Ah. My home in China (Nanchang)

Cool looking soldiers huh?
This is the town square. Nanchang is famous for being the place where some of the cultural revolution begin in China. Many people in China come to see this square, and the people who live in Nanchang spend their weekends here with their families.
This is our Campus. You can see one of the classroom buildings in front of you and to the right are the tennis courts. So many students... and they are all so intelligent. Seriously.
This is a monument about the cultural revolution. It is really tall and is in the middle of the town square
This is a picture of my students, my teammate Caleb, and me in a store. Yes, we are being crazy, but we are weird anyways.

Holiday Festivities!

This is our International Fellowship getting together for our big Christmas Bash. We had a ton of fun eating lots and lots of western food, singing Christmas songs, and talking about why we celebrate this holiday. It was a really nice party.
Nancy and I decided to hang out with our friend Caleb, but we were a little cold... hence the enormous blanket covering us both. At least you can still see the antlers. :)
During the spring festival in China, the Chinese new year, there are some parades with big dragons similar to this one. Pretty cool huh?
This is just a peak into a bustling shopping street in Nanchang, China. You could pretty much get anything here if you are any good at bargaining, but it is more difficult bargaining in another language. I have to admit that I was embarrassed when I got so into the bargaining that i mixed up the numbers and made the price higher instead of lower! ahhh! So humbling :) hahaha

Chinese/American Meal

So I had over one of my good friends (a Chinese student) for dinner. I decided to make a semi-American meal so she could taste some western food. I made yellow rice with some veggies cooked with some chicken. I used taco seasoning to cook the chicken. It was definitely yummy, but it was a weird mix between American food and Chinese food. There was rice, but it was yellow. There was a "stir fry" (because they only cook on the stove top in China), but I did not use oil. Now you must understand that Chinese people usually eat communal style, while we selfish Americans like to have our own plates :) So My friend asked for a bowl for her rice. I asked her where she would put her other food, and she said she would just pick it off the dish. I, of course, decided to take a plate and put the rice and the dish together and eat it with a fork. So I ended up pouring the rest of the dish into a large communal bowl just for my friend while I just ate with my fork on the other side of the table. It was a comical experience. We both laughed a lot. We decided it was a picture worthy moment for us both.

As you can see, later that week, Nancy (my teammate) and I decided to show up at Caleb's (another teammate who did not seem excited about Christmas before Thanksgiving) Apartment to remind him that it was officially Christmas time! He did not like the idea of celebrating Christmas "early", so we decided to be the first to bring him a little Christmas Cheer! And don't worry, we actually brought him the Christmas tree for him to use. No red noses, but aren't we cute little reindeer?

"MERRY CHRISTMAS CALEB!!!" and all of y'all from home.

Hainan Continued...

Caleb is wearing an "Island Uniform". Yes, it is actually called that, and yes, everyone wears one when they are on the Island. Some families have matching ones. Caleb said that if I wanted a shot of him in the uniform I better do it quick because I would never see it again. I doubt that this is true. I mean seriously, who can keep something as festive as this stuffed away in a closet somewhere?
nice looking banana tree. Gotta love being in the tropics.
This is outside of a hotel that we stopped to eat at. It was beautiful and overlooked a little bay area.
Nancy looking like J-Lo in her super fancy sunglasses. N-a-n-c-y... she so hot right now, she's so hot right now...N-A-N-C-Y (Zoolander spoof for those who do not know).
What are you crazy chickens doing? "oh, we are just petting a bird." Even the "chickens" in Hainan are cooler.

Trip to Hainan

Yay! Team AWESOME is finally in a photo together. We are still missing Connie, but we are one step closer. This is us after we had landed in Hainan. We could see the palm trees in the airport!

This is a strange tower in the middle of some bird place we went to. I am sure in Chinese it has a much more beautiful name, but all is lost when you can't read :) I thought it was big and cool though.
Nancy and Jet munching on some yummy snacks while we are on the rode in our super spiffy tour bus.
The palm trees near the place where I decided to by myself a coconut to "drink". Coconut milk rocks! The fruit here was great too!
All the foreign teachers lined up to see an Indonesian dance.

Chinese Cooks ROCK

Nancy and I were invited to eat dinner with one of our foreign friends and his good Chinese friends. This is the whole crew.
Yummy, what's cookin?
This is our beautiful banquet Chinese Style... As it should be.
Everyone is excited to start eating, but some of the cooks are not ready to sit yet.
I am much taller than my teammate, Nancy, and so we took a picture with her on a stool. She loves it because she finally gets to see over my head and make me feel like a tiny person.

Oral English Classes

This is my class on the big day! We are about to put all our learning into practice and do a REAL debate with another class. I can feel the excitement.
These students are practicing for their midterm by interviewing each other. I just had to interrupt them for a picture, but they never seem to mind.
This is a debate team on the opposition side right before their debate is about to begin.
This is me looking kind of crazy. Really I am just teaching and my photographer friend caught me in mid-sentence.
Ok, now I look a little more normal. This gives you a feel for a normal Oral English Three class day.

I MADE DUMPLINGS!!!!

Today three students came over and showed Caleb, Nancy, and me how to make real Chinese dumplings in my apartment. It was really intense... especially since you have to create the dumplings the right way or they will explode when they are cooking.
This is everyone learning the electric slide... as you can see, our party is ELECTRIC
This is us getting to eat the delicious food that we made together. yummy! I was stuffed after this.
Finally, I helped teach them how to square dance. Who knew I would be square dancing in China. For anyone who knows me... you know that this night was one of the best nights in China yet because it was filled with all kinds of organized dances.
This is our dumpling-making station on my table in my den. As you can see there was a ton of meat as well as tiny vegetables chopped up inside each one.

Connie's Speech Girls

This is my teammate Connie (middle) with her speech students. Connie is known here in Jiangxi province for her skills as an awesome English speech teacher.
Nancy and I are standing with the speech students to show off the work we did on their makeup. Connie had us do make-overs on them all and teach them how to do their own makeup because they have to wear makeup when they are on stage for their speech competitions.
Here is me standing between two Chinese beauties!!

out on the town

This is my teammates and me out on our first venture into downtown with students. We had a blast. You can see that the fun is just getting started. You will notice that the bunny-ear sign is extremely popular here. Now I do it too! :) If you want to be cool, you have to do it.
Don't worry, we are totally getting soaked by the fountain behind us. hahaha
This is Nancy (my teammate) trying to drink the dipping vinegar. I think she was so hungry that she couldn't wait for the dumplings to get to the table.
I am the non-Chinese model in the back. These were the students that we were hanging out with that night and we thought that it would be fun if we all did the poses that the models were doing in behind us.

On THE ROAD AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!

My Apartment at Jiangxi Normal University

So I am finally in my new apartment and I have figured out a way to make it look like a person actually lives there instead of feeling like it was all white and boring. Above you can see my face of amazement. this is after I had thrown a dart at my dart board and the dart actually bounced off and stuck into my floor.

This is the dart board that I was referring to.
This is my beautiful living room where I spend most of my time when I am in my apartment.
This is my amazing kitchen. It's great because I have never had my own kitchen before. Also, you should take note of my Chinese style washing machine. It's pretty different, but it is great learning how to cook and clean here. :)
Finally, I know this is the picture you have all been waiting for... My WESTERN toilet! yay! yes, we do have a good relationship with each other. I am always thankful to come back to my apartment and see it.