Another Semester Nears the End

Yesterday was my last day of classes for the semester - unbelievable! The semester went so fast. Overall, this semester of teaching went WAY better than last year...I was more comfortable, confident and didn't have to create lesson plans out of thin air each week! Teaching 3 oral English classes also made it better - and although some days my freshmen students acted like the paparazzi (I was the first foreign teacher for most of them and turned around one day to see 18 cell phone cameras pointed at me...literally...) they were a good group and I'll miss teaching them. The last day was hard on my freshmen because they were unaware that I would not be teaching them again next semester - there are so few foreign teachers that we just can't have the same students more than once. When I told them, they were heartbroken and some started crying!

One difference I really noticed between my freshmen and junior classes was their motivation...their drive to improve. My freshmen tried SO hard and were so eager to learn, which of course made them fun to teach. One girl, Dolly (she's sitting third from the right in the picture below, yellow jacket) came up to me the first day of class frantically telling me in Chinese that her English was not good. I told her that her only choice was to work hard this semester and from that day on she was always front row center in class. Throughout the semester I became increasingly proud of her as she went from the girl who had no confidence in her English to the girl who would not give up. The improvement that those students made, especially Dolly, in their oral English over the semester was truly amazing! Below is one of my freshmen classes...


After finals next week, I've got 5 weeks of vacation, one of which will be spent in Hong Kong. But the other 4 weeks...hmmm...besides upping my Chinese study...I have very few plans. Any suggestions?!?!

Christmas Festivities

Christmas here in China came and went so quickly! While there were many "signs" of Christmas in the blue and purple Christmas trees around the city, a lot of things were quite different from last year and definitely different from being back home. Thankfully, I am surrounded by friends from all over the world who I can celebrate with! I think that between Christmas Eve and day I received over 50 text messages from students wishing me a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve:
On the morning of Christmas Eve, I gathered up 3 former students and we went off to Cindy's house for a morning of baking and tasting. :) We made Christmas cookies and brownies. I was so delighted to watch the excitement in my students' eyes as they made their first batch of frosted Christmas cookies.


That evening I went to the Three-Self Church in Tianjin, one of two churches in my area (the other is a beautiful Catholic church in downtown Tianjin.) I went with 3 Chinese friends and they warned me ahead of time that it would be packed so we should go early. Well, they weren't joking as 2 of them went at 4:30 in the afternoon - the service started at 7:00!!! They said they would try to save seats for the 2 of us going later. At 5:00 I got a message saying that it was already full but amazingly they were able to save the seats until we finally arrived after 6:00. The service lasted for 2.5 hours and it was announced during the sermon that there were over 2,000 people there - in a church with 1,500 seats. Obviously, not everyone had a seat and so people were sitting on the floor, on the stairs, standing...standing for 2.5 hours. Wow. The service was really beautiful and I am so glad we went - there was a huge choir that sang a lot and the pastor spoke for nearly an hour but don't ask me what it was about because the whole service was in Chinese! :) Heading back to campus, we couldn't find a taxi or a bus so we walked and cut through a major shopping area on the way. I was speechless as I saw the amount of people out shopping - most of them wearing bunny ears or devil horns on their heads in order to "celebrate the holiday." Apparently, they are unaware of the true meaning... It was disappointing to see the scene and I wanted to get away from it as quickly as possible - I felt like it was a mockery of the holiday.

My Christmas Eve ended by talking to my mom, sisters and my Chinese "sister" on Skype. Hooray Skype!

Christmas Day:
On Christmas day I was up at 6:30 a.m. to get ready for class - yep, I taught two classes on Christmas day. :( It ended up being okay because my students were in the spirit of the holiday and they bought me gifts and sang Christmas songs to me. I also brought snacks for them and we spent the class talking about Christmas and having fun together.

After class, I went back to Cindy's house for a relaxing afternoon and evening of games and a nice dinner with a small group of people. It was a very pleasant way to spend the day!

Since Christmas snuck up on me so quickly, I didn't even get any cards sent out! So, now I will just say that I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. I hope you were able to experience blessings and maybe even a miracle on this special day. May you be blessed abundantly in the year to come! All my love...Shannon :)

Merry Christmas from a Chinese snowman - a mound of snow with a head stuck on top! They are amazed when I tell them about Western snowmen and they wonder how it all stays together! :)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Despite another Christmas party being completely re-planned the day before it was held due to Tianjin's questionable tightening up, it IS beginning to feel and look like Christmas around here. Especially now with the SNOW and freezing temperatures...it feels like Iowa!

Last night around 10:30 I started hearing screeching, screaming and yelling outside my apartment so I took a look and saw the snow coming down. Living on a college campus, the students began to emerge and were extremely excited. They started running around playing and throwing snowballs at each other. The commotion went on until well after midnight. I am guessing that many of the students have never seen snow, especially since last year we only had a light dusting the whole winter.

Taken from my back balcony at midnight.

This morning I decided that since it was the Sunday before Christmas, I just couldn't miss church so I braved the wind and snow (not on my bike!) and luckily found a taxi right away. On the way back I was not so fortunate and had to thaw my toes out on the radiator before I could walk properly again.

Taken on my campus this morning - students were up early playing. :)

On my way to church I observed very few snow plows, instead there were men out with their shovels, clearing the roads. This next picture was taken out of my taxi (sorry, it's not that good) but you can get an idea - there were groups of people every block or so loading the snow into wheelbarrows.

When I finally arrived back home I saw all of the waitresses and chefs from the restaurant across from my apartment outside shoveling the snow...must be in the "fine print" of their restaurant contracts... Imagine having this many people clear your driveway! I do sympathize with the girl using the broom... (Taken from my front balcony.)


As it's looking like Christmas outside, it is also looking that way inside. I got my little Christmas tree set-up and decorated several weeks ago and now it is complete with presents underneath!! (Thanks family!!)


