Home sweet Taiyuan!

Post-China plans: Home sweet...

2012-06-14T08:33:00.000+08:00

Colorado?!

It's finally official, so now I can officially tell you the exciting news! I've accepted a position with the same organization I'm currently with, but now I'll be working at the U.S. headquarters; Fort Collins, Colorado, here I come!! I'll be a Candidate Counselor, which basically means I'll be recruiting, training, preparing and coaching new teachers to do the same thing that I did this past year in China. Father has given me such a passion for the work He's doing in China and He's laid it on my heart to help further His work through my new position. I'm so unbelievably excited to get to join the awesome team in Fort Collins and walk alongside new teachers as they prepare to serve in China!

I've never been to Colorado, but I've heard only amazing things about it! Where I'll be living is surrounded by hiking, mountain biking, white-water rafting, kayaking, mountain climbing, snowboarding/skiing, and basically any other outdoorsy activities you could ever possibly want to do! I'm SO stoked :-) The start date is August 27th and I hope to move out there 1-2 weeks earlier to get settled in. I'll be back in Maryland on June 26th (only 12 days away) and I absolutely want to see everyone I possibly can before moving out to Colorado! Here's even more great news: about 30% of my job will be traveling around the States, so I'll be able to visit friends and family all over the country!!

Thank you all so, so much for all of your support, encouragement and Thoughts this year! I'm really excited to get to share this next part of my journey with you, as well!

Kids say the darndest things (part 2)

2012-06-06T12:08:00.001+08:00

Kids say the darndest things part 2! Here's just a sample of some of the adorable things my Chinese students and friends have said/done during the last couple of months.

Since my students know very little English, I've been teaching them a lot of vocab words. While I was working on sports vocab with one class, they were repeating what I said to work on pronunciation. I started to say "volleyball" and then realized that I skipped tennis, so it came out something like "volley-er-tennis"... and then 36 little voices immediately began their repetition: "volley-er-tennis, volley-er-tennis, volley-er-tennis..."

Soon after teaching the sports vocab I got to teach Easter lessons, both the sacred and secular history. Part of the secular lesson was on family traditions, one of which included an Easter basket. When I reviewed the traditions with them and pulled out the basket, one of my students yelled out: "Easter basketball!" So close.

I just finished a unit on transportation, which included some pretty hard words like: "helicopter" and "ambulance". As much as we've worked on those words, my students still haven't quite gotten them down. The last time I showed them a picture of a helicopter and asked what it was, one boy yelled out: "Harry Potter!" At least it sounds pretty similar, right?

There was another pretty tricky transportation word, but for a much different reason. My students have a hard time with the "p" sound and they tend to substitute it with a "t" sound; that proved to be very unfortunate when I taught the word "ship"...

June 1st was Children's Day (which I'll tell you all about in a separate blog post), so to celebrate the day, I gave each of my classes a party. In one class we watched the kid's movie "Monsters vs. Aliens", and at one point in the movie a character announces that the alien problem is so significant that the president of the United States was called in. My students immediately started screaming a chant: "O-BA-MA, O-BA-MA, O-BA-MA!" Then this white dude walked on scene, and my students flipped out! They were seriously devastated that the "president" in the movie wasn't Obama. I try to not make any kind of generalizations about an entire country's population, but my teammates and I have found one exception in China: people here LOVE Obama! In all seriousness, almost everyone I've met here knows at least two English words: "Hello" and "Obama", and almost every time I meet a new person, one of the first things they want to talk about is how great Obama is. It's the funniest thing!

Yesterday, one of my students was standing next to me while I was preparing for class to begin. He's one of the sweetest kids out of my 288 students and he's also really shy. So yesterday he leans over and whispers to me, "Teacher, you are so smelly!" I assumed that he'd made the common mistake of using the word "smell" when trying to say "smile", something that a lot of my students have done. I pointed to my smile and asked, "I am so smiley?" Then he shook his head and gestured wafting my fragrance to his nose and said, "Smelly. You are so smelly!" By that, he meant that I smell really nice, but he still has me rethinking this perfume...

Couple shirts are a huge fad here. They're sold everywhere and have all kinds of funny/disgustingly adorable/offensive sayings. The two shirts are typical slightly different but compliment each other or else don't make sense without the other one. The other day I was walking to the produce market and saw the greatest couple shirts ever. For the first time, I was the one that stopped someone and asked to take a picture (foreigners are frequently stopped by Chinese citizens and asked for pictures/English lessons/phone numbers/or just followed around and videotaped). Here's a picture of those adorable shirts:

And now it's time for some Chinglish! This is a picture from a subway car. It says, "Open protective cover and remove unlock-pin spanner to realize manual door-open in case of emergency". Got that?

"Open protective cover and
remove unlock-pin spanner to
realize manual door-open in case of emergency"

Just in case you were wondering...

2012-05-29T20:39:00.001+08:00

Four weeks from today I'll be back in the States!! How crazy is that?! So here's a little look-see at what's in store for my final four weeks in China...

Friday (June 1st) is Children's Day. Our school will spend the whole weekend celebrating with performances by each class from grades 1-6; that's around 60-65 classes/performances that we get to watch! Actually, I'm really excited about it, cause these kids put on the most adorable performances ever! They'll all be decked out in costumes and make-up (yes, even the boys), and the kids have to practice even more than community theaters back home do before a show. 1/3 of the classes will sing, 1/3 will recite poetry, and 1/3 will perform short plays. Oh yeah- my team was asked to perform a dance, so we choreographed a dance to the most popular English song in China... "Baby" by Justin Beaver. I'd made it years without ever hearing that song in its entirety and now I know every word and a choreographed dance to it (don't worry, there will be a video)!

June 15th is our last day of teaching. Before then I'm throwing goodbye parties in each of my classes, and I'm sure I'll be an emotional wreck! Man, I'm going to miss those kids so much.

During the last week of teaching the school leaders and government will host banquets in our (the foreign teachers) honor. Those usually turn out to be pretty interesting experiences that make great/awkward stories later on, so get excited for those to come soon!

After that I don't have any plans until June 24th. Maybe I'll do some traveling, or stay in Taiyuan and spend as much time as possible with everyone here, or head to Beijing early, or maybe even do a combination of all three! Then June 24th-25th I have debriefing in Beijing with all of the other 1st year teachers that I had training with back in August. I'm not really sure what debriefing will entail, but it's supposed to help us adjust back to Western life and prepare us for what to expect when we go back to the States.

That brings me to June 26th. Most of us will take a group flight from Beijing to LAX; we'll leave here around 2pm and arrive in LAX at 11am the same day, three hours before we left Beijing! Finally, I'll fly back to the East Coast and arrive late that night. My parents and Tim and Tracie will be there to greet me- I couldn't ask for a better homecoming!

So that's the plan for my next/final four weeks here in China. As sad as it will be to leave, I'm getting more and more excited about going back to the States as it gets closer. I can't wait to see you all!!!

I'm so not ready for this.

2012-05-06T16:46:00.000+08:00

Tomorrow marks the 50-day countdown! 50 days until I leave China and return to the States.

