Ahhhhh! China!!

These past 2 weeks have been crazy and life changing! As you all might know, me and my husband have been wanting to go back to China, and have been praying things would work out in the future for that to happen. We have wanted to have the opportunity to return to China and start a coffee shop! At this point it has been a dream because, well, we don't have any money! Well, 2 weeks ago we received an offer from some friends we got to know pretty well last year while we were in China, Jonathan and Danielle Jenkins. They offered us a position in their growing company, Order With Me. They will have people from different cultures working for them. They said they would like for us to come and be a part of their company to help with gelling the two cultures together, and sort of help with developing the company culture. Also, there are some other exciting things that are possibilities, but those are all things that will be discussed as we get to China and start our positions. They would like for us to be on our way to China by the end of January, 2012. So, what are we up to these days? Packing, organizing, rearranging, and getting rid of our things! Meanwhile, we've been decorating for Christmas! We bought our tickets to China yesterday and we leave on January 26th. Ahhhh! It's just so crazy fast, but I'm now getting used to the idea. We are excited and it's so wonderful that our friends and family support us. It makes the process so much easier on us! I just wanted to write it all out so everyone we haven't told yet can know what our plans are! Thanks so much for reading! I love you all!

GMC 2011

I haven't blogged in a while, we've been crazy busy! The last exciting thing we did was GMC. GMC is the Global Missions Conference in Texas. It doesn't happen every year, so we were happy to get the chance to go. It was encouraging to spend time with friends we hadn't gotten to spend time with in a while. It always makes me feel good, and blessed. We were also able to have the chance to build a booth for the conference so people could have the opportunity to talk to us about what we want to do in China with the potential coffee shop. We thought this would be a good opportunity to get the idea out to others. It was such a blessing because we got to meet so many people we would not have had the chance to meet. We served free coffee and invited people in to chat. Also, sometimes people would stop by our booth and ask if we were doing it in China already. It was neat to hear that, because that gave us a boost of confidence. We were also hoping to glean something from others and if anyone would be interested in giving some suggestions, we were so happy to take them! It was great! We were filled with so much information and suggestions! Here's a picture of the booth. It was the first time we had ever done anything like that, so we didn't really know what to do, but we wanted to make it inviting. You be the judge!




Here's a close up of the chalk board...


Stan did a great job! I just handed him things he needed. :) The bench for people to sit on is on the left side and the coffee is on the right side. One man at the conference who is already involved in the work in China told me, "You know, you are accomplishing here exactly what you want to do in China. Serving coffee and providing an inviting place to sit and talk about important things."

We are excited about the future and enjoying our time in America: counting our blessings every day. Thanks for reading, I love you all!

Reverse Culture Shock

We’ve been back in the States for a little less than 3 months. When the first of September came, we felt a little odd not going to China, and had some “what’s next?” feelings. We’ve been doing A LOT of traveling! Things are starting to slow down and I am finally able to clear my head enough to blog! I was thinking about some things that are different now, and if you don’t want to read them, that’s fine… it’s mainly me processing change, which is better than rejecting my American culture, or being frustrated with things. ☺ So here are a couple of ideas that have been bouncing around in my head about reverse culture shock.

Every. Single. Day in China, I would get up and check the weather. (periods added for emphasis.) Now you may say, “Well, that’s no different from life in America.” Ok, I still check the weather everyday in America, but it’s not for the same reason. I am just curious to know what the day will feel like. In China, it was a MUST to check the weather. Your well-being depends on it! I don’t mean to sound dramatic, but if you were caught in the rain or it got cold or hot during the day and you weren’t prepared, you couldn’t just run to the car and grab that jacket you have for times like this, or just go back home. You were either prepared for the weather or you werne't. The other day I said to Stan, "Hey, it's not supposed to rain for 10 days!" We both were so surprised because we are used to having a couple days of rain here and there, or a week of rain here and there. The rain doesn’t bother me so much here because I can just hop in the car and hardly get wet at all!

When the internet used to quit working, we would become irritated beyond belief at first in China. Then we got used to it, and while it was still irritating, we knew the most we could do was tell someone and they may or may not come to fix it when we wanted them to, or when they said they would. Now that we are in America, and if I am in a place where the internet isn’t working, I automatically think, “It’s just because it’s China.” But I’m not in China! It’s funny to have realizations like that, even after being here for almost 3 months.

Speaking of the internet, before getting on the internet, I always go up to my toolbar on my computer and start to click on the VPN. The VPN is what we had in China so we could access websites like, blogger, facebook, twitter, and google. I still find myself moving my mouse toward my toolbar to turn it on, but I don’t have to. We are definitely creatures of habit! Ha!

Since we rode buses a lot, I would make sure I had a movie or TV show, or some good music on my phone so I could listen/watch while on the bus. I just recently downloaded a lot of the new songs that are on the radio, thinking I would be able to listen to them on the bus—but there is no bus to ride. I use to hate the bus rides downtown because they were so long, but I learned to appreciate them and now they are not available to me. Life is different, and learning to adapt is important.

I would say the thing that is the most shocking to me is things that are perceived to me to be different about America. For example, when we were in China and I was being bumped into without an apology, or being cut in front of in line, I would always think, “Americans are more courteous than that!” Then when I got back to America, some of that courtesy seemed to fade in my eyes. I know that Americans did not become more rude over the past 2 years suddenly. It is because I placed my first culture up on such a high pedestal, that when it’s flaws were shown to me I let myself down. My first thought when someone does something rude is, “Are you Chinese? Because that’s rude!?” That’s my first thought… not what I say. ☺ Then I think, “America isn’t what should be placed on such a high pedestal. It’s Christ who should be...being in the Family and having a common bond. That’s what sets us apart from the different cultures of the world. No malice, no scheming, only love. That’s where it’s at. I need to remind myself I am a Christian first, then an American.

Those are just a couple things my mind has wandered toward while being in the states the past couple of months. Logging my thoughts is going to be important for me in the present and in the future. Thanks for being a part of it! Thanks for reading! I love you all!!

One more Chinglish Blog from last year!

I was looking back at my Chinglish blog entries and I realized the last one I did was actually a Vietnamese one. That means I hadn't done a "Chinglish blog" entry since last semester! haha! I guess I had forgotten to take pictures or else I had already seen the one's I didn't take pictures of. I don't know... anyway, I have some for you today! Some of these aren't exactly Chinglish, but I still think they are funny pictures, so just work with me on those ones. Enjoy!

