Hello everyone! I must admit, I am way past overdue for an update on my life for the past 3 months!! From the end of June until now, I have been on a whirlwind of packing up my life, traveling to and from China, visiting friends and family in the states, training and taking classes in Beijing, and moving to a new city to begin teaching and building relationships with new teammates and students. Whew! Life has finally tamed down long enough to give me a chance to catch up.
Believe it or not, this last post has been a month-long project of occasionally uploading pictures to our not-so-quick internet in my free time. But, I am now happy to share with all of you more about what has been going on...
June 26, 2007--- AMERICA!
While clearing out my desk in the office the last few days of work, ... I couldn't help but laugh at my ridiculously mangled and scratched out/rewritten year plan that had undergone the past predictably unpredictable Chinese year.
My teammates and I were able to sit together for the flight home, a strange mix of excitement to return to the States, and sadness for all that we were leaving behind.
This was my first view of America in 2007!! We are approaching LAX airport in Los Angeles! The joys of being home came to me in even the most simple "no smoking" signs, where I could suck in all the fresh air I wanted without being surrounded by smoke.
June 28, 2007--- Siloam Springs, ArkansasMy first destination upon arriving back in the states was Siloam Springs, Arkansas, my college hometown. I could hardly wait to see several good friends of mine from JBU.
Heather, Laura, Tina, and I all enjoyed some delicious chocolate mess desserts at the Marketplace restaurant. :)
We stopped by a friend's new balloon shop to check out some of his incredible balloon creatures!
I also enjoyed a chance to visit the Andersons while there. They taught my college age fellowship group my freshman and sophomore years at JBU. I had to laugh at my own shock when seeing myself with so many other blond heads all in one picture! Quite the contrast from all of my dark headed friends in China! :)
One night at Laura's house, we had a get together with a group of JBU friends. It was great to catch up with everyone and be together again.
July 2, 2007--- HOME!! :)
Kansas... "there's no place like home!" Upon arriving, my mom greeted me at the front door with a welcome home banner, bouquet of flowers, and a great big hug. A welcome home cake waited inside, which my sister and I quickly devoured. :)
I arrived home just in time to celebrate the 4th of July. We bought sparklers and a few fireworks to celebrate. We also enjoyed the fireworks show at the grandstand that night.
Rebekah, a good friend and college roommate of mine, came to visit me for a couple days while I was home. We took a trip to the zoo nearby to see their new penguin exhibit... interesting. Haha.
We also enjoyed taking some fun pictures while she was here. Rebekah and I are above. I also got some cute pictures with my mom and sister...
While home for a few weeks, I also had a chance to reunite with some good family friends from our fellowship. The kids have all grown up SO much in the past year!!
I also enjoyed opportunities to see my neighbors again...
... and a chance to stop by the Boys and Girls Club, who had been penpals with my students at Hui Jia the past year. They were all filled with questions for me about China! "Is the food good?" "What are Chinese kids like?" "Do you like China?"
Here I am with some of my kids from last summer 2006 while working at the club...
I was absolutely THRILLED that my cousin, Sarah had her baby while I was home. I had a chance to meet little Corbin, born on July 12, when he was only 2 weeks old! Here is Corbin with his proud new parents and a close up of him sound asleep in my sister's arms.
I couldn't believe how tiny he was! And so precious! When he wrapped his tiny hand over my finger, he could barely reach all the way around!
July 17, 2007---Estes Park, Colorado!!
Another one of the absolute highlights of my summer was our family trip to Colorado where we spent time with my mom's entire side of the family.
The first night, before meeting up with everyone else, our family rented a tiny cabin to ourselves. My sister and I enjoyed roasting some s'mores over the fire. Mmm, chocolate!
While there, Lindsay and I had a chance to meet our other cousin's twin baby girls (who were born last September) for the first time. While in China over the past year, I had seen numerous pictures of them and showed them to all my friends and absolutely couldn't wait to finally meet them! I was thrilled the day I found out they would be able to make it to Colorado as well.
One day our whole family went on a short mountain hike to a waterfall. Lindsay and I got to carry the girls the whole way. Here we are... I am holding Kaitlyn and Lindsay has Cassidy. I played the game of "hats on, hats off" with Kaitlyn the whole way. Haha. Here, after winning the battle with her own hat, she is even trying to steal Cassidy's hat!
We stopped on a bridge during the hike that day to capture a picture of the whole group. Notice that Kaitlyn is still determinently fighting her battle with the hat!!
