I realize that it's been quite a while since I've updated this thing. My students have finally realized that I leave in a few months so they are taking advantage of speaking with a native English speaker and because I'm awesome of course. However, because of this I've had almost no time for myself and no time to process through things that I've needed to. Sometimes China throws unexpected things at me that, as an American, I don't really know how to process.
Last week was a pretty hard week in China, culturally speaking. Every so often I have "China days", this is code for a culture clashing day in China!
Last week, I had plans to go out with 5 of my female students for lunch and climb a mountain, go shopping, and whatever else they wanted to drag me to. I teach their class on Wednesday and Friday and our plans were for Saturday. On Wednesday I asked my student Sherry if we were still on for Saturday, but she told me that we would only have lunch because it was supposed to rain on Saturday (In Nanchang, it's always supposed to rain). I told her that I was looking forward to lunch and that I would see her on Friday for class. Being American, I thought okay, now I have the rest of the afternoon/night off on Saturday, so I made plans for 230, a reasonable time for after lunch. On Friday morning Sherry approached me to tell me of the new plans for Saturday, we were now going to lunch (Hot Pot, which takes about 2 hours by itself), going shopping, and going to a museum downtown. I informed Sherry, that I had made plans because she told me that we would only have lunch together. Then I got the guilt trip of how she had bought a new camera just for the day and needed me to switch my plans. However, I meet with a study of about 5 sisters and I had invited them over for Easter eggs and to have dinner with me, and then maybe watch the Passion movie. I was booked. After a little more of a guilt trip, Sherry realized that I wasn't going to change my plans. Although I felt bad about the misunderstanding, I had made plans with my girls, so I couldn't change them.
I entitled this blog, "culturally abrasive students" because I guess I interpreted their actions during our lunch to be very abrasive. I went to hot pot with the girls and quickly realized that they haven't been out with foreigners much. Not only were they extremely close, you'd think I'd be used to the lack of personal space by now, but they had some interested/annoying observations of the lunch. They asked me about what I'd like to eat ad quickly pushed the menu in front of me, of course I can't really read Chinese so I told them anything is fine, but I don't really eat seafood. Of course, they ordered kelp, shrimp balls, squid, baby shrimps, fish balls, and more. There was a few things that I got in, but most of it was seafood. I was then asked about chopsticks. Now I have been living in China for about 8 months now, so I've gotten pretty good with chopsticks. Of course, I've been using chopsticks since I was pretty young but to my Chinese students this is a foreign concept. The conversation went something like this:
Student: "You know how to use chopsticks?"
Me: "Yes, I have used them many times before."
Student: "Did you learn to use them in China?"
Me: "No, I've been using them for quite sometime, I learned to use them when I was younger."
Student: "Really, who taught you how to use them?"
Me: "My mother"
Student: "Oh, has your mother ever been to China?"
Me: "Nope, she has never been to China before."
Student: "Well then, where did she learn how to use chopsticks?"
Me: "I'm not really sure, but we do use chopsticks in America"
Student: "Oh, that is good."
Me: "Yep."
Student: "Would you like me to get you a fork?"
Me: "Nope, I'm good with chopsticks, that's okay, thank you though."
So this is a little taste of some encounters with students. I just thought I'd share a little about some of my experiences. I'm sure there are more to come. I hope this finds you all doing well. Now I'm off to Wuhu for the weekend, I'll try to update again when I get back.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Random Fun
I haven't really been able to write much this last week. Basically too much to explain, but I wanted to give you a little something that has made my week better. I know that the last few times that I've written, I've been complaining about how sick I've been, but this blog will be more focused on the good things that do happen in China. A few weeks ago, my teammate Rachael found out that the Old Campus (the campus that I teach on) has a dance crew. This is a group of dedicated individuals who spend their time poppin' and lockin' and doing whatever they can while staring at themselves in the mirror. Rachael has been made friends with the crew and they allowed her to take a few videos.
They are pretty good, I'm not gonna lie. However, they do have a lot of competition with the New Campus crew. I do have a video but it's quite long and I don't think that the internet in China would allow me to work on that. Anyways, the next dance video that I'd like to add is a pretty good one. I'm not sure if you all have met Howie. But Howie is my teddy bear. Before I made my journey to China, I decided that I needed to have something to remind me of home and the good times in Southern California. So I set out a few days before my departure to Build-A-Bear in Downtown Disney. I ended up making Howie. He's a pretty wonderful preppy So Cal bear, but only recently did I find out that Howie likes to dance. My team leader Joelle finally revealed, after about 5 months in, that she used to work in puppet ministry in Mexico. It was then that Howie really came alive.
This is just a little example of our team randomness. Every Friday night, the girls have Alias night. I never really enjoyed the show before China, and I'm still not too obsessed with it here, but it's great just to get the girls together to watch something every week. The dialogue is pretty bad but watching at least three of my teammates freak out for everything is quite entertaining to say the least. Usually after Alias, music is played in some capacity or another and someone is dancing. So I've grown to love Friday nights.
This last weekend was especially fun in Nanchang. The Poon family came to town from Long Beach, California to visit for the weekend. Although having 6 more members added to the group for a few days was very intense, some really good videos came out of their visit. On Saturday after the Poon's arrived, we headed out to the New Campus for some good ol' rollerskating. Now I used to be pretty good at rollerblading in my day, but I really have never rollerskated in my life. I picked it up quite quickly and I was off with my sketchy skates and all. I am very proud of myself for only falling once, but it was one heck of a fall. A few of my students as well as a lot of my friends from the Old Campus showed up for skating. At one point, I was heading towards a crowd of them and the difference between rollerskating and rollerblading became really apparent, but it came a little too late. I definitely forgot that the brake is in the front of the skate instead of the back, and the next thing I knew I was lying flat on my back in front of at least 7 students. The fall wasn't too bad, although I felt it later, but what made it worth it was my friend Lina coming to my rescue. Now a little background on Lina. Lina is definitely one who marches to the beat of her own drum, to say the least. Her English is pretty low level, but she always has something to say, even if it doesn't make any sense or relate in any way to the conversation. She is probably one of my favorite people in China. When I asked her if she had ever skated before, she turned to me and said, "Yes... yes... I love to play skating, I really love to play skating." After watching her a little bit, she REALLY loves to play skating. I hope that you enjoy these next two videos.
