Photo Shoot...

So, I don't think I've mentioned some of the hilarious things that Chinese people wear, but I'm going to recap even if I have. First of all...a lot of Chinese people, usually women and children, wear these things on their forearms. They are usually nylon and have elastic on both ends and go from wrist to elbow. Upon further investigation, we found that they are used to keep the arms of your jackets clean, because you have to wear jackets everywhere, even inside, so they have many chances to get dirty. Also, working people and children wear these smock type apron things that tie in the back and usually have sweet patterns including cartoons or animals on them. Anyhow, they are somewhat ridiculous looking, but make for awesome Christmas presents...as well as some of the things that in America would look normal, but in China have fake designer things on them, or so many bows, ruffles, animals, rhinestones, etc. that you can't even imagine wearing them in public. Here are some examples...
While these aren't traditional gifts that Chinese people would give, some of the presents I received for Christmas weren't exactly what I would put on my list in America. I got a snow globe with teddy bears in it, a metal guitar player sculpture thing, a framed cross stitch of puppies, and a sketch of some flowers with real (dead) butterflies on it in a frame as well. Oh! And a heart shaped mirror with lace glued around the edge and a white furry scarf with stuffed hearts dangling from each end. There is more, but I need to just take a group picture before I go. One student did actually get me a really nice pink, wool scarf. So that was good. I'm going to try and bring some of the gifts back, but I'm not sure they will all travel well, and some of them are quite heavy!
Anyways, we're heading down to Nanjing for New Years, and we're meeting our friend Christine there, which should amount to a pretty fun girls weekend. It will be the last time we travel before the end of the term, seeing as though we only have two and a half weeks of teaching left after we get back. I can't believe it's going to be that close to the end!!!
I'm sure we'll have plenty to get settled before we leave, so that should help pass the time...

No Excuses....

There's really no good reason I haven't written in over 10 days. I have more than enough free time on my hands, but perhaps I just tend to look over the things worth blogging about and feel that my life is pretty ho-hum here in China. As of 4:05p today, I can truthfully say that I am halfway done with my lessons at the primary school, which means that the end of my time in China is seriously approaching. Before I get ahead of myself though...

Last week was "Christmas". I know I mentioned something about having a holiday due to exams on the 23rd and 24th, but you can be sure that things changed, yet again, and I had lessons both days I expected off. It's alright though, my students were excited to see me, and it was good to stay busy. Christmas Eve we were invited to a party, so after English Corner, we met our apartment complex owner for a nice dinner, drinks, and some KTV/dancing. It wasn't exactly Christmas, but we had a good time, and there was a man with a super creepy Santa suit. Enough to put us in a good mood. After getting home, and a few drinks, Laura and I decided to have our Christmas. We exchanged gifts with each other, and had some from home to open as well. The majority of our gifts to each other were hilarious, based on some of the entertaining styles here in China. We followed one of my family traditions, in that you must put on any article of clothing that you received, and proceeded to play Christmas music in my room and dance around the apartment. It was a blast, and I think a blog entry strictly for photos and captions will be in order tomorrow. Anyways, it was an alright Christmas Eve, but we had some less than stellar things on our plate the following day.

My students had a "party" on Christmas Day, and they wanted me to perform. I convinced Laura to sing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" with me, and even though we weren't really up for it, we sang and made everyone happy. Then they told us that there would be 2 "parties" because not everyone could fit into the hall at one time. So, we had to go back, and do it all over again....luckily we sneaked out after the second time and didn't have to watch the same show over again. Afterward, some of the male teachers from my office and the school wanted to take us to dinner for Christmas, and we went along. They spent the majority of the dinner attempting to make us drink a ton, against our will, and trying to convince us to stay in China longer. We, however, always have been and continue to be able to out drink the people we work with, and by the end of the dinner, and on to KTV, the men were sufficiently drunk, and we were mildly buzzed, and a rather irritated. We tried to be good sports and sing some songs with them and everything, but it eventually got uncomfortable, and we bailed. I'm somewhat embarrassed for them because in a country where maintaining face is such a huge deal, they all really made fools of themselves, and guess what?? Laura and I are still going home at the end of the term.

Speaking of going home, WE BOUGHT TICKETS! So, that makes it official. I will not be a China Girl forever, not that I ever thought I would be, but whatever.

This weekend we were roped into singing in a another show with some girls from Laura's grade. They made us sing a song that we didn't know, and even had us singing alone for part of it. It was a huge hassle, and we spent like 6 hours in a freezing auditorium only to have one run through and then a performance totaling about 7 minutes of action. It was frustrating, and by the end of the night I was about ready to leave China the next day. But, alas, I had classes bright and early Sunday morning. Because the exams were moved to Monday and Tuesday of this week, and the students missed classes for the show on Friday, we all had to make up lessons at the weekend. FUN! Anyways, that does mean that I have a day off tomorrow, and we are heading to Nanjing for New Years. So this will be a short week!

As I said before, I'll try to get a bunch of pictures up from the last week or two, especially Christmas, and probably have a few more updates from things I forgot during this go 'round. I'm going to do my best to record my last weeks here, just so everyone (if anyone even reads this...) is on track with my plans and my arrival home!!! I miss everyone so much and now that I have an official end date, I'm getting more antsy than ever!!!! Soon...soon, but not soon enough :)

Tomorrow (3 days later)

After a lovely weekend, we got back into the school week with lessons and whatnot. On Monday, Laura was contacted by the Head English Teacher at our school with an opportunity to teach at a primary school in Siyang. Apparently Anthony, the "American" guy who was raised in England, left and the school would be in trouble if they didn't have foreign teachers for the lessons that students were paying extra for. When they asked us to teach they said it would be 2 classes each on Mondays, and we would make some extra money and not have to change our schedules for the rest of the week at the high school. It sounded like a pretty good deal, but the more we talked we found out that 2 classes meant 2 grade levels, with 3 lessons each. So we would actually be teaching 6 lessons on Mondays and then 12 more throughout the week at the high school. They also were offering to pay less per lesson than what we already make. The extra money would be good either way, but with such a short time left in the semester and the amount of extra work involved, we weren't really sure if it would be worth the time and energy. We agreed to visit the school to take a look around, and when we got there they basically gave us teaching materials and a schedule, and told us they would pick us up on Monday. There was no discussion on whether we agreed to teach or not, they just assumed everything was legit and sent us on our way. We expressed our salary concerns to the teacher at our school as well as the dean of the primary school, and we were finally able to get them to agree to a higher salary, and they will provide us with some perks, like lunches, a driver to and from school, teacher's aids, and whatnot.

So we planned out our lessons and got to the school bright and early Monday morning. I have a class of 1st graders and a class of 2nd graders, and I see each of them for 3 lessons. The 2nd graders have a book and I am supposed to use that as my lesson guide, but the 1st graders don't have anything. Any the school has been somewhat hesitant to even talk about Anthony so I have no idea what they have learned yet or not. They told me just to teach simple English words and phrases, so I'm kind of winging that one. Primary school is a lot of work, because you have to have so many different activities to keep the kids motivated. Also, I can't talk with them the same way I do with my high schoolers, so that is a challenge. This nice thing is that my TA is able to translate things for me, and she handles a lot of the classroom discipline. And the children really are exciting to learn. Everything is interesting to them at that age, but it's a bit exhausting for me! Laura has 3rd and 4th grade, and I'm a bit jealous because that is the age I taught in Italy, and I know how fun it is to teach. Those students are at a point where learning is still fun but they have so many more tools for building sentences and ideas and everything. We'll only be teaching at the primary school 6 weeks, and already have one behind us. The primary students know a bit more about Christmas than the older students, and the school even said they would give us a tree for our flat. I'm so excited about that! We also have a Christmas party to go to, and a Christmas dinner, and my students will put on a show on Christmas day.

