Officially a resident!

I got my official China Resident visa so I am officially a resident! Which means I can leave the country (since Hong Kong and Macao aren't technically China I'd have needed a passport to get back here, had I gone there. My other visa was a one-entry visa until you get your resident visa. Now you know more about Chinese visas! And about as much as me! Confusing things, they are.) Hong Kong is where Disneyland China is, so yay for getting to go there when we get our IDs and Silver Passes (like the golden ticket but for Disney instead of Willy Wonka). Macao is where gambling is legal. Woot for Chinese Vegas! Note to self: What is "hit me" in Mandarin?.. Do they say the same thing??? Do they even play blackjack at their casinos???

These are my view, day and night. The second picture is a zoomed out version of the first but I couldn't get it that clear that far away because of lights. 

Guangzhou's vast....mountain?

It's 82 today. In October. I miss fall. This is fall. This is "much cooler than it was this summer." I might die this summer.  But PALM TREES! Also, this pool has not been used once since I moved in. It is at the hotel next door. Boo.

Smoggy. But, at least it's better than Beijing!

FOOD!!!! More specifically...Dim Sum

BBQ Honey Pork Buns

I don't remember what these were called but they were my favorite of the day. It's wrapped in red bean. It had shrimp and other amazingness in it. 

Soup Dumplings. Literally, you bite into it over a spoon, because it has soup inside! 

Spring Rolls, but, like, the real ones!

I haven't done much exploring as of late, unfortunate for us all, I know. I am finally working full time, in my own classroom. It's exhausting and fun and so very, very different. In good and bad ways. I have seven classes and 2 demos. (Demos are basically just mock classes for students and parents to hopefully get them to sign contracts with us.) I haven't done a demo yet but I am supposed to start Saturday. I'm nervous. I'm a kid-person, not a people person. (Didn't know there was a difference? Ask a teacher or day care provider.) Parents make me nervous. I have the same classes (hour classes) Tuesdays and Fridays. One is a class of 3 year olds, the other is a class of 6-7 year olds. I have one class on Monday, 4 year olds. My Saturday is a 12 hour day between demos and 2 classes. One class is my babies, 3 year olds, so pretty on par with what I'm used to, and my older class. the 8-11 year olds. A reminder of why I like the babies. I'll leave it at that. Sunday is my "short day" 8-5. I have two classes 7 year olds and 4 year olds. Between the classes and the demos I'm learning lesson planning for the first time. They give you what to teach, and there are lots of great ideas and people to help. The challenge is finding age appropriate games and such for students you don't know very well. All of my classes (with the exception of Tuesday/Friday) are 2 hours. T/F is split so they are each an hour. Except my babies, they're classes are shorter because their attention span is also shorter, but only by about 15 minutes. My days off are Wednesday and Thursday. As with most of the people I know/hang out with. (Wednesday is everyone's day off. The center is closed.) I'm getting my bearings. Figuring out the new normalcy in my day to day life. It's different and exciting and challenging and fun. I still enjoy going to restaurants and pointing at different things that look good, I am learning new words, chicken, pork, beef, noodles, egg, rice. The basics for my survival! All hamburgers are overcooked (they don't ask you how you want it but that's probably because they don't have the same regulations here). They do have some health codes though, people will go into restaurants and give them ratings. If they are clean and follow all guidelines, they get a green happy face. If they follow most and are pretty clean, they'll get a yellow or orange face. If they are dirty, etc, they get a red sad face. They don't get closed down, they just get a sad face. My Starbucks is a yellow face. But, it's coffee and it makes me happy. I am homesick for my kitty, hot showers, and soft beds. And, of course, for all of you ;)

I updated on Facebook so I have forgotten on here. My mass on my liver, is, in fact, a mass. A tumor, actually. A benign tumor. After tests and scans and such that is what they have decided. I will have to have it monitored, to make sure it doesn't grow or change or anything but that is all I have to do for now. Turns out, it's not all that uncommon either. Most people that have it, don't ever even know. And now I have really neat MRI scans of my body! lol

Lychee Bay Scenic Area, we got lost before we found Shamian Island and I moved!

We went on a quest to find Shamian Island. Not an island, thus no beach. Somewhat disappointing. Also, we never actually made it. We did, however, make it to Lychee Bay Scenic Area, which is this strip of walkway along this river which leads to this lake (? bigger than a pond, smaller than a lake, either way neat {though dirty} water!) And it led to this beautiful park area with tons of decorations and cultural stuff for the holiday that has been going on this past week. It was a wonderful walk. I stopped in lots of little shops in hopes of finding a Tibetan Prayer Wheel for my mama. She saw one before I left the states and I've seen many since arriving in China. No such luck, the quest continues. We also made it to this neat street that had tons of street food and shops and excitement. No street food (yet) as we were searching for a restaurant famous for it's Dim Sum, we did not successfully get Dim Sum, we did successfully get amazing food at the restaurant (I'm getting worse at the food picture taking, lo siento). Then, traveled on to the area where we were supposed to find Shamian Island (we're told it's the Europe of China), but we found Enning Lu and wandered (the wrong direction...streets here are confusing when you're not from here!). But, we did find more of the shops and street food (unfortunately, still stuffed from lunch!) and wandered and found the Lychee Bay Area and some other places that were quite awesome. 