This might seem a bit mean, but it was too good to not post.
The last video is of my tutor Stella, in the black, and my good friend Kate (also Joelle's tutor), in the green. They were both deathly afraid of skating but decided to come anyways. This is after about 3 hours of skating with about 2 and a half hours of instruction from others. We finally let them go off by themselves and this is how they made it around the rink.
I hope that you enjoyed a little randomness from my life in China. Despite all of my random afflictions and ailments, I have really found home here. Although I do miss many things about the States, I can't even begin to imagine not having these people around for ever. I guess I'm starting to realize that I come home in 3 months. Crazy!
They are pretty good, I'm not gonna lie. However, they do have a lot of competition with the New Campus crew. I do have a video but it's quite long and I don't think that the internet in China would allow me to work on that. Anyways, the next dance video that I'd like to add is a pretty good one. I'm not sure if you all have met Howie. But Howie is my teddy bear. Before I made my journey to China, I decided that I needed to have something to remind me of home and the good times in Southern California. So I set out a few days before my departure to Build-A-Bear in Downtown Disney. I ended up making Howie. He's a pretty wonderful preppy So Cal bear, but only recently did I find out that Howie likes to dance. My team leader Joelle finally revealed, after about 5 months in, that she used to work in puppet ministry in Mexico. It was then that Howie really came alive.
This is just a little example of our team randomness. Every Friday night, the girls have Alias night. I never really enjoyed the show before China, and I'm still not too obsessed with it here, but it's great just to get the girls together to watch something every week. The dialogue is pretty bad but watching at least three of my teammates freak out for everything is quite entertaining to say the least. Usually after Alias, music is played in some capacity or another and someone is dancing. So I've grown to love Friday nights.
This last weekend was especially fun in Nanchang. The Poon family came to town from Long Beach, California to visit for the weekend. Although having 6 more members added to the group for a few days was very intense, some really good videos came out of their visit. On Saturday after the Poon's arrived, we headed out to the New Campus for some good ol' rollerskating. Now I used to be pretty good at rollerblading in my day, but I really have never rollerskated in my life. I picked it up quite quickly and I was off with my sketchy skates and all. I am very proud of myself for only falling once, but it was one heck of a fall. A few of my students as well as a lot of my friends from the Old Campus showed up for skating. At one point, I was heading towards a crowd of them and the difference between rollerskating and rollerblading became really apparent, but it came a little too late. I definitely forgot that the brake is in the front of the skate instead of the back, and the next thing I knew I was lying flat on my back in front of at least 7 students. The fall wasn't too bad, although I felt it later, but what made it worth it was my friend Lina coming to my rescue. Now a little background on Lina. Lina is definitely one who marches to the beat of her own drum, to say the least. Her English is pretty low level, but she always has something to say, even if it doesn't make any sense or relate in any way to the conversation. She is probably one of my favorite people in China. When I asked her if she had ever skated before, she turned to me and said, "Yes... yes... I love to play skating, I really love to play skating." After watching her a little bit, she REALLY loves to play skating. I hope that you enjoy these next two videos.
This might seem a bit mean, but it was too good to not post.
The last video is of my tutor Stella, in the black, and my good friend Kate (also Joelle's tutor), in the green. They were both deathly afraid of skating but decided to come anyways. This is after about 3 hours of skating with about 2 and a half hours of instruction from others. We finally let them go off by themselves and this is how they made it around the rink.
I hope that you enjoyed a little randomness from my life in China. Despite all of my random afflictions and ailments, I have really found home here. Although I do miss many things about the States, I can't even begin to imagine not having these people around for ever. I guess I'm starting to realize that I come home in 3 months. Crazy!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Health Update
So after a few weeks of writing about my illness, I'm just going to continue the trend and write once again about my sickness. My teammates all agree that my week was blog worthy, so I'll take their advice and post a little about how I've been doing. As I wrote last week, I self-diagnosed bronchitis because of all the symptoms that I had. After a few more days of intense coughing, and feeling pretty bad, I broke down and went to the hospital last Thursday.
If I haven't explained the Chinese hospital experience yet, I'll just start off by saying, you have absolutely no privacy in Chinese hospitals! I went through the registration process which consisted of Mr. Lee, the best driver ever, running around to about 4 tables trying to get everything in order to get me registered in the hospital. Then we walked up to the 3rd floor, not many elevators in China, and had to find an open doctor to talk to. After looking through a few rooms we found a free doctor. It is sort of weird to have your FAO's assistant, Amy, and your driver, Mr. Lee, translate all the symptoms you have into Chinese. I also enjoyed the questions I was asked as the door was open with many Chinese people walking by to see what was wrong with the foreigners. After a short physical exam, meaning he used his stethoscope to check my breathing, the doctor signed a paper and told me that I needed to go and get a x-ray of my chest. Oh but first we had to run down to pay for the examination and for the x-ray. Then we went up to the 5th floor, by stairs, to get the x-ray done. Now every x-ray that I have ever gotten in the States I've always had to remove all metal and clothes and there was no else in the room with you, however China is a bit different. I removed my jacket, left all other clothes on and Amy was standing in the room with me. I just had to hug the machine, while the huge observation room was occupied by Mr. Lee, Joelle, and the guy taking the x-ray. I guess their was also a window/door that led to the waiting room, so anybody could have looked in. Then we waited for a few minutes to get my x-rays. Usually the patient never gets to see the x-rays and everything is done behind the scenes. However in China, they just hand you your x-rays and send you on your way. Then we headed back down to the first doctor we saw and he looked them over for about 5 seconds before he diagnosed me with zhi qi guan yan, which I found out 4 days later translates to Bronchitis. Then I had to go to the pharmacy, which is on the first floor of the hospital, to get the medicine that the doctor prescribed. So after this visit to the hospital, I spent about 298 kuai, which is about 43 US dollars. That was round one of the hospital/clinic for this particular illness.
