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!