My time is limited..

My China stay is coming to a quick end. I get home next weekend. Here is a recap of my most recent vacation. :)

China has captured my heart. I will be back someday.

xoxo

Reaching the end..

I have less than a month left here in China town. It is quite bitter sweet. It is safe to say that these kids have officially stolen my heart. They are simply precious. At times I lay in bed and wonder how I am ever going to be able to leave them. BUT I am so excited to see my family and my sweet babies of my own! This has been an incredible experience. Every bit of it! Here is a recap of the last little bit. Enjoy :)

xoxo

<3

Wow!!

So I just got back from Beijing. It was honestly a trip of a lifetime. So nuts!! It was a blast. I saw some pretty incredible things! Annnddd...we shopped till we dropped. It was all bargain shopping which made it so much more fun!

Woah, I am exhausted though.

I also hiked the Great Wall. That alone is probably one of the coolest things I have ever done. Out of control people. Was amazing!!

Enough said. Until next time <3

xoxo

..and so it continues

China Town. For reals. Ah!

Just kickin it in our room

My roomate Hollie and I, singin away!! :)

xoxo

My view on China.

So I have figured out that the reason why blogging has been so hard for me while I have been in China.

Time.

I just don't have enough of it. So I am making changes.

Most of the time I have very little time so I shy away from posting...

Well, I am stopping that.

I am going to post a few pictures every couple of days. It may not ever have words, just pictures.

If I get time to type I will definetly do so, but a picture speaks a thousand words.

Interpret it for yourself. See what I see. Live through my pictures. Let your imagination fall from these pictures.

They will describe my life and demonstrate what is in front of me..

xoxo

Goodmorning to me!

Sooo, i woke up today to bagpipes and chinese music radiating through the halls. I was laying in bed listening to the music thinking to myself, "welcome to China!" It is pretty funny not gunna lie, def a warm welcome to my morning.

Heat is still out but hopefully it will get fixed soon. I slept with a water bottle last night filled with boiling water to warm myself up. It helped a lot!! I slept through the whole night! I think i am starting to adjust to the time, i get so exhausted by the end of the day that i am out cold. It is so cold in my room that i have to stay in one position the whole night to try and keep warm! Hahah ohhh goodie!! I dont tell you this to make you think i am complaining. I think it makes this even more of an experience!! Not gunna lie i hope it gets fixed soon, but it makes it fun to talk about!! When i say it is cold, it doesnt even justify cold. I know i am from AZ where if it is 40 I am freezing my buns off, but when you never have relief and are in the cold constantly, thats when it gets bad!! It is good tho!! This is a blast!!

It is monday morning for me right now, and today we get to go check out where we will be teaching. We are then gunna go into town to see what this city is all about!! I am excited to start exploring!! I met one boy whose name is Brock who is seriously such a sweetheart! He brought me an orange and sat with us at lunch. I think he has a crush on us Americans!! He is adorable, such a sweet little heart!! Everyone is really kind, I seriously feel like royalty here. Everywhere I go people are saying hello and the kids point and wave at us. It is so funny!! We start teaching tomorrow so I think it will be good to start getting into a schedule and start teaching. I got my class and I think it will be a blast!! These sweet little kids melt my heart!

So it is so stinkin funny, the chinese try to translate things into English but it never seems to go as good as hoped. Most everything that is translated is incorrect. Check this out...

This is a poster in our classroom. A published poster...hahahahaah!! So priceless, the funny thing is that this is everywhere haha!! Love it.

I will keep you updated on everything!! As for now I am off to explore the city. Stay tuned for more pictures!! This is going to be one of the greatest experiences I have had, thank you again for all your support!!

xoxo Lex

Ni Hao- China Day 1

Ni Hao America!!

I am alive and am in Bengbu, China. Its whatever. Ha kidding, this place is insane!! It has been one LLLOOONNNGGG day but i am here and alive and living in China. Weird, I never knew i would be saying that!! This is crazier then I could have even begun to imagine. This is going to be an incredible experience I can already tell. So much has already happened!!

Lets start from the beginning.

On Feb. 9th I flew into LAX leaving behind my home, good o'le Mesa. (You will be greatly missed!!) From LA we flew into Korea which was about an 11 hour flight. I slept pretty much the whole time thanks to some good sleeping pills, thanks mama!! The food was terrible on the plane, but hey its an experience!! After landing in Korea we flew into Shanghai which was about another 2 hour flight. Our cute guide that will be with us the whole time during this trip was at the airport waiting for us. Her name is Mary, she is the bomb. SHe knows a lot of english so she is our translator. Idk what we would do without her!! She is adorable! After we met up with Mary we jumped onto a bus and started our 7 hour drive over to our city, Bengbu. We stopped in Shanghai and ate lunch, which was my first real Chinese meal. We had jiaozi (dumplings) which were really good. My chinese is staring out good already! It tasted a lot like pot stickers. The chinese people just kinda stared at us which was funny. They are all super nice tho so it is good! While on our drive over to Bengbu, we experienced a lot of honking. We soon caught on that Chinese people honk at everything. We were constantly switching lanes and honestly almost running over little cars. It was scary!! All the cars are a lot like ours at home, i see lots of VW vans and saw lots of Audi's... It is funny!! Our bus driving was hacking his brains out, it was a crack up! We were all so confused at what he was doing. He would hawk a loogie honestly every 5 mins ha!! It was nasty! But hey whatever works right?! Another one of our drivers was parked in the back just sleeping on a seat for most of the time!

Funny stuff! It was fun to get to know the girls tho, we will have a blast!!

We finally arrived to our city and pulled up to our school. There were about 10 chinese students waiting there for us to greet us and to help us take our luggage up to our rooms. We are on the 6th floor with no elevator...goodie. It is also FREEEZZIINNGG in our room, the Chinese dont exactly believe in indoor heating. I am typing right now with frozen fingers. I am freezing, but am bundled up in jackets and lots of socks so I will be ok! The room is a lot better then i had expected. I do have a bed and it isnt just cement floors. We are gunna decorate it cute so we will make it more homey. I share a room with a super fun girl named Holly who is from Vegas. We are def gunna party it up in here! The city is beautiful, i am excited to be able to see more! I am about 15 hours different in time compared to home (AZ) so time zones may be a bit of a challenge but I will figure something out. This is crazy stuff!!

This is going to be an amazing experience. I feel lucky that I have the opportunity to do this. It will def be a life changer! I will keep you posted on my life as I am embarking on this incredible journey. Who knew life existed outside of Mesa :). I miss home already but know this is what I am supposed to be doing right now. It will be good, oh so good. I love you friends and family, thank you so much for all your support!! Keep reading so I can continue to fill you in on my life and help you to feel a part of it!!

Have a wonderful Friday everyone :)

xoxo Lex

My Groupie

Bus ride to Bengbu

Shanghai

No dryers in China. Hang dry all the way. :)

Mm hmmm. Who knows.

First Chinese Meal. Dumplings.

Mary!!

My room!

Ps- Did i tell you it is freezing?! It is awful!!! My body is convulsing! hahahah!! Ahhhh!