On Sunday, I was still feeling pretty bad, I don't think that the medicine was really working, so I ended up calling International SOS. This is part of my insurance in China, it is 24-hours of emergency medical doctors who can help you with any information that you might need for any ailment that you might have. SOS and I have become pretty good friends so far in China, I'm actually surprised that they do not know my name yet. So I called them to ask about what I could do because I didn't feel any better. They told me that because of my asthma, my bronchitis will last longer and that I needed to get another inhaler.
On Monday morning, I realized that I had a few cold sores around my mouth, so I decided to go to the school clinic to get some medicine or something for them. I didn't want to go to the school clinic, but Joelle said that I had to. So I went, of course they dismissed the real reason that I went there and focused more on the cough that I still had. I was told that I needed to get a blood test and that I lacked vitamin c, so I got my prescription for that and also got vitamin b, maybe for fun? I don't know why they gave that to me. Apparently my blood test told the doctors that I had a virus and the only way to cure it was by getting an "injection". "Injections" in China equals a IV in the States. Now I've never had an IV drip before, which was a surprise to all of my students, but in China this is the cure all medicine. If you have a cold, get an injection, if you have the flu, get an injection, if you have a cough, get an injection! Yeah, not a big fan of that. So I went on Monday evening after my meeting, thinking that I'd be getting a shot or something, but no, three hours later, I was still there waiting for the fluid to hurry up and get into my blood stream. I now have a huge bruise on my left hand due to the injection. But then on Tuesday morning after being frustrated with the first injection, I was told that I needed another injection. So Tuesday afternoon, I was out again. Injection round 2, now I also have a bruise on my right hand. So after 6 and a half hours or so in the clinic, I'm left still feeling a bit sick, two huge bruises on both of my hands and wondering why in the heck I got an injection in the first place!
I just wanted to give you all a little update on my health status in China! If you could please lift up my health, as well as my teammates health, that would be much appreciated. I hope that this blog finds you well, well at least better than me :)
If I haven't explained the Chinese hospital experience yet, I'll just start off by saying, you have absolutely no privacy in Chinese hospitals! I went through the registration process which consisted of Mr. Lee, the best driver ever, running around to about 4 tables trying to get everything in order to get me registered in the hospital. Then we walked up to the 3rd floor, not many elevators in China, and had to find an open doctor to talk to. After looking through a few rooms we found a free doctor. It is sort of weird to have your FAO's assistant, Amy, and your driver, Mr. Lee, translate all the symptoms you have into Chinese. I also enjoyed the questions I was asked as the door was open with many Chinese people walking by to see what was wrong with the foreigners. After a short physical exam, meaning he used his stethoscope to check my breathing, the doctor signed a paper and told me that I needed to go and get a x-ray of my chest. Oh but first we had to run down to pay for the examination and for the x-ray. Then we went up to the 5th floor, by stairs, to get the x-ray done. Now every x-ray that I have ever gotten in the States I've always had to remove all metal and clothes and there was no else in the room with you, however China is a bit different. I removed my jacket, left all other clothes on and Amy was standing in the room with me. I just had to hug the machine, while the huge observation room was occupied by Mr. Lee, Joelle, and the guy taking the x-ray. I guess their was also a window/door that led to the waiting room, so anybody could have looked in. Then we waited for a few minutes to get my x-rays. Usually the patient never gets to see the x-rays and everything is done behind the scenes. However in China, they just hand you your x-rays and send you on your way. Then we headed back down to the first doctor we saw and he looked them over for about 5 seconds before he diagnosed me with zhi qi guan yan, which I found out 4 days later translates to Bronchitis. Then I had to go to the pharmacy, which is on the first floor of the hospital, to get the medicine that the doctor prescribed. So after this visit to the hospital, I spent about 298 kuai, which is about 43 US dollars. That was round one of the hospital/clinic for this particular illness.
On Sunday, I was still feeling pretty bad, I don't think that the medicine was really working, so I ended up calling International SOS. This is part of my insurance in China, it is 24-hours of emergency medical doctors who can help you with any information that you might need for any ailment that you might have. SOS and I have become pretty good friends so far in China, I'm actually surprised that they do not know my name yet. So I called them to ask about what I could do because I didn't feel any better. They told me that because of my asthma, my bronchitis will last longer and that I needed to get another inhaler.