As much as I'm happy to see the snow, I'm going to relish in the memory of my big snow adventure this morning and stay inside the rest of the day! Oh, I should mention...when it's cold in Tianjin, it seems even colder than it actually is because we are outside so much more - walking to a taxi, waiting for a bus, walking to a restaurant after church, biking - it's just not as convenient as having a car with the heat ready to blast when you jump in! Stay warm!

"The Perfect Gift" Part 2

As the fog of disappointment has begun to lift from last weekend, I have seen some good things come out of this unfortunate experience. I've had some really amazing conversations with my Chinese friends as we talked about the "how" and the "why" this happened. Even though my students were not able to perform in the program, we still got to witness the disabled children singing their hearts out after practicing for so long to achieve perfection. During the morning I got to decorate the theater with two of my students and listen to their excitement as they declared, "I've never decorated a Christmas tree before!" I also got to watch as 9 other students came to give of their time as they volunteered in various positions throughout the program. One girl came bouncing towards me after the program exclaiming that her job was so exciting! Her job, actually, was to direct people when they left the stage and say, "This way, this way." Haha...I'm glad she enjoyed it! :) Check out some pictures from the program...

After decorating the tree...and ourselves!

The BIG stars that we hung from the ceiling and the dreaded snowflakes that wouldn't stick on anything!

This is the Cerebral Palsy class singing, "Joy to the World."

"The Perfect Gift" Part 1

For the past 3 months, leading up to Christmas, Cindy and I have been planning a Christmas program for a project that is associated with our organization. The project, which is run by our organization, began several years ago and each year they have a Christmas program so that the kids can sing and perform. There are classes of kids who are autistic, those with cerebral palsy, mentally disabled adults, and the parents of children who are deaf. They prepare for this program for a long time and so do the organizers!

This year we wanted to do something special, along with the singing of the kids, so we found a Christmas program online, "The Perfect Gift," and got to work! First, we had some students at my university translate the entire program from English to Chinese, then I recruited 10 more students to do the acting for the play. We rehearsed for over a month, we had costumes sent from the U.S., found props, staged the entire play and even did a dress rehearsal with lights, music, microphones...the works. Nearly every detail was planned and prepared.

What happened next was utterly unanticipated...reality hit and I was painfully reminded of where I am living and the limitations that I have as I live here.

Friday afternoon (two days before the program) I got a phone call from Cindy saying that 7 representatives of "the powers that be" in China had shown up at our office and said that the program was canceled. There were some negotiations and finally the compromise was that the kids could still sing but the skit was out. I was crushed and proceeded to go through a range of emotions this weekend - disappointment rang most strongly, followed by regret, annoyance, anger, pity for the students who worked so hard, fear that I put the students in the line of scrutiny, sadness as I called each student and told them it was off, and the unavoidable feeling of injustice....to name a few. Of course, as I made the excruciating phone calls, they were curious as to why it was canceled. Please forgive my vagueness but I am sure you can figure out why a Christmas program in China would be highly monitored....

I really cannot see the good that came from canceling this part of the program, unless the goal of the "representatives" was to provoke irritation and paranoia into the foreigners that live here - maybe that was the goal. And maybe that goal was accomplished as I just went back through this post and deleted pictures that might be identifiable, names that might be recognizable, and specifics that might be questionable...

Merry Christmas?? Or more appropriately for this weekend...Bah Humbug!

AIDA

At the beginning of every month all the foreigners in Tianjin race for the latest issue of the "JIN Magazine" at their nearest ex-pat hot spot. Okay, not really, but every month it's available and most of us will pick one up. It is a free magazine for ex-pats living in Tianjin and it has an assortment of articles, reviews of restaurants, upcoming events, and whatever else ex-pats might want/need to know about Tianjin. I was flipping through the December issue and saw that AIDA, the musical, was going to be in town for a few days. I'd never heard of the musical but knowing my love of musicals and seeing that all the music was written by Elton John and Tim Rice, I figured it couldn't be all that bad and it was something different to do. So, I convinced a friend to go with me and off to the land of musical-bliss we went!


The story of AIDA is kind of like "Romeo and Juliet" - two families at war, set in Egypt. The music is all very African-themed and as in most musicals, the singing leaves goosebumps on your arms! I've seen a lot of musicals and out of all of them, it's surely not my favorite (how could it compare to "Wicked" !?!?) but it still provided a nice night out and the music, dance and sets turned out to be quite refreshing to me. On both sides of the stage were big screens that actually had Chinese subtitles for the entire play - impressive, although I was told after the show that the subtitles weren't all that accurate. The best part of the night was that our tickets ended up being free...it's good to know people in China! I'll be racing for the "JIN" again next time!

A Mixture of Pleasure and Pain

Have I ever written about Chinese massages? If not, shame on me! Chinese massages are on the list of Top 5 must-dos when people come to visit me in China and they have also become a must-have for me while living here! Last year I did not take advantage of them nearly enough! So, I've decided to change my ways and now I get a massage every 2-3 weeks.

I make the 5 minute trek to the massage place with a friend or two from my school and we enjoy being pampered for the next 2 hours! We always get the same thing - the foot massage that is actually an entire body massage...fully clothed. :) They bring in big buckets of hot water with tea bags floating in the water and we soak our feet for about 10 minutes before they come in to start the massage. At the place that we go, there are several different rooms and each room has 1, 2, 3 or even 4 beds so if we go with a group, we can all be in the same room. Then the masseuses come in and get to work! They do about a 30 minute foot massage first, hitting every single muscle possible and I would have to say, this part can be excruciating! The first time I went, I actually glanced down at my feet several times because I could have sworn they were using a spoon to dig out the arch of my foot...yow! I always bear the pain and remind myself that they will feel better when it's done than when I first arrived...and it's true. One time I went to the massage place with a Chinese person and they told me that the masseuses kept talking about how beautifully white my feet were. (Side note...China is the opposite of America in that white skin is considered to be BeAuTiFuL! No one wants to be dark, hence the carrying of umbrellas on sunny days. Crazy, huh? My fair skin is admired far and wide in this country!)

