Lost in Translation: Where Did March Go?

Well, I feel like it has been such a long time since I have be able to sit down and write what has been going on in my life. This last month might have been one of the most intense months of my life since coming to China - to say the least. I feel like so much that could have been said or shared about this last month - in some ways - has been lost, and unfortunately might be something that I will never be able to truly articulate. Nonetheless, I would still like to pretend like I can fill you in on the ups and downs of living in the 'Chang.
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Big Decisions:

This last month felt like one of the longest months of my life. To start off with, March 15th was the date by which we had to make a decision as to whether or not we would stay with our organization. Honestly, I had thought that this decision would have come in a timely manner and with much more certainty as to what I should do. I was a silly person. January passed by, February went by with a flash, and all of a sudden it was March. I had thought that thinking about it and/or worrying about the decision would have only made things worse, but I failed to take into account that not engaging the subject at all might leave me with the inability to ask the appropriate questions and truly access my situation.

With a week left to go I began calling friends and trying to think the decision over; however, pulling a classic 'Aaron move' I decided to make a head strong decision without thinking through all the questions I might need to truly take into account for jumping with both feet in. Perhaps, it is due to my somewhat serious nature and willingness to jump into situations that I don't entirely know everything about. I guess it is good to be reminded that we all can use some accountability, and perhaps I need it more than I would like to admit at times.

At any rate, I have made the decision to go home after I finish up the school year here at Blue Sky University. I feel it is the right decision as of right now, but I cannot lie that I am torn for my love of teaching and living in China. I face a world of uncertainties in returning home that I don't have to always face here. I have been blessed to be given a reprieve from the challenges and traps that we all face when dealing with American culture. Yet, I know I have grown and been challenged in ways that I will not truly know the extent of until I return home, and interact with all of you I know. Plus, I know that our Father will challenge and continue to grow me back home.
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Spiritual Challenges: The 'Haze'

My second challenge - but greatest challenge - was finding myself again and focusing back in on what the Father might have me hear about what was going on in my life. I feel like halfway through the month of March I realized that I was out-of-touch with things, and everything just felt a little off. It's like when you keep on hearing yourself say things to questions about your 'Walk' with the Father, but neither hear from yourself any improvement and/or concern. After a couple weeks of this, '"red flags" started to go off for me - even I was a little encumbered and slow to react. It seems that my 'Walk' has been something of an all out fight, which I apparently wasn't fighting for. It's embarrassing to admit, but it's the truth.

I feel like I was taken without a clue having not had the spiritual armor and/or protection that we all talk about having and vigilantly guarding. Interestingly enough, I should mention that at this point I had begun memorizing Ephesians 6:10-18. Go figure, huh? Even now - just writing this out - I am realizing how much making forward progress is something that I have been fighting for, and not taking this knowledge seriously has seriously inhibited my ability to make progress with victory.

While coming out of the 'Haze' has been slow, I have been refocusing slowly but surely on His strength. I have realized how desperately I need to hear and read the Word everyday that I might be able to function effectively. I am hoping that this realization will continue to manifest itself in my life that I can see its fruits not only here and now, but when I come home.
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Teaching English: The Ups and Downs

So at the beginning of this semester I gave my students two oral projects: (1) Culture Project; (2) English Project. My hope in giving my students these two projects was multifaceted. First off, having students - especially Chinese students - do homework (I have found) is semi-unproductive and ineffective, especially when your main goal is to improve their oral English. Of course, one has to take into account that I teach at a private university, which is like the equivalent to teaching at a community college with equal or less motivation of some American students. Second, students simply don't turn it in and/or listen to instructions no matter how many different ways you explain it. Plus, there is the factor of time that it involves, but let us not go there. Thirdly, and a much more practical reason, I found that having students write and/or do homework was not accomplishing my real objective of them speaking in English.

So I made it easier on myself. I cut my student's homework assignments by over half - lessening their overall impact on my students grades - and gave them oral projects instead. The Culture Project requires my students to prepare cultural presentations (on Chinese culture) in pairs and present at the beginning of class every week. This effectively allowed students to have more speaking time and practice listening to their peers. Unfortunately, I didn't take into account - enough - the need for accountability and interaction from the audience in listening to a presentation by doing simple things such as: taking effective notes, asking questions, etc... On the other hand, when I wrote my rubric and grading structure, my hope was simply for them to get up and speak. So I guess I am kind of in a win - lose situation.

The English Project is slightly different. I gave my students this project due to their complaints that they couldn't find any "foreigners" to talk to. Perhaps, being slightly generous and seeing the benefits of spending more time and getting know my students better I offered myself to be their guinea pig. I told them that they had - between February and May - to do several random activities which required them to practice their English, including spending time with me. Thus, lately, I have become under the barrage of students asking me: "Mr. Aaron, do you have free time? I want to make an appointment with you?" So pretty much now, when I am not teaching or doing team activities, I am spending time with my students. It is both a blessing and a challenge for me since I am not entirely the person who is recharged by being around people all the time. Plus, the longer they hold out and wait till the last minute the more chaotic my schedule will become. Even meeting with them 4-5 at a time really doesn't seem to make a dent when there are somewhere around 180 of them and only 1 of me. So if you think about it 'lift me up' because I am definitely running a race here.

Recruiting Students

On a side note. My university is known for sending their students home to recruit other students half-way through the semester. It is really the most peculiar thing that I have ever heard of a university doing. However, there is an incentive for students to go since the university will give them money if they manage to get a student to come to our school. The disturbing part - I find - is that the headmasters earn just as much or more if they are able to encourage students to leave and return home to recruit students. For the teachers here, it is something that we really can't make sense of.

