I have had quite an incredible last few days. First of all, I am in the middle of teaching middle school students for two weeks. The first few days were terrible! They barely speak any English (some not even 1,2,3 and A,B,C) so it makes it so difficult to teach them speaking only English. I am so thankful to have an interpreter in the room to translate pretty much each sentence I say! As you can imagine, it’s hard to think of things for these 9-16 year old children to do when some of them have had only 1 year of elementary English! But, by the end of the first 4 days, I loved it! Somehow we bonded through all of it, and it was really fun. They think it is so cool that their teacher lives in the dorm with them, and that I invite them to play Uno (which is a huge hit) in my room after class time. They really are having fun.
These past four days I had off, so I made a spontaneous decision to fly to Shenzhen to visit some of my students from last session! I just had the best four days! The first day, they took me to this tourist attraction called Splendid China, which are many models of the famous places in all of China. At night, there were many shows. These were so cool! They were shows where they did all of the tribal dances, and wore outfits that the Chinese people used to wear. In one of the smaller shows, they asked audience members to participate. Because I was the only white person there (I stuck out like a soar thumb) and they made me get up on stage and learn a Chinese dance in front of everyone. Mom, you feel my pain! Oh well, at least I provided them a lot of entertainment! There was also this water festival thing going on, where all of the companies in the area come together and dump water on each other after this big presentation. I’m not sure why they do this, but it was cool to watch anyway.
That night, I stayed in one of my student’s apartments. There was no air conditioning, and it is SO hot here. I thought Beijing’s 104 degrees what hot, but I now have a new definition of hot! You walk outside and you are dripping with sweat. She asked me if I wanted to take a shower. Perfect! Yes! Well, I went into her bathroom, and the shower was a bucket full of cold water! Hmmm. Ok, so I managed to somehow wash my hair in this bucket, but as I stuck my head down in the bucket, I saw a cockroach scurry across the floor! Oh man. Thank goodness there was a mosquito net around the bed (really just a board on the floor), so the cockroach couldn’t get me. What an experience. Well, I will have to write more later because my battery is about to run out. The next few days were even more exciting!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Goodbyes
Well today I had to say goodbye to the first round of students. It was much harder that I thought it would be. Yesterday night, we had a closing party. The students gave speeches to me, and they gave me gifts! The whole class went together to buy me a wall hanging with a traditional painted woman, a really expensive and fancy set of chop sticks, and dried fruit from their provinces. What a blessing! We also shared some dances at our party. I taught them an American dance called the Cupid Shuffle, and they taught me some more Chinese dances.
Today, one of the students gave her 10 minute speech. Her speech was about her time here at our program. It had pictures of the 20 day journey put to music. Recently I had been kind of discouraged, because I felt like I hadn't gotten into any really deep conversations with anyone about my faith, and I felt like I hadn't really made any impact in anyone's life yet. But today when she gave her speech, she talked about how much she has changed on the inside here at TIP (the program). I know I didn't do anything myself, but God and me working for TIP made a difference in her life. She had the whole room crying! I just wish that she knew that it was God making these changes in her life, not herself.
Sometimes it's frustrating because the students see that we are different, but they just think that we're good people. They don't know that we're different because we are Christians. When I tell them I am a Christian, they just think that that's part of my culture. They don't see how it could apply to their lives also. But...I just have to believe that God will work in all of their lives, and hopefully something they learned here, could somehow lead them to God in the future.
It's amazing that God let me be part of this. I have learned more than they have, I'm sure. It's exciting to think that I have more than a month left!
Today, one of the students gave her 10 minute speech. Her speech was about her time here at our program. It had pictures of the 20 day journey put to music. Recently I had been kind of discouraged, because I felt like I hadn't gotten into any really deep conversations with anyone about my faith, and I felt like I hadn't really made any impact in anyone's life yet. But today when she gave her speech, she talked about how much she has changed on the inside here at TIP (the program). I know I didn't do anything myself, but God and me working for TIP made a difference in her life. She had the whole room crying! I just wish that she knew that it was God making these changes in her life, not herself.
