Eat, eat, eat

All I did all weekend was eat, eat, and eat some more! It was crazy. I also socialized quite a bit too. I went to a Thanksgiving dinner with several other teachers on Friday, then went to a Thanksgiving party with a bunch of random people not all connected with our school on Saturday. Then today I went to a single ladies' tea and ate and talked some more. All 3 events had lots of good food and good times. Having stuffing and pumpkin pie was wonderful!

On Friday night at the coffeeshop, some of the Chinese students asked me directly, "what are the origins of Thanksgiving?" It was awesome to share with them the meaning of the holiday!

This week I get to observe other classes and get ideas and see what it is like to teach other grades. I am really excited about it. On Tuesday night I am going to a performance of The Messiah put on by a Korean choir and a Chinese orchestra. Should be interesting and hopefully a real outreach!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had a half-day today and do not have school tomorrow. I am going to one dinner on Friday afternoon and another one on Saturday afternoon. We had a Thanksgiving lunch at school on Wednesday that was half-American, half-Chinese; it was pretty funny. Somehow being out of the US during this holiday makes me appreciate its meaning so much more- away from the commercialism and focus on food.

I taught my kids this song this week along with making a gigantic thank-you card for G*d and making posters of 13 different verses that are about thanking Him. It was pretty awesome.

He is good, He is good.
His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the L*ord for He is good.

For His unfailing love and his marvelous works
Give thanks, give thanks to the L*rd.

I have SO much to be thankful for this year....wow. HE IS GOOD!

DONE!

I am done teaching!! Whoo hoo! Today was my last day with my second graders. It was a day of mixed feelings. I am relieved to be done, but being the sentimental person I am, I'm also sad to leave these kids and this experience. When the kids surprised me with a card they had secretly made, I almost started crying...At least I still have 2 more weeks in the country and this wasn't my last day to see them, just teach them.

Bedtime?

What am I doing up 2 and a half hours past my bedtime of 10pm? Well....I just completed an interview for a job for next semester! And how did I do this interview....on SKYPE!! I think this is kinda funny. The organization is Reach to Teach and we've been trying to have an interview for over a week now, and so when they called at 10:30, seconds before I shut down my computer...I decided it was worth staying up for. The interview went REALLY well which I credit to the Father because afterall, it's late Monday night...But anyway, I'm ready for bed, but don't know if I can sleep because I'm on such a high from the interview and my head is swimming with the answers to the questions I had and new options and etc, etc, etc. Basically, this seems like a strong option and the man who interviewed me basically told me I was accepted. So, now....the decision time....but, first--to bed!

Cultural Experiences

I had several different cultural experiences this week- it was really great!
1. Korean- I went to a Korean restaurant for the first time on Wed. night. We had some sort of beef that we cooked over a little pit in the middle of a table, then dipped the beef in sauce, wrapped it in a leaf of lettuce and ate with our hands. There were also several side dishes that were new and one that was not- kim chi, which I already knew I don't like! It was all good, but not my favorite.
2. Chinese- After eating Korean food, I went to a new staff meeting which was a presentation about the differences between Chinese and Western cultures from the perspective of a Chinese person. It was really interesting and enlightening. It was helpful to hear at this time- after having seen and experienced some of the things mentioned.
3. Japanese- Friday was Japanese day for lunch at school. So, I tried some Japanese food for the first time. I don't know what anything is called, but it was all pretty good. Some fried shrimp, fried veggies, bbq chicken, chicken over rice, some sort of pastry filled with seasame seeds and orange flavored rice, and some sort of dessert that was squishy yet dense and sugary.
4. Korean- Friday night was the Fine Arts Festival at school which is a big recital and artwork display. Most of the artwork and the performances were by Koreans, which is due in part to the fact that most of the school is Korean. This was a cultural experience because I got to see how Koreans interact at performances and in crowds- it was crazy! Kids were running around everywhere while moms gathered to chit chat, people talked during the performances- to each other and on their cellphones, and were confused why they couldn't enter the room in the middle of a piece being played or sung. It was a crazy evening, but fun.
5. Swedish- Today was a shopping trip for new staff to several Beijing locations, including several markets and IKEA. This was my first IKEA experience and it was definitely interesting. Suddenly I stepped out of Asia and into Europe upon entering the store! It was so weird. It was fascinating seeing Swedish and Chinese signs and seeing and hearing so many Europeans. Definitely kinda new for me.

It's been a good week. Thanks for lifting me up.

Flashback

So, I think I just posted that because I am procrastinating...hopefully it was somewhat interesting to someone. I am procrastinating writing a paper for my Philosophy of Education class that I actually took last semester, but had the option of saving one of the papers for it until this semester so I could write it after having taught overseas since it is on multiculturalism. It seemed like a good idea at the time....but, I am a little busier than I thought I'd be at this point due to agreeing today to teach yet another week full-time. So, it is not a huge deal since next week is a short week because of Thanksgiving, but it still requires more work than I was planning on doing if I wasn't teaching full time.

Now, back to that paper!

