I am a Compulsive Decorator

A little over a year ago I posted about my bedroom. And since I'm a compulsive decorator, plant lady, and picture frame enthusiast, I've made a few changes that I thought it might be fun to document.  

I found this rad calender for $9 at the start of this year. Woot. 

Next to my calender I have my 2016 to-do list of 13 things I want to accomplish by the end of this year. Also I do have a gallery wall. Judge me if you will. 

On the opposite side of my room is my dresser with my photo wall and my book shelf. Yes, my book shelf is color-coded. You should see my closet. 

My photo wall is one of my favorite things about my room, especialy now that most of the people in the photos are in different countries and states. Photos capture such powerful memories.

Don't forget the rice hat. 

My desk is my latest project. If you saw the post from last year, you'll know I didn't actually have a real desk. This was $15 at a DI and looked harmless enough, but turned out to be complete nightmare and actually costed me a grand total of $53 and probably about 50 hours of working on it. Honestly it frustrated me to no end and I frequently thought about throwing it out my window, but I sure do love it now. It came a very long way. 

"I like blue because it reminds me of Jesus."

My latest party in life is hanging out with first-graders. Honestly, it's crazy and exhausting because they're really just bundles of bottomless energy, but they're also super sincere and innocent in the greatest ways. They are the biggest handful, especially since I work with a pretty difficult class, but what makes up for it is the hugs, smiles, and of course the hysterical things they say. 

My first encounter with an imaginative version of reality was in my first week at the school. I had only been working for four or five days, and I hadn't gotten a badge yet, so one of the boys in my class looked up at me and said, "Miss Beynum, do you work here?" (None of them say my name quite right.)
And I said, "Yep, I do!" 
"Where's your badge?"
"Well, I haven't gotten one yet, because I've only been working here a few days. I'll get one soon."
"Oh, so you're kind of in training right now?" 
"Yeah, that's about right," I say.
"So you have to earn your badge!" 
I smile and just sort of nod my head (this boy will talk forever if you keep on with him). 
So a few days pass, I've had my badge made, and I'm wearing it. The same boy comes up to me. 
"Miss Beynum! You earned your badge! Is your training over?" 
"Yep, I did!"
"But it doesn't have picture on it," he says, "so that means it's not a real badge yet." 
"Well, I never got my picture taken. I didn't work here when it was picture day. I was in China."
"When will you get a picture on your badge?"
"Probably not until next year."
"Oh. Okay. Next year your badge will be real." 


The next week, we were working on opinion writing, where each kid had to decide which color was his favorite and then list three reasons why. Now, you must understand that these reasons don't altogether make complete sense, nor do they have to be at all complicated, because they're still really young. Consequently, reasons like, "I like yellow because it's the color of the sun" were very common. But I have to say, my favorite answer that I stumbled upon while wandering around the classroom was from another seven-year-old boy, who wrote "I like blue because it reminds me of Jesus." And I giggled a bit, but then I thought, you know what? That's a perfectly acceptable reason. 


A few days later, we were working on another piece of opinion writing about their favorite fables, and I had this same boy in a break-out group with two other girls, one of whom has some trouble focusing and completing work. She had been complaining to me that she didn't want to do it, and the boy, without missing much of a beat, says, "You have to do your schoolwork or you'll never get a job and you'll just be a hobo!" 


My mom works at my school as well, and I go into her office sometimes to chat with her before my shift starts. One of my students was in there working with another staff member, so I pointed to my mom and asked the student, "Did you know that's my mom?" and made sort of a funny face at the student. Then came the reply, "That's like a mom having a mom!" Of course I said, "I'm not a mom! I'm only 19!" "That's like a grown-up having a mom! That's silly!" 


