Just Chillin'

Celebrating Aaliyah's birthday. She's in the middle wearing black.

At the zoo with Kirk and Lily

Lara's grandparents' home

Lara's cousin, Mandi, Lara, Cory, me, Lara's mom, grandma, and dad

I'm currently two weeks into my 5-week Spring Festival vacation. Last year, Kirk, Daniel, and I were in the middle of a hectic but fun 4 countries in 2 weeks adventure. This year, Daniel is in America while Kirk and I have spent most of our time at home. It's been a little slow, but very relaxing.

One thing we've been able to do more of is visit with the Aloha Diner staff. I've mentioned it several times, but for those of you who don't remember, Aloha is a restaurant run by a brother and sister on the other side of the city. Besides the three American founders/managers, the entire staff is made up of younger Chinese who come from poorer families. Many of them have become C's over the years. They're a fun group to hang out with. One day, we even attended a birthday party for Aaliyah, the Chinese manager. We ate hot pot (you throw raw vegetables and meat into boiling water right there at the table) and went to KTV (karaoke).

Last week, we also went to the Wuhan zoo with our Chinese friend Lily. It was fun to do something different in the city. They had a show with bears, lions, and even dogs doing tricks such as walking on tight-ropes. However, it was a little depressing It was pretty obvious that this zoo doesn't have the kind of animal rights laws of the American zoos I've been to. Almost all of the animals were in fairly small cages without much of a natural habitat to live in. We even saw two animals (a peacock and ram) that were pretty much dying in front of us as we passed their areas.

This past weekend, me, Rebecca, Mandi, Cory, and Steve (another foreign teacher at our school who is not with Zhong) all visited Lara's parents' home in the small city of Hanchuan. Lara is Cory's Chinese wife. One regret I had last year was that I didn't get to visit very many Chinese homes, so it was great to experience that. Her parents are very traditional. Basically, that means while we were visitors they did EVERYTHING they could to serve us.

It seemed her mother almost never left the kitchen as she was making us huge (and really good) meals. Her father was always checking on us to make sure we were comfortable and offering to go buy us snacks. He also loved drinking alcohol at meals! In China, it's pretty much a must for the men to drink together as a way to show respect. I think all of you know that I grew up not drinking alcohol and I never have acquired that taste. However, I've had to force some (but not too much!) down over here in order to establish some relationships.

We were also able to visit Lara's grandparents' home outside the city. This was my first time to experience the poorer side of China up close and personal. Their home is a small three-room brick house next to some farmland. They have no heat and limited electricity. Their floor is the earth. They just got running water two months ago. It's amazing the transformation that has taken place in China as it has developed, yet there are many who still live in villages like this across the country.

Other than that, I basically spent the time playing Chinese games (mahjong and do-di-ju), basketball, badminton, shooting off fireworks, and practicing my Chinese a lot! I had a great time. Her parents are really good people.

One of my students told me that part of their English final exam was over a section of the Book about JC's resurrection. This came from one of my students who has been reading it quite a bit this year and has been asking some of us questions. Just a cool fact that I wanted to share with you.

On Thursday of this week, Kirk and I will take a train to Shanghai before flying to Tokyo to meet Joe and Daniel. I'm really thankful that Joe was able to help us book some VERY cheap flights through his job with Delta. Otherwise, this trip would have been impossible.

Be thinking of Kirk. He found out that he has to get a root canal. That can be frustrating enough. On top of that, he has to get it in China with no insurance! The cost could run him up to $800 (over one month's salary)!! Because of that, he's now not sure if he'll be able to go on this trip we've been planning on since the beginning of the year. Even if he is, there's still the difficulty of getting to Hong Kong to have it done there. We've heard from Wuhan veterans that it's a much better and safer place to have it done.