This first one is just to show you that they use the British way to spell some things instead of the American way.


Ping Pang





Sometimes the "v" and "u" get confused.


You can't see it very well, but it says "Pause". I had to get this one fast because the girl was looking at me like I was crazy. I jut ran away real fast after I took this. That's probably why it's a bit blurry too. haha!


Try to pronounce this one!


Team one, Team tow, Team three...


Like I said, some of these aren't exactly Chingling, but this one is just funny to me :) "Fire Fighting Facility"


By "O'clock" room, they mean this room is charged at an hourly rate.










I found this in a Chinese magazine. Pretty much everything about it is strange.










Well, that's all I've got! I've been meaning to put these on a "Chinglish" or "Engrish" website, but I just haven't gotten around to it. I'll try to get that done, so more people can enjoy these pictures! Thanks for reading, I love you all!

Hello

Hello. Yes, it's been forever since I've blogged. Yes, I should be doing better. And I will, now that I have an idea of which way I'm going now. Some of you may already know this stuff, but here's a little re-cap of the last two months:

We are living in Stan's grandmother's (Nanee's) house in Gallatin, TN since she isn't living in it now. All thanks to Layna and Danny who so graciously have let us stay here! We are very grateful for them and this house! We have a place to lay our head and our stuff without having to get in the way of family. I'm in the process of weeding out some of our things we don't use anymore and I need lots of space to spread out and look through our stuff! God has blessed us with much but since we aren't using it, it's about time to let someone else! :) We have been traveling like crazy! Whether it's working tree jobs or just visiting friends or family, we've been on the road! Some of you we are planning to come see, but we haven't gotten to it yet! I am in the process of trying to find a job right now and have a prospect or two... we'll see!

Everyone has been asking us, "How long are you going to be here?" We are telling people we will be here about a year. We aren't too sure about it, there are some unknowns that will become known, and then we will know! Ha! As soon as we know, we'll let you know! I haven't been able to sit down and blog yet really because we haven't been home long enough without something else more pressing or important taking up my time. And we didn't have internet in Nanee's house until just recently. The most thing that makes me frustrated is I have missed out on reading all my friends blogs! I am really going to try to catch up! Until then, I may or may not comment on your blogs and I'm sorry I haven't been. I still love you all!

I have hopefully one more Chinglish blog, but I'm not sure when I'll get that up. But you can be looking forward to that! :)

Thanks for reading and I love you all!

So much to write!

1. I am sorry I have not blogged or read any fellow blogger's blogs recently. I've been a bad blogger friend.

2. The reason I have been such a bad blogger recently is because there is so much to write about and I am overwhelmed and finding the brain power to organize it all! This is a good thing, but I need you to know I haven't quit! Hopefully this Friday, I'll be able to find some time to go out to Starbucks and do some blogging (Along with some other things on the to do list for school).

3. I love you all, thanks for reading!

Survivor

I don’t normally watch “Survivor”. I’ve always thought it was a silly show (I still do) but it is entertaining. So we have been watching this season. A boy named Matt is a believer and he is very vocal about it. If you don’t know anything about the show, I’ll give you some info. Matt is getting the bad end of the deal on everything. Everyone on his team have chosen him to outcast. No one is treating him very well, and he is having a hard time with it. I really do feel sorry for him, because he’s not being treated like a human. Everyone is against him and he has the best attitude of anyone. He constantly talks about how God is part of his life and he’s told God he would stay there as long as God wanted him to be there. Well, he’s gone through a lot and is still in the game. He’s gotten some flack for talking about God so much. But, I just love it. I’m routing for him! He is the ultimate underdog.

So, I have a student who usually stays after class for a long time to talk to me. Her name is Toma. “Toma… like Tomato. I like this fruit.” She’s a lot of fun to be around and we’ve shared some simple conversation about culture and different things in China. The other day she asked me what I like to do in my spare time and we started talking about hobbies and interests, and that led to TV shows. She told me she likes to watch “Survivor” very much. We shared some ideas about different people on the show. Who is crazy, smart, good player, bad player, good person, mean person, and Matt. She was interested in him because of how much he talks about God and the rest of the players don’t. I told her that I heard some people who are atheist disagree with the show and said they would stop watching it if CBS kept putting Matt on there, talking about God. This sparked Toma’s interest even more. She said, “Not everyone in America is believing in God?” I explained that not everyone in America is Christian, and not everyone who is Christian lives in America. We talked about how much Matt believes God has helped him on the show and Toma seemed to be pulling for Matt too. We’re planning on watching the show with her next week, and maybe continue some discussion. It's possible nothing may come of this, but it is always exciting to talk about our heavenly Father with someone who doesn’t know Him. Please add Toma to your prayer list, and pray for our interaction with her.

We've talked about emailing Matt and letting him know that how he is living his life on TV is helping us to start good conversations with students. We'll have to look into it and see... Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Teaching Re-cap!

A couple weeks ago I showed "The Blindside" in my classes. Last week we finished the movie and I had them get into groups and discuss some questions. The main question I wanted them to answer was, "If you were in the Touhy family's position, do you think you would do the same thing for Michael? Why or why not?" I had the students write down their individual answers and hand them in to me. I would say, more than half of the students said they would do the same thing as the Touhy family did. Here are some of their answers.


Yes I will…

"We should take pleasure in serving others."

"No matter how serious the racial discrimination was, the woman just did what the intuition led her to do. She expressed freedom, independent, good faith, and also broke up the shackles of traditional thought."

"Yes, I will help him. Today you help him, maybe someday you will turn to him for help." This one is interesting, because a friendship in the Chinese culture has an element of 'You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.' I know this is evident in the American culture, but it's not really something you would showcase as one of your characteristics. In the Chinese culture, it's just part of a friendship.

"I think love should be shared as long as we have this kind of ability. We think helping people will not only bring happiness to everyone, but it also makes my heart full of love by watching others happiness. We are moved by Leigh Anne and her whole family’s unselfish actions. It breaks up our normal notion about the wealthy people."

"Of course we will, although he is black, his heart is sunshine. He is upward. Not only brings us happiness also let us grow."

