June 13, 2010

            Wow, these last two weeks have been crazy!  It's hard to believe that it's already the second week in June.  Anyway, so the last week of May was really awesome- I taught my students about how important it is to be unique and how everyone is unique and needed and all of this stuff.  We talked about how around the world people are all so different and how there are good and bad things about every country.  Then I talked to them about how you maybe don't like what people do, but that doesn't mean that you can hate the person.  After that I really tried to help them understand just how important each of them is and how no matter what they're all needed and stuff like that.  We even sang the primary song "Every Star is Different."  It was incredible hearing 60 Chinese students singing that song together- the Spirit was really strong.  Knowing that even though many couldn't understand all of what I taught and yet there were still those that understood perfectly was a very amazing experience.  

I've been thinking about how we're all so much like those students; some of us sit back, away from the teacher and don't try to learn anything from them and just sleep or play games.  Others don't understand very well, so although they'll try to pay attention it's just on and off.  Then there are those who don't understand very well, but they'll try to listen and learn as much as they can so they can understand better and work to improve on their understanding.  Some do understand and those are the ones who can truly grasp the idea and apply it to themselves and help the others understand.  Not all of them choose to apply it and they just let it go from one ear to the other and only want to be entertained.  So, the moral is that we are being taught constantly through life by our teachers- the teacher could be friends, family, enemies, significant others, strangers, other people that cross our paths, or Heavenly Father.  We have the option to choose how we take in what we're being taught.  Whether we decide to be the punks in the back of the class creating an environment where it's hard for anyone to learn or those who are diligently trying to learn and improve in our understanding and applying that which we learn to our lives and helping others understand or anywhere in between. 

Anyway, now that I've shared my current thought provocation I'll get back to some of the other things I've done.  Nikki actually left for Beijing on Tuesday morning because her students had some testing to do.  I still had all of my classes that week and Sam had half of his.  Thursday night Mariah and Savannah came down to get their tickets up to Beijing from Sam (he had bought them for them), then we hung out on Friday, and that night all of us headed to the train station and left for our separate destinations from there.  We actually met up with Alyssa and Nora at the station and so we got to say goodbye for good again; it's nice being able to see people again even when you think that you probably won't.  Sam and I took a hard sleeper train from Yongzhou to Guangzhou, then a sleeper bus from Guangzhou to Xiamen.  The sleeper bus was during the day and it was so weird how everyone just slept the entire time.  I think that we should really have a better train system in America because taking a sleeper is such a convenient way to travel long distances- you get on the train, go to sleep, then by the time you wake up you're basically there.  Normal train rides are good too; basically, traveling around the US would be a lot easier if there were more trains- well, at least for those of us without cars :) 

This week we've visited different countries and been treated extremely well by everyone we meet as well as meeting some incredible people.  So, we got to Xiamen Saturday evening, went to our hostel (which was a really nice hostel, by the way), then we took a stroll down Zhongshan road to find a place to eat dinner.  Afterward we went to the end of the road to where you can see the ocean and Gulangyu islet.  It was awesome to see at night time- we headed back to our hostel after that since we had to get up and ready for church in the morning.  We met with the Hayden-Smiths for church in their apartment; man, it was a really nice apartment.  They have two little kids, Savannah and Indiana, who are adorable children.  Later on for dinner we met up with my grandma's dean while she taught here, Dean Lin Yuru.  Her English is fabulous- it was such a change from what I've become used to while talking to the Chinese people.  We met with Dean Lin Yuru, her son, her granddaughter, and her granddaughter's piano teacher.  For dinner we went to a really nice restaurant on Xiamen University campus and had a ton of seafood- it was fantastic.  I used to think that I didn't like seafood at all, but now I know otherwise.  Both the piano teacher and Dean Lin kept putting more and more food on my plate, so I felt extraordinarily full by the time everyone was done.  That day was absolutely wonderful; the university is gorgeous, the food was delicious, and the company was amazing.

Hostels are incredible places because you get to meet so many different kinds of people from all over the world all with their own interesting stories of their travels and their homes.  We met Chris from Italy who is teaching Italian in Nanjing University, Olaf and another girl (I forgot her name) from Sweeden who had taken a train through Syberia and Russia down through Mongolia then Beijing.  Their train ride was so crazy long, but it was definitely an amazing story.  Also, we met Shelley who is actually from Taiwan but had gone to Canada for schooling so she had perfect English.  We ended up staying up for a really long time talking to her on Tuesday night.  There was also this other guy from Taiwan who didn't speak much English.  He snored so loudly and he always woke up really early then would come in and out of the room like 10 times every morning.  Yet, he was a really nice guy and it was interesting seeing how different his habits were.  Another guy came in on Monday or Tuesday from England; his name was also Chris and he was also teaching English in China.  These people were all so different but it was cool getting to meet them.

