Many hats

Blogspot has been working the past couple days in China. Ever since it came back online, I've been thinking, "I need to post..." However, I keep putting it off. Yet I know the longer I wait, the more I push my luck. So here goes an entry composed by a very tired mind...

Do you ever feel like you're trying to wear too many hats? Lately I've been feeling that a lot. I sometimes find it hard to juggle the many hats of teammate, teacher, Chinese student, friend, mentor, coworker, guest lecturer, seed sower, sister, daughter, and long-distance friend. Soon, I'll likely be adding the additional hat of graduate student. I feel as if I'm excelling in one of these roles, it means I'm sacrificing another role. The most important hat I wear is daughter and student of the Father. Lately, I've been asking the Father for wisdom on where to spend my time and energy. As the pace of things pick up here I know this is an area I need a lot of discernment in.

This past week was a frenzy of activity in addition to the normal schedule that included our PA visit (observations & evaluations), a lecture on the Oregon trail, movie night with students, additional lesson planning, a visit to the local primary school, and a trip to Changchun.

Friday morning several other teachers and I were guests at a local primary school's Foreign Language Week. I was expecting that we would have to give some sort of a performance and likely have to sing songs. However, I was not prepared to be split off from the rest of the foreign teachers and sent to entertain a Grade 1 classroom full of seven year olds who barely spoke English. I spent an hour of thinking on my feet to meet the requests of the teachers. I told a story, sang a song (This little light of mine--slightly adapted, it was the only one I could think of), taught them the ABC song, and taught the game "Duck, duck, goose". The kids were adorable and it was fun to go out on the playground and play the game with them.

This weekend I headed over to Changchun to hang out with the Norries. It was wonderful to spend some time with them. I have such a deep love for that family and those kids, and always feel like a part of the family when I visit. It was fun to read stories and cuddle with Sarah and Josiah.

Finally...GO BUCKS! I just had to mention the #1 team in the nation...

Oh how the mighty have fallen...and cold feet

Just a quick note here to express my glee over this weekend's football games. See ya later USC--how does it feel to be under that Sports Illustrated curse now? The Buckeyes surprisingly continue to dominate...and seem to be creeping up on a possibility of a National Championship game. Hmmm, is it just me or does this sound a lot like a certain season a couple years ago? All I know is we seem to perform better with low expectations. Would have liked to have seen LSU tumble from number one, but watching Florida lose is a nice consolation. Indeed, it's good to be an Ohio State fan these days.

On another note, fall has definitely arrived in the Dongbei--and as usual, well before the heat is scheduled to come on. It's now the season of layers of blankets and hot chocolate.

Whirlwind tour of Nanjing

The first week in October marks the National holiday for China. This holiday is one of the three holidays that almost the entire population has off of work (also Spring Festival and May Holiday). Consequently, it is one of the busiest times to travel. Guanxi strings are pulled all over to purchase train tickets to travel and visit family.

This year, Sarah and I decided to brave and join the traveling crowds for a trip down to Nanjing. We decided to save a few bucks by taking a train all the way down to the southern capital--a twenty-four hour train ride. Prior to this trip, my longest ride had been 10 hours, but I felt a 24 hour ride would be a unique and important cultural experience. The ride actually wasn't bad at all. Reading, eating, and playing cards made the awake time pass quickly and there was plenty of time for sleeping.

We rolled into Nanjing Monday afternoon and were quickly impressed by the convenience and modernity of Nanjing. Sarah and I decided Nanjing is like Shanghai, only still "Chinese". The city is very developed and overrun by western chains (Starbucks, Papa Johns, Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonalds...to name a few). People seem to be wealthier and much more fashion conscious. We definitely felt a little bit like country bumpkins come to visit a big city.

Monday afternoon and Thursday morning were spent at a leisurely pace and we enjoyed some long hours in coffee shops. Tuesday and Wednesday were our high-paced touring days of the city. For the short amount of time we were in the city, we saw a lot. Tuesday we climbed to the top of Purple Mountain (I've never been so drenched in sweat in my life), visited Sun Yat Sen's (the Father of Modern China) mausoleum, toured Linggu temple, and visited the site of the Ming tombs. After very refreshing showers, we joined the girls from team Nanjing for a Pride and Prejudice marathon viewing.

