Stories from Class

Something unexpected happens nearly every day. Some of my students have to be the most precious people ever.

My afternoon class was pretty interesting on Thursday. There is a student named Echo I have hung out with a few times. She is shy, smart, reserved, and pretty. There is also a boy named Armstrong who is a great student and also pretty reserved. Neil Armstrong is his hero. Armstrong and Echo never sit anywhere near each other, so I had no idea they even knew each other.

However, that changed yesterday when I asked the question, "If someone made a movie about your life, what would it be titled?" Students had random ones, such as "A Leaf Drifting on the Sea;" "Sometimes;" or "A Beautiful Life." When I called on Armstrong in the back of the classroom, he stood up to answer the question (in China, students are respectful, so they always stand to answer a question). Very sweetly and innocently he said, "For Echo." I paused for a minute, because I was a little confused. I pointed to Echo near the front row, and said, "like this Echo?" He nodded very seriously and went on to explain.

He looked right at the back of Echo's head several rows in front of him, with big mournful eyes and said, "Echo is becoming more meaningful to me every day. This is not a joke; I am serious. I want to know her better." At this point the class was buzzing with excitement and confusion. The only thing that came out of my mouth, was "Do you like her?" Again, he nodded quite seriously. I looked at Echo who was turning pink, and trying to hide behind her long hair. Then the whole class applauded. It was a very strange, unexpected moment in class, just like most every day. But it was also a really cute and innocent moment that made me very happy.

Shortly thereafter, Will Lee, one of my students in another class, and one of Armstrong's many roommates, came trudging through the door during the middle of class. He was all wet and cold. (Yesterday it was only about 40 degrees, with strong winds, and icy rain. And there's no heat in this part of China). Armstrong had left his homework in his dorm, so Will Lee walked through the terrible weather for at least 15 minutes to deliver Armstrong's homework that was probably worth only two points. I felt really shocked, because Will Lee was shaking like a leaf. He hadn't come to my morning class because he had a really high fever. It was another dramatic moment. Hopefully Will Lee hasn't died from pneumonia.

Earlier in the class I had made it clear that I wouldn't accept late homework. But what can you say when a very sick student risks his life just to hand in his best friend's homework?

So, yes, it is very cold here now a lot earlier than last year. I'm off to put on some more long underwear!

(The picture is of some of my dear students in class).

Veteran's Day/Single's Day

Happy Veteran's Day in America! (That's you, Grandpa!!) And Happy Single's Day in China! (That's me!)

Lately the Father has really been pushing me to love people and be more sacrificial with my time, money, and energy, especially with the outcasts of society. This year I have students who are a lot more difficult to love, because they are really aggressive, super awkward, etc. These are the students, of course, that He has been putting on my heart to invest in.

I have also been going downtown once or twice a week for fellowship or other activities. I still can't believe the amount of beggars, especially in a supposedly "socialist" country. Most of these people have severe deformities, and literally sit in dirt and filth. Everywhere you look or turn there is someone begging you for money. He has been teaching me to give to them with more generosity and love. And instead of feeling irritation when they tug on my arm or tap on my leg, He is filling me with compassion.

There is also a student at our university who is a bit mentally and physically disabled. There are a lot of students like this at Blue Sky, but this student has sought the foreign teachers out, although he barely speaks any English. Sometimes he visits our office several times a day, and it's pretty difficult to communicate at all.

Anyways, he came into our office before I was going to eat lunch with my friend Reborn today. It was raining heavily and freezing cold all day. I was hungry and extremely tired when he came in, and I didn't feel like trying to figure out how to communicate with him at the moment. I wasn't rude, but I also wasn't gracious to him. He pointed to my umbrella sitting on my desk and asked if he could have it, because he didn't have one and had to travel somewhere in the city today. I told him, no, I was sorry, but I needed it.

