Important News Update

I have in my hands (well not really cuz I'm typing), a plane ticket that says I will be arriving in Madison at

10:25pm on Monday, June 30, 2008!

Just six more weeks in China.

Earthquake

Hello Everyone,

I hear there was an earthquake in China recently... no, we didn't feel it. It occurred in Southwestern China and I live in Southeastern China. I am surprised there are reports that it was felt as far away as Beijing and Vietnam and we are not any further away than them and yet didn't feel anything. It probably has something to do with where the mountains are.

When my family was here, we were pretty close to that area at the start of our cruise in Chongqing. But the center of the earthquake was still more West than that near the capital of Sichuan: Chengdu.

Thank you for your concerns about Sara and I. We are fine. Nothing exciting happening these days :) Pray that none of my friend's families were affected by the earthquake. One of my friends, Colline, is from Chengdu and is awaiting his baby in June.

Olympic Torch - Guangzhou

Wow, this trip was crazy. It started off great! We got to Starbucks in Guangzhou with no problems and hung out there for a little while until Stefic arrived. Then we walked to the metro (subway) and went to the hotel her father owns. By this time it's almost 7pm and we're pretty hungry. They took us to dinner. The food was delicious but they didn't believe that we liked it. Also, her father kept asking why we chose XX over GZ and kept suggesting that we teach in GZ instead. It was really exhausting dealing with them. Finally we got back to the hotel and planned what time to leave in the morning, and we were alone. We stayed up watching a movie until 12 and then I couldn't sleep for a long time. It was too hot, we had coffee too late in the day, and the bed was uncomfortable. Eventually I could feel the AC after turning it WAY down and getting Sara cold, then I put my ipod on and drifted off to sleep.
Today we planned to leave at 9:30 but didn't get going till close to 10. We got to the place we planned to catch the torch at by 10:30 and it wasn't supposed to arrive until close to 12 but the place was PACKED with people already. We were the only foreigners and everyone was surprised to see us so they wanted to take pictures of us. At one time a reporter with a cameraman came over and I snubbed them, but we were suddenly surrounded by people. Sara talked to the reporter for a question or two while I covered my face from everyone. I do NOT like that at all. I'm so glad I'm not famous. We spent a while dodging people, but eventually we didn't have any more problems.
Since no one knew when the torch would arrive exactly, there were many surges of excitement and we got stuck in a crowd for a long time. We actually would have had a good sight of the torch from where we were, but it never came. We ducked out of that crowd and just stood outside of it for a while after that. We lost Stefic then until after the torch went by. I met a guy, Frank (university student studying public relations), who told me that the torch bearers had stopped to have lunch which caused the delay. Finally, at about 1:30, the torch came through. I was able to get fairly close to see the beginning of the parade of people, but I was soon shoved out of the way and I couldn't find anywhere to go, so I gave up and walked back out of the crowds. I was able to see the flame through the people and got a video to prove it, but that was all. :(
Then, after we found Stefic, we went out to lunch (on the way, I saw a group of guys with a bunch of t-shirts that say "I *heart* China", so we bought some). At lunch we had more annoying questions to deal with between her and her dad about GZ vs. XX, if we regretted coming/trying to see the torch, and if we liked the food or not. We finally got out of there alive, and went back to where we saw the torch (we had to in order to catch the metro). It looked very different since all of the people were gone... but across the street was a Subway restaurant so we got food for later (mmm!), and went down to the metro to go back to catch a bus home.
So here we are at home again. It was a whirlwind trip... I don't regret going. I have very few regrets in life because without experiences I wouldn't be who I am now. I'm disappointed about what happened and that we weren't able to see the torch after all that planning and anticipation, but it was a good trip over all. Just the excitement of being in the crowd was worth it.

Dinner Party

We had a really fun evening today.
I've been thinking about doing my other job lately but being scared of how to do it. So finally we did it. I invited friends over (there was 8 of us), shopped and made supper (everyone brought something). When our friends arrived, we ate supper, told the story of the spring holiday we like to celebrate, and played some games. I was really happy with how it all went.
So our friends seemed interested in the story. They knew some of it but not all of it, and were making comments and questions along the way. Then we just played some Uno and some other games. I think everyone had a really good time. I'm really happy we did it. I didn't want to go home regretting that I didn't take every opportunity I had to talk to my friends. And this is one step closer to that. It's never too late.
For supper we had spaghetti, mashed potatoes and gravy, dumplings, "bacon" (it looked more like a hot dog, but wasn't too bad), some green vegetable, apples and oranges. It was quite good. I made the first two myself. Our friends were so funny! They wouldn't go thru the line first cuz they didn't know how to eat the food. They needed to watch us to see how to do it :) I'm pretty sure they all liked the food. It was almost all finished.