On Monday, Nikki flew into Xiamen and met us at the hostel.  We decided to go to the Botanical Gardens that afternoon- though the route that we took ended up being really difficult to find.  We took about an hour just looking for where to hike up to the gardens, then the actual place was huge so we didn't actually get to see all of it.  It was a really, really good afternoon and it was really nice seeing Nikki again.  It'll be really weird going home and not seeing Nikki and Sam basically every day... Anyway, Tuesday we went to Nanputuo Temple; which was fabulous!  When you go in it's like this huge garden, then you go into the actual temple part where you can see all of this amazing buildings with the statues that everyone prays to.  Then you keep going up the stairs and basically climb the mountain; there are places along the way where there are hundreds of these little statues where people stop to worship.  As you keep ascending, the view becomes more and more fabulous.  We got to the top and after looking out for awhile we decided to separate- Sam one way while Nikki and I went to explore a little more.  We found a place where people used to go eat and climbed on the rocks and trees.  After we stayed there for an hour or so, we had to head back down to the entrance because one of my grandma's old students, Alex, was coming to pick us up and take us around on the ring road that goes around the island (Xiamen is just a big island). 

Meeting up with him was awesome- he took us to some amazing parks around the island.  The first place we stopped was the same place that I had been to fly kites when I was 11.  It was crazy because I actually recognized and remembered the place; which was more than a lot of other places.  We then went to Music Square where they have the faces of famous musicians as well as some information about them carved into stones placed around the square.  It was really cool seeing the faces in the rocks, though the eyes were all like Chinese eyes which was quite amusing.  We also got to drive through an underwater tunnel- it connects between the mainland and Xiamen 70 meters underwater.  Sadly, you couldn't actually see anything but it was still way cool.  After that we went to go pick Sam up from the hostel so we could go to a new vegetarian restaurant with some of the other students.  At the dinner there was Jimmy, Alan (Allen?- I'm not sure on the spelling), Vera, Henry, and Alex.  They were all so awesome- they care so much about my grandma and it really made me happy to see that.  I was really glad that I was able to meet with them, some again and some for the first time.  It was interesting how much they all paid attention to how much I ate and whatever would make me happy- I felt VERY spoiled this week.  The food was interesting but quite delicious which was a very nice surprise- I was a little wary about having vegetarian food.

They asked us what we had planned for the week and we told them that we wanted to go to the Butterfly Valley after which they started talking vigorously in Chinese about what the Butterfly Valley is and where it is.  They then all "told" Alan to take us since he had free time the next day.  Alan also invited us to go with him to go get some hot chocolate (he got coffee) that night which was delicious.  I was also given a few gifts to take back to my grandma from them.  The next morning we got up and met Alan who took us to some really incredible places up in the mountains of Xiamen- we didn't actually go to the Butterfly Valley because it's a hike and his knee is rather messed up, but it was really awesome to get to talk to him and see those places around Xiamen.  I really feel like I learned a lot from him.  That night we met up with Dr. Tian (another of my grandmother's friends) and she took us out to eat at a Japanese restaurant.  The food was delicious and she's an incredible lady.  I feel so lucky to have met with so many amazing people in Xiamen.  That night we went over to Gulangyu and bought a bunch of fruit that we don't get back in America so that we could have a little party of trying fruit, though we didn't actually have our party until the next night (Thursday). 

Gulangyu is a great place- the buildings are totally European style because that's where the consulates used to be.  Also, there was an organ museum which was so cool!  We had a lot of fun on the beach as well- it started to rain while we were on the beach and it was crazy awesome!  The thunder sounded like gunshots, they were so loud.  Thursday night we were taken to dinner by Alex, his family, and his business partner, Charles, and his son Andy.  Andy's actually going to try going to a university in America next year.  Alex actually brought out some old pictures of when I was here last time- I was definitely not expecting to see those pictures.  The restaurant they took us to was super nice and I felt bad not being more dressed up than I was.

We took a sleeper bus back to Guangzhou the next morning, then went on our train back to Yongzhou at midnight.  Between the bus and the train we had about 4 hours of waiting- Nikki and I actually met an Israeli guy in the Market there.  He asked me something about the "guy" I was traveling with and I was really confused- it turns out he was just saying how Nikki looks like a guy because of her muscles and the way her hair was done.  It was cool talking to him.  He also asked about water with gas, which we were rather confused why there would be petroleum in water until he said something about the bubbles in the water.  Then we understood he meant carbonated water and water with gas makes sense, if you know what kind of gas is being talked about.  On the train we also met a guy named Chris who teaches in the University here in Lingling.  It was crazy meeting another foreigner who's from Lingling, but it was fun getting to talk to him.  He's actually from Boston and he and his friend have been teaching here since September. 

Well, I think I've covered most everything… this is rather long as it is.  Anyway, I guess that I'll call it good for now.  I only have like 3 more weeks until I come back to America (I'll be getting in to Omaha late on July 2^nd )- wow, what a weird thought.  Well then, until next time- God be with you! 

Zaijian!

