Saying goodbye at the airport. Dad, Me, Kirk, Mom
Most of the China team. Me, Kirk, Daniel, Gavin, Rebecca, Sally, Kelly
Zhong Relations Founders. Adam and Rebecca Carpenter
My first Chinese meal. Rebecca, Me, Cory
Returning from shopping with our new friends. Kirk, Bubbly, Daniel, Rebecca, Katrina
Hi everyone. A TON has happened since my last posting, so I will try to fill you in as much as possible without boring you! If you want to know more, please e-mail me (rmathews10@yahoo.com). A teammate and I were just talking about how much we look forward to checking our e-mail to see if we’ve received anything from friends back home. Well, here’s a brief story about moving to the other side of the world…
Kirk Ransom (my college friend who decided to go with me on this trip) and his family drove up to Michigan last Tuesday night. We hung out, and finished packing for our trip to Los Angeles the next day. We flew from Detroit to Atlanta, then Atlanta to LA. During the trip, I got to hang out with Joe, one of my high school buddies who is a flight attendant for Delta. Since he was flying from Atlanta to LA, we got to hang out with him during our layover in Atlanta, and then he was waiting for us as we got off our plane in LA!
At training, I met most of the Zhong Relations group. Two would be flying to China separately. These few days of training with my team were a great experience, and a lot of my concerns (especially about teaching English to Chinese students) were eased. Our first flight on Saturday was the big one (LAX to Shanghai, about 12 hours)! It was delayed about 2 hours, so we knew making our connecting flight to Wuhan would be close. As soon as we landed, we made a bee-line for our next flight. We made it with 10 minutes to spare…..only to discover that our plane hadn’t even arrived at the airport yet….and they didn’t know when it was supposed to get in. We’d only been here for a half hour, and we’d already had our first TIC (This Is China) moment! Our plane finally showed up, and we arrived at the Wuhan airport at 12:30am Monday morning. It was a very long trip, and I am not looking forward to doing it again in 10 months!
Our first week in China has been fun. We start teaching this week, so the first few days have mostly been spent figuring our way around town, getting settled into our apartments, and meeting the school administrators and teachers we’ll be working with.
Here’s a few highlights:
- We hung out at a C coffee shop called Mr. Mai’s. I will probably be spending a lot of time here. A lot of Chinese students go here to work on English because they know foreigners will be here to practice with. It’s pretty funny because I feel like a celebrity when I walk in. We get flocked by students who want to talk with us. This will be a great opportunity to reach out to students. It’s a blast, but it can be VERY tiring as we try to communicate with them in their limited English.
- We’ve met with our head teacher, Dominic and our waiban, Peggy. Dominic is in charge of the schools’ foreign teachers. As the head teacher, I will be having regular meetings with him to discuss what is and isn’t working in the classroom. Peggy is the liaison between us and the school. If we have any questions or concerns, she’ll be the person we contact.
- Shopping was a blast the first time! We went to the our district’s Wal-Mart-like store called Carrefour. All the locals were staring at us as some Chinese friends we had just met were guiding as around the store. It was packed, and the lines were very long!
- Traffic is INSANE here. Basically, there are no rules. No one stays in their lanes, red lights are suggestions, and pedestrians will just walk out in the road whenever they feel like it. It makes taxi rides and crossing the street a lot of fun! Because of the craziness, everyone drives a little slower, so there are actually very few accidents. Especially when you consider that this is a city of 10-12 million people!
- Every Saturday, we will go to fellowship with brothers and sisters on the other side of the city. Chinese citizens are not allowed to attend as they have to attend the national Three Self fellowship. The first meeting I went to was a great experience. I loved singing and learning about the Father with other English speakers. For awhile, I forgot I was even in China!
- I have drastically improved with chopsticks. I was TERRIBLE the first few days, but now I can manage and know that I won’t starve while I’m here! While I do get sick of the food sometimes, it is very good. If you like stir-fry, China is the place to be!
A lot more has happened my first week in China, but hopefully this gives you a little feel about my time here so far. Thanks for following this and even more for lifting me up!
Rudy loves it when I come home. I let him sleep on the bed with me.
