My Next Adventure

I am SOOO excited! I get to go to Yunnan! PTL, PTL!

I didn't think I would be able to, but my friend Noah contacted me just in time. Otherwise, I would've gone to Hong Kong with Brenda, which would've been fine, except I really wanted to go to Yunnan. I wish it were a safe world, cuz I would've just gone by my self and gone where I wanted. Oh, well. But yay! I fly out in a couple hours. So I've been packing all day. I got so lucky in getting my ticket. Since it is Spring Festival, the Chinese New Year, China's biggest holiday, there will be millions of people traveling and it is insane, and the prices all go up 30%. We thought this was because of money, you know... like every body jacks up their prices cuz there are so many people traveling. But we found out yesterday that the individual companies are not the ones that raise their prices, but it is the government raising the prices for crowd control. Since China has SOO many people they have to limit the number of travelers by raising the prices so fewer people will choose to travel and cause stampedes and insane mobs of people going to a fro. Even with the prices high there are still masses of people on the go. I actually got a pretty good deal on my plane ticket. I met Maggie at 830am yesterday and we went to the travel agent. I might have gotten the ticket before the Holiday prices kicked in! Cause that same night Martin and Arthur's plans to go to Beijing fell through so they went to a travel agent at almost 10pm and the tickets were amazingly overpriced. They're original plans were to fly really cheap on a military aircraft that friend's hooked them up with. They'd been planning this for weeks, but the day before they were supposed to leave they were told that foreigners were not allowed! So now they might not be able to travel. But PTL I got tickets just in time for a good price!! I don't think I will have access to internet for the next couple of weeks. I'm not sure how long I will be away. But school starts Feb 11, so I must be back before then. If you need to contact me in emergency I will have my cell phone on me. 13610391546. I might be away for my birthday too!

Last night the four of us foreign teachers here at No. 2 Middle School went out for the last time. Arthur, Martin, Brenda and Me. We had dinner at the Brazilian BBQ place, yum. Then went bowling. I scored my highest ever. 105, go me. Brenda's been sick so she skipped out early. So Martin's going bye bye to teach in Beijing next term. Brenda and Arthur will still be here, and possibly some new teachers.

Spring Festival is approaching and all the streets are lined with vendors selling Festival decorations. They are so pretty. Each of them has a special meaning, but I'm not sure exactly what. I know that the color red means lucky. But the shapes, the animals, the objects, all the things mean something.



I probably wont be blogging for the next couple weeks, so please don't forget me! I will be traveling, and could use some prayers for that. Thank you!! Happy Chinese New Year!

Tea

I had a delightful time at a tea house the other day. The laiason for the English academy (where Brenda is currently working part time for and where I might work next term), Cissi, invited us to visit the grand opening of her friends new tea house. I'm sure glad I went. It was such a cool experience. The main open room of the place was more like a museum. It was one of the nicest places I've been to in China, even though it was just a small shop. The owner collects Chinese antiques and traditional furniture that would've been used in palaces and for rich people. The chairs were made of the most beautiful red woods and carved intricately with all kinds of images like people or dragons. There was a wooden chest that I'm sure told a story of some battle. The room was very "feng shue"... right? Many people think that's a Japanese thing, but I'm told it originated in China. There were many cool furniture items, many just coppies of originals, but some of the items in this room seriously belong in a museum they are so old. Cissi told us about some of the items, like a ceramic bowl from such and such dynasty and a "pillow" which is actually a ceramic brick decorated like "china," with a slit on the side where they could keep their money safe. There was an entire collection of "watch dogs." The carved stone in the image of a dog that people used outside their homes to ward off evil spirits. Litterally hundreds, who knows maybe thousands of years old. Pretty amazing. Everything has a story. After a nice tour through the collection, we headed up stairs for tea.