Sometimes it's frustrating because the students see that we are different, but they just think that we're good people. They don't know that we're different because we are Christians. When I tell them I am a Christian, they just think that that's part of my culture. They don't see how it could apply to their lives also. But...I just have to believe that God will work in all of their lives, and hopefully something they learned here, could somehow lead them to God in the future.
It's amazing that God let me be part of this. I have learned more than they have, I'm sure. It's exciting to think that I have more than a month left!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Delicious
I was given a chicken foot, pig's stomach, and a black egg by some of my students today. Mmmmm. I'm not exactly sure what you should say to that. I told them I would save them for when I got back to the dorm :) It's funny because they really like the word delicious. Either something is delicious or not delicious.
My teammates are about to leave :( On Saturday I move to the new campus for a few days, and then I will come back to our campus. It will be sad to say goodbye to my teammates. I am not homesick yet, but I think once they leave it will be an adjustment to get to know the new team members. I'm worried that they will have had the quarantine time to bond, and I won't know them. I don't think I'll be back on campus until the first day of classes begin, so I won't get to hang out with them ahead of time. Oh well. It will work out!
I better go because I need to buy a bus/subway pass instead of paying everytime. I am becoming a real Chinese! :)
My teammates are about to leave :( On Saturday I move to the new campus for a few days, and then I will come back to our campus. It will be sad to say goodbye to my teammates. I am not homesick yet, but I think once they leave it will be an adjustment to get to know the new team members. I'm worried that they will have had the quarantine time to bond, and I won't know them. I don't think I'll be back on campus until the first day of classes begin, so I won't get to hang out with them ahead of time. Oh well. It will work out!
I better go because I need to buy a bus/subway pass instead of paying everytime. I am becoming a real Chinese! :)
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Miscellaneous
It’s funny because I can’t picture my students speaking Chinese. To me, they’ve always spoken English. And, they have a Chinese name that I don’t know. They are not just Chinese students to me anymore, they are my friends. We have spent a lot of time together, and it will be sad to see them go. I wonder if I will love the next batch of students as much as I do these…
On Sunday we went to the same church. I think the Haidian church is one of my favorite parts of China. It’s so strange to me that I can be only one of 25 white people in a room of 500 Chinese, and feel so at home. They have such a good community at this church. It really is quite amazing. I hope that one day I will be able to be part of a church with this mindset.
It has been exactly one month since I have had American food, watched TV, slept on a mattress etc, and I can honestly say I don’t miss most things. Ok well maybe the American food But I don’t miss TV at all, and I’m so tired every night that I don’t care that I’m sleeping on a board. It is really refreshing to live so simply, because I’ve realized how much I don’t need to be happy. A simple life is much easier. Yesterday one of my students asked me why I change my outfit everyday. I told her that we do that in America. The Chinese wear the same outfit for at least 5 days in a row. I’m not sure why they do this, because they wash their clothes every night. It’s funny because since there are no dryers, they hang ALL of their clothes outside. They have absolutely no shame about hanging their underwear out for the world to see! It makes me laugh. But it is nice to be somewhere where you can look horrible, and they still think you’re beautiful! They don’t care about clothes. To them, the brighter and more patterns in one outfit the better! Haha. I suppose my clothes are a bit boring to them.
I discovered something sad the other day. I was visiting one of my students the other night, and we were talking about the one child policy. I asked her if she would like to have more children. She gave me a strange look and said, “No! We have a metaphor for this in China. When you open up your hand, all of your fingers are different lengths. When you have more that one child, like the fingers, not all are equal. You will love one more than the others.” Interesting. I think this is what the government tells the people in order to keep them satisfied with the one child policy.
It’s also sad how much the government shelters the people. I was wondering why I hadn’t heard anymore information about the riots. I thought I was just in my own little world because we are so busy with our program. But I learned that the Chinese people don’t even know what’s going on. There is no CNN or BBC or any unbiased news in China. All they see is what the government lets them see. I guess it is kind of like propaganda because they want the people to think that everything is good and that they have it all under control. So I think Americans know more about what happens in China than the Chinese people do.