After the foot massage the masseuses leave for a few minutes and then come back for another hour+ to do a head, face, neck, shoulder, arm, leg, stomach, back, butt...yes, butt massage! The head, neck and arm is my favorite part!

Afterwards we always lay on the beds for a few minutes as if we've just made it safely through a war-zone. Amidst the pleasure of a massage is a lot of pain - these masseuses are well-trained and they are STRONG! They can find every sore or weak part in your body and then, no mercy! Sometimes I do wonder why I keep going back, but I always feel amazingly good the next week or so and that's reason enough for me!

It's fun to compare with each other afterwards about what new things they did compared to other times - we often have different masseuses and their styles are very unique. Sometimes I wonder, "where in the world did they learn THAT!?!?" I won't go into detail...

Oh, and did I mention that we get this treatment for 68 yuan (exactly $10 USD)?? Now, that's a deal!

Professional Basketball in China?

Yeah, I never knew either! But, I attended my first ever CBA (Chinese Basketball Association) game the other night and now I'm a believer! :) We saw Tianjin play against another team that I cannot remember and unfortunately, Tianjin did not come out on top.

One interesting thing to note about the CBA is that each team is allowed to have a maximum of 3 international basketball players. Although they have 3 international players on their team, only 2 of them can be on the court at a time. The international players on these two teams looked like they were probably all from the U.S. It's quite strange to see super super tall African American men rebounding balls without even having to jump! I'm not saying that the Chinese players are short, but in comparison to the Americans, there's a noticeable difference!! :)


Better luck next time, Tianjin!

The Many Sides of Cheese

Well, actually this post is about Thanksgiving but I have now experienced two celebration parties where cheese has become a focal point. I'll explain in a bit...

I had to work on Thanksgiving Day this year (wah wah) but I tried to make the best of it by doing some Thanksgiving activities in class...like making my students act out the history of Thanksgiving. I did this activity last year and it seemed to work well so I thought I'd try it again! I gave them the summary and they had to find a way to role play it...creatively. I tell ya, you just haven't experienced the true story of Thanksgiving until you've seen it narrated by two Chinese students acting as mice. Huh?

That night I went to my friend, Cindy's house for a Thanksgiving dinner with her family - it was so nice to be with my favorite family in China on this holiday! We then started gearing up for the big Thanksgiving celebration with all of our friends on Saturday. It was a great day with lots of eating (of course), games and movies, but the best part was to just spend time with people and have a day where nothing needed to get done...


Now, the cheese. As I said, I've seen this phenomena twice now and it's been awe-inspiring to witness both times. The first time was with queso - a block of Velveeta and some salsa and the second time with an actual cheese-ball appetizer. Westerners, especially Americans, greatly miss and crave cheese while we are here in China so when we get the chance to eat it, we really go for it! At the party with the queso there was a group of about 10 of us who literally moved to the kitchen to stand while we ate our meal, just to be closer to the cheese. Americans were drizzling melted, gooey cheese (uh oh...my mouth is watering...) on anything and everything and encouraging our Chinese friends to do the same! We thought it could definitely go on white rice, mashed potatoes, roast, and bread....it got a little questionable when I saw a European walk out of the kitchen devouring her cheese covered cookie. No judgment here, though, as far as I'm concerned - anything goes! Then, yesterday with the cheese-ball...same type of thing. (Dang it, my mouth is STILL watering...) There were about 9 of us standing around the table having a discussion about what was still there that we could spread the cheese on. (This was several hours after the first meal when we were contemplating what leftovers to eat for dinner...you Americans know how that works!) The more creative people got, the more they were praised! Apparently here in China, cheese is to be cherished! And, by the way, wink wink, if you're ever wondering what you could send me that I miss, I can guarantee you I'll be the most popular girl in the city with a big ole' block of Velveeta!!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Pizza and Bunco!

So, those of you who know me well know that I have a "trigger" word - the word that makes me crazily determined to accomplish the task of finding and consuming the aforementioned trigger word. PiZzA. Whenever I hear the word, I instantly am craving pizza! I think that the longer I live in China, the more this craving lessens because my tastes are changing but there is still nothing like a good, cheesy pizza! There are more and more pizza places in Tianjin - Pizza Hut, Papa Johns (yeah, seriously!) and then the local chains - Pizza Hill, Pizza Box and the strangest one, Mr. Pizza whose slogan is "Pizza for Women" or something stupid like that...I've refused to let myself ponder what they may be implying... Even with these options it's still way easier and cheaper to eat Chinese food so that's what I usually stick to. Also, ordering a pizza to be delivered is something I have not yet attempted (due to my lack of language) and so these factors decrease my temptation to eat pizza. I have a new oven, though, which allows me to make pizza at home so the other night I tried it out and it was so good! I cooked with a Chinese friend who had never made pizza before and as we walked through the market to pick out meat and veggies for toppings, I used my power of veto (since, you know, I am a professional...) and said no to such toppings as pumpkin, cucumber, shrimp, cucumber again, and a whole roasted chicken... :)


Another fun pizza night came last week as well when I had all the ladies from my organization over for a pizza and Bunco night. Bunco is this crazily fun dice game where you are constantly switching partners, switching rooms and yelling directions in between all of this. We had a good evening - here's a picture of one of the groups hanging out in my bedroom.


Bye for now! :)

Chronicles of a Taxi-Taker

When I came back to China this year I decided that I would start studying Chinese with a REAL Chinese teacher so I recently found one and have begun! It's going great so far, I really like her and am learning a lot from her...I just wish I had the time and money to meet more than once a week! Anyways, some of my motivation to learn came from my sister, Laura, saying to me before I left, "Why don't you, uh, at least learn Chinese this year?" (insert sarcasm...) :) The other motivations are plenty but one definitely includes me being sick of my own incompetence. There, I said it!

There must be a wire out on me amongst the taxi drivers and they must all know that I am trying to improve my Chinese because lately, they ALL want to talk to me! We have some very interesting conversations, usually ending with me saying, "Wo ting bu dong." ("I don't understand.") :( I do give it a shot, though! Here are two of my recent experiences...