Madi

May 24, 2010

          So, this week hasn't been the most exciting of all weeks but that's just fine with me.  Life here is so simple and slow paced that I wonder how well I'll do back in America with all of its fast-paced busyness.  Anyway, so I had my students tell me about Chinese manners this week and it was pretty enlightening.  For instance, they will knock for like 10 minutes if they think you're there and I used to think it was just odd; my students told me that you always open the door, even if you're sleeping or whatever (the only exception is if you're showering).  Luckily I haven't actually done anything offensive to my knowledge, so now I just have to hope I know enough about their manners not to offend them without meaning to. 

          So on Thursday it was raining so hard and I actually had to walk home from class during the worst part of it all.  My students that I had just taught didn't have a teacher yet (sometimes the teachers are just 10 minutes late for no reason).  Anyway, so I walked down the stairs and saw some of my students still outside before class started.  They saw me as I started walking into the rain and they were like, "Ah, Miss Madi!"  They were kind of proud that I'm so crazy and kind of scared for my own well-being.  Anyway, they kind of just laughed and partially cheered/freaked out about me walking into the rain.  There were also some kids up on the balconies that did the same thing, yelling out to me a little.  Well, as I got out of the gate and started heading home, the class I had just taught were all outside on the balcony.  They were cheering me on the entire time I was in sight.  It was one of the funniest things- man I love these kids!  I think some of them were a little bit freaking out but they were mostly just cheering me on and it was awesome. 

          Anyway, not much else happened this week; we stayed home this weekend and it was nice.  Oh, I guess Nikki and I did have a little bit of crazy time.  We went to the almost-mall thing here to see if we could find a dictionary that was what we need (English to pinyin and Chinese, then back again).  Sadly we couldn't find any that were what we wanted/needed.  So after searching through all of the dictionaries we could find, we decided to just look around at a few other things.  We found sunglasses that we decided are really funny looking so we had a good time making fun of the sunglasses and stuff.  We also found a place with wigs, so we tried some on.  It was really odd seeing myself with such dark hair- all of the wigs were some shade of brown; most leaning closer to black than anything else.

          We also went to Lengshui tang with Twinkle, Shelby, Cierra, and Sam (we being Nikki and I) on Saturday.   It was pretty fun- though the whole shopping thing wasn't quite what I felt like doing at the time, it was good to spend time with them all.  Jacob came to visit this weekend!  It was quite exciting to have him around and I'm really glad that we got to hang out with him again before he heads back to the States. 

May 30, 2010

          Okay, so this one will just be 2 weeks in one just because I can.  Anyway, this week I gave a lesson about American culture because I had asked my students what they wanted to learn more about and most said either culture, stories, music, famous places, or something along those lines.  So I showed them pictures of a bunch of the famous places in America, some of the folk songs we all learn growing up, and I told them a story or two.  It was pretty funny because I asked what kind of story they wanted, and they wanted scary stories… the best I had was Bloody Mary and the Headless Horseman.  They enjoyed it I think.  Man, I love my students so much- I'm seriously going to miss them when I go home.  It's so weird thinking that I'll be going home soon; I mean, a part of me is way excited to go back and get on with my life in a sense, and the other part will severely miss China.  It's interesting how things work out though, and I'm sure it'll all be for the better- I just wish I knew what that better was at the moment.  I'm super excited about next week though because I'll be leaving for Xiamen on Saturday and I'll be there until the next Friday.  I've even had some of my grandma's old students helping me out and I'm looking forward to seeing them again. 

          So, I spent a fairly large-ish portion of time helping Nikki untangle this giant thing of yarn this week.  I also helped her make some bracelets, but it was the untangling that I did mostly.  Anyway, I feel like I've gained a new hobby almost- though I really hope I don't have to try untangling something like that for quite a long time.  I definitely feel like I've had my fill of red yarn for a very long time.  Speaking of bracelets though, my student Laura made a bunch of bracelets and gave one to Nikki, one to Sam, and one to me.  It just makes me happy that my students care about me. 

          One thing I've noticed while I've been here is that they definitely do use the peace sign in pictures almost all the time!  The only problem is that now I do it with them a lot… though usually only because I'm with other Chinese people, or the fact that I'm in China.  Now I've started to think that maybe I'll do it when I get home… and of course there is a right way to do it- it's with the inside of your hand facing the camera (the other way is called the "forks" and it's bad in England I think…).

          Anyway, I think I'm gonna call this good for now because I want to go make another epic fort with Nikki, so I'll get this up shortly and call it a night.  So, until next time… don't boil milk in a hot water maker!  (Just a little advice in case the option ever arises).

