MADE IN CHINA

Ahhhhh! China!!

2011-12-10T05:21:00.003+08:00

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

2011-11-01T01:50:00.005+08:00

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

2011-09-27T04:23:00.002+08:00

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!

2011-08-17T12:47:00.008+08:00

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

2011-08-17T12:15:00.004+08:00

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!

2011-06-01T17:49:00.002+08:00

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

2011-05-02T22:44:00.002+08:00

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!

2011-04-29T23:26:00.004+08:00

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

2011-04-24T16:24:00.005+08:00

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!

2011-04-08T21:54:00.001+08:00

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

2011-04-06T17:10:00.005+08:00

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

2011-04-03T12:27:00.002+08:00

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...

2011-03-31T15:21:00.007+08:00

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

2011-03-30T17:12:00.002+08:00

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

2011-03-28T17:02:00.005+08:00

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:

2011-03-25T21:22:00.000+08:00

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

2011-03-23T23:29:00.002+08:00

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

2011-03-09T23:08:00.003+08:00

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

2011-03-04T23:02:00.006+08:00

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!

2011-02-24T23:52:00.010+08:00

(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!

2011-02-20T16:27:00.003+08:00

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

2011-02-19T21:06:00.004+08:00

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!

2011-02-17T10:06:00.006+08:00

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!

Chuck E. Cheese

2011-02-04T17:25:00.005+08:00

February 10th is a day when in the past, me and Stan have celebrated our first date. We went to Chuck E Cheese! And it was so fun! That has been a tradition of ours for years. Last year we didn't get to celebrate this tradition because #1: We were no where near a Chuck E Cheese, and #2: We were traveling. Such is the case this year. Actually, on the 10th we will be on a bus for a good part of the day. It's coming up soon, and it got me thinking. I start off with that situation because it is the closest one to us right now. There have been many traditions which have been broken during our time in China. For example, all the things we usually do in the Fall, we didn't do. At Thanksgiving, we weren't around our family like we normally are. We didn't have all the Thanksgiving foods we are used to having because everyone pitched in and cooked something different. We didn't have our traditional Christmas the way we do in the States. We didn't eat what we traditionally eat on Christmas. We weren't even in America. Stan's parents came, but for the past 2 years, I haven't seen my family on Christmas. I am not complaining by any means. Now that I re-read that, it sounds like I am. I am just hoping to drive the point home to you that my life of tradition has been challenged, and I think, for the better! My reason for writing about tradition is because a lot of people hold on to it, dearly, as if it would kill them to let it go. No, it's not fun to be away from family and tradition, but that's not what this is about. Whether it be in church, holidays, or family functions, people dearly hold on to tradition. I think it's a shame actually, because I've learned that you don't need it. It has helped keep me open minded about life in general. I'm not saying you should forget all the traditions your church or family has. In fact, I'm not saying your should do anything at all. This is just me thinking out loud.

We've been able to do some traditions still, but because we have not gotten to do some of them hasn't turned our world upside down. Sometimes we made new traditions, and at times we've just lived together and loved each other, and did what was best or felt right (considering the circumstances). Too many people hold so tight to tradition that it becomes more important than the people around them. That's why I think it is a shame. I am not saying I have a better understanding about this than anyone else. I just have a different understanding because of my personal experiences. And like I said, I'm not saying you should do anything or think a certain way. You can disagree if you like, but before you do, come to China for 2 years. ;) (winking emoticon: symbolizing sarcasm, if you didn't know) Anyway, I just wanted to log that in the "Things I've learned on this adventure" category. I just want you to know I didn't write this blog for people to comment things like, "I'm so sorry you don't get to keep your traditions" and the like. That's the complete opposite of what I want. haha! Well, that's all I've got! Thanks for listening! I love you all!

Thuong

2011-02-01T11:49:00.004+08:00

I am wondering what you are thinking about the title of this blog post. Is it the name of a city? Is it a misspelled word? Is it a typo? Is it the sound of a sneeze? It is none of the above my friends. It is someone's name. This name is pronounced like the English word "tongue", except you put more emphasis in the word, which I cannot show you by writing in a blog post. So, that will have to do.

Anyway... this name belongs to a girl we met, along with her friend, Phi, pronounced like the English word "fee". We met these girls as we were walking to dinner. They invited us to come into their restaurant, but we never did because we always had something else in mind to eat that night. We would just stop and talk to them, and one night we finally did eat there. One night when we stopped to say hello, Thuong invited us to her house to eat. We set a date to come and that day was yesterday. We started off at 9:00 AM. She met us at the restaurant and we rode to her house on motor bikes. We came to find out later she had left her house that morning at 7:30 just to come pick us up at the restaurant, and then went all the way back! So, Thuong took us to Phi's house and we ate fruit there and met her family. All of the neighborhood kids were running around trying to get a better look at the foreigners! This is a picture of the neighbors house, which looked the same as Phi's house.

After we ate, Phi took us to a market and then we met some of her neighbors. She showed us her family's farm and it was all very beautiful! By the time 12:00 rolled around, we were told by Thuong that now we are going to go visit her family. So we set off to meet Thuong's family. We met her brothers and her parents, and ate lunch with them. Here is a picture of the scenery around her house.

We ate what is considered a really nice Vietnamese meal that her parent's cooked for us. We ate vegetables and meat and fat wrapped in rice paper. It was really good, and spicy! We also learned that Vietnamese people eat from the floor. We all sat down and had our bowls in front of us on the floor and ate merrily! It was very good and an interesting experience. I, of course made a mess of my area and her parents thought it was hilarious because I was making fun of myself the whole time for not doing it the right way. It was a hoot! At one point some food flew out of my mouth and onto the floor, it was pretty funny!

Anyway, after lunch, we all helped clean up (which didn't take much because we just swept and mopped and it was done!) I had to use the bathroom, so I asked to use the W.C. Thuong had asked a friend of hers to come over for lunch, so when I asked about the W.C., Thuong looked at her friend and kind of looked embarrassed. Stan said quickly, "It's just a hole out back. You'll have to get your shoes." Thuong's English isn't the best, so speaking fast makes it difficult for her to understand. That's why he spoke quickly, so I could understand what was about to happen, and it wouldn't embarrass her. I told her I could find it and went outside. I went out back, where all the dragon fruit plants were and found her mother. I made the "I have to pee" face and stance. Mama motioned for me to go pee back where there is more coverage and I wouldn't be seen. So, I just found an area where no one might see me, and used the facilities right there in broad daylight. Oh yeah, no toilet paper... I had to rummage around and find a leaf. I was pretty proud of myself! So, after I was finished I was thinking, "I didn't even see a whole... there must be some sort of miscommunication going on." Obviously. I don't speak Vietnamese and Thuong's mother doesn't speak English. So... anyway, after lunch we "took a break" before the next thing Thuong had planned for us to do. Stan tried to fight off the sleep (really, we all did after that big meal) and Thuong's father brought this out for Stan.

He was gone! Got a quick power nap in!

So, Thuong took us around to meet the rest of her family after we rested. All of her family lives on the same street. Stan was telling her it feels like home because in the country in America, it's the same thing. Her family was oh so nice and was constantly offering us things to eat. The food was sooooo good! But our stomaches just couldn't take anymore! So we kindly declined some of the food, and Thuong helped us by explaining to them we had eaten all day! After visiting with her family, she told us we should make our way back to our hotel because after night fall, we might not be able to remember our way back. haha, so she decided for us. That's Asia!

I had to go to the bathroom again, (I wish girls had the bigger bladders, not boys!) so I psyched myself up for the bathroom situation again, and made my way out back. Thuong followed me to show me the way this time. She pointed to a small out house in the opposite direction I had used the bathroom before. I still don't know why Mama pointed me in that direction before. I had clearly used my body language in the right way. :) Anyway, the outhouse was the hole Stan spoke of. It still had no paper, so I had to go searching for leaves again. I am woman, hear me roar! After that, we got on the bikes and got back to the hotel safely.

All in all, it was a fun trip! We were tired by the end of the day and I went to sleep pretty early! I'm glad we've made these friends. They are so sweet and we are grateful to have met them! There's so much I could write about, but it would be a super long blog post and this one is long as it is! So I tried to shrink it down to a short story for ya! Well that's all I've got! Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Best Friends

2011-01-25T12:23:00.006+08:00

Stan likes to wrap himself up in his sleeping bag from time to time when he's cold. And I think it's cute, so I thought I'd share it with you!

Many people choose times like Valentines Day and anniversaries to have a tribute blog for their significant other. But I was just thinking about this today... My husband really is my best friend. I was thinking of it because of something that happened this past Sunday. We've joyfully discovered that we can get some American TV shows here in Vietnam! Now, I'm not one to watch TV when at the beach, but at night when there are only mosquitos waiting to eat me...I'll stay inside and watch TV. So there are only a few, but they're good ones like the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic, TLC, and a couple more. Anyway, so we were walking back from dinner and I said, "It's Sunday night! That means something new has to be coming on the discovery channel!" Stan turned to Kevin and said, "How did I get a wife who loves the Discovery Channel?!"

Now, I like "girly" things, but I probably like more "boy" things than "girl" things. I like boy TV shows, movies and even conversation. I laugh at gross things boys do. I just think it's funny when other girls might roll their eyes. But the thing is, I don't think of it that way at all. It's not girl or boy to me, I'm just me, and I like what I like. So, this got me thinking, me and Stan are really close. Really best friends. I mean, I thought of him and cherished him as my best friend when we were dating, and when we got married.

We dated for 3 years before we got married, so we've been together for over 6 years. But over the past 3 1/2 years of marriage, I've realized he's even more of a best friend to me now than before! This past year and a half has really pushed us to help each other to grow, and in turn grow closer to each other. At the end of this school year, Stan and I will have spent half of our marriage in China! It's funny to think about it that way. We always say, "If you want to strengthen your marriage, move to China." Obviously there are other ways, and moving to a foreign country is not a must have...but it's been a blessing to both of us. Anyway (I try not to ramble in blog posts, but sometimes it's so easy!) I feel like 3 1/2 years of marriage will take it's own growth patterns where ever you are, but I also feel like we have something a lot of marriages don't. We've had the opportunity to be challenged early in our marriage and it's helped us to grow in ways we might not have gotten to until later! There has been lots of rubbing off on one another, but most of the time he's the one rubbing off on me, showing me how to be a better person. Because he truly is!

The best part about this is, this is only 3 1/2 years! I'm excited to see what God has in store for us in the future! I'm so thankful for the opportunities God has given us! Thanks for reading, I love you all!

Thank you Dr. Dennis

2011-01-24T15:24:00.006+08:00

As most of you know, we have made it to the beach in Vietnam. We've been here a little over a week. Everything is cheap here. the foreign food isn't as cheap as other things, but it is still cheap in comparison to what I would pay for the same food in America. Most things like massages, nail care and hair care are super cheap! So, a couple days ago it was a rainy day... and a rainy day on the beach is no fun. So, we (me, Stan and Kevin) we just sitting around reading. It was raining off and on, so we went and sat out in the shade. I decided to go get a pedicure because, well...I wanted one, AND it's not like I could soak up any sun rays, AND it's cheap, AND I had the slightest start of an ingrown toenail (gross, I know). So I knew they could take care of it for me! I'm here to tell you, they're painful if you've never had one! You'd do the same thing if you only had to pay 4 dollars to get it taken care of and you get pretty toenails too! Ok, ok, I digress...

So, I went to get a pedicure. I didn't know where I was going to go, so I just wandered down the road but stayed close to our Bungalows. I found a little shop that did massages, nails, and hair (but most of them do). This one was just as cheap as the others so I decided to go on in. When I went in, there was the cutest little puppy dog. So I got to play with him while they finished my toenails! (Elise, don't take offense to this, but I was glad I got to play with the little puppy because I can't play with my nephew. lol... not that I'm comparing him to my nephew, I was just happy I got to play with something that is cute and cuddly if I can't play with my nephew! lol) Anyway, just look how cute he is!

He was getting restless on my lap... time to get down!

Cuddling up against the feet pan.

This is what he looked like when I left! He was all tuckered out!

While I was sitting there, puppy in lap, a man walked out from the back of the store and thanked the girl for his massage. He was talking to the girls in the shop like he knew them. I soon found out he lives here in Muine, Vietnam! And has for 3 years! We got to talking and found out his name is Dennis and he is from California. He came to Muine for the kite surfing! (I'll do another blog on that later!) After a while, the girl who gave him a massage walked out by the front steps and sat down beside him. I saw something on her leg, but I couldn't tell what it was. I heard Dennis say to her that she needed to clean it out. So, I thought 'I've been talking to him long enough... I can be a little nosey'. "What's wrong?" I said. He said, "She's hurt her leg in a motor bike accident and I'm trying to tell her to clean it out. What's that stuff I'm trying to think of that bubbles up?" Thankfully, my parents used that all the time when we were little so I knew exactly what he was talking about! "Hydrogen Peroxide," I replied. "Yes, that's it!" he said. The girl had packed crushed mustard seed into her wounds without cleaning them first and infection had set in. (First of all, I've never heard of packing mustard seed in anything to make it better, but this IS Asia.) So, as he was telling her she needed to clean it out, the girl was telling him that was not right. I could see on her face she thought it was bad for her. So I pitched in, "It won't hurt, it just looks weird. but I promise, it won't hurt." Dennis, "Yeah, it doesn't hurt at all." Nothing from the girl. She's just examining her infected wounds. "You need to trust me. I'm a doctor. I have some at my house. Let me go get it and I'll be right back." So he's a doctor? Oh ok, cool! So, he comes back and gives it to the girl, but she is still so reluctant about it. I can see the frustration in his face, but he never once acted frustrated, or angry toward her. He just wanted to help her. Both people thought they were right, but I could tell it was a friendship. As I was leaving, he said, "You tell her she needs to use this and take care of herself." I laughed and said, "It will help, I promise." I said goodbye and thought to myself, I have gotten so irritated at the Asian culture for their frame of mind about medicine. They way they think nothing is right but their way. He might have had the same feelings, but he never once let them show to her. So, thank you Dr. Dennis for showing me a little patience, even if you didn't realize it. Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Buddha

2011-01-14T23:35:00.003+08:00

We are here in Muine, Vietnam. Being away from home and on vacation, most people will go out to eat for dinner because, well, you can't cook when you are away from home. Now, sometimes people will go to the grocery store and buy things to make sandwiches. This is not the case here. We've tried to find a place to get sandwich stuff, and we haven't been able to find it! So we just try to eat cheap! Tonight, however, we ate at a nice restaurant because we knew the girls there from last year! they asked us to come eat there tonight, so we did. Well, they hit it off really well with Stan last year and they have kept in touch with each other. One of the girls name is Jane.

Well, we ordered our food and ate a good meal. We were just hanging out at the table and decided to get the check. Stan got up to go ask Jane for the check. As he was waiting for her to draw up the check, they were chatting and Stan was making her laugh, and they looked like they were having fun! Stan came back to the table and me and Kevin got up to leave. As we were leaving the restaurant Stan said, "They told me I needed to lose weight." Me and Kev: "What?!" Stan: "Yeah, they said 'You look like-a da Buddha. I think maybe you don't exercise.'" Me and Kev: "Wow."