The other day I was going to a restaurant and got in a taxi with a driver who immediately said, "Hello!" I replied and he asked me where I was from. When I told him I was American, he put his car in park so that he could turn around and look at me to make sure I wasn't duping him...haha. Then, he pulled out a little Chinese/English book and proudly declared, "I come from England!" Reeeaaaalllyyyy?? :) Following this interaction was about 25 minutes of broken Chinese and broken English as we tried to communicate. I was actually feeling pretty good afterwards and much more confident because I had initiated some of the questions. That never happens! When I went to take a taxi back to my school later that night, the driver couldn't even understand when I told him where I live...something I say all the time. DOH!

Last night was also a fun taxi night as I was heading out to meet a Chinese friend at her home. The driver asked me all of the normal questions as I was circulating my new Chinese vocabulary from the day around in my mind and trying to figure out how I could work my "fruit and vegetable" vocab smoothly into the conversation. Not so easy. When we ran out of things to say, he flipped on his CD player and I knew that some English ballads were about to be blown out of the speakers. First up was "Hotel California," a favorite here in China followed by, "My Heart Will Go On." I think he got bored with Celine pretty quickly because soon, "Everything I Do" was on and we had a lovely rendition of singing, with the driver trying his hardest to pronounce the words! It's like singing a German song when you don't know German...not that I've tried... :)

As I've said before, living in China is never boring!!!

Attack of the Freshmen!

My interactions with freshmen this year have greatly increased. One obvious reason is that I am now teaching 3 freshmen oral English classes. Commonly my students will ask me to help them with certain things throughout the year, like judging contests, which I have done twice this past week. Other times they will ask me for tips about how to study or find information about something specific, like the girl who asked me to give her tips on how to read Hamlet...that was an interesting lunch...

But the freshmen that I refer to here, THESE freshmen, are different. These freshmen are not my students but they launch attacks on me any spare chance they get. These freshmen usually get me when I am walking back from class and they sneak up on me without any notice, without any chance for me to plan my defense. These freshmen are the ones who say the same two predictable statements every single time. First, "Where are you from?" Second, "I want to be your friend!" Really? They want to be my friend after hearing me say one word? How do they know I'm not a mad scientist or a prison escapee or part of the mob? Haha...okay, maybe my appearances don't suggest those things but you just never know... :)

So, as I have had no choice but to succumb to these attacks, I have repeatedly been the victim of "helping out with something," you know, like things that good friends who have known one another for 15 seconds do for each other.

There is one Chinese teacher on campus who has decided to assign her freshmen oral English classes to conduct a free-talk interview with a foreigner, preferably an American or Canadian. Seeing as how there are about 5 Americans and Canadians on campus we, and by "we" I mean "I," am doing most of the interviews. So far I've had 5 free-talks, about an hour long each, with groups of freshmen, all ending in a promise from them to be my forever friend and to teach me Chinese...sigh... One group even ambushed me in a classroom where I teach and begged me to do the interview until I broke and conceded to their interrogations. Maybe I should assign my oral English classes to conduct an interview with a certain Chinese teacher named Ms. ------!

In the end, the only thing I can do is follow the little guy below... I surrender!!!

22

My entire morning today was spent on Skype. I spent hours chatting with some of my favorite people: family members including grandparents, parents, sister, brother-in-law, 1 little 3 month-old niece, 1 neighbor boy, 1 tall addition to the family, 1 uncle through Skype and into a cell phone, 8 college friends, 3 baby boys growing in their mama's bellies and 1 dog.

My dad's house was packed with people today as my grandparents were visiting and my friend, Emilie's house was also packed as my college roommates gathered for our annual reunion. Sadly, I am not there but thank goodness for Skype I still got to see their smiling faces.

As much as I love living in China, there are most certainly times when I wish I could be teleported back to be a larger part of the lives of people at home. There's just nothing better than a house packed with the people I care about.

22 of them, to be exact...

Three Stories

I'm sitting here watching the BBC report on the U.S. presidential elections and they're actually not doing a bad job, except for the report from "North Hampshire." :) While I'm here, I thought I would post some stories from the last few days. (Oh, and for those of you interested, I've been polling my classes this week and they are unanimously in favor of Obama to win...smart crowd!) :)

Story 1:
A few days ago I was using a public ladies room and went into a stall where the lock was broken. It was empty in there so I thought, "I'll just go quick, it shouldn't be a problem." Sure enough, a lady walked in and went for the stall that I was in - I was helpless. She opened the door, saw me sitting there and let out this yelp, followed by the slamming of the door! I started laughing out loud because the look on her face was absolutely priceless...I think she was pretty shocked to see a foreigner! Why am I telling you all of this information that you probably don't want to hear? Because the next part of the story is the best! She went into the stall next to me as I continued to audibly laugh. She kept saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" and I kept saying, "It doesn't matter!" The next words out of her mouth were..."Wow, your Chinese is really good!" Hahaha...first of all, no, it's not and second of all, it's not the most opportune time to be talking about my Chinese speaking level!

Story 2:
On Monday I was sitting in a small park on campus, waiting for a student when a woman came up to me and asked the first question that always comes my way, "Where are you from?" A sense of dread filled me as I thought, "She's going to ask me to do an interview or she's going to say she wants to be my friend or she's going to ask to practice her English with me..." All of these are standard, run-of-the-mill, daily questions presented to me. Instead she sat down and said, "In your country, can a man who is married act like a single man and chase another woman?" I was so surprised and asked her to repeat her question and the second time she said, "A married man...like that one..." and pointed towards a guy standing nearby. I said, "Well, it happens but it's not okay, it's not acceptable." She looked me in the eye and whispered..."He frustrates me so much..." then turned and walked back to him. I was speechless and heartbroken for her - I think of her often and hope they can sort things out.

