I cannot believe that it has been three weeks since my last update. Much has happened in those three weeks and I will do my best to share the details with you.

We had our Christmas party with a lot of Chinese friends in attendance.  Actually, we had two Christmas parties: a children’s Christmas party and an adult Christmas party.  For both of these parties, skits were performed of the Christmas story.  The children performed theirs and we, the foreign teachers performed for the adults.  I was the narrator and very thankful for it because I was losing my voice. Acually, I can’t remember the last time I had a voice that worked properly for more than a few hours at a time.  The party was fun and six of my Qinghua University students came to the party.  After the party, one of them came up to me and said that he learned a lot.  🙂 Oh, just thinking about them makes me miss them even more.

The week before Christmas was filled with shopping for my secret santa gift and my white elephant gift.  In our group, we exchanged names a few weeks before Christmas.  I had one of the guys who was really easy to shop for. I was disappointed in myself that I wasn’t a bit more creative with his gift, but I did get most of the items on his list.  I was told the white elephant gift was supposed to be something crazy/useless/interesting/found/etc.  My white elephant gift was my old bike seat that was hanging on my wall (and is now back on the wall miraculously!), a gaudy Chinese decoration, the Hannah Montana movie bought for 5 kuai on the street and another item that I can’t remember.  Obviously the gift was not the greatest if even I cannot remember what it was.  I feel bad for the person who got it.  At least she liked the movie. 🙂  FYI – the secret santa gift that I received was a Qinghua (Tsinghua) University sweatshirt, a talking Chinese calculator :), and a ‘bead’ curtain.  There is a story for the ‘bead’ curtain.

Early in September, one of the male teachers told me that it would be really awesome if I made him a bag for his BOOKS that he buys each week from Ch**ch.  He buys a box each week and transports them to my apartment where we have our weekly service.  These are for distribution to our new Chinese friends who are beginning to study the GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD.  However, each box is marked as to what it is and he wanted to be a bit more discreet about it on his way to our place.  On our way to lunch the same day he asked me to make him his bag, I said, ‘you should make me a bead curtain.’  So, he said that if I make him a bag he would make me a bead curtain. So the deal was on.  I, not wanting to wait for anything, immediately sought out a way to ‘make’ this bag.  I took the cheater way out and had a tailor make the bag.  I picked out the fabric and that was that. When I got it back two days later I realized that I had not asked about handles. 🙁 hmmm…….  So I took the bag to a different tailor (they seem to be everywhere here…thankfully so) and had him add handles.  I ‘asked’ him (by asked I mean I pointed and smiled and shrugged…the usual) to put buttons on the bag so it would close.  We finally understood each other and I left. Thirty seconds later, he called me back into his shop and showed me some Velcro! What a great idea! I didn’t even think of velcro but it was perfect.  I came back later that day and the bag was finished.  I gave the bag to this teacher and then told him I was looking forward to getting my bead curtain.

After a while, I sort of forgot about the bead curtain.  This person, however, did not and ended up drawing my name for the secret santa exchange.  He also knows of my love of playing cards.  I have a feeling this gift took a LONG time to make and was probably mildly frustrating. I had a picture of it but I think I accidentally deleted it. 🙁 I’ll take another one and post it later. I do think it was one of the most thoughtful and creative gifts I’ve ever gotten though! 🙂

I was blessed with quite a lot of time off during the Christmas holiday.  The FOC school was closed for two weekends (three weeks) because two of the three teachers went to America for Christmas.  I enjoyed my free time and used it to get together with friends.  I also got an unexpected week off at Sinopec during the week of Christmas.  My students had to learn about their exam while I was enjoying my freedom.  That was also my last week with my Qinghua students.

I attended the Qinghua Christmas party on Christmas Eve night before our Compline service.  This was probably one of the most interesting Christmas parties I have been too.  I brought two of my American friends because Ms. Fan told me to bring as many as possible. 😉  One of the things they had us do was play musical chairs.  However, there was no music.  This game consisted of the three of us walking around two chairs starting when one of the men clapped once and stoping when he said stop. We really didn’t know what was going on and just sort of went with it.  We then ate an abundance of fruit, dumplings, nuts, and candy. We also had beer with them.  They kept trying to get us to drink more. ‘Amber, where’s your drink?’ ‘Amber, cheers!’ Thankfully the beer in China tastes like water and makes me full before it does anything else. As my friend and I were leaving the party, they tried to get me to sing for them.  I kept refusing and said I had to leave. Man, they are insistent.  I finally got away, without singing, and went to our Compline service.  Not a party I will soon forget! 🙂

Christmas day was full of singing and reading the BOOK! We had Mexican food for our Christmas dinner.  I have never had tacos for Christmas but it was a nice change from Chinese food.  We exchanged gifts and had our white elephant exchange.  Christmas night was spent hanging out and chatting with American friends.  I received an interesting gift from my friend Kevin.  I had someone take a picture of us at the Christmas party and I emailed it to him.  I did not realize that he would make it into a coffee mug that reveals the picture when there is a hot liquid in it! 🙂  It was also a really thoughtful gift. 

The day after Christmas was the birthday of one of the teachers. (Coincidentally, also the birthday of Chairman Mao…hmmm.)  As this teacher hates being sung to, she wanted to get away from the crazies who like to sing and celebrate birthdays. There is no better place than the Great Wall.  We went to a new section of the Wall this time: Badaling 八达岭.  Little did she know that a Chinese friend that came along planned the whole day with much singing of the ever popular happy birthday song…in many languages! 🙂  We took a bus to Badaling.  Most people would not have gone to the wall that day because it was SUPER cold outside. We, of course, were crazy.  We took wine and a bunch of snacks and had a picnic on the wall!  We also had noise makers and santa hats and sang happy birthday many times. 😉  The birthday girl, dressed in her commie coat enjoyed it…even if there was singing. 😀  On our way to the wall that day, we met three foreigners trying to get to the wall also.  We all ended up on the same bus and we ran into them a few times on the wall! 

After we got back to Beijing, we went to an Indian restaurant for supper.  The other three foreigners came with us to supper and another one of my Chinese friends (Ross–a student of mine) came along also.  Supper was fun, drinks and tiramisu afterward was also fun!  I had quite a bit of time off during the last week of December and spent that time with friends and taking pictures and such.  It was really quite a blessing to have this time off.

For New Years Eve, the single girls (and one married girl) went to a Persian restaurant for a lovely supper. It was delightful!  The plan was to go back to one of their apartments and play some games while enjoying a few cocktails.  I got sidetracked because a Chinese friend sent me a message during supper to see if I wanted to get a drink with him that evening.  I figured I could take an hour or so break from the ladies and rejoin them after meeting a friend.  When I rejoined the ladies there were no games but just good conversation. We made it to midnight (a first for me in many years!) and then went our separate ways.