You see, the way things work in the Asian culture is like this: "Don't marry him. He's too fat. He's too ugly, and he doesn't make any money." A lot of times you will hear this come from the mother of a poor girl, just wanting to marry for love. It is not rude to tell someone you think they are fat. You are helping them become more healthy, and you are doing them a service. It isn't thought as cruel or rude. Friends will say this to each other. So when Stan told us this, we were surprised, but we've heard it many times about other people. It's very common in China to hear this, but we were surprised because we'd never heard it from a Vietnamese person before. Especially in this town (a beach town) everyone and everything has a laid back feel to it. No one is rushing, and everyone is soaking up some sun rays, havin a good time. This is very different from China as a whole (as well as America) but it doesn't matter that they are laid back, they are still Asian. And they will still tell you what they think about the shape of your body. Stan said it didn't bother him, but I was offended enough for the both of us! :) So I decided I would do a blog about this and explain this is how Chinese people are too. I told Stan to model how the Asian culture sees him...

And how his wife sees him...

I think the last one matters the most, don't you? Oh yeah and he gave me permission to write this blog. haha! Well, that's all for today! Thanks for reading and I love you all!

First stop: Nanning

2011-01-09T21:08:00.002+08:00

The biggest holiday in China is the Chinese New Year, and after that comes the Spring Festival. It's all kinda lumped together. But from now until the middle of February all of the students go home. As I have said before, we live in a district which was established especially for Universities. There are 14 or 15 Universities in our area and that's all there is! Universities and shops which are open mainly for the students and teachers. This is how they keep their businesses afloat. So... when the students go home, so do the shop keepers. Everything closes down. We left today because of this. I went across the street last night to get some last minute items before leaving today, and the shop keeper told me that they would be closing in 4 days. I asked when they would be open again, and she said February 15th. There is a major supermarket which will stay open, but that's about it. When the students go home, so do the shopkeepers! It is literally a ghost town! Some schools ask their foreign teachers to leave because the school closes, and so does the building the foreign teachers live in. Some of our friends teach at a near by school. Their supervisors asked them to leave the Xiasha area because of this, and if they didn't want to because of money, the school would pay for them to stay in a hotel downtown. That doesn't happen in every school, but there are some that do that!

Anyway...

We flew out today and we have arrived in Nanning! This is a southern city which is close to Vietnam. We will bus down to Vietnam on Tuesday. It's a bit colder here than it was last year at the same time, but we're all content! Me, Stan, and Kevin are making our way down to Vietnam again. We got to do this trip last year and are excited to get to do it again. Something different about this years trip, though is that when we were saying good bye to our Chinese friends, we were really sad and didn't want to go. We didn't really have that feeling last year. We hadn't formed really strong friendships yet. We will be happy to return back to Xiasha and hang out with our friends! Pray for our safe travels! Luckily for Kevin, the flying portion of our trip is over, until we go back to Xiasha. He doesn't like flying very much, so now that that's over we can all have a blast! He's done a blog about his fear of flying, so I don't feel bad for saying it. haha!!

Well, that's all I have! I just wanted to give you all a little update of our plans! Thanks for reading! I love you all!

AirAsia=Absolutely Ridiculous!

2011-01-04T22:06:00.003+08:00

Let me just tell you what has been happening the past couple of days. While Danny and Layna were here we tried to buy some tickets to Malaysia. We (Kevin, Stan and I) want to leave this Friday, January 7th. We thought we were cutting it close by buying the tickets at that time, but that hasn't stopped us from getting to our destination before. So we were just gonna buy them then. When we are traveling in China, we usually use elong.com or ctrip.com, but those are only for inside China. For traveling outside of China, AirAsia has the cheapest rates we've ever found! Well, I will have you know it has been the bane of my existence everyday for the past 3 or 4 days. It has consumed my thoughts and I've been able to concentrate on nothing else. We just want to get to Malaysia and hang out with Kimberly Washer and her husband, Gary. Don't know them? Find her blog here! She's a fellow blogger and Freedie friend! Anyway, we were trying to order the tickets and it just wasn't working. I'll explain:

First I tried ordering the tickets online. I got past the part where you enter in your passport info and to the part where you enter in your address and payment info. I was inputting Stan's parents home address, because that address matches the address on our payment info. (billing address) and most of the time it needs to match. (If you've stopped reading by this point, that's fine by me...I just wanna write this out!) :) Ok, so I clicked on the tab that says "Select State". I clicked on it and instead of listing the 50 States of America from which I could choose, it opened a box that only said, "N/A" I tried to just type in the state. It wouldn't let me. Ok, I thought, I'll just continue without choosing a state. When I did that, it said, "An error has occurred blah blah blah blah....." and pointed to the part of the page where I had not clicked a State.... confusion sets in. So, I decide to just change the address to a Chinese one and see what happens. It lets me choose a province. Yay! Now it let's me get all the way to the payment method. I put in all my information with my Bank of America (BOA) card, and it looked like it was going to let me do it, but then it failed. I don't know why. We have contacted BOA in the past, and did this year to tell them we will be spending money and to not lock up the card because we are in a different country. It has worked in the past, so there is no reason it shouldn't work now.

So then I decide to just call AirAsia and set it up that way. I look for the contact info, and click on China. It gives me a number. I call the number. The number is out of order. I call the number with a one in front of it, and it is a hospital emergency line. I say, "Sorry, wrong number." And hang up. Now, I decide that maybe we could live chat with someone on the website. Ah ha! There is a tab for that...I click on it. I have to be a member to talk to them. I become a member, and sign in. I click the chat live button. They make me sign in again. A box pops up and tells me everything the live chat function cannot do. I cannot order tickets, I will have to call the service line for that. Ok, I think that is one of my requests: a working number. A chat box comes up and says I will have to wait 93 minutes because I am the 63rd person in queue. I wait the FULL 93 minutes and finally talk with someone. I tell the lady about my problem, and I basically boiled it down to I need to get a correct number for the China branch of AirAsia. I ask the woman this question. She gives me all of the same info that is on the internet. I tell her this information is incorrect. She tells me this is all the information she has. She also includes the numbers for Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Both of which I cannot use my Chinese phone for because they are technically out of the country. So, we use our skype account to call Hong Kong. Some random man answers the phone. This is his personal cell phone. Not AirAsia Hong Kong. End. Of. Rope.

So, where do we go from here? How does a website ask for a State and then not let me choose one, and THEN say I"M doing something wrong??!!! How does an airline that has been voted the best airline for the past 3 or 4 years have a website that doesn't even have any of their numbers correct or up to date?! Just because it is cheap? How does that make for good business? HOW!! HOW!!!??? It's absolutely ridiculous. I just don't understand how it works. Because it has worked for us in the past without having to do any of the above. I've taken many deep breaths and I'm just about done. We were gonna go from Malaysia to Vietnam, so we may just end up having to cut out Malaysia all together. We wouldn't care too much, but we were excited about getting to meet up with Kimberly and Gary. *Sigh* Anyway, we shall see what happens. 2 days to go... I'll let ya know. John King, a friend and mentor of ours said this is a good opportunity to build patience. This is very true.

If you got this far in the blog, I pity you. You probably need to go take a nap from all the reading. You're a true friend! Haha! Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Oh China...

2010-12-27T00:16:00.004+08:00

About a week ago, Stan was feeling like he was getting an ear infection. I knew he needed a Z-pac, and I knew how to find it on my Chinese Dictionary (Azithromycin), and I even knew where to get it at our local Pharmacy. (In China you can buy any pharmaceutical product OTC which needs a prescription in America.) The only thing I couldn't remember was how many pills needed to be taken the first day. I thought it was two, but I wanted to make sure. So... Stan and I were with some of his students when we went to the Pharmacy. We went together and got it. The girl who was helping me was so sweet and trying her best to do everything I needed. After I bought the box, I asked her to tell me how many pills to take the first day because I cannot read the Chinese.

She said, "I think maybe just one is ok."
I said, "But what does it say?"
Looking back at the box.... *hesitation* ...."I think one is just ok. Two is too much."
I said, "I need you to tell me what it says, and not what you think. Please, can you do that for me? I think you are supposed to take two the first day. Can you please read what it says on the box?"
"Yes...uhhhh... *hesitation* ...it says two on the first day, but I think one is ok."
"Oh yes, ok, thank you."

I take the box and make my way back to our apartment. The end.

If you know anything about a Z-pac, the way it works is taking two pills at the beginning (the first day) and one everyday after that. One on the first day is not enough. It will not work if you do that. I just couldn't remember if it was two or more. Whew! Almost always in China when you need help with something, you can find someone to help you. But sometimes, you don't get the kind of help you want...and it makes the situation a bit more difficult than if you had not asked for help at all. haha! Sometimes the Chinese people (especially with respect to illnesses) will tell you that you are not caring for the illness the correct way. They will say it is not right and they know the better way to do it. This is frustrating at times, because I don't say that to them about their Traditional Chinese medicine. I just feel like our cultures are different and we choose to do things differently. That shouldn't reflect which way is better, or which culture is better. They are just different!

But the point is, in the end it doesn't matter because all those girls who went with us are fun to be around and we have a good relationship with all of them! There are things which get in the way a little bit because of culture, but we are still friends! And that is the start to letting them see Him in us. And THAT is important!

Anyway, this is one thing which is difficult to deal with in the Chinese culture. Being told you are wrong about something you have grown up with isn't always easy to hear. But what I want to remember is it is important to not let that get in the way of becoming friends and reaching people! Well, that's all! Thanks for reading! I love you all!!

Christmas!

2010-12-26T21:59:00.005+08:00

Hello all! The forecast said it would be snowing Christmas Eve and Christmas day, but alas it did not snow! Oh well, we had a good Christmas anyway! I have a few pictures to let you know what we've been up to! Last week on Sunday we met with our foreign friends for a Family Meeting, and after that we had our Secret Santa gift give away! This is what Stan got as his gift. He tried all of them on!

Hey, he can't get on to me for posting these. I mean he posed for the picture and everything!

Anyway, this past Thursday we went to pick up Danny and Layna at the airport in Shanghai. On the way back we met this cute little girl and her Momma. They were originally from China, but have lived in San Francisco for the past 10 years. She loved Stan and they played the whole way back...

So cute!

Christmas morning! Here's our tree with all the presents under it!

Stan got me a Chinese Snuggie for Christmas! He also got me the hat I'm wearing!

Then we had three girls over to the house for some dinner. These are girls we have met at Starbucks and have developed a good relationship with. (From left to right: Moon, Tu Tu, and Milissa. Yes that is how she spells it.)

It was a fun day! We are still celebrating because we are having students over to the house for cookies, Christmas music, and conversation! We'll be celebrating all week! I hope all of your Christmas' were wonderful! Thanks for reading, I love you all!

Feeling Reminiscent! :)

2010-12-20T14:54:00.009+08:00

I follow a lot of blogs, and a lot of my blog-y friends are reminiscing about Christmas' past. So, I figured I would do the same cuz ya know, it's fun! The first "picture" that popped into my mind when I was thinking about Christmas when I was little was every year when we would pile on the couch and watch, "It's a Wonderful Life." I can remember after we watched the movie we would ask our parents if we could stay up late. They would let us because we were ON CHRISTMAS BREAK! Which was sooooooo funnnnn!! I can remember thinking, when I would be walking to the car or bus, "I don't even have to THINK about school for 2 WHOLE WEEKS!!! AND... IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!!" Sooo excited! So we would stay up late... all the way until 10:30!! Haha, I don't remember exactly what time, but I know it wasn't very late at all! lol!

Another thing we always did was go see the Christmas lights at Opry Land Hotel! We would also go around and look at lights in the neighborhoods which were supposed to have really good lights, but we always decided in the end our house looked the best!

One thing I remember from college (I know, I know, it wasn't that long ago...) about Christmas, has to do specifically about Christmas music! Me and Elise made the drive home from Freed Hardeman for Thanksgiving one year. I walked in the door and my dad was sitting in his recliner and my mom was in the kitchen. I said hi and then I said, "Ummmm, where is the Christmas music?!" I got on to him because he ALWAYS plays Christmas music as soon as it is acceptable. (Some would argue too soon, but you are a scrooge! Yes, Thanksgiving is important, but I love Christmas music!...ahem...)

Moving on...I was a bit disappointed because wanted to post some pictures of way back when, and I don't have access to any old pictures because I am over here in China, ya know. And (I know you're not supposed to start a sentence with "and"...but just give me a break! :) ) then I thought to myself, "I'll just hop on over to Facebook because I know my mom and Christine, my sister have some old photos of us when we were little. This will probably explain the recent comments on some of these very old pictures posted years ago! haha! And someone, *cough* Christine *cough* deleted her old facebook account with all the old school pictures in it....so I don't have as many as I would like! :)

Anyway, this first one I think might have been during Christmas because for a couple years we always wanted wind breaker suits and Elise is sporting hers proudly here! Haha!

Here is a more recent picture of what Christmas has done to me! This is what I like to call my "Christmas Cheer!"

I think I got it from someone else...yup, we're related. That's my dad with his dad!

This is a couple years ago at my grandparents house! Amy is all snug in her Who Ville Onesie. haha!

My grandparents on my mom's side!

And of course we all love a good big fat meal on Christmas!!

Chinglish Time!

2010-12-18T13:42:00.010+08:00

I've got a couple more pictures for you all! I'll just let you enjoy them... :)

This first one was given to Caleb, another American brother here in Xiasha. We were getting a massage and this note was handed to him. After being her for a while, we were able to understand everything except the "meah". We don't really understand that part. haha!

This is an exact translation of what they would say in Chinese. "Send it to you." Except the part that says "Merry X-max" haha!

This really means it is not a present...don't steal it. haha!

We bought this cup to keep in the bathroom. When I got it home, I realized it had Chinglish on it! Look closely...

That's all I have! I hope you enjoyed them! Thanks for reading, I love you all!

White House Ain't Got Nothin on Us!

2010-12-15T11:38:00.001+08:00

I was reading Yahoo! online news the other day and one of the articles was about the White House Christmas decorations and how wonderful, and beautiful, and festive they are. So I took a look...my reaction? "Oh, pleeeease." I mean, I don't mean to brag, but I would have to say we did a better job than the White House with our decorations. Period. No arguments...I think you will agree! ;) This is our Christmas cheer and as I like to call it our Winter Wonderland!

This is from the front hallway looking into the rest of the house.

Snowflakes!

Christmas ties we got from Amber last year!

We made this paper tree last year and lit it this year. The process of lighting the tree...

The finished product!

Our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree we got from Layna last year!

The top of a tin can we got last year!

Kevin loves to do this! Haha!

I made this little guy last night. He's a little skinny, but we'll just say Santa's on a diet.

So proud of our little fire place...Stan made most of it!

We had to put our stockings under the tree because we couldn't tac them to the concrete wall on the mantel.

Our tree has a mini-me my mom gave us!

Before we put mini-me under the big tree, we had him in the bathroom as a nightlight. Here are the many colors...Blue!

Green!

Red!

Well that's it! I might do a video of it soon...we'll see. :) Thanks for reading and I love you all!

Oh, P.S...it's been snowing all morning!!!

