Have You Had Your ZongZe Today?

Today is the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival. It's really not that big of a deal in Zhanjiang. Basically the only way people celebrate is by eating zongze. It's this flavored sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. There are many different kinds. My students gave me some as a gift, so I got to try it for the first time. It's pretty good, and really gooey. They said that every one must eat at least one zongze on this day. The reason they celebrate this day is actually really sad. They celebrate to honor some guy who committed suicide. In some dynasty hundreds of years ago, this famous poet tried to stop a war by pleading with the emperor, but the emperor wouldn't listen to his ideas of peace. So the poet got really upset and drown himself in some river, which is now super famous. The people didn't want the fish to eat his body, so they threw zongze into the river so the fish would eat that instead. The reason it's called Dragon Boat festival, apparently is because some guys in boats searched and searched for his body which was never found. So now, they have boat races on this famous river.

This weeks lessons are just preparation for the students Final project. Next week they will do their English performances. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. I've already started to get good-bye gifts from the students. They are super sweet.

Tonight I went and bought this really cute skirt that I found in a shop. It's so far the most expensive thing I've bought. But I figured it was worth it, because it will always remind me of China.

Tomorrow is international Children's day. Has anyone heard of it? I never have. But they like to make it a big deal here. I was asked to have dinner by a couple different people. But first come first serve. I will have dinner with a Chinese woman that I met a while back and a few of her students. They are so cute, only about 8 years old. It's nice to hang out with the little ones now and then.

Friday I am in charge of an English Corner. We were supposed to have English corners every Friday, but it never happened. So now it's like they are trying to squeeze them in before the term ends. It will be fun, though, I think. It's going to be only 50 of the top students in the grade. So it should be a breeze. I'm looking forward to it.


Can any one help me out with song lyrics. I've had this stuck in my head, but can't remember the rest:
My lips will praise you, for you are lovely.
My heart will ever bow before your throne....

I had an interesting conversation with some students. They were looking at an English magazine (the kind written for English learners) and the title of a story was "Things I have Learnt." Is learnt a word? I have never seen it before. So I told them I didn't think it was a word, and they disagreed with me. They even looked it up in their electronic dictionary and it was there! I was shocked!

Well, the spider has gone. But this does not comfort me at all, because it just means that it's on the move. Ewe. Anna asked me how much money it would take for me to sit in a small room with a thousand of those spiders. Then we got to talking about the TV show "Fear Factor." And how they eat disgusting things on that show. But then we realized it was basically Chinese cuisine. They seriously eat everything.

Tomorrow will be June! Unbelievable.

Eight Looooong hairy legs

Wow. Another great thing to keep me from sleeping at night... Coming home this evening we were stomping on the floor before going up the stairs, as we usually do to scare away any rats that might pop out to frighten us. First we saw a little cockroach, which Arthur flicked in my direction, then stomped on. So my nerves were already strung from that little experience. Then we saw it... the biggest ewe spider ewe that ewe I've ewe ever ewe seen... ewe. I'm getting the willies just thinking about it. Oh my goodness. It was so huge. And it's on the second floor. I hope it doesn't decide to make its way up to the sixth floor. But just the knowledge of its existence makes me believe there are others just like it roaming around. Oh, it's so gross.

Here are some going-ons:

I booked my flight home, I depart June 26. But I don't know when I'll arrive yet, cuz the travel agent here was not able to help me with any US domestic flights. So he got me as far as LA. So I have to figure out how to get from LA home with the tickets that I've already purchased. I'm not too worried about it. I'll make it somehow.

Friday night we were invited to a piano concert at a local university. Arthur and Anna's good friends are the teachers. They come from Russia. They teach piano through an interpreter. The concert was piano duets from the students, the teacher couple and their kids. They were amazing. It was so wonderful to hear them play. And the kids were also amazing. Alex is 13 or 14 and Marsha is 7. They did a piano duet together, and totally surpass any thing that I was ever able to do on the piano. Alex did a solo, and I swear he must be a child prodigy. It helps that both his parents are enormously talented. How do I describe the perfection? I'm so jealous! It was great. There were many other foreigners there from other schools to watch the concert. I was not talkative at all, and kept to myself. I could give you all kinds of excuses like I was tired, and Brenda had gone off on me earlier so I was miffed... which those are true... but most of all, I just felt absolutely nothing in common with these people, and didn't feel comfortable with them at all. When foreigners (caucasian English speakers that is) get together, it's usually this big China bashing session to complain about all the things that annoy them. It's so exhasting. I'm sure you're wondering why they are even here at all. When it all comes down to it, they like being here, they like talking bad about China, they like teaching these kids.

