Having been in China for a grand total of two months, I feel like I am an expert. (An expert-what, I don’t know. That is yet to be determined.)  A few things that I feel I’m somewhat of an expert at:  I have stopped freaking out while biking between lanes of traffic, going out into traffic to go around a bus does not phase me anymore, even when the bus starts to merge back into traffic, and I’m able to communicate with many different people either in English, Chinglish, my very limited Chinese, charades, grunting, or my personal favorite, smiling and shrugging! 🙂  So maybe I’m not an expert, but I’m definitely getting more confident!

The past week was a pretty ‘normal’ week…if there is such a thing as normal in China.  I taught all of my classes, had all of my B studies, met friends for supper, and went to another concert, this time at Peking University.  I’ll start with Saturday of last week:

I had my regular 3rd grade/7th grade Saturday.  Much like in the states, many students are sick and missing school because of it.  I haven’t had a full class in a few weeks.  After school on Saturday, I headed home to get ready for the concert at the Forbidden City Concert Hall.  One of my friends was in this concert.  A large group of foreigners and one Chinese friend–Kevin, from the train–went to the concert.  The concert was awesome.  This was also the first time that I was down near Tian’anmen Square 天安门广场.  It was very beautiful in that part of the city.  Were I live, there are many large buildings all around.  This part of town seemed more open and free.  In the distance, (also in the dark) I could see the Grand National Theater 国家大剧院.  It is shaped like a huge egg and looks sort of mysterious in the dark.  I can’t wait to come to this part of the city during the day sometime!  After the concert, the group of 11 foreigners and one Chinese person went to a wine bar for some conversation.  I was so happy that there were people in our group who could communicate in Chinese with Kevin.  He makes fun of himself for being so bad at English.  He will point at himself and say, “Chinglish” sometimes.  It’s humorous but I think he is too hard on himself. 

Sunday was our regular study and service in the morning with the foreigners.  A distant relative of mine was here in Beijing giving a talk at a nearby university and came to our Sunday service.  Afterward, the group went to our usual place for lunch.  I’m starting to get tired of our usual place and kind of hope we find a new ‘usual’ place to have lunch on Sundays!  During the afternoon, a few teachers and the distant relative went to the electronics market.  This was my first time there.  It was very overwhelming and if I never have to go back, I will not be sad. 

Sunday evening, Kevin and my roommate and I had supper together.  It was sort of like a little music geek night out!  It was nice to have her along so that she could speak a little Chinese and add some fun to the conversation.  She told him he couldn’t bring his dictionary with him anymore! 🙂 I don’t think he liked that!  He told us about his English class that day and about some phrases/idioms that he was learning.  One of them was ‘the kiss of Judas’.  So we taught him the word betray.  It was interesting to find out that the Chinese translation of that word is ‘the smile behind the knife.’  Hmmm….  I looked at my roommate and told her that this could be our ‘in’.  We explained who Judas was and why that phrase means to betray.  She had along her English/Chinese B BOOK so that he could read the story about Judas.  It was an interesting way to introduce him to G’s WORD but it worked.  Kevin said he would come to the study on Thursday night. 

Monday morning, I woke up feeling pretty sick.  I worked on planning a B study with a friend and planning my lessons for the coming week.  Then I went back to bed.  I met two of the other teachers for supper that evening and we went ‘street shopping.’  This was pretty fun and I’m sure I would have enjoyed it more if I had been feeling better.  Tuesday was a very long day.  I had class at Qinghua, class at Sinopec, and then B study in the evening. 

Wednesday was interesting.  I only teach at Qinghua on Wednesdays and afterward, Ms. Fan asked me to have lunch with her.  She took me to a place on the campus and another one of her friends joined us.  It was buffet-style place, which is weird to see in China.  She pointed me to the western food and told me I could eat that.  I then told her that I quite enjoy Chinese food, but that I would try some of both.  We found a place to sit and then she brought me a pair of chopsticks and a fork and spoon.  She said she didn’t know if I could eat with chopsticks.  I told her that I actually kind of prefer eating with them!  It must be a Chinese thing to force people to keep eating.  I was stuffed and she kept saying ‘eat more.’  I told her that I had had enough and then she said ‘just exercise more!’  She then proceeded to tell me that swimming was the best form of exercise and that we could go swimming the following week!  Yikes… 

On Thursday, after teaching, I met with Kevin for supper before the B study he was coming to.  I think he was nervous about the study because he didn’t know what to expect.  I would have probably felt the same if I had been him.  We got to the study and there were 12 Chinese people there!  Some speak English quite well while others know barely any.  It was really neat to see them help each other understand.  During one of these Chinese moments, I looked across to the other teacher and just smiled!  It was awesome to hear them read 1 Cor. 13 together in Chinese! 

I went to another concert on Friday evening, this time at Peking University.  It was a performance of Gabriel Faure’s piano trio and also Ernet Chausson’s piano quartet.  It was also very well done!  Afterward, the four of us met some other friends for chuar and conversation!  I had to leave  semi-early because I had to teach the next day!  All in all, it was a great week.  Besides feeling sick for most of the week, I feel like things are starting to be more routine. 

On a lighter note, I’ve come to have somewhat of an obsession with photographing signs.  Below is just a sampling of the many, many Chinglish signs that I have seen.  Enjoy!

I had to be closer to get a picture of the awesome sign!

I didn't know which way to go...hmm...

I really have no idea on this one!

This one is actually decent English.

This one is a "stupid English" one. Why does 'inflammable' mean 'flammable'?

This one is particularly brilliant!

Unfortunately, we were unable to go inside to see this phenomenon!

I have no words for this one.

Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of it?

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.

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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.