Christmas China Style

Well it was a very memorable Christmas. I received cookies for one of my students, Tiger, he is very sweet! I also had one of my 4th grade boys make and give me a stocking so now I have my own stocking for next year and its from one of my kiddos!! I got lots of Christmas hugs and "Merry Christmas Becky" honestly I have so many 'mom' moments. We practiced for the play (which is now the New Years play) and I got stage fright and completely bombed with my Chinese. I felt so bad that I couldn't remember anything and when I walked into my last class today my kids came up in a big group to tell me 'Becky your Chinese was sooooo good!' and then I got so many hugs. These kids lift my spirits so many times, its pretty easy to fall in love with them. Here in China if you simply try to speak they think you are very smart and brave....I don't really feel like either right now but I am working on memorizing like crazy. In fact this post is a short break between memorizing.

Since it is Christmas it wouldn't be right to not have a great dinner so Inga took Amber, Lulu, Jon, and I out for Christmas dinner at a really good restaurant. I have never been there before so it was a new experience. I had Udon noodles with seafood (that has fish, octopus, and shrimp with the eyes and all) I overcame my fear and tried the octopus suction cups and all. It's rubbery like squid but more so kind of like eating fishy rubber. Yes I liked it but I have always like the weird stuff...except for eel I can't stand the after taste. If you have told me a year ago what I would be doing for Christmas I would have given you a blank stare. All in all it was a pretty good day different and not like any Christmas I have ever had but it was very memorable and what better way to spend the day then loving a bunch of awesome Chinese kiddos. There is a shirt back in the States that says: 'Have you hugged an Asian today?' well that is my life on an everyday basis and I love it. On to New Years 2013 it's going to be a new adventure!

ps I will post pictures when I get my computer back aka a new power cord

Lack of Connection

Well I am writing another blog post because I have no internet so I have run out of things to do while waiting however impatiently for a connection. Amber is on but my iPad will not connect for anything it looks like I might be going to Starbucks tomorrow night if I can't get a connection today or tomorrow. I am glad that the end of the semester is within sight I am very ready for a break...this morning I did not want to get up and I even went to bed early. These moments (without connection to the outside world)  make me learn patience whether I want to or not...usually not. There is a lesson to be learned even in this even if I can't really see it at the moment. Maybe this was what Trevor was talking about last Sunday with waiting...if it is its not fun. SOmetimes I wonder if its from the cold. In the States our electronics stay warm but here they get so cold that they don't really work properly, I find that very true when I try to play a movie at the end of QQ club my DVD skips so much because the computer is cold.

Today is Christmas Eve but it doesn't really feel like it. Some of my classes have decorated for Christmas but I not really in the holiday spirit I am still very much in work mode...maybe by February I will be ready for Christmas. This reminds me of my college days they would push Christmas in the middle of October and by Christmas I was so over the holiday because I felt like I had been celebrating it since before Halloween!  I keep looking up in the corner of my screen hoping for a signal...but sadly nothing. On the bright side the sun just came out it will help, even a little.

Well I finally have a signal but my new VPN is not working...China has really been blocking them with the change of power here. So my blogs might get updated in a mass update with several post in a row. I have learned to live and love these times of TIC, it builds character as well as makes you very grateful for internet in the States or '美国的' or 'mei guo de'. So its time to teach and I will write later, Merry Christmas and
Happy New Year!

To Travel or not to Travel

            Well I am getting closer to break. Tis coming week I work through Saturday to make up to part of New Years break (we get 4 days off) and then I work my first 8 straight days. We make up for to other two days off and it makes no sense to send the kids home Saturday just to bring them back Monday so I will teach my first Sunday :(
But after my long week I know that I only have one more week of teaching and then Chinese New Year/ Spring Festival begins!! Originally I had all these plans for traveling all over China not I have non whatsoever. Hollie is traveling for 4 straight weeks and I think Amber and Lulu are couchsurfing in Tailand. I wanted to meet up with Hollie in Beijing but that is going to be really tricky so so far my 5 weeks off include me cleaning my apartment (which it really needs it) and exploring Wuhan. It moments like this I am actually grateful that I am an only child and used to being by myself.  I do however look forward to sleeping in plus this takes up almost a whole month of winter. Those of you back home know that I am not a fan of the cold...one of the reasons I rather to to Beijing in the summer instead of the cold even though they do have heat. At this point I don't really have plans to leave Hanyang, which makes me sound really boring. Maybe this year can just be low key and next year I can go somewhere...maybe. I kinda take it one day at a time here, I find if I make plans too far ahead China changes them anyway.

