Races, Yellow Spring Flowers, & Picnics in the Park

Picture 1 & 2- I did it! I finished my first ever in a lifetime 5k! The first picture is of Yelitza & I (I run with her 3 times a week) just a few minutes after we finished. The second is of all the people who attended the race that were from SIAS (notice that over half of them are foreign faculty). I finished the race in 36 minutes. Not bad for a beginner (or so I've been told). I ran the whole thing and didn't pass out... that's the goal I was personally reaching for. Towards the end I thought my lungs were going to explode. How was the race different than that of a 5k in the States? Well I've never run one in the States, but I'm guessing it was A LOT different. When it began I thought I was going to get stampeded. There is no such thing as "personal space" in China... and if you fell... I wouldn't put it past them to step on you and keep going. Another unique factor of this race is the mid race photo ops. People would run up beside you and have their friend run up ahead and take a picture of them & you (the foreigner). What I really love though, is that they think we don't notice. I started posing for peoples pictures (all while running mind you). They thought it was hilarious! After the race the photo op continued for about 2 hours. "Can I make a photo with you?" was my favorite phrase, and of course I loved the people who couldn't even speak English but just put their arm around you and smiled.

Picture 3- Spring is here, and so are the yellow flowers that bloom in the countryside just behind SIAS campus. Spring is definitely my favorite season in China by far.

Picture 4- A few weeks ago I had to go to Zhengzhou (the capital city of Henan Province... about an hour from where we live) to buy a hair straightener. My student K texted me the night before asking if I wanted to go to Zhengzhou to go shopping. So instead of going alone, I got to spend quality time with one of my students (rarely happens because they usually come to see me in groups, or think I'm too busy to hang out with them). We had an amazing day together. Besides doing a little shopping, she showed me all around a little park in the city, and insisted on taking me to a place to get "Beijing Duck" for dinner (which is amazingly delicious by the way).

Picture 5- Me, Gabe, Gabe's student S & my student W. They are dating (or I should say "were dating"... I was informed today by W they broke up over the weekend). The four of us went last weekend to the park near campus and grilled out. Before we headed to the park we went to the market to buy food. We gathered vegetables of all sorts, and a few different kinds of meat as well. If any of you had seen where we got the meat from you probably would have said "no thank you!", but I guess I have been in China for so long now that things don't disturb me as they once had when I first arrived on this unfamiliar side of the world. It took us nearly all day to get the grill going, and to prepare and cook our food. But it was totally worth it! I love hanging out with my students. W sat next to me today on the bus back from Zhengzhou today (the foreign teachers had to go to the Public Safety Bureau again to be interrogated since we are staying another year). It was so cool to talk to him for that hour about what he wanted to do with his life, what his parents expectations are, and what he thinks will make the world better. He is a really insightful young man. If the whole reason for me coming to China was to meet him, than I could say it was definitely worth it (I feel this way about a lot of my students.

CUBA, 5K's, & Meatloaf Burgers...

CUBA (Chinese Universities Basketball Association) Championship Tournament (their version of the Final 4) is finally over. It lasted a week and was held here at SIAS this year. Apparently we did "too well" dancing during the opening ceremony last week, because 2 days before the final game this week they informed us they needed us to dance again during half time for the final game. We had to yet again reschedule our classes because the games are always held during class time. My poor Thursday afternoon students have been bombarded with class rescheduling for 2 weeks in a row now. Thankfully the school gave us a way to make it up to them. They gave us tickets for all of the kids in our afternoon classes so they could go to the game. This was a big deal to them, because students weren't allowed to attend the games.

I beat my "running goal" today 2 days early! I successfully ran 2 miles without stopping. I have decided to run a 5K on April 5th in Zhengzhou. I have never done anything like this before and I am really excited. Proof that you can indeed train yourself to at least like something that you used to hate.

I have been really trying to get to know my students this semester. I've started doing "movie nights" with my kids every weekend. They are so cool. That really is an understatement. I can't describe to you how amazing they are.

Tonight we had a fundraiser for the needy students. They were making "American Hamburgers" at SIAS Cafe. You paid 50 yuan, and half of the proceeds went to the students. They sold about 70 tickets and you could go anytime between 5pm and 9pm tonight to get your hamburger. Tonight a group of 8 of us went together to eat. To our great surprise (not really though because China is always surprising you) the burgers were meatloaf burgers. They had put tomato paste and bread crumbs into the meat. Not exactly "American" but it tasted ok. Apparently they hired a new cook, and he was confused as to what to do. Or at least that's the story we got. Here's to hoping next time they will truly be "American" :)

I have all but signed on the dotted line of a contract. I am coming back to SIAS next year to teach once again. I still feel like I have so much to give here, and I want to maintain the relationships I have built with my students. There are so many opportunities over here to serve. I feel like I can offer all of me, and its appreciated. I am growing so much, and learning to just "be". I am finally stepping into the person that I have always been meant to be. Life is so much better when you stop trying to define yourself, when you realize that it's not about you at all. I know that all I really need is to be loved, and have love, and give love.