I then watched as he limped out of the room into the cold air with his very thin jacket. My heart was all twisted up inside. I was reminded how the Son cared for the lowest and most downtrodden. And how could I be so selfish with an umbrella, of all things? I pondered all of this as I walked downstairs with Reborn to walk the long way to lunch.

Right then, I spotted the student again near the crowded doorway. I immediately walked up to him and handed him my umbrella. I freely smiled at him, and he also smiled from ear to ear, while clutching my hands in thanks. I wonder how many people ever show him kindness. I am thankful that the Father gives us second chances, especially in loving people more like Him.

Then I happily walked into the wild weather outside, huddled under Reborn's half-broken umbrella. It was a great, blessed day. :)

The pictures I've included are some random ones. One is a picture of Reborn. The others are of slightly creepy posters the students have designed to warn against the spread of swine flu. I don't think anyone actually reads them, but I enjoyed taking pictures of them. What if you saw these posters in your local college classroom?

P.S. Can you think of me and my toe? It has gotten pretty infected since I got an ingrown toenail removed this summer. It has been highly suggested that I travel to Beijing or Shanghai soon to get it checked out...

A World of Walls

Did you know that the Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago? Modern European history (including Germany) was one of the topics I studied the most in college. I studied German for nearly six years and even went to Berlin twice - in 2004 and 2005. Each time I visited a section of the Berlin wall or Die Mauer in German. (See pictures).

It was amazing to be standing next to a piece of history that had literally formed the "Iron Curtain" during the Cold War. In 1989 the divided city became one again. I think most people in the world were pretty thrilled that this symbol of oppression had crumbled.

I loved Germany and all things German. Hmmm... I wonder how I ended up in China? Now I'm in a country of the Great Wall and the Great Firewall (so called because of the government's fondness and ability to block numerous websites). There are many other "walls" that you can't even see.

In other news, the heaven's opened up and torrential rainfall began today. It was like the whole earth breathed a sigh of relief. I think it has only rained once in the past 2.5 months. I was pretty glad for it, even though I got drenched running around campus and on the city bus.

This afternoon I had Chinese tutoring with my friend Amy. We always eat a big lunch and ice-cream together. No one has to worry about me starving here. Then we headed over to the dance studios on new campus. Amy was my translator and we won over the hearts of the building supervisor and dean of the fine arts department. I brought them oranges and tried to charm them.

In China, people who have any amount of power (even holding the keys to a dance studio), like to leverage that power. If, for example, you want to use a dance studio, you can't just go in and start using it, even if nobody else is using it. You have to go to the top of the power pyramid (like the dean), which is what we did. We visited the dean and the secretary and sat down to chat, while they debated the matter. Then we worked our way down to discussing the matter with the man who holds the keys. It is a time consuming process, and you can't demand your way. But that's a little picture of how you go about to get things accomplished in China. China is all about relationships.

Anyways, everyone conceded and agreed to let my use one of the dance studios for ballet on Monday afternoons. It was a wonderful accomplishment.

That's probably all for now. We are in the midst of giving midterms. I'm leaving you with an additional picture of me with one of my students. They all have red fans for a performance coming up soon.

Nothing profound

It was 88 on Saturday and then it was 48 today! All of a sudden painful memories of the past winter are filling my head. It's not cool seeing your breath inside. I am thankful, though, that we had a glorious month of record-breaking wonderful weather.

Today there was a rumor that you could access Facebook through a certain proxy server. Facebook, like many other time-wasting and foreign websites, have been blocked until the end of time here. Intrigued, I decided to check it out for myself. I've gone without checking Facebook for over two months, so I was excited about the idea. I indeed managed to get on, although I couldn't write or add anything. I just browsed for a little while...

So I decided I'm glad Facebook is blocked for a while. I often feel isolated here in China, and Facebook didn't help. Wow, people's lives go on without me? I guess so! :) And people get married? And have children? And that cute guy I liked has a girlfriend?

