Thursday, December 27, 2012

'Tis the Season!


Hi Everyone!  I hope y’all had a great Christmas filled with lots of love and family time!  Although I didn’t get to spend mine with my family, Father really blessed me this season.  I had a great Christmas week spent with my students and friends.  I got to share about Father with my students all week, including a very cute video that they all enjoyed watching.  You should check it out!The Christmas Story video I will try to recap all the fun activities that filled my Christmas this year!

Class 13 (which is one of my favorite classes...shhh don't tell!)  decorated their blackboard for Christmas!  I loved it and thought it was so cute!
       

Last Saturday, Les and I performed at a Christmas show for the training center.  We choreographed a dance to a Christmas song and performed it with the other teachers from the training center.  It ended up being a lot of fun!


Les and I with Santa Claus (Lorence who is from France)


Dawn ended up being in the dance because we needed another person!  Poor thing gets roped into all kinds of things because of us. She looked so pretty though!


We thought we would be performing at a small party...we were wrong!  It was a huge room filled with elementary students and their parents.


Students performing


Cutie pies performing Gangnam Style! It was adorable!


Singing Christmas songs


Us with Vicki and Amy, two of the teachers who danced with us!



Our boss Celia!  She is so sweet and did a great job being in charge of the show!

Saturday was a fun-filled, but very busy day!  After our dance performance, we headed out to meet our high school students for Christmas caroling!  We practiced singing Christmas songs in class the week before and then invited all of our students from No. 1 high school and Brad and Dana invited their students from No.3 school to join us!  It was a great night! Hundreds of kids showed up!
The crowd of students ready to start singing!


I only get to teach one of my classes that I taught last year again this year.  These are my students from that class!  I was so happy they came!  I love them. Too bad the picture didnt' turn out. :(


Michelle, one of my students in Grade 1.  Her English is awesome!


Cookie, Kitty, and Sugar from Class 6!  They are so sweet!


Roach with his panda hat.  He wrote me a sweet Christmas card.


Tenty, another cutie!




Hatty Lee was my student last year, but then moved to No.3 school.  She is now Brad's student.


My girls from Class 14!  Anne, wearing the red scarf, was so excited to be there she ran up and gave me a big hug!  I loved it!

Christmas Eve we went to ch.u.rch with the boy I tutor, Geoffery.  He brought along two friends with him.  I was so excited to go to ch.u.rch on Christmas Eve, just like I would if I was at home.  It was a special night!
The blinged out ch.ur.ch for Christmas!

Christmas day was such a wonderful day!  I taught two classes that morning.  My students were so sweet and told me "Merry Christmas" in unison together when I walked in.  Les and I then attended a school lunch with the vice headmaster and a few English teachers.  It was really sweet of them to take us to lunch.  They know how important this holiday is to us and wanted to treat us.  

Christmas night we had dinner with the foreigners and our Chinese friends Dawn and Wu Xia! It was great to see everyone!
Baby Leila opening a gift!


All the girls:  Dana, Wu Xia, me, Les, Leila, and Dawn


The whole group!

And the best gift of all....a bathtub!!!!!!!!!!!!  The school treated us to a night at the fanciest hotel in Huangshi.  As you know, our apartment has been under renovations for over 3 weeks now.  We have been living at the dorm and it's been rough.  So for Christmas night we had a wonderful treat, a bathtub and a comfy bed!!!!  I was so happy! I love to take baths and it is one of the things I miss most about living in America.  On Christmas Eve, Lesley and I were joking saying this would be the best Christmas ever if we could take a bath.  Well, we weren't prying, but Father heard us and gave us a huge blessing! 




One more wonderful surprise from Father was SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!  It snowed the day after Christmas here!  Last year it didn't snow at all, so it was a nice surprise.  The chunks of snow falling from the sky were much bigger than I've ever seen before.  It was really beautiful!  



I had on so many layers of clothing on. I look a little puffy! haha






Our itty bitty snowman


On the school field.  We were like children playing in the snow.  I think our students found us amusing!

Well, that was our Christmas!  As much as I missed my family, Father blessed me with so many special gifts that I knew were just for me.  He loves us so much!  I got to spend my Christmas day teaching my students about Father and sharing His love! I can't think of a better way to spend the day!

I will leave you with a video of my kiddos singing!  I hope your Christmas was as special as mine.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Under Construction

I know it's been awhile.  Partially it's my fault and partially it's China's fault.   Overall, it's been a whirlwind couple of weeks.  Lesley and I are officially nomads roaming around the city of Huangshi with limited internet access, hence my lack of blogging here recently.  I'll break the story down for you.  

On December 2, Les and I were having a lovely Sunday evening at our apartment hanging out with Dawn when we heard a knock on our door.  It was our neighbor from the apartment below us.  She was talking 90 miles a minute, so of course Les and I had no clue what was going on.  Thankfully Dawn was there and was able to translate.  Apparently, water was leaking into her apartment from our apartment.   We called our boss and she said she would take care of it the next day, but we should turn off our water.  I quickly jumped into the shower, not knowing it would be my last wonderfully hot one for a long, long time.  

