So, there are 15 days left until school is done, and 16 until my family arrives. I have been busier then ever: making travel  plans and bookings, doing school work and report cards, and trying to fill every minute doing something new and fun in my little time left in China.
Here are some of the things that have been happening lately:

All of the thunderstorms and rain we have been having at night has washed away all the pollution so we don't have to look at it and instead we get to see gorgeous, blue skies. This makes me happy :)

Everything here is organized into markets. If you want shoes you go to the shoe market, for tea you go to the tea market, for pets you go to the pet market, etc. A couple weeks ago I went to the art market and bought a Chinese painting and this weekend I went to the pearl market to buy some pearls.

YES, I went to a BSB concert, in China! 

Chelsey and I went into Guangzhou on our day off for Dragon Boat Festival and ended up spotting some dragon boats from our bus, so we hopped off and went and checked it out! After school on Tuesday our sweet cleaner at the school gave us some Zongzi (Chinese sticky rice dumpling) to try; her daughter made them.

I had a job interview last Tuesday at 11pm my time and got a phone call offering me the job at 6am on Thursday! I will be moving to Drumheller, Alberta to teach grade 5 at Greentree School. I am getting really excited!
Here's me with my dress clothes back on, trying to wake up for the interview :) My bare feet really complete the look!

So that's what's been happening over the last few weeks!

I think I am almost ready, planning wise, for our trip to Beijing, Xian and Chengdu! I booked a tour on the Great Wall with a local guide for us where we do a farm stay, watch a sunset on the wall and hike on a part of the wall that is original and not as crowded, I am so excited! I am also looking forward to visiting the panda preserve in Chengdu!
I will make sure to take lots of picks and update the blog once we get back.

While living in China one of the largest challenges has been communication, or rather lack of communication! I have found myself craving English conversations out side of work and school. Because I work at such a small school and only see other English speakers (outside of work) occasionally, and because many of the people I see daily don't speak English, I am lacking some good conversation. I miss listening to professors talk about engaging topics and discussing them with my peers.
Books have filled this gap.
I have been reading a lot lately. My definition of a lot is probably quite different then some peoples, but I have been reading more than usual.
I love reading biographies; books about real people's, real stories. The books I have been reading most recently are about taking chances, vulnerability and shame, leaning into your passion, succeeding in your work life, courage and more. 

The words from these books, from the women who wrote these books, have become my mentors! 

I have been thinking a lot about my future, and life decisions. It seems hard to narrow things down and figure out what I really want when it feels like there is so much to choose from at times and then like options are slim at other times. The hardest thing I have found is that I will not know if something is the right decision until I take a chance and apply myself to something... doing this runs the risk of not liking it, having a miserable year, or worse, failing. But it also offers the chance of loving it, growing, improving and thriving. These books have told me to lean in, have the courage to take chances, and work hard, so that is what I am trying to do!
At times I feel empowered and ready to take on the world, and then other times I feel like crawling up in a ball on my parent's couch and hiding from the reality of life (which makes me feel even worse because I am several time zones away from my parent's couch! It becomes a bad cycle).
This is exhausting!
If you are feeling the same, or have ever felt this way, or are interested at all, here are the books I have read recently that I love, and definitely recommend:

This brings me to my point, and the reason I titled the post "Lean In"; After reading the book Lean In, and visiting the website leanin.org I have decided that I would like to start a 'Lean In Circle'. This is a group of 8-10 people at similar places in their careers who meet on a monthly bases, (10 times a year) to share and learn together and support each other in 'leaning in' to achieve goals. You can read more information on it here! 
So if you are reading this and you are interested, or know someone who might be interested, let me know! You can email me at [email protected]. You don't have to be a teacher, or even female to join. It would be nice to have some diversity and I would really like a couple of guys in the group. I am not sure if these meetings need to be in person or if we could do meetings online... I guess we can figure that out together. I will be back in Southern Alberta at the end of July, so I am thinking the beginning of August would be a good time to start. I look forward to hearing back on this and getting a group together!

P.S. below are Ted Talks from the writers of the books.

So I have been writing this blog post in my head for the last few weeks now and haven't got down to actually writing it until today. I find things always sound so much better in my head as I write them and them comes out somewhat disappointing on 'paper'. And today I do not feel like writing much at all! So here are some pics from my travels and some short explanations; that will have to do for now! 
I went to Zhangjiajie with my friends Chelsey and Sunny at the beginning of May; Sunny is Chinese and works at CIS with us, she was great to travel with. This is the place that inspired some of the landscapes in the movie Avatar.

We left on a Wednesday night after work and were there Thurs, Fri, and Sat, and flew home Sunday morning. The first day we took a bus to the Wulingyuan Scenic area where our hostel was and was closer to the Forest Park entry. We got our bearings, figured out our plan for the next three days and explored the area around our hostel. The people at our hostel were so helpful and told us the best places in the park to see and where to go to get away from the crowds.

