9 Weeks Down, 7 More to Go!

I know I still have 7 weeks left in China, but these are the things that I am really looking forward to doing when I get home. Like...

-Eating a homemade meal. I don't even care what it is, I just can't wait to eat it!

-Riding home in the car with my family, listening to Christmas music, and telling them ALL about how much I love China.

-Laying on some carpet. I haven't seen carpet since I left the U.S.

-Devouring my mom's sugar cookies.

-Playing my piano and the guitar.
-Watching as many Christmas movies as I possibly can fit in before Christmas.

-Taking a shower in a real shower. And then taking a bath.
-Actually getting ready. We never look cute in China...haha
-Making Christmas treat with my mom.
-Sleeping in my bed. With sheets that smell clean, and are clean.
-Washing all my clothes in a washer, and drying them in a dryer (as much as I love hang drying..)
-Playing with my niece and nephews. I miss those little buggers so much!
-Drinking a big class of milk.
-Going Christmas caroling.
-Spending as much time as I possibly can with my family before I go back to school.
-Girls night with my besties (aka Jessica, Kaycee, and Kelli).
-Eating cereal for breakfast!

Yes. Yes those are the things that I can't wait to do.

-Kambrie

Creeper on Halloween

I am so pleased with today. Halloween (in China at least).

Even though I have been running on next to no sleep, I had the best time. Today we were able to have a Halloween party with our kids! Obviously Halloween isn't as big in China as it is in the U.S., but the kids still got all dressed up, along with all of us teachers, and we had so much fun. No tokens. No BMC's. No rules. No lines. Just fun!

We took tons of pictures, painted faces, played mummy games, at candy, and just had the best time ever!

I was a witch. Classic. Vivian was Snow White. She's my favorite child. Love her.

Tonight we had a giant Halloween party with all of the families who have children in the Bond Program. There was about 400 people probably. Us teachers had to prepare a dance to perform for the entire group! So we put our clever little brains to work...and copied the dance from Just Dance to the song "This is Halloween" from Nightmare Before Christmas. We painted our faces like zombies and dressed up all scary. Typical, I know. But hey, at least we didn't do thriller..

Not only did we have to perform, but our cute little kids had to as well! As much as I'd love to say it was an enormous success...it was actually kind of a huge flop. But we will pretend it went just as we planned it!

And last but not least, we were in charge of the Haunted House! It was a pretty legit haunted house if you ask me...at least for children. But let's just say, what we think is just a little scary in the U.S. is actually terrifying to the Chinese people. There were quite a few tears shed...but not because of me. Let's be honest, I'm awful at being scary.

Although I am totally missing Halloween in the U.S., I had such a good time today! Now I am ready to wipe this atrocious makeup off of my face and go to sleep...for a very long long time.

Goodnight.

-Kambrie

P.S. To explain the title: Tonight I had to lie to a drunk Asian, who claimed he was in love with me, and tell him that I was married. Every other girl here get's the cute Asian's to obsess over them(and yes, there are some cute Chinese guys)...me? I get crusty drunk men. My future looks depressing.

Confessions of a Chinashopaholic

Not sure if you know this or not, but everything in China is ridiculously cheap. And I mean RIDICULOUSLY.

I just purchased:

1 Coat.

2 pairs of boots.

1 pair of warm moccasins, (Rexburg is a cold land.)

1 pair of suede flats.

2 pairs of toms (one for me, one for my sis.)

1 pair of Nike Free Runs (for my brother)

3 Scarves.

3 Nike shirts (for my brothers)

1 floppy hat.

5 skinny belts.

All for less than $100 . In America that would cost roughly around $535. 

I LOVE CHINA.

(don't even begin to ask me how I'm going to back everything for the trip back home. i will fight that battle when it comes...)

-my name is kambrie and i'm a chinashopaholic.

I'm Pretty Sure I'm Going to Miss This...

When it comes to teaching, I'm pretty sure I'm going to miss...

