Living with Purpose

I have been thinking, recently about life here in China and how it is so different from life in America. It is quite different for so many reasons...they just do things differently here. It's hard to get used to the way they do things. If you want to do something the most efficient and effective way, don't come here! But, it is the way they are used to doing things and it works for them...I just have to get used to it. And I think I am doing okay with culture shock right now...only adjusting.

The main thing that is different is what we do when all 7 of us who are here are together just hanging out. He is brought up in conversation so easily. And because when we are around our Family, talking to our Father with these same people, that is what makes it so easy. I hope that made sense. Here, we are not so free to talk about things we want to talk about. But I want to talk about those things more now to everyone than I ever did in America. It has made me realize how lucky people are in countries where they can speak freely about such things. I am literally envious of those who can talk to the check-out lady at Wal-Mart, or the bank teller about Good things. This is a reality check to me, because I cannot and want to so badly! I am in this country and can't do what I want to do. But when I was in America, I was more shy about it. Things will be different. My mind set has changed and I am not as shy about such things. I want to continue to have conversations with my close friends and family about our Father and how wonderful he is. In so doing, I will let my light shine to those around me, not just in living by example, but by living with purpose. For those of you back home, I challenge you to take advantage of your freedoms. :) Thanks for reading, I love you all! And don't forget to think about me in China!

Christmas Time!

I have not been blogging in a while because of all the Christmas Festivities! We had some fun at our friend's house, Kyle and Rebecca! Kris, Michael, and Kevin came over and we all had a sleep over. When we woke up the next morning, we all opened our stockings that Santa brought us!! It was so fun!

As you can see in the picture below... Stan and I completed our Christmas decorations in our house. We did this a while back, and I meant to do this blog before Christmas, but ran out of time...so here goes. This picture is simply beautiful, I think! We have seen a couple of fake Christmas Tree's when we go to the store, but we thought it was even more appropriate to MAKE our own fake tree! It was a fun filled night! We began the night with some sandwiches while Stan cut out the tree from green construction paper. I made all the decorations! We watched 3 and a half Christmas movies and it took us around 7 hours to complete it! It didn't even seen that long, cuz it was fun! And it helped us with our Christmas spirit here in China! Here are some more pictures from the memorable night! :)

Thanks for reading! I love you all and don't forget to think about me in China!
P.S. Danny and Layna are leaving today to come see us!!! Yay!

A Trip to Anji

Stan and I were invited to attend a foreign teacher's trip to Anji, a small town in the mountains outside of Hangzhou. Our school was sponsoring the trip and it was an all expense paid trip. We went to the Bamboo Museum. I thought there was a lot of bamboo everywhere in China, but this place had A LOT of bamboo! Everything in the museum was made of bamboo...I'll share a couple of pictures.

Turkey bamboo!

This was a playground made of bamboo. Stan was giving it a try!

And then we got to see some cute Panda's! For some reason the one on the left was touching the other one's head. I found it funny. :)

A bamboo house!!!

Curvy bamboo!! Look on Facebook and you'll see more soon!

Then we got to the hotel and ate dinner. Then we had the rest of the night to do what we wanted to do. The hotel had an activity area on the 2nd floor. Chinese people love Ping Pong and they are awesome at it. Well, we gave it a go. We played with some officials of the school who came with us on the trip. I am sorry I don't have any pictures of them, but we had great fun playing Ping Pong with them! We decided to all play together in a group Ping Pong game where you run around the table and take turns hitting! It was so fun! The next morning, we went skiing. If you would like to call it that. Myself, I do not like to ski. Been there-done that-don't love it. Therefore, I don't do it. Everyone else did though, so I watched their things while they were skiing. I took a couple of pictures of the ski resort. I didn't get any good ones of the slopes, well, because I didn't ski. So if you want to see a video of it, go to Stan's page. It is much different than in America. If you've been skiing, you would know...:)

Here's the lodge. Not very big and you can pick up your gear right inside this room. The section to the left is where you get it.

There were many Chinglish signs I captured on this trip, and those will come in a later post! Looking forward to that one! Thanks for reading and I love you all! Don't forget to think about me in China!

High's and Low's

As you all may or may not know, Danny and Layna are coming here for Christmas! We were supposed to go get them at the airport tomorrow, but there were some complications with their flight and it wasn't looking good that they were going to get to come. So, needless to say we were feeling so many things yesterday when the unknown was lurking above our heads. I was nervous, sad, angry at the weather, overwhelmed and hopeful. All of those things just made my stomach hurt, and I'm sure Danny and Layna were having many of those same feelings. They stayed up all night getting together some things for us in China and then they made it to the airport in time to change their flight to come the 28th. I know they were just exhausted! We were so excited! For a little bit, it looked unlikely they wouldn't get to come and that was a crushing idea. Stan and I were so thoughtful about this and asked for it to be possible for them to come because we knew we needed to see family and we knew they did. We knew it would be good for both of us. I think I have been experiencing a tiny bit of culture shock, because even though China had nothing to do with the flight problems in the USA, I was mad at China. We knew their coming would be so helpful. So we were absolutely delighted and ecstatic when we heard they actually were going to get to come! And because of the flight change, they are going to stay 2 days longer! So, that's good news! Well, that's all...I just needed to regurgitate my feelings about today. Thank you so much for reading, and I love you all! Don't forget to think about me in China!

Catchin Some ZZZ's and Many other Things...

I was thinkin' the other day that I didn't get any sleep when I was in America. With a 8-5 job, and school it was quite difficult to get a full night's sleep. But here, in China I only teach 2 and a half days, so I get plenty of sleep and I didn't realize how important it is! I am going to write myself a note from the future, reminding myself about this moment (like Dwight on "The Office") hehe.

This blog is pretty random, just bare with me. Stan and I are going to a weekend getaway with the teachers from our school. Our Waiban is coordinating it. We are going to Anji. It supposedly is the bamboo capital of the world! But we are in China, and their is bamboo everywhere, so I don't really know how that is gonna work out. There is a bamboo museum we are going to as well. And we are going to go skiing too. Even though I don't like to ski, I think it will be fun! I'll let you know how that goes! We will be out of pocket for the next couple of days because of that.

Ok, I have a couple things to say just about being in China. When the 7 of "us" are all talking to each other, or if I am just talking to Stan after a long day of teaching Chinese students, I will articulate everything I say and put spaces in between words because that is how we talk to our students! It is so difficult to get out of that habit and just speak normally! So we all say to each other, "I'm not Chinese, I can understand you." haha! Here are a few phrases we al use, because they use them. I never used these phrases before in my life. Somewhere in their English learning years, someone taught them these phrases:

After asking a question, "Do you know?"
If needing to take a break, "Have a rest."
If I need to find a bathroom, I cannot ask where it is, they do not understand that. They DO understand, "Where is the WC?" Because of the strong British influence here!
And when I refer to garbage they don't understand that either, it is, "Rubbish."