I go back to teaching again at the FOC school.  I have two Saturdays left before the break.  I’m looking forward to the time away even though I just had time away.  I’m rethinking my enthusiasm (if you can actually do that) for this school.  I really like my 7th grade class but the 3rd grade class is more of a burden and a stress for me than a joy.  I keep trying to find the small blessings in this class but the students wear on me after a while.  Pr*y for me and for my 3rd graders.

As I ride my bike through the streets of Beijing and laugh at the oddities that are everywhere, I try to make mental notes of what I should write in my blog.  I think, ‘I have to make a note of that.’  But then when I sit down to write it, I can’t remember most of the things that crack me up from the day.  I should really write them all down somewhere.  For example, Snow Removal in China.  Apparently this is the most snow that Beijing has gotten in a very long time, if ever.  I picked a great year to come to China. 🙂  So, in a city where they are not used to removing snow from the roads, they just put it off.  And when they get around to it, they use many people with foot-wide shovels to clean off the roads.  It’s hilarious to see this happen.  I guess it’s the government’s way of providing jobs for their people.  But, it does take forever!  They are currently (I mean right now at 9:30 pm on Friday) cleaning off the streets that are going to have snow on them again tomorrow.  This snow came almost a week ago.  It makes for really interesting biking also. I try to avoid it. 

Another thing that made me giggle today was the nut stand in an alley near one of the apartments.  There was nobody manning the stand and there were many small birds enjoying the free meal.  🙂  The cars that drive down the side roads the wrong way…this is actually more of a frustration but sometimes it’s funny.  Traffic is mostly a frustration.  I will try to keep a better record of life’s little hilarities so that I might share them with you in the future. 

Life continues to be cold here.  I’m looking forward to the travels that I have coming up. I’m planning to go to Harbin which is in the far north part of China.  Apparently, I am not cold enough in Beijing.  The plan is to stay there for only two or three days to take in the snow and ice festival.  Google it. It’s supposed to be incredible! I’ll post pictures!   Hopefully I will go to Hainan Island sometime in February to warm up a bit, then it’s off to Hong Kong for the FOC retreat.  I will try to have another entry before I leave for my travels.  It’s becoming more difficult to keep up with it. 

I will post pictures soon!  May HE continue to bless you and your family in the New Year! GB!

On my way to the Forestry University last Friday morning, I found myself biking against a brutally strong wind.  I was on my way to meet Mr. Wang to get paid.  (The past two pay periods have brought us to his office instead of at the very sketchy KFC.)  I was supposed to meet him by 8 o’clock and left my apartment with enough time to bike there in a typical Beijing day.  However, as I turned the corner out of my apartment complex, I could barely pedal my bike.  I thought to myself, ‘this is going to take forever!’  I even thought that I should jump into a taxi instead of trying to bike into the wind.  Thankfully, I stuck with it (even to the point of walking my bike because it was faster) because when I got to the corner of the road I was on and another main road, there was a massive traffic back-up.  I could not have been more thankful that I was on my bike instead of in a car…ironically enough. 

This past Thursday, I was eating supper with a friend.  She and I were discussing the awful pollution.  There is a way that ‘they’ measure the air quality in Beijing.  A number is calculated based on the level of five atmospheric pollutants that are monitored at stations throughout the city.  We did not need a number to tell us that the pollution was really bad.  I am curious as to what that number was though because it was hard to breath and even harder to see.  I even said, ‘we could really use a strong wind right now.’  Hmmm…. I guess I got my wish.  And I paid for it on Friday. 🙁  The blue skies did return and it remained very windy outside all day.

I only have two more classes with my Qinghua students.  I find myself trying to spend as much time with them as possible before they go their separate ways.  I wasn’t expecting to get so attached to them.  I had only five students in my lower level class last week Wednesday.  This was because the evening before was a big celebration for them, and according to Chinese alcohol culture, you are supposed to keep drinking.  I feel sad for them that they believe this is the way it has to be.  My five students and I chatted for the whole class.  I found out that two of them have little daughters that they are anxious to see when they finish the class, and one of them is going to have a new baby in the beginning of the year.  It was nice to see this ‘other side’ of my students and hear them talk about their families so openly. 

Throughout the past week, many of my students were emailing me their speeches for the speech contest so that I could check them, give them pointers, and correct their grammar.  The speech contest was last night.  I was one of thirteen judges and one of five foreign judges.  Ms. Fan sent me a text message at the end of last week asking me for my Chinese name.  I was curious why she wanted to know this but just sort of went with it.  (For those that are interested, my Chinese name is: 施柏雅)  I found out later why she wanted to know my name.  She had prepared name cards for all of the judges and on one side was my English name and on the other side was my Chinese name.  (I kept the card!)  The contest was quite an experience!  During the break, many of my students came up to me and asked for their picture with me. 🙂 Two of my students were hosts for the contest and it was neat to see them in those roles.  We were given criteria to use for judging them.  It was not a well thought out rubric but it worked.  Many of the speeches were from famous people in history.  There was no point deduction for ‘unoriginality’ but I took that into consideration when I was scoring them.  The speeches were not great but the quality time with my students was worth all of the time spent there.  One of my students, Maggie, won the contest.  Her speech was original and she did a good job, but I did not think she deserved to win.  I was hoping another student would win.  After the contest, Maggie asked me if I would like to get some chuar and so she and Ross (another student) and I went to a favorite restaurant of mine for chuar and beer.  We had a great time!  It makes their anticpated departure so much more difficult. 🙁 

My Qinghua students have a Christmas party next week Friday.  I hope to be able to attend their party and say farewell to them.  I didn’t get to know them all equally well but I did become good friends with quite a few of them:  Maggie, who lives in Tianjin (which is fairly close to Beijing) and would like me to visit her there.  I told her I would love to!  Jay, who lives a little further from Beijing but will be traveling to Turkey for his job early next year.  I may never see him again and that makes me sad. 🙁  Ross, who lives in Hebei province and says he will be in and around Beijing fairly often.  I’m so thankful for this because he is probably my favorite student.  ‘Little’ Peter, who likes to eat the heads of fish and says, ‘morning, Madam’ each day when he greets me! (I call him little Peter so as not to confuse him with handsome Peter who is another friend of mine.)  Michael, who is from Xi’an and tells me to visit him so he and his wife can show me around.  This is also the student who didn’t belive G-d could possibly exist but now tells me that he is worried that when he goes back to Xi’an, he will not have anyone to explain the B-ble to him. 🙂 HE is so good!  I gave Michael many things to take back with him so that he can continue reading.  I also told him to call or email if he has any questions.  Rain and Max who are from Harbin and want me to climb a mountain with them.  I will probably take them up on this offer at some point. 

We have our annual Christmas party this coming Sunday evening.  I invited all of the above people to the party.  They said they would come!  I hope they all make it.  I will write more about the Christmas party at a later time.

