It’s my day off so I figured I would write you guys a little update. China has been really great so far. I’m still in a hotel for now and will move into my apartment next week. I’m sharing a room here with a girl named Anna. I’m not sure where exactly she’s from, but it’s somewhere in China, but it’s quite a ways away. She’s here for training, as well as a lot of other people here in the hotel. I went to the first day of training and they found out I had only had about a half day of pre-training so they sent me home and told me to come to the training in two weeks. I’ll be honest, I was a little relieved. I’m learning things fast, but not that fast. Especially because this isn’t like a normal training, it’s like an “Advanced Lead Training” or something like that. So almost everyone else there has been working for Gymboree for months and already knows what they’re doing. I, on the other hand, had observed a handful of classes and got some paper work shoved in my face the day before and I was quickly trying to memorize everything. This way, I’ll actually have some time to figure out what I’m doing. I really like my center and my co-workers. Our center is very spacious and nice (I think the biggest one in China because that’s actually where the training is held) and my co-workers are very fun and nice. There is another girl who is doing pre-training right now, so we’ll be going to training together on July 4th. My HI (Head Instructor) and CD (Center Director) are really awesome and are willing to work with me so that’s great.
Usually no one gets Sunday off because it’s their busiest day, but I worked it out that I can come in late on Sundays so I can still go to church. They also gave me Sundays off while I’m still doing pretraining so I can go to all of church. They don’t really understand religion over here, so that’s really awesome of them to give me the time to go to church. I went to church last week and that was pretty fun. The Larkin’s (The Relief Society Pres. and her husband) picked me up last Saturday to show me around. They got me a subway card, taught me how to use the subway, how to get to church, took me to lunch, showed me where I could buy some pants, and showed me how to barter. There was a ward party that night so I went with them and stayed the night so I could go to church with them in the morning. They have such a nice house, it’s so beautiful and in a very nice part of Shanghai. They actually offered to have me live with them, but it’s just too far away. It would be almost an hour to work every day and back, and I’d also have to take a taxi to the subway and back, and that would get pretty pricey. So I’ll just see them at church. My ward is really nice and pretty cool. There are a few other interns in the ward right now, but I think they all leave in August, except for the other Gymboree intern (Chris). It’s mostly young families, so Sacrament Meeting is pretty loud, but that’s ok. We meet in a huge office building and have Sacrament Meeting in a big conference room. The classes are held in other small office meeting rooms. It’s actually a really nice place to meet considering the circumstances. My co-workers were asking me about my church a little the other day. Sadly, I wasn’t able to have much of a missionary experience because once they started asking about what we believe, I couldn’t tell them. No proselytizing of any sort is allowed, so we couldn’t continue that conversation. They think it’s pretty cool that my church is so important to me though.
Pretraining is going pretty well. They are really impressed with how quickly I memorize things. I’ve memorized almost everything I need to and now I just need to apply it in the classroom, which will just take lots of practice. Even though I’m not doing the advanced training with the other Gymboree workers, they’re still very nice and inviting. A group of us went to People’s Square,
out to dinner,
and to “The Bun” last night, or at least I think that’s what they call it. It’s just a place on the river that’s separates Shanghai into the Pudong district and the Puxi (pronounced poo-she) district. On each side of the river are just huge buildings and lots of lights, so it’s just a big tourist spot. I have pictures, maybe they can get posted.
The only other white person in the pictures is Chris, he’s pretty cool. Our personalities clash a little, but we still get along and I’m sure we’ll spend time together while we’re here.
I’ve met the other intern who I’m replacing, her name is DeAnna. She’s...interesting. I mean she’s fine, but let’s just say I’m glad that I’m replacing her and not working with her for the next 6 months. She has been pretty helpful though, giving me advice from another American’s perspective. She sold me her phone and I’ll be moving into her apartment when she leaves next week. At least I think I will be. My center is still deciding. She lived there with her husband who was an intern at another location so they live half way in between the centers, so it’s about a 35 min trip to get to work each way. It’s also bigger, and the center could get me a smaller, and cheaper apartment, since it’s just for me. They already have the lease for another 6 months though, so they’re still deciding. I’ll know by this week.
So yeah, I think that’s mostly life lately. I’m still not totally adjusted to the jet-lag so I get really tired in the afternoons. I’m still able to find times to Skype my mom most days, but it has to be either really late or really early. The time difference is pretty annoying. A lot of internet sites are blocked here, including my blog, so I’ll have my mom post this. Facebook is also blocked, so I won't be getting on there for the next 6 months. I can buy some illegal thing that lets me onto whatever website I want, but I don’t think I’ll get one. Anyway, it’s going well here. I really like China, but it’s definitely a lot to take in and get used to. Hopefully I’ll start Chinese classes next week, so I can start communicating with people.
Thanks for reading, and have a great day! Love you all!
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