Madi

Ps- Now you can see my new hairstyles! :)

April 26, 2010

          It's been exactly 9 years since I came to China the first time- crazy!  So, I've kind of been slacking lately and so I haven't sent an update about the last 3 weeks, right?  I'm now going to repent and try to do better; I'll try and cover it all this time.  Anyway, two weeks ago on Sunday Sam and I traveled to Shuangpai with Cierra and Shelby so Sam could try to fix their computer (Nikki wanted to stay home and try to talk to her dad and the rest of her family).  Well, it turns out that he couldn't really fix it- instead he broke Cierra's sink handle off; good thing they don't usually use that one so it's not too big of a deal.  We also took a bunch of time to take the color code test (Shelby and Cierra both took it, and then I did too… and after I took it Sam and Shelby reanswered the questions for me, with almost the same results).  We then talked and proceeded to bed thereafter; the next morning the others all left to go buy a screwdriver so Sam could actually try fixing it better.  I didn't go with them because they thought I was asleep and didn't want to wake me up;  I wasn't actually asleep, but I was curious as to whether they'd wake me up or not- and there was someone playing the piano and I was quite content to listen to that and read for a little bit.  Anyways, they ended up not being able to fix the computer then we watched August Rush (I had forgotten just how much I love that movie, which is rather tragic because I really do love it a lot). 

Later on that week, on Thursday, the three of us went to see the University and an awesome lit-up bridge that leads to an island in the middle of the river.  On Saturday, Luke, Mr. Zhou, and some of the school leaders had a banquet lunch thing with all of us laowai (it means  foreigners… literally outsiders) where we had lots of rather interesting dishes to choose from.  Then we took everyone to this haunted amusement park (it looks haunted because it's pretty run down and there aren't a lot of people there- though that could've just been because it was pretty rainy).  We also went to this really awesome pagoda and the bridge.  That week I ended up teaching about the difference between a few different words (like sit, set; speak, talk; etc)- it was pretty fun, they especially liked playing the fly swatter game (you have to "swat" at the correct word on the board); some of them really got into it.  Sometimes they'd get a boy and a girl up there and everyone would cheer or laugh which led me to believe they were couples- especially when I heard some of the kids in one of my class start humming or singing the wedding march.  That weekend we went up to Dong'an; that was a lot of fun.  We met up with the girls from Longhui as well so we had a bigger group than normal and it was a lot of fun seeing them.  Anyway, we watched Sherlock Holmes, had a Lays taste testing adventure (they have really strange flavors of chips here… including blueberry, cherry tomato, seaweed, and lots of others that really aren't that great tasting), and had an awesome American food lunch.  Sam made some potato soup, Matt and Kristal made mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing, Nora and Alyssa made some vegetable scrambled eggs, Mariah and Savanna made s'mores, and Nikki and I made some Reese's dessert bars.  It was marvelous. 

Mariah and Savanna came back with us on Sunday because they didn't have any classes that week due to the May holiday.  Monday the four of us girls went looking for some stuff we could get for Cierra's birthday (Tuesday).  We got some cake, a big bottle of her favorite juice, and a wooden fish wind chime.  We also decorated Nikki's apartment and the box that the wind chime came in (each of us decorated one side) so it looked like wrapping paper.  We ended up having piñatas too!  Shelby and Cierra came in Tuesday night and we had an awesome time.  After our "party" stuff we went out to the island and lit off Chinese lanterns.  I ended up jamming my knee or something, so I was a bit slow and in pain, but it was fun nonetheless. 

Early Thursday morning (really early, like 6) we left to go to the train station, and then took a train to Shaoyang.  From there we took a bus to Longhui so that Savanna and Mariah could make sure they had all their stuff.  Then we took buses to Huaihua and then Fenghuang.  We had a bit of an adventure in Fenghuang because we had no idea where to go to find our hostel.  Sam had a different one, so he left and we had to try to find our own way.  We tried getting a taxi to where the instructions said (some hotel), but the instructions were in English so the driver didn't understand.  Luckily, there was a guy from Seattle there and he helped us with the taxi.  Well, we didn't see our hostel anywhere nearby so we went in to see if they could help us… they didn't speak any English but there was some random guy who did.  He helped us talk to the hotel and then they called our hostel for us and we got instructions about how to get to the hostel.  So, we followed the instructions not realizing there was a lower part under the big bridge we found- thus we were yet again lost.  Another lady came to find us and beckoned us to follow her even after we asked her where we need to go.  She led us to her hotel where they pulled a lady off the street who spoke English to ask if we had a reservation.  We told them that we were looking for our hostel and the lady shooed us out the door and kind of pointed in the opposite direction of where we came from.  We followed her "pointing" and passed some lady by some buses who also tried helping us- though she didn't speak English.  She talked to the hostel and they sent someone to come get us, but then two other ladies came up to us and tried to get us to stay in their hotel (they spoke English).  After we explained that we had a place already, they let us wait in the lobby and told the guy where to go.  We finally got to our hostel and got settled in, and then we went to get dinner and explore.  The next morning we actually met up with Jacob and his family, which was awesome and then got on another bus to Zhangjiajie City; there we met up with Alyssa and she joined us for the rest of the trip. 