Yesterday in class with my engineers we played a bunch of Christmas games.  My class and two other foreign teachers’ classes all gathered in my classroom and had a competition.  We each had our own class for the first hour so that they could practice their ‘performance’ for their Christmas party.  Then the fun began.  It was hilarious to watch grown men be competitive.  We played a game where they had to see how many English words they could come up with from the words ‘Merry Christmas.’  This one was the most hilarious because each team was crowding around one piece of paper trying to compile a list.  I have some pictures!  We then played bingo and also pictionary.  It was a really fun class.  My class gave me this weird Chinese ornament as a gift.  It was very sweet of them.  Then they wanted to have their picture taken with me! 

On a sadder note, my bike was stolen…AGAIN.  It was even locked to a fence this time.  It’s kind of funny because my students would comment on how old and junky my bike was.  To which I would reply, ‘I know, but nobody wants to steal it!’  I think next time I should try leaving it unlocked.  Maybe that would keep the thieves away.  🙂  The other night while I was at chuar with Maggie and Ross, Ross mentioned that when the class is over he would give me his bike.  I told him that I already had a bike and didn’t need another one. 🙂  Yesterday when I realized that my bike was stolen, I sent Ross a message just to tell him that.  He sent a message back congratulating me and saying, ‘you can use my bike!’  So, right now, I have a men’s bike with two locks.  (Ross thinks you should have two locks…perhaps he’s right!)  We’ll see how long I can hang on to this one!

Highlights of the past few weeks:  shopping at the scroll shop, learning more and more Chinese phrases from Kevin during our Tuesday night dinners (I am supposed to be helping him with his English), any time I get to spend with my Qinghua students, and Ultimate Uno with Jay, Ross, Michael, and two of the Americans.  Ultimate Uno is a made up game that we learned from an American visitor a few weeks ago.  Once you learn this version, you will never go back to the boring version.  Jay and I and one of the American teachers had hot pot together last Friday and then ‘game night’ sort of developed from that.  It was a really fun night!

It will be a little different celebrating Christmas this year.  I am confident that it will be just as joyful because it is the message that makes Christmas what it is.  Blessings to all of you!  Sheng dan jie kuai le! 圣诞节快乐 (Merry Christmas!)

This is from the football game a while ago. Hilarious!

Qinghua University students, Michael (L) and Jay (R)

Qinghua University students, Peter (L) and Ross (R)

This was with Ross having chuar after the speech contest. (which is why he is in a suit...the tie came off right away!)

These are my Sinopec students working on one of the Christmas games. This game was hilarious!

This is my full class at Sinopec. From L-R: David, James, Bruce, Me, the elusive Simon (who hasn't come to class the last two months but showed up for the Christmas games), Tom, Tommy, and Kobe

This is a view of Zhongguancun DaJie (中关村大街) at about 1:00 pm looking north. It is acually pretty dead. Notice the skies, the mass of bikes on the left side of the photo, and the lack of cars traveling north. Zhongguancun is like silicon valley. The very large electronics market is here. I'll try to get a better picture when it is much busier.

I’m also thankful for stopsigns.  I wish there were some in China!

I am thankful…

…for my students at the FOC school.  Even though my third graders drive me crazy most of the time, there are glimpses of progress.  I continue to pr-y for the six-year-old third grader that I have in my class.  Just Saturday, I noticed his motor skills were lacking tremendously.  He could not use a scissors.  But his English–reading and speaking–is phenomenal!  I still have trouble grasping how this does not transfer to his writing.  We made paper turkeys and colored cornucopias.  Under the cornucopia, each student was to list what he or she was thankful for.  One of my students said G-d and J-sus.   🙂  I couldn’t help but smile.  One of my seventh graders brings his Holy Book with him to class each week.  During our break times he reads it.  Saturday, I asked him if he had a children’s B Study that he goes to.  He told me that his parents are not Chr–tian.  Keep this young man in your pr-yers. 

…for my students at Qinghua University.  I look forward to this class each week with great anticipation!  It is hard to describe how much I love these students.  Most of them are in their late 20s or early 30s.  Last week I taught them American Football.  The other American teacher, Shane (who has the same students on opposite days), let me come to his Monday class and we team-taught them the rules of the game.  Since each class is only an hour and a half, we had both classes come to both time slots.  After we taught them the object of the game and how to play it (we kept it really basic), we gave them a 15-20 minute break before heading to the field to play.  During this break, many of the students were discussing the rules in Chinese.  I only knew this because another student told me!  Football was hilarious.  They had a hard time transferring what was on the paper to the field.  Even Shane kept telling them that it would be easier to show them than to tell them.  After a great time on the field, a few of the students invited Shane and me to have lunch with them.  This was also quite enjoyable!  After that, I went home to work on my lessons for the next day.  Two of the other teachers and I were planning to have supper together that evening so I asked them if they would mind me inviting some of my students to join us.  They both agreed to this and the texting began.  That evening we had supper with four Chinese men.  My American friends had only heard about my students before this episode.  They now understand why I have such a good time in class!  I’m starting a new B study with a few of them this week.  I have just over a month left with these students as many of them will be traveling abroad for business in the new year.  I may never see some of these people again and it makes me so, so sad. 🙁  Keep them in your Pr-yers as I use what little time I have left with them to share J-sus with them. 

…for my students at Sinopec.  These men have come a long way since I first met them in September.  Although I haven’t had a full class in a few weeks, we still have decent discussions.  Many of them miss class because they have to go back for work.  Most of them return but I think I have lost one for good.  I didn’t even get to say goodbye to him. 🙁  The past week, I only had four students.  Two were gone for work and two were sick.  A couple weeks ago they told me that they didn’t like to use the book and that they would rather have a discussion about real topics.  This is what I wanted from them since the class started!  Their English has been improving tremendously.  It is fun to hear them discuss things in English.  The other day, the discussion got heated!  They couldn’t help themselves….Chinese, Chinese, Chinese.  I tried to stop them!  🙂 

…for Mr. Wang.  He is never on time when I am supposed to meet him to get paid.  In one breath he tells me that I look like a boy.  In the next he tells me that my Qinghua students love me.  🙂  If I ever write a book, I’ll include a character like Mr. Wang in it.  He can be so endearing but also very frustrating.  He’s a walking contradiction.  But when I tell others about Mr. Wang I can’t help but smile. 🙂 

…for full-sized ovens and other cooking conveniences.  China teaches people to improvise.  We have a toaster-oven in our apartment so you can imagine how fun that was to cook a turkey.  My roommate discovered this when she was working on our turkey for Thanksgiving dinner!  It turned out great!  We had about 20 people at our apartment for Thanksgiving dinner.  We had our Thanksgiving service on Sunday morning.  The service had special music and we could smell the food cooking.  It was awesome!  A friend of mine, one of the other foreigners that I teach with at Sinopec, joined us for Thanksgiving dinner.  I think he was missing home a little. 

