Halloween

Dead by my own sword..

Mummy Wrap!

Some of my students..

the only guys who dressed up

a couple of the americans

I love Halloween in China. It's cool to be 5 years old again and dress up and. We had a big party for our students..

Scents

This week has been a whirlwind. I can't believe how quicly time has gone by. I have almost been here 2 months.. only 8 left. I have just completed mid-term exams and am getting geared up for the harder part of teaching. The way I do class is.. the first half is a little easy.. me evaluating English levels.. working on the 3 most common mistakes. Starting to get them to think outside the box a little. The second half is focused more on Culture and thinking and Life lessons.. while improving your confidence in your English speaking ability.

I love the 2nd half a lot. This week we will watch Remember the Titans. They love this movie and it really gets to show them a lot of American Culture.. and we are going to play a game of football on Saturday.. November 1st. I think this is a perfect day for football..

This week the smells in China were intensified a bit. I don't know why or how, but every smell was a lot more clear. There are a few good smells.. I have a jasmine plant, which is one of my favorite smells and teas in the World. I bought some candles and they smell fantastic.. which is hard to find here. Then there are the street smells. The public squatty potty is not my favorite smell. In fact I had my first experience of getting sick from smelling something so ghastly. It was horrible. There are the smells of the street food.. not all terrible, but there is chow dofu (fried tofu/stinky tofu). This is one of the worst smells I have ever smelled.

I love smells because I think that it is a major memory jogger. I smell things periodically and it completely takes me back to a certain place/day/time. I can remember what the smell is and where I was when that smell was most prominant in my life. I can sometimes remember a certain event and what we were wearing. Everytime I smell strawberry fanta I remember this time in Africa when we were on a long trip and stopped at a little hut/store and all got strawberry fantas. I was wearing my little plaid dress.. dark blue one.

China has very distinct smells that I will probably never smell again. If I do then yes.. I will have memories flooding back to me about my life here and all the walks I took down the ally ways. I love smells, but when they are as strong as this week it's a little more difficult to stomach. The last bad smell is the exhaust of a bus/truck/buggy.. it's everywhere here, and it's harming my lungs and breathing drastically. not as drastically as the second hand smoke though.. it's the worst part. I guess it comes with the territory of living in the most populated/polluted country ever.

It's still amazing though.

first cold day

I remember this day in 4th grade.. I went to school in shorts and a t-shirt, and come home freezing. It had turned cold in the 8 hours I was at school. When I got home, my mom had our fall/winter box of clothes in the living room waiting for us to rummage through. I was so appreciative of the warmer clothes since I had been cold all day.

Today was that day. I came home from class and curled up with a book. I left for dinner in my same clothes and it was suddenly so cold outside. I was freezing. I didn't go back for a sweatshirt because I'm trying to make my thighs not grow.. and climbing to the 4th floor 10 times a day is not helping that. Anyways.. so on my way back tonight, when I was so cold, I got a phone call. It was my waiban (foreign teacher director's student helper) and she said I could come pick up my package. I got a package from my mom. In the wonderful package was a sweatshirt. It was just like that day in 4th grade.. when I was cold and there were my winter clothes. Granted it wasn't my living room floor, it was half way around the world.. it was still in a box and it was packed with the same love and caring for my well being.

I am so completely blessed with such an amazing Mom. She has always taken great care of me and been there for me. She is completely selfless with everyone she meets. Thanks Mom!

I am never happy with cold weather, but after the scalding heat of this summer.. I welcome the cool down. Ask me again in January/February and I will tell you I'm ready for summer! haha. Teaching is going really well. We're doing Mid-Terms this week. This is a great opportunity for me to hear their progress and to just talk to my students. I've learned a lot from my students so far. Next week I will show Remember the Titans. This is a great American Culture movie. They also love to learn about American sports.. Football in particular.

The foreigner retreat is coming up. It's all coming together quite nicely. I have figured most of it out. I love organizing events like this. I really do Love this work. It's going to be a great weekend of fellowship with other foreigners. It will be really encouraging.

Thank you for all of your support and thoughts while I'm here. I really appreciate it.

Blabbering

In China I sometimes feel like I'm just blabbering.. not making any sense to anyone. I don't feel like I can speak English well.. or Chinese. I'm just making up my own language as I go. It's more a mix of Spanish, Swahili, Chinese, and English.. less English than anything.

