Hanging out

Hello again everyone. The weather has continued to warm up, and I don't think I've ever been so happy because of it. I think the cold has officially passed, so it will rarely drop below 60 degrees during the day anymore!

The past two weeks have been a great time of hanging out with some of my Chinese students and friends outside of our usual spots (class or Mr. Mai's).

Last Saturday, the 17th, the foreign teachers were invited to a picnic with some of the Senior 1 International students and teachers. Our Sr 1 International classes are a little different than the rest of our classes. We teach them once a week for an hour instead of 40 minutes. It's kind of an extra class, so we don't follow the textbook. At the beginning of the year, I thought this would be my favorite class to teach. With no textbook, I could do whatever I wanted for lessons and make them as fun as possible. I was completely wrong! With no textbook, I've had no guidance for lesson planning. Also, the international students are a little different than the general ones. Wuhan No. 1 is one of the top schools in the country, so many students want to go there. From what I've learned, the international students are mostly here because their parents pay to have them attend, not because of their grades. Some of the students are great, but a lot of them seem to be very spoiled, and don't want to do ANYTHING in class. It's turned out to be the one (and only) class that I dread teaching each week.

I wasn't too excited about getting up early on a Saturday to hang out with some of these students, but it actually turned out to be a pretty good day. We went to Forest Park which isn't far from our school. I've been there once before with Molly and her daughter. My favorite place is Monkey Hill. There are dozens of monkeys (and a few random dogs) running free all over the place. It was hilarious to feed them, watch them fight, and watch the students nervously approach them. After that, we barbecued Chinese style. No hamburgers. Chicken, pork, eggplant, potatoes, corn, tofu, and lots of other things. Chinese barbecue is completely different, but VERY good! Hanging out with my students outside of class has seemed to help in class as well. Ever since then, my class has been a little more active in class. Now I just hope it can last for two more months!

The next day, I went to a Chinese "gathering" with Jesse. You may remember that I gave Jesse a Book a few months ago. I don't think he has been reading it a lot, but I can tell that he's interested in learning about Him. He actually texted me about going, which was surprising. I think he had a good time. The entire service was in Chinese, so I didn't really understand anything, but he was asking me questions about the "Book Stories" the pastor was talking about. He mentioned that he would like us to go again with his friend CiCi, so hopefully we'll be going another time soon.

Kirk, Daniel, and I hung out with Patrick this past Saturday (the 24th). Patrick is a college student I've been getting to know quite a bit at Mr. Mai's. His English is really good, which is always nice! He knows phrases that I've never heard other Chinese people use. He asked if I wanted to hang out his one off day that week. We decided to go to the Hubei Musem. Hubei is the province that Wuhan is in. Patrick had been there before, so he helped us get there and showed us around. After that, we had jaozi (dumplings), my new favorite Chinese food! It was another good time, and I could tell Patrick enjoyed it a lot as well. I feel like many younger Chinese people have a lot of fun hanging out with us. I think some of the reason is because the older generation is still very traditional. I think the younger generation likes to just hang out, not having to toast others or worry about face (sort of like status or reputation).

That's what I've been up to lately. Be thinking of my decision for next year. I will need to decide if I will return to Wuhan No. 1 pretty soon, probably by my next post. When I came here, I was pretty set on staying only one year. However, after getting to know so many people, it's hard to see myself leaving this place for good in two months!

TIC (This Is China)

Karen and I at the reception. Not sure what we're laughing at!

Cory and Lara with her parents at the "Bride Pick-Up"

For people who have lived in China, you've probably heard this phrase before. TIC would be the best description of my last few weeks here. Different...funny....kind of weird.....and fun!

Last Saturday (Apr. 3), Cory and Lara had their wedding. It was fun to be a part of such a mixed-tradition experience. In Chinese culture, the groom has to drive to the bride's home and pick up the bride to take her to the reception. The bride is hiding in a room. The man and his groomsmen have to get through her bridesmaids as they have lots of different challenges: answering questions, singing songs, doing push-ups, giving money, etc. Lara's hometown is an hour and a half away from Wuhan. We were supposed to leave at 7:30am to pick her up. We didn't end up leaving until after 9am, and traffic was terrible on top of that! Because we had to hurry back for the ceremony (and because we were a group of foreigners!), the bridesmaids went easy on Cory. He only had to pass out a few money envelopes, answer some questions about Lara, and then we all sang a Backstreet Boys song outside Lara's bedroom door to convince her to let him in.

After that, we headed back to Wuhan for the American-style wedding ceremony and Chinese reception. It was a learning experience for everyone there. We got to see a Chinese wedding reception, and they witnessed a wedding ceremony. Chinese weddings just consist of the bride pick-up and a reception. After that, Cory, Lara, and Cory's family headed off for a family vacation around China.

Kirk, Rebecca, Adam, Ben, and I were invited by Lily (a Chinese friend) to go to the park to fly kites the next day. I received a kite for my birthday from a Chinese friend, so I decided to give it a try. We decided to bring a football and frisbee "just in case." I'm glad we did. As we were putting my kite together, we realized that it was missing some pieces. It was still flyable, but barely! I think Kirk had it up in the air for awhile once. Most of the other attempts ended with us trying to get it untangled from a tree.

