Hospital Round 2

A wanted sign at my school of the Wuhan bomber.

Peggy helping the doctor apply Rebecca's cast.

As I mentioned in my last post, I went to a Chinese hospital a few weeks ago to get eight stitches in my lip from playing football. With this being my third year in China, and just the first visit to a hospital by anyone on our team, I was expecting us to be done with those trips for the year. I thought wrong!

We didn't have internet in our homes for much of this past week, so we've been in our offices quite a bit. This past Sunday night, Mandi and I were hanging out in my office getting caught up on e-mails when my phone rang. I answered, and it was Rebecca: "I think my ankle's broken."

"What!!??" I responded. Then she explained to me that she had been rollerblading at the school. One of her wheels got caught on a rock and twisted her ankle. She had somehow made it back to her room to call me. By the time me and Mandi made it back, her adrenaline had worn off and she could barely stand on it.

After a semi-crazy time of calling Chinese friends, getting Rebecca down the stairs, and hailing a taxi, Mandi, Rebecca, and I were off to the hospital for x-rays. Peggy (our boss/culture assistant) called and told us to pick her up along the way. As expected, the visit was different and much longer than it should have been. The hospital, which is supposed to specialize in bone injuries had no crutches or wheelchairs! I piggy-backed Rebecca from the taxi to the waiting area. The rest of the time Mandi and I pushed her around on a gurney.

The x-rays showed she had broken her ankle in 3 places. She won't have to get surgery, but she will have to be in a cast for 6-8 weeks. I know she's frustrated about it since she can't teach for awhile and it could also affect her winter break travel plans, but she has had a great attitude throughout the whole process.

If you've been following the news, you might have heard there was a small bomb that went off in Wuhan recently. It's actually very close to our house. It killed a couple people and injured a few more. I've attached some stories about it on my "China articles" page if you're interested to learn more.

For those of you who know my sports interests, you know I had a GREAT weekend recently as well as a very long night. Indiana University (my college basketball team) was playing the University of Kentucky (the evil empire of college basketball). I was planning on waking up Sunday morning my time to watch it through the internet. However, two of my teammates (Melodie and Kirk) also wanted to watch their teams play that night. Melodie's football team (Sam Houston State) was playing in the I-AA playoffs at 1am. Kirk's basketball team (Ohio State) was playing Kansas at 4am, then my game was on at 6:30am. The three of us had an all-night ESPN marathon in Mandi's office since we didn't have internet at home. Melodie's team won. Kirk's team lost, but played well without their best player. And the best part of the night, was IU's 3-pointer at the buzzer to knock of the number 1 team in the country!

Other than that, there's not a whole lot else to write about right now. As usual, we have quite a few Christmas and New Year's performances to prepare for. Fortunately, it'll be a lot less than last year!

Have a great Christmas everyone!

Matthew 1:23

Thanksgiving and Lips...

Our day of Thanksgiving meal was McDonald's. The manager didn't want us to take a picture so I'm looking out for him!

Getting my antibiotic shot after the stitches.

Fun times.

Some of my students during the Lip Dub competition.

Hanging out with friends. We got rained out of our tennis match.

Post-surgery.

Pre-surgery

Mandi, Chelsie, Sophia, Becca, and Rebecca at Aloha's Thanksgiving.

The past two weeks have had two themes. Thanksgiving and lips.

A week and a half ago (Nov 19), our fellowship celebrated an early Thanksgiving with a potluck. Everyone brought a dish or two. We had all kinds of traditional Thanksgiving foods, which is very rare in China. Thanksgiving is the only time all year I'll get anywhere close to turkey, pumpkin pie, and stuffing (my personal favorite). After the amazing meal, quite a few of us walked to a nearby field to play some touch football.

I was playing quarterback for a lot of the game. Towards the end of the game, one of our Australian friends (Dan) was rushing me for a sack. I barely avoided him and threw a long pass for a touchdown (just letting you know!!). However, when he jumped up to block the pass, he accidentally elbowed me on the right side of my lower lip. It didn't really hurt, but I could tell that it was probably bleeding. I asked Dan, and he said it was...a lot! Before I knew it, I had blood all over my clothes and hands!

There's a lady in our fellowship (Cheryl) who is a doctor, so a few people walked back with me to see her. Cheryl looked at it and said what I was expecting: I would need stitches. I had bitten my lip with my upper and lower teeth in different places. It was pretty nasty.

Stitches don't make me nervous, but going to a Chinese hospital for any reason scares me! I'd heard a few horror stories, and never wanted to visit one! Cheryl didn't have her equipment with her, so I'd have to take the risk! Rebecca, Mandi, and one of our Chinese friends (Rachel) took a taxi to the closest hospital that Cheryl recommended.

The entire experience was pretty hectic. We walked around to a few different buildings trying to find the right place to go. When we finally did find the correct, I was immediately taken in to see the doctor. Mandi was my translator while Rebecca and Rachel went off to get me registered. All three were a huge help. I felt like I had three secretaries with me!

