Randomness

I haven't updated in awhile, so I decided to do a picture blog of randomness over the past few weeks.  

THANKSGIVING LESSON

For Thanksgiving, I told my students the story of the first Thanksgiving, explained about holiday traditions in America,  and then we made turkey hands!  Each of my students got a piece of red, yellow, or orange paper and had to write four things they were thankful for.  Holidays are one of the best ways I get to share and explain to my students about my faith, so it was wonderful to show them my turkey hand and share with them what I was thankful for in my life.  

Three of the boys from one of my classes.  As you can see, one was a little picture shy! haha

Two of my sweet students from Grade 2.  Since they are older, I made them write full sentences about what they were thankful for. They did a great job!

UNIVERSITY FRIENDS

Our school hosts student teachers every year, so we had a great time getting to know three of the student teachers who we shared an office with.  It is crazy to think I was in the same position as they are a year ago!  Oh how time flies!  These girls were so sweet and we had lunch with them during their last week of teaching.  They had such a heart for their students and were very sad to leave our school!  

Doree, Fredia, Lesley, me, and Carrie

KEV'S BDAY

Another team member had a birthday!  Kevin's bday was at the end of November, so we celebrated with a sushi dinner (delicious!) and dessert at the boy's apartment including brownies, chocolate covered strawberries, and a Chinese birthday cake. 

Kev's present from all of us was the original TRON dvd set!

Chelsie, Aaron, Kev, and Dawn

Paul, Erin, me, and Les

Kev blowing out his candles! 

KITCHEN FIASCO

So every Thursday and Saturday, Les and I go to a hip hop class at our gym.  Honestly, it is a highlight of our week.  So about two weeks ago, we were headed back home from hip hop in fantastic moods until we walked into our apartment and we heard water dripping.  Our kitchen was flooded and water was cascading down the sides of our kitchen walls onto the floor!  Oh China!  We called our waiban, Diana, and she came over and thought it was from the apartment upstairs.  She had a chat with our neighbors, but it wasn't them.  Come to find out a pipe had burst in our ceiling and it had to be replaced.  This was a very long process!!!!!!!  We were without a kitchen for two weeks.  As horrid as it sounds, and believe me it wasn't paradise, it is one of those things that can't be controlled and just have to step back and realize how many other areas of our lives we have been blessed in.  Our apartment might not be the greatest, but it could always be worse!  I'm just happy I have heat in my room because you know this Southern girl can't deal with the cold weather.

The workers had to tear down our ceiling to fix the pipe.

Ceiling on the floor that is covered in an inch of water.

Another view of our flooded kitchen.

CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE

Lesley and I decorated our tree this past week.  It is very small, but at least we have one!  It really hasn't hit us that it is Christmas yet.  We have been so busy with school events and the kitchen disaster that we haven't had time to think about it.  Luckily, our apartment is now decorated a little and it's beginning to feel more like that time of year.

Les posing with the tree!

The finished tree and of course our LSU tree!  We had to improvise with our tree skirt, which is a shower curtain! haha It works though.

CHRISTMAS CAROLING

This past Saturday, we invited our students to come caroling with us.  Students from my school came, as well as students from No. 3 High School where Paul and Erin teach.  All of our students thought it was a performance and were confused when we wanted them to sing with us.  It was wonderful seeing all of their smiling faces and how happy they were just to hang out with us outside of school.  We sang four songs and then just hung out with our students. Two of my students brought me Christmas presents, which was so sweet!  I really do love my students.  They are awesome!

Students trying to sing the Christmas songs.  We printed out lyrics for the songs so they could try to sing.

Paul leading the group!

Lesley, Chelsie, Grace, Hope, and Erin after singing!

The whole crew after caroling!

**Since I don't post on a regular basis if you want to know what is going on with me or in my city, check out Erin Korson's blog (www.erinandpaul.com)  She updates a few times a week!  

***Also, another team member had a birthday, Aaron Noble, but I forgot my camera that day, so I don't have any pics.  So shout out to Aaron!  We had a great time at this party as well, with a homemade meal, brownies, and banana pudding.  