• Walking into the classroom every day and hearing 20 adorable little children say, "Good morning Teacher Kandy!" (they struggle with my name...kandy, kamblee, hangly, hamry)
• Watching Wingel sing the Moose Song.
• Leo bug and little Sammy. We are all pretty sure they will be husband and wife someday.
• Vivian. At first she was hard to read, but now she and I are best buds. Yesterday she quietly walked up next to me, put her nose into my hair and took and big deep breath. Then she walked away saying, "Yummm," with a big ol' smile on her face. I seriously died of laughter. 
• Matthew and his studly ways..."Good morning Teacher beautiful, Beautiful, BEAUTIFUL Kambrie." He just melts my heart.
• Jessica and how she always reminds me of an Asian grandma. 
• David. He always pinches my belly when we sing the baby shark song. (hahahah.)
• The way Mikey is just leaps and bounds cooler than I could ever dream of being. He totally rocks his eye patch and he's got some mean dance moves.
• Kaycee's hugs and loves.
• How John can be the biggest pain, but I love him anyway.
• When Oscar tries so hard to be quiet, so I will call on him first, by screaming, "I'M BEING QUIET!"
• The moment you realize a certain child is actually learning something from you. 
• The moment when you realize you are learning more from a child than they will ever learn from you.
• The way Aubrie always secretly tries to get my attention throughout the day.
• Eric and his smile and his raspy little voice. Not to mention how incredibly precious he is when he cries. Not that I rejoice in his sadness, but he is just so cute!
• Gordon's little tiny smile that is actually the biggest smile in the world.
• How Norah is just the most adorable little Chinese girl ever. And how I named her after my future daughter.
• The sense of accomplishment you feel when you actually complete a whole lesson!
• The way Boyee already knows the answer to every question. 
• How Alice always says the rules so perfectly.
• Emmett and Bruce and their inability to concentrate on anything but yet you love them still.
• Jackson running up to me saying, "Teacha, I want 100 tokens. Please, please, please..".
• How Tony is secretly the best child in the world.
• Henry(not Harry), trying to translate our lessons for the rest of the kids. 
• Michelle and her sassy ways.
• Quinn. I love Quinn.
• The day that we played a relay game where you have to stick a spoon inbetween your teeth and balance a pom pom on top of it. Jerry couldn't figure out how to hold the spoon in his mouth....probably due to the fact that he only has one tooth..
• The way Habibi is a spitting image of the mean boy on the new Karate Kid, but a lot less mean.
• Athena, so quiet and perfect.
• How little Tony, Brinlie, and Lorin. Three adorable children who make teaching much harder than it should be, but make it worth every second!
• Coco. Her name says it all.
• The way Abby always says exactly what you need her to, and it just makes your day!
• Jackie and his chubby little cheeks.
• Owen. He tries to be a rebel, but we all know he is nothing but goodness.
• The two days that Ivy was an angel.
• How we had to change Kelly's name to Rabbit. Parents orders.
• When Tate pretends he is FURIOUS and tightens his lips and shakes his little head.
• Dori. Adorable outside of class, your cutest nightmare in class.
• The way Riley almost looks constipated when he is concentrating. Hilarious.
• Neville's big brown eyes that could melt the whole continent of Antarctica. 
• Angel. She really is an Angel. 
• Justin...well you just have to know him to understand him. But we all love him dearly!
• Brendan. He isn't even one of my students but the little guy captured my heart. He is precious.

I didn't start this post with the intentions of writing about every single student I teach, but I couldn't leave any out. I love each of them, all for different reasons. Every time I see any of  them my heart is filled with a happiness that nothing else could give me, and I remember why I am here.

I am here for them. 

-Kambrie

Sick, and Slightly Homesick..

You know when you don't feel good and all you want to do is snuggle up on your couch at your own home and let your mom take care of you?

That's kind how the last few weeks have been.