As of now, it looks like well over half of my students will start leaving beginning the last week of April and continue till May 1st, which is a national holiday for them. The figures I have been able to collect - in asking my students to let me know if they are leaving or not - shows me that out of a total 180+ students around 130 of them might be returning home with an unknown return date. My BE3+4 class might actually be leaving in full force too. So I might possible drop from 4 classes to 3 in May if these statistics hold true. My other classes which always hover near 50 students each will drop drastically, having only 20 students or less in each class.

Coffee Art: China & Thailand

I have been wanting to write again about coffee for some time now since it is a big part of my everyday life thanks to all of you back home! At the same time, I have some great pictures - one of them my friend Andrea has already displayed on her blog - of coffee that I have been drinking over the last few months and I thought I would share you some of the wonderful works of art that I have tasted.

So I must state that drinking coffee from China - and East Asia for that matter - is very different from what you might think of when drinking coffee back home. Having come from Washington - the land of Starbucks and numerous other small coffee chains - it hard not to come in with expectations of what coffee IS and what it ISN'T. Not to mention that I worked for Starbucks for a small amount of time.

At the same time, I have come to enjoy learning about how the Chinese view coffee and how they prepare it. Below are some pictures and descriptions of the coffee I have tasted thus far.

(Above: Cold Mocha & Irish Coffee)

First off, a Mocha isn't always what you would necessarily think of if you ordered it in Nanchang. I am still not exactly sure what they do, but I think they use some spin-off of a French press method to make the coffee and then mix it with a milk-like substance (most likely rice milk). Afterward, they add cold water (?) and put whip cream (apparently homemade) on top.

The Irish Coffee is definitely an interesting drink to order. The waiter brings out a Bunsen burner along with the coffee and melts what would appear to be the Irish cream (?) powder into the coffee and lights the liquid on the top of the coffee on fire. So yeah, it's definitely worth ordering to watch, but not that tasty.

(Mocha)

Strangely enough, this mocha did have steamed milk and a really fancy design on the top. On the downside, it was lacking any semblance of chocolate and tasted much more like a latte.

(Cappuccino)

Not really, but the place we go to thinks that they make cappuccinos. Actually, it is some form of coffee mixed with whip cream. The picture above is from the time we went to Dio and it happened to be Valentine's Day and they were making the cappuccinos with 'Love' written with cinnamon powder. It's kind of impressive really. I mean the 'o' in "Love" is even in the shape of the heart - who doesn't like that? : )

(Shannon holding a huge French fry next to a latte)

Since Shannon and I are the coffee junkies around here, we often end up hanging out a lot. This time we decided to order French fries - an odd match for drinking coffee in the morning to be sure - and one of the fries was a big as the latte, which was impressive since it was like 6 inches or so long. Plus, I just had to include because of Shannon's expression.

The latte - I should note - that you are looking at above is divided into two substances as you can already see. Oh yes, and that is a cold latte - whatever that means. The top part of the latte is coffee, while the bottom is most likely rice milk. It is topped off with whip cream, pieces of orange, and mint.

（Mocha in Thailand)

This is perhaps one of the coolest coffee designs I have ever seen. I mean, it's not every day you see a cat in your coffee. *smile*

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! Laters!

Why Shopping for External Hard Drives, Eating @ McDonalds, & Deodorant Will Never Be the Same

Over the last two weeks, I have been blessed to have 3 guys from one of my classes attach themselves to me and always want to hang-out. Their names are: Michael, Armstrong, and Will Lee. I must confess that my other relationships here have been difficult at best and draining the rest of the time. One can never determine what kind of people the Father will put before you, and I am learning to be thankful for the people and relationships that I am entrusted with and given. Nevertheless, these 3 guys have been refreshing to hang-out with and a joy to talk to!

Anyways, I have started eating dinner with them every Thursday and it is an opportunity for me to pour into them as well as learn more about them. This last Thursday they took my to their dorm room, and then to their classroom where they must study for 2 hours (7pm-9pm) before they are allowed to go back to their dorms for bed. I enjoyed the opportunity to spend time outside the classroom with them and to be allowed to see a glimpse into what their everyday living situations are.

(Jack, Armstrong, Will Lee, and Michael)

(Dorm room)

Chinese Dorm Rooms: An Education on Student's Living Environment

Chinese dorm rooms work a little bit differently from the ones you might come to have known back in the States. Each room holds 6 people (or more) and has what we like to call a shoilet (shower/toilet). Shoilets are a combination of a shower and toilet, with the shower not being separated from the rest of the bathroom and the floor acting as the drain. However, in this case - instead of a western toilet - the students have a squattie (hole in the ground).

From there - as you can see from the picture above - the students are sleep on bunkbeds lined up against the wall with their respective desks lined up on the opposing wall. I have no clue where they do their laundry, but like everyone else in China they hang it out their window and hope that it drys quickly. I should mention that on a windy day one often sees somebody's pants, underwear, and various other kinds of attire fly away and land some where in the middle of campus. My friends and I are blessed to have a covered patio from which to hang out laundry to dry.

Shopping for External Hard Drives

Yesterday, the Michael, Armstrong, and Will Lee volunteered to help Jonathan and I go shopping for external hard drives since my computer is currently trying to kill itself. I should make a short list for you of what is currently going wrong with computer.

1. Constant Blue Screen of Death
2. Computer won't turn on, fan runs really high, and there is beeping sounds.
3. Constant Freezing
4. CD-ROM works 10% of the time.
5. Headphone jack is broken
6. AC-Adapter likes to be finicky and not work, making my computer look like a light show as it goes from a dull to a bright screen rapidly.