Having tea in China is not a simple casual thing. They take their tea very seriously. Tea is an art. Everything about the whole tea drinking process has a meaning. It's like a ritual or ceremony. But it's also a time of just being together and enjoying the tea. Every kind of tea has a special purpose. If you have indigestio, there is a special tea for that. If you have a cold, there is a special tea for that. If you want to keep healthy, there are several teas for that. If you are a man, there is a special tea for you. If you are a woman there is another kind of tea for you. Chinese take great care in preparing tea leaves. Tea leaves are like wine. The older they are, the better and more expensive they are. Chinese like to dry their leaves whole. Some kinds are stored loosely, and some are rolled into hard, dense "frisbee" shapes where you take a small chunk off at a time for seeping. Chinese tea is different from Japanese. The Japanese like to crumble their leaves very fine which makes the tea more bitter and stronger. The whole process of seeping the tea and serving the tea is an art. We are each given a tiny ceramic tea cup. They look like little bowls small enough for a doll house. But they don't drink tea just to drink. It's a special time of tasting and enjoying. First each cup is filled with hot water. Then the tea dude (I'm sure there's a more propper name for him, but I don't know what it is) uses his special tongs to pick up each cup and swishes around the water to clean the dish. All the water he just lets fall onto the table. Even the table is special. This particular one is made from a large chunk of petrified hard red wood that sat at the bottom of the sea for hundreds of years, then was carved into the shape of a dragon with random parts of his back made flat like a table. All the flat parts are curved just right so that all the water spilled from the cups flows down into a little hole cut into the wood. The tea leaves are carefully selected by the tea dude which he puts into a larger ceramic cup, then he pours water over them. He doesn't just pour water on them to make them get wet and seep out the tea-ee goodness. He pours the water in a circle, slowly all around the dish til it's at the perfect amount. Cissi says this means something like the moon is going around the flower and the flower blooms (the tea leaves expand as they soak up the water). The way she said it was much more poetic. But it's pretty cool. After the water is poored, he quickly covers it, and lets seep for a bit. Then he moves the lid around and around the dish, almost as if to cover all that he can with tea, then he holds the cup in a certain way, with a certain finger over the top of the dish, and moving the lid at a certain angle, then pouring the tea into a small clear glass pourer. Then he fills each of our tiny ceramic cups with a taste of tea, always starting with the person to his left and going around the table. This first cup of tea is also for washing our cup, so we dump it on this little sandstone or pummice carved bull dog. Yeah, that makes no sense. But we end up getting the table all wet with tea. Then he does the whole process again and again, filling our cups. When we drink the tea, we are first to smell it, then drink. See, like wine tasting or something. Not that I've ever done that before. Then when your cup is gone, you smell the cup. It sounds all very silly. But it's actually quite enjoyable. It's refreshing to just enjoy a taste and a sensation that something as simple as tea can bring, instead of just gluttonizing over every consumption and not thinking about it's uniquness. We tried a few different teas that night I think. Pretty cool.

Dian (Remember)