Friendly Ayi's

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it on here, but it's the norm here to have a maid, who is known as an ayi, which is actually a term of endearment closely related to the word aunt. So our ayi, Mrs. Li comes twice a week to cook dinner for us and once a week to clean the apartment and do our laundry. It is really a wonderful system and Mrs. Li is an amazing cook! :) There are also ayi's at school which is what we call the "lunch ladies" and the janitorial staff. Neither Mrs. Li nor the ayi's at school know hardly if any English.

Anyway, today afterschool the ayi who cleans my classroom decided to have this 10 minute conversation with me even though I have only a guess of what she was saying and told her that early on in the coversation. But, she kept talking and it was really funny. I was just nodding and trying to figure out the jist of the one-sided conversation. I think she was asking when I was going to America and if I was coming back next year. I understood the word for America and she wrote 2007 in the air. I think.
An hour later, I got home and Mrs. Li decided to have a 10 minute conversation with me even though she knows I hardly speak Chinese. It was also really funny. I'd love to video these instances- they must be really funny to watch. One person rattling off in Chinese and gesturing wildly. The other looking totally confused and helpless trying to guess what the other is saying. It's like a game or something. Anyway, I understood "I don't know" that she kept saying and was pointing at various things in the kitchen. I think she was trying to say that she didn't know if I would like what she made for dinner, but she knows I like the bread she made last time because it is almost gone. :) Then I found out she knows the word burrito apparently. Which makes three words that she knows in English: rice, granola, and burrito. :) It was a funny afternoon with the ayi's to say the least, but I was glad that they wanted to talk to me and were trying so hard to communicate...I just wish I could understand and say more back instead of "I hear, but don't understand (ting bu dong)"!

Warm and Toasty

The heat came on early!! What a blessing. Now I am finally warm indoors! Hurrah!

High-speed

This week went by so fast; it was crazy! I feel like I didn't have a moment of spare time or time to just relax and breathe. So, unfortunately that also means that I didn't have any time to update this or catch up on emails. Let me try to think about what has happened this past week...

Last Saturday I went on a City Tour with some other new staff. It was really interesting to see some different places in Tianjin and some historical sites. We saw Eric Liddell's house and the soccer stadium he built. It was a beautiful fall day and we actually got to see a part of town that has trees that changed color.

That night was the high-school play, which was uh, interesting. I realized it had been awhile since I'd seen a high school production...:)

I had a cold this week, so that was hard. I got to see what it is like to be sick and teach...not fun.

The biggest news of the week is that the teacher that I have been living with had to go back to the States. Bobbie's been in extreme pain for a couple of months now and the doctors here and in Beijing haven't been able to find out the problem. So, she'll most likely be gone until January and hopefully they are able to find a solution to her pain soon.
So, that leaves me on my own here in her apartment, which will be fine. I'm not worried. It also means that I will be teaching full time for one more week so that my cooperating teacher can sub for Bobbie's class. I'm fine with that too, even though I was supposed to be done with full-time.

I went to the coffeeshop on Friday and played Uno with the giddiest group of Chinese people I have ever seen. We didn't get to talk a whole lot because we were playing a game, but it was still good and very funny. On Saturday, I borrowed Bobbie's bike and rode to school for the first time. It was quite the experience. Not only riding in China, which is VERY different, but also riding in freezing cold weather was kinda new too.

So, yeah that's been the past week. I was able to hook my laptop up to Bobbie's dsl, so that has been a real blessing. I am now trying to catch up on things that I didn't have time for this week because it was so busy and fast! I knew the last half of my time here would go fast, but not this fast!!

Was it something I said?

I don't know if it is something I posted or what...but I cannot look at this blog anymore. It's been blocked....I can still post (yay!), but cannot see what it looks like on the blog (what you are seeing) or just go to my blog as if I were another reader. So...that's kinda creepy.

Week in Review

It was a quick week, but a very busy week-hence the lack of posting. A quick summary: we had parent-teacher conferences on Monday and Tuesday. I really learned a lot from them and they were very interesting, especially since half of them were through a translator. 2 of the translators were the older siblings of my students translating for their moms. It was good to take time to focus on each individual student and think about their strengths and weaknesses and evaluate how I am helping them and meeting their needs.

Tuesday night I went to a Halloween party that was quite elaborate in the deocorations and plans. There was a lot of yummy Western food including hot apple cider, which completely made my night. We played some games, carved Chinese pumpkins (which are very tiny), and hit a pinata. It was fun.

Wednesday night was the company meeting with all the school staff as well as others under the overarching organization. It was part business meeting part devotional/pr*yer meeting.

Thursday night was a small group meeting that Bobbie is a part of and it was her turn to host it, so I was obliged to go since the apartment is pretty small! It was very encouraging though.

Things went fine at school. I designed and implemented a new seating arrangement, so that has added some spice. I stayed up late every night this week due to these extra activites, so I am feeling really exhausted tonight and I've got a full Saturday planned....so, I will be heading to bed soon to catch up on some sleep.