At any rate, we ventured downtown and made our way to the Technology center next to Ba Yi Square where we go to buy movies, cds, and anything related to computers and cameras. Michael, Armstrong, and Will Lee debated with the sales people like champs cutting off 100 yuan ($15 dollars) from the original quoted price. We also managed to get a web camera in the deal as well, which is nice since it would be really cool to actually see other people when talking to them on skype. However, we will see if my computer holds out.

McDonald's: The Guys' 1st Hamburgers & The Art of Treating Chinese to Food

While shopping for the external hard drive I decided that we really needed to do something nice for these guys since they were freely giving such much of their day to helping us. You must understand that to go somewhere and accomplish an errand takes nearly 5 times as long as it may for you back home. Not speaking the language or having access to your own car really makes transportation and shopping a challenge. So I asked them if they prefered Western or Chinese food, but I got mixed messages as the Chinese are known for saying, "Whatever is fine". Sound kind of familiar to some poeple you know back home? LOL So I decided to ask them a pointed question: "Would you rather have hamburgers or Chinese food?" This was much more successful in that I found out that they had never had hamburgers, and so I told them that we would treat them to their 1st hamburgers.

I must make two clarifying points about this situation. First, whenever you are in China you better be very specific about who is treating who. If you aren't, you will almost never be able to pay for the meal - unless it is beyond their means - because you are foreigner and they are Chinese. What this means is that they are always the host and you are always the guest. So I made sure to make it very clear that Jonathan and I would be treating them to McDonald's and that they were not allowed to pay. I should note that the fear of them beating us to paying for the food is a little diminished since eating at McDonald's is expensive for most Chinese.

(Will Lee, Armstrong, Me, and Michael)

So we finally made it McDonald's, bought hamburgers, made it through the normal everyday awkward ordering situation that happens whenever we try to buy something we don't know the Chinese for, and sat down to eat. Michael, Armstrong, and Will Lee practically devoured their hamburgers - which were extra small looking since we are in China - and looked hungry still; it didn't help that all of them are from the Northern part of China since Northern Chinese are the same size as Americans and eat just as much. Nonetheless, I ran back downstairs and ordered another 5 hamburgers since Jonathan and I were also still hungry. This, of course, raised the eyebrows of the Chinese employees behind the counter as they are not use to Americans ordering. Furthermore, as far as the Chinese were concerned, 2 Americans had just downed a better part of 5 combo meals and were looking to finish off another 5 hamburgers.

The Power of Deodorant: "Mr. Aaron I want to Smell like You; I want to be cool like You."

As we were finishing the meal, Armstrong begin asking about deodorant again, but since the Chinese don't use deodorant he didn't know what to call it, and couldn't remember me telling him how to say it. He said, "Mr. Aaron I want to smell like you; I want to be cool like you." He had told me earlier in the day that I had a certain scent about me and wanted to know what it was. I think he even mentioned something silly like that the girls liked it and so he wanted to have some of whatever this "scent" was. Two things are funny about this situation: 1). The fact that I am having a conversation about deodorant, and that my students wants to smell like me; 2). My student thinks that I am the model to follow for what is COOL, and actually thinks that i am cool.

I told the guys, since they all chimed in about wanting some deodorant, that I would give them some when we got back to our apartment. Upon arriving, Jonathan reminded me that there were some extras in the desk where we kept random supplies. So I went over and found 3 - coincidentally - and gave them to the guys. They were pretty excited. I realized after giving them the deodorant that we would also have to give them instructions on how to use it - an odd thought all-together separate. I told them that they should double check to make sure that they weren't allergic and Jonathan pointed out that they could put some on their hand and if it didn't turn red after a day they could use it. I told Armstrong to only swipe his armpit twice lest he become overly enthusiastic about using the stuff and coat his entire body in it.

To finish the day I watched Sandlot and figured everything was just as it should be.

National Debut: A Very Unexpected & Awkward Situation

I have been waiting to write this post because I hadn't been able to get access to all the videos of our appearance on National television in China via CCTV until now.

I am not sure if you read my post In the Wake of Nanjing: Inbetween Places awhile back about news reporters and journalists coming to our apartment, but apparently our interviews and media coverage - which we thought just stayed in Nanchang - went national and was played all over China during the beginning of Spring Festival. I didn't really believe such a thing would happen; however, my first day teaching back at school revealed that exactly that had happened.

On my first day of class, all my students kept on telling me that they saw me on CCTV with excited voices and smiles on their faces. It was then that I believed it might be possible that our interviews might have gone further than Jiangxi. I probably should have seen this coming back in Chiang Mai, Thailand when Jodi brought pictures of us all over the front pages of the Nanchang daily news (below).

As you can see from the photo above, I am on the left with my team to the right. The funny thing is that I thought THAT was ridiculous and surely couldn't be surpassed by anything else that had happened. Well, that was until I saw the video below....

The video begins by showing other foreigners in various places around China and then seems to do a special little feature on our team. Mind you, my guess is as good as yours since the entire clip is in Chinese. This brings me to the reason I labeled my blog National Debut: A Very Unexpected & Awkward Situation. It was at this point that CCTV decided that it would be a good idea to air the video of me speaking in Chinese, which - in my mind - shows me butchering the language. Notwithstanding the fact that I was reading pinyin off a piece of paper being held in front of the news reporter's face. Oh well.

Below is another video from a local news station in Jiangxi.

I guess it just goes to show you that when living in China anything is possible, especially if you are a foreigner. Of course, our team has been laughing about this all week. Each day has been the same for them as me: Students coming up to you with faces bright and shining and saying "Teacher, I saw you on CCTV!".

Well, that's a wrap. All and more than you could have possibly thought would have happened to me in China.