The next morning we left to Zhangjiajie Villiage National Park, which is INCREDIBLE, by the way, on yet another bus.  On the bus we met a guy who had a place we could stay, and though at first he said we would have to pay 80 Yuan each per night, after Sam talked to him and told him we're teachers and stuff like that he dropped his price to 65 Yuan each; that's a really good price, especially considering that we didn't have a place to stay and it was during May holiday.  Well, he took us to the park entrance, where we bought our 248-Yuan entrance fee cards and got thumb printed with our card, and we started walking through.  It turns out his place was inside the park- he said it was about an hour and a half walk.  As we went through, he was basically our tour guide and showed us all of the cool rocks and stuff.  Oh, ps- if you've seen the movie Avatar, the mountains that are floating in the air that they fly up to and stuff are actually based off of the mountains in Zhangjiajie.  They're absolutely amazing… and really tall.  The reason that I mention them being tall, since most actual mountains tend to be pretty tall, is that we had to climb up stairs to the very top of said mountains because that's where this guy's place was at.  Let's just say that all of us were very tired and sore by the end of this 4-5 hour hike (my knee didn't help my situation any), but when we got to the top and could look out at everything it was worth it. 

We got to see a lot of really amazing views from up there and it was just a really fantastic place.  On Sunday we had to go back down the mountain (which was again rather difficult because we had to keep ourselves going down stairs but still fighting gravity) and ended up in another city where we took a taxi to the train station and took a sleeper train to Changsha.  We got to Changsha at 6:30 am then took another bus back to Lingling.  It was definitely a pretty long day but it was really nice to get home.  The holiday was so amazing and I'm definitely glad that I had the opportunity to go.

China has had its difficulties and things like that, but the experiences and people I have met are so incredible that it drowns out the negative moments.  This week the class times changed in the afternoon and I didn't find out until I was telling them that class was over and then they said "No, class times changed."  And I just found a bat hanging on my curtain in the living room…  I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with it yet but it's sleeping for the time being, so I'll figure it out later.  Anyway, I'm gonna call this good for now.  Sorry it took so long for me to write all of this.  Until next time… Zaijian!

April 9, 2010

Wow, sorry I haven't written before now; things have been rather busy lately.  So, last week was a pretty normal week- I finished teaching about sports (golf, football, ping pong, and swimming) and then we learned some tongue twisters.  Thursday night Shelby, Cierra, Mariah, and Savannah all came in and we went with Twinkle, Cold Ice, Bruce, and William to Dicos (Sam had promised Twinkle he would buy her some food from Dicos).  The next morning Shelby and Cierra came to my 3^rd hour class and we had a lot of fun- my students loved having them come visit.  That day we left for Guilin at 12 so as soon as Nikki and Sam got out of their classes we left for Lengshui Tang so we could catch our 1:45 train.  It was about a 4-hour long train; we met up with Alyssa and Nora on the train and we were off.  Matt and Kristal joined us on the train an hour or two later. 

Guilin was awesome!  We even got to go to Pizza Hut; the only problem was that they used fish oil for our pizzas so there was a slight fishy taste sometimes.  After that we went to the night market; I hadn't been planning on buying anything there because I had gotten souvenirs last time and plus I was told there were better things in Yangshuo, which is where we were going the next day.  However, I came across a stand that was selling instruments and they had a bamboo flute; I had found my temptation, but I couldn't resist it.  The guy told me that because I'm a "beautiful girl" for me the flute was only 200 instead of 260 (this is all in yuan, not US dollars).  I got him to go down even more, and apparently, he wanted to be my friend so he even gave me his QQ number (it's like their version of email/facebook/im all combined).  I could've gotten it cheaper had I been able to act like I didn't want it as much as I did and had been able to pretend to walk away; but I'm okay with paying a little more than the "lowest price" for it- I got it for 25-30 US dollars and that's way cheaper than any good quality flute there. 

The next day we left for Yangshuo, which was quite awesome!  We took a bus down there and I sat by a mother with her baby- it was so cute because sometimes when the baby was starting to fuss, if it looked at me it would just stop and stare at me.  It's so strange how even babies will stare at us all the time and seem to be fascinated with us.  It happened again on the train ride home, actually- after Dong'an a grandma sat down with her grandson.  He loved playing with my watch and then he kept trying to come to me.  Later he was hungry and so she went to get him a bottle while his father held him in the seat next to me.  The father let me hold him for a little bit, but he wanted to go back because he wanted food.  Whenever the baby would be looking over at me, the dad would say "jiejie" which means "big sister" so I gained a new little brother.  When the grandma came back with a bottle for him, the dad gave him back to me (with the bottle) and wanted to take our picture.  As the dad was taking the picture then putting the camera away, Sam called for me to give the baby back because we had to get off soon.  It took a bit of time but I got the baby back to his dad and got up to stand and wait for five to ten minutes for the train to pull into the station.  We headed back home in a tightly packed taxi and went to bed.