Thank you, China, for blocking Facebook for me. Then I don't have the temptation to compare myself, think about a country that might as well be on a different planet, and keep tabs on people that I haven't spoken to for 2 years.

In other news, I think I'm becoming Chinese. My Chinese language skills are actually improving and I'm starting to think like Chinese. Who needs lines, order, cleanliness, or individuality? And did I ever drive a car? Go to college? Live in a two-story house? Dance ballet? Care what my hair looked like? Understand conversations on the street? Eat a piece of meat bigger than a button? Maybe I have Alzheimer's, but it's amazing how quickly you adapt to a new culture and your old one seems to fade away in about five seconds.

Okay, life is good and I'm grateful. Here's a couple pictures from this weekend. Enjoy your week! P.S. Feel free to email me! I miss you!

More than Surviving

I don't feel like a very good blog writer lately. There's not a whole lot going on. We are just teaching classes, hanging out with students on a constant basis, and trying our best to survive. Okay, we certainly do more than survive, but sometimes it doesn't feel like it. :)

Since I don't have much to say lately, I'll share some words from somebody else. Remember how once and a while I talk about pollution and danger on the road, but you still feel really alive here? I was reading an article by a guy named James Fallows in "The Atlantic." You can find the whole story, "How I Survived China," at http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200911/fallows-health-china. I'm surprised I can even access this website; so many other websites are blocked. Anyway, here are some excerpts that I laughed about, because I've written about almost the same things:

"...The health situation for ordinary Chinese people is obviously no joke. After stalling, the Chinese government recently accepted a World Bank estimate that some 750,000 of its people die prematurely each year just from air pollution. Alarming upsurges in birth defects and cancer rates are reported even in the state-controlled press..."

"..."I tell my patients, the most important ‘medical’ step you can take is to put on a seat belt in a car, wear a helmet on a bike, and run for your life in crosswalks," a Chinese doctor said. Road safety is that bad..."

"...The positive aspect is, there’s a lot to take your mind off your health. “I am amazed at how well people do here, considering,” another Western-trained doctor said. “It is an exciting place. It’s a historic time. People seem to feel alive.” That made sense when I heard it—in China I had felt terrible, but alive — and makes me say that foreigners who want to go should not be deterred. They could even work on the environmental problems affecting the billion-plus permanent residents."

I agree. Sometimes you can feel so terrible here. Then other times, you feel better and more alive than at any other point in your life. Sometimes you can feel so frustrated, and then other times you can feel so incredibly content and happy. Maybe that's just life, whether you live in China or not.

Anyway, life's good, especially with relationships. However, our province, Jiangxi, is in a record drought, meaning farmers and villages are suffering even more than usual. Hundreds of thousands of people don't have access to water right now. I guess water is being diverted from the Three Gorges Dam to our city, Nanchang, and other big cities. Can you lift this up? Jiangxi is usually a soggy, rainy place, making it a great place to grow rice. Now with a very long drought, these people who literally only survive day to day are really struggling. It puts my so-called "surviving" into perspective...

Maybe now's not the time to introduce this topic, but I'm going to visit one of my good friends in Sichuan province over Spring Festival. She lives in a city called Dujiangyan, serving on a "special project" with the same organization I'm with. The majority of the place was destroyed last year, because it was closest to the epicenter of the Sichuan earthquake. Thousands of students died there. Wow. I don't know what else I can say about that. You can google it and see for yourself.

I didn't intend for this to be a depressing blog! It's not meant to be that way. Lastly, I've included one of the latest pictures from one of our open houses. Can you find me?

Beauty and Solitude

On this warm Sunday afternoon, I hopped on my little blue bike and pedaled wherever my legs and the little bike could take me. I was starting to feel suffocated by people. I don't think Kansans were meant to live in gigantic Chinese cities.