In other news I am very grateful for my wireless keyboard and my iPad, it has come in handy with my lack of a computer right now. For those of you who have not heard my power adapter died...the 3rd one for this computer. You would think as brilliant as Apple is they could make a cord that would not be so delicate. So Amy and the tech teacher here at WEFLS are helping me get a new one off of Taobao (Chinese eBay)  so far its going to cost between 288-390 yuan which is not bad its between $40-$60 if I get one straight from Apple it's gonna end up costing quite a bit more after I pay duty fees. Next summer when I buy my new Apple I am getting a back up cord to bring with me to avoid this next year. Again so glad for my iPad and a few apps called keynote and pages.  After I come back from break I have 4 months to go... I can't believe how fast time has gone. I still can't believe I am in China at times, like at lunch time I am eating Chinese (the real McCoy) in China...it really is mind boggling. Well this is all I have for now it's a pretty short update but the next one might be really long depending on internet availability and if I can get my >pn to work (its a sideways v). In the meantime Merry Christmas!

4 months

   Well today I have been here for 4 months...I can't believe how fast the time has gone!!  This has been 4 months of stretching in ways I wasn't really prepared for, but I am glad of it even though it has been very painful at times. I think back to my first few days of teaching and how scared I was, not to mention the fact that I was ready to throw some of my 4th grade boys in East Lake. That has changed so much in the past few months. I still have a few 4th grade boys that can be a handful but it is very different now. I am more confident in my teaching and I really can't go anywhere without hearing my name from one of my kiddos. I have one little boy (whom I cannot remember his name right now) he is so cute he is in Class 2 Grade 3 I have him on Thursdays when he sees me he lights up like the 4th of July and shouts my name until I wave and say hello. It is absolutely impossible for me to have an outright bad day when my kids are around. I can be having the worst day and I will get smothered and I mean smothered in hugs from my students. I could be having a bad day where I don't really feel very great about myself and a little girl will come up to me (or a 4th grade boy...there are at least 3 of them that like me) and tell me 'you are so beautiful'. 

   Moments like this are like hugs sent straight from the Father, he uses my kids everyday to encourage me and let me know that my life is important if for no other reason then to show these kids that there is someone in their corner...they are loved and very special. In the darkest of moments in my life when I feel like I just want to give up or that nothing I am doing really matters I see their little smiles in my mind and I look at my wall of art from my kiddos and everything changes. I think we underestimate the power kids have, they get the important things more then adults do. Somewhere in the growing up process we forget the simple truths and replace them with busy emptiness. My kids remind me to keep it simple. They believe without much proof and they love freely, maybe that's why  JC told us to be like little children...they get it and just believe they don't fight the truth  they just go with it. They have taught me more in 4 months then I think I have taught them. 

   I am going to miss my hugs from my students over the summer...I knew I might get attached but I didn't think it would be this bad. Who knew a bunch of kids in Wuhan, Hubei, PRC would capture my heart. I found out today that I do have to work on Christmas Day but I don't mind I am spending it with my kiddos they are my family in  crazy way and I look forward to spending it with them...plus that is the day of our Christmas Show. I get to preform a poem in Chinese (yes I'm nervous but I am practicing like crazy and getting better!) If my kids can learn English I can learn Chinese, besides the more I learn it and can talk to them in Chinese the cooler they think I am. They like to say something to me in Chinese and I do my best to answer them if I can you would think I just gave them the moon, its the cutest thing! I am glad I got on that plane as nervous as I was if for nothing else then the simple love of my students it is like a soothing balm on the cuts and bruises of my heart. They have eternally changed me and forever taken a piece of my heart with them.