A Dumpling Day

Chinese students' school schedules are crazy busy.  They are at school all of the time from 7:30am until 9pm every day of the week except on Saturdays, where they get a half day off.  Unfortunately this means our time to hang out with our students outside of school is limited to Saturday afternoons.  Two weekends ago, one of my students invited me to his house to have lunch with his family on Saturday of course.  I was very excited because he is one of my best students and his English is very good.

This is my student Rain (his English name).  He is in Grade 1, which is the same as a sophomore in America.

All of my students know my favorite Chinese food is jiaozi or dumplings.  It is so yummy and one of the safest foods here!  I met Rain at school and we headed over to his house.  His mother was so sweet and had prepared dumplings for lunch.  

A picture of the delicious dumplings.

His mom also made a soup that you are supposed to drink when you eat dumplings.  Oh and yes I said drink, not with a spoon, you just slurp it up.  It was also very good!

I told Rain before that I would love to learn how to make dumplings.  After lunch, his mom taught me how to make them.  She was a great teacher and very patient with me.  It took over 2 hours from the beginning of the process to the end.  I was basically gone all afternoon and I think Lesley got worried about me and called to make sure I was okay or to give me a way out.  Honestly, it was one of the most relaxing days I've had in China.  Sometimes it can be exhausting talking with students because of the language barrier, but there was no pressure on trying to speak with him or his family.  It was all very chill.   It was also nice to be in a comfy home with a family.  Even though his mother didn't speak English, I could still feel her motherly warmth, affection, and hospitality.  It really did feel just like being in a good ole' Southern home. Who would of thought!

This is Rain's mother teaching me how to make the stuffing for the dumplings.

Rolling out the dough.  Oh and check out my very Chinese sweater!  Got it from the night market awhile back.

Poor Rain became my photographer.

Yay!  A completed dumpling!

This was about 1/4 of the number of dumplings we made.  

His mother's dumpling is on the left, mine is on the right.  She said I was doing great for it being my first time to ever try to make dumplings.  Although, she could have just been being nice! haha  I didn't think it looked too shabby.

All of the dumplings!  I told you we made alot.  His mother was so sweet and truly a beautiful lady.  It was a wonderful afternoon!  Rain even translated and printed out  a copy of the recipe for me, so I could try to make it at home.  Still haven't attempted it by myself, but maybe one day I will feel ambitious and give it a go!

RANDOM SIDE NOTE:  Just wanted to give a shout out to my one and only team the LSU Tigers!  SEC CHAMPS!!!!!!!!!!  Great game, although the first half had me a little worried, I knew we would pull it together in the end.  Can't wait to be National Champions!  GEAUX TIGERS!!!!!!

Beijing Part 2

As you read our first day in Beijing was awesome!  Day 2 was just as good because we climbed the GREAT WALL!!!!!  The Great Wall basically takes a whole day because it is on the outskirts of Beijing.  After a few mishaps, we made it to the right bus station that takes you to the Great Wall.  We rode on a bus for about an hour and a half to get to Badaling.  There are many different sections of the wall you can go to, but our friends suggested Badaling, so that’s where we headed. 

This is a picture from the bus window.  It was so beautiful out there and so nice to be surrounded by nature, fresh air, and blue skies.  All of which are rare where we live. 

We were both so excited!  This was the entrance to the Great Wall.  The weather was actually really nice that day.  A little colder than I like, but after climbing I was happy it wasn’t a warm day.  

Headed on up!

You can check out the rest of the pictures of our climb below.

Just touching the Great Wall no big!

This was taken at the highest point we climbed.  It was amazing!

It was a very surreal experience.  We both kept saying, “I can’t believe we are standing on the Great Wall right now”.  It was one of the most breath taking sights I have ever seen.  The nature that surrounds it and the actual structure of the wall were incredible.  It just reminded me how blessed I am to be on this adventure in China.  Not many people can say they have climbed the Great Wall.  It wasn’t an easy climb though, it is so steep!  Most of the steps are not at the same height either, so you really have to focus on what you are doing. 