I am lucky enough to have a holiday on the 23rd and 24th because senior 1 has exams, but I don't really know what I will do during the free time because not many people will be doing Christmassy things, and Laura will still have to teach because her students have exams over the weekend instead. Oh well. I think we'll be buying our tickets home before Christmas, which is very exciting. Time seems to be moving along rather well, even though so days it feels like forever. Christmas is a week away, and New Years just a week beyond that. We'll be going to Nanjing so that should be a blast, and even this weekend we are most likely going to Huai'An, a nearby city with shopping and things, just to spend a day doing something! It's getting quite cold here...especially without good heating, but I'm glad I have my Wisconsin genes, I can handle it better than a lot of people. Even my students think I don't wear enough clothes to stay warm.

As I start to think about coming home, I have a lot of things to worry about such as a job, money, new things I'll need, and just settling into a new life after university and China. But I'm also thinking about all of the things I want to do. My students asked me to put together a lesson about places to see in America. I made a powerpoint with some good tourist spots in the States, and realized that I haven't even seen half of them. I've been to 10 different countries, seen the Great Wall, the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, but I've never seen the Grand Canyon, or Niagara Falls. Perhaps when I can afford to go on holiday, some American road trips will be in the cards. That's a long way off though, and not worth worrying about while I'm here. For now, I just need to work on some lessons, plan out a bit of traveling, and enjoy what's left of my time in China. Sometime I just want to check out get ready to go home, but I really do want to give my students the attention they deserve, and, in all honesty, I'm sure it will be hard to say goodbye when that day actually comes.

Worthless...

I've pretty much been a worthless blogger for the past 2 weeks. But in all honesty, a lot has been going on that's been leaving me frustrated, and I try not to post when I'm cranky because it tends to get a lot of bad feedback. And it also seems to illicit a lot of "pep talk" type comments, which I understand, and appreciate the intent, but sometimes in China, I just want to be frustrated, and I don't want to get used to certain things, a there's so much that no matter how much I explain, no one can truly grasp until they live it. So, as I said before, I try to just let things blow over before I spill my guts into cyberspace and risk a more negative outcome.
Anyways! The weekend after our dinner/lunch adventure, Laura and I were invited to go have dinner with my student SongXian, her family, and her best friend, Connie (another one of my students). She is from a larger city near Siyang called Suqian. When she extended the invitation, she said dinner at the weeekend, because the students would have a rest. I said we were free both weekend days so whichever was better for her would be fine. So we made our plans to go Friday night. During the ride there, we were talking about the city, and SongXian mentioned going shopping and taking us to see the ancient home of some very important man to Suqian, tomorrow. Tomorrow?! Apparently, being free for both days of the weekend equated to us spending the whole weekend there.
We agreed to one night, but explained that we would need to get back the next evening (especially since we weren't prepared for a sleepover, we had to buy toothbrushes etc at a convenience store). We went to dinner and met a lot of SongXian's family, and then her parents drove us to where we would be staying. The home they currently have was too small to accommodate us all, but they had recently purchased some property that was not decorated as a home, but would suffice for a sleepover. The apartment had 4 different rooms, 1 set up with desks, 1 office, and two dorm-style rooms. Students at a nearby school used this place as a "club", somewhere they could study and rest while not actually on the school grounds. SongXian's mother made up 4 beds for us girls, and then went back to their old house with her husband. The four of us stayed up, talking and practicing/teaching English for a while and then we crashed.
The next day was filled with shopping, food, wandering, and touring. The girls bought each of us a hair clip, not really my style, but thoughtful nonetheless. (The crazy dinner/lunch man tried to contact us, but we said we would be out of town until very late Sunday and could not have dinner with him, and we haven't heard from him since...win!) We found a supermarket with western booze, and got to try some local dishes that were quite tasty, and did some touristy things. We caught the last bus back to Siyang, and spent the evening sampling out some of our purchases, and had a rather relaxing Sunday before the week began. Add to that a HUGE sweep for UW Badger Hockey over Michigan Tech, and it was a good weekend. The next week succeeded in throwing a huge wrench into things, hence my cranky mood, but I'll get to that in my next post, hopefully tomorrow. I'm quite optimistic about that...let's see if I follow through!!! :)

Christmas is coming...

Thanksgiving came and went and, despite being away from home and family, Laura and I had a really good night. We went to Chen's in-laws' as planned, and the food was just as wonderful as we expected. We even had pumpkin, not pie, but pumpkin nonetheless. There were boiled sweet potatoes, yams, and chicken (as a substitute for the lack of turkey in China). We topped it all off with some wine, and had quite the pleasant evening. On our walk home, Laura and I decided that the one bottle of wine over dinner just wasn't quite enough, it's the holidays after all, so we stopped at a market and bought a second. We popped it open on the walk home (no open container laws in China) and were feeling pretty good as we got back to our apartment.

There are many different buildings in our complex, and ours only has 6 floors so there's no elevator. The building across from us, however, has like 12 or 13, so we voted for riding the elevators and checking out what it had to offer. We were able to get all the way up on the roof and watched all of our students leaving school for the night. By Friday we were all excited to see the show by Classes 1 & 2 of Senior 2, but they had to postpone because the kids weren't ready yet, and then Christine called and had to cancel (again) because it was "Parent's Weekend" at her school and she had to stay to teach. The positive side of this was that I got to follow my tradition of watching White Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving. It was Laura's first time seeing it, and she really enjoyed it as well!!! Although our weekend plans fell through again, Laura and I decided to follow through on those fort plans that we made during the week. So on Saturday night (in the snow!) we made the trek to the Suguo for supplies. Some sticky hooks, a circular clothes-dying hanger, 2 bed sheets and some metal clippy things later, and we had quite the abode. We're looking into adding another sheet to make it more comfortable, but it's already awesome, and you really can tell the temperature difference inside the fort with the heater.

On Sunday we went for a walk to one of the parks in town that has a really nice coffee shop. We sat for a while with lattes and relaxed, when some random Chinese men decided to buy us tea. We accepted and stayed longer, they didn't speak any English so they didn't bother us. But it was just a weird situation. A woman from the coffee shop came and sat with us, and told us that they wanted to take us to dinner. We agreed but only on the condition that she would come along, because she was the only person who would speak even a little English. We went to dinner, which was hilarious, and afterward one of the men let me drive his car!!! It was an Audi, totally decked out with all the bells and whistles, and drove like a dream. He was really impressed with my driving skills, which makes sense because the Chinese are horrible drivers. All of them. The next day he wanted to take us to lunch and then dinner again, but we casually declined mentioning that we are very busy during the week and maybe at the weekend we could go to another meal together. It's a little creepy, but he can't even ask us himself, so we don't really feel bad saying no. We're also leaving soon enough, it's not a big deal.

Now that it's December, I've decided to theme all of my lessons towards Christmas. I've been teaching carols, and making paper chains where each kid decorates a link, and writing letters to Santa. My English Corner students will watch The Polar Express in their lessons right before the holiday. They really don't know much about the festival, and while I can't explain any religious details, I still like the excuse of being able to listen to Christmas music all month, and sharing my holiday spirit with the kids. The top students really love the activities so that makes me feel good. It's hard to believe that after New Year's I'll only have 1 classroom lesson left with each class. Senior 2 was able to put on the show tonight, and it was one of the most entertaining things I've seen in China. Some acts were really good, some were not. And others were simply hilarious because the students were able to write their own skits, and the Chinese sense of humor is so different than ours. Either way it was great to see them put their English to use, and I'm glad I was invited!

As things move along I've come to conclude that December will probably be the longest month. The excitement of Christmas is great, but the anticipation of home being close, but still far is what will get me. I figure January will fly with trying to get everything in line...but I can't look that far ahead yet! Right now I'm just waiting for a package to arrive, there was an attempted delivery on Monday, but apparently no one was in the mail office at school so they didn't leave it. Chinese mail is frustrating, but hopefully it will show up soon!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like...autumn??

