Life of a Pilgrim

New blog URL

2009-10-21T21:27:00.002+08:00

And it will never get blocked!

http://katinchina.com

Sneaky, Sneaky

2009-09-04T19:45:00.002+08:00

As you may have guessed, blogspot is currently blocked in China. For the moment I've found a way to sneak onto the site (but not to post pictures). I'm also trying to see if another website might work better for me this fall.

I've now been back in China for exactly two weeks, and home up in the northeast for a little bit less time then that. We had a week of team building meetings and I began teaching on Monday. This semester all of my teaching hours are jam-packed into Monday and Tuesday, leaving the rest of the week "open" for planning meetings, grading, lesson prep, graduate work, student meetings, and cooking. Yes, I consider cooking right up there with my other responsibilities. :) It's amazing how quickly the time fills up, though! Hopefully I will be self-disciplined enough to take advantage of the more open days.

In the meantime, I'm just enjoying being home again. It's amazing how "normal" life has become here, and how life in many ways seems easier (with the exception of doing laundry). I was thrilled to return to fresh fruit sold by my neighbor, my egg lady who grins whenever she sees me, and garlic sold cheaply by the pound. It's nice to again be able to walk to most places I frequent, and to hear the chorus of, "Look there's a Russian" echo behind me (in case you haven't heard me say it before, EVERYONE thinks I'm Russian. Everyone. From the old ladies in the park to the primary school kids on their way to class). I just somehow fall more in love with this place each year.

Homeward bound

2009-08-20T10:52:00.002+08:00

Tonight, I'm doing a little dance...kind of like this...
...because I'm homeward bound in the morning. I have a couple days of meetings in Beijing and then it will be home sweet home. I must admit, I'm quite eager to get back. When I left China at the beginning of the summer, I didn't have access to this blog, so we'll see what the situation is when I get back. There's a chance I'll move sites, but I will have someone post the new address here if that's the case. In the meantime, I hope you all are enjoying the last fleeting days of summer!

First time Aunt

2009-08-19T09:16:00.002+08:00

I'm a first time Aunt. I have one darling nephew. I only get to see him at most two weeks out of the year. In case you haven't realized it yet, I love taking pictures. Consequently, I'm currently sorting through hundreds of pictures I took while I was down visiting my sister and her family. I apologize for the sheer volume of Ethan pictures that are going to be appearing on Flickr in the coming days. If you have something against incredibly cute toddlers, I recommend you stay away for awhile.

The last time I saw Ethan, he was only 3 months old. His personality (and hair) was just starting to come out.This summer, I got to see his personality out in full force. One of the things I quickly learned was that he loves to be involved in everything...and I mean everything. His favorite part of the day is helping with chores. You are simply not allowed to sweep, do laundry, or do dishes without his participation.

He loves helping transfer clothes from washer to dryer.
He analyzes each piece of laundry...just to make sure the colors are correct.
He is quite meticulous in his examination.And shoves them all the way into the dryer.He makes sure things are spinning correctly once the dryer starts.
And then makes sure he didn't leave anything in the washer.After that it's time to do dishes.Doing dishes involves one of his absolute favorite materials to be found on planet earth.
Water. Ethan LOVES water. Water in any form. He gets very upset if he sees or hears water and can't touch it.Consequently, you absolutely cannot wash dishes without him.

I wonder if his love of doing chores will last?

Always be prepared

2009-08-09T00:31:00.004+08:00

I should have been a boy scout...perhaps then I would have learned the lesson to always be prepared. And then I would have had more than a 50 prime lens with me when Zoe and I made a spontaneous stop at the Jefferson memorial. Don't get me wrong, I love my 50 prime. It's my favorite lens. Its portrait capabilities (see nephew post below) are stunning. But it's not so great for wide landscapes. Hence, all of those beautiful shots I had in my head as the sun set at the memorial were quite impossible to actually capture. Consequently, our trip to the Jefferson memorial ended up being a portrait shoot of Zoe. Which, to be honest, I didn't mind at all. I snapped this one when she wasn't paying attention to me. And promptly teased her for posing like a superhero. Doesn't she look like she's about to fly off to save D.C.?
Zoe and I go way back. The first time we met I believe we were in middle school. She remembers the meeting. I don't. We discovered during the week that this is the case for a lot of our history. Apparently, I have a horrific memory. We met at a youth group new year's eve party in Columbus. After that brief encounter, the next time we met was the first day of school our junior year of high school. We were both new students at the school, having recently moved to Indianapolis. She instantly recognized me; I had no clue who she was. It took us awhile, but we finally pinned down our fateful first meeting to that party in Columbus. With both a shared history and the shared experience of starting over halfway through high school, we were destined to be friends.It had been four years, and a lifetime of experiences in China, since I had last seen Zoe. But we picked right up as if no time had passed at all. A friendship like that is truly special. The great part of taking pictures of someone you have history with is you know their stories. You know how to make them laugh.
You know that exact embarrassingly funny moment in...was it econ?...to bring up in order to get that deep belly laugh.
Which is sure to be followed by that beautiful natural smile.
Perhaps even more beautiful than the scenery itself. The scenery you couldn't capture because you weren't prepared like a boy scout.
I even let Zoe take a few pictures of me before we headed out. I hate having my picture taken. I much prefer to be behind the camera. But I decided it wouldn't hurt to have some photographic evidence that I was in D.C.

On hold

2009-08-08T01:44:00.002+08:00

I had grand plans of writing about some of my adventures in DC. Perhaps I still will. But for the moment, I'm preoccupied with this.
Oh those eyes! I love those eyes...and...
His voracious appetite for watermelon.His finger chewing grin.Those expressions...
and chubby little hands.
Can you blame me?

Updates will just have to be put on hold...

Just a quick note

2009-07-31T20:53:00.002+08:00

I'm currently finishing up an amazing week in DC. I came out to see a good friend from high school, who I hadn't seen since moving to China four years ago. It's been great to catch up and reminisce, and I've had plenty of time to traipse around the city with my camera while she's been at work. Pictures and updates will be forthcoming.

Several of you mentioned a desire to help the two kids from the orphanage with club feet. They are now down in the south of China at the center, and they need your help! While we were able to raise the funds for their travel costs to and from the center, we are not paying for their treatment. The amazing part of An Orphan's Wish is that they will not turn away kids. To see their beautiful faces and to see ways to help, head on over to Stefanie's blog for more information. Her most recent post (Lookie, Lookie) is dedicated to the kids at the club foot center. My orphanage's two little ones are Joey and Lexi. And yes, tears pooled in my eyes when I discovered them on her blog this morning!

Confession

2009-07-24T02:50:00.002+08:00

I'll go ahead and admit it. I'm a little bit of a snob. I love a good glass of wine, a good meal, and a good dose of culture. Due to the fact that for a majority of the year I live in a small city in China, where art museums and free opera in the park are hard to come by, it's been a treat to indulge in a bit of snobbery this summer. I have been frequently jumping on the treadmill in the attempt to justify caloric extravagances such as linguine in a white wine and truffle oil sauce with grilled asparagus. Let me tell you, that was well worth a two mile run.

Earlier this week my mom and I headed out to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. She patiently waited (and wisely brought a book) while I soaked in the surroundings with camera in hand. It was a delightful afternoon, as we moved from appreciating the artistry in the petals of an orchid to the metaphor of thousands of hands supporting a floor. Below are a few of my favorite shots from the day.

It's all about the people

2009-07-21T23:03:00.002+08:00

The last two weeks have been filled to the brim with good classes, good food, and most importantly, good friends. Wheaton is always one of my favorite stops of the summer because: a) I'm a nerd and I like going to class and writing papers, b) Chicago in the summer is just about as good as it gets, c) I get to see dear friends who serve across Asia and show them around "my town", d) I get to worship with a community of people I love, e) I get to sit and talk and just be with amazing friends. Most of the time I was too busy drinking in the moment to pull out my camera, but here are a few shots of the people and places that made the time pretty much perfect.

Like I said, there's nothing like Chicago in the summer. Perfect temperatures. Beautiful evening. Free opera in the park. Good friends. Yes, please.

I was blessed by the hospitality of Greg & Noel, who fed me, provided a comfy bed, made mudslides, taught me a new card game, and got me addicted to hewering orcs on PS2.

Every summer Rachel cooks at least one meal for me, and every summer I'm reminded why I keep her around as a friend. :) Ok, even if she wasn't an amazing cook, I'd still be her friend. But it sure is a nice perk! That and the fact that we can talk for hours on end.
These are just a few of my classmates who are graduating from the program this summer. I'm going to miss learning with and from them!

In love

2009-07-01T23:34:00.003+08:00

I have fallen head over heels in love. Undeniably, unequivocally in love. Ok, I know in the English language we're not supposed to profess love to inanimate objects (for an interesting discussion on why it's just fine to say you love things like parmesan cheese check out C.S. Lewis' Four Loves--an excellent book). Ahem, side-tracked. I apologize. Getting side-tracked is the reason I can't sit here......for more than ten minutes without finding something better to do than write graduate papers with impending due dates.

I'm partly distracted by the desire to take out and use my new love. My new love does this:Alright, you've probably guessed it! I've recently acquired a new lens, and I am super excited about it. I'm looking forward to trying it out as a portrait lens on all those faces I love in Wheaton. I make the drive up this Friday.

More end of the year

2009-06-27T01:33:00.002+08:00

I'm currently sitting in Panera bread, surrounded by the hum of multitudes of people. Internet has been down at my parents' place, so I headed here with the express purpose of doing research for a paper with a due date sooner than I'd like to admit. Instead I'm updating my blog. I need a serious injection of motivation...stat. But while I wait for the caffeine in my coffee to work its magic in substituting for sleep (last night the total was three and a half hours...my body's a little out of whack...there's no one to blame but myself, I totally broke my no naps in the first week rule), I thought I'd clue you in on a few more end of the year activities.

Before the final push, the team took a long weekend retreat to the coastal town of Dalian. I was incredibly thankful for two 9 hour train rides where I had nothing to do (like updating my blog) other than graduate work.
We spent some of the time reflecting on the year, and a lot of time just hanging out and eating Western food. I must admit, Starbucks was likely the highlight of the trip for me. There is just something I love about curling up in a Starbucks armchair early in the morning, starting my day off with a Caramel macchiato. Pure bliss.
We visited the local "amusement" park in Dalian, where the kids (big and small) enjoyed many overpriced rides.
We also headed to the aquarium, which we were herded through in the midst of massive crowds of people just trying to make it to the end of the aquarium in time for the dolphin show. The crowds were massive. I live in China. I'm used to crowds. This was...well, I seriously began to feel claustrophobic in the underwater tunnel exhibit. After seeing the show, we snuck back in the front of the aquarium for a much calmer view of the place.
While in Dalian we also took time to relax on the "beach". As a midwesterner, I know I shouldn't be picky about my beaches. But really...I find piles of pebbles hardly noteworthy. I guess I've been spoiled by the sandy shores of Thailand. Regardless, the kids seemed to enjoy the plethora of rocks available for throwing into the water.

After returning from the retreat, we had a few weeks left which were jam packed with (but not limited to) the following: grading, giving finals, more grading, team leader appreciation day, teammate goodbye party (to Sarah and Vance, who won't be returning to Siping), end of the year banquet with brothers and sisters, foreign affairs department end of the year banquet, Senior performances, saying goodbye to seniors, arranging the details for the orphanage, packing up all of my belongings in my small office, and a little bit of sleep.

One of my hardest goodbyes this year was with my tutors of two years. Both of them are moving away and I will greatly miss their friendship!
Caffeine is beginning to work its magic. Time for this day's attempt at productivity!

Orphanage raffle outcome

2009-06-22T04:16:00.002+08:00

After two weeks of selling tickets for the orphanage raffle, we opened up the foreign teacher's library to draw the winners. Excitement was in the air as we drew winners for everything from dinner to a trip to the Great Wall. Below is the winner of the trip to the Great Wall with Mark. She was allowed to choose one person to go with her. We felt bad for her, as we were sure many roommates and friends would vie for the coveted position. She ended up taking the safe route of not offending anyone by choosing to take her mother (who has never been to Beijing). Smart girl!But the most exciting part was the fact that we raised just over 7,000 RMB ($1,000) for the kids. If all goes according to plan, the two kids will be on their way down to the south of China July 5th for treatment.

Long time no see!

2009-06-21T11:03:00.002+08:00

As you may have guessed, blogspot got blocked the last couple weeks in China. I'm now safely stateside, without my luggage, but happy to be home. There will be lots of updates in the coming days! Sorry for the silence! For now, here are the dates & locations of my summer. I'd love to see as many of you as possible!

June 20-July 3: Indianapolis
July 3-July 19: Wheaton/Chicago
July 19-July 25: Indianapolis
July 25-August 1: Washington D.C.
August 1-4: Indianpolis
August 4-17: Tampa, FL
August 17-20: Indianapolis
August 20: Head home to China!

Random funny insight from my travel day...I arrived in the Indianapolis airport and totally thought for a minute that I had boarded the wrong plane. The airport wasn't familiar at all! Little did I know Indy had opened a brand new airport earlier this fall...

More updates after some sleep and father's day celebrating!

The Best Chocolate Cupcakes. Ever. Seriously.

2009-05-12T20:11:00.002+08:00

Growing up, we always used cake mixes in our family. I distinctly remember my mom telling me that there was no sense going through all the work of making a cake from scratch when it was going to taste better coming from the box. To a certain extent, I agree with her. Cakes from box mixes taste great. Cakes from box mixes are easy. I may never have ventured away from them if I hadn't moved to the Land-Of-No-Boxed-Cake-Mixes. Actually, the more honest title would be Land-where-cake-mixes-require-a-4-hour-commute-and-cost-a-large-percentage-of-my-salary. But then that title is just ridiculously too long. Anyway, desperate places call for desperate measures (Yes, I know I altered the idiom. No, my English is not that poor...yet.). I realized a couple years back that I needed to learn how to make a good cake without a mix. I searched through piles and piles of cookbooks, I searched through hundreds of websites, I interviewed gourmet chefs...

Just kidding. All I did was look at this:

And immediately inspiration hit and I created my own recipe! Ok. Not really. I turned the package around and found this:
"Hershey*s deems this the 'perfect' chocolate cake? That's worth a try!" I mused. Hershey*s doesn't lie. These cupcakes turn out light, moist, and with the perfect amount of chocolate-ness. I've been making these for over two years now, and they never last very long. They are a favorite on the team.

For the first two years, I'd top the cupcakes with Dreamwhip packets (very convenient for those living in the Land-of-no-cool-whip). However, about a month ago to please a chocoholic teammate, I wanted to top them with chocolate icing. Icing from a can is absolutely wonderful. The texture is perfect. Unfortunately, it is as rare and pricey (or more so) as cake mixes. I turned once again to the trusty cocoa package and sure enough, there was a perfect icing recipe to go with the perfect cake. You're thinking: "It took you TWO YEARS to figure that out?" I think I had looked at the recipe way back when I started making the cupcakes, but due to the fact that I didn't have the key ingredient of powdered sugar, I had abandoned all hopes of perfect frosting. However, thanks to a loving father who has shipped me powdered sugar by the pound, I was now equipped. Once again, this frosting is as good as its name claims.

I made up the cupcakes last week for Sarah's chocolate-themed "Kiss me I'm 23" birthday party. I added a slight twist by putting white chocolate stripes on some of them to make the famous hugs and kisses.

I don't know that those of you living in a land of convenience will ever make a cake from scratch...but in case your car breaks down, your bike has two flat tires, you're out of cake mixes and you just have to make something for your second cousin's birthday...here are the recipes:

Cake:
2 c. sugar
1-3/4 c. flour
3/4 c. cocoa
1-1/2 t baking powder
1-1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
2 eggs
1 c. milk
1/2 c. oil
2 t vanilla
1 c. boiling water

Mix all of the ingredients, excluding the boiling water, on medium speed for about 2 minutes. Stir in the boiling water and don't be afraid when the batter is very runny. Bake the cake about 30-35 min., cupcakes about 20 min. at 350.

Frosting:
1 stick butter
2/3 c. cocoa
3 c. powdered sugar
1/3 c. milk
1 t vanilla

Melt the butter and stir in the cocoa. Alternate adding the sugar and milk, beating on medium speed. If not the desired consistency, add more milk.

I love...

2009-05-11T10:11:00.003+08:00

...when students are actively engaged in a lesson.
...that I sold all of my orphanage raffle tickets planned for all of my classes to ONE class in a period of five minutes, and they still wanted to buy more.
...that I can't walk more than 10 feet on campus without seeing the smiling face of someone I know.
...that my pen seller constantly hums.
...that I have a pen seller.
...that I know my pen seller well enough to know he constantly hums.
...that I can by Crocs for 13 RMB (less than $2).
...that my fruit seller cuts the rind off the pineapple when I buy it.
...that pineapple is cheap.
...that the campus is infused with the smell of lilac bushes.
...the smell of the bathrooms in the spring (just kidding).
...being spontaneous sometimes (e.g. traveling 4 hours round-trip just to go to Pizza hut with the team for lunch).
...that I know Wu has a pair of khakis waiting on his bed at his parents house every time he visits.
...that when playing catch phrase, all I have to say is "Sonny's favorite actress", and everyone knows "Uma Thurman".
...that team really becomes like family.
...chocolate cupcakes (recipe to come soon!).
...living in China.

The BIG news

2009-05-05T10:51:00.003+08:00

I know you all have been eagerly anticipating the news. I can just see you sitting at your computer repeatedly hitting the "refresh" button. OK, maybe not. However, I am so excited to share this story with you! Warning: it is a bit long. The type of long where you might want to go grab a cup of coffee before reading. I could just skip the details and go directly to the main event, yet the remarkableness of the main event is found in the events leading up to it. It's just like the story in the Word: the climactic event is made more beautiful and glorious when all of the events leading up to it are examined.

