Spring time means heat time

On Sunday I did the normal activities of getting up, and preparing to go to church. I was amazed to find that the heat was back! It feels like it has been cold for months, I don't do cold--at all. I got to wear a skirt and a short sleeve shirt, my excitement was through the roof! After church the normal crowd went to lunch after, one of my favorite activities here. It was so nice we could sit outside and have that company. I got to take every form of transportation on Sunday...which is rare, but exciting. Metro, Taxi, Walking, Motorbikes and an auto rickshaw.

My friend Rebecca and I had a genius idea to go up to the country club and go swimming, best decision ever. Needless to say I got sunburnt, but it was totally worth it. I will call it my base coat for the Philippines and summer.


My life here is going normal and is exciting and He is working in so many ways. I was asked to return back to the school next year, so the decisions are being made...I have till Friday to sign or not sign my contract and so that is overwhelming in it's own. So please continue to pray this week as I figure out what is best for me, this time around.

I have been taking Chinese lessons more seriously this semester as well and my new teacher wants me to take the proficiency exam, I call her crazy...but it might be something I end up doing in a month or two! I enjoy the language and I am slowly actually remembering how to read the characters in chinese and not in english--which is so hard for my brain!

I decided also that I needed to be more healthy in life decisions, mostly in exercise. I have started going to the pool to swim laps and plan on 2-3 times a week, so far I am doing a great job with it! It is weird how much better you feel after working out, the endorphins are amazing! I have fallen in love with the pool that I get to use at the club...it's gorgeous and no one is ever there!

new favorites place. ever.

Everything is going well...planning a trip to HK to go see the Hunger Games...my excitement is (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and everyone is probably annoyed of my excitement, but I can't wait! And I get to be a full-time sub next week to grades 5, 6 and 7...so I get to be in charge, weird concept! but I am excited to do it, the kid's are great and the support here is very helpful when I need it.

Also some CUI folk will be here this weekend and I get to go to dinner with them. I am excited to see them and get to talk to them about summer and just what is happening back home!


Highs:
The weather being perfect!
Being asked to come back next year
Getting closer to the women here at work
Getting to travel soon

Lows:
Figuring out my decision about next year.

Prayer requests:
That I power through these next few weeks before Spring Break!
For my decision this week.
Strength in my friendships back home, feeling really discouraged right now.

With love,

Ashley

Traveling is in the air

Since moving to China, I have really wanted to be able to travel. Traveling was something that got shut down pretty quickly, when I got kidney stones and decided to go back to America-- until they were gone. I am now healthy and the trips are back on track and I am excited!

First up, volunteering in the Philippines and then a little bit of a beach break right at the end, soon. I am excited for this opportunity and so excited to do some service work! I will get to work with an orphanage and with street children. SUPER excited!! I am really looking forward to a break, away and in another country.

Second up, a trip with my friend Mary who lives in Vietnam! She will be coming to China to see me :) and then we will take a train up to Beijing and do the typical Beijing things, The Great Wall and hopefully zip lining it, as we have heard they do that. After Beijing we will be going up to Mongolia! We were watching a documentary about a year ago, on Mongolia and we both made a promise that we would not go without the other, so we are going this summer!!! Crazy how dreams become reality. I miss her and I am excited to see her and get to show her mainland China, since she has never been here.

More trips will be planned and more trips will change my life, I can't get enough of this traveling. I love seeing the Light in people's faces, showing them the light and just being friendly with everyone I encounter. My heart has been overtaken with traveling-- I can't complain.

It seems like India will be in my semi-near future as well and I am stoked :D

Things at school are going well, busy as usual! We have been having fun and the students like me, or at least I think they do, but that doesn't really matter. After school EFL is a lot of fun with the kids, on Monday's I have 6 pre-graders, whoa are they a handful! but super cute and you can't help but love on them!

I am working on finding a motorbike, yes a motorbike. I am ready to brave these streets, everyone thinks its a great idea :) I have decided that it would be a great thing to have this summer, since I will be here doing summer camps the whole summer. Makes sense to get around on my own, and to avoid taxi's, because they can't seem to find my school to save their lives, even with directions written in 3 different forms and someone speaking Chinese to them. So I am resorting to my own modes of transportation. yes!

I am enjoying it here a lot right now.

Highs:
Trip with Mary getting planned
Philippines coming up
Students being amazing
growing closer to my new chinese friends at the school
growing closer to other expats


Lows:
Caught a little bug last week.
Not being organized enough.