Wednesday we began the day visiting the museum in John Rabe's house. John Rabe was the Chairman of the Safety Committee during the Japanese massacre in Nanjing (in the States known better as Nanking). This Safety Committee was a group of twenty foreigners who remained in the city and created a safe zone for refugees to find protection from the rampages of the Japanese. Thousands were rescued from the violence--and 600 alone just at Rabe's house. It was fascinating to see this museum and the legacy of love this group of people left. After the museum we grabbed lunch at a cafe (real sandwiches with amazing bread!) and then set off on a journey to locate the ancient Ming city wall. With a map in hand and a few wrong turns, we eventually did find the wall and had fun exploring the area around it.

Thursday afternoon we boarded the train again for the 24 hour journey back home. I always love coming back home in China. There's a certain amount of relief as I enter my "safe space" again. Since I was already gross from the train ride, I headed out on a bike ride shortly after returning home. On the way back in from the ride I stopped by my fruit seller. She knew I had been traveling and asked when I had returned. My reply that I had gotten back that afternoon earned me a reproach for going for a bike ride. She thought I was surely too tired from the journey to do a silly thing like that. Her sense of concern for my health was a nice reminder that indeed, I was home.

If you want to see pictures of the trip you can check out my photo site and Sarah's photo site.

Farewell to flip-flops

Unfortunately, I think we've reached that time of year in the Northeast where the flip-flops get packed away, not to be seen again until they make the exodus to Thailand. They are usually (somewhat) acceptable footwear until after October holiday, but with the cool change in temperatures the past couple days I guess toes are now supposed to be hidden. When I went to the market today, several people chastised me and asked if my feet were cold. Sigh...farewell flip flops.

It's been a crazy busy week; consequently, I didn't make it to the market to shop for Jude's birthday until this morning. Murphy's law would have it that when you're in a rush, things will not happen as planned. On the way back from the market, as I was pressed for time, I got stuck in a traffic jam. However, I had a creative taxi driver. He decided to pull up over the curb and drive on the sidewalk. A brilliant idea...we cruised around the corner and seemed to be headed right past the traffic jam. That is, until the cause of the traffic jam came back to spite us. Turns out a large ditch had been dug on the side of the road...the side that we would have to descend onto to get off the sidewalk. Not confident in the taxi's off-roading capabilities, the driver started to back up (after motioning the car behind who had followed his ingenous idea to also back up). We backed all the way up, headed to where we first entered the sidewalk. However, in backing up around the corner the driver did not see an older woman. Yup. Thunk. Down went the woman. And thus ended my taxi ride. The driver went back to check on her (no serious injury, but she was rubbing her knee and slow to get up). I paid the driver and hurried at a brisk walk back to the apartment...arriving slightly late for Jude's 6th birthday party (pictures on my flickr site). Happy Birthday Jude!

I can be your hero...baby

Today was one of those culturally amusing days. The entertainment began with our practice for the opening ceremonies of the sports meet. Most of the team is marching in with the other foreign language department teachers (mostly Chinese teachers). For the past couple weeks I've been suppressing grins and chuckles as I walk past the freshmen enduring military training. This afternoon the joke was on me. All of the teachers were lined up in ranks according to height. I was in the back row in between Sarah and a Chinese teacher. We proceeded to the basketball courts to practice our marching. Due to the fact that all instructions were in Chinese, I was feeling in a little over my head--especially since the person giving commands was far away and I couldn't hear him very well. I was able to get the marching down pretty quick...but once they threw turns into the mix confusion took over. The commands for left turn, right turn, turn all the way around have similar sounds. Left is zuo (think zo), right is you (think yo) and turn around is ho. From a distance it was easy (at least for me) to get these mixed up. Thank goodness I don't understand criticisms yet! Anyways, we had a fun forty-five minutes learning to march. Tomorrow is our dress rehearsal--we pick up our matching track suits (our whole reason for participating...pictures to come), change, and then practice. It should be pretty awesome.

