Photos from Weihai!

Hey all!  Chelsie sent an email with some pictures, and asked me to put them up here.  So, enjoy! -Symone

Ni Hao from Weihai!

Here are some snapshots from our adventures.

1. This is a typical meal from the cafeteria in my lunch box. All of those little bowls all stack together into one pail after I get my food. The roll is steamed and has no taste, so I usually add some of my cinnamon to it after.

2. This is me with my roommate Dana, and our friends Teri and Cyndi at Happy Gate! It's Weihai's biggest tourist monument, and it's right on the Yellow Sea. And yes, they do paint their trees those colors. 

3. Our bathroom/shower/washing machine. 

4. My classroom! It's HUGE! I share it with Cyndi, who teaches the morning shift, and we have started to decorate it. We also put the table and chairs in the corner so that we can corner our kids and have better control of them. Chinese teachers can beat the kids here if they are bad, and we obviously can't, so the kids know that they can be bad and not get hit. We have to run a tight ship to keep them in line.

5. Welcome to my school! There are 286 separate steps between the gate and the top floor of my apartment building, where I live. It's like physical therapy on crack for me. I will have calves of steel by the time I get home. 

With love from Weihai,

Chelsiebelle

hope you see this!

Hi Chels

Read your email about your adventures your first day. Amazing! Who would have thought five years ago.... We are so excited for you and know that you will do a wonderful job with those children. Your love of life and cheery disposition will win them over in a heartbeat. We are definitely looking forward to keeping up with your goings on through your blog :) Stay safe and pace yourself, okay?!

Much Love
Bishop and Beth

Chelsie in China

Hey Fam, it was so good to talk to you today! (Sorry I missed you, Ashley!)

These next few days look like they are going to be insane, so I probably won't be able to call until sometime Sunday, so here is an update on everything:

Well, I just took my first shower in our bathroom-I literally had to straddle our washing machine to rinse out my hair, haha. (our bathroom IS our shower) We only have hot water at certain times of the day, so I basically can only take a shower between 9 and 10:30 at night or 6-7 in the morning. Also, apparently electricity in China is ten times more expensive here, so we can only use our lights at night time and we can't leave anything plugged in during the day, because if we go over our lotted amount, we have to pay the school. As it is, we get more electricity then the Chinese teachers.

Today, we walked into down town and went shopping at the JiaJiaYue-which literally means happy happy smile. It's a HUGE super market (kinda like their version of Walmart) and has everything for way cheap. I took out about 500 Yuan today at the bank (which is about 85 american dollars) and I spent a littler over a hundred that would have easily have been about 40-50 American dollars at Walmart for the amount of stuff I got. I got the cutest little lunch box there for my meals-and it totally helps because it's like portion control at the cafeteria, and if I can't eat it all, I can smuggle it out and throw it away at the dumpster by our apartments or feed it to the sha maos (little cats) outside of our apartment. Anyway, checking out was a huge mess. The girl who checked me out spoke no English and she asked me if I wanted another plastic bag after I checked out. I said yes and she held out her hand, as if I needed more money. I asked: "Do I have to pay for a bag?" and she laughed and looked at all the people in the line like I was so dumb. So I gave her some money and she gave me some change and I went on my merry way. (Yes, they do charge for plastic bags.) OH! I also bought the Chinese version of a heating pad-it's like a little bubble of water that you plug in to the wall and the water is literally boiling in five minutes and it stays warm for hours. A bunch of us bought them because it's SO cold in our apartments and they are really nice to cuddle with. After we went shopping, I bought a baked sweet potato from a toothless man in the street-it was WAY nom nom nommy, and then we took rabbit taxis back to the school with all of our stuff. They are three wheeled cars and are driven SO crazy, I'm seriously surprised that we didn't kill a pedestrian. But, it was better then being out in the cold and the wind with all our stuff.

We had a really awesome veggie stir fry with tons of cauliflower and carrots for dinner tonight, with white rice and a roll. Nom Nom Nom. The food here is actually really good, and Dana and I bought a ton of new things to try at the market today. The Chinese have a really awesome version of an American Ho-Ho and I'm addicted to their rice cracker cakes. The Chinese are also obsessed with anything peach flavored. They also do not believe in milk.

We had planning meetings all afternoon and we were broken up into our teaching teams. I teach in the afternoon from 1:30-4:50 with three other people. We have two groups that will come in, and I will be teaching basic reading to them along with doing our specialized activities/lessons. I'm actually teaching 7-9 year olds, so a bit of an older group then we originally thought. I'll still get to tuck in our kids at night though, so I'm excited for that. We have been in lesson planning meetings all night and I am so exhausted from it all. 

We got profiles of our students so that we can prepare for them. It looks like a crazy bunch-some are really sweet, some are trouble makers and some apparently don't wear underwear. 

Tomorrow we will go into the city and trade at the night market before setting up our classrooms. I'm a real teacher here, I have my own classroom and ILP has their own floor in the third building on campus. We come up with our own rules, classroom structure and activities. It's crazy to realize that I'm about to be a REAL teacher here, and that I haven't even gotten my certificate in the states. I guess I hadn't realized that. I'm so stoked.