Story 3:
Immediately after I spoke with this woman, my student came running up holding a bowl with something inside. She pulled the lid off and inside sat a tiny, cooked pumpkin! I had told my students about jack o' lanterns last week and after class she had subtly asked whether we ever cook the pumpkins and eat them. I told her no, just the seeds! So, she had gone home that weekend and steamed me a whole pumpkin, then cut the top off and filled it up with red bean paste before putting the top back on. I burst out laughing as it was incredibly cute and thoughtful! There's a reason why I love my students so much!! And, by the way, cooked pumpkin is incredibly tasty! :)

Beijing 2008

How many times over the past year+ have I seen this slogan around China? Did I really buy a "Beijing 2008" t-shirt when I was in China back in 2002? It's common knowledge that the Beijing Olympics were a history-making event for China, and for much of the world, so this brings me to my next question. Did I really go back to the U.S. during the 2008 Olympics?!?! This was the most frequently asked question of me while I was back home this summer...why did you come back during the Olympics? Didn't you want to be in China for the Olympics? So, I could spend my days kicking myself for my stupidity or I could just visit the sites after the fact. I'll choose the second option - and I'll tell you about my day in Beijing yesterday.

I took the newly opened bullet train (just 30 minutes!) to Beijing with a friend and we went to see the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. It was a beautiful, clear day outside which made the site-seeing all the better!



We got to go inside the stadium where they had some displays set up on the field. First, we just took a seat in the stands and looked around. It was so cool to think about all the events that I watched on T.V. and how they took place at this exact spot! Actually, it seems like the Nest looks bigger on T.V. but it was still very impressive.


I'm pretty sure this is where George Bush sat...


Two giant Fu Wa's - the Olympic mascots. Of course these reminded me of my sister, Lindsey, who was crazy about them while she was here!


Remember these guys from the opening ceremonies? They were the ones that lit up and formed the flying dove.


And, of course, the famous drum from the opening ceremonies... Too bad they wouldn't let us play it!


The Water Cube! Most of what we saw of the Cube was the outside of it. Although we eventually got in, you would not believe all of the hassle we had to go through to get there! First of all, we were told that the tickets were on the opposite side of the Cube from where we were standing, so we proceeded to walk around the entire Cube looking for the ticket booth - once. When we ended up where we had first begun, ticket-less, we asked again and they pointed us to the opposite side of the Cube. Are you kidding me?!?! So, we started walking again and finally found the ticket booth, across the street from the Cube. The ticket booth, I should mention, was on the opposite side of the ticket entrance (where we started...) so we walked all the way around the Cube - twice. The thing that kills me is that at the ticket booth they have approximately 50 guards in their guard-attire to make sure that people know where to go. We had 8, yes EIGHT, guards telling us to turn left as we exited our ticket line. Now, why weren't those guards spread around the Cube where thousands (true, we were not the only lost wanderers...) were searching for the ticket booth?!?! I'll never understand....


Inside (finally!) the Cube...


Where Michael Phelps made Olympic history... The Water Cube is now set up for a music, lights, water show that only happens in the evening so we missed it. While we were there, some guys were fixing the lights in the water and apparently someone decided to test the fountains at the same time...hahaha...those guys got quite the shower!


This concludes my day in Olympic Land!

BOO! Bwahahahaha!

This past week I did a Halloween lesson in my class, complete with Halloween tongue twisters for my speaking classes, the history of Halloween, candy, and a musical journal for my writing classes. In my 3 writing classes I told my students to close their eyes and listen to the music that was being played, the main theme song from the movie, "The Sixth Sense." Then, they had to make up a story according to what they heard! (I tried to load the music onto this blog but ahem...failed...so if you want to hear part of the music that I played, you can follow this link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Um-lFkXD8I&feature=related. It's pretty close to the actual version, minus a few screeching noises just to make sure my students weren't sleeping!)

Each week in my writing classes I have my students write a short journal at the end of the class. I realized that I have never posted an actual journal writing from one of my students so I decided to include one of the better ones here. Read on if you dare! :)

"In a dark-pitched night, the moon loomed behind the clouds, the silvery moonlight reflected a long lonely shadow of a middle-age man. He dragged his weary legs, trudging along the narrow alley with a depressed and painful look on his face. He stopped and leaned against a road lamp, it released a dim orange colored light. Suddenly the lamp 'bizz' and broken, left the night in a complete black. He sighed and walked foreward, his shadow followed him constantly. He had no intention to go home or anywhere there had a crowd. Alone was all he wanted. In the distance, a lush forest surrounded this old town, he quickened his steps to embrace the nature, where had a wild space to hide his secret and desperation."

This journal was written by Cinderella and I didn't change anything from her original writing. Pretty good, huh? Actually, some of the other students wrote stories that were more scary and suspenseful but I loved the description in Cinderella's writing.

Hope you had a great Halloween!

Dorm Days

I recently went to visit some of my freshmen students in their dorm and I wanted to give you a feel for what dorm-life is like at my school. When freshmen arrive they are assigned to a building where they have 8 students (chosen by the school - no choosing your roommates here!) per room. After their freshmen year they move to another building where they have 6 students (again, chosen by the school) per room and this is where they stay for the next 3 years of college. I have heard of some students changing rooms but it is not too common. Especially if you compare that to the frequency of dorm moves at colleges in the U.S. - "What? You're not happy, content, social, and confident in your room? Well, we would LOVE to help you find another room where you can thrive!!" Okay, so maybe that's just at Central College...hahaha. The students at my Chinese university stay put for the most part. I should also mention that the student's roommates are also their classmates. (In this school, as freshmen the students are grouped into classes of 25, according to their major, and they have almost every class with those same 25 students throughout their entire college career...and, by the way, the classes are also chosen by the school...)

Pictured below is a typical freshmen dorm. You can see the 8 bunk-bed style beds and the small desk at the far end of the beds. Along with the bed and desk, the students get a small locker-sized cupboard and a stool (shown below). When they move into their dorm room they bring 1 or 2 suitcases with them which provides what they need for the year!