So after a week of winter-like weather, we got the call that our down jackets were finished, and that someone could take us to get a space heater for the apartment. Obviously, that means that the next day was about 62 degrees, and well above 50 for the subsequent days. We haven't broken in our jackets yet, and pretty much refuse to until it's actually cold. We have, however, started to use the space heater, which doesn't really do much for the living area. I think the area of the room is too big, so we sit really close to it and snuggle our blankets around it. It works well enough for now, but I'm not sure how it will do when winter actually sets in. We've tossed around the idea of building a fort in the main room, to create a smaller space that the space heater could actually have an impact in. I also think the fort would simply be for entertainment purposes. We would be hilariously entertained in building it, and hanging out inside it. The other entertainment would come from any Chinese person that would see it, most likely thinking that we are even more bat-shit crazy than they originally thought.

I've been teaching my students about Thanksgiving, telling them about the first celebration, and the traditions that occur today. All the way down to watching (American) football after we eat lots of food. They don't really understand turkey, but explaining it as something like chicken seems to work, and pumpkin pie is beyond them because they don't have ovens in China, so most baked items are also off the radar. I did get them to tell me some things they are thankful for, most students mention their parents, siblings, families, etc. Every once in a while, they are thankful for me, which is so endearing. It's been a little tough sharing my thoughts, because it makes me so much more aware of what I'm missing from home, but my students seems to understand and they do what they can to make me happy. For the holiday we will be having dinner at Chen's in-laws, the people who have essentially become our adoptive Chinese parents. Chen's mother-in-law is an amazing cook, so even though the food won't be traditional Thanksgiving fare, we'll be eating very well. It will also be nice to have something to do, as a bit of a distraction.

This weekend Senior 2 will put on a "party" for us, which will be a lot like a talent show, and our friend Christine will come visit. She was supposed to be here last weekend, but came down with the flu and had to postpone the trip. Laura and I will partake in one of my Thanksgiving weekend traditions, and we will watch White Christmas. Usually we watching it on the day after Thanksgiving while making Christmas cookies for the upcoming season, but we'll have to wait until Sunday night. We both teach on Friday, and will have the Senior 2 party that night. Sunday will be a good way to wind-down a less than normal Thanksgiving for the two of us. Then before you know it, December will be upon us. Hard to believe, isn't it???

Back from Shanghai, to an early Winter

We made it back from Shanghai safe and sound. It was quite the trip and I'm a little sad to be back. Part of me was very ready to get back to a slower lifestyle with less people, but of course as soon as I'm back, I miss Shanghai. Apparently the grass is always greener, even in China. Anyways, the adventure started with the bus ride down. We got to the station in order to catch a 7:20a bus to Shanghai. We get everything situated and start driving, only we are doing laps around the main road in Siyang. All of a sudden the bus stops and they tell everyone to get off and move us to a different bus. The second bus was cold, dirty, and had people smoking in it. We continues to troll for passengers until the bus was full and we were finally on our way. The ride was horrible from using bus stop bathrooms with no doors, to having someone dig their knees into the back of my seat (even though it wasn't reclined AT ALL) to the man in the back that sounded like he was hacking up a lung for the last 2 hours of the ride. BUT we finally arrived, navigated the metro, and made it to our hostel! The first night we decided to take it easy and stuck around the hostel for some beers. We ended up meeting two guys from Boston and stayed up till like 4am playing P&A and just sharing China stories. They were heading back to the States the following day, and we were a bit jealous. But it was great to meet people and speak English again.

The following day we met up with Christine and went to the SUPER BRAND MALL. All Western stores and a Starbucks. We were in heaven. It's been so long since I've had REAL coffee. We have a French press here which is good, but nowhere near the real thing. Anyways, we went shopping all day (H&M was great!), ate lunch at Subway, saw the Pearl TV Tower (which is hideous by the way) and then made plans to meet up with one of Laura's friends from home who is now living/working in Shanghai. We got to his place, lugging a suitcase that he is so awesomely taking back to America for us so we don't have to deal with it when we travel after the term, and he showed us around the area. He lives in a super Westernized part of town complete with a Costa Coffee and a Starbucks within spitting distance of his apartment complex's guard station. We went to an American-style sports bar for late dinner and drinks and just had a great time hanging around Western people. Friday was a bit of a bust because it was raining all day. We were going to walk around the park and visit temples, but opted for Pearl City bargain hunting instead. It was awesome. I got a lot of cool stuff for myself as well as gifts for the family. I'm super excited about all of it, but can't be more specific because I like to think that people actually read my blog, and I don't want to give anything away. Friday night consisted of more drinking and meeting people as did Saturday, to the point where we had to change our bus tickets because we weren't ready to travel so early Sunday morning. Saturday during the day though, it was nice out and we decided to play actual tourists and visited People's Park, and the Shanghai Museum of Art.

All in all it was a great trip, but when we got back to Siyang, winter had decided to stop in early. It was lightly snowing as we were picked up from the station, and it continued to fall all night. These past few days have been freezing. In central and southern China, they do not believe in central heating because it doesn't get "that cold". Coming from Wisconsin, I believe them. Temperatures around 30F aren't that bad, except when the inside of your apartment and school is also that temp. The stone buildings don't hold much heat in winter and we have no heating units outside of our bedrooms, or offices at school. It's really hard to adjust to. Not to mention the solar powered hot water we have, which means that in the morning when I wash my face, the water is pretty much ice cold. It's hard to get warm after that. We resorted to buying a large thermos which we keep in the bathroom filled with hot water so we can wash our faces. We've also booked down jackets, which annoyingly aren't done yet, and we hope to buy a small space heater so we can at least stand to be in our kitchen/living room for more than 2 minutes. I sleep in more clothes than I ever thought possible and I'm pretty sure the next time I take an honest to goodness shower (not just using a tub and washcloth or washing my hair in the faucet) will be when I travel somewhere and stay in a hostel/hotel.

I hate to whine so much, but it's really not fun to be cold all the time. I've already managed to catch a cold, and I fear that it won't really go away until I come home. Talk about learning not to take things for granted. China sure is toughening me up, and forcing me to appreciate many, many things in my life.

Fall Break?

Time seems to flying by off of a sudden. The crazy thing is that after we got back from Halloween, we found of that mid-terms would be coming up and we would each be getting a day or two off. The catch is that our school is so big, they test different grades on different days. So, technically, Laura and I would have different holidays. She was supposed to have Monday-Wednesday of this week off, and I would have Wednesday-Friday off. Kind of makes it difficult to plan a trip when you only share one day of vacation in the middle of the week. Or so we thought. What really happened is that the teachers of Laura's grade decided that they didn't want her to teach after the exams because all the classes would be discussing the tests and going over scores and whatnot. And my teachers decided they didn't want me to teach the 2 days before the tests because the students would need more time to prepare. So, we have the week off. We'll be leaving for Shanghai early Wednesday morning, and should arrive sometime mid-afternoon. After 4 nights of exploring, eating Western food, and most likely spending way too much money, we'll head back to Siyang.

We've tossed around the idea of having a party at our apartment for some of our colleagues, but we're not sure how beer pong and flip cup would go over with them...we'll see. The idea of just a party with drinking, not a dinner/drinking party is somewhat beyond most of the people in our town. There really is a rift between the social practices of the people in the modern, large, somewhat Westernized cities and those of the people in true small town China. We'll ask around and see what people think. If anything, I'm sure most people will want to come and see what our apartment looks like, and how the Americans do things. It could be quite the evening. We figure our apartment is great because it is so sparsely decorated that there is plenty of room for all sorts of people and activities.