Everyone here is so nice and I'm getting along great with my roommate and my teaching group. Our head teachers are nice, but seem a little overwhelmed with how big our group is. Hopefully they will get it together.

I'll send some pictures tomorrow. I'm about to crawl into my crazy hard bed and pass out.

Love you all! Hope everything is well back East. Peace, Love and China!

Chelsie

---

From: "nhmadison@comcast.net" <nhmadison@comcast.net>
To: Chelsie Whitney <chelsieinchina@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 9, 2012 8:27 AM
Subject: Re: Hi Mama Bear!

Well I hope that you are able to get the internet to work for you for school- ask your head teachers, they might have suggestions- do they have a library with technology at the school?   Is there anyway you can send me the work and I can forward it to your teachers by email?

 

Hope you will sleep well!  you are in Weihai!!!!!!!   Love ya little cub!

---

From: "Chelsie Whitney" <chelsieinchina@yahoo.com>
To: nhmadison@comcast.net
Sent: Thursday, February 9, 2012 8:35:27 AM
Subject: Hi Mama Bear!

So, it's like nine fifteen here in Weihai and Dana and I just finished unpacking for the most part. I cannot get any of my pictures to attach-the internet here is not reliable and I'm already having problems getting it to access byui.edu, so that may be a problem here in the near future (I have assignments due tomorrow night!) If I can't get it to work reliably by tomorrow, I'm going to be in a very bad situation. I'll keep you posted. 

I hope you are having a good day at school! Dana and I are about to go to sleep in Weihai! I love you, Mama Bear!

I'll chat with you tomorrow!

Love you,

Belle

Hello from Weihai!

I'm currently writing this at 6:40 in the AM from my little apartment in Weihai, China! 

I'll blog in depth about the last 24 hours later, but for now, just know that China is everything I thought it would be, and everything I never expected it to be, and I'm already loving it here (hard beds, no heat, nasty showers, homeless kitties that wail in our hall, giant lumps of kale for dinner, and all). I keep on saying to myself: "TIC" or "this is China." 

And as I fell asleep last night, I kept on thinking:

"my name is Chelsie...and I am in China!"

HELLO FROM SEOUL!

This is the face of over 20 hours of traveling. 

GROSS!

So, I'm currently typing this from the Incheon Seoul International Airport! It's a beautiful airport, with big glass window-walls and lots of fun things to do. Apparently we can take free showers! This is a lovely thought, because sitting in the middle seat of a 13 hour airplane ride can make someone feel really dirty. 

Most of our group is already here in Seoul and we have about a 9 hour layover until we take our last plane ride to Weihai. Everyone seems super nice and kind; and they have all been so helpful to me already. (I had a terrible run-in with the security at the international terminal at LAX-you know, metal leg and all). Thankfully, there will only be an hour flight between here and Weihai (we are literally right across the Yellow Sea from here), which will probably feel like nothing after the last haul. 

They fed us Korean food on the flight-very interesting seasoning. Lot's of paste-like things that you mix into your food. We're going to try more in the airport, but there is a Subway here, so if nothing is sitting well with me, it's good to know that I will have that as a back up.

I'm rambling and I know it. I'm running on maybe two hours of sleep from the airplane ride and I'm exhausted, but so excited. Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm here and safe and SO EXCITED to be doing this!

YAY!

Peace, Love and China!

Departure Date and Donations!

FINALLY GOT MY FLIGHT BOOKED FOR CHINA! I leave February 7th from SLC to San Fran to Seoul to Weihai. WOOHOO!

With that being said, I have a request to make of you all. I have the wonderful opportunity to teach English to first and second graders who will be able to have many doors and opportunities opened to them because of the English language. Because I am teaching in developing China, supplies are not as easy to come by. The school has asked for us to bring supplies in order to help teach the children.

If you would like to donate any supplies, my school in China is in need of:

-Tape (any kind, they have none)

-Glue sticks

-Construction paper

-Beads

-Markers/Crayons

-Stickers

If you would like to make a money donation so that I can shop for these supplies instead, that would be okay as well.

Donations can be mailed to me at:

50 Wash Pond Rd

Hampstead, NH

03841

Thank you for your consideration and kindness. Your donations are helping me live a dream come true and more importantly, helping the kids in China learn and grow.

Thank you again,

Chelsie 

Flat Sam

I've had the opportunity to work as a receptionist and data entry for the Brigham Young University-Idaho Alumni Office for the last 2 1/2 years. I love it there. My boss is kind and caring, the work keeps me busy and focused and the girls I work with have become some of my closest friends.

At our annual Christmas party this last December, we had a white elephant gift swap. And I ended up with Sam's gift...a picture of herself:

All of the girls joked about what I would do with this 8x10 portrait of Sam and I jokingly said: "Take it with me to China!" Cami yelled: "SHE CAN BE A FLAT SAM!" Thus, the idea was born. I'm going to take Sam with me to China and take pictures of her at different places that I go! Great Wall of China, Hong Kong, Olympic sites! So, when you see a bunch of pictures over the next five months of this picture of Sam, you will now understand the story behind it!