Summertime

(With my Class 2. I particularly like the poster on the back wall with the communist party flag and rainbow. The two boys in front despise school, but now they sit very attentively in the front row of my class everyday!)
(Crazy picture, I suppose).


Well, summer's here, folks! We have been told that Nanchang has only two seasons: summer and winter. Winter has suddenly turned into summer overnight, it seems. It has been raining a lot, so now it is just hot and muggy. Everything is damp and smells like a shower. Even my watch has water under the glass.

I took a shower this morning, and I left for school with my hair nice and dry and puffy. Ten hours later, it is a limp little sponge. Oh, Nanchang!

This weekend was very blessed, since it was my first Easter in China. On Sunday we went to fellowship, and then ate lunch at a "fancy" Chinese restaurant all together. It ended up being 24 kuai per person, which is twice as much as most restaurants. It cost a whole $3.50.

Today was a good day. My students are giving presentations on Chinese culture. Many of the topics include Chinese clothes, traditional music, national dances, etc. One group did a Chinese version of "Oprah," which was clever. Another group sang Peking Opera at the top of their lungs. It was really intense. Another group discussed dumplings, or "jiaozi." Here is their recipe to make dumplings:

1.) Mix the flour and the water.
2.) Make into some round and thin shapes.
3.) Prepare some meat and make into mince.
4.) Put the meat in the middle of the shapes.
5.) Put the dumplings into the boiling water.
6.) Just wait, you'll eat the delicious food.

Doesn't that make your mouth water, dear readers?

Anyway, I also went to lunch at one of the cafeterias with two of my students I spend a lot of time with. We ate rice in little bamboo logs and greasy carrots and potatoes, which I managed to dump on my shirt. We also had good conversations. For example, they were very concerned about my "love life," which doesn't exist. Why, they inquired, do I not have a boyfriend? I am already 22 and don't have a guy. They are worried about this, and want to try to find me a suitable Chinese boyfriend. They think he must be "traditional," "wealthy," and at least "1.9 meters tall." I have no clue how tall 1.9 meters is, but it must be tall, because they suggested I should look in northern China for such a guy.

So I tried explaining that I'm not really very old, I can't date anybody right now, I probably couldn't marry a Chinese guy for millions of reasons, and I like to be independent. They were even more confused about this, and continue to insist that they will find me somebody.

Then one of the girls asked me to go with her to her hometown for May holiday soon. I said "yes" before I found out she has a brother my age, and that her parents own a restaurant specializing in German Shepherd meat. That will be an adventure!

Now I just got back from outside. I played catch with a football with some of my teammates and random Chinese people. Then I ran a mile. Now I'm coated in sweat. Time to take a shower, write some lessons, and forage for food. Have a great Monday!

Day of opportunities

(Class 1 this morning. My head is twice as big as everyone else's).
(Looking a lot like spring)

The past three days have been beautiful here in the 'Chang. When we have free time, we can skate, run, walk, and play badminton. I'm in heaven. And it actually got warm enough for shorts or a skirt, although it still doesn't seem to be the official "season" for that kind of attire yet. I'm just waiting, waiting, waiting for the second I can ditch these few winter clothes I've been wearing on repeat for the past 5 1/2 months.

The past few days have been a whirlwind of sorts. Nothing very exciting has happened, but I'm quite healthy (despite my allergies that go crazy because of the trees and pollution) and I've had a lot of energy during class. I feel like I'm really engaging my students again.

Yet as classes are getting better, I'm sad to report that about 1/4th of my students will be leaving soon! This university often operates like a business. In mid-April, the brightest students are pressured/strongly encouraged to return to their hometown to "recruit" more students. The students, in turn, get their grades and exam scores fixed, in addition to receiving money, for this endeavor. It's like a big pyramid scheme.

Anyway, that means about 10 people in each of my classes will be leaving very soon. They won't return until next semester. It will be nice that my classes will be smaller, but I'm losing some of my best and dearest students.

For lunch today I ate with my dear student Reborn. We walked the long way to the new campus back gate with Jodi and our friend Amy. We ate at a little restaurant on the back street, which looks sort of like a shanty town. All these little buildings and vending stands are haphazardly thrown together to serve the university's gigantic student population.

