2nd Time Around!

First of all, I want to apologize for my long absence from my blogging days...I am ready to begin again. This should only be extra true as the classes I am now teaching this semester in China is writing for sophomores! I encourage them to write a lot and might as well do some practicing myself.

As is the trend in China, time some how plays little tricks on me. About three weeks ago I arrived to begin my second year in China. It seems as if I have been here much longer than that, and also like no time has passed at all. This might because these first few weeks back are always a jet-lag zombie blur of time changed into a whirlwind of activity. I can hardly remember the first few dinners while we were back in the country, except for one in particular. Newt, my boss and the director of IECS was sitting next to me at dinner. At one moment he was talking away about baseball, and paused to think a second, and down....down.....down went his chin and he was off in sleepy land. "Newt, are you awake?" we asked. Up his head popped, and less than 30 seconds later he was off again talking away. Luckily, this stage does not last too long.

A lot of things this year are similar as last year. I am still at Hebei University, in the same room, teaching similar things, with a lot of the same friends. But, a great more are a little different. In Baoding, the team looks a little different this year. We now have two new girls, Bethany and Kerry. As Emily has decided not to return for a second year, this is a huge blessing! I already love both of these girls and we get a long so well. My only fear right now is that we are too a like! It is fun to watch the girls reaction to adjusting to China as someone who has been here for a year. At a different dinner one evening, Kerry had quite a shock. The resturant worker went behind her with a bucket, and a second later...plop! "AHHH!" shrieked Kerry as a huge fish plopped all around the floor of the restaurant struggling to escape the doom of dinner. Unfazed, the restaurant worker scooped up the fish in one sweeping movement as if this happened everyday. In China, at a nice meal, they will show you the fish before they cook it to let you approve its quality. Overall, I'd say the girls are adjusting really well.

For a while too, our team was not complete as Jon could not come until about two days ago. He had some problems with his Visa and had to get some paper work redone. The great thing is he is finally here and our team is now complete. Jon, Bethany, and Ryan teach at Hebei Financial College. Last year, Jon and Ryan taught there and lived close to those of us at Hebei University. This year though the team at that school is going to live on their campus in a sweet new apartment. It is great for them to be so close to their classes and students, but also going to take some adjusting time. Their campus is about 30 minutes away, and it can be a little hard to arrange times to meet. This year we are going to have to work a lot harder at seeing one another.

I am hoping my friendships here don't change too much, unless it is in a good way. I have really enjoyed seeing all my friends I left for the summer. At training, one of the other teachers, Steven, kept doing this hand gesture where you put both hands on your head with them cupped back and pull out going: wooo woooh! as you do it. In Baoding, we do it some times now as a joke, and to be fun. The other night we did it as dinner with a lot of our students. Later, when Bethany was hanging out with a student, Bea, she turned to her friend Albert, saying, "Look at this new gesture I learned." And totally did it. Great stuff!

Below are a few photo high-lights of time so far in Baoding! Enjoy!

Let's go Boating Together...in a Dragon Boat

The sky put on a show for us as it transitioned from day to night and just as it was ending we were surprise by another show. Jon, Ryan, Emily, Cameron, Kim, Ken, Nancy, and I had just finished dinner at Jin Jiao Zi, where we like to eat dumplings, and had decided to walk back home. Jin Jiao Zi is very close to Military Square, which is more like a park and a place for people to gather, and even is complete with an underground market, than anything relating to the military. I think it is called Military Square because the military use to use the underground part where the market now is located.

"Look," Emily said as she pointed towards the center of the square, "the fountains are finally on!"

Hearing this I jumped for joy with my student Nancy. All year long students and Chinese friends have told us of the fountain show in Military Square and how wonderful it is, but that it is only in the summer. And all year long, whenever I walk in the square past the still fountains, with hundreds of fountain heads everyone, I wonder just what they all do. Emily, Kim, Nancy, and I rushed over in anticipation of seeing the whole show. The music filled the air with a stately sound and the water followed right along with it. The colors teased, twinkled, and shined as they shifted to fit the music and the water.

"Oh, it looks just like they are dancing!" exclaimed Nancy mesmerized by the fountain.

"I know, it is beautiful. Oh, look at these, they are my favorite because they look like sea shells," I replied.

We watched the fountains until the end of the show, which ended with them shooting the water up consistent enough to show the nightly news on it. With the person's face so big in front of you, and on seemingly nothing, it almost was like what you might imagine would happen when someone was sending you an important secret message. It definitely made the nightly news a little more interesting.