I think the surgery took longer than the doctor expected. The anesthesia wore off before he was finished. The last few stitches felt like he was trying to rip my lip off! He told me that it was a little difficult to fix because it wasn't a normal cut. He had trouble finding parts of my lip to sew together! I ended up with 7 stitches.

After that, I was going to have to get an IV (you almost ALWAYS have to get one if you go to a hospital here) to fight off infection. I really didn't want to, but we called Cheryl and she said it would probably be a good idea. But before I could take it, I had to take a skin test to make sure I wouldn't be allergic to it. I failed the skin test, so we then had to take a taxi to another hospital to get a shot instead of the IV! We finally made it to that hospital and I got my shot (in the lower regions if you know what I mean). We were finally ready to head back. The whole experience took 3-4 hours. It was a long night! Thanks to Dan, Cheryl, Rebecca, Mandi, and Rachel for all their help that night. I got the stitches off a week later, and my lip is almost completely back to normal. The doctor did a really good job.

Earlier that week, Mandi, Rebecca, and I were the judges for (ironically) a lip dub competition. All the classes in Senior 2 played a clip of a movie and replaced the actual sound with their voices. It was live, not recorded. It was fun to be a part of, just a little long. There are 30 classes in that grade! Plus, there were about 6 groups who did the same clip from Monsters, Inc. The whole competition took about 3 hours.

We celebrated our 2nd Thanksgiving this past Saturday at Aloha (an American restaurant we frequently visit on the other side of Wuhan). It was all you could eat of turkey, stuffing, biscuits, and pie. Needless to say, I had my share of Thanksgiving food this year!

While we were over on that side of Wuhan, we had an amazing time of pryr and wrship with members of our Zhong team who live there. Paul J is very excited about the HS, and he enjoys teaching us about Him.

I've also had some great opportunities to share with my students. I gave some Books to two of them who had asked me where they could get one. Plus, another class that I teach has students who are doing an English project on the New Testament. Their teacher knows I am a C, so she asked me to meet with them once a week so they can ask me questions. Please be thinking of these students as well as me over these next few weeks!

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

Isaiah 49:8

2 weeks off!

High school reunion with Kirk in Beijing!

The cover of my soon to be released rap album...

This is who I was dressed up as. Unfortunately, you can't see all of Kevin's tattoos!

Nathan's first China train.

Kirk, Nathan, and I at the Great Wall.

The LSU fan club in Wuhan! Lesley and Camille are in the front wearing purple.

Hey everyone. Hope you're all doing well. My last few weeks have been great. I had two weeks off!

During the week of Oct. 24, Senior 2 students went on a field trip. They call it social practice. Basically, they go hiking, sleep in a barn, and visit different places (army base, farms, prison). I've asked some people questions about it, but I can never get too much information from them. I think it's mostly an opportunity for the students to see people who live very different lifestyles from them. They usually like doing this because they don't have homework for a week. I can't blame them!

The very next week, my students had mid-term exams. Because we have so many students (about 500), the Chinese English teachers give these to the students. While I had a lot of time off, there wasn't too much time to relax. I almost felt more busy with traveling and running errands than I usually do! However, I had a LOT of fun.

We spent both weekends hanging out with the other teachers from Huangshi. The first weekend was at their place. We had a Halloween/dance party one night. We all dressed up, learned The Wobble, and watched The Nightmare before Christmas. I dressed up as another member of our team (Kevin) who has a lot of tattoos. I still have some temporary ones that I haven't been able to get off yet!

The next weekend, the Huangshi group came to Wuhan. Two of the girls (Camille and Lesley) went to Lousiana State University and are die-hard football fans. If you don't know them, think of me with IU! They wanted to watch the LSU-Alabama game. I was excited to watch a big game with some fans, and a bunch of our other teammates joined us too. I had about 12 people crammed into my small living room cheering on the Tigers. I was mostly rooting against Nick Saban! LSU pulled it out in an exciting boring game (you know what I mean if you watched it).

During both weekends, we had a great time of fellowship. We talked, sang, pryed, and studied the Book. Our team continues to amaze me with its unity and desire to know the Father more. I've really enjoyed getting to know Him better through them.

Kirk Ransom, Nathan, and I also went to Beijing for a few days. Kirk and I have been there a few times, but Nathan had not, and we all wanted to get away from Wuhan for a few days. I think this was my 4th time to visit. I really love the capital city. It feels like my 2nd China home. We were also able to visit one of my high school friends who teaches there and who is also named Kirk (Lacy). I was able to meet some of his students and sit in one one of his classes for a little bit. When we used to play backyard football in middle school, I never imagined I'd later be sitting in on his class on the other side of the world!

My first year of teaching here, I shared an office with a Chinese English teacher named Molly. Kirk and I have gotten to know her and her family pretty well. They just moved into a new home, so they invited us over for dinner. They have a really nice house, and we had a great time eating Molly's Chinese cooking and getting to know them even more.

Honestly, there has been a lot of other stuff going on these past few weeks, but that's just a short summary. Have a great Thanksgiving!

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Bike Thief at Large!