Then Reborn helped tutor me in Chinese during the lunch break back at my office. On our holiday this past Monday, she apparently went searching high and low for a Chinese textbook for me. So today she presented me with a small textbook that looks like Chinese for 10 year-old Chinese children. Somehow I have skipped straight from the most basic Chinese to intermediate-advanced Chinese.

I have no idea how I'll learn Chinese that way, but I'll try my best. Reborn doesn't seem to think it's impossible. That's what China's like. Everything can be accomplished through sheer will-power, no matter how difficult things seem. So I was just pleased that she went to all that trouble to find me a Chinese kid's textbook...

Today we were at new campus for a nearly 10 hour day. The day was completed at 5:15 with English corner. Half of English corner usually consists of my students. I think they think I'm a fine teacher, but I know they really enjoy talking to Jodi and Jonathan.

So today Jonathan and I were talking to a couple of boys from one of my classes. There is one boy who comes to my office hours every Monday to practice his English. He loved the Easter lesson, and has been trying to find everything he can about the Word. He straight out told us he wants to study it. It was amazing. So I'm going to give Jonathan his phone number, and hopefully they can have a study together. I'm also thankful that this one particular student won't be heading out for "recruiting" soon. Perhaps you can keep him in your thoughts!

Life is encouraging here. I always feel dead tired, but it is a good kind of tired.

My tomb-sweeping Monday

(Making Rice Krispy treats in Jodi's apartment with my student and two of Jodi's students).

Hooray for little random holidays! Apparently tomb-sweeping holiday was a holiday a long time ago, but the communists got rid of it because it was "too feudalist." Now it's back! The holiday is sort of like Memorial Day in the States. People go to their relatives' or ancestors' tombs to clean them and pay respects. The government has reinstated this special little holiday, because they are afraid now that Chinese society is going to the other extreme of not being traditional enough. Thus, we have tomb-sweeping holiday this weekend.

The past couple of days I just hung out with a special student, went to fellowship, played many games of speed Scrabble to ward off my deteriorating vocabulary skills, and went on little errands.

Today it is actually sunny and warm outside without too much pollution. So it's a good day! This morning I just called a lot of people on Skype to chat. Later today I'll probably go skating. Oh, and I should finish those lesson plans... :)

In other news, I found out today that I can stay at Blue Sky next year, if everything works out! I was going to transfer into another program with our organization, but it just didn't feel like a good fit right now. Somehow everything is fitting together, though, so that Jodi and I can stay for another year at our university. That's amazing news, because we can continue many of our carefully-built relationships. We can also have maybe three more weeks at home this summer, too, which would be great!

So right now I'm just very excited about lots of things happening. He is in control, and it amazes me how He is in both the details and the big things in life. So I hope you are encouraged!!

I'm leaving you with a strange little video Jodi took of me when we were walking to dinner the other night. There's always crazy music blasting on the streets around here, and you can't help but dance to it. And note the Chinese girls in the background who steer clear of this scene.

Get ready to sweep those tombs!

Our three day holiday has begun! I can't remember at the moment what it is called in Chinese, but April 4th is Tomb-sweeping day!! Hooray! That just means everyone remembers their ancestors and sweeps their grave sites, I suppose. Basically, it's just another traditional holiday that gives students reason to hop on the train to go home. And we don't have to teach on Monday!

Today was a pretty grand day. I went to school, taught my last lesson about Easter, and had office hours. I studied some Chinese, and then came back to old campus in the drizzle. I tried to catch the bus to Wal-mart, since I haven't been there for a long time, but I gave up. The buses weren't even stopping, because they were so full. So I just headed back to campus and walked around the track in the gray mist.

The air seemed so heavy and damp, it was like it clung to my eyelashes. It was a little dream world, and students were sparse. So I had a nice, uneventful little walk.

Since I'm almost all better, but not quite, I came back to my apartment and crashed for a 2 hour nap, which is a rarity. When I woke up, everybody was deciding to do outside activities, even though it was still cloudy and misty and chilly.

Rachael went rollerblading and Jonathan and I kicked a soccer ball around on the field for a while. We both attract a lot of attention, because we are both tall and gangly and pasty-looking. And girls don't really play with soccer balls in China. In fact, girls in China don't really exercise at all.

