The day before school was to start, I got a tour of the school and was shown my classroom. Amy and I would be team teaching, and we were pretty excited about our cute little room! We were supposed to have 8 students (which ballooned into 15) and they were very cramped in this tiny room. We had a white board and we put posters up on the walls! It was sooo cute!

Ok, so, apparently the boys and girls can't sit together. This posed a problem because the boys talked to boys and girls to girls. When we tried to mix the two, students fussed and literally cried...finally we got it set up how we wanted it...they we changed in a million times! lol. It was a good learning experience though.

First day of school dawn bright and early! The kiddies all come! SOOOO CUTE! We actualy got to name 2 students. We took a picture holding up signs that said "first day of class." The kids could barely speak English! I was sort of surprised, but quickly got used to how it would be. We had such a low level, that we could write our lessson plans before class. This meant free nights!

At night we would go downtown in taxis or motorbikes and walk around the dark lit streets. People stared soo much...but not worse than when we were on the great wall...lol!! It's kinda fun being a celebrity. I have really light hair too soblonde Nathaniel and I got the most looks. It was crazy fun! people asked to take pictures with us all over.

We would do activities with the kids at night a couple days a week. I think I played UNO more times that I breathed during that trip, but it was a blast cause I got to see them happy! We did free talk and movie night and choir/piano/sitting looking awkward. It was Great!

We saw a Chinese hospital (very interesting) and went to many student's houses. They helped us experience real China! We would just go and jump in a taxi or on a bus and go for it! That was the greatest feeling...being somewhere and just exploring like it was your job!

Sometimes we sang karaoke at Red Party...this is amazing. It's individual rooms that you go in and you have mics and a big tv. You choose your songs on this touch screen and then sing them..but only with your friends. There is a bathroom in each room (which STUNK SO BAD but i used it cause I had to lol) and some rooms have internet. Those times at Red Party were GREAT fun!

We went on a weekend trip to another city...we stayed in a hotel that was even nicer than the one in Beijing! We went out at 12:30 at night to star bucks but it was closed to we went to McD's. We did some shopping and karaoke in that city, and met some really cute Chinese people. It was about 3 hours away from Dongguan.

The rafting trip......OH MY!! lol...so, we went on this school wide rafting trip. Not everyone went, but there were 50 people on a crowded bus. The bus ride was supposed to take about an hour...pretty sure it took 5! It was so fun though. We were sore after going on all the bumpy country roads where I thought I was gonna die! It was crazy amazing. We ate at this open sided restaurant where we ate (or didn't) a whole fish...eyeballs and all! The potties were squatty but they were a hole in the ground...literally!

When we finally got to the rafting place, we went up this mountain. The river was natural, but they had sectioned off parts and made it look at real as possible while still controlling it. We got in these two people rafts with helments and buckets...I thought we would just aget a bit wet...SOAKED! TO the bone...not a dry spot lol! It was sooo fun. People sprayed up with water guns, and we went under waterfalls, got stuck on the banks, through caves, and down a HUGE drop! I screamed my head off cause I went down backwards! In these little tiny inflatable rafts...I thought I would die. When we got to the bottom , we got out and went to change. Then we got back on the bus for anther 5 hours. It was exhausted by the end of the day, but I had sooo much fun! I wouldn't trade that experience for anything!

More stories to come...time for lunch!