…efficient forms of transportation.  On the 17th I found out that my class at Sinopec on Thursday was cancelled.  I was pretty excited because that gave me two days off in a row!  On the 18th I found out that I might have to go to Hong Kong to renew my visa.  Early in the morning on the 19th I found myself on an airplane to Shenzhen (right next to Hong Kong) so that I could take care of this visa problem.  I wasn’t thrilled to go because I knew I wouldn’t be able to spend much time there.  This was the first traveling I did on my own in China.  I had help buying the plane tickets and I was given instructions for what to do when I got there.  Hmmm….  So when I landed I was supposed to find a certain bus to take me to the border so that I could go through customs into Hong Kong.  I found a bus but I wasn’t sure it was THE bus.  So I called the teacher who helped me get the plane tickets that morning and he talked to the lady by the bus for me.  She handed the phone back to me and he said, ‘do whatever she tells you to!’  That would have been great advice for someone who speaks Chinese! AHHHH!!  So, I just went with it and bought a ticket for this bus.  I was on the bus for a while and arrived at the appropriate place.  I crossed the border and then bought a subway ticket so that I could get to right place.  When I got off the subway, I wasn’t really sure where I was supposed to go.  So I called someone at ALS for directions.  I had to use a payphone because my China phone does not work in Hong Kong.  I made it to ALS where I met wonderful people who were all busy that afternoon.  So, I was given a couple maps of the city and told to have fun!  I decided to take the subway to the island and then take the ferry back.  It was really nice to be by myself all afternoon without a phone.  I’m including a few pictures from Hong Kong below.  I can’t wait to go back in February for our retreat and (since it will be perfect timing) to renew my visa once again!!  I am also thankful for the Siirilas for letting me stay at their apartment when I was there!

…for my Chinese friends: the friends that I ‘inherited’ when I got here and the new friends that I’ve made since coming.  For Jay, Ross, Maggie, Peter, and Michael from my Qinghua class.  Michael came to one study and is so excited to come to another one!  He said he’s going to bring a friend.  For Kevin who I met on the train.  He still comes to studies, though I think that he struggles understanding much of them.  I honestly never thought that I would rather spend time with my Chinese friends than my American friends.  This realization hit me a couple of weeks ago when I found myself looking first to my Chinese friends when I was making plans for supper or hanging out.  Now, I can’t wait to hang out with them again! 

…for the opportunity to share HIS GOOD NEWS with many Chinese friends.  It’s great to see people who have never heard about HIM learn of HIM for the first time.  🙂

…for friends and family back in the states who are Pr-ying for us.  I enjoy hearing about what is happening there also!  It was nice to chat with each of my family members on Thanksgiving. 

Highlights of the past two weeks:  dinner with students, Hong Kong and staying with the Siirilas, Tuesday night B study, Football with my students, and eating pumpkin pie with chopsticks! 

A view of Hong Kong Island from the ferry.

A view of a building in the financial district on the island.

The island at night. This was without a tripod. I can't wait to go back and actually have my tripod!

On the way to the airport in Hong Kong I saw this message. This was after I spoke to the driver whilst the vehicle was in motion. I was also standing forward of yellow line! Notice the driver is on the right side of the bus.

Time flies when you’re having fun!

I’m realizing how difficult it is to keep up with my writing.  I haven’t added any teaching to my schedule but I have somehow accumulated more Chinese friends.  I can’t give you chronological run-down of my weeks because so much has happened and I would probably forget some of it anyway.  So, I’ve decided to give you only the highlights.  There may quite a few ‘highlights’ so hold on tight!

I have been getting to know my Qinghua University students much better in the past weeks.  This is probably my favorite class to teach because their English level is quite high so instead of teaching them oral phrases/grammar/vocabulary/etc., I get to have discussions with them.  This is really awesome!  So far we’ve had discussions on travel, health care, the ‘global economic crisis’, and various other not-so-in-depth topics.  They have strong opinions about certain topics and it is fun to listen to them argue with each other in English! 🙂  I have 2 (sometimes 3, sometimes 4) women in my class and the rest are men.  The women rarely have much to say during discussions.  Also–an interesting thing to note–something that normally would have bothered me in the states is students who answer their cell phones and respond to text messages in class.  For some reason it doesn’t even phase me.  My opinion about this is that they are all business men/women and if they have to answer a call…so be it.  Most often, they will say, ‘sorry, excuse me’ and then leave the room if they get a call.  However, every now and then, some will crawl under the table to take a call!  Hilarious!  The first time I saw this happen I stopped talking and just stared, confused by what I was seeing.  Other students laughed and told me what the man was doing.  I don’t think he knew that he was just as distracting by crawling under the table where he could still be heard.  Oh, China! 

This particular group of students was pretty excited with the second snowfall of the season. (More on the snow later)  During the hour and a half class with them I give them a short break.  When I said, ‘let’s take a break’ one of the men said, ‘snowball fight?’  🙂  I could not resist the opportunity to pelt them with snow!  I was one of the weirder experiences that I have had in China.  We had a great time running around the classroom courtyard with snow in hand!  Not even one minute into the fight, alliances had formed.  It was a blast!  During class that day we also discussed the structure and organization of the US Government.  It was kind of fun for me to review what I knew about it and to share with them.  They knew some of what I was sharing with them but were interested in the ‘balance of power’ that exists (or at least is supposed to) in the three branches.  While discussing things like this with them it is easy to see that the Chinese people have an extreme loyalty to their own system.  Because I get into these sorts of discussions with them, I have to do some research usually.  I’m also reading more US news and will continue to Pr-y for the US.  I hope that you will do the same!

About a week and a half ago, I had lunch with two of my Qinghua students, Maggie and Jay, at a hot pot place.  For those who don’t know hot pot, allow me to describe.  Hot pot is basically a pot filled with a soup base (spicy, regular, curry, etc.).  Then you choose a type of raw meat and veggies to cook in your pot.  This was an enjoyable experience with my two students.  The only thing I would have had different about it would be to sit around a table instead of at a bar-like counter to eat.  The set-up we had was not conducive to discussion.  Next time, we will go somewhere where we can visit.  They both agreed with me when I suggested this. 

This past Sunday evening, Maggie invited me to go shopping with her.  We met at a large shopping place, wandered around for a while and then decided to get some supper together.  A friend/colleague of hers had sent her a message asking about supper.  She asked if I minded if he ate with us.  Of course, I didn’t and she and I proceeded to make our way to the restaurant.  Little did I know that we were going quite a distance.  All she told me was that we were going to the BeiDa East Gate. (Peking University)  I thought that the restaurant was near the university.  Nope.  We were getting on the subway to travel a little ways away.  We met her friend and then went into a buffet-style restaurant that was pretty expensive.  I do not know how much it was exactly because her friend paid at the door and wouldn’t let us pay.  Almost every type of sea food was available, unlimited drinks including coffee/tea/water/juice/beer/wine, and also many types of insects. 🙂  They offered me a silkworm but I politely declined because I have a hard time eating something that is looking at me.  During supper, Maggie asked me if I like KTV.  KTV is basically karaoke in your own private room.  I told her, ‘yeah!’  Mistake!  She said that we would do that next.  Hmmm… so we ended the evening with three people–two Zhongguoren 中国人 and one Meiguoren 美国人–singing random songs in our native languages and not really understanding what the other was singing.  Also one of my weirder China experiences!