Before we get to the story, I have a question for you. Have you ever doubted the Father's care of orphans and widows? Let me be perfectly honest; I have. Visiting an orphanage week after week tears at my heart. I have a deep longing to see these children placed in loving families, and to see weeks and months and years pass by is difficult. It is easy to look at them as forgotten. Yet the story I have to share with you is just one small testimony to the fact that the Father does intimately care for the orphans in this world. Beyond that, He is also intricately at work on their behalf.

Now unto our story. This story begins on February 6, 1983 when my mother headed to the hospital to give birth to her second daughter...ok, just kidding. We don't need to go that far back. The story doesn't necessarily have a definite beginning, but we'll pick it up two years ago when I was privileged to meet up with a family who were adopting their daughter from the orphanage in our city. It was a joy to meet this couple, and a friendship was formed. I began to regularly check their blog to see updates on their daughter Lily. It was through their blog that I found the blog of another adoptive family. I was immediately attracted by this adoptive mom's wit and expressive writing, not to mention the fact that she was in the process of adopting her third child from China (bringing, at the time, the total number of kids in her house to 7). This blog became one of my regular sites to visit.

From a distance I watched this family adopt their third and fourth child from China. I watched as both of these sons' clubfeet were treated by the serial casting method. This process corrects the feet without surgery through a series of casts. When Stefanie (the mom) opened a website for the purpose of informing and encouraging parents adopting waiting children with special needs from China, I had to email her. I sent her a quick note thanking her for all the work she was doing on behalf of the kids over here. I got a sweet email back from her and an acquaintance was formed.

Fast forward to about one month ago. For awhile, Stefanie's blog had been blocked in China. I could get there a backdoor way, but because of the added nuisance I wasn't checking it very frequently. But with an afternoon with a little free time, I decided to stop by the blog. I knew her family was in the process of adopting their fifth child from China, a precious little girl. I opened the blog, finding the most recent post to be an update on this girl. I was amazed to learn that she was currently being treated in China with the serial casting method.

There are two toddlers at our orphanage with spina bifida. The girl has two clubfeet, and the boy has one clubfoot. At the beginning of the semester, we were hoping to help with a surgery for the boy's back. We were planning a fundraiser at our university, where each teacher would offer a prize to be raffled off. Each teacher had selected a prize and we were just waiting to get the doctor's assessment of the cost of the surgery. But then we found out he was not treatable. The doctor was also asked about possible treatment for the children's feet; but once again, we were told there was no treatment.

Consequently, I was excited to see on Stefanie's blog that children in China were not only being treated for clubfoot, but treated with the most advanced method. I knew her daughter was way in the south of China, but I sent her a quick email asking if she knew of anywhere else in China that was using this method, or if this organization took kids from different areas. She emailed me back saying that was the only location, and that she thought they only treated kids in the area. However, if I wanted, she could give me the organization's email address. I was a little disappointed, but not surprised.

Within a day, though, Stefanie emailed me again. She had talked to the stateside leader of the organization, and had told her about our kids. The leader wanted me to email her. A glimmer of hope began to shine, and I sent an email right away explaining the situation. She told me to email the head of operations in China. I sent an email asking if they treated kids from other provinces, and if she knew of any other treatment places in China. I know the mound of hoops and red tape adoptive parents go through, so I could only imagine the hassle of trying to get a child transferred from an orphanage to another province (serial casting treatment lasts around 6 months, so the child would stay for a long time). To my surprise, the leader emailed me back saying that the logistics were quite simple and that they would be more than happy to treat children from other provinces. The glimmer of hope grew stronger. I sent along pictures of the children's legs for a final determination of whether they were treatable, and got an email back saying there were two beds reserved for the kids as soon as the center officially opens in June.

The last small mountain to be moved was getting the orphanage to agree to take the two children way down south and leave them for six months of treatment. After a few conversations, with a student along to translate, the orphanage director was willing, but doubtful about whether treatment was really possible. She wanted a doctor to look at them one more time. Yesterday, the doctor came to examine them. After discussing their condition with a Chinese worker at the organization, the director gave her final approval to have the kids sent for treatment.

Next week we'll be starting the fundraiser on campus to raise money for the travel costs of sending the kids down south. These two kids' lives are about to be radically changed!Whew, congratulations if you made it to the end of this! I hope you are encouraged by this testimony of the Father's care!

BIG news!!!

2009-05-04T21:40:00.002+08:00

I have BIG news guys...amazing Father-sized news. But you'll have to wait until tomorrow. Despite the fact that I had the entire day off, I still have a lesson to finish before the morning, so that story will have to wait. Today, all students had the morning off from class for International Youth Day. Apparently, the foreign affairs office is under the impression that this is a big holiday in the States, since all foreign teachers had not only the morning but also the afternoon off. Don't get me wrong, I am NOT complaining! There is no need for you to inform the office that, in fact, most Americans have never even heard of this holiday.

But back to lesson planning...with one more hint...the news has something to do with this guy...
See you tomorrow!

Do you see what I see?

2009-04-28T14:20:00.003+08:00

Things are right with the world again. Blue skies have returned and it is finally feeling like spring. (Hopefully for good this time.)

But I am stuck inside, trying to dig myself out from under piles of papers and midterms. For my senior capstone course in college, all of the students turned in massive papers detailing their individual personality development over the course of their life as well as their theory of how personality is developed. My paper ended up being 87 pages...single spaced. The paper nearly landed a large majority of the class in a mental institution. However, looking back now as a teacher, I seriously don't know how our professor maintained her sanity reading through all of those papers. Granted, those papers were written by those for whom English is their first language, and she wasn't checking for things like comma splices. But still...one moment of thinking about that paper adds a great deal of perspective to the stack of essays I'm currently working my way through. 41 essays down...5 to go...then it's onto the midterms.

Spoiled Rotten

2009-04-25T09:07:00.003+08:00

I don't know that I'll ever be able to move back to the Midwest.

One thing I'm extremely blessed with is the fact that the city I live in has almost perpetual sunny blue skies. I've visited enough polluted cities in China to be extremely grateful for this fact. Seriously, it's like Florida here, you know, except for the fact that it's at least sixty degrees colder. Winter may last for eight months, but at least it's a sunny winter. However, for the last week we've seen the sun for a total of no more than four hours. As a Midwestern gal this shouldn't bother me. I should be used to day after day, week after week, even month after month gray weather. That is winter in the Midwest. But apparently I've been spoiled. Each morning when I wake up to another gray day with yet more drizzling rain, my heart cries out, "Where's the sun?!?" Life seems so drab!

At least there are colorful umbrellas to lighten up the scene. Look out the window of a skyscraper in Chicago on a rainy day and you'll see an endless procession of black, navy, dark blue, and other drably and drearily colored umbrellas. Look out the window in China and it's like a parade of Easter eggs. Pastels dominate, with iridescent and shimmering purples and blues thrown in as well. The Chinese know how to brighten up a gray day.

The perpetual rain and lack of sunshine has led to quite chilly weather...both inside and out. Since the calendar seemingly indicates that the weather should be warm, our heat has been shut off. That means that as May rapidly approaches, I'm still living in fleece pajama pants. At the moment I'm huddled under a fleece blanket. Due to the lack of heat, it's actually the "coldest" season of the year right now. Sunshine come back!

Toy time

2009-04-21T09:51:00.002+08:00

As a teacher, sometimes you carry more things to class than you would for a weekend getaway.
Last week the load included my laptop, speakers, 23 student journals, handouts, power strip, water bottle...and these guys...
Because the week before the biggest exam of their college career, all students really need to do is play with toys.
I'm serious! Look how happy they are:
OK, so the toys also had educational value. The lesson last week was focused on expanding our students' arsenal of adjectives. Because if I read colorful or lovely one more time in my students' writing, I may just have a mental breakdown. There is simply nothing better than a bunch of baby toys for teaching sensory adjectives. Just think of the possibilities: striped, spotted, silky, fuzzy, squeaky, jingling, squishy, bumpy, vibrating...the list goes on and on.Toys are educational..."He's squishy, and fuzzy..."
And let's be honest, they're just downright fun. And we could all use a little more fun in our lives.
I also carried to class objects with strong odors, so students would have opportunities to use words like rancid, pungent, and fragrant. The list included things like hand sanitizer, vanilla, Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, and oregano.
I made the important discovery that liquid smoke is a Chinese student's kryptonite.
One whiff of that and they'll wave a flag of surrender.
Except Sabrina. She's impervious to the powers of the liquid smoke.
I thought about taking a class field trip to the bathrooms for a precise example of rancid, but decided I really didn't want to assault my nostrils. Warmer weather + poor plumbing + old building = no deep breathing as you walk the halls.

Guess what arrived this week?

2009-04-11T22:31:00.003+08:00

Finally!

What once was dead now springs forth new life; the timing couldn't be more appropriate. Blessings as you celebrate new life this weekend!

Quotes of the week

2009-04-06T17:13:00.004+08:00

"Twilight is like High School Musical for Emo kids." ~Robb

"'The Graduate' touched a lot of my root ganglion." ~Junior student's movie review.

"No paint, No gains" ~ As seen on a student's t-shirt

(On a related side note: I think China is having adverse effects on my movie tastes. I must confess that I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the High School Musical series and Twilight repeatedly. I have quite unabashedly become a sucker for sappy romances. There may be need for an intervention...very soon.)

Spring cleaning gone terribly wrong

2009-04-06T12:38:00.002+08:00

There were three main reasons I chose to move into a new apartment this year. #1: A bigger kitchen (not having to move my fridge every time I want to get into my freezer is a wonderful perk). #2: Afternoon sunlight; I can't get enough natural light. #3: Beautiful, large trees outside my window. There is nothing better than laying on my bed watching leaves on big old trees sway in the wind. Granted, there are only leaves on the trees for a small fraction of the time I'm here. But when they're there, it's breath-taking. When they're not, I still enjoy the experience and hardiness communicated by a grove of old trees. Consequently, I was crushed when I looked out my window Saturday and saw this:
I don't know who is doing this to my trees...but I have photographic evidence of the culprits.
Seriously, how many men does it take to chop down/up a tree? I'm thinking the guy smoking is indispensable to this operation.
Just when you think they might stop...out come the ropes and the saw again.Doesn't it make your heart hurt?
Here's the remnant. Some of them had branches chopped off when the doomed trees got caught in them. Don't they look lonely now? However, at least a few trees survived...for now...fingers crossed...

New loves

2009-04-01T13:50:00.002+08:00

Having my grad work load greatly reduced this semester has freed up time to pursue other hobbies, in particular, cooking. I've been spending a lot more time in the kitchen, and have been loving every minute! Here are some of my new favorites dishes.

Mound of Mini-muffins
This recipe for banana chocolate chip muffins is excellent. I make up a mound of muffins almost every week for student movie nights. The muffins are perfect for students--a little bit sweet, but not too sweet for their tastes. I stopped making cookies for students after the "add less sugar incident". Butter is too precious to waste on those who don't appreciate the final product! (Sidenote: yes, that is a large Ohio State popcorn bowl in the background. The Wus found that and gave it to me for Christmas. I think secretly they wish they were Ohio State fans instead of Michigan fans.)

Homemade Granola & yogurt
After four years in China, I've finally found a breakfast I love that is quick, easy, and healthy. I've been making up batches of granola (sorry...no recipe, I just kind of throw stuff in combining many recipes. One hint though, mashed bananas and honey can be used instead of oil for a healthier granola). In the mornings I mix that with yogurt and fresh strawberries. It's a perfect start to the day!

Pasta with zucchini & grape tomatoes
People, this dish is divine. I found this recipe about two weeks ago and have made it three times since then. For those of you who may shrink back at the mention of zucchini, trust me. I used to turn my nose up at the slimy vegetable (just ask my mother). However, I have grown to love it in certain dishes. In this dish it is simply incredible. There were many adjustments I made to the recipe: there's no cream here (let's be honest, this is probably a good thing) so I substituted milk, I used chicken broth (hot water + chicken bouillon) instead of wine, and I had to settle for dried herbs instead of fresh. With all of those changes, you'd think the final product would take a hit, but the taste is out of this world. Do yourself a favor and make it today!

Focaccia Bread
The title of this recipe is "the easiest homemade bread", and after making a variety of yeast breads, this truly is the easiest and quickest I've ever made. It quite possibly might also be the best as well. Easy and scrumptious? What more can you ask for! I followed the recipe pretty closely, except I left out the olives (can't get them here and don't want to get them here) and I bumped up the amount of garlic. Garlic is ridiculously cheap here (we're talking about ten heads for 25 cents), and I honestly don't think I've ever tasted something and said, "ooooh, too much garlic". But those of you who don't have such a strong love affair with garlic may want to keep it at one clove. You can serve this as a side for the pasta dish (it's great with a little olive oil & parmesan to dip in). With the left-overs (haha...good luck having left-overs), you can make up something like this:This one is straight from my mind and combines some of my favorite things. I marinated pounded, cut chicken breasts in a tomato & basil marinade made by McCormick for a few hours. While I sauteed up the chicken, I made a concetrated pesto sauce. Since there is apparently no fresh basil to be found in the country of China, I made this from a mix, just adding less water and oil to form more of a concentrated baste. I brushed that on both sides of the focaccia (sliced in half). One side got topped with the chicken, sliced tomato, grated mozzarella, and parmesan. I also sprinkled some parmesan on the other half because I live under the assumption that one can never have too much parmesan cheese. Then you just broil the sandwich at a high temperature for a few minutes, until the cheese turns just a little brown. Then prepare yourself for an amazing explosion of flavor in your mouth!

It's a good thing I've also had more time to work-out...

All in a day's work

2009-03-31T10:52:00.002+08:00

On my way to class yesterday, I ran into one of my students just as she came out of the bathroom. For some reason, she felt inclined to interject that her stomach hurt and it must be bad food. I felt this information was slightly unnecessary, but at least I knew the reason in case she quickly rushed out of the room in the middle of class. We entered the classroom, and she headed to her desk while I began to set things up. A few minutes later, she approached me with her electronic dictionary grasped tightly in hand.

"I have loose bowels. Is that correct?"

I immediately struggled to suppress the pre-teen in me that wanted to giggle and smirk, and the twenty-something that wanted to look slightly shocked at the question. Composing myself, I responded. "Yes, that probably is a correct description."

I could have left it at that. But I'm an English teacher. I consider it my duty to teach students how to correctly and appropriately communicate in English. And I sensed a teachable moment here. I didn't want to be responsible for this student walking up to an English-speaker and announcing, "I have loose bowels." (Confession: a pre-teen giggle just escaped as I typed that.) I mean really, when is the last time (exempting maybe those in the medical profession) you heard someone use that expression? So, I continued my lesson.

"But we would more likely use the word diarrhea to explain that problem."

"Di..ree.."

"Diarrhea."

"Diarrhea."

"Yes." But I didn't stop there. Because we also don't approach acquaintances and announce that we have diarrhea (Unless you live in China, where your bowels are a frequent topic of conversation among your fellow foreign compatriots. Are you disgusted? Sorry, it's just a fact of life for us here.). "But unless you're talking to close friends, we usually just say, 'My stomach hurts.' Or, 'I'm having stomach problems.'"

"So I say, I'm having stomach problems."

"Correct."

"Thanks Miss Katherine!"

With a smile she returned to her desk, and I suppressed yet another chuckle at the conversation that had just transpired.

In other news: it's still winter. I hope you read the appropriate amount of disgust into that sentence. I just washed my long underwear. For the last time. I don't care how cold it is; I will NOT wear long underwear in April. Take that long lingering winter.

The Hot Pot Experience

2009-03-27T22:16:00.002+08:00

One of my favorite meals in China is hot pot, especially when winter tenaciously refuses to leave the Dongbei. By the last week in March, there should be some sign of the approaching spring. However, since we're perpetually stuck in the 30s here (we're talking Fahrenheit here folks...not Celsius...and we're talking HIGHS), hot pot is the perfect meal to warm you up. This past week Sarah and I headed out to her favorite hot pot restaurant, and I just happened to have my camera along. So without further ado, let me introduce you to the hot pot experience.

Step one: The sauces.
These are what I like to refer to as the "mystery sauces"; who knows what goes in them. Actually, the one on the left is not a mystery. Those are hot pepper flakes. Beware, they are very spicy! But the other two are mysteries. We can call them green goo and red goo. They're supposed to be mixed in with the primary hot pot sauce, majiang (sesame sauce).

Sarah is brave. She adds the mystery sauces to her majiang. I'm a chicken who doesn't like to add green slimy mystery substances to an already delightful sauce.

Step two: Wait for the water to boil.
Usually, this happens quite speedily because the helpful waitress will turn the flame up really high. On this evening, though, we had a faulty flame. Consequently, we learned first hand what the idiom "a watched pot never boils" means.

Step three: find some kind of entertainment while waiting for pot of water to boil.
For example, have your friend take a picture of you. Yes, people will stare at you and think you're a bit silly, but let's be honest, they'd be staring even if you weren't taking pictures.

Step four: Add in the "stuff"
The "stuff" is entirely preferential. You can order pretty much any part of a lamb, cow, or chicken. Yes, any part. Don't doubt me. There are more green vegetables than you ever knew existed. If you're one of those crazy people who have a love affair with cilantro, you can order a heaping pile. Or, you can keep it simple like Sarah and I.

We began with potatoes. These take forever to cook, so they always get added first. They sink to the bottom of the pot, and serve as a nice end of the meal filler once you finally locate them thirty minutes later.