One girl said all of these wonderful things about Michael’s character and how good of a person he is... then added this at the end, “The last, I think Mike is very big, so he can protect me. Haha…” Haha! She wrote that on her homework! “Haha…” That cracked me up!

"If I have enough money, I can." This was part of a lot of the answers and just simple as that. The money part concerned a lot of the students, and they didn't think they could help in any way with out money.

“I think love is human smoothes the scar.” Just read that a couple of times and you can figure out what he was trying to say. The most ironic thing about this is the student who wrote this is named Blade Master.


No I won’t…

"To me, he is a stranger who I know little about. I am uncertain if he is really in trouble."

"Bringing up a black isn’t a simple thing…my other kids could not accept this big man. Their life wouldn’t be harmonious."

"I already have two children, I don’t need another child."

"As our traditional culture, it’s very hard to us to accept a man who is so different from us. Especially we consider Michael’s size and strength, he’s a bear of a man. He might hurt my children."

"He looks like a big monster. Maybe if I was Leigh Anne, I will not adopt Michael. Perhaps I will give him some money. Love is broad and selfless, maybe I should learn from Leigh Anne."

I'm just gonna leave it at that. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed! I love you all!

Vera

Many people in China believe God is a tyrant or a dictator. He tells us what to do and if we fail, he will be angry with us. God is the ruler, and we do what he says to do.

“I don’t understand why American’s believe in the Bible and in God. I have a friend, who told me that God is the truth, but in my mind truth is reality and I can’t see God so I can’t believe in Him. I studied about religions in school. In my book, there is logic, but in the Bible there is not logic. So I want to know why do so many Americans believe in God, if they cannot see him?”

This question was asked of me earlier this week by Vera, a girl who is a “free thinker” in China. Vera is one of our good friends who works at Starbucks and we get to have many thought provoking conversations with her.

I thought for a moment and answered this question, “I believe in God because I have faith in Him. From what I understand about the Bible, God is so much like a father who loves me and cares about me. He wants the best for me. I am who I am because I know he loves me.” She said, “So you believe God because He knows your life, but he doesn’t change your life?” I said, “Oh no, He changes my life all the time. Some bad things happen in my life, and also some good things. When bad things happen, maybe I will be sad right then, but I know God is working in my life and some good can come from a bad situation.”

Vera said, “Oh I think I can understand. Like, if you break your arm then you will be very sad and hurt. But then after you break your arm your friends and family care for you. And you realize you have so many people who love and care for you in your life.” I said, “That’s exactly what I mean. If something like that happens, I am so thankful to God for those things and people.”

She said, “Many people who believe in Buddha believe in him because they want to get more things. So if you believe in Buddha, you will get good things and he will solve your problems. So is it the same as you believe in God?”

“I believe in God because I have faith in Him. Yes, he blesses me with things, but that is not the reason I believe in him. God wants to have a relationship with me.” I asked, “If every time I saw you, I asked for your help and always needed something from you, do you think we would have a good relationship?” She shook her head no. I said, “It is much like that with God. He wants us to have that loving relationship with Him. So many times I just talk to Him about what is going on in my life. And I grow closer to Him.”

“If I am not a Christian, can I read the Bible?”

“Yes! Anyone can read the Bible.”

“So when I read the Bible, will God be angry because I am not a Christian?”

“Ohhhhh, no… He will be happy! He will be so happy because you are learning about Him!”

“Really? Ok…so…I can read some bibles… Maybe I can read with some people who know a lot of the Bible. But (long pause) I am afraid their minds will have some influence on me.”

“Yeah, I think you are a very smart girl and you like to think for yourself.”

“But maybe I don’t understand some things about the culture, so maybe I need to ask some questions to some people.”

“You know, I have some questions about the Bible even though I am a Christian. But I still have faith in God. I don’t doubt Him. But when I do have a question, maybe I will ask Stan or one of my friends and then we will study it together. No one knows all of the answers; we just study together to try to find the best answer. Vera, I want you to feel comfortable to come ask me a question, but I also want you to know I don’t have all the answers.”

“Ok, so maybe next time I read the Bible, I can ask you some questions.”

Then Stan explained how we like to discover what the Bible says together and how we all learn from each other. Because Vera expressed concern about being influenced by others, she seemed to appreciate this style of bible learning. Then Stan briefly discussed that reading is not the only thing he does as a Christian, but he enjoys doing what he has learned.

“So sharing with each other and you can be smarter and happy!”

Our friend, Milissa was involved in the conversation, but came in a little late. Many times when Vera didn’t understand my English, Milissa would act as a translator to Vera, adding to the conversation.

I mentioned at the beginning Vera holding a recipe book she was going to read. We had a long conversation about God and the Bible, and she never opened that recipe book. She came up after her shift was over and left when we left. She’s seeking.

Requests: Pray God gives us the wisdom to help her discover Him for herself.
Pray she is a person of peace. (Don’t know what a Person of Peace is? Find it here in Stan’s blog titled “Any Comments? Part 2/2”.)
Pray that we will not influence her, but that He will influence her through the Word.
Pray that Milissa and Vera will share this with friends, family, and co-workers.

Teaching Re-cap!

This week in my class I played the ABC game with my students. If you don’t know what that is, I’m sorry, you didn’t have a good childhood. ☺ just kidding… I wrote the ABC’s up on the board and had one student throw the ball at the board to choose a random latter. Then the students each said one word, following the alphabet, to make a sentence. I left out the letters X and Z because there are so few words they know that start with X and Z. I made it a tad easier on them… I wanted them to focus on getting the right form of word. This activity was good for them to practice grammar. It really challenged them! I have included some of the ones we did this week. Each class started with a different letter and not with A. Also, some of the classes got to do another one with groups, (that’s why some of them aren’t in an alphabetical sequence.)

Some of these are not very good, but I included all of these because there is something funny in each one! Tell me which one is your favorite! ☺

I just kissed lots more nuts. Our party quit recently. Saturday Tom used vegetables. When your Aunt borrows caps directly, every friend goes home immediately. Jack killed Lilly’s mother natively on purpose, quietly. Recently speaking tenderly.

Kings live more nervously on purpose. Queens run slowly, then uncles view wonderful yellow apples. Bikes circle damaged eggs finally. Girls hug ibex. Jumping kind land may need occupations possibly. Quality raises success.