Tonight, Wu, Mark and I were the honorable judges of a speech contest. As to be expected, this contest was a showcase of speeches found who knows where (most likely the internet) performed by very nervous students. Topics included, but were not limited to, "I love English", "My Olympics dream", "Game on, game off", "Help others, help yourself", and my favorite topic, "The English over animals". My favorite performance of the evening (not in the high-scoring sense, but for pure entertainment value), was a male student who recited the lyrics to Marc Anthony's song "Hero". Just picture in your mind a Chinese male student reciting in a monotone, "I can be your hero"...long pause..."baby" (accompanied by a hand pump). And yes, the hand pump was used whenever he said baby. Recalling that image is sure to bring a smile to my face for quite some time.

Butt load, Singing Soldiers, Yucky black shirts and other random updates

I apologize profusely for the fact that I've been quite lax at updating the blog this fall. Part of the reason is that blogger is blocked in China, so I have to update through a "back door" that makes the process a little more irksome. However, I do want to keep you all updated on all the amusing little details of my life. Consequently, what follows is a rather random list of unrelated events in no certain order. They're simply bits and pieces of my life I thought might bring a smile to your face.

• I currently track the events of my day by singing soldiers. There are a bunch of soldiers staying in my building. These soldiers are on campus to run the freshmen military training. Every time they either leave the building or come back to the building they sing very loud songs right outside my window. Don't get me wrong, girls love to be serenaded. However, the repetitive nature of these songs (or perhaps it's the fact that they start at 6 am) makes them a little less appealing. However, I can schedule my activities around their singing. The first time of the day is time to get up. The second time they sing (around 7:15) is when I should move into the final stage of getting things ready for class. The next time they sing is time for me to start preparing for lunch. In the evening, they usually give me a nice dinnertime accompaniment...I think you're getting the point.
• On Tuesday afternoon, Sonny and I are on library duty. This simply means that we must be in the foreign teacher's library to answer student questions and make books in the library available to students. It has been quite slow this year, due to the fact that not many students have been showing up. However, Sonny and I have no problems entertaining ourselves. Today, in between studying Chinese, we analyzed the origin of the phrase "butt load". Try to think of a logical explanation of that phrase (as in, "I have a butt load of work to do"), and you'll quickly see why Sonny and I were cracking up. Eventually we called Sarah and had her look the phrase up. If you want to know yourself, you'll have to do the work. (Hint: check out the Urban Dictionary).
• This past Friday I went to visit the Norries in Changchun. It was wonderful to get to spend some time with them! Friday night Josiah had a performance at his school. He had informed his parents that it was important to dress up for the occasion. I didn't know ahead of time, so I asked Josiah if what I was wearing was ok. He replied very matter-of-factly, "Well, I wasn't really wanting yucky black shirts tonight, I was thinking of something with flowers." I definitely couldn't argue with him...and promptly borrowed a floral blouse from Jeweliann.
• Two of my students (Sonny's former students) have been talking to Sonny for awhile about changing their names. Their current names are Grammy and Angel, so they've been thinking of adopting more "common" names. Last week they came to Sonny with the suggestion to change their names to Latte and Cappuccino. Sonny informed them that perhaps that wasn't the best choice.
• Today is Mid-Autumn Day festival in China. The holiday celebrates reunions with loved ones. This holiday is marked by the arrival of the mooncake, a special "treat" only eaten this time of year. I think they're gross...as do most foreigners. On our team, only Sarah really appreciates them--which means she has large stacks in her house as we pawn off all of ours onto her.

I hope that provided a little entertainment for your day! Upcoming for me: Sports meet this Friday and Saturday (rumors that we might get track suits for that--we can only hope), Freshmen Welcoming Party performance (aka biannual humiliation) Saturday night, and then Sunday I'm off to Nanjing for the October holiday.

Give me an O-H-I-O

Lest you believe that the sheer silence about college football on my blog indicates a flagging devotion for my Buckeyes, I thought I better put up a quick post. I have been listening to at least the first halves of the games. However, it is quite difficult to laud praises on the ineptitude of the offense. Thankfully those bumblings have been overshadowed by the glorious downfall of that team up North, who have provided for me a good five minutes of gleeful giggles the past two Sunday mornings. Although I must admit, as a Buckeye fan I'd be glad to see Lloyd Carr stick around for a couple more years. Griped about our lackadaisical offense...check. Mocked Michigan...check. The only thing left to do--sing the praises of the brick wall defense that seems to be our hope of a good season.