Arianna and Nils. Two German exchange students at our school.

Our waiban (Peggy) wanted to give hamburger grilling a shot!

Hey everyone. Here's what's been going on in Wuhan lately.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, most of us teachers bought bikes a month and a half ago. Traffic in Wuhan is TERRIBLE (I can't emphasize that enough), so I was glad to get one this year. Less time spent waiting at bus stops, cramming into standing room only buses, then being stuck in traffic jams for ridiculously long periods of time.

Two Saturdays ago started out as a great day. I was already planned for the next week's lessons and had some time to kill. The weather was nice, so I decided to ride my bike to Lu Xiang (our downtown). It was a little ways away, but I had the time. I locked it up next to a bus stop hoping that having a lot of people around would deter any bike thieves. I had a great day at Lu Xiang. I studied Chinese at a coffee shop for a few hours before meeting up with friends at Papa John's for pizza. Everyone else took a bus or taxi home, but I was excited to ride home. It's quite the adrenaline rush to ride around thousands of people and swerving cars! A few weeks ago, I had Rebecca on the back of my bike and clipped a taxi's mirror.

As I was walking back, I had a bad feeling that my bike wouldn't be there. It had been parked for a few hours. Wuhan is a huge city, and I know I'm prone to be a target as a foreigner. My gut feeling was right. I walked around the area a little just to make sure the police hadn't moved my bike in case I had parked it illegally. I never found it. I'm guessing someone on the other side of the city is enjoying my wheels now. I've heard plenty of stories about people getting their bike stolen. So instead of being too angry, I just felt like it was my time to have it happen. Oh well.

Last weekend the six Zhong teachers at our school decided to have an American cook-out and invite some of the new foreign teachers at our school as well as some of our Chinese friends. Organizing something like that in China is quite the process! We had to go across town to buy the burgers and other foreign food. All in all, we had pretty big, multi-cultural barbecue with almost 30 people. Besides the Americans and Chinese, we also invited a few German exchange students who are here for the year. It was a lot of work, but I think everyone had a great time eating burgers, playing wiffle-ball, and hanging out.

As expected, it wasn't too long before I got my first sinus infection of the year. I've been trying to run fairly regularly, but the air is awful this year due to more construction close to our school. So many times, I'll be glancing at the landscape and think, "if that was fog, it would be beautiful." Unfortunately, it's smog. This infection has stuck around for about two weeks, but thankfully the worst is past. It was difficult to teach some of my classes with a bunch of crap in my throat and a faucet for a nose.

Other than that, not a lot has happened. You can be thinking of some opportunities I might have in the future to talk with some students. I am planning to give some Books to students who were asking about it at the beginning of the year. Also, one of my classes is doing an English project. Some of the students have decided to do theirs' on appreciating the New Testament. Their teacher has asked me to talk with them about it in a few weeks. I'm definitely not an expert on theology, but I'm looking forward to the opportunity.

I finally have wireless internet in my room which means I can use my iTouch to communicate more easily with all of you. Through a free app, you can text/call me just like a phone in America at 517-798-4420.

Also, I have another app called Instagram. Think of it as twitter for pictures. I'll try to post the occasional interesting China picture. You can follow me at rmathews10 if you'd like to.

Grade 2 students will be on a field trip next week, so I'm going to enjoy some time off! I hope all of you are doing great!

Matthew 6:19-21

Foreigners 2, Chinese 0

Foreigners win!

Kirk driving in for a lay-up

Hello again everyone. I hope you're all doing well. Here's what I've been up to recently.

This year, we've had a lot more opportunities to play sports with the Chinese students and teachers. Our school has 4 German exchange students studying at our school. We take Kung Fu and Chinese classes with them, so we've gotten to know them fairly well. Recently, they told us that a school team (I think it's like an intramural team) wanted to challenge us and the Germans to a soccer game. We have quite the mix of foreigners. Some of us had played soccer growing up, but most had not. However, we had to represent our countries! It was a lot of fun. We played for about an hour with no subs while the other team had a few. We were dead tired, but pulled out a 3-1 win.

A few days later, I received a call from an Chinese English teacher. He said that some of the Chinese teachers wanted to challenge us to a basketball game. My first year, I showed my students a copy of my hometown newspaper's sports section when I was on the front after a homecoming game. Ever since then, the rumors have spread around campus that I'm an amazing basketball player. Some have even asked me if I played at Duke!

I was excited for the chance to play an organized game. We played with the same group of foreigners. I think Kirk and I are the only ones who played organized basketball growing up, but some of the other foreigners are pretty athletic. I knew it would be a pretty tough game because I've played with many of the Chinese teachers, and they aren't too bad. We had our work cut out for us!

We took an early lead, but the Chinese teachers rallied back. They led by 6-12 points for most of the game. Kirk and I were the two primary scorers, and our shots just weren't falling. Finally, in the 4th quarter, I started to hit a few three's and Kirk was getting in the paint for some lay-ups. I hit a 3 to put us up 65-62, and we managed to hang on for a 1-point victory. It was a fun game, especially with quite a few teachers and students watching and cheering.