Today one of the boys who is prone to mischief had gone to the restroom and when he came back, one of the teachers in the classroom across the hall motioned me over to the hallway. 
"Are you going to tell me that he was playing in the bathroom?"
"Yep," she says, "a couple of my students said he was standing on the counter turning the lights on and off."
"Oh, geez. Okay. Thanks, I'll talk to him."
I walked over and gave him a little look, which he responded to with a great sigh, then started walking over to me. (He is six.) He walked to me, but then walked past me, so I asked him where he was going. He walked out into the hallway. "Come on, let's talk about it out here," very matter-of-factly.
"Alright, so tell me what you did wrong."
"I was standing on the sink," he admits, "but it was an accident!"
"How can standing on the sink be an accident, sir?" 
"Well, I'm too short to reach," (he is very small) "so I need a way to reach." 
"There are stools in there for that exact purpose."
"I don't think there are any stools in there."
"There are definitely stools in the bathroom. So until you can reach, please use the stools and don't stand on the counter. It's really dangerous, and nobody wants you to get hurt." 
"Okay. I wish I could reach..." as he walks back into class. 


And here's one of my favorites. In history last month we learned about the conquistadors and all the weapons and tools they used to defeat the Aztec people. So when asked about all the things they brought with them to defeat the Aztecs, a six-year-old girl yells adamantly, "SMALLPOX!" I honestly can't really tell you why this was so funny to me, but it was probably because all the other kids were saying in average-volumed voices "Horses." "Helmets and armor!" and other such things. 


Until later, that's all for now, folks. But I promise there will be more. 

Red Group

Oh my red group. I adore them. A list of their hobbies and interests include the following: 

• shouting HELLO TEACHA BRAAANN every time they saw me
• singing, or
• laughing at me when I sing, or
• playing games that involve singing
• doing the hokey-pokey while laughing hysterically the entire time
• mauling me whenever I turned on the front camera
• ducking their heads under the table when reviewing the rules, then
• being surprised when I realized they were still at the table and hadn't disappeared altogether

This is Angela. She's very quiet and shy but she loved us all so much. She was constantly giving hugs and little grins. 

Here is Zack. Zack has the cutest smile of any person I've seen on earth and also the biggest ears I've ever seen on a child. He would wave to me every day, then count on his fingers from 1 to 10 and say, "High five!" and give me a double high five. He probably weighs like 30 pounds but he is the cutest little stick child. 

This is Karo, who has the best laugh in the world. Toward the tend of the semester, we all look to calling him KAROOOoooooo which always produced this face. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's what produced this face for this picture. 

Kiki was very quiet and shy just like Angela, but she was not as sweet as Angela. In fact, she was kind of a little booger which nobody would ever expect. She liked to tease other kids which was not chill, but she also would stop when you told her to, so that was really nice.

Bailey is a pageant girl. Very sassy. She always wore very complex and fashionable outfits to school, usually including hats or bows. Not sure how that worked out for nap time, but whatever. 

This is Aric, who can spell which never ceased to amaze me. Also he came up with spontaneous sentences from nowhere so that was amazing as well. He's in love with Cindy and would always spell her name, nbd. 

Here's Cindy. She and Aric live in the same apartment complex and I'm pretty sure their parents have probably arranged their marriage by now because they are SO IN LOVE. They hold hands everywhere they go. It was a rough day when I had to split them up. 

Joe was my first favorite student and stayed one of my faves throughout the semester. He has brown wavy hair which is possibly one of the reasons why he stuck out to me in the first place. He's kind of a strange one, because he's a little bit shy, but also not... I don't know. Anyway, I dig him a lot. 

If you follow me on Insta (@bbryyyn, peeps) you know I AM OBSESSED WITH FRANK. Oh my gosh. He is one of the biggest trouble makers but oh my heavens he is adorable and really so sweet. I taught him how to say "I love you" because I said it to him every morning. His parents own a chain of restaurants in Southern China and they fed us for free like four times, then brought snacks to school functions a couple times too. His mom is beautiful and I love her dearly. One of the saddest things to me is how I could never adequately express how much I love Frank and Grace because language barriers uuggghhh. Anyway, on our last day, he said my name for the first time ever, the little booger. He said "Goodbye, Teacher Bryn. I love you." Then he kissed my cheek and I walked out of the room and died inside forever. 

