After arriving home from my travels up-north (that one was for all you Wisconsinites out there), I had the opportunity to be a tourist in my own town. A traveling companion from Yinchuan was staying in Beijing for a couple of days and I took that opportunity to join him on some of his wanderings around the capital city.
After getting to bed pretty late on Wednesday when we got back from Haerbin, we decided that it would be nice to sleep in a bit. However, that didn’t really happen. We ended up waking up fairly early and decided to make the most of it by going everywhere in Beijing. 🙂 He had not seen the city yet so I was sort of his tour guide. Not that he couldn’t have figured it out without me but it helped to have someone who knows the city a little. We began by visiting the site of the olympics. It was really fun to hang out with someone who was so laid back about things and didn’t mind what he accomplished during the day. He didn’t have any particular ‘goals’ to meet and this made the day relaxed and enjoyable!
I had not been there during the day yet, so it was fun to see the buildings in the sunlight!
After the olympics we decided to hit the electronics market. This is one of my least favorite places in China. There are way too many people and it gets really annoying when the vendors try to pull you (literally) into their booth to buy something. The only thing we were looking for was a cord to charge his DS. He needed one that would work in China. We found him the charger and then we were off to lunch with my dear friend Fiona. Lunch was at one of my favorite restaurants near the university where I teach. The company was great, the food was wonderful! It was just really nice. I coudn’t have asked for it to be better.
After lunch, Fiona left and the two of us found ourselves on the subway to the Forbidden City. We met his friend Zhai Li there and were going to meet a few other Meiguoren so that they could do a tour of the Forbidden City. They were pretty caught up in their shopping at the pearl market, so instead of touring the Forbidden City, the three of us wandered around Tian’anmen Square, took some pictures and journeyed to meet them at the pearl market. I think I like this market more than the other markets I’ve been to. It’s basically the same thing as the silk market but with more pearls and less silk. (I know that last statement seems really obvious, but if you ever come to visit, you’ll know what I mean.) Below are some of the photos from my wanderings around Tian’anmen Square:
Things I love about this photo: 1) Blue sky! 2) No people 3) Mao's mole 4) The abundance of open space
I had been to Tian’anmen before but it was on a much drearier day. I could not have asked for a more beautiful sky that day. It was still bitterly cold out, but I’ll take the blue sky!
Sites from the Square include:
Can you tell from which direction the sun was coming? This was taken on the same day as the previous one but facing southwest. This is Chairman Mao's mausoleum. Affectionately dubbed the 'Maosoleum' by many of my friends. 🙂 Inside you can view Mao's 'body'. I haven't had the desire to go in or the patience to wait in line.
This is facing directly west toward the Great Hall of the People. To my left is the Maosoleum, to my right is Tian'anmen, and behind me is the National Museum of China. It's handy having red as my favorite color. Many, many things are red in China.
I wonder why the flags don't have the stars on them.
This is the Monument to the People's Heroes. The reason I took the picture was because the sun was causing the text on the side of it to glimmer. It was really cool in person but very hard to capture in a photograph!
After the market we went to JingShanGongYuan 竟山公元 which is a little hill (they call it a mountain) in the middle of the city. From the top of this mountain you can see almost the whole city. It was dark by the time we got to the south gate but we thought that it would be pretty cool to see the city at night. The rest of the crew was excited to see the Forbidden City from above because they didn’t get to see it during the afternoon. I was just excited to see Beijing from up high! We got to the top (after only about five minutes of climbing) and realized that there were no lights in the Forbidden City. (We should have known this but none of us thought of it.) It was really easy to ‘see’ the Forbidden City because it was a giant black square among all of the city lights. I have a few not-so-great photos from on top of JingShan 竟山 that I will show you below:
Here is a view of the Forbidden City from Jingshan gongyuan. This was at about 7:00 pm. Yes that very large black area is the Forbidden City. Just for future reference, there aren't any lights. 🙂 In the background you can see the lights of the Great Hall of the People.
This is basically the same photo but taken with a much longer shutter. This is so you can see the egg-shaped building in the right of the background of the picture. This building is the Grand National Theater. I fully intend to take in a concert or two at that building! Forbidden City = still dark. Even with a long shutter.
After we climbed back down, we took a bus to the nearest subway station and took the subway to a popular foreigner restaurant for supper. After that, three of us decided to go have some chuar 串 at a favorite restaurant of mine. The chuar and the company were both awesome!