I know I am getting older and I should be able to take care of myself when I'm sick, but nothing heals a child like their mother's heart. And I'm pretty sure that is how I will feel until the day I die.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I have been sick for a while. It all started about 2 weeks before we went on our vacation. I think I just had a head flu, along with most of the other girls. However, like usual, everyone else got over it and I didn't. Mine just got worse. When we went on our vacation I came down with a fever and was battling it the whole 12 days of traveling. I should have just slept it off, but we were doing things that people literally dream of doing and I wasn't even about to let a sickness get me down. So I pushed through it for the whole 12 days.

In the midst of those 12 days I got a dose of my worst nightmare...it literally makes me want to throw up when I think about it, but one of our hostels had bed bugs. And no, not the cute little cartoon bed bugs you think of when your parents used to say, "Goodnight, don't let the bed bugs bite." These are the real, creepy, nasty ones that make you want to just curl up and die. They bit me 70 (yes SEVENTY) times. All over my legs. I didn't notice until two days later when my legs just started itching uncountably. I took of my pants to find tons of red bumps from my knees down. I thought they were mosquito bites on steroids. They were awful. So I had to deal with those the whole trip as well.

When you are sick, it is easy to be grumpy and cranky and I feel so bad for the 6 girls who had to travel with me. I tried my hardest to be a good sport though! But every once in a while I would break and complain...they were so kind! I couldn't have asked to be put with a better group of girls. I love them!

Now I have been back from the vacation for almost 2 weeks, and although my fever and sore throat went away after I got some good rest, my awful bites didn't. I went through and deep cleaned my room, and the living room just to make sure there wasn't any bed bugs creepin around our apartment. I never did find any so I just assumed the new red itchy spots on my body were mosquito bites.

Then came the worst night of my life.

My room and the living room don't have AC, so my dear friend Maddie offered to let me sleep in her room where there is AC. I fell asleep and all was well, until I woke up an hour later. I was having a hard time breathing. There was so much pressure on my chest, it was pretty painful. And then I noticed my tongue was swollen and how itchy I was. I felt my neck and I had little bumps everywhere. I got up and looked in the mirror and from my stomach up was just a big mess of redness. I ran to the shower where I washed myself in soapy water for almost 30 minutes until I just started sobbing, like a baby. Everything just caught up to me and I lost it. After 6 weeks of being sick I just couldn't handle it any more....I was officially as homesick as I have ever been.

I wrapped my towel around me and just sat on the couch and cried some more. I felt so alone and so helpless. Then I prayed, and prayed, and prayed some more. And let me tell you Heavenly Father does answer prayers :]

I never did go back to bed that night. I couldn't sleep. So for 7 hours I just sat there. Then I skyped my mom for a very long time and she made me feel better, cause that's what she does best.

The next day my Chinese teacher insisted that I go to the hospital. I was a little weary seeing as I've only been to a hospital 3 times in my entire life, but I went and I'm so glad I did.

After three shots in my bum, and a bag full of pills to take home, I finally had my peace of mind back. The new redness on my skin was not bed bugs. THANK GOODNESS. It's was just some sort of allergic reaction to something. So I went home and slept for the rest of the day, into the night, and it felt amazing.

After reading this your probably thinking, "And how are you having so much fun in China?" or your thinking, "Kambrie is the most over dramatic baby and needs to suck it up..." which would be slightly frustrating but whatever.

The thing is, I feel like this is all part of the experience. China is making me see life in a whole new way that I've never seen before. I feel like all of these experiences are just slowly making me a stronger person. And if anything I've learned that even when you feel like crap, it IS possible to push it aside and see the bright side of things.

I'm living in China.
I'm not dead.
I am surrounded by lovely people.
I survive off of apples and peanut butter, one of my favorite snacks.
I get to wake up and play with the cutest little children, EVERYDAY!
I get to go to church every Sunday.
I can talk to Heavenly Father and he can hear me.
I am making friendships that will last me forever.
I am finding myself more and more every single day.
I have a fan that keeps me sane at night.
I can buy a whole loaf of bread for less than 1 American dollar.
I am so Happy.

