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!

The end is nea......here.

Class 24 sent me off in style

Senior 1 Class 24

Margaret, one of my favorite students

One last KTV night! Dancing to Beyonce's "All the Single Ladies."

Molly. I taught her classes, and we were office-mates.

One of our newer friends towards the end of the year, Lily.

Hanging out with Thomas and Mayi on our last Friday night.

I am finally done teaching! It's been an amazing year, but I am ready for America! I've been China-ed out the last few weeks.

I was the only teacher who didn't have to teach this week. My department's teachers wanted this week to prepare students for their finals. I was fine with that, but I asked to have the first 5-10 minutes with the classes to say goodbye and take a picture with them. It was actually more difficult than I thought. I loved teaching pretty much all my classes, and I'm not sure if I'll teach them again next year. One of my favorite classes even gave me a small notebook filled with letters and thanks. Earlier, I had decided that I wanted to teach Senior 1 again next year, but now I think I might want to go to Senior 2 and teach the same classes. We'll see how it works out though.

I'm sure some of you have seen my status on facebook, but getting our work permits and everything figured out has been CRAZY! Peggy, our waiban, has been very busy with helping prepare students to travel abroad this summer. Because of that, I think our preparations were pushed to the side a little bit. Our documents for next year were turned in a little late, so we weren't supposed to get our passports and permits from the police station until Thursday. Plus, this is China....so there was a good chance they wouldn't be ready in time. Daniel was leaving on Friday, and Kirk and I were leaving on Monday, so we were all a little nervous!

Well, Peggy called me on Wednesday afternoon and said that our applications for next year had been rejected. The reason???? Are you ready for this.......WE USED THE WRONG PEN! Apparently, we had used a blue ballpoint pen (Oh, the humanity!!!) instead of a black non-ballpoint pen. We were all more than a little anxious about what to do. Fortunately, we have a friend who knows someone who knows someone in the police department. That's how it works sometimes! They told us that if we could get everything fixed that day, they would be ready Friday morning, a few hours before Daniel left. I went with Peggy to pick them up yesterday, and that fiasco is officially over!

As excited as we are to go to America, it's been a little rough as well. Last week, we found out that a student committed suicide by jumping off his dorm. There's tons of rumors flying around, but from what I have learned, he was very stressed out with classes. That week was a big holiday in China (maybe comparable to Thanksgiving as far as how big it is). He was excited to have a break, but we ended up not having one. I'm sure there was a lot more to it, but that's what I know. He was a student of Rebecca's, so it was particularly hard for her.

Also, I learned some bad news from Peggy today. She is basically our China specialist. She helps us out with passports, work permits, housing, etc. Honestly, I've been pretty frustrated with her the past month. As I mentioned above, I feel like we've been ignored a little (although it's not completely her fault) as we're getting ready to return home. While I've been a little annoyed, she's a great person, and we all really like her. Today, I visited her in the office and she was crying because her father has cancer and will probably die very soon. I talked with her for a little bit and p-ed for her and her family. You can be thinking of her as well as the student's friends and family.

Well, this will probably be my last post for awhile. I'll be landing in Detroit on Tuesday morning. I might send out an update or two over the summer.....but probably not! I hope to see all of you this summer at some point, and I'll pick this back up when I return to China next school year! Go USA!!

Top 10 Things I'm Excited For

10. Not taking 2 hours and 3 different stores to find shoelaces to buy
9. Real ice cream
8. Driving a car
7. Speaking at my normal pace
6. Cereal
5. Real milk
4. Playing basketball with Americans
3. American food
2. Going to American fellowship
1. Seeing all of my family and friends!

Country roads, take me home

Hello again everyone. I hope you're all doing great!

Last week, the unit that Rebecca and I taught on was farming. It was probably the most difficult lesson to plan for all year as the textbook was extremely boring. We decided to start each lesson off with our students learning a classic country song, "Country Roads" by John Denver. I think the students really enjoyed it. As they were singing, I was walking around holding my pen like a microphone and having kids sing solos. A great song at a great time for me. China Air, take me home!

Throughout the year, a lot of my students have been asking to play basketball with me. I've been trying to jam all of the classes into my schedule. It's a lot of fun playing with them. Plus, it's usually the boys in my classes who are the troublemakers (if there are any), so it's an opportunity for me to get back at them. I don't think I've ever blocked so many shots in my life!

The last two days have been pretty eventful for me. On Monday, I got a text from the school saying that I was going to be doing a demonstration lesson with 26 teachers from America sitting in. Oh, and it was the next day. Fortunately, I'm used to the last-second heads up now! I was a little nervous teaching in front of so many Americans. Plus, this unit was on humor, so I had decided to start out each class with some blonde jokes. I never planned on having a dozen blonde women sitting in on a class!