On Sunday we went to the same church. I think the Haidian church is one of my favorite parts of China. It’s so strange to me that I can be only one of 25 white people in a room of 500 Chinese, and feel so at home. They have such a good community at this church. It really is quite amazing. I hope that one day I will be able to be part of a church with this mindset.
It has been exactly one month since I have had American food, watched TV, slept on a mattress etc, and I can honestly say I don’t miss most things. Ok well maybe the American food But I don’t miss TV at all, and I’m so tired every night that I don’t care that I’m sleeping on a board. It is really refreshing to live so simply, because I’ve realized how much I don’t need to be happy. A simple life is much easier. Yesterday one of my students asked me why I change my outfit everyday. I told her that we do that in America. The Chinese wear the same outfit for at least 5 days in a row. I’m not sure why they do this, because they wash their clothes every night. It’s funny because since there are no dryers, they hang ALL of their clothes outside. They have absolutely no shame about hanging their underwear out for the world to see! It makes me laugh. But it is nice to be somewhere where you can look horrible, and they still think you’re beautiful! They don’t care about clothes. To them, the brighter and more patterns in one outfit the better! Haha. I suppose my clothes are a bit boring to them.
I discovered something sad the other day. I was visiting one of my students the other night, and we were talking about the one child policy. I asked her if she would like to have more children. She gave me a strange look and said, “No! We have a metaphor for this in China. When you open up your hand, all of your fingers are different lengths. When you have more that one child, like the fingers, not all are equal. You will love one more than the others.” Interesting. I think this is what the government tells the people in order to keep them satisfied with the one child policy.
It’s also sad how much the government shelters the people. I was wondering why I hadn’t heard anymore information about the riots. I thought I was just in my own little world because we are so busy with our program. But I learned that the Chinese people don’t even know what’s going on. There is no CNN or BBC or any unbiased news in China. All they see is what the government lets them see. I guess it is kind of like propaganda because they want the people to think that everything is good and that they have it all under control. So I think Americans know more about what happens in China than the Chinese people do.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Tibetan Dance
Last night at dinner a girl next to me asked me about the love chapter in 1 Corinithians 4. She had heard the passage that morning in the motivational time, but she didn't know where to find it. She said that she liked it so much that she tried to remember all of the words, but she forgot some. She asked if I would be able to help her find the words. During training we were given a Chinese/English Bible as a souvenier. I told her I would go get it. When I brought it back, she was so interested in what it had to say. She was thrilled when I asked her if she wanted to keep it. She said, "I will read every word very carefully!" She's not a Christian, but maybe if she reads the Bible she will have more questions. God can use small things just as easily as he uses big ones.
After all of the evening activities were over, I was standing outside and I heard singing and laughing coming from the basketball court. There were about 20 students singing and dancing in a circle. It was the coolest thing. All of these students were from the Tibetan region, and they were doing a traditional Tibetan dance! I tried to get it on video, but it was too dark. They asked me if I wanted to learn. Why not! How often in your life do you get to do a tribal dance? I'm sure a young white girl looked pretty funny attempting this Chinese dance. It was fun! They said that at home, their whole village gathers in a circle and dances around the fire on special occassions. Pretty cool.
After all of the evening activities were over, I was standing outside and I heard singing and laughing coming from the basketball court. There were about 20 students singing and dancing in a circle. It was the coolest thing. All of these students were from the Tibetan region, and they were doing a traditional Tibetan dance! I tried to get it on video, but it was too dark. They asked me if I wanted to learn. Why not! How often in your life do you get to do a tribal dance? I'm sure a young white girl looked pretty funny attempting this Chinese dance. It was fun! They said that at home, their whole village gathers in a circle and dances around the fire on special occassions. Pretty cool.
The new campus!
Starting July 25th, I will be teaching middle school students for 2 weeks at a different campus. I will be doing this with 3 other teachers from my team. We took a tour of the campus yesterday and were amazed! This new campus is 100 times better than the campus that we are on right now! The classrooms are small, but they said if the weather is nice, we will even be able to hold class outside in the courtyard area! The cafeteria is more like a banquet hall, and the dorms are like hotels! They even have a balcony. I will get spoiled with this for 2 weeks, and then have to go back to the old campus :) Me and another girl decided to stay on this campus for the 2 weeks, so we will have to move some of our stuff. The two boys decided to just commute back and forth every day, since it is not so far. I asked to live on this new campus because I want to spend as much time with the students as I can. I think spending time with them out of class time is so important, because then they can see that we are people too, not just teachers. We are not sure of the English levels of the students yet, since they come from all over China. I hope that we are going to be able to carry on conversation with them.