Afternoon! Before classrooms draw eager flowers, good hats ignore jackets. Kevin loves money, not only pounds. Questions remember students. Teachers undertake vacations. Wonderful years ask Bella colorfully dressed. Every Friday, girls highlight important jobs kindly.

Tea usually values wonderful yummy ants. Boys come down eventually for girls. Hate in jackets keep labels. Meanwhile, nationally organized parties quickly recycle. Orange plants quickly result some truth.

First, girls have ideals. Jenny kept literature. Michael noticed old paper. Questions reflect simple topics. University volunteers want yellow apples. Boys can do every funny game. However, I just know Linda. Michael nods occasionally. Peter questions reasonably. Eventually friends get high international jobs.

Asked my students if they knew what it meant if their friends get high. They nodded with deadpan faces, and went on to the next person. I thought since they did not laugh, that they truly did not know what it meant. So I asked again, “Are you sure you know what it means?”

“Yes. To feel happy.”

“No, it means—“

“Have too much alcohol?”

“No, it means to use drugs too much.”

Just so you know, the possession, usage, and exchange of drugs is completely illegal in China. The punishment is serious… really serious, so this is nothing to be spoken about lightly. When I said what it meant, their eyes got big and they immediately wanted to recant. But as you can see, they made it work without it having anything to do with drugs. I found it funny, but I don’t know if they did. ☺

It was a fun week of classes and next we are watching a movie, “The Blindside” and then having a discussion about it the next week. There are good opportunities for good discussion about good things! If you have suggestions about discussion, that would be helpful! If you haven’t seen the movie, you should! Ok, that’s all I have for today. Thanks for reading, I love you all!

Sometimes I talk to Myself

No really I do, I talk to myself...even when Stan IS here. Sometimes I think, "Did I say that out loud?" Haha, it's quite funny. Anyway, I'm saying all that because yesterday was not the best day in the world. I've been going through a bit of culture shock, and it started a little bit before Stan left for America. You have your good days and bad days, but I've been in a little bit of a funk. Ive just been excited to get home, frustrated with my classes, and over all been going through a bit of withdrawal from the culture. To make it a bit worse, I made a girl cry in one of my classes yesterday. Not joking at all. It was a misunderstanding.

Many times if you directly ask one of my students a question, a lot of silence follows either because they are thinking, don't know what to say, or don't know how to say it. But the silence is what kills me because all they have to say is "I don't know" or "Let me think" (and they know how to say these things). But with the culture, they aren't going to say that because they don't want to be wrong. So, this sweet girl in my class was thinking about something. I asked her to choose between two things. Silence. I asked her again. Silence. Loooooong pauses. She was being very very quiet and looked so nervous, so I made an executive decision for the class because I didn't want to continue to embarrass her. (This was an activity where things needed to happen in a sequence and a decision needed to be made.) I made the decision and asked the girl if that was okay. She just looked down and I thought I saw her crying. I quickly moved on (saying anything further would have totally humiliated her in front of the class even more than she was) and finished class some time later. After class I asked her if I had upset her. She said she thought by my making the decision for her, I thought she was wrong. (please know that she was being very respectful in saying this. I asked her to tell me what was wrong. She was hesitant, but told me.) I told her I was so sorry I had upset her and that was the last thing I wanted to do. I was drained after that because it upset me too. But I still had to teach another class. Whew! I got through the day, but I was still in a bit of a funk. As I was getting ready for my afternoon class, I was talking to myself. I was saying, "I have kinda been hating China right now." (I use that term, not to mean I hate it, but that I am having a rough time in the culture and being away from home.) "I don't really want to go out of the apartment. It's raining and I want to do exactly what a rebellious teenager would do: Rebel. Not go to class. Call in sick and sit in the room, watching a meaningless TV series." BUT, I went to class anyway.

Thankfully during this class, I was able to get my point across to the students and it was a successful class. I left the classroom feeling good, not frustrated, and more in tune with my students. Now every class is different, but it was a nice pick me up! Okay, I say I talk to myself, but it's really like I'm telling these things to God. It was a breath of fresh air to have a good interaction with my students! :) I'm thankful for that! I like to look at things like this as Him helping me and letting me know that I am here for a reason and He needs me to do what he has asked me to do. When you have feelings of culture shock, it's really easy to retreat and withdrawal from everything around you. (for me anyway) So, I lost focus for a little bit, but I think I've regained it. Thanks for all your thoughts! I love you all!

This Past Week

This past week, I have been alone in the house, yes but I still have friends around me so that's great! I miss Stan and I'm excited for him to be back, but I also know he needs to be there, so it's ok! By the way, if you haven't read his most recent blog post, please click here! This past week I talked about the upcoming holiday with my students, "Qing Ming" or in English "Tomb Sweeping Day". I learned something new about the Chinese culture. On this holiday they take fake money to burn, flowers to lay on the graves of their ancestors, and clean it up a little. The new thing I learned about was the death experience itself. In China, if you live in the city, (and the cities are BIG here! Texas ain't got nothin on China!) Anyway, if you live in the city you MUST be cremated. The MUST is because you have no choice. There simply isn't enough in the ground to bury people. To have a cemetery. I mean, I guess if you want your relatives buried under building with no grave site, you can not cremate them. (I hope you know I'm joking.) So, they cremate them, but they put the ashes in a box (most likely a small coffin) and then bury that! So it takes up much less room. Interesting, huh? As I was explaining what the word cremating meant in English to my students, they told me the Chinese word. It just translates as "burned". They don't use any other more polite words to say it. They just say "burned". I told my students that was maybe the impolite way to say it, so I taught them the word "cremated".

I also explained that some people who get cremated like to have their ashes put in an urn, (and explained what an urn was) and maybe have the urn in a special place in the house. As I explained this, every class would look at me with disgust, trying to hide it on their faces as to not be rude. I finished explaining it by saying, "Some people think it's gross, so they don't do that." Then they all laughed. In China, if you live in the country side, you have all the room in the world! So you can be buried full body in the ground. All this was very interesting to me. I am learning more and more about the funeral customs (but that's for another blog entirely). I hope you enjoyed this bit of information as much as I did (as morbid as it may seem!) :) Thanks for reading! I hope you read Stan's blog post! I love you all!

Frustrating day...