Here is the big, beautiful waterfall at the top of the hike that day, a perfect picture spot for my mom and I. :)
Another day, a group of us went for a long day hike to a higher mountain trail. The scenery along the way was beautiful, and I soaked up every opportunity to take in the blue, blue skies and fresh air... a stark contrast to the dusty gray skies of Beijing! Here we are near the base of the trail, just getting ready to take off.
The wildflowers growing on the mountainside were beautiful-- all different colors and varieties.
The last couple days there in Colorado, my good friend and "Twin," Kristi, came up to spend some time with us! It was SO great to see her again!We went on a short hike up to Dream and Nymph lakes in Rocky Mountain National Park while she was there.
Here is my mom, sister, me, and Kristi at Nymph Lake.
We got lost in a petrified tree stump on the way back... can you find us?!
After an incredible week of family, friends, and beautiful Colorado mountains, Lindsay and I had to snap a few final pictures with Cassidy and Kaitlyn before we all headed home...
Cassidy loved the toy bear that was in our cabin for the week!!
Here they are! Kaitlyn on the left, and Cassidy on the right... so adorable!
July 31, 2007--- Back to Beijing!
After a short and sweet month in the States, it was time to head back to Beijing for the month of August, where I would take some TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) classes and receive training for the upcoming school year. Ironically similar to the opposing flight one month before, I once again boarded another plane, excited to reunite with friends in China, but sad to leave everyone in the States. Hmm... the Catch 22 of living overseas... always with people you love, always away from people you love...
While there in Beijing, I enjoyed a chance to attend the International Fellowship there on Sundays. I was even able to meet up with Ben, a teammate from last year who is working in Beijing again this year, for lunch afterwards a couple of Sundays. Here is Rachel- a friend who did CTF last year with me and is also joining UTP with me this year, Judy- a new teammate of mine this year, me, Ben, and Nick, another teammates brother all at Grandma's Kitchen, a well known Western style restaurant in Beijing.
I was also thrilled at the chance to be able to meet up with Karen, one of our Chinese co-teachers from school last year. We met up and went shopping for awhile, then decided to have our nails done-- French manicure! Having your nails done in China is super cheap and they do a great job! Here Karen and I are displaying the finished results...
Afterwards we went out to dinner together. It was so great to see Karen again and catch up with all that had been going on. The timing was perfect as well because I was getting a bit homesick for people I knew... I must admit it was hard to be back in Beijing (where I lived all last year) for a month of training with all new people and not have my teammates and friends from last year all there with me. It was a fun night, and left me energized for my classes the rest of the week.
Throughout our month of training in Beijing, I also enjoyed a chance to get to know 2 of my new teammates for this year who are the 2 that are new to the program this year. My other 5 teammates joined us at the end of training.
Judy, a teammate of mine, and I bonded quickly in a time of trial!! When out for an adventure on the town, we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a torrentuous downpour of rain, dashing for a nearby covered telephone booth for refuge!! We crouched under there, a pathetic wet, soppy sight, for at least 20 minutes until we finally waved down a sympathetic taxi driver, waded through the 6 inch deep puddles, and took shelter in the taxi for our ride home-- which included hail and a fallen tree that blocked traffic! Whew! Now THAT was an adventure!
A more successful outing was our trip to tour the Temple of Heaven, a famous temple in Beijing. Here we are at the base of the temple: Erin, also a new teammate of mine, Judy, me, and Amanda, another new teacher with our program. In the picture on the left, something was apparently hilarious to Judy and I! ;)
I also couldn't resist getting a picture with these adorable little boys! Their mother had paid for one of those pictures where outfits are available to dress up in and then you buy the picture from the photographer! Who would've guessed a foreigner "prop" would also be included in the picture package?! I love the mutual fascination of differing cultures...
"look! a blond haired foreigner!" + "look! some adorable little Chinese boys in traditional garb" = "let's take a picture together!"
One Friday after a long week of classes, a big group of us all went to an acrobat show. I can honestly say that my mouth was hanging open in shock at least half the time in amazement. It was truly incredible what they could do! Rachel and I even had front row seats, so I got some great shots of their acts!
I'll bet you couldn't prop yourself up on 2 hands against someone else's stomach and twist your legs up over your head when you were 9 years old!
How about ride a unicyle 3 times your height while balancing a bowl on your head and tossing them around for others to catch on their heads?!
Or could you juggle 3 hats at a time while forming a human pyramid? Or shuffle up a tall pole and then plummet head first down off of it backwards at the exact same time as your partner?
Let me see you try my favorite... balancing your ENTIRE BODY on a
mouthpiece and morphing yourself to sit on your head upside down while simultaneously spinning yourself in a circle and spinning cloth on both hands and both feet! Or... holding up another entire person horizontally by one hand and letting them lean on your knees!