Next was some nice thinly sliced lamb. Don't be afraid of the fat. It's thinly sliced. So it's like it's not even there.

After that is my FAVORITE part of hot pot. The noodles. I would be happy with only noodles, dribbled with the majiang. Mmmmm. Yes, I love italian food. Yes, this is the closest thing I get to it in a Chinese restaurant.

Up next is the spinach. I never cared much for spinach in the States, but have an increasingly great fondness for it.

Finally, add in the tomatoes. Don't let them sit too long. They cook very fast. Hence, at this point I ditched the camera and dug in. Are you hungry yet?

Remember to vote for your favorite flags...you have two more days to get your votes in!

HELP!! (Batch #2)

2009-03-23T19:06:00.002+08:00

Below is the second batch of new Chinese flags to choose from. For more information, please scroll down and read the previous entry. For clarification: I would like you to tell me your three top picks for Batch #1 and your three top picks for Batch #2. I am allowed to submit three pictures from each class for the final judgment. Thanks again for your help!

Flag One
The big character is "Long", which means dragon. The character looks like a live, flying dragon. The dragon represents China developing fast. However, no matter how fast China develops, he always keeps harmony firmly in mind. We can see in the center of the dragon is the red Chinese knot which symbolizes harmony and peace. The background, light green, means hope.
Flag Two
The blossom symbolizes our country. The center of the flower represents the Communist party. There are 34 pistil and stamen which represent the 34 provinces (including Taiwan and Hong Kong). They symbolize the harmony and unity of the country, and the blue color represents peace. The five petals symbolize the five virtues of firmness, bravery, loyalty, honesty, and kindheartedness. The olive branches show that peace safeguards the country.

Flag Three
The white background represents the country's future; nobody knows it so we have to draw it ourselves. The red represents the hero's blood. The circle is the sun, which means we hope the future of China is brilliant. The stripe is the Huanghe River (Yellow River), which is our mother river and stands for our history. The star represents the Communist Party.

Flag Four
The white background represents purity and the universe. In the universe there are the sun, the moon, and the stars. The sun represents China's Party and the crescent moon represents China's government. The big star represents the mainland, and the two smaller stars represent Taiwan and Hainan Island. Red, yellow, blue, green, and black are the colors of the flags of the world; they mean China gets along well with the whole world.

Flag Five
Red is the symbol of China and a common color when the Spring Festival is coming. The 34 stripes on the star represent the provinces. The 56 lines that make up the star's shadow represent the 56 nationalities in China. The striped star and the lines seem like a moving star; this means China is advancing. The Chinese people are like the 56 lines that support and push forward the bright star.

Flag Six
The flower represent's the nation's flower, the peony. Except for the top petal, the flower looks like two butterflies, which represent a Chinese classical masterpiece--"Butterfly Love". The red color represents the hero's blood, and that the country is flourishing like fire. The whole flag means classical, energy, and forever flourishing.
Flag Seven
The blue sections represent the ocean on the earth. The two yellow triangles represent the continents on earth. The yellow star represents the nation of China. The olive branch represents peace. The country is surrounded by two olive branches; it is peaceful country. Furthermore, the peace of one country can maintain the peace and harmony of the whole world.

Flag Eight
The eight rectangles represent "Wu Hu Si Hai" in Chinese, which means people from all over the world. No matter where you come from, if you like China you are welcomed. The circle means people live in harmony. Black and white are opposite each other, they mean people must obey the laws and rules very strictly. Yellow represents richness; we hope we can live in a world without starvation, disaster and misery. Red represents the passion and the love of life.

HELP!! (Batch #1)

2009-03-23T10:54:00.003+08:00

UPDATED CLARIFICATION: I would like you to tell me your three top picks for Batch #1 and your three top picks for Batch #2. I am allowed to submit three pictures from each class for the final judgment. Thanks again for your help!

As mentioned in an earlier post (The Chinese Flag), my sophomore oral students had the homework assignment of creating a new flag for China. The five best flags from all of the sophomore students will be proudly displayed in the foreign teachers' library, and the winning creators will be treated to dinner with all of the foreign teachers. I need YOU, yes you, ALL of you to help me select the three best flags from each of my classes. These will then be entered in the final competition with the rest of the sophomores. So all of you lurkers visiting this blog, be bold, be brave, come on out and give me your opinion. I'm allowing anonymous commenting for a short while, so you don't even have to let me know who you are. Below are the flags from my first class with a short description. In your comment, please select your three favorites. Remember, leading up to this project we studied flags of the world. Consequently, the flag should realistically fit in with the rest of the world's flags. Thanks for your help! There will be a second batch posted later today.

Flag One
The sun is the Communist party, and the six triangles are the radiance of the sun--the worker, the farmer, the city, the village, the petty bourgeoisie, and the national bourgeoisie. They revolve around a center to unite. The willow is life in spring and represents the development of China. The color red represents the enthusiasm and hospitality of China, and the blue represents the intelligence.

Flag Two
The red represents the revolutionary martyr's blood, the yellow five pointed star represents the Communist party, and the blue circle represents the people of the whole country. The circle surrounds the star representing the great solidarity of the people under the leading of the communist party.

Flag Three
The dragon represents the culture of China; the traditional color of the dragon is yellow. The red means joy, happiness, and good fortune. The crown means noble and dignity.

Flag Four
The golden background represents the glorious history and culture of China. The red stands for the blood of heroes, green stands for peace, blue stands for sea, and white stands for sea. The three colors form the character zhong (众) meaning many and the character ren (人) meaning people, because China has the largest population. This symbol represents that Chinese people unite together.

Flag Five
Red is for the revolutionary martyrs and for our aspiration towards the future. The gold star represents the Communist party, it is the color of the sun and Chinese people's skin-color. Under the star is the Great Wall; the three parts represent China's past, present, and future. It represents the wisdom and perseverance of the Chinese. The color green represents China's respect of nature.

Flag Six
The red is for the revolution. The yellow symbolizes light, and the circle is the sun. China will bring the light. The cross represents that under God's blessing, China will not have war anymore. The blue represents purity.

Flag Seven
The dragon represents power and China's ancient legends. The clouds represent the clouds in the Olympic Games in Beijing. The red means strength, green means vigor, blue represents heaven and water (the origin of life), black means the earth, and yellow means justice and peace.

Flag Eight
The five diamonds stand for the traditional manners: filial piety and fraternal submission, loyalty, politeness, quality and sentiment of loyalty to friends, and trust. The suns stands for China and means our great country is improving. The sea means China has a great future and will become stronger.

Flag Nine
The red symbolizes the revolutionary martyr's blood. The five-pointed star stands for the Communist Party and also stands for the "5" of China's 56 different nations. The six blue stripes stand for the "6" of the 56 nations. The half circle looks like the letter C, and it stands for China. Chinaware is often white, so the "C" is white.

I survived an earthquake

2009-03-21T16:22:00.005+08:00

And I didn't even feel it. While I'm extremely grateful that the earthquake was not that strong, I must admit I'm a little disappointed I didn't even notice it. For those of you familiar with geography, I'm sure you're scratching your head in amazement that we had an earthquake up here in the northeast of China. Yes, they are very unlikely. But I assure you, it really happened. It was only 4.3, but it was enough to send ripples of worries throughout the campus community. I had a class of students over last night to watch a movie; one of them showed up with an extra set of clothes packed in her purse--just in case. I was at the orphanage at the time of the quake, too consumed with this cuteness to notice.

On another note, Jennifer is much braver than me.
She gets her eyebrows done at the local marketplace. The market is like Walmart on crack. We're talking eight floors of everything your heart might desire, all available at whatever price you can successfully bargain it down to. Here's Sarah's bargaining game face.Today's shopping excursion find for me was this lamp. One of my living room lamps recently blew a fuse and hasn't worked since. I could try and figure out how to get it fixed...but sometimes things are just more hassle than it's really worth. My most recent attempt at getting something electronic fixed was a five month long ordeal that ended with the item still broken. So I decided to replace the broken lamp with this one that I picked up for about $10. If you've shopped for lamps in China, you know it's quite the find. There are no tassles. No shiny bobbles. No reflective flare. Compared to the other options, it was quite dull.

The Chinese flag

2009-03-18T19:11:00.004+08:00

The curriculum the team has developed for our sophomore oral students is focused on communication as a global citizen. The first semester, students learn about cultural values such as individualism and collectivism, particularism and universalism, and high and low context communication. Second semester, students explore and discuss how these values impact different facets of culture. The year culminates with a large group project where students create their own culture. They choose their cultural values and flesh them out in various aspects of culture like folktales, city planning and development, money, and flags. The focus of this week's lesson was "Flags of the World". Students examined and discussed various flags from around the world, and determined common denominators of colors and symbols between these flags. They also discussed the high context meaning of a lot of the world flags. As a warm-up activity to the lesson, I had students teach me about the Chinese flag. After living in China for four years, I'm a little ashamed to admit that I really didn't know what the symbolism of the flag was. Prior to class, the closest guess I had was that the red stands for good fortune (which is why many of the new years' blessings are red). However, I would have been entirely wrong. This is a red with a much different and much more specific meaning. While there was some disagreement about other aspects of the flag, everyone agreed that the red was the blood of the revolutionary martyrs who fought for China. However, I was quite surprised that the students were unsure about the meaning of the stars on the flag, as well as the significance of the color of the stars. The conjecture was put forth that the four small stars represented the four classes in society, but students couldn't remember what the four classes were. Someone else just said they represented the people in China. All were fairly confident that the large star represented the communist party. What was somewhat ironic was that later on, when discussing the American flag, they were much more certain of the meaning of the various symbols on this flag than on their own. However, when I went home to research the Chinese flag, I discovered that indeed, the meaning of the stars is somewhat vague and has various interpretations. One of the more common explanations is the four classes (workers, peasants, petty bourgeoisie, and patriotic capitalists). Another common explanation is that the stars represent various ethnic groups in China. The official line seems to be somewhat vague, acknowledging only that they represent the people of China. Interestingly, the flag is a result of a contest in 1949 to design China's flag. This week, our sophomore students' homework is to redesign China's flag. The five best flags out of all of the sophomores win a meal with the sophomore oral foreign teachers. Look for some of the winners sometime next week!

Sunshine

2009-03-14T22:53:00.003+08:00

Be lifting up this little guy (his Chinese name means sunshine; he has a disposition to match his name). He's finally put on enough pounds to go in for his cleft palette surgery. He'll go in as soon as a bed opens up in the hospital. Thanks for your thoughts!

Something to be proud of

2009-03-13T18:16:00.003+08:00

The region of China I live in is not particularly famous for anything. The landscape would likely never be termed "stunning", there aren't any famous historical sites, and the weather isn't going to draw many people. Let's just say there aren't many foreign tourists traipsing through this area of the country. However, it looks like we do have something to be proud of. I found this news item, about the city I lived in my first year in China (about 2 hours from where I am now). It might just be our new claim to fame (or further proof that there isn't much to do around here...).

The never ending song (March 12, 2009, Xinhua)
More than 1,200 residents in northeastern China have set a new world karaoke record by singing continuously for 456 hours, two minutes and five seconds. Students, soldiers, and businessmen from Changchun, capital of Jilin Province, sang more than 6,200 songs from February 20 until yesterday morning, Xinhua News Agency reported today. It beat the old Guinness World Record, set by Finns in July, by nearly 10 hours.

Wipe-out

2009-03-12T21:02:00.002+08:00

High-heeled boots + snow/sleet + slippery tiled Chinese sidewalks + 50 mph gusts of wind = disaster waiting to happen.

Sometimes, I'm just downright foolish. I almost fell walking back for lunch after teaching classes this morning. The snow/sleet mixture had started to fall about 45 minutes before class ended. It continued during lunch. Looking out the window, I actually thought through the fact that high-heeled boots in the current climate was looking for trouble. But I had on my grey dress wool pants...and I didn't have any other shoes that would really go with those pants...and the boots look good. And I was too lazy to change clothes. Oh, don't you love how your vanity comes and bites you in the butt--quite literally sometimes? I wasn't fifty yards outside of my apartment building, when in a location I have affectionately labeled "wind tunnel of doom", a sudden gust sent me quite uncontrollably flying off my feet and smack down hard on my rear end. That'll teach me to listen to the voice of fashion instead of the voice of common sense...

Happy Women's Day!

2009-03-08T20:36:00.004+08:00

Today, March 8th, is Women's Day in China. Moving to China has been good for increasing the number of days I get to celebrate. Not only do I get to celebrate this festive day, but I also get to celebrate teacher's day in the fall and Singles Day on November 11 (11/11...creative isn't it?). To be honest, I was entirely oblivious to the fact today was Women's Day (you'd think after four years I'd catch on; perhaps I'm not as bright as you thought). I didn't even think of it when I was told by teammates to leave today open at noon. I'm used to ambiguity and random appointments being added to my schedule, consequently no mental effort was expended in guessing what this reservation was for. About noon today, not hearing anything from anyone, I went in search of whatever it was I was supposed to be at. The Clements' home tends to be a central gathering place, so I stopped there first. Rachel and Jennifer were there waiting. You'd think I'd be on to something now...I did figure at this point that the guys were making lunch for us ladies, but I though maybe they had decided it would just be a nice thing to do. Yeah, once again, not as bright as you thought. We were shortly informed of "technical" difficulties, and waited around for about twenty minutes while the guys finished a five course meal. Those of you who actually know the guys on my team, pick your jaws off the floor, I was just kidding. What I meant to say was we waited around while the guys waited at KFC for our food to be finished. After our brief interlude of waiting, we were ushered into Sonny's place where a beautiful table had been set and a video of pictures was playing. It was at this point Sonny explained that it was Women's Day, and everything became much clearer. Mark had made his famous iced tea, including ice cubes from the tea (so it wouldn't end up being watered down at all). The fries, wings, chicken pieces, sandwiches, corn, and bread were presented exquistely on plates and platters, and we were waited on hand and foot. For desert, Sonny had whipped up some pudding. The lunch concluded with a heart-warming performance of "You are my sunshine". All in all, it was a delightfully thoughtful event put together by the guys on the team. I hope all of you women had a wonderful day!

Reason #493 I love my team

2009-03-02T16:55:00.003+08:00

How many teams would take the time to make 13 jumbo cards (with matching backs just like a normal deck of cards) to dress up for a belated birthday party? I'm truly blessed!

Reason #894 I love China

2009-03-02T16:35:00.003+08:00

OK, I don't know exactly what number reason this is, but there are countless little things that make me love living in this land. For example, being told I'm beautiful multiple times in one day (yes, it was wonderful to be back in the classroom today). Having a relationship with my fruit seller (which translates as being scolded for not wearing enough clothes). The fact that one of the most common greetings is "Have you eaten?" (I love a culture that revolves around meal time).

In this post I'm labeling the local shoe-repair-hut as reason #894. Here's a picture to give you a better idea of what I'm describing:
Yes, it's a tiny little room on wheels that is parked in the market everyday. And this man does more than repair shoes; he fixes zippers, copies keys, and probably many other things that I have yet to discover. This morning one of the tips of my heeled boots fell off, so I headed off to his shop after class. A few minutes and 10 cents later, my heel had been re-tipped. There are many things in China that take longer to do than they did in America. But having my shoes repaired is one of the conveniences I love!

Today was the first day back in the classroom, and although I wasn't thrilled when my alarm clock went off, it didn't take long for me to fall in love with my job all over again. Yes, the comments on my beauty help with that.

Plans

2009-02-28T11:24:00.004+08:00

From the time I was a little girl, I've always been a planner. My plans stretched from the activities of the day all the way into the future. One very clear and specific plan was dramatized as a child with a pillowcase draped on my head as I marched down the aisle to Mr. Right. Shortly thereafter, a blanket would be stuffed up my shirt and I'd imagine my entrance into motherhood. The plan was always go to college, find your perfect match, get married, and become a mom. The first three steps of that plan were beautifully acted out in my sister's life. I followed her steps to Wheaton, expecting to see my dreams and plans fulfilled. Just in case, I had the contingency plan of following college with a master's degree in counseling. This would provide a career until my other plan came to fruition.

As most of you know, none of those plans happened. What did happen was far beyond any inkling of what I dreamed of as a little girl. Moving to China and building a life there...teaching? No siree, that was nowhere to be found on my page of hopes, dreams, and plans. Throughout the process of getting me here, and getting me to accept an indefinite length of living here, the Father has had to shatter quite a few plans that were of my own making. The lesson He has continually been teaching me is to let go of my plans and ideas for the future, and to live in the sacrament of the present moment. Frankly, I thought I was doing a pretty good job at this lesson. In fact, I was tempted to ask for my certificate of completion in the course of "pry your hands off of your plans".

Today, I have been not so gently reminded how much I still count on my own plans, plans that are in no way guaranteed. Not that plans in and of themselves are evil; they are quite necessary in order to move in any sort of direction. However, finding security and peace in the expectance of those plans is not a good move. Due to the current financial situation, and it's affects on the company I work for, I've found out that I most likely won't be able to work on my graduate degree this summer. There's a chance I'll still have one class, but regardless, my three year degree has quite suddenly morphed into a four year degree. There were several "scenarios" I had in my head about what the next two years might entail, and none of them contained this contingency. My first reaction was frustration and disappointment.

But then my mind went back to my travel experience two weeks ago (see the Amazing Race: Asia for more details). It was as if the Father was whispering in my ear, what did I tell you then? I answered, in that tone of voice children have when they know their parents are right but they really don't want to admit it, "this is not a surprise to me". His next question for me, "and what does that mean?" Still in the reluctant to admit voice, "You are working in this too and you have a greater plan." The fact of the matter is, I should be excited by the situation. Because whenever the Father stomps on, halts, or changes my plans that usually means He's got something pretty good in store. It may not be what I thought was my first choice, but it's just another step in the beautifully orchestrated dance He has for me and Him.