I’ve been spending much of my ‘free time’ meeting with new friends for lunch or supper.  I met my friend Kevin for supper about a week ago to help him with his English homework.  He has a teacher from New York and is teaching him some not-so-appropriate phrases.  When I read some of his dialogues I explained to him that much of what he was learning wasn’t a polite way to speak to people.  I’m thankful that Kevin is still coming to one of our evening B studies.  His English is getting better but still leaves much to be desired.  I don’t know if he goes to the study because I go with him or if he would continue without me.  Pr-y for him also!  Just last night he and I and another friend went to see a movie.  It was an enjoyable time! 

My Sinopec men are also improving tremendously.  When I first started teaching them, their English wasn’t so great.  It is fun to see this happen.  Two days ago they asked me if we could do less of the book and more discussion.  Of course I said yes because I also hate the textbook.  This is what I wanted from the beginning.  I’m excited that they feel confident to discuss topics in English.  I asked them what we should discuss on Tuesday and they told me Education.  🙂  I’m glad they picked something I have a background in.  We’ll see how it goes!  They also enjoyed the snofall and created a snowman/woman/???  on the roof where they take their breaks.  This snowman is indescribable so I will include a picture.  We named it a snowta because ‘ta’ is the word for he AND she in Chinese!  🙂  There was also a cigarette in the snowta’s mouth and so when I asked them if I could take a picture of them with it one of them said we had to light the cigarette!  (also very China!)

We have had snow three times already.  I’m a little disappointed that the government feels the need to cause it to snow.  I was kind of hoping to get away from it.  It makes it really difficult to bike.  This past Monday, I was feeling a little lazy and decided to leave my bike at a subway stop close to my University and take the subway home.  The next morning I was so glad that I had done this because I would have been late for class.  It took me 45 minutes to travel what normally takes me about 15.  Thankfully I am a perpetually early person because I arrived only two minutes early for class (instead of my usual 20-30).  I may have to buy boots.

The past week we were blessed to have our fearless leader visit us in Beijing!  It was so nice to have him here so that we could express our concerns and just chat about life.  I didn’t realize how sad I would be to see him go. 🙁

I’m currently compiling a list of things I never thought I would do/say/feel/experience while I was in China.  It’s kind of entertaining to look at things in a different way.  Some are serious and other are just really funny.  I hope to share this with you in the near future! 

So, I leave you with a list of my favorite highlights of the past couple of weeks:  Snowball fight with grown men who run like little girls when you come after them with a snowball, being asked by Kevin, “so J-s-s is G-d?”,  Girls’ night with Shannon at KTV!, 7th grade class every week, finally giving someone a ride on my bike!  I am so inexpressibly blessed!  Feel free to visit at anytime so you can have a small taste of what I get to experience! 

Below is a picture of the ‘snowta’ with six of my eight students.  Have an awesome week in HIS Grace.

I couldn't resist taking this picture! They were such good sports! From L-R: Simon, Tommy, David, Bruce, Tom, Kobe.

I just found out that the crazy snowfall was artificially induced!  Really…

Click on this site:

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/afp/20091101/tap-china-weather-beijing-snow-8d4ea94.html

Enjoy!

November came and along with it came the snow!  Apparently, it does not snow like this in Beijing, ever.  This is what the veteren teachers keep telling me.  I woke up Sunday morning to a snowstorm.  I guess I should be happy because it made me feel very much at home on my birthday!  Actually, I woke up Sunday morning at 6:30 when I got a phone call from Meiguo!  My sister called me for my birthday and my niece and nephew sang to me. 🙂 🙂  It was very sweet!  The day was a great one in general.  We had our Reformation festival service with special music (flute, trumpet and guitar along with the regular piano).  After the service, we had a potluck, China style.  Actually, most of the food was of the American variety.  All of the food was delicious!

This week was a pretty great week.  Other than the usual class routine, my week was pretty uneventful.  It started to get really cold in Beijing.  Coats, sweatshirts, gloves and hats started to make appearances.  I was thinking just the other day about how happy I was not to be in Wisconsin or Wyoming where it was cold or snowy.  Then, BAM! Beijing is hit with cold and eventually snow.  It really wasn’t a lot of snow.  Everyone just kept commenting on how bad the snow was. 

Tuesday night study was interesting and fun.  We only had three people come but we had some good discussions.  I hope that more people will come to this one because I think it would be better to have a larger group for the discussion.

I led B study on Wednesday night.  It was a song study and we looked at a hymn that talked about being declared ‘not guilty.’  (390)  It was a great hymn but I think that next time I will choose something that lends itself to more discussion.  There was definitely a lot to talk about, but for some reason, no one would discuss.   After our study we had compline at our usual place and it was a really great night.  It is hard to describe to someone who wasn’t there so you’ll just have to take my word for it. 

Thursday was a good day.  I met Kevin for supper along with another one of the teachers.  We had fun going over the English phrases that he had learned during the day.  Sometimes I wonder what his teachers are teaching him!  He brought his guitar this time so that he could help accompany the song study.  I went with him to the apartment and then left to go to Greek class.  I think I caught him by surprise when I left because he sort of looked sad (like a helpless bird) when I walked out.  🙁  I want him to keep coming to the study even when I am not there. 

Yes, you ‘heard’ me correctly when I said Greek class.  It is pretty funny that I’m taking Greek class in China.  Shouldn’t I be taking Chinese class?  I hope to take a Chinese class also, but Greek is being taught by another one of the teachers and it was really easy to ‘sign-up for.’  🙂  The problem is that I cannot go to song study with Kevin.  I left Greek a little early so that I could go back to the apartment and then walk with Kevin to the subway.  When I got to the apartment, the study was still going so I popped in to one of the other apartments for a bit so they could finish up.  I eventually went back up to the apartment to sing through their song one last time with them.  After the study was over, Kevin played a song for us and sang. It was AWESOME!  I have a video recording of one of the songs but the file is way to big to post on the blog.  Again, you’ll just have to take my word for it!  After that, Kevin and I walked to the subway. On our way there, we got ice cream together at a little convenience store. 

On Friday morning, I met Mr. Wang so that he could pay me.  We were supposed to meet at his office at the Forestry University, but there was some confusion and ended up meeting at KFC.  This has been our meeting place every time he has paid us.  It seems a little sketchy but I just kind of go with it.  He is usually late but this time he got there before we did.  After that, I met two of my students for lunch on the Qinghua campus.  That was quite enjoyable.  One of them speaks English quite well and is really easy to talk to.  He understands sarcasm also which makes it even more fun!  We then rode around the campus on our bikes for a little bit and then I left when they had to go back to class.  I hope to do this again sometime! 