However, the class went amazing. All of my students focused and participated well. They made me look great! After the class, quite a few of the Americans came up to me and said I did all the "teaching things" right. Not sure what those things are exactly, but I nailed 'em!

Earlier tonight, 4 of us foreign teachers were judges for an English singing competition. It was fun watching a lot of my students really get into their performances. My favorite one was by a student of mine who sang a very energetic version of "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga. It was hilarious!

Lastly, I'm happy to say that we finally got everything worked out with our school contract for next year. They moved very slow, but we were able to improve some of the things for our group next year as well as teachers in the future, including the increased flight reimbursement.

You may not remember, but awhile ago I went to a Chinese C with my friend Jesse. This Sunday, I am planning on going with him and his friend CiCi. I'm glad that he is excited to go again.

I think that's all for now. Go USA! Knock off the Brits!

The end is near...

Burgers!

20 people packed in one small apartment!

Well, the end of the school year is approaching very quickly. I still can't believe that I've been here for 9 months. Last week, I purchased my ticket home. I'll be back in America the morning of June 29th! Since the end of the year is approaching, we teachers are talking with the school about some changes we think should be made for next year's contract including living conditions, teaching ideas, and flight reimbursements. For example, thy are supposed to pay for our flights to and from America. They set a maximum price, but it is quite a bit lower than our actual flights even though we bought the cheapest tickets possible. It's been extremely frustrating trying to work with them and get answers. I'm starting to expect none at all. That confusion and frustration has made me even more ready for home!

This past Saturday was a really fun day. Kirk, Cory, Rebecca, and I all ran in a 6 kilometer (about 3.8 mile) race on the other side of Wuhan. I missed running the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon (13.1 miles) this year, so I enjoyed having something to train for, even if a short race isn't really up my alley. We all felt happy with our runs, but we had no idea what our times were since they had no clock at the finish line! I've been talking with some other foreigners at our fellowship, and we are planning on running the Shanghai marathon in the fall when we return. I'm PUMPED for it. I just hope the air pollution allows me to train the way I'd like to.

That evening, we celebrated Kirk's 27th birthday. I've mentioned it a little before, but Kirk is one of the biggest reasons I'm here. We went to IWU together, and he is one of my best friends. I'm the one who originally heard about this whole China thing. I was a little hesitant, but I mentioned it to Kirk, and we both decided to go together. I've loved having him here, and I was really happy when he decided to return again next year as well.

For Kirk's birthday, we had a big group of about 20 people. Kirk decided that we should have an American-style cookout. Our group bought a grill, burgers, hot dogs....pretty much everything! It wasn't easy. Kirk and Cory had to go to a foreign store quite a ways away and stuff the whole grill in a taxi, but it was worth it. The food was great, and now we'll be able to have more cookouts with people in the future.

On a side note, keep my Uncle Tom in your "thoughts." He recently found out he has brain cancer. It caught all of us by complete surprise. I'm excited to see him at our family reunion the weekend of July 4th. My uncle is a strong C, and we all know that nothing is impossible for our Father.

That's all from China. Mathews out!

One More Year

Sign at Hua Shan Mountain. No one tells me not to stride!

Hua Shan Mountain

Terra Cotta Warriors

Janet, Jolie, Daniel, and Kirk

I've really enjoyed my 8 months in China. When I came here, my plan was to only stay for one year before looking for a job back in America. However, after living here and getting to know so many people and having great opportunities to experience a different culture, I decided that 10 months just wasn't enough! It was not an easy decision at all. I really miss being so far away from family and friends in America. I think the tipping point was one day I realized that if I left, it might be the last time I'm ever in Wuhan with all of these great people. Most of my Wuhan teammates are coming back as well. Kirk, Rebecca, and Daniel have decided to stay. Cory is still deciding. He and Lara will definitely be in Wuhan another year, but they may decide to do something else while here. I will be in America for 6-8 weeks over the summer. I'm REALLY excited to get back and visit as many of you as I can.

A lot has happened over the last two and a half weeks. As usual, I put off writing an update for so long that I don't know where to begin. I'll try to keep it as short (and interesting) as possible!