Prayer requests:
For some of my friends here, mostly for their families back home.
Stay healthy!
Power through an awesome semester
That I can become more organized and give my all to everything I have committed myself too.
Thoughts about next year, what am I being called to do...

with love,

Ashley

whirlwind of a week

My new home-

It is hard to believe that last week, was only my first week in the classroom. It felt like the longest week, but also the shortest week. I am co-teaching a mixed class, 2 grade 5's, 1 grade 6 and 5 grade 7's. In total we have a lovely number of 8 students in our class, all at different math levels and at extremely different English levels. It's great! The school is small right now and I know all the students in all the classes names, its refreshing. I am learning that teaching is hard work, I knew that but now being in one classroom full time, is so rewarding. I even got MY OWN classroom!! It's official EFL and when the class splits during certain subjects they go into Miss Turner's room. It is not decorated or set up nicely, but it is my new home and I love it!

I have found a little community at my school. There has been one family the DeGarmo's that are here, they have been the biggest blessing. Rachel is one of the other 5, 6 and 7 grade teacher and we get along well and she has been helping me with so much. Her kids are adorable as well and I love hanging out with them :) Oh and can't forget about Rebecca! she is their nanny/art teacher at our school and she is my age. We met last semester before through friends who are also abroad and now I teach at the school. It is nice to see her at work and to have someone my age there as well. It is always fun getting to know new people and this job has great people to get to know. I have been going to dinner with different teachers and talking to them in breaks and just getting to know their stories. They are great! and my roommate is hilarious. Today was her birthday and I bought her some flowers :) she is a sweetheart and I am enjoying her company and getting to know her as well! I definitely miss seeing Christine every day but we have been trying to make the best out of all of this and I have seen her and Jessica quite frequently. Last night they even through me a belated surprise birthday party that was wonderful :D I really enjoy the community that is being established here in Shenzhen and I love them all dearly.

I have done a lot this week, catching up with old friends here in Shenzhen. I went and saw Mission Impossible "Ghost Protocol" with one of my old co-workers and that was fun! I have found a fellowship near by where there are a lot of expats that come together to worship. It is refreshing to have english music/sermon. I am enjoying that a lot these last two weeks. I am slowly figuring out the new part of the city that I am in. I get lost often, but the motorbike guys help me out and cost me about 75 cents. I also have hunted down most of those Academy nominated films and have been watching them. I have enjoyed them all so much!

It feels like this semester is going to go by quickly and that is exciting but nerve racking. Friday's have become a little blessing. The kids get to go golfing on Fridays up at the country club and I am a chaperone for it. I get to hit at the driving range for an hour, so relaxing!! It is fun getting to know the kids outside the classroom as well :D

Some of the kids waiting to go up to the country club! They are a lot of fun and super cute. They had the driver put in one of their cds. The driver and 8 students were rocking out to Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" I started to cry because I was laughing so hard. They are all hilarious.

Everything is busy, teaching EFL, remembering my math skills, helping them in everything! It is fun being in the classroom with these kiddos. So much so that I have been seriously thinking about next year again. I feel very called to be here next year. So please pray with me as I decide what to do next. I am also busy with the summer camp's, I was approved for a 3rd group from CUI. I have 2 different summer groups to work with now and that is so rewarding, but exhausting as well.

Highs:
Surprise birthday party
Getting to know the teachers
having someone my age at work

Lows:
relearning all this math. If you know me, math is just so foreign to me.


Prayer requests:
For my friends brother who will be going into surgery this week to remove a brain tumor, here in China. The more prayers the better.

Continual growth with the teachers and new friends here.

For my students as they improve their English.

for fellowship

If coming next year is what is best for me.

Summer camps!

with love,

Ashley

New Job, New District and New Friends

I conquered those evil kidney stones a few weeks ago, I can not be grateful enough that it was not as painful as everyone said it would be! With the conquering of these evil stones that meant one thing, head back to China--to start the new job.

I had a really hard time with grasping that I would be returning to China. I was scared, I didn't want to come back at all--but because of the commitments I had, I came back. Best decision yet, it has been a great first couple weeks. I love where I am working and what is happening here, what will happen in the future and just hoping I can leave an impact here. The staff is all American teachers and we get along really well and I enjoy their company.