We just finished a short two day vacation to celebrate National Day. Basically, it's China's 4th of July. It was nice to have the break, but I'm ready to finally get on a regular schedule. While I've been teaching for over a month, I think I've only taught one normal week. There's been lots of short holidays and schedule changes.

Our chrch has 50-100 people from all over Wuhan, which is a very spread-out city. We don't get to see each other too much, so one person usually shares at the end of each service to introduce themselves and talk a little bit about how He has been working in their lives. I talked this past Sunday. I was a little nervous, but it seemed to go well as I talked about how I've been encouraged during my time in China by seeing some of my students become brothers and sisters.

That's pretty much all from here. Please be "thinking" of some of my teammates from other schools. Jacqueline is a teacher at a middle school on the other side of Wuhan. Her father unexpectedly passed away back in the states. Jacqueline, her husband Paul, and Jacq's younger brother are now in America for the funeral. They will coming back to China this weekend.

Also, be thinking of Melodie and her family. She is a teacher at a university here in Wuhan. Her mother has been having some health problems and had some tests run. Melodie was here yesterday, but I forgot to ask for more info! Hopefully, there has been some improvement.

Lastly, I just wanted to let you know that I added a couple of tabs to my blog. The second tab is my contact information. The third one will be a bunch of funny and/or interesting articles I've found on the internet about China.

I hope all of you are doing well! Philippians 4:6-7

The trend continues...

I don't understand!

The 2011-2012 Zhong Relations Team

Hello again everyone. The trend has continued. Whenever I have a ton of things to blog about, I don't have time to write. When I have plenty of time, there's nothing really new. This update is the former. A lot has been going on.

Over the past two years, our group has become pretty good friends with a family that runs a small store. We usually buy our drinks there before we go to a nearby restaurant. They don't speak a lot of English, and most of us don't speak much Chinese. However, we've communicated the best we can with them. We've had dinner together and hung out with them during a few holidays. At the end of last year, I thought we had established a good enough relationship to give them a Book. They were very grateful and seemed intrigued by it. We weren't able to tell them much other than we were C's and that this Book was very important to us. Honestly, I didn't think about it too much over the summer.

A few weeks ago ZZ (what we'll call her for short) told us that she was reading it and was very interested. ZZ is one of the girls in the family whom we have gotten to know the best these past few years. We said if she ever had time, we'd love to take her to a Chinese chrch. One day, Rebecca and I were at the store and she asked if we could go with her that Sunday. I was really excited. We rarely go to the Chinese chrch since it's so far away. However, some of us were already planning on going because a past student of mine (who is now a sister) wanted to go.

Kirk and I went to the English service with my past student because that was the only time she was able to attend. Mandi went with ZZ to the Chinese service since she can't speak English. ZZ really enjoyed her time there. Please be "thinking" of her and her family. The Book has her very interested. Mandi wrote a great blog on her time with ZZ if you'd like to read more about it by clicking here.

I've really been encouraged by our entire Zhong group this year. We've grown to 27 teachers this year! The teachers from Huangshi came to Wuhan this past weekend. It was the first time all of us were together. We had a great time sharing about how each of us ended up in China and what we were excited about for the coming year. Plus, it's always great to hit up Papa John's for pizza! I know it sounds cliche, but I mean it when I say that we have an amazing group this year!

The 5 guys from Zhong (Me, Kirk, Taylor, Nathan, and our Zhong boss Adam) who live in our part of town have started a small group. I can already tell that we're really going to encourage and challenge each other to live like JC.

Getting slightly famous for extremely weird reasons has also become somewhat normal. As I mentioned in my last post, we are taking a Kung Fu class with some students. I wore my Ting Bu Dong t-shirt the first day. Ting bu dong means "I hear you, but I don't understand" in Chinese. The school photographer was taking pictures, and got one of me in my shirt. It somehow ended up on the Chinese facebook and apparently got a lot of comments!

Kirk, Taylor, Mandi, and I also performed the infamous "Baby" by Justin Bieber at Mr. Mai's recently. Bieb's is HUGE in China. Mandi told me that she had learned the rap, so I told her we had to do the song sometime. You can watch it here on Rebecca's blog.

There's a lot more I could write about, but I'll end with what I promised in my last update. On the first day of every class, I have my students fill out an information sheet. Among other things, they write down their English names (which they pick themselves) and any questions they have about me or America. Here's a Top 20 list of my personal favorites.

What's your English name?

• Elves
  
• Leopard Cat
• Silence
• Vacuum
• Yogurt
• Listening Jason
• New Season
• Spy
• Hermtice
• Kentucky
• Peachy
• Noyes
• Vehicle
• Country Boy
• Utah
• Cloud Strife
• Demon Hunter
• Soviet Tank Units
• Unogibber
  
• 1900
  

Do you have any questions about Ryan or America?

• Some people taught me that you were in basketball team of Duke. Is that true?
• How much do you know about FBI?
• I have no question temporary. Now I get one: What's the most romantic thing you did for your girlfriend?
  