And another semester begins...

Well here I am... one week into the Spring semester already. I can't believe in about 3 months I'll be on my way back to the States. I have the same students as I did last semester. I am so glad, because my kids are great and I love them so much. They are also so impressive this semester. Either I can just understand them better, or their English has improved a lot since I first started working with them. Between the first hour and second hour of class we have a 10 minute break. On the break I always go and sit with a group of students and just talk to them. It's amazing how this simple thing has really gotten them to open up to me, and has made them so much more comfortable to speak in class.

I am in, yet again, another dance production. CUBA Basketball Tournament is happening this coming weekend and taking place at SIAS. This is pretty much the Superbowl for the Chinese... it's a big deal. It's televised on CCTV (the major Chinese TV network). And of course since SIAS has more foreign faculty than that of any other school in all of China, they want us to perform. It's been a whirlwind of 3 hour dance practices every night mixed with the crazy madness of the first week of the semester.

I have started running. I have this unusual habit of pushing myself to do things that I ordinarily think I "can't do" or "don't like". I have always hated running, but since it's the only form of exercise I can get here in Xinzheng I decided to train myself to love it. My goal is to be able to run 2 miles without stopping by March 15th. When I first began "training" I could only run 1/8th of a mile without wanting to die. After 3 weeks of training I can now efficiently run 1 mile. I add an 8th of a mile every 2 days. In the past 3 weeks I have run in the sunshine, gloomy skies, rain, freezing rain, and snow... and I must admit... I truly am growing to love it.

Speaking of snow, it snowed here a few times this week. It didn't stick very well, but it was enough for it to feel like we had a winter. When it snows here everyone walks around with umbrella's. They really do use umbrella's here for ALL kinds of weather: sun, rain, & snow.

I have a feeling this semester is going to go by very quickly.

Around the World... and Back Yet Again

Hello everyone! I have returned to Xinzheng, China (my place of residence). It's good to be back and have my own space again, sleep in my own bed, and wear something other than those 4 shirts I brought with me on my trip. Now let me catch you up on the rest of my travels over this previous month...

The last time I updated you I was leaving Shanghai bound for Shenzhen. The 18 hour train ride surprisingly didn't seem that long. We played the longest game of Uno known to man, and told stories about themed topics (ex. "What is your favorite memory involving a pet?"). Before we knew it, it was time to sleep, and once we awoke, there we were in Shenzhen China (close to the Hong Kong border). We stayed in Shenzhen for 3 days. The weather was in the high 70's and we were so excited to be wearing shorts and flip flops. In Shenzhen they have this Theme Park named "Windows of the World". In this park they have replicas (some to scale, and others quite a bit smaller) of famous buildings/monuments around the world. We went to this theme park and had a blast. We took tons of pictures of course (see picture 5). From Shenzhen we took the metro over to Hong Kong. We stayed in Hong Kong for a night before taking the ferry over to Macau to the Macau Airport to catch our flight to Bangkok, Thailand.

We weren't really impressed with Bangkok and only stayed there 2 nights. We really wanted to see the ocean, so we took a bus and then a ferry and then another bus to the island of Koh Samui. We stayed in a little bungalow (see picture 3) right on the beach for 4 days. That side of the island was a little boring, so we moved to the other side of the island where it was more "touristy". We liked this side much better. This time we were staying in a Guest House. The boys and girls got different rooms (previously we had been staying in hostels where there would be 6-8 people sleeping on bunk beds). This place had air conditioning and cable TV, so we pretty much thought we were living the life. We adjusted quickly to sleeping in till noon, laying out on the beach till 4 (I have a lovely tan to prove it), watching a movie on TV until dinner time, getting dinner, taking a walk on the beach, and then lounging around in our room till we went to sleep. We stayed there for a week before heading to Phuket. We stayed on Patong Beach in Phuket and continued our beach bum lifestyle for a few more weeks. One of the days however we decided to go ride the elephants. They call it "Elephant Trekking" and it was a lot of fun (see picture 4). Thailand really had the best food of any country I have ever been to. I LOVE Thai food. Even though I ate pretty much the same thing everyday, I never got sick of it. If your wondering what my favorite is, it's Chicken Curry. They have Massuman, Panang, Red, Yellow, & Green Curry. I can't really decide which is my favorite anymore. Thailand also has a lot of fresh fruit and it's really cheap. They have little carts on the street that sell it cut up and everything. We also fell in love with the "Pancake's". They have these little carts on the side of the road that make these "pancakes" and sell them. They are more like crepes than pancakes, but they are delicious. My favorite one was Banana, Chocolate, & Peanut Butter.