In the Wake of Nanjing: Inbetween Places

Lily & Marie's Visit / Sick: Round 3
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Coming home from traveling around Xiamen and Nanjing meant a few things to me: (1) Resting, (2) doing preparation work for next semester, and (3) lastly preparing for Lily and Marie's visit from Changchun. As of yet - and I am in Thailand - only 1 of those objectives has been met; and even that one is debatable. The morning that they arrived I managed to oversleep as well as turn off my alarm. I woke up with about 10 minutes to be at the train station to pick them up from Beijing. I got dressed and rushed out the door. I sprinted down the road that leads to our front gate and managed to get a taxi to take me to the train station somehow. It really kind of seemed a miracle that he was able to understand my Chinese despite the fact that I was still waking up in addition to the fact that it was clearly to early for me to be saying things like train station (火车站） in a language that isn't my first, let alone a viable second.

Despite all my shortcomings, I made it to the train station well before the girls arrived and was able to pick them up and make it back safely to my school without any hiccups. Once back we spent the day relaxing and roaming around Nanchang. Lily's visit was a pretty much relaxed and easy going visit which made it nice for me since Nanchang doesn't really have much to offer in the way of sight-seeing like every other place I've been to recently. We visited the park, went to the mall, and played cards.

There was one little difficulty that I ran into during their visit: I managed to get food poisoning for the 3rd time. No worries though I have this down to an art now. Honestly it's sad but I just go through the motions, ignore the pain and inability to eat, and continue on like nothing is really wrong. I wouldn't suggest doing this all the time since such illnesses drain you of most of your physical strength, which, coupled with your inability to eat, really makes you vulnerable to not getting better as quick as you would like. On a lighter note, food poisoning does help you lose weight : ) .

Chinese New Year Celebration: Everything you wouldn't expect
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So a day or so just Lily and Marie left our Foreign Affairs Assistant (FAO), Billy, informed us that school officials would be coming over on Saturday morning to make jiaozi (pot stickers) and help us in preparing to celebrate for the Chinese New Year, which as I write is today (January 26th). So the day came and all of us headed down to our teamleader's apartment to meet up the school officials. However, upon Billy's arrival there were no school officials, but rather news reporters and radio journalist.

Our team was caught off guard and tried to figure out how we could be sensitive to our Chinese guests/hosts. It is really quite awkward, though, when you are being forced to recite sentences in Chinese, make jiaozi, and smile the whole time. At points it was just funny because it was so bizarre socially, but other points you felt like your personal bubble was being violated (or at least that is the vibe I got from some of my friends). I mean, what do you do when 2 television news crews + 1 news radio journalist starts asking you questions and putting the spotlight on you?


The other tricky thing about this visit was that Billy wanted me to do interviews with all three of the news crews I mentioned above, in Chinese that is. To be honest, my Chinese is rather pathetic and is worse than a 1st year Spanish high school student back in the States. The only solution my new found friends with the television crew could figure out was to have me read pinyin off a paper right in front of their faces so it would look like I was talking with them. The whole situation seemed a little ridiculous to me and I was glad when it was over.


Wenzhou (温州）
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I made a trip to Wenzhou, Zhejiang last week to see some Chinese friends of mine. It was a last minute decision as I was unsure such a choice would be a smart one since I still had to fix my syllabus, write lesson plans, and start gearing up for school, but I decided that you don't get to go to Zhejiang everyday and that I should take up this opportunity, especially we had friends who were brothers and sisters and loved our Father.
We took a red-eye bus ride for 9 hours to Wenzhou. It was probably one of the coolest bus rides I have ever been on since all the bus had nothing but beds. Unfortunately for my friend Jonathan who is 6'3 all the beds were designed for people my size 5'4. Our friend and fellow teacher Jodi, on the other hand, fit much better than all of us as she is - of course - Chinese.

Our Chinese hosts were more than nice and practically stuffed us daily, making sure there was no possible way their foreign guests could ever have claimed to be hungry while staying at their houses. Of course, coming near the Chinese New Year could have played into how much we ate and why all the Chinese seemed so happy. We ate fresh seafood everyday and tried a lot of different foods that we had never thought one might eat - like duck tongue. It's not that bad actually; you just have to get over the fact that you are in fact eating it.

(A picture of the moutains we saw on our hike)

We also went hiking which was a nice retreat from the everyday crowed city life that the Chinese compete with daily. Joined by Amy, her family, and her friend Sisi (sp?) we hiked through a mountain next to her mom, which offered us a glimpse at the natural beauty that China has to offer. In addition, it was just nice to hang out with some of Chinese firiends and get to not only know them better, but learn about everyday family life in China. Looking back I would probably have to say that it was the highlight of my break. Living, eating, and hanging out with Chinese friends in their hometown is definitely a unique experience and one I will treasure.

There is so much more I could say, but I will stop here.

厦门 (Xiamen) Part II

The last two weeks have flown by so quickly that I really haven't had anytime to catch all of you up on everything that happened on my travels to Xiamen and Nanjing. It seems that there are endless things that I could share with all of you, but I will have to give you the condensed versions of them all.

鼓浪屿, 福建 (Gulangyu, Fujian)

On our second day in Xiamen we decided to head over to Gulangyu. Gulangyu is a little island that sits off the coast of Fujian next to Xiamen. The island is famous for two things mainly: (1) pianos and, (2) Zheng Chenggong (a famous military leader). While we didn't really see too much of either - mainly because all of them cost money none of us were willing to part with - we did walk all over the island admiring not only its natural beauty but wonderful architecture that seemingly blankets the entire island. Of course, there was the added bonus of not having to compete with automobiles as the island does not allow any vehicles on it - making it incredibly quiet and peaceful.