There are also a few words or phrases we say because they mispronounce them. This is fun to do around our group of friends, but we get so used to doing it, sometimes we do it around our students, and that's not good. We end up being hypocritical because we tell them that's the wrong pronunciation, yet we say it that way! haha! Here they are:

"He is very famours." (famous)
"I like to eat deliciours foods." (delicious)
"Very very sank you." (Thank you very much)

You see, they like to add r's to things that don't belong, and they are almost afraid to put their tongue in between their teeth and make a "th" sound! So, we like to have fun with these phrases because it just makes me mad if I don't try to have fun! haha

Something else I have never experienced is Mosquito bites in December! I have 3 mosquito bites because a mosquito got into our apartment last night and had a feast! But it's December!! I don't understand it!

I told you this was going to be random...one more story: Three of my students did their presentations on America...2 of them were in the same class and were only 3 people apart when doing their presentations. Well they showed many many pictures of the capitol building and started talking about the President and said, "This is the White House, where Obama lives!" ALL 3 of them did that!!! It was soooo funny! I wanted to laugh because I was wondering where they got their information from...? I don't know, It's China! And that's all I can say sometimes. Well, I'm sorry this blog was so much all over the place, but I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading and don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all!!

Teaching re-cap...kinda

Well, I normally do a teaching re-cap at the end of my teaching week and that is today! But I didn't do much with my students this week because they are finishing their presentations and it took most of the class period. One class, though, finished early and we got to play a game together. So, I will share with you a couple of funny things that happened. I told the class to get into their small groups I always put them in. I asked for a volunteer from each group to come up to the front, 6 people. They were all hesitant, not knowing what to expect. I told them we were going to play a game and I had 6 people up at my desk in 5 seconds! They love games! I explained we were going to play "Pictionary." I explained I would write down a word and have them draw the word on the board so their team mates could see it and guess what it is. The first team to guess, gets a point. I reminded them not to say the word out loud because their team will hear it and that is cheating. They all nodded their heads in understanding.

As soon as I wrote the word down, 2 of them said the word out loud! Uhhhg! "Don't say it out loud!" The class erupted in laughter. I gave them another word: "Christmas Tree." They all scrambled to get to the board except for one girl. She turned around and drew a tree on a piece of paper, shoved it in my face and shouted, "Christmas Tree!!" I said, "Not me! Draw it for your team mates!" She didn't get it. Luckily, one of the other teams had gotten it by then, only because they wrote "X-mas" and drew a tree below it! hahaha! I was laughing so hard. I didn't give anyone a point. Not one of the drawings looked like a Christmas Tree. Not one. So I picked up a green piece of chalk, drew a Christmas Tree on the board and said, "This is a Christmas Tree, (then pointing at their drawings)...Not this!" They erupted in laughter once more. It was funny! It might be one of those things where you had to be there, but I still thought I would share it with you! :) Well, I have some more things I want to share about China, but this blog would be too long. So, I will save it for another time! I love you all and thanks for reading! Don't forget to think about me in China!

Date Weekend

December 9, 2006 Stan proposed to me. It was the first full weekend in December and it was amongst a weekend of dates. Since then we have celebrated this every first weekend in December by having a "Date Weekend". Either I will plan it for us or Stan will and we take turns. It has been fun every year, but this year has been the most interesting because we are in CHINA! So, anyway this year we decided to plan it together, because it is all very new to us, this China thing. hehe... so we decided to stay at the Crystal Orange Hotel down by West Lake. This is in our city. We didn't want to go too far away, just a vacation away from our apartment. The hotel was cheap for what the set up was like!...

This is a view from the bathroom to the bedroom! Coooool!

This was "Sodo" our pet fish for the weekend! haha If you solved 3 sides of the Rubik's cube, you could get a free coffee. haha!

On Friday night we "saw the future," as Stan says it. :) We went to the Hangzhou Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. It was so cool! This place was huge! The Symphony was okay, but we were more impressed with the structure we were standing in, and the structures surrounding it. You will have to look at Stan's blog in the future to see the videos he got of this place!

After we got settled into our hotel we walked around the area and took pictures of the Christmas lights! I was so excited because we saw some really cool ones, and being in China, I didn't expect it! You will probably not be so amazed at these, but we were!

This is one of many Christmas pictures, but this was the best!

You can find more pictures later on Facebook!

On Saturday we ate at the Eudora Cafe and it was sooooooo good. My meal was a pretty small bowl of Penne pasta, shrimp, mushrooms, asparagus, and a "cream cheese sauce". It was quite possibly the best pasta which has ever entered my mouth, no lie. That is the slowest I have ever eaten a meal in my life! It was expensive for Chinese terms, but boy was it worth it! So, we finished our meal and headed down town to look for a movie to watch. We had heard the movie "2012" was playing in the theaters here and that it was in English only with Chinese subtitles. So we decided to do that. We got off at the stop we needed to and headed to where we thought the theater was. We got on some rented bikes and began to cycle our way down the road. Well, we made a wrong turn somewhere and decided just to get a taxi. We returned the bikes and hailed a cab. On the way to the theater, we saw some pretty Christmas lights. Stan said, "Get a picture!" So I rummaged around in my bag and in my pockets to get the camera. It was no where to be found. I kept searching, but it was gone. I was soooo sad! We had taken pictures of the food we ate and the huge building we were in the night before and all those pictures were gone! We retraced our steps and the camera was gone. Stan said he thought he heard something drop when we got on the bikes, so we went back...no camera. So we actually found a pretty good deal on one when we were waiting for the movie to start. That is why I have some pictures to show you today. Luckily, the pictures from this weekend are the only ones I had on the camera!

Now on to the movie... In China, you pick your seat for a movie. So we bought our seats and waited for the movie to start. The movie was suppose to start at 9:05 PM. We walked up to the ticket taker at 8:50 PM and handed her our tickets. She said we couldn't go in. They would not let us in the theater until 9:05 PM. There were people coming out of the theater at 9:04 PM. Then we filed in. Me and Stan were last in line and when we got to our seats they turned off the lights and started the movie. No previews, nothin. Only the movie. The movie was not finished yet...there were probably 5 more minutes left. Everyone started getting their things together and getting ready to leave! We could not even hear the movie for all the noise! It was so funny, they were all in a hurry. Well, that's all there is to date weekend. I laughed, I cried (over the camera), it was fun! Thanks for reading and don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all!

Teaching Re-cap

Well, it is Thursday afternoon and I'm excited to share what my class did this week. We are still completing final presentations, so the first half of the class is taken up with that. Then, I stole an idea from Kyle Hooper. He did the same thing with his class this week too! I explained who Santa Claus is and explained that children write him letters to ask for what they want for Christmas. I told my students I would like them to write Santa a letter! :) I thought this was going to end up being pretty funny, and some of them were, but it turned out most of them were pretty deep! I took the letters up after class. Here are some quotes from my favorite letters. These are quotes; word for word:

"Dear Santa, I wanna a small wood house, so that I can feel I am in the fairy world, I wanna wings so that I can fly."

"Dear Santa, would you be kind to make me fatter?"