Two weeks ago, Kirk and I went to a movie with a student (Yvonne) from Wuhan No. 1 and her family. Honestly, neither of us were too excited about it. Yvonne is actually a student of Cory's, but he wasn't able to go. Kirk subbed for Cory's class one day, and Yvonne asked him to go to a movie with her family that weekend. He didn't want to go by himself, so I decided to go with him. It was a little awkward at times, but it was actually a lot of fun. Yvonne is a great English speaker, and she was talking to Kirk pretty much all night since he had taught her before. I talked with Yvonne's mother quite a bit. She knows a little English, but not too much. It was fun practicing my Chinese as we ate dinner and walked around a mall before going to the movie. We watched an American movie that I can't remember what it's called right now. It's about Greek gods, and the guy from Avatar is in it. When we went to buy tickets, we learned that the movie was only showing in dubbed Chinese! It was interesting watching an American movie in Chinese! I hardly understood any of it, but at least I got to hear a few of my new vocabulary words. Kirk and I decided to try to laugh whenever everyone else in the theater did, just so they thought we were fluent speakers.

We had last week off because the students had mid-term exams. I always feel a little bad having time off when my students are really stressed out, but there's nothing I can do about it! Kirk, Daniel, and I decided to go to Xi'an with two of our Chinese friends, Jolie and Janet. They are both about our age and English teachers at a training center. It's always nice to hang out with Chinese people who can understand me when I speak at my regular pace! We had a blast while we were there. Xi'an is a really historical city. There is a famous mountain called Hua Shan as well as the Terra Cotta warriors. The warrior statues were discovered about 40 years ago. An ancient Chinese emperor had hundreds of them buried with him to protect him in the after-life. It was crazy to see so many statues, and every one was made to look unique (probably like an actual soldier)!

Just about as soon as we had returned from Xi'an, our Zhong Relations team left for a meeting at the Tianmu hot springs. Hot Springs are a little like spas in America. At least, that's what I'm guessing. I've never been to an American spa! There were different types of hot tubs, pools, water slides, and lounge rooms. It was meant to be a time for the whole Zhong team, including the Huangshi group, to relax towards the end of the year. It was also a time to talk about our experiences. Our good times, bad times, and how we can continue to improve Zhong in the future. I think we all had a relaxing weekend meeting together. And I know we're all looking forward to going back to America as well!

Last night, we said goodbye to Taylor. He is flying back to America for good today. He has been here for 3 years. The first 2 were teaching at Wuhan No. 1, and this year he has been working at Mr. Mai's and taking Chinese classes at a local university. He was great to have in Wuhan. He was a lot of fun, and he helped our group of mostly rookies out a lot! I know we, and a lot of Chinese people will miss him next year!

Well, that's the shortened version of the past few weeks. See a lot of you in about 50 days!

Hanging out

Hello again everyone. The weather has continued to warm up, and I don't think I've ever been so happy because of it. I think the cold has officially passed, so it will rarely drop below 60 degrees during the day anymore!

The past two weeks have been a great time of hanging out with some of my Chinese students and friends outside of our usual spots (class or Mr. Mai's).

Last Saturday, the 17th, the foreign teachers were invited to a picnic with some of the Senior 1 International students and teachers. Our Sr 1 International classes are a little different than the rest of our classes. We teach them once a week for an hour instead of 40 minutes. It's kind of an extra class, so we don't follow the textbook. At the beginning of the year, I thought this would be my favorite class to teach. With no textbook, I could do whatever I wanted for lessons and make them as fun as possible. I was completely wrong! With no textbook, I've had no guidance for lesson planning. Also, the international students are a little different than the general ones. Wuhan No. 1 is one of the top schools in the country, so many students want to go there. From what I've learned, the international students are mostly here because their parents pay to have them attend, not because of their grades. Some of the students are great, but a lot of them seem to be very spoiled, and don't want to do ANYTHING in class. It's turned out to be the one (and only) class that I dread teaching each week.

I wasn't too excited about getting up early on a Saturday to hang out with some of these students, but it actually turned out to be a pretty good day. We went to Forest Park which isn't far from our school. I've been there once before with Molly and her daughter. My favorite place is Monkey Hill. There are dozens of monkeys (and a few random dogs) running free all over the place. It was hilarious to feed them, watch them fight, and watch the students nervously approach them. After that, we barbecued Chinese style. No hamburgers. Chicken, pork, eggplant, potatoes, corn, tofu, and lots of other things. Chinese barbecue is completely different, but VERY good! Hanging out with my students outside of class has seemed to help in class as well. Ever since then, my class has been a little more active in class. Now I just hope it can last for two more months!

The next day, I went to a Chinese "gathering" with Jesse. You may remember that I gave Jesse a Book a few months ago. I don't think he has been reading it a lot, but I can tell that he's interested in learning about Him. He actually texted me about going, which was surprising. I think he had a good time. The entire service was in Chinese, so I didn't really understand anything, but he was asking me questions about the "Book Stories" the pastor was talking about. He mentioned that he would like us to go again with his friend CiCi, so hopefully we'll be going another time soon.