The next day was some more shopping and time with friends. We visited a scroll shop and I designed my very own scroll. It is a gift for someone but I won’t say who. 🙂 It was nice to have visitors to the city. I’m looking forward to the next round of visitors this coming weekend!
The past few days have also been wonderful. Friday after my guest left, two of my dear Chinese friends came over for some hanging-out/playing a game time. It was really fun just to visit with them and get to know them better. They were here until 1:30! We didn’t even realize that it got that late. Must have been all of the fun we were having. 🙂
This is my friend Peter. He was explaining to me why China is called the 'Middle Kingdom'. We were also practicing some Chinese. He was teaching me the characters for the colors and how to say them.
Saturday was spent relaxing around my apartment, editing photos, and updating my blog. Much needed doing-nothing time. 🙂 That night, I met my friend Kevin for supper and then he came over for a movie. We got about halfway through the movie and he said, ‘I think you are very tired.’ He was right. Then, being the gentleman that he is, he decided to leave so that I could go to bed. The next morning I went to the Haidian Chr**tian Church with three Chinese friends. It was interesting to listen to the speaker. After lunch they all wanted to come over to play a game! We taught Zhai Li how to play Phase 10 because the other two knew how to play already. The afternoon turned into the evening. That evening, my plan was to make ‘American’ food for my friend Ross. So I asked if the the three of them wanted to stick around. I made them pancakes and scrambled eggs. Not much, but semi-easy to do. The food turned out okay and my guests were gracious and said it was ‘hao chi.’ (delicious) The rest of the evening was spent munching on oranges and playing Catch Phrase, which is hilarious with four Chinese people!!
This is the church we went to on Sunday morning. After church, the four of us had a good chat about the service.
Hope you all had a refreshing weekend! HIS blessings to you all!
All is well in chilly Beijing.
I finished teaching on Saturday of last week to begin six (yes, six) weeks of vacation. I’ve never had this much time off when it wasn’t summer. I’m looking forward to the rest and relaxation that a vacation should bring. My vacation started with a massage after school that night. It was awesome! Then it was a movie with a few ladies before hitting the sack. Sunday was the usual stuff with the group and some time getting ready for my trip to Haerbin.
The next morning began fairly early with a subway ride to the Beijing Railway Station. A friend from Yinchuan was going to be traveling with us. Our train ride was at 7:15 and we wanted to meet a little before that so we wouldn’t miss the train. We took the fast train (dubbed the “D” train by some FOCers because the number starts with D). This method of transportation landed us in Haerbin, China at 3:30 pm the same day. Much better than a 19-hour overnight train ride.
When we arrived, we decided to find our hotel by walking. We knew it was fairly close to the train station so we just kept walking and asking people where the street was and finally stumbled upon it. It was fairly nice and reasonably priced. After checking in and getting situated, we found a restaurant that serves jiaozi. This is basically a dumpling-like food that has a variety of things inside of it. I had jiaozi with pork and leeks! Yum…
We went back to the hotel and got into our minibus that would eventually drop us off at the snow and ice world. The lady who was organizing this whole thing was very concerned about us and if we would find her when we were done. It was all quite hilarious. The ride to the ice/snow world was pretty cool. The city is dotted with ice sculptures as if to advertize for the large scale festival. The funniest thing that I saw around the city (and they were everywhere!) were the little ice sculptures of PacMan. I half expected there to be ghosts nearby but was disappointed when I saw none. My goal was to capture a pacman in a photo but we were always in a car when we saw them. So I will only have a mental photo of them…sorry.
We finally arrived at the ice and snow world and was in awe. It was so large. I did my best to capture the magnanimity of it all but I do not think the photos do it justice. You will have to take a look for yourself. Pay attention to the silhouettes in the photos. This will give you some idea as to how large the ice buildings are. It was sort of like being in a fantasy world, and in a way, it feels like it was a dream. I imagine that is how my memories of my year in China will be to me when I come back to the states. I hope it remains very real but I have heard from others that it feels like a dream. Below are pictures from the Haerbin Ice and Snow World. If a picture is worth a thousand words, this is my longest entry. 🙂
The front gate was HUGE! It also changed colors every minute or so.
We were there on one of the warmer nights.