After being in Nanchang for so long - where there are not many foreigners and nothing really for tourist to come and see - it is really strange to be caught in the cross-fire of vendors trying to sell you their wares as if you were fresh for the taking. Being a foreigner in China really brings on a set of interesting assumptions about who you are based upon your skin tone. Being white, most Chinese assume that I am: (1) rich, (2) can't speak the language, and (3) don't know how to use chopsticks. The last one really provides comical relief, but it is true. Come to China and eat with chopsticks, you will continually astound the locals. Having been here before I didn't feel any need to buy any of the trinkets, but just took in the beauty and amazing weather that Fujian seems to enjoy in the winter.

Our walk around the island only took us a few hours, but rendered us some pretty amazing views. It is the constant juxtaposes of China's wealth and poverty highlighted by its race to become modern that one can catch shots like this.


The rest of my trip was spent relaxing and sitting in a coffee shop, albeit not the one I had hoped for. On my last day, I managed to make it over to Dr. Jay's apartment for a visit and talk to him about teaching English and living in China. It was so different to be back in that place after 2 years. It, however, was good to talk with him and get some ideas for dealing with cultural stresses, teaching, and language learning.

Moving on.....

Airline Ticket Problems

Amusingly enough, our trip to Nanjing was not without some interesting complications. The night before leaving Xiamen I managed to communicate with lady at the desk in enough broken Chinese to say that I would like a wake up call at 5 am and that we would need a taxi to pick us up at 5:30 am (I just have to say that is a lot harder than it sounds). The next morning we took the taxi to the airport and that is when things got interesting.

Upon arriving at the airport we thanked the taxi driver and walked inside to get our bags checked in and wait to board. We made it through the line and were being helped when during checking our bags in the lady asked us if we had our teacher identification cards on us or anything that showed that we were teachers at Blue Sky University. We responded that we did not, but that Xiamen Airlines had made copies of our identification cards back in Nanchang. She told us to wait a minute while she went to talk to her boss. Eventually her boss came over and told us that if we could not present any form of identification that we were going to have to buy new tickets for our flight to Nanjing.

We were floored and couldn't hardly form a response to such a statement. I figured if we couldn't present any form of identification that showed we were teachers that we would just have to pay the part we had discounted off. Alas, this was not the case and no matter how we reasoned with the airline they were insistent on having us pay for 3 new tickets at full price. Thankfully, Shannon decided to call our foreign affairs assistant Amy to help us and talk to the airline so that they might be brought to reason and let us get on our flight. Amy managed to persuade the airline to let us on the plane provided that she would fax them a copy of all of our identification cards. Without Amy we would never have made it out of Xiamen....

Student Christmas Party - 2008

So we are a merry bunch, I am not going to lie. If you don't believe I have proof - just look at this.

I mean seriously, how can you not laugh at that? So yeah, this is what a pre-warm-up looks like to a student Christmas Party that could potentially have 800 students when there are only 7 American teachers. But seriously, what would you do if you were hosting that many students for 8 hours? Albeit we invited all our classes to come at different hours and only for one hour each. The turn-out rate made it enjoyable, but not overbearing. Plus, we had had training in Zhengzhou during their Halloween Party in which everybody and their neighbor - it was crazy!

To give you a little insight into our party strategy we broke it down into 3 separate activities with some transition time to give us a buffer between different student groups. Our first activity was the "Dizzy Bat Santa Relay", which I watched over for a good part of the day. Our second activity was Christmas caroling and drinking apple cider. And lastly, our third activity was the Christmas story via dialogue by the students with some clarification and narrating by the teachers. So all in all, it was a pretty cut and dry; just executing it would have to be seen.

So the hour came for our festivities to begin. Jonathan and I made sure to dress in our dashing CTF green shirts with a red santa hat and stand guard outside our dorm building. We were blessed that day to recieve back-up by our friends from the old campus who helped to fill in the gaps in our ranks when we were greatly outnumbered (which was pretty much the whole time). We begun by having the students do the "Dizzy Bat Santa Relay", which I must brought me more joy than I could have thought. Despite the weather not entirely working in our favor and being a little brisk (as my friend Katie would say), the students willingly participated, even if slightly hesitant at first.

Jonathan and I worked together to explain to the students that they would need to put on the whole Santa Clause outfits - which we had obtained from somewhere as well as had - as fast as they could, run to where people were holding "bats" (which was actually one bat with a piece of a broom as you can see in the picture above), and put their heads to the bat and run around in circles 5 times. Of course, the Chinese were a little taken aback at first, but found our game somewhat humorous and must have written it off as something that only Americans would think of. At any rate, we lured hundreds of Chinese students into playing our game and it was great. I mean its not everyday that you can have hundreds of Chinese Santa Clauses running haphazardly, almost tripping over themselves, and jumping up and down.


I should also mention that as China is a collective cultural in contrast to us, we decided that it might be a good idea to encourage the other students to help their teammates get all the Santa apparel on. This worked out well in many ways: (1) It allowed a lot more people to be participating at once, (2) Students were some times able to help each other dress faster (if not it just brought joy to everyone else watching), and (3) to help Santa make it back to the line as sometimes students became so dizzy that they fell, hit walls and fences, and/or simply had to be carried back to the finish line. Ultimately, the whole ordeal was just really funny and I could spend some much more time than I have had talking about everything that happened in relation to the "Dizzy Bat Santa Relay". So instead I am just going to post a series of pictures to express what I can't say in words.