50 days until I get to see my family and friends and have the comforts of home again...
Sadly, I have to remind myself that I should be stoked about going home; to be honest, I'm terrified. I've been told that it'll be harder to go home than it was to leave, that everything will be different from what I remember, that the home I'll be returning to won't be the same home that I left, and that it'll be a bigger culture shock to go back to the States than it was to come to China. When I came to China, my life back in America was basically put on hold, but everything and everyone else kept moving forward. I'm truly grateful that so many of you have made such huge efforts to include me in both joyful and painful life events. I've heard about a lot of really exciting changes for my friends and family: engagements and weddings, new babies, moves to exciting places, new jobs, and life dreams being realized! I've also heard about a lot of devastating changes: deaths, divorces, unemployment, terminal diagnoses, and difficult life-altering decisions to make. It's heartbreaking that I haven't been able to be with you to celebrate joyous occasions or to grieve through crises; hearing about those things, instead of experiencing them with you, makes them seem somewhat unreal and I keep telling myself that not that much could have changed in just a year. But not knowing what I'll be returning to is only partly what terrifies me; I think the even bigger part is knowing what I'll be leaving.

50 days until I have to say goodbye to everyone and everything that I love in China...
At some point in the past 9ish months I've come to view this place as my home. My teammates have become my family. My co-teachers, local university students, the volunteers at Taiyuan Teens (China's version of Young Life), and other foreigners have become my close friends. My students have become some of the greatest joys in my life. It's heartbreaking to know that I might never see most of these people again. I've (mostly) learned to embrace an entirely different way of life and it has become my reality. It's hard to comprehend that many of the things that are such a huge part of daily life in China will suddenly feel irrelevant once I leave.

I'm terrified of going back to the States and being completely overwhelmed by how different everything is. I'm terrified of feeling like I'll be intruding into the lives that kept moving forward while my life was 17,000 miles away. I'm terrified of wondering if I'll belong there anymore.

Embarrassingly, that was the end of my update and I almost clicked "Publish" to share with the world my rant of self-pity and lack of trust in Father. Graciously, Father stopped me and reminded me of some of His truths:

50 days until I get to see Father's provision in entirely new ways! Have I seriously been complaining because I'm worried about what I'll face when I return home? Don't I believe that He will guide and protect me through all trials, big or small? We're told that "everyone born of Father overcomes the world."
50 days until I get to follow Father to the next part of our journey together! Didn't I tell Him that I would follow Him to the ends of the earth, to serve wherever He chooses to lead me? Did I only mean that if it was to exotic places among unreached people? Shouldn't that also mean to my hometown, among my neighbors, even in my home Fellowship among Brothers and Sisters?
50 days until I get to serve Him among my home community! We're told to "share with His people who are in need." Isn't that why I'm going back, to get my M.Ed. in Counseling so I can work with disadvantaged people? No matter where in the world we are sent, He will always provide us with opportunities to serve His children.

Thank you, Father, for constantly providing such a faithless daughter with Your grace and mercy. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve You.

The Chinese version of Field Day!

2012-04-21T18:09:00.000+08:00

I remember being in elementary and middle school, when the most exciting day of each school year was Field Day. We'd all get to spend a 1/2 day outside playing games, having friendly competitions, winning prizes, and hanging out with friends; it was a completely carefree day when you could just be a kid! Well, China has Sports Day, which is kind of like Field Day if Field Day was on steroids.

On Thursday and Friday, the school that I teach at held "The 12th Spring Games of Primary Part of SMBS Show of Cohesion of Class Spirit and Style of Athletes", or "Sports Day". But this wasn't the same carefree day of friendly competition that I remember from my childhood. Sports Day here is an intense die-hard competition that the students have spent hours a day over the past month training for. It's the kind of thing where students can get into some serious trouble if they don't do well.

So Thursday began with an opening ceremony and, oh my goodness, the things that our 6-12 year old students can do would put any American high school marching band to shame. The performances that these kids do are incredible!

The games and races they have are pretty intense, too. Some of the typical races are 100M, 400M and relays. They also have races where you have to carry tires or other people, slowest bike race, some kind of team hamster wheel-type race, 4-legged race, Dragon Race, and Caterpillar Race. Some of the games are Chasing the Pig, various jump roping competitions, shot-put, high-jump, long-jump, some kind of balloon-catching competition, and a hula-hoop competition.

Even with the high-stress atmosphere everyone had an amazing time! After 9 months of teaching these students, that was the first time I've seen them act like kids. I got to hang out with each of my classes throughout both days and actually got to interact with some of my students on a personal level.

The girls and I made bracelets, braided hair, taught each other various hand games, and they taught me how to make those cool string-design-things.

The boys taught me how to make various origami shapes and tricked me into trying disgusting foods, we arm wrestled (I actually won a lot!) and I taught them several practical jokes that any "good" teacher probably shouldn't ;-)

Hanging out with my students and getting to build relationships with them during Sports Day(s) has by far been the most amazing part of teaching in China!

Kids say the darndest things

2012-03-24T23:31:00.000+08:00

So, yeah, it's been more than a month since my last update and I’m really sorry about that. On the bright side, though, this post is going to be packed full of a whole lot of awesomeness! So much has happened during the last month that you would hate me if I wrote about all of it and actually expected you to read it. Instead, this post will be about all of the adorable things my students and Chinese friends have said/done recently.

Yesterday, I informed one of my classes that they have an exam next week. Since they don't know the word "exam" I said in Chinese "kǎoshì" (exam); the entire class broke into applause and were cheering and simply couldn't believe that this white chick from America just spoke Chinese! There is no other place in the world that students would applaud after hearing they have an upcoming exam.

I played a review game with my students and included some pictures of my family in the PowerPoint. I pointed out my dad in one of the pictures, and a couple of the boys said, "Woah, he is SO cool!" and "He is rockstar!" Here's the picture that deemed my father a rockstar:

One of the words I'm teaching my students is "restaurant". For some reason they have a really hard time with this word. When I showed them a picture and asked what it was, I got all kinds of responses, but my favorites were: "ru-ru-ru-ressienot", "eating shop" and "eat hamburger store".

March 5th was my co-teacher's birthday. I handed her a card I'd made and she asked what it was for; I said, "Today is your birthday, yes?" She explained that Chinese people celebrate their birthdays on the Lunar New Year, which I already knew, so I clarified, "It is the day of your birth, yes?" She then said, "sān yuè wǔ hào" (March 5th). I very humbly replied, "Jīntiān shì sān yuè wǔ hào" (Today is March 5th). This was followed by a very long pause, then she looked over at the calendar, did some math on her fingers, and a shocked look appeared on her face, "OH! Today is my birthday!"

Last week I completely lost my voice. I wasn't able to teach a couple classes because I couldn't speak above a whisper and when I attempted to use a microphone the class, including my co-teacher, couldn't stop laughing. Later in the week I walked to class and a student stopped me in the hallway, placed one hand on her throat and the other on mine, and whispered, "Have speaking?" When I replied, "Yes, I can speak.", she clapped and hugged me and kissed her hand then touched my throat again and escorted me to class.

