Thanks!

Thanks so much everyone who read this blog. I know you could have found so many other things to do with your time. I really appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers. I felt like you all got to experience some of what I did. Thanks again :)

Back on American soil

It was easier to say goodbye than I thought it would be. The students all left soon after the closing ceremony. I was so proud of them! Last night we had a dinner with our team. It was a nice time to talk and reflect with each other about the great session.
I really am sad to leave. It seems like I have been gone longer than 9 weeks. I really do feel at home here. The concrete floor and board bed, have been my home for a while. I really hope I don’t fall right back into the American way. It will be hard to fight it, I know. At least I have all of these memories, because I went through 3 journals! I hope the change in me will be lasting.
This morning I slept in a little bit. When I woke up and went outside of my room, there was a present there waiting for me. It was a journal from one of the students. June, is not even one of my students, but I talked with her a little bit. It was a journal, a picture of her, and a letter to me. She is so sweet.
I went to the bakery by bus for the last time. It is interesting that I think I will miss the bus. Before, I hated the bus, because it’s so hectic and busy, but now all of those annoying things, I think I will strangely miss.
After the bakery I went to get my hair cut. It was a 2 hour process! First I had to wait for a little while. Then it took the guy a really long time to cut it just perfectly. Then he called another guy to straighten my hair. It’s nice be able to wear straight hair again. I was getting tired of the humidity and curly hair. Then they called another guy to do the final trim. At one point, all three of them were doing something different with my hair. I think they just wanted to touch it because it feels different than their hair. I could tell they were talking about the color of my hair. Then they whipped out this book with a bunch of different color hair samples. They put it up to my hair and chose the one that was closest to my hair. I started to laugh. Then they got embarrassed and said, “Good!” I kept checking my watch, because I was afraid I would miss my taxi. I had to run back to campus, but I caught the taxi!
The taxi ride was only supposed to cost 120 yuan, but the register said 146. Ok, I brought extra just in case. I gave the driver 150. Then he got angry and said that it cost 196 yuan. Shoot, I didn’t think I had this much. I started to panic, thinking, “What am I going to do? I don’t have enough!” I started desperately counting my ones and somehow I had enough. I have 2 yuan extra! Thank goodness, because the driver wasn’t the most gracious.
On the planes today I got to see two sunsets and one sunrise. I am living August 28th over again! So strange. I am home J It’s almost like China is a story now. It’s all in the past and a memory…

Party

Today we had a party in our class. The last few days, the students have been sneaking out to buy gifts. Thankfully they did not get caught :) Good news, the cake was ready for me when I went to pick it up! The students gave me a tea cup and a beautiful braclet. It was funny because yesterday, I was asked 3 times what my favorite color was. When I said blue, they said, "Are you sure it's not green...?" Hah, they had bought me a green bracelet. They wanted to sing me songs in Chinese. It was really special. Also, the thing I am most excited about is my new Chinese name! In China, everyone has a meaningful name. They created the name He Ting for me. It means holy and lovely! I was so honored that they would give me a beautiful name. They got a good laugh out of me trying to write it in Chinese characters! Tomorrow will be a tough day, the last day.
Each night me, Karissa, and Cherry (another student) sit out on the steps of our dorm and talk. We were sitting outside last night, it was sprinkling, and Karissa said, "I want to sit out here forever..." Finally we went to bed, because we must get up early. Last night, I thought, I am the luckiest girl in the world. I got to teach a high class, children, and a low class. It could not have been any better. I am so happy. Here there are no worries, no problems, just care free living. In a few days I will go back to school and get back to real life.
It's funny because I have been around the Chinese for so long that I catch my self using Chinglish, and bad grammar. To them we speak so simply and slowly. When I go home, people will look at me strange when I say, "Hhhiii. Mmmmyyyy nnnaaaammmmeee iiiiisssss Ssssaaarrrraaaa!"
One more day!

The lasts

As each day gets closer to the end, we all get more and more sad. Yesterday I had all of the students write a letter to me. Today they gave them to me, and they were beautiful. One lady came and sat next to me. She is very quiet, because her English is not good. She wanted to read her letter to me personally. She began to read. At the end, she said, "There is A LOT more I want to say to you, but I can't. It's too hard to find the vocabulary. I'm so sorry..." She cried. In general, the Chinese people don't show affection. They hardly ever say "I love you." To hear that from so many students really is special. I opened one letter, and the equivalent of a $100 bill fell out! The woman said she wanted to get me a gift, but she is not allowed off campus. She said, "This is the best that I can do for you right now." I know that is a lot of money for her! It's almost like the words "thank you" aren't good enough.
Four more days and I will be home! So close. I'm excited for the airport and the plane ride, even though it's 13 hours. I like to fly. I will go start packing :)

I ventured to a Bakery to buy a cake for our class party on Wednesday. It took me 20 minutes for the woman to guess what day I wanted it on! Then it took another 10 to tell her what time I would come to pick it up. Hopefully there really will be a cake for me when I go! I suppose if there is no cake, I will run to the store and we will celebrate with Hostess upcakes, with chopsticks of course :)

P.S. My favorite student's name this session is Dinosaur. Hah!...Dinosaur...You can hardly call his name seriously.

One more added

I am reading the journals again, and I have some that I must share. These are their exact words.

