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.

Xiamen to Chiang Mai + Performance Slideshow

Challenges: Unforeseen Problems

Yesterday was my first day of teaching after having not taught for over a month. It is kind of weird to step back into a role that you are quite familiar with, but also one you are consistently amazed that you are allowed to be - a teacher.

For me - I have to admit - there are some really high points and some really low points. One day, the class is highly interactive and the lesson plan is seemingly meeting all the objectives that you had set out to accomplish for the day. Yet, on the very next day, it seems that nothing is working and the students could absolutely care less. Then, on yet another day, you seemingly make endless mistakes both in spelling and giving information so that you feel very stupid by the time class finishes. I guess I had one of those kinds of days...

Today, I walked out of the class wondering "What were my expectations today?".

I have a student that will remain unnamed that - whether knowingly or unknowingly - knows how to consistently push all the wrong buttons with me. (We call them "extra grace required" students.) At any rate, I felt like I let that person get to me today and it was frustrating because I hadn't prepared or factored them into my teaching plan today, and it blindsided me. Worse off, it negatively impacted how the rest of my class went; something I don't want to repeat.

Well, enough of the gray dreary mood! I should share with you the 5 top things that my students did during the Spring Festival (I guess the closest equivalent would be Christmas...) I attached a link, albeit it is Wikipedia, if you want to learn more about Spring Festival.

1. Sleep
2. Watch Tv
3. Eat
4. Shopping

As you can see, my students are a lively bunch indeed! I told them that they should add sleeping as #5 so they can repeat the process. I was successful in managing to get them to laugh at that. I should note though that many of students do not have as many opportunities afforded them as I do, and going home is probably the best gift they could receive during the Spring Festival holiday.

Growth: A Refining Process

From 28th of January to the 5th of February or organization held a conference in which English teachers from all over Asia met to talk about about everything from teaching methods to our Father.

Growth: A Refining Process
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Since arriving in Chiang Mai I have found myself processing and thinking about my last semester of teaching. Over the last week I have actually had time to think about my walk with our Father and how that has played out over the last 4 months both in teaching and team building. My time in Chiang Mai - while a time of rest - has been very challenging spiritually. I am continually confronted in areas that I need to grow in that simply just can not be ignored and/or put off.

Community

Working towards community on a team takes dedication, perseverance, and a willingness to be vulnerable. Community built among other individuals must be intentional. Beyond being intentional one must be willing to both assume a humble attitude and/or be humbled as well as know that you are going to have to go to your brother or sister and ask for forgiveness before you can approach the Father many times - especially when you don't want to. Interesting enough, I have come to realize that community is something we are called to rather than something that is optional.

The funny thing is that this isn't the first time I have learned this lesson; however, the weight and impact of its implications to my life right now are huge. It is frustrating - as I am sure you all know - to continually find yourself making the same mistakes. Unfortunately, it seems that the mistakes you continually make disguise themselves and/or transform their appearances just enough to blindside you each time. All that to say, is that I struggle with staying in community and allowing myself to be open with others so that trust can develop. I mean things like that are only small problems, right? Absolutely not. I should note that such problems can only be exacerbated when your relationships seem broken and beyond repair and you're not keeping up in the Word; it is then that the world can be a very bleak place.

It is, of course, at this point that I am reminded by what P said in Philippians 2:1-4

"If you have any encouragement from being united with our Father, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the S, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."

Identity

Where we place our identity seems to be something that many of us tend to misplace way too often as well- or at least I do. I seemingly place my identity in many different places with one of them being work. For some unknown reason I like constantly being busy, overloaded with work, and being stressed out. It is at times a love/hate relationship, but in many ways it is my bread & butter - the natural way for me to go about life. Yet, when I was listening to the story of Peter being asked if he truly loved our Father 3 times I was caught offguard by the the wording of the question in John 21:15 where it says, "do you truly love me more than these?" A speaker at our conference over the last week noted that it is reasonable to suggest that Peter had given up and was returning to a life of fishing. It was at this point that I realized that I hold up an idealized work ethic/love for work that overshadows my relationship with my Father. It is kind of odd to come to a realization that you love work more than your Father at times.

Faithfulness

Good news, though, I AM REMINDED of His faithfulness and will be holding onto it as I enter this new season of challenges. I hope you will too.

Bangkok: Adventures of the Unkown

Below are my scattered thoughts about Bangkok and Thailand in general.

Bangkok
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The first thing that I can probably tell you about Bangkok is that it is a big and bustling city with way too much activity going on. At the same time, it really doesn't compare with a city like Shanghai or Hong Kong in size or population, but it does offer everything - on a city and cultural level - that Thailand has to offer. I was blessed to have a friend - Meridith - pick me and Jonathan up from the airport and provide us with a place to stay our entire visit to Bangkok. It definitely saved us a lot of money. Plus, Meridith and the people at G.E.S gave us a lot of insight into the city and directed us where to go and not go.