This has been an extremely frustrating day. This week in class, I gave my students the assignment to find a partner and make a dialogue with each other. They had to use at least 10 words and phrases from a list of about 40. I thought I was going easy on them. In one class 4 boys sat and did nothing the entire 20 minutes I gave them to prepare. I didn't know this until it was time for them to present their dialogue. I called on them and one boy looked up and said, "No... I have nothing." As if I had startled him! He laughed and looked back down as if that answer was acceptable. Since all of them were not going to volunteer any information, I called on each of them and they all gave the same answer. I kept them after class and explained to them that it was unacceptable to do nothing in class. I warned them that with this type of behavior, they will fail the class. This same thing happened in every class. So very very very frustrating! They think they can get by with doing nothing because, well... they can in this country. It doesn't matter what I say, they know the oral English class is the least of their worries. It's the truth here. I'm not looking for pity comments about this, because it's just the truth, not me getting down on myself. The oral English classes just aren't that important.

Then as I was leaving my last class for the afternoon (I still have one more tonight) I got a phone call. A woman who had called Stan a couple of days ago asked if he could teach a speech class. He said he couldn't because he would have too many hours and that would be a breach of his contract. So, she called me. I only have 14 hours, I am supposed to have 16. She told me that I must teach this class and that the class is on Wednesday night, but that I have the choice of changing the time. I told her that Wednesday is the worst day to do the class, because that is when I have most of my classes. She seemed a bit put off to have to change the time of the class (but it's my choice to change the time...) Anyway, I told her Monday nights would be better. She said the class will start next week. I remembered then that we have a holiday coming up on Monday and Tuesday and don't have to teach classes. I reminded her of that. she asked if I could do the class on Friday nights. Friday nights!?! Really? I mean really? As you can tell, I'm having a bit of a bad day and everything is very frustrating to me. So I told her that a Friday night class would certainly not be the best time to have the class. Seeming put out again, she said we would just meet the next week after the holiday. fine. I asked her what the class is about. She said it is a public speaking class. Have I ever taught public speaking? No! Have I been through training for that? No! I told her I regretted to inform her that I honestly do not think I am qualified for this class. She laughed and said, "But you teach English here." I said, "I teach oral English. That is completely different from Public Speaking." She asked, "You are from America, right?" Me: "Yes." Her: Well, I know that you had to take a public speaking class in college. Is that right?" Me: "Yes, of course. This does not mean I am qualified to teach it after sitting through one class." Again, she laughed, "Well, I think it is good enough." Good enough? GOOD ENOUGH!!? She said she would send me the details. I said ok and hung up, defeated.

**SIGH**

These things happen ALL THE TIME, I just don't blog about them that much. But I think today I hit my breaking point. I'm glad I can have some time to cool off before that class actually starts because it makes me so angry that they are just looking for someone, anyone to fill the position. I am in no way certified, qualified, or have had the amount of classes needed to teach this class. It's not a self-esteem issue, I just don't have the training. But I will do my best. I know I will be fine, and I'm not nervous about it at all, just frustrated.

Whew! I needed to get that all out! Cuz now I feel a little better about it. If Stan had been here, he would have heard all of that and I probably wouldn't have blogged about it, Ha! But it is one of those things that happens here in this wonderful education system. I hope all of that made sense... if not, too bad. Ha! :)

Thanks for reading (if you got all the way through it) :) I love you all!

Say a Little Prayer

Yesterday (Tuesday) Stan was talking to his father on the phone while our tutors were here for our weekly Chinese lesson. He kept popping his head in to let them know he was sorry, but he needed to talk to his dad. They didn't mind. We were just about finished with tutoring anyway, so they just left. When Stan got off the phone he said, "I think I'm gonna go home." I knew that his grandfather had been sick for a while and recently had a heart attack and a stroke at the same time! So, I knew he would need to go home at some point, given his grandfather's health condition. He made arrangements with his classes last night, packed a bag and headed out this morning to Shanghai. It takes a good half a day to get to Shanghai from Xiasha, so he had to leave this morning for his 3ish o'clock flight. He will get into Nashville around 10:00 pm on Wednesday in America. It was a quick decision, but a much needed one. He will be staying in America for almost 2 weeks! So, I'm trying to keep busy! :) Please keep him and his family in your prayers! Thanks so much! I love you all!

We will still love you

The other day we were sitting at Starbucks with our good friend Milissa, who is the manager at Startbucks. We were eating some dinner and just talking. Milissa was saying she was nervous about her driving test. (Side note: She is 27 years old and is just now attempting to get her license. Quite different from America, huh? And if you want to get your license in China, you must go through an agency to help you learn how to drive, and only after you have completed a program with them can you take your drivers test.) Anyway, Milissa was talking about how she hopes she can pass the test. That reminded Stan and I that we had gotten her a present as a “Yay you got your license!! present”. So we told her we got it for her and hoped that would be encouraging for her and motivation for her to do well! She was surprised and was so excited. Then she said, “But what if I will fail the test? Will you still be my friend and give me the present?” We said, “Of course we will still be your friend. We love you. In fact we love you unconditionally.” She said, “What is this one… unconditionally?” We explained what a condition is, and she knew what that was. Then we explained that unconditional love means no matter what the condition, I will still love you. You can fail your drivers test, but it doesn’t matter. We will still love you. You can be in a bad mood, and have a bad day and we will still love you. You can do something that offends us, but we will still love you. You can do something shameful and we will still love you. You can be mad at us and we will still love you. We can be mad at you and still love you. Anything that happens, we will still love you.

As we were taking turns saying all these things to her, she was nodding her head and every once in a while she would smile her big smile and say, “Yeah…. yeah.” She said, “Oh wow, it’s so wonderful! Unconditional love.” We exchanged smiles and agreed unconditional love is the best kind.

This made me think about some things. As the realization set in, it made me a little sad. I thought about the talk Pan Pan and I had a couple of weeks ago about the Chinese culture’s disposition on love and the way they use the word “love”. I told Stan that it makes me sad to think about how they are robbed of unconditional love. Pan Pan told me how many Chinese people feel about love, and everyone is different, but she said this is how the majority of people feel about love. So, when I tell someone in the Chinese culture about our Big Brother and His father unconditionally loving us, how can they help but want it and cherish it? Hold onto it forever and never let go? The problem is, breaking through the wall, which has been put up. This wall says that our Father is a big mean man in the sky who only wants to punish us for doing wrong things. This is not an easy wall to break down. It takes time, and patience and understanding. It takes a soft answer, not a harsh word. It’s difficult, but I’m happy He has helped me to realize He will still Love me, so I can share that with those in this culture.

