Kids say the darndest things

So, yeah, it's been more than a month since my last update and I’m really sorry about that.  On the bright side, though, this post is going to be packed full of a whole lot of awesomeness!  So much has happened during the last month that you would hate me if I wrote about all of it and actually expected you to read it.  Instead, this post will be about all of the adorable things my students and Chinese friends have said/done recently.

Yesterday, I informed one of my classes that they have an exam next week.  Since they don't know the word "exam" I said in Chinese "kǎoshì" (exam); the entire class broke into applause and were cheering and simply couldn't believe that this white chick from America just spoke Chinese!  There is no other place in the world that students would applaud after hearing they have an upcoming exam.

I played a review game with my students and included some pictures of my family in the PowerPoint.  I pointed out my dad in one of the pictures, and a couple of the boys said, "Woah, he is SO cool!" and "He is rockstar!"  Here's the picture that deemed my father a rockstar:

One of the words I'm teaching my students is "restaurant".  For some reason they have a really hard time with this word.  When I showed them a picture and asked what it was, I got all kinds of responses, but my favorites were: "ru-ru-ru-ressienot", "eating shop" and "eat hamburger store".

March 5th was my co-teacher's birthday.  I handed her a card I'd made and she asked what it was for; I said, "Today is your birthday, yes?"  She explained that Chinese people celebrate their birthdays on the Lunar New Year, which I already knew, so I clarified, "It is the day of your birth, yes?"  She then said, "sān yuè wǔ hào" (March 5th).  I very humbly replied, "Jīntiān shì sān yuè wǔ hào" (Today is March 5th).  This was followed by a very long pause, then she looked over at the calendar, did some math on her fingers, and a shocked look appeared on her face, "OH! Today is my birthday!"

Last week I completely lost my voice.  I wasn't able to teach a couple classes because I couldn't speak above a whisper and when I attempted to use a microphone the class, including my co-teacher, couldn't stop laughing.  Later in the week I walked to class and a student stopped me in the hallway, placed one hand on her throat and the other on mine, and whispered, "Have speaking?"  When I replied, "Yes, I can speak.", she clapped and hugged me and kissed her hand then touched my throat again and escorted me to class. 

The teachers and their families eat in a cafeteria on campus.  One of my class masters has a toddler that she eats lunch with everyday.  This child is absolutely terrified of the foreign teachers, specifically the white female foreign teachers.  Every day during lunch, if we're sitting in the same room as this kid, he spends the whole meal demonstrating his disdain for us!  If we look at him, he covers his eyes or puts his head down.  If we make faces or try to play with him, he turns completely around in his chair until his back is to us.  Yesterday, no joke, he turned around in his seat for a full 10 minutes and refused to eat or talk or look at his mother until we left.  His mom and grandma have both tried to intervene, but even my teammate's co-teacher had to admit, "He is a very happy baby, he likes everyone... but maybe, maybe he does not like you."  If it wasn't so incredibly amusing, I think my feelings would be a bit hurt.

Today I tried an experiment.  I needed to go to the supermarket, but I was in one of those moods where I just didn't feel like being the foreigner-celebrity of Taiyuan.  So I decided to try a tactic that another foreign teacher at our school uses every time she leaves campus; I covered every part of skin and hair I possibly could, even though it was in the 60's and sunny.  Then I walked to Meet-All.  Not a single person looked at me!  It was like I was totally invisible, even when I went in the store and talked to a couple of people, no one knew I was a foreigner!  The difference between today and a normal trip to the store was the most astounding thing- I kid you not, typically every single person we walk by will pause and stare at us, several will say any English words they've ever heard, and some might stop to take pictures or a video.  Today: nothing.  I almost didn't know what to do with myself, I'm so used to being constantly on display.  Here's a picture of my disguise:

Oh China, you are certainly never boring :-)



288 Valentines and a whole lot of love

So Valentine's Day, or the more aptly named “Singles' Awareness Day”, was less than one week ago.  China’s version of Valentine’s Day is celebrated in August, so February 14^th wasn’t marked by an excess of pink and red hearts, roses galore, or advertisements suggesting that you only truly love someone if you buy them a big enough diamond.  It was really nice to get away from the commercialization of the holiday, and I probably would’ve forgotten about it entirely if I hadn’t been teaching a lesson on it! 