The fountains put on quite a show, but they couldn't have found more relaxed and ready audience. That day was the Dragon Boat Festival Day, a holiday for China. So the schools have four days of holiday for it. None of us had any classes that day and instead were just enjoying the day as it came. On the Dragon Boat Day it is tradition to eat Zong Zi, which is rice with a date inside wrapped in a leaf. It is very sweet and reminds me of the flavor of sweet tea. Naturally, I love it. The holiday couldn't come at a better time for us IECSers. The last few weeks were a whirl-wind of activity and emotion.

A few weeks ago, a lot of us were really looking forward to the coming of English Weeks at our schools and coming of some Americans with it. The week would have actually been going on right in this moment, if it had not been canceled at all the schools. The schools could not allow so many foreigners from the US to come right now because of Swine Flu. It seems a little hard to understand, especially in light of all the money, time, work, and thought put into these weeks. I know there is a bigger plan though, and I am continuing to learn to trust more and more. Our boss, Newt, was already in China when the weeks finally got canceled, and so he asked all the teachers to come to Beijing to be together one last time. It was a much needed time after the hit of no English Weeks and a sweet gift of time to be altogether for the last time. If the weeks were not canceled the team probably would not have had this time together. It is so good to be able to come together and encourage one another. The Baodingers also managed to squeeze a trip into the Bird's Nest. The third time truly was the charm for me because it was on this third trip to the Bird's Nest that I finally made IN. The inside was honestly a little smaller than I imagined it to be, but impressive none the less. We pretended to be spectators and even went and ran around the field a little bit. While there the Olympic mascots came out in big blow-up suits and danced around the "Beijing Huanying Ni" (Beijing Welcome's You) song from the Olympics. It was was fantastic.

Besides just getting a good trip into Beijing and getting to see the whole team, we've also had some great time in Baoding. Tony came to visit here this past week and got a chance to spend some good time with students. We now have some fellow brothers and sisters in Baoding! I am so overjoyed about it! This also serves to remind me just how my timing is not always right.

The holiday is also nice not just to rest from what just happened, but as a time to prepare for what is ahead...the finish! We have about three weeks left before heading home (June 22nd), and in this time it seems there is so much to do. We will wrap up all our classes, spend some last times with students, and prepare to take the trip home! Keep us in your thoughts as we do all these things!

**Sorry for no fun pictures or videos...some of these things are not working where I am at right now

OHIO!

A murmur of voices droned along in my classroom as I strained my voice trying to teach my students the 50 Nifty United States. Then in a moment of clarity in my Thursday afternoon class, the students’ voices all rang-out clear and strong “O…HI…O!” Before the singing could continue, giggles ensued after as my students recognized their struggle and accomplishment at all the same time. It literally took about a minute to get them tuned back in (well slightly tuned) and singing again. My students are all taking an exam soon on the Geography and things of that nature soon and I now know if nothing else on the exam they will know Ohio is the name of a state. I feel like the past week or so was a little like this moment in the room, going along at a paced a little faster than I can keep up with, but having moments of complete clarity and collective joy! Last weekend, I had the honor of visiting my good friend Ashly’s (Deng Xia: Said like dong she-a) home in Shijiazhuang. Just to be in a friend’s home in China excited me, but I had know idea all that was in store for the weekend! Emily and I rode the train to Shijiazhuang together and from the moment we stepped into the crowded streets of the city and spotted Ashly until the moment we stepped into the cluster, not line, of people waiting for the train to go home, her family treated us like honored guest. Some of the things we did include visiting Buddhist temples, seeing the training area for the female ping pong Olympic athletes, visiting a family manor, shopping, more shopping, climbing a mountain, walking on a road over 1000 years old, and a little more shopping. One of my favorite moments came when we were shopping with Ashly. Emily and I were looking at the jeans and Emily commented, “I don’t really like skinny jeans.” Ashly turned and looked at Emily, and with all sincerity in her eyes said, “Oh, do you wear fat jeans?” Emily then explained to Ashly we don’t have “fat jeans” as a style, but that yes, she does like the other type of jeans better. I love funny little language moments, and I know that I make them all the time as I struggle to learn and speak Chinese! Her family also did an awesome job at feeding us over the weekend. It is always fun to eat with lots of Chinese people, because as Americans here we often get in a rut of ordering the same things over and over and over again and have a hard time venturing out and trying anything new. Emily and I discovered some lovely red wine flavored pears we love. We also found some new spicy chicken that is quite delicious. One night, Ashly’s family did feel sympathy for us Westerns and decided to treat us to the Western restaurant in her town. At a Chinese meal, you order dishes for the whole table and everyone shares, so for a Western person to go to an Eastern table or vice versa it can be quite a change. I think the dinner that night was one of the largest I’ve had in China! There was salad, soup, fries, pizza, fruit, chicken, stake, and desserts…probably enough food to feed a crowded bus load in China (and that’s saying something!). Overall, the weekend was a blast both in spending time with a good friend and in learning about my Chinese brothers and sisters.
I also have shared some joy at a few other meals this week. Emily and I whipped up some chili and invited over some of the other foreign teachers to come and dine with us. It was a night of great conversation and great eating. The next night, we also had the delight of dining with fellow teachers, though not in our homes but in restaurant we call Sophie’s Palace (one of fellow teacher’s Sophie was the first to take us there). Mike and Wen Jia, along with their daughter Mckayla, are here this year to teach with us and it was delightful to get to know them a little better. It is not hard to find conversation and good company.
The team now is getting ready for some visitors from the US who are coming on the English Week here. We are hoping at the moment it will happen, because there is a lot of concern with visitors from the US and the Swine Flu. We are expecting the best though!