Date Weekend 5.0

2010-12-06T12:27:00.028+08:00

Stan and I have a date weekend every year the weekend he proposed to me! This year is no different! This is the 5th annual date weekend! We always stay somewhere other than our house and it's fun! This year we went to West Lake (famous in China) and it's right in our city! We have been there many times, but when you are staying in a hotel close by, it's more fun! So, here's what we did...

This is obviously a picture of the bed

They had laundry detergent beside the sink in the bathroom! haha!

Here's a pic with the curtain down...

And one with it up!

Just to give you a better idea of what's going on here...

After getting settled in, we went to a curry place called "The Banana Leaf".

Cool chairs! I promise, I told him to smile!

One thing I forgot about this place is that they make you get up and dance or sing with them. I mean it, they are relentless! They don't give up and it's embarrassing either way, if you deny or give in to the begging! She took my phone from me and took a picture of us! Haha!

Then we came back to the hotel and got a foot massage! Our people were cool!

Then one of them wanted to get pictures with us after!

Then it was his turn!

And we don't exactly know who this was, but he wanted a picture too...

After the massage, we went back to the room and decided to watch a movie. This is how we decided. Stan threw the movies in the air and I said head or tails.

This was the verdict...

We ended up not watching either because one of the stopped working and the other didn't seem like a good movie. We watched "The Princess and the Frog" instead. Cute movie!

Here we are on Sunday...good picture of the husband smiling...

And then...

It got a little crazy...

The end!

Thanks for reading! I love you all!

A Boring Post

2010-11-30T23:45:00.002+08:00

I thought I should blog just so I don't forget I have one. Ha! But it's not very exciting because a lot of times when I Blog it's about whatever is on my mind. Well, not much has been on my mind this past week except school. Oh yeah, and I got sick two days before thanksgiving (stomach virus or something) and my stomach hasn't recovered 100%. In fact a little bug has been passed around a couple of us out here and has lingered just like mine has. We're all getting over it, slowly but surely! Anyway, we are giving finals in about 4 weeks. Everything is all planned out, but once something is planned, I still think about it. lol I know that's a bit far away to only be thinking about that, but this school is different from our school last year. They require a lot more paperwork for the end of the semester and we are meeting with our supervisor on Thursday to get the details and then we'll know exactly what we need to do. Not worried, just informing you because I have nothing else to say! haha!

Oh yeah, also we've been decorating our apartment with Christmas stuff! (I'll blog about it later!) I figured out how to do some really cool paper snow flakes, and I'm not gonna lie...it kinda looks like a kindergarten room threw up in here! But that's how we like it! It makes it more Christmas-y! To give you a reminder about what our tree looked like last year...

There's much more to see as soon as we finish it! Many more pictures! I just know you are on the edge of your seat! The anticipation is what keep you here!! :)

Anyway, that's all I have for today! I love you all and thanks for reading!!

Teaching Re-cap

2010-11-23T21:11:00.006+08:00

I haven't even done one of these yet this year! I guess it's because I was too busy complaining about the class that hates me (just kiddin). Well anyway, I'm doing one this week because I felt like this week went really well. It sounds funny to say that because it's only Wednesday morning here as I am writing this, but my teaching days are Mondays and Tuesdays...and they are FULL! So this is the end of my week, technically. It's Thanksgiving week and it was a fun week to teach! I got to talk about what we do on Thanksgiving. Many of them know about the Holiday, but they haven't had a foreign teacher explain it to them with pictures and videos and such. (By the way, Stan made a really cool video about Thanksgiving...it's on Facebook. You should check it out!) So, I had a power point presentation with the history and pictures of food and I explained how to make some things. I explained we watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and Football. I also explained to them that it is called Football, not American Football in America. I just got a blank stare from that, because they were probably thinking, "Duh..." Then I showed the video and explained it as well! Then came the fun!

I showed the students some pictures of some "Turkey Hands" and they loved them! They thought they were so cute! I showed them some I found online that named things they were thankful for. And then I told them it was their turn to make them! They let out the normal "Whaaaa" when they are surprised and I passed out the papers. I played some Christmas music while they finished up their hands (and I finished mine.) Then they showed them to the class! (I feel like I've said "then" a thousand times!) I only did this with one class because most of my other classes are AV classes. Here are a few pictures from the day!

This was mine! It says toward the bottom that I am thankful for Class 10TFC2. That is this class.

This one was given to me at the end of class by a girl named Heroine. (Female Hero...not the drug) On the thumb part of the turkey she wrote she is thankful for Love and wrote the Chinese character for it above the English. I thought that was cool.

These are my Freshman! My only Freshman class and I love them!! They are so sweet and listen so well! One of the girls in the middle had a really good one. I commented on how artistic she was and she said, "My Turkey is so fashion! It has a handbag and scarf!" She was so proud! hehe!

As you might or might not be able to see, there are only three guys in the back. Sean, John, and Key. Yes, Key. They have to stick together!

Well, it was a fun day and I'm glad I got to do it with my students! Don't forget to think about me in China and I love you all!

Weather!!

2010-11-22T21:54:00.003+08:00

I was looking back through some of my blog posts which I posted a year ago at this time. It's interesting to look back and be able to relive what I was feeling at the moment because this year has been so different for a number of reasons, but it all stems from one in my mind: Weather. I was blogging about this last year at this time. It was so ridiculously cold at this time last year...it just makes me cringe to think about it. I don't have to explain it all to you again, but I will remind you (or tell you for the first time if you have recently joined) that it was raining, hovering around freezing, it's really humid in Hangzhou, and you walk everywhere you go. SO...you wanna know how this year has been? FANTASTIC! Even though it has rained some this year, it's nothing compared to last year. Nothing. Also, the lowest the temperature has gotten was 45 degrees, and that was only two nights ago! I only had 3 layers on (counting my coat) and at this time last year I was wearing almost everything in my closet! I'm just so grateful the weather is more bearable. It seems silly to dwell on something like that, but the weather matters even more here. It matters more because you are out in the elements more.

One thing which stems from the weather change is the fact that our students are out and about more...and so are we. Students actually want to come to lunch with us, and not just run back to the dorm because of how miserable it is outside. We want to be outside and doing more things with students; taking opportunities to share Him with them! I'm grateful for last year, because it makes me appreciate this year so much more. It helps me to be more optimistic about why we are here. It gives me perspective, and I am grateful. So, for this Thanksgiving, this is what I am most thankful for. Yes, I am thankful for friends and family and for sure what He has done for me...but I like specifics. And I'm being specific! :) I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving day!! I love you all!

Christina

2010-11-22T18:17:00.003+08:00

Christina is one of the student workers at our hotel front desk. We live on the top floor of a hotel, it sounds really nice, but it's a Chinese hotel. We (Stan, Kevin and I) have been stopping to talk to her every night we come in. We will stop and talk to her for a while and just keep her company while she works at her boring job. She is just so cute and she tells Stan and Kevin they are "So Lovely". This is a common saying and it has more than one meaning to them. It can mean "cute" or "I love being around you" or "funny" or any others I don't know. A couple of weeks ago she asked Stan why he was so happy. He said, "I don't know....I just like being happy. Maybe it's because I am a "C". But he said it. He showed her the verse about "Counting it all joy" and she liked it. He told her where it was from and she said she knew what it was. She said she didn't think she would be able to understand it because it is too deep for her. We told her we don't even understand all of it, so we study it often to help each other understand. She seemed interested in that. Then Stan told her if she wanted to look at it some more we could do it together. Her face lit up and her reaction surprised me. Her reaction was so happy and she said, "Really?! You will do that?!" And then she just couldn't say anything else, and kept smiling. She seems really interested in it, but shy about it.

A couple of nights ago we told her we wanted to hang out with her sometime and decided to have dinner. After dinner we went to Starbucks (the new one out in our area that we are so excited about!) We sat and talked and just got to know each other a little better. An on-going theme I saw in her (and it may just be the Social Worker in me, but I saw it) was a lack of self-confidence. Sadly, you see this a lot in Chinese girls. Christina is different though, because she is confident around us. We told her one time that we noticed she does not run away or stop talking when she doesn't know the English word to something she is trying to describe. She is confident and waits until she finds the word. She said she thinks it is because we make her feel comfortable and confident and she can say whatever she wants. But while we were sitting there at Starbucks, she kept saying things like, "I don't think I am smart enough for that (topic of conversation)". I hope our being around her helps her to realize she is beautiful the way He made her. I hope we can be His hands to show her that. I think He has already done that and there's more to come! I ask you to think of her and help her to have an open heart and mind.

I have a picture of her, but I don't think that's a good idea. Just know she's as cute as a button! :) Thanks for reading and don't forget to think about us in China!! I love you all!

Chinglish Time (Part 2)

2010-11-10T17:33:00.013+08:00

These are mainly of Yellow Mountain and a few other things around town! Enjoy!

Apparently, this is new slang Chinglish with my college students. They couldn't explain it, but I think it's funny! I had to write it on our dry erase board because it's not something I have seen.

I'm sure they meant "assorted" and I had to look up what "daggle" means.

Really? Abercrombie & Fitch rip-off?

If you can't see it, it says "Thanks for your care to the green."

Yup, I think you should choosing one.

And it reads: "Fighting protection system far away from five meters"

Chinglish Time again! (Part 1)

2010-11-10T12:15:00.000+08:00

I really have way too many and I waited too long to put them onto one blog, so I'm gonna have to split this one up! We've been a couple different places the past couple of weekends (Lingshan, Yellow Mountain, Ningbo) and I've gotten a lot from these trips. So, I am just going to start from the top to the bottom. I'll let you know which ones are from which trip! I think most of these are from Hangzhou around town and Lingshan. Enjoy!

I keep trying to crop this one to make it smaller so you can read it, but it just won't work! It says, "Polite Language and No Noising". Ha!

Hypermarket...I think they meant Supermarket.

This was on the school computer screen in my classroom.

Multifuntional?

Form What Here?

This one is funny to me because it says, "Drink Coca-Cola in bottles" and it's on a mug! haha

This is just not a good idea to make this the name of your store...

Supposed to be "Tuna Pizza" And it tastes exactly how you think it would taste.

Well that's half of them...Part two will come shortly! Thanks for reading and I love you all!

Good Day: 4 Reasons

2010-11-08T21:56:00.004+08:00

Just wanted to write a quick blog before going to bed about today's events: broken up into 4 events.

#1 Queen Latifa
This morning I got to my "Listening, Viewing, Speaking" (AV) class and I had planned on watching "The Blindside" with them because I thought this would open up some good conversation about things, and maybe spark some interest in some of my students. Well, I asked them at the beginning of the semester if they had seen the movie and they said they had not. Turns out they had seen it last year in this class, and had discussed it! I wasn't surprised because a lot of times, they aren't listening to me. So, another girl in the class told me she had a movie on her zip drive. I asked what it was and she said, "Taxi Queen". Do you know what that is? Well if you don't, you should probably just Google it. Now, I'm not what you would call a Queen Latifa fan, and this movie has her playing as the leading lady. Yay. So, at first I had the attitude of being forced to sit through this movie, but I actually thought it was quite funny. Jimmy Fallon is in it, and I just think he is hilarious, so that made it worth it!

#2 Culture Class
My Culture class which I have talked about a couple of times went well today. This is the class where a couple of people complained about my teaching methods. Class went well. I taught about the process of preparing for a baby in America. Because this is handled differently in China. Luckily, my sister is going to have a baby soon! So, I was able to use some of her pictures to show them exactly what that mom and dad will see in the ultrasound. I also showed some pictures of her growing belly! After the power point of pictures and descriptions of the preparations, I had a small activity for the class to do. We talked about how in America, everyone has a first and middle name. I had them split into groups and decide on a first and middle name for a new coming baby. Stan and I told them we would name our child after the one we liked best, haha! They said, "Really?" We said, "No, just kidding." haha! We got some pretty odd names, and some really cool ones too! It was a fun activity which everyone enjoyed. All except that one girl who doesn't particularly like me or my teaching methods and she has made that clear on more than one occasion. She was sitting in the back just looking as bored as she possibly could. But it was a good class and I just don't care what she thinks. That's it, plain and simple. It may sound mean, but it is the truth. I was happy with the class.

#3 Jasmine
I had to go make copies for something I am doing in class tomorrow. So as I was waiting for the worker to finish making my copies this woman walked in. She looked back at me once, twice, three times and said, "Can I help you with something. Do you need help?" in almost perfect English. I explained I was waiting for my copies to finish being made. We got into a good conversation and I found out her name is Jasmine and she did some graduate work at Auburn in Alabama! She just moved to the Xiasha district with her husband and a 16 month old baby. They don't have many friends because they just moved there. We exchanged numbers and I told her I would love for her to meet my husband sometime. Keep Jasmine in mind!

#4 Cycling!
Jenn, another American here in Xiasha told me her school which is a ten minute walk from mine has cycling classes and we decided to go to one tonight. I'm sure my school does something like that, but it's more fun and beneficial to do it with someone! So we just got back and it was so cool! I've cycled by myself on stationary bikes many times and I love it, but this was so much better! First of all, the room was set up with all these bikes and it was pitch black...all except for the disco ball spinning at the top left corner of the room, shining light on everyone at different times. Ha! We got there right as it was starting so the only bikes left where at the front. Yay. Not too excited about being watched the whole time, but once we got into it we realized we were just smokin everyone in there! We were keeping up with the instructor even though we didn't understand him! We just watched what he did and followed! Now, that sounds cocky, but it just made us feel good that we got a good workout and WE weren't the ones who were struggling! that's always a plus in a workout! I was like a hip-hop cycling class too! We worked muscles I've never worked on a bike! haha! We were so excited and made a couple friends after!

I have a sense of belonging now because I am making Chinese friends out here. I actually want to eat Chinese food now, haha! That may seem like it has nothing to do with the previous sentence...oh but it does! I'm feeling better about being here and my purpose. Please think about these things and the relationships which can possibly stem from them! Thanks for reading, I love you all!!

Yellow Mountain

2010-11-03T13:28:00.017+08:00

This past weekend we went to Yellow Mountain! It was incredible! We climbed up the East side and went down the West. I'm glad we did because even though the East side was difficult, the West side was ridiculous! The West side was also the most beautiful! I don't have many pictures of the amount of stairs we had to climb to get up to the top, (I was too busy climbing them!) but here are a few of the East side going up! (If you are on facebook, you might have already seen these.)

We tried to figure out how many steps we climbed up and it was somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000! Some of our friends, Kyle and Rebecca climbed this same mountain last year and they, unfortunately didn't have as good a time as we did. They went Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Their school took them, and it was "very Chinese" as we like to say. So whenever I heard someone say "Yellow Mountain", I always had a bad taste in my mouth. I was a little apprehensive about it, but still excited! It turned out to be a really good trip! We stayed in a really good Hostel. Good food, and the hostess' were really nice! When we got to the mountain, the weather felt good, but it was cold. I had two layers on my legs, and 4 on my top. We got about 1 meter up the mountain and I was shedding layers! I couldn't shed the bottom layer on my legs because I'd have to take my pants off. So, we came to a clearing on the mountain for a resting spot and I noticed there was a good area I could go hide and shed a layer...so I did! And I felt so much better! We had to keep moving though because it was still cold, and we were sweating from all the climbing! So on we went! We got to the top (6 meters up of stairs), then there was about 1 meter to climb to see the top of the mountain. So on we went! And this is what we saw!