Land of Smiles

2009-02-21T21:54:00.003+08:00

I stick out in Asia. I have absolutely no hope of ever being able to completely blend in. I might as well be carrying around a large flag that reads "foreigner". This fact means I draw attention most places I go. There is rarely a moment in public that I'm not being watched. Yesterday at the grocery store two old ladies actually stopped and started to physically rummage through my grocery cart to see what types of food I was buying--and proceeded to ask me questions about some of the items. Hopefully, if you've been reading this blog long enough, you have no doubt of my love for the Chinese people. They are truly the most hospitable people I've had the privilege of interacting with. However, walking along streets in smaller cities in China can be quite unnerving. The constant attention and expressions of onlookers could easily be labeled from an American standpoint as angry stares. In China, it's not common to smile at other people, especially outside of your circle of relationships. When you meet strangers on the street, you don't smile and ask, "How are you?" Upon forming relationships and once you enter someone's home, this situation drastically changes. Yet when I'm out and about around the city, I've learned to in some ways ignore the stares around me.

I stood out in Laos as well. Consequently, I was also a subject of interest. Yet in Laos, those who looked at me did so with warm and friendly smiles on their faces. They had some of the most beautiful smiles I've ever seen, and their warm demeanor made it seem more like they were being friendly than like they were staring. I absolutely loved getting to meet and interact with the people. The slogan for Thailand is "the Land of Smiles", but whoever came up with that must not have visited Laos. The other characteristic of the Laos people that struck me, especially in comparison with China, was the laid back nature of the culture. Time just wasn't all that important. As the class bell rang, very few students were around and the teachers were still lounging in the office. About fifteen minutes later, the teachers leisurely made their ways to the classrooms. The classrooms were empty about twenty minutes before the last period of the evening technically ended. There seemed to be a great freedom from the compulsion to fill the day with as much activity as possible.

The scenery in Laos is almost as beautiful as the people. I was in southern Laos, in the city of Pakse, for about a week. The city is at the convergence of the Mekong and Sedong rivers. The elevation climbs up steadily outside of the city, leading to an area full of gorgeous waterfalls. Hiking out to one deserted falls was one of my favorite activities in Laos. There are few things more therapeutic to me than waterfalls surrounded by dense vegetation. All those hikes my parents dragged my sister and I on as children paid off.

While I thoroughly enjoyed getting a taste of Laos, I must confess the great comfort I had upon arriving back in Beijing. I had the same driver who had taken Kasey and Kurt around picking me up, and his smiling face waiting for me at 1:30 am made the realization "I'm home" wash over me. It was fun to get to chat with him in Chinese on the way to our headquarters in Beijing. My Chinese was a little rusty, but thankfully he's a very patient man! The feeling of home only increased as I got closer to my city.

I had a former teammate visiting this week, and now that she's gone vacation is officially over. I'm trying to get as much grad work done as possible before the craziness resumes. In addition, I'll be working on a listening curriculum for the semester this week. Back to the grindstone!

The Amazing Race: Asia

2009-02-18T10:19:00.003+08:00

Three countries in one day. Buses and border crossings. Trying to bargain and communicate with drivers of Tuk Tuks (local transportation). Napping in a deserted airport waiting for a flight. Running at full speed upon arrival at an airport. Pleading with a taxi driver who has limited English to drive fast. It all sounds like an episode of the Amazing Race, doesn't it? And it all describes my travel back to China from Laos.

Sunday morning, I woke up early to finish packing before catching a bus to Thailand from Laos. I was checking my email one last time and writing down my flight information for the day. Suddenly, I noticed something a little disconcerting. For my first flight of the day, which took me to Bangkok, I didn't recognize the name of the Bangkok airport. I called over my friend who teaches in Laos (and who frequently travels through Thailand) and asked if indeed this was the same airport my other flight took off from. "Uhhh...no." When we had booked my flight, we failed to consider the fact that there were two airports in Bangkok. Suddenly, my two hour layover to go from my domestic flight to my international flight seemed incredibly short. Like falling dominoes my mind went through visions of being stuck sleeping in the Bangkok airport, missing my arranged car that was picking me up at 1:00 am in Beijing, missing my friend who was meeting me in Beijing, missing my already-purchased train from Beijing to Siping...my stomach turned. But instantly, Sarah and I went into crisis-solving mode. If the taxi drove fast, and I took the more expensive toll roads, I should be able to make it between the two airports in forty minutes. Add in time waiting in baggage claim...too close. Our conclusion: I need to go all carry-on. Luckily, the suitcase I was traveling with was very reasonably carry-on size. (Yes, I was traveling for six weeks. Yes, you should be impressed.) So, after ditching some toiletries per liquid restrictions, and with the hope no one would be strict about weight, I was ready to fly all carry-on. The saddest loss in this transformation was shaving cream from the States. With a plan in mind, and a certain level of confidence from the awareness that the situation came as no surprise to my Father, I headed out for my long day of travel.

I took a three and a half hour bus from Pakse to Ubon, Thailand. Arriving there, I arranged for a red truck taxi (cheaper than regular taxis...you ride on the back of a truck that has benches bolted to it) to the airport. I arrived at the airport a full four hours before my flight, which was the only flight flying out of there in the afternoon. Consequently, I joined a grand total of two people in the airport--one working a small snack stand and the other a guard. I got some food, napped, and did grad work, trying not to think of the next hurried transition. We boarded the plane and took off a few minutes late, but I figured we would make up the time in the air. I was a little concerned by the old man who sat next to me, not wanting to have to tackle him in my rush off the airplane. Fortunately, though, he wanted more space and moved to the empty back of the plane shortly after take-off. As we landed, I prepared myself for sprinting. As soon as possible I was out of the seat, my suitcase was out of the compartment, and I made my way through the crowds of people up the gangway. I hit the hallway of the airport at a run, weaving in and out of people. The plane landed at 5:05. By 5:11, I was in a taxi. I almost took out a sliding door in the process. A little out of breath, I told the taxi driver, "airport, highway, FAST!". He obliged. We sailed past other cars and I was at the airport by 5:38. There was no line at the check-in counter, and despite the fact that I was in the slowest immigration line EVER (the next line over was moving at a rate of four people to one person in ours; yes, I counted), I still had time to grab one last blizzard before boarding my plane to China. Another day of travel in Asia successfully completed.

I'm now back home in China, spending time with one of my former teammates who is up for a visit. Pictures from my time in Laos are slowly being put up on flickr. I'll post a little more about that trip soon! For now, here's one of my favorite pictures, taken on the Mekong.

Another year older

2009-02-08T15:47:00.002+08:00

Since moving to Asia, my birthday has always fallen during my company's annual conference. While some would be excited to celebrate with 600 of their closest friends, sitting in sessions all day, this setting is not really my venue of choice. This year I was excited to find out my birthday fell the day after conference ended. After the hustle and bustle of conference, a couple of friends and I headed up into the mountains around Chiang Mai for two days of quiet rest and reflection. I can't think of a better place to celebrate my birthday! After three weeks of being in the heart of Chiang Mai, in the midst of traffic, noise, and hordes of people, the stillness of a secluded mountain resort was incredibly refreshing. After sleeping, reading, and watching the sunset the first day, we headed to the nearby Queen's Botanic Gardens the second day. I spent my birthday hiking through the jungle, running into a grand total of one person (other than my hiking companions). We hiked, we laid on a bridge staring up at the trees, we sang songs to our creator. It was an absolutely perfect day, and probably one of my favorite birthdays ever. On the way to the airport that night, we stopped in a little chocolate shop to pick up some Belgium truffles for a sweet ending to a marvelous day. I'm now in Pakse, Laos, enjoying riding motorbikes around a city surrounded with rivers and mountains. I'll be spending a week with the team of teachers here before heading back home.

Rest

2009-01-18T17:25:00.004+08:00

After my brief sojourn in Hong Kong, I headed down to Chiang Mai, Thailand for two weeks of graduate classes. As I talked to people that Sunday, on the eve of classes, a common theme was one of tiredness and exhaustion. We were coming into the week of class taxed by the work of the previous semester. The class was Sp. Formation and the primary topic appropriately was rest. I was a little concerned going into the class that it would be focused on learning many disciplines that would add another burden of what must be done to my shoulders. However, the message that was constantly spoken over us was rest, create margins, say no, do less, be more. Our Western culture's lie that greater productivity and more activities means a better servant was exposed repeatedly as a recipe for disaster. We have a compulsion to fill every moment of our days (excusing our twenty to thirty allotted minutes in the Word each morning), or at least to explain to others that we're using every moment responsibly. It was wonderful to have this reminder as we prepare to go to conference, where comparison to the effectiveness of others can lead to the compulsion to do more. In order to actually practice what he was telling us this week, our professor gave us an incredibly light load during the week. He encouraged us to retreat and simply rest with the Father. This lighter load allowed our class to minister to one another in beautiful ways. Lunches suddenly became four hour affairs where we took time to listen to one another's stories. We were able to experience how much easier it is to follow the Counselor's direction when we're not rushed to move onto the next task of the day. I've left the class with some ideas for how personally to create buffers and margins this next semester, and Wu and I have some ideas for the team as well. Having margins of rest is something I've known is important for awhile, but it was so encouraging to have a respected leader teach the necessity of it to us.

Still in China

2009-01-08T22:09:00.002+08:00

After a night and day of traveling, I've made it safely to Hong Kong. HK is a city like none other that I've been to in the world. I really am at a loss as to how to describe it. It has the narrow, brightly lit alleyways that look like the China of the movies. It has apartment buildings soaring high enough to block the sunshine. It has coastlines cluttered with docks and whatever the technical name is for those big cranes that work on the docks. It has a definite British influence, as well as other foreign elements. Ruth Chris and Mortons steakhouses can be found within one block of each other. It's crowded and packed full of overstimulation. Yet it's still China. Upon entering my very nice hotel room (this is definitely the splurge portion of the trip), I was unmistakeably greeted with this fact. On the pillow, on a very nice laminated paper with English and Chinese, was a note informing me that the water would be turned off for several hours today and tomorrow "owing to the regular cleaning of hotel water tanks". Ahhh, yes, in some ways this is still the China I call home.

Olympic Workout

2009-01-07T13:19:00.002+08:00

8/8/08 the world sat in awe as they watched the splendor of the opening ceremonies. For years China had prepared for the great honor of hosting the Olympics, and as the eyes of the world turned on her she shined spectacularly. The bird's nest and the water cube are perhaps some of the most memorable Olympic venues in recent history. Visiting them, in hopes of getting a small taste of Olympic glory, comes with an accompanying Olympic workout.

With the brains that went into all of the Olympic development, you think they could have figured out a better visitation system. We arrived at Olympic park on the chilly afternoon of the last day of 2008 quite excited to walk the cement sidewalks we had watched on TV for so many hours in August. It was my first time to Olympic park, so I was not very useful as a guide. We stood in front of the immense bird's nest, and in lieu of any sign telling us which way was the entrance or ticket office, began our trek around the stadium. Like any orderly American, we proceeded in a clockwise circle (this direction had the added bonus of falling on the sunny, hence several degrees warmer, side of the stadium). We walked and we walked. We passed many a lettered entrance, all of them closed up. We could see people walking inside the fenced area, so we knew entrance was possible. We walked some more. I asked some guards. They said to keep walking. Finally, once we had walked almost the entire circumference of the Bird's nest, we noticed stairs going underground. At long last we had discovered the ticket office, which in a sneaky attempt to force exercise on the many souls looking for it was conveniently hid underground. However, upon realizing the ticket price of entrance, as well as reflecting that the U.S. didn't really accomplish much in the Bird's nest, we decided to pass.

Onward we moved to the true place of American Olympic Glory, the Water Cube. Little did we know that locating the Nest's ticket office was a mere warm-up for the hike of purchasing tickets and entering the Water Cube. I was quite pleased to quickly find an open entrance, where streams of people were pouring through. I stood back a few paces and scanned all nearby locations for the ticket office. Finding nothing, but determined not to miss an underground hidden office, I proceeded to ask one of the guards at the gate where to buy tickets. He told me to walk alongside the building and go around the corner. I withheld my comments on the absurdity of not having a ticket office anywhere near the entrance gate, with the thought that perhaps there was another entrance near the ticket office. Onward our group marched (Kasey, Kurt, and two of their friends from California). We walked and walked. Down the whole length of the building. Around the corner. Along the whole length of the end of the building. Every ten yards or so, like a trail of crumbs, would be a sign with "Tickets to the Water Cube" and an arrow below it (in characters...my reading skills paid off for once!). Once we reached the end of the building, we crossed a street and walked further and further away, still following the signs. Finally, we reached 5 little ticket huts and proceeded to buy our tickets. Now the hunt for an entrance began, and we quickly realized that the gate we had seen before was the only entrance. We continued our walk around the entire exterior of the building back to the original gate. After burning enough calories to consume a Michael Phelps' breakfast, we sank into seats in the Cube to marvel at what had taken place there.

My bags are (mostly) packed and my papers are (mostly) written. Tonight I board the train for warmer weather and a rendezvous with Mickey. Goodbye long underwear, hello flip flops!

Scaling the wall

2009-01-06T13:02:00.002+08:00

Of all the sites in Beijing, the Great Wall is probably my favorite for the simple reason it's not in Beijing. Don't worry, I'm not going to go into a tirade about the ills of Beijing again. Yet the scenery surrounding the Great Wall is almost more attractive to me than the wall itself. Getting to the wall involves a two hour drive, which ends in twisting roads through mountains and forested parks. After four months of living and traveling though cities of row upon row of cookie cutter concrete buildings, this scenery is a breath of fresh air. I forget how much I miss nature, and hills that are taller than me. Being able to stand on the wall, with a glorious blue sky, and nothing but hills upon hills in front of me was simply spectacular. Not to mention, it was a special day since I was celebrating Kasey and Kurt's third wedding anniversary with them. Missing their wedding my first year in China was one of the hardest days of my time here, so it was great to mark this occasion together. We couldn't have chosen a more perfect place to celebrate!

Beijing in the winter

2009-01-04T15:05:00.002+08:00

I hate Beijing. The crowds, the traffic, the smog, and the immensity always make me appreciate my little China city all the more. As an admittedly impatient person, the fact that it takes at least an hour to get anywhere in the city tends to grate on me. I much prefer my city, where it takes about 10 minutes and costs 5 RMB to get just about anywhere. 7 RMB and 15 minutes will take me to my farthest destination, the nice grocery store in town. Granted, Beijing is much more modern with its shiny subways and roomy smoke-free taxis. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the treat of piping hot pizza at Krow's nest just as much or more than the next person. However, I have no desire to ever live there. Considering the fact that I also never really had the desire to live in China in the first place, I have a slight sense of dread that the Father may call me there sometime in the future.

But I digress. If I must be in Beijing, take me there in the winter. In fact, I would even say I love...let me take that back...I have a warm admiration for Beijing in the winter. No, I do not have a morbid love for bitterly cold winds. However, crisp, smog-free, crystal clear blue skies make exploring the many "places of interest" in Beijing a sheer delight. The reds, greens, golds, and blues of the recently-repainted-for-the-Olympics historic sites spectacularly pop against such a backdrop. While showing my friends around the city, I relished in being able to get photos that would have looked comparably drab in the typical summer smog of Beijing. I will likely be posting more pictures on flickr than you would ever care to look at, but I just couldn't get enough of those blue skies.My paper writing break time is about up. I've finished 2 of the 5 papers I need to write this week, and am midway through 2 others. I'm hoping to wrap all those up by the time I begin my southern migration Wednesday. First stop is hanging out with Mickey in Hong Kong.

A few of my favorite gifts

2009-01-03T10:41:00.003+08:00

Due to the busyness of travel the past week or so, Christmas already feels like it was eons ago. It felt a little strange to return to my apartment last night and see Christmas decorations still up. Those will definitely be coming down soon! However, before I completely packed away Christmas, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite gifts from this year. I believe most of them will speak for themselves.

Pigs are thought to be very lovely and cute here in China. Who wouldn't agree after seeing these?

I think this next one is supposed to be a necklace hanger.And perhaps my favorite gift ever. My cleaning lady brought this to me (as well as toilet bowl cleaner) and explained she got it because it had instructions in English as well. Make sure you read all of the package, as well as the notice from the side of the package.

In all seriousness, the best gift was having my good friends here for Christmas. It was great to be able to show them my life in China. Here they are modeling one of their gifts from the team. These face masks are not for germ protection, but rather are to keep you warm in the bitter wind up here in the northeast of China.

New favorite sign in Beijing

2009-01-02T08:08:00.001+08:00

Ah shucks, guess I can't bring my car bomb on this street.

After a whirlwind of touring, I'm headed home today. More of an update later!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care

2008-12-22T08:31:00.002+08:00

Well, I don't have a chimney, but the stockings are hung on the windows. The presents are wrapped under the tree. The fridge is stocked. The towels and sheets are clean. The rugs are clean. The finals (that I've given) are graded. The grad work...well, the grad work is being conveniently ignored. That's right, I'm ready for my Christmas guests!

I'm off to give my last two finals. One is a speaking final (no grading afterward...a definite bonus) and the other will deliver 23 five paragraph essays into my hands. Then I'm rushing off to the train station to head down to Beijing. Hopefully, in between all of those things, I'll get my passport returned to me (the office has had it for a visa renewal for the last two weeks). Ah, it wouldn't be China if things weren't taken down to the wire.

And then...drum roll please...I'll be picking up two of my good friends! Since they're such good friends, I'm going to take them from their 30 hour journey to China directly to the train station for an overnight train to Siping. We'll get into Siping about 5 am on Christmas Eve...and then I'm going to drag them to an 8 am class. Hahaha...I'm such a good friend!