The teachers and their families eat in a cafeteria on campus. One of my class masters has a toddler that she eats lunch with everyday. This child is absolutely terrified of the foreign teachers, specifically the white female foreign teachers. Every day during lunch, if we're sitting in the same room as this kid, he spends the whole meal demonstrating his disdain for us! If we look at him, he covers his eyes or puts his head down. If we make faces or try to play with him, he turns completely around in his chair until his back is to us. Yesterday, no joke, he turned around in his seat for a full 10 minutes and refused to eat or talk or look at his mother until we left. His mom and grandma have both tried to intervene, but even my teammate's co-teacher had to admit, "He is a very happy baby, he likes everyone... but maybe, maybe he does not like you." If it wasn't so incredibly amusing, I think my feelings would be a bit hurt.

Today I tried an experiment. I needed to go to the supermarket, but I was in one of those moods where I just didn't feel like being the foreigner-celebrity of Taiyuan. So I decided to try a tactic that another foreign teacher at our school uses every time she leaves campus; I covered every part of skin and hair I possibly could, even though it was in the 60's and sunny. Then I walked to Meet-All. Not a single person looked at me! It was like I was totally invisible, even when I went in the store and talked to a couple of people, no one knew I was a foreigner! The difference between today and a normal trip to the store was the most astounding thing- I kid you not, typically every single person we walk by will pause and stare at us, several will say any English words they've ever heard, and some might stop to take pictures or a video. Today: nothing. I almost didn't know what to do with myself, I'm so used to being constantly on display. Here's a picture of my disguise:

Oh China, you are certainly never boring :-)

288 Valentines and a whole lot of love

2012-02-19T16:32:00.000+08:00

So Valentine's Day, or the more aptly named “Singles' Awareness Day”, was less than one week ago. China’s version of Valentine’s Day is celebrated in August, so February 14^th wasn’t marked by an excess of pink and red hearts, roses galore, or advertisements suggesting that you only truly love someone if you buy them a big enough diamond. It was really nice to get away from the commercialization of the holiday, and I probably would’ve forgotten about it entirely if I hadn’t been teaching a lesson on it!

The lesson I taught was somewhat superficial, considering that it wouldn’t have been entirely appropriate to teach my non-English-speaking 4^th graders about the tragic history behind the holiday or about couples and romance. I did teach them about love and how love can be shown to family members, friends, leaders, etc. Then I helped them make cards to give to their parents whenever they get to go home next; it was a pretty fun lesson and I made sure to take a bunch of pictures to share with my supporters back home. Valentine’s Day came and went the same as any other day.

The next day, as I was talking with my team about our best Valentine’s Day dates, it struck me that I’ve never not had someone special to celebrate the day with; I realized that this was the 1^st time I’ve been alone on Valentine’s Day. Over the next several days that realization started getting to me, and I was becoming pretty discontent over not having the typical American lifestyle of settling down and starting a family.

Then I started to write this blog update about my Valentine’s Day lesson; as I was deciding which pictures to post, I started really looking at the faces of my 288 students, and I saw their smiles and thought about their lives and felt their desperate desires to be loved. My heart broke for each of them all over again. Father struck me with a reminder that I desperately needed: the fact that I don’t have the typical American lifestyle isn’t something to be discontent over; what I’m doing here, living and teaching in China, isn’t some huge sacrifice that I’ve made. I have this incredible opportunity to teach, to love, and to share Hope with His children in China! This Valentine’s Day, I got to spend the holiday with 288 special someones that I desperately love and who desperately need to be shown love. How could I possibly be discontent over that? Now that I really think about it, this was the best Valentine’s Day ever :-)

These are some of the many children I have the privilege to love!

There should be a snooze button for reality

2012-02-10T01:58:00.000+08:00

Well, I'm officially back to reality after six amazing weeks of Winter break. I probably should have mentioned that I wouldn't be updating my blog during break, so I apologize to those of you who messaged to ask if I'm dead (I'm still very much alive, by the way). A lot has happened in the last six weeks, so I'll try to just fill you in on the most interesting aspects.

In mid-January, I got to spend a week with two of my favorite people in the entire world (which I think I'm entitled to say now that I've been to the other side of the world); my dad and sister came to visit me in China!

Dad, me, and Tracie on the Great Wall of China!

I played tour guide and took them all over Beijing; we hiked up and tobogganed down the Great Wall, toured the Forbidden City and Tian’anmen Square, shopped at the Silk Market, saw a Chinese acrobatic show, ate a bunch of authentic Chinese food (including fried scorpion), had near-death experiences in taxis and on the subway, and went to the Night Market, the Beijing Botanical Gardens and the World Park!

Tracie, me, and Erin eating fried scorpion!

It was an intense non-stop week and it was so wonderful to spend time with my dad and sister and finally be able to share the reality of my life in China with them (although we all missed mom and wished she could have come, too)!

When they left, homesickness hit me really hard, so it was a blessing that I immediately had to prepare for my trip to Thailand.

Erin, me, and Lauren on the beach at sunset

Erin, Abbey, Sam, Lauren, and I traveled to Koh Lanta, Phuket, Thailand for a desperately needed vacation! We stayed on the beach for a week and by the end of it most of us decided that we're definitely going to retire there some day.

I'm riding an elephant!

We laid out on the beach (and got ridiculously sunburned in the process), ate way too much food, got authentic Thai massages, went paddle-boarding and snorkeling, awkwardly experienced a fish spa, saw wild monkeys, rescued starfish, rode elephants through the jungle, got tricked into eating the hottest chili pepper in existence, had fire-throwing lessons, and met some of the coolest people I've ever met from all over the world!

After our wonderful vacation we journeyed to Chiang Mai, Thailand for our Annual Thailand Conference; my organization brought all of the teachers and their families, around 500 people, from all over Asia to meet together for one week in Thailand. The conference was a time for us to fellowship with other Believers, see and hear about the work Father's doing all throughout Asia (I can't wait to share this with you when I get home!!), learn about potential countries of service, and to receive encouragement, support, counseling, and Thoughts for the struggles of our past semesters. It was exactly what I needed for rejuvenation and preparation for this next semester- I've gained so much motivation and perspective for the next 4.5 months of my service in China!

I'm now back in Taiyuan and am getting really excited to see my students again on Monday! I've missed those kids during the last six weeks; I'm so unbelievably grateful that I have the opportunity to be a part of their lives and I can't wait to see how Father uses the next 4.5 months to touch their lives and the lives of my co-teachers!

Christmas in China (just a bit late)

2012-01-05T14:07:00.000+08:00

Christmas in China was... different- not in a bad way- just different. Previous teams had left a bunch of Christmas decorations, including a tree, and our supporters sent us all a bunch of Christmasy stuff, so we were able to decorate for Christmas! A few weeks before Christmas, my team and I put up the tree in my apartment and decorated it while we listened to Christmas music; it certainly didn't look like the Christmases I'm used to, but it helped to give us all a bit of holiday cheer!

We had two Christmas parties and both were so much fun! The first was for local college students that we've gotten to know and become friends with.

We made and decorated Christmas cookies with them, which was super funny; Chinese people use chopsticks for absolutely everything- even to frost cookies!

Then my team and I put on a short performance of the Christmas story! I was Mary, and they thought it was hilarious when I walked out with a pillow up my dress, then gave birth to a boot wrapped in swaddling sheets.