Okay, so I kinda skipped over Yangshuo here, so I'll tell a bit about that.  That place is beautiful, and apparently you can't trust in reservations because if someone decides not to check out, you get to find another place.  It was rather ridiculous; but at the same time, I've realized that as long as I'm relying on God that everything will work out the way it's supposed to.  Without Him answering our prayers, everything would be much worse and a lot more stressful.  He really does look after us and answer our prayers, and I've noticed it especially here; I mean, he does back home, but I've been able to recognize it better here.  Anyway, while in Yangshuo a bunch of us girls decided to get traditional Chinese dresses made.  It's pretty awesome to be able to say that I got a custom made dress in China, even if it looks almost exactly the same as some of the other dresses.  See, two of the girls got 2 dresses, one exactly like mine, and then another one (strangely enough, both like their other dress better). 

Alright, so I'll probably be updating again soon because I'm not going to be traveling this weekend.  Thus, I'm going to call this good enough and bid you zaijian.  God be with you!

Hey, so for the last few weeks I've been learning how to play the guitar; now I need to find some songs to learn to play.  So, I decided to make a request for suggestions on songs to learn; they might be too difficult for me now, but I'll still look at them and write them down.  Either email the suggestions to me (mreid08@gmail.com) or just leave a comment.  I would really appreciate any suggestions! :)  Thanks!  You're the best!

March 21, 2010

          Wow, how amazing it is to be around these people!  The people here are so amazing and I'm so glad I get to associate myself with them.  This week I finally got to teach again so I had the opportunity to meet new students and see the ones I already have begun to remember.  As I've gone through the week, I've had students give me suggestions on how to help the students understand better.  That was something I didn't expect, but I definitely appreciate.  See, at the beginning of the week my students would understand on a slightly higher level and toward the end it was a struggle for them; now I know that I need to adjust it throughout the week to make it easier for those who struggle while still not be so easy that those who are better learners in English don't get too bored and just want to sleep or study.  I've also had to realize that maybe some of the students that seem to really be attentive and interested at the beginning or end of class don't necessarily pay attention during class.  Also, in almost all of my classes there's at least a few, if not a lot, of kids who just don't care about spoken English class and though I have to try to get them involved, I can't spend the entire time on them because that's not fair to those who do pay attention- the fact that they don't get grades for my class probably doesn't help them want to pay attention either.  Yet I love those kids- even the ones that are kind of the more "punk" kids in the back because they're all so unique and I just wish that I could remember them all individually.  Maybe if I had a few years with them I could manage to learn all of their English and Chinese names as well as something about them, but I only have a few months so I'll just have to do the best that I can.  At English Corner 2 of my students gave me these 3 leaf clovers because I had taught about St. Patrick's Day and it really made me feel good that they remembered what I had taught and that they wanted to give me something.  Every now and then I have a student give me a little something- most often it's a snack of some kind, and it always makes me feel so happy to know that they want to do that for me; even if it doesn't seem like that big of a thing, for them it is and it makes me appreciate it that much more.  I love my students so much already and it's just the beginning! 

         Nikki and I had a few awesome adventures this week.  First of all, we made jiaozi (dumplings) and it was awesome.  We tried making the dough part by hand because we couldn't find it premade in the grocery store we usually go to, and that turned out to be utterly horrible.  We even had a student, Albert, who had come to visit and he laughed at our attempt, but he told us that they sold them in the basement of BuBu Gao (the grocery store we go to).  Well, on Wednesday Nikki and I finally made it out to go look for this mysterious basement.  Turns out it's actually accessed from the street rather than inside the store, and this basement was truly a place where someone could get culture shock.  Honestly.  There were a few sections down there; right in front of where you walk in you have some spices to the right, and some other things on the left… and this went on for a little while.  Then if you keep walking straight you would find some more spices (many of these were actually packaged) with vegetables off to the right a little ways.  Now on the far right of where you enter was the meat department where there are slabs of meat sitting on a bunch of different tables with people at each table trying to get you to buy their meat.  Also there would be skinned cow legs hanging upside down from the ceiling.  On the far left of where you walk in there were cages after cages of live animals; chickens, ducks, anything.  We didn't actually look too close at that section, only enough to know that there were a lot of animals over there and we didn't really want them to think that we were there to buy any of them.  Honestly it shouldn't have surprised me really because I see snakes, chickens, fish, eels, etc sold on the side of the road all the time, but I just wasn't expecting the amount of animals I saw there; it was kind of sad almost.  With that said though, there's absolutely no way I'll stop eating meat though- even if I do see the animals before they're cooked. 

          Later on, Nikki and I took some pictures of the school then went exploring on this forest-covered hill by the lake here.  It was pretty awesome!  As we were going into the forest, 2 girls came up to us and wanted to talk to us and come with us.  It was really cool- they're adorable!  When we came out again, they actually found us and brought an older guy with them to take a picture of the four of us together.  These students are beautiful- inside and out! :)  (I had to use beautiful because that's one of 2 adjectives that they seem to know…. And they use them for everything!)