Bonus pictures of my faves making awkward faces

Xing Ping

An hour's bus ride from Yangshuo takes you to a very tiny village by the river, called Xing Ping. This was our hostel--the only hostel in Xing Ping. We ate pizza every day and loved it. 

This was our third vacation, but it was honestly less of a vacation and more of a series of manifestations that God is SO mindful of us and what we need. We travelled first to Yangshuo, which entailed a train from Guzhen to Guangzhou, then from Guangzhou to Guilin. Then from the train station in Guilin, we were supposed to catch a bus that ran to the Yangshuo bus station, where we would be able to magically find our hostel, I guess, because we never really discussed that part. 

First we missed our train from Guangzhou to Guilin. We really have no idea how that happened because we were at our gate over an hour early. The only thing we can guess is that it had a gate change that we didn't know about because we don't speak Chinese. Luckily the station allows one free ticket change, and we got another train out, but it was quite a bit later than we wanted. We arrived in Guilin quite late; about 8;30 pm, and it was much, much colder than we expected. It was pouring rain and I was wearing sandals. By the time we got out of the train station and to the place where the buses pick up, the bus we were expecting wasn't running anymore. We took a different bus (double-deck) in hopes that it would lead us to the correct bus station. We were honestly hoping pretty blindly at this point. It was almost 9;30, dark and pouring rain, we hadn't eaten a real meal since 11, and we still had a fair way to travel to our hostel in Yangshuo. We carried ourselves and our luggage onto that bus and I silently prayed that Heavenly Father would give us some inspiration. As we were talking about what we were going to do, two men came on to the bus and sat across from us. We had been looking in a Mandarin dictionary for "bus station" so we could point to it in hopes that someone would help us on our way. The men noticed that we likely needed help, and what do you know, they both speak English! We told them we needed to go to Yangshuo, and they told us we had gone too far on the bus. At this point I likely would have freaked out, but I was so tired and I really just had hope that God would guide us. But then (this would NEVER happen in America, and we probably wouldn't let it happen in America), these two men offer to get off the bus with us, get back on the bus going the opposite direction, and help us on our way to Yangshuo. They walked with us the entire way, let us use their umbrella, and when we finally got to the bus to Yangshuo, it was parked in an unmarked station (story of China). We never would have found it if it weren't for their help. Jim, the man who helped us all the way, was studying to be an English tour guide in Guilin. Heavenly Father knew exactly who to send to us and who we would trust. 

The bus ride was very long and rocky, and we got dropped off on the side of the road at about 11;30 pm. (Later we find out that there are two bus stations in Yangshuo, and we had actually been dropped about 40 feet outside of the one we weren't familiar with.) In China when you get off a bus, there are always five thousand taxis waiting to take all your money, especially if you're foreign. We passed these up because it was so late and they are generally sort of creepy people anyway. So we started walking. We walked in the rain on the side of a highway for half an hour, then we got to a place that looked vaguely familiar. We had been there before. We started showing the address to people in small shops and on the street, and they would point us in a direction that we hoped was right. Finally, we were impressed to stop and ask a man in his shop, who knew just enough English to tell us how far it was and which way to go. At 1 am, we stepped into an alley and found our hostel, wet and freezing. (Later we also found out that we walked a large circle around West Street, and if it had only been lighter, I definitely would have recognized that, but thanks heaven we were being watched over.) 

When we got there, the reception was still open (blessing) and our only roommate was still awake (blessing). And they had heated blankets and room heaters that went up to 30 degrees c (blessing). 

Now, the actual most miraculous part of this whole ordeal is not how Heavenly Father sent us angels in disguise or whispered the way to us or answered our prayers, but it is the fact that through all of this, I wasn't freaking out. Travel stresses me out like no other, and Heavenly Father knew me enough to bless me with calm nerves that night while we worked through all of the wrongs and rights along the way. 

After the rocky but blessed start to this vacation, it was so lovely and peaceful that I still think about it and just smile at how God seriously loves us so much and will help us when we need it. 

Since I already posted about Yangshuo, we will go to the second day, in Xing Ping. 

Mount Lao Zhai, 1159 steps and stairs to the best view in Guangxi province. 