• Are you married? Do you have a girlfriend? (As usual, the most asked question!)
  
• Who is the most handsome man in America?
• Don't ask me questions in class.
• Do you think you are a sanguine man?
• I love Narnia.
• Do you have a girlfriend now? If yes, can you tell us about her? If no, are you interested in a Chinese TV dating show called Fei Chang Wu Rao?
  
• Are you a genius?
  
• How about the religion of NBA?
• Do you think that you are handsome?
  
• Why is there a B*ble and many many pillows in the America's hotels?
  
• How do you practice your religion in China?
• How do C's live in America?
  
• Please introduce something about your religion.
• Could you teach me the meaning of some C*ris*ian songs?
• What's the most important thing that the Holy B*ble tells us?
• How can I get a B*ble like you?

Philippians 4:6-7

In China, On-line

Hey everyone,

Year 3 of "The Skinny White Kid" is back! Congratulate yourself for surviving a whole summer without the most entertaining and informative blog in history, and rejoice that it has returned!

I've been back in Wuhan for about two weeks. I planned on blogging quite a while ago, but the internet in my apartment was down the first week. The school IT guys were able to get us set up again. Unfortunately, I missed two fantasy football drafts! So that problem might mean a few more losses this year.

Anyways, as you would expect, a lot has happened the past two weeks, so I'll try to give it to you in quick bullet points.

- Kirk and I flew over together. It was about as smooth a trip as we've had. No canceled flights or delays. During our layover in Los Angeles, we were able to meet up with Daniel (our teammate for the past two years) and Joe (a high school friend). We ate at the famous In-N-Out Burger near the airport. We even saw a famous actor (Topher Grace) even though we were only there for a few hours.

- When I arrived at my apartment, I was pleasantly surprised at how clean it was. Last year, it was really dirty, and there were even a bugs running around. At the end of last year, I tried to clean my place really well hoping that would control the mold and dust this time, and it did.

- The school originally told us that we would start teaching on Monday (Sep 5). However, I got a call last Wednesday (Aug 31) afternoon from a teacher. He told me that the Senior 2 teachers (Rebecca, Mandi, and I) were going to start the next day! We were frustrated because we hadn't prepared to teach or made copies of information sheets that we needed to give our students. Luckily, the three of us have all taught before, so we had an idea on what to do the first day and we were able to have the copy room ladies make them just in time. The first week of classes went well overall.

- Tony, our new Chinese boss, has been great. This year, he convinced the school to buy us soft couches for our rooms. For the past two years, we've only had wooden chairs and benches. It's so nice to have somewhere soft to sit besides my bed!

- Tony also has the foreign teachers taking Kung Fu and Chinese lessons from the school. The Kung Fu class is with a bunch of students and is all in Chinese, but it'll still be fun to hopefully pick up a little.

- All the teachers decided to buy bikes this year. They're not the nicest, but they'll get us around. Our school is a little out of the city, but the area is growing. Now that we have some stores, restaurants, and our gym within bike-riding distance, it'll be nice to have them.

- Our good friend Patrick (he's in a picture in my last post) moved away from Wuhan over the summer. Fortunately, he is here this week for a business trip. It was fun to go to Papa John's and play some pool with him.

I also wanted to give you a list of the foreign teachers at my school, so you can know who I'm talking about when I mention them. It's a great group, and we're all good friends.

Kirk: 3rd year teacher from Ohio, teaching Senior 1, also one of my best friends from college
Rebecca: 3rd year teacher from Michigan, teaching Senior 2
Taylor: 3rd year teacher from California, teaching Senior 1, he used to teach at our school, but this is his first year since I've been here
Mandi: 2nd year teacher Louisiana, teaching Senior 2
Nathan: 1st year teacher from California, teaching Senior 1

That's a quick update for now. I'm hoping to start getting some pictures up on here soon. My next post will be a list of some of my favorite names and questions from my students on their first day.

Philippians 4:6-7

Home!

Daniel at Cory and Lara's party

Cory, Lara, and I. We both wore the same shirt on accident. It says "I hear you, but I don't understand" in Chinese!

Annie, me, and Patrick at Mr. Mai's.

Mr. Meng

Suzanne, a waitress at the Aloha Diner. She will be moving away this summer.

The teachers in my office. Mr. Zhou, Jane, me, and Teacher Wu.

Hey everyone! I made it home Tuesday morning at about 7am after a 30-some hour trip. I probably wouldn't have made it home in time if it wasn't for my friend Joe, who works for Delta Airlines. Kirk and I flew Delta from Los Angeles to Detroit, but our first two flights in China were on a Chinese airline. That airline messed up our baggage, and our flights were delayed. With those together, we had hardly any time to make our last flight. Fortunately, we had planned to hang out with Joe during our LA layover. Instead of hanging out, Joe spent the time helping us out. We were the last two on the plane before they closed the gate! Thanks a lot, Joe!