Kirk, Daniel, and I hung out with Patrick this past Saturday (the 24th). Patrick is a college student I've been getting to know quite a bit at Mr. Mai's. His English is really good, which is always nice! He knows phrases that I've never heard other Chinese people use. He asked if I wanted to hang out his one off day that week. We decided to go to the Hubei Musem. Hubei is the province that Wuhan is in. Patrick had been there before, so he helped us get there and showed us around. After that, we had jaozi (dumplings), my new favorite Chinese food! It was another good time, and I could tell Patrick enjoyed it a lot as well. I feel like many younger Chinese people have a lot of fun hanging out with us. I think some of the reason is because the older generation is still very traditional. I think the younger generation likes to just hang out, not having to toast others or worry about face (sort of like status or reputation).

That's what I've been up to lately. Be thinking of my decision for next year. I will need to decide if I will return to Wuhan No. 1 pretty soon, probably by my next post. When I came here, I was pretty set on staying only one year. However, after getting to know so many people, it's hard to see myself leaving this place for good in two months!

TIC (This Is China)

Karen and I at the reception. Not sure what we're laughing at!

Cory and Lara with her parents at the "Bride Pick-Up"

For people who have lived in China, you've probably heard this phrase before. TIC would be the best description of my last few weeks here. Different...funny....kind of weird.....and fun!

Last Saturday (Apr. 3), Cory and Lara had their wedding. It was fun to be a part of such a mixed-tradition experience. In Chinese culture, the groom has to drive to the bride's home and pick up the bride to take her to the reception. The bride is hiding in a room. The man and his groomsmen have to get through her bridesmaids as they have lots of different challenges: answering questions, singing songs, doing push-ups, giving money, etc. Lara's hometown is an hour and a half away from Wuhan. We were supposed to leave at 7:30am to pick her up. We didn't end up leaving until after 9am, and traffic was terrible on top of that! Because we had to hurry back for the ceremony (and because we were a group of foreigners!), the bridesmaids went easy on Cory. He only had to pass out a few money envelopes, answer some questions about Lara, and then we all sang a Backstreet Boys song outside Lara's bedroom door to convince her to let him in.

After that, we headed back to Wuhan for the American-style wedding ceremony and Chinese reception. It was a learning experience for everyone there. We got to see a Chinese wedding reception, and they witnessed a wedding ceremony. Chinese weddings just consist of the bride pick-up and a reception. After that, Cory, Lara, and Cory's family headed off for a family vacation around China.

Kirk, Rebecca, Adam, Ben, and I were invited by Lily (a Chinese friend) to go to the park to fly kites the next day. I received a kite for my birthday from a Chinese friend, so I decided to give it a try. We decided to bring a football and frisbee "just in case." I'm glad we did. As we were putting my kite together, we realized that it was missing some pieces. It was still flyable, but barely! I think Kirk had it up in the air for awhile once. Most of the other attempts ended with us trying to get it untangled from a tree.

Since the kite wasn't working too well, we decided to start throwing the football and frisbee around. Foreigners will attract a crowd any time, but foreigners playing games they haven't seen very often will attract big crowds, and kids who want to play as well! It was fun teaching them how to throw, but it's easy to see why Chinese kids are often called "Little Emperors." They don't like to share, and they love to push and shove others to get what they want. We played catch with them for awhile, and then decided it was time to head home before one of the kids hurt each other!

Last Friday, Molly (Chinese teacher) invited Kirk and I to go to a golf driving range with her 6 year-old daughter (Shirley) and her friend (Winnie). I've done a few things with them now. I love talking to Shirley and Winnie. They can both speak a little English, and they're actually two of the best people for me to learn Chinese from! I can ask them to repeat the same word over and over and they never get impatient with me like most Chinese. It seems like most adults think that I should understand them after they speak once at their normal speed!

We arrived to the driving range, and the workers immediately greeted us and were excited to teach us how to hit a golf ball. They didn't realize that Kirk and I had been playing golf longer than them. We stepped up to hit our first balls, and a lady with high heels was trying to tell us to keep our heads down, spread our feet apart, etc. We tried to listen nicely, and then both hit our balls 200 yards or so. She looked at us and said, "Oh, you guys have played before." It was pretty funny. After that, they tried to sell us a membership to the range. I like to play golf, but I'm not paying to be a member at a driving range!

After golf, we went out to eat with Molly and the girls. We went to a pseudo-Western style buffet that was pretty good. I'm glad I've been able to do some things outside of the office with Molly. She's a little more "traditional" Chinese. I've been sharing an office with her this whole year, and I feel like just the last month or so she's finally started to relax around me and the other teachers.

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