Nevertheless, I'm super excited to get to celebrate Christmas with "family"! Merry Christmas to all of you back in the States!

7:49 AM

2008-12-18T11:59:00.002+08:00

Have you ever had that dream where your alarm doesn't go off and you miss an important exam? That dream almost became a reality for me today.

My first thought when I woke up this morning was, "Wow! I feel much more rested than I expected to after six and a half hours of sleep!" This thought was quickly followed by, "Wow, it's really light outside the window." Which in turn was followed by a jumbled mess of thoughts as I reached out in panic for my alarm clock. I immediately noticed two things about my alarm clock. One, the little lever that turns on the alarm was only nudged halfway. Two, the clock was blinking 7:49. I was giving an exam at 8. Not only that, but an exam that I was certain would take many of the students the entire class period to complete. Let's just say I sprang out of bed faster than Saint Nick up the chimney.

At this point, my obsessive type A organization and the fact that I abandon some of my obsessive type A organization when I'm exhausted both worked to my advantage. The latter fact meant that the previous day's teaching outfit, instead of being neatly folded and put away/stowed in the laundry basket, was draped on top of the laundry basket. Within moments I was dressed, and admittedly not concerned with how I was smelling. (Random cultural sidenote: it is perfectly acceptable, in fact expected, to wear an outfit more than one day in a row. I won't tell you what number day I was on this morning...) Seconds later, I had run a brush through my hair, attempting not to look at the amount of grease too closely in the mirror, and had dabbed a bit of powder on my unwashed face. In a split second decision, I decided to forgo the toothbrush. I know, ewwww. But a lot of my students make that decision every morning as well. At this point, the obsessive type A behavior that had not been abandoned by exhaustion, came through for me. I dashed into my office to grab the neatly piled exams from the ledge. I dumped them in my bag, as well as the neat pile of work laid out for me to do during the exam. I hurriedly put on my coat and shoes and was out the door literally four minutes after waking.

I power-walked as fast as one can in high heeled boots over to the teaching building, and slipped into the classroom promptly at 7:58. I calmly took out the exams and proceeded to check all the desks. Little did my students know I had yet to be awake for ten minutes. After the exams were handed out, I settled into my desk to say a quick upward thanks that I had been nudged awake not a minute later.

It's the thought that counts...

2008-12-17T11:30:00.003+08:00

Wu came by today with our Christmas presents from the department...

I wonder if they felt the same way when they opened our cell-phone shaped rechargeable shavers? In China, the fact that you gave a gift is what matters.

In case you need any proof that I live in a SMALL town, today my taxi driver described my teammate Sonny to me and asked if I knew him. Considering our team of 13 makes up almost the entire foreign contingency in our town, we're famous. However, apparently not all of the taxi drivers know us. Before I ended up in Sonny's friend's cab, I had waved down another driver. When he told me it would be 10 RMB to get to the school (it's supposed to be five), I quickly shut the door...as he called out 8 RMB. Sonny's friend (who was in the next cab) asked me how much that driver had told me. When I said 10 RMB, he said, it's because you're a foreigner. I replied, I know, but I also know better than to pay that. The driver got a good chuckle out of that.

I have four more finals to give, and one end of the year "fun" class to teach before wrapping up the semester. It's hard to believe we're this close to the end!

Hanging on by a thread

2008-12-14T14:04:00.003+08:00

To my sanity, that is. Sorry about the lack of posting. :) The above is about the only thing keeping me going right now. Here's some numbers to help explain why:

8 days until my close friends arrive in China
3 teammate birthdays to celebrate in the next 10 days
4 Christmas parties
64 five paragraph essays to grade
52 written exams to give and grade
75 very dense pages of grad work left to read
5 grad papers to write
5 essay questions to write for my commitment interview
Cupcakes, cookies, muffins, and various other things to bake
6 birthday/Christmas gifts left to shop for
20 need-to-be answered emails in my inbox

Time to go put another pot of coffee on...

Thanksgiving #1 & #2

2008-12-01T21:13:00.002+08:00

Thanksgiving was a work day here, but the team still managed to scrape together an amazing meal. In between teaching two classes, I whipped up my Grandma's four varieties of yeast rolls. It just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without them! Plus, I think I might be barred from dinner if I didn't come with them. It only takes me a total of three toaster ovens jammed in my kitchen to get them all baked up for dinner. :)The day before I made a huge batch of applesauce and mashed potatoes. A local restaurant roasted two chickens for us (complete with heads, thank goodness!) and the team provided the rest of the sides. The chicken, despite its disconcerting ability to stare us down, was actually extremely tasty and saved us from trying to cook meat for 20 people in toaster ovens. After a busy day on my feet, it was nice to sit down with the whole gang for dinner. Our centerpiece was the traditional Wu turkey (pineapple with head stuck in it). Friday evening I decorated my house for Christmas, and as if on cue, snow started to drift down outside my window. My house's charm has been multiplied by many strands of Christmas lights. The perfectly-timed snow became a hindrance when some of the team and I attempted to take a bus to Changchun for our second Thanksgiving on Saturday morning. We arrived at the bus station only to find out that the buses were not running. Not deterred, we headed over to the train station and managed to find seats on a train leaving in an hour and a half. We arrived about an hour late to the Changchun dinner, but a conveniently placed microwave and a kind friend who had shooed people away from getting too many seconds from the food table salvaged the situation. After eating a plate full of food, we had a great time of thanksgiving and fellowship with people from the region. After that, a few of us hit the stores in town. It was hopefully my last trip to Changchun this semester, so I stocked up on all kinds of items, and took care of some Christmas shopping. We got back late Saturday night a little bit tired, but wonderfully full. It's now time for the final press of the semester. I will only see my classes three more times. It seems as if no matter how well I plan out my semester, I always end up needing "just one more week". I'm trying to creatively figure out how best to prepare my students for their final exams! Regardless, I know in the blink of an eye the end of the month will be here, and I'll be left wondering what exactly just happened to me. Let the holiday rush begin!

A few of my favorite things

2008-11-26T14:38:00.005+08:00

The smell of applesauce cooking in my apartment. Apples mixed with cinnamon is one of my favorite scents. (I'm busy cooking up food for Thanksgiving.)
These small oranges (about half the size of the palm of your hand). I never had them in America, but they're my favorite treat in November & December in China (their season here). They are amazingly sweet! I eat them like candy.
This drink, Lulu. It's an almond milk that is usually served warm in the winter. I think it tastes like an almond cookie straight from the oven. The team thinks its repulsive, but it's my favorite winter beverage. Plus, I think it will make me as pretty and happy as the woman on the can.
This website. It's the only way I have a hope of doing my Chinese homework each week. Not only does it teach you stroke order of characters, but you can draw a character and look it up that way. It's one of my favorite websites!
A baby falling asleep in my arms. Pure bliss and peace!
Counting the days until my friends, Kasey and Kurt, arrive from the States to celebrate Christmas with me and get a glimpse of my life here. Less than four weeks!
All of you amazing Rez folk who showed up for the Christmas Village and made it possible for the new orphanage to have a disinfecting cabinet, water heater, refrigerator, and washing machine! I can't wait to tell the orphanage!

Too good to be true

2008-11-22T22:56:00.003+08:00

Recently, I gave my writing students a somewhat simple and in my eyes easy homework assignment. Their job was simply to write a paragraph. A 5-8 sentence paragraph that began with a topic sentence and ended with a concluding sentence. In class, we worked on the pre-writing tasks. First, we brainstormed about the general topic, "Western Holidays". Then, we made cluster charts (you may refer to them as bubble charts) to help organize our ideas. For homework, they were supposed to pick one segment of the bubble chart (they couldn't possibly talk about the whole thing in one paragraph) and create a brief outline and paragraph. Some of the students managed the task quite well. Others showed me why I still have a job teaching English. Still others...well, their compositions were just too good to be true.

I'm in my fourth year of teaching in China, and I'm well aware that those practices we term "cheating", "plagiarism", and "copying" do not carry quite the weighty negative connotation here in China that they do in America. My students have given me ample opportunities to hone my skills at detecting copied work from a mile off. I believe that my detection skills have reached master level. Armed with google and quotation marks I've found many a speech and essay online. However, I was a little surprised (not a lot, just a little), when I discovered more than a few paragraphs that had been copied from the internet. I mean really, couldn't you write six sentences in less time than it takes to find a paragraph on the internet about holidays and to hand write that paragraph? I was also a little insulted at how daft my students must think I am. Do they really believe I'll think they wrote a sentence like, "At the very beginning, Thanksgiving Day was proclaimed by the Governor of Plymouth in the autumn of 1621 to express the colonists' gratitude to the Father for the first harvest in the New World."?

And yet, there was one paragraph which totally relieved my frustration by sending me into fits of laughter. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw the following paragraph:

What is the meaning of the word Christmas? C stands for the C. Child who was sleeping on the day. H is for the Heavenly Host who worshipped that day. R is for the radiance on Mary's holy face. I is for the lowly Inn, a poor and humble place. S is for the star that shines to guide the shepherds there. T is for the travelers who brought him treasures rare. M is for the manger where he was born. A is for the angels who hovered round his bed. S is for the Savior who brought peace and hope to earth. It's so interesting, isn't it? That's what I introduce about Christmas for you. I wonder if you will like it.

Why yes, yes I do like it. Life is never dull here! And in case you're wondering...I have held off on the decorations...

Is it time yet?

2008-11-20T14:45:00.006+08:00

With snow falling outside my window and temperatures dipping into the negatives at night, I'm itching to pull out the Christmas decorations. Actually, I've been wanting to do that ever since Sarah and I put on a Christmas CD in the foreign teachers' library a couple weeks ago. I know, I know, it's a mortal sin, but it was the only music CD we had. And we're in China, so anything goes. Anyways, I'm ready to hang some stockings! If I wasn't still partially laid up from a stomach bug the team's been passing around, the tree might be halfway up at the moment. I'll try to contain myself, but I don't know if I'll be able to hold back through this weekend...

I remember as a kids my sister and I always begged my parents as soon as we got home from the annual Thanksgiving trip to Grandma's to head out to the local tree farm. Unfortunately, it seems like that first weekend after thanksgiving my dad always had a business trip out of town. Even as a kid I could hardly wait to decorate the house. I guess there are some things you never grow out of!

Since I don't have the energy to put up my actual tree, enjoy this trip down memory lane of Brandt Christmas tree hunting.

A new home

2008-11-14T21:11:00.002+08:00

Many of you know that my team and I are privileged to have a great relationship with the local orphanage. They graciously allow us to partner with them in loving the fatherless and motherless of this town. I'm being entirely honest when I say this is a privilege. The women who work at this orphanage are truly heroes of mine. They love the children as their own and pour out their lives loving them. There is a lot to learn about love from them!

Recently, we were blessed to watch the orphanage move from a facility on the outskirts of the city to an amazing new facility in the heart of the city. In many ways, this move also reflects a changing perspective of many people, especially students from our university. In the past few years, we have watched the number of students interested in the orphans multiply rapidly. It used to be only our team visiting the kids on Saturdays, now it's not uncommon to have more than 3 students per child on a Saturday. Students pour in bringing fruit, clothing, snacks, and more importantly hearts full of love. This sight is remarkable, considering orphans in China are on a periphery of a nation that functions based on social circles. They have no in-group, yet students are reaching out to them.

Students at the orphanage

The new facility is at least double the size of the previous building. The attention to detail is remarkable, especially for China. All of the staircases have built in baby gates. The baby floor is equipped with low handrails to help toddlers learning to walk. The baby room has an adjacent large bathroom equipped with half a dozen bathtubs and small toilets . The building is warm. The heating is excellent. There's a room for sick children to stay in so others don't get sick. There's a craft room. The older children's rooms have whimsical trees growing on the walls and columns. Shiny new beds are topped with large stuffed animals. I was near tears as I walked through this beautiful building. Give thanks to the one who labors on behalf of the widows and orphans!

Big kids room

Baby bathroom

Baby room

A little taste of heaven

2008-11-12T20:19:00.002+08:00

My world was forever changed tonight. I think I just discovered my new favorite candy. Never before have I thought a candy was worthy of an entire blog post. Tonight I received a small package from my former team leader (you're amazing Amanda!!!). I was a bit perplexed when I opened it and saw kisses with orange wrappers. I thought maybe they were just dressed up for Halloween. Never in my wildest most wonderful dreams did I ever think Hershey's would make a PUMPKIN kiss. I love pumpkin anything...and it's a flavor that I miss dearly in China in the fall. Now a pumpkin spice kiss sounds a little strange, but let me tell you (unless you're a teammate who's going to come ask me for one), this is the most remarkable candy ever created. I'm in love. I'll go ahead and count this as my single's day present. And thank goodness I'm single, because I wouldn't want to share these precious kisses with anyone!

Happy Singles Day!

2008-11-11T20:48:00.002+08:00

Today is an "unofficial" holiday in China. Due to the abundance of ones in today's date (11/11), the younger generation in China has dubbed the day as "Single's Day"--because being single is something to celebrate. There was not a hint of sarcasm in that last statement. OK, maybe there was just a little bit. I might feel differently if I actually received gifts on the day.

Anyways, to celebrate the holiday, one of the local restaurants (that is owned by an independent foreign teacher) decided to host a party. At the party, all of the foreign teachers were auctioned off for dinner "dates". The money raised by the auction is being given to the orphanage. The idea of being auctioned off like a piece of meat was slightly repulsive to Sarah and I, but we also wanted to support the orphanage. Our solution was to be auctioned off together. Really, who could pass up the opportunity to discover your net worth? Plus, we were offering the added bonus of two girls for the price of one. Apparently, Sarah and I (together) are worth 27 RMB (about 4 dollars). Wow, that amount looks even sadder when I convert it. :) The foreign teacher, not surprisingly, with the highest net worth was Vance, bringing in over 40 RMB. We tease Vance about being the newest Mr. Halligan/heart throb on campus. Sure enough, there was a gaggle of giggling girls ready and eager to bid on him.

I also celebrated the holiday by giving a culture lecture tonight. My topic was pets in America, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to talk about my first love, pictured below.

Overcoming fear

2008-11-07T16:28:00.004+08:00

This is my fourth year living in China. Today was the first time I got my hair cut here. In a land where one of the most popular hair styles is what I affectionately term "the lion's mane", I didn't have much faith in Chinese salons. I had heard horror stories of many a foreigner who had a disastrous encounter with a hairdresser. I know that in China the person cutting your hair is the expert, and so, to a certain extent, has the freedom to do whatever he chooses. I also don't speak near enough Chinese to direct someone how I want my hair cut. All of these reasons combined together meant more than enough justification not to set foot in a salon. I got my hair cut once in the summer in the States, always giving the direction, "Please cut it into a style that will grow out well for a year." This past summer, though, I was itching for a new style, and I decided to go for it--even knowing that it wasn't the type of style I'd let grow out through the year. When I got back to China this fall, I told my Chinese tutors to take a good long look at my hair, so that they would be able to describe the style to a hairdresser. I strategically decided to take the great leap of faith today. There aren't many foreigners in my city and there is certainly no one to impress (sorry team, that's meant to be a reflection of my comfort around you). The next time I will see a large group of people who don't automatically gush "you're so beautiful" no matter what I look like (I love Chinese students!) will be at the end of January for my company's annual conference. I figured if I got my hair cut now, there would be enough time for a horrible cut to grow out before then. Anyway, armed with my faithful language tutors on "hair guard duty" and pictures of my previous hair cut, today I headed out to what is supposed to be one of the best salons in town. When we got there, they insisted that the owner of the salon cut my hair. They gave him a long set of instructions and went through all the pictures I had. The owner then proceeded to spend about 15 minutes examining every milimeter of my hair to learn about the previous cut. He then spent about an hour carefully cutting my hair. It turned out a little shorter and thinner than I wanted, but overall, it was actually a pretty good haircut--especially considering it cost me less than 4 USD. I guess there was nothing to fear!

In other news, late last night we had an 80's themed "Dance Dance Revolution" birthday party for Jennifer. Sonny recently purchased the game, and ever since my daily life has been to the rhythm of stomping feet (he lives right above me). Last night was my first time playing, but by some fluke I ended up almost making it to the final round. The birthday girl danced circles around me though. (Picture is pre-haircut.)

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T23:17:00.002+08:00

For Halloween this year, Sonny and Wu planned a surprise for the team. A couple weeks ago they instructed us to block off 3-8pm on October 31st. Things have been insanely busy lately, and I must admit I was not super excited about the loss of five hours. However, with Sonny behind it, I never should have doubted! With the help of a student, they arranged for us to go out to a farm to have a bonfire cookout. We loaded up a van with table, stools, and food and headed on out. The fire was blazing within minutes and we were roasting up cheese stuffed bratwurst (found in Changchun). The fire was so scorching, the Chinese "fire starters" had to assist us with doctoring our "roasting sticks" (actually screw drivers) so they would be long enough for us to cook our food without cooking our eyebrows. As if freshly roasted brats weren't a special enough treat, we also had marshmallows to roast and create s'more's with. After stuffing ourselves full with food, we sat and enjoyed the warmth and smell of the fire on a chilly October night. It was a wonderful evening, and just the break I needed from a hectic schedule! Thanks Sonny and Wu!

Vance attempts to roast his hot dog before we figure out the extension rods

Fall chill

2008-10-27T09:10:00.002+08:00

I guess we don't have to worry about the Buckeyes being humiliated in yet another National Championship game. Honestly, that's a relief. We can let JoePa be humiliated this time. It turns out Pryor does still have room to improve. He's going to be haunted by that last pass for awhile.