After climbing the Wall for several hours, we were both starving!  Luckily, there just happens to be a Subway located right outside the entrance.  It was fantastic.  They had the same cookies and everything just like home.  Yummy!  We finished up lunch and headed to some of the gift shops around the area.  And look what we found…

Can you believe it an LSU Christmas ornament in China!!!!!  It was so weird.  There were no other University ornaments sold there.  We were going to buy it, but it was way too expensive and the lady wouldn't go down on her price, so I took a picture instead.   This was the front of the ornament and the back had a tiger on it.  I took this as a sign that LSU will definitely win the National Championship! 


After this amazing find, we got back on the bus to downtown Beijing, where we found Cold Stone.  I’m telling you Beijing is amazing with all of their Western food.  I got mocha ice cream with Snickers bars and caramel.  So good!  We walked around the city more that night, and then headed to bed. 

Our last day in Beijing started off with coffee from Starbucks.  I know I take pictures and talk about food a lot on here, but you have to understand that Western food just isn't available to us on a regular basis.  We only have KFC in Huangshi and that is it.  

My Toffee Nut Latte and panda hat (Yes, I wore this hat all day long!)

The rest of our last day could easily be called Shop 'til You Drop!  Literally all we did was shop the whole day.  We started at the Silk Market, which is like NYC China town on steroids.  They had anything and everything you can imagine including silk ties, silk scarves, shoes, purses, clothes, accessories, knockoffs (Ugg, Polo, Chanel, etc.)  It was amazing!  Let me just tell you that Lesley and I are awesome at bargaining with the vendors.  When we got back to Huangshi, we showed one of our Chinese friends our purchases and told her how much we paid for it all and she was very impressed! (Mom, you would have been proud!)  My favorite part of shopping was trying to see how much we could get them to go down on their original price.  So fun!  

We headed to the Snack Street after to grab some lunch on the go, as well as a coconut drink.  

We wrapped up our last day in Beijing at the Pearl Market.  It was very similar to the Silk Market, but had pearls as well.  Before leaving, we ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant (one of our only Chinese meals of the trip) and then grabbed our luggage from the hotel and taxied to the train station.  

On the train headed back to Huangshi

That wraps up our trip to Beijing.  Although it was only a short 3 day trip, I am so glad we decided to go.  It was a much needed break for our routine.  There was so much we didn't get to see while we were there, so I think another trip to Beijing is in my future!

Beijing Part 1

The past few weeks have been crazy busy, but so fun!  About two weekends ago we went to Wuhan where we got to visit and have an amazing time of fellowship with the rest of our team.  I am so lucky to be surrounded by people who truly have a heart for HIM.  I am growing so much during my time here and am thankful that He placed me here.  Besides coming to Wuhan to visit/fellowship, Les and I had some important business to take care of… THE BAMA GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!    What, What!  That’s right, we got to watch a live stream of the game on a T.V. at one of our team member's apartments.  I’m not gonna lie it was AMAZING!  We decked ourselves out with LSU fingernails, tiger tattoos, jerseys, and yummy snacks.  We also made an entire playlist of LSU/Louisiana themed music, including “Callin’ Baton Rouge”, “Louisiana Saturday Night”, “All I Do is Win”, “Neck”, etc.  We were legit.  Anyways, the game was super intense as you all know, but of course our tigers came out on top! We’re No. 1 baby!  Goin’ to the ‘ship!!!!! 

 Our LSU cookie cake that Mandi (the other girl from Louisiana) made for the big game!  The game was on at 8am Sunday morning, so coffee was also a necessary part of our tailgating festivities.

The three LSU girls!  We really did have an awesome time watching the game, even though it was super intense.  Shout out to Ryan Matthews, who hooked us up with a live stream of the game.  If you want to see more of my game day reel of pics check out my Facebook album.  

On Sunday night we headed out on a night train to BEIJING!!!  This was our first trip to take in China just the two of us.  I think our team was worried because we don’t speak Chinese, but we knew we could handle it.  Haha  

It was a 10 hour train ride to Beijing from Wuhan.  Luckily, we had soft-sleeper beds, which were so comfortable.  We were such tourist the whole trip, taking pictures on the train and all. It was a room with four beds, basically like two bunk beds.  I really enjoyed taking the train and it wash cheaper than flying.  We arrived at our hotel in Beijing around 9am had a delicious Western breakfast including toast, eggs, pancakes, and bacon then headed out to explore the city.