With Ashly and Emily visiting the sites!

At the Western Restaurant after our feast!

On the top of the mountain

In front of Ashly's home with her family!

10K Madness!

As I stood in a crowd of 2,600, a number large for even China, Wil turned and looked at Courtney and I saying, "Okay, I've done this before and there are a few things you need to know about a race. The first thing is that it is never exciting. There aren't any places you feel really excited like in other sports. It is just whole bunch of people running at the beginning, middle and end. Even when you cross the finish line it is just like 'Great, I'm done.'" An inspiring speech for sure as Courtney and I along with many of the other IECSers were about to run in the North Face 100 ten kilometer race. Having never done anything of this sort before I was a little nervous. For weeks before this day I'd "trained" running around the track at my school in preparation. A few moments after Wil finished telling us what we needed to know I heard a sounds and like a wave the people all around me slowly began to push forward. In the first part of the race it was easy because there are so many people the energy between everyone just seems to spur you forward. We were moving forward up the small hills that come before a mountain in the Northern part of Beijing. The view might have been breath-taking, if the the wind and running hadn't already stolen all mine away. We ran six miles along a nicely wooded area, near some beautiful mountains in the distance. The start and finish line were right beside a large lake with a Chinese pagoda in the middle of the lake. My first warning of the wind being a problem for me while running came while we were waiting to go. The lake a few hundred feet below was being pushed so hard into the side of the damn we were on that every few minutes we'd get a nice spray from it! The North Face event staff even had to relocate a lot of their booths that were originally going to be close to that side of the lake, but now stood in the mist of it all! Since the scenery was so beautiful it was a little easier to run, instead of making my way around the same track 24 times on campus. As a new runner, and someone who recognizes this is not my biggest gift, my goal for the race was just to finish. I am happy to say I finished in 1:29 and they gave us 1:30 to do it! Yes! Many of the other IECSers did very well too! Peter and his friend he brought with him, Wan Li, came in 4th and 5th place out of like 2,600 people! Shannon, Jess, and Courtney, and Ryan also all finished well. Brad, decided not to only do the 10K, but as an avid runner did the 40K. He had an amazing finishing time, especially since the race started with a 2000 step climb up a mountain! All in all in was a GREAT day and an awesome time to spend with the team.

I got the Joy, Joy, Joy

Earlier this morning, as I left Chinese class from the build across the street from where I live, called the Bai Lou, I walked into a strange site. All the employees from the two building had gathered in the street between and were playing tug-a-war against one another! These are mostly people between the ages of 25-40 and they were still all in their work uniforms, which mostly consists of suits and dress shoes. It is moments like these that make me smile, and love China. It is always such an adventure to live here! I like to think of some of these as magical moments in my days. Lately, things are really busy in Baoding, but in many good ways and I have experienced a lot of these magical moments. I'd like to share just a few of them with you from the past few weeks....

