G.A.O.

The G.A.O. group from last Saturday.

For several weeks now I have been meeting with 4 other foreigners and about 15 former students every Saturday to talk about "girl stuff." We officially call it G.A.O., Girls Afternoon Out, and one of the main objectives of this group is to learn about what it means to be a woman in China, as well as to share with the girls what it means to be a woman in the U.S., Taiwan, or the U.K. Let me tell you, we are all learning a ton! Relationships are different, families are different, the view of a boyfriend/husband is different, what is learned in school vs. learned from movies is extremely different! We are quickly finding out that these girls haven't had much, if any, education about men and women, sex, or body image. They believe a lot of what they see in American TV shows and movies - YIKES!

So, every Saturday myself and approximately 15 students load onto a bus and travel to our friend's house where we talk, chat, discuss - what girls do best! Each week two of us plan some discussion questions about the topics we have chosen - so far we have covered the 5 Love Languages, life transitions (coming into womanhood), choosing a marriage partner, and the differences/communication between men and women. We usually have some sort of opener in the form of a game or role play, then we break into small groups, eat snacks and talk, talk, talk! The girls love it and we love it...although sometimes the things that these girls say is enough to break my heart. It's hard to fathom some of the things they have experienced in their short lives.

Jane and Joyce act out the transition from high school to college.

Please keep this group in your thoughts as we continue to meet, discuss, get to know each other, and open up to each other. It's been amazing so far and I really look forward to the upcoming Saturdays!

Ethiopian Cookies

For the past 4 weeks I have been teaching Sunday school at the Fellowship that I attend in Tianjin. My specialty area - the hopping Kangaroos - the 5 & 6 year-olds. They are so completely opposite of my college students. The Kangaroos have boundless amounts of energy and exuberance. My college students could easily sit lifeless, without blinking for an infinite amount of time. The Kangaroos answer all of my questions excitedly but somehow the question always wraps around to end with a story about their dog or little brother... My college students stare at me lifelessly, without blinking when I ask them questions and then when I tell them the answer they respond with, "yeah, we already know that..." The Kangaroos will sing and dance with me. My college students will stand lifelessly, without blinking when I ask them to play charades and act out a verb or adjective. Okay, so I'm being a little hard on my college students - they really do blink once in a while! :) You get the point, though...drastic differences in these groups! Today I had some even younger kids in my group and there was a particular conversation that I'm still laughing about so I just had to share it with you. The characters: 2 four year-old boys: one named Isaac from America, one named Blessings from Ethiopia. The setting: In a classroom seated at side-by-side desks. The activity: Snacktime. I have just passed out some Chinese cookies...similar to Vanilla Wafers.

Isaac: Teacher, this is my little friend, Blessings, and he is kind of American and kind of Ethiopian.
Me: Hmmm....wow, what a special little friend!
Isaac: Teacher, could you please go to the supermarket where you bought these cookies and talk to the people who make them and tell them that they should make Ethiopian cookies for my little friend, Blessings.
Blessings: (Blank stare in the direction of Isaac as if this were a normal occurrence...)
Me: (Thoughts - "what to say? what to say? make this into a 'project' for Isaac? yes, that's it!") Isaac, maybe you and Blessings could ask your parents to help you write a letter to the company asking them if they could make Ethiopian cookies.
Blessings: (Blank stare at me like he hears this suggestion daily...)
Isaac: But I can't write in Chinese...
Me: (Thoughts - "need a distraction, now.") Anna, don't color on your dress with that marker! (Running from the scene...)

As you can see, teaching Sunday school to a group of kids from ALL around the world can be quite interesting...you just never know what's going to come out of their little mouths! Priceless!!

"It's just like riding a bike..."

Isn't that the saying? That even if you haven't done it for a while, you don't forget? Well, maybe you never forget how to ride a bike, but that doesn't mean that you can do it successfully all the time! During the past two weeks my biking skills have taken a turn for the worse. I've fallen off...twice. Here are the stories; feel free to laugh! As you will see from below your laughs cannot damage my pride anymore than it already is! :)

Story #1:
All bikes in China have a basket attached to the front of the bike, kind of like the Wicked Witch of the West. (Side note...until I got used to seeing this I was constantly humming the song that accompanies the Witch as she rides...you know the one...) Anyways, in Story #1 my basket was my downfall. Most people will pack their baskets to the brim with bags, purchases, etc. as they are biking around the city and I am no different. When the basket is full, it causes the front part of the bike to twist to the side because of the weight and sometimes the bike falls completely over if the kickstand is not strong enough. Now that you have the background information, you will be able to picture this story more vividly! I was leaving a friend's house one night and was biking through her campus when I decided I needed something out of the bag that was in my basket. (Please note that I have accomplished this task several times, even answering the phone while on my bike!) This night, though, I must have had too much in my basket because the front of the bike twisted while my hand was stuck in the bag! There was nothing I could do except brace myself for the inevitable fall... Sure enough, my bike twisted and lurched to the side and I went up and over the top of the bike, landing on my palms and knees. The basket broke off my bike and everything inside of it went flying! Although I was physically bumped and bruised, my pride was hurt more than anything! In China, you're never alone and since I was on a college campus there were even more people around! I'm sure it was very entertaining for the people around - a foreigner goes flying head-first off of her bike, yet no one is around as the cause of the accident. It would have been better if someone hit me!!! Hahahaha... Just as I was starting to recover from that first accident we come to...