Here are the pics I took going down the West side! This was so cool! I think these looked like fake rocks, or almost like they were painted on a screen!

This next picture is of the tunnel we went through to get to the cable car.

And this is the ride down the mountain in the cable car.

I have a lot of Chinglish pictures from this trip, so I'll do another blog for that soon! Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Keeping you abreast of the Situation

2010-11-02T17:22:00.004+08:00

WARNING: THIS IS A LONG BLOG FOR ME! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! :)

Two weeks ago in my Culture class, I talked about Halloween. I showed pictures of Jack-o-lanterns and explained trick or treating. Then I showed them some pictures of some Halloween costumes and I thought it was a fun way to learn about a Holiday in another culture. Then I assigned them the task of dressing up in a Halloween costume the following week (last week) and giving a 1 minute speech on their costume. 1 minute. That's all. I also decided to tell them that this was going to be considered their mid-term exam and it would be worth 30% of their grade. (Disclaimer: Telling them this one week in advance is plenty of time for them in this culture because they will forget about it until the week before anyway...we've learned our lesson.) I got a lot of groans and moans out of them, but that always happens when you ask them to do something that requires them to get their behinds out of their seats. So, I didn't think much of it, sent them on their way and saw them the next week. (Last week.)

I got to class and got myself setup to grade them as they spoke. I had my computer and I was running out of battery, so I needed to sit near the front of the room to charge it (The only plug in this particular room) or else I would have sat in the back. The class was going rather smoothly. They weren't as excited about the idea as I thought they might be once they got into it, but I didn't care because I, as their teacher was doing something fun for them and their mid-term. In-between every person, I looked to the back of the room and called for the next volunteer. Mid-way through class, just after the break time, I looked to the back of the room and noticed some people sneaking out of class. I thought to myself, "I don't even care. I'll take attendance at the end of class and those 5 people will be counted absent." Content with my decision, I turned to continue listening to the speeches. 5 minutes passed, 10 minutes passed, 15 minutes passed and more and more people had left the classroom. Some had completed their speeches, but some hadn't even tried. I still had the same plan in mind to count all those absent who left, but I was steaming in my seat. By the end of class, the last people in class was the girl who was finishing her speech and her friend. There were 4 girls standing in the back of the classroom waiting because they needed to ask me a question. That's it. I looked down at my watch and we still had 7 minutes of class left. It didn't hurt my feelings at all, I was just so frustrated with the fact that everyone sees the Asian cultures, especially China as being full of such a respectful students. What is more disrespectful than walking out of class when your teacher has given you no such permission?

So I decided that the next week (this week) I was going to let them know that I understood what was going on and they would all be counted absent. (I hope that wasn't too confusing) So, this week I walked into class and I wrote on the board, "What is a speech?" And I stood there. I asked the question out loud, and I stood there. Silence. And more silence. Normally this type of a situation KILLS me with the Chinese students because they are so shy to volunteer information. It's like pulling teeth to get them to volunteer anything, so normally I just don't do it. But today was different. I was fine with the awkward silences. I waited and waited and waited. I waited so long they began to chat among themselves. I told them to stop talking. I asked the question again. I wasn't yelling, but by the looks on their faces, you would have thought I killed their puppy. I'm not normally that quiet, and I think it freaked them out, but I wanted them to know that I was serious. I digress...

Finally someone answered and I explained that a speech is something that cannot be done to only one person, or it looses its effectiveness. They understood and I explained the above situation of me being left in the room with one girl and her friend. I never raised my voice, however, I was bone chillingly quiet. I said what I needed to say. I told them that if they wanted to leave the classroom, it was okay with me, but they needed to expect a failing grade in attendance. (That's the shortened version.)

We then completed the speeches left over from last week. After that I wrote on the board, "Write a one page paper on the importance of Attendance." I told them to tell me their opinion about it, whether they think it is important or not. And I waited. This took quite a while and I took them up when they were finished. I gave them some busy work to do out of the book and read their responses. Some of them sickened me because they were so rude. Some held nothing back, some were more respectful, and some apologized profusely for leaving early the previous week. Some said they thought I was mad at them and said they were sorry. The ones who held nothing back stated how they thought attendance is important because the student should respect the teacher, but if the teacher does not respect the student then the student shouldn't respect the teacher. They stated that last year when they had to give speeches their foreign teacher let them leave class and so should I. That's how I should respect them. The same girl who thought I was just playing games at the beginning of the semester said, "I think you should teach us something in this class and then I would want to come. I hated the exam, so I didn't want to stay. I think it is my right." Yup, it's your right. You are 100% correct about that one! You got it! The way I addressed this was I explained to the whole class that the reason I had a few activities at the beginning of the semester was to gauge their English speaking abilities. I also said that I gained a great amount of knowledge about some students who didn't want to participate in the activities. Some students didn't follow the directions well, and they were the ones who might have needed to think more clearly about the activities.

I addressed the comments about the students thinking I was mad at them. I told them I was not mad, but serious and I think they should understand that. I got a lot of head nods from that one. I think we're all on good terms now. I got a lot of eye rolling from the main student who complained about my teaching methods earlier this semester. Water off a duck's back- no biggie. BUT--

I think there's a possibility that fire might ignite again soon after this last class. That's what the title of this blog has to do with. I'm not meaning to count my eggs before they hatch,and be a worry wart about "getting in trouble" with my supervisor, but I do like to rehash things in my head to make sure I did the right thing. And well, since I have a blog, I thought I would write it out.

After writing all that I feel like there might be some stuff that didn't make sense. Story of my life, haha! At least it makes me feel better to write it out! :) Anyway, thanks for reading! I love you all!

This past weekend

2010-10-26T15:47:00.004+08:00

I think I'm probably far enough removed from the situation to be able to laugh about it now, so I will tell you the story! This past weekend, Stan and I got invited to an overnight trip with some former students to a place called Lingshan. It's just outside of Hangzhou and some of Stan's former students at Shuren University asked us to come. We were told the cost would be 75 yuan. We didn't think that was too bad, and we wanted to see them, so we said yes!

In preparation for the two days we would be gone, we looked up the forecast for Saturday and Sunday. Both days had a 100% chance of rain all day. The trip consisted of hiking up and down a mountain and going into caves. Obviously, we would not be getting wet for the cave part, but for the rest, we would. So, Stan called Aileen (the one who invited us) and asked her if they were planning on going through with the trip if it rains. She said, "Rain or shine, we are going." So, here we go... since we live in Xiasha this year, we had an hour and a half commute to our old school, Shuren. So, we got up early and headed that way...pouring down rain. The thing about rain here is that you are always in it. You don't have a car you can get into and run away from the rain...you're just in it and that's that. So, I started off the trip with a good attitude, knowing I couldn't change anything about my circumstances, and just tried to have fun!

The first part of the trip went rather well, considering all the rain. We got on the bus and drove up to this area where a lot of people were cooking bar-b-q style. So, the students we were with pulled out all their food and began cooking as well. It was just hilarious because you could tell almost none of them had ever done this before. Some of them didn't even know how to open an aluminum foil box. I'm not making fun, it was just a funny situation to be in. They were having a blast whether the food caught on fire or not! And it did. They got the hang of it later on and it was pretty good, we were just concerned they weren't getting the mean cooked all the way...

Anyway, after we ate, I went to find the bathroom. It was around the corner and up some stairs. Keep in mind it's still raining. I got to the top of the stairs and there was a mossy patch I didn't see and I tripped and scraped up my leg. Bummer, but it wasn't that bad.

After everything was all cleaned up from lunch, we headed down the mountain (stairs- slippery from the rain and moss). We didn't get to see much on the way down, for fear of falling on my face, but we made it down, rain and all! This is where we went inside the cave. It was cool, but the one thing that is disappointing about natural things in China is that they always add something that isn't natural to the mix to make it more "beautiful". They added a walkway and some cement pools for the water to filter in. We got to the "end" of the cave and were told we were going to climb 36 flights of stairs up to the top. So we did, and it sure did feel like it too! Once we got to the top, we climbed down the mountain outside to get back to where we came from. Then it was time to go back to the hotel. We walked about 1/4 to 1/2 a mile to the hotel. Everyone found their rooms and got settled in. I pulled out my comfy clothes and they were all wet. :( So sad. So I laid them out to dry (which didn't do much good. Anyway, we were all milling about when one of the girls said, "Stan, there is nothing to eat. We didn't bring anything and there are no restaurants. What should we do?" As if we planned this thing? This is how the rest of the conversation went:

Stan: "Well, hmmmm. Can we cook something?"
Girl: "There is no supermarket."
Stan: "Hmmmm"
Girl: Blank Stare
Girl: "What will you do?"
Stan: "I don't know. What will you do?"
Girl: "I don't know, there is no food." Blank stare.
Stan: "Hmmm...."(Looks at me. Shrugs his shoulders.) "I guess I'll see if we can find some food."

So Stan, Aileen, a boy named Orange and I went to search for food. We walked for a bit and found some people cooking in what looked like their home. The students who were with us asked the people if there was a restaurant anywhere near. The people said, "I don't know, go that way." And pointed down the road. They live there and they don't know. Ok. So, we finally came upon what looked like another house and asked them and they said, "Yeah, this is a restaurant!" They led us back in through their house (or boarding house...not quite sure) to the restaurant. It was cracking me up because it was just such a funny experience. We got food in our bellies and Aileen called the other students, but they didn't seen interested. So they just snacked on stuff.

I feel like I'm leaving something out...oh yeah, the beds. I think I might have been in such shock over this experience that I didn't take any pictures of the room we slept in. So you're going to have to imagine what the bed felt like: Imagine a table with a comforter on top of it and a blanket to cover up with. That's it. Don't let your imagination run wild, because that's all there was! There was a dog that barked until 3 or 4 in the morning. I had my headphones in and I could still hear that dog! One time, as soon as the dog quick barking Stan started snoring. haha! It was like something off of a sitcom! I'm jealous of Stan because he can sleep just about anywhere! :)

All in all, it was just another story to add to the book we have of unusual Chinese experiences. I hope you enjoyed the story and I'm sorry I don't have many pictures. Thanks for reading! I love you all! Don't forget to think about me in China!

The Thing is...

2010-10-24T19:08:00.002+08:00

So here's the thing...about living in another country for an extended period of time. The thing is, the Chinese people do things which seem so incredibly different from the way I do things. I get irritated with it, and then I convince myself that ALL of the people of China do EVERYTHING differently. I am quick to judge, and I become less objective. It's difficult for me to stay objective, because after being here for a while I have embraced this culture, but I have also embraced my own even more. (You'll probably think I'm a horrible person after reading this blog, but I would like to be transparent here). So, the other day I saw a girl eating an ice cream cone and for some reason I thought she was eating it the wrong way. I thought, "She doesn't know how to eat an ice cream cone." Instantly I wanted to smack my mouth because I completely and totally judged her based on appearances, AND it was about an ice cream cone for cryin out loud!

The other thing is...not speaking the language but being expected to is frustrating. Me, Stan, and Kevin (don't know Kevin? Click here) have tutors but we've only met with them a couple times. Short story: The other day I was sitting at the front of the classroom. It was break time in between classes and I was looking down. I heard the word for "teacher" said in Chinese and I looked up. Two students were standing to the side of me, both boys. One of them said a long string of Chinese words to me and set a packet down in front of me. The packet had only Chinese characters written in it and it was about 8 pages thick. One of the boys kept gesturing to the paper and looking at me. I looked at the back to see if there was a place I needed to sign. Nope. So I told him I couldn't read it. He spoke more only Chinese. Then he laughed. Then he said, "You...a...can'ta...uhh...uhh..." More laughter. (Laughter is common when they are nervous.) I said, "kan bu dong." Which roughly means, "I can't read it.") So, I got an 'eye roll' and he left the room, leaving me with the 8 page packet of Chinese characters. He later came back and picked up the packet. I have no idea what he was doing, or what he wanted me to do. I still don't.

Then I was reminded of Spanish speaking people who come to America, not knowing the language. Many Americans become frustrated with those people and try to fix the problem by speaking more slowly and more loudly. That's what I feel like a lot of days. Most students understand that I can't speak the language and they are forgiving of it, but those two students were not as forgiving.

When things like that happen and I become irritated with life and the people here, I remember that I am the one who decided to come here voluntarily. These things are proof to me that this work comes with some trials. I just need to concentrate on not letting those things control my thoughts. That's where it will matter. That's something you can THINK for me about. Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Shanghai

2010-10-09T23:15:00.002+08:00

October 1st is China's National Holiday. Unlike America's National Holiday, China gets 7 days off for the celebration of one day! October 1st through the 7th is a HUGE holiday in China. One of the biggest. This means, any type of traveling will be stressful, and most definitely a test of patience. So, what did we decide to do? We went to Shanghai to the World's Fair! (Expo) Probably the busiest place in China at this time. Well, it turned out to be very busy, but actually not as bad as we expected. The "we" in this case is me, Stan, Kevin Westmoreland, and Emily & Paul Richardson. So, while we were in Shanghai, we did other things than just going to the Expo. We went to see "The Bund" which is very famous in Shanghai. We walked up to where everyone would be to see the skyline of Shanghai at night and it was packed! It was just ridiculous. During these situations, I have learned to not try to fight it if I can. I didn't care about seeing the skyline with no one in front of me enough to fight the crowd, so me, Kevin, and Emily stepped back and had plenty of room around us. All three of us were standing in a horizontal line, looking at the skyline. We were close to each other, as in inches between our bodies. There was a 5 foot circumference surrounding us: plenty of room for anyone to walk by us without getting touched. Well, here's the reason for blogging...

Let me set this up for you: As if you were looking at the three of us from behind, Kevin is on the left, Emily is in the middle, and I am on the right. We were standing there, minding our own business when Kevin and Emily are blasted from behind and pushed out of the way by a woman who just NEEDED to get a picture of the skyline. So, when this happened we gave each other the "Oh China" look, chuckled, and quickly returned back to our spots. So, this woman took her much needed picture and turned around to go back through where she decided to enter the first time (through 2 human beings). This time, Emily and Kevin stood their ground and looked straight ahead. (Their stone-like ability was artistic). After the woman knew she wasn't getting through that side, she came to the other side of Emily to where I was and tried to burst through us. Keep in mind, we are completely facing forward...looking at this woman. Also keep in mind the 5 foot circumference surrounding us. Yeah. So, then the lady decided to call out to the person she was going to retrieve, and THEN walked around us. After that, we all shared blank stares and then Kevin said, "You need to blog about that Juliane." Haha! So, I did. I can't tell you how many times I have been pushed and shoved in this country in the past year. And it's something you can get used to (somewhat). But I have never seen anything like this. It was just crazy. This country is just so different and it definitely never gets old!

I knew all of you who have been in China would appreciate this one! I just hope you made it through it and understood. I'm sure you did. :) Well, thanks for reading! Don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all!

First Hair cut!