          Life here is so simple and so beautiful in its simplicity.  People don't have a billion and a half things they "have" to get done before the day is over so they have to run, run, run to try and finish everything.  Instead there's just a slower-paced groove like people know that they have things to do and they'll get them done, but it doesn't need to be done right now- everything will work out just fine.  For me, I have to prepare and teach my lessons and maybe have to travel for church on the weekend.  Other than that, my time can be used how I want, when I want; that is a good feeling.  It's almost even more satisfying when I get something done here because I know that I took the time to do it even though I could've done any number of other things.  Truly, I think that people in America are just too busy with extra things.  I used to like having things to do all the time so that I wouldn't ever be bored or feel like there was nothing to do, but now I've realized that yes those things are fun and enjoyable, but there's really no need for me to try to cram all of it in at once.  Whatever happens is what's supposed to happen and as long as I prepare myself the best I can there's no need to stress out about getting a lot of extra things done that may not actually need to be done.  Yes I need to make sure I use my time wisely and do things that are productive, good, etc but that doesn't mean I always have to be doing something.

          Well, I'm gonna go read Les Miserables now (a most excellent book, by the way) so until next week, xìngyùn!  Wǒ ài nǐmen!  (Good luck!  I love you!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Well, this week has been interesting for sure.  The weirdest part was probably that we didn't have to teach because the other teachers didn't have the new schedule and so there was just a huge mix-up.  First of all, on Sunday night Nikki and I decided to build an awesome fort out of her couches and some blankets I found in my room.  It was pretty epic- and we decided to sleep in it because we could.  We had a really good time- it was funny because although we've had many sleepovers (when we've had people come over and stay in my room), they haven't really seemed quite the same as they used to.  Sleeping in our awesome fort was a really nice flashback to our childhood.  Monday Mr. Zhou was going to come to Nikki's to bring a rice cooker but we didn't really know when.  Later in the day, Sam and Nikki needed to go look for some propane stuff and since Mr. Zhou still hadn't shown up, I stayed behind just in case.  During that time (there was like an hour where no one came) Twinkle came over to talk for a little bit, then a little while later (about ½ to ¾ an hour) Mr. Zhou and Luke came with the rice cooker stuff, almost 2 minutes after they came in Nikki and Sam got back, soon followed by Evie coming by.  She gave me this really cute little rose she grew herself; I decided to press it in one of my China books.  Tuesday I had begun like normal: teaching my first couple of classes of the day before lunch then Sam called right before I was about to teach my 4^th hour (the 2^nd class I had that day) to tell me we weren't supposed to be teaching anymore because of some confusion with the other teachers.  So, I taught that class then I didn't teach anymore for the rest of the week.  We were supposed to be waiting for Luke to let us know when we would start teaching again so we were on a day-by-day basis for whether or not we taught; meaning that we couldn't go anywhere for any extended amount of time.  However, on Tuesday night Twinkle came over to Nikki's and decided that she would sleep on Nikki's couch then we'd all get up in the morning and go to Lengshui Tang the next day.  Well, they had me come down and sleep in Nikki's room too, but before we could go to bed (11pm) she decided to make me exercise for an hour- hardcore exercise at 11pm… yeah.  Well, the next morning Nikki and I slept in until like 10 (Twinkle got up at 7, went running, came back, showered, then went to do more PE stuff) then took showers and got ready.  We left for Lengshui Tang at about 12- we got there 45 minutes later, went looking for a gift for Twinkle's boyfriend YY's mom, then went to visit her at the primary school she teaches at.  We ate at Dicos (basically an American fast food kind of place) then went to visit one of her classes.  It was awesome!  There are like 120 kids in each class, and so we went in to the class then we all sang the ABC song together.  After that we decided to play "Duck, Duck, Goose."  It was the most epic game I've ever seen in my life.  Trying to get 120 kids to all sit in a single circle was basically impossible- they would either bunch up, or else when we would move to another part of the circle they would stand up and group around us.  We had to give up on trying to explain the rules or anything; so we pulled out our cameras- insanity ensued.  Seriously, the moment they saw our cameras they ran to us to try to get their picture taken; they would push, pull, shove, jump, anything to get themselves in the picture.  Many would stick their peace sign right in front of my camera so all that showed was the kid's hand.  They'd get as close to me as they could, actually pushing me into the kids behind me so I was trying to avoid stepping on their feet while getting pushed backward by the mob of kids in front of me.  They all were so cute!  Nikki was in one place and I was in another and sometimes there would be a crowd of kids running from one to the other.  Sometimes Nikki would run ahead of the kids and they would all run behind her- it was like a parade.  Those kids would go anywhere we did, and they loved it!  One girl came up to me to have me sign her paper but then other kids laughed at her so she ran away.  Another time a kid came to have me sign my name and as I was writing my name everyone started pulling both the pen and paper out of my hands, so I hope that the right kid got it.  We had to leave then and we said our goodbyes and started heading to the gate.  All the kids followed us as we went until we finally left through the gate.  Then we went looking for random things, but neither Nikki nor I actually bought anything.  Thursday was a pretty chill day, but I finally had my first guitar lesson from Sam!  Sam is so awesome- he really does so much for me (us, really) and I really appreciate it a lot.  He started me out with "Christmas Bells are Ringing" (later he gave me "You are My Sunshine" to learn as well).  After my lesson Nikki had us come down to eat some of the fried rice and tomato egg stuff she made for dinner.  After Sam had gone upstairs to work on his resume, Twinkle called us and told us to come down to go to her friend's birthday party.  Well, we went… and got plastered with cake in return.  See, they started eating it like normal but that's not how they do it here in China- so one girl came up to me (nikki was next, but she was in the corner) and covered my face with frosting.  It seems to me that they really wanted to get us as messy as possible- they even shoved some so that it went up my nose.  We were basically as covered in frosting as the birthday girl… I think they just wanted to get the laowai as messy as they could.  Well, after the fighting was over, we went to Sam's to have him take our picture- Twinkle decided she wanted to cover him with frosting too, but he escaped from that fate; his door got a bit messy though.  We then went and cleaned ourselves up and finished out the day.  Shelby, Cierra, Quincy, and Lawrence came here on Friday evening so we could all head up to Dong'an on Saturday for church.  We had a rather enjoyable time.  OH!  Sam finally gave me Les Mis to read!  I'm excited about that one.  The bus ride up there was fun- it was a good 2 hours or so, then we went to Matt and Krystal's, had lunch, went shopping for books and groceries, then went back, had dinner, played games… it was pretty chill.  Church this morning was very good; we also got to have pancakes!  That was really yummy; later Nikki and I went back with Cierra and Shelby to Lingling and they went on to Shuangpai.  I may not be able to send this for quite awhile because our internet is being really strange so I'll see what I can do.  Love y'all!