The lesson I taught was somewhat superficial, considering that it wouldn’t have been entirely appropriate to teach my non-English-speaking 4^th graders about the tragic history behind the holiday or about couples and romance.  I did teach them about love and how love can be shown to family members, friends, leaders, etc.  Then I helped them make cards to give to their parents whenever they get to go home next; it was a pretty fun lesson and I made sure to take a bunch of pictures to share with my supporters back home. Valentine’s Day came and went the same as any other day. 

The next day, as I was talking with my team about our best Valentine’s Day dates, it struck me that I’ve never not had someone special to celebrate the day with; I realized that this was the 1^st time I’ve been alone on Valentine’s Day.  Over the next several days that realization started getting to me, and I was becoming pretty discontent over not having the typical American lifestyle of settling down and starting a family. 

Then I started to write this blog update about my Valentine’s Day lesson; as I was deciding which pictures to post, I started really looking at the faces of my 288 students, and I saw their smiles and thought about their lives and felt their desperate desires to be loved.  My heart broke for each of them all over again.  Father struck me with a reminder that I desperately needed: the fact that I don’t have the typical American lifestyle isn’t something to be discontent over; what I’m doing here, living and teaching in China, isn’t some huge sacrifice that I’ve made.  I have this incredible opportunity to teach, to love, and to share Hope with His children in China!  This Valentine’s Day, I got to spend the holiday with 288 special someones that I desperately love and who desperately need to be shown love.  How could I possibly be discontent over that?  Now that I really think about it, this was the best Valentine’s Day ever :-)

These are some of the many children I have the privilege to love!

There should be a snooze button for reality

Well, I'm officially back to reality after six amazing weeks of Winter break.  I probably should have mentioned that I wouldn't be updating my blog during break, so I apologize to those of you who messaged to ask if I'm dead (I'm still very much alive, by the way).  A lot has happened in the last six weeks, so I'll try to just fill you in on the most interesting aspects.
 

In mid-January, I got to spend a week with two of my favorite people in the entire world (which I think I'm entitled to say now that I've been to the other side of the world); my dad and sister came to visit me in China!   

Dad, me, and Tracie on the Great Wall of China!

I played tour guide and took them all over Beijing; we hiked up and tobogganed down the Great Wall, toured the Forbidden City and Tian’anmen Square, shopped at the Silk Market, saw a Chinese acrobatic show, ate a bunch of authentic Chinese food (including fried scorpion), had near-death experiences in taxis and on the subway, and went to the Night Market, the Beijing Botanical Gardens and the World Park!  

Tracie, me, and Erin eating fried scorpion!

It was an intense non-stop week and it was so wonderful to spend time with my dad and sister and finally be able to share the reality of my life in China with them (although we all missed mom and wished she could have come, too)!  

 When they left, homesickness hit me really hard, so it was a blessing that I immediately had to prepare for my trip to Thailand. 

Erin, me, and Lauren on the beach at sunset

Erin, Abbey, Sam, Lauren, and I traveled to Koh Lanta, Phuket, Thailand for a desperately needed vacation!  We stayed on the beach for a week and by the end of it most of us decided that we're definitely going to retire there some day.

I'm riding an elephant!

We laid out on the beach (and got ridiculously sunburned in the process), ate way too much food, got authentic Thai massages, went paddle-boarding and snorkeling, awkwardly experienced a fish spa, saw wild monkeys, rescued starfish, rode elephants through the jungle, got tricked into eating the hottest chili pepper in existence, had fire-throwing lessons, and met some of the coolest people I've ever met from all over the world!