2010-10-09T00:27:00.006+08:00

Hello all! You may or may not know that last year, I went almost the whole year without a haircut because I was afraid what the Chinese cosmetologists would do to my hair! But that's just crazy talk now after living here for a year, I have more confidence in them! :) Stan cut it once last year (with the help of Erin over Skype) and he did a fabulous job! Well, after getting it cut this Summer, I knew I would have to get it cut here. So, Erin, this blog is for you! I got my first haircut here about a week ago and he didn't do that bad of a job. (Yes "he". I don't think I've ever seen a woman cutting hair in China. Only men. The women give massages and greet you at the door.) I digress...Now, first I wanna show you a picture of what I showed the man who was cutting my hair.

And here's the finished product!

It's not as angled as the picture, but I think he did an okay job. He certainly didn't do as good of a job as Erin would have, but ya know...I'll take what I can get! :) I was frustrated at that fact at first right after he cut it, and Stan even told me I was being "a little whinny" about it (rightfully so). But I'm good with it now and I love it! I just gotta find the word for more angled in my Chinese dictionary and show him next time. haha!

Oh! One other thing...when he was looking at the picture and looking at my hair, he kept saying my hair was curly and it wasn't going to work. Over and over and over again, he would take my hair and wrap it around his finger to show me it was curly (as if I didn't know that about myself) I just kept saying, "I know, I know. It's ok. I will straighten it. It's ok, it's ok." He almost couldn't handle it. He didn't know what to do with my curly hair! haha! Oh China...

I have video of the whole thing (well most of it), but I need to piece it together and show you the whole thing at once. I just wanted to give you a sneak peak now!

Nothing insightful from me today, haha! I just hope you have a good day! Thanks for reading, and don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all!!

A Sudden Bout of Insomnia

2010-09-30T02:34:00.002+08:00

Well, that just about says it. It's 2:30 AM, I am tired, but can't sleep. I've been playing around on the internet for a while, reading, playing games on my phone, and watching TV, trying to fall asleep! So, I don't know if I've ever been one to say, "I lost sleep over _____ last night." But I think I can say that tomorrow. I got this email from my supervisor, Cindy telling me I needed to use the book in my class more. She said she had some complaints from some students about it. Well, I'll just let you read the email...

HI, Juliane,
There is a preblem about your teaching.
It seems that you do not often use the textbooks in your English Viewing Listening and Speaking and Introduction to English Speaking Countries. Recently some students have some complaints. They appreciate the games in class, but they hope you teach some contents in the textbooks so that they would get more information in the short persiods. Would you please modify your plan a little to cover more information from the textbooks?
Or ,we can talk about it sometime after the long holiday?
Take care and have a good holiday!
Cindy

Now, this may seem simple to you, but I feel as though I have been accused of just playing games in my classes. This is not the case, and I immediately felt the need to defend myself. I explained these activities are provided for the students so I, the teacher, can get to know the students, monitor how well they follow directions, encourage the students to speak aloud in class, and therefore have a better understanding of their level of oral English. They are not games. They have purpose. I continued to explain that I have been planning to begin teaching out of the book after the October Holiday (since I have only seen some of my classes 3 times). I think it's a good length of time to learn where the students are academically in their oral English.

So, I have been up trying not to think about this email. I did reply to her email very nicely but I am still having trouble with it. That's why I can say, "I lost sleep over it last night." I'm thinking it might have to do with a little pride issue. I don't want anyone to think I'm a stupid or bad teacher after all! But that's the thing about pride...it's hardest to admit from those who need to admit it the most. Well, I would like your opinions, please. If you are a regular reader of my blog, I would like to hear what you think. I so very, very badly do not want anyone to think I am a bad teacher. But I also think I need to work on the pride a bit, too. Anyway, thanks for reading! Please think about me in China! I love you all!

The first Chinglish Blog of the Semester!

2010-09-28T12:36:00.014+08:00

Well, I figured since my mother nagged me :) I should do a blog. But here's the deal: I'm sick, achy all over and I don't wanna put much effort into anything. So, I decided to do another Chinglish post!

It's that time again! I don't have as many as I would like, but I think I have some good ones. You can be the judge. You know there will be more later, and I'll post these on facebook too!

Changing Roon?

Here's a full view of what's happening. They like to focus on privacy here in China...

What's The Worlo?

Just in case you can't see it, it says "Internationgnal"

I know where to go when I need help: "The Olice Station"

Ummm...this was inside of a bathroom. That gray thing is a big button to push if you "seeks help"

When the light was on at the top it meant it was occupied. haha!

Well, that's it! Thanks for reading and laughing. I know you did! Don't forget to think about me in China. I love you all!

The Grass is Always Greener

2010-09-19T12:23:00.007+08:00

We've all heard the saying, "The grass is greener on the other side." Stan and I have experienced some irony within this saying during the move to Xiasha.

#1 New apartment! Yay! The new apartment has more room, we have a bigger kitchen...we have a couch!

#2 Friends! We are closer to "everyone" this year. Closer to all the foreigners we know! This is good for our relationship with other people, and each other.

The grass is always greener. Even though these things are great, grand and wonderful... the grass is always greener. With the new, bigger apartment, come more room. More space. More things to clean. Here's the thing, I knew this fact about having more space before, but it was like since we had been in that small space for so long, I had almost forgotten that significant piece of information. Haha! The other day I was sitting on the couch (WE HAVE A COUCH!) and I looked around and said to myself, "This place is a pig sty!!" So I got up and cleaned like a crazy woman! That's when I realized, "Oh yeah, I forgot what it was like to actually clean a house, and not a dorm room." I thought we had it bad with less space, but there really is just less to clean. haha!

Did I mention we have a couch? Oh- well, we have a couch. On which people might sit. They don't have to sit on our bed or just stand awkwardly next to the bed. So, I will show you a picture. This was not our first couch. Our first couch, when we got to this apartment was a coral-colored couch which was broken. So, the school got us a new one....

We like to refer to this one as "The Nickelodeon Couch" I think you know why. :) Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! I encourage you to enjoy the things and people around you and not hope for the greener grass on the other side. I love you all!

Tradition

2010-09-17T16:41:00.002+08:00

We got to go to our old school, Shuren yesterday. It was both good and exhausting, like most things in China. We got to see a lot of our old students! We met them at a coffee shop on campus and got to catch up! Well, one of the things that is important to understand about the Chinese culture is they are huge on tradition. That statement doesn't even do it justice. haha! So when my former students saw that I had cut my hair, their reactions were:

"(Shriek!) Juliane! You cut your hair! Oh no!!!"

"Juliane! Why you cut your hair?" I told her I wanted to, and was tired of having long hair. "She pointed to her pony tail and said, "But you can do this." Oh yeah, thanks. I had never thought of that!

"Oh no! I can't believe you cut your hair! It was so beautiful long!" I said, "So, you do not think my hair is beautiful now?" She said, "Oh yes...both are...maybe beautiful." she was reluctant, as you can see. haha!

These reactions did not offend me because I understand what is behind them. They thought my hair was pretty before, so it is the wrong thing to do to cut it off. They think I should keep it the way it is because of that. They think having long hair is the better way to do it, and if I do something else, it is wrong. Outside the long hair box, I literally become a different person to them and they don't know how to handle it.

Other examples of tradition in China have to do with the idea that there is only one way to do something. These examples are:

Being left handed is wrong. (They are trained not to be left handed if they show signs of this as children.)

We are fortunate enough to have a "Coldstone Creamery" in Hangzhou! One day I was ordering the "Founder's Favorite". This ice cream mixture comes with Sweet Cream Ice Cream. I asked the girl behind the counter if she could replace the Sweet Cream Ice Cream with some Chocolate Ice Cream. She looked so confused and said to me, "No, you can't." I said, "I can't? I will pay you extra money." She said, "No, I don't think it will be very delicious." That was her reasoning for not wanting to give me what I asked her to give me. Not because it is not allowed, but because it was outside the box. She'd never tried it and therefore thought it wouldn't be very delicious. She "knew" better that I did. So I said, "Yes it is! I have had it in America. I love it. Please give it to me." She was surprised at this that someone else had given it to me. So I got what I wanted! haha!

Before going back to the States this summer, Stan and I were trying to exchange some bigger bills for smaller ones to use as souvenirs for people back home. So, we went to the nearest bank. The girl at the window spoke a little English, so we asked her to exchange the amount of money for us. We told her we wanted the paper form of that amount of money. She went to the back and came out with coins for that amount. Stan told her he wanted the paper money and not the coin. She said, "Oh, but I think the coin is much more beautiful to give as a gift." And handed it to him.

Even though he told her what he wanted, she "knew" better. Things like this happen just about every day. It's literally hard to count how many times it has happened. It's interesting how different just two cultures can be.

Well, I hate to end this abruptly, but I just don't have anymore to say, and you all aren't grading me on my writing abilities! :) Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Don't EVER go to Wu Mei at night!

2010-09-15T22:22:00.003+08:00

In our city (well really it's a town), Xiasha, there is a supermarket called Wu Mei. Pronounced "Woo May". The translated version is said "Wu Mart" This is the only supermarket in our town. There are other grocery stores, but they are much smaller and you cannot get everything you need in one place. You can't always find everything you need at Wu Mart, but you can find a lot of things. Along with this being the only supermarket in Xiasha, it is also the most hoppin' place in town. Everything revolves around this one part of town. So, this is the place to be at night.

If you have ever been in Wal-Mart in America at the busiest time of the year, Christmas time, (before or after) you know how irritating it is to get some shopping done. Well, I want you to take that feeling and multiply it by about 20 and shrink the amount of space you have to walk through the isles by about 10. Now put yourself in a town where that Wal-Mart is the only thing in town worth doing for entertainment. Now, put about 15 Universities in that general area with students who have nothing to do. Now you know how it feels to shop at Wu Mart in Xiasha, China at night. I will never do it again.

Now I am going to add one more dynamic to this. Last year I could walk into our supermarket and go to the exact isle I needed to go, get exactly what I needed to get and miss any type of a rush. With moving out to a new area comes a great deal of learning. The supermarket is no exception. I don't know where anything is in Wu Mart, the learning curve takes a lot longer because everything is in Chinese, and apparently I didn't know what time to NOT go. So, as you can tell tonight was a bit stressful for me. So I decided I would blog about it an eat a Twix bar. :) So that's what I'm doing right now. And I feel all better! I love that blogging, or journal-ing has such positive effects!

This blog was not meant for me to complain, but simply to give you a glimpse of what something is like in China. I certainly made a vow to myself tonight that I would never again step foot in a Wu Mei at night, and that will make that part of my life run more smoothly. When that happens, I'm not concentrating on the bad and I can get more things accomplished for Him. Well, that's all I have for tonight. Thanks for reading! I love you all!

A Blessing in "De-skies"

2010-09-06T07:34:00.002+08:00

We got our schedules and are halfway through the first week! Our friends and families have been asking for our schedules. My mom asked about it the other day and I said, "I'm gonna do a blog about it." haha! That sounds rude, but it's just crazy getting settled in here. I truly believe the "settling in" process takes longer here than in the U.S. I digress...

I am teaching primarily Audio-visual classes, with the exception of one Culture class. And I love it! So, I would like to show you what my schedule is:

Monday:
8:00-11:35 (2 different Advanced AV classes)
~ Lunch Break ~
3:10-4:45 Culture class

Tuesday:
8:00-11:35 (2 different Regular AV classes)

Wednesday (only the first week and 16th week)
1:30-4:45 (2 different Regular AV classes)

Now, don't let the Wednesday classes confuse you. At this new school, they have cut some of our classes a week or two short and ask us to teach double on some weeks. It's not that bad, because I'm not with classes for the week!

Stan's schedule is pretty much the opposite of mine, but he'll do his own blog on that. When we first got our schedules, I was a little bummed out because they were polar opposites. But the day before we started classes, Stan and I sat down and talked about what we would do in our classes. We came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to help each other in our classes since our schedules are exactly opposite. After doing it for 3 days in a row, it has worked out beautifully! We're really excited about the semester because we feel that teaching together will help our students know us as a unit better than if we were to teach separately. It's looking like this situation will be beneficial for His work! So what started out as a bummer was a "blessing in de-skies". Ok, I know that's really corny, but we feel blessed! haha! Thank you all for reading! Don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all!

This too shall pass

2010-09-03T07:01:00.003+08:00

Hello! So here's the deal, we got to Toronto around 9PM their time on the 30th. We went to eat at a near by steak house and it was a good way to wrap up the Summer. We got back to the room and did pretty much nothing, again, a good way to wrap up the Summer. We went to bed and the next morning got up and were prepared to get on the shuttle that took us to the airport. As we were waiting, I had this yucky feeling in my stomach. The whole Summer, I was excited to come back to China because of the good things! But now, as I was standing there waiting for the shuttle to pick us up, I had the opposite feelings. I had just about forgotten all the bad things about China and I had almost unprepared myself for being in that culture again. Being in a culture where the person who walks out of the elevator is finishing their cigarette, and where there is human waste in the corner of the restaurant you are eating. Being in a culture where you feel trapped.

"This to shall pass." I keep reminding myself of that. All of these feelings passed last year and they will this year too...it's just that when you're down in the dumps it's hard to get out of them by yourself. I'm glad I'm NOT by myself (figuratively and literally)! I'm excited for what the year holds and Thinking often about it! Thanks for all of your words of encouragement! Thanks for reading, I love you all!

Grinding Pain

2010-08-04T12:11:00.003+08:00

What's goin on with us right now...

Planning times to meet with friends and family, planning times to meet with different congregations, and Elders to talk about China. Planning separate times to talk to "M" committees about support. It's so exciting!! When we left China, I knew this Summer was going to be exciting....and busy. I knew it would, but like in any situation it hasn't effected me the way I thought it would. I don't want to speak for Stan and myself, but I can say that we are so very grateful for the opportunity to speak anywhere people let us. And we are so very grateful to have the opportunity to spend time with friends and family! We are at the half-way point, and we've already had a blast! Within the past week, our schedule has filled up even more with friends, family and extended family meetings!

Well, a couple of weeks ago Stan said, "You've started grinding your teeth again at night." Bummer. (Background info.: I have a long history of T.M.J. from grinding my teeth at night.) I was telling the following story today... When I was little I would grind my teeth at night and my parents could hear it through the walls into their bedroom. So, my mom took a stuffed monkey's tail and put it in between my teeth so the grinding wasn't so loud and detrimental to my health! haha!! It's funny to think about now. Well, I have been to the dentist about it, and he said I should just keep using my mouth guard I got from Wal-Mart. He said if it continues to be a problem, then I should come back and he will make me a professional one. When we moved to China, the teeth grinding stopped. Completely. Stan has told me he can't remember a time when he woke up from me grinding my teeth at all!! So, when we came back to America I decided to leave my mouth guard in China.

Well, it's back. I guess with these particular blessings of having the schedule we have right now is also added stress. I didn't realize I was stressed until my jaw began to lock up again, like it has before. It's literally a pain. (haha, pun intended!) Well, the good news is, all I have to do is just go get another mouth guard at Wal-Mart. So I'm going first thing in the morning so I can stop this craziness! Yay! It's crazy how things can sneak up on ya when you're not paying attention! I have a lot to be thankful for, and I'm trying to turn this situation around to be thankful for it! :) So, I'm thankful for pain, because without it, I would do nothing to prevent my jaw from further damage.