Teaching English here has been really good for my patience. You have to choose your words so carefully, and speak so slowly, that you must limit what you say. I find myself accidentally talking to my teammates very slowly! :) It's interesting to have to explain so many new words to the students. It's hard to explain some words, because we've used them for so long that we can't really break it down. Each day, the students use a computer program to listen and record themselves in order to improve their pronunciation. The program teaches them many idioms. So the students go around saying, "It's raining cats and dogs outside," or "thanks a million," or "I love you to death." It's pretty funny. They are learning some words that we don't even use. Some of them also have British accents. So cute! It's funny that even though they are all older than me, they almost feel like children. I hope it's not demeaning to them that a younger person is teaching them. After all, they are all teachers. One student told me, "You may be young, but you know English, and English is power." Hmmm.
Teaching English here has been really good for my patience. You have to choose your words so carefully, and speak so slowly, that you must limit what you say. I find myself accidentally talking to my teammates very slowly! :) It's interesting to have to explain so many new words to the students. It's hard to explain some words, because we've used them for so long that we can't really break it down. Each day, the students use a computer program to listen and record themselves in order to improve their pronunciation. The program teaches them many idioms. So the students go around saying, "It's raining cats and dogs outside," or "thanks a million," or "I love you to death." It's pretty funny. They are learning some words that we don't even use. Some of them also have British accents. So cute! It's funny that even though they are all older than me, they almost feel like children. I hope it's not demeaning to them that a younger person is teaching them. After all, they are all teachers. One student told me, "You may be young, but you know English, and English is power." Hmmm.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Funny!!
Well, my students are working on a song to sing for the talent show. They picked "Hey Jude" by the Beatles. But, I must say that Chinese people have very little pitch...or rhythm for that matter. Actually none at all! So, they want me to sing with them, but I'm giggling and cringing while singing, because it is so bad! So funny though! As long as they are having fun, I am happy.
They discovered my blonde arm hair yesterday and thought it was the coolest thing in the world. Asians have hardly any arm hair, so they were pretty excited about mine. Hah :) They find the strangest things interesting!
We have these meal card things for the cafeteria. Mine was on my nametag around my neck so I wouldn't loose it. Well, I accidentally dropped it in the toilet today :( So....now I must borrow someone else's to eat. I laughed. The toilets here are pretty much a pit, so there was no chance of getting it back. Oh well!
I am really tired lately. I think I just need some alone time, but that is kind of impossible here. I feel just kind of emotionally drained. I am getting as much rest as I can, and I am still trying to give my best. The weekend will come soon, and then I can rest.
Yesterday I ate a total of 3 ice cream bars and 3 peaches. The students just kept bringing me things. It's rude to say no, so I just kept eating! Somehow I need to figure out a good, kind way to say no. I can't be eating 3 ice creams a day! Alright, that's it for now :)
They discovered my blonde arm hair yesterday and thought it was the coolest thing in the world. Asians have hardly any arm hair, so they were pretty excited about mine. Hah :) They find the strangest things interesting!
We have these meal card things for the cafeteria. Mine was on my nametag around my neck so I wouldn't loose it. Well, I accidentally dropped it in the toilet today :( So....now I must borrow someone else's to eat. I laughed. The toilets here are pretty much a pit, so there was no chance of getting it back. Oh well!
I am really tired lately. I think I just need some alone time, but that is kind of impossible here. I feel just kind of emotionally drained. I am getting as much rest as I can, and I am still trying to give my best. The weekend will come soon, and then I can rest.
Yesterday I ate a total of 3 ice cream bars and 3 peaches. The students just kept bringing me things. It's rude to say no, so I just kept eating! Somehow I need to figure out a good, kind way to say no. I can't be eating 3 ice creams a day! Alright, that's it for now :)
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