I find myself teaching class in what we call Chinglish.. a mix of Chinese and English. Common phrases are.. "Anything is OK." "Maybe... we can do it." We always start a sentence with maybe.. Chinese are very indirect people. No one wants to commit to anything or say how they really feel. I find myself following these rules as well.

One of my students today called me multicultural. I am not fully American.. I have many cultural influences and live my life that way. I take this as a compliment because it's means that I have gotten to experience our Father's World. I don't belong in just one corner of it. I can adjust to many cultures and many places.

Lately I have been busy just being. I have been doing mid-terms this week. They are going well. I can see a change in my student's English. Next week I am going to show them remember the titans. This is a great film to show them American culture and also racism. They really like this movie a lot in China. I like showing it to them. I will have no day classes which is nice. I will have lots of time to read and study.

I am trying to get past the last stages of my cold.. I'm exhausted a lot. I am sleeping a whole lot and trying to get my energy back up. Today I played Tennis and it was good. Now I will nap for a little bit before tonight activities. Tonight we will go to a Chinese Opera. I am really excited. I love going to Culture things like this. Our school is really good about getting us tickets to things like this. It's such a great learning experience.

All of our studies are going really welll too.. Friday is full and Saturday is about half full and Sunday is extremely busy. The foreigner retreat is coming along really well. I am really excited about this. I hope that it is successful and something we start to do bi-annually. We'll see.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and support. I don't say Thank you enough for supporting me in this amazing adventure. Thank you.

Fabulous Day

Today was just one of those days that was perfect. I woke up to short messages from my brother, who I haven't gotten to talk to since Chicken E opened last week. I got to catch up a little with him. Then class was great!

Somedays I really dread going to class.. the students are difficult sometimes. My Wednesday morning class is the hardest one sometimes. They don't want to speak English or do the lesson. It's so frustrating. Today they were really interested and I didn't have to remind them to speak English the whole time. It was great. We are talking about Gender Roles... so interesting in China. So much tradition, but with the mix of western culture the times are changing. It's interesting to hear everyone's point of view. Instead of them presenting, I am just going around and individually talking to each group. It's wonderful. I get to correct their English and help them understand more of my culture.. while each person has more opportunity to talk and teach me. It was wonderful.

Then I had a little time to relax.. Then I met Milk and Bekah for lunch. It was delicious. Milk was great at ordering food that we liked. We didn't even make any requests.. he just did it all. Usually we get weird food when we trust Chinese completely with the ordering. He did a great job! It was delicious.. Bekah and I spent the afternoon grading her class journals and then we met some of her students so they could practice their English. It was really fun. The girls loved the picture I showed of Eric.. "So Handsome!"

Morgan then took us downtown to get Bekah's necklace fixed, and I bought some yarn so I can start knitting Christmas presents. I'm really excited. Thanks to Daph and my pocket size Knitting for Dummies.. I love knitting and I brought my crochet hooks with me so I can crochet this year too. so exciting.

Through all of this busyness.. the day was gorgeous. It was sunshiney and bright all day with clear skies. The sun was warm and felt so good. The air had that smell of Fall moving in.. I love those warm fall days.. where Summer isn't completely gone, but you can tell Winter is coming. It's amazing the feeling it gives me. I also loved riding my bike today. It's so much fun to just get on and dodge cars and people. It was just one of those days that you remember how blessed you truly are. It was a truly Fabulous Day!

Oh Life

Favorite Chinese picture..

There are moments in life when you realize that you have changed. You are a new person with new ideas and ways of living. I had one of those realizations this last week. This last week was really hard.

First... I had a bad teaching day. I had to get upset with my classes for speaking Chinese and not English and had to threaten lowering their grades.

Then.. My computer crashed.

Then.. I got a cold and fever and blah.

Then.. I had to get mad at more students.

Then.. I got homesick for the first time.

At home, my family is opening our new Chicken E in Longview. It's on Judson inside the loop. Go eat! We have all kinds of deliciousness there. My brother is finally in a job that he enjoys and is really really good at. It's fun to hear about everything, but hard to be away during such an exciting day. There isn't much more exciting than opening day.. the new employees and how everyone comes together in the franchise. It's nice how Chicken E is still a family. I miss those people.