I tried not to think about what it would be like when the spring hits and all of this ice melts. What do they do with it? Where does the water go? And along those lines…where do they get all of the ice to make the sculptures? I also thought to myself that this sort of activity probably wouldn’t fly in the states. There would probably be some issue with walking up and down stairs that were made of ice and the thoughts of impending lawsuits because of it. Some of the staircases had red carpets on them but they were all covered in snow and just as slippery as the ice beneath them. Thankfully I had my awesome made-in-China boots that had decent traction on the bottoms. That is one thing that astounds me about some Chinese women is that they are not willing to sacrifice fashion for safety or comfort. Many, many women were wearing boots with heels. Seriously?!?
Most of the 'structures' could be ascended using the stairs that were made out of ice.
A piece of Egypt right in China!
Along the side of the Sphinx were slides that anyone could slide down. I chose to refrain from this activity for a couple of reasons. If I would have had snowpants I might have thought differently about it. 🙂 The Sphinx was one of the smaller structures. You can see it in a later picture.
A day wouldn't be complete without beer that tastes like water. I imagine that this particular beer would be no different. 🙂
Harbin beer, the local brew (actually, I’m pretty sure it isn’t locally brewed at all) tastes just like Qingdao beer. This is one thing China does not do as well as America…and America doesn’t even do it that well. Sad…
Here is the "Great Wall of Ice". Down one side of it was a slide. Down the other was a ripcord. Oh, the options!
In addition to the ice madness, every single tree in the park was covered with lights. There were these willow-looking trees that had lights on them and it reminded me of the movie Avatar. If only the ground beneath my feet would light up when I took steps. 🙂
The trees that reminded me of Avatar
The ruins of St. Paul College Cathedral in Macau. It was the largest Chr**tian Church in Asia at its time. It was built from 1582 to 1602.
Even now, when I look back at pictures, I am in awe of how large the ice structures are. This one from Macau was especially exciting for a member of our traveling group who will be going there at the end of February. Macau is the location of the highest bungee jumping in the world. I think he’s crazy.
A Russian-type building on top of the Great Wall of Ice.
A shot from on top of the Great Wall
I like this shot a lot because you can kind of see the general splendor of the park and compare the building heights. On the left side of the picture you can see the beer bottle. Near it is the Sphinx. At first, it was annoying for me to have the little silhouetts of people in the pictures but I am glad I have a reference point for the size of things.
One of the many slides that you could ride. This was a shorter one. It also helped if you were wearing snow pants or another type of slippery pants. Jeans just didn't cut it.
The Colosseum. It was really funny to see the colosseum with Chinese writing on it.
It was neat to see other parts of the world represented in ice. Most of it was from around China but there were a few other ‘notable’ structures scattered throughout. One of my least favorite ones was Hollywood. It was basically a pile of snow with the Hollywood sign on top of it. There were ice busts of some ‘famous’ American actors in front of this pile of snow but only one name was recognizable to me. All-in-all, a disappointing representation of America. I mean, The Statue of Liberty, Mt. Rushmore, The Arch, The Golden Gate Bridge… Come on, Haerbin! I would have loved to see those things created in ice. I kept telling myself that maybe they were featured at previous ice/snow world events. Let’s hope… It would be sad to think that this is the view of America.
Tian'anmen/Forbidden City
This one could very well be any type of building like this in China. I just called it Tian’anmen and the Forbidden City because I live in Beijing. There are many buildings throughout the country that have this appearance. This one was cool because of its size also, but not its height. It was very spread out.
This was probably my favorite ice building. It was just really beautiful in person.
I loved the white pagodas. I don’t really know why this one was my favorite but it was just simply beautiful. Notice the horse-drawn carriage in the foreground of the picture. We didn’t even ask how much that cost. There were many other things you could do throughout the park. One of our group members held a very much sedated white arctic fox. The fox was pretty cute. I kind of wanted to drape him around my neck. Pretty sure that also wouldn’t fly in the states. PETA would find you. You could also sit on a yak. I took a picture of one as the guy was telling me not to take a picture. 🙂
"I triple dog dare you!" (He thought it would be really funny to stick his tongue to the ice. I thought it would be really funny if it got stuck!)
A piece of Xi'an in Haerbin. I wonder if all the ice warriors are different...
So, I got to see the ice representation of the terracotta warriors before seeing the actual warriors. I recently found out that there will be chocolate sculptures of famous sites throughout China right here in Beijing next week! I will have to get a picture of those to add to my collection.