I think that's pretty much everything from here. Please be thinking of me and the rest of the Zhong team as we are starting the decision process for next year. Over the past 15 months, Wuhan has really felt like a home to me. It's been great building relationships and trying to make an impact here. However, it's also not fun to be away from so many friends and family in America for so long. Basically, it's going to be a VERY tough decision yet again. Pry that I grow closer to Him and hear His voice as I make this decision within the next few months. I'm willing to do either, but I just want to make the right choice.

Hope you're all doing well!

New Year's: Take 2

Krista and Sally. Two of our Huangshi teammates.

I know what you're thinking:
"Is that fish and underwear hanging from a tree next to some railroad tracks?"
Yes. Yes, it is.

It's finally here! As I mentioned in my last post, we've been pretty busy this semester, and especially these last few weeks. Really, I think our whole group is happy about being so busy. Since 5 of the 6 of us are returning teachers (and Mandi is fitting in perfectly), we've built so many relationships with teachers, students, Chinese friends, foreign friends, Zhong teammates, etc that it seems we're always on the go to meet someone. It really is cool to me that I have lived here for only 15 months and I have made tons of great friends here.

Anyways, while I love teaching and almost everything I do here, I am burnt out. The teaching, performing, and cold weather have really worn me down recently. Fortunately, my 4-5 week vacation started today! If you don't remember from last year, China's biggest holiday is the New Year on the lunar calendar which is usually sometime from mid-January to mid-February. Students will get 2-4 weeks off, but we get an extra week because our class does not give final exams. Our group is doing a lot of different things. Daniel is going back to America for a few weeks. Rebecca and Mandi will do some traveling together. Cory and Lara will go to Lara's hometown since this is her last Spring Festival in China for awhile. They will go to America next year. Kirk and I will just relax in Wuhan for a week or so. Then, the plan (as of now) is to meet Daniel, Joe Bentle, and Kirk Lacy (high school friends) in Tokyo, Japan! Honestly, I don't know much about Japan, but I'm looking forward to seeing what it's like. And I REALLY want to go to a sumo wrestling match.

That's what my plan is for the next few weeks. As far as what has happened recently, nothing too big. Our Wuhan group traveled to Huangshi for our Zhong Christmas last weekend. As usual, it was fun. We played games, hung out, and did a White Elephant gift exchange. I got some kind of special Chinese tea from Mark. I'm not a huge tea drinker, but it's grown on me since I've been here.

A word of warning: Be careful where you play with a Rubik's cube! As expected, I have a rule in my classes. No magazines, non-textbooks, toys, cell phones, MP3 players, etc during my class. And as expected, with 700 students, I catch students using them fairly often. Recently, I caught a kid playing with a Rubik's Cube (not a normal one, but a really difficult one with twice as many squares). If I catch a student with something, I take it home for a week. We have a group printer in my study room, and Rebecca wanted to print something off a few days ago. As I was setting up the printer, she picked up the cube and started playing with it. Then I grabbed it to give it a try. When I turned it, one block broke off, flew four feet to my left and went right down the paper slot right as the printer was sucking in the paper! I'm glad Rebecca was there when it happened because I don't think anyone would have believed my story otherwise. Hopefully, we'll be able to get the printer fixed. And I guess that kid will learn to not play with anything in my class again or I might break it at my house!

This year I've picked up on a lot more of the "differences" of the govt here and the reality it has on the Chinese people. I knew about the one-child policy, but this year I've gotten to know a few women who would have lost their job unless they had an abortion! Another of my Chinese C friends was nervous because she thought there may have been a spy at her house fellowship. I'm sure you probably at least heard a little bit about the "Know bell piece pr-eyes" (how's that for code!!) winner being imprisoned in Beijing. Also, Skype has recently been declared illegal here to give the Chinese communication companies a competitive edge. So far, it has not been shut down. We're all hoping it stays that way since it's the best way to communicate with our friends and families back home. Be thinking of that!

That is pretty much everything from here. If you have time, I'd love to get caught up with lots of you on Skype, e-mail, or facebook over these next few weeks. I have plenty of time!