The Kumkuat Korner

Hello my lovies! I am sorry for any lack of updates. I moved into my new apartment and the Internet was not properly set up. But now it is! And I have so many updates to post for you! So keep an eye out for them! Now back to our regularly scheduled program! TAIZHOU!   Pronounced Tie Joe. This beautiful city is absolutely something I never would have expected to live in. With just a little over 5 million people, Taizhou is a mix of new and old held by traditions and customs as well rapidly growing industrialization. It has been over a 13 days since I arrived and I am still blown away with how incredibly accepting people are. Of course I get stared at. I stick out like a sore thumb. Mostly everyone here (especially the women) are slender, while I, on the other hand, am the complete opposite: I stand taller than most Chinese women (even some of the men) and have a whole lotta curves!  For example, here in the picture, this is Mrs Wang, (known to me offici...

I'm sorry my lovies! I have been busy with training that every time I keep putting off a new post on here. Then when I have time to try to finish my post, the internet at my hotel crashes or works so slow my VPN keeps can't get a good read on the WiFi! But let's begin with my adventure at Jiansing Park! On Sunday, few of the members of my training went on a little adventure. Our plan was simple. Visit the Forbidden City. Like actually go inside. Since I had been first one of the group to have ventured out on my own on my first day in China, I led us some of the way. A couple wanted to see the Jiansing Park which is at the North side of the Forbidden Palace. This park, once you reach the top, overlooks the entire city for an amazing 360 view of of the whole city and of course, the Forbidden Palace. Below is the location of the Park shaded in green. The palace is below that in the shaded yellow. To get to this park We had to walk a lot. The only entrances to this pa...

It is so crazy! Although it's well organized. And the new subway lines are well ventilated while the old ones are stuffy and often smell of people's B.O. There is a little system to it too which I like. People exit through the center and people get on through the sides. During rush hour, there will be lines and there will be pushing! There is no such thing as personal space in China. You'll be pushed against random Chinese strangers who are also pushed against other strangers. It was extremely overwhelming the first time I got on the train by myself in the middle of rush hour. I don't even think my feet touched the floor. I was just swept away with the current and next thing I know is I'm in the train and can't move much since the train is swamped with passengers. Below are pictures of a crazy normal day in the train.(meaning NOT rush hour) Morning Rush Hour

Hello Lovies! I apologize for not posting any updates. I have been working everyday in training at Romp'n'Roll. There is a lot of curriculum materials to cover and procedures. My brain is overloaded with children songs and tunes that I know from back home that I have to memorize with my company's own lyrics. It may seem easy but its a lot of preparation. Still a lot of fun because I am only one of 15 people from my group that are struggling in memorizing these songs. That's right folks. I have officially met my coworkers and fellow trainees and we have bonded like hydrogen and oxygen molecules. Thankfully we all live in the same hotel so sometimes we leave the door open or we send each other WeChat messages and drop by to each other's room to study or review things we went over. We head to the train every morning at the same time. We have lunch in groups (kind of hard to get many tables together in smaller local shops). We head over to the supermarket as a grou...

Yesterday I was too tired to post anything on here after my flight and even less excited to do anything other than eat and sleep. This is what I had for dinner last night. It was soup from a small region of china called ___. It was made from spicy garlic and noodles were homemade! The mystery meat tasted like pastrami without the extra salt since the soup itself was slightly salted. Today is Saturday! So I got up early (twice) and showered. The bathrooms in hotels and apartments are different but I didn't think the bathroom would get INUNDATED. There is a drain but there is no tub, no lip, to prevent the water from going all over the bathroom floor. ANYWAYS... I decided to brave it and take the train down to the Forbidden City which by train would be close to 45 minutes. The train it self is efficient and after pointing to a map and letting the man behind the counter know where I wanted to go, I was off...to the wrong direction. Thank goodness I have an English version of the m...