Madi

March 8, 2010

Life here is so much different than what I expected.  I feel as though each day is a week and I have such a hard time keeping track of what days I do what- all except for Sunday, that one I can keep straight.  With each day seeming to last forever, I also feel as though I’ve changed in that time… and knowing that I’ve changed as much as I have within only 2-3 weeks makes me wonder how much I really will have changed by the time I actually go back home.  Before, I was excited to come but still excited to go back; now, I don’t really want to go back- I really feel like I could just stay here for a really long time.  Unfortunately, that conflicts with the whole EFY thing, but I’ll see what I can do about that.  Honestly though, I feel as though I’ll be here for quite awhile (but really, it’s not that long) and I’ve realized that I’ve kinda been wasting some of the time I have here… I really don’t have that much time and I need to make the most out of what I do have.  Hopefully I can figure out someone I can learn some Chinese from- whether in exchange for English lessons or something else; I guess I’ll just have to wait to see what happens.  Man, I love living here!  This really is an amazing life- sure it’s not as clean or necessarily as easy to find things to do here but at the same time everything just seems like there’s more to it.  Everyone here is so friendly and it’s awesome to walk up to my favorite lady for lunch and see her smile as we come and recognize us.  It was funny today; she actually put in a little more spice than usual as if she’s slowly been getting us accustomed to the spice.  But her food is amazing, especially her fried rice!  When I walk down the street there will be so many people that just call out “hello” when they don’t think you’ll know it’s them because they’re scared about it… but at the same time they love seeing us.  The other day we were on the street deciding what we wanted to do and a guy came up and started asking some questions, then another joined him, and people kept just joining to see what we would say (Sam knows enough to understand what they say and to respond).  Finally we just had to say we were going back home so that we wouldn’t get stuck there for much longer.  I don’t know, I guess there’s just something about the simplicity of life here that I absolutely love.  There’s no need for a lot of extra things; I don’t know if I’ll even know what to do with all the clothes I left behind, and as far as some of the other stuff goes… man, it’ll be weird.  I used to be bad at making decisions but now when I go back there’ll be so many choices I won’t even know where to begin!  For instance, whether to have French, Italian, American, Mexican, Mongolian, or Chinese food- well, first of all I’d probably pick Chinese but then be sad that it’s nothing like what I’m used to- I’ll probably take ages to decide.  It’s rather interesting to see the way that the people in my group are adjusting- albeit, I don’t see them all the time like I do Nikki and Sam, but I do see some of them just about every week.  Sometimes I wonder how bad my “culture shock” was since I came here before because I can see that there are so many who’ve been going through it but they don’t necessarily recognize it for what it is.  Anyway, I guess I feel like I’ve really just adjusted to life here in China pretty much completely… though I do still keep up my hygiene unlike most people here.  For instance, when crossing the street the cars don’t stop at all- they just keep going- so you learn to kind of just walk across without actually waiting for the “perfect moment” instead you just stop in the middle of the street until the car passes.  Another thing is that they honk all the time, and at first I would jump at that sound all the time; luckily I don’t actually jump anymore.  Oh, and they always have fireworks- I can hear them in the background almost every day and back in America I would love to run outside to see if I could find them and watch them.  Here, I figure that if I miss it today there’ll be some tomorrow; besides, we’re planning on setting off some huge fireworks ourselves once it warms up a bit.  Sorry if this has been kind of all over the place- I just kinda typed what came to mind.  Anyway, I’ll write another update thing later this week about what it is that I’ve been doing… Well, until next time!  我 愛 你 們!