The last two weeks of my time in China were basically spent saying a lot of goodbyes. To my students, to teachers, to friends, to the other foreign teachers. It was nice to have our last week off which gave us more time to visit with so many people. Next school year will be the first time we will have lost some of our teammates. The first year, there were 5 of us (me, Kirk, Daniel, Cory, and Rebecca). This year we just added Mandi. Next year, Cory and Daniel will stay in California. We'll have two new teammates. It'll be really strange to not have them with us next year!

A lot happened these past few weeks, but here's a quick list along with some pictures above.

- I went to a goodbye party for Cory and Lara (Lara is his Chinese wife). They will stay in America and get their Master's degrees.

- We said goodbye to a lot of friends at Mr. Mai's. One of my closest Chinese friends (Patrick) is moving to Nanjing, a city close to Shanghai. Hopefully, we'll be able to see him a few times next year.

- One of the math teachers whose office is near mine had a goodbye lunch for me and the other teachers. Mr. Meng is a hilarious teacher who can't speak English very well, but he loves talking and teaching me Chinese!

- Rebecca, Mandi, and I went to dinner and had a very interesting conversation with a teacher at our school. This teacher is a member of a religion that is REALLY looked down upon in China (so much so that I can't even mention it on here). I'm glad I was finally able to learn more about this religion, as well as us share what we believe with her.

- Cory and Lara left a little too early for us to make one for them, but the other foreign teachers and I made a goodbye video for Daniel. It had a lot of interviews, funny skits, songs, etc. It was fun to make, but hard to hide it from Daniel while we made it!

- One of my students gave me a really cool gift before I left. She kept a record/journal of every lesson I taught their class along with some other things I did for the school! I know it was a lot of work for her, and I really appreciated it. It's something I'll be able to look back upon and remember this year.

- Wuhan had some flooding our last days there. So much so, that we had to walk home instead of take the bus one day. We had to walk in water that was knee-high for quite awhile. We also had to walk on a train bridge to avoid waist-high water. While we were on it, we were pretty close to getting run over! It was pretty crazy, but lots of fun too!

Well, I guess that's everything for now. I probably won't update this blog too much (if at all) over the summer, but it'll continue for Year 3 in August/September! I'm hoping to see as many of you as possible while I'm home! Have a great summer!

Finishing up

G

Grade 2 Class 22 on the last day of class. Just one of my 11 classes!

Hanging out with my students (Kevin, Isaac, and Wendy) over the holiday weekend.

At a smoothie shop with our Chinese friends (Douglas, Coral, and Lily). We convinced the worker to let us behind the counter for the picture!

Hey everyone. The end of the school year is just about here. This is my last week of teaching. Since it’s the last lesson, I’ve just been watching a movie or doing a campus-wide scavenger hunt. The students love doing something so out of the ordinary.

It’s been harder than I thought to say goodbye to most of my classes. Almost all of my students have been with me for two years. When I think about my job, they’re the first ones that come to mind. They’ll still be at school next year. However, I won’t be teaching them because they will move onto their senior year. As I’ve mentioned before, your senior year in China is basically a year-long review/study session for the GAOKAO exam, which determines what college they’ll attend. Their grades throughout their high school career basically don’t matter. It’s all about this one exam! They already feel a ton of pressure. I know I’ll see them around the school, but it’ll be strange to not see them every day and know that they’ll be incredibly stressed.

Quite a few of the students have been giving me letters and notes to thank me for teaching them which has choked me up a few times!

Last week was a small Chinese holiday, so I had a couple days off. I was able to go to a movie (Kung Fu Panda 2) with three of my students. The movie was really funny, and it was great to see them in a more relaxed environment. I was also able to go to chrch (the gvt allowed one) with another student for a second time.

Another friend (Coral) who we got to know well last year at Mr. Mai’s visited us. She moved to Beijing this year, so we hadn’t seen her in awhile. It’s weird to be living in China and having friends move away from me!

Other than that, not a lot of new stuff has happened. I cleaned my room like crazy over the holiday. I’m hoping this will help prevent mold (which is really common in our rooms) when I return in the fall. It’s also nice to have a clean room for a little while before the dirty Chinese air fills it with dust after a week!

We just judged a small English singing competition for our students. As usual, they asked us to perform at the last second. Daniel, Kirk, and I sang Beyonce’s “Halo” with our falsetto voices as best we could! I’ll post a video if I ever get a hold of one.

That’s all for now. 13 more days…

Pressure's on!

Teaching Class 26 during my open lesson

I have about a month left for this school year. It's still surreal that another year is ending, and I'll be saying goodbye to hundreds of students that I've taught, most of them for two years. Fortunately, they'll still be around for their senior year getting ready for the Gao Kao exam (think ACT/SAT with a LOT more pressure) even though I won't be teaching them. I think it's kind of cool that I'll be able to watch this group throughout their whole high school career.