(Jonathan and I instructing the students)

(Student nearly tripping and falling)

(Student going around the bat 5 times - kind of)

(Students running away and taking the bat with them)

The rest of the party went well too. My students came in force and brought me great joy. Those kids are so funny. I am looking forward to spending more time with them next semester. Well, I would write more, but I would just ruin it at this point.

The Orphanage: Unforeseen Blessings

A few weeks back our team was able to go visit and help out - if "help out" means playing with the kids - at an Orphanage just outside the main part of Nanchang city. It was truly a blessing to have such an opportunity to go visit those young kids, and I think they gave us a much greater gift and blessing than we could have ever given them. It is amazing how such experiences can open up and shape you despite your ignorance and/or blindness to such places. It is almost like our Father knows just when to spring surprises of this nature on us and bless us with such compassion and love that we might not otherwise know.

The Orphanage that we visited was set up - in what seemed a unique fashion to me - so that all the kids lived with a "mother" who was in charge of watching and/or caring 8 young kids each. In this manner, each kid was given a rather stable environment to grow up in, instead of just being put all together without any family structure at all. By all means, I must admit that I am rather ignorant to the way that orphanages are run. Perhaps, this method of placing children without parents would be similar to the way that Foster Parents act in the States.

Nonetheless, we arrived around 2:30 in the afternoon and were welcomed by 30 or so young children ranging from 5 to 14 years of age. At first, both the groups - kids and us - weren't exactly sure how to interact. On a good note though, our girls had been bright in thinking ahead and had prepared sugar cookies for the kids to put frosting on as well as sprinkles. This activity, while approached tentatively by the kids at first, soon took hold of their attention as well as their eyes and allowed us to interact freely with them.

The younger ones were perhaps most trusting and curious in figuring out what these strange foreigners had brought that looked like food. With some help from the director in encouraging the kids to come over to our tables of cookie-making-operations, the kids lined up rather methodically and with discipline that it would have seemed somewhat peculiar to the Western eye. Bundled-up in Chinese like fashion they hovered quietly around us waiting for instructions. We awkwardly begin to demonstrate how to spread the frosting over the sugar cookies and fumbled intermittently between English and our poor Chinese to engage the kids so that they might make their own cookies.


At first, I have to admit, it seemed like we were making their cookies more so than they were. However, after the first two groups kids had gone through the process, the rest started to get the idea and begin to experiment and/or direct their peers and younger sibling in how to put frosting on as well as how to use the sprinkles. In addition, by the time that seconds were offered most of the kids fears and inhibitions about being around the foreigners had faded. In true American like fashion the girls had over-prepared and had made 80 some cookies - so there was more than enough for the kids to have seconds. On the other hand, perhaps it was eating the cookies that heightened their conversational skills and willingness to interact with us. Furthermore, there is something about watching children's eyes light up that seemingly breaks down ones' guard and attempts to be reserved when interacting with these little kids.


An hour into visiting with the kids we were starting to make friends and finding little kids attached to our arms and legs. We decided that we should play some games with them and "Duck, Duck, Goose" was suggested. So after making a short attempt of it inside, we headed outside and found it to be a great success with the children. More specifically, the game drew-out the younger and older boys who were incredibly reluctant to interact with us, let alone speak. Within in half-an-hour we had most of the young boys and some young girls laughing and playing it, even if they created some unique and distinct cultural adaptations to the game.

Many of them so greatly desired to be picked that you would constantly hear "Gei Wo (给我)" or "Give Me", which I guess roughly translates into "Pick Me". Anytime someone was picked it usually just ended in the kids laughing and rolling on the ground as it also usually ended in unfair match-ups. At which point, the whole group was good in making sure that the level of playing field was evened out - this took form in older kids being joined by youngers in ensuring that the person was either stopped from catching the other too fast and/or getting away and having no chance of catching them.

We played with the kids for a total of about 3 hours, which was such a blessing. We were loved on more than I could possibly share with words, unless you had some time to sit down and talk about it. The kids latched on to us like we had known them for years and rested their little heads on our shoulders. It was perhaps one of the most endearing things that I have experienced since coming to China. I hope that we will have an opportunity to go back and visit those little urchins and entreat them to another game of "Duck, Duck, Goose".

Catching Back Up

So much has happened since I last wrote. Our team has been very busy both traveling and trying to catch up with all our work. Since coming back to Nanchang our team has had little time to catch-up and has had to practice being patient with our school. When we left for Zhengzhou, Henan we were told that the classes we were going to miss didn't matter since our school was having their "Sports Meet". Unlike most schools that I know in the United States, Chinese colleges apparently have an event called the "Sports Meet" in which students compete against each other in some kind of 'mini Olympics'. This event can last for one day or up to nearly a week. In our case, the Sports Meet was suppose to last for about 4 days; however, due to the weather it has been postponed several times. So our team has been constantly in a state of uncertainty over the last last two weeks as to whether we were going to teach or not teach on a day to day basis. I must admit such a constant state of unknowing has caused me to be lax at times and/or confused about what I was teaching each class. I would say that only in the last two days have I really caught back-up and have a good idea of where each of my classes are and where they need to be.

Zhengzhou, Henan

Our trip to Zhengzhou was a really nice reprieve from teaching and a nice of change of scenery, even it if was only for three days. It took us about 11 hours by train overnight to get to our destination where we were picked up by another team leader names Aaron. There were actually 2 other teachers at Zheng Da (Zhengzhou University) with the same name as me. Upon arriving in in Zhengzhou, I realized that the quality of the air was much better than that of Nanchang. In addition, Zhengzhou is a much more modern city than Nanchang. It is something that I constantly realize about the differences between living in the North as compared to the Southern China, albeit Guangzhou and Xiamen would be prime examples of the opposite.