The past few weeks of being here in a nutshell:

I turned 23! yes yes I celebrated my birthday in Hong Kong with my friend Jessica. We went to lunch at a great little bar and grill and then continued to walk in a cemetery (I know, weird.) It is a cemetery that I have seen a million times while walking around in Hong Kong and finally I walked right by the entrance! It is huge and beautiful. It dates all the way back to the first people that colonized Hong Kong from Britain. It is an interesting cemetery to say the least. It is Catholic, Parsee and Muslim in different areas. We walked around and met a homeless lady there, we talked to her for a few minutes and it was just a really interesting day that I enjoyed a lot. After we headed for some frozen yogurt and then the jet lag got the best of me and I fell asleep pretty early. An eventful 23rd birthday, if I do say so :)

My friend Krystal came to visit that following Monday for 6 days! I have pictures, they will be posted later. I have been too busy to even upload them yet, so I will get that done soon! We visited all of Shenzhen. Walked miles and miles and miles, it was exhausting but a whole lot of fun! It was really cool to show her different parts of the city and show her what the team this summer got to see and just enjoy it together. I hope that I did a good job showing the city without overwhelming a first time abroader :P I had fun taking her to Lo Hu which is the shopping district where you get to barter and watching her stop and becoming friends with everyone as I tell her to keep walking...it was good ol' fun. I really enjoyed her coming! Art district, shopping, hot pots, moving.

I got to move to a new district of the city of Shenzhen for my new job. I am about 45 minutes west of where I was before. I now live with a roommate, who is fantastic. I am really enjoying getting to know her and what she has done in her life, she is an older lady. I hope I can be her age and still be living abroad! The new apartment is still not set up, when it is...I will attempt some pictures! Her stuff has made it quite cute and comfortable...my stuff is still everywhere...naturally.

The new job is great. I will be teaching language arts, math, science and social studies to grades 5, 6 and 7. I am essentially a real life teacher. weird. Not something I thought I would be doing 5 years ago. I am also the head of the ESL/EFL department, that runs the after school programs. So I make sure everything is running smoothly and that we are actually making progress in our EFL development with the kids. I will be teaching EFL every day after school with 2 or so other teachers helping to all the grades we have. I am excited to be busy and to also enjoy getting to know such a small group of kids. I have 9 students in my class and I am excited to get to know them. I am Miss Turner, weird. :) I also am in charge of bringing a group of 10 students to China this coming summer from Concordia, Irvine! I am turning into a busy bee, I am so excited though!


That is all I can update for now :) I will update again next week as I get into the teaching mode and update you along the way.

Prayer requests:
Continual growth as I figure out this whole teaching thing, especially with no specific training.
That I can show the Light to these kids and my coworkers in many ways.
I continue to stay healthy
That I can still be in the people I met last semesters lives, even with being far away now.

Highs:
Krystal coming
New school
New friends
Possible Chinese lessons!

Lows:
not seeing friends/family on my birthday
missing everyone back home.

with love,

Ashley

January Holiday

So January marks the New Year and in China, the Chinese New Year. This year it lands on the 23rd and it is the year of the dragon! All very exciting and it gives me a month off of work.

A lot has happened. I had tickets to Bali and Vietnam and was looking forward to these trips for months. Medical and body issues have decided that, no I can't go do those things. I had to cancel tickets and now I am stateside for a month, getting medical attention. I am told I have Kidney stones and some other things going on. It has been quite exciting and the drs have been nothing but helpful since I got home.

It has been weird being back in the states but at the same time, feels like I never left. I came home to nearly an empty house as my parents are moving and to warm weather. Both very weird things! My welcoming home was a fail, the airport changed the gate arrival and did not inform family members. I walked around for an hour wondering who was going to pick me up and trying to find quarters in the 4 types of currency I had in my wallet--to make a phone call. I was finally picked up after wandering around trying to find my mom.

Jet lag has not been that bad this time around and I have slept through the night and woke up at a decent time, win! My favorite thing of being home has been driving. It is thrilling and liberating and I have missed it a lot. I wish there was an area where I could drive as fast as I wanted but I will stick to the posted limit, I don't need tickets. I also will be flying up to Washington next weekend to visit my Dad and the new house and just get to see everything before I go back! A quick trip but a fun trip :)

All in all I am excited for this month and the people I will get to see. I am going back to China with a new job, the old job I quit. After lots of talks and prayers I decided the job I was at, was not fitting. It was really hard to quit and I felt really guilty but it was the best decision for me, I feel so much better. I am really excited for my new job and the people that work there. It will be a nice fresh start and hopefully I can help the school and it's growing process. So please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I go back to China to a new job and new place to live.

with love,

Ashley

Christmas- China edition 2011

Christmas season has come and man did it go by quickly. I thought my homesickness would get really bad the day of Christmas-- I was wrong. I received a lot of presents and cards in the mail! Shout out to my parentals and family, The Wilker family, the Menke family, the Moreno family and to grandma turner! I appreciate it and I know there are still some more coming, so if you are not on the list...just means I did not receive it yet! It made Christmas a lot better and it was fun to open up all the gifts! I have been so blessed by emails, comments, gifts, cards. So blessed. Thank you.