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving in just over 2 weeks away. I will spend the next two weeks of English Corner talking to my students about the holiday and what sort of traditions people have. I also think we might make "hand turkeys" and do the whole "What are you Thankful for?" game. That will get all the students to talk and think of something on their own to share with everyone. It might get a little tough for me though. It's so hard to be away from family over holidays, especially when you're in a place where no one really knows anything about what the day is. Also, regardless of Thanksgiving, Chinese families are really close, and I'm sure most students will bring that up when they talk about what they are thankful for, so it will just be an additional reminder of what I miss. I'm sure it will be okay though, and I can pretty much promise I'll end up video chatting or skyping my family from here anyways. Besides, after Thanksgiving is Christmas!

I've never been away from my family on Christmas...I've been away from home, but I've always had my parents around whether it be in Spain, Wisconsin, Italy, etc. Laura and I have already decided to exchange gifts, and we even set a price limit because we want to budget our money so we can travel after the term. My sister has mentioned my "list" as has my mom...and I really can't think of much. I don't want things shipped here by chance they don't make it, and to minimize what I need to bring home. It's so pathetic but money is really what's on the list. I want to be able to travel and I hate worrying about money. It's not a big deal though, I think I just want to wait until I'm back and make a "Christmas list" then, because I'll have a better idea of what I actually need/want!

Anyways, I feel like such a blabbermouth on here. Welcome to the inside of my head, if you can manage to keep up at all, I congratulate you. I should probably think about packing for Shanghai, and planning all that we want to see; the Bund, the pearl TV tower, the museums, etc. It should be a great trip and I can promise I'll have lots of pictures and stories upon my return...

November arrives...

As one of my favorite festivals (haha, the British English is rubbing off on me) has passed, November is upon me and it's coming in with fury! Laura and I got home from Nanjing today, and while watching some movies tonight, the weather has gotten out of control. Not a ton of rain, but so much wind, it sounds like a hurricane out there...or at least what I think a hurricane would sound like.

I've been teaching my students a little bit about Halloween because it was the next approaching American holiday. I asked them to tell me what they knew about the day, even though China doesn't celebrate, their answers were relatively on the mark. They knew about trick-or-treat, and some kids knew the date. They also told me about making "pumpkin lanterns" and wearing costumes. The funny thing though is that the only costume they knew of was a ghost...and every once in a while a "monkey king". I explained that costume choices were pretty much limitless and you could be whatever you wanted. It got entertaining when they asked me what I would be for Halloween. As I mentioned before, our students all wear track like jogging suits as their school uniforms. Well, Laura and I managed to get our hands on our own sets and decided to go Siyang Middle School students for Halloween. So, I told my students I would going to be one of them, and they thought that was pretty cool! We even got some sweet hair accessories to complete the look. Fashion in China is...unique, and somewhat juvenile, so we had fun with that.

Anyways, this past weekend we decided to head back to Nanjing to celebrate Halloween with some other Americans. It wouldn't have been too much of party here in Siyang, considering Laura and I would be the only 2 people in the entire city who would be taking part in the festivities. So off we went. Our friend, Christine, is teaching in a super small town too and needed to get away, so we thought this would be the perfect weekend. We got in on Friday night and met up with everyone, and decided to get dinner at this place called Himalaya. The best Nepalese food I've ever had, and a bottle of booze to go with it. Needless to say we were feeling awesome after dinner and decided to hit the town. After a stop at a favorite bar nearby, we headed out to KTV. This would make it my 3rd time at a KTV and we had so much fun! Actually singing karaoke with people that speak English is hilarious. I think we were out until about 4am. I can't remember the last time I was out that late. On Saturday we headed back to our old stomping grounds and ate at our FAVORITE place, Wu's Noodles and Fried Meat Buns. Then stopped by a DVD store and picked up a ton of movies, including the new Harry Potter. All in all, a successful shopping trip.

Finally it was time to suit up and head out for the celebrations. We got into our costumes, Laura and I as students and Christine as Tom Cruise from Risky Business, and went out for dinner. We went to this amazing Italian place, and had one of our best meals in China yet. We were a little self-conscious about being in costume, until a table of about 20 Westerners came in completely dressed up and way more extreme so we calmed down. We finally met up with everyone and had a blast. The costumes were creative and funny and even some Chinese people were dressed up too. There was a house party with a bunch of Westerners and then we were off to the clubs. The evening was ridiculous, and hilarious, and just all around fun. Granted, it really made me miss Madison Halloween. But, the weather was cold and rainy, so that made me feel at home. I swear it's impossible to have a nice night to just dress up and party!

We made it back to Siyang safe and sound though, ready to get back into the swing of things and ready to make plans for our next excursion. The plan right now is to head to Shanghai. We might have a day off from classes for mid-terms, and hopefully that will work out, otherwise we may take a personal day and head down over Thanksgiving. Christine is planning to visit sometime this month as well, so we'll be able to show her around Siyang, and hopefully give her another escape weekend from her city.

Time is moving along here. Sometimes faster than others...but, ultimately, I can't believe that it's already November. Plus, it's quite chilly here now, all the way down to 40, I hope that I can adjust :)

DRUNKEN BLOG INTERLUDE

Ok, so here's the deal. Laura and I went out tonight....and drank just a bit, and by just a bit i mean, enough to post a drunken blog. Hopefully I will be back to normal blogging tomorrow, but for now, enjoy our recount of the evening.

Tonight we went to dinner at the in-laws of a teacher in my office. We ate the best-est meal we've had yet in China. We also learned how to stuff dumplings. We suck at stuffing dumplings, but they were nice to us anyways, because "dumplings are dumplings" and that is a direct quote from a chinese person. After dinner we went to watch people dance in the square, and then went home with many many dumplings in tow.

Before going to dinner a student came to our apartment and told us he was having a party for us tonight, but we had other plans, and told him maybe after dinner. oh well. when we came home from dinner, no one was around and our apartment was locked so we thought maybe the party was delayed. We got a text from our friend Liu Jie, asking us to come to his restaurant for a beeer or two. On the way there we were assaulted by some students. They know where we live now, so they stalk us. Apparently this is ok by chinese cultural standards. We still don't buy it. We told the students we were going to see a friend and would see them another time.

One student in particular followed us there and came in to hang out. We agreed to let him have less than half a cup of beer, to humor him. but we did not want to drink with him because, even though there is no drinking age in china, we do not feel right drinking with students. because, alas, we are not chinese. but as we were drinking and talking, the student that followed us, David James, told us a lovely story. Apparently for the party that was supposed to happen that night, he bought some beer. We asked him how he was able to buy it and this is (pretty much word for word) what he said:

"This night i went to the shop. The shopkeeper said 'what do you want to buy?' 'Sir, i want to buy some beer.'(said David James) But the shopkeeper said 'you are only a children, you can not buy beer.' And then I said 'can you give me a chance?' and the shopkeeper laughed and give me some beer." David James (16 years old)

So, we let the kid hang out for a while, but it was weird because he is my student, so eventually we told him to go home. he wasn't pumped but he did because i went into teacher mode and convinced him to go. We stayed and hung out with Liu Jie, and he tried to teach us Chinese. he kept saying how easy it is, but we tried to learn ONE word (vegetables) and said it like 2,000,000 and it was always wrong. He would say it "right" and we would try to repeat but it was wrong. ALWAYS wrong. So much for chinese being "easy". Anyways, we decided to call it a night and now we are home, blogging and having some late night beers, and most likely hitting up some of the jiaozi we made tonight.

I hope this is somewhat entertaining. I'll be back to the regular routine tomorrow night, filling in the gaps from the previous week!!! Thanks for reading! :)

Honestly, I need to work on this...

So I really need to work on my blogging skills. I keep having things happen and I'm like, "I need to write about this." But then I don't. So anyways, I'm going to try and remember everything that happened in the last week, and also I will try to post things as they occur so that it's easier to follow along.