The second party was for our Chinese co-teachers. We mostly sat around and talked while eating all kinds of fattening foods. We'd made a bunch of desserts beforehand and had a cake-walk-type-thing! They absolutely loved it, and they were all running around trying to pick the best number to stand on in hopes of being picked- it was so funny! After that, we put on the Christmas story performance for them, and they loved it even more than the college students had!

On Christmas Eve. we went to a Christmas Eve service at a local Fellowship. ...it was the weirdest thing I've ever experienced. There were dancing women in army camo outfits, 10 virgins doing some sort of a dance-off, women in ball gowns and men in tuxedos, secular Christmas music, and all kinds of other interesting things! It was all in Chinese, so of course we had no idea what was going on, but it was definitely amusing!

For Christmas, I got to Skype with my family! We read the Christmas story and opened presents via video, and it was almost like I was there! It was so great to get to do that on Christmas morning, even though it was still their Christmas Eve! Then my team and I got together for homemade brunch, exchanged secret santa presents, and watched Christmas movies all day! I was so grateful to have a team to spend the day with, and it really helped all of us to not feel too terribly homesick!

Hello, I'm 方诺雅

2011-12-10T16:25:00.000+08:00

Don't let the name fool you- I'm still not Chinese. BUT I was given my Chinese name today! I went shopping with two new Chinese friends (K and H) who've been coming to Word study for the last couple of weeks. The entire time we were out was like one long Chinese tutoring session- it was exhausting, but oh so wonderful! At one point, H asked me what my Chinese name is and she was shocked that I didn't have one yet, so they spent the rest of our time together discussing what I should be named. They chose 方诺雅 (Fāng Nuò Yǎ), which refers to Father's creation and His promise to refine me. K explained it in a much more flowery way, like the Chinese do, but that's the ultimate meaning. I absolutely love it, and may have even cried a little bit when they explained it to me. Then they taught me how to write it, which took about 10 minutes, due to foreigners' tendencies to "draw" the characters instead of writing them!

In case you haven't seen it on my Facebook, here's a video that my teammate put together of our school's English Festival where we had to perform the opening act! It has clips of our dance and pictures and clips of our students' performances. They're so adorable, so you should definitely take the time to watch it (it's only 3:34 minutes). http://vimeo.com/33327301

Also- here's some Chinglish pictures for you all!

1 out of 3 isn't so bad...
"Dinnirwaie-Dinnerware-Dinnirwaie"

On the opposite side of the aisle, you can get your...
"Press Conference"
Funny, I always thought they were called pressure cookers!

Taiyuan's winter wonderland!

2011-12-04T21:44:00.000+08:00

On Tuesday, we had the 1st snowfall of winter here in Taiyuan! Typically, Taiyuan only gets snow flurries two or three times per winter and it only lasts about 10 minutes; this year, we had around three inches, which is the most snow they've had in 50 years! It was basically the most exciting thing ever! Taiyuan is nicknamed "The Dirty T" because of how incredibly polluted everything here is; the entire city is covered in a thick layer of dirt and the whole skyline is hidden by a thick wall of gray haze. The snow completely covered all of the filth and cleaned the air for a few days, so it was absolutely beautiful! It was such a blessing to see the city transformed from the depressing landscape we've come to call home into an amazing winter wonderland!

Although we still had school, our students were given an extra recess so that they could play in the snow! I snuck out of the office to join them and we had such a great time together! There aren't many opportunities to interact with my kids outside of the classroom, so it was awesome to get to spend some extra time with them! Apparently, it's totally fine for students to throw snowballs at their teachers here, and once I figured out that I wouldn't get into trouble for throwing them back... we had a full on snowball fight!

Playing in the snow with my students definitely earned me some bonus points with them and with their class masters, who thought it was the funniest thing ever that the foreigner was frolicking in the snow with the kids instead of sitting in the dry and semi-warm office! It really was the perfect start of winter here in Taiyuan!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T17:26:00.000+08:00

This week I've been teaching my students all about Thanksgiving! This is another Western holiday that they've never heard of, so it's been so much fun! I taught them all about the history of Pilgrims, Indians, and the 1st Thanksgiving. Teaching them about the traditions was so great- they absolutely loved seeing pictures of the Macy's Day Parade, football games, and for some reason thought that feasts were the funniest thing ever. We played a version of "hangman" with Thanksgiving feast foods, but instead of drawing some dead guy I drew the Mayflower ship. Then, my favorite part, we made turkey hands! I'd taught my kids to say, "I'm thankful for..." and showed them pictures of some things that I'm thankful for (including my family, friends, and supporters, JC, my co-operating teachers, teammates, the school, and my students). After they'd all said what they were thankful for, I had them trace their hands and write what they're thankful for, then had them copy what I drew to make a turkey! They thought it was the coolest thing in the entire world once they realized what they'd just drawn! Here are some pictures of their hand turkeys:

My sister sent me a turkey decoration,
so I took it to class and all of my students wanted pictures with it!

"I'm thankful for Miss Mauck"

We had a 1/2 day today, but when I walked into class and started teaching this morning, I found out that I wasn't supposed to come in today at all! I started to gather my materials to leave, but the students begged their Class Master to let me teach instead! She gave in and said I could continue and, seriously, the whole class cheered! It was so adorable!

At the end of class, the Class Master talked to my students in super fast Chinese so I couldn't understand anything she said; when she finished, they all (including her) shouted, "HAPPY THANKSGIVING MISS MAUCK!!" Apparently, my Chinese-English co-operating teacher had practiced saying that with them so that they could surprise me in our next class! I love teaching here :-)

Here it is...

2011-11-20T11:41:00.000+08:00

It's been a little over 3 weeks since my last post, and I've been getting emails and Facebook messages asking for more updates and Thought requests, so I'm finally doing that! Actually, I haven't posted an update on here because I didn't really know what to say. I had this ridiculous idea that I should only post about how wonderful everything is and all of the great new adventures I'm having- that I shouldn't bore my supporters with the hardships of this journey. To be honest, the past 3 weeks, for the most part, haven't been great; I've been dealing with a lot and haven't had any fantastic new experiences to share with you all. But you, my amazing supporters, have been reminding me that you're not my supporters just to hear about the exciting adventures- you're also my encouragement and my Thought support, and you deserve to know about my struggles in addition to my adventures.

So this update is just an honest look at how things are going. At training, we'd been told that November would be our hardest month here in China and they were so right! We've moved out of the honeymoon period of living in China where everything is an exciting new experience, and now we're settled into our placement cities and schools, and are starting to see the realities of our environments a lot more. There's so much that I can't say about the things I'm experiencing and it's so frustrating that I can only share the basics with you until I come home next summer.

Some of what I will tell you about, though, are things that I haven't wanted to share but that I truly need Thought support for, so I'm setting aside my pride to share some of it with all of you. Like how incredibly stressed out I am about needing to decide what to do next year. Do I sign up for 2 more years with this organization and come back to China to teach and get my masters in TEFL? Do I look into going to a different country in Asia or even a different continent entirely? Do I move back to Baltimore and continue on the career path I was headed before Father called me to China? Do I move to the area that my family lives and finish my masters so I can work with abused or mentally ill children? I have absolutely no idea. I haven't felt led in any particular way yet, but I still have almost 4 months until I have to make a decision, and I'm trying so hard to give up that control!