That got me thinkin about what His Son did for me. I am thankful for His pain, because without it, I wouldn't know what it's like to be part of His family. Without it, I wouldn't know what it's like to feel guilt from a sin...none of us would. It always helps me when I'm in any kind of pain to remember what He did for me and it really makes the pain not as difficult to handle. It shrinks my pain, and puts things in perspective. Culture shock is a form of pain and suffering. I hope this experience will help me when I feel that, because without it, HE would not be brought to China through me.

I got tagged by Ashley... :)

2010-07-16T05:46:00.006+08:00

20 questions (chain letter style)

1. How often do you go over the speed limit? Well...I don't really drive in China, but while we're here in the States...no because I'm so used to the slower speed limit in China. haha!

2. Do you dance like crazy when no one is looking? Yeah, probably ONLY when no one is looking. ha!

3. If you were going to be stuck on a desert island, which book, which movie, and which CD would you take with you? I don't wanna give a cop-out answer...but there are too many to choose from!

4. What did you get in trouble for when you were a kid? Most likely the answer is fighting with my sisters, or talking back to my mom. It didn't really matter what the topic of defiance was, just the act! haha!

5. What really gives you the creeps? People staring at me...China!

6. What was your favorite toy when you were a kid? Either Barbie or trolls!

7. You run into a friend while shopping. Where are you? I'm the same as Ashley... Wal-Mart or Target!

8. When you fall asleep, are you usually on your side, your stomach, or your back? side....no special reason.

9. If fat or calorie intake wasn't an issue, what one food would you eat the most? Ice cream all day long. (re-post from Ashley) :)

10. If you could hire one of the following, which one would it be? Driver, chef, maid, or stylist? MAID!!! Duh!

11. What movie have you watched the most? Either "Nepolian Dynamite" (I know, I know) or... It's a Wonderful Life! At least once a year every year I've been alive!

12. What kind of perfume do you wear? None, but it's not that I don't like it...I just can't find the perfect smell.

13. What was your favorite sitcom growing up? Anything on TGIF between the year 1990-1995ish

14. What were you doing the last time you had a really good laugh? At camp, I don't remember what it was...but you alway have a good laugh at camp!

15. What was the very first concert you ever attended? Switchfoot in Nashville

16. Who is the fourth person on your missed call list? Stan

17. How long does it take you to get ready in the mornings? Now that my hair is short, the time has been cut down from 1 hour 15 minutes to 30 minutes: Straight or curly!!

18. When is the last time you went to the mall and what did you buy? Yesterday...nothing, just window shopping

19. Ever go to camp? Refer to answer 14! :)

20. Do you collect anything? I used to collect all kinds of things, but none of them have stuck!

Well, there you have it! I tag Rebecca Hooper, Kris Bowen, and Christine Brewer!! It's your turn!!

Before I came to China, My brain worked...

2010-07-09T11:37:00.006+08:00

Ahhh! We are home! Well...it has been an adventure! We got to see my family at the airport and then we got to surprise everyone at camp! It was great fun! We are excited to be here and have been ready for this for a couple months! I'll have to say the things I was most excited about (besides family and friends) was the food!! But, I'm glad that wasn't the thing I was THE most excited about because it's kinda been a let down. Now, let me explain myself. My stomach has been trained to eat certain things...not meat! It's amazing how much your stomach can be trained without even thinking about it. We ate pork steaks at Aunt Sandra's and Uncle Rick's house last night (our favorite). I ate my whole steak (only because it was in front of me) and I felt like a beached whale. It reminded me of eating at "Texas de Brazil". After eating there, you feel sick from eating so much meat. That's the way I felt! It wasn't even that much meat, but my stomach was rejecting it because I haven't had that much in a while! But it sure was gooooood! :)

Now, onto the title of this blog post. Since I have been in America, I have forgotten more things than in all my life's experiences combined! It's ridiculous because I really try hard to have a good memory about things, but no-can-do when I have this many things on my mind. I lost my phone 3 times in one day (I hardly ever lose my phone) so to lose it 3 times in one day is so ridiculous! I even lost the house phone looking for my cell phone. I left some gifts in China that I was going to get for some close friends, I just about cried. That's ok, when we find them in our apartment in China, I'll just send them.

These are a few things that I am having to adjust to. I was driving on I-40 today at 70 miles an hour. 70 MILES AN HOUR! I felt like a crazy out of control driver! The fastest speed I have seen on a sign in China is 80 KM, which is around 50ish MPH. I felt like a maniac on the interstate! haha, it was the weirdest feeling! Anyway, we are happy to be home and excited to spend time with family and friends! Thanks for reading, I love you all!!

Dragon Boat

2010-06-16T21:13:00.007+08:00

The 16 of June is (in English) "Dragon Boat Festival" in China. We don't really understand what happens during this holiday, because we are too caught up in coming home, we aren't thinking about Chinese things! It's kind of funny, because that is showing us we really need a break from this culture. It will do us some good! We will come back next semester refreshed and better because of the rest.

Even though the 16th is the actual date of the holiday, our school let us off the 14-16th. By this, I mean we had to work on Saturday and Sunday the 12 and 13th to make up those days, but we still got them "off" for the Festival. This is what we've been doing this holiday. Packing.

Well, it actually only took us one full day to pack all that is pictured. Those bags are called "Rice Bags". I don't really know why, because they are not for toting rice around. People use them to move, actually. So, that's what we are using them for! We've got clothes, shoes, dishes, pots, and lots of other things in those bags! Ad you can see in the second picture, that is all the food/goodies we have not eaten and are saving for next year! (if we don't eat it before we leave) But we are going to tote it out to Xiasha, so we are leaving it in a suitcase. :)

This next picture is to show you what our naked walls look like now. If you remember this blog where I talked about putting up our Christmas Tree, you might be able to see where the tree use to be. Haha! We took it off the wall and it's really bare now!

We still don't move for another couple of weeks, but we are getting ready! We are excited to get home to see you all! Well, that's all I've got today! Thanks for reading and don't forget to think of me in China! I love you all!!

These things about China...

2010-06-11T15:41:00.002+08:00

There are just a few things I have been thinking about since America is drawing nearer and nearer. There are a few things I will miss over the Summer and a few things I will not miss.

Things I will miss:

1.) The Dumplings and Fried Rice: This is probably my favorite food here. I wouldn't say I could eat it everyday, but it is yummy! I'm not saying I will crave it while I am eating a steak somewhere, but it will be missed. :)

2.) My students: I'm not really a sentimental person, but I do become nostalgic from time to time. I think I will miss some of my students, but I can still keep in touch with those who I have befriended. It helps me not be sad when I think I will gain even more friends next year at our new school!

3.) The small shops. Our area of town, and the area around out school is fantastic for shopping. They are little mom-and-pop places to shop. You can find some good Chinglish T-shirts there and little bags and purses. You can bargain a little in these places, just like at the night market!

4.) Bob, Linda, and Angel. The first couple of times we hung out with the Kings, it took Angel a while to warm up to us. Now, she gives us a hug when we walk in the door! This is progress and we are happy to have them in our lives!

Things I will not miss:

1.) Being stared at: The saying "Take a picture, it'll last longer" applies here more than in America. They will literally take a picture of you with no shame. In fact, my parents got to experience it first hand. A man was acting like he was dialing a number, but he sure was holding it high up in the air. He was taking a picture of the foreigners at the airport. haha! Another example: One time I was sitting on a city bus. It was in the afternoon and I was tired. I was going to be on the bus for a while, so I fell asleep. I was awaken by the sound of a camera phone clicking in my ear. I opened my eyes and saw a man standing in front of me pulling his phone away from my face. He just took the liberty of taking a picture of me sleeping. I know to some of you this might sound like I'm complaining about something lots of people want: People staring at you everywhere you go because they think you look so different from them. But, you kind of begin to feel like a freak after a while, and it becomes irritating. This is the biggest thing I will not miss, but I will get use to it again when I come back in the Fall.

2.) Getting "Chinese-d" as I like to call it. The Chinese are oddly enough a collective type of person... "people pleasers". Now just hear me out, because this is a generalization. If you want to get something fixed, or if you want something the store does not have, you will ask them, "When will it be fixed?" or "When will you have it?" You will most likely receive an answer similar to this: "Tomorrow or the next day." If they do not say that, they might give you a day like, "This Friday". A lot of times this answer is only given to please you momentarily. You are pleasantly surprised, because what would normally take 2 or 3 weeks in the U.S. seems to only take 2 or 3 days in China. Not true. When you return "Tomorrow or the next day" you will be unpleasantly surprised to find nothing has been done, and a new deadline is decided. When you call to check up on the status of the item (because you don't want to make the trip all the way there, like you did last time) you are told it will be longer. It ends up being the same amount of time it would take in the U.S., they just go about it in a different way. This, I will not miss. But once again, I will get used to it when I return.

Whew! I had a lot more to say about the two things I will not miss about China. I guess I needed to vent a little. Haha! Anyway, thanks for reading and I miss and love you all! It won't be long before we are home!

It's Chinglish Time again!

2010-06-08T09:17:00.035+08:00

This might be my last Chinglish blog of the year, but I'm not sure. I might be able to get one more in before we leave. We went to Anji (Huzhou) this weekend and a lot of these are from that trip! Come of these you might have to click on and enlarge to see. Enjoy...

I love you all and thank you for reading! Don't forget to think about me in China!!

Teaching Re-cap

2010-06-02T15:08:00.005+08:00

Last week I decided to do a rhyming activity with my students. I taught them the word rhyme (because they didn't know what it meant) and and wrote a couple of words on the board that were rhyming words: cat, hat, bat... I told them to think of more words that rhyme with those words. They had a hard time understanding it because they thought you could rhyme any word that ended with the same letter. They tried to rhyme "right" with "bat". So, that took some explaining. Then I taught them two types of poems: Haiku and Limerick. I explained the guidelines for Haiku first and had them make up their own in groups. I did the same with the Limericks after they were finished with the Haikus. I included many of the ones I liked below. If you think it's too many to read, you won't hurt my feelings. These are just the ones I like and thought they did a good job. The first ones are Haiku's:

A desk has four legs.
But a person has two legs.
So they are different.

She is a young girl.
She smells like a red flower.
But she is a toy.

The weather is good.
We are all very happy.
We give thanks to God.

(The next one needs explanation: Annbella is a girl in my class and she had to leave at the beginning of class for a meeting and she came back half way through.) This is her groups Haiku:

Annbella is gone!
Our family is worried.
When will she be back?
(They thought it was hilarious!)

University.
The school is so beautiful.
But I don't like it.

Limericks:

Some people are in a small train.
Suddenly the weather will rain.
They see a girl cry,
They will have a try
Because the girl's arm is in pain.

When we open the big window
We see the beautiful rainbow.
It is colorful,
And so wonderful!
Then we all will say loudly, "WOW!"

Well, that's it! I hope you enjoyed!

Today we had a short study with our doctor friend, Sandy. We taught her how to make BLT's and we talked about some proverbs that mean something to us in our lives. We had a very good discussion and she told us she is a "free thinker." A lot of Chinese people say that about themselves when they know they don't buy into everything the government tells them. They like to think for themselves. I heard it once said, "They aren't drinking the socialist kool-aid which is being fed to them." This is a good start with Sandy and she said she would like to have dinner with us and her boyfriend. We told her we are moving out the Xia Sha and she said she was very sad, but happy for us at the same time. She said, "I will come see you!!" She's so cute and fun to be around! Keep her in your thoughts! Thanks for reading and I love you all!

A Chinese lesson!

2010-05-31T23:00:00.007+08:00

Last Sunday we got to spend another day with Bob and Linda. Because we teach on Tuesday and Thursday nights, it is more difficult to find a time to meet up with Bob and Linda. So, HE provided a time last week. We were talking to our friends at the Sunday meeting about the difficulty of finding a time to meet with Bob and Linda. Pretty much right after we were finished discussing this and trying to find a solution, Bob called Stan's phone. So Stan stepped out to answer it. When he came back in, he said Bob had asked us to come over to their house! Are you serious? I mean really, are you serious? We for real, just finished talking about that. HE is so cool! Haha! It made us all laugh and we were thankful!

After the meeting, we went over to Bob and Linda's for some dinner. They cooked Kimchi (which is not my favorite, but I choked it down anyway, ya know, you gotta.) So, while we were there, we learned the words for brother, sister and some other words. I was only able to jot down a couple of them. The way Linda explained the words was neat. She called Stan her brother. Stan has told her he feels like they are family and not just friends. Linda has said she agrees with Stan and feels like we are family too. So, Linda called Stan her brother and explained every other word from that standpoint. I tried to give you a phonetic spelling to go with it. Here's the Chinese lesson we got about family...

"Mom" and "Dad" is simple: "MaMa" and "PaPa".

There are different words for big brother and little brother. Big brother: "ge ge" It is said like "guh guh".
Little brother: "di di" It is said like "dee dee".

The same goes for big sister and little sister. Big sister: "jie jie" It is said like "jee-eh jee-eh".
Little sister: "mei mei" It is said like "may may".

So, now we call Linda our "jie jie". :) Hopefully one day we WILL be family. Please continue to think about this family. We know you have been already, because we have seen the fruits of it! Thanks for reading and I love you all!!

I hope I'm not awkward...

2010-05-30T23:02:00.004+08:00

We will be arriving in Nashville pretty soon! It's not too far away! We are going to have to get used to a few things as you can imagine. This blog is a compiled list of the few things we will have to get used to doing again...

1. Carrying a driver's license
2. Driving
3. Driving in America
4. Sending a picture text message
5. Not using awkward statements we use everyday

Number 1 & 2: We just don't drive here. I know it's like riding a bike, and we'll hop back on no problem but it's still gonna be an adjustment.

Number 3: The driving here is much different. When we first got here I thought all the drivers were crazy. But after being here, there are just as many crazy drivers here as there are in America. They just drive differently as a country and if you tried to drive like that in America, you would die.

Number 4: I got the cheapest phone you could buy (well, Kris and Michael beat me, haha) and I can't take pictures with my phone. I know that seems a little silly, but it's something I haven't done in a while!

Number 5: Daily, we use phrases the Chinese people say, that are frankly quite awkward and not spoken from the lips of an American. These phrases are usually pronounced with the utmost enunciation, which makes them unusual: "Take care" when meaning 'be careful' or 'watch out'. "It is a pity" meaning 'I hate it for ya' ;) or 'It's a shame'. And Stan's favorite: When you say you are sorry, they will respond with, "Nos(th)ing, Nos(th)ing". But they don't pronounce the 'th'. In general when I come back from class I speak to Stan like I do my students. I enunciate every single letter. And we have to say to each other, "I'm not Chinese."

So, just tell me you are not Chinese if I begin to say one of these phrases to you. :) I told Stan I hoped I wasn't going to be awkward when I go home, so now he's calling me awkward every chance he gets! haha, so funny. Well, that's all for today! Thanks for reading and don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all!!

Nothing Important, but In addition...

2010-05-20T20:13:00.004+08:00

This is an addition to my last blog. This girl sent in her homework a little late, but it was worth it, I think! haha! Enjoy!

The person I want to say thank is my mother.

I called my mother and said "Mum,my English teacher gave us a homewok which is to say thank to a person.I want to say it to you.To thank you bringing me up."She said,"ok."I asked,"don't you want to say something to me?"She answered,"I''m in the toilet."