Besides the Chinese names, last weekend was a very interesting. Friday night Mr. Xu took us out for drinks. This apparently means we will go out at 6pm and have a HUGE meal, a bottle of wine, and like 8 or 10 half liters of beer. That's kind of a lot of alcohol for 3 people. After dinner we decided to keep going and ended up at KTV. If you are unfamiliar, KTV is karaoke. But it's a bit different than in the States. Here, you have a private room with a touch screen menu where you can choose your song and how you want it to project on the wall and play over the stereo. So we found the English songs, which was a hilarious mix from Lionel Richie to Michael Jackson to Brandy to Britney Spears. It was great. Mr. Xu even sang some of the English songs. Apparently he tells his students that he doesn't sing. This is a lie. I've seen it first hand.

Sunday we went to our students "sports meeting." This is known as a track meet in America. The students were so surprised to see Laura and I there, we ended up being somewhat bombarded by kids, and didn't really watch too many of the races. It was fun to sit and talk with the kids though. I really feel like we are the first people to give them the time of day. Their other teachers simply expect them to show up and memorize everything they need to achieve a certain result. We would rather them gain the confidence and understanding in what they are doing, so we'll sit and chat and hopefully make a difference.

This past week my teaching schedule changed (again) but now I am much happier with it. I will be teaching 2 classes each day, and then an English Corner at night four times a week for the top students. It means I will see each class only once a month, but the top 8 classes will see me 2 additional times each month beyond their classroom lesson. In the English Corner, I can teach whatever I want. I can also (hopefully) create a much more relaxed atmosphere in which the students will not be too scared to try and practice their spoken English. The Dean of the Senior 1 class took us out to dinner on Tuesday night. Things kind of got a way from us too. I was supposed to teach at 7:35a and 8:35a the next day (which ended up being canceled due to a mix up) but that didn't matter to the teachers. We got sufficiently drunk by about 9pm on a Tuesday. The Dean (who doesn't speak English) really seemed to enjoy himself. We were linking arms and drinking and he even ended up hugging Laura and I. I hope this means that I am officially welcomed a part of Senior 1 at Siyang Middle School.

We found out that Siyang hosts a semi-pro basketball team in their off-season for training. They play an exhibition game in town before heading on the road for their season. We were able to get tickets and went to see the game. The first Chinese player to ever play in the NBA is actually back in China now and plays for this team. The crowd loved him! It was funny though because we walked in during warm-ups and got a fair amount of looks from the people there to watch the game. We've gotten pretty used to that, but when the players from the team noticed us and were all looking in the stands, it's kind of weird. We definitely bring an even bigger spectacle to any event that goes on in our town. Chen said she heard people talking about us and they thought we were Russian. People have also said they think we're French...not sure what they are basing their opinions on, but oh well. After the game we waited to the team to leave and the crowd to thin and we headed out. The game was held at the feeder school for where we teach, and there were many students standing in the hallway as we left. They were all very excited to see the foreign teachers, and one even held out a notebook and pen like for an autograph. I figured it wouldn't hurt so I signed my English name in the book. Then all hell broke loose. The kids started pushing towards us and shoving notebooks and pens into our hands and wanting us to sign things. I honestly felt like a movie star or something. The security that was working the game came over and started holding kids back and ushering us out the door. Laura said she even signed a kid's jacket. It was such a strange and surreal experience!

Friday we decided to be brave and go get our hair cut. Chen came with to help translate, but it was still unnerving to let someone near me with a scissors when I couldn't tell them anything! It all worked out though, and I now have short hair again, and it only cost me about 1.50USD. Apparently for a wash, cut and dry, it's very inexpensive in our town! But, if you would want to actually have like an up-do or color done the price would jump from the 10RMB we paid to about 100RMB. That's still much cheaper than in the states, but yikes! That night we decided that we would finally check out the "club" that we had discovered on a different night of wandering. Yes, a real live club. It's called Mass Fashion Bar. The music was loud and we ordered a bottle of vodka and went from there. It was pretty fun, but we would've preferred more American music. It's hard to get into the mood to dance when you don't know any of the songs being played. But we were able to snag some VIP cards, which means discounts! and I think the club managers were really excited to have the foreigners in town make an appearance at their bar. We'll probably go back a few times, and if we can ever convince people to come visit us, we'll take them there. It's probably the most happening place to go on weekends, besides KTV. Our friends from the restaurant where we eat at least once a day came with as well. Liu Jie and Liu Hao. They are brothers and only Liu Jie speaks decent English, but Liu Hao is learning, and they are teaching us Chinese, and it's nice to have some friends outside of the school.

On Saturday Chen took us downtown so that we could buy some bikes! It's difficult to get to places in town quickly from our apartment without taking a pedicab, so we wanted another means of transportation. Chen had her mother-in-law do some bargain hunting and she was able to find a place that could sell us decent bikes with baskets and locks included for about 36USD. Even in China that is a good deal for new bikes. They are kind of hilarious, but will totally do the trick to get us through to February. We road the bikes around for a bit and got to see a few other schools in the area, Chen's old apartment, and even some rice fields and people harvesting. I never knew what rice looked like before it got to the store, so it was really interesting to see! That night we rode our bikes to a dinner with all the English teachers from my office as a welcome dinner for Laura and I, and also a going away dinner for a young assistant teacher in the office. It was very fun and I was able to get to know the people in my office better. Everyone thought that I was very shy, but they usually speak in Chinese in the office, so I never have anything to say. I hope that now we will all be more open to talking with each other.

Finally, Sunday. Today we went to lunch at Chen's mother's house. She doesn't speak any English but was so excited to have us over. She cooked soooooo much food. The always have a ton of food at meals in China, it's crazy! But we got to see an old Chinese house, which seemed huge because now everyone lives in apartments to save space for the ever increasing population. We also ate with Chen's sister and one of her friends from the school she used to teach at. There wasn't a ton of interaction because of the language barrier but it was really neat to see someone's home and experience true Chinese home cooking. We met some children from the neighborhood as well, one little girl in particular, after warming up to us wanted so many pictures taken together! We also got to see some kittens that are only about 2 weeks old. Chen's cat lives with her mother and just had babies...I really want to take one as a pet, but that's just not going to be possible, with me leaving in 4 months and all. After lunch Chen's sister took us to the Siyang Exhibition Center where she works and gave us a tour that showed us about the history of Siyang as well as the progress it has made in the past few years. It also gave us an idea on where the city will be heading in the future, and I think that in maybe 5-10 years, Siyang with be a strong economic and industrial area.

Quite the week I had, huh? As I said before I will do my best to break the week up a little bit more, especially if so much happens. It's impossible to remember it all a week later when I try to update this thing!
(PS I'm having some issues uploading pics, so hopefully I'll be able to get them up soon!!!)

Nice to meet you (in Chinese)...

So this will be super short, but I wanted to share with everyone that I officially have a Chinese name, and Laura does too.

This is my name, its yang li. Pronounced like yong lee. The first part is my "family name" and it means Italian poplar tree, which is what our city, Siyang, is famous for. Then li is part of my mom's name, which is Mary or ma li in Chinese. So I'm named for her, and it also means jasmine flower.

Lauras name is yang lu. Pronounced like yong loo. Her family name is the same, which means that we are "sisters", and her first name means the morning dew, which is very beautiful to the Chinese.

We are so happy with our names and are practicing writing them, which isn't going so well, but we're trying. I like that our family name comes from the city we live in, too, because the school and our students and friends are essentially our big family while we're here. Also, our first names are personal and beautiful. So, yay! I'm feeling a little more at home every day, a temporary home, but at least somewhat comfortable. Not to mention, with this new name, I think I feel a second tattoo coming on when I get back to the States... ;)

Holy Cow (pt.2)

So, on to Tuesday. We decided to try our hand at real Chinese bargaining by heading to the Pearl Market. We asked the hostel how to get there and attempted once again to navigate the bus system. This time it was a bit confusing and the directions we were given were not right. So we tried to ask some people on the bus and they told us we had to get off and transfer. The hostel said nothing about transferring so we hesitated. But next think you know we're at a bus stop and the guy we asked for help starts shouting, "GET OFF THE BUS!!! CROSS THE STREET, TAKE BUS THREE - SIX!!!" Laura tried to clarify and said, "bus thirty-six?" and he goes, "NO, BUS THREE SIX!" So we get off and find our way to the stop for bus "three six" and we get on and start moving. We try to ask around but no one speaks English but finally we get to a stop and a little old lady points to a building across the street and then to the bus door. So we get off and look around and sure enough, we're at the Pearl Market.