Our first stop was Tiananmen Square.  It is the world's largest public square and that is just what it looks like. It's a huge open area surrounded by government buildings, a national museum, and the Forbidden City. They have a flag raising ceremony at sunrise every morning and at sunset.  Unfortunately, we never made it to either one of those.  In this picture, I am standing in the middle of Tiananmen Square and behind me is the entrance to the Forbidden City.  You can also see the flag pole to the right of the picture.

This picture might be my favorite out of all the ones taken on this trip.  As I have mentioned before Americans take on a bit of a celebrity role here in China, especially in the small town we live in.  Lesley and I thought Beijing would be different because foreigners visit there all of the time.  We were very wrong!  There were thousands of Chinese tourist in Beijing and most of them were probably from a small town, where there are no foreigners. We were instant hits! haha The picture above was the first one we took as celebs in Beijing.  This lady just walked up to us handed each of us one of her children and jumped behind us, while her husband took a picture.  Luckily, I was on my toes that day and asked the man to take a picture with my camera as well because I knew no one would believe me.  After this incident, we took about 10 more pictures around the square with random Chinese people. We decided to start counting and see how many posed pictures would be taken of us over the next 3 days.  Drum roll please...........................And the grand total was 74!  Crazy I know!

After Tiananmen Square, we headed to the Forbidden City, which is called this because it was off limits for 500 years.  It was the imperial palace for two dynasties of emperors the Ming and Qing.  Before heading in through the front gates, we bought audio sets that explained everything we were looking at.  We spent 3 hours checking everything out.  This place is massive!  I'm talking 178 acres!  

My interpretation of Mulan at one of the buildings in the Forbidden City.  

Just throwing money into some pond at the Forbidden City.  No idea what it means because our audio sets didn't tell us, but we figured it was for good luck! haha

At the end of our 3 hour tour of the Forbidden City. (Cue Gilligan's Island theme song, which Lesley sang throughout our time here, "A 3 hour tour" get it)

After the Forbidden City, we headed to Peter's Tex Mex Restaurant.  The one type of food we miss/crave the most is Mexican, so when we heard about this place we were determined to find it.  It was worth it!

So we went a little crazy with the Mexican food!  We started with an appetizer of 9 layer dip and chips, that's right 9 layers not 7.  It was amazing.  I am such a chip and dip kinda girl and have been extremely deprived since moving here.  I always knew I had a deep love for sour cream as well, but China has proved to me that I NEED it! Luckily, this place had it and it was divine.  The picture above was my main meal of tacos, beans, and rice. Yummy!  

I told you we went a little crazy, but we just couldn't help it.  When you find good Western food in China, you just have to splurge.  The desserts looked so scrumptious, so we both got one.  I got chocolate cake with homemade ice cream.  It was the best cake ever!!!!!!  This meal was worth every precious penny.

Even the waitresses at the restaurant wore shirts with the Texas flag.  This place was like stepping back into the states.  We both kept saying how it didn't feel like we were in China anymore.  Peter knows what he is doing!  We got to know our waitress pretty well, since we stayed at Peter's for over 3 hours.  It was by far the best meal I have eaten while in China.  We asked our waitress what  part of town we should check out next and she told us Wangfujing Snack Street.  

This is the snack street and it has many interesting snacks.  At this stand there were scorpions, starfish, seahorses, and some other type of bug all on a stick.  The worst part was the scorpions' legs were still moving.  At least you knew they were fresh!  Gross!

So I wasn't brave enough to eat a scorpion, but Lesley dared me to touch it.  All I had to do was stick out my hand and the man immediately put the scorpions on it.  Oh China!  After checking out all of the interesting snacks, Les and I turned down this other section of the street that had tons of street vendors selling very touristy things and the bargaining began.  Once we got started, we just couldn't stop shopping!  It was so fun trying to get the vendors to go down on their prices.  Since we are foreign they like to bump the prices up on us majorly, but we knew what they were doing and fought back.  We also used a little bit of the Chinese we have learned, which helped a lot.  Most of the vendors spoke English, but it still was helpful to be able to ask "How much?"  in Chinese, which is duo shao qian and "too expensive" which is tai gui le.  I will talk more about bargaining and shopping in my next post.  