I just had a very unforgettable day. I found out yesterday that there was going to be a memorial service for Nigel today. So of course I agreed to go. Brenda chose not to go because she's very emotional and angry with all the lies the school is telling and all the information they are with holding to save their own butts. She's heard rumors from a foreign teacher at another school who has friend in the police department who told him that Nigel was murdered. Martin decided not to go either because he will be leaving to teach in Beijing and wanted to share one last day with his students. So it was just me and Arthur out of the four foreigners that went. I am also disturbed with the corruption surrounding this entire situation, but I wanted to remember Nigel somehow and also was very courious what the Chinese had planned for this. It's been almost two months since Nigel died, and they didn't have a funeral for him til now because of all the complications involved in dealing with the death of a foreigner. All the Chinese English teachers also came, and the headmasters of our school. When we reached the funeral home which was located in the boonies, we saw that a couple other foreign teachers had come from the university where Nigel used to work. We waited around for a while talking about Nigel and all the rumors and speculation about his death. We were all given black cloth to wear around our left arm, a traditional symbol of grief. Then the time came for the "service" to begin. The room was very big, with huge displays of silk flowers lining the walls, and Chinese characters in the middle of the displays, which later Maggie told me meant Dian "remember." Nigel's name was all over the place on fancy signs did up with Chinese caligraphy. I was shocked to enter the large gathering room and see that Nigel was there in a coffin. I thought they had sent his body to Guangzhou or whatever. But there he was. They had Arthur, me and the other foreign teachers stand in the front. The room was very large, and we stood at a distance from the coffin. It was very large with a glass dome over it. Arthur said it was a freezer. I did my best to not look at Nigel. It was the most aweful thing. It's not the first time for me to see a dead body, but it was definitely the first time to see a dead body in China. In the States they make the body look nice and presentable, put makeup on etc... right? No such thing here... oh, Lord! It was terrible. But they had him in fancy Chinese robes and covered in flowers. Even still, I could not look. It was terrible. One of the leaders of our school led the traditional Chinese ceremony. First there was a few minutes of some Chinese funeral march music. Then there was three minutes of silence. Then we were to bow three times. I did not feel that this was inappropriate or contradictory to my faith. It was not out of worship, but out of rememberance and honor, a cultural tradition. So I followed suit. Then we went around the coffin closer and bowed again. Still I could not look. But what my eyes did see was terrible. I quickly made my way out. We removed the black cloth, they gave us a red envelope, and we washed our hands in a kind of tea... also part of the Chinese tradition. It was all so overwhelming, I had a moment to myself to try to take it all in. The sober mood that was felt in the gathering room seemed to end for the rest of the people as soon as they left the room. We got back on the bus and people were chattering like crazy as if nothing had happened. This really bothered both Arthur and I. Along with the fact that the one girl who was there when he died didn't seem phased at all by this day. There's such a heavy feeling that something isn't right about all of this, that there is little peace. I have come to terms with the fact that Nigel is dead, but it is hard, when there is this feeling that justice is lacking, and lies are covering the need for justice. I know I can do nothing about this, it is out of my hands. But I also know that I can rest in the fact that justice belongs to the Lord, and the truth will come to light in the end.

It's interesting... this is the most traditional cultural thing that I've seen in China so far. This funeral is one of the few things that I've witnessed that is purely Chinese. It's interesting how they seek out their development as a country by copying the ways of the west, and how that often conflicts with their eastern mindset and traditional ways of doing things. As terrible as it was to see Nigel's body as it was, I am glad to have had this experience. The cultural funeral traditions of another country run deep. It was such a strange thing to take part in a traditional Chinese funeral but for a caucasian man. In some way it doesn't seem right; like maybe he should have some kind of memorial service according to his culture. He was English. But on the other hand, it seemed just fine. What difference does it make? He might have wanted it this way anyhow, wearing all these fancy Chinese clothes and covered in flowers. Surreal.... so surreal.

When we got back to school we all opened our little red envelopes. Inside was one Yuan. So we went to the nearby shop and bought an icecream cone. It is a tradition to always give money in these red envelopes as "party favors." They give them at weddings and funerals. The holiday coming up is the Chinese New Year. It's akin to our Christmas celebration. But instead of presents, the parents will give their kids money in these red envelopes. The kids are supposed to say "Happy New Year! Give me my money!".... kind of like "trick or treat" I guess.

We didn't have water for the past 2 or 3 days, so last night Brenda and I seriously wanted showers! So we went to the HaiBin Hotel and treated ourselves to a nice meal, showers, and swimming in the hot springs. Such a relaxing night. The moon was full, and the water was so nice and warm.

The weather is so strange. It has all of the sudden gotten warm again! The cold weather comes in spurts I guess. I even bought a parka the other day cause I was so cold! When the weather warms up, it takes a couple more days for my apartment to warm up due to the cement walls. It's really like a basement! So I would have to put my coat on every time I came inside!! So many things are backwards here.

Well, today was my last day of teaching for almost four weeks. It is nice to have a break. But I still don't know what my plans are. I really hope I get to travel to Yunnan. Maggie told me that if her and her friends go to Yunnan I can go with them. Yay. Otherwise I will go to Hong Kong, which I'm not that excited about. This last semester went by so fast. And so many things happened! I am happy to be here a little while longer, but I think I will be ready to come home when the time comes. I long for fellowship with likeminded people.

Foolishness

Greetings to those on the other side of the world. I just wanted to drop a note and let you know I'm still alive and kicking. I'm sorry to report that I have nothing terribly interesting to share with you right now, though. Just the daily going-ons as a young white chick living in a foreign country.