The true homesickness did not come until after my Christmas technically ended and everyone back home had started the day. I was up pretty much the whole night talking to people and really bummed that I was not home. I eventually got over it, but it didn't help that it was a rough night.

Our Christmas break started on Thursday night celebrating our friend Elsa's 23rd birthday, with work people. We made her bread and cheese "grilled cheese" it is her favorite now. I introduced her to it and sometimes regret--how many times she wants to eat it. haha but here is a pic of all of us. We made christmas cards and had a good night laughing!

On Friday being Christmas day at school. They had Christine dress up as santa and give out candy to all the kids. It was hilarious! here is a photo!

On Christmas Eve, I got to sleep in a bit which was so nice and needed. Christine and I went to take some of our coworkers kids and kids I teach, ice skating! it was so much fun and was exciting for everyone! We ice skated for around 3 hours and then we went and made Christmas cards with some of the kids for an hour, it was a great way to spend Christmas eve!!

Christine and I then headed out for Christmas dinner at the Futian Kitcken (where we had thanksgiving dinner) we were not let down! I would even say this was better than the thanksgiving dinner! it was so good!

after dinner we headed down to Lohu where you can go shopping and barter like crazy, so we started some really, super late shopping for the people at work. We walked away with some gifts for ourselves and sort of slacked on gifts for others, but it got done! I got new Toms and sunglasses--perfect for traveling :P

Christmas day was a really good day, I woke up super early and skyped with my mom and sister and opened up all my presents--which was fun and nice. I got some new clothes which were needed pretty badly!! Woke up pretty late again, I felt like a sleep deprived person--it was needed badly.

Jessica, Christine and Elsa came over and we made Broccoli Cheddar soup and watched Home alone! it turned out fantastic and it was fun watching the movie on Christmas day! We spent the day laughing and just enjoying each others company and giving presents to each other. Later that night we went down to church and got to see Jessica who was one of the main stars! she sang hark the harold angel's sing and it was fantastic! she did a really good job and I was super proud of her!!

Here is a link to the Facebook video of her singing!!

it didn't help that she had to wear this epic outfit! I laughed when I first saw it but it fit so well! It was a great show...we saw the beginning and the birth, they did a wonderful job. I liked that everything was in Chinese and I still knew what was happening and was able to figure out what they were saying, with the small, small amount of Chinese I know. I really enjoyed it and the conversations that followed with the people we went with. These last 2 weeks or so have been what I thought was going to happen while here. It has been a great feeling and it just feels really right. I hope the questions and excitement stay!

I have had the last two days off and it has been wonderful! doing my own thing at my own time and not being sick. Can't go wrong there! it was a much needed break. I don't think you all realize how spoiled we are in America with break time for Thanksgiving and then Christmas...these kids go straight till mid January. It is SO exhausting!

I leave for my winter holiday soon and will have about a month of traveling and then my friend comes to visit. I am really looking forward to all of this time off from work! It is needed and I hope I can keep away the sickness that I keep getting, stays away. It just has all been pretty epic lately and I hope it continues. The packing has begun!

Highs:
the talks that came with the service
Spending the holiday with friends
getting to Skype home
the gifts I have received

Lows:
homesickness that came with the holiday

Prayer requests:
the people I was able to talk to that they keep asking questions!
packing goes smoothly and that I don't forget anything!
Restful nights of sleep these next few days


with love,

Ashley

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you, all the way from China!!

today I spent time with Jessica, Christine and our friend Elsa. We attempted in making Broccoli and Cheddar soup and we succeeded and it was delicious! We also watched Home Alone :) it was a good day spent with friends laughing and enjoying our time together. I got to Skype home and open up Christmas presents which was the greatest thing ever! I love Skype.

We are off to a service right now, where Jessica will be singing in the show!

I hope you all enjoy your time with family and loved ones. Remember the true reason for this season and let it overfill your hearts with love and joy!

Sending tons and tons of love from China!

Ashley