Sacred Heart Cathedral

I know, I know. I just updated and my life couldn't possibly be that exciting! Probably not but I am going to try be better about updating as my memory for what days happened when is...abysmal at best. I ventured out (on my own!) and found the Sacred Heart Cathedral today. This is one of the things I found before I came out here that I wanted to see. It's not that it was hard to find or get to, I just hadn't. Today I had no plans so I decided to just go for it. Totally worth it. It is AMAZING. Gorgeous architecture. Not for lack of French influence. They actually asked a French Architect to design it. You will see in the pictures there are signs that say "Jerusalem 1863" and "Roma 1863" stating that the Roman Catholic Church had its origin in Jerusalem in the east and evolved in Rome in the west. One kilogram of soil taken from Rome and one stone from Jerusalem were laid under the stones in the ground, respectively. Due to lack of machinery, this was completely built by hand, after disputes and lack of being able to communicate the church was finally finished in 1888, after 25 years of construction.

JERUSALEM 1863

ROMA 1863

This is the one picture I took before a lady pointed to a sign in Chinese, per my awesome deductive reasoning skills, I am going to have to say it probably read something along the lines of  NO PICTURES INSIDE THE CHURCH! Sorry!...

This makes it look round, it's not. It is however my first attempt at a panoramic photo...I might need to work on that...

Darn... can't really see it. Gargoyle has a plant growing out of his head. Actually, most of them did.

The Stained Glass was really cool. 

Think the sink produces holy water?

Also, I found Christmas! When I was walking down the street to find the Cathedral there were TONS of stores with Christmas trees and decorations and blow up snowmen and Santa Claus statues! And a bunch of wholesale shops are in the area with a bunch of other neat things. I got some Christmas shopping done! Yay me. And lucky you. Well, some of you. Haha. I guess seeing the stuff just got me in the mood :) It was overall quite a successful day.

Yuexiu Park and Halloween

Yuexiu Park, October 29th. Enjoy some pictures:

Five Ram Statue, it was the "centerpiece" of the park

It's a little hard to tell but there's one on the far left, eating grass, the middle one standing tall, gnawing on grass, the baby in front drinking from it's mother, on the right, the last one is in the back, just standing there.

The Five-Ram Sculpture is one of the most famous structures in Guangzhou. It has become the emblem of the city. Legend has it that more than 2,000 years ago, the city was a barren land with people who despite hard work were suffering from famine. One day five immortals in five-color garments came riding on five rams, playing their legendary music. The rams held sheaves of rice in their mouths. The immortals left the sheaves of rice for the local people, gave blessings to the city and left. The rams turned into stone and the city became a rich and populous place. 

Lovely Waterfall in the park

Old Men playing..fish flutes?

Herculean Statues!

Some statues were a little...strange...

Jaguar attacking Horse 

Hey! That's me! 

Yuexiu Park East Lake

Too bad it was gated off... Looked pretty neat

SEAMEN! Yea, yea, yea, I think like a 12 yr old boy...

Seamen Pavilion

Still Seamen Pavilion...it was neat!

Plaque at the top of the "100 Step Staircase" (Note: 100 step stairs were actually 498 steps)

Hey! That's me, too! On a weird bench in the park.

More stuff I thought was neat...

There were trees growing out of the walls!

Better picture of the trees growing out of the wall.

Waterfall!

Still waterfall! And stream!

And stream continued. It was such a pretty park!

View of the water through trees.

We went and walked around this massive park last weekend, it was gorgeous. There were statues and a little theme park (that had terrifyingly breaking-down rides). It is home to the Five Ram Statue, which was pretty neat. This town has so much history. We decided to walk up the stairs of the 100-step staircase (or so we thought), turned out we went up the back way. Oops! Once we got up there, we looked around, the view was...the city. I couldn't help but think of how amazing it must have been when it was new. When we left we decided to walk down the 100-Step Staircase (which, according to a sign was really closer to 500 steps). As we're almost all the way to the bottom, we realize it's an exit from the park, which we were not intending to do. So, we walked probably 2/3 of the way back up and got an awesome calf workout! There were also basketball courts, the local university's soccer stadium, an outside bowling lawn (their bowling...is not even close to our bowling! It looks more like curling than bowling...minus the sweeper...and the ice...) and a LOT of table tennis tables..because along with badminton...ping pong is huge here. 

Also, here are funny signs from the park:

"Behawe Civilized NO Crossing" 

"Don't hurt me for your pretty"

After the park we decided to go for some delicious Dim Sum:

And Milk Tea

Don't remember what these were called but most of them had shrimp and were delicious!

The thing in the middle is a "fruit salad," with a cheese sauce dressing....
Egg Tarts on the right and duck egg rolls on the left.

This was purple sweet potato filled with some veggies and deep fried, I think. It looked like a rock before you bite into it.

Fast forward a few days to Halloween...

Terrible picture of me. And Brianne! (My mushu who is awesome)

My Disney family :) Well..most of them.

Halloween was...interesting. Pretty much only foreigners dressed up. The first bar we went to is a Canadian owned bar so there were quite a few foreigners, they were even offering gory face painting. Then, I went to my first Chinese club. It was tiny, and since it was a Saturday, it was packed. Some foreigners, some in costume. We're in there, dancing and stuff and this tall black guy comes in, followed closely by two equally as tall black guys, they looked like his bodyguards or something the way they mobbed in. The first guy is wear this African dress thing, all white, one of the guys he was with was completely suited up with sunglasses on, and the other guy just mildly suited up. The go straight upstairs, where there is the glass area that juts out over the main aisle that is the "dance floor" downstairs. They go straight to it and he starts dancing, like shaking his butt, getting down dancing. I find this completely hilarious. I turned to my friends and I was like I have this urge to just go up and start dancing with him. My friend goes, "I'll give you 50 kuai (RMB) if you do it." I finish my drink and I'm like hey..why not. So, I walk straight up to him and start dancing with him. Now, keeping in mind, he is in a long (by long I mean down to his ankles) dress. Dancing with a man in a full length dress is not an easy feat. We ended up getting pushed back from the window rather quickly so one of their dancers could dance there, apparently what that was really intended for. As soon as there was a break in the song, "Uh, so...my friends are down there... I gotta go..." He thanked me and I walked away. He ended up dancing in the window again as soon as the girl left and kept making eye contact with me, when he wasn't shaking his butt in the window. Yeah, that was my Halloween... No candy for Haley. But, I survived my first holiday away from home. 

Also, for all of you I swore up and down to I wouldn't... I've lost my heart to a Chinese boy. His name is Long Long. I'll admit, there's a bit of a language barrier as he's just learning English. But, he is smart and has a smile that lights up a room. Oh, and he's four. :-P 

Eva is one of our center's GRCs (parent relations and sales, basically). She observed one of my classes Tuesday and called some parents to touch base on how their kids are doing with me and how they feel about the teacher change and if they had any concerns. So, after work Eva came up to me and told me she called Long Long's mom and was talking to her about it. She told Eva she asked Long Long who his favorite teacher has been, Mike (his first year teacher), Tiffany (who I took over for), or Haley. He said ME!!!! :-D She also said that in August he'd been having a hard time coming to Disney English because he'd just started kindergarten and was tired and would cry when he had to come. But, I guess now when mom tells him it's time to go to English and play with Miss Haley he gets excited. That made my heart so happy, first true compliment I've received since I started.

Brianne bought a turkey today and Thanksgiving murmurs are starting. My first big holiday away from home, but, I couldn't ask for a better home away from home family. I feel blessed and nervous. Bring on the holidays!

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