Wushu Performance

Tonight was so much fun! I was a little embarrassed at first because I was wearing a costume that looked like purple silk pajamas for my wushu performance. But once I got over that, it was a lot of fun. As Stephen told me, “It doesn't matter. We are actors.” That's easy for him to say, he looked like he was wearing a suit!
Anyway, the Senior 2 classes had a performance back in December (Sara played her flute), so now it was time for Senior 1 to show what they could do. I loved it so much! The majority of the classes were mine, so I got to watch them in action. They were hilarious to watch even though I didn't know what they were saying.
Well finally it was my turn to perform. When I stepped out on the stage, the roar of cheers was amazing! It's hard to concentrate when you feel like a celebrity! My performance went really well. I had practiced and practiced so I wouldn't fall and I still did, but not as bad as other times.
After the show, I got to take pictures with some of my students who were still in costume, so that was really fun, too. I'm so proud of them!
ps. I don't have any photos of my performance, only a video which took a long time to load on facebook, so I'll have to load it when I get back to America. Until then, you'll just have to enjoy the other pictures.

Guilin-Yangshuo Trip

Our students had mid-terms 4/21-23 so we took the opportunity to take a short trip (our last new cities in China) to Guilin and Yangshuo in the neighboring province. It's only an our flight/8 hour bus ride from Guangzhou. We flew because it's just easier and the tickets were really cheap. We arrived in Guilin on Saturday early evening and decided to spend the night there. We checked into a hotel and headed downtown to the night market and to get some supper at McDonald's. We got some good deals on gifts and went back at 11pm. Guilin is known for it's landscape. They have what are called 'karst peaks'. They are like mountains made of rock that jut out of the ground. They look really strange.
Sunday morning we slept in a little before going out to Seven Star Park. The park was kinda cool. We went thru a cave, saw some pandas, and they have a zoo with lots of different animals. My favorite was the emus!!! I've never seen a real emu before! And a man hit one on its beak! We got corn on the cob and fresh pineapple (both in plastic baggies, naturally) for a snack, and then went to see Camel Hill (karsts) which was pretty cool.
After the park, we wanted to eat lunch, get our bags and find a bus to take us to Yangshuo which is about an hour and a half away. We took a taxi to our hotel and our driver (a woman) was really cool. I was talking to her in my broken Chinese. I think the Chinese people think I'm lying when I talk to them just fine for a while and then suddenly start saying 'I don't understand'... I guess I've perfected some of my conversation skills! Anyway, we got our bags and then told her we want to eat and requested American food but she refused! She took us to a Guilin food restaurant. I told her we can't read the menu, so she went inside and got one! It had English so we decided there were some things we could order and stayed there to eat. The food was really good! After lunch we walked to the bus station and off we went to Yangshuo.
In Yangshuo, we got a hostel for super cheap (5USD/night/person=awesome!) and declined any organized outings before going out to have supper and explore. The main street is called West Street (Xi Jie) and there is tons of shopping and restaurants. Our hostel was at one end and the river was at the other end. As promised, Yangshuo is foreign friendly (if you ignore the constant haggling) so we saw lots of foreigners which was wonderful! We definitely needed that now that we're in a little slump.
Monday we slept in and spent much of the day shopping on West Street. We got some good deals and great things. I got a t-shirt made that says 'Yesu ai ni' (Jesus loves you). Then we got ready for our cooking lesson! At 3:30 we met a girl named Sally (almost as cool as our friend Sally!)and two people from Holland (brother/sister) who took us to a market where we saw a dog hanging up like all the other animals we're used to seeing! Aaaahhh!! So sad! I didn't go close to it or take pictures, but I saw it.
Then we drove out to the country for our lesson. We were in a group of 9 foreigners with Sally as our instructor. One girl was from Malaysia, and everyone else was from Australia. (The two from Holland were in a second class.) It was sooo wonderful to spend time with foreigners and have intelligent conversation! So the food was really good, but it was difficult for me to absorb what to do while being quick. A Chinese person was always running over to help me. Oh well, it was a great experience. We made 5 dishes: cashew chicken, beer fish, stuffed veggies, green vegetable, and eggplant. The first two were my favorite, but all were delicious.
That evening as we were walking West Street enjoying the nightlife, two Chinese girls invited us to talk with them and two of their college teachers. They had traveled with 60 students to come talk with foreigners to practice their English. We were hesitant at first, but we had a great time!
Tuesday we wanted to rent bikes and go out to Moon Hill and Water Cave, but it was raining so we didn't. We went to a new restaurant for breakfast called "Drifters" where we ran into our Dutch friends from the night before. Turns out it's their hangout, and after that, we made it ours too! Their food is the best western food we found in Yangshuo. Also, after you meet about 10 foreigners, you keep running into them since the town is so small. Anyway, we planned to get our books to read and hang out drinking coffee, or whatever somewhere since it was raining, but we never really did. We spent a lot of time shopping and exploring again. Finally, around 5:30 we decided it wasn't raining anymore so we should just get a taxi and go to Moon Hill since I really wanted to do that and didn't know if there would be time on Wed. I'm glad we didn't bike cuz it was a half hour drive and then a steep hike to the top! We would have been exhausted since we're so out of shape. We got to the hill at 6:30 and it closed at 7:30 so we had an hour to climb up, enjoy the view, and come back down. The view was great but the best part was being the only people there! Not a single Chinese person in sight!
On Wednesday, we had a big brunch at 10 at Drifters, got our stuff, and took a bus back to Guilin. We arrived at 12:30 and our flight was to leave at 3:10. We decided to get a taxi to take us to the bear and tiger park and then to the airport (the park is on the way there). The driver assured us we had enough time. It cost a bit more, but it was sooo worth it! There were TONS of tigers! We got some awesome pictures! The bears weren't so cool so we spent most of our time playing with the tigers. There was only a chain-link fence separating us from them! We also had that place almost all to ourselves, too.
Then it was on to the airport and back home in time to teach on Thursday. I realized that the next time we fly we'll be going to Shanghai and then home! Amazing!