Try your hardest to squint your eyes and find the tiny pagoda on top of that mountain. We walked past it and all I could think was How on earth do you get up there?

Then we found out how. 

It was a pretty intense hike. I can't tell you the elevation gain or how long it was, but it was definitely much harder than I expected. Almost as hard as the Great Wall, but in different ways. There were times when I seriously considered going back, but I kept thinking, Gosh, my dad would love this. If I were doing this with him right now, he would make me go all the way. And, I'll never be in China again, so gotta do it now! 

One of three very questionable ladders that we had to climb. There were many parts where they were wires and posts to keep safety. Looking back on it, this is like top three most potentially dangerous hikes I've done. 

But it was also one of the greatest views of my life, so definitely worth it. 

It was very quaint and precious.

Biggest bamboo of my existence. 

Xing Ping is also home to the site of the 20 yuan bill. A must-visit.

Xing Ping holds a special lovely place in my heart, and I will forever love how tiny and cute it is, along with the memories of how overwhelming God's love is in my life. 

Pagodas (Xiaolan and Jiangmen Saturday Shenanigans)

This is Longshan Park in Xiaolan. It was great because we didn't have to take the 202 bus to get there. We took a Saturday in October to paddle boat in the pond and have a picnic and also 

climb this here pagoda. It was a lot more work than I anticipated, actually, and rather exhausting because it was October and still raging hot. 

Anyway, we paddled around the pond for an hour and it was rather enjoyable. 

It was really pretty. 

But hot. 

Two weeks later we partied in Jiangmen and climbed another pagoda which was horrendous. 

It's 709 meters tall if you're wondering. Also it's 11 floors, and approximately 586 steps one way, and that doesn't include the mile uphill walk to get to it in the first place! It was legitimately almost as killer as the Great Wall. But the view from up there was really great. 

This is the city flower of Jiangmen. I won't even attempt to guess what it is, but it looked really pretty. 

Guzhen

This is where we live. On the third floor which is really the second floor, but also the first floor of apartments above the shops. We lived in apartment 309 next door to Chandler the cook and Rene who are married and Tommy is their son whaaat. 

Guzhen is a very small town in the very south of China in the city of Zhongshan. Most people have never heard of Zhongshan unless they live near it, and people never know what Guzhen is unless they live in Zhongshan. It is the lighting capitol of China and I'm not even swinging that around lightly. (Lightly, LOLZ) There are lights EVERYWHERE. Once we went exploring north of our apartment building for 90 minutes and all we saw was lights and some cool and maybe questionable street food. Anyway, that's Guzhen, so it's kind of boring, but they have a Miniso now and they're getting a pizza place and the German restaurant is hopping so it's getting there. 

We lived right smack in the middle of a huge complex of 24-storey apartment buildings. For the first month I couldn't get over feeling closed in all the time, but it really is a wonder. Most countries live like this, except the US, and even in some places in the US, this is totally normal. Not for me, though, and it was one of the hardest things to get used to. 

This is the school. It's precious, and every inch of the entire building is painted. Walls, ceilings, windows, floors. No joke. 

The hallway outside our apartment. I can't even begin to estimate how many times I walked this hallway, especially considering afternoon ice cream runs and Saturday morning noodle expeditions.

If you go to China and stay in a big international city or in fancy hotels, you will probably never see a squatter. (Grandma, I'm looking at you.) But most residences and non Westernized cities and towns have squatters. I won't talk about them much, but let you use your imagination. They stay pretty clean what with the whole bathroom acting as your shower, though. 

This is Tang and he is the most adorable Chinese man. I don't even hesitate to say that I would probably date him. In addition to being adorable, he makes the greatest spicy noodles and strange fried food in the world. I crave it every day. 

The family who owns the Muslim restaurant almost directly underneath our apartment. Green glass doors and home to the greatest fried green onion pancake. Dip it in spicy soy sauce. Costs a dollar. 

Streets of Guyi, Guzhen. 

Here is the park which we walked past to get to the super market (and also the Chinese snake doctor. A story for later...). 

And a cute picture just for good measure.