We live in China! That's legit!

I’m back!  Sorry I haven’t posted on here in so long; I am not very good at this blogging thing!  Life in China is still really good!  It is Day 22 and it is starting to feel like I live here.  WEIRD! 

Before I begin talking about the past two weeks, I want to tell you about my team in Huangshi.  I will be using their names a lot during my posts, since we hang out all of the time.  There are seven of us who live in Huangshi from Zhong Relations.  Paul and Erin Korson are the married couple from Michigan and teach at the No. 3 high school.  Aaron Noble is from Michigan and lives with Kevin Bruce the Canadian.  They both teach at the No. 8 middle school.  Chelsie Priest is from Ohio, but lived in South Carolina all during college, so she understands southerners! Haha She teaches at No. 16 middle school.  Just wanted you to have a little info about these peeps!

Last week was pretty crazy!  We got back from Wuhan last Sunday, which included awesome American food and fellowship time with the team.  It was so nice to see everyone in Wuhan and get to catch up since we haven’t seen each other since training in August.  On the way back to Huangshi, we took a van, which included wooden bench seats.  Let’s just say they weren’t the most comfortable seats ever.  I got a little motion sickness, but it all turned out okay!  Later Sunday night we got a call from our waiban, Diana, saying that we wouldn’t be teaching our Grade 1 students that week because they had military training.  SWEET!  We had only taught one week at this point and now we get another week off! 

The 2011-2012 Zhong Relations team in Wuhan

During our week off, we tried to explore Huangshi more.  We took a walk to the lakes that are on the outskirts of the city and surrounded by mountains.  It was a nice change of pace from where we live in the middle of downtown.  On Friday, we walked to the lakes, had a picnic lunch and read our books under a Chinese gazebo.  It was so peaceful!  On our way back to our apartment, we got a little lost. Haha It all turned out okay though because we found this awesome bakery, with legit chocolate cake that looks like a swiss roll.  Yummy!



One of the lakes



On Saturday, we headed up to the school to watch our students perform for military training.  At first, I wasn’t sure what this training would be like and thought it might be very intense.  However, it was not that hard core and the students seemed to enjoy it.  It mainly teaches them discipline and respect.  For all my dance team friends, it reminded me of drill downs that we did during dance camp.  Each class did a performance, but most of the routines were the same.  Although we were not supposed to be the main attraction of this performance, we ended up being the focal point after all.  This happens all of the time!  Huangshi is a “small” Chinese town and doesn’t have many foreigners who live here, so we are very popular.  The performance basically turned into a photo shoot.  It started with the teachers wanting pictures with us, then the students, and finally the military trainers took pictures with us too!  CRAZY!  Also, people continually took pictures of us during the performance.  They tried to be sneaky, but we knew what they were doing.  I felt like a total celeb with my sunglasses on pretending to be ignorant of the paparazzi.  Hehe

The rest of the weekend was spent with the Carpenters (the founders of Zhong Relations), who came to visit us in Huangshi.  We went to a Chinese flea market, which looked like legit China, including stalls with anything and everything you could imagine.  There was food, shoes, clothes, yarn, art stores, bedding, etc.  We found foam for our beds there! Yay! Our beds are not as hard as rocks anymore.  They are still very firm, but much better than they were prior to the foam.  We then got massages, which were heavenly, got our toes painted and headed to dinner.  Sunday we celebrated Sophia and Ray Ray’s birthdays at KFC.  Sophia is the Carpenters daughter and RayRay is Jessica’s daughter (Paul and Erin’s waiban).  Overall, it was a great weekend!

Luckily, this week has been more “normal” if you can call anything in China “normal”.  I got back into a routine with my teaching schedule.  I am definitely a person who needs some structure in their life!  J  My classes have gone pretty well.  Most of the students are very sweet and shy, but some of the high school boys are ridiculous.  My form of punishment for those that are disrespectful is to make them dance in front of the whole class!  (I stole this idea from one of my teammates, Aaron) They get very embarrassed, but it has been working pretty well so far.  Tuesday was another team member’s birthday (Paul), so we all went out to eat for it.  It was the best meal I have eaten so far in China.  We had green beans, sweet and sour fish, chow mein, and a pork dish that tasted just like bacon! YUM!  It was so good that I barely came up for air.  It is rare that I actually feel full here in China.  My appetite has basically been cut in half, but at this dinner it was back in full force.  We then headed to our apartment for cake, ice cream and presents.  Yay birthdays!  It was such a good night!  I love our Huangshi team!