The next morning, we packed a few things so we could stay at our dorm room at school for a few days until the leaking pipe in our floor could be fixed.  Well to cut a very long story short, a few days has now turned into 2 weeks.  Since the pipe was broken, which meant our entire bathroom floor had to be ripped up, the school decided to "decorate" (remodel) our entire bathroom.  This sounds amazing and in the end I'm sure it will be, but right now it's not very fun.  

The school said the repairs and remodel would take about 15 days.  Les and I have become well aware that China deadlines aren't real.  So when they say 2 weeks, you should go ahead and double it and that is a more accurate timeline.  Two weeks have passed since we moved out and here is the current state of our bathroom/apartment.  

This is our dining room filled with cement, dirt, and debris.

Our bathroom



So to sum it up, we are now living at school in our dorm room Monday to Friday and a hotel on the weekends. We are prying to be back in our apartment by Christmas, but as you can see from the picture it's not likely.  Right now Les and I are struggling with a lack of sleep from very hard beds and some stomach problems from all the cafeteria food we have to eat.  (Our dorm room doesn't have a kitchen, so we have to eat what the kids eat everyday)  If you could be prying for those two issues specifically, it would be much appreciated.  

Sorry this blog is a bit of a downer, but just wanted to let everyone know what's been going on and why I haven't been able to keep in touch as often as I like to.  We are surviving and trying to keep up our good spirits.  This is China and somethings just don't always go as planned.  Hopefully, we will be able to ring in the new year back in our apartment with our brand new Western toilet!  



Friday, November 16, 2012

Darling Dawn


A few weeks ago, we celebrated our bestie’s bday at our apartment!  Dawn is mentioned all the time on my blog and she really has become Lesley and I’s best friend here in China.  She is one of the most giving and selfless people I have ever met.  She always willing to help out all of us foreigners here in Huangshi!  If we ever have a problem or don’t know something we call Dawn.  She is an amazing cook and is hoping to open up a small bakery here in Huangshi soon.  I was so happy we were able to have a celebration in honor of her birthday.  She has truly blessed me and made my time here in China so memorable! 

Sweet potato birthday cupcakes!


Opening her gifts!

Dawn and Baby Leila

Dana brought Dawn flowers.  They were beautiful!

Some of Dawn's friends from the university came to.

The three amigos
 (Do you see how Lesley and I tower over Dawn. haha We feel like giants here most of the time!)

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Holiday Fun!

We were off of school last because of two holidays, Mid-Autumn Festival (the one with the moon cakes) and National Day.  We weren't able to travel because all of the train tickets were sold out.  Instead, Paul and Erin came to spend a few days with us in Huangshi.  We also got to hang out with some of our Chinese friends during this time.  It ended up being a lot of fun, even though we stayed in Huangshi!

We made yummy Fall treats with pumpkin!  Pumpkin muffins that Dawn decorated!

Pumpkin Pancakes with homemade cinnamon syrup.

We had brownie party at our place with Wu Xia and her friends!  Our friend Wu Xia loves sweets, especially chocolate.  Her and her friends wanted to learn how to make an American dessert, so they came over and we made brownies together.  So fun!







There was also some acupuncture involved. Our friend Dawn went to massage therapy school.  She learned acupuncture there and decided that Paul needed to experience it.  She came over to our apartment with all her equipment and set up shop. 
Dawn trying it out on her self first to show us she knew what she was doing. haha

Paul getting ready!



It was only suppose to be Paul, but what do you know we all ended up trying it.  It was like a version of Fear Factor and no one wanted to be the wimp! haha  Lesley went next, then me, and lastly Erin.

My turn...got to love the look of apprehension on my face.  Dawn tried to put the needle in the pressure point on my hand between my thumb and forefinger, as she was doing it she just kept laughing.  I was so confused and thought my skin was too tough or something.  It turns out I don't have enough muscle in my hand, so the needle wouldn't stand up straight.  It was my left hand, just saying. 

On to Plan B!  Dawn decided my arm would work better, so she stuck the needle in the pressure point above my elbow.  You can see it in the picture below.  It is the little white line sticking up out of my arm.  

It didn't hurt to put the needle in my arm at all.  I am usually pretty good with needles and don't get freaked out.  However, after Dawn put it in she twisted it around or as I say in the video "the twistee part". The video below shows my reaction!


Later that night we headed to KTV with Brad, Dana, the baby, Paul and Erin and some of our students.  Chinese people just plain love KTV (karoke)!  
(Brad and Dana are two of our new team members.  They teach at No. 3 high school and have an adorable baby girl!)
Dawn and I


The group! Sandy, Hatty Lee, Dawn, Jolene, Erin, Paul, Lesley, and Brad


Dana and Liela, sporting a cute outfit for a night out on the town!


Hatty Lee (the girl on the right) was my student last year.  She moved to san zhong (No. 3 high school) in the middle of the school year last year and became Erin's student.  This year she is Brad's student.  She has had so many foreign teachers! haha She came to KTV with us and brought her cousin Sandy with her.  

We also got to climb a mountain and play badminton at the top of the mountain with an English teacher from our school. It was so fun!  I didn't have time to upload the pictures.  I will try to next week, but if you want to check it out you can look at Lesley's blog.  

That's all for now.  Headed on an spur of the moment trip to Guangzhou today to see our friends Crista and Dan from Louisiana!!!!!  I can't wait!  Be back on Wednesday.