Another area of stress: team unity. I won't go into any specifics, but I will say it's been really hard on most of us. Because of the things that have been happening in our team, my "fix-it" mentality has been in overdrive and I've been under immense stress because I for some reason felt like I had to find a way to bring everyone together and create unity. I've finally learned that I'm not in control of that and the only thing I can do is love my Sisters to the best of my ability, and leave the rest to Father.

The newest area of stress: homesickness. It's getting closer to the holidays and it's hard to not think about all of the family traditions I'll be missing this year. This will only be the 2nd time I haven't been able to spend Thanksgiving with my family, and it'll be the 1st time I've missed Christmas with them. I'm so blessed to have 6 teammates that I can spend the holidays with, and that we can openly celebrate Christmas here! But I'm still having a hard time not spending it with family and other important people in my life from back home.

In addition to those things, and the things I can't talk about, I'm also dealing with a lot of personal stuff. At training, we were told that everything from our pasts that we'd thought we'd suppressed would come to the surface; also that every fault we see in ourselves, and many we hadn't yet seen, would be shown to us. He's truly been using every day here to show me all the things that I need to change, give up, or grow in. I've grown so much in the past 3 months, and it's so sad that it took moving to China to see how far away from the character of JC I still am! Seriously, at least twice a week I have a new life-changing revelation about who I am, who He is, my walk, or His plan for me. It's exhausting! But I can honestly say that I've never been so close to Father or been forced to depend on Him as much as I have been since I began this journey.

So it's just been a hard few weeks. I'm hoping this hasn't come across as one long complaint, because that really isn't my intention. Everyone keeps asking me what they can be lifting up for me, and I feel like my responses are usually just the basics of stress, exhaustion, and relationships, but I know that you all deserve and desire more than that, so this is to share with you all some of the things I'm struggling with and need your support in. I'm so grateful to have your Thoughts and encouragement!

万圣节快乐 (Happy Halloween)

2011-10-29T19:56:00.000+08:00

I taught my students about Halloween this week and it was pretty much the most exciting thing ever! My sister sent me a care package filled with Halloween decorations, toys, and teaching materials, so I was able to teach my kids all about our American holiday! The majority of my kids had never heard about Halloween, so it was really interesting trying to describe our traditions to them and they were so adorable that I just had to share pictures :-)

I showed slides of kids dressed up as monsters, ghosts, witches, jack-o-lanterns, Kung Fu Panda, and Spongebob Squarepants- I even wore a Minnie Mouse mask (that's how much I love these kids). After that, I tried to read them a spooky Halloween poem, but had forgotten that they wouldn't understand the concept of "BOO!", so when I screamed it at the end there was complete silence; I'm pretty sure they thought I'd lost my mind.

Then we played a find-the-match game on the chalkboard with various Halloween-themed pictures:

I also taught them about jack-o-lanterns and they created their own using paper cuts:

Then I taught them the concept of "trick-or-treating" by going around to each student, having him/her say "trick-or-treat", and giving him/her a treat!

After each of my classes, my students gave me the most amazing responses: I was applauded, thanked, told that I'm their favorite teacher, hugged, and had my cheeks kissed! One class decided that I was famous and all of the students made me autograph their jack-o-lanterns! Those are just a few of the many reasons why I adore teaching Chinese kids :-D

A Chinese wedding

2011-10-22T17:53:00.000+08:00

I got to experience my very first Chinese wedding on Sunday! It was... fascinating. One of my co-operating teachers, Camille, asked me to be her +1 at her friend's wedding. I've desperately wanted to attend a Chinese wedding ever since I first signed on to come here, so of course I said yes! One of her friends picked us up at 8am and drove us to the start of the festivities.  There were 3 parts to the wedding: the bride's parent's house, the groom's parent's house, and the ceremony. FYI- this is going to be a long one...

Let's start with the bride's parent's house. We arrived around 9am to an apartment building covered in gold and red decorations. Outside the building was a gigantic inflatable balloon archway and about 2 dozen costumed men who clanged symbols and beat drums while a costumed girl danced up and down the aisle.
We tried to walk up to the apartment, but there was a huge gang of men blocking the way because they weren't allowed into the apartment. Apparently, the guys on the groom's side have to be given permission to enter the apartment by the girls on the bride's side. So after they pleaded with the girls for awhile, we were finally all allowed inside and were ushered into a bedroom.
The bride was sitting on the bed, ballerina-style, wearing a white wedding dress (traditionally the dress would be red). After picture-taking, the groom had to put the shoes on the bride's feet. The groom had hidden the shoes and his friends had to find them by coercing the hiding places out of the girls on the bride's side. All the guys from the groom's side crowded around the bed and picked up the girls, holding them by their hands and feet and throwing them onto the bed next to the bride (no idea why, but it happened to all the girls and they tried to do it to me, but luckily I knew enough Chinese to explain that I was wearing a dress and didn't want to be thrown). Finally, the girls gave up the shoes and the guys held the shoes ransom until the groom gave them money (apparently this represented the hardship of marriage that they would experience).  After the groom put the shoes on the bride's feet, he picked her up and did 3 spins to the left, then 3 spins to the right, then he carried her out into the entryway.

In the entryway, the bride's parents were sitting next to each other and the bride and groom stood in from of them. The groom's father said some stuff in Chinese and the groom bowed down to the bride's father twice, then both the bride and groom bowed down to him together (which apparently meant that the groom had taken possession of the bride and she became part of his family).
At that point, the groom's father discovered that there was a foreigner at his son's wedding and I became the center of attention for awhile; he made sure that I was front and center where I could get the best view and I was told to take pictures of absolutely everything, even if I didn't want those pictures. After the picture-taking, it was time for the dowry-hand-off. All the girls from the bride's side carried boxes and bags of presents wrapped in red to the cars, which were waiting to take us to the groom's parent's house.

Ok, so then we were at the groom's parent's house, which was also decorated and had those entertainers out front. The girls carried the dowry and we walked into the apartment, where the bride was standing in the middle of the family room in a red wedding dress. The groom's grandmother sat down and the bride and groom bowed down to her twice.  Then the groom's parents sat down and the bride and groom stood in front of them. The bride's father handed the groom's father a nut, the groom's father cracked open the nut and gave it to the groom, and the groom fed the nut to the bride (apparently this symbolizes the bride's fertility and is supposed to bring good luck for a fast pregnancy with a son). Then the bride and groom bowed down to the groom's parents 3 times. After the groom's mother had force-fed me candy, desserts, fruit, and tea until I thought I would puke, we all got back into the waiting cars.