We also joined a gym this week.  I have only gone twice, but it has been fun both times.  Last night we went to a jazz class that the gym offered.  Lesley and I had no idea what to expect.  It was a lot of popping and reminded me more of hip hop than jazz.  Of course we were the center of attention again and y’all know how much I enjoy that.  The whole gym stopped what they were doing when we walked in and then stood at the door to the jazz class to watch.  The entire class already knew the routine, so we had to pick it up quickly.  Luckily we are both former dancers, so it wasn’t that bad and turned out to be really fun!

Living in China is definitely an adventure.  Every day is different.  Some days are good, some not so good, but He is with me every step of the way.  There is no doubt in my mind that I am here because He wants me to be.  I wouldn’t have chosen this adventure on my own and could not possibly do it by my own strength.  I am already learning how much I need Him every single day and learning how to depend on Him for everything.  “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength” Isaiah 40:29. He is good and His love endures forever. 

I love getting your e-mails and updates about your life!  Keep them coming!

Quick Pics

Yay pictures!  This is just a quick post with some pictures from my city Huangshi.  We got to visit Wuhan this weekend and eat delicious Western food.  We literally gorged out!  We had an awesome time with the team and even got to go to Foreign Fellowship Sunday morning.  It was a great time of worship and a time to reconnect with people I hadn't seen since training back in August.  I also got to visit Mr. Mai's Coffee House!  The owners are from Louisiana and the reason I am here in China. 
***I could only upload four pictures because it took over an hour!!!! So I think from now on I will just put pics up on facebook and my blog will just be used for stories.  Sorry if you don't have fb, but it just took way too long. I'm new to this blogging thing, so bare with me.

Huangshi No. 1 High School (my school)

Authentic Chinese Meal

Outside one of my favorite clothing stores

Dragon we saw on Mid-Autumn Festival Day

Made it to China!

We just got internet yesterday, so I haven't been able to update my blog until now.  I will try to give you a quick overview of our first 10 days of living in China.  It has been a crazy, but awesome time so far!  It is still very surreal and hasn’t fully hit me yet.  We have been so busy trying to get all settled in.  Let the overview begin!

After landing in Wuhan on September 7, our waiban (foreign boss) Henry picked us up at the airport and drove us to Huangshi, which took a little over an hour.  We came to the apartment and dropped off our bags, then went to have lunch.  This was our first official Chinese meal with Diana and Henry (waibans) and it was real authentic.  It included pigs feet, goose eggs, goose, some kind of tofu, etc. There was one vegetable we liked called Shanghi Ching and the rice.  Haha it was definitely an experience, but we survived!  We then headed to see the school we would be teaching at.

We got our class schedules at the school, which is fewer classes than we both expected.  We each teach 9 classes a week, which equals 6 hours a week.  We are freaking out about all of our free time!  We are going to join a gym on Monday so we have something to do in our spare time. Neither of us have class on Mondays which will be great for traveling.  Wednesdays I teach 5 classes so that’s a really busy day.  Most days I only have one or two classes!  Awesome! J

Huangshi is so not a town, it is a huge city!!!!!!!!!!!  It reminds me a lot of NYC.  There are shops everywhere and we leave about a block from the center of downtown.  There is a shoe district, so I can’t wait to buy some awesome shoes.  There are at least 25 stores on just one street if not more.  Clothes stores are everywhere, grocery stores, etc.  That was probably the most shocking thing at first because it is not a small town by any means, which is what we were expecting.

The food has probably been the hardest part to adapt to.  It is very different than American Chinese food and since our waibans haven’t had many Americans they don’t understand the type of foods we like.  Our team has taken us out a few times and we have liked their choices for Chinese food much better.  We also found Skippy peanut butter with swirls of chocolate in it!  Lifesaver!  Seriously, we have eaten it with crackers, bananas, or by the spoonful every day!