Story #2
Still fresh in my mind and with the bruises not yet fully developed, I am reflecting on the predicament I found myself in yesterday. Just as there is a basket on the front of the bikes here, there is a small rack on the back part of the bike that one person can sit on while the other person pedals. I was visiting a friend (you know who you are!) and she wanted me to go with her to pick up some dinner. Since I had not biked to her place, she said I could just ride on the back of her bike. So, off we went - but we didn't make it too far! It is a little bit difficult to control the bike when someone is sitting on the back so my friend was trying to gather momentum to ride smoothly. We were leaving a section of her apartment complex that was blocked off by guard rail post-type things and as she went through them she did not think about the fact that my legs were to the side of the bike and were not able to clear the posts. My legs made contact with the post and I was thrown off balance, desperately trying to stay on the bike! Just as I was thinking,"I'm getting balanced, I'm not going to fall!" she hit the speed bump that was beyond the posts. That was enough to send me flying. 3 of our other friends happened to be behind us and they said all they could see was a flailing of limbs as I bounced from my bum onto my knees and elbows...ouch.

I guess if I'm going to fall off of a bike in China, I have picked two of the safest ways to do it - no other bikes or cars have been involved! For now, I'll be mending my bruised body...and ego!

Rocco's Story

Rocco is probably about 3 months old and 3 weeks ago he was found outside by a family in my organization. Someone had a made a leash and tied it around him, then wedged the leash beneath the tire of a bus. When he was found, Rocco was crouching behind the tire of the bus; luckily it had not started moving yet. My friends said that they were looking at Rocco and the bus driver came out and asked them what they were looking at, to which they responded "your dog." He said it wasn't his dog and that if this family didn't take it, he wouldn't be responsible for what happened to the puppy. The two likely scenarios were...he would be hit by a car or taken to a restaurant where he would eventually become, well, a "specialty." Needless to say, they brought him home and just a few weeks later realized that they needed to do some traveling within China...so now Rocco is with me! I am the official puppy-sitter and he's staying at my apartment for about 5 days. He is a cute little ball full o' energy! Compared to my cat back home, I am realizing just how high maintenance puppies are! He is pretty much always at my heels wherever I go and he's just reached the "chew on everything within the vicinity of the mouth" stage. The best part about having Rocco around is when I get back to my apartment after being gone for a while - he's just so happy to see me! I guess that makes up for the bursts of energy around 4 a.m. I'll let you know if I make it through 3 more sleepless nights! :)

Old Tianjin, Meet New Tianjin

Last Sunday I went to a part of Tianjin called the "hu-tongs." I don't know the English translation but it is an old housing compound of Tianjin that is now being torn down in order to "beautify the city for the Olympics." Most of the people have already moved out of the area but some still remain. It's hard to tell how many homes or people used to be there but you can think of it as a rather large neighborhood, with small shops and businesses scattered throughout. One friend that I went with had been there several times and he had chatted with some of the locals so we went to visit those people that he knew from previous visits. One man said that he had to be out within a week but wasn't sure where he was going yet. Another elderly couple said that they had been in the hu-tongs for 53 years and had raised their 3 children in the 20 square meters that belonged to them. They also had to be out within a week as many of the buildings around them had already become heaps of bricks.

The strangely ironic part was that when we left the hu-tongs we literally biked across the street and walked into a Starbucks. We could see what the people were doing in the hu-tongs while we sat there with our lattes and smoothies. The area around the hu-tongs is extremely developed, as you will see in some of the following pictures.

Take a look at my mini photo gallery and keep in mind that just 4 days after these were taken most of the places probably look drastically different today...

I love this picture...it's absolutely priceless.


An old photo left amongst the rubble.


This character is painted on walls throughout the area - it means "condemned."


There's a man on the roof behind the tree - he has a sledgehammer and is busy knocking down a wall.

They were in the process of taking down a building while we were there.


Some kids playing in their quickly disappearing neighborhood.


A new apartment complex just across the street from the hu-tongs.

Now, I'm not sure what will happen (or has happened) to the people leaving this area. One can hope that they will be fairly compensated and will find a newer, nicer home. The hu-tongs were, in reality, not a great place to live with many under-developed facilities but this was their home. Many of them are still negotiating the price per square meter that they will receive and I just hope that it is enough to improve their conditions.

KTV - It's the Chinese Way

Why are the Chinese so into KTV? First, you are probably wondering, what in the world is KTV? Karaoke Television. Karaoke. Singing your heart out. Singing your heart out whether you can sing or not. Singing with lots of emotion. Singing with a microphone and turning up the volume to be sure that you are heard. By everyone. Karaoke. Got it?