Don't let the name fool you, the first stand when you walk in is pearls, but the other billion (ish) stands on 4 different floors sell EVERYTHING. I would like to take this moment to warn you though, if you ever go to the Pearl Market in Beijing, be sure to eat something before because it is exhausting, and you must have a strong front, these people are relentless. When you walk in they start in on you, and looking western is even worse. White means money to these people and they will do anything rip you off! We wandered a little and talked to some people, who were all asking outrageous prices for their products, when Teresa met a woman at a scarf stand. This woman was a flight attendant for Air Canada and shared some wonderful advice. She sent us to her friend Steve who worked an electronics stand. She told him that we were friends with her and he should treat us well. I was looking for some portable speakers to use so I could play music in the classroom and Steven said 40RMB. The first stand I asked at said 200RMB!!!!! This guy was too good to be true. He helped us with a few other prices that we should accept for certain products and was just wonderful with our questions. While we were shopping there, another couple from Air Canada told us to go to Shanon's stand on the 2nd floor for clothing. Just tell them that we are friends with the Air Canada people and they will give us great prices. So we went up to the second floor and found the women who ran the stand, and they gave us amazing prices on all sorts of clothes and accessories. It was quite a relief after trying to bargain our way through everything else. I was beyond exhausted by the time we were done.

We got back to the hostel to pick up our things and went to get a taxi to the train station. Unfortunately, it was rush hour and no one would take us because of traffic, so we start speed walking because we were already running late. Finally some pedi-cab driver says he and a friend will take us and we climb in with all our stuff and speed off to the station. We paid an obscene amount of yuan, but didn't really have time to argue because our train was about to depart. So we're running through the station and we get to our platform as they are starting to pull the little ramps away. We had to cart our stuff through 3 cars to get to our bunks, but we made it! It was ridiculous. As expected after a whirlwind 3 days, I slept through the night on this train, and woke up when we arrived back in Xuzhou. We decided to tour a little bit there and went up a mountain to see a temple and some other sights which was really pretty, but by the afternoon Laura and I were ready to head back to Siyang. So, we got to the bus station, bought our tickets, and were on our way. After about 3.5 hours, the bus stops on the highway and the driver comes to our seats and tells us to get off... We had no idea where we were but he points to the forest and is like "Siyang, Siyang". We get off and get our bags and just stand there, unsure of what was going on. Some taxi driver takes us and we show him the address for our apartment and he starts to drive. For the first 5 minutes of the ride, neither of us recognized anything in the town, but finally I saw a kid in a uniform from our school so we knew we were in the right place. It was a bit unnerving, but we finally got home. When we got to our apartment there was a note, in English, taped to our door. Apparently there are other foreigners in our town, and word got around to them about Laura and I. This guy, Anthony, found us and left us his information so we could meet up. He is from the UK and knows 2 other guys, from Africa, that are teaching in Siyang. So we are finally going to meet some foreigners. It will be weird though because Laura and I have found a weird sort of comfort in our life as the only foreigners, but I suppose we're still the only Americans, and mid-Westerners at that, so we have our niche.

Anyways, that brings us to the end of the fall holiday after quite the crazy ride. In the 3 days since we've been back, the stories have started to accumulate, but I think I'll save those for next time...

Holy cow I have a lot to share...

I would like to apologize right off for a few reasons. One because I haven't written in over a week, another because I will most likely repeat stories more than once, and also because this entry will probably be obnoxiously long. But hey, a lot has happened in the last week and a half, you should be happy! So.....

Laura and I took a bus up to Xuzhou to see our friend Teresa. She met us at the station and we went back to her place for the night. We got to wander a little bit and see another bigger city. She has a Carrefour and everything so it was cool to see that. It really shows us how small our town is. We really don't have anything western like so many of the big cities do. After a day in Xuzhou, we got to the train station to take our overnight to Beijing. They really just pack you in. Our compartment (which didn't even have a door) was 3 bunks high on both sides. We were the only western people in our car, and probably on the whole train. Not too many people come from the smaller cities when traveling to Beijing, most just fly in directly. Anyways, the trip there was a bit rough and we arrived around 5:30am. We navigated our way on the bus to the hostel and checked in around 6:30am. Needless to say, we took a bit of a nap before heading out to be tourists. On the first day we wandered around the shopping district and then headed over to Tiananmen Square. The floats from the National Day parade were all on display, so that was pretty sweet to check out. We also saw the Forbidden City, and had our pictures taken by a bunch of Chinese tourists in Beijing as well. I guess we should be used to it by now, but it was a little unexpected in such a busy city because there were tons of westerners everywhere! It was really nice to be able to use some English too though, especially with someone other than Laura. We need a little outside stimulation every once in a while, or we will go crazy!

That night we were going to go to an Acrobatics Show, but it was sold out so we rescheduled for the following evening, and we just went out and took it easy around the hostel. We decided to head to bed early because our second day would be very full. We were up and heading out to the Great Wall by 7:30am Monday morning. Our hostel offered a private tour to a different section of the wall than most people see. We had to hike up the mountain to get to it and then walked along the crumbling pieces for about 3 hours before heading back down. It was incredible. I had a slight asthma attack going up, which really sucked, but I just slowed my pace a little and it wasn't a big deal. It was totally worth it. Absolutely one of the most amazing things I've seen in my life. I know the pictures don't really do it justice, but seriously, there are things in life that you just don't ever think you'll really do, and this is one that I'm proud to say I can cross off my list, and it was more than worth it. Our guide was this little 75 year old man that kicked everyone's butts going up the mountain. He was unstoppable, and didn't speak English, but it didn't matter. I totally bought an "I Climbed the Great Wall" t-shirt too. It had to happen, haha. After the hike we had a decent meal, then headed back to the hostel. We tried to get a bit of a nap in before heading off to the Acrobatic Show that we were unable to go to the previous night. We got ourselves ready and headed off to the show, which was also incredible. The strength and flexibility and everything that all the performers has was mind blowing. I felt like I was holding my breath for the entire show. Afterward, we went out for a late dinner of western food and just enjoyed our night with a few beers and chatting up some people at the hostel. We planned to go to the Pearl Market the next day for a ton of shopping before our overnight train back to Xuzhou.

Due to the length of this and the fact that I have to get to a track meet I'm going to make this a "To be continued..."

On Holiday...

So Wednesday marked the beginning of our holiday. We were able to go to a Chinese wedding on the 30th and experience what that was really like. It's very different that in the States. Wednesday was the celebration for the Bride's side, and basically it was just a big luncheon. There were many rooms with tables and food and the bride, groom, and bride's parents came around to each table and toasted with the guests. One thing that did seem very Western was the bride's dress...it was so crowded though, I didn't get a very good picture. She looked beautiful though!
The food was really interesting, and by that I mean that Laura and I didn't eat much. Apparently a lot of it was really fancy and expensive, but that doesn't really mean that it is appetizing! We were polite though and did our best, but were kind of hungry shortly after, haha.