Our apartment is not the best, but better than I anticipated.  It needs some TLC, but is livable for now until we can decorate it more and make it home.  The living room is nice and big.  Our bedrooms are really nice too; however the bed mattresses are like wood.  They are so hard!!!  Our waibans  bought our comforters before we got here, so they are very Chinese with bright colors.  Mine is hot pink with blue squares! Hehe

We really are celebrities here.  You get stared at everywhere!  We had the workers take pictures of us at the breakfast place we went to the other day.  It is kind of funny, but very weird.  People tell us we are beautiful all the time, which is nice.  Although most people think we are from Russia and are sisters.  They also think we are too young to be teachers and that we are international students!   It is a very weird combination between celebrity status and freak of nature.  Some of the people make the most horrible faces when they look at you!  Most of the time it is funny, but sometimes it can get frustrating.

Overall, it has been a great experience so far. Teaching has been really fun!  The students are so intrigued by us and have some of the funniest questions.  They love Justin Beiber and Lady Gaga.   They are very into relationships here as well, so I get the boyfriend question a lot. They also ask questions such as, “Why did I come to China?”  which has been a great gateway to share a little about Him.  None of my students have heard of Xianity at all.  Please continue to pry that seeds will be planted here and His light will shine in the darkness!

I will try to update more frequently now that I have internet.  Pictures to come soon as well!  I am hoping to do a before and after style post of our apartment.  Please keep in touch and e-mail me about your life!

Contact Info

Hey Y'all!

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up on how to contact me when I move to China!  My main point of contact will be e-mail.  Most of y'all probably have my LSU e-mail, but I am trying to transition everything to my g-mail account, since I am now an alumni!  My g-mail address is morgan.camille@gmail.com.  I also have a Skype account, which is morgan.camille14.  Facebook is not a guarantee, it is blocked in China, but I am going to buy a proxy, so I will hopefully be able to use it as well. 

**Some important info for you to know if you email me or comment on my blog**
Please be careful with the language you use when contacting me.  I will be using some new "lingo" when writing and hope you will do the same, such as Father, Him, prying, Book, Xian, etc.  I think you get the picture.  Just be sensitive to religious or political topics.

Thanks for all of your love and support! 

Headed to China!?!?

I am officially moving to China at the beginning of September.  I can't believe it is really happening and is almost here!  One of the main questions I keep getting from friends and family is "How did you end up in China?".  Which is an understandable question since China was never in MY plans.  This question has somewhat of a long answer, but I will try to make it as short and sweet as possible.

Let's start at the very beginning...
Two years ago, I started my senior year of college where I began my journey in the Holmes Program at LSU.  Each day consisted of time spent with the same 35 girls, many of which became some of my closest and best friends!  One in particular, Lesley Bergeron, is hopping on board with this journey to China and will be my roommate!  Lesley had always wanted to travel/teach abroad after graduation, and I decided I liked that idea too!  We began joking a few weeks into the Fall semester of our senior year that while all of the other girls from our Holmes cohort would be married and teaching in Louisiana, we would be off traveling the world.  Little did I know, this joke would become reality.


Alright, fast forward a year...
Lesley and I seriously began looking into teaching abroad in Europe, specifically Germany because she had studied abroad there and loved it.  After researching, taking a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course, Europe didn't seem like a real possibility because all of the schools wanted two years of teaching experience, which we didn't have.  We started e-mailing different locations, yet again the doors just kept closing.  Every time we looked online, China kept coming up.  What CHINA???  Two of our friends are moving to China in January, so we began joking with them that maybe we would end up in China as well.  Again a JOKE, never thinking it would actually happen!


Again, let's skip ahead a bit...
Lesley and I both graduate from graduate school in May (Side note:  I refer to be called Master Morgan now ;).   At this point, Lesley has left for Prague with a group from The Refuge for 6 weeks and I am still freaking out because we do not have jobs! EEK!!! We applied to the Virgin Islands.  That door was slammed shut.  I started applying around the Baton Rouge area and every time I went to one of school board offices they had the same answer, "At this time, we are not hiring".  All I could think was "Oh no! I'm not going to have a job this Fall.  Father what should I do?". 