Last week, I had an open lesson. Basically, this is when a bunch of the school's Chinese English teachers come to my lesson to take notes and pick up ideas for their classes. We've built good relationships with many of the teachers. Because of that, I wasn't extremely nervous. However, this is pretty much the only class where Chinese teachers will sit in on any of our classes the whole year. Plus, there are only two teachers who do them (Rebecca also did one). With that in mind, I felt a little bit of pressure to have a great class. If either of our classes didn't go well, it would reflect on our whole group. Another thing that adds pressure with open lessons, is that to the Chinese teachers, this lesson isn't a real lesson. It's more of a performance. Many Chinese teachers even practice their open lessons with their class beforehand! It's a pet peeve of mine. How are teachers supposed to learn how to teach a normal class when they're not watching one!!?? With our schedules, we can't "practice," so I had no idea how Class 26 would handle the pressure.

However, the lesson went really well! The textbook's unit was on cloning, so we talked about debating, then ended class with a short debate. I think students usually know that performing well makes their teacher look good. I purposely picked one of my better classes. They have good English, and I knew they would want me to look good (gain face), and they helped me out a lot! I have a few pictures from that lesson above.

This past weekend, the entire Zhong Relations team (about 17 people) went to some hot springs (a Chinese spa/swimming pool area) for our end of the year get together. We had a great time swimming, relaxing, and worshiping. It's always nice to hear about everyone's year and say goodbye to many of those who are going back to America for good. Hopefully I'll get a picture of everybody up on here soon. I forgot my camera, so I have to get it from someone else.

Now that the weather's been warming up, our group has been more motivated to get in shape. We've been doing a P90X (a famous DVD program) workout together once or twice a week, and those of us who are returning joined a gym nearby. Maybe I'll be add some muscle over time and weigh more than 130 pounds for once in my life!

Other than that, not a lot else is going on here that I can talk about. There are definitely some other things that I would like to share, but they'll have to wait until I get back to America. As I've said many times, it's been great to have quite a few opportunities to share my faith this year.

You can also be "thinking" of our end of the year craziness that we have to get figured out (visas, contracts for next year, etc). Last year, we almost didn't get our visas renewed in time thanks to an obscure rule about the type of pen you fill out forms with! I think we're more prepared this year, but you never know in China.

That's all for now! I'll be back in a month!

Guitar Hero

Hey everyone. Just wanted to post a quick update since it's been a couple weeks since my last one.

For the past few months, I've been practicing the guitar quite a bit. Kirk is a really good player, and he's been helping me a little, though it's difficult with only one guitar between the two of us. Kirk is the only one that can play that well of our group, so naturally, he's the one who has to play all the time when we perform at random events. He also plays every Tuesday night at Mr. Mai's because that's Music Night. He likes playing, but not the whole night! He doesn't get too many chances to just talk with people like the rest of us do.

I've loved learning to play and decided it was finally time to start (trying!) to help him out. Recently, I've been playing a few songs. I definitely don't feel all that comfortable doing it yet, and I'm by no means a great player, but it's fun to try something new. Especially something I never thought I'd be able to do!

I've also purchased my tickets to come home for the summer. I'll be home from June 29 - August 23. I'm hoping to do a little traveling to see as many of you as I can. Let me know when/if you're available!

This past weekend I went to KTV (karaoke) yet again. Nothing special, except one of the Chinese girls that was in the group had the English name "Ice Tea." Thought you might enjoy that!

Also, another of my students has become a C! It's been really cool to build relationships, hand out Books, and have a lot of great conversations with different students and friends. I'm continually humbled that I get to be a part of things like that.

Lastly, I recently finished a great book called "Heaven is for Real." You might have heard about it. If you haven't, it's about a 4-year-old boy who almost died during surgery and visited heaven for a few minutes. It's pretty incredible and almost unbelievable, but the author (the dad) gives some amazing examples to prove it's authenticity. It was really encouraging to me and helped me realize that there really is more to life than this world. You might say that's wrong. I would say you're wrong! :)

I think that's pretty much everything. Hope you're all doing well!

The Decision Part 2

Jolie, Me, Kirk, and Daniel at the Three Gorges Dam in Yi Chang.

Unfortunately, I did not work out a deal with ESPN to air my decision process for next year. However, I can stall and put it at the end of this update much like LeBron James did. So I guess I'll stick with that.

The last two weeks have been great. For Easter, our fellowship met and David McNabb (aka Mr. Mai from the coffee house) shared with our group. After that, we went to a nearby field with lots of grass (which is rare here!) to have a picnic, Easter egg hunt, and play some games. It was a lot of fun to be outside, especially since the cold weather is officially gone. It's summer weather here, and I'm loving it! We played football and an Australian guy taught us a type of cricket that is popular there, so that was fun. Unfortunately, I hurt my shoulder playing football when I was trying to avoid a sack as the quarterback. I slipped and landed weird on it. I don't think it's serious, but I'm hoping it completely heals soon.

Last week, Senior 2 students had exams, so Kirk, Daniel, and I had the week off. We decided to go to Yi Chang with our friend Jolie. It's another city in our province. It's not the most exciting place, but it has the world's largest dam as well as some caves. We just wanted to get away for a while, so we decided on there. As I mentioned, there wasn't a ton to do, but it was nice to just relax and get ready for our last two months of the year. They had a bungee jumping place near the caves, and we seriously thought about doing it, but decided against it because of the cost and it closing too early. If I ever go back, I think I'll give it a shot though!