Last Friday my teacher friend Leanne invited me to join her and the others for a teacher outing on Saturday at the bowling alley and afterwards a BBQ. I was excited to have been invited somewhere and to have to oportunity to meet more good people in a safe environment, and to get to hang out with Leanne more. I've been lonesome for a friend. Saturday came and a couple hours before I was to meet up with Leanne I got a message from Grace telling me that I've been uninvited. Aparently, they could not take me along because I am not part of the teacher's union. I'm of course disappointed, but I understand. I understand that it's more then just the teacher union. Ever since Nigel died, some of the teachers are afraid that something bad might happen to the foriegn teachers under their watch, and they don't want to be responsible or be involved if anything did; and some are very angry with the way that the school tries to meet all the foreigners demands, yet treats the Chinese teachers badly. It's sad. I'm in such a weird posistion. We work half as much as all these teachers, yet our living conditions are far better, our pay is way more then what they get, and we foreigners are always given places of honor at special events. I can understand why they'd be upset. I didn't ask to be treated better then them. I wish it didn't have to be like this. It makes it even harder to make friends. But I know that not every one feels like this. Leanne was very upset when she found out I was uninvited. She said there was a foreign teacher at the event anyway. She is very angry at the people who would use stupid excuses to try to get rid of the foreigners.

Ah, well.

So instead of bowling Brenda and I went on a long walk to a new place that day. We found a new humungo market selling all kinds of clothes. It's amazing that out of all the little shops we saw throughout this massive maze we could only find a couple things worth buying. I bought myself a new coat and some sweaters. It's freezing right now. 45 degrees. And it might be colder in my apartment, at least it feels like it! I'm wearing like 4 or 5 layers.

Today I began my last week of teaching before Spring Festival Holiday. I realized today that this week is the end of this part of my life, becuase next term will be competely different. I might have a new mix of students, a different number of classes, and I will be teaching at the new campus. It will be a competely new experience. I am going to miss teaching my students here. I am going to miss sitting in the teachers' office in between classes and talking to the teachers. I am going to miss being able to go to my room right after class and not having to take the bus. I am going to miss it this way, because this is how it was when I first knew it. Dude, if I'm this shook up about it now, how will I be when I am actually going to be going home!!

My students realized today, too, that things are going to never be the same. I walked into one class and they were clapping and chearing and telling me how happy they were to see me! They are so cute. I hope the classes don't change too much. I wouldn't mind not teaching class 24 anymore, though. Aren't I terrible!!!!

Another thing I realized just the other day is that holy buckets, I'm going to be twenty-five in less than a month! I don't feel that old, not that 25 is old. I still feel very young and imature, like I've got so much ahead of me. In a way I don't feel like I've done much. But on the other hand, I've seen and done more then many people do. It's my new year wish and my birthday wish, still, that I will know Him more. That's all I want. I'm still battling the flesh like crazy. I can't seem to get over needing to be accepted and approved by people. I'm afraid of looking foolish to them, when in fact this is the very thing that I must do! My dad told me something the other day that I haven't stopped thinking of since. Maybe it's from the Word, but when he said it, it was like hearing it for the first time:

"The Kingdom is for those that the world finds foolish."

It's time to be a fool.

Steward of Mysteries

Check it out: I am eating Pringles. Hey Hey!! It's funny how you appreciate the little things after not having them for so long. I got some snacks in the mail from my sweet Aunt Angie and Cousin Dara. I am so humbled and grateful for how my friends and family at home have remembered me. It makes me think how silly are those times that I thought if I ceased to exist no one would notice... you ever feel like that? I think to be loved is the greatest thing in this world. This makes me think of Dream, and how desperate she is for any form of love. It gets her into trouble sometimes. But my heart aches for her. If she is the only person that the Lord uses me to reach here, then it will all be worth it. Dream has a notebook that she uses to get to know her foreign friends, like myself. The previous pages are filled with questions and answers from other foreigners, including Nigel. The pages are almost filled up, and I figured this would be a great oportunity to begin some life-changing discussions with her through this notebook. She has answered some of my questions with wisdom beyond her years. She is the most unique mind I've met here so far. I think is due in part to the fact that she had a very dysfunctional and non-traditional Chinese upbringing. Please remember her as you remember me!