I was standing in my porch-like area of my room the other morning getting ready for the day as the sound of a Chinese flute tingled my ears. And, as I looked out my window, it almost looked as though it was snowing, even though it was the warmest week we've had yet! There are trees here that we think are cottenwood that filled the air with little white fuzzes. So much so, it was hard to walk and talk without getting them in your mouth or nose. But looking out at them from my window that morning, I couldn't help but feel that I was in China.


A few weekends ago, I had the opportunity to spend some good time with my friend Jenny. She is actually a students at Hebei Financial College where Jon and Ryan are teachers. I am blessed to know her though, and get to spend time with her as well. One of the things I we did together is visit a large park in Baoding. It is close to where she use to work during the summer, so we had a good time letting her show me around the area. Plus, the parks in China all have exercise like machines outside, and we played on them for a long while. She had to show me how to use all of them. I must admit, one of my favorites was the machine that massaged your back! As we left the park, we came across this stand for food. This street food is bird eggs that are cooked on a stick. I had to "have a try." With a little ketchup, spice, and this brown sauce they were really quite tasty. I am just not sure what bird they came from! This is Jenny in the picture with the bird eggs.

For Easter in my classes, I really wanted my students to be able to get a real idea for the holiday. Well, honestly, I am not if they did or not, but I know they had a great time with the activity we did! Instead of having an Easter Egg hunt for my class, I decided to have a scavenger hunt for them. I divided them into teams and gave them clues, only after they told me a vocabulary word, and then sent them off. It was quite a race between the groups, and so fun to see all my students running round campus like crazy. My favorite clue I gave the students was "in the middle of the lake" because there are little stepping stones that lead out to the middle of the lake to an area with grass and trees. Luckily, none of the students fell it. This is a photo of the winning group from my Thursday afternoon class: Steven, Sasha, Semanda, Sabrina, Rucy, and Pasta. They are holding one American treat, a snickers, and one Chinese treat, it is like a fruit roll up only healthier and made of hawthorn.

Tim's girlfriend, Melissa came to visit him for a week. It was so fun to get to know her spend time with her. One of the things we got to do altogether was visit a lily garden in Baoding. Tim, Emily, and I went to this same garden when we first arrived in Baoding, so it was fun to see it again in the Spring. Unfortunately, the lilies will not be coming out for awhile, but the rest of the gardens were in bloom. I think what makes this place so special is it right in the middle of town, which is always crowded with people, and then you step through the door of the lily garden and suddenly you are almost alone in the middle of the city! Trust me, for China this really is rare! It was amazing just to be outside and not have anyone approaching us. The day was perfect and relaxing, what more could we ask for?

For Easter in China, the whole IECS team headed to Lang Fang to celebrate the big holiday. While there though, we also got to celebrate even more life! Jess Distad is pregnant and will have her baby at the end of June. So, all the girls got together to host a baby shower for Jess! It was a really sweet time to be with all the girls and just be joyful together! We, of course, had many laughs as well because we got to play many baby shower games. My personal favorite is the baby-diaper ID game. Basically what happens is someone melts candy bars in diapers so it looks like poop, and everyone tries to guess what kind of candy bar it is! It is so funny and always causes a lot of laughs! Not only were all the IECS girls there, but three of Jess' good Chinese friends were there too. It was really a sweet thing to spend time with them, and get to share in the joy of her new baby.

Not only did we get to celebrate Easter in Lang Fang, but we also celebrated with some of our girls here in Baoding. Emily and I asked some of the girls we are closest with, Daisy, Jamelia, Bea, Rachel, and Ashly, to come over and "dye" Easter eggs with us. In China, we had to get a little creative here and hope for the best on our dark brown eggs :) We used dark colored drink mixes and vinegar to dye the eggs while they boiled. When we finished we had some light blue eggs from a purple drink mix, and some red eggs from a Hawaiian punch mix. Not only did we dye eggs, but we also made sugar cookies! This may not seem like too big of deal, but people here do not have oven in their homes, so there is no baking...including cookies. If you want a cake for your birthday you have to buy it a shop. The girls loved mixing, shaping, cookie cutting, baking, and eating the cookies. Their excitement was infectious! The best part of the whole night was getting to share with the girls what Easter is all about and just having the opportunity to love on all of them.

The last of my magical moments, or maybe they are the moments you live that are so simple at times, yet you think "I hope I remember this time, this feeling, this smell, this sight right now forever", came yesterday. Our good friend Tony came to town and had the opportunity to speak with a student and tell him about his life. By the end of the conversation, we had a new brother! It is amazing and just might have caused a spontaneous dance party later that evening!