Please keep these girls in your thoughts. Thanks for reading; I love you all!

Lessons learned from Pan Pan:

A few weeks ago I was able to have a long talk with a close Chinese friend and sister, Pan Pan. These are some themes from the conversation...

Love doesn't mean to them, what it does to us, Love you today, hate you tomorrow. "I love you" means I love you this minute right now, I might not later.

The girl who asked me to lie: I should let her know why I didn't lie for her. It's because of my believing culture, not my American culture. Because she said the girl probably thought that I wasn't gonna lie because I am American.

The Chinese people will respond to the Word. Don't get discouraged. He just tells you to do it, so don't get discouraged when they say it is stupid or childish. Do it because you love Him. If you get rejected, it doesn't matter. You are doing what He told you to do.

"What are they gonna do when you leave??" Many people say this to us about our friends who become believers while we are here. The question has to do with us "leaving them behind".
-Pan Pan said that she doesn't even think of that because "He will take care of me. He does. I believe He gave me you guys, and Amanda, and Erika," (And others who are believers here in our area.

She believes this because the people who showed her the Word moved away, and we came and when she moves to England, He will provide believers for her. She said she thinks for it a lot and believes He will provide. FAITH! I told her she doesn't know how much of an encouragement she has been to us. She says we have helped her, but she has been more of an encouragement to me than anyone. Her faith is soooo strong! Strong even if she had a supportive family, but she doesn't!!

These are just snipits from our conversation the other night. She has shed some light on the Chinese culture for us. She just amazing and we all love her to death! This wasn't meant for in depth detail, just to show you her thoughts. Thanks for reading and I love you all!

Chinese Mannerisms

China is on the other side of the world for a reason. They do things quite differently from us "westerners." This blog is not to complain about it at all, in fact this blog is just to talk about the differences. Some of them are funny, and some are interesting. These are things I have known almost since day one in China, but haven't done a blog about yet. Today is the day! I have a video of some of the things because it is very difficult to explain them in written words. Cathy, one of Stan's students will be helping me with this by exhibiting these mannerisms. The other things, I can just explain by writing. I showed this video in my class this week. I taught about differences in culture. They enjoyed it...I hope you do to!



Thanks for helping, Cathy!

I just have 2 more things and they are easy to explain. When a Chinese student, or Chinese friend calls me, I will touch the green answer button and before I can place the phone to my ear, I will hear, "-llo? Hello? Juliane? Hello? Hello?" Then I finally get the first chance to say hello and the conversation continues. Any Chinese person I have ever spoken with on the phone has never waited for me to say hello first. haha! It's so funny!

Last but not least, I think maybe even my friends and family know this in America about Chinese people. They claim no personal area around them to be their own. ei: They ain't got no bubble! :) There are so many people in China, they can't have a bubble. They get used to being around a lot of people, so when they do have a lot of free space, they don't use it to it's fullest, like American's do. For example, in class when I break them up into groups, maybe there are 5 girls in a certain group. There are 4 chairs/desks bolted together in one row in the classroom. Instead of using the row behind them, they might all 5 squeeze into the 4 chairs available. There might be a whole row they could use, but they will gladly, with no protest share the 4 chairs. I mean, they are all small (skinny) enough to do it with ease, so I guess they think Why not? Well that about sums it up. I'm sure there are some things I am leaving out, but I just wanted to focus on the physical mannerisms they do differently.

I hope you enjoyed the video and reading about the differences in culture! Thanks for reading and don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all!

Honesty

This day was so ironic, I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around it. After being here for almost 2 years, you get used to some things. For example when a student texts you (after he/she has failed your class) asking you to give him/her a second chance at passing the class. Another example: Asking a student a question, but they are too shy and just look down for an agonizing amount of time in silence... maybe hoping I will disappear? I finally break the silence but it is followed by the same agonizing silence until his/her classmate gives me the answer for him/her. Well, I could go on and on, but I won't. Today something happened that I thought might eventually happen, but hoped it would not. The relationships we gain with the students are great, but sometimes those relationships are used incorrectly by the students. This does not happen very often, but regrettably, today it did.

Stan has three students in two separate classes who would like to be together. Their schedules do not jive with Stan's schedule, so they asked if they could take me as their teacher. I said that would be fine and for them to come see me before my afternoon class. One girl came early and spoke with me alone. She explained what she and her friends wanted from me. I will not quote because it might be too difficult for you to understand. I will only explain. She wanted me to teach her and her friends for this entire semester and then give them a grade. But I should not give their grades to the school; I should give the grades to Stan and he can turn them into the school. I asked her if that was okay with the school. She said she did not know. I told her to ask someone from the English Department and then to let me know. She nodded and sat down to wait for her two other friends to get to class. When the two other girls arrived, I motioned for them to come to me. One girl was speaking for both. She explained what I should do, just like the first girl. I gave her the same answer. Her English is better, so I will quote her.

She said, "I already know it is not alright with the school. They will not allow it."

I said, "Oh Okay, I will not do anything dishonest. I am sorry I cannot do it."

She replied, "No, you don't understand. I want to be in the same oral English class as my friends [motions to her friends] but we cannot attend the same class for Stan's class, so we thought we would ask you."

To which I replied, "I understand perfectly well what you are saying and I am saying I cannot do something that is dishonest. I will not do it for you. I am sorry."

"But what will we do now? We want to be in class together and we thought you and Stan could pretend for us and tell the school he taught us."

*Biting my tongue* "The answer is no. We will not do that for you. You have to leave, because I must start class now. I am sorry."

"Ok... we will just go to Stan's class...[whiny noise that is difficult to describe but commonly heard among students]...bye bye."

Do you want to know what I taught about today? Honesty! Irony at it's best. The entire class was about honesty. I should have told them to stay for class. Like I said, I knew something like this would happen. Stan and I had made friends with this particular girl in class last semester (we both had her for class) and it seems she saw that as an opportunity to take advantage of that friendship. Sometimes that's what happens, "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." She didn't seem to feel embarrassed at all about asking her teacher to lie. That is the astounding part to me. It doesn't hurt my feelings that she took advantage of the friendship. I am surprised she showed no shame what-so-ever!