I wish I could tell you all kinds of stories of victorious Good News sharing events, or about what a super-Chrstian I am. I am not going to make myself out to be something that I'm not. I'm just Leah. I have nothing to boast about, except the faithfulness and grace of the Father towards me, and of the love bestowed on me by him and my friends and family. I have no doubt in my mind that the Father has me here for a purpose. I might never know what that is. Cuz if it were up to me to grade my time here, I would be very hard on myself... I would probably give myself a failing grade. But I have faith that He knows what he's doing with this weak soul. PTL that He is the one who makes things happen, not me. PTL that He is strong even in my weakness. PTL that it's not about me. PTL that He's given me the will to go where he leads and a heart that longs after more of Him.

This week I'm giving kind of a bogus lesson. But hey, it's fun. I'm playing them a bunch of music of which they must figure out what genre it is. It never ceases to amaze me how different each class is. Some are so serious, some could care less that I'm in the room, some are so excited, some are bored, some are talkative, some are dead quiet. Each class is 40mn long. Depending on the class, the time goes by so fast and fun. But sometimes it drags on like I will never get out of there! The average class size is 56. Last week I asked each class how many there were. My smallest class is 48. I love that class. It's amazing how much difference it makes with 10 fewer students.

If I have two classes back to back, I have 10mn to hang out in the teachers' office. I even have my own desk! But I am there only a few times a week. I really enjoy the time that I'm there, though. The geography teacher (holy cow, I don't even know his name!) is really trying to improve his English. He never asks me to teach him, which I appreciate SO much, but rather talks to me about all kinds of things. I really enjoy the conversations, becuase they are about real things, not just the weather and chit chat. Just from talking to him like this, and introducing new words to him in conversation, and correcting some things he says, I can tell he has improved his spoken English since I've been here. I am pretty sure that he thinks of things he wants to talk about and learns the vocabulary about these things before we talk. It's an amazing way to learn, and I'm so impressed with his self-motivation. I wish I was as motivated to learn Chinese like this!

I've decided to take on a part time job next term. I have a lead at an academy where there are much smaller classes, and individuals actually pay for English lessons, which means they are motivated and I could actually do some real teaching. This excites me. I love my students, but I'm getting a little tired of feeling like I'm doing no good besides to entertain them with some foreign-ness. I'd really like to teach, and see how that goes. Brenda started there just tonight where she will teach only SIX adults every week. That sounds so rewarding. But I want to have all the new things come at once come next term. Things are going to change a lot. Martin will be leaving, Arthur's wife will be here, we might have a couple new teachers, someone might end up living next to me in Nigel's place, I will be teaching at the new campus which means I have to wake up an our earlier to take the school bus, my classes will get mixed around and split with Brenda, so I will have fewer classes, and.... hopefully my water will work.

Yeah, the last couple days all I've had is a trickle from the tap. Makes for really long showers. Brenda let me use hers tonight, and just after my hair was all lathered up in soap, then hers went out too! I had to rinse all that shampoo out with our drinking water. I guess that sometimes the water doesn't always make it to the top floors.

I'm still trying to eat away these oranges that we got last weekend. I ended up with a small box, but that's still a lot for one ME to eat. I was finally able to get my pics on the computer so I will try to post them here for you to see. There is Brenda Picking some oranges, and me in the grove.

The weather has been "unusually warm" for this time of the year I'm told. After those frigid couple weeks, we got a nice wave of warm weather. So it's been long sleave weather instead of hats and scarf weather. The sun shines, the sky is blue, and there is a nice cool breeze. Still it manages to be humid somehow. In the morning, the tile in the school halls is really slippery.

We went bowling again on Monday. We had a free day, no school. Brenda and I got a really messed up lane that would subtract one point from every time I played! That really stunk when I got spares. That just ruined it for us, even after we moved to another lane, we played terribly! I've been invited to o bowling with the Chinese teachers on Saturday. Also on our free day Monday, I hung out with my student, Miffy. We took pictures in the little photo booths. We were there for two hours! But we got some super cute shots. It was fun.

I will leave you with verses that encouraged me this past week: 1 Corinthians 4:1, 20
I am a Steward of His mysteries!