On Monday morning, I realized that I had a few cold sores around my mouth, so I decided to go to the school clinic to get some medicine or something for them. I didn't want to go to the school clinic, but Joelle said that I had to. So I went, of course they dismissed the real reason that I went there and focused more on the cough that I still had. I was told that I needed to get a blood test and that I lacked vitamin c, so I got my prescription for that and also got vitamin b, maybe for fun? I don't know why they gave that to me. Apparently my blood test told the doctors that I had a virus and the only way to cure it was by getting an "injection". "Injections" in China equals a IV in the States. Now I've never had an IV drip before, which was a surprise to all of my students, but in China this is the cure all medicine. If you have a cold, get an injection, if you have the flu, get an injection, if you have a cough, get an injection! Yeah, not a big fan of that. So I went on Monday evening after my meeting, thinking that I'd be getting a shot or something, but no, three hours later, I was still there waiting for the fluid to hurry up and get into my blood stream. I now have a huge bruise on my left hand due to the injection. But then on Tuesday morning after being frustrated with the first injection, I was told that I needed another injection. So Tuesday afternoon, I was out again. Injection round 2, now I also have a bruise on my right hand. So after 6 and a half hours or so in the clinic, I'm left still feeling a bit sick, two huge bruises on both of my hands and wondering why in the heck I got an injection in the first place!
I just wanted to give you all a little update on my health status in China! If you could please lift up my health, as well as my teammates health, that would be much appreciated. I hope that this blog finds you well, well at least better than me :)
Monday, February 23, 2009
Plagued by more random ailments!
So I am sick again, we started teaching again about two weeks ago and about 2 days into the first week, I lost my voice and developed a cough. I didn’t think much of it because I usually loose my “teacher’s voice” when I get up to talk in front of my 160 loud students. But this cough lasted a little longer than I would have liked it to. Coughing when added to asthma just makes things worse. So last Thursday I went to bed after an asthma attack, not uncommon for
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Drunk Man in the Post Office
I guess since it's a new week, I should update my blog and let you know how things are going. Well, to start off with, I'm still sick. I'm pretty sure that every possible random ailment that I have ever had in my entire life has reoccurred in some form or another in China! It's amazing to me that things that I would never even think to prepare for are running rampant in my body in China. If you guys can lift up some thoughts for healing for my body and for my teammates health it would be much appreciated.
I had a very interesting week of teaching last week. It was the start of a new semester, so once again my students were so excited to start learning again after a 6 week break. Actually not at all! My first day back, I had a class of 5 whole students. Usually I have about 40 in that class, so that was fun. But I quickly lost my voice and my asthma flared up. So I've had an asthma attack almost every night since last Wednesday. The rest of the week was alright and went by pretty quickly.
Sunday was a China Day though. Not all of Sunday, but most of it. Our fellowship was actually really encouraging for me. We had sort of an open mic to share what was going on and what we were learning. I shared Romans 8:26-27 with the group. I have definitely been learning about the power of P-time these last few months! Even in times of weakness, He is there for us. After leaving a great time with the fellowship, the day just went downhill.
My agenda for that day was full of errands that I needed to run. However, a small errand to run in America takes about 10x longer in China. Joelle, Aaron, and I set out to grab some medicine at Wal-Mart really quick with the help of an Indian friend who is in Med school in Nanchang. Of course, Wal-Mart was jammed full of people and of course they didn't have the medicine that I needed. So after about an 45 minutes to an hour of searching through Chinese medicine, I settled for something similar to what I needed. Next, we headed to a mall to pick up a new work bag for Aaron. He had seen a bag a few weeks ago and was just planning on buying it. Joelle was also looking to buy some rollerblades and I was just along for the ride. After a 20 minute or so walk in the cold, we made it to the mall. However, Aaron's bag was gone, and Joelle couldn't find a pair of rollerblades that both fit and looked feminine. So she bought some manly rollerblades and Aaron settled for another bag. This excursion took at least an hour and a half.
Our last task was a stop at the post office to mail some letters to friends and family back home. This stop sent me over the edge. The post office in Nanchang is near the square downtown inside a bank. This is the only place that we've found to send mail to America. Usually the desk for mail isn't too crowded but because we were in a hurry the desk was full of people (Aaron had some students coming over to play basketball and were waiting for him already by this point). When we walked up to ask for envelopes, a rather loud intoxicating man happened to be standing next to us. When he saw Joelle, he immediately turned all of his attention to us. He started to say hello and the next thing we knew, he had grabeed her hand and was pulling her towards him. I ended up grabbing her back, pushing him off and telling him "bu yao" which means, "don't want." However, this didn't stop him from trying to get close to me, so I asked Aaron to stand next to me while I pulled Joelle on the other side of me. We ended up spending at least an hour in the post office trying to get our addresses written on the Chinese envelopes and trying to buy postage. The entire time, the drunk man was talking to Aaron in Chinese, offering him cigarettes and staring at Joelle and I. When Aaron had finished buying his stamps and was trying to seal the envelopes, the drunk man tried to touch my arm and so I had to push him away. He finally left by the time we were almost finished with our letters. It had become a China Day (Our code for a bad day in China). Errands that seem quite simple in the States become extremely difficult due to language barriers and culture differences. But flexibility is the key. I love sending mail and receiving mail, but I think it might be a little while before I send out another letter.
I had a very interesting week of teaching last week. It was the start of a new semester, so once again my students were so excited to start learning again after a 6 week break. Actually not at all! My first day back, I had a class of 5 whole students. Usually I have about 40 in that class, so that was fun. But I quickly lost my voice and my asthma flared up. So I've had an asthma attack almost every night since last Wednesday. The rest of the week was alright and went by pretty quickly.
Sunday was a China Day though. Not all of Sunday, but most of it. Our fellowship was actually really encouraging for me. We had sort of an open mic to share what was going on and what we were learning. I shared Romans 8:26-27 with the group. I have definitely been learning about the power of P-time these last few months! Even in times of weakness, He is there for us. After leaving a great time with the fellowship, the day just went downhill.