When we were done with Thailand, we took an 8 hour van ride to Hatyai to catch the 19 hour train ride to Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. By the time we got in though the train was already full, so we had to spend the night in Hatyai and leave the next day. When we went to get tickets the next day there were only 4 sleeper car train tickets left, so one of us was going to have to sit up the whole night in the seat car. I volunteered for this, so I sat in a different train car from the others for the journey. My seat mate (the guy sitting next to me) was an interesting British guy from South Wales about the age of my father. Over the next 5 hours I would learn of his whole life story. What surprised me about him was the things I saw we had in common; loving to travel, fine with being alone, kept to himself as a child, loved his family dearly. Yet we didn't share the same outlook on life at all. Our core beliefs were completely different. I saw in him what my life would be like with no purpose. I saw what my life would be like without knowing the lover of my soul. And when he got up and left without even saying a goodbye, I felt sad. He had everything he wanted, just the way he wanted it, but he was empty. The only thing I could think of was J*sus... wreck his world! How strange to pray for someones life to fall apart you would think, but it's all I wanted for him really. He was missing the most important thing, knowing his maker.

We made it to Kuala Lampur and I managed to not even sleep a minute on that 19 hour train ride. The hostel we stayed at was owned by this cute little Chinese couple. You could pretty much call them mom & pop. As soon as we got in they told us we should go see the Patrones Towers (otherwise known as the twin towers... see picture 2) immediately, because you had to get tickets to go out on the Skybridge (highest sky bridge in the world). That day we spent hanging out int he Patrones Towers. We went out on the sky deck and wandered around it's malls. They had a lot of Western food places there and a movie theater that was super cheap, so we we're pretty content. Malaysia is 1/3 Malay, 1/3 Indian, & 1/3 Chinese, so the culture is very unique. All 3 cultures are very dominate in Malaysia and it is very evident in Kuala Lampur. A lot of the food reminded me of India (I was there this time last year). The day before we left they were celebrating Chinese New Year at the hostel. They had people in lion/dragon costumes (see picture 1) and a drum band. And of course we had a feast. Sarah and I left that evening to come back to China (the others weren't able to get a plane ticket on the same day). On our journey to the airport we met these 3 Islamic guys from Algeria. Little did I know I would spend the next 5 hours of my life discussing faith, culture, and most of all the "good book". My spirit came alive as I told these young men that it's all about relationship not rules and "trying to be a good person". It would probably take me 2 hours to really tell you all we talked about. All I can say is that encounter was definitely orchestrated from above.

Sarah and I successfully made it to Guangzhou and then found the correct bus, which took us to the train station, which took us to Zhengzhou, and then found a taxi which took us to the bus station, which took us to Xinzheng, and then found a taxi which took us to SIAS. And there we were... HOME at last. And here I am... sleeping in till noon, running 2 miles around the track at 2:30, and watching movies at night on Youku (a Chinese movie site). One more week until classes resume. I can't wait to see my students! I am anticipating and amazing semester.

New Year, New Cities, New Friends...

We brought in 2009 in Shanghai. Matt met up with some out of town friends so Shea, Sarah, Gabe and I headed downtown to find somewhere to celebrate. When we reached downtown traffic came to a standstill so we decided to get out and walk. We then began to mesh into a sea of young people (see picture 3). Shea and I got lost from the girls and ended up in a standstill counting backwards in Chinese. Apparently there was a big concert going on nearby (thus the crowd of young people). When the countdown ended there were fireworks (see picture 4). I have never been in a crowd that large in my life (which is saying something because I brought in 2004 in NYC in Times Square). In order to get out of this crowd I tried a method that worked amazingly. I would scream "WOOO Happy New Year!!!" And people would stop and turn around, thus making it easier for us to get through. I did this probably 50 times and it cleared our path pretty much the whole way. We found the girls and sat in a McDonald's nearby, knowing that traffic would be bad for awhile and that it would be hard to find a taxi. 1 hour later we hit the street to try and find a taxi to take us back to our hostel. 1.5 hours later after standing out in the 20 degree weather and no taxi, for fear that we might freeze to death, we started running. We finally reached out hostel at nearly 4 in the morning. The day after new years the girls and I (after realizing we had nothing in our backpacks that we hadn't already worn 4 times) decided to do laundry. This was an all day process seeing as that they only have 2 tiny little washers and 1 dryer at the hostel that has 150+ guests. I ended up wearing a swimsuit, skirt, & sweater around the hostel all day (because we had to wash everything else). Mind you that the hostel is NOT heated. So that was 2 days of Neerly freezing to death in Shanghai. Yesterday we took the fast train to Suzhou (see picture 5). This town is called the "Venice of China". Our hostel was right of the canal, and this little town was really cool. Unlike most cities I've seen in China thus far, it has many traditional style buildings. While taking pictures of the beautifully lit canal last night we met a Chinese couple who spoke English. The guy had lived in Michigan for awhile and the woman in California. We ended up going to dinner with them and they taught us a lot about Do's and Don'ts of Chinese culture. This evening we had to leave Suzhou and come back to Shanghai. Tomorrow we catch the all day train (18 hours!!!!) to Shenzhen. 18 hours on a train is sure to bring many stories. I'll be sure to share them next time I update.