There are two celebrations occurring over the break, National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival. National Day was October 1st, and is the Chinese equivalent of Independence Day. We got up early to watch the parade that was being televised from Beijing. It was pretty boring actually. The majority of it was the different branches of the military marching past the Forbidden City showing off their weapons and whatnot. Towards the end though there were floats and music and some dancing and things, so that was kind of interesting. There have been firecrackers going off to the last few days to commemorate the event, actually, any event. The Chinese are obsessed with firecrackers, it's a bit obnoxious. But, when in Rome...or China... Anyways, last night there was a special dinner that we were invited to--to celebrate National Day. Like I said before, usually when we go to "special dinners" the food is very authentic and actually not always things that Laura and I would eat. But the food for National Day was so good! We even brought some home. Chen (our friend and colleague in the picture) knew the word "doggie-bag", it was hilarious. But everyone really enjoyed themselves and the food, so this dinner was awesome!!!

Anyways, we are off to Xuzhou to see Teresa, and then heading to Beijing by overnight train tomorrow, so I have to go and pack. We will have a computer and internet access, but I'll be really busy, so you can expect an update after we're home and hopefully lots of pictures!!!!!!

Finally.

Well this is going to be short because I'm exhausted and want to get to bed, but a few quick things need to be said. First, I am actually writing and posting this from my bedroom in China. Yes, ladies and gents, we have internet at the apartment. Not just internet, but wireless. And approximately 8 hours per day's worth of internet. Also, tomorrow is the last day of my first round of classes. 40 down, 240 to go....ew. I promise not to say that again. But with the end of the first round comes National Day, Moon Festival, and the fall holiday. Which basically means there are a few massive sighs of relief occurring over here in China, not to mention 8 very warranted days off. It's the only real holiday we know of during fall semester, but we'll find out own way to break up the rest of it. Laura and I already booked our hostel in Nanjing over Halloween and have been brainstorming a few other ideas for what we would like to do during the winter months. Things are progressing rather well, considering. I just might survive my time here after all...

"Holidays"

So, as I've mentioned before, National Day is coming up and we get a week off from school. Laura and I have made plans to visit a friend in a nearby city, and then the 3 of us are heading up to Beijing for some sweet touring and shopping and whatnot. Only thing is, apparently in China a holiday really isn't a holiday. It's Saturday morning and I'm currently in my office getting ready to teach today. Not just a class or two, but 4 classes today. And another 3 tomorrow, starting at 7:35am. That's right, even if it's the law that you get days off for a holiday (and in the case of National Day, it is required by law to have days off) we still have to make them up. So I'll be teaching this weekend, and then most likely the weekend after the holiday is complete, to make up for the time we missed. So much for a break, huh?

I believe the celebrations have already began for National Day though, there have been many official looking things on TV, granted since I don't know any Chinese it could be absolutely nothing. But there is also a small festival type set-up going on in the square of our town. Last night after dinner we passes what seemed to be a talent show of sorts and there were games and small rides for children. It's essentially like China's 4th of July, and the Chinese are a very proud people so you can guess how big they are doing this up!

We did get one piece of good news from Laura's friend who is from Beijing... apparently she feels that the government might lift the ban on youtube and facebook after National Day. Since the riots and such from the summer are far in the past, and if all the celebrations go off successfully, they just might give those things back to the people. But I guess that is just another thing added to the list of what we want to happen in the near future. Here's to hoping...

Teaching...

So, as much as I have been whining (which I'm sorry about), I also have some good stories to share from school. Teaching 2500 students give me many opportunities for interesting interactions. Because I am teaching freshman, and most of them have never spoken to a native english speaker before, I'm taking it slow. The first day with each class is simply spent doing introductions. I have each student stand and tell me their name, age, and something about them. After that, I let them ask me questions. Both of these activities lead to some hilarious situations. I let each student choose their English name and didn't correct anyone if they chose something that wasn't really a name. I figure if they want that to be their name, who am I to say it's not okay. This can lead to some VERY interesting choices.

I think my favorite was a young girl who stood up and, in rather good english, told me her name is Howard. It took all of me not to laugh...but the students didn't laugh either. They really don't know what is right or wrong. I've also had many boys choose names such as Susan, Katie, Sarah, Summer, Grace and Joy. The seasons and positive words make sense, but the other names are just funny. Also, the NBA is super popular here, so I have a lot of boys who pick some form of Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, and Tracy McGrady. I've even had a few Michael Jacksons, and Obamas. Usually the kids laugh at those, because they actually recognize them. It doesn't bother me though, I just have to get used to referring to students as James Bond, or Car, or Winter.

When I open the floor so they can ask me questions, I'm usually asked where I'm from (no one has heard of Madison, Wisconsin), how old I am, and if I have a boyfriend. Talk about a constant reminder of being single! When I say I don't have a boyfriend the students usually ask why, and tell me that I'm beautiful. It's flattering at first, but it's kind of weird to have kids stand up everyday and tell you that they think you are the most beautiful person in the world. I try to brush past it, but I'm not sure what I'll do when I come home and don't hear it everyday! Only kidding!

Because I'm teaching every single freshman class on a 3-week rotation, I have the opportunity to be flexible with my lessons. I'm excited to teach American music, and slang. I really just want my kids to be more comfortable speaking, even if the conversation is limited. They just need to build up the confidence. Laura and I are heading to Beijing in a week with another teacher we met in Nanjing. I'm so excited to see the Great Wall and I'm sure there will be many pictures to post after that! I'm trying to get all of my pictures up now but we're STILL waiting on internet, so it's been a struggle...I still have hope we'll get it soon, and Laura and I even sent an email to our agency asking to speed up the process. Let's see if we can work the Chinese system a little bit to our benefit!!! Wish us luck!!!

Officially insane.

***There is a slight disclaimer to this post: I'm super cranky, and there's a lot of venting, and my language isn't the most eloquent, so proceed with caution. ***

So I still do no have internet at my apartment. It's now Tuesday of the second week here, and it was supposed to "take a couple days". When we asked about it yesterday no one had even called. I'm really sort of pissed off about it. But I feel like I have the right to be. We've been so ridiculously flexible about everything else that has changed with our situation, and I don't want to have to sit in my office with 20 other teachers who are all watching what I do, and attempt to talk to anyone from home. I'm in my office right now, and about 4 teachers are napping so I won't call home. I think my typing is loud enough, but hey, they keep telling me to just use the office to catch up. It sucks a lot though too because my free time is mostly during the afternoon and I don't really catch too many people awake at the wee hours of the morning in the states, and usually when I do, they don't really remember talking to me anyways. I would like the chance to have some privacy and be able to talk to my parents and friends when I want to. I also would just like to go online and maybe look up some recipes because Laura and I are trying to cook for ourselves, but we don't really know easy chinese dishes, and we don't know where there is a restaurant we could go to instead. Plus, we can't order food anyways, so I guess we'll just keep experimenting so we don't starve. I know I'm going to extremes here, I just can't get my frustrations out any other way. And I don't want to complain to Laura all the time because she is the only other English speaker and she has her own trouble and frustrations, and we need to stay in each others' good graces! I'm so grateful she's with me here in Siyang. I wouldn't be surviving at all if I was alone. A few things that keep me sane are listening to music, and reading, and trying to learn more guitar. I'm running out of books though, so that sucks, but maybe that means my guitar skills will be amazing by the time I come home.

Last weekend Laura and I already bailed out and went back to Nanjing to visit our friends, and go out (our town doesn't even have one bar). It was super fun, but a bit expensive. And the bus ride was 4 hours both ways. The way there was alright, I sat with Laura. But on the way back some Chinese man sat with me and was totally all up in my personal bubble. And everything I did he full out turned and watched me. Watched me put my iPod headphones in, text people, and when I was reading he leaned over and tried to read my book! He also took my cell phone and called his with it. His ringtone was "Yeah" by Usher. Hilarious...but creepy because he called me twice yesterday. Mind you he didn't speak one word of english. So I put him on my blocked calls list. Weirdo. Just one of the many things I will never get used to, nor do I want to.