I’ve included a couple pictures from the snowfall.  I went to the park on Sunday afternoon to get some snow shots.  Enjoy!

We went to the park in the afternoon after most of the snow had melted.

This one is especially beautiful. It reminds me of Christmas for some reason.

An attempt at being creative

Mmmmm.....it was really beautiful there!

Finally, I began my first week of my full teaching load.  I still maintain that I have the greatest job in China, although others will disagree with me.  🙂  I have Sunday and Monday off, which is a great blessing because I am able to be refreshed in HIS word and enjoy the day with fellow FOCers.  I teach at Qinghua from 8:30 – 12:00 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Sinopec from 1:30 – 5:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and at the FOC school from 8:30 – 12:00 and 1:30 – 5:00 on Saturdays.  I use my Sunday/Monday free time to prepare for my classes for the upcoming week. 

I have a total of eight preps for the week.  I teach two hour and a half classes at Qinghua University清华大学. Ideally, these two classes would be on the same lesson and at the same level. The first class (Class A) is at a much higher level than Class B.  This makes planning for them challenging.  It really is teaching two completely different classes.  I immediately fell in love with my students!  They are very hard working.  They come to the classroom 30 minutes early just to study their lessons.  All of my students are post-graduate students who work for China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) 中国铁道建筑总公司.  It is currently China’s largest construction contractor and the world’s sixth. 

Tuesday was my first day with the Qinghua group.  I met Ms. Fan at the subway station in the morning so that she could show me where to go.  We went to her office first so that I could make the copies for my class.  She asked me if I drink coffee, to which I responded, “Yes! I like coffee!” Little did I know that this response would lead to multitudes of cups and free coffee (instant) in my classroom.  She also told me that if I have any handouts for the class that I could email them to her or another person and they would make my copies for me and have them ready for me in my classroom. 🙂 How great is that?!?

My students are great!  One man in my class asked if I was married and when I said no, proceeded to tell me that he was also single. “We can be friends!” was his response to this.  I shook his hand.  He came to both of my classes on Tuesday and both of my classes on Wednesday even though he is only required to go to one of them.  I may have to watch out for this one.  He said to me, “you are not as old as I am.” So I responded by saying, “How old are you?” He said, “24.” I said, “I am older.” 🙂 

After the introductions on Tuesday, one of my students asked me to tell them a little about myself.  So, I drew a map (drew is really a relative term here…) on the whiteboard to show them where I was born, where I went to college, and where I had been teaching for the past four years.  They were very interested in anything I had to tell them.  Ms. Fan wants me to teach them English songs.  I think that I will have a hard time teaching silly songs to people who have degrees in business!  Someday soon, I will bring in pictures of my hometown, my family and other pictures that I have from the states.  They want to know as much as possible about Meiguo 美国!

Wednesday’s class was also very fun.  I am really going to enjoy teaching my Qinghua students.  After class on Wednesday, I decided to explore the Qinghua campus on my bike for a while.  It is very beautiful!  I took a few pictures of the “lake” and the waterfall.  There was a large open lawn near the auditorium on the campus.  Around this place there were hardly any people, which is so un-China-like!  Maybe I will come back to this place to do some reading or writing.  It was very peaceful!

My lessons are coming along more quickly than when I started because I know what to expect.  I kind of feel like a competent Oral English teacher now!  I know for sure that I will learn a great deal about Business English and am excited to do so. 

Other happenings of the week:  Kevin (from the train to Taishan) invited me to attend a violin recital of one of his friends at his school (Central Conservatory of Music 中央音乐学院).  He met me at the subway and then showed me around the campus.  This school is very small population-wise.  He said that there are only about 2000 students!  The campus isn’t anything spectacular.  It’s pretty small and most of the buildings are ‘normal.’  We went into the auditorium/concert hall quite a bit early because the tour of the campus did not take as long as he thought it would.  He told me he would go get me a program.  So I stayed in the auditorium to listen to the violinist warm up.  Awesome!  It was taking Kevin a really long time to get a program.  When he finally came back, I realized why it had taken him so long.  He was having someone translate the whole thing into English for me!  It was all hand written next to the Chinese!  The recital was fantastic!  After it was over, Kevin introduced me to the performer.  I told him that his playing was excellent and he said, ‘thank you,’ and that was the extent of our English conversation.  After the performance, Kevin and I and another one of his friends went to get some food.  It is interesting/frustrating talking to him because I don’t speak Chinese and he speaks only basic English.  There won’t be any intellectual conversations between the two of us any time soon.  He is going to be coming to a concert this weekend with me and a bunch of the other Meiguoren 美国人.  When I told him that there would be about eight other Americans with me, he made this gesture that signified confusion (waved his hands by his head)!  I assured him that there were a few who could speak Chinese much better than I can.  He just smiled!

My love of China continues to grow day by day!  There are so many little things that make me smile when I take the time to think about them…the ‘Chinese chalupa’ lady who knows exactly what I want when I come to order from her and her assistant who does all his cooking with chopsticks!, the copy man at Sinopec who doesn’t speak English but has had multiple ‘conversations’ with me about copies/flash drives/pdf files/etc., the pink-haired stylist (male) who works on our street who says ‘hello’ every time we bike past and even took our picture with his phone one time, old Chinese friends who come to evening studies and share the same love of HIM, new Chinese friends who are learning of HIM and HIS SON for the first time.  There are so many more things that I could mention.  It’s difficult to put into words all of these ‘little’ experiences that are part of my day to day life! (Including being hit by a car on my bike!)  If only you could come and experience this as well….. 🙂 

The lake on the campus

Close up of the waterfall

Jeffersonian Architecture on the campus

According to The Lonely Planet, when Confucious climbed Mt. Tai (Taishan 泰山) he spoke the words, “The world is small.” When Chairman Mao journeyed to the top he said, “The East is Red.” When I made the trip, the first words out of my mouth were, “Wow, that was a lot of stairs!”  But we’ll get to the mountain later.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Our National Holiday vacation began October 1st. I awoke to beautiful blue skies. It was interesting to discover the previous night that the government can regulate the weather (and has many times).  I was reminded of a few utopian society books that I have read. I’ll admit it was a little bone-chilling to find out that this sort of technology is being used. I was naively unaware that rain can be controlled. Nevertheless, I enjoyed a lovely morning of packing, watching the parade in Chinese on television, and taking a taxi to retrieve my bike from where I left it during the rain the previous night.

After packing, I walked to the subway to meet two other teachers to go to the train station. This was quite possibly the fastest subway ride I have ever been on.  Line 1 was completely closed because of the above-ground festivities. Line 2 had only a few stops open, so what should have taken an hour ended up taking half of that. While waiting to meet another teacher at the train station, the three of us enjoyed the blue skies.

