Ryan Mathews: Superstar

A picture of the Wuhan No. 1 High School foreign teachers.
Me, Cory, Mandi, Steve, Rebecca, Kirk, and Daniel

Hey everyone! It's been an interesting past couple of weeks.

As far as teaching, it's been a little crazy. Last week was Mid-Autumn Festival (think Thanksgiving) and tomorrow is National Day (think July 4th) in China. Holidays are usually a good thing because you get a break from work or school. Not so here! We do get a few days off, but we have to make up those days on the weekends. Because of Mid-Autumn Festival, I actually had to work more days than I would have if there hadn't been a holiday! At least our Huangshi team was able to visit us in Wuhan for an American cookout on one of our days off. Hamburgers taste even better when you can't eat them as often!

Today started our 6 day break for National Day, but we'll have to work the following weekend. All in all, it's not terrible. It's just that I'm a routine-oriented person who can't get into a routine for about a month! However, I am looking forward to relaxing and traveling around Wuhan these next few days. Should be fun.

On top of the weird weekend workdays, the school decided to change the class schedules because of some government reforms, which messed up most of our class times! Needless to say, I'm looking forward to getting this all worked out so I can just focus on teaching!

Now that I've vented a little of my frustrations, the fun parts of the past few days here:

Our group has gotten a little media attention as of late! The nearby coffee shop, Mr. Mai's, had its 7th year anniversary. At last year's program, Taylor, Kirk, Daniel, and I dressed up as girls and danced to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." It went over pretty well, so they asked Kirk, Daniel, and I to do something again this year. We were struggling to come up with an idea, then Lara (Cory's chinese wife) showed us a song/dance called "Nobody" by a Korean group called the Wonder Girls. Here's a link if you want to see a little of their famous song (http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjA2ODQ3MzAw.html) It's HUGE in Asia! We decided it would be fun to give it a shot. The crowd LOVED seeing some foreigners trying to pull this off. Some person we don't even know recorded it and posted it on a Chinese video site. As of now, it's been viewed over 16,000 times! That may not be a lot by internet standards, but it's about 15,550 more than I would have guessed!

Mandi recorded the dance with my camera, and I've posted that to the end of this update. Here's the link to the "famous" internet video if you're having trouble watching that. (http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/hlcY8xrNa1g/)

Three days after that, a TV news crew came to Mr. Mai's to see how foreigners celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival. Since we don't, we pretty much just did what they told us to do! Ate mooncakes (a traditional Chinese snack), sang Chinese songs, and recited Chinese poems. If you want to see the news clip, you can see it on my facebook page. I get a little more face time on there!

I'll end with a few pryr requests. I had a phone interview with Teach for America a few days ago. It's a program that sends teachers to low-income areas around the country. I still have no set plans, but this will probably be my last year in China. If/when I return to the states, I'm starting to think that I would like to be a teacher. This would be a fantastic opportunity if I get it. I find out if I advance to the next stage in a week. If I do, I have to fly back to America, possibly in mid-October which could cost quite a bit!

Also, my uncle who I have mentioned a few times on here is getting weaker from the cancer. He may not be here much longer. Be thinking of him and his family. It's sad and frustrating, but it's also great to have our hope in J no matter what happens in this life. He will be going home soon.

That's all for now. Have a great weekend!

Back in business

Hey everyone. Here's another update. I'll try to keep short and sweet!

Obviously, a lot has gone on during my first few weeks back. The good thing is, I feel so much more comfortable this year. Just like anything, the second time around is much smoother. Wuhan does feel a little like home. I know a lot of the teachers, administration, students, as well as my way around town. I can already tell that this year is going to be a lot of fun.

The first week of classes was frustrating, and not at all because of the teaching. There is an argument going on between the administration and the Senior 2 International teachers (a department that Kirk, Daniel, and I teach for). The school would like us to teach these students twice a week. The teachers always want as much time as possible with their students to get them ready for exams. As I mentioned last year, exams in China mean everything! The three of us talked to both sides, but couldn't get an answer. They were telling us that the scheduling department would fix it all. However, they were also telling us that we were going to teach classes during times we were already teaching! It was frustrating because we knew the only two ways it could be solved, but no one would listen to us. After this continued for a few days, Peggy (our waiban) told us that we would just teach once a week but it would be worked out later. For now, our schedules are set. Now, I just hope it stays that way! I like my current schedule except for Wednesdays when I teach 5 classes (almost 300 students). My voice will be shot every Wednesday night!

I think I have told quite a few people, but I am planning on running the Shanghai Marathon in December. I hate missing the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon when I am away, so I wanted to find another race that would keep me running this year. I'm excited, but a little nervous as well. I've ran a marathon before, but never trained in such terrible air. I hope I don't get sick too often! Last week, I had to get a physical to show that I was able to run. Cheryl, a doctor who attends our fellowship, was able to help Kirk, Rebecca, and I out. Kirk and Rebecca are running the half-marathon. It'll be fun to travel with them and a few others from our fellowship. We are now officially registered. We just have to train!