The entire show left my mouth gaping open in amazement and I can definitely say the show was completely worth every minute we were there! I can't even begin to imagine all of the hours of extremely hard work and perfectionistic practice that goes in to performing a show such as this.
During our training in Beijing, we were privileged to be able to eat Sunday dinners at the Mac center, our organization's headquarters on the China side. They made us homecooked Mexican, Italian, and Mediterranean dinners that were amazing. Here is a group of us enjoying a Mexican dinner one evening.
Toward the end of our training, we also attended a banquet to celebrate our partnership with the government as foreign English teachers in Chinese public schools.
Our last full weekend in Beijing, a trip to the Great Wall was organized. We lucked out and went on a sunny, blue skied day, which was perfect for picture taking.
Rachel was my hiking buddy for the day. This is one of my favorite pictures from the morning.
Naturally, my kid-magnet signal must've been turned on, because I ran into a group of primary school students on a field trip and had a chance to practice speaking with them in Chinese. They were excited to hear that I had been a primary school teacher just this past year. Automatically slipping into "teacher mode" I suddenly felt responsible for making sure they stayed together and didn't get lost. Haha! "Where is their teacher?" I wondered to myself...
Here are a few other shots of the Great Wall that I thought came out really well...
The trip back down the Great Wall was exciting... we actually took a toboggan sled down!! Apparently this was the popular thing to do, because we waited in line for over an hour to ride, but it was worth every minute on the way down! I couldn't actually take pictures myself while on the slide, but here's a picture of someone else just starting to head down....
Toward the end of training, all of the language school students that had done CTF with me last year came to Beijing and I enjoyed hanging out with them a couple of nights. I got to see 3 of the guys going to language school when we all went out to eat at TGI Fridays the night before training ended.
And then the night we left, I got to go out to dinner with the CTF girls that are going to language school. It was great to reunite with other CTFers that had shared similar experiences last year in China.
August 27, 2007--- Zhengzhou, China!!
After a month of hard work completing classes, training, and practicum in Beijing, it was time to board an overnight train to my new "home" in China. Me, my 3 little bamboo/bonsai plants, and my 7 new teammates all said goodbye to friends old and new and gathered ourselves and our luggage onto the train. I was excited to finally have a chance to be with all 7 of my teammates and begin getting to know them.
Here's a picture of my whole team when we all went out for hotpot together one of our first nights there. From left to right is Vince, Erin, Judy, Emily, Eric, Aaron, Mark, and me.
Our first weekend there, we all decided to go out for a night at the bowling alley. It was painfully
obvious that the guys had a lot more practice
than the girls, but we just enjoyed a chance to
hang out and have fun. Here is Erin, me, Judy, and Emily, the 4 girls on our team. Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot of the guys because the lady there told us we weren't allowed to take pictures... strange...
I have been happy to find some of my favorite dishes here in Zhengzhou, but have also enjoyed trying new dishes. My favorite new one is called "Yu Xiang Qie Long," which literally means "Fish seasoned eggplant dragon." It is delicious and really does look like a dragon!
I have also taken up a new method of practicing my Chinese characters. Who says playing with your noodles is bad? For those of you that don't know Chinese, I formed the character 水, pronounced "shui," which means "water."
This past weekend was extra special because 2 of my teammates, Eric and Aaron, celebrated their birthdays on the same day!! Although their birthdays were actually on Monday, we all went to fellowship together on Sunday and then went out to eat with a couple other friends from town to celebrate at a really nice Brazilian Barbeque restaurant. They even had a chocolate fountain with cream puffs and fruit to dip for dessert! The waiter made several attempts to capture a picture with everyone's head showing and smiling at the camera, but, unfortunately, they never quite made it... Anyways, here's our whole group at lunch together that day...
On their actual birthdays on Monday night, we had a potluck dinner to celebrate. I must say, everything turned out quite delicious and I was impressed by everyone's cooking skills! Due to my own lack of cooking skills, I went the safe route and decided to go for a dessert. This was my first attempt at making peanut butter cup bars from scratch, my new and improved rendition of the peanut butter balls I made last year! ... mmm... too bad they only lasted for 24 hours!
Eric and Aaron got a very unique cake for their birthday! Emily (who is Eric's wife) and Erin searched far and wide to find the perfect candles for the cake... and China's random supply of the occasional western decorations turned up 4 candles including the numbers 0, 3, 4, and 9. Well, Aaron turned 28 and Eric turned 41, so, what's the solution? Combine the 4 candles to make 2 numbers as close to their ages as possible, and what do you have? A happy 39, 40 birthday cake! Hey, it's the thought that counts, right?