Weather. Americans love to talk about it. As I taught my freshmen last week, it's our most common small talk topic. They find it quite funny that we're so fascinated by the topic. Regardless, it's what we do. Without further ado, here's the weather update for us...COLD. Those three weeks of balmy fall weather disappeared overnight a few days ago. The water in the fountain is now frozen when I walk to class. My winter coat has been pulled out of the closet, and gloves have started to litter my apartment. It's all downhill from here... However, the chill does have its positive side effects as well. Hot cocoa, soups, candles, and soft blankets suddenly contain an extra comforting appeal.

Right foot green

2008-10-24T21:50:00.003+08:00

I was filled with dread as I listened to the hordes of feet tromping up the staircase. It was Wednesday evening and it had already been a long day. The day was only about to grow longer, with the arrival of 300 freshmen for a welcoming open house at all of the foreign teachers' homes.

I'm just going to be honest. I hate large group gatherings. I'm the type of person who hovers in a corner and hopes to find just one person to talk to the whole night. That tactic doesn't work so well when there are droves of students pouring through the door with the sole aim of seeing you (and investigating your home).

Rewind a few hours. Two senior students sat on my couch. We had just finished a movie and were chatting about life. The discussion started to go deeper. Curiousity overcoming her, the student questioned me about how I communicate with my Father. I delightedly watched as the first few glimmers of light and hope began to appear in her words. These are the moments that make all of it worth it. No pizza. Missing my nephew's dedication. No football games in the Shoe. Entertaining of large crowds of freshmen.

The fact is, the crowd control of Wednesday evening is necessary to get to that moment on the couch. It took many nights of large groups and apparent shallowness to bring us to that point. And so, with an upward plea for cheerfulness, I braced myself for the arrival of many eager faces. For two and a half hours I laughed, I smiled, I posed for pictures, and I contorted myself into all kinds of strange positions. Yes, the entertainment in my house was the great game of Twister. I yelled, "Left hand, red!", "Right foot...no...you jiao...yellow...huang se", and all variations of colors and appendages in English and Chinese for several hours. My voice was hoarse by the end, but the students left with grins and excitement on their faces. I can only hope and ask that some of those students will in the coming months and years be sitting on my couch with similar questions.

Fall

2008-10-21T08:30:00.003+08:00

I know I have been terribly absent lately, but there has been a lot going on. I did want to give you a glimpse, though, into the BEAUTIFUL fall we've been having. With temps in the upper sixties and little wind the leaves have been more spectacular than I've ever seen them here. Here's a little peak!
Today we have 17 people coming in to visit us and get a picture of our life over here. The next few days will be crazy, but fun as we show them around our little city!

Nowhere to hide

2008-10-06T21:13:00.002+08:00

Team plays a huge role in my life. My teammates are my friends, my co-workers, my family, my doctors when I'm sick, my fellowship group, my dinner companions, my next door neighbors...the list goes on. The experience of living on a team in China, in a city where there are very few other foreigners, is difficult to describe. However, one basic fact is that we become quite familiar with each other's idiosyncrasies and odd habits. There's no laughing or pointing fingers, because let's be honest, we're all a little strange. Yet there are moments when our "strangeness" becomes more glaringly obvious. For me, one of those moments was when the team found out I won a silver ribbon at the fair for the jumper I sewed for 4-H. Yes, I'm a nerd...and proud of it. For Sonny, one of those moments happened last week. Somehow, Wu discovered the story of the Black Shirt. Apparently, for the past three years there has been a Black Shirt living in Sonny's bathroom. If you're a fan of my photos, you may have noticed that Sonny ALWAYS wears solid brightly colored shirts. I have never, let me repeat, never seen him wear black. Consequently, when Sonny moved to China three years ago, he was dismayed to discover he had packed a black shirt. Concerned by the fact that his colored shirts might get upset with a dark neighbor, Sonny placed the shirt in the bathroom instead of the closet. Then one day, he just got angry at the black shirt. After ripping off both sleeves of the shirt, he went back with a pair of scissors to even out the cut (a fact that was not surprising to any of us...Sonny is very precise). After the outburst of anger, the shirt was neatly refolded and put back on the shelf in the bathroom. Each summer the shirt would be packed up and stored in the office, and each fall the shirt would be unpacked and put back in the bathroom. Wu somehow got it into his mind that an "intervention" (Sonny is opposed to this term) was needed. Really, Wu just wanted something to light on fire. So after recounting the tale to the team, he got us all behind his idea to burn the Black Shirt. Finally Sonny agreed, with lingering protests that there might be something in the future he would use it for. At 10:30 at night a few of us banged on the doorman's door to let us out of the building (they lock the door at 10 pm...don't ask what we would do if there was a fire). It took about 10 minutes and 5 knocks before he groggily came out in his long underwear. Finally outside, we stuffed the Black Shirt with paper and let free our pyromaniac spirits. The shirt was quickly, much to our satisfaction, engulfed in flames. The wonderful thing is that these quirks each of us have, including getting angry at black shirts, are accepted and make up part of why we love each other. It's a blessing to be in an environment where your strangeness doesn't need to hide.

Where have I been?

2008-10-01T21:10:00.002+08:00

Things have been slightly crazy lately! Following the big celebration was last minute preparation for our new teammates' arrival. I spent awhile running around town trying to find items to make their homes more homey. For example, it took four grocery stores to find jelly. For some reason items disappear in Siping for large chunks of time. We had been butter-less since the beginning of the year, but luckily that has recently reappeared at one grocery store. Our new teammates arrived early Thursday morning; Friday night we had them partying to celebrate Jude's birthday and by Saturday we had them competing in the school's sports meet. Daren gave the foreign teachers major face by winning the 200 meters. As he says, he better have won since he was racing against "all of the old guys". Apparently there was a younger and older division. As a reward for his quick legs, he got an electric massager that's shaped like a dolphin. After all of that running, that dolphin is his new best friend. Sonny got to try out his shot put skills and Wu attempted the long jump. I got to practice my action shots. :) Luckily, the women foreign teachers are not usually asked to compete. This week is the national holiday, so we have no classes. We've been filling the time with team building activities. I'm actually looking forward to the end of the holiday and to finally getting into a set routine. With festivities, holidays, and visits from VIPs, this past month has hardly felt like a "regular" schedule.

Jude's birthday party

Daren in actionSonny in actionWu in action

Quote of the day

2008-09-23T11:27:00.002+08:00

Sonny, as we tried to explain the appeal and wonderfulness of High School Musical to Daren.

"It's like Mean Girls for baptists."

Happy Birthday JLNU!

2008-09-21T20:51:00.003+08:00

This week the school celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. The remarkable thing is that my company has had teachers here for half of that history. In recognition of that fact, our company's president was in town to commemorate the occasion.

The campus hasn't looked quite this spectacular since I moved here two years ago. The buildings around the main square all got fluorescent light outlines, new statues were placed, and new fountains installed. Balloons were inflated and flags were placed just about anywhere one could think to put a flag. Huge banners hung down the ten stories of the first teaching building. The second teaching building, a somewhat drab building, got a small face lift by way of student made decorations on all of the classroom walls. One such decoration was written in English and had the title of "Friends" with the following phrases written below:

I won't let her without a fight.
It could happen to everyone.
I'm a laundry virgin.
Why don't we give this a try.
End.

I must confess that I spent a few moments of my students journal writing time chuckling at this somewhat random assortment of phrases, especially "I'm a laundry virgin". Don't ask me why that's there--three years in China and I haven't a clue.

Thursday night featured performances that students had been working on for months. Most of the performers were from the art and music department, which added a class and talent level beyond which I've witnessed before. The highlight (among many) for me was the dance labeled by Sonny as the "Tibetan Jack Sparrows". If you look below, you'll see the costumes do have quite the Jack Sparrow vibe. Regardless, the dance was phenomenal.

Friday morning was slightly less entertaining for us foreigners, as we got to practice our Chinese listening to the ten speeches of the official anniversary ceremony. However, it was fun to hear our president give his speech.

Lastly, the birthday of the school has provided me with my two minutes of fame. I was somehow chosen to be the token foreigner in the anniversary book, or as Sonny says, the "foreign eye candy". I guess it doesn't really count as my few minutes of fame, since my name isn't even listed. I am simply "A foreign teacher teaching".

Pure bliss

2008-09-12T19:07:00.004+08:00

I inherited it from my grandma (as did my dad): a love of good food and showing love through good food. There are few things I enjoy more, when time permits, than to spend an afternoon in the kitchen creating. This weekend is a holiday weekend in China; classes are canceled on Monday for mid-Autumn day festival. I don't have classes on Tuesday, or Friday, which means I actually have quite the nice break! Things haven't gotten too busy yet, and with students gone for the weekend I've been left with some free time (what a novelty!). One of the comfort foods I always miss in China is fresh, piping hot french bread. The type with crispy crust and a soft center. The Chinese do many things extraordinarily well (we all know this after seeing the opening ceremony). However, bread is not one of those things. It's often dry, too sweet, and just not up to my admittedly picky standards. This week I got the grand idea that I could make french bread for myself (yes, I know, you're saying, 'it took you three years to figure this out?'). So today, with my free time, I set my mind to do exactly that. I've made yeast breads before, but never a baguette, so it was new territory for me. But armed with a recipe from allrecipes (best recipe site on the internet in my opinion!) I felt fairly confident. To me, bread making is strangely therapeutic. The smell of yeast takes me back to grandma's kitchen, and the rhythm in kneading bread is a great stress reliever. While the bread was rising, I also threw together a peach pie for the team. I was blessed with a gorgeous sunset outside of my kitchen window as I worked. By the time I finished the kitchen was covered in a layer of flour, and the sink had a mound of dirty dishes. But that bite of hot, crispy yet chewy, fresh french bread...well, it (and the preparation) was simply pure bliss.

Framed

2008-09-11T13:42:00.003+08:00

Toward the end of last year, I picked up a paper cut while in Beijing of one of my favorite passages. Last week I headed out with one of my Chinese tutors to find a place to frame it. All I wanted was a simple black frame. Simple is not always something excelled in by the Chinese, especially when it comes to home decor. After visiting three shops, I found a frame sample that was fairly simple for a price I was willing to pay. The shopkeeper informed us it would be ready on Sunday. I dutifully returned on Sunday, to be told (not surprisingly) that it was not ready, but would surely be ready tomorrow. I waited to return until today (Thursday) to assure its completion. The shopkeeper saw me walk in and hurried to get the finished product. He proudly held it up for my inspection and proceeded to explain that he thought the frame I chose wasn't very beautiful and didn't really go well with the paper cut, so he chose another frame. Additionally, the plain off white backing I had for the cut out was deemed unattractive. Instead, he chose a backing that looks a little bit like cork board. "Now doesn't that look great?" he asked me, beaming with pride. I was a little lost at what was culturally appropriate to say at the moment, especially since he was the "expert" in framing pictures. I knew I didn't have the language skills to delicately and indirectly explain that while his work was indeed lovely, there was a reason I chose the frame I did. Instead, I smiled, said thank you and headed home. Just another day in China.

Happy Teacher's Day!

2008-09-10T15:02:00.003+08:00

Today is national teacher's day, which translates into obscenely large flower and fruit baskets for teachers. These tokens of gratitude are presented with well wishes like, "I hope you more and more beautiful for many years to come." My students were kind enough to give me one of each type of basket this morning. I was touched by their generosity...until it came to lugging both of them home in the pouring rain while also trying to juggle an umbrella. The umbrella never would have happened if some student hadn't taken pity on me and opened it for me on my way out of the building. I must have looked somewhat pathetic. I had the fruit basket somewhat slung (and cutting off the circulation) on one arm, with the other arm wrapped around the large flower basket. I gingerly found my way home, attempting to avoid the puddles. The last obstacle to tackle was fitting in and pushing the revolving door of my apartment building. By the time I made it inside, I had given the front desk ladies a good laugh. Suppressing chuckles, they also wished me a happy teacher's day. Later on in the morning, Wu brought me the below gift from the department. I must admit that after the photo I removed some of the "flare" from the basket.

They are precious in His sight

2008-09-07T16:44:00.004+08:00

No words today...just pictures.

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

Sore feet

2008-09-04T18:22:00.003+08:00

The first week back always gets you. It takes awhile to get all the little piggies used to standing and being in heels for hours on end. The first week is always the most brutal...and I'm feeling it tonight. However, other than sore feet, it's been a great week. It has been wonderful to be back in the classroom. Until this afternoon, all of the classes I had were new classes (students I've never taught before). There's something about the freshness of a new slate with a new class that I love. Not to mention the fact that they explode with praise of, "You're so beautiful!" My students I've had before are more likely to say, "You're fatter than before!" Why yes I am, and I enjoyed my ice cream in America very much. However, I also love the comfort and familiarity of a class I've taught before. The class I taught this afternoon was one I've had for three semesters and have a tremendous relationship with. They understand me well enough to get my sarcasm (a tough thing for Chinese students to catch onto), to know when I'm serious, and when I'm kidding. They laugh at my jokes and clap when they find out I'm their teacher. They know when I mention football to cheer, "Go Ohio State!" and obligingly ask how my team is doing. And they make me laugh. Today I gave them a "quiz" about me to see how much they remembered. Part of the quiz was listing my hobbies. The class quickly came up with photography and cooking, and then were working on guessing the other two. From one corner of the class came "sleeping!" Well, yes, I do like my sleep. "Eating!" That could be true too. One sweet girl called out, "smiling!" Lest I get too big a head from that comment, a student called out from the front row, "giving quizzes!" Ah yes, this class knows me well. Later on, I was telling the class that I had changed apartments. As an explanation, I added that I now had a bigger kitchen. The quip from the second row quickly followed--"so now you can bake us more cookies!" I'll get right on that...

Back in the saddle

2008-09-02T16:02:00.005+08:00

**For those who may want to send me something in the mail...my mailing address did NOT change with the move down the hall. The old one will still work just fine!**
A week ago about this time I was rolling up to our apartment building greasy, smelly, and exhausted from a seemingly never-ending day of travel. A week later I'm smelling better, have my new house all set up, have taught my first class, and am organized for the new year. The first couple days were spent transporting all of my stuff (and it's amazing how much stuff a person can accumulate in three years) down the hall from my old apartment to my new apartment. I moved for the single reason of having a larger kitchen. I know, it sounds silly. But I cook a lot. And moving my fridge every time I needed to get in the freezer was getting old. An added bonus to my new place is seeing trees outside my bedroom window. Those who have visited or lived in China will understand the wonderfulness of this statement. Vegetation in cities is extremely sparse. If there are trees, they're usually not much taller than me and quite scrawny. However, outside my bedroom window is a small grove of big tall trees with big leaves that dance in the wind. What a treat!

This year has a very different feel from all previous years. I'm accustomed to the year beginning with a large meeting in Beijing with all of the teachers in China. However, due to the Olympics this year we all went straight to our schools. Our new teachers also will not arrive until the end of the month. Consequently, the team is "small" for the time being. We're missing three teachers, so Rachel and Jennifer have magnanimously (with compensation) stepped up to teach full loads for the month. This semester I'm teaching two sophomore writing classes, two junior speech classes, and one freshman oral class. The freshmen are currently learning how to march and chant and do other soldierly things, so that class won't begin until October. I'm excited to have one day off of teaching (Tuesdays), which will hopefully help with getting graduate work done.

Right now is my absolute favorite time in Siping. The temperature is around 75, with sunny blue skies. The grass is green, and there are even some flowers here and there. From past experience, I know this is about as pretty as it will be all year long, so I'm trying to soak in the beauty. It feels wonderful to be back here again; I'm always reminded every time I go away and come back how much this place truly is home. However, home is never perfect. The most glaring imperfection this week has been the water being shut off for several hour periods several times a day. I've got to have something that reminds me I still live in China... Most of the time this isn't a big deal, but there are moments of annoyance. Like today, when I got into the shower after working out with sweat pouring off of me (yes I know, you're thinking, Katherine? working out? gotta shed those pounds from all that good American ice cream...) only to discover there was no water. Lest you think I lied when I said I'm smelling better today than a week ago, the water did come on a few hours later and I got my long anticipated shower. :)

One final note, lest you think my fervent love has somehow dissipated. This past weekend contained the sheer joy of watching Michigan choke once again in its opener and Ohio State steam roll its opponent. Here's hoping Beanie heals fast and will be ready for USC.

Heading home

2008-08-25T11:46:00.002+08:00

After two months of travel and living out of a suitcase, I'm ready to head back home! Following my stop on the ranch, I headed up to the twin cities to visit Lana. It was great to see a China friend state-side, and to see a little bit of her life here.

I flew from the twin cities out to LA to visit one of my best friends from college and her husband. This yearly trip always proves to be incredibly refreshing for me. This year I got to go to a local corn festival. Yes, I came all the way from the midwest to California...to eat corn. Only slightly more exciting was spending a day at Disneyland with Kasey. We were all business, and thanks to our expert (could you say genius?) planning, fast feet, and wise use of fast passes we managed to hit almost all of the big rides by 10:30 am. Not too shabby for a busy summer day! Our most oft visited ride was Buzz Lightyear, where Kasey put me to shame with her intergalactic shooting skills. She has had more training. One final plus of LA was getting my hair drastically cut...which felt great!

From LA I came back to my parents' for a quick stop, then headed over to Columbus to visit one of my college roommates and her husband. Columbus just so happens to be my home of sixteen years, and the location of my happiest place on earth. You guessed it, right? The Shoe. Field of the Ohio State University Buckeyes. My friends were nice enough to stop by the stadium to let me drink in the view. The season begins in less than a week! The trip to Columbus also featured the best cream puffs in the world at Schmidt's and the best ice cream in the world at Graeter's. An added bonus was the display of Brutuses arrayed in all kinds of costumes and occupations...only in Buckeye town. And if you don't know who Brutus is, look it up. As my friend, you really should know this.