We ventured out to the giant Suguo (supermarket) yesterday, and while the trip was a success, we were followed around the store. People here just stare at us. We don't even do weird things. Laura said she wants to walk around naked. At least then there would be a reason for people to look at her like she was a circus freak. I'm starting to agree. The students at school are all really great. They seem excited to learn from native english speakers, but beyond that, nothing about the attention we receive is endearing. It really just pushes my buttons, and adding that to not being able to talk to home and such, and I'm just losing my mind. Hopefully, HOPEFULLY, all will be resolved very soon, and my posts will be less of my emotional turmoil and more of my actual experiences and life here in China...until then, I'll try and keep my head above water, and I'll try to want to keep it above water too.

I suck at blogging..

So, I really want to blog, and often. But as we stand I still don't have internet in my apartment, and I don't feel like I have the time or am in the right mental state to keep up with it while I'm at school using the wireless... So my promise is that I will go back and catch up with all of the important things as soon as I feel like I can give the proper amount of time to my sharing. Hopefully the internet will be installed this weekend...or I just might lose my mind :) But stay tuned, because there is a lot that needs to be documented about how my life is changing and the way things go down in small-town China!!!

Kinda pissed...

So things aren't exactly going as we had hoped over here in China. We were told that we'd be moving to Wuxi and teaching kindergarten. Laura and I were excited about that. Wuxi is a developed city with night life and foreigners and whatnot. But today we found out that the schools there have canceled the English programs and we are now going to a very small city north of Nanjing to teach high school. Laura and I are luckily staying together, but we don't really know much about what is coming next.

What we do know is that the city we're going to is called Su qian (pronounced Soo chee-en). The metro part of the town is only a half million people, and by China standards that is teeeeeeny. We will also be teaching high school. Not exactly 5 year olds, but hopefully it will work out. All our classes will be oral focused, because the students have been learning English for years, but have very little practice speaking it. Having native speakers should help them gain confidence in their oral skills to match their higher level writing and reading skills. We leave tomorrow at noon, so I will have a lot more to say by then. But I can say I'm excited to have my own room where I can unpack my suitcase, and put up my posters and actually make something of a home. Wish me luck...

2 weeks in...

Well I've officially been in China for just over 2 weeks. Not too much has changed since my last post thought. I'm still living in a hotel with my new friend, Laura, but we will be moving this week. We were placed in the city of Wuxi, and will head there on Wednesday to look at apartments and hopefully sign and move in before the weekend. Then we start school! Laura and I will be living together and both be teaching kindergarten, probably even at the same school! This past week was a bit more flexible that the first week of training. The new teachers were able to go to a school here in Nanjing and watch a few different people teach English classes. It's interesting to see how everyone's teaching styles differ, but it's good to know that you can put your own spin on things to work for both you and your students' benefits.

We also had our "medical exams" last week. I put it in quotes because it was one of the more interesting things that we've been through thus far. Basically everyone had their file with empty boxes on the front and you had to go to each room for a different type of exam and they gave you a stamp in their particular box. Once your chart was full, you were done. Some of the exams were simple eye tests, or looking at your throat or something but others were weird. I had an ultrasound to look at my organs, and a less than private ECG (whatever that is) exam with other people in the room. Granted, everything was more private for women. Usually the doctors closed the door for anything if a female was being examined, but that didn't mean you were alone. There was usually 2 or 3 other women in the room waiting too. Anyways, it wasn't horrible, and I checked out in good health.

A group of Westerners made it out to the clubs a few times, and it was a blast. If we knew the right people and our group wasn't too big, the clubs treated us like rockstars. Free drinks and VIP tables, it was so much fun. I think they are trying to expand the popularity among Westerners, so they like to make sure those that do go have fun. Laura and I are usually the only two white girls in the whole place, and we are both blonde, so we tend to get attention. People are really nice though and we just dance all night! The one thing I did notice though is that I should have brought more clothes. I have good stuff for in the classroom, because dress is a bit more conservative, but when we're just out on the street, or especially in the clubs, things are much more relaxed and I miss my wardrobe!

I did manage to run into my first trouble with food here this weekend. I've been hanging in the hotel for the last two days just waiting for my body and stomach to re-balance. You really have to be careful here, and while I'm not sure what exactly it was that got me sick, I'm going to be even more particular, just to stay healthy. It's not fun being sick in foreign countries, and I'm going to be here a while so I need to learn fast!!! I posted a few pictures too so you can see a little bit about my life, but there will for sure be a whole bunch of photos once we move into our apartment, and get to our school!!!!

Training complete...

Well, I've finished my first week of teacher training and I can already tell that I've improved my lesson planning and presenting. It's been quite the week for trying to adjust to such a new culture and environment. There don't seem to be many people that speak English around here, and even with a guidebook or phrasebook, it's almost impossible to communicate. The language here is so difficult to pronounce, there's not guarantee that anything you say is right. It's also very, very hot and humid here. It's been in the 90s everyday since we arrived and will most likely stay that way for a few more weeks. I can tell that I'm getting used to it, but the heat and jet lag have made me very tired this week. As far as food goes, I've had my ups and downs. It's hard to even find somewhere to eat when there aren't any signs or menus in English. We've managed to find a few good places, and, yes, I've eaten at a McDonald's. But only once! I also tried to try jellyfish. It's not good. I did not succeed.

Generally people are pretty nice, and those that will try their English enjoy having us around. The few things that are really hard to get used to are that there is a lot of pollution, so it seems like it's hazy every day. I haven't really seen blue sky since I've been here. Makes it difficult to try to go running or anything, you just can't breathe the same. And the other thing is that people do tend to stare... I understand that I look different, and I was warned that people would look at me all the time, but you don't really know what it's like until it happens multiple times on a daily basis. It's a bit uncomfortable, but like all things, I'm sure I'll get used to it.

I finally have a weekend and some time free that doesn't have to be dedicated to writing lesson plans or anything so a group of us might check out some of the bars or clubs in the area. Hopefully I'll get to meet some locals and native English speakers as well! Then next week we observe experienced teachers in their schools, I'll get placed in my city, and move! I hope to have a little more free time during the week to explore and learn and catch up with people from back home! Until then... 晚安

Goodbyes suck. So much.

7 days 14 hours to go...

As the days are counting down, I find it harder and harder to convince myself this is actually happening. The crazy thing right now is that I just moved out of my apartment in Madison. College is officially over, and while I am heading back into a classroom this fall, it's not exactly the same thing. In fact, it's pretty much the complete opposite. I leave in just over a week for China. Yes, that's right, China. I'll be teaching English to elementary students in the Jiangsu Province (right next to Shanghai).

As I was packing up my stuff, by the way I have so much crap that I've accumulated over the last 5 years, it's disgusting. Anyways, as I was packing up, I realized that not only do I have to decide if something is worth keeping but also, do I want to take it to China? And if I don't take it to China then do I want it next summer? I don't even have a clue what I'll be doing or where I'll be living, so these choices aren't exactly the easiest. Condensing 23 years into a suitcase and a carry-on is pretty much impossible, yet here I am attempting to do just that within a week.

What's really tearing me up though is figuring out my balance with leaving. It's had to think about everything going on without me. Studying in Italy for a semester at least gives me some sort of an idea on how to cope with things, but this is a bit longer...and there's a lot more that I feel like I'm leaving behind. Graduation is a weird thing to deal with, and realizing that everyone is going off in their own directions over the next year makes me realize that it's going to be a lot different when I come home. There are a few things I do want to come home to, and hopefully they will be here when I'm back.

This is going to be the best way to keep up with my life and adventures while I'm going and I will be doing my very best to update on a weekly basis. There will be pictures, maybe videos, and most likely lots and lots of stories. I hope I don't bore anyone too much, but I'll be glad to have this documentation of such an interesting part of my life, even if no one else follows it!

Please feel free to comment and keep in touch, I will need the connections to home as much as possible while I'm on the other side of the world!