Anyway, I rolled out through the front gate, and merged into the stream of other bicyclists and mopeds. I passed lots of pigs, random goats, chickens, and cows along the way, as I headed to the outskirts of the city. I also slowly biked past countless miniature plots of land where families planted their vegetable gardens right up against new apartment buildings being built.

After about 15 or 20 minutes, I arrived at the long, narrow park that cuts across a huge lake. It's like a little oasis right in the midst of a frenzy of activity and development. As soon as my bike tires hit the park, all the city sounds began to fade. Today there were only a few children, some old fishermen, and young couples meandering about.

I just kept biking until my knees began to hurt. I found a perfect spot overlooking the lake. It was also down off the path enough that nobody could tell I was a foreigner. There I sat on a grassy patch, in the midst of tall, wispy trees. The city traffic was only a faint murmur, and I just heard an occasional person creak by on a rusty bicycle. The only other sounds were stillness and the water lapping near my feet.

The stillness and beauty overwhelmed me. I read that your heart kind of dries up when you are never around nature or never feel solitude. So I immediately felt my heart being revived. It was just me and the Father sitting under the bright blue sky and on the faded green grass.

I thought to Him for a little bit, but I mostly just listened and reveled in this rare opportunity in the middle of a heavily industrialized and developing Chinese city.

Here are some pictures from the park, just to give you a glimpse. Have a restful Sabbath!

Waking up to life

Remember the post about shoddily constructed buildings? Well, early Monday evening I went outside our building for a long walk around the track. Students and babies usually play right outside our apartment building door. When I walked out this time, there were two students playing badminton.

Less than three minutes later, I saw a small crowd gathering by the door. Out of curiosity, I walked back there to look. Our Japanese teacher neighbor, who lives across from us, had been opening one of her kitchen windows. Those windows aren't exactly Pella windows. They are about four feet tall, with huge steel frames and thick blue glass. They never close properly--we have to stuff towels in the cracks. Anyway, she opened the window...and it immediately plummeted four stories, crashing into a million pieces right outside the apartment door.

Thanks to Him, those students playing badminton had just left, and my favorite babies weren't running around. If they had been there, they would have been promptly killed. Or even if I had left to go on my walk three minutes later...

Anyways, one of the trash sweepers quickly hustled to the spot, brushing up the window pieces with his gigantic twig broom. The crowd dispersed and life went back to normal. Windows falling from tall buildings isn't all that unusual, just like it's not unusual to see horrific traffic accidents on a near weekly basis. It's part of life in China.

Even though incidents like these may not be unusual, it is a reminder for me that life is extremely short. In America we can try to predict and prevent emergencies, while insulating our lives. Sometimes life in America seems too...safe. Sometimes it's so safe you feel like you aren't actually alive.

Then in China, life is real and raw. It is the complete opposite of safe. I truly think that this country needs better safety and building standards (they are basically non-existent), but at least here you learn to count each day as a blessing. At every turn, you are reminded that He has given you today. We were never guaranteed long, happy, shatter-proof days. We were only guaranteed Him and His steadfastness.

In other news, we were talking about "milestones" in class. People talked about graduating from high school, being the top of their class, etc. For some reason He gave me a burst of boldness. I told them that I had graduated in the top place of my department in college. I was considered pretty successful and so on and so forth. Then I said that never fully satisfied me or gave me hope for life. Who honestly cares if you got the best grades or internships?

So then I discussed how I came to know and trust in Him - which was the biggest milestone of my life. I told my students how they always said I was so kind and patient, but that's not because I'm a "happy foreigner." It is because of Him. They actually paid complete attention, and I started thinking, "Oh, my goodness, I can't believe I'm saying this in a Chinese classroom." But I was quite thankful for this awesome opportunity.

Please think of my students - I feel like I am starting from complete scratch and it is difficult to continue to be patient. I am also sick again - thankfully just with a cold this time.

Enjoy the pictures - they are of an open house we had last week with some of my girl students. What a blessed time. :)