The picture below is of some senior students in their dorm-room. As you can maybe see, they all have lofted beds with desks below them and a small cupboard next to the desk. They have a lot more storage space than the freshmen.


I suppose that an advantage to this style of living while in college is that most roommates really form a family during their years in college, similar to many roommates in the U.S! Even though they want more space at times I always tell them to appreciate each other while they are so close - there's nothing better than living with your best friends!! :)

Chinese-American Wedding

On Saturday two of my Tianjin friends 'tied the knot!' (So funny, I look at that idiom in a whole new light now that I've taught it and "head over heels" to my students...) I digress, back to the topic! Kristi and Zhou Jun celebrated their marriage this past weekend and I wanted to post some pictures and stories from that day!

First of all, the bachelorette party! We threw a typical bachelorette party for Kristi...got her all dressed up and made her walk around the city, played games, ate cake, etc. The funny part was that in China they do not have bachelorette parties so to see Kristi walking around (as pictured below) was quite the shock for people who were already shocked enough to see a bunch of foreigners out on a stroll... My friend, Cindy, had to make the comment that, "actually, I think Shannon is getting more attention than Kristi!" Oh, being the blondest blonde of the group is not always advantageous.


Before the ceremony, as with all weddings, there was much to be done! Doing those things in China, however, is not always the easiest. Take, for example, the afternoon that my friend, Natalie, and I spent almost 3 hours at a HUGE fabric market searching for matching ribbon to wrap the bouquets and tie the programs. I bet you've never spent 10 minutes bargaining for some red ribbon, have you!?! :)

I helped out the day before the wedding with the decorations and also made some adjustments a few hours before the wedding. We had candles everywhere and it was very pretty as the evening settled in. The wedding was held in a building that was described as a "glass jelly roll." Picture it...the description is dead-on! Here's the head table...


The Christian ceremony was held outdoors and even though it was quite polluted, it was still a warm day with no rain! (You'd never be able to guess that from the sky pictured below, huh?) Since it was a Chinese-American wedding they did the entire ceremony in English and then translated into Chinese (or vice-versa...) There were many American traditions, like Western food, bridesmaids/groomsmen, first dance, father/daughter dance, cake cutting and guest book but there were also Chinese traditions dispersed throughout the day which made it very special for everyone involved! For example, they had a Chinese "MC" whose purpose was to crack jokes and keep the mood light and they also did a traditional tea ceremony. In Chinese culture there is such a big emphasis placed on honoring the parents of the bride and groom. The purpose of the tea ceremony is for the parents to accept their child's spouse into their family and take them as their own child. So, at this part of the ceremony, Kristi offered tea to Zhou Jun's parents and they drank it then made some comments to Kristi and offered her a "hong bao" - a red envelope. (At Chinese weddings people do not usually bring gifts but instead they bring a hong bao with money inside for the newly married couple.) Then, Zhou Jun did the same, offering tea to Kristi's parents.



At the end of the evening Zhou Jun and Kristi changed into their traditional Chinese dress and went from table to table making toasts to everyone - this is also a Chinese wedding tradition.


It was so interesting to see how Kristi and Zhou Jun incorporated both of their cultures into the wedding ceremony - I think it's so cool to see that appreciation for each other's traditions! During their vows they had a line that went something like, "I promise to take your people as my own..." Wow! Congratulations Kristi and ZJ, I'm so happy for you!!

I Spy...

...with my little eye...

A roller coaster just one block away! Anyone see it? What about the tall building to the left of the roller coaster? And I don't mean the really obvious one...I mean the other tall building! See it?

I took this picture out of my taxi window at about 11:30 this morning. It's NOT fog...

A Week of Fables, Movie Sets, and "Burning Leaves"

This week has by far been the craziest one since I've arrived back in Tianjin. I haven't had a moment of "down-time" and the laundry and dish piles are beginning to creep across the room... Here are just a few of the things that have been going on.

Fables
I spent two evenings this week doing a voice recording for an Aesop's Fables workbook for a Chinese kindergarten class. Basically I sit in a recording room, read English for two hours and they pay me a lot of money! Pretty sweet deal. :) This recording was especially fun because I got to read as if I were having story-time with a bunch of little kids - all animated and with different voices. I also got to read a bunch of cute rhymes like "Eensy Weensy Spider" and many more that called for animal sounds. It was actually fun! Apparently they like my voice so they've asked me to come back next week for a different recording.

Movie Sets
This week on my campus they've been filming a Chinese movie so there have been actors, lights, cameras, and sets all over the place. I got some pictures one day as I was going past and almost jumped for joy when they didn't ask me to do anything in the movie! Usually when I walk past things like this I am immediately asked to be in pictures or scenes...not my cup of tea...

One of the sets

An actress taking a break from a scene

"Burning Leaves"
Some of my friends would call me an optimist so I shouldn't be surprised when they laughed at me for saying that the strange smell outside was burning leaves. Oh yeah, they don't burn leaves in Tianjn... In fact, lately the pollution has been so thick that it stinks. The beginning of the week started out great (see picture of blue sky below) but by the end of the week a thick cloud of pollution had descended upon the city making it difficult to see skyscrapers even 1 or 2 blocks away. I'll try to get a good picture sometime today so that you can see what I am talking about!


The rest of the week was filled with lesson planning, grading, lunches with students, some editing and wedding decorating. Two of my friends are getting married today so I will post again soon with pictures from that event! Okay...I'm out of here...what to wear to the wedding?!?!

Warning! PG-13 Material Included Below!

When I was in college my friend, Amy, would commonly ask us during dinner what our "Chutes and Ladders" were for the day. This just meant that we were supposed to tell the worst part of our day and then the highlight of our day. I was thinking about this in light of the week-long holiday we just had and so I asked my classes this week what their "Chutes and Ladders" were from the holiday. I am teaching some very eager, very excited freshmen this semester which is a lot of fun but in one of my classes, I got quite the shock! Apparently, the word "chute" is not an easy one for Chinese students to pronounce. As I called on one student to answer the question, she tried desperately to voice her thoughts and to say them correctly. Many times students will stutter and repeat words over and over again until they have their bearings. This is what came out...