They made the maze way too easy! 🙂
This was pretty cool…except that it was very easy. The reason it was so easy was that you could see over the walls. I don’t think they thought this one out fully. Oh well. In the background of the photo is the main entrance to the ice world. WOW! My camera battery died before the night was over. I don’t think that it likes to be cold. So, I missed parts of the park. One structure worth noting was the giant chessboard. A traveling companion took a picture of me with a few of the chess pieces. I will share them with you when I get them from him.
At the appointed time, actually about 15 minutes early (we were very cold), we found our minibus driver and we waited for a while for the Chinese members of our group to get to the vehicle. The did not show up and off we were! Hmm… We made it back to the hotel and met a student of mine for a snack before bed.
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The next morning we grabbed some noodles for breakfast. (Never thought I would say that…) After breakfast we decided we wanted to visit St. Sophia Church, and as it was a bit of a hike, we wanted to grab a cab to get there. Traveling with five people is sort of an inconvenience. You always have to take two cabs. So I said, “why don’t we just flag down the guy in the van.” I didn’t actually think it would work or be possible but he pulled over and offered to take us for Y15. This was a great price because it would have been that much or more for us to take two taxis. We climbed into his van and immediately there were cops everywhere! WHAT?!? They got the guy out of his van and took him aside to question him. In the meantime, another one came and talked to the person in our group whose Chinese is the best. He asked her if we had given him any money. Her answer was that we had not given him any money. It was truthful for the moment. A few minutes later, they let him back into his van and we were on our way. Apparently the cops watch the illegal cab activity near that hotel. I imagine that as soon as he dropped us off he went to find a place to throw up. He informed us on the ride to the church that the fine for this sort of thing is Y20,000. Needless to say, we gave him a little extra for his trouble.
After that little episode, we were at St. Sophia Church. There was a big square with many people doing exactly what we were doing…taking pictures. We heard multiple times that the inside of a church didn’t look like the inside of a church at all. So, we didn’t go inside the church but stayed outside around the church and in the square next to the church. A couple of things that I witnessed as I was hanging out by the church: many, many pigeons that would fly around the church at a whistle command, a group of four women who were obviously traveling together (I knew this because of their matching red boots. Why one would wear matching red boots is beyond me. This, however, happens very often in China. Not necessarily matching boots, but matching in general.), and another group of women traveling together. (They were wearing white boots. Where are our brains people?!?)
A dreary day at St. Sophia Church
This is one view of the church. We didn’t spend too much time there and afterward we were off to meet my student for lunch. He was in Haerbin on business and asked us to meet him at his ‘company.’ Well, we were unaware that his ‘company’ rents an apartment because there are only four people there and it also provides housing for them. We met him there and after a cup of coffee we were off to lunch. What business lunch would be complete without baijiu? Not ours! Baijiu is literally ‘white alcohol’. Some Chinese people call it white wine. It is not wine, it is pretty potent, and it is not at all good tasting. I could not even finish my half-a-miniature-Chinese-glass of baijiu. Yuck! It would have been impolite to not finish it so while they weren’t looking, one of the others drank the rest of it for me. 🙂
After lunch my student was able to hang out with us the rest of the day. We went to a pedestrian street near the center of town. Many ice sculptures adorned the streets. We tried the famous Haerbin ice cream and enjoyed Russian tea at a nearby tea house. After it got dark, we went to Stalin Park which is the location of the Flood Monument. In 1957 there was a devastating flood and the monument was built in 1958 to commemorate the people who helped. Below is a picture at night.
Fonghongbei Statue in Stalin Park
We had a relaxing evening in the hotel and a walk around the city the next morning before heading out of Haerbin. During our walk around the city we found three churches right next to each other. This was kind of cool. On one of them was this sign:
🙂
Other sights that were fun to see in the city were these:
This reminded me of that game where you have to rearrange the vehicles to try to get one out! Traffic was worse in Haerbin than in Beijing.
I've seen cars park on the sidewalk before but this is ridiculous! 🙂
This man was sweeping the snow with a broom about two feet long. I could not resist photographing him. He caught me!
This man was popping popcorn.
These people are removing the snow from the square near St. Sophia Church. Notice the tools they have. Behind me are their brooms. I think they might be there a while.
This is what most of the snow in Haerbin looked like throughout the city. It was very dirty and slippery.
We got on the train back to Beijing and got back to my apartment at a little after midnight. All-in-all, a good trip. It is nice to be relaxing at home though! 🙂 HIS Blessings to you all!
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!
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?