Subtropical Summer

Today was such a beautiful day! It's the kind of day you want to spend outside in a park or on the beach. I thought it would be perfect for camping or grilling out. The sun was shining, the sky was blue (very rare in China because of the polution), the temp was around 85 degrees, not very humid, with a nice warm wind. Absolutely gorgeous! Unfortunately, I spent much of the day indoors dreaming about barbecuing steaks and burgers on the grill.

The weather in southern China has warmed up significantly in the past few weeks. It was quite beautiful for about a week and then it began to rain a lot for another week or two. The temp got cool around the 60's. But this weekend it took a turn for the better! It was pretty hot and humid the last two or three days, and then BAM! Today it's amazing! The weather will probably be hot and humid from here on until we head home in three months. I'm searching the stores for summer shirts that won't show off pit stains too much :)

Tomorrow I have only one class at 4:15 so I am praying for more of the same weather! (Partly because I want my clothes to dry before it gets humid again...)

Brandon's Birthday

Brandon celebrated his Birthday China style today. Sara and I went to his place for supper. We arrived just after their Chinese friends left. They had brought him a HUGE cake and thankfully ate most of it, but left some for us. We had tacos for supper! We miss Mexican food sooo much! Thanks to Caroline's Mom and Adam in Hong Kong, we were able to get tortilla shells, black beans, taco seasoning, and cheese. Also, thanks to Caroline for her amazing cooking skills! I made sure to tell her I am glad she came to China :) and maybe Brandon too... After supper we had chocolate brownies and cake and played Catch Phrase for a couple hours. Brandon was in rare comedic form. Some days he just keeps going, and today was one of those days. Hilarious! My stomach got quite a workout.

Happy Birthday Brandon!

Tomb Sweeping

Friday was Tomb Sweeping day. The Chinese people take the day to tend to their ancestors graves. It seems to be similar to the Mexican holiday 'Day of the Dead' (without the costumes), and is quite a big deal. Usually, the first Saturday in April is called Tomb Sweeping, but when Saturday is an odd numbered day, they move it to Friday. So we had a three day weekend! Sally and Ale invited us to go to Zhao Qing with them so we did. We also met up with Shirley and Mr. Ge whom we met back in September during Mid-Autumn Festival. We spent the afternoon and early evening shopping (We saw a man with 5 puppies - two in his pockets, and three in his arms! Soo cute!), and when the others left, Sara and I stayed in a hotel.

Saturday, we had waffles for breakfast!!! They were the best waffles I've ever had! (Maybe not, but it's been 7 months since I've eaten much of anything that tastes like real American food.) Then we took a bus to Guangzhou for the day. We wanted to find a Mexican restaurant we'd heard of, but didn't know where it was. I had Ale write the name and address for me in Chinese so I could ask someone how to get there. It took a while, but we took the subway to the stop we were told to get off at, then found a taxi to take us the rest of the way. When we got there, it was about 1pm and the restaurant didn't open until 3! So we didn't know what to do. We had planned to spend the afternoon in another part of town shopping, but didn't want to pay for more taxi rides. So we walked around the street and found a Starbucks! It was in a very small mall, but aimed towards foreigners.

While enjoying our coffees, and watching the foreigners, a girl sitting nearby asked to make friends with us. Stefic (Steph + ick) is 16 and speaks very very good English. She told us all the places to go in Guangzhou and was very willing to help us if we ever return to the city. We really enjoyed her company and I plan to contact her for help when we go back in May when my friend, Shari, comes to visit. Stefic is also going to find out where the Olympic torch will go thru on May 7th so we can go to see it!

The rest of the day was spent looking thru the stores in the mall, staring at the foreigners, and eating a wonderful Mexican dinner before going back to the bus station to go home. I'm really excited to go back and explore another part of the city next time!

Disabled Performance

Today our school hosted a group of disabled people for a performance. There were an assortment of disabilities: blind, deaf, amputees, and a couple of others. My favorite was the group of deaf dancers. It was really cool to watch them. There was a woman on the side of the stage helping them to keep the beat, but otherwise you never would have known they couldn't hear the music! I took many pictures and some videos. The students were so excited. I love when they get to do/see things like this because their lives are so dull and boring just studying all the time.

I had one class between the performance and the start of the holiday weekend, and I could not get them to be quiet for more than a minute at a time. I even asked them to 'please listen when I speak' in Chinese (qing ting wo shuo). They were very agreeable. 'OK!', but it didn't last long... oh well, they need a little fun in their lives. Unfortunately, I was trying to tell them the Easter story.