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