(Zhengzhou Team + Our Team: I am in the front)

Zheng Da was located quite a distance from the main part of the city and it appeared that most of it's campus - if not all - was recently built as all the buildings were new and very well kept. Our fellow E.L.I.C teachers each had their own apartment all to themselves; I must it was very impressive, but at the same time I think I don't know if I really want or need 1000 sq. feet to myself. Heck, I haven't really even had my own room for nearly 5 years, except for very short periods of time back in Washington. As soon as we made it to their apartments though, they sat us down to an amazing breakfast in which they served us COFFEE and homemade SCONES! I can't tell you how - to be Chinese - 'delicious' it looked. In addition, the teachers there had aslo made a fruit salad, which was also pretty amazing. Eating breakfast that morning made me feel as if I was back home in Washington just chilling with some pretty cool sisters and brothers.

(The amazing scones are on the left; fruit salad is the upper right; granola is on the lower right)

Most of our time spent there was helping them with their Halloween/Harvest Party that they had put on for all their students - and when I say ALL I mean ALL their STUDENTS. We arrived in Zhengzhou on Friday and begin helping teach their students about Halloween on Saturday. It started at 8 am and went all day until 5 pm. It was crazy! At the same time it was the one of the coolest demonstrations of how to facilitate nearly 400 students and direct them through several activities. The teachers had set up 3 different rooms in which they taught the students and/or had them perform different activities that could be tied to Halloween. The three activities were: Telling Scary Stories, Dressing up as a Scare Crow and racing, and Pinning the Stem on the Pumpkin. Perhaps some of the activities would cause one to raise their eyebrow over since they might not be the most universal activities that we would do (or have done) for Halloween. At any rate, the activities appeared to work well and kept most - if not all the students - entertained and paying attention.

My two favorite parts of this Halloween Party were: telling the students scary stories and watching them race with the scare crow clothes on. I spent a lot of my time helping with telling the students scary stories and enjoyed watching the students jump and scream every time we were able to scare them. I think that Chinese students - especially girls - are more easily frightened than Americans. I mean, we told some pretty silly stories and the students were easily frightened by somebody slamming the door or jumping out from behind a current. The lightening in the room, however, helped to give us a some darkness that was otherwise hard to obtain due to the fact that we were having the party during the middle of the day.

(The Room we used for telling 'scary stories')

On Sunday we traveled into the city to have a small gathering of sisters and brothers so that we could spend time with our Father. Again, we were blessed with some amazing food including homemade muffins. I felt like I hadn't had any pastries that tasted like anything in America for so long that I was surprised to taste things like cinnamon. After having some time of fellowship, we spent the day hanging around the downtown Zhengzhou before we got back on the train to head back to Nanchang. I should note that our train ride there was spent sitting on hard seats for 10 hours, but on our ride home the Zhengzhou team had managed to get beds for us. Word to Wise: Make sure you get beds and not hard seats when traveling by train, especially overnight.

Health: Where did it go?

I am not usually one to get sick and if I do, I am out for quite some time; this year has apparently served to prove the exception. I actually participated on the first day of the Sports Meet at our school. Doing so was probably not the best decision I have made. I had been pretty amazed that I hadn't been getting sick, while most of my team had been getting colds, flu, etc. However, deciding to run 200 meters without being HYDRATED and not eating BREAKFAST quickly changed that for me. Our Foreign Affairs Officer, Billy, had asked that Jonathan and I partcipate on the opening day last week. So we showed up and it wasn't long before Billy asked us to run in a race against the other Chinese teachers. I am not a long distance runner and the 100 meter run is the longest distance that usually ever run as I am a soccer player at heart. So lining up to race the Chinese teachers I knew that after 100 meters I was going to be destroyed and have barely anything left to finish the race. As soon as the gun was fired, I easily passed all the Chinese teachers and my teammate Jonathan to take the lead, but at the 100 meter mark I ran out of energy and started feeling very sick. I can only describe it as feeling as my legs were going to give out, experiencing heart burn, and feeling like I was going to throw-up all at the same time. The moral of my story is that you should drink more water and eat something before running a race, especially if you are out of shape like I am.

The rest of the sports meet I particpated in various activities and was actually stupid enough to run against my FAO and our driver Mr. Lee in the 100 m. After Jonathan and I finally made it back home I just went and fell down on the bed and preceded to get worse as my muscles stiffened and my stomach decided to turn against me for some unknown reason. The next day I went to school to teach, but had to return home as I felt like I was going to throw-up in the middle of class. I was able to return and teach both Thursday and Friday, but felt incredibly weak and I somewhat convinced that I lost 5 pounds in the process. As fate would have it though, I got food poisoning on Friday and was again very sick most of Saturday. I think that between Tuesday and Saturday of last week (Nov. 4th - Nov. 8th) I ate like 6 small bowls of rice and two packages of crackers. All in all, I much better know and have had a lot more energy.


Here are some more pictures of our trip and the Zhengzhou Team:

(Front to Back: Jennifer, Alison, Shannon, Erin, Mark, and Jonathan)

(Eric & Alison)


(Jonathan, Shannon, Jennifer)


(Left to Right: Erin, Shannon, Aaron, and Jonathan at an amazing Korean Restaurant)

- 计划赶不上变化 -

-Plans cannot keep up with change -

I believe this should be the motto of China. It was relayed to us during our training in California, and I thought of this Chinese idiom (common saying) as I was sitting down to write.

Things are going well. I have found most of my quiet time has been found at one of two extremes: early in the morning or late at night. More recently, it has been late at night as I have been staying up late to finish lesson plans. I am convinced that creating and implementing lesson plans is a form of a CRASH COURSE that all teachers must go through. This is the season of my life for sure. Each week I must have the following weeks lesson plans completed by Friday and I must admit that this is a challenge for me.