Jonathan and I spent most of our 1st day just exploring and getting a feeling for Bangkok. We quickly came to the conclusion - or at least it appeared to us - that we were not the locals favorite kind of tourists since we don't like to: (1) take taxis, (2) tuk tuks, or (3) spend money. Everywhere we went we were constantly bombarded with requests and gesturing to take both taxis and tuk tuks. I imagine at this point that you are probably wondering "What is a tuk tuk?" so here is a picture. It is a 3 wheeled contraption that seats approximately 2 people and sounds like a motorcycle of some sorts. They are everywhere and if you ever plan on using one make sure to know the going rate as you will have to bargain with the driver.

I should also note at this point that if you ever decide to come to Bangkok that you really need to read up on all the local scams so that you don't get taken. It would probably be entirely beneficial to do some research on the Internet about what other people have done and learned. Also, f you unsure about what to do I am sure you could ask one of the thousands of other tourists clutching their Lonely Planet books. Otherwise, don't be afraid to come and visit this beautiful country.

People

The people are really nice and are - for the most part - genuinely interested in helping you get where you want to go and actually learning about who you are. I kind of begun to imagine it would be like visiting China if the Chinese actually had the same English speaking capability that the Thai had. Often when traveling through and/or exploring China, people try to talk to you and share about their lives and, in turn, try to learn about yours. However, the only draw back is that your ability to speak Chinese is on the same level as their ability to speak English.

Also, the way that the Thai people greet you as well as others is incredibly fascinating. It almost makes me feel like the way westerners greet each other has failed to take into account a sense of respect and consideration for each other. For the most part, every time you are greeted by a Thai person they put their hands together - as if they were praying - as a sign of reverence and tilt their heads toward when greeting/welcoming you.

On another important/interesting side note. The king holds a very important position and place in the Thai people's heart. Everywhere you go throughout Thailand you will begin to notice the pictures and images of the king whether it be a restaurant, school, mall, police station, government building, etc. So treat everything you say about the king with forethought and and tact.

Buddhism

I honestly don't really know much, but just from traveling around Bangkok and visiting all the temples (wats) one will quickly recognize the influence of Buddhism and the power that it has in this country. To be honest, the way that Thai people practice Buddhism makes the Chinese look like they are playing at it. There are little shrines erected everywhere you go with incense and food set before pictures. Plus, one can hardly ignore the temples and stature that they hold within the Thai society and the prominence that they hold within major cities like Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

On some levels one might think that seeing places like Wat Pho, Wat Arun, and the Grand Palace might be on some peoples life checklists of things to do and/or really beautiful places. I will say that while they are beautiful and somewhat amazing on architectural level they carry a dark aura. Fortunately or unfortunately, I have seen my share of Buddhist, Taoist, and Tibetan Buddhist temples throughout China (and now Thailand) and the more I see of them the less I want to ever go to another one. Many might not consider me the most spiritual person, but when in and/or near these temples I find it unnerving. Take this for what it is worth, but I am limiting the days that I will enter let alone visit one of these places.

Culture Shock: Why are there so many White people?

An interesting phenomenon that I have noticed about myself since entering Thailand about a week ago has been the irritation that I have had with the amount of foreigners that inhabit or occupy space in this country. Call it bizarre, unheard of, or just plain weird, but everywhere I go I find myself wondering "Where did they come from?", "Why do they have to be here?", and "I just want to go back to China." I guess part of the reason that I like China is that you can escape from parts of Western culture. However, Thailand - unlike China - has a huge tourist industry and makes you feel like our culture has seemingly infiltrated the country making it feel like you are at home at times.

Don't get me wrong here. I am not denying my own culture or saying that I don't like where I am from. Rather, that after living abroad - even if it is only for 4 months - and not normally seeing other foreigners (other than Chinese) it is really weird. It is out of the common to see another foreigner in Nanchang and usually does not happen more than 1 or 2 times a month.

Food

Lastly, I must mention a very sad and unfortunate truth that I have learned since coming to Thailand. I had come with great hopes and dreams of eating amazing Phad Thai, but alas it has done anything but meet my expectations. Perhaps, my expectations and dreams were a little unreal, but I have tasted nothing like anything I had back home. I feel like such a foreigner for saying this, but I like the Phad Thai at home better.

On the other hand, all other Thai food has tasted great.

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.

南京, 江苏 (Nanjing, Jiangsu)

After flying into Nanjing I took the longest and most expensive taxi ride that I have ever taken in China. It cost Shannon, Jonathan, and me a total of 150 元 (about $22.00) to get a ride from the airport to our hostel. Good thing that we had contacts in the city, though, or it could have cost us a little more plus a ton of walking. We made it to our hostel safe and sound around lunch time with the help of our friend Andy C. unpacked so that we could settle in to our new surroundings.