My agenda for that day was full of errands that I needed to run. However, a small errand to run in America takes about 10x longer in China. Joelle, Aaron, and I set out to grab some medicine at Wal-Mart really quick with the help of an Indian friend who is in Med school in Nanchang. Of course, Wal-Mart was jammed full of people and of course they didn't have the medicine that I needed. So after about an 45 minutes to an hour of searching through Chinese medicine, I settled for something similar to what I needed. Next, we headed to a mall to pick up a new work bag for Aaron. He had seen a bag a few weeks ago and was just planning on buying it. Joelle was also looking to buy some rollerblades and I was just along for the ride. After a 20 minute or so walk in the cold, we made it to the mall. However, Aaron's bag was gone, and Joelle couldn't find a pair of rollerblades that both fit and looked feminine. So she bought some manly rollerblades and Aaron settled for another bag. This excursion took at least an hour and a half.
Our last task was a stop at the post office to mail some letters to friends and family back home. This stop sent me over the edge. The post office in Nanchang is near the square downtown inside a bank. This is the only place that we've found to send mail to America. Usually the desk for mail isn't too crowded but because we were in a hurry the desk was full of people (Aaron had some students coming over to play basketball and were waiting for him already by this point). When we walked up to ask for envelopes, a rather loud intoxicating man happened to be standing next to us. When he saw Joelle, he immediately turned all of his attention to us. He started to say hello and the next thing we knew, he had grabeed her hand and was pulling her towards him. I ended up grabbing her back, pushing him off and telling him "bu yao" which means, "don't want." However, this didn't stop him from trying to get close to me, so I asked Aaron to stand next to me while I pulled Joelle on the other side of me. We ended up spending at least an hour in the post office trying to get our addresses written on the Chinese envelopes and trying to buy postage. The entire time, the drunk man was talking to Aaron in Chinese, offering him cigarettes and staring at Joelle and I. When Aaron had finished buying his stamps and was trying to seal the envelopes, the drunk man tried to touch my arm and so I had to push him away. He finally left by the time we were almost finished with our letters. It had become a China Day (Our code for a bad day in China). Errands that seem quite simple in the States become extremely difficult due to language barriers and culture differences. But flexibility is the key. I love sending mail and receiving mail, but I think it might be a little while before I send out another letter.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Adventures in Thai Guo!
It's been a few weeks since I've updated this thing, so long for my aspirations of updating every week. But I have a very valid excuse. I was in Thailand for a conference, riding elephants! Now come on, that's a pretty good reason for not updating this thing on time. But really, Thailand was great. It was so great that I'm going to do my best to sum up the amazing two weeks that I had in a short amount of space. I don't want to bore you with too many details.
I got to Chiang Mai on Sunday night, the 25th of January. Right off the bat, I found out that a few more CTF'ers were staying in the same hotel/hostel/I'm not too sure what it was. It was so good to catch up with people and see the friends that I made so long ago in La Quinta for training. I ended up staying out most of the night talking with a good friend who's teaching in Beijing. The days before conference were wonderful. I got to eat authentic Thai food, which I must admit isn't any better than Thai food in America. I also cut off all of my hair again. It was way too hot for long"er" hair in Thailand.
One of my favorite parts was the adventure I went on with one of my teammates and other friends from 3 other teams. We went to a orchid/butterfly farm (I wouldn't have minded if this was cut out of the tour), and also hiked up to a waterfall. It wasn't too impressive but it was nice to be outdoors. Then we climbed back down and went "white water rafting." I'm no expert or anything, but the rapids weren't anything to write home about. But I think what made it the most interesting was the directions, or lack there of, and the fact that we went down most of the "rapids" backwards. Our directions were very simple, the guide yells "FORWARD" and you row forward, he then yells "BACKWARDS" and you row backwards, and then he yells, "STOP!" and you hold on for dear life because any second you could be thrown out of the boat and would have no further instruction on what to do. So yeah, it was pretty fun. I was asked to sit in front and the genius that I am forgot to bring a bathing suit to China/Thailand. So I got soaked, in shorts, with no way of drying my bum for the entire day, so that was fun. After rafting we went up to a Karen village to see a little bit about their tribe. After walking around a bit and seeing a few people, we headed out towards the elephants. After a nice "buffeT", don't forget to pronounce the "T", and an unfortunate run in with a monkey in a cage, we got to ride elephants for about an hour. (The monkey, the vicious little thing he was, jumped after my friend Kristina while she was trying to take a picture of it and ended up stealing her lens cap to her nice camera. He hissed at her for a bit and she eventually got it back after it's "mother" was coddling him. However, the lens cap was incredibly chewed up and not very effective afterward.) The elephants were awesome, although I was a bit scared of falling out, and apparently I had justification because someone from my company fell off and broke her arm the day before at the same place. But it was worth the risk, I loved the elephant ride! Then we went on to ride a bamboo raft, which I was a little afraid was going to sink. There were 7 of us, 5 teachers and 2 people pushing and guiding the raft. I felt that half of the raft was under water the entire ride. Next time, I will need to bring my camera and risk the water because it was a beautiful and relaxing ride. We then got to go to a few more villages, I don't remember which tribes but we saw women with elongated necks and enlarged ears. I was amazed to learn that the process starts at the age of 5 and either the amount of rings increase until the age of 23 and I'm not sure how big the ear lobes get but I'm going to go with pretty big. I was amazed that the tour was only a day long and I got to see and experience so many things.
The rest of pre-conference flew by and then then the work began. Conference was great though. We stayed at a pretty ritzy hotel in the center of Chiang Mai. We had a few classes and learned more about teaching and what our purpose is here. It was great to get re-energized, rejuvenated, and have time to relax. During the last four days we were given time to get refocused, and just relax. I got a few massages, and spent some time at coffee shops. I also got time to hang out with other teachers and play some music. I carried my drum all the way to China, so I figured that I might as well carry it to Chiang Mai. So I got to play drum with a few other musicians. I loved just spending the nights jamming on my drum with a few others. Leaving conference was hard, but I'm glad to be back in Nanchang again. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone after being with them for a week straight. But it will just make our last debriefing in Beijing more special.