I got to take in the opening ceremonies while in Columbus, and earlier tonight watched the flame extinguished over Beijing. I've probably watched way too many hours of Olympics these past two weeks, but I found myself more drawn to them than usual. As the games closed out tonight and the newscasters praised the Chinese for their hospitality, I couldn't help getting a little teary-eyed. China did such a splendid, beautiful job with these Olympics and I'm just so proud that I get to call this nation home for the time being. I can't wait to get on the plane tomorrow and head back!

On the road

2008-08-08T11:32:00.003+08:00

I'm working on setting a record for the number of different beds I can sleep in during one summer and the number of hours I can spend in airports. Lately it feels like I've been here there and everywhere. I'm about ready to get back to China to rest up. Ahhhh, and it was only a few weeks ago that I said the same thing about coming back to the States.

One of the most enjoyable stops this summer has been a quick two day trip up to Westbrook. This tiny town in the southwest of Minnesota is the site of some of my fondest childhood memories. For a "city girl" (or more accurately, a suburban girl), life on my great Aunt and Uncle's cattle ranch provided endless amusements. Consequently, the smell of cow manure, mixed with hay, that wonderful black Minnesotan dirt, and sweat is actually a pleasing aroma to me. I love the old barn where I got bottle feed a newborn calf and name numerous kittens. There's the office with coffee, orange drink, and sweet breads. There's the sweetest cowboy you'll ever meet, with boots, hat, and sparkling blue eyes. This year we stayed on my other Great Uncle's farm, just a couple miles from the ranch. There we were treated to fresh picked rasberries, homemade syrup (from trees they tapped in their backyard), and homemade gooseberry jam. I absolutley love the pace of this small town life, and the intense interest in people that is shared all around. It was immensely refreshing to go back and photograph some of the places of my childhood. As always, you can track the journey on my flickr site. Below are a few of my favorite shots from the trip.

My favorite cowboy, Uncle Maurice

Beef, it's what's for dinner.

Scene from the old general store

Complete

2008-07-26T23:40:00.004+08:00

Classes are over! And I'm written-out, so this is not going to be a profound entry. The past three weeks have been incredibly intense, busy, and exhausting and refreshing all at the same time. I feel so blessed to be doing this graduate program. I have found myself encouraged and challenged in my work these past couple weeks. It has helped me to have a renewed vision for what I'm doing. Not to mention, it's a great privilege to learn and grow and discuss with the thirty-five amazing people in our class. I've gotten to kneel with, eat with, and grow with some pretty incredible people here. This aspect makes me excited to come together with them again in January in Thailand (although the stack of books to be read before then adds a slightly overwhelming tinge to that feeling). The other blessing of these weeks has been spending time with "old" "non-Asia" friends in the Wheaton area. If you're one of the wonderful people who sat at dinners, played miniature golf, watched movies, and generally just loved on me...let me say a huge THANK YOU. I found myself so refreshed by the company of these friends. Leaving Wheaton tomorrow is somewhat bittersweet. I'm excited about the people I'll get to see in the next couple weeks, and eager to get back home to China. However, this place is so sweet to me that it's hard to say goodbye. At least I have a good excuse to spend at least a month here for the next two summers!

Returning to the ivory tower

2008-07-13T10:35:00.004+08:00

It's hard to believe I've already been in the States for three weeks--the time has been flying by! I greatly enjoyed my time with Ethan; it's hard to accept the fact that the next time I'll see him he'll be walking. I hate to be so far away during his first year. Watching Samantha grow up this past year, I know how quickly they change! Below is one of my favorite pictures of the little guy.

After being relieved of baby duty, I headed over to spend a couple days with a dear friend. It was an incredibly relaxing and rejuvenating time. I absolutely love the opportunity I have in the summers to interact face to face with those closest to me. I am continually amazed at how the Father continues to knit our hearts together despite such a great distance. Heather and I had our annual miniature golf tournament (the Mordt tournament). Due to an ill placed water hazard, I ended up losing by one stroke. Next year...

I have now finished my first week in the "ivory tower" of Wheaton. It has been incredibly refreshing to be back in the midst of my community here. I love how Abraham had certain places in the promised land where he would plant trees of remembrance in places he called upon the Father so that he could return to them again to call on the Father again. If I planted such trees, a big one would be here in Wheaton. This place is just one of those special places where He communicates clearly with me. Class this week was incredibly powerful--but also exhausting! Despite that fact, I found myself at the end of each day not wanting the class to end. We have the same professor (different class) this coming week, which makes me excited to see what's in store!

Back in Meiguo

2008-06-26T01:03:00.003+08:00

After the longest Saturday I've ever had, I finally got home at 1 am Sunday morning. I was luggage-less, but very happy to be outside of airports. Let me tell you, traveling through five airports in one day is not recommended! Nor do I recommend transferring from international to domestic at LAX. My 3+ hour layover was just long enough to get through the lines there. Because of a delay at LAX, I ended up getting in 40 minutes late in Chicago. Not a good situation when you only have a 45 minute layover. As the plane sat 50 feet from the gate for about 10 minutes I was close to wanting to scream. As soon as the plane pulled the rest of the way to the gate I sprinted for my next gate, and discovered I really need more cardiovascular exercise. Breathless and panting, I arrived at the gate, only to realize they had closed the door three minutes earlier. A few minutes later, another woman from my Chicago flight jogged up to the gate and I shared the bad news with her. The two of us headed off to the ticket counter, and were lucky enough to get some of the last seats on the last flight to Indy that night on United. She was sweet enough to let me use her cell phone to call my parents. I love the kindness of strangers here! And the fact that I can communicate with them! :)

Speaking of the kindness of strangers, I had the neatest encounter as I ran errands on Sunday. I was in a candle store (I found a cinnamon and spice candle that is going to make my apartment smell AWESOME in the fall) and I struck up a conversation with the cashier. After talking for a few minutes, she asked if it would be ok to lay hands on me and lift me up. This simple act was such an encouragement!

I'm now down in Florida and am getting in a full dose of my 3 month old nephew Ethan. Before Aunt Katherine came, he would nap only in people's arms. Not that I don't love a sleeping baby in my arms, but this high-maintenance behavior was going to be altered if at all possible (I had the full approval and encouragement of my sister in this endeavor). Sure enough, in this first full day with me I've gotten him to take a nap in his crib and his swing. I should be taking advantage of this time to work on my essays for grad class...but, updating the blog is more enjoyable. Pictures of the little guy to come soon!

Leaving on a jet plane

2008-06-20T16:41:00.002+08:00

America here I come! Tomorrow at 6 am I'll begin my 30-some hour journey back to the States. This year, I'm going by way of Changchun...and Korea...and LAX...and Chicago, before arriving in Indianapolis. :) Five airports in one very long day! It will be fun to travel with the Clements family part of the way (to LA), though.

These last couple weeks have been jam-packed with final get-togethers, parties, performances, grading, grad work, and saying goodbyes. It's all left me at the moment feeling quite tired and a little bit numb. This year has been defined by refining, overwhelming faithfulness and tenderness from the Father, and then more refining. There has been so much happening in my heart and my life that I'm looking forward to getting away from my normal environment for a bit to process all that's happened. This summer will be filled with lots of activity and catching up with all of you wonderful people...but I'm also looking forward to some quieter moments where I can just sit and be still.

Thanks for all of your encouragement! I'll be seeing all of you soon!

Happy everyday

2008-06-06T14:41:00.002+08:00

I recently finished reading the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It's a book that will probably leave me thinking for a long time, but there was a particular passage that jumped out at me in light of where I'm working. One of the common phrases in Chinese is "happy everyday" and it is quite common for students to say, "I wish you happy everyday". When my students write in their journals about their hopes for the future and their purpose in life, their answers often revolve around happiness. First and foremost, they want their family to have a very happy life, and secondarily they wish to have a happy life. In no way do I believe being happy is a bad thing; however, I would argue against having it as a sole aim and purpose of life. Huxley's words seemed particularly fitting for this Chinese mindset:

But once you began admitting explanations in terms of purpose--well, you didn't know what the result might be. It was the sort of idea that might easily decondition the more unsettled minds among the higher castes--make them lose their faith in happiness as the sovereign good and take to believing, instead, that the goal was somewhere beyond, somewhere outside the present human sphere; that the purpose of life was not the maintenance of well-being, but some intensification and refining of consciousness, some enlargement of knowledge.

Last weekend, the team took an end of the year retreat to Shenyang. Despite the fact that I began the trip with a 100 degree fever, it was an awesome time of relaxing and reflecting. I sometimes forget how vital it is to "get away" for a little bit, even if things are incredibly busy. The short trip gave me a final boost of energy for this last push of the semester. I'm in wrap-up mode--and will be getting on a plane in 15 days!

Kindess of a stranger

2008-05-26T09:45:00.002+08:00

Saturday I headed to the orphanage in the peculiar weather of a hail storm. I am not absolutely certain, but I believe this was my first hail storm in China. Hailing a taxi, I didn't care how much he was going to charge me; I just wanted out of the pelting rain and hail. I told the driver where I wanted to go, and he replied that it would be 10 RMB. That's fine, I replied. We then entered into a typical taxi discussion. Are you a student? No, I'm a teacher. Where are you from? America. Oh! You look like a Russian! I know, everyone says that. So you teach English? Yes. How long have you been here? 3 years. Do you like China? Yes, very much so. And so on. The discussion moved into the weather and how it was strange and terrible today. We turned down the road to the orphanage and he commented on how bad the road was. I apologized. Just as we were reaching the orphanage gate, he commented, "There aren't many taxis on this road." "Yeah, I know." "How will you get a taxi to go back?" "I just walk to the main road." "That's a long way!" "It doesn't matter." It was at this point that he surprised me with his kindness..."What time are you going to leave?" "4 o'clock." "OK, I'll come back to get you then." I was thrilled not to have to walk all the way down the muddy, wet street to the main road, and thanked him profusely. Sure enough, at 4 o'clock he pulled up to the gate to take me back. However, his kindness may have had a slight ulterior motive...on the way home he started commenting on my big beautiful eyes, gave me his cell phone number so I could call him for a ride at any time, and asked for my cell phone number. I only pretended to add his number into my phone and politely declined giving him mine. Regardless, his kindness was appreciated!

Here are a few pictures from the orphanage:

Coming to a city near you

2008-05-22T09:43:00.002+08:00

The collecting bags under my eyes and mounting stress indicate that the semester is almost done! In four weeks I'll be hopping--no, traveling; hopping seems to indicate a greater amount of ease and perhaps even enjoyment than that trip actually contains--across the ocean. Below is my my somewhat tentative itinerary for the summer. I hope to catch up with as many of you as possible! I look forward to many coffee, pizza, and ice cream dates! Mmmm...my stomach just growled...

Saturday, June 21: After an obscene amount of travel hours, I arrive in Indy late at night.
Monday, June 23: After visiting the dentist to get real glue put on my retainer (see earlier post) I'll be flying down to Tampa, Florida for one of the most exciting events of the summer--meeting my nephew Ethan! I'm lucky enough to get to watch him while my sister starts her residency.
Saturday, July 5: I arrive in Chicago late at night...which means I get to spend that Sunday morning (and the next several) with you Rez folk! However, my time in Wheaton will also be dominated by the three grad classes I'm taking. Many people I love + classes = no sleep for three weeks.
Sunday, July 27: drive up to Minnesota to my great aunt and uncles ranch/farm--it's off to one of my favorite and most peaceful locations in the States! (Very) Small town Minnesota!
Tuesday, July 29: Lana picks me up from the ranch--I'm off to the twin cities to spend time with her and hopefully a couple other friends.
Friday, August 1: Fly to LAX to see two of my favorite people in the entire world...and to go to Disneyland!!! My first trip to the LA version of the Magic Kingdom; it doesn't get much better than that. Buzz Light year here I come.
Tuesday, August 5: Red eye flight back to Indy
August 9&10 or 16&17: Columbus, Ohio?
August 23&24: one last trip to Wheaton/Rez?
August 25: begin the long journey home.
August 27, early afternoon: home sweet home

Home is probably going to look a little bit different when I return. Right now, the hutong area of my neighborhood is being torn down. You can check out some pictures at my flickr site; here are a few as well.

Pause

2008-05-19T21:37:00.002+08:00

Taxis often honk their horns as they drive through my neighborhood. A honk has various meanings. "Get out of my way!" "Do you need a ride?" "Be careful, I'm coming." I have long since become immune to the noise, and rarely even notice it in my apartment anymore.

2:28 pm today. The discordant note of all the taxis horns mixing together throughout the neighborhood was impossible to ignore. The sound was harsh, uncomfortable, and emitted a mood akin to loud wailing. This was our indicator to stop what we were doing, to stand and to remember what took place just one week ago.

I was in the middle of my language lesson, racking my brain trying to remember the characters I hadn't studied nearly enough. The book was put aside. My language tutors and I stood up and gazed out my window. They bowed their heads; grief etched on their faces. Echoing in the mournful wail of taxi horns I could almost hear the question of the week, why?

Three minutes passed. Lessons resumed. Taxis drove off. Life continued.

Life with a more somber color. Television entertainment canceled. Student entertainment activities canceled. Flags half mast. A cloud of grief, briefly punctuated by moments of joy as one more impossible survivor is removed from the rubble. Today, a 61 year old woman. Buried for a week. A flash of hope in a sea of despair.

But life continues. One student comments, this makes me feel weak and small. Another comments on how Chinese people depend on themselves, but now they are faced with the reality that they are not in control. I hear the faint whisper, now, yes, even now, I'm tilling the soil.

If anguish were visible, almost the whole of this benighted planet would be enveloped in a dense dark vapor, shrouded from the amazed vision of the heavens! And the products of it all will be mainly evil - historically considered. But the historic version is, of course, not the only one. All things and all deeds have a value in themselves, apart from their "causes" and "effects." No man can estimate what is really happening sub specie aeternitatis. All we do know, and that to a large extent by direct experience, is that evil labors with vast power and perpetual success - in vain: preparing always the soil for unexpected good to sprout in. ~J.R.R. Tolkien

Mourning with those who mourn

2008-05-14T21:47:00.002+08:00

I have nothing profound to say. Writing that I'm saddened or burdened by the numbers that steadily climb by the thousands each time I check the news seems too cliche, almost trivial. Yet as more and more stories of tragedy pour in, my heart is heavy. Most of my day is consumed by the mundane--the quiz that has to be graded, the lesson to be planned, the five parts of a plotline to be taught. But then the thought of those still buried plunges itself into my thoughts throughout the day. The word "chaos" is on the handout in class...Miss Katherine, what does the word mean? The first picture that comes to my mind are those shaking, crumbling walls and panicked faces. My mind flits to Burma, another nation ravished by disaster. So much chaos. In the midst of a shaking world, I'm so thankful I have a Rock to stand on...and yet, my heart cries out tonight for the many of this land who do not have firm ground to stand on. Tonight, I'm mourning with those who mourn in this land and pleading for stable foundations to be built in the midst of the rubble.

A little States-sick

2008-05-04T00:45:00.002+08:00

I almost titled this post "a little homesick". However, to be perfectly honest, I really consider China to be my home right now. After being here for almost three years it really does feel like home (despite the fact that I'm clueless when something like my retainer breaking happens). In the past week, though, I've been a little homesick for the States--which is somewhat unusual for me. Here are several reasons why:

My sister graduates from medical school today! I have now missed her and my brother-in-law's graduation from med school. One of the hardest parts of being over here is missing big events in the lives of people I love. I'm also itching to meet my nephew Ethan!
It's the beginning of May, which during my four years of college I associated with the end of the school year. Although our spring semester begins much later here, I still find it hard to believe at this time of the year that we have seven more weeks of classes.
I've begun looking for and purchasing plane tickets for this summer. As usual, I'm going to try to get around to see as many of you as possible. Look for a post of my itinerary soon!
This weekend I've been working on a culture lecture I'm giving this Thursday. My topic is Chicago, so it has been building anticipation for this summer! As I was adding pictures of Giordano's deep dish pizza, I really just wanted to hop on a plane! :)

As much as I may be longing for things in America right now, I can also truly say that I feel incredibly blessed to be here. And no, I'm not just saying that. I wouldn't trade this for ten--even a hundred!--deep dish pepperoni pizzas. :) I'm eager to share stories of the year with you this summer!

Interruptions

2008-05-01T10:18:00.002+08:00

This week I've been asking for a spirit of "interruptability" (I know it's not a word, but I would like to petition for its entrance into the dictionary). With 130 midterms to grade, lessons to plan, and grad work collecting dust, it is very easy for me to get caught up in my schedule of efficiency. Consequently, I tend to get very annoyed at interruptions. However, I realize that it is often in the interruptions that the Father is working, so I asked for a willing and welcoming attitude toward those interruptions. Our Father is one who responds to requests and he has given me a few such interruptions this week.

The first interruption occurred Monday morning as I was eating my morning snack of dried pineapple. All of a sudden, I bit down on something hard. I immediately spit it out and discovered that it was my glue from one side of my permanent retainer. I let out a groan and an "oh shoot...", as I realized I had no clue how to solve this simple-to-fix-in-America problem. I get reminders every now and then that I really don't have this "living in China" thing down pat. Luckily, one of my language tutors is a Siping native, so she knew where to take me. In fact, it's quite obvious. I needed to go to the mouth hospital. Yes, there's one hospital to take care of all mouth problems. My tutors went with me and after visiting a few offices, I was sat down in a chair and presented with a variety of glues. Never before have I gotten to choose the glue for my retainer. I was presented with a 76, 84, and 104 RMB glue. I asked for the difference and the dentist told me the first two were from China and the latter was from abroad. That settled it...104 RMB it would be. The dentist went ahead and made the fix and all seemed to be well. Until two days later. When all the glue had broken off again. So this morning I made another trip to the mouth hospital with my very kind tutor (willing to go on her vacation day!). They reglued it for free; I only had to pay 2 RMB for the electricity used for the equipment. However, I was also informed that the glue they were using isn't really for this purpose. Hmmm... Regardless, I can go back anytime in the next three months and have it fixed, so I'm looking to get my full 104 RMB worth of work done! I'm not sure exactly what I learned from this interruption other than the Chinese word for "spit".