This weeks lessons was an introduction to the Final Project. I will be grading the students on an English performance. The grade won't count for peanuts, but hopefully the thought of getting a grade will give them some motivation. This is the first time that I have told the students that I will not be coming back next term. They are pretty sad. Some even named their teams "We love you Leah" or the topic of their performance, "We will miss you." They are so cute.

This morning I hung out with one of my students. She bought me breakfast. Real wontons. They are not at all like the wontons in the States. They are steemed and have meet inside, and in a peanut sauce. They were pretty good. We watched a korean movie together. It was a super cute movie. I had a nice time with her. She is one of the closest students I have.

This evening was really nice. We foreign teachers organized a dinner at a restaraunt and invited several of the Chinese teachers who have helped us throughout the year. It was a really nice time. We rented a private room, and ordered a ton of food. I tried to take a picture, but my batteries died. I think all my rechargeable batteries have lost their juice.

It's almost midnight now, and I have to teach bright and early. Only four more weeks to go. It seems like this last couple months is going so slow. But I'm sure it will all be over before I know it, and I will miss it like crazy. I can't imagine never coming back here. I really want to visit again some time. You can't just live somewhere and not have some attatchment to the people and the place. I won't miss the mold or the cockroaches or that spider... that's for sure. But this is a life that has become a part of me. It's kinda going to stink not being able to share that with any one at home. See, that's why next time one of ya'll are going to have to come with me, so we could reminice together like, "remember that one time in China..."

Good night.

Light at the end of the Tunnel

It's official! Our last day of teaching is June 23rd. So I've only got five weeks left. So I will probably be home before July.
Brenda had this awesome idea for the last few weeks of school. We both agreed that we'd like to assess them in some way, and give them some kind of final exam. So we have it all planned out for the rest of our time here! This week we are going to get them into teams, and they have to come up with an idea for a team presentation. Every one is required to participate. So the next 2 weeks they will be creating a performance to be done in English, and we'll grade them as a team. Two weeks after that will be spent in performances. Hopefully they won't find out that this doesn't count in their final grades, otherwise they won't take it seriously. I really want them to work at this and do their best. I wish our English class counted for something in that regard.
The last week will be spent in saying goodbyes, taking pictures, maybe playing a game. I am still trying to think of something that I can do for them. It's not easy when there's 1,000 students to consider.

Yesterday Arthur, Anna, Brenda and I went to the beach. It's about an hour away by bus. The day before was so nice, but this day was really windy and a little rainy. So it wasn't great for swimming. But it was nice to just relax at the beach and hear the waves roll in. Since the weather wasn't great the beach wasn't crowded, nice and quiet. I bought a cool shell from a shopkeeper. I put it in my fish tank, and my fish really like it. It's big enough for them to hide under.

I've been weighing my choices of things I could do when I come home. And I've made a decision. I have decided to move to North Carolina. I feel the Lord calling me to once again get out of my comfort zone and look to him for securities. If I stayed home I could pretty much picture exactly how my life would be. I think a little unknown-ness is good for the spirit. Going to NCarolina I don't know what I'd do for work. I don't know anyone but Joe and Eva. I don't know how I'm going to get around (no car). There's always a bit of anxiety going into the unknow. But that's just a sign to trust Him more. I don't want to forget to trust Him. And when I'm too comfortable, I tend to do that. I love you all so much. At least in NCarolina I'll be on the same side of the planet!

I Noticed

My mind has been on home a lot as you know. And as I come closer and closer to the day that I will actually leave here, I feel my eyes opening up a little more. I grew accustomed to my surrounding and nothing stuck out to me, but now I think--" I might never see these things again!"
So here's a bit of China that struck me the past few days:

On my way home from school one day, the bus had to stop for a cattle crossing. It was a seemingly most-unlikely place for a cattle crossing. We are near the sea almost smack dab in the middle of the city... and out of no where all these cows appear on the highway as their herder dude smacks them allong with a bamboo rod. I can only assume they were headed for the little river that ran through the city. Maybe it's their only source for fresh water for the cows.

On the bus today there was this old woman, mayber in her 70's. But you could just tell that she must have been such a beauty in her day. Her eyes still sparkled, she had a beautiful smile and the cutest smile wrinkles around her eyes, high cheek bones, full lips, defined facial features. I couldn't stop looking at her! She had such a beautiful face! I hope I preserve that well. he he.

When I got off the bus I still have a ways to walk before I reach my appartment, and it's always a chance to see interesting little "crazinesses" that I'm positive I'll never see in the States. Like a little boy going potty on the sidewalk. This is actually so common here, accepted, expected. But this particular little guy was making/ guiding a little river just for fun. Maybe it's a guy thing that I just never got. He was totally just playing. It weirded me out. Later on I saw more of the White Truck police confiscated somemore livelihoods. You better not get caught trying to sell your stuff on the sidewalk or they'll take it all away. And just a bit ago I saw a guy killing a chicken.