This is a 3-day weekend because of China's Labor Day being on May 1. I have today off and also had time to go to the local Chinese chrch with a student of mine that has been interested in going for awhile but has never had the opportunity to go. This chrch just started an English service that we enjoyed. I'm hoping to go back again. After that, we went to Wuhan's "Snack Street." Basically, it's a street that's about 1/4 to 1/2 mile long with all kinds of snacks and TONS of people. Think Black Friday shopping busy.

That's what I've been up to for the past few weeks. Now my decision....after this commercial break. Just kidding.

This year has been even more tough to decide than last year. I THINK I know what I want to do long-term in the states now. I'm still not 100% sure, but after teaching here for 2 years and coaching in America for awhile, I would like to teach and coach in a high school.

I applied for a few college graduate assistant positions hoping to help with some campus recreation programs while working towards my teaching certificate. However, the last month or so, I've really felt like I'm supposed to come back for one more year. I didn't hear back from any of those positions, which helped with the decision process! I've had a lot of little circumstances (many of which I can't talk about on here), mostly with students that have helped me make up my mind as well.

After I graduated from IWU, I always wanted to live in Indiana, close to friends and family. Instead, I've lived in Kansas, Iowa, and China! Every one of them has been a great experience. I still hope to move back closer to home eventually, but it's not time for that yet, which is why "I'm leaving my talents in Wuhan." I love the challenges of living in another country, learning a new language, and most importantly, knowing that I'm being used over here.

I'm still excited to come back and visit all of you this summer! See you soon.

April Fool's Day Video

I forgot to mention in my last post about my April Fool's Day joke I played on a few of my classes. I showed them the pop-up video below and said it was important that they watch the car very closely.





I showed this to a few classes, but only recorded it once. Here was their reaction.

A crazy fun month!

A week after Kirk visited me in Wuhan, my parents and I were visiting him in Beijing! We're at Tiananmen Square.

Mandi and I with Elise, our "daughter."

Well, it’s time for another update. Which also means it’s time for my apology for not updating enough! As usual, the weeks when I have the most stuff to write about are the times I have no time to post on here! This has been one of those times, so I’ll try to condense it as much as possible.

My birthday was at the end of March. I’m now 27! It’s still weird to think that. Last year, I had a huge double birthday party with another American teacher. We invited quite a few Chinese and foreign friends. It was a great time, however, I wanted to just relax this year. I ended up going to Papa John’s with the other foreign teachers, which is typically how we celebrate almost every occasion! Rebecca also went to the local bakery and ordered a chocolate birthday cake. Somehow we ended up with a cake that tasted like orange creamsicle instead. So I guess we had a normal Chinese experience. Not what we planned, but it still turned out pretty good!

Mandi’s birthday is about a week after mine. We ended up going to Huangshi to visit our teammates the weekend between our birthdays to have a double birthday party with our whole group. We had a fun time watching movies, talking, and hanging out. My favorite moment was at KFC. Huangshi is a pretty small town, so we went to the only western restaurant they have to get ice cream. Becca Carpenter had brought some birthday decorations. As she was setting them up, a Chinese KFC worker came over and started talking to us. We thought she was asking us whose birthday it was. We pointed to myself and Mandi. She then continued to ask Mandi and I what gift we would like to give our daughter (Adam and Becca’s daughter, Elise). I loved it, and had fun playing it up for awhile!

I’ve also had quite a few visitors in Wuhan the past few weeks. The same weekend we went to Huangshi, my high school friend Kirk Lacy came and visited from Beijing. He has lived there for two years, and is returning back to the states for a few months. It was good to show him around Wuhan and Huangshi before he headed back to Michigan.

The very next week my parents came to visit me in China for a week and a half! I met them in Shanghai for a day. We then took a train to Beijing to see the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, and Forbidden City. After that, we took another train to Wuhan so they could see my everyday life here.

They sat in on a lot of my classes. My students had a great time meeting them and asking them questions. I told them as long as they were asking questions, we wouldn’t have to do the listening exercise (they hate that part of class). So of course, most classes asked questions the whole time! They had all kinds of great questions for them: What is the best way to attend an American university? Why did you live in so many different places? Was Ryan a good kid when he was little? Why is Ryan so skinny? And lots of others.

I was glad my parents could come and see my life over here. They enjoyed getting to know my students, and I enjoyed hearing them make comments on so many strange things that I’m used to now!

Lastly, one of my students is now a sister! I had given her a Book and talked with her a little over the past two years I’ve taught her. I was so humbled and excited to be a part of it. I’m currently meeting with her and another interested student occasionally to talk with and encourage them. I’ve had quite a few other chances to talk with people about Him, and I’m thankful for these opportunities.

With so many great experiences and friendships here, it’s been REALLY hard to decide on what I am going to do next year. All I’ll say is, my next blog update will have that decision! Be lifting me up!

I hope you’re all doing well. Happy Easter!