Hahahahaha! I cracked up laughing and I was inside the school Coffee House. Oh man, that's funny!

P.S. We are going to Xi'an this weekend...leaving in the morning! We are going to see the Terracotta Warriors, so expect some pictures! Thanks for reading, I love you all!

Teaching Re-cap

2010-05-18T11:37:00.008+08:00

This past week I did one of the same Proverbs Stan has done in a previous class. I have gotten some good responses, some of which I think are funny. The student might not think it's funny, but I certainly do! haha! The Proverb we talked about wasn't really in Proverbs, it was in the first Thess. 5th Chapter. Verse 15, 16, and 18a. It talks about being thankful toward the end. I gave my class an assignment: "Tell one person you are thankful for them." Simple. I think that they really appreciated being able to do this. Well, I'll just let you read some of them. The funny one is at the end.

I will thank for you ,Juliane.
Because with your help, my English speaking is improving week by week.
I know you haved paied so much on us. You have to prepare the meterial for our class, think about many things in order to let us feel more interesting...
I thank for your all payments.Thank you!

I am thankful for my grandmother. Because she took care of me all the time in my childhood. When I was a child, my mother was busy working, so I always stay at my grandmother's home. She often gave me the best. Now, I grow up, and I will never forget what she did for me. when I can make money, I want to repay my grandmother.

I thanks for my brother .In my childhood ,My parents are busy with their work.so,Most of time,I have got together with my brother.He played with me. And he taught me how to ride bicycle and how to swimming.I think he plays an important in my life.

I thanks my mother.Because she gives me my life.And something she dose for me.
Then my mother heard that ,she was moving.She thanks me ,too.Because I can let her be happy.
Juliane,Thank you ,too.

This one cracks me up. Just the first two lines...

Mum you are a woman sticking to traditions.you are too conservative to keep up with the times.But you are the person I loved best in this
world,for you are kind hearted and warm hearted.you are strict with me and often said to me:You cannot study to hard .
You rise me up,and give me everything I want to have.I love you ,Mum

This one was the response a girl in my class got from her boyfriend when she told him she was thankful for him. What's funny to me is in the second line...

TO dear
I’m so happy to hear that I’m the very person you give thanks to.
In spite of you having a terrible temper, that’s nothing serious to me .I can
Stand. The most important is that I hope you will have endless happiness and
Achieve the goals you have set to yourself.
Yours
boyfriend

I loved reading these and replying to their emails. It was great! Some of them didn't care much about the assignment, but the ones who did were very thoughtful. I feel like this is a good way to see which students truly care about others. That's a good attribute to have, as we all know!

Side note: I got a visitor counter on my blog and it's just cool to see how many people visit! Don't forget to think about me in China! Thanks for reading and I love you all!

Insecurities

2010-05-12T09:50:00.002+08:00

When we first got to China and began teaching there were a couple of things that got on my nerves about the students. When you ask them a question, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE volunteers information. I mean, NO ONE! I have never used the phrase "It's like pulling teeth" more appropriately than while teaching in a Chinese classroom. When you ask a student a question individually in front of the class, he/she will stand up. Pause. Look at his/her friends, and stammer.

I then say, "Do you understand the question? Should I speak slowly?"
"No." Ok...so I wait while he/she continues to look around at his/her friends for the answer. I don't want your friend's answers, I want yours!! So, this was something that was very frustrating. While there are some students who have gotten use to my Western teaching style (that it is different than their Chinese teachers), there are still some who can not break through.

At the beginning, I was looking through my Western glasses, and I saw this as an insecurity. While some of the students may have some feelings of insecurity, most of it is just cultural. I understood that at the beginning, but understanding it and accepting it are two different things. I don't have any pictures for you to look at, just my thoughts and words.

Through being here for almost a school year now, I have just come to accept that they are not use to the Western teaching style, and it is something that they will be okay with after some time. It's pretty exhausting to teach most days, because you are literally having to pull teeth.

For example: There are two boys, Wood and Magic in my Tuesday night class. I normally give the students 5 or 10 minutes to think about a question I have asked them, and then go around the room and they all talk about their answer to the question that has been asked. Well, these two boys especially, have no interest in English or doing what I say. They have cop-out answers and seem extremely insecure about their English. At the beginning of the semester, I went easy on them because of this. But I've recently decided they are just lazy. I give them plenty of time to do what I ask. (They are even allowed to use their cell phones for an English dictionary.) So, now I have decided to have no sympathy on them because they just don't try. What I was mistaking as insecurity, was simply laziness.

I'm writing this blog post as a reminder to me of something I learned while I was here about the culture and teaching. Who knows, next year may be completely different...but He is the one who helps me through! Don't forget to think about me in China! Thanks for reading and I love you all!!

The Kings

2010-05-11T16:11:00.006+08:00

We met with the King family on Saturday to talk about important things and read important material they were interested in. We met them at 8:30 AM and they said they had planned out the day. First, we were going to hike up a mountain and then go to a tea house. Well, hiking a mountain, we didn't think was going to be that big of a deal... we've done it many times since we have been in China. Bob King was showing me a map he had of the mountain we were going to climb. He was telling me "We will be going up and down this mountain and around to this one over here and then we will go up and down two more mountains..." Really? I started laughing because I thought he was kidding. He said it should take 3 days. I think he meant 3 hours, because that's about how much time it took! We were hurtin' by the end of it and ready to sit down! Bob thought it was easy, "no problem" he said. So, we got to the Tea house down at the bottom of the mountain and we began to play cards. This is Angel, getting the cards ready.

After we played for a little bit, Stan said, "Do you remember what we talked about last time we saw you? Do you want to study that?" To which Bob answered, "Yes!" Stan said, "Is now ok?" Bob said, "Yes! We would like to!" So...Stan got out his ITouch. It has a Good Book application on it that you can read. He also has it in Chinese, so we tried to use that. Bob said he liked using the English better, because it was easier to understand. So we read a verse and Bob and Linda would translate it in their own words to Chinese. It was so cool, because this helped them to dissect it and understand it better. This was a slow process, but much learning was involved!

We since have met with them this past Monday. We decided to have Monday nights be our "Night's with the Kings." I think something was lost in the translation, because Bob asked us if we were free any other night to study. We said we were free on Friday's too! So for right now we are meeting with them on Monday and Friday nights! It may change, or stay the same...never know! We are so excited about this opportunity, but there is always a concern at the beginning, in this culture. We have to access the situation and make sure they are not just looking for someone to study English with. We want to be their friends, and that is the way it looks right now with them! We still need to be careful and thoughtful about the Kings hearts. Think about this please. Think for their hearts, because if it's not in the right place, it just won't work.

Well, this semester is about coming to an end! We will only be here for a little less than 2 months and it will fly by!! Please think about us being productive in the little time we have left this year. Thanks for reading! I love you all!!

Teaching re-cap and Good NEWS!!!

2010-05-06T15:38:00.003+08:00

Hello all! I haven't done a class blog in a couple weeks...busy busy busy! This is a portion of the classes I did when my parents were here. I usually do a Proverb, but my mom gave me the idea to show them this story and talk about making a difference. Here is the story I read to them:

The Starfish Story

A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”

The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied,

“Well, I made a difference to that one!”

The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved.

I asked them if they understood what it meant to make a difference. If they didn't, I explained that lighting a match in darkness gives the room light, and the light makes a difference to the darkness. I then asked them to get into groups and tell me what they thought they could do in their community to make a difference. Here were some of their responses:

"Don't belittle other people. Donate some clothes. Adopt children."

"I will be friendly to all the people around me. I will visit and take care of the elder when the weekends come."

A lot of my students placed a lot of importance on keeping the earth clean and said that could make a difference. I thought these two were the most thoughtful in the ways of a follower and it is important for me to think about these students and keep them in mind.

Stan and I are excited about this coming Saturday. While my parents were here, we were able to spend some time with Bob and Linda King. Through this interaction, we were able to tell them a little bit more about who we are. We went to Kyle and Rebecca's house after dinner with them and Rebecca showed them a Children's Good Book. Linda was excited to read it and that lead to more discussion! We are going to meet with them on Saturday to read more and have some more discussion! Please please please think about this! We are pumped! Thanks for reading, I love you all!

Sick Sick Sick

2010-05-04T22:47:00.002+08:00

Well, we took my parents to the airport in Shanghai, and Stan was feeling sick the whole time. Traveling anywhere when you feel sick to your stomach is not fun. But traveling in China when you are feeling sick is the exact picture of the least amount of fun anyone could possibly have. Did I get my point across? haha, I think so. So anyway, Stan wasn't feelin too hot, and we had to say a quick good-bye to my parents at the airport to catch our train back to Hangzhou.

On the way back, I started to feel a little funny, and my stomach started feeling bad. Well, Wednesday night and all day Thursday, Stan and I were sick in the bed. Stomach problems, yuck yuck yuck! No fun! And if you remember, in my last blog I talked about how we were going out of town on Friday. Well, the day of rest did us some good on Thursday, because we could at least get up on Friday. We still felt a little yucky, but able to move around. The traveling did us no good, and we are still suffering from the effects of it (some of us worse than others.) Keep us in your thoughts please. It's not fun to feel bad wherever you are, but when you are in a foreign country it makes things worse.

We are looking forward to coming home! It's not too far away, and we can't wait! Keep us in your thoughts, thanks for reading! I love you all!

Busy Busy Busy

2010-04-26T22:58:00.002+08:00

Hello there! Our VPN has been down for the last couple of days, so we haven't been able to blog, get on Facebook, Twitter or Youtube and have wanted to do all of the above! We've been really busy with my parents! They are only staying for a week, so we are cramming everything we like to do into one week! That makes our days pretty busy! We have been tourist shopping,taken them to our classes, seen acrobats, and we have taken them to all of our favorite restaurants excepts for a couple of them. We are going to take them to the airport on Wednesday to see them off! We have a day full of classes on Thursday and we are going out of town on Friday! Whew! This coming weekend is the Labor Day weekend for China. So we don't have to work on Monday! We are going to Central China, to Wu Han in the Hu Bei province. We will be meeting up with some other believers there to encourage them and be encouraged!! So, I'll be out-of(blogging)-pocket for a couple days. We had a wonderful night tonight with Bob and Linda King. They are some Chinese friends of ours! Please be thinking of them! Anyway, there's a short update for ya about this week with my parents. Thanks for reading! Don't forget to think of me in China! I love you all!!

Share your Milkshake

2010-04-20T00:33:00.006+08:00

We LOVE Chick-fil-A milkshakes! Especially the cookies and cream ones! Yum Yum Yum! Before we left for China, we took every opportunity to eat whatever we wanted (probably almost to the point of being glutenous) and this was one of those things in which we indulged ourselves. My mouth is watering, just thinking about it! I digress...

Anyway, one of these times when we were in the drive through at Chick-fil-A, waiting for our milkshakes, Stan and I began to have an argument, as husbands and wives do. (Who knows what it was about now, that's the way it goes a lot of the time. Something silly in hindsight.) Anyway, so we got our milkshake, and this particular milkshake we had decided to share. (We were getting a little pudgy and decided splitting one was healthier than having our own...right? Riiiiight.) So amidst our argument we are sharing this milkshake: angry with each other, and frankly, not wanting to speak, but still sharing the milkshake.

In the middle of that scene, I got an idea in my head and I couldn't stop laughing. Stan probably thought I was crazy, because I went from feeling angry to instantly laughing. So I explained to him that I had a new philosophy on love. I said, "Love is sharing your milkshake when you're in an argument." Despite being angry with each other, we were still sharing. And that's been our philosophy. I apply it to every kind of love there is. If I have a friend who is annoying, and obnoxious, and rude, I "share my milkshake". I do not keep the milkshake to myself by keeping my love to myself. I share my love. I give that person what they need. When you're not feeling like sharing your milkshake, that's the time you need to do it the most. It's a good chance for you to love our Father, if you are loving others. I see so much hate, and so many people who are treated badly. I myself do it, and I need a reminder!

So "share your milkshake" please. Don't keep it all to yourself just because you are angry, or have hurt feelings and want to gossip, or are feeling mistreated yourself! We are commanded to love. So let's do it! I am so often reminded of the wonderful words, (And please read it, even though you know what it says. Read the words.)

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

Well, thanks for reading! Don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all! Share your milkshake!

P.S. My parents are coming to China!!! They will be here in less than two days! We will be busy, so I'll blog about it, but I don't know when! Yay!!

Romeo and Juliet

2010-04-15T15:57:00.005+08:00

I was planning to do this blog before now, but I hadn't gotten to it yet. So I had decided to do it today. Then I got a message on my last blog from Ashely (a college friend, now blogging buddy) and she asked if she could call me Juliet! Well, I know I mentioned Juliet in the last blog, but I thought it was funny that she asked that, and I had decided to do this blog today. I hope that wasn't confusing...haha, anyway...

Stan and I have some friends who are students on our campus. They are "skaters". They are incredibly talented! This is an example of what they can do! It's not them, but they do things like this everyday on our campus! (The video doesn't have sound, but it's still cool!) We haven't gotten good footage of them during the day because we always see them at night time, and the video ends up not turning out good! So, we hang out with them after our night classes we teach and they are great fun! One night about a month ago, Stan and I were talking to them and they said we should have Chinese names. So we said, "Ok, you name us." They said my name is Juliane and so close to "Juliet". They asked us if we knew the story of Romeo and Juliet, and I said yes! They told us there is a Chinese love story just like that story and it is so "romatica". They told us our names should be these two names. So, now we have Chinese names! My name is (phonetically): Tsu Ing Tie. And Stan's name is (phonetically): Leeong Shong Boa. So there you have it! Two blogs about Juliet in a row! haha! So if you come to see us, you have to call us by those names when you are around these kids! Ok, ok, you don't have to. :) Thanks for reading and don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all!!

This is normal...Oh China

2010-04-13T23:07:00.004+08:00

No really, what I am about to tell you is normal in China. I was teaching class today and we were doing a listening activity. I was playing different songs in English and they had to write down a certain number of words they heard. I kept playing music as I dismissed class and everyone was leaving. I was gathering my things and a Chinese man walked in. I said, "Hello" and stopped the music. He said, "Hello, glad to meet you." I reciprocated and asked if he was a teacher here. He said he was. Then the expected awkward silence set in as I was gathering my things. I just let it hang there until he said, "Can you come to my class?" I was confused. I said, "Uhhm, what would you like me to do?" He said, "I would like you to teach the students something. Maybe say something to them." He was guiding me to his classroom and I still don't know what he wants me to do. He finally said, "I have something for you to read to them and then maybe say something after." Ok... What's going through my head? "Oh China..." So I agreed, of course.

I follow him to the classroom and he asked my name and I told him. He said, "Oh like the love story, Romeo and Juliet." I said, "Well...yes, but it's JuliANE." He replied, "Oh yes, of course." Of course...because he knows me. haha, the way they say things is so funny. Anyway, so I got to the classroom and the students gasp in awe of a foreign teacher! Oh China... The teacher introduced me and said that I was going to teach them something. So he pointed to a passage in the English book and told me how much to read. So I did. Then I tried my best to act like these were my students and not feel awkward, haha. I was finished explaining the passage and I looked at the teacher and said, "Would you like me to do anything else?" He replied, "Thank you, xie xie, xie xie, thank you, thank you." Xie Xie is Thank you in Chinese. So I gathered my belongings and said good bye to the class and they responded with a resounding "Bye Bye." I heard the teacher continue to explain the passage, and that's all he wanted me to do.