After our wonderful vacation we journeyed to Chiang Mai, Thailand for our Annual Thailand Conference; my organization brought all of the teachers and their families, around 500 people, from all over Asia to meet together for one week in Thailand.  The conference was a time for us to fellowship with other Believers, see and hear about the work Father's doing all throughout Asia (I can't wait to share this with you when I get home!!), learn about potential countries of service, and to receive encouragement, support, counseling, and Thoughts for the struggles of our past semesters.  It was exactly what I needed for rejuvenation and preparation for this next semester- I've gained so much motivation and perspective for the next 4.5 months of my service in China!

I'm now back in Taiyuan and am getting really excited to see my students again on Monday!  I've missed those kids during the last six weeks; I'm so unbelievably grateful that I have the opportunity to be a part of their lives and I can't wait to see how Father uses the next 4.5 months to touch their lives and the lives of my co-teachers! 

Christmas in China (just a bit late)

Christmas in China was... different- not in a bad way- just different.  Previous teams had left a bunch of Christmas decorations, including a tree, and our supporters sent us all a bunch of Christmasy stuff, so we were able to decorate for Christmas!  A few weeks before Christmas, my team and I put up the tree in my apartment and decorated it while we listened to Christmas music; it certainly didn't look like the Christmases I'm used to, but it helped to give us all a bit of holiday cheer! 

We had two Christmas parties and both were so much fun!  The first was for local college students that we've gotten to know and become friends with. 

We made and decorated Christmas cookies with them, which was super funny; Chinese people use chopsticks for absolutely everything- even to frost cookies!   

Then my team and I put on a short performance of the Christmas story! I was Mary, and they thought it was hilarious when I walked out with a pillow up my dress, then gave birth to a boot wrapped in swaddling sheets.



The second party was for our Chinese co-teachers.  We mostly sat around and talked while eating all kinds of fattening foods.  We'd made a bunch of desserts beforehand and had a cake-walk-type-thing!  They absolutely loved it, and they were all running around trying to pick the best number to stand on in hopes of being picked- it was so funny!  After that, we put on the Christmas story performance for them, and they loved it even more than the college students had!

On Christmas Eve. we went to a Christmas Eve service at a local Fellowship.  ...it was the weirdest thing I've ever experienced.  There were dancing women in army camo outfits, 10 virgins doing some sort of a dance-off, women in ball gowns and men in tuxedos, secular Christmas music, and all kinds of other interesting things!  It was all in Chinese, so of course we had no idea what was going on, but it was definitely amusing!

For Christmas, I got to Skype with my family!  We read the Christmas story and opened presents via video, and it was almost like I was there!  It was so great to get to do that on Christmas morning, even though it was still their Christmas Eve!  Then my team and I got together for homemade brunch, exchanged secret santa presents, and watched Christmas movies all day!  I was so grateful to have a team to spend the day with, and it really helped all of us to not feel too terribly homesick!

Hello, I'm 方诺雅

Don't let the name fool you- I'm still not Chinese.  BUT I was given my Chinese name today!  I went shopping with two new Chinese friends (K and H) who've been coming to Word study for the last couple of weeks.  The entire time we were out was like one long Chinese tutoring session- it was exhausting, but oh so wonderful!  At one point, H asked me what my Chinese name is and she was shocked that I didn't have one yet, so they spent the rest of our time together discussing what I should be named.  They chose 方诺雅 (Fāng Nuò Yǎ), which refers to Father's creation and His promise to refine me.  K explained it in a much more flowery way, like the Chinese do, but that's the ultimate meaning.  I absolutely love it, and may have even cried a little bit when they explained it to me.  Then they taught me how to write it, which took about 10 minutes, due to foreigners' tendencies to "draw" the characters instead of writing them!

In case you haven't seen it on my Facebook, here's a video that my teammate put together of our school's English Festival where we had to perform the opening act!  It has clips of our dance and pictures and clips of our students' performances.  They're so adorable, so you should definitely take the time to watch it (it's only 3:34 minutes).  http://vimeo.com/33327301

Also- here's some Chinglish pictures for you all!

1 out of 3 isn't so bad...
"Dinnirwaie-Dinnerware-Dinnirwaie"

On the opposite side of the aisle, you can get your...
"Press Conference"
Funny, I always thought they were called pressure cookers!