I love running, and I thought this would give me a great opportunity to run in some new areas around our apartment to find out what's around. It was pretty amazing to run back to where I thought there was very little and find dozens of colleges and thousands of people! Last Saturday, I got lost and couldn't find the road I was looking for. I tried to ask people for directions because I knew I was close, but they couldn't explain it to me or didn't know either. I had ran about 9 miles, and I just wanted to get home! I didn't have any money for a bus or taxi. I was about to give up and try to explain to a taxi driver that I would pay him if I could run up to my apartment. Right as I started looking for taxis, a car pulls up next to me. It was one of my Chinese friends, David! I couldn't believe I ran into one of my friends in a city of 8 million people! He had just bought a new car and was practicing driving! He offered to drive me home, which was great. I also learned I wasn't really lost. The name of the road was different in that area, I just didn't know it.

Teacher's Day was last week. In China, Teacher's Day is a pretty big deal. Students will give their teachers cards and gifts. There is also an assembly to honor everyone. Plus, we get a bonus in a traditional Chinese red envelope. The assembly is extremely boring, even for the teachers who speak Chinese! But the bonus is worth the two hours!

I think that is pretty much everything from my end. Kirk, Daniel and I are preparing a dance for the Mr. Mai's anniversary. If you YouTube the song "Nobody" by the Wonder Girls, that's the dance we're going to TRY to do! It's extremely popular over here. It should be interesting...

That was easy.

Be honest. You're happy right now. You're ecstatic! The single most informative and entertaining piece of reading in your life is back. Maybe not, but I still hope you enjoy Skinny White Kid round two!

This year, Zhong Relations training was in Spring Arbor which was fun. I was able to stay home for a few more days and my family was able to meet most of the team, which is up to about 15 people this year. My school has the same group: Me, Kirk, Daniel, Cory, Rebecca, plus a new teacher Mandi, who is from Louisiana. I think we're all going to work well together, so I'm excited for this year. I hope to get a picture of the group up soon.

Training went well. It was strange to be one of the "experts" this year. Last year, I had no clue what to expect. I knew that some of the new teachers were feeling that way this year, so all the returning teachers tried to prepare them the best we could.

Our trip from Detroit to Wuhan was smooth and problem free. Psych! Here is a chronological list of "highlights" of our trip from Detroit to Chicago to Los Angeles to Shanghai to Wuhan.

- A few days before the trip, we learn that our flight from Shanghai to Wuhan had been changed. We were supposed to transfer airports in Shanghai. The airline never told us. Rebecca was double-checking and found this out. We were able to get a solution figured out for everyone except Kirk and me. The two of us flew back to America on Air China, so we had a ticket code under them. However, our flight back was on China Eastern. Both airlines were saying they couldn't fix it because it wasn't their flight or it wasn't their ticket code. We just decided to try to argue our way onto a flight once we got to Shanghai.

- We arrived to DTW airport at 3:00am. If you want to meet some strange people, try this sometime.

- We had no problem with our layover in Chicago. Landed in LA on time.

- Our flight from LA to Shanghai was our first China Eastern flight. We decided to try to argue with the airline there instead of Shanghai since they speak English. As we were doing this, we realized that at that time, all of our flights were messed up, not just Kirk and mine! We would have to change airports in Shanghai. With all of our luggage. During the world expo!

- We knew it was very possible that we would miss our flight while transferring airports besides the fact that we paid for tickets out of the same airport. We argued for about 30 minutes. All the while our departure time from LA was getting closer and closer. The China Eastern workers were saying there were absolutely no flights out of the same airport they could transfer us to. We were pretty sure that wasn't true at all, so we refused to go away.

- Finally, one of them (from out of nowhere) said "Okay, we have it fixed. We have you on a flight you want from Shanghai to Wuhan." We were ecstatic, but this new flight gave us only an hour to land, go through customs and security, and board. The workers made sure our luggage would go straight to Wuhan since we wouldn't have time to get them in Shanghai. Plus, they would have a worker waiting for us in Shanghai to guide us through everything quickly. We were pumped! From here on out, no more problems. Smooth sailing. And it was just like that....only the exact opposite.

- We arrived in Shanghai after a 14 hour flight. No worker there to escort us. We waited for a few minutes, then decided that we would have to go it alone. Just in case, we decided to check to see if our luggage had been unloaded here. We were hoping to find all of it (to transfer it to Wuhan ourselves) or none of it (meaning it had been transferred straight to Wuhan). We found exactly half of our bags. Awesome! We just had to hope that the other half were going straight to Wuhan and re-check the other half.

- We busted our butts through bag check and security to make it to our terminal a little before our boarding time.

- We boarded our flight in Shanghai at about 7:00pm . We were almost there. We would arrive in Wuhan at about 8:30pm. Or not. Our plane sat on the runway for almost four and a half hours before taking off! We never found out for sure, but we think it had to do with lightning.

- At about 1:00am on August 27th, we landed in Wuhan....and found all of our luggage! If this year is anything like that trip, it's going to be crazy.

We've been in Wuhan for about a week. It's been similar to last year so far. Getting our schedules figured out, finding an office, cleaning my VERY dirty and moldy apartment. I finally feel settled in and ready to start classes on Monday. I will be teaching most of my same students from last year which is really cool.

Looking forward to the new year and what it could bring!

On a side note, please keep thinking of my uncle Tom whom I mentioned last year. He is still fighting brain cancer and just received some more bad news recently. Thanks!