I got to Chiang Mai on Sunday night, the 25th of January. Right off the bat, I found out that a few more CTF'ers were staying in the same hotel/hostel/I'm not too sure what it was. It was so good to catch up with people and see the friends that I made so long ago in La Quinta for training. I ended up staying out most of the night talking with a good friend who's teaching in Beijing. The days before conference were wonderful. I got to eat authentic Thai food, which I must admit isn't any better than Thai food in America. I also cut off all of my hair again. It was way too hot for long"er" hair in Thailand.
One of my favorite parts was the adventure I went on with one of my teammates and other friends from 3 other teams. We went to a orchid/butterfly farm (I wouldn't have minded if this was cut out of the tour), and also hiked up to a waterfall. It wasn't too impressive but it was nice to be outdoors. Then we climbed back down and went "white water rafting." I'm no expert or anything, but the rapids weren't anything to write home about. But I think what made it the most interesting was the directions, or lack there of, and the fact that we went down most of the "rapids" backwards. Our directions were very simple, the guide yells "FORWARD" and you row forward, he then yells "BACKWARDS" and you row backwards, and then he yells, "STOP!" and you hold on for dear life because any second you could be thrown out of the boat and would have no further instruction on what to do. So yeah, it was pretty fun. I was asked to sit in front and the genius that I am forgot to bring a bathing suit to China/Thailand. So I got soaked, in shorts, with no way of drying my bum for the entire day, so that was fun. After rafting we went up to a Karen village to see a little bit about their tribe. After walking around a bit and seeing a few people, we headed out towards the elephants. After a nice "buffeT", don't forget to pronounce the "T", and an unfortunate run in with a monkey in a cage, we got to ride elephants for about an hour. (The monkey, the vicious little thing he was, jumped after my friend Kristina while she was trying to take a picture of it and ended up stealing her lens cap to her nice camera. He hissed at her for a bit and she eventually got it back after it's "mother" was coddling him. However, the lens cap was incredibly chewed up and not very effective afterward.) The elephants were awesome, although I was a bit scared of falling out, and apparently I had justification because someone from my company fell off and broke her arm the day before at the same place. But it was worth the risk, I loved the elephant ride! Then we went on to ride a bamboo raft, which I was a little afraid was going to sink. There were 7 of us, 5 teachers and 2 people pushing and guiding the raft. I felt that half of the raft was under water the entire ride. Next time, I will need to bring my camera and risk the water because it was a beautiful and relaxing ride. We then got to go to a few more villages, I don't remember which tribes but we saw women with elongated necks and enlarged ears. I was amazed to learn that the process starts at the age of 5 and either the amount of rings increase until the age of 23 and I'm not sure how big the ear lobes get but I'm going to go with pretty big. I was amazed that the tour was only a day long and I got to see and experience so many things.
The rest of pre-conference flew by and then then the work began. Conference was great though. We stayed at a pretty ritzy hotel in the center of Chiang Mai. We had a few classes and learned more about teaching and what our purpose is here. It was great to get re-energized, rejuvenated, and have time to relax. During the last four days we were given time to get refocused, and just relax. I got a few massages, and spent some time at coffee shops. I also got time to hang out with other teachers and play some music. I carried my drum all the way to China, so I figured that I might as well carry it to Chiang Mai. So I got to play drum with a few other musicians. I loved just spending the nights jamming on my drum with a few others. Leaving conference was hard, but I'm glad to be back in Nanchang again. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone after being with them for a week straight. But it will just make our last debriefing in Beijing more special.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Days alone at Dio
I wasn't planning on updating this until after Thailand, but since I have a little bit of free time, I figured I'd share my thoughts for this week. Nanchang is EMPTY! I didn't think that it could get any worse than when I returned from Nanjing. But I was definitely wrong. It might seem a bit more empty because I am the only one left here and the rest of my teammates are in Thailand. The last group left yesterday along with Danielle. I really loved having a good friend from home here so that she could really see what my life is like here. But having someone from home made me realize how much I miss people back home. I love my life out here, my teammates, my students, the friendships that I've formed, but it all just gets harder when you realize that you can't go back to your other home for another 5 months. When I'm here with my teammates and with my students, I don't think much about home. I just do life here. My new home. But when someone from your old home comes into your new home, it reminds you of how much you miss that old place. I'm not sure how much of this actually makes sense, but I'm just trying to get out what I'm feeling right now.
Like I said before, Nanchang is empty. Yesterday I spent the day completely alone after the guys left. It was really good though. I was able to focus on lessons and work and get ready for the semester that is before me. I also had some good time with the Big Guy. It's refreshing to just be alone sometimes. But I didn't think that it was healthy for me to do that two days in a row. So I woke up this morning and headed out to the one place that I know that would be open still. Dio coffee. I love this place. It is unlike any coffee shop back at home. Think of a really nice hotel, with a piano, with about 20 people working in uniform, and absolutely no people, and that is Dio, but it's not a hotel, it just looks like the inside of one. It is a bit tai gui le (expensive), but it's become my once a week habit. Although this week, I've been here 3 times. Right now, I'm sitting here with my latte, waiting to call some people from back home, writing and watching some ladies dance with fans outside. I must say that it's a pretty nice set up for me. It's probably much better than me sitting alone in my apartment for another day. I do wish that I brought my camera to capture the fan dancing outside, but it's not really an unusual occurence so one day I'll catch them.