"Dear Santa, How is everything going? As you know, Christmas is around the corner, I'm looking forward to your presents. I want a magic stick, and I think a time machine is my favorite. I'm waiting for your reply."

"Dear Santa, I wish I will meet my sole mate someday, and we both live happily ever after. I wish my prince show me the stars in the sky, and catch one for me."

"Dear Santa, I wish for a beautiful basketball, and I wish for a warm bed."

This boy's English is very good and I just love his letter:
"Dear Santa, This is the first time I write to you. You could not know how happy I feel that Christmas Day is coming. I need many things, more than you could imagine. But I believe you are a legend, so I could get anything from you. Alright? First, I'd like to have a big wallet so I can buy lots of food for all the poor all over the world. Second, a large box that is full of medicine so I can cure all the patients in the world. Please accept my request and give these things to me. Thank you, God Bless you."

It was a good week. Everyday has something frustrating happen in it, but days like these make up for the frustrating ones. Thanks for reading and I love you all! Don't forget to think about me in China!

Christmas Cheer!

For those of you who do not know, when I lived in the States, I had a bell which was attached to a string and I wore it from the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas. This bell is called my "Christmas Cheer" bell. This year is a little different because we are in China. I forgot to bring my Christmas Cheer with me. :( Luckily, China celebrates Christmas to a certain extent! I was able to find a Santa hat and some bells that will be sufficient for some Christmas Cheer. But my dilemma is that I have nothing to tie around these bells. I am still on a hunt for some ribbon of some sort to tie around the bells so I can tie them around my neck! :) Here is a picture of the wonderful hat and Christmas Cheer!


I bought these items in preparation for the Christmas Holiday, a couple of days before Thanksgiving. Much to mine and Stan's surprise, we got a big package in the mail about a week ago! It was from Amber Ferrell! She and I were suite mates in college and she was a good friend of ours in college and still is! We were so excited because it was unexpected, and those are the best! So we opened it up and this is what we found!


Christmas hats! Christmas Tree Ornaments! Christmas Ties that sing! And a Christmas game!! We were so excited because we were just getting ready to decorate the tree (that will be a later post!) so we were ready to dive in! I didn't need the hat that I bought, because she sent us hats that were much cooler than the one I bought! Thank you Amber!! We love you and really appreciate what you did! It brought much happiness to us!!

Before I go, let me ask something from you all. I have been getting a couple of comments on here that are anonymous and not signed, but I do not know who you are if you don't sign it. I love all the comments! It lets me know this log of events of my time in China is not a lost cause! So, please remember to sign your name, then I'll know who you are!! :) Thanks! I love you all and thank you for reading! Don't forget to think about me in China!

Taken Advantage of...

My blog has many hats, but the main one is to remember these events which happen while living here in China. This one, I think is funny and so weird. Let me tell you what just happened to Stan and I. I am going to try my hardest to express to you in the best way what just happened. We just got back from the weirdest experience here in China. We were getting hungry, as you do around dinner time. So we decided to go get our regular 5 kuai worth of fried dumplings and 5 kuai worth of fried rice and share it. That's our default if we aren't feeling like anything in particular. Well, it was sounding pretty good to me tonight and the price was as well! Sooooo cheap! So, as we were leaving the apartment we got to the front gate and a student ran up behind us and said, "Hello where are you going?" We told him we were going to go get some food. He introduced himself (I can't pronounce it) and said it was nice to meet us (before we told him our names, but that's not rare) and walked with us until it was time for us to turn to go get our food. While he walked with us, he said he sold flowers. His English was not very good and it was difficult to understand him, but I think that is what he was trying to say. He gave Stan his business card and told him to call him if he wanted to buy me flowers. He told Stan he would show him the flowers if he wanted him to. Stan politely declined and said he would call him if he wanted flowers.

We got to our turn off the road and told him it was time for us to go eat. He paused and said, "Come with me, I'll show you." We told him again we wanted to go eat and were not interested in looking at flowers. He said, "No I will show you. Come with me to eat." Oh! Ok, I understand...but we really wanted some dumplings and rice...well ok. Is what we were thinking. I thought it might be a good thing and we might make a friend. So he brings us to this really expensive restaurant just around the corner. We have never eaten there, but you can always tell when it is expensive. He told us he had eaten there earlier this afternoon. So he ordered for us. The first thing he ordered was 46 kuai...that's 41 more than the dumplings we were going to eat! So we said, "No! Too expensive!" So he ordered us some things that were less expensive. He ordered for us, but did not eat! Ok, I'm thinking this is so weird. He continues to explain his flower business. And shows us a "9.5 kuai" number on the card. But I did not understand what he meant. I asked if that meant the flowers were that much and he nodded his head. Then he asked if he could ask his girl friend to come join us. Well of course, we said. So, in comes his girlfriend and she introduces herself as Lily. He says Lily will one day be his wife and she laughs and rolls her eyes...yeah. So she sayd, "Guess how long we have known each other." We guessed 2 months. No. 2 weeks? No. 2 days? No, 3 days. And the boy thinks he's gonna marry the girl, who obviously does not agree! So throughout dinner, it would have been silent, had Stan and I not carried the conversation. He did ask us if he could come home with us to America when we go back. So, that was painfully awkward.

After dinner, he showed us the card that said "9.5 kuai" on it again and asked us if we wanted to see the flowers. Again, we politely declined and said it was time for us to go home. He took us up front to pay for dinner. It took a long time to get the check and they were talking in Chinese. So we could not understand them. Then we get the check, and it is suspiciously around 9.5 kuai more than it should be, by our calculations. Hmmmm, we pay anyway. And we say good bye to them. I looked back as we were leaving, and the boy was going back inside the restaurant...probably to collect his payment. We think maybe he had some sort of deal with the restaurant to get people to come in. I don't know. All we know is that we got taken by a Chinese guy!!! Won't happen again! It was definitely weird and awkward! LOL I wanted to remember that, and I hope you got a laugh! Thanks for reading and don't forget to think of me in China! I love you all!!

A Fun Weekend

I just got back from a fun filled weekend in Shanghai with my friends! Michael Bowen told me I'd better make this blog- let's see what was that? Oh yeah, "funny, touching, and totally unexpected". I hope I meet his expectations. I even have pictures and videos as visual aides! I will begin with "funny": As we were going up the escalator from one of the Subway stations, there were some cute little boys in front of us and they thought it would be fun to ride the hand rail up the whole way. They were so cute and having so much fun! Yes it was a little dangerous, but their parents were right there. Then, MY little boy decides it would be fun to do the same thing! It was so "funny"! I had to record it happening! The other little boys didn't know what to think. I'm sorry this video is sideways, it's the only way I could get it all! I think they were just enjoying themselves, as was the other "little boy". ;)

Now on to "touching": After having a horrible thing happen on Thursday night with the college girl getting hurt by the car, it was so nice to get away out of this city and explore a new one. Even though we have been to Shanghai before, it was a whole new experience because we did lots of different things! We were able to get our minds off of the situation in Hangzhou. I think it was important for us to get out of that element and refresh ourselves. It was very nice to be around friends! We got to meet with some family from Singapore on Sunday morning for the weekly meeting. There were some Chinese people there too! It was great to meet with them and know we are all connected around the world, no matter what language we speak. I hope this was "touching". It was to me. :) Here is a video of an adorable Chinese girl who was there with us on Sunday morning. You will want to take her home with you like me, Kris, and Rebecca wanted to!