The other interruption came yesterday afternoon as the sky darkened and thunder started to rumble in the distance. Thunderstorms are rather rare here and I really felt led to put away the mile long to do list and just be still. I lit some candles, made a cup of hot chocolate and sat down to watch the storm outside my window. I had an awesome time of just being with my Father. This was a very sweet interruption, and a good reminder to me that sometimes it's more important to just sit and watch the rain come down than pursue worldly efficiency.

Holy cow!

2008-04-25T22:01:00.003+08:00

One of the first lessons you learn in China is never to say you like something. An offhand, "oooh, I like that" about any object from food to trinket equates in many peoples' minds to "oooh, give that to me". However, this lesson was difficult to learn as an American, for I tend to like to fill lulls in conversation by discussing likes and dislikes. My mistakes in this area, though, have become fewer and farther between as I (somewhat) get the hang of indirect communication. Apparently, though, Sonny and I have not quite mastered this skill yet. Last night we went out with a student to a hot pot dinner. Hot pot is a meal which is explained by its name. You are literally given a hot pot--a pot full of boiling water--that is kept on a flame or hot plate in front of you. You then order an assortment of meats, vegetables, and other unidentifiable substances to cook in your pot, dip in a peanut sauce (my favorite part) and then eat. Basically, you pay to cook your own food. As we were going through the ordering process, the student was quizzing Sonny and I on what we wanted to eat. When discussing meats, to the lamb or beef question I responded, both are great. Sonny said he liked beef. Fish balls? No, thank you. Sonny, do you need another meat? And here is where our error must have come...Sonny responded, "No, I just like beef." Apparently, this statement translated to, "I eat A LOT of beef," for we ended up with not one, but two, large tubs of beef on the table (in addition to a plate of mutton, veggies, and noodles). I swear that between the three of us we must have eaten an entire cow. The amount of beef I consumed in that sitting was enough to almost turn me into a vegetarian. Ok, not really...I still love meat...but, holy cow!

Sigh

2008-04-23T19:30:00.000+08:00

April snow showers kill April flowers...

Sunny days

2008-04-19T13:50:00.002+08:00

With the arrival of warm weather, many segments of the population have emerged from their winter hibernation. Children are allowed outside with exposed skin, the elderly sit and chat in parks, and everyone moves at a slightly less rushed pace. In the classroom, there is a slightly increased eagerness (for both the students and the teacher) for the class to finish so they can just get outside. Yesterday when the team went to meet the Edgars at the train station, I noticed another group of people enjoying the change in the weather. Along the main drag of the main street downtown there were about a dozen fortune tellers. Each fortune teller had two wooden sticks to bang together (to draw attention?) and sets of cards and charts spread out on a piece of paper in front of them. I've noticed fortune tellers before, but never so many in one place.

Springtime procrastination

2008-04-18T19:51:00.003+08:00

When I pulled up my blog today, the dark colors just didn't seem to convey the arrival of spring. I decided the blog looked way to dark and depressing and hence needed a make-over. Consequently, instead of writing my midterms I've wasted away the time today figuring out how to edit my blog. I'm not entirely satisfied with the final product yet, but it's a start!

Jennifer, Rachel, and I have been doing Pilates three times a week this semester. We have a DVD that we use, and it's slowly becoming less painful. I thoroughly enjoy the "girl time" it provides. Today, for the first time, Samantha (my almost 1 year old teammate) joined us for Pilates. She thought the three of us contorted into various positions was absolutely hilarious and would burst into giggles every few moments--as well as trying to climb on us. We basically laughed our way through the whole workout today.

Sensory women

2008-04-16T21:48:00.001+08:00

Right now in my sophomore writing classes we're doing a unit on story-telling. This weekend the sophomores have one of their most important exams of their college careers, so a "light" unit on something that they naturally excel at (creativity) seemed to be the perfect fit. Today the lesson was focused on adjectives. More specifically, the aim of the lesson was to take the students beyond the five or so adjectives they use WAY too often (i.e. colorful, lovely, interesting, beautiful, and wonderful). At the beginning of the lesson we were talking about what makes excellent writers excellent. Their notes had blanks on it to fill in with the following sentence: "What separates excellent writers from average writers is their ability to use vivid sensory ___________." I asked my students which word they thought should go in the blank. Immediately, a student called out "women!". I guess if I want to improve my writing, I need to start including some sensory women...whatever that might mean!

Sorry boys, I'm taken

2008-04-12T21:45:00.005+08:00

Reportedly, Will (my two year old teammate) announced to a group of students last night that Jude (my six year old teammate) is going to marry Samantha (my almost one year old teammate) and that he (Will) is going to marry Kat (me). Wow, I think that's the most parenthetical references I've used in a sentence in a long time. Hope you followed that. So boys, sorry, but it looks like little Will has staked his claim. :) I'm quite flattered and think he will make an excellent husband--he loves to come to my house and help wash dishes (aka play with bubbles) and help cook. Today he helped me make pumpkin muffins for the team (and only had to ask me about twenty times during the process what we were doing). I had gone over to his house to borrow some pans and he invited himself over to my house--as in he stated very simply, "I'm going to Kat's house." I love having kids around!

The other kid who made my day today was Ai Jia. This little girl is finally back from her cleft palette surgery and she's looking great! She is just one of those babies who has completely stolen my heart. She's such a sweetie, babbles quite a bit, and has the most gorgeous eyes.
In other news, my animosity for Dongbei springs is lessoning as the cherry blossoms have come out in full force. Maybe I do love spring after all! Monday is supposed to be beautiful weather, and since I don't teach or have my Chinese lesson (Juniors are student teaching), I'm going to try and go out to a local park for a day of reflection. Fingers crossed that the forecast is right and sunshine is headed our way!

Olympic spirit

2008-04-10T13:47:00.002+08:00

After a couple deceivingly balmy days, the weather has turned again. Hopefully this chilly blast will be short-lived. However, the warmth lasted long enough to bring out buds. The short season of cherry blossoms is one of my favorite times in China...hopefully this cold snap doesn't make this season even shorter! Yesterday, the Clements and Mark took part in an Olympic torch race. I tagged along as photographer. A student had planned the project as a creative homework assignment for Mark's class. A group of about a dozen students, Mark & the Clements, and the chair of our department, Queen, participated. There was little fanfare and few adoring fans, but we all enjoyed the taste of the Olympic spirit. Jude got the privilege of keeping the Olympic torch.

This morning I had the fun experience of going to the hospital (a place I usually try to avoid at all costs) to have a TB test done (required by Wheaton for participation in the program this summer). A senior student offered to take me--and it's a good thing she was there! There is absolutely no way I could find my way through the red tape of the hospital. After a series of conversations at a series of desks and in a series of offices, I successfully received my injection. We'll go back on Saturday to see if I'm TB free.

With my junior students out on their student teaching assignment, my teaching schedule is reduced to two days a week. It's been nice to have a little bit of a break and to get back into the grad work. It's hard to believe it's already April 10th! Before I know it, it will be time to take that long journey back to the States again.

Black hole located

2008-04-06T19:35:00.002+08:00

Soooo...not thirty minutes after I wrote the last post, I located the black hole. It is true that I don't have closets. However, I do have kitchen cabinets. Silly me, I never thought a broom would fit in a kitchen cabinet. After I posted about the mystery, I was in search of some other activity that would legitimately justify procrastinating the grad work I had already been procrastinating a week. I decided a spring cleaning inside and out of my windows was just the ticket. In order to undergo this mission, I had to dig to the back of one of my kitchen cabinets for my windex. To my surprise, tucked at the very back of the cabinet behind the pipes for the sink were two brooms and two dust pans. I'm sure my cleaning lady was quite surprised at the arrival of another broom and dust pan this past Friday... At least now I know its hiding place! I used my new found broom (wrapped in paper towels duck taped to the broom and drenched in windex) to try to reach the far end of the outside of my bedroom window (I live on the third floor and was precariously perched on a 5 inch wide ledge...shhhh, don't tell my mom!). However, when I tried to replace the broom in its new resting place, for the life of my I couldn't get it to neatly fit back into the cabinet. This fact only further confirms the notion I've had for awhile; my cleaning lady is a wonderwoman!

After wiping off layers of coal dust from the inside of my windows and dirt from the outside, the windows sparkle. The amount of entirely black paper towels (about 2 full rolls) is a little disturbing if I reflect that I've been breathing all of those lovely particles...but, we won't reflect on that long. Today I finally returned to the grad work...if I could only keep that momentum going!

Broom black hole

2008-04-05T09:51:00.002+08:00

My apartment has developed a black hole for brooms and mops. A couple weeks ago I was looking for my broom. Towards the end of last semester, I started having the lady who cleans Sarah's, the Wu's, and the Clement's homes clean my house once a week. Hence, I had found no need to use my broom in quite some time. However, I was shocked that the broom was gone when I went to fetch the broom from its normal resting place behind my fridge. I noticed my mop and dust pan were missing as well. Sometimes my cleaning lady moves things to places she deems more proper, so I began searching my house. My house really is not that large, and since there are no closets there aren't too many places to hide a broom. Within a few moments I had ascertained that indeed, my cleaning instruments were missing. Not that I was looking for the broom to clean with--I wanted to unscrew the pole part of it and use it as a cane in a role play for class. I borrowed Michelle's broom pole for this purpose, and though perplexed, let the missing broom slip to the back of my mind.

This Thursday night, right before students came over, I dropped and broke a glass full of water in my kitchen. With their impending arrival, I shut the kitchen door and forgot about it for the next couple of hours. However, after the students left I set about cleaning up the mess. The disappearing broom came back to haunt me. I went to the Wus to borrow their broom and explained my conjecture that the cleaning lady had done something (not maliciously--she's a very sweet sister and I absolutely adore her) with my broom. They laughed at this proposition and willingly lent me their broom. I cleaned up the mess, and since it was late at night, set their broom behind my fridge to return to them the next day. Friday morning my cleaning lady came and made my apartment spotless. This morning (Saturday), Wu came to fetch their broom. Sure enough, their broom and dust pan has disappeared. We're guessing our dear cleaning lady has put the brooms somewhere (she rides her bike here and we highly doubt she takes them with her), but are utterly confused as to where the broom black hole is located.

Changeable weather

2008-04-03T10:26:00.002+08:00

Spring in Siping...beware of flying bags

My first year in China, I used to snicker a little bit when students would tell me, "Be careful, Miss Katherine; the weather is very changeable." The phrase "the weather is very changeable" just sounded a little bit silly to me, as did directly pointing out the weather's changeability. However, I now confess the validity in this statement. In fact, I caught myself yesterday remarking, "The weather is very changeable in the spring." Perhaps I have lived in China too long. However, I've learned that the northeast truly does have very changeable springs. One day you're deceived by balmy warm weather and the next day you have snow dumped on you. A couple days later the temperature will rise, but you'll be confronted with winds you would swear had the strength of a hurricane. These factors have led me to detest spring in the northeast--at least early spring. Spring does not evoke pictures of pretty flowers, little bunnies, and sunny days following a warm rain. Rather, spring conjures up images of dust storms, winds too strong to bike in, and unexpected snow showers. Consequently, I have concluded that fall truly is my favorite season in this part of China. A funny story from today. Each week I usually invite one of my classes over to watch a movie. Attendance isn't required, but I usually have about a dozen students show up. I always bake a snack, often chocolate chip cookies. Let me preface the story by saying most students love the cookies, and in fact request to learn how to make them. However, this morning I was messaging on my cell phone with one of the students coming over tonight. We were agreeing on a time and she was telling me how many people were planning on coming. This part of the conversation was entirely ordinary. But then I got a message saying, "Miss Katherine, could you please put less sugar in the dessert, we think it's too sweet." I quickly got over the shock that they would actually make that request (it's not all that surprising here) and refrained myself from the quip, "then why don't you pick something up from a Chinese bakery". I do understand that American desserts are much sweeter than things in China, hence why I like them. :) But tonight I will refrain from making cookies (which you really can't just make with less sugar) and instead make banana muffins. Sigh...crazy Chinese people...no wonder they're so slender!

What a difference a few months makes

2008-03-30T21:15:00.002+08:00

Several months ago, in late autumn, Siping got hit by a big snowstorm. My students could hardly contain their excitement at the snow's arrival. There was giddy laughter and snowballs were sneaked into the classroom. When I asked if the students liked the snow there were gleeful cries of, "Yes, it's so beautiful!" Just this past week, yes, in the last full week of March, Siping was hit with a similar snowstorm. However, this storm didn't receive quite the welcome of its late fall brother. As I discussed the weather with my students, not a single one praised its beauty. Instead there were groans and sighs and questions of, "Will spring ever arrive?" I think everyone is ready to appreciate the beauty of fresh blossoms--not the purity of a fresh covering of the white stuff. Hopefully this will be the final blast of winter for the year, but then again, this is the Dongbei. Several months ago, Dou dou and Tong tong, two children at the orphanage, were completely unaware that two special families were in the final waiting stages of bringing these special children into their families. They had no idea how much time, money, and energy these parents were expending to bring them home. However, this week both children got to experience the embrace of mother and father for the first time. The privilege of having a front row seat to watch the beauty of adoption is one of the greatest unexpected bonuses of my work here. This week, Jennifer and I got to travel to Changchun to meet up with these families. Reflecting on this process always reminds me of our Father's great love as He eagerly pursues and waits to be united with His children.

My heart is in Florida

2008-03-23T19:04:00.003+08:00

I'm finishing up a very busy weekend and beginning a very busy week, but I just had to put up a quick post to say that I've got the most adorable nephew ever! :) I know I'm slightly prejudiced, but this sweet little guy makes me want to fly back to the States TODAY!
We had a great celebration this weekend with visiting teachers from Changchun. It was good to spend time reflecting and rejoicing over the great gift of this weekend, as well as share in laughs and good food. We simplified our feast for 20+ people by getting fried chicken from KFC. I know, not my first choice, but it sure made life a whole lot easier! I should have some pictures up sometime in the next few days. Hope you all had a wonderful celebration!

Welcome to the world!

2008-03-19T14:23:00.005+08:00

Ethan Michael Rommel made his entrance into the world Monday evening at 8:30 pm (States time--he's a St. Patty's baby!). He was 8 lbs 12 oz and 19.5 inches long. Both baby and mom are doing well! I'm usually extremely strict about cell phones in my classroom, and will confiscate phones if they go off in class. However, Tuesday morning, I asked my students forgiveness and announced that I was leaving my cell phone on in anticipation of my nephew's arrival call. That announcement resulted in cheers from my students. Sure enough, during my second class of the morning, my parents called to make the announcement. I was in the middle of a listening activity with my students and was completely flustered--both during the call and for a bit afterwards. I'm super excited about beginning the "aunt-phase" of life...and quite sad I don't get to meet my nephew for another three months. However, it's been cool this week to see reminders of why I am far across the sea from family and friends...and why that decision is well worth the sadness it sometimes causes.

On a far less significant note, Tuesday morning we had one of the strangest weather phenomenons I've seen in China--not only did we have an intense sand storm (not at all uncommon during spring), but it was combined at the same time with snow showers. It was quite literally snowing dirt. Ewwwww... When I got back to my apartment and took off my coat, there was a distinct line on my pants between the part that was covered by my coat and the part that was exposed to the elements. Once again, ewwwwww.

This weekend we have some teachers coming in from Changchun to celebrate--we'll probably have about 25 people for Sunday dinner. However, to avoid some of the insanity of cooking with 6 toaster ovens for two dozen people, we're going to pick up fried chicken from KFC. We'll still do all the sides, desserts, etc...but that will relieve a lot of pressure! Shhhh...don't tell, no one will ever know!

The "big events" will continue Monday as Tim Davis, our company's president, comes to visit. At our annual conference the team pressured him into a quick visit and we're thoroughly looking forward to having the big guy around for two days. As you can tell...life is busy! So back to work I go...thanks for all of the thoughts for my sister & family. Continue to lift them up through this transition time!

End of week one

2008-03-09T19:51:00.003+08:00

It's hard to believe I've only been back "at work" for a week! There has been quite a bit of activity since I received my class schedule late last Saturday night. This term is looking like it will be a busy one, but I'm also really excited about the schedule I have. This semester I'll be teaching two sections of junior advanced listening, two sections of sophomore writing, and one section of sophomore oral. I've previously taught the students in three of those classes before, which helps with the name learning process! Wednesday morning is shaping up to be one of my favorite mornings; as I get to teach both halves of sophomore class 5. This is my third semester teaching this class and they're just a delight!

It's been really good to get back into a schedule and to catch up with friends. Meals have been packed with the latter of those activities. It's been fun to reconnect with old and current students. It was fun to go back to the orphanage to see how big all the babies had gotten in the past month and a half! The young ones forgot us foreigners, which led to a tearful first reunion, but they're getting used to us again. We continue to be blessed with our relationship there. This week, one of the baby girls will be heading in for her cleft palette surgery. Keep her in your thoughts!

There is much to be thankful for in the past week...but the overall summary is I've been reminded of how much I really do love my work!