So we ran around on the ill-quality astroturf, as the ball went SPLAT, SPLAT, SPLAT all over the wet field. There were also about 25 very tall soldiers drilling in formation on the same field. They marched around us and we played soccer around them. It was fun.

Then we spotted three little boys climbing over the school wall from the outside neighborhoods, onto the field. But the wall was too tall, and they just dangled from the wall, waiting for rescue or something. The soldiers noticed, too. We just stood and watched as ALL the soldiers in their formation jogged over to the wall and halted, facing the boys. Then two of the guys marched up to the wall and stretched their hands out very stiffly and awkwardly to help the boys from the wall. For some reason, it was a really strange sight. It was like watching a communist propaganda poster come to life. The people's army giving a helping hand to everybody, even little wayward boys stuck on a university wall.

For dinner, Joelle cooked a bunch of flour tortillas and chicken to make tacos. It was so good and so much fun. Three other team leaders from other parts of China are visiting Joelle, so they were with us, too. So we go to hear about our friends serving in other Chinese cities. One of my friends, Jenni, who teaches in one of China's most polluted cities, Taiyuan, even sent me a wonderful letter via her team leader. I was so glad to hear from her.

Then the rest of the night, Jodi and I just challenged each other to endless games of speed Scrabble. China's the life!

Is that rain?

(These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago. Joelle was sick, so we took pictures for her on her desk in the office. Aren't we professional?)

Today when I was walking back from the market to get some lettuce at 5:30, I realized it was raining. And then I remembered that it had been raining for several hours! But alas, I didn't really notice it! I think that was a great realization. My day had been so full and pretty good, that I hadn't complained about the rain even once.

I'm feeling a lot better today. My ear still hurts a little bit, but I'm getting most of my hearing back. And I only coughed a little. So thanks for your many, many thoughts!! China's not a very fun place to get sick.

After teaching about Easter again, I went to lunch with a couple of my dearest students. We just ate rice and fried tofu while we chatted. We talked about class, and they said how they love my class. They said they liked how I made my students be more active, and how the class was a lot more creative than their other classes.

They think the American way of learning is so fascinating and different than the traditional Chinese way. The two girls said that all their other classes did not encourage discussion or questions. They were supposed to sit in class and "receive information" from the teacher all day long, every day. So I guess that little insight encouraged me, especially when I often think that I'm not a very good teacher.

Some days it gets overwhelming when students and random people like to gush about how great America is. If people face anti-Americanism going to other countries, just come to China. They love America, for the most part, although all of their ideas of America are from the movies. I agree that America is pretty blessed and grand in a lot of ways, but I'm also not such an avid defender of the States anymore. It certainly has many positive aspects, but it also has a lot of negative aspects. Lately I sort of feel like I don't have any country. I don't get really fired up about any country, America or China. Maybe that means that I'm really a citizen of that place up above. :)

I don't know where those thoughts came from. It's probably time to get some lesson planning done, though. Have a wonderful day, no matter what country you're in!

A new day

Thanks so much for your thoughts lately!! I've been feeling quite a lot better lately, although my body is very exhausted. Thanks!!!

There hasn't been too much happening the past few days. It just takes all my energy to get ready for school and to teach my classes. After giving midterms for Monday and Tuesday, I'm teaching about Easter the rest of this week. It's been a great lesson so far. The students are so curious about this holiday and why it's celebrated. They've been asking a lot more questions than they ever did about Christmas.

And the weather these days is about the same. Blustery and cold and cloudy. Today in slight exasperation I asked my students, "Why did they name this school 'Blue Sky' anyway? I never see blue sky; only gray sky." They just laughed nearly uncontrollably. I laughed on the outside, too, but I think I was half-crying on the inside. I grew up with an extremely healthy dose of sunshine, and I can barely survive without it.

In other news, we saw another accident on the way to school yesterday. We had to slow down to go around a tiny police car, with its lights flashing. The car was parked next to two mangled bicycles on the ground. The police officer was casually standing with a clipboard, asking a couple people some questions. I was amazed at how nonchalant they were.