Now for totally unexpected: Me, Kris, and Rebecca were introduced to a glasses market. It was insane. I had no idea this place existed in the world until only recently. It was amazing and we all got new glasses for really cheap! So cheap, I got two pair! haha!! I paid 350 RMB for TWO pair of prescription glasses! That is about 50 USD. I was so excited! I had heard about this place from Callie Mitchell about a month ago and wanted to get some before I left China. Well, I hoped it would happen this weekend, but did not think it was likely because not everyone wanted to do this! Well, it was "totally unexpected" that we would be able to go and get TWO pair of glasses! I was so excited!! I have a video and a couple pictures of me in my new glasses! The video is just a fraction of the entire place! Enjoy!

Number 1 pair of glasses.

Number 2 pair of glasses!

I hope to get more pictures and videos on Facebook soon! Thank you for reading! I love you all, and don't forget to think about me in China!

I Can't Write about It

Hello all. I am going to only link Stan's blog, "Tragically Helpless" for my blog because I am very sad about something. Normally when I am sad or upset about something, it helps me to write about it, but I just can't right now. It's too sad. If you have not read Stan's blog, please do. I apologize this is so short, and I've never felt like this before: not wanting to express my feelings, but I can't. Click here to view Stan's blog. I love you all. Please do not forget to think about us and our situation at our school right now. Thanks for reading.

Teaching re-cap

I just finished my 12th week of teaching in China. I did something with my students that I did as a child. My students are still doing their presentations for half of the class, so after the presentations, I explained The ABC game to them. I explained we were going to write a short story as a class out loud. I explained I would start the story with the first word "All" and they needed to begin with a word that started with the letter B. The next person started with C and so on. We went around the room and they had a blast with it! They loved it! A few of the classes did not do so well, but others were very creative and made long sentences that made sense! I was so happy when that happened! Here are two of the best stories we wrote as a class:

"All boys can do everything for girls, however, I just keep loving my Nate. Other people quarrel really silently tonight. Usually visitors worry. X-men, yesterday zipped apple butter. Cows don't eat fresh grass, however, I just kill leisurely. My nephew often plays." We went around the room 1 and a half times with this class. Nate is a boy in that class. I whispered in the girls ear sitting next to him to chose his name as the word for the letter "N". haha! They thought that was hilarious! After class, Nate told me he felt like a victim and laughed and said "Bye bye teacher". If I had said that, I would have been mad, but he thought it was so funny I had picked on him a little.

This is the story from the class I just finished today:

"All boys cry. Different elephants fight greatly. Hot ice-cream just kills love. Many notes open power quickly. Real secrets towards USA. Volunteers wait. X-men yet zero. Apples become cake dangerously. Eat fruit gladly." Like I said, some classes did better than others, and some struggled at certain parts. But I think they did pretty good! They are so fun to be around and this week was no exception! Thanks for reading and don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all!!

Mind Bender/Amazing night!

I write this blog for two reasons. As you can see in the title above, it is split into two equal parts. You can figure out the rest. :) I realized the other day that I look directly at the ground when I walk. I mean, I was walking to our cafeteria the other day to get a drink and I looked up. I didn’t even recognize the buildings around me and in front of me because I always walk through there with my eyes looking at the ground. If someone showed me a picture of that place, I wouldn't be able to tell you where it was located. I started to notice I did it everywhere. It's weird to notice something like that about yourself because you thought you knew yourself well enough and then bam! You're in China and realize you walk everywhere with your head down. Well, it's not exactly like that. haha, I think I came up with an explanation to this phenomena. Being a foreigner in China, I get stared at a lot. A lot! Our whole group of friends gets stares all the time, just because our faces look so different. I realized I was looking down as to not be embarrassed by the stares right in my eyes. They are not bothered by staring. They do not see it as rude or jerk their eyes away when you make contact with them. So, as to avoid the awkwardness I feel, I look down. I figured this out because after I noticed myself looking down at the ground while I walk, I changed things. I walked with my head up, looking around at everything around me, and I remembered the feeling of awkwardness when my eyes would meet a Chinese person's staring right back at me. It was strange though, because I changed the way I walked and held myself, unconsciously. I didn't figure out why until that famililiar feeling came back. The mind is a fascinating thing.


Tonight we had a lot of our students over to our house to help them with their spoke English. Our friends, Kyle and Rebecca Hooper came over and it was a group effort! It was wonderful. We had refreshments for them, coke and sprite, but they did not partake in them very much, because it is winter and they must drink warm things, not cold. (Room temp.) Anyway, it was so uplifting and fun! We played a name game and answered some questions about ourselves as American's. We got to know they whole group and gained some friends. We shared a wise saying with them. This wise saying came from the wise King Solomon. It goes, "A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." They liked this saying and repeated a Chinese saying which was similar to it. We had them act out a scenario in which this would apply. They had fun with it and so did we. We challenged them to tell someone about this wise saying and to try to follow it in the coming week. We invited them to our house next week, and they seemed excited. :) We are very excited about this and can't wait to gain more friends. We know He was with us. Please keep this activity, which will happen next Tuesday night at 6:00 China time, in your thoughts. Thanks for reading, I love you all!

Reading Makes Me Feel Good

Reading. I love to read, I just need to have a good book because I hate getting into a book and realizing I hate it. I don't want to finish it if it is going to be a bad book, but I have to in order to find out if it has a good ending, it's a vicious cycle. So, I am grateful for the books my mother gave me as an early Christmas present. I have finished two of them and on to the third! I love them, and I cannot wait to finish them! When I am finished with them all, I might need suggestions of other books to read from you all! Life here in China is more laid back than it is in U.S. For one thing, this job is not very hard, because I only work 2 full days a week, and one morning. Not difficult, so I like to find things to fill my time with intent. Reading is one of those things. Talking with students outside of class is another, which brings me to my next point. If you did not have a chance to read my blog having to do with our meeting we will have with our students this week, you should: here. Anyway, we are meeting with them tomorrow and we are excited! They are coming to our apartment to practice their English and we are going to have a listening activity with them. I think it is important to show them we love them and care about them. We are opening our home to them, in hopes we will convey this message. A great man once said,

"Love is not rude, it is not self-serving, ti is not easily angered or resentful. It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

I love that last part. "Love endures all things." All things. Love is not easy, especially if you are feeling badly about a particular country and missing yours. That is being self-less, showing love. I think it is so very important to show people we love them and enduring all things to show that, is what it takes sometimes. Thanks for reading and thinking about me. I love you all!

Thanksgiving!