One of the largest KTV clubs in Tianjin

In China, KTV is HUGE! There are over 100,000 KTV clubs in mainland China and I'm guessing every one of them is used - daily! I know what some of you may be thinking...that karaoke is basically a joke in the U.S. and no one really wants to do it! Right? Well, that's what I think anyways... It is so different in China, though. When you go to a KTV club, your group gets a personal room which includes a big-screen TV, a computer play-list so that you can choose your songs, two microphones, a nice comfy couch, and usually people will order some drinks or food. I've been told that you will pay anywhere from 38 yuan ($5.50) to 200 yuan ($28.50) an hour, but I'm guessing you could find places even cheaper than that. Then, the singing begins...

Some Westerners getting ready to sing - look how excited they are!

For some reason, I have gone to KTV the past two weekends - once with a group of foreigners for a birthday party and once with a group of Chinese students. The two times were drastically different! When I went with the Westerners, we belted out every 80's ballad together, whether we had the mic or not. When I went with the Chinese it was fun, but not as loud. The Chinese take their singing seriously and choose their songs with care, usually standing up for their solos. :) When I went with the students, I got pressured into singing a few songs like, "My Heart Will Go On" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight." Ahem, ahem...choke... I said I would sing under the condition that my student sang with me and thankfully I picked the student with the strongest (and loudest) voice to drown me out! Many of my students have told me that they go to KTV and "pull an all-nighter" singing and recording MP3's of their songs. My theory about why KTV is so popular is that it's a release for people from the pressures of their daily lives. At KTV they can kick back, sing out their worries, and spend time with their friends. Also, many business arrangements are made over dinners and then are followed up with KTV to have some fun with the business partners once the important matters are settled.

Abby, singing a Chinese song - about 2 seconds after this picture is taken she stands to enhance her performance.

Overall, KTV is WAY better than karaoke in the U.S. and it can even be fun...yes, it can be fun!

Haha...I'm such a diva. Or not...

I have one side-note story about something that happened to me on the way home from KTV the other night. I was in a taxi with two of my former students and they started translating a conversation between the driver and myself. Basically, he wanted me to teach him English and if I agreed, he said that he would be my personal driver and I could call him anytime I needed a ride for FREE! I was so tempted but finally decided that my schedule is too full as it is...what a shame. Only in China!! :)

Reflections on the Beijing Olympics

Recently I feel as though I have been bombarded by the Beijing Olympics and all that is happening in preparation for them. I want to share some recent experiences and reflections on the 2008 Beijing Olympics and what these games mean to the people of China.

As the Olympics are drawing nearer the urgency to "be ready" has grown and I think that everyone feels the effects of this urgency. Within the last DAY I have been approached by three different people to teach English at random schools or companies in order to "get ready for the Olympics." About a month ago I agreed to take on an oral English class twice a week at a power company - teaching customer service representatives how to sell electricity plans to foreigners "who will be here for the Olympics." But, WHY? The adults in my class informed me that they receive English-speaking calls about once a year. Does the company really think that this will increase during the Olympics? Are foreigners/tourists going to come to Tianjin and install an electricity meter or are they just going to stay in a hotel? Hmmm....spending thousands of yuan all in the name of "getting ready for the Olympics."

As my curiosity was sparked by this new job, I decided to bring up the subject of the Olympics in my classes. This is one of the coolest aspects of teaching - I have easy access to the opinions of 150 Chinese students. I asked them a few questions at the beginning of class: what are their expectations for the Olympics, what expectations are placed on China, and what expectations have the Chinese placed on themselves. The results were surprisingly across the board - my first class was probably the most vocal. Before I knew it, a regurgitation of propaganda had been spilled across the classroom floor in these phrases; "we expect that the Chinese athletes will perform their best and will take the gold in every category," and "we expect that the Beijing Olympics will be the greatest, most successful in the history of all Olympics past and all Olympics to come." WOW! At this statement I am ashamed to admit that I lost my patience and grace and bit back with, "What is the point of the Olympics? Isn't it that the entire world can come together to compete and perform in civility and respect for each other? Why is the slogan 'One World, One Dream' when you obviously see China as being the only competitor?"

In the next class that I dared bring up this topic I received a drastically different point-of-view. The students seemed beaten down and frustrated by recent media reports and threats of boycotting the opening ceremony. I believe that each time another country voices disbelief in this year's Olympics, every one of these students bears it as their own burden. I felt so bad for their "loss of face" and obvious discouragement.

When you look at the big picture of this topic, I think that success for the Beijing Olympics is imperative for this nation and that anything less will be devastating for many. As excitement, uncertainty, change, hope, and dreams build over these next few months it will undoubtedly be an intriguing time to be here in China. I am fully aware that this is a sensitive subject and I claim these reflections to be my own - after talking to foreigners and Chinese alike I can see that the range of opinions on this topic are off the chart.

Before you go back to work, or to sleep, or whatever you may be doing, take a minute to view this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92B8s9l37Jc - I first saw this on a friend's blog and I can't seem to forget it. I think that it is representative of how the Chinese view the 2008 Olympics and the amount of pride and expectation that they have placed on their performance in these games. Do you notice anything strange? Hundreds of people used to shoot this video and I fail to see a blond or brunette head amongst the crowd....