Area near Guangzhou Restaurant. Crazy thing, when we went down Enning Lu, it looked literally the exact same.

They were playing music and everything. It was so neat, we were fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time!

Decorations!

The Love Boat!

AAAAAAAAAAnd we moved! That's right! Drew and I found a place and now we're all moved in! Very exciting! Spent nearly 2,000 RMB (only about $300) and got new bedstuffs and a laundry basket and such. 15th floor, "Disney Dorms" as they are so endearingly called.

Fountains near my apartment.

Laundry "Patio"

Kitchen! Yeah...half of it is in the Dining Room...

Dining Room!

Umm biggest bathroom ever?

The bay window is nifty

Minnie Mouse Bed!

Yeah, so, that's my closet... somehow everything fits...

Living Room!

So, it has come to fruition... I officially live in China!

I have started my new schedule, having today (Tuesday) and Wednesday off. My new weekend. And I'll be working 130-930. Big change. Exciting change. I've loved it so far. I miss my kitty, though...

Forbidden City, Great Wall, I ate street food and didn't die!

 This post is going to be a crapload of pictures so enjoy, if not, move along!
First, we got to explore the Forbidden City, on our way up to buy tickets, 2 Chinese girls started talking to us, they had really good English. They said that since there was a wait to get in, we should go grab a drink with them. We agreed, they were really nice, taught us some more Chinese, we went and got a beer, 2 glasses of wine and some green tea, and somehow it was over 300rmb each. At which point, most people think we got scammed, but unless they went back after, they paid that much too. It hurt, a lot, that's a lot for not a lot of product. Anyway, we went back to the Forbidden City and got right in. It was immense, it was amazing, it was breathtaking. I wish I had taken more pictures to remember exactly what each of the buildings were. One, was basically his closet, an entire building dedicated to where the dude got dressed.

Emperor Qianlong had "Yun Zhi Jue Zhong" inscribed above his throne. "Yue Zhi Jue Zhong," means "The way of Heaven is profound and mysterious and the way of mankind is difficult. Only if we make a precise and unified plan and follow the doctrine of the mean, can we rule the country well." Which is still incredibly relevant.

"Zhong He," comes from the Book of Rites, meaning, "When we handle matters properly and harmoniously without leaning to either side, all things on earth will flourish."
Food for thought.

Scale

So many stairs!

Queen's chambers

Turtle

There are 9 dragons on this. Representing something I don't remember. They had to move it in the winter, they took the large chunks and poured water on the ground to create ice to drag it across to get it here. 

The ceilings were so intricate and amazing. 

Crane

2 Dragons Plaque

View leaving the Forbidden City, that was way behind it and too far to get to in the time we had, unfortunately.

Exit elephant!

Once you're through all of the buildings, was my favorite area, The Imperial Garden. It is said to have been where Emperors, Empresses, concubines and the like spent a lot of time. 

The next day, it was off to hike the Great Wall! And our last day in Beijing. It was a 3+ level hike, 10 km. It kicked my ass to begin with but I made it, which for me was quite an accomplishment. My knees let me know they weren't pleased as soon as we were down the mountain. I wouldn't trade it for anything, it was breathtaking, amazing and MASSIVE. It's true that pictures don't do it justice, that being said, check out my pictures! I pretty much have zero on the way up and really have zero on the way down. The way down, was not entirely trail...for most of it. It was really cool but for a section, it had rained recently, making the dirt...soft, not muddy, but definitely slippery, I ended up on my butt more than once. It was a cushy landing though since the dirt was pretty soft. These pictures are mostly of what I actually hiked (the very distant shots are not what I hiked, but towards the tower and slightly past are what we hiked).

This is the view behind where we entered the wall.

View from the Wall

This guy managed to make his way through the sole of my shoe and hung out there. So, after the first time I took my shoe off and thought I got rid of it, I didn't. Once we got to another stopping point I discovered why I was still being stabbed with nothing in my shoe. I missed my boots at this point.

Yeah, I hiked this.

And this!

We hiked a little ways past that tower, then down, down, down. 

These towers were super neat!

And that night, we decided to try street food! It seemed pretty safe, I pointed to what the girl before me had ordered, before, of course, even if there was a menu, I couldn't have read it! It ended up being this square wrap thing, with egg, and then rolled with onion and lettuce inside with this chili sauce. It was spicy and really good. So, win for street food! The next afternoon it was back to Guangzhou. As amazing as Beijing was, and I can't wait to go back with my mom but I would take the humidity and blue skies over the Beijing smog any day.