"Please like me"

Waking up before Chantecler could call up the sun we lugged our luggage onto a bus and headed to the Airport.

We said goodbye to our hotel and parted with some friends there.

I will miss Ben and Jack1 and Jack2 and Tony. Ben was always looking out for us and even sent his 13 year old son off with us in busy HongKong to help us barter and stay safe. He was very protective and worried about all the girls in our group. He was very sweet. Thank you Ben. I would also miss Shenzhen and the wonders it brought. Mostly food, but also this wonderful memory of a man who sat in the dirt lot below our hotel for and over an hour in a suit. I'm not sure what his job title is but I aspire to be like him one day.

As we shuffled around early in the morning to the airport in Shenzhen, saying goodbye to the friends we had made that weren't going to our cities,  I couldn't help but feel like Lidsay Lohan in Parent Trap as she is riding up to meet her mother in London. My fingers were crossed as I walked around wide eyed taking in new sites and thinking over and over "Pleeeeaasseee like me".

I used my first squatter toilet.

We boarded the plane and we were OFF!

Our first 1,000 year old egg!

Ridin' in style

CHEESE! Okay it wasnt really cheese... but it was cheese-ish flavored

Thank you for permission, toothpick

The brave soul who was the first to bite the brown egg

Then we took a bus to a rather dingy part of town. A man literally stopped his car in the road to look at the first white person he had ever seen. Then they put our luggage in one car and us in another and we drove even further into the boonies. Then suddenly we were there.

THERE! HERE! The place i had been researching and finding pictures of. The place that 5 months ago I made a wild decision to spend roughly half a year at. I HAD MADE IT!....and it was COLD! I mean cold!

 I won my own room with a game similar to paper rock scissors! YAY!

 Our rooms were really gross. I found used Qtips, clay and hair behind the beds! I don't want to go into detail about the bathroom but lets just say I boiled multiple pots of hot water and poured it over everything twice before I did anything in there.

We took all of our furniture into the halls so we could clean well
I'm glad my fellow Americans are also cleanly people

This is after I had thrown away the clay and some Qtips.
ew.

I opened the window for like an"ah" beautiful sunshine moment"
and got AHHH! wasps!

To keep the feetsies warm

After sanitizing my living space I tried to cozy in for a night sleep but it was hard with just a thin sheet for a blanket in a room where I can ACTUALLY see my breath. I mean I know they can’t control the weather but they could have warned us! I would have brought a better jacket or something.Luckily, necessity is the mother of invention. I went around and shoved newspaper in the cracks under my door. Made a bag out of tin foil and filled water bottles with boiling water and put them in it.THEN I put it at the foot of my bed to keep me warm. I also slept with 3 pairs of pants on and all my shirts. This is NOT a joke. This is CHINA!

 I was feeling super pity party about it and wanting to quit
but then I met the kids.
Well played China...Well played...

I know it'll all be worth it. I want to teach and give them any and everything I can. They are all just so giddy and silly with us!We are treated like celebrities!They are so bright and eager to learn! Most of them don't speak much English but if you just say "hello" (or Herrrro) to them they will giggle for a good 5 minutes over it. Even the teachers think we are celebrities, asking for pictures with us and giggling when we talk to them. Its surreal. These children are incredible sons and daughters of God. Even though we aren't allowed to speak of religion here at all, the three kids from my group and I are trying to testify of Christ through service rather than words.