go in and sit down at a table and then someone comes in and says follow me we have a program. We walk outside and see this: 

Outdoor laser tag! We about die. And then when they stated putting vests and hats on us we got more excited than the little kids. 

A man in full canoncame out and tarted screaming off commands. No clue what genesis saying but then everyone starts to run. So we run for cover. Then we duck and dodge and roll. Shooting children and the dads. Talk about a fun day!

We played like four rounds of lazer tag. 

And had an incredible time. 

Then it was time to go back inside for dinner. Not going to lie, we were terrified. Out of all the people in our group we only had one of the adventurous eaters with us and only one Chinese person with us which meant we were going to have a problem clearing our plates. As food started to come out and we saw black preserved eggs and other um things... We were scared. We started eating and then more and more and more food came out. I am not kidding over the course of two hours at least twenty dishes came out. 

This was only half the food! Then there was came and candy. Oh so much. Then we finally think we are done and noodles, ham, and veggies come out. I think I may die of fullness. 

There was also a clown and magic show. This party was off the hook! It was an incredible day and a great look into culture. 

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