Christmas Blessings

     Well this past weekend I spent most of it in my bed sleeping getting over a very bad head cold. I still have a little that I am getting over but being able to sleep was great. I did however forfeit the Zhong Christmas party instead...which made me sad but I felt like a Macy's parade balloon so sleep was looking so much better. Since I still don't know if I have to teach on Christmas or not I got to open my presents early!!! I got a $50 itunes card which I bought A Christmas Story first because I watch that every Christmas....in China it will be no different!! I also got amazon gift cards from other family members so between movies and reading I am feeling very blessed this Christmas not to mention some of the hugs and smiles I have already gotten from my kiddos.

      I am however looking forward to summer it is finally getting super cold here and its nothing like Michigan its colder...not kidding. This cold is a cold in your bones cold you can't wait for June to arrive!! (Inga if you are reading this continue laughing you warned me and I didn't fully believe you). I just keep thinking that summer is around the corner and it keeps my hopes up despite the fact that January is around the corner, but hey that means I am almost to break time...yay for sleeping in and cleaning my apartment doesn't that sound fun

In Sickness and in Hugs

       Well this morning I woke up with a lousy sinus cold. I really didn't sleep last night so I felt awful this morning, I just got done teaching my last class and I still have English Corner, but some of the most amazing things happened today. I had one class cancelled which was great I got to save my voice and in the class before that I was welcomed with a roaring ovation and they sang he a Christmas song. In the class I just had I was feeling very icky just before having to go teach, my head feels like a Macy's parade balloon, so I wasn't really looking forward to teaching at all. I always ask the Friend (HS) to help me with my classes and as I walked in the door I got 10 hugs from my kiddos and one of the twins Angel made me a heart that says 'I Love You' on it.

  
        If a child gives you their heart even if its a homemade one that it a very big deal. I have to always remember that they are watching the example that I set. But this just made me want to cry on the spot. Although I have felt far below par today I am glad I got up today and pushed on. Sometimes I see my kids around Wuhan and they wave at me and excitedly tell their their parent or grandparent 'That is my teacher!' it makes all the trouble you go through worth it...can't really explain it. Being here in China I have learned not only a lot about myself but what is really important. I don't have all of the stuff and distractions that I have back home it changes a person teaching in another country. I didn't really realize how much it would change me until now and I have almost been here for 4 months...I still have 6 to go. In this case change is a great and needed thing, I think it will really set in when I get home this summer.  For now I will just be grateful and very much in awe that a few little girls in China have given their love to me so freely. If that doesn't warm your heart this Christmas season then you are worse off then the Grinch (which my kids are watching and they love it!)

Weekend in Wuchang

           Well it has been another crazy weekend. On Friday after Chinese lessons the three of us (Amber, Charlene (Lulu), and I) packed ourselves in a taxi and went to see Hollie and go shopping at the night market in Wuchang (you say it Woo Chong). Our poor driver had no idea were he was going and asked like three or four people how to get to the campus. We finally got there and he dropped us off at the farthest gate possible.  So Hollie had to come find us to get us to her place. So she showed us around campus there and we took crazy pictures (thanks to Amber for remembering a camera), then we went to dinner which was so good at that point cause we were starving!!! After we did the craziest thing yet…we took a sketch van…by that I mean that they are not exactly a recognized way of travel. We went to the crazy, awesome night market and saw the most adorable puppies as we entered the street. Of course we all held one and wanted to adopt them in a matter of nano seconds but alas none of us are allowed to have dogs…plus none of us have ways of bringing them home in the summer.

           Then we went to several shops with hair stuff and we all bought pretty things for our hair. I saw a knock off Louis Vinton that I fell in love with but it was 200 qui that I really didn’t want to part with…right now if I budget something like that in I won’t feel so bad. Right now though I am looking at having to buy a new cord for my computer because it is seeing its last days…then again so is my computer and it makes me a little worried cause I need it to do my power points for class. If it dies that is so much money I have to come up with for a new Mac…hang little lady just a few more months; ok 6 more just hang on 6 more! So after that we saw a stand that had these funnel cake/ donut things…they were delicious. I had one of those in one hand and in the other I had a lovely stick with fruit on it glazed in clear sugar…here are some of the reasons why I love China street food is so good…shady at times but so good. Like Trevor pointed out this is the only place you can get trash can bread from a guy in an alley and its all legit. I am safer here in China then anywhere in the States…no really I have been out at 12:30am and you never feel in danger you can walk home and your fine, I can’t say the same for back home I’m pretty sure something bad could happen to me that late at night.