That wraps up my first day in Beijing.  My next blog post will be Beijing Part 2, which includes climbing the Great Wall!  

L.O.V.E.

I’ve wanted to write a blog about my classes for a while now, so here it is!  I’ve been teaching for about 5 weeks and it is definitely getting easier and better as time goes on.  I am learning which of my classes really understand English, and which have no clue!  I teach 9 classes every week.  Most of them are Grade 1 classes, which is the equivalent to sophomores in the states.  I also teach 2 classes that are Grade 2, which would be considered juniors.  The school divides students into classes based on test scores taken at the end of middle school.  They are ranked from the best being in Class 1 to the worst in Class 16.  This basically goes against everything I learned in college.  It is interesting to see the connection between theory and practice.  Do you see! (Sorry inside joke for any of my LSU Holmies who read this haha)

I’m not going to lie at first I would get very frustrated with my Class 16, which is the lowest class in Grade 1, mainly because they were constantly misbehaving and not paying attention.  After taking a step back and trying to see life through their eyes, I realized I would probably be acting the same way if I knew I was in the lowest class and really didn’t have any expectations.  This is where grace comes in.  I am learning how to have grace with all of my students, especially my “bad” classes.  Once I let go of trying to discipline every little disturbance, teaching actually became fun again!  Yes, I am there to teach them English and I want their English to improve, but I want them to learn a lot more than that from me.  I want to show them grace, when no one else does or ever has.  I want to be patient with each and every class, no matter how much they irk me.  Most importantly I want them to see how much I care for each of them through LOVE.  It is not my own love I want them to feel, but HIS LOVE which far exceeds my own.  I want my students to know I am different, not because I am American or a foreigner, but because I am Xian and I have something that is more precious than any test score.  Some days it gets hard because at this point Lesley and I are “planting seeds”.   Since we are the first foreign teachers from our organization to teach at our school we are at the beginning of the process, whereas other people on our team are getting to water seeds planted by previous teachers.  This is when fa ith comes in and trusting Him to lead and guide my steps and my speech each and every day.   Most days I feel like I am not making an impact at all for the Kingdom, but I know this is what the enemy wants me to believe and I won’t let him deceive me with those lies.  I was having one of those days this week and then I got on QQ (instant messenger that our students use to contact us) and I had a message from one of my students.  It said, “All my classmates think you are kind and patient to us”.  This was definitely a gift from HIM and affirmation that my works are not in vain. 

Last week in particular I was able to teach a more “meaningful” lesson that involved friendship and the Golden Rule.  I brought the Book into my class for the first time.  Most of my students have never heard of Xianity/the Book.  Although I did not get to fully explain it, I’m realizing even baby steps of introducing what the Book is and explaining how it impacts my life is progress.  I first went over what characteristics they think makes a good friend.  I started off with someone who is kind, loyal, and patient.  I told them I learned how to be a good friend from the Book.  Then I let my class tell me words that describe a good friend.  One of the characteristics all of my classes said was outgoing.  I wrote that word on the board and then asked my class if they thought I was outgoing.  They all yelled back at me saying that I was VERY outgoing.  To them I am the craziest teacher they have ever had.  Most of their teachers are very serious and strict, I’m the exact opposite.  When I told them at home in America most of my friends consider me to be quiet and shy, they couldn’t believe it.  I explained that you could be outgoing or shy and still be a good friend.  It is so interesting to see their perspective of me.  After going over this and the Golden Rule, we learned the song “I’ll Be There for You” by the Rembrandts more commonly known as the Friends Theme song.  They loved it and I was able to connect the Golden Rule to the song.  I really do enjoy teaching and truly love my students.  I am also getting to spend more one on one time with some of my students, which has been great!  Please be prying for me to have more opportunities for meeting with students and sharing more about my life and most importantly about Him and His love.

I wanted to leave you with a video clip from one of my classes.  I start each class off with either a brain teaser or tongue twister.  This week I taught them “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?”  This clip isn’t that great, but it will give you a little taste of what my classes are like.  Enjoy!