July 18--Day 11

Scavenger Hunt! My favorite activity of the summer. The key? Among all the crazy things the students must do, slide in "Bring milk tea to your teacher." Make it the highest point value, and you will be guaranteed a cold milk tea at the end of the night. And the students love it too. Win--win.

July 17--Day 10

Fruit with the students. Calla, Amanda, and Bruce. Bruce has turned into our little buddy. His English is great, and he's tons of fun. And his facial expressions. Priceless. Surprisingly, rather American. Lots of fun tonight. First real one-on-one activity. Here we go!

July 15--Day 8

First fun time activity with the college students! When I had to run back to the room to pick up UNO sets, there was a riot, apparently. A few students were freaking out that I wasn't there and demanding that Terrance and Miranda produce me from thin air. Their English is really good. And it was encouraging to see them start to open up so quickly. They were fascinated with Twister. Such an odd game, right?

July 14--Day 7

Happy Bastille Day! Today we spent a relaxing morning with cinnamon toast made by the amazing Mrs. Mills while singing around a piano. We ate lunch with an Icelandic man. (He looked like a perfect Aryan, by the way.) Then we packed up and headed to Guilinyang! And, I just found these instructions for hangers amusing. Thank you, kind label. I've always found hangers to be quite confusing.

July 13--Day 6

Reunited with the rest of the team! We had a campus-wide, absolutely insane scavenger hunt. And new experience! I was pickpocketed. Although, once the man realized that it was my Bible instead of my wallet, he graciously gave it back to me. Although, maybe he should have just kept it; might have done him some good.

This is our team for Guilinyang. It's a lot smaller than usual, but we should only have about 40 students. Smaller teams= better chance for relationships :)

July 12--Day 5

Victory! Today was perfect. Veni, vidi, vici. We have conquered the children. Aw. And I'm going to actually miss the cuties. So, apparently, I'm old. When one of the college girls (we are the same age) asked if I were playing Big Ball Volleyball, I said I had to go to the train station to pick up tomorrow's tickets. "Oh. Yeah. I guess you are to old for us, huh." Really? I didn't think I was an old and boring person yet...

July 11--Day 4

We are learning more and more about this group we are supposed to tame. We are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. One day more! At the barricades of freedom! And, I'd just like to thank Him for the amazing people I will be spending this year with. Nothing beats a couple of hours of good ole nerdy, intellectual talk in a very American tea house. (Side note: I might become rather spoiled being an American in China. I commented that the only difference between this tea house and one in America was the lack of air conditioning. Strangely, the air conditioning turned on and only Avril Lavigne was played overhead for the rest of the night...)

This cup perfectly depicts summer in Hainan. In America, all of our summer decorations are beautiful and happy. Here, we have animals dripping sweat and crying. Yep. Pretty much.

July 10--Day 3

Well, each day with these kids gets better. Or maybe I should say that each day is less of a disaster than the first. But! We have discovered a weakness in this massive juvenile crew. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Who knew? Once we turned this film on, we had them in the palm of our hand. Actually, we had a riot on our hands when we turned it off. Falling food from the sky= our secret weapon. Even with a runaway girl, two fights in class, and having to pull kids off of each other, it was a good day. And this method of transportation just made me laugh today.

July 9--Day 2

Ah, return to this land of nai cha. :)

July 8--Day 1

Sunrise over Hainan. It's good to be back.