            So it was a great night at this point and we were all shopped out and ready to go home (Hollie’s). We got back to there place and started walking back to the hotel (she lives in a hotel on campus) well Hollie, Mark, and Tristan decided to go get something to drink before heading back so Lulu, Amber, and I decided to do the Chinese thing and link arms as we walked back to their place. Well we are walking along when all of a sudden Lulu starts screaming, which makes me scream and then Amber joins in. We turn around to see a shadowy figure in a black cloak behind us…its Mark (he doesn’t wear a coat but a cloak think Lord of the Rings). He was coming to let us in the building but he is so quiet that he ended up scaring us instead I even peed my pants a little it was that bad.  We finally got inside and it took a few hours for Lulu and Amber to calm down after that…all in all it was a very memorable weekend. While in the sketch van we sang Christmas songs and looked at the Christmas lights they have put up. So I got to keep a childhood tradition alive in a very odd and slightly illegal way. My life is so random and crazy over here but I would change in it.

         When it comes to my kiddos in English Corner (we call it QQ club) we watched Peter Pan because my kids had never seen that movie and that is a travesty again childhood!! Now they can grow up and be well rounded not to mention they loved it I have never heard them laugh so hard before…they study so hard I wanted to give them some down time to just be kids and blow off steam. In my other classes I have lots of new kids trying to read and talk in English and I am so proud of them for trying. Even if I have to help them with every other word I am so proud of them for being brave and giving it a try. As always I got hugs and I think I heard ‘Becky you are so beautiful’ like 20 times this week. Sometimes even though I am trying to be the hands and feet of JC to these kids I think they are His hands and feet to me. My third graders are learning about soft and smooth, rough and scratchy, opposites so a bunch of my little girls came up and started to pet my arm, ‘Your coat is soft and smooth’. I love my kiddos so much I might not ever find a cure for cancer, or write a great novel, or became someone famous or important, but that’s ok because to these kids I am loved. Sometimes being the least of these is the best feeling ever because I am making a difference even if its only in the lives of my kids because I don’t know who I am teaching, there is great potential in my kiddos. I will leave you with that thought you never know whose life you are touching and changing with your simple acts of kindness they never go to waste and they never just stay in that moment they keep effecting others straight into eternity, so live and love extravagantly hold nothing back!

Eph. 5:2

Jiaozi, Hello Kitty, and E-Coffee

        I had a very busy and very crazy weekend. Hollie came over on Saturday and stayed till Monday. Over the weekend we brought the party to Wuhan. We decided that Hanyang will get really boring after the four crazy foreign girls go home next summer. We were very entertaining to all the Chinese people passing by. We would get maybe four footsteps ahead and double over in laughter. We were even more entertaining to the people at Aloha, not to mention I ate so much food (a Aloha burger Jr. and a chimmi cheesecake).  I don’t think I have laughed that much in forever, my stomach felt like I was going to throw up. We also went to a Christmas bazaar over on French street. I bought a new scarf here is a picture.

      Then we went to a new jiaozi place it was so good and super cheap. After the great food we went to E-Coffee and I had a caramel milk tea it was so amazing!! Then after we spent a few hours looking at crazy Chinese magazines we were walking to the bus stop and went shopping at the street market that is there every night. I bought a huge cozy blanket with Hello Kitty on it. 

       Then the weekend was over and my week started. Monday and Tuesday went by in a flash and then Wednesday I went down to my office to find that I had the day off since my 3^rd and 4^th graders went on a hike that day. It was nice to have a day off to rest. Next weekend will be just as busy. We are headed to Wuchang to stay with Hollie and go to the night market over there. Then Hollie will come back with us and stay here till Monday. The following weekend will be in Wuchang as well because it’s the Zhong Christmas party. My social life is so crazy but fun. Anyway that is pretty much it for now, when I get a chance and a good internet connection I will post more of my adventures over December.