The Jasmine Hostel

The Jasmine had a lot more character than I was expecting and it made our stay a pleasant one. The people were nice and helpful making it easy to communicate our needs with them, even if our Chinese was less than up to par. Plus, the hostel was right next to all the our friends in the city making our stay a convenient and blessed one, especially if we had any needs and/or questions about the city. I pretty much have to say that both the Merwin's and and the Cheely's were an incredible blessing with helping us and feeding us during our time in Nanjing.

I should also note that they had a Foosball table, which reminded me so much of when I was younger when my dad and I use to play for hours on end. I haven't completely lost my touch either as I soundly defeated most I played against (the exception was 2 against 1 [me]) Actually, it has been one of my dreams to enter one of the regional contests in the States with my dad to see how far we could get.

1st Day

Our first day was spent just relaxing as Shannon was recovering from being sick in Xiamen. Unfortunately, Shannon was sick for most of our trip making it difficult for her to do too much as she struggled with headaches, nauseousness, and stomach pain. Nonetheless, we spent our first day in true American style drinking coffee and eating pizza for dinner. I must confess that after 4 months of not seeing a Starbucks - or any other form of decent coffee store- that the Starbucks in Nanjing looked like an oasis in a desert. We spent a good portion of our first day just sitting in the Starbucks reading and relaxing. Albeit, we managed to find the one Starbucks in Nanjing to sit down and read in that made us feel like we were on showcase for all the Chinese of Nanjing to see. There is nothing like sitting down to read and glancing up to see people walking by pointing and staring at you. Of course, I usually just ignore such looks and/or comments in Chinese about foreigners, but it was difficult not to feel as if you were on display for the whole world to see. Being me, I relocated to a nice corner away from the huge glass windows acting as our display case.


Papa Johns was a nice find considering that most of the time all you see is Pizza Hut and McDonald's - two places I try never to go to even in the States. Jonathan was especially a big a fan and I thought it would be kind of cool to go to Papa Johns in China since I didn't even know that they had them here. The peculiar thing about pizza places in China is that they are the fanciest and almost nicest places around to go to. One wouldn't normally think that going out to Pizza Hut or Papa Johns would be really a big deal, but it's like walking into Olive Garden back home. Good news though, they provide free delivery and deliver it to via electric bike. I have to say that they are severely undercutting the costs of delivery drivers back home. I mean who would have thought delivery came via bikes anymore? By the way, you can have KFC delivered in the same fashion.


Presidential Palace & Fuzi Miao

After talking with our friend Andy on the second day, we set out to see the presidential palace where Sun Yatsen, Chiang Kaishek, and other important 20th century Chinese figures frequented from 1912-1948. The layout of the presidential palace is a rather impressive one as you can see from the picture to the left. Unfortunately, though, a model representation of the palace is about as good as you are going to get. We spent about 3 hours walking around looking and reading everything that was in English.

In that 3 hours of walking I quickly came to two conclusions that I will recommend to anybody else who thinks about visiting this historical city: (1) Don't go in the winter. Go in late Spring or early Summer so you aren't freezing to death. (2) 20 degree without any form of indoor heating is a killer if you are outside for long periods of time and not wearing lots of layers. In addition, if you are considering seeing Purple Mountain you should definitely make sure to wait until the weather is nice and clear so that you can have decent walking weather in which you will be out for hours. As you can probably tell, we didn't go to Purple Mountain as it was cloudy and seemingly colder each day we stayed. Finally, I should note that whenever traveling in China make sure to have the characters with you if you can't properly pronounce the pinyin or you could end up looking like this (forgive me Jonathan):


The picture above of us trying to figure out where the Confucius temple was; it actually eluded us for a day or so. Unfortunately, all our searching wasn't even worth it as it was possibly the worst historical place I visited while in Nanjing. Fuzi Miao is simply a huge tourist trap with the only redeeming values coming from the river and the architecture that surround it.

Zhonghuamen 中华门 (Nanjing City Gate)


In contrast, I would actually recommend going to visit Zhonghuamen as it is one of the most unique city gates that I have ever seen (Not that I am an expert in city gates or have seen many). The city wall that surrounds Nanjing city is - the Chinese claim - the largest in the world. It completely encircles most of Nanjing and has a river to act as a moat just outside its city walls. It also has some pretty cool sights and an okay little video that gives you an idea to how the huge gate was used if the city was under attack.

The rest of our trip was rather uneventful, which was a blessing since we had run into a few difficulties. I am sure I could include a few more paragraphs of monotonous details, but I don't want to bore you.