"My ladder from the holiday was going home and talking to my best friends from high school. We chatted about our college life. My Sh*$, hmm...my sh*@, uh...my sh#%, my sh*! from the holiday was..."

I have no clue how she finished, I was just trying so hard to not bust a gut right there in front of the class! She would have had no clue what I was even laughing about!! :) Oh, my job is so funny sometimes...

Too Good to be Left Out

Today a new student by the name of BAMBOO walked into my class. I just couldn't leave her off the list...

Need Some Name Ideas?

So, the semi-annual English name list is compiled from my new classes and about to begin! I've been staring at this list just trying with all my might and all my creativity to make some groupings out of these names. Impossible? My first name on the list wouldn't think so...in fact, I think she would say that, "it's possible, for a plain, yellow pumpkin to become a golden carriage..." Yep, CINDERELLA tops my list. Now, I think it is understandable and incredibly adorable when sweet little 4-year old Kaia wants to be called Cinderella, but a freshman in college?!?!

Of course this year I have the usual month and food names, JULY and COOKIE, but this year we add a BEAN to the mix. Mr? Nope, this time we have the Mrs. along for the ride.

These next two must have chosen their names together...I guess communicating through the light that guides them. SHINING and STAR. But in the beautiful chaos of all things pretty-pretty, please don't forget about EMERALD and I can't help but think of "bling" when I call out the name, DRIZZLE - fo' shizzle?

Since we had the pretty-pretty paragraph, I guess we'll have to now turn our attention to the "name that will most likely make you cringe" category. First up is TREE, followed closely by SQUALL (dictionary definition..."to scream or cry loudly and harshly") and my favorite, PSYCHE. Do I tell her??

DEAR, YOUNG, BANKER: These 3 names combined tells me that we can skip the Letter Writing Unit this semester! I have to point out that DEAR is a boy and he is very aware of how strange his name is...a joke-ster, he is!

ROMEO has proved to live up to his name so far, stating that the place he most wants to visit is Paris because it is so romantic; while SING has yet to show me that her verb-name is accurate.

Some other strange names that came out during role call were: FIO, MARINA, SISSI, SHANNEL, and thankfully I have another S-T-E-L-L-A! I witnessed this last name being placed upon a student and, try as I might, could not prevent it! KELLER decided to be named after Helen Keller - why she didn't just choose Helen, I'll never know...

These last two names need no explanation, just sit and ponder them for a few minutes...HEAVEN and ARCHANGEL. They're not in the same class, which I see as a very good thing. Oh, and one more thing...when ARCHANGEL wrote his name on the class list, he actually spelled it wrong so he will go down in the record books as the ever-evil, but very acute, ARCHANGLE. :)

Hope you enjoyed the new names...think of me as I attempt to call on DRIZZLE and the others this semester while trying to keep a straight face!

Tianjin Traffic, A Referral

So, I did not write this blog but a friend of mine, Joel, in Tianjin did. You should definitely check out this blog because it does a great job of describing, as best as possible, the traffic in Tianjin; especially when you're on a bike. If you get a chance...skim through some of his other blogs (along with his wife, Jessica's entries.) They've been in Tianjin learning Chinese for 2 years and have some great perspective on Chinese culture. Enjoy!!

http://chinahopelive.net/2008/09/26/metaphors-for-tianjin-traffic

A Great Day

Do you ever have those days, or moments, when you just feel like everything is...great? I am having a great day. Actually, there is no particular reason...I'm not out and about in the city experiencing new things, I'm not eating strange foods, I'm not interacting with my students but still, it is great.

I am currently taking a break from putting my apartment together - decorating, washing, arranging - to write this blog and I am enjoying the "Pride and Prejudice" soundtrack recommended by my friend, Bonnie, playing inside while noises from some hacky sack players seep in from outside. It's just a good day....for no particular reason.

I went with a group of people to IKEA in Beijing on Saturday and one of the greatest parts about going to an IKEA in China is catching people taking snoozes on the various bed and couch displays. I captured the lady below, never to escape from my over-used camera memory card, and was getting ready for another PERFECT photo opp when I was stopped. :( Let me just describe the scene to you...an older man and woman sleeping on a sectional couch. The woman was laying all the way down using the pillows, pointed toward the "T.V." as if she were lounging comfortably at home. The man was sitting slouched over and if we had been passing by the windows of his house that night, I would have thought he had just finished a whole day of working, a big meal, and just couldn't stay awake any longer to finish watching the evening news. Husband and wife had their shoes kicked off on the floor. The part that is most amazing to me is that they are oblivious (or possibly just un-bothered...) by the thousands of people gazing in on their naptime...


Since this is a new year, I have decided to change several things in my apartment (this is also out of necessity...) and one of the things I changed is my bedroom. Before I had two single beds, which looked much like the bedroom of a 7 and 4 year-old that I walked into in the states this summer, so I decided to go with a more "grown-up" look and I moved the beds together to make one massive king-size bed. IKEA provided me with sheets and the finished product is quite good, considering the materials I have to work with!


Now, I know that some of you will say..."if you want the bed to be so 'grown-up,' why do you still have your stuffed Nala there?" Some things just can't change.... :)

I forgot to mention earlier that the entire country of China has a national holiday this week, which means no classes for 7 days! Yes, I know I've only had a week of class so far but I was still ready for the break! Instead of my usual whirlwind traveling whenever I get the chance, I am staying in Tianjin for this break, just to get acclimated to being back. So, now I think I'm going to go back to transforming this apartment into my home and enjoying this day that is so great...for no particular reason...