This is a video of our second skit at English Night. Enjoy the craziness of it all!

All in a Days Work

Two presentations down, and only one more left to go,I thought as I sat in my eight o'clock morning class. I called the next student up and she approached the podium with a slight amount of confidence, laid her papers before her and in a powerful voice started in, "When I heard the topic of the most influential person in my life..." She was doing well in her speech. I noted good speed, interesting stories about her best friend and her in high school, good eye contact, not too many filler words; this is going pretty good. As if timed with my thought, she hesitated and stumbled over her words. Placing her hand on her head and pushing her fingers into her head she desperately tried to find the words she practiced so hard for this day. Her eyes rolled around a little and she seemed like she just stepped off a boat after a storm. Oh no, I thought, as her fellow students looked over to me as the leader and teacher of the class. She is almost done; she can make it through; she'll find her words, I now was the desperate one. The stumbling through of words stopped and as if on cue, her eyes rolled back into her head and eye-lids closed as if she were giving the long-blinks of someone who is really tired. Down she went. She didn't fall hard like a book being chucked to the ground, but like a feather floating its way down. What the crap! My student just fainted!!! As if they were a wave heading to shore, the whole class came flooding to the front of the room around the island of my student. "Everyone go sit down." I commanded the students to get some of the attention off of my one student who had just fainted. "Does anyone have water?" Another student in the front role lurched her water towards me immediately. Even though I told all the students to sit down, the boys remained around the girl until she came to. Luckily, it only took a minute for her to come back from her fainting spell. Like gentlemen, they helped her walk to her seat and brought her some candy. "Are you okay? Do you need to go back to the dorm? I will let someone go with you." I asked her with matching shaky voice and hands. She shock her head indicating she wanted to remain in class. And so on with class we went... So today, I felt like a teacher, doctor, helper, friend, entertainer, and so many roles. Besides just having interesting dramatic moments like the one above, my class has also been up to some other interesting things. Last week, I taught about St. Patrick's Day and asked all my students to wear green to class. To my green delight, many of my students did!! Below are pictures of my class all ready for the holiday!

A Night to Remember

Last Friday night about 250 students wanted me to get beat-up, and I deserved it too. It was our first English Night at Jon and Ryan's campus. Part of our night included a skit where I played the character "Jamelia." In the skit, Jon plays my boyfriend Jack and I start to get pretty angry when Rose shows up to our Kongfu class making eyes at him. He helps Rose work on her "elephant move" complete by sticking her hand on her face and pulling her other hand through to make a trunk. As he is doing this, they literally have a "titanic" moment as they gaze off into the distance and the music fades in...and of course 250 students clap and "ohh." I am mad enough though that I come and send Jack off and put my best Kongfu move on Rose, knocking her down to the ground. Jack and I leave and the skit ends with Rose giving a monologue. At one point she says, "What I am going to do about Jamelia? She is so strong." Pause...And a student yells out from the audience, "BEAT HER!!!" Emily had to keep herself from laughing at this moment.
All in all the whole night was terrific. We played games with the students; making the boys be chairs for the girls during musical chairs and a game where the students are naming items under bowls only to pull one up and find Tim's head! Hilarious really! We couldn't make a night in China complete without singing songs. The last part of the night, Ryan gave a talk about "Love in Action." It was sweet to see some of the student taking photos of his slides and really soaking in all his words about loving your neighbor as yourself.
English Night is only a small part of all the action going on so far this semester. I have officially started my classes again and it feels great to see my students. At my New Campus classes, I have the same students as last semester and it really fun to try and come up with lessons that will really challenge them this semester. I am also trying to accomplish a couple of goals for myself this semester. Not only am I a teacher this semester, but a student. It feels so nice to sit behind the desk in Chinese class and just try to take in all they can teach me. Right now, I know a few things in Chinese, but once you get beyond the first basic greetings, or we have ordered our food at a restaurant, I am out. I have can not offer anymore Chinese than that, so it is exciting to think about being able to chat with some of the people here that so far our biggest communication is hand gestures and exaggerated facial expressions. Soon that day will come, but until then it just feels really good to be back in a rhythm. So now, I leave you with some photos of what's been happening lately...

The team out on Valentine's Day.

Snow in China!!

My Students with Flat Stanley: Flora, Jenny, and Amy

Flat Stanley Getting Some produce

Visiting my students Joyce and Dora in their dorm!