Hey everyone!
Honestly my culture shock is through the roof right now. After a 9 hour flight delay in Dallas a 17 hour flight to Hong Kong where we finally got onto a ferry after waiting 7 hours there for one to take us across the bay from Hong Kong to Zhongshan. The smog here was so thick that everything looked like a somber grey as if it were a black and white movie. When we arrived in Zhongshan we went through customs and immigration where none of them spoke english so trying to communicate with them was ... well lets just say interesting. We then went by bus through the city which was an adventure within itself. China driving is unlike anything else I have ever seen before. If there is even the tiniest bit of an inch they take it, but of course not without laying on their horns first. They will come within millimeters of each other. In order to drive in China you have to be fast, risky, aware of everything, and sometimes patient because the Chinese drivers definitely aren't. The typical day of driving is enough to put someone in their grave, but it doesn't even phase the locals. Whenever you have to cross the streets here they don't have very many cross walks so you literally just slowly walk across at snails pace as cars and mopeds whip around you. They don't believe in the road lines here, its more about just dodging other vehicles. Speaking of mopeds that is the "cool" vehicle to drive here. They will stack so many people onto the mopeds. I have seen as many as five people on it at a time, with the little kids on the handle bars and anywhere in-between they also will tack their mopeds with so many things that you think their wheels are going to pop. It's insane!
Our apartment is unique. In our group there are 3 apartments total there are 6 girls in each apartment. Some apartments have squatty toilets and one apartment is lucky enough to have a normal toilet. There isn't an actual shower in our bathroom it is a hose coming out of the wall and we have a washing machine in our bathroom so we can shower, brush our teeth, wash our clothes and go to bathroom at the same time. There are 2 girls in each bedroom, there is a queen bed and a bunk bed. I am on the bunk bed and my room mate Kenya is on the queen. The mattresses here aren't actually mattresses at all they are pieces of wood with a sheet over it. I have a bruise on my hip from laying on my side while sleeping. Luckily we have AC though in our apartments. A lot of places here don't have any AC at all and just rely heavily on fans that they can plug into the outlets. The weather here is basically like a sauna from 10am - 9pm after that though it is perfect outside.
I was able to coordinate a bus for the 7 girls from our group who wanted to go to church last Sunday. We each only had to pay 100UN which is about $15 US dollars which isn't that bad at all for a 2 hour ride there and a 2 hour ride back. The church is so cool. It is just held in someones apartment. There are about 25 people in their branch and they love having us come so every week we come they feed us lunch afterwards. I got called to the relief society first counselor already which I am actually really excited for because it makes it so I get to know some of the LDS locals here.
We have had some interesting experiences here thus far though. The guys here will try to hug you and we were told not to but one of the girls forgot and went to give the guy a hug back and he started kissing her neck. It was really freaky because it was just the 2 of us so she tried to push him off of her and I had to help pull him off all meanwhile the guys around him were like cheering him on. It was really weird and scary.
The food here is good as long as you actually order what the picture says it is. We don't read Chinese obviously so we just pick what picture looks good and take a picture of it and show it to the waiter or just point at what we want. One time I accidentally ordered fried rice with chicken feet and squid legs in it ... honestly grossest thing I have ever tried. But their noodles here! Oh my goodness they are to die for!! One of the girls, Jess, and I found an amazing popsicle place here that puts fresh fruit in them.
It is really fun to just explore the city and I can't wait till we start to teach the kids english! I am teaching one of the babies classes (3-4 years old) with 2 other girls. I am so excited to start that portion of this adventure!!
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