We arrived in Zhangjiajie at the end of a Chinese holiday which meant we just missed all of the huge crowds and long lines, although there were still a lot of people on some of the main trails and view points. The second day and fourth we spent the day touring around part of the park. There were free busses inside the park, you just needed to be able figure out where to get off to do some of the hiking. Having Sunny made things a million times easier because she could speak chinese and translate for us.

The park was like nothing I have ever seen before! Mountains rising out of the ground, huge pillars of rock, it was absolutely breath taking. The route we did over the two days in the park allowed us to see the gorgeous scenery from many perspectives. We looked out at the vast mountains from beautiful view points, hiked to the top of one, and walked along a beautiful stream at the base of the mountains.

In between our two days in the park, Chelsey and I went back into Zhangjiajie to go to Tianmen Mountain. We road the worlds longest cable car up to the top and hiked on the cliff faces and walked on a glass walkway! This was one of the many highlights!

Well I have not posted in a while and so it is time to give everyone an update. If I have learned anything while I have been here it is to expect the unexpected! I have had a number of unexpected moments at work in the last two months. Here is a list of some of the crazier moments:
1. I caught a rat lurking around the washrooms and had to trap it in a bathroom and get the guard to come and bop it on the head.
2. We found out that my room had a crack in the wall after a lot of water started mysteriously showing up on my classroom floor after a rain. One day, near the end of the day my students were sitting on a couch reading and two men came in to assess the problem. They were looking at some pipes in the wall when suddenly one opened and a huge geyser came flooding out of the wall, soaking my kids head to toe with China water of questionable sanitation. Once they finally turned it off and I got my kids out of the line of fire, they left! Yep they just left, leaving behind a pool of water. Our nice cleaner and I scooped up the water with a broom and dust pan and she mopped it up, I left the fans on for the night and some how everything was dry by the next morning.

3. About two weeks after easter I started to smell a funny stench in my classroom. I had thought that I started to smell it after I had turned my air conditioner on. It smelled fowl, like a dead animal was hiding somewhere. The kids left and we came back to school the next day and right after the students arrived for school in the morning and I turned my a/c on the smell returned. We searched and searched for the smell and finally figured out that it was coming from a students backpack! Luckily it wasn't a dead rat in the air conditioner like I suspected. It was two rotten, hard boiled eggs in a sealed plastic bag. The kids had decorated them for easter and were supposed to take them home, but two weeks later, left in a backpack with hot and humid weather and those eggs were unrecognizable and one of the worst smells I have ever smelled!
4. I have noticed a weird thing growing on my roof close to my desk, it looks kind of like some sort of animal making a nest of some sort. Recently I noticed it was expanding so I got the Chinese teacher to ask the guard to come take a look. After some inspection he got a bamboo stick and knocked it down to find out that it was white ants, also known as Termites! Since then they have started to rebuild and another small home has popped up. I will update on the situation when I find out what will happen. I may not have a classroom by the end of the year, it might just be a crumbled pile of bricks by the end of the year!

So those have been part of the excitement and stress that has been keeping me busy over the last couple months.
I have decided that I am going to make an effort to try and take more pictures of my daily life. I have been struggling with photography because on one hand I love having good pictures to keep as memories and to share with you. On the other hand my good camera is heavy and annoying to carry around all the time and the purpose of most of my pictures is simply to capture the moment, not to take and amazing photograph. So I have decided that the best camera is the one that I have with me! I will still use my good camera for pics, but I am not going to worry so much about it and instead take lots of other pics with my Ipad. Here are some pictures and videos of my daily life and a trip to Macao from a few weeks ago. Enjoy!

There is a strong Portuguese influence in Macao!

A nice soundtrack on our morning drive to work!

The local school often has all the kids dance these choreographed routines in the mornings!

We had a couple of stormy days where it would be practically dark in the middle of the day. This was around 11am!

I am so grateful to have Skype!

Here is a nice clear day, and a smoggy one below! I get so tired of the smog!

We made Oobleck in science and Chelsey snapped some pics for me.

I have  been thinking lately about what I have learned during my time here. The largest lessons have been about differences.

All my life I have fit in quite well. I am an english speaking white person from Southern Alberta, my parents and grandparents grew up here. I blend in, and I like it!

In China I am a blue eyed alien with blond hair and white skin, blending in isn't even an option. I feel the stares from everyone, some are friendly and some are not. I have had quite a few instances where people take pictures of me and my friend or even ask to take pictures with us. I usually go along with it if they ask, or wave at them and smile if they don't. A lot of the staring and picture taking is out of genuine  curiosity I believe, and so I try not to worry about it too much. It is what it is. But I now have great empathy for those who go through the same thing on a daily basis at home.