Ok, so in China they don't exactly celebrate Thanksgiving. You know the origin of it and all. They know about it, and in bigger cities, like ours they are gracious enough to have turkey's for sale around this time! So we bought one and the day was wonderful! We had 20 people over to our little apartment. We decided to have Thanksgiving on Saturday because everyone was teaching on Thursday. It was a blast, we all scrunched in and had fun! We ate a lot, but there wasn't much left to spare! Myself and Stan, Kyle and Rebecca Hooper, and Kris and Michael Bowen did most of the cooking. The visitors brought some desserts and such, but it was a job! I've never, ever cooked for that many people and I think we all did a pretty good job! Everyone had fun and we were pooped by the end of the day from all the fuss! I hope you can see the pictures on Facebook, but here are a few to let you enjoy! He loves smiling for pictures. This is before eating... And this is after!

Can you guess what this is?!
We were so thankful to have so many of our friends and brothers and sisters come spend time with us to give thanks for all the wonderful things we have! Thanks for reading and don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all!

Teaching re-cap~ Thanksgiving Edition!

I have been doing this past couple of weeks, tell you what I did with my students this week, so I will continue. My students are doing presentations until the end of the semester, but that only takes up half of the class period. So, this week was Thanksgiving week and I talked about Thanksgiving and what we eat on that day. I explained the different foods we eat. I tried to explain cranberry sauce, but it is difficult to do when they do not understand what a cranberry is. I don't know if they didn't know what it was, or if they knew what it was and if I had known the Chinese word for it, they would have understood. So by the third class of the week, I stopped trying to explain that and just stuck with the meat and vegetables! haha! After every English food item I would ask them what the Chinese word for it was and they would say it for me, really fast. So I would ask them to say it again, slowly and they would oblige. I repeated it and they all clapped and laughed as if I had done a triple back flip on a tight rope in the air! It was funny, and they would do that every time I said a word. I would just get laughter if I said it the wrong way, but it was still funny!

After I explained Thanksgiving dinner, I explained the Thanksgiving Holiday is about being thankful. I told my students I was thankful for all of them being my students and I was thankful for love. I then asked them to tell me what they are thankful for. Most of the students said they were thankful for their parents because "They give me life", and some of them said they were thankful for their friends. I got to one boy and asked him what he was thankful for. He said, " I am thankful for friendship because if you have made a friend, you have touched a heart." I thought that was beautiful and true!

After I went around the room, I asked the students to email me if they were interested in improving their English. I told them we would be doing some activities outside of class in our apartment, and we have been getting some responses. This activity at our apartment will be used as a "study" to help the students in their lives by studying "the book". We will let you know how that goes! Well, that's all for today! I hope you enjoyed the re-cap! I love you all and don't forget to think about me in China!

Chariots of Fire

On our campus, well on all college campus' in China, they like to play loud music at 5:00 PM. You can hear this music where ever you are on campus. Even inside buildings. They blare it as loud as they can, I'm sure. Why 5 PM? I have no idea. The song they start with is always "Chariots of Fire." If you do not know what song that is, click here. It's hilarious that that is the song they chose to play everyday at 5. The songs progress through the evening and play until about 7 or so. Well, if you have read Stan's most recent blog, you would know what he did yesterday. He sat out on our "deck" and played Christmas music for our campus to enjoy. At 5 o'clock, the competition began with "Chariots of Fire"! He cranked up the jolly tunes and waved at passersby. He said he got a few smiles and waves, but most people did not know what to think. haha! Well, a little before dusk, we got a phone call in our room. No one ever calls the room, so I wondered who would be calling. It was Vincent, our waiban. He told us we needed to turn the music down and not play it so loudly because some people in our building were trying to sleep. At 6 PM. Keep in mind, the campus music is still blaring loud. This person is trying to sleep, and WE are keeping them up. yeah. Well, I thought it was hilarious that we got told on for playing jingle bells, while "Chariots of Fire" is just-a-blarin' in te background! Haha! I hope you enjoyed that, because I'm done. I'm gonna end this abruptly, because there's nothing else to the story, haha! Thanks for reading! I love you all and don't forget to think about me in China!

I jinxed myself

The weather here in Hangzhou has taken a turn for the better! It is beautiful! It really is Fall weather and I love it! It has been a high of 60 and low of 40. It's perfect Fall weather! Only one thing, I have had a headache for about 2 days straight. I don't know what it is. I think I might be getting sick, and that's no fun when the weather is so pretty. But it happens to be every year when the weather changes, so I don't know why I don't expect it! I was even telling Rebecca Hooper that I haven't gotten sick and I was excited about that! Well, that was Sunday, and Monday night I got a headache that wouldn't go away and started sniffling. It's a good thing I loaded up on meds before I left the States! I know something that would make me feel better...I need to watch this video. This video was taken at one of the orphanages here in Hangzhou. This little boy was soooo cute. Well, you can just look for yourself!


This is a little boy who could not walk, but he could move quickly on his own! I went with Rebecca Hooper and we plan on going back sometime when we can! Thanks for reading, I love you all! Don't forget to think of me in China!

I don't like to be scared!

Not all my blogs are about my life experiences having to do specifically with living them in China, and this one is no exception. Sometimes, it's just fun to talk about what you did today, whether it has anything to do with the geographic location or not. So, here is an oh-so-funny story for you. Stan likes to scare me...well anyone and he comes by it honestly! I have seen his father sneak up on people and scare them too! :) It IS quite funny to see, until you are on the receiving end! Kelly Russel and I have had many conversations about our husbands loving to scare us! One time, a couple weeks ago I was sitting quietly at my desk, minding my own business. I was zoned in on my computer, reading something intently and all of the sudden, I saw Stan out of the corner of my eye, literally. He was right in my face, trying to sneak up on me and scare me. Well, of course, it startled me and I hit him in the chest out of instinct! haha, it was funny but I was scared! Then Stan just started laughing, and said, "What would that have done if I had been a bad person?!" hahaha, it WAS funny, I have to admit! Well, today Stan and I were watching some black market TV shows and I stopped it in the middle to go get some orange juice. I ran into the kitchen really fast and filled up a glass of yummy orange juice. I walked back into the room and didn't see Stan. Well, because of his past reputation, I knew he was hiding. The question was, where? So, I stood quietly, waiting for him to appear and WAMMO! There he was, under his desk! He jumped out at me and screamed and even though I knew he was hiding, I jumped and screamed! Meanwhile, I still had my yummy glass of orange juice in my hand. During the jump, I spilled some on the floor. Stan was still under the desk and it almost splashed all over his face! Oh man it was funny! Anyway, that was this morning and there is no telling when the next scare will be! Thanks for reading this meaningless blog! I love you all and don't forget to think of me in China!