:]

-Kambrie

Yangshuo.

THE 4TH AND FINAL STOP OF THE MOST EPIC VACATION EVER: YANGSHUO!

Yangshuo was one of my favorite places of the trip, but for completely different reasons. If you want to see what Yangshuo is like, click here.

By the time we made it to Yangshuo, we were all gross disgusting messes of girls. All of our clothes were filthy, we hadn't had a decent shower for a few days, and I was still sick as ever. Stuffy nose, fever, and an extremely sore throat. However I had a new problem...I had about 70 bug bites on my legs. At that time I thought they were all mosquito bites because they itched like crazy. They were awful...when we finally got home from the vacation I learned that they weren't mosquito bites. They were actually one of my worst nightmares...bed bug bites. Eww. I can't even think about it. It literally kills me inside.

Needless to say, I was feeling like crap and when you feel like crap and you are in a foreign country, far far away from home, it is really easy to get homesick. I was trying so hard to hold it off but I just couldn't. All I wanted was America. I wanted my home. I wanted my mom's food. I wanted my bed. I wanted my shower. I wanted to wear nice clothes. I wanted to be able to talk to people without playing charades. I wanted fresh air. I just wanted anything but China.

Luckily Yangshuo was a pretty good place to find a little bit of refuge. It is a very touristy place so there was a lot of white people, or Chinese people who spoke English. (I will admit, I feel so guilty being in a different country and not knowing their language.) And Yangshuo is just a giant party. Literally. Everyone just has so much fun and I met so many people from all over the world!

The first day we were there we spent a while at our hostel (which was so cool) just getting cleaned and resting up a bit. They had places to wash clothes and dry them so we took advantage of that! We met up with some boys from America for dinner! We met them earlier that day and they told us about an American restaurant to eat at called the Minority Cafe! I had a cheese, garlic, chicken pizza and it was divine. The best food I had in months. After dinner we all went to a night fishing show where you get on a raft and follow a Chinese man and watch him fish. It sounds boring, but the man trains a bunch of ducks to fish for him. It was so cool. When it was over we got to hold the ducks. It was pretty sweet! After the fishing show we met up with our Chinese coordinator Kelly and her two friends Mary and Star. We walked the streets and bought all sorts of souvenirs for ourselves and our friends and family. We ate a lot of food...smoothies, chocolate/peanut butter pancake things, ice cream, everything! It was a great night!

The next day we all went and had a feast of a breakfast at the Minority Cafe. Eggs, hash-browns, toast, fruit, pancakes, yogurt, juice, bacon, the whole works! It was amazing. None of us have really had a good breakfast since we were in America! It was the best! After that we split into two different groups. My group went kayaking on the Li River. It was so great. It was just 5 of us, making our way down the river all by ourselves for three hours! I loved it. The mountains in Yangshuo are incredible. they look like they came right out of a Dr. Suess book. It was gorgeous, even though we did pass a dead cow floating down the river...eww.

After kayaking my body had just about had enough. I was absolutely exhausted and could hardly even talk because my throat was so messed up. I went and had some potato soup from the Minority Cafe and then went back to the hostel, showered, and went to bed while everyone else went out and had fun. It was kind of nice to be alone and just relax though.

The next day was our last day of the trip! We took our time getting ready and then made our way to meet up with a lady who would take us to the mud caves! She gave each of us a bike and we followed here down the windy roads that lead through the mountains. We road our bikes for about 20 minutes until we finally got to the mud caves! This was one of my favorite parts about our stay in Yangshuo!

After we changed into our swimming clothes, we hiked through the caves until you come up to what is literally a giant mud bath! We jumped right in and had so much fun! It felt so good. You can just lay in it and it floats you. You don't even have to try! It was so cool. We stayed in there for a while and then washed off and went and jumped in the hot springs. The whole experience was just so relaxing.