Alright- now for the actual wedding. We arrived at a fancy hotel, where the symbol-clanging people were doing their thing. We walked into this huge banquet room where there were about 30 tables and a huge walk-way aisle in the center, with a big stage at the end. We sat down at our tables and were fed random appetizers, including duck head and chicken feet. About an hour later, 4 girls in red dresses came on the stage with some weird looking instruments and they played for awhile. Then an M.C. came on stage and started yelling in Chinese, everyone cheered- I sat there and looked confused. He called the groom up on stage and then the ceremony began...
A little gazebo-looking-thing at the end of the walkway was unveiled and there was the beautiful bride, back in her white wedding dress. The groom walked down the aisle and handed the bride her bouquet, then lifted her up onto the walkway. They walked down the aisle, got to the front of the stage, and turned around to face the guests.
The M.C. started saying Chinese words again, then the groom placed a ring on the bride's finger and they kissed for awhile (until it was awkward). The groom's parents came on stage and they all took a toast. The bride and groom walked off the stage, she changed into her 3rd wedding dress, which was gold, and they walked around the room and the groom took shots with each table (30ish tables).

So that was my first Chinese wedding experience! I was continually told that it wasn't a traditional wedding at all, that it was very western. Even so, it was an awesome experience and I'm still confused by some of it. It was also a great opportunity to hang out with Camille and share a bit of my life and heart with her!

China=awesome

2011-10-17T13:00:00.001+08:00

There's so much to love about China and it isn't even just the big things, like the history, scenery, customs, food, language, culture or super old architecture. I love the little things, too, like: when I ask 1 Chinese person for directions 20 people will crowd around trying to help the foreigner and several will pull out cellphones to call friends for directions; when walking through the gate off campus the security guards will stop you for a mini English tutoring session; and if I say a single word in Mandarin, no matter how horrible it sounds, every Chinese person around me will tell me how great I am at speaking Chinese! It's such an incredible country and I'm falling more and more in love with both the big and little aspects of this place. How funny is it that when I started this whole journey I was so adamant that China was the 1 country I wouldn't go to?? Now I tell people it's the 1 place that everyone should come to at some point in their lives!

Anyways- time for updates on my life in China...

This past week I finally started my Mandarin language tutoring; it's so much fun and I absolutely love my teacher, Kelly (I don't know her Chinese name). Going into the lesson I expected her to laugh at how horrible I am at this unbelievably difficult language, but it looks like those Pimsleur lessons paid off- she was impressed with my tones and basic knowledge of structures (whoop-whoop)! I'll definitely have to work on my pronunciation- she said it was "very American"- but at least it wasn't bad enough for her to laugh!

On Thursday my little 4th graders had a competition, which I went to but still have absolutely no idea what it was for or who won. BUT I do know that each of my classes were marching and chanting and it was melt-your-heart cute! Here are pictures of the adorableness of 2 of my classes:

On Saturday, our team invited over several college students from a nearby campus to have a home-cooked meal at my apartment. We made spaghetti, salad, breadsticks, and apple crisp and had some super amusing conversations in addition to several really significant topics. Of the 5 that came, 1 is a new Sister, 1 has been a Sister for a long time, and 1 is seeking- so it was really nice to be able to spend some time talking with them. Afterwards, most of us went to KTV (karaoke on steriods without the audience) and had a great time just acting dumb!

Now it's time for an amazing Chinglish sample from one of my students!!

"Do you love life? Then, don't waste English a second. If you really like English in English t find happiness. English can make you happy. happiness. You find Englis learn English. English time is valuable. You waste Your English is tantamount to a waste of life. So if you want to learn English well."

A bit of R&R

2011-10-05T18:04:00.003+08:00

We've been on holiday for National Day since Friday and we don't start back to work until Monday. We'd been told that September would be a pretty stressful and exhausting month as we began lesson planning/teaching/community relations/team building/etc. Although being here is an incredible experience that I wouldn't trade for the world, it definitely is stressful and exhausting. I love China- I love the people, the culture, the history, the community, the recreation, and teaching- but it's all so draining and we've been in desperate need of some R&R.

On Friday, we started off our vacation by celebrating survival of our 1st month of teaching by getting full-body massages! I spent the weekend catching up on paperwork, lesson planning, cleaning, errands, and keeping in touch with people from back home. Then on Sunday night I took an overnight train to Xi'an, where I met Lauren and Sam; the train ride there was a horrindous experience, but I made it safely. In Xi'an I got to check off another thing from my bucket list: to tour the Terracotta Army! It was incredible, but you'll have to wait for my next newsletter to get the details! Here's a couple sweet pictures from our tour, though (and you can see the rest on my Facebook):

The train ride back was such a huge difference from the ride there. Since we'd found out it was a 15-hour ride home, we'd splurged and bought tickets for beds; that train ride was the best sleep I've had in my entire life! At 3:30am we were shaken awake by the staff to switch out our tickets, and we couldn't figure out why they would choose to wake us up for that. The lady tried desperately to tell us something, but we couldn't understand her and were half asleep, so we starred vacantly until she gave up and walked away. We fell back asleep and at 4am she came back, shook me and Sam awake again, grabbed our stuff and proceeded to kick us off the train! We quickly woke Lauren up and we all were thrown off the train with no idea what was happening or where we were! As it turned out, though, we'd arrived in Taiyuan 5 hours earlier than expected! Then we were scammed by a taxi-driver, locked out of campus, and unhappily let in by the security guard we'd awaken, but we were finally home!

And now for...You know you're meant for China when: you happily call it home :-) I love that I've come to call Taiyuan home! I'd actually missed it while on vacation, even though I was only gone for 1.5 days!

PS- happy birthday dad and Tracie!! I love you both!

I didn't forget about you!

2011-09-25T16:03:00.000+08:00

Sorry it's been a couple of weeks since my last update- but things have been so busy here! So much has happened, but I only have time/energy to share a few experiences:

Last weekend, my roomie and I took a senior student off campus to hang out. I can't tell you much about her, but we had such a great time together! We took her to lunch then went to Yingtze Park, which is this incredibly beautiful lake and landscape with an amusement park! It was so much fun just walking around with her, taking pictures, riding rides, and talking about all kinds of interesting topics! Then we went to KTV, which is basically karaoke on steroids without an audience. She is such an amazing person and I can't wait to get to know her more this year! Here's a picture of us at Yingtze Park:

On Thursday, the Foreign Affairs Official, the President of our school, and several other big-wigs took all of the foreign English teachers out to a dinner banquet; in addition to the 7 of our team, there's also an older gentleman from Ireland and a middle-aged man from Iowa that work here. The dinner had 24 different courses, and of course we had to try them all. Oh man- that was such a huge challenge for me since there were so many weird things! But I actually tried every single dish, and even liked most of them! I even tried this super strange wasabi-gelatin thing, a pig's ear mushroom thing, and fish! My teammates were really proud of me ;-) There were tons of toasts and lots of awkward conversations, but it really was a fun new experience and a great "welcome" to our school!

On Friday, I gave my students an introduction card to fill out as a way of quizzing their comprehension on the material I'd been teaching and also to find out a bit more about them. They had to write their name, where they live, how old they are, something they like, and what activity they can do. Most of the cards were pretty generic, but some of them are hysterical! This is the best one:

"I like: iPhone 4" (he's 11 and speaks minimal English,
yet he somehow knows and appreciates the iPhone).
Also- apparently he can fly like an angel.