Grading Papers

Grading papers is not something that I am very accustomed to doing. I have never been a teacher in any formal sense, so when I sat down yesterday to grade some papers, I didn't really know how I was supposed to start! I know that sounds silly, but I didn't know if I should sit down and plan enough time to do them all in one sitting...so I decided to just dive in. Layna McCorkle, my mother in law gave me the idea to give a test in this fashion: Give the students X amount of words and tell them to write a story using those words. Well I thought this was a great idea, especially since they have a difficult time resisting the temptation to cheat off of one another. Let me explain that. In China, it is ok, no, more than ok to cheat. It is seen as good because if you cheated to get the answers to a test, you did what it took to get an A. So, I had to fight against this and I thought, "What better way to fight the plagiarism than to give them a group test and have them collectively write out a story using X amount of words!" Yes! So I did just that. I gave the students a list of 60 words they should know and had them choose 30 of them to write their story. After the test I realized I didn't want to sit there and search for the words they chose. So that was disappointing. I had to give the tests back the next week and ask the kids to circle the words they chose from the list. haha, I felt silly. Anyway, I decided what it took to grade papers was some creativity ;)...really I just got ADD and decided to take some pictures of things on my desk. Ha! It was fun! And it helped me get through grading the papers! I was drinking hot chocolate (as I do much of these days) so I took some pictures of my pretty new mug I got and my papers to grade. I will show them to you! Isn't this mug the cutest thing you've ever seen? I love it. It's like Christmas, early!


These are the things you need in order to complete a day of grading papers! :) Thanks for reading! I love you all and don't forget to think about me in China!

"Googoe"

This week my students did their presentations for their final. I had them talk about a place they would like to travel or a place they have already been. This was the first week they had signed up to do their presentation, so not that many people signed up for this week. The only exception was in my Thursday class. That is a big class, so there were a lot of people that had signed up, mainly because there was no other time to sign their name by. Anyway, they have a problem with being quiet when others are talking. So between two people doing their presentations, I stood up and said, "Did we forget the rule about not talking when someone else is? I cannot hear the person presenting if you are talking. So please don't talk." As I was saying that, I lowered my voice gradually so I was almost whispering at the end of the sentence. And the students all in unison whispered, "OK." It was so funny because I didn't expect them to say anything because a lot of times they do not respond.

The presentations were good, and after them we played a game. It is called "The Cards Game" well, because you play with a deck of playing cards. I handed a card to each student. i explained that each card had a corresponding question and they were immediately intimidated when I showed them the list of questions. But I encouraged them they did not have to answer all of them. Anyway, as I was asking the questions to each student in this particular class, they seemed very nervous. When I asked the question to them, they would look around at their classmates for help. I let it slide a couple of times (normally I wouldn't let them have help). It got to where every student was asking for help from his/her classmates. It all came down on one poor girl, lol. After I asked the question, she looked at her friend beside her. I said, "No, don't look at her! (in a joking tone, but I really didn't want her to.) And I kind of growled at the end, and they thought that was hilarious! And it was. I was trying to get the point across to them they needed to do it themselves and I think it worked! It was funny because they laughed for a long time after I "growled". haha.

One more thing about teaching: this is very random. I was asking my students where I could go on the internet to watch movies in English. They told me a couple of places and then one boy said, "You could also go on Googoe." I thought he just mispronounced "Google". I had heard a lot of students say that word. Then, last night I was looking at the websites my students told me to got to. In the corner I saw something that looked like "Google" but it was spelled "Gougou". Then the clouds spread and all was clear! IT IS pronounced "Googoe"! Hahaha it was so funny, because all this time I thought they were mispronouncing "Google". I'll leave you with that funny story. Thanks for reading! Don't forget to think of me and I love you all!

Christmas music before Thanksgiving? How dare you?!

I like Christmas music. I would listen to it all year long if I could. I am serious. So I feel comfortable playing the songs, singing them, and talking about Christmas after Halloween because that is when "The Holidays" begin. Well, some would disagree. Some people think it is ridiculous to start enjoying Christmas before Thanksgiving. I understand Thanksgiving is an important Holiday. I love it as well. If there was Thanksgiving music I would play it right after Halloween, but there is no such thing. Thanksgiving makes me feel good too. Being in China, there is not much "Christmas" or "Thanksgiving" to be seen. Sure there are some stores that put up decorations, but they are few and far between. So, I think that gives me even more reason to play Christmas music and enjoy it before Thanksgiving than it does in the States. Listening to Christmas music here in China, and thinking about Christmas anything makes missing home a lot easier for me to deal with. I mean look at this Christmas Tree: Who wouldn't smile at that?


The Christmas music helps me feel at home, and I am soaking it up! I think I have good reason! What do you think? Thanks for reading, don't forget to think about me and I love you all!!!

My 2 New Best Friends

When I came to China, I came fully prepared for the cold weather because I had heard how it can be miserable if you do not have adequate clothing. Stan and I bought some wool clothing that is easy to layer, breathable and comfortable. We bought some wool socks and I brought enough scarfs, hats and gloves to last a lifetime! I was NOT going to be cold this winter! Even though we have the wool socks, the toes still get cold. Adding into the equation the fact that there is no heat inside the school rooms and I am on my feet all day teaching, does not make the feet any warmer. Secondly, coming in after being outside for a while, you need to thaw out a bit. In America, I might sit by a fire place and thaw out to get warmer quickly. No fireplace here, so we bought a space heater. He's a little guy, but he sure does work! With a 220 plug, it gets hot fast! So these two items below are my two new best friends! The first picture is Crocs with lining. I could wear these barefoot! My feet simply do not get cold while I am wearing them. Even though my heel is half-way exposed, it doesn't get cold. The perfect winter shoe. The second picture is of our friendly little heater. I hope you can find some friends to help you through the cold winter months! Thanks for reading! Don't forget to think of me and I love you all!

A Frustrating Afternoon

This afternoon was a bit frustrating and I think it will help for me to tell you about it: There are a lot of people in China, if you did not know this. The people seem to multiply when rush hour hits! Stan and I decided to go down town to put more money on our bus cards. We got there just fine; it was about 3:30 when we left. P.S. It’s freezing outside! Literally; 1 degree Celsius. We got to the ticket booth and motion to the lady behind the glass that we wanted to put X amount of money on the card and showed her the card. Confusion set in on her face and I knew this was not going to be good. Normally if we make those gestures, people can understand what we want. Not this time, buddy. The woman scanned my card and cashed it out. Handed us cash and kept the card. No, no, no. That’s not what we want. Thankfully, there was a man standing next to us who could speak English relatively well. He helped us, but said that the lady was saying, “You can not put money on card uh…here.” We say, “Ok, thank you. Where can we put money on it?” He just keeps saying, “Uh…can’t put money on card here.” *shrug* UHG! He was very helpful though. We would have stood there and handed her the money all day long! haha

So, I decide I would like to eat some Muslim noodles…sooooo yummy and warm on a cold day like today. So we wait for our bus and here it comes! Yay! Wuhu! Rejoicing! Oh wait, it is completely full. Sadness. Despair. Worry. We look over and people are lining up to get on the bus, so we follow in hopes we will get on too! We push our way on the bus…literally. I was pushed on because someone else was trying to take my spot on the bus. We squeezed our way on and were smashed in by 3 more people who barely fit. I wouldn’t have gotten on that bus if I could do it over! I am standing there on the bus, Stan in front of me and we go for a couple blocks and come to another bus stop. One person gets off the bus. One. I look to the front door and they just keep coming! Not enough people got off to compensate for the many more getting on. I can literally not move and more people are getting on the bus! Stan is getting shoved back into me and I am being squished between him and this man behind me. My feet left the ground for a millisecond. No lie. I am not claustrophobic, but I wanted nothing more than to be off the bus. I was restraining myself from a break down! Ever stop more people got on and not as many people got off. I don’t understand how it happened and I don’t really understand how we got off, but I’m glad we did!