After we were done there we went for one final meal at the Minority Cafe, where I got more potatoe soup and some cheesy garlic bread. Then I went to McDonals and got a delicious cookie ice cream concoction. Then we met up with the rest of the girls and made our way to the sleeper bus that would drive us 10 hours, all the way back to Xiaolan! Luckily most of us were able to sleep the whole way.

By the time we got back to our apartment we were all SO ready to be home! It felt so good to be able to unpack, wash our clothes, and take a nice shower!

I still can't believe this is my life. This is real life, at least for 4 months. I am so blessed.

There you have it! The most epic vacation ever.

:]

-Kambrie

Fenghuang.

THE 3RD STOP OF THE MOST EPIC VACATION EVER: FENGHUANG.

This was another one of my favorite places. My friends who came to China through ILP a few years ago told me I had to go here. So I really pushed for it to happen and my friends agreed to go there. Little did we know, we were going to the coolest place ever. Too bad we only planned for 1 night there!

If you want to see Fenghuang (which you totally do), click here!

The train from Zhangjiaie took us to a place called Jishuo where we had to get a bus to take us to Fenghuang. We were traveling on a huge holiday in China so there was TONS of traffic and it took us and extra hour to get there, but we finally got there. We met some awesome people on our way who offered to help us get to our hostel. If they wouldn't have helped us I honestly don't know if we would have found our way. Because it was the holiday, the whole entire city was literally PACKED with people. Shoulder to shoulder. It was insane. We passed all sorts of street vendors and stores and cute little shops. It was one happening place! Our hostel was right in the heart of all of the fun!

Once we got all settled and cleaned up, we ventured out into the madness. It was so much fun! When you are white in an Asian country, you can get away with a lot more than the average Asian. We found a real, legit ice cream shop that played American music at it so we obviously sang along with Taylor Swift as she told her boyfriend they were never ever getting back together.

One thing about Fenghuang is that there is tons of food. It all smelt so good and I wanted to try all of it, however it kind of backfired. Every single thing I bought either tasted AWFUL, or tried to kill me, literally.

The next day we just walked around and explored more. We walked across the bridges and had a jolly good time. Actually, everyone else had a jolly good time. I was still struggling with whatever sickness was trying to ruin me so I was kind of cranky, and then a bunch of people came and wanted pictures with me which is fine. However they ended up knocking my camera out of my hand and putting a big dent right in the lense. I got really angry and decided to not talk to anyone for a while so I didn't hurt them. I just wanted all of the Chinese people to go away, and I wanted good food, and my bed, and my mom.

HERE COMES THE MOST EXCITING/TERRIFYING PART OF THE ENTIRE TRIP.

After our stay in Fenghuang, we needed to find a bus to take us back to Jishuo so we could catch our next train. However after a series of unfortunate events, we found out there would be no more buses leaving until the next day. This would not do. We found some people who spoke English to help us try and find a taxi to take us! However none of the Taxis were even taking passengers because of the traffic. We had no clue what to do. If we stayed in Fenghuang we would miss our train, and we wouldn't have any place to stay! We HAD to make it to the train station and we were running out of time.

As we were in a panic trying to figure out what to do, a few motor taxi drivers came and offered to take us. The thought was kind of absurd seeing as Jishuo is a good two hours away...however we were hopeless and desperate so we jumped on. 4 motorcycles, two girls on each motorcycle, with our huge backpacks...I still can't believe we did that. But we did. We took off, trying to squeeze our way past buses and cars full of people, bumper to bumper. About 10 minutes into the ride the second taxi broke down. The first taxi didn't notice and kept going, luckily my taxi and one other taxi was still behind them so we stopped to make sure they were okay. We ended up waiting about 15 minutes to find another taxi driver and then we took off again. Between all the traffic we all got separated, which I was fine with until we turned off onto a dark, creepy, lonely road.

At this point I literally was preparing for the worst. I was with a strange man who I didn't know at all, who I couldn't even speak to if I tried. We were driving down and empty, dark road, passing random strange creepy people walking on the side. My phone was dead so I didn't have any way to call anyone if I needed to. I didn't have any important numbers memorized. I was with another girl who was even more terrified than me so I had to be calm and collected for her sake. We were squished on a little motorcycle with our backpacks hanging off to our sides. And it started to rain. All I had on was shorts and a little sweater.