Apart from that, the day went well! Classes went well and we had good discussions about honesty. Just sending a piece of China your way! Hope you enjoyed it! ;) Thanks for reading and I love you all!

Teaching Re-cap 3-4-11

This week with my classes I put them into groups and had them come up with an English family name. I told them they were all going to be a family. Each person in the group represented a member of the family. They had to choose what they wanted to be and how old they were. They had a blast with it! I have some pictures of some of the classes last names. I don't have two of my classes because I was sick earlier in the week and didn't go to those two classes. I'll have theirs later.



The Ma Jiang family chose this because their father gambled all his money away on this traditional Chinese game, Ma Jiang.




The hotdog family chose this name because they love hotdogs.



They chose Lolitata because it sounds like Lady Gaga to them. Oh my...
And the group that chose Helis chose this because each letter in the name was the first letter of everyone's name in the group. Pretty good, I thought!

Some of the names they came up with on their own, and others they had heard in their favorite American TV show or movie. Smith was in almost every class and their reason was "because of the famous movie 'Smith's'" What they meant was "Mr. and Mrs. Smith". Apparently they love that movie. Anyway, that's about it. I hope you enjoyed their last names as much as the first names last week! Thanks for reading! I love you all!

First Teaching Re-cap of 2011!

(I saved the best for last in this blog post. Just be patient!)

This first week of classes went great! I actually have 3 of Stan’s classes from last semester! I didn’t know until I got there because… well, I can’t read much Chinese these days. So when I got to class and recognized the students, I was actually a bit afraid because I thought, “Oh no! I’ve got to think of something new to do for this first day because these students have already heard this class on their first day last semester.” But, thankfully they were Stan’s students and although they knew me, they hadn’t heard this class nor seen the pictures I would show them. They loved seeing the power point of pictures of my parents, sisters, and my husband. The moment his face was on the screen, they laughed because they obviously know him, haha! They also loved seeing pictures of my new nephew Lucas! And they laughed when I told them his name too. At first I didn’t understand why they laughed and I just let it go because sometimes it’s more work than it’s worth to get an answer out of the students. But I eventually asked one of the classes and they said that there is a famous movie star couple in Hong Kong who named their new-born baby Lucas. Apparently it’s very common for the parents in Hong Kong to give their children a Chinese and English name. And the Lucas in Hong Kong was just recently born as well, so they found it funny!

(Really... I mean it! Just keep reading. The best is yet to come!)

Anyway, after introducing my family, I gave the students a task to do. I told them to tell me two things. 1. Tell me your English name. 2. If you could be an animal or a color what would you be and why? Thankfully, they found the humor in this and we had a fun time listening to all the students answers. I just now realized I didn’t tell them what I would choose. Now, I don’t really know what I would choose... but I sure didn’t tell them! haha! Anyway, it was funny to me that there was an overwhelming majority of students who chose 1 of 4 things. They chose the color blue, a bird, or a fish. The reason for all of these was because the sea and sky is blue and they are free. The bird and fish are full of freedom and can do anything they like. Now I don’t wanna read too much into this, but it WAS most of the students. I don’t know if a lot of them feel trapped by their parents, or schoolwork, or their country (unlikely). Whatever it is, they have this need to feel free because they presently don’t feel it. The fourth most popular thing that the students chose was the color red. Red is ALL over China. It is a symbol of pride for their country, and that's the reason they gave for choosing this color. I have nothing to make of it, other than they are proud of their country!

My favorite part of this blog post!!

Also, on the first day I normally ask the class if they all have English names. They choose these names for themselves or ask someone to give them an English name. If they do not have an English name, they have the choice to choose one by the end of class or by the next week. Most of my students already had one. Here are some of my favorites:

Holiday, Celery, Vaccine, Peel, and Mess, YYT, Calcever, Lento, Luffy, (This comes from a Japanese video game character) Mercury, Raining (yes that’s right. As in falling from the sky) Love (boy), Voodoo (He didn't know what it meant and when I asked him if he wanted me to tell him what it meant, he said, "No I just want to have this name" and continued to talk) Duck (because she likes ducks), Egg (This girl actually thought it was funny that she named herself Egg, when most of them don’t), Milk (she thought it was completely normal to name herself a beverage) Ehome, Lonoy, Fisher, Mount, Lovydan (pronounced with a silent “v”).

I love Mess. The person and the fact that he named himself this. He's a quiet, nice boy who didn't seem to understand why I found it humorous he named himself this. *sigh* Oh well... Some of these, I have no idea where they came from, but they sure are funny!

I hope you enjoyed reading all the crazy names my students (and some of Stan’s previous students) chose! I sure did! Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Back to Business!

Before we left for our trip to Vietnam, we were given our schedules for this term's classes. This was surprising to us because in the past, we have been given our schedules the day before classes started. Along with our schedule, would be the books we were to use for the semester. Yes, a day, one day before we were to be teaching, we would receive the book - oh yeah, and we are to teach 70% of the book.

Yeah, so anyway we were given our schedules and here is mine:



What was more surprising about this schedule than the fact that they gave it to us so early was that is didn't change. When they gave it to us before the Holiday, I thought, "Ok, thanks. But this'll change." But it did not! And here we are...

Luckily, I have seen something like this long enough that I know what it means. "You know how to read that" you say? OH No! I just know what day is in what block, and I know that that number is the class number, and that number is what room I am in, etc. etc.

Also luckily, I am nice enough to translate for you. But I won't bore you with the details, I'll just let you know what days and time I am teaching. This semester I have it a little different than last semester. If you remember, I taught a lot of AV classes last semester, and that 1 pesky Culture class. But this time, I only have Oral English. This means it is much less stressful on me because I have to do only one lesson plan a week, as opposed to the prior 4 lesson plans a week. (Yes, I was pulling my hair out, but I've moved on) :)

Alright, so here we go:

Monday: Nada
Tuesday: Nada
Wednesday: 8:00-11:35 (lunch break!) 1:30-4:45
Thursday: 10:00-11:35 (lunch break!) 1:30-3:05 (dinner break!) 6:00-7:30
Friday: Nada... until the 12th week. (8:00-9:35)

For the last 6 weeks of school, I must double up on some classes. "Why" you ask? Oh, ok I'll tell you. I have absolutely no idea! That's just the way it is. I have to teach 2 different classes 3 more times than regular. Weeks 12-14 I am doubling up on one class and weeks 15-17 I am doubling up on another. No reason has been given to me, and I don't really mind... just doesn't make sense. So, from May 8th, (Mother's Day) on to the rest of the semester I will be teaching Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

The cool thing about this semester is that mine and Stan's schedule is pretty close together. He teaches mostly on Wednesdays and Thursdays too! He has two classes on Mondays, but that's pretty much the only difference! So, that's pretty cool!