The second thing I have really been surprised by is the psychological need for things like import grocery stores, Canadian restaurants with an atmosphere that feels like home, and a group of friends that are 'like' me. And yes, I mean people that look like me, and share similar experiences and interests with me. I never fully understood why it was so important for different ethnic groups to have import stores and things like China Town, and local food restaurants. I was completely ignorant to their cultural needs!

So often I hear people say that foreigners are in 'our' country and should speak english and follow 'our' cultural values and ways. Well I can't speak for anyone else, but it will never matter where I live, I will always be proudly Canadian and further more Southern Albertan. I grew up riding horses, eating beef, getting together with community, speaking english, and that is a HUGE part of my identity. That part of who I am cannot be taken away. It can't be taken away by the country that I live in or the people that surround me, it is inside of me.

I believe that my friends and family would feel the same, they don't want me to change the core of who I am based on where I live. They still want me to be me. So I think it isn't fair to ask that of anyone else, instead let's learn from each other and about one another's culture, and invite everybody that is willing to participate in to be a part of ours.

I have decided not to come back to China next year. For a number of reasons I have decided that the time that I have had here has fulfilled my desires for this experience and I think that I can learn and grow more, and hopefully find a fulfilling job, closer to home.

Given that my time here is now shortened by half, I have begun to feel a sense of urgency to experience as much as I can while I am here. Already I feel like I am forgetting things that I have done. I can no longer vividly picture and remember all of the amazing moments that I have had travelling so far. I keep thinking to myself that I need to somehow enjoy it more, or soak it up better than I have so that I can savour this experience maximally. But I don't know how to. I feel like I am doing all I can to enjoy those moments, to reflect on the greatness of the experience, yet still it feels like it’s not enough. How can I relive that feeling, I need to get it back, to keep it with me?

And then I started thinking... is this what addiction feels like? Is this how addiction begins? You experience something that feels so great and then in time, slowly the feeling and the memory start to fade away or change, and how else can you get it back other than doing it over again? Is that why people stay in bad relationships? Because they felt absolute love once and how do you get that feeling back besides repeating it? Is it the same for other addictions?

If this is true, then I am becoming addicted to travel. Addicted to that feeling of disbelief that you are in a place you never imagined, experiencing the most amazing sights. Addicted to learning new things and meeting people in different places.

So although I am not coming back to China next September this is definitely not the last time I travel and explore new places.

I hope that it is only the beginning.

Before Chinese New year break Chelsey and I took a day trip to the near by city of Foshan. It is a smaller city of about 6 million!! I found out about it in my lonely planet China guide book and we decided to get away for a Saturday and explore a little. It was and hour metro ride to get there. Once we got there we followed the directions of our book and walked to a couple different temples. The first one was great, we got to see a lion dance and some martial arts demonstrations in addition to an opera performance and other cool sights. We had planned to go to a ceramics museum but didn't pay enough attention to the hours and got there just as it was closing, so that will be an activity for another time. Here are some of the pictures of the first temple, Zu Miao.

Well, I have not been blogging as much as I wanted or intended to over the last two months, but I have been dealing with life as a first year teacher and living in a foreign country, so I'm giving myself a break. I have found out that there are a number of ups and downs to this whole experience. 

On the upside, I feel free! I am happy that I am finally doing something that I have dreamed about for the last few years. I am proud that I went to university for five years, persisted and did my best, and that my hard work paid off to land me a great job. I do love being a teacher and what could be better than getting paid to do something I enjoy while also being able to travel the world. This is pretty great.

On the downside, life is not perfect. Ever. This is still a job, I am still a human being and there will always be challenges. All that is so good about being in China is also ridiculously challenging and scary. Being a first year teacher with a class that has its share of behavioural issues, dealing with the insecurities of thinking I should be doing a better job at times, and not having home, family and friends close by have been some of my challenges. 

I keep telling myself that I would be experiencing all of these things no matter where I was. Stress and worry is a part of life, but so are the really great parts like seeing something amazing in a new place and meeting great people. It all balances out.

The hardest part of living in China for me has been dealing with the smog and pollution. Some days the pollution just floats in the air covering up the blue sky and sun. I hate that just being outside might not be very good for my health. I now have a HUGE appreciation for clean Albertan air and wide open space. I really hope that we never let it get that way in Canada, it is further motivation to be GREEN!!

I am now on a 2 week break for the Chinese New Year holiday. I spent the first two days of the break at the school organizing my classroom and planning, today I let myself be lazy for a large part of the day and now am cleaning and packing because tomorrow morning I go to Hong Kong. My friend, her friend and I will spend two days there and then we go to Indonesia!! I am so excited for this trip.