Then all of a sudden the driver pulls up next to this building. I honestly started preparing an escape plan. I was terrified. He pulled out a bag and started ruffling through it, trying to find something. Then he pulled out a rain coat and told me to put it on...hahaha. PHEW! He was just being a nice man, trying to take care of me. I put on the coat and we took off again. Even though he was kind, I still had my gaurd up. We were still traveling down some creepy roads. We had been going for a little over and hour when his phone rang and we stopped again. At his point, my tailbone felt like death from the position I was sitting in. A few minutes after we stopped another motorcycle pulled up next to us. My first thought was, "Great. This is his friend who is going to help him murder us." However, as I looked I saw my dear friend Rachel sitting on the back of the motorcycle. She looked at me with the most happy, yet terrified face ever. She was crying! I jumped off of my motorcycle and ran and gave her a big hug. The poor girl was alone on her bike and was just as scared as the two of us on my motorcycle! We all thought these men were going to do bad things with us, however the fact that we were both all in the same place was SO relieving. It gave us a sense of peace and comfort!

From that point on both of the motortaxi's stayed together until we finally reached the train station and met up with everyone else. I can't even explain to you how happy we all were! We were all equally as terrified, but we made it and we were all in one piece, with 10 minutes till our train left! We grabbed our bags and ran as fast as we could to make our train! We made it just in time and for some reason we were expecting to be able to relax on the train...hahahaha nice thought. Our seats were right next to the smoking section on the train. I literally spent 8 hours holding my scarf over my entire face so that I could breathe. I was having a hard time breathing without the smoke just because I was sick, so the smoke made it awful. There was also more trash on this train than any of the other ones. I was so grossed out. Longest 8 hours of my life.

I didn't ever think we'd make it to our next and final stop, however we did. In one piece.

HELLO YANGSHUO!

Zhangjiajie.

2ND STOP OF THE MOST EPIC VACATION EVER- ZHANGJIAJIE.

I will have to admit, Zhangjiajie was not my most favorite place ever in terms of the actual city and the people. It could have been due to the fact that I was sick and irritable, but the people there were kind of creepy. I don't care what country you are in, it is just not okay for middle aged men to hit on younger girls.

Anyway, we did do some pretty incredible things here. And I also found my favorite cookies in the world. I asked someone what they were called and they said "Chocolate Cookies." What a clever name...haha.

If you don't know what Zhangjiajie is and want to see, click here. You wont regret it.

The first night we were there we didn't really know what to do, so we went to the Yellow Dragon Caves. For pictures of this, click here. They are just these giant caves with incredible colorful cavey features, for lack of a better term. It was pretty sweet!

The second day in Zhangjiajie was amazing. We took a cable car (and by cable car I mean the worlds longest cable car), all the way to the top of the Tianmen Mountains, which you can see in the first link I posted. When you are at the top top of these mountains you feel like you are on top of the world. It's incredible. You walk along this path that is literally on the edge of a cliff, so if you don't like heights I probably wouldn't recommend going there. But you can walk around the entire mountain. Unfortunately I was still extremely sick and had to stop, for my sake and to stay back with another girl who was sick. But it was still amazing!

After we were done walking around the top of the mountains, we took the cable car down a little ways and got off at the stop for the Heaven's Gate. To see pictures of this, click here. Even though I'm sure you've seen pictures on Pinterest. Basically there is this giant whole in the mountain and you climb up about 1,000 stairs to reach it! It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. However, I looked ridiculous the whole time. Earlier that day I had to borrow my friend pink shorts because my pants were irritating some bug bites on my legs. Then later it got cold, so I put on the sweater I brought, which just happened to be pink as well. Pink shorts, pink sweater, and pink shoe laces. I looked like a giant piece of bubble gum! haha!