Drum roll please............

The Father hears our pryers!!!  The real journey to China began at my cousin's wedding shower.  A lady from my church/former Sunday school teacher was at the shower and I knew she had traveled to China before.  We began talking about China and how she thought it would be a great place for me to go.  She said I needed to talk to her good friend David McNabb, who owns a coffee shop Mr. Mai's in Wuhan, Hubei, China.  Later that month at my cousin's wedding, Mrs. Lisa came up to me and said you are never going to believe who is here, Mr. David and Mrs. Faith McNabb!  They just "happened" to be in Baton Rouge and just "happened" to be at my cousin's wedding.  I had a lovely time speaking with them and my parents got to ask the questions that had them freaked out about the possibility of me going to China.  Mr. David got my resume and Lesley's (since we are a package deal haha) and sent it off to some of his friends in China.  Leaving the wedding I had such a peace knowing that wherever Father wanted me that He would make it happen!  Within the next few weeks, Lesley and I were contacted by an international school about teaching in China.  We were excited and the company was great, but we still had a few concerns.


Concern # 1:  The school was nowhere near Wuhan, where Mr. David lives and we both knew we wanted to be in that region. 
Concern # 2:  We would be teaching 3rd and 4th graders in all subject areas! That was a major freak out moment!  Although my degree is in Elementary Education, being a first year teacher in another country was very scary!!!! Everyone says your first year is the hardest, which is understandable because everything is new to you. 
Concern # 3:  We weren't guaranteed placement at the same school or city.
Concern # 4: Two year commitment.  Let me repeat TWO YEARS!  We were both just warming up to the idea of China, which neither of us had been to and now we have to commit for that long.  It may not seem that bad to someone else, but we were freaked out.
Concern #5:  Lesley's sister is getting married on September 3 and the school was not sure they could accommodate us coming after that date, since the school year would already have started and they wanted us to arrive sometime in July.


I know you are probably wondering why I listed all of the reasons for our apprehension to teach at the international school, but it is to show how good our He is! :)  He is perfect and his plans are perfect too!  Moving along, we both turned down the jobs offered by this company.  Just when I thought I would be teaching at home in BR, Father provided something better than I could have ever imagined.  Zhong Relations contacted us about teaching in Huangshi, Hubei, China.  I'll just give you a brief overview of what this job entails:


Answered Concern # 1:  The school is only an hour bus ride from Wuhan, where the Mr. Mai's coffee shop!  We can easily visit on weekends.
Answered Concern # 2: We will be teaching high school students at Huangshi Experimental High School conversational English.  It reminds me more of a college set up, where we teach the same lesson to 10-15 classes a week, each class being 40 minutes long.  The students have a Chinese English teacher for grammar, vocabulary, etc. and our job is to help them with speaking and listening skills.  Did I mention we don't have to assign homework and we don't have any graded work! 
Answered Concern #3:  Lesley and I will be teaching at the same school and will be roomies!
Answered Concern #4:  It is a 10 month contract!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
Answered Concern #5:  The school was very cooperative with us coming after the wedding.  We leave September 5!


Do I really even need to say anything else?  Every single one of our concerns was answered perfectly.  This is not a close to perfect kind of thing, it is a Father perfect thing.  How faithful is He through it all.  After graduating, I really struggled with entering into a new chapter of my life.  I am good at the in between times, but beginnings and endings are always so hard.  This summer has been a challenging time for me, but He taught me so much about Himself.  I truly had to depend on Him and only Him for the which direction my life was headed.  There were many tears shed through the process and I am sure more to still come.  If you know me at all, this move to China is a huge leap of faith.  I tend to be more of a home body and have a very close-knit family.  I know that this next year will include times of joy, excitement, sadness, fear, loneliness, and happiness.  Through these things also comes growth and I truly feel this will be a year of immense growth for me.  This is where He wants me to go, so I will follow in obedience.  

***Sorry this post is so long!  I am hoping to continue to blog throughout my whole time in China, however this is my first attempt at blogging so we will see!