I will post my photos and all my stories when I get back, and I also have a post on our day trip to Foshan, to see some temples, lion dancing and martial arts, coming.

Sorry, but no pictures for this post, I haven't had enough time to bring my camera out for awhile.
Have a great weekend :)

On the third day of our little adventure we booked a tour guide for the day. She is a local and grew up in a small town where her dad farmed rice. Shandy hired us a Tuktuk and took us around to see all the scenic spots near by. There are a lot of Kumquat trees that are now wrapped with plastic to keep the frost and ice from damaging them.
The drive was very cold and we bundled up as best as we could. The view was worth being a little cold!

Next, our guide took us too an old stone village. There are only a few houses left standing that are built only with stones and no binding material. These buildings are now only used for storage and the people live in newer houses built with bricks. 

Shandy told us about another man that had been on a tour with her who wrote a poem about his walk, she shared it later through email. I love it and think that it expresses the feeling of being in that area so well.

Next we went to tour the Goldwater cave, have a mud bath and soak in the hot springs. The cave was pretty cool, although I think it would have been better with out all the coloured lights and if we would have learned more about the science and history of the area from our guide (one from the caves, not Shandy). But the mud bath was fun and the hot spring pool was the perfect way to warm up on a cold day. At the caves there was a photographer who would follow us around and take pictures and then want us to buy them for 15yuan later (about 2 dollars), I gave in and bought a few! Here are a couple that I scanned with my Ipad (they are really hard to see).

Before going home we ate supper near Moon Hill, and saw a Banyan tree that was over one thousand years old.

That night we went back to our hostel, showered and then went and did a bit of shopping before going to bed.

The next day we were up early and boarding a tour bus at 7:30am. Our tour bus took us up into the Longji rice terraces scenic area to two local villages. The first was the Huangluo Yao Village (The long hair village) where we toured some of the older buildings and then watched the local people sing and dance. The next village was Ping' an village where we ate some local food and then had free time to hike up the stairs to see the gorgeous view.

During the show they served us some tea, we were only allowed to use one chop stick to drink the tea. If we used two that meant that you wanted to stay and would have to stay there for the night. We were the only english people on our tour and I think the guide was really worried that we might use two by mistake, because he kept repeating it to us over and over. 

At the end some of the women took their hair down to show us how long it was. They only cut it twice in their lifetime, and even then they have to keep their cut hair. I also got to dance with them, and then at the end when we left the building they pinched our buts! This is apparently the way that they show you love, I am suspicious that it is just away to play around with tourists though! Hahaha. 

When we were just getting ready to leave the rice terraces and meet our guide at the bus our guide found us and informed us that there was a problem. There had been a rock slide across the road and buses couldn't get through! We had two choices: hike by ourselves for four hours to Dazhai village where we had planned to stay the night, or hike for one hour with the group to the next village and take the bus back to Guilin early, we chose to stick with the tour group. This ended up being a gorgeous hike through the rice terraces. Here are some pictures I took with my Iphone along the way:

On the bus ride back to Guilin we texted our tour guide from the day before and asked her if she new of a good place to stay for the night because we had no where to go. She put us in contact with a friend of hers that was also on his way to Guilin and he met us at the bus and helped us book a Chinese hotel for the night. It had super hard beds and a smelly bathroom, but it did for the night and we went to bed exhausted from a long day. Because we were in Guilin early we didn't know what to do, our train didn't leave until 9pm the next night and we woke up to pouring rain, so we decided to go to the train station to see what our other options were. After asking around we found someone who could speak some English and she ended up helping us book a bus leaving just after noon. So we went back to the hotel to get our bags and met back at the bus station. The bus ended up being a sleeper bus with beds and warm blankets. 

We were so happy to be riding the bus for 8hrs instead of sitting up in the train for 12. It was great except for a couple unfortunate events. A young girl who was above and to the left of me got sick and puked over the railing on to the floor and my blanket, about 20 min into the bus ride. Her mom got down, apologized, cleaned it up as best as possible, and got me a new blanket. I felt bad for her. In addition there was an old man and his grandson sitting behind Chelsey, and both of them were puking into bags off and on for the entire trip! I felt so bad for those people, but it was also a little uncomfortable for us. When we finally got into Guangzhou, the bus was driving along and one of the drivers motioned us to come up to the front of the bus, we had no idea why and they didn't speak English. For some reason the bus pulled off to the side of a major highway and we had to get off, we were so confused why we were the only ones being pushed out onto the highway. But there was a taxi there waiting and so we got him to drive us back into Clifford and arrived home around 10pm and were able to sleep in our own beds.
It was a great trip and I can't wait to do more! We saw and did so much in a such short amount of time. We have our next trip planned already for over Chinese New Year holiday to Indonesia with Chelsey and her friend from Alberta!