By the end of that day my sick little body had just about had enough. I had a delicious dinner at a little restaurant near our hostel, then I went back and slept. When I woke up I still felt like crap, so I slept until we had to leave the hostel and catch yet another train to our next stop!

FENGHUANG!!!

Wudang Shan.

Hello Friends!

I hope you don't mind if I post 5 different blog posts in one day, because I'm going to anyway. There is far too much to write for one post.

After very carefully shoving 2 weeks work of clothes, snacks, and toilet paper in one small backpack, we took off for the adventure of a lifetime. A two week trip traveling all over China.

FIRST STOP: WUDANG SHAN

Before we get to Wudang Shan, I have to tell you how we got there. I got to ride on my first sleeper train. I would love to tell you that it was just 12 hours of pure joy, but I would be telling you the biggest lie ever.

Pros of the Sleeper Train: You have room to spread out. You can sleep.

Cons of the Sleeper Train: It smells like smoke (everyone in China smokes, everywhere). If your bunk is the top or the middle you can't sit up straight, you must awkwardly slouch or else your head touches the ceiling. Everyone has to take their shoes off, so you get to look at everyone's nasty toes...eww. The carpet is wet. I don't even want to think about the reason why. The toilet is non existent, but the squatter is very existent in the sense that you can smell it no matter where you are. And to top it off, I ended up getting sick on the train. I came down with a fever...hip hip.

After 12 hours on that lovely train, we switched to a regular train for another 4 hours. This one started out much worse than the sleeper. The tables were piled with garbage, the floors were covered in sunflower seed shells, and it still smelt like smoke. People were yelling and tried to strangle each other the whole time. I just felt so stressed. Luckily on this train we sat next to some kids our age. Some of them knew English and we all became friends! Even though I couldn't tell you their names. Something like Wong Werng, Ni mao su, and something else...we taught them how to play ninja! It was so much fun!

Now on to Wudang Shan. If you don't know what this place is and want to see some pictures, click here.

Wudang Shan (Shan means mountain in Chinese) is the actual mountain the Tai Chi was created on, over 600 years ago. It is probably one of my favorite places on the entire earth. The people there are different from all the other people in China, that I have interacted with at least. They are so diverse and peaceful. Also a fun fact: They filmed parts of the new Karate kid with Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith on this mountain. Yes, I did kiss the ground were Jackie Chan walked...

The first day we were there we walked around through some old, and I mean OLD, parts of the city at the base of the mountain. I met a man who was making a quilt from the cotton off of his sheep. I met a blind woman. We told her she was beautiful and she shed a few very happy tears. I visited with a lady growing garlic in a bowl outside of her tiny home. It was a very eye opening walk.

That night we were trying to find our way to a show at Tai Chi Lake. However after a few unfortunate events due to a dumb bus driver and our inability to speak Chinese, we were lost. We kept trying to find people who spoke English to help us and after about the 30th try, we finally found a boy in an old ancient looking chinese robe with his hair in a bun on the top of his head who could help us! His name was Li and he was the most precious boy ever. We all fell in love with him and he ended up inviting us to his martial arts school. As we followed him there we didn't have a clue what was a head of us. We turn the corner and there stands a 600 year old temple, right next to his 600 year old school where tons of attractive boys were practicing their kung fu. In other words we just stumbled upon heaven. Li introduced us to all sorts of people from all over the world, including his good friend Igor. Igor is quite the character. He has long golden blonde hair, his eyes are skinny and pointed, and he has a Russians jaw, which makes sense since he is Russian. His face is just so intense. He has been studying kung fu for 12 years. The two of them became our friends and ended up being our little tour guides for the next few days. They made our experience 10 thousand times better!

The next day we woke up early and took off for the mountain. This was probably my favorite day of the entire trip. Wudang Shan has 4 main stops on it. You start out at the bottom where a bus takes you to each stop.

Stop #1- The Princes Palace. If Mulan was real, her home probably would have been at the Princes Palace. This place just screams ancient China. The walls of the entire palace are red, with green shingled roof tops that you only find in China. I wish I could post a picture of it, but china wont let me.

