Last week I was blessed with a visit from a dear American friend.\u00a0 Her visit began with a ride on the awesome Beijing subway.\u00a0 I forget how convenient the subway is. I kind of take it for granted now! \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 First of all, it was really fun to see Beijing from a new person’s eyes.\u00a0 I think I forget about some of the oddities that happen in my everyday life here.\u00a0But, when there is someone who does not experience these things everyday, it turns out to be amusing all over again.\u00a0 Her first night here was pretty crazy. It was the Lantern Festival so there were more fireworks.\u00a0 We had supper at a hole-in-the-wall (but favorite) restaurant and then headed to the 17th floor of another teacher’s apartment to watch some fireworks!\u00a0<\/p>\n
While she was here we visited the silk market to buy scarves! \ud83d\ude42\u00a0They are just so cheap in China that you can’t go home without two or three (or ten) scarves! We also visited the pearl market, and three other ‘normal’ markets to practice our bargaining skills.\u00a0 We went to the Olympic park, the Forbidden City, The Temple of Heaven, and Mutianyu (a beautiful section of the Great Wall).\u00a0 I have now been to the Great Wall four times and I would still go back!\u00a0 She was able to come to B Study and hang out for a full day\u00a0with one of my dear Chinese friends.\u00a0 I think she enjoyed that a lot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After her week here it was time for me to get back into my routine.\u00a0 Mr. Wang had not called me about teaching so I was still wondering a little when I would start.\u00a0 I called him to ask him about it and he gave me a list of classes I would teach.\u00a0 I should have known that this was just the beginning of another whirlwind, schedule-changing, phone conversation of craziness.\u00a0 Funny to note: \u00a0Wang is a common family name in China but the word ‘wang’ (when said with different tones) can also mean ‘to deceive or scare’, ‘in the wrong’, ‘absurd or rash’, ‘disappointed’ or ‘to forget’.\u00a0 Hmmm.\u00a0 At first he told me that I would be teaching the Business English class again at Tsinghua\/Qinghua University along with a pronunciation class. Fantastic. Bring on the coffee. However, the schedule for these two classes would have been amazing so I was actually pretty excited about it.\u00a0 Then, he told me I would keep Bus. English but have a conversation class at Sinopec\u00a0and an American Culture class. Schedule = way less amazing.\u00a0 So I called him and told him I would rather have it the other way.\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 He called Ms. Fan to tell her he was changing it back to just the two classes.\u00a0 They argued. I listened but didn’t understand. He told me that I would have it the other way.\u00a0 Then, I got a phone call from him at 8:00 one morning to ask me if I would be willing to keep the culture class.\u00a0 As a bribe, he told me I could pick the textbook for the class! Ha! I told him I would try it out for a week but there was no guarantee!\u00a0 (He eats this stuff up!) So he picked me up yesterday to take me to the university to do oral testing for the new bunch of gentlemen (and a couple ladies) of CRCC.\u00a0 (How are they ever going to be as awesome as last semester’s group?) The oral testing was brutal. I don’t remember my students being that low last semester. We have a lot of work ahead of us.\u00a0 This morning he took me textbook shopping and broke the news to me that I wasn’t able to have the pronunciation class.\u00a0 (He also tried to kill me\u00a0with his horrible driving skills. I keep trying to tell him that if he’s going to talk on his phone while he drives that he has to pick a lane and stay there. Either that or I will bike to wherever we are going and get there before he does.) \u00a0They wanted to give\u00a0the pronunciation class\u00a0to another teacher. Okay.\u00a0 But he told me they have a different class for me to teach.\u00a0 He called it ‘American Film Appreciation’.\u00a0 Basically, I show them American movies and we discuss them.\u00a0 How awesome is that!?!\u00a0 I get to do this twice a week.\u00a0 I’ll let you know how the first class goes. \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 So, tomorrow (Friday) begins the craziness.\u00a0 I hope that I’m able to get to know some of them like my students from last semester.\u00a0 I keep reminding myself that it will be different so as to not be disappointed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another thing that happened in the past week was that I got a Chinese tutor! I’m really excited to actively study Chinese in the country where it is spoken!\u00a0\u00a0When I told one of our Chinese friends that I had a tutor, she told me that there are students at Bei Da (Peking University) that major in Chinese as a Second Language and part of their requirements is to tutor someone learning Chinese…for free!\u00a0 So, I’m going to keep the tutor that I made an appointment with and also get a free tutor from the university.\u00a0 I should be fluent by the time I come home! \ud83d\ude42\u00a0Ha!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lastly, I can tell you and tell you in a journal-like blog entry how awesome it is to be here and see firsthand HIS WORD working in the hearts of the people here.\u00a0 But–I think that when a person experiences it for his\/herself, that person fully understands what I’m talking about.\u00a0 Just ask my friend.\u00a0 She’ll tell you.\u00a0 She was only here for a week and I think she gets it.\u00a0 The tug in my heart to stay another year doesn’t come from the touristy places of Beijing, or the Wall, or the other awesome places I’ve gotten to see or have the potential of seeing.\u00a0(and they are all awesome too!)\u00a0 The tug comes from the people here who I’m so blessed to see on a regular basis and with whom I get to read The Greatest Story Ever Told.\u00a0\u00a0I just don’t think I’m ready to leave that yet.\u00a0 Come to China and see for yourself!\u00a0 You’ll understand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week I was blessed with a visit from a dear American friend.\u00a0 Her visit began with a ride on the awesome Beijing subway.\u00a0 I forget how convenient the subway is. I kind of take it for granted now! \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 First of all, it was really fun to see Beijing from a new person’s eyes.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=528"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":534,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions\/534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}