Christmas, Christmas time is here!

...And I am slacking. I have TWO 3,000 character essays due by Friday, and I'm sitting in my bed watching Sherlock and blogging. But I don’t care! Because it’s Christmastime and everything is beautiful. I have a “Christmas tree” in my room and Reese’s in my hand. Who needs final papers?

Thank you Lauren and Rachel for being angels

A couple of weeks ago, I went and saw some friends perform at “同乐江苏” or “Jiangsu’s got foreign talent”, which is a singing competition for foreigners in Nanjing. They have the BYU study abroad students participate in it every year, so yes, I did do it two years ago, and because of modern technology and things like “the internet” that footage will unfortunately most likely be available for eternity. This year was actually really good though! The study abroad boys did some song about Kung fu, and the lovely Brooke Adams sang a song from the Beijing Olympics. She ended up winning the competition! If she hadn’t, it would have been a travesty, because her voice is literally the most beautiful sound I have ever heard, including the music of Ke$ha. The performance was just a few days before the study abroad students went back to the America, and I will miss them all very much.  

Kung fu masters

My two favorite girls in all of China. I will miss them dearly

First prize, bitches

I had my last day of teaching this week :( Those kids were terrifying but also adorable and I loved them. It was a mess whenever I taught them, but I hopefully had some positive impact in their lives. For the last day, I brought supplies to make Christmas cards and write letters to Santa. I made the mistake of laying everything out and then saying "Ok students, come up and get your supplies!", and promptly being trampled by 112 adorable little feet. 

I was worried I wouldn't get everyone with just one picture. Have I successfully captured their adorableness? I will miss those little buggers. 

I forgot to post these pictures but a few weeks ago some of us went to KTV to celebrate Paul Niedfeldt's birthday. It was suuuuper fun. His fantastic wife, Laurel set up the whole thing and surprised him with it. She also made cheesecake, which must have been difficult in this land of extremely limited dairy products. If you know Paul, then you know that he LOVES to sing, so this was an awesome birthday for him, I'm sure.

I figured everything out with my internship! I am going to work for a Non-government Organization called the Liangshan Yi Empowerment Center, which builds schools and provides education for orphans, and trains women in Mandarin and life skills so they can go to cities and find jobs. It is in Xichang, the capital city of Liangshan, which is an "autonomous prefecture" in Sichuan, which is the coolest province in all of China. It's in the West, which is notorious for being underdeveloped. Xichang has a population of just over 125,000 people, which is TINY by Chinese standards. I'm going to be the only person with blonde hair for miles! And there will be no McDonald's, no foreign import stores, and most people probably won't even speak Mandarin. I don't even know if they have normal public transportation! Am I freaking out? Yes! But am I also freakishly excited? Double yes! Western China is beautiful, and I know that I'm going to learn a lot. I feel like my whole college career has been leading up to this moment, and I know I can rock it. I got in contact with the office over there and they have a dorm for me to live in and I will start on the 8th of February next year, giving me plenty of time to travel during my break. I could not be more excited. 

Other happenings in my China life... how about eating a pig brain? Ooh ya that was fun. I don't recommend it, people.

Nom nom, brains is good for your brains

It was her idea. Crazy girl.

 

 The beautiful Maddie Hanley hosted a Christmas movie night last week and we made a blanket fort. It was quite awesome.

I've been doing a lot of babysitting lately. A cute baby contest would be impossible between these two. I am in love.

I just... I can't... SO MUCH CUTENESS

Why so serious, Peter?

Santa Baby. Lol

My life is pretty boring otherwise. It's cold so I just want to hang at home and eat lots of yummy noodle soup. So that's all for now, folks. Until next time,

China pics of the day:

These ducks were drying outside of this restaurant by my house for 3 days. Which also happened to be the three days with pollution levels over 400. I won't be going there for duck anytime soon. 

 This is a man. Carrying a small bag, wearing a fur-lined padded coat. Feminine is the male Asian sexy. And I guess for girls, sickeningly adorable is the Asian sexy.

FRESH FISH

 Love you, America