In each of my classes I have this reward system, where students are rewarded by rows. Every day, each row starts off with 3 magnets and if they misbehave I take away a magnet; the rows that still have all 3 magnets at the end of class get a sticker on the reward chart. At the end of the month, the rows with the most stickers get to select something from the prize box. Here's a little peek into the differences of behavior between a couple of my classes:

The class on the left: each row has received stickers for all 7 classes!
The class on the right: none of the rows have received stickers for all classes and the red row only has 1 sticker!

Now it's time for another Chinglish picture!!!

"The Wild Germ Hates Soup with Crisp Skin"- menu from a Western-style restaurant

And finally... You know you're meant for China when: you automatically greet mothers by saying, "Your baby is so fat!" <<<(extreme compliment here)

Celebrations and Lady Gaga shoes!

2011-09-12T10:27:00.002+08:00

Saturday was Teacher's Day, so we had a ceremony with hundreds of teachers... that was entirely in Chinese. Being the foreign teachers, we were sat on a stage and stared at for a couple of hours. I now understand why some of my lower-level students are always distracted- it's close to impossible to sit and listen to a foreign language that you can only understand maybe 1% of for an extended period of time; I totally became that student- texting, playing with the tablecloth, whispering to my seatmates, singing songs in my head... I don't think I'll be reprimanding those students anymore! Thankfully, I was in the back row, so no one could see me ;-)

This weekend I went shopping with 2 Chinese English teachers (one of whom is my co-operating teacher/translator). I was so excited to spend a couple of hours hanging out with these ladies, but everything is different in China, so what I expected to be a short shopping trip turned into an EIGHT HOUR shopping marathon! I think I'm shopped-out for the next year! But it was actually really amazing spending so much time with them and getting to know them; they said that we're now "good sister friends"! I was even given some opportunities to share about my beliefs :-D They taught me so much about Chinese culture and relationships- relationships here are so much different than in the States! Anywho- I want to give you a little glimpse of Chinese taste in shoes, because I'm pretty sure this is where Lady Gaga must shop:

My "Lady Gaga" shoes!

Sunday was our first time to Foreign Fellowship, which is now our home fellowship for this year. There were maybe 40-50 foreigners there, from: US, Canada, Korea, Germany, Scotland, and Australia (in writing this, my spellcheck just informed me that I've been spelling Australia wrong my entire life (~~Austrailia~~)!)! Fellowship was so great- I've really missed it! After fellowship, we went to a pizza place that sells foreign foods, and we bought CHEESE and BUTTER!!! Such extravagance. Also, I attempted to purchase 2 cookies from a street vendor, but somehow ended up with around 4 dozen mediocre cookies and I'm still not sure what went wrong... yay language barrier!

Today is Mid-Autumn Festival in China! It's similar to Thanksgiving, except that it's about moon worship and people eat an unbelievable amount of mooncakes and apples. We get 1.5 days off work, though, so I'm a fan!

New addition to blog posts:
"You know you're meant for China when": while eating at a restaurant a cockroach crawls up the wall next to you, you look at it, it looks at you, you briefly consider attacking it, then simply continue eating.

Smell and Smilence

2011-09-06T14:22:00.000+08:00

Can I just say that teaching is pretty much the greatest thing ever?? Obviously, this week of teaching is going WAY better than my 1st day. Each of my classes this week have been incredible! Most of my classes have never had a foreign teacher before, and 1 class literally cheered when I walked in! Most of the students crowd around the stage (we teach on stages which is kinda intimidating, and I think I'm not supposed to get off the stage but I do anyways so I can interact with the kids) and ask me all kinds of questions about myself, my family, America, etc; some ask in English and some ask in Chinese- they're always so impressed when I reply in Chinese (even if it sounds horrible)!

My absolute favorite part of teaching so far is naming the students! Only a few have English names, so I get to name most of the 36 students in each class, and it's so much fun! They have to be easy names, 1 or 2 syllables, with no l's, r's, th's, w's or v's (depending on placement). So I've been naming all of my students after my family, friends, and supporters! The kids love it because I tell them who each name represents, and they feel so special. I've also named some after the Good Book: Joy, Hope, Adam, Eden, Luke, John, etc. A few of them already have English names, and these are a few of my favorites: Smell, Coli (as in E. Coli), Bubba, Cocoa, Fox, and Mauck (how cool is it that one of my students was already named my last name?! She pronounces hers Mach, though). I've also met a student named "Smilence", it's a combination of Smile and Silence.

On another note- I had my very 1st cry-fest since coming to China. Over the weekend I decorated the walls in my room with all the encouraging letters, cards, and pictures from my supporters, friends, and family. I sobbed while decorating as I read each one. You're all so amazing, and I can't possibly begin to explain how much those cards and letters mean to me! They are now my constant reminder of the support and love I have from back home. (If you'd like to be on my wall- feel free to write me ;-) )

And I do believe it's about time for another Chinglish example (there are so many good ones to choose from):

"You and Me Baby,if I say me to only love you. Do you can believe?"

Last thing, but I know it's going to be the best part for many of you! This weekend, some of my teammates had the opportunity to read/study the Good Book with a brand new sister and a seeker :-D He is SOOO good!!!

First day fail

2011-09-04T22:29:00.000+08:00

Friday was my first day of teaching! I found out on Thursday that I'm teaching 4th grade and have 8 sections, which is about 300 students. I was told that since I'm teaching 4th grade my students would've already studied English for a couple of years. So I put together this awesome introductory lesson plan, created all of my materials, and was so incredibly excited to teach my 1st class! Then I walked into my classroom on Friday.

My Chinese co-operating teacher was nowhere to be found (they help translate and handle discipline in the traditional Chinese way) The Chinese homeroom teacher was there, but she didn't speak any English whatsoever; she started trying to tell me something that seemed kind of important, but because of the language barrier we were completely unable to communicate. I had no idea what she was saying, and when the bell sounded I began to teach... blank stares and confused looks from everyone, including the teacher: none of them spoke any English at all. So since my entire lesson was dependent on my students already having basic English knowledge, and my translator wasn't there, the whole thing turned into an awkward charade-type lesson that was rather painful.

Here's the funny part: when I got back to the office I found out that I actually wasn't supposed to teach that class and the homeroom teacher was trying to tell me I wasn't supposed to be there... so... that was a bit of a fail (at least it was a really funny one). BUT my 2nd class on Friday was awesome! The students were so great and really enjoyed my lesson, and they could actually speak English (whoop-whoop)!

Tomorrow starts my first full week of teaching, so hopefully all of the other classes will be as great as my 2nd class was! I can't wait to meet the rest of my students- I already love them!!!

Home sweet home!

2011-08-31T23:48:00.001+08:00

I'm home!! Home in Taiyuan, Shanxi, China, that is! We traveled by fast train and arrived Monday afternoon. Since then, we've been cleaning like crazy and getting our apartments set up. (On Monday night we all watched Disney's Mulan and it was totally epic watching it in China after having been to some of the places in the movie!) My roomie is Lauren and she's awesome! We're a lot alike and we're having a great time figuring out our new place together! Here's a picture of us at our school:

Taiyuan is SO different from Beijing- it's definitely not even remotely westernized: no one speaks English, all signs/menus are in Mandarin, the food is hardcore Chinese, everyone stops what they're doing (even driving) to stare and take pictures, and kids run up to watch the foreigners. So far we've only seen 1 other foreigner, so we're a huge anomaly here! Beijing almost felt like we were still in America, just in a Chinese-ish area; Taiyuan is 100% China! It'll take some getting used to, but I already love it! OH! There's a Walmart here... but it's pretty different, too. Here's a picture from the food section:

Yup... that's some kind of bird, beak and feet and all! Yummy...