We were on our way to meet Kyle and Rebecca for some food and I had to stop and use the bathroom, you know the squaty’s. (By the way, I am learning squaty’s are way harder to use when you have a lot of layers on.) So in the midst of the squaty visit, I managed to drop my chapstick in the squaty. Did I go in after it? No I did not. Thankfully I brought many extras. It all ended well with a hot bowl of Muslim noodles. Mmm Mmm Good! Only better than Campbell’s. ☺ Thanks for reading and don’t forget to think about me! I love you all!

You Ran Over My Foot!!!

This, I think might be what a man was saying earlier this week. If I could understand Chinese when spoken so very quickly, I would be able to translate it accurately. My apologies for that. Stan and I were coming in from class the other day. It was raining and very cold! We were crossing the battle field...I mean the street and I heard a man start yelling! We had already gotten across the street and I looked back to see what was happening. He was yelling at a car that was right next to him. Touching him. The car stops, and the honking ensues. Honk! Honk! Honk! No one behind this car knows what is going on, but everybody is honking! The man yelling takes off his shoe and sock (keep in mind it is raining and frigid) and starts pointing at his foot to a bystander. The nice bystander is looking at the foot, be he cannot do anything about it, in fact, he had nothing to do with it! We decided this was not our fight and went on to our apartment.

I tell you that because last night our American friend Benjamin Faust got his foot ran over by a car last night! He is fine, but he is such a funny guy and it always seems he gets into the funniest situations. The picture below is him!
Number 1: He was having his blood taken for the Health Inspection and they couldn't find a vein, well he started to get light headed and he knew he was going to faint, and he knew he needed some water. As he was going down he just quietly said the Chinese word for water: "Shui" pronounced "Shway". So, no we call him "Shui"! haha

Number 2: Poor thing got kidney stones a week ago. The hospital didn't give him any pain killers, only antibiotics. He didn't eat for 3 days! Luckily I could relate to him, having some of my own about a year ago. (And I was able to slip a couple of pain killers I had brought along the way.)

Number 3: As I mentioned before, he got his foot ran over by a car! Anyway, he is a fun guy. I stole this picture from facebook. shhhhh

This is just a little experience in China! I hope you enjoyed! Thank you for reading! I love you all and don't forget to think of me in China!

I miss the smell of Fall

Being in China, it has gone from hot, muggy weather we are use to in Tennessee to cold, rainy, and windy. There was not really any "Fall" weather. It really isn't getting to me too badly, but I do miss the smell of Fall. I was reading my sister's blog, Christine. (if I knew how to link her page, I would. :) I still have to figure that out.) Anyway, I was reading her blog and she mentioned the smell of Fall, and I thought, "Man, I remember that, and I miss that." There aren't any hay rides, big fat pumpkins to carve, or bonfires. I am not saying this to make anyone feel sorry for me, I am only logging my thoughts and feelings through this journey.

On a lighter note, I think I am opposite of everyone. haha. Well, the reason I say that is because this weather is NOT getting me down, but I think it is getting everyone else down. My experience has been opposite of everyone's. When we first got here, I did not love this country. It was very hard on me to live here. All I wanted to do was go home. Well, that's not all I wanted to do. But After a couple of weeks, I was fine, and by the time we were able to go home for the wedding, I didn't feel the need to anymore (although it was very nice.) I am feeling like I like this place more than I use to. Maybe I am going through the "honeymoon" phase late, or maybe not. Some people here are having a hard time not being home for the upcoming holidays, but for some reason, I am not. The holidays are getting close, and I am even gonna be in class on those days! But for some reason, I am not feeling sad. Don't get me wrong, I love and miss my family, and that is what the holidays are about, but I think I have a purpose with the way I am feeling. I am wondering if my purpose for not having a hard time with the holidays is because I need to encourage my friends who ARE having a hard time with it. Doing something nice for them. Because I have been wondering why am I not suffering from sad feelings, when others are, who are in the same position as I am? Just some thoughts, I would like yours! Thanks for reading and don't forget to think of me. I love you all!

Weird Halloween

October 31st, 2009. Halloween in China. Vincent, our Waiban asked me and Stan to help plan the first Halloween Party at our school in a while. So we agreed. It was different. Me and Stan were the only ones who dressed up, until Kyle and Rebecca got there! We were excited to see them! We had some of our students help out with the party. There were 10 of mine and Stan's students who helped with the party, and there were 12 students who attended the party. Do you see what I am saying? Yeah, not that many people came and we were happy Kyle and Rebecca came because they helped the party's atmosphere!

Anyway, we had the party at the coffee shop and they would not allow any outside food or drink into the coffee shop. So we did not have any candy at this Halloween party. Only fruit, popcorn, and some cake. lol, it was funny and an interesting Halloween party! But hey, it's China! :) I put most of the pictures on facebook if you want to check them out!

A New Blog

Hello! I had a blog on www.7chinafriends.com, but I decided to transfer everything here because it is much easier, so welcome!

I just got back from America about 2 1/2 weeks ago. I went home for my best friend's wedding, Erin! I am just now getting the opportunity to blog about anything! I had to make up so many classes, good grief! Well, the wedding was beautiful and Erin was, of course! I was so happy to be able to go home! It was great to see friends and family! Let me tell you what happened when we got back to our apartment in China. When Stan and I arrived on our campus, our friends were so nice to surprise us by coming to welcome us home! Well, I was so excited to get into the apartment because we had so much luggage we had brought back and I was soooo tired from jet lag. ugh! So I get up to the 5th floor of our building and I had Stan's keys to the apartment. I put the key in the key hole and turned. It felt a little different, but I didn't know why. Well, apparently, with Stan's key, which is a copy, it needs a little more TLC when using it rather than when I am using my key. The key broke off in my hand. I WANTED TO THROW UP. No sleep, no dinner, my body was spent, and then I realize I have locked us out of the house! Oh yeah, it was 9:30PM. Thankfully, Stan had a good attitude about me breaking his key and locking us out of the house. He helped me to have a good attitude about it. I had to go to Kyle and Rebecca's apartment across town to get the spare key we had given them before we left, just in case anything happened. So, I got back to our apartment and luckily, or not having anything to do with luck at all, we were able to find a locksmith who was open at that time! Yay!! We got in and went to bed. We slept that whole night and into the afternoon, until 3! Then we got up and ate some food, then took another nap at 5 and slept until 9:30PM. We were soooo tired! haha...but we hardly slept at all that night. Anyway, the trip to America was fabulous, but I am glad I can sleep again! Thanks for reading!