Been to Wuhan, Leaving Hangzhou, Bound for Shanghai...

December 23rd Matt, Shea, Gabe, Sarah, and I headed out of Peter Hall with nothing but a few train tickets and a backpack. Knowing that I would not see Xinzheng for 2 months was odd. This town has been my home for 4 months and here we are taking off for half of that time. Our first stop was Wuhan which we immediately nicknamed "BUhan" (bu in Chinese means "not") Needless to say the town wasn't very exciting. We spent Christmas there and thankfully the hostel we stayed at was awesome. They people were really friendly and the place was warm and eclectic. We had a mixed dorm (aka 3 sets of bunk beds in a room... there are 5 of us... so then we get one extra roommate) for this hostel our extra roommate was one of the Chinese guys that worked there named David. He was awesome and spoke very good English. On Christmas Eve he played "Silent Night" for us on his guitar and we all sang along before we fell asleep in our beds. Christmas came and went... but it never really felt like Christmas. On the night of the 26th we boarded an over night train to Hangzhou (where we currently are). This town has mountains and lots of trees. This town is definitely not like the China that I have known for the past 4 months. This evening we head on a train to Shanghai. We are having lots of fun so far and I am really enjoying seeing other parts of China. This country is awesome!

Beijing, Birthday, and Beyond...

Beijing was amazing. We (Gabe, Sarah, Shea, Matt & I) took an overnight train to get there on Wednesday and arrived promptly just before sunrise in Beijing on thanksgiving day. We took a sleeper train where there are 2 sets of bunk beds stacked 3 high in a tiny little room. Even though we purchased our tickets together we still managed to end up in different rooms. All of us on the 3rd top bunk of course. I think it's the ideal way to travel personally. Fall asleep and then next thing you know you're there. We spent the next 3 days in Beijing with the main focus of eating "western style food" (aka Mexican, Starbucks, TGI Fridays, Coldstone, Starbucks, & Pizza). On Thanksgiving day we found the camera I wanted. If you only knew what kind of miracle that was to find something specific like that in China than you would be inspired. On Friday we went to see the Great Wall. Not without an adventure of course. We decided to do it the "cheap" way and not take a tour group. Thus we attempted to find the 919 bus to get there. But alas we were too late to take the bus that day and ended up paying this guy to drive us there in his car. But we made it... to the glorious great wall. It was so much more impressive in person, it really is quite incredible.

Last Saturday was my 24th birthday. My friends blindfolded me and took me to a "fast food" restaurant downtown on Friday night to celebrate my birthday. We split a chicken sandwich 5 ways and then they took me to the REAL place they had intended to take me to eat. Shea (the baker of Peter Hall) made me a chocolate cake with bright yellow frosting :) The next day on my actual birthday we took the bus to the closest big town. We hung out in the city all day and went dancing that night.

Finals are FINALLY over. My grades are also turned in. I am officially done with my first semester of teaching. For my twice a week classes Gabe and I combined (because she teaches the other half of that major) on the last day of class and had a party. It was fun to watch all of our students intermingle and play games. I gave all 150 of my students a card with a picture of our class on it and a personalized message on the back for each one. It took me many hours to write each one of them a personal encouragement, but I think it was totally worth it and emant a lot to them. I hope to get the same classes of students next semester, but some tachers will end up with a new group of students after break.

Monday we (once again... Matt, Shea, Gabe, & the other Sarah) are leaving on winter break. We will be gone for 2 months. All we are taking with us is a backpack. We are going to travel around China for 17 days and then meet up with some of Shea's friends from the States in Shanghai for the New Year. January 10th we will make our way to Macao and then fly to Thailand where we will stay for the next 3 weeks or so. This is the tentative schedule as of right now. But it seems like we are always changing our minds about things. I am excited to get away from the "usual" and explore some more of this amazing world we live in. I will try to update you as often as I can. I apologize for not updating in awhile. I hope everyone has a great Christmas and a wonderful new year!