Back Into the Swing of Things

It's so good to be back in Tianjin! Despite some issues with my apartment; it seems like I never even left...it has been a very good transition. :)

The main issue, as mentioned, was my apartment! I left several basic necessity items in my apartment for the next teacher - not realizing that next teacher would be me! When I came in, it was completely cleared out...down to the last hanger! I was disappointed but I went out and started buying things I needed again and eventually, some of the items that were gone magically reappeared...
Christina came over to help me give my apartment a "new look" for my new year. We spent a loooong time moving the furniture around my living room. The problem, we found, is that most of the furniture in my living room (with the exception of my very fashionable couch :) is ugly, un-matching, and outdated. So, trying to arrange a room and hide all of the ugly furniture was...is impossible!!



We finally found a set-up that will work just fine. :)

Yesterday was my first day of teaching and so far, it seems to be going very well. These next 5 weeks will be especially busy as I am required to make-up the 3 weeks of classes that I missed at the beginning of the semester...don't ask...
The really good thing is that the school finally granted me my wish of teaching some oral English instead of all writing so this semester I have 3 oral classes and 3 writing! YAY! My oral classes are freshmen, which is quite the new experience!! For many of them, I am the very first native English speaking teacher they have ever had! Today, in our first class they were taking pictures of me (kinda weird in the middle of class....) and rushing up to me at the end of class to get my phone number. I was overwhelmed and told them that I don't give my number out to students...hahaha, not entirely true!! Hopefully their eagerness will subside a bit as they get used to me.

Be sure to stay tuned in the next few days...the 2nd edition of "The Name Game" is coming soon! And I can tell you, I have got some REAL doozies!!! :)

When Life Gives You A Lime...Or Is It A Lemon?

I have been back in Tianjin now for a little over a day! Despite a long and exhausting day of traveling yesterday and only about 5 hours of good sleep over the last 60+ hours, I still can't manage to go to bed!! For those of you concerned about my luggage, I came in with a 49 lb. bag and a 48 lb. bag -right under the limit! YES! Also, they weighed my carry-on which MUST have been over but the check-in attendant didn't say anything about it. On one of my 3 flights the check-in lady asked me if I could "just put my purse into one of my other carry-ons." I said, "Sure, no problem," then continued to walk towards the plane without even considering what she had asked...if you had seen my bags, you would know she was asking me to attempt the impossible!

My long flight (14 hours) was AWESOME! I've always flown United before which is tiny, tiny, tiny with no leg room so I was amazed by Korean Air and all of the space! PLUS, everyone gets their own TV and you can choose the movies/T.V. shows you want to watch. And, the bonus...I was in one of the last rows on the plane and I was the only one in my section of 3 seats!! I had them all to myself and I took advantage of it...laying down on the seats, watching different things on all 3 T.V.'s...hahaha...just as good as first class!!! :)

After just 5 hours of sleep once I got to Tianjin last night, I called my friend, Cindy, and we hit the furniture market to find a replacement couch for "Big Blue" - which was sold to my friends in July. The price bracket I was looking in did not give a lot of options but I still got one...with the hopes that it would brighten up my apartment. It should have no trouble accomplishing this feat... The great thing about shopping in China is that I went to find a couch, bought it with cash, had it delivered a few hours later and now am sitting on it to write this blog...all in about 18 HOURS after arriving in CHINA! Pretty amazing, huh? Okay, I know you can hardly handle the anticipation of finding out the color of my new couch - many of you thought I was going to go with orange... Drum Roll...

LIME GREEN! (Yeah, I'm serious!)


Now, this picture cannot possibly capture the true lime-greenness of this couch, but trust me when I say that it is "radiating" lime. And, by the way, I'm serious...this is really the couch I bought today. I must say that it's already growing on me. :)

"I took the one less traveled by..."

The poem, "Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost has randomly been popping up in my life over these past few months, most recently when my sister was back in Marshalltown for a visit a few weekends ago. I remember memorizing this poem in Mrs. Yocum's 7th grade English class...and amazingly enough I still know it! Looking back, that is quite possibly the only thing I retained from 7th grade. :) Laura and I burst out in a sudden rendition of "Road Not Taken," including dramatic gestures, vocal intonation, a hint of mystery at the, you know, mysterious parts, intrigue and confusion with the harrowing decision to be made and a long sigh near the end, "I shall be telling this with a sigh..."

As I've grown older and have experienced more things in my life, certainly having matured a lot since first learning this poem as a 12 year-old, I realize that some things change and shift right alongside of us. For example, this poem. I have always liked this poem but today it means much more than it did when I was a shy, nervous pre-teen standing in front of my class trying desperately to recite it all the way through in the first shot so I could slink back to my desk in the corner of the room. Now, it gives me a sense of freedom and confirms the decisions that I am making with my life. Of course; I always wonder if I'm doing the right thing, if I'm making choices that people with agree with and understand, if I'm choosing the right road...

I finally booked my flight back to Tianjin - Wednesday, September 17th at 9:39 a.m. from Cedar Rapids, and I've decided to allow myself to stop wondering if this is right. This road that I am taking...not everyone takes it or understands why I choose to take it...but this grassy road, this road that is in need of wear is the road that I will walk confidently and surely upon until I am led down another.

Please continue to learn and grow along with me this year. Please stay in touch. Please tell me about the adventures that you are crossing on your unique road.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Wild Swans by Jung Chang

I read this book a while back but never had the chance to put it up on my blog. I really recommend it, though - it's an eye-opening read! This one is especially good for those of you who would like to learn a bit about Chinese history, without having to read a history book. It's a chronicle of 3 generations of Chinese women; narrated by the daughter as she tells her story, as well as her mother's and grandmother's stories. Here is what one review says:

"The story reads like the sweeping family sagas of genre fiction but rises far above the norm. The characters are well drawn, the events are riveting, and the story teaches lessons of history as well as lessons of the heart. It also allows listeners to visit a world unfamiliar to most Westerners. The author brings memories of a foreign life and illuminates them with graceful prose."

I will warn you that this book is not for the faint of heart, there are some pretty graphic parts but it does an excellent job of outlining some fascinating parts of Chinese history. I hope you learn as much as I did!