Stop #2- Monkey Valley. If you have seen the new Karate Kid you would recognize this place when they are by a lake working with the kung fu sticks and Mr. Haun says "Your focus needs more focus." It is gorgeous. The water is perfectly still, there are two old beautiful bridges on either side of you, and you are surrounded by nothing but the silence of nature. It's magical. The reason it is called Monkey Valley is kind of obvious. There are monkeys there. The workers told us we wouldn't be able to see them because the pathway broke...whatever that means. Anyway, we didn't listen to them and figured out how to get there on our own. There were workers along the whole way, repairing the path, and they were more than happy to help us find the monkeys. After a nice little walk, we finally found some! A bigger one and two smaller ones. Monkeys can get mean so we tried our best to please them by giving them food. The climbed all over us! It was quite the experience.

Stop #3- The Purple Palace. This wasn't my favorite place ever. You had to pay extra to get inside and we didn't have money so we didn't get to see the coolest parts! But the buildings were very similar to the Princes Palace.

Stop #4- I can't remember the name of it, but if you have seen the Karate Kid you will recognize this place as well. There is a part in the movie where a woman is balancing with a snake on a stone dragon head, dangling over a giant cliff. That's where this is! As me and two of the other girls were trying to find our way to the stone dragon, we got kind of lost. A little man in a martial arts robe offered to help us. We told him we were trying to find the place where karate kid was filmed and he said, "Oh I was in that movie!" We got to talking and his name is Master Shining (sheening). He teaches tai chi on the mountain. He ended up becoming one of our good friends and we all met up with him after we were done exploring. He offered to give us a free tai chi lesson on the base of the mountain that night!! He also introduced us to one of his students, Thomas. Thomas is such a good man, I wish everyone could know him!

From stop 4 you can go on a giant hike to the very very top palace called the Golden Palace. However it's an all day thing so we decided to save it for the next day. We all took the bus back to our hotel and got freshened up for our Tai Chi lesson! Master Shining met up with us at our hotel and took us to some square, which is actually a giant circle made up of the Ying and Yang Sign. We followed him as he performed his peaceful tai chi routine. Meanwhile tons of other Chinese people came and took pictures of us, like always. Anyway, after we were done Igor and Li found us and We all went to dinner together! At dinner, Master shining offered to let all of us come back and learn Tai Chi on the mountain for 1 year, free of charge. If I didn't already have a life at home, I would do it in a heart beat.

The next day, we woke up bright and early again and started the long and treacherous hike up to the Golden palace. There was step, after step, after step, after step. So many steps! Over 6,000 to be exact. It took us over 3 hours to reach the top. Needless to say, we were all pretty dang tired. We thought we were in good shape...HAHA! However, the view from the top of that mountain was worth ever dang step. You could see for what seemed like forever! And the air was so fresh and clean, which is rare for China. The palace was fantastic. I am not exactly sure how they built it up there 600 years ago...the must have been beasts!

The funniest part of the whole day was when we found a shady corner to sit in and rest. About 2 minutes after we sat down, one by one people started coming and sitting right in the middle of us to get their pictures taken with the 7 American girls. 1, 2 ,3, 4, 5, 6...10, 11, 12...they never stop. Then one man with an extremely long white beard made us all get up and get a picture and that is when all hell broke lose! Chinese people swarmed us and their cameras started flashing like crazy! It was insane. I've never felt so important in my entire life. We couldn't take one step without someone else grabbing onto us telling us to smile. It was insane, but I have to admit it was so much fun at that moment!

That night, we met up with Igor and Li for one last time. We through Maddie, our head teacher, a little birthday party and then took off for the train station, where Igor and Li waved goodbye to us. I've always wanted to experience that. Being in a train, driving away, with someone running after the train waving goodbye! hahah It was cute.

There you have it.

Wudang Shan will always have a special place in my heart.

:]

-Kambrie