I have a curfew

I just realized something today. I have a curfew. A curfew that is only enforced by my change purse. Stan and I like to go downtown and visit with out friends, Kyle and Rebecca Hooper, and Kris and Michael Bowen. It is about a 20 minute bus ride, and it’s really not that bad if we can get a seat on the bus. BUT...if we want to hang out with our friends until 10:00 or 10:30 PM, we cannot take the bus back.

Ok,let me break it down for ya. So a bus ride costs 2 kwai if you want air conditioning, and 1 kwai if you don’t, per person. (1 kwai is equal to 15 U.S. cents.) A taxi costs 17 to 18 kwai from Kyle and Rebecca’s school. The bus stops picking up passengers, (chen ka men...in Chinese) at 9:30 P.M. So, basically I have a 9:30 curfew. haha, it’s funny to think about it that way. Sometimes we just stay an extra hour if we feel like it and just take a taxi. Everything is so cheap here anyway! Well, this was a short blog, but a fun one right!? Yeah. Oh, and sorry the picture is kind of blurry, but that is a Hangzhou taxi right there. Well, thanks for thinking of us! I love you all!

It's Not a Free Country

Today I needed to buy a DS card for my camera. We were eating at a seafood market close to Kyle and Rebecca’s school. It was very good, by the way! There are a lot of different electronics stores along the way, so I thought I would stop at one on our way back. I turned to Rebecca while we were walking back and said, “Hey, I wanna stop in here and get a card for my camera. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.” And then, a little more tongue-in-cheek, I said, “I mean, you CAN do whatever you want. It’s a free countr-.” And then I stopped short. It is NOT a free country. I realized something I had been saying my whole life, in jest, was something I could not say truthfully now, in this country. It was weird to experience that.

They like to think they are free, but it is not like America. It makes me appreciate America. I don’t believe America does everything right and is the best at everything, but I do appreciate America. The things I see China doing right are things like living more simple lives. They should be commended. Some people live simpler lives because they are poor, but most people just do what they have to do, and have what they need, and nothing else. They don’t have all the fluff that American’s have, because they do not see the need in it.

Well, anyway, I feel like I have rambled. I just thought I would share that little experience with you. Thanks for thinking of us! I love you all!

I wish you could read this...

I really think that the Chinese people don’t care if the English is right. It cracks me up! These two pictures are professionally done, and some Chinese person typed the words out. And that Chinese person’s Chinese supervisor said, “Ah yes, the english is correct on that.” It must have happened that way, because there is no way a person who speaks english as their native tongue could ever have proof read this. Never. I know you can’t read it very well, so I will let you know what it says.

The picture to your left is a sticker on the outside of our shower in the apartment. And it reads: “Cautions: 1. You’d better not take a in-water bath or take a Turkish bath while you don’t feel well, if you suffer from heart disease, hypertension, and diab-etes. (Children’s mustn’t bath while being alone.) 2. After having a drink or fierce exercise, you’d better not take a bath. 3. The water temperature should not go over 45 degrees, and the appropriate is from 30 to 38 degrees. (C) 4. You’d better not take a bath for a long time The appropriate is from 15 to 20mins. 5. After the shower, you’d better drink water in time and take a rest.”

You’d better! hahaha, it made me laugh so hard. Oh yeah, and those periods that aren’t there, and the spaces that aren’t there, which should be are not my mistakes.

The picture to your right is something inside our shower. The lighting inside the shower is weird, so I couldn’t get a good picture. Please read carefully...And it reads: “Shower Computer System Micro-computer xontroller. Welcome to use products of our company Wish to bring beautifall anjoy to you! This is our aim of service” The end. I’m not making this up! This is all I have for today, but I have seen some pretty funny professionally made signs that are just as bad, lol. So you can look forward to those! Thanks for thinking about us!

An Interesting Experience

Something you may not know is that most Chinese citizens grow up using, and still use what we like to call “squaty-potties”. You literally squat to use the toilet, and above are a couple of pictures to help you understand how this works. Some places have a western toilet amongst many other squaty’s, but it is rare. Some of them even have footholds, so you know where to put your feet. Upscale, I’m tellin’ ya. In public restrooms, you may or may not have a toilet paper dispenser. So, we all carry a small package of tissues with us. This particular squaty-potty did have some toilet paper. It is definitely a different way of living. It’s weird to see a woman in a business suit go into a stall where you know she will be squatting in that suit. It’s so opposite from what I am used to. It feels like you should only be doing something like that to use the bathroom when camping. lol...so I used one for the first time yesterday.

I went with my waiban, Vincent yesterday to the Med-exam all of the foreigners needed to have. “It is for your health” is what we were told. Well, anyway, we went and I got my blood taken. That was less scary than I thought it was going to be. I had to pee in a cup, using the squaty-potty. I got an ultrasound done to check if I had some sort of liver damage. I got an EKG done, and eye and throat exam, and an x-ray done. The system of things being done was very cattle-like. I felt like cattle. I literally moved from one room to another, and I barely got dressed from the EKG before they were asking the next person for their papers. It was very “interesting”.

Anyway, the Chinese have something called “guangxi” or “face”. If you do something that is looked down upon, you will lose face with others around you, authority, etc. So, Vincent and I were standing in the enormous line, which we both new would take hours to get through the day with the rest of the lines looking just as long! So, Vincent said, “Do you think it would be appropriate for me to stand in another line, and then you get in that line when you are done with this line?” I said, “I don’t know.” He stood there for a minute, looking around and said, “I don’t care if I lose face! I’m going!” It was so funny, because it is a big deal to lose face for some people in China, but he did not care because he just wanted to get out of there! All in all, it was a fun day, but it was different than I am used to. After the exam, I was handed a thermometer and told, “This is for your health.” Yeah...Thanks. That’s all for now, I hope you enjoy my experiences! :)

I Need English Directions!!

I bought a phone yesterday!!! I also bought a camera, finally! But here’s the deal...I don’t know if you knew this, but the manuals were in CHINESE! I thought for sure, since we, in America are kind enough to supply different languages in a manual, that China would be. No no. There was no other language. Only Chinese. I’m learning more and more about China everyday. So, I googled my phone (lenovo E212) thinking, surely I will be able to find this manual online. Because you can find anything online! Anything! Well, not this. I looked for hours, and hours, outreached to my mother to ask for her help, asked all my friends if they had any suggestions. This phone’s manual is not available in English on the internet. So please, if you are able to find it, lend me a hand and email it to me! :)

The same thing with the camera I got. But I did find this one, because it is a common camera in English speaking countries. As you can see in the picture, it is a Sony Cybershot. I got a camera case with it for only 10 kwai. Which is about a buck fifty in America!! So cheap! No, I didn’t take this picture either. That would be ridiculous to take a picture of your own camera. I would have to do some sort of mirror trickery, and then you probably wouldn’t even be able to see it. So, yes, I googled this image as well. That’s exactly what my camera looks like, mine is even black! Not like that’s a hard color to find, but still. Yes, I love google. haha. Ok, I love you all, don’t forget to think about us, we are doing well now. Almost have a week under our belt. Thanks for reading, more to come!