My computer crashing was the hardest thing of the week.. and then a Chinese student came over to fix it and made it worse. Thankfully one of the teachers here was a Computer Science man and he fixed it. It was the happiest day. I didn't even lose any of my music or photos or anything important. I am so thankful. Everything that went wrong this week ended up being fine.

The point that I realized I was a new person.. When my computer crashed I wasn't even stressed. I didn't freak out and worry about it and lose sleep. I didn't worry about emails going unanswered or facebook unchecked. I didn't think immediately about how to get it fixed. I just didn't stress about it. I have always been a worrier. I have always lost sleep worrying about useless things. This time I didn't I just shut my computer down and eventually started asking for help on how to fix it. When Chinese couldn't fix it.. I just said "No Worries." It's such a nice change to know that I'm not in control.

I hope that when I return stateside that i can remember this new person I am and know that it will all work out.

The cold is getting better.. it's moved down to my chest and my fever is broken. I have been sleeping a lot. I have also started planning some retreats for this year. I am really excited about them. I hope that they are successful and will become annual or bi-annual events for the foreigners of the east coast. It's so nice to get together and encourage each other. Sometimes you can feel really isolated here from others.

Everything else is going well. Fridays are full of studies and Sundays as well.. It's encouraging and nice to see the work. It's the best part of each weekend. I have also found a new friend and Chinese teacher. Her name is Katie and she is precious. She says she has a lot of free time and wants to help me with my Chinese. I graciously accepted and will compensate her for her time with English lessons or dinner. I'm excited to have a new friend that is in no way associated with my teaching in school. Also, Milk and I are getting to be better friends. Lots of questions.. so that's encouraging. We talk a lot about my Father and how we should live our lives. It's nice to talk deeply on this subject.

This week is shaping up to be nice already.

Good Friends and Western Food

disclaimer from last post.. your shirt doesn't go all the way over your head.. just up above your stomach. and not girls.. just men.

This week was National Holiday in China. October 1st is National Day that celebrates the formation of the People's Republic of China. It's a huge huge holiday here where everyone travels and schools are out and everything. Equivilant to Thanksgiving week.. It's about traveling with friends and family. Mainly they travel to the most popular places in China.

I went to Hangzhou. I love Hangzhou and I had some friends to visit there so I decided to just go spend a week in my old city. It was wonderful. I got to meet up with some of my older Chinese friends. YoYo joined us for a Mexican dinner at Panchos and the Night Market. Always fun. A true Chinese experience. The night market.. not Panchos. haha. Then I had dinner one night with Ice.. a sister from my year before. She is wonderful and newly engaged. It was great to sit down and visit with her. Her English is phenominal.. like being with a native English speaker.

The rest of the week was spent with Steve, Jesse, and Jace. It was great to be with the guys again. I have always just felt more comfortable around guys and so it was good to get back to those simple relationships. They are so much fun.. Jesse is great to watch.. he is a 6'10 red head. It's the first time I've been in a public place here and not even one person looked at me. It was all about Jesse. They love basketball here so Jesse and Steve got all the attention. It was so much fun to watch.

Another thing I loved about this week was the conversation and down time. Being in China with all Chinese and some foreigners really takes it's toll on your converstations. I am used to constantly talking about Dad and the things he does and how he works.. and you can't do that here. So this whole week was just really good conversation about that and how things are changing and how we need to be acting. It was just incredible to be with people who believe the same things and find that same passion in their hearts. It was definitely uplifting. Exactly what I needed this week. I feel completely rejuvenated and filled. I spent my days mostly alone and that was wonderful. One on One time with Dad and his beautiful Chinese people and creation here.. Incredible.

Some funny things about this week.. Hangzhou is normally a city of 6 million or so.. this week there were about 12 million there on holiday. It was insane. Traffic and people everywhere. I have never seen so many people in one place. Lots of people from the country were in too and even saw some minority groups traveling. Very rare in China.

I got punched in the face by a 3 year old. I was just sitting on the steps minding my own business, listening to my music and all of a sudden this little fists connects hard with my cheekbone. This kid sitting near with his family had run over and jacked me in the face.. I just laughed because I was so thrown off. It was hilarious.

All in all.. I saw our Dad everywhere this week and was truly amazed at his World and his people.