Shanxi is the most polluted province in the entire world! There are multiple reasons for that, but it's mostly due to the immense amount of coal mining. Even with all of the pollution, I still love this place! It's actually kind of amusing, because it's impossible to keep anything clean; this will definitely get me over being a clean freak! After dusting or mopping the floor one day, it'll be just as filthy the next day; there's this thick layer of dust that covers absolutely everything:

A car parked outside of our school.

The pollution makes washing clothes a really interesting experience
(this is the water after washing my clothes from the 1st day here).

Even though I know it's going to provide lots of learning experiences and I'll definitely be challenged in ways I never would in the States, I'm SO excited to live here!! YAY Taiyuan!!
Oh- I still haven't found out what grades or English levels I'll be teaching, but I start teaching on Friday! Wish me luck!!

Last night in Beijing!

2011-08-28T22:38:00.000+08:00

Lots of exciting things to tell you all, so I'll try to keep it short and sweet (partially for your benefit, but also because I need to pack!):

It's official: I'm TEFL certified!!! After a month of super intensive training, I've received certification in Teaching English as a Foreign Language!
I taught Chinese kids for the first time on Wednesday (part of our practicum)! They weren't my actual students, so I was told it didn't matter too much if my lesson was a complete failure and I traumatized the kids, since I'd never see them again! It was such an incredible experience and it made me even more excited to get to my school and start teaching my real students! (My lesson involved a puppet- it was pretty stellar.)
I went to a legit Pizza Hut on Thursday, and it's so different from the States! Pizza Hut here is actually a fine dining experience, where people dress up, using your hands to eat is super offensive, they sell champagne and bread pudding, everything is ridiculously expensive (by China standards), they put weird stuff on the pizzas, they use actual utensils instead of chopsticks, and they actually serve ice water (they don't do that here- they only serve boiled water)!
On Friday, our organization held a send-off ceremony for us. It was such a meaningful night, and was the perfect way to end training and begin this new section of our journeys. I'd love to tell you more about it via Skype (rachel.mauck87)!
We were finally able to put all of that "cultural etiquette" training to good use tonight; we had an impromptu dinner with our school's Foreign Affairs Officer and he's awesome! He's the guy that's in charge of us, so it was incredibly important that we made a good impression- which we did!
I leave in less than 7 hours to head to Taiyuan! I can't wait to finally get to my placement, settle in at my school, find out what grades I'll be teaching, and meet my students!! I'm so excited that I don't even know if I'll be able to sleep- I've been waiting for this for the past 9ish months since I committed with this organization! Once we get settled in I'll let you know all about my new home!

Chinglish and Surprises

2011-08-19T22:55:00.002+08:00

On Saturday (8/13), some of us went to the Beijing Zoo, where we saw the cutest baby giant pandas! We found a Chinglish example (many more to come) at the Beijing Zoo that perfectly demonstrates why we're here teaching English:

"Lift me up & you will know how weight I am!"

Then we went to this marketplace that had multiple floors with dozens of rows of wholesale clothing and accessories (it took us 1.5 hours to get through 1 row); it was the size of a mall, but filled with clothing that cost less than 100 Yuan (about $15)! It was pretty ridiculous- and most women's dreams come true. After that, we went to Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was absolutely breathtaking! It was built in 1406; 24 emperors ruled the country from it; and it's comprised of 19 palaces and 15 halls with over 9,000 rooms! China has so many amazing natural and man-made landmarks- if you ever get the opportunity to come here, definitely take it!

On Tuesday we found out that in order to work here we had to take/pass a residency-type test... the next day. SURPRISE!!! So we all basically had a 24-hour panic attack about that. But China is full of surprises, and I'm quickly learning to give up on being a control freak! On Wednesday, an official came and trained us on all things China; right after training, we took the test, and guess what?? WE ALL PASSED!! Yay for being allowed to stay and work here :-) Wouldn't that have been fun to explain to all of my supporters? "Uh... I went to China, but then I failed an exam in week 3 and couldn't stay.. so I'm back!" But thankfully that isn't going to happen... because, guess what?! This picture perfectly describes my feelings about this place:

I love China!!!

It's not bad, it's just different.

2011-08-15T21:08:00.000+08:00

Every hour of every day in Beijing brings a totally new experience! I literally can't take a single step outside without already having a dozen questions about what's in front of me. For instance, while walking around the city yesterday we noticed that people were burning little piles of something on the streets. I learned that yesterday was the Lunar Calendar Ghost Festival; to celebrate, people burn money on the streets as a means of sending it to their dead ancestors. There's so much about this amazing place that I don't get, but that's ok! As everyone keeps telling us, "It's not bad, it's just different."

We're taking all of these cultural training courses to learn about different facets of China and Chinese life and there's SO much to learn! One of our professors has a description about China entitled "Theory of the Three Ambiguities: 1) Nothing is as it seems; 2) Plans can't keep up with changes; and 3) If you're not confused you're not paying attention." She's so right!

One of the most confusing facets is the language! Mandarin Chinese is the hardest language in the world to learn! There are over 40,000 characters! The word "yu" has 235 entirely different meanings mostly depending on the character, context and sentence structure. Then there are the 4.5 different intonations, which create entirely different meanings depending on the way you pronounce each word! Here's a fun example: ma= question marker; mā= mother; má= numb; mă= horse; mà=scold. SO mā mà má mă ma= "Is mother scolding the numb horse?" How cool is that?!

I'm now able to hold a very basic introductory conversation, ask for directions, order food, discuss proficiency of English and Mandarin languages, haggle with yuan currency, and count up to 99 all in Mandarin! BUT I still can't get myself out of tricky situations. I had my first, "Oh my goodness- I'm in CHINA" moment yesterday while shopping. I was purchasing a hair straightener (because this weather is doing some pretty amusing things to my hair) and when I got up to the cashier, she opened the box and the straightener wasn't in it. She began questioning me about it and called over 2 other staff people and they started questioning/pointing/raising their voices; I finally figured out that they thought I'd taken it! Obviously, I don't speak enough Mandarin to have any idea what they were saying, so I was terrified! I seriously started having visions of being on that show "Locked Up Abroad"! Thankfully, my team leader is fairly fluent and was able to come over and explain the situation (I'd accidentally grabbed the "sample" box) after about 20 minutes; but what would I have done without her there?

What's interesting is that all of the cultural and moral differences, immense confusion and frustrations, scary situations... it all makes me love this place and these people even more. He keeps making it more and more apparent that this is exactly where He wants me. I haven't really had time to reflect on what that really means, but I know it's profound, and I know it's something that some people spend their whole lives searching for...a Calling, a purpose. He's given me this incredible opportunity, and I don't know how long He'll use me here (it could be just this year or for the next 50 years), but I do know this is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing and exactly where I'm supposed to be right now. I'm so unbelievably thrilled about that!