We've learned a lot from last year and last semester, and we're happy to put it into practice! Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Vietnamenglish

Yes, that's right my friends. It's Vietnamenglish time. I know the suspense is just killing you. Really, I know. Because this is the blog of your lifetime. You've been waiting for a long time now, and didn't even know it. Ok, for real now...

There were some signs we came across while in Vietnam that resembled some signs we have seen in China. However, I was able to tell a difference in their English because of their first language. Learning languages is so interesting and I love learning Chinese. Yes it is very difficult at times, but fun and challenging! We also tried to learn some Vietnamese while we were down there! I didn't get very many pictures, but I hope you enjoy them all!!


I thought the child was supposed to be in the car...


Steralzed?


This might have been a typo, but it's still funny!






This is supposed to say "Gucci"



**Disclaimer** The purpose of these Chinglish blogs is purely for fun. The purpose is in no way to make fun of the Chinese language. I feel some comments in the past have led some people to believe I think the Chinese language is not as good as English. I believe no such thing! Me and my friends see the differences in culture and appreciate them, meanwhile they are funny and ironic. I hope these blogs do not offend any people of any culture. :) Thanks for reading and I love you all!

Vietnam!

Hello friends! It’s quite difficult to write one blog about the entire month we spent in Vietnam. I tried to blog as much as I could, but some things I just left out. I will try to fill in the gaps here. We began our journey on a plane to Nanning on January 9th.

Sorry, the picture is a little blurry...


This city is in the southern part of China. Last year when we arrived in Nanning we were able to shed a few layers and be much more comfortable than we were in Hangzhou! This year was quite different. It. Was. Cold.! The bad part was, we were preparing for warmer weather on previous experiences of it being warmer! We weren’t wearing enough clothes. (or “closes” as my students like to pronounce it. ☺ ) Pause! At this point in the trip my sister had a baby! My mom texted me this picture on Words with friends:




And we got to talk to Elise before she had the baby!

You might have already seen pictures, but here he is: Lucas Lee McLemore!!



Anyway, we got our visas (30 day visas) to go down to Vietnam from Nanning and got on a bus! We made the 8 hour trip down to Ha Noi, Vietnam. It was still cold. We had reservations at a hostel in this city and made our way there, hoping to find warmth. We got to the hostel and we were shown our room. We asked for the heat to be turned on. The reply? “No heat. [pointing to the bed] Just blankets. Very warm.” Ok, so Kevin got under the covers to try it out. The beds themselves were freezing and it did not look promising to have a restful, warm night. So, we decided to hightail it out of there. We paid for half of the room (a whopping $2 a person) and scheduled a bus for the next city south. We decided it would be better to be cold on a bus all night heading somewhere warmer than to be cold and not going somewhere warmer!
And it WAS cold on the bus, as evidenced by Stan's pea pod look. lol



We made our way down, bus by bus stopping in each city to change buses. We left Nanning, AND Ha Noi on the same day. So starting on Tuesday, January 11th at 8:00 AM until Thursday (2 days later) at 2:00 PM we were on buses. They were sleeper buses the whole way. No showers, same clothes and cold. We finally arrived to warmer weather at our last stop: Muine! It was so nice to be sweating after being sooooo cold for about 4 days straight with no relief!

I started writing those couple of blogs while we were in Muine. We had originally planned to stay at the same place we stayed last year, Hong Di. But when we got to the place, the lady in charge had bumped up the prices on the rooms because she added flat screen TVs. On top of that, the only rooms she had available were the ones that face the street, no bungalows. I know, I know, it sounds like I’m complaining we got to go to the beach, but couldn’t have the best room. But we knew we could get that, we would just have to look around. So we stayed there for 2 nights while we looked for a cheaper place to stay. We found a place that was a little cheaper, and had more perks: We got a bungalow which was only 40 steps from the beach and the people were much nicer! We loved them! The new place was called Hiep Hoa. “Hiep” and “Hoa” were two people’s names. They were joint owners of the hotel.

This was our little bungalow! It's connected to some other rooms above us, so there's the staircase to the right of our bungalow.


The second to last day we were at the beach, was the 9th of February. We were swimming in the ocean and Stan said, “ We are staying here for a month, and our visas are only for one month, and it took 2 days to get down here. AND, we still have 2 more days before we go back to China.” We couldn’t remember what day we had arrived in Vietnam. So we went and looked at our passports. We had arrived in Vietnam on February 11th, and we were planning on leaving on the 11th of January. Our reason for leaving on January 11th was because that’s when we could find the cheapest flight out! So it worked out perfectly!! And obviously we didn't end up staying there for a whole month. Just so you know we aren't complete idiots when it comes to math. :)

Here are a few pictures of our journey! Enjoy!

These kids were playing "Chicken" on this palm tree. It was funny!



We found this gold mine shack restaurant right on the beach. They sold any kind of sea food you wanted, but our favorite was the scallops!



Stan is obviously posing for the picture, but this is where he stayed most of the time. He didn't care anything about getting a tan. :)



This little girl was one our friends at a restaurant we passed every night while walking. We got to be pretty good friends, as you can tell. She's sitting in my lap and she thought it was so cool that she could see herself in my phone camera. Haha!



Isn't she just beautiful!?



Then Stan went kite surfing! That's his instructor, Vanessa. She was from some remote Island in the Caribbean or something like that. She was pretty cool anyway.



Just learning how to do it. There are some boring parts to it.



But then it's fun! You may not be able to see it, but that's Stan out there!


I had to get a close up of the action. This is him coming back up the beach after he went out!


And then I got this really cool Vietnamese style purse. I bought it for my birthday! :)



I have sooooo many more pictures, but I'm planning on uploading those to facebook soon! This was just a sneak peak! Thanks for reading! I love you all!