That's the first time that's ever happened to me, but I've heard of it happening to other teachers. Interactions like that are pretty likely in China, but it's always different when it happens to you. I was nervous at first because I thought I was going to have to give a lecture, then I realized it's a Chinese teacher, wanting me to give a Chinese type lecture. Not so difficult, especially because we (first language English speakers) are experts on the language here! Thanks for reading, and don't forget to think about me in China!! I love you all!!

Encouragement!

2010-04-12T00:09:00.009+08:00

One of Kyle's friend's from the school he use to teach came to Hangzhou this weekend. It was so fun to be with him! We have met him before and we were excited to spend time with him again! I was going to talk about how encouraging he was at our Family Meeting this morning, but Kris did a wonderful blog that says everything and more! Check it out! Here are some fun pictures of our Saturday with Jackie! We went mountain climbing and it was beautiful!

This man was making popcorn, so we stopped and talked to him on our way up the mountain!

Taking a rest after walking up the mountain.

Jumping between two rocks! Jackie did it too, but I just missed him and didn't get a picture!

Then Jackie climbed up in a cave we found! It was so cold in there!

Then, I was thinking about adding here at the end a little bit about our decision process in staying and new things which have surfaced, but my husband did a wonderful blog which said what I would have said and more! Check it out! Last week was kind of a rough week, and I don't really know why. It just happens and you move on. Well, this weekend helped us all to get through it! Thanks for reading and don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all!!

Hello's and Thank you's

2010-04-09T23:40:00.005+08:00

Ok, so I'm feeling a little guilty about not doing a blog about our wonderful trip through Southeast Asia. Well, maybe this small one will make up for it. We did so much and hopefully you can look at all the pictures on Facebook! Anyway, on our trip, the words we learned to say in the countries we traveled were "Hello" and "Thank you". These are the essentials, you know. Here's the list of all the words we learned and the countries in which we learned them! (I am spelling these out phonetically for you.)

Hello's
Cambodia (Khamer- pronounced "Kuh My"): Sue Seh Dye
Thailand: So Wa Tee Kah
Vietnam: She Chow
China: Knee How

Thank you's
Cambodia (Khamer- pronounced "Kuh My"): Ah Kuhn
Thailand (female): Kahp Koon Kah
Thailand (male): Kahp Koon Krub
Vietnam: Gahmb Uhn
China: Shea Shea

If you count my own language and add Spanish to that, ("Hola" and "Gracias") and French ("Bonjour" and "Au revior") that makes 7 languages! I know how to speak in 7 different languages!! (It doesn't matter if it's just hello and thank you, right?) Right. Well, thanks for reading and don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all!

Teaching Re-cap

2010-04-08T21:50:00.002+08:00

This week was a blast! Sometimes these students say things that are so thought provoking, and sometimes they say things that are absolutely hilarious! The Proverb I used this week was as follows: "Do not wear yourself out to become rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself." Before I wrote this on the board, I asked my students to tell me what their goals are. Here are a couple of examples of what my students goals are.

"I would like to be healthy and happy everyday, and if possible I would like to be a CEO of a company. And also if possible, I would like to found a business to help the poor." ~ Sam

"I want to invent a machine to keep my hair clean everyday, because I hate washing my hair." ~ Hilary

"I want to be a breaking dancer." (break dancer) ~ Shy

"I want to buy an island in the Pacific and be the queen of it."

"I want to be happy and live as an Eskimo."

"I want to be superwoman and heal the world." ~ Livia

Ha! They crack me up! We talked about the importance of money in life, but that it is not the most important thing. We finished up class by playing a game. And that's class in a nutshell! Thank you for reading and don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all!!

MORE!

2010-04-07T13:54:00.002+08:00

MORE Magazine! We love it! MORE is a magazine that we, as ex-pat's can get to help us around the city a little better. It has been so helpful! A lot of the things I have blogged about, have been places we've gone because we saw it in MORE Magazine! It really helped us at Christmas time, because it listed events that were happening and places we could go to celebrate Christmas. It lists all the places we can eat Western food if we become tired of eating Chinese food, and those places are a little more expensive, but not much! We really have enjoyed having it here with us! We can speak a little Chinese, but we can't speak enough to have a conversation with anyone in Chinese. So, when we need to go buy train tickets, we take the MORE Magazine with us and say what little Chinese we know and point to the time we want to leave! That simple! It makes our lives a little easier! I just wanted to give a little credit to MORE Magazine in my blog since it has been so helpful to us! If you come see us, you will see that we use it a lot! I haven't blogged in a couple days because Sarah Dodson and her friend Ashley were visiting us, and we used it when they were here! They kept us busy and on our feet! It was great fun! Thanks for coming guys!

Don't forget to think about me in China and thanks for reading!! I love you all!!!

Contrasting Cultures

2010-03-31T17:46:00.002+08:00

The Chinese culture is just so strange...to me. It is much more different than the American culture. It doesn't matter if I have been in this country for 7 months, or 7 years it will still be different from what I am used to. Since I have been here, I have compiled a list of things I have found to be different and at the same time, contradictory. These things may or may not be independent of the Chinese culture, and other Asian countries may embrace these aspects as well, but I do not know. I only spent a short amount of time in 3 other Asian countries, not enough time to decide. So, these are just a few things I have noticed along the way and maybe it will help you back home understand a little bit more about the culture here and how they live their daily life.

1. They don't like to eat anything with their hands. I saw a girl eating McDonald's french fries with a TOOTHPICK and eating hot wings without her hands touching it. She was using a napkin to pick it up...And we have "Finger food Potlucks" at home! Haha, that is so funny to me!

2. They like to open windows in the middle of winter to keep from getting sick because of the "bad air", but they will smoke indoors until someone, usually me, starts coughing. In some states in America, you cannot smoke in any public indoor area.

3. Most men smoke like freight trains, yet the country as a whole is so health conscious!

4. Most people eat with their mouths open and talk while they chew, yet it is considered rude to show your teeth when you use a toothpick.

5. I have seen many people wipe down an area before they sit down because it is dirty, but there is no soap to be found in the bathrooms for which to wash your hands.

I don't mean for this to sound like I am complaining, because really this is just to show a little bit of daily life to you back home! Some of these things are things which got to us when we were dealing with culture shock. My blogs are designed for me too look back on this experience and to remember what I was feeling at a certain moment in time. This is what I am feeling now. Any culture apart from what I am used to is going to be frustrating. It is simply different and that is difficult sometimes. These things may seem silly, but it's funny because sometimes these things are what bother me the most if I am not having a good day! haha! Don't take this blog as me being upset or down in the dumps. I'm not, I'm just opening the Chinese world to you!

Anyway, thanks for reading and don't forget to think about me in China!! I love you all!!

"Chariots of Fire" Solved!

2010-03-28T23:18:00.004+08:00

A while back; last semester I posted a blog about our school playing a song, but we couldn't ever figure out why they played it. Click here if you were unfortunate and did not read it. :) Anyway, we found out why they play that silly song over and over and over again! Well, we found out that they play it at lunch time, and at dinner time right after classes let out to signify an announcement time. It's just a song before the mid-day and 5 o'clock news! haha! One of our students informed us of this and I was happy to have the riddle solved! They make some announcements about things going on around campus and then they play some songs for an hour or two and that's it! It's probably pretty lame of me to actually do a blog about it, but I'm happy to understand a little bit more about this campus now. When I find out things like that, it helps me to feel just a little bit less lost in this world over here! Well, thanks for reading and don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all!!

Teaching Re-cap

2010-03-26T17:44:00.002+08:00

This week the Proverb I used said, "Do not withhold good from those who need it, when you have the ability to help." I asked my students to tell me who they can help... they were reluctant at first because they HATE to volunteer information, but after I asked the question 3 different ways, they began to give me answers. I thought a few of these were interesting...

The Disabled, old, young, poor, women who are pregnant, women, people who are ill, beggars, prisoners, people in disaster, animals, the lonely, foreigners, teacher. And yes, they help me with things that are in Chinese and I have no idea what it says! haha!

A few of these surprised me because I wouldn't think they would consider these to be people we should help. It was very heart warming to hear it coming out of their mouths. Knowing this could mean their hearts very well could be ready for something more than just a lesson on a Proverb was encouraging as well! Keep these students in your Thoughts! I told them they had a homework assignment to complete for next week. I told them to help just three people and then email me what they did. So far I have gotten many many emails and messages about helping people. I've been telling them how special it is to help someone and show your love. Think about this as you Think about me and Stan in China. Thanks for reading! And I love you all!!

More Chinglish Pictures!

2010-03-24T15:46:00.021+08:00

We have had many opportunities to do things with our students this semester. We have been on a couple of trips with our students as well, and it has opened many doors. One of those doors is showing them who we are and Whose we are. Another door to open is the opportunity to take more pictures of Chinglish!! Here are a couple I have captured in the past couple of months. Some of these, you might have seen on Facebook, but I still wanted to keep them in this collection! I hope you enjoy!

Was this meant for the Restaurant Director? ;) Haha!

This was at Kris and Michael's school. The cafeteria is bad, but it's not THAT bad! haha!

Same sign with a girl beside the ferocious animal. I just thought this was ironic. :)
There's no English past the title of this sign...why?

Yup, that's exactly what it says...
Look closely...
I don't know if you can read this one, but it says, "Give you supermarket."

A Blog Post for Erin! :)

2010-03-24T15:18:00.011+08:00

Stan and I have a friend who is a doctor in the clinic on our campus. Her English name is Sandy. She is so fun to be around and she laughs constantly! She is a big help to us when we need medicine, because she knows what to give us! Our relationship has been growing quickly! So, we invited her to go to lunch with us last Wednesday. She said she knew the perfect place for us to go. So we all got in a taxi and headed downtown. Stan and I didn't know where we were going, but we were just along for the ride. Even though we invited her to lunch, she just took over, she paid for the taxi ride and then she wanted to pay for lunch, but Stan was sneaky and slipped the money to the waitress. :) So, she was upset that we paid for lunch, I mean like mad...so she said, "Ok, you paid for lunch, I will pay for your massage. Would you like to go get a massage?" We said, "...Uhm, ok!" So off we go to get a massage. Well, we walked up to a hair salon and she said, "Here it is." Confusion sets in. I asked what we were going to do, and she said they were going to massage our heads.

So we got a head massage, and Stan got two because he doesn't have as much hair as Sandy and I do. They washed and styled our hair after the head massage. The head massage was wonderful! But the styling part was not so wonderful. In China, they just do things differently. They do things in a way I would never think to do them because it is the longest possible way to do it. I asked the stylist to just straighten my hair and curl it under at the bottom. So Sandy told him that. It took him about 4 times longer to do my hair than it takes me. I'm not kidding either! We were there for a very looooooong time, just doing MY hair!! It was ridiculous, but it was a fun experience and things are often ridiculous in China. :)

Here are some pictures from the day. I forgot to bring my camera, so these are taken from Stan's camera phone! This is me getting my hair washed.

The name of the hair salon was "Danny"!
This is after the hair washing, preparing for some styling!!

As you can see from the front view in the mirror, he did not do as I asked. lol If you can't see it, click on the picture to make it bigger!

And...we never figured out what this was. They hooked these chords up to someones head somehow. Maybe for a perm? Have you ever seen this, Erin!? haha!

It was a fun filled afternoon and I thought you should see how things work in China related to the hair realm. Thanks for reading and don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all!

Engrish Corner :)

2010-03-23T20:54:00.004+08:00

This is just a short post about the English speaking community in this culture. They like to hold things called "English Corner". Stan and I have not had the privilege of being a part of one of these. We had some scheduled by our school last semester, but they were canceled due to the H1N1 virus, or as they pronounce it "H.E.N.E." because you say 1 like you say E. Anyway...we got invited to go to one by one of my students this semester. Her English name is Van. I had always heard what happened at these things, but it's always a different experience when you do it for yourself. They gave us presents for coming and they were all so nice to us. Here comes the awkward part...

We walk in and the room is split in two with desks on either side. Van welcomes Stan and I and we are asked to sit at the front like royalty. So here we are facing everyone as they stare, not being embarrassed at all by the fact that they are just completely staring. Van says she would like for everyone to start "Free talk" and the topic to discuss is hometowns. So, Stan and I have no idea what to do. They take us by the arm and lead me to one side of the room, and lead Stan to the other side. We each have about 15 students just looking at us. So, I tried to make it a little less awkward by saying hi and telling them where I am from. And then the questions start flying. They asked me every question about myself and as soon as I got the answer out of my mouth, here comes another! Watch out!!

It was just so funny, because I could tell they were so excited to ask a question and when they knew I understood the question, they didn't even care about the answer. They were just ready to ask the next question. Then the games started and I got the pencil box on the left in this picture as a prize for answering a question correctly! The notebook on the right was the gift they gave me for coming. Stan got one too, but it looks only slightly less girlie. :)

After the games we learned a song. A song I had never heard, but it was English and they enjoyed themselves. After we were finished, the picture taking ensued and we went to our next class. All in all, it was a fun time and it's always something funny, different with the Chinese people. Never a dull moment! Well, that was mine and Stan's first experience with an "English Corner" and I'm sure there will be many more to come! Thanks for reading my blog! Don't forget to think about me in China and I love you all!

Comments

2010-03-22T22:06:00.004+08:00

I have had a couple people tell me they have been commenting on my blog and they are reading! I have also had a couple people tell me they can't figure out how to leave a message. That is exciting, but...the comments aren't showing up. It's not that I need to see your comments, (although they are uplifting and encouraging.) If you are wanting to leave a comment and it's not working, here's a crash course.

What you have to do is go to the bottom where it says "Post a Comment" (I know, I know, that's obvious). Then you select a profile where it says "Comment as:". If you do not have a profile, you can comment anonymously...just please sign your name at the bottom. :)

NOW THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART! DO NOT STOP READING! :) :)

Ahem...now, what you do next does not require anything but patience and the ability to read. And I know you all can do that. :)

So, after you have made your comment, you need to click "Post Comment" and then you just wait. (This is where the patience comes in.) It will renew the page and either bring you to the top of my blog or just leave you where you were at the bottom. Now you will see a portion of the page that says "Preview" with your comment in view. Below that will be a portion that will say "Word Verification". All you need to do is copy the word or words in the space provided. Then click the button that says "Post Comment."

Now, with my blog you will not see your comment immediately because I have chosen to screen my comments. After you have waited patiently it will say, "Your comment will be visible after approval." Some people's problem's might be with their computer or internet. Sometimes, you might have too many "Cookies" and that is why you cannot leave a comment. If you so choose, you can get rid of those and then you will be able to comment!

Whew! That was a lot! I hope you found this blog helpful...if not, leave a comment--HA! No, just send me an email @ (julianeinchina@gmail.com) Or you can send me a message on Facebook! If you can comment, try to leave a comment on this blog so I know you can! I love you all and thanks for thinking of me in China! Thanks for reading!