Like I said before, Nanchang is empty. Yesterday I spent the day completely alone after the guys left. It was really good though. I was able to focus on lessons and work and get ready for the semester that is before me. I also had some good time with the Big Guy. It's refreshing to just be alone sometimes. But I didn't think that it was healthy for me to do that two days in a row. So I woke up this morning and headed out to the one place that I know that would be open still. Dio coffee. I love this place. It is unlike any coffee shop back at home. Think of a really nice hotel, with a piano, with about 20 people working in uniform, and absolutely no people, and that is Dio, but it's not a hotel, it just looks like the inside of one. It is a bit tai gui le (expensive), but it's become my once a week habit. Although this week, I've been here 3 times. Right now, I'm sitting here with my latte, waiting to call some people from back home, writing and watching some ladies dance with fans outside. I must say that it's a pretty nice set up for me. It's probably much better than me sitting alone in my apartment for another day. I do wish that I brought my camera to capture the fan dancing outside, but it's not really an unusual occurence so one day I'll catch them.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Empty Nanchang
So... It's been a week now since I've started this and I've been busy working to upload as many pictures as I can so that you can all see what I've been doing with my time here in Nanchang. This week has been pretty crazy though. I'm still getting over my sickness and I have basically had an asthma attack every night for the last 4 nights while trying to recover from coughing. But besides the random sickness, things have been going pretty well. Last week, I had a few friends from Changchun down for a visit. It was great to catch up with them and talk about our very different experiences while being in China. I love hearing about their students and listening to their stories from the freezing cold North. I could not even imagine living in a place that is 30 below and where your snot freezes when you walk outside. Not my idea of good weather, so I'm not going to complain anymore about Nanchang weather. On Friday morning, they left for Bangkok and we will all meet up again in a week or so in Chaing Mai, Thailand.
But this has been a week of entertaining friends because on Friday evening, my good friend Danielle flew into Nanchang to stay with me for a week. She spent her last month in India working and will be returning back to the States this Friday. It is really nice to have a familiar face from home here and be able to hang out without the use of Skype or a computer. It still freaks me out that she is sitting beside me right now, but I am so grateful to have a friend here. I have formed a family here, but it's always great to see people from home even though I am so far from there. I keep telling her that it's crazy when she is sitting in my apartment because I'm used to seeing her through my computer.
We have been having a pretty good time so far though. Although there is not much to do in Nanchang because it is not a very modern city, I have tried to show her as much of the city as I can. She was also able to participate in the culture a bit by making dumplings with us and our Foreign Affairs Officer for Spring Festival/Chinese New Year. Now me saying it in this way makes you think that it was that, just making dumplings. However this was not the case. When we were told that we would be preparing some dumplings in order to celebrate the holiday, we thought just that, a group of us would help a few school officials make dumplings. But when the group showed up, there were no school officials, but about 25 reporters and cameras and people filling up the apartment. I have never worn a traditional Chinese dress before, but we were handed a dress, but Chinese are tiny little people and I didn't fit in my outfit. But I tried. We ended up having to perform a song for the reporters and make dumplings for the cameras. It was a very interesting day that I'm glad that Danielle got to exerience. I'm not sure how much people believe the random things that happen in China, but now I have a witness to the craziness. I think that I need to just coin the phrase, "Did that seriously just happen?" This basically sums up my time in China. We have an idea of what should happen and the next thing we know, we are in front of a group of reporters singing a song in Chinese wearing traditional Chinese clothing that doesn't fit.
I finally posted all of my pictures up until this point. I hope that you all enjoy them. I will add pictures from the month of January and from Thailand when I get back. I leave for Chaing Mai on Sunday after Danielle leaves and I will be at a conference there until Feburary 5th. Then back to teaching on the 9th.
But this has been a week of entertaining friends because on Friday evening, my good friend Danielle flew into Nanchang to stay with me for a week. She spent her last month in India working and will be returning back to the States this Friday. It is really nice to have a familiar face from home here and be able to hang out without the use of Skype or a computer. It still freaks me out that she is sitting beside me right now, but I am so grateful to have a friend here. I have formed a family here, but it's always great to see people from home even though I am so far from there. I keep telling her that it's crazy when she is sitting in my apartment because I'm used to seeing her through my computer.
We have been having a pretty good time so far though. Although there is not much to do in Nanchang because it is not a very modern city, I have tried to show her as much of the city as I can. She was also able to participate in the culture a bit by making dumplings with us and our Foreign Affairs Officer for Spring Festival/Chinese New Year. Now me saying it in this way makes you think that it was that, just making dumplings. However this was not the case. When we were told that we would be preparing some dumplings in order to celebrate the holiday, we thought just that, a group of us would help a few school officials make dumplings. But when the group showed up, there were no school officials, but about 25 reporters and cameras and people filling up the apartment. I have never worn a traditional Chinese dress before, but we were handed a dress, but Chinese are tiny little people and I didn't fit in my outfit. But I tried. We ended up having to perform a song for the reporters and make dumplings for the cameras. It was a very interesting day that I'm glad that Danielle got to exerience. I'm not sure how much people believe the random things that happen in China, but now I have a witness to the craziness. I think that I need to just coin the phrase, "Did that seriously just happen?" This basically sums up my time in China. We have an idea of what should happen and the next thing we know, we are in front of a group of reporters singing a song in Chinese wearing traditional Chinese clothing that doesn't fit.