On August 20th, Alice said, “I feel like time is driving so quickly. Now I wish it would go slower. I don’t want to come to the end.”

August 18th, Betty said, “ I will have a daughter. I have a son now. If I have two children they can play together. They will share their happy and sad things…But our Chinese are allowed have only one child every family. So this is only my dream. I think it will never come true.”

August 20th, Susan said, “ We talked a lot of things in our classroom. Sara let us disguess (discuss ) some questions. I think it is hard to say befor. I have never thought these gueses (questions). From today I know so many things about myself.”

August 17th, Carolyn wrote, “Our teacher returned last week’s journal to us. She writed down, ‘You’re doing great! You can do it!’ When I saw these I’m very happy. I know my oral English is very poor, but my teacher is very friendly to me. I can hear clearly these encourage. I will remember you told me, ‘You can do it.’”

I so happy to say, last night I received a new sister in the family of God! One of the first nights of this program, I went to this room and met a girl named Kerensa, which she pronounces Karissa  She is not one of my students, but from then on, we always had some sort of connection. She is 32, and has the sweetest and funniest personality. Last night she came over and we sat outside on our dorm steps for a couple hours talking. She said, “You have such a big heart. You are the best kind of beautiful.” She asked why all of the Americans here are to kind. I told her maybe because we are Christians. She said, “When I go home, I am going to read the Bible so I can be like that too.” It’s a long story, but somehow at the end of the night, she made the decision to become a Christian. Her teacher, my roommate, came out after, and I asked KArissa to tell her teacher the good news. She smiled “I am a Ch, Chris, Christian!” She couldn’t even pronounce the word, but it was the most truly joyful moment for me. She just kept saying, “I believe. I believe.”
When I started talking to her last night, I had no idea that’s where it would end up! I was totally caught off guard. I guess that’s the difference between my timing and God’s timing. She said, “I am so full!”
At the beginning of my time here I thought I would get to share a lot about being a Christian. I realize that the opportunities are few and far between. But if she was the only one, it would be worth my time here in China. She is truly special. It makes me sad to think about her, a brand new Christian going back home. She will stuggle, I know…

My roommate left today. It was so cool to get to know her here. We don’t know everything about each other, but it didn’t matter. She was a kind of friend I’ve never had before. We went through so much together. We are the only ones who understand each other because we had the same experiences. So many memories. I will probably never see her again, but it’s ok, because we shared everything. We were much needed friends during these two months.

Almost there

Well I'm almost a week away from the end. I think I will be ready to come home. Three of my friends are leaving this week, because they have to go home early. They have all been here for 2 months also, so it will be hard to say goodbye to them. We kind of clung to each other because we were in it for the long stretch.
Things I am excited to do at home:
-Eat American food (Chinese Cafeteria food is getting kind of old)
-See my family
-Eat deserts
-Play the piano
-Get on Facebook (since it's blocked in China)
-Sleep on my bed

There are still quite a few things on my list to do here though too. I want to get my haircut here (hopefully it turns out ok!). I went shopping today. I was really excited to get "The purpose driven Life" for my Christian student. I hope she hasn't read it yet. It's funny because I just feel like buying all of my students things, but I shouldn't because it would be expensive. I almost feel like Chinese money is play money since things are so cheap. That is a bad mindset to have! :)
A new group from Oregon came a few days ago on a trip from their church. I talked to one older man for quite a while one evening. He was telling me that he had been to China 3 times. He was talking about things here. But I did not agree with a lot of what he said. He had only stayed here for 2 weeks each time. He did not realize that it takes about a month here before you hit the wall and realize that like every country, there are some problems. I do love the people here! But, honestly, I don't think that I will be back to China. I want to explore other parts of the world. It's hard to tell my students that I won't be back, because of course they all want me to come visit their hometowns. They say, "Welcome to my hometown!" This is what we call Chinglish (a mix between Chinese and English). They mean, you are welcome in my hometown. At first when they all said this I would think it was so funny, but now it seems normal and I almost forget it's chinglish!
I suppose nothing too exciting has happened in the last few days. Hopefully I will have some more good stories as the days come to an end here. I'll write back soon!

Journals

This afternoon I have the day off, so I am sitting in Starbucks reading my students journals. I feel like a real teacher! I have always wanted to grade school work in a coffee shop :) It's funny because here in Starbucks there are probably more foreigners than Chinese people. I am sitting next to two Americans who are debating politics and Obama. BORING. These journals are amazing. They have such limited vocabulary, but their words are so powerful. It's funny to read the things that they say about me. It's strange that small conversations with them have such an impact. A student that I'm not particularly close with said, "You are changing me from the inside." Woah.
It's sad to think that I only have 12 more days in China. I will be ready to go home, but I feel like I have so much work to do here before I leave. I have a feeling some of it will go unfinished. Just like the kids camp, it started badly, but now it is wonderful. It's so amazing how things can change in only 6 days. They are getting braver, and they are interacting all the time now. Each one has formed close friendships in the classroom. I feel like a proud mother, as I watch them help and encourage each other. Group work is the key. They feel so much more confident when they see that the others are putting themselves out there too.
At the end of the session each one will give a speech. I told them that I would give one too, as an example. Oh boy, what did I get myself into? I don't know what to speak about yet.
I've decided when I teach in the states I will use a microphone! I have a soar throat every day from talking so much and so loudly.