Blue Skies for National Day

At the designated time, the other teacher arrived and we were on our way. We had standing tickets for the five hour ride to Taishan 泰山. My original feeling about this was apprehension. This changed from apprehension to indifference. I thought, “I guess I can stand for five hours.” I could not have been more mistaken.

My first train experience in China went something like this:

…getting onto the train by successfully pushing through a wall of people, standing next to a mother with two children (one of which peed on the floor three times), meeting my new friend Kevin who attends a university in Beijing 北京 for music (somehow we music geeks always find each other), visiting with Kevin and another person who appeared to be his friend but was also someone he just met (and an awesome translator for Kevin and me), constantly hearing “ting bu dong” from people on the train (I think that “ting bu dong” could be my new nickname), and constantly shifting (into people) to make room for those who were going back and forth to the bathroom (and for the cart which, even though there was no room in the aisle, the train staff insisted on shoving through)…

There were many times when Kevin, the other guy, and I would say, “No! You had your one roundtrip to the bathroom.” Obviously we were kidding, but the longer the ride lasted, the more serious we became. Just when I thought I couldn’t handle it anymore, the train made its second stop and most of the standers (along with a few sitters) got off the train! This was a much needed relief. The last hour and a half of the ride was so much more bearable. I continued to visit with Kevin and was even able to read my book for a while.

We finally arrived in Taishan–the first time. At the train station we purchased tickets for our journey to Qingdao. We would have gone straight to Qingdao from Beijing but, because of the holiday, they were fresh out of tickets. As we left the train station the giant screen TV outside was broadcasting the festivities from the capitol. We made it to the hotel where we dropped our backpacks and headed out to find supper. We settled for KFC because we were all hungry not in the mood to walk further to find something else. While we ate at KFC people were shooting off fireworks across the street in front of a building. We made it back to the hotel, crashed, and woke up refreshed for our journey to Qingdao.

The train to Qingdao was much more bearable. We had a sleeper car and a lot of room to stretch out, especially after a couple left to find an empty area.

Qingdao 青岛

We arrived in Qingdao in the early evening. Our taxi driver took us on the scenic route to our hostel but we didn’t mind because the beach and the sea were beautiful. We made it to our hostel and couldn’t believe that our entrance was cave like. You wouldn’t imagine the entrance to a hostel being through an alley and downstairs. The man at the desk (which was under the stairs and was also where he slept) showed us a few room options and we settled on two adjacent rooms with a double bed in each. 

The next morning we awoke to explore the beautiful city of Qingdao. We taxied to the Catholic church in hopes of seeing the inside. This was not an option for us and we settled for walking around it and admiring the hoards of brides being photographed.  We found our way down a little street that—according to The Lonely Planet once again—had the phrase “Long Live Chairman Mao” painted on one of the buildings. This phrase was covered up by an air conditioner. 

"Long Live Chairman Mao"

We continued our meandering through city streets, enjoying the simple beauties of China.  We came across some beautiful sites and some not so beautiful ones as well. Below is a little treasure that I found while wandering around.

After wandering the streets for a while, we decided to visit the another church in the city. It was very German in style, and we could actually go inside this one. When we got inside there was a group of singers practicing for a concert. We asked when the concert was and found out that it was to be on Sunday evening. We all agreed that it would be neat if we could come back for the concert.

Qingdao 青岛 Chr--tian Church

After visiting the churches and enjoying downtown, we ventured to the beach where we walked and walked until we found a place for lunch. We settled on a place right on the beach and enjoyed watching people while we ate. It’s interesting to note that most of the people in bathing suits by the beach were men…and they don’t wear bermuda style trunks like we are used to seeing. 🙁 

We stopped for a short time to walk barefooted in the sand and enjoy the water. This was a nice way to relax before continuing on down the beach. It got dark relatively early and we continued down the coast. Off in the distance there were lanterns floating through the air. This was the night of the full moon.  There is a reason why the people let the lanterns go. I’m not sure what it is but it was very cool to see! Two of the the others decided to try this and the lantern went right over the edge into the Yellow Sea.

Before we decided to leave the beach for the night we ended up in Music Square. Of course I thought this was awesome! I got my picture taken with Beethoven (a stone likeness of him, that is) and also photographed the various works of his that were ‘inscribed’ on the ground in the square. After this, we hit up a pizza place for supper, Old Jack’s Cafe for a beer (you can’t go to Qingdao without drinking some of the beer), and then we retired to the cave for the night.

The next morning we got up, had breakfast and coffee at the ‘Rich Bakery’ next door to the hostel and read HIS book together.  After getting ready we headed back down to the beach and began where we left off the night before. We made it through the olympic area (Qingdao was the location for the sailing events) and decided it was time to go back downtown for a bite to eat. We found ourselves at the ‘Fanciful Hibiscus Restaurant’ across the street from the Qingdao brewery. We were meeting another teacher and a few of her friends at the brewery shortly after lunch. Here we dined on splendid Chinese cuisine and some dark beer.

After our delightful lunch we crossed Beer Street to visit the brewery. The tour was awful (it was self-guided…I must be a terrible tour guide) but the signs were hilarious! I think I may have more fun taking pictures of Chinglish signs than scenery. After we finished at the brewery we headed back to the cave before the concert at the church. We had a snack at the bakery before going to the church. The church was crowded and it was so cool to see so many people there to worship HIM. I was able to take a few videos of some of the songs which included Panis Angelicus. It was so awesome to hear! The tenor was amazing! After the concert we headed to an Indian restaurant for supper and back to the cave for the night. We had an early train ride the next morning.

We awoke at 4:30 the next morning to get ready to go catch our early train to Taishan. We were on a fast train that only took three hours back to Taishan instead of the six it took to get there from Qingdao. This was the nicest of the three trains that I took on vacation. I managed to spill a whole cup full of milk tea on the floor as the train was tilted. So, the milk tea crept to the other side of the train. This was only slightly embarassing as I got the attention of a random person who looked like she may be on the staff. She was not and kind of looked at me strangely when I did this. I found a real staff member, tapped him on the back and then pointed to the floor. He immediately got his little mop and began to clean up my mess.  This was a source of great entertainment to the people around us. Somehow I always manage to make the Chinese people laugh. Something tells me this will not be the last time.

Taishan 泰山

When one of the other teachers made the suggestion to climb Taishan during our National Holiday vacation, he made it sound like it would be a walk in the park. “It’s all stairs!” was one of the phrases that came out of his mouth. Yes, it was all stairs. However, stairs in China for some reason are six inches wide and rounded. In order to climb Taishan, one must ascend 6660 stairs covering a height of approximately 1.3 km and a distance of 7.5 km. No problem, right? Right. 

We met two other teachers from Wenling at the train station in Taishan before heading to the mountain entrance by minibus. It was great to have new people join us for our travels. 