Then I looked next to the bicycles, and there was a man sprawled out on the road. He looked alive, but barely. His whole body was violently twitching, while everyone just stood around talking. That is the third body I've seen on the way to school these past few months. The other two bodies were dead. Thankfully this guy was still alive, but who knows if he still is. All of the accidents have involved people on bicycles or mopeds. It's an all too common occurrence, and unfortunately it's not very surprising anymore.

Well, hopefully I didn't spread gloom and despair over your day. I'm just telling you what happens here. It sure makes me thankfulto just be alive most days. Happy April 1st!

Trying to survive

Is that a terrible name for a blog post? Perhaps, but that's what I feel like lately. For 2 weeks I've been sick now. Just a long, lingering kind of sickness that saps all your energy and enthusiasm for life. All I do is cough and wheeze and blow my nose and feel tired and shiver from a little fever. Today I have finished my antibiotics I got at the hospital, and I still feel about the same. Fun.

Yesterday was a pretty great day, although I was exhausted by the end. I could only sleep about 5 hours on Saturday night, but I still wanted to go to fellowship on Sunday morning. Fellowship was good like usual. Then about 30 of us (pretty much all the foreigners in Nanchang) went to a Korean restaurant for lunch to celebrate a bunch of birthdays.

I sat by Sylvie, a girl my age from Germany! We talked probably for the entire hour and a half, mostly about Germany. It just made me miss Germany and learning German so much, I almost wanted to cry. She is also spending a year teaching in China. Unlike me, this is her first and last year. She'll be returning to Germany this summer. And she said I could visit her whenever I want to! I really want to visit Germany again, especially Bavaria, where she lives.

Afterward, the rest of my team traveled to the other side of the city to visit the other team with our organization. We have never visited their university, which is a technical college. It was much smaller, but a lot more beautiful than our campus, since it was on the edge of the city. The taxi got us there by going up in the hills, which is covered with the largest cemetery you could ever imagine. It was one of the most amazing and creepy sites ever. Apparently this cemetery is one of the largest in China. Gravestones are literally stacked next to each other for miles. It looks like each person has about one square foot of land, and that's it.

Anyway, we got to their school safely, and I became rather envious of their school. It isn't congested like our old campus, and there are tons of trees and even little paths to walk and hike. The air was also so much cleaner and clearer all the way out there. AGH! I want to live there!! You could actually walk around and see some nature, and there weren't 20,000 students staring and yelling at you.

Then today I had two classes, meaning I was at school all day, until 5 p.m. It was time to give midterms, which I had painstakingly created. I think they were pretty good tests, I'll admit. But all my students, even the best and brightest, had the most difficult time with cheating! Cheating was so rampant today that I had to lift up my thoughts nearly constantly. I was just really frustrated.

My frustration increased at lunchtime, when I was grading the first batch of midterms. When I was finished, I noticed that one girl didn't turn in her exam, even though she had been in class. But I couldn't do anything about it, because I had to run to another class and give the exam.

After that class, one of the monitors managed to track this wayward test girl down. I told her to come to my office right away. She finally meandered in with the class monitor, and I just felt really angry. I asked her why she didn't turn in her test. She insisted that she was sick and couldn't come to class. Then I told her that she had indeed been there, and had an exam paper to account for. Okay, she admitted. She was there, but felt too sick to take the exam. I asked her, why on earth didn't you tell me or at least give the exam back? She said that she took the exam home with her and would bring it back tomorrow to take it. I looked at her in astonishment. One of my tests were now out there running around for all the other 150 students to see, and she wanted to bring it back the next day to take. Is it just me or is that a problem? She could not see why this was an issue, no matter how many ways I tried to explain.

So now I'm not sure what to do about the tests tomorrow. Who knows how many students saw it. But it takes a lot of energy and resources to create and print these exams. I do know that I have created a new exam for her on a piece of paper, which is much more difficult, if not nearly impossible to complete.

Oh, I don't know. Sometimes these cultural barriers really get to me. It's like we are communicating on an entirely different level with entirely different values.

Can you please lift me up? I feel very tired and sick and fatalistic, especially with dreary weather for as long as I can remember. You can probably tell that I have an awful attitude that is simmering just below the surface. I reallllllllllly need your thoughts. Thanks!