I finally posted all of my pictures up until this point. I hope that you all enjoy them. I will add pictures from the month of January and from Thailand when I get back. I leave for Chaing Mai on Sunday after Danielle leaves and I will be at a conference there until Feburary 5th. Then back to teaching on the 9th.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Well well well... seeing as how this is my first blog EVER! I guess I should explain the reasons in which I decided to start a blog. I have been living in Nanchang now for about 4 months working as an English teacher at Blue Sky University. The first few months flew by so fast that I was unable to start and even think about starting a blog. However now that it's almost Spring Festival and I have some time off before teaching again, I figured why not start a blog and finish out the year with a place to remember my adventures here. So this is my reason for writing. It has been a crazy semester so far. I sort of wish that I would have been able to have begun this before I left, but I can't dwell on that and need to look to my future adventures here (in China it's always an adventure).
So where to begin. I am currently unable to leave my apartment, once again, due to sickness. Normally in the States, I rarely get sick, but something in China allows me to get sick at least once a month in random ways. I have already been confined to my apartment due to an incident involving acupuncture in which I was unable to walk for a few days. I also have been to a Chinese hospital because of an unfortunate incident involving a hot water bottle, a plug, an electrical spark, and my finger. (What a way to spend New Years Eve!) And this is just another random ailment to add, however it's only a cold so I guess it's not as bad.
I spent my last few weeks off of work traveling around China. On January 3rd, I left with three of my teammates and another CTF'er for Xiamen in Fujian province. Laura, Aaron, Jonathan, Andy and I took a cab to the train station and were off for a week on our own. Although it was weird that we were leaving our other teammates who were going off in different directions, it was nice to get out of Nanchang for a while. My trip was INTERESTING to say the least. I loved getting out of the city and seeing new places. If you know me at all then you would know that I love to travel. But this time, for some random reason, I was sick in some form or another, the Entire trip. This includes the second half of our trip which was spent in Nanjing in Jiansu province. The second half of the trip was a bit different though. Laura headed back to Nanchang and Andy left us to meet his team in Guangzhou, so I was left with the boys. Traveling with the guys is a bit different than traveling with the girls. On our team of seven, the boys are always outnumbered in every situation but here, I was on the other side. It wasn't bad in any way, just the odds were against me on this trip. I rather enjoyed it, no drama or complaining, but just A LOT of walking. I usually don't mind walking too much but in 30 degree weather, I'm not going to lie, I'd rather take a taxi. But overall my trip was great. I enjoyed the beautiful sights and warm weather of Nanjing. As well as the amazing ocean! It is so strange to go from seeing the ocean on a semi-daily basis to going over 4 months without it. The city was definitely more modernized than Nanchang, but Nanchang is home and I was happy to come back here. Nanjing was just an entirely different feel than Nanjing. The city is full of history and museums and tourist traps, places that cost way too much money and not worth the sights. It was cold though, but the cold was worth it just for STARBUCKS!!!! Yeah, no bucks in Nanchang or coffee shop type feeling places, so it was good to go out and just relax in a bucks for a few hours. I was tired of Western food by the end though, so I was ready to come back and have some real Chinese dishes again. I'm not going to lie, Nanchang's food is excellent and very inexpensive, which makes it taste even better.
I'm going to try to update this thing as much as I can, which will probably only be once a week or so, and I'm going to try to get all my sweet pictures on here so ya'll can see what I'm up to.
So where to begin. I am currently unable to leave my apartment, once again, due to sickness. Normally in the States, I rarely get sick, but something in China allows me to get sick at least once a month in random ways. I have already been confined to my apartment due to an incident involving acupuncture in which I was unable to walk for a few days. I also have been to a Chinese hospital because of an unfortunate incident involving a hot water bottle, a plug, an electrical spark, and my finger. (What a way to spend New Years Eve!) And this is just another random ailment to add, however it's only a cold so I guess it's not as bad.
I spent my last few weeks off of work traveling around China. On January 3rd, I left with three of my teammates and another CTF'er for Xiamen in Fujian province. Laura, Aaron, Jonathan, Andy and I took a cab to the train station and were off for a week on our own. Although it was weird that we were leaving our other teammates who were going off in different directions, it was nice to get out of Nanchang for a while. My trip was INTERESTING to say the least. I loved getting out of the city and seeing new places. If you know me at all then you would know that I love to travel. But this time, for some random reason, I was sick in some form or another, the Entire trip. This includes the second half of our trip which was spent in Nanjing in Jiansu province. The second half of the trip was a bit different though. Laura headed back to Nanchang and Andy left us to meet his team in Guangzhou, so I was left with the boys. Traveling with the guys is a bit different than traveling with the girls. On our team of seven, the boys are always outnumbered in every situation but here, I was on the other side. It wasn't bad in any way, just the odds were against me on this trip. I rather enjoyed it, no drama or complaining, but just A LOT of walking. I usually don't mind walking too much but in 30 degree weather, I'm not going to lie, I'd rather take a taxi. But overall my trip was great. I enjoyed the beautiful sights and warm weather of Nanjing. As well as the amazing ocean! It is so strange to go from seeing the ocean on a semi-daily basis to going over 4 months without it. The city was definitely more modernized than Nanchang, but Nanchang is home and I was happy to come back here. Nanjing was just an entirely different feel than Nanjing. The city is full of history and museums and tourist traps, places that cost way too much money and not worth the sights. It was cold though, but the cold was worth it just for STARBUCKS!!!! Yeah, no bucks in Nanchang or coffee shop type feeling places, so it was good to go out and just relax in a bucks for a few hours. I was tired of Western food by the end though, so I was ready to come back and have some real Chinese dishes again. I'm not going to lie, Nanchang's food is excellent and very inexpensive, which makes it taste even better.
I'm going to try to update this thing as much as I can, which will probably only be once a week or so, and I'm going to try to get all my sweet pictures on here so ya'll can see what I'm up to.
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