The first half of the journey up the mountain was decently challenging. In 100m increments, measurements on the stairs told you how high you had climbed. There were hundreds of people climbing the mountain.  At the Midway Gate to Heaven, the group split up. Five of us chose to take the stairs the rest of the way while the other two decided on the cable car. How much further could it be, really? The second half of the climb was much more brutal than the first half. We took many breaks on the way up. During our ascent, many Chinese people wanted to take their picture with us.  Now and then we would hear various ‘hellos’ from random Chinese people.  Apparently this is hilarious to them.

The view at the top left a little to be desired because of the haze but it was still worth the effort. We made it to the top in time for a quick supper before the sunset.  The top of the mountain has its own little town.  There are restaurants, shops, and places to sleep for those who want to catch the sunset the next morning.  This is what we did!

We stayed in a hallway on the eastern side of the mountain.  This was a perfect location for viewing the sunrise in the morning.

We stayed in the building on the hill in the distance.

Close up of the west side of the building

After finding our way to our hallway, we spent some time on the porch/balcony enjoying each other’s company. We decided to go to bed fairly early so that we could catch the sunrise the next morning. Little did we know that we wouldn’t get much sleep anyway. Around 11 pm, the hallway came alive with noise as the Chinese people who were staying there decided it was time for bed.  The noise came back around 4:30 in the morning when they decided that it was time to scope out their sun-watching spots.  We also decided that it was a good time to ‘wake up’ since we hadn’t really slept anyway. We went out to the porch/balcony to get a spot to see the sun…and then we waited. The sun appeared and the people cheered.

It's so small...

This was the view of the sun that we had. 

We lingered for a while and then decided to find some breakfast on the mountain. After a quick bite we made the decision to descend the mountain by foot.  We could have taken the cable car down, but down is easier than up, right? 🙂 Down, down, down, we went. We rested more on the way down than on the way up.  This made our legs feel like jello and was pretty hard on our knees.

On the climb down. The mountain behind me is the one we climbed.

After making it down the mountain, we picked up our stuff at the train station and headed to the hotel. We then found some supper in Taishan at a really cool restaurant.  I had a great time on the trip. It was awesome to see new parts of HIS creation and to enjoy them with friends!  I can’t wait for the next big adventure!

Below are the people I traveled with.

Saturday was my usual 3rd grade/7th grade routine.  I’m starting to warm up to the 3rd graders, but they are still pretty chaotic in the classroom.  I have one student who is 6 years old (yes—in my 3rd grade class).  He just got back from living in the states for two years.  His oral English is surprisingly clear and he would put any American 3rd grader to shame with his reading skills.  However, he has zero attention span!  I just don’t know what to do with him!  He actually reminds me of my middle-schoolers from last year.  It’s funny to hear a little Chinese boy insert “like” between most of the words in his sentences.  I think he does this when he is nervous.  His personality also surprises me.  He is very outgoing.  I will definitely keep you posted on him.

My 7th  graders surprised me with their written English skills.  They struggle with a few sentence structure items, but their thoughts are awesome!  I can’t wait to read more of their writing.  It’s easy to assign a lot of writing when: 1. you know the students will complete it—all of it, and 2. you only have seven students’ work to read.  We had some fun discussions about The Secret Garden.  They devour books like they are going out of style.  Who would have thought that I would be teaching the same thing in China as I was in the states? I certainly did not!  During class last Saturday, they wrote letters to American 7th graders.  We are going to try to start a pen-pal activity with some of my former 6th grade students from Watertown.  My Chinese students are very excited about communicating with an American student.  At first, they didn’t know what to write.  So we brainstormed ideas of what to write about.  I can’t wait for the Americans to get the letters.

On Sunday, we had our morning service. This was the debut of my trumpeting in Beijing!  We Beijingren 北京人 like to change things up in our services.  For Sunday, I played trumpet for three hymns (one with piano, one with guitar, one solo).  Afterwards we had lunch as a group and then another teacher and I went for a brisk walk in the park!  The park was busy with people walking (forwards and backwards), sitting on benches, playing random instruments out of tune, and babysitting grandchildren.  We’ve had quite a few beautiful blue sky days.  Anticipation of these days makes the other ones much more bearable.

My Sinopec men continue to work their way into my heart.  My heart still aches for them because they are so far away from their families.  They seem to be making the best out of their situations. They have really warmed up during class.  At first I was hesitant to try games and activities with them.  They seem to enjoy some of the ‘silly’ things that I try with them.  Yesterday I shared my Peanut Butter M&Ms with them.  They said they liked them, but I wonder if they were just being polite.  They are also very punctual.  I give them two ten-minute breaks during our three-and-a-half hour class.  They always come back in exactly ten minutes! However, yesterday they were ‘hanging out’ on a rooftop area having a very animated discussion in Chinese.  The time slipped right by them!  I had to go looking for my usually punctual students!  They sort of giggled (if you can imagine grown men giggling) when I came to find them. 

During the break time, while my students were hanging out on the roof, I was watching out my window at the window-washers across the way.  It seems like their method is so unsafe.  I’ve included a picture for you to see.  I also have a picture of the cars that they covered up because they didn’t want to get them wet. (Actually, this is an assumption of mine, but why else would they put what looks like a really big sheet over them!?!)  Also included in the pictures is one of the Sinopec ‘campus’ where I teach.  The photo was taken from my classroom window across to the dorms/cafeteria.

This week we finally welcomed the family that was missing from our group in Beijing!  It is so nice to have them here.  It feels like our group is complete now.  It was also fun to see their reactions to things happening on the way home from the airport.  I am sure that is what I looked like when I first arrived, and that was only a month ago!  So much has happened in the last few weeks that I feel like I’ve been here for a very long time already.  I hope that we can help them adjust as quickly as we did!

Update on Beijing Extreme Biking: I feel more and more confident as the days go by.  This may or may not be a dangerous thing!  Yesterday I ran into a guy on a scooter because there was confusion as to which way each of us was going.  I feel like this is going to happen more and more.  At least I now know that it doesn’t hurt that bad.  Also, (not really biking related) I got a ride with the other teachers from Sinopec to the subway yesterday. When I was getting out, the driver kept inching forward and the back wheel got my ankle.  Thankfully, I was able to pull my foot out before the tire ran over it! 🙂  I may have to change it from Beijing Extreme Biking to Beijing Extreme Transportation-in-general. 

Highlights of the week: Sunday service, practicing using a spoon and a fork with my engineers (and one of them turning them around to use them as chopsticks!), welcoming the Krauses, and visiting the post office by myself to mail an envelope back to America (Meiguo) 美国 and having a conversation with the clerk with gestures only. (She wanted me to write the characters for America 美国 on the package and I sort of looked like a little kid that wants something so she giggled and took the envelope back to write them for me.) I am going to be so good at charades when I get back!  I also think that I should probably learn to write the characters for America.

Enjoy the photos!  Until next time…

View of Sinopec from my classroom window

Covered cars...so they don't get wet?

Window Washers

View of the whole building. They are all the way up there with only two cords and what appears to be a tree swing holding them up.