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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!