Since the kite wasn't working too well, we decided to start throwing the football and frisbee around. Foreigners will attract a crowd any time, but foreigners playing games they haven't seen very often will attract big crowds, and kids who want to play as well! It was fun teaching them how to throw, but it's easy to see why Chinese kids are often called "Little Emperors." They don't like to share, and they love to push and shove others to get what they want. We played catch with them for awhile, and then decided it was time to head home before one of the kids hurt each other!

Last Friday, Molly (Chinese teacher) invited Kirk and I to go to a golf driving range with her 6 year-old daughter (Shirley) and her friend (Winnie). I've done a few things with them now. I love talking to Shirley and Winnie. They can both speak a little English, and they're actually two of the best people for me to learn Chinese from! I can ask them to repeat the same word over and over and they never get impatient with me like most Chinese. It seems like most adults think that I should understand them after they speak once at their normal speed!

We arrived to the driving range, and the workers immediately greeted us and were excited to teach us how to hit a golf ball. They didn't realize that Kirk and I had been playing golf longer than them. We stepped up to hit our first balls, and a lady with high heels was trying to tell us to keep our heads down, spread our feet apart, etc. We tried to listen nicely, and then both hit our balls 200 yards or so. She looked at us and said, "Oh, you guys have played before." It was pretty funny. After that, they tried to sell us a membership to the range. I like to play golf, but I'm not paying to be a member at a driving range!

After golf, we went out to eat with Molly and the girls. We went to a pseudo-Western style buffet that was pretty good. I'm glad I've been able to do some things outside of the office with Molly. She's a little more "traditional" Chinese. I've been sharing an office with her this whole year, and I feel like just the last month or so she's finally started to relax around me and the other teachers.

That's all for now. Hope you're doing well!

The longest birthday I've ever had...

The birthday crew

Hello again everyone. A lot has happened since my last post, so I'll try to catch you up as much as possible!

Last week, I was about to leave my office when Molly (a Chinese English teacher) asked if I wanted to sit in on a class that she was about to teach. It's an extra class for students who are really interested in English. Quite a few of my students are in it, so I thought it would be fun to visit with them. Molly was subbing for another teacher, so I thought she just wanted me to come, so she could look good in front of the students that didn't know her. Even though the students are used to having us around. There's a "buzz" when we walk into a new class.

I sat down in the front row to watch. Then, just before the bell rung, Molly said "How about I teach the listening section and you do the speaking section?" In the past, this would have terrified me. After living here, I'm used to these surprises. Now I'm just nervous instead of terrified! I asked her a few questions about what she wanted me to teach, since I had no idea. It didn't seem too difficult, so I winged it for about 20 minutes. It went okay, and I think the students enjoyed being surprised by a foreigner.

I've really enjoyed getting to know some of my students better over the past few weeks. At the beginning of the year, most students were excited to listen to me, but scared to come talk with me. The last few weeks, I've had the chance to talk with some students about different issues.

Two girls, Sara and Leah, visited me in my office one day to talk about the politics and history of Tibet for a school project. This is a VERY touchy subject here, so I was nervous. I don't know a lot about this topic, and I didn't want to offend them. However, they were very interested in hearing what people outside of China thought. It was a great discussion, and they were very willing to discuss China's positives and negatives.

I also recently had a good conversation with Daisy, a student who is concerned with her weight. You probably already know, but Chinese people are extremely thin overall. It makes me feel at home! :) Daisy was telling me that she skipped meals quite a bit because she wanted to lose about 20 pounds! She is not big at all, but since she's not as naturally skinny as other girls, she said that some people were making fun of her for being fat. I told her to ignore those people and that skipping meals wasn't healthy. We've talked a lot on QQ (Chinese Facebook), and she really enjoys those times. I think she respects me quite a bit, so I'm hoping I can use that to influence her in a good way. I'm going to continue checking up on her over the next few months.

With Easter coming up, we have been able to talk about the real meaning of this holiday with our classes. It can be frustrating trying to communicate this story to students with the cultural and language barriers, but I do think most of them understand a little more about JC's life.

Grade 1 is having a basketball tournament, and I've been a "celebrity" spectator. Last Friday, I went out to watch, and just about every single one of my classes was playing. Most were playing each other. Each class was trying to persuade me to cheer for them over the others. It's fun to watch the students relax and have fun, even if the basketball is terrible. And I can't emphasize that enough: Most of them are awful! But they do play hard!

On Sunday, I turned 26 years old. I'm still not sure what is more weird: That I'm 26 or that I live in China. Ben, a foreign teacher at another school has the same birthday as me. Since we know most of the same people, we had a co-birthday party. First, we went to Papa John's for some pizza, which never gets old! Then we watched "Alice in Wonderland" in English at the movie theater. I thought the movie was pretty good. But I hardly ever get to see movies in the theater in English, so I might be biased!

With the 12-hour time difference, I had a 36-hour birthday. 12 in China only, 12 in both countries, and 12 in America! We also celebrated our birthday on Saturday instead of Sunday, so it felt like my birthday was all weekend, which is pretty cool I guess!

That's what I've been up to recently. Adam Carpenter arrived last night. We had lunch with him, and he sat in on one of my classes this afternoon. It's always good to see a friend from America. I'm looking forward to having him hang out with us this weekend.

Saturday is Cory and Lara's wedding. I think I'm going to be some kind of groomsmen. It's going to be a mix of American and Chinese traditions. I don't really know what to expect. All I know is that I might have to sing and do push-ups to help Cory get Lara out of the house and to the wedding. Needless to say, it'll be interesting....

That's all for now. Go Butler!