Living in another Culture

TIME is not something I would consider myself to have much of. I think it is just the reality of adjusting to living in China. One cannot easily dismiss the realities and challenges of moving to a new country: living in a new country and culture; starting a new job; language barrier and limitations; living, working, and getting to know 6 other Americans; and, last but not least, making and getting to know new Chinese friends. I guess the best way of thinking about it if you have never spent time and/or lived in another culture is to imagine mental fatigue or stress coming from everyday activities that you go about everyday of your normal life. By far, I am probably experiencing the least of this compared to many of my teammates, but it stills takes times to establish a routine, places to relax, and a mode by which you can go about your life without being drained all the time.

An added FACTOR for me is the fact that I need a LOT of DOWN TIME to function well and a lot of times I don't get it. Unfortunately, this can put me on edge, but the Father has been good in seeing that it doesn't get too bad. Another challenge for me is that I can be CLOSED OFF when IN LARGE GROUP settings and this is a challenge that I am struggling with and working on overcoming, especially as the program that I am with revolves around team building. I could use some up-lifting thoughts if some of you find some time.

Team

I should add that my TEAM is AMAZING. I am enjoying my new group of friends. I admit that it has been a little bit of a rough start for me, but things are really starting to flow and I am grateful for that. I do not think there is anything quite more important than team dynamics to be good when you around the same people everyday 24/7 .

We have been able to explore a little more of Nanchang and it has been pretty cool. The other day we went to a NATIONAL DAY like "fair" downtown and it was pretty crowded, but then again when isn't it crowded in China? Just imagine the 4th of July, but instead of everybody setting-off fireworks at their place all of them going to a fair and hanging out all day. If you are from Vancouver, just think of the Fort and everybody trying to see the fireworks at night. Below are some pictures of what it looked like walking around downtown.

I also took a picture of a lady selling some kind of Chinese nuts that looked about the size of walnuts and I thought it turned out well. In addition, there was a older man holding sugar coated dates who stood out against the crowd.

We also went on the third largest Ferris Wheel in the world, which is kind of crazy to think about. Mind you I not scared of heights, but I am aware of when I am 30-50 stories up in the air.

(This thing is huge!)


(Our Team and our Friends)

Well, it is getting really late and I need to catch some sleep! I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Nanchang (南昌) + 2 Weeks

Well, it has been about two weeks or so since I last updated and it is the first time in a long time that I actually have time to sit down and let everyone know what is going on. So what has been going on? Let me tell you.

Arrival

I arrived here in Nanchang about two weeks prior after an 11 hour train ride. It was much better than the 19 hour plane ride to Beijing by far since I can actually sleep on trains - due to the fact that you get a BED. The train ride was - for all intent and purposes - our first time to really get to know our F.A.O. (Foreign Affairs Officer). Our FAO's name is Billy. Billy has quite the sense of humor - one that can be both good and bad. Nevertheless, our train ride was very enjoyable and without incident.

Upon arriving in Nanchang, our team ate at a local dumpling place and then made our way to the dorms where we would be staying. I have to admit that the size of our dorms - or should I say apartments - surprised me. Each apartment has two rooms, a main living area (which couples as a living room and dining room), a bathroom, and a kitchen. Below are a few pictures to give you an idea of what I am talking about.

(This is the living room/dining area)


(Entertainment / Living Room)

(My room)

(My bed)

(The Kitchen)

Teaching

My first week was a mad rush of getting ready to teach for what we thought was 3 days. It is always interesting to see how well the theoretical works when put into practice. My lesson plans managed to do okay with my students, but it did become apparent that there was much I needed to address before writing anymore lesson plans for the following week. I should note that I am currently teaching 4 CLASSES with about 50 STUDENTS EACH. So all in all, I have about 200 or so students; however, attendance does seem to fluctuate and I will need to do something to account for that this upcoming week.

It is hard to know what exactly to teach, when teaching students English. I looked at the books that Billy (FAO) and felt that it was somewhat lacking. In addition, students are always seemingly all over the place in their language ability instead of all being on the same level. Three of my four classes seem to be on the same level in their English speaking ability, however, I do have one that is definitely sophomore level. Last week they pretty much became bored with the lesson plan that I had created and I had to revert to just talking in class. I am hoping that I can stay on top of that this upcoming week. We shall see.

Living in China

Living in China this time around has been very different from my last two experiences. I have felt little or no culture shock and I still wonder sometimes if it has really hit me that I will be here for another 8 months or so. Most of the time I am so preoccupied by hanging out with my other teammates that I don't really think I have time to consider where I am or what is happening. I would almost call my experiences so far like that of a little America in Nanchang. At the same time, I think this is what some of the people on my team really need since this is their first time to China. I remember my experiences the last two times and I definitely needed some breathing room from China and have little places to escape when the culture shock is too much.

In the same breathe, I am trying to be on my guard against culture shock factors that can play against me when I am living in another country. For example, I am hoping to make some friends here and hang out with them as often as time permits. I am also looking forward to our Chinese lessons and practicing more on my own as time goes by. I have also started making friends with some local side-street dealers that sell amazing Chinese food. Another thing that I want to do is to get a good feel for the bus system and the other local side-streets that sell food that you can bargain with dealers for.

I should mention that in writing this blog I have had the POWER GO OUT in my building at least 7 TIMES. So I am going to finish this with a couple pictures of my teammates and I and go.

(Jonathan and me at KTV or Karaoke)


(Left to Right: me, Joelle, Jonathan, Shannon, Laura, Jodi, Rachael)


(Laura, Shannon, and Jonathan)