For the first couple of weeks on campus, all of the freshman in China are required to go through military training- both guys and girls alike! So I saw my soon-to-be students tromping around in full uniform every day for 2 whole weeks before I finally got to start teaching them!
Don't they all look SO young?!
I finally got to start teaching last week. I have 8 classes total of Oral English. 6 of those classes are freshman English majors and the 2 other classes are graduate students that are non-English majors. With 30 or more students in each class, I have a total of nearly 250 students! Now THAT is a lot of names to get to know! I thought 150 last year was a lot to learn! Haha!
Here are 4 of my freshman students:
Below are 5 of my graduate students... I actually found out that one of my graduate students who is getting his graduate degree in law is a local police officer!! Wow, not everyone could say they've had a policeman for a student! He is about 30 years old and married and his English is very good.
Here I am with 2 of my freshman students on the first day of class. Its so cute because many of them have never had a foreign teacher, so they're both fascinated and intimidated by me. In one of my classes on the first day, when I first walked in they all starting clapping for me. Numerous different girls asked to either take my picture or take a picture with me at the end of class. I'm excited for opportunities to get to know them better and have them over to my apartment. And, once again, don't these girls look SO young?!
I also recently took a tour around campus to explore everything. Our campus is huge and is like an entire city enclosed within itself. You can buy pretty much everything you need and more right on campus. There are trinket shops, food stores, office supply shops, tiny little bakeries, and, most importantly, a Kodak print shop right on campus! Here are a couple of pictures of the campus from the top of a lookout on the building I teach in. The campus is brand new- built only 4 years ago when the university merged with another one and divided up into 3 different campus sites in town, so, as you can see, all of the trees are still very small.
The east gate bordering the campus has a scenic little stone path around the edge.
This is the room designated as our team's office, although most of us do lesson planning in our own apartments. There is also an English book lending library that we will keep open for students to come to each week.
And finally, here are some pictures of my new apartment. I like it so far and have had a lot of fun decorating. Noone here has roommates, but our whole team lives right next door to each other and we are in and out of each other's apartments all the time, which has been good.
My living room from 2 different angles:
My bedroom:
My kitchen:
The guest bedroom: (where I would be THRILLED to have any of you stay any time!!)
My bathroom with a water heater for the shower:
My automatic washing machine!!!(big step up from the manual one last year!) and bathroom sink:
And finally, my office from 2 different angles, where all my lesson planning takes place:
Well, for those of you who actually made it through to the end of this crazy long, monster post, congratulations, you now have a complete update on my life the past 3 months! And also, thanks for taking the time to read through it! ;) Now that I'm finally settled into a regular routine again, I hope to be better at keeping my blog updated. I hope you all are doing well and getting settled in to your schedules at the beginning of this school year too. Be sure to keep me updated on what's going on in your lives as well!
Item #2: SERIOUS EDUCATION: you thought your kids had a head start? i bet they didn't have prenatal "fetal education" lessons! parents here do absolutely everything they can to ensure their child's future welfare, paving the way to the fiercely competitive college entrance examination.
Item #3: You thought the 3-legged race was fun as a kid?! Did you ever try an 11-legged race?! Talk about coordination & cooperation!
It was a bit interesting to attempt to dye the natural-colored brown eggs as opposed to the white ones, but it still seemed to work.
After the egg dyeing, they got to have an Easter egg hunt.
playing some basketball & badminton
Each of them successfully found at least 3 or 4 eggs
We joined our co teachers for dinner in the school canteen. It was so great to see them again!
The week-long break at our school aligned perfectly with the wedding date of a Chinese friend of mine, Karen, so I, along with 4 other teammates from last year, was able to go! Karen was a co-teacher at HuiJia along with us.
The parents are an important and vital aspect of Chinese weddings. They actually came up on the stage during one point and joined in the ceremony.
Following the ceremony, a banquet was held for everyone. Both the ceremony and the banquet were held in a restaurant, a typical location for Chinese weddings. The banquet tables were filled with plate after plate of Chinese delicacies. Pictured below is an elegant meat slice dish in the shape of a flower.
And a wedding would not be complete without a cold cooked chicken, head, eyes, and all smiling on the table in front of you! yummmy... :S
I thought these dried noodles made a really cool bowl for the celery & lotus leaf dish!
Note that Karen has changed from her white wedding dress into a traditional red Chinese dress for the banquet part of the ceremony.