Last night I didn't get much sleep. I'm kinda running on empty lately. But there were these weird bugs in my room. They were something like mayflies. I killed as many as I could because I wasn't too thrilled about the 500 of them that were in my room. Hopefully they won't be around every night.

Today was the first time I observed a Chinese teacher's English class. Each new teacher is required to have an open lesson in order to be evaluated. She did very well. I was especially impressed with the way she spoke English 95% of the time. I know some English teachers whose English is really poor. It wasn't as rigid as I imagined a Chinese ran lesson to be. But I'm sure the English classes are more influenced by Western style teaching than other classes might be. They really dig the lecture style most of the time. I took it also as an oportunity to observe pronunciation troubles more closely. If the teacher is making certain pronunciation mistakes, it's gauranteed that the student will learn the same mistakes.

Tomorrow is Dream's Birthday. So I made a print of a photo of her and I, and bought a cute frame to put it in. I'm sure she'll love it.

PEAcE!!

Watermelon Tacos?

Friday night Brenda took me to a new part of town. She knows of a wholesale place where you can find rare foods like olives, whipped cream, tuna... I wanted to buy some cheese. This other part of town is not at all far from where we live. I can't believe I'd never been there before. But it was like a whole other world. The streets were very narrow and it was definitely an older part of town. There were even some old buildings left from when the French occupied in the 1800's. When we finally found the wholesale store, they showed us their English inventory list and I asked for the Mozzarella. Wowzers. They brought out this huge block of frozen cheese. It had to have been like 20 lbs. There is no way I'd ever eat all that, so I just skipped it. It probably wouldn't do my tummy much good anyhow.

The main reason I wanted the cheese was for tacos! Saturday I planned to have a couple of my students over for lunch and I was making tacos. One girl, Lucy, wants to learn to speak Spanish, so I thought it would be fun for her to try some Mexican food. I spent all morning shopping and preparing beans, meat, vegies, rice, and homemade tortillas. I let Lucy and Lilly fry the tortillas. It was a lot of fun. They don't really know anything about cooking. They didn't even know how to make rice! So it was fun to show them some things. They really enjoyed the food. Lilly said she wanted to make the meal for her mother on mother's day. So I gave her an extra package of taco seasoning that ya'll so graciously sent me. It was a nice time. Lilly was really enjoying the beans. So I taught them the "beans, beans the magical fruit" song. he he he. It was so funny to watch them try to eat tacos. They couldn't figure out how to eat with out making a huge mess, and they eventually started using chopsticks! I had set a bowl of watermellon out to eat as a side dish with the tacos. But Lucy and Lilly must have assumed that they were to go inside the taco allong with all the other bowls of fillings. So they were putting watermellon in their tacos, too!
After lunch the girls washed dishes, so sweet. Then Lucy dowloaded a couple Chinese songs that I like onto my computer. We spent the afternoon just listening to music and chatting. They are such a delight to be with.

Later that evening I went out with Brenda and Anna to a Sushi restaraunt! I had caviar for the first time. It's weird stuff. It's getting really harder to be around Brenda. I love the lady a lot. But I'm soooo tired of her foul mouth and constant slander. May the Lord increase my love and patience!

Today is Mother's day! Mommy! I love you so much and can't wait to see you. Have a wonderful Mother's day.

Just Some Chatter

So you want to hear the latest drama. Well, a couple weeks ago around the time when the school was really pressing hard on me to commit to teaching next school year, they were also asking Brenda. I told them I was not going to return, but Brenda said that she would like to if they would increase her pay. She would have signed the contract then and there, but they told her to wait til May. Well, they just gave her all this time to seek out other oportunities and that is exactly what she did. She has some friends at one of the Universities in Zhanjiang, and the benefits are much nicer there. They would pay more, she'd be doing actual teaching with homework, textbooks, tests, and less "entertaining", better living conditions, and a lot more freedom (our school now has to know where we are all the time and we have to get permission to blow our noses... slight exageration). So she had been talking to this University. One morning Mark asked me if Brenda was going to sign the contract with our school, because the University called to ask for refferences. This may not seem like a big deal at all to you, but it is a huge deal here. It's all about loyalty. They don't see it as Brenda having a choice to work where she wants. They see it as Brenda stabbing them in the back and being a traitor to the school. Grace called Brenda right after she found out that Brenda had been looking other places; she tried to set Brenda up with an appointment to sign the contract ASAP. But Brenda decided just yesterday to sign a contract with the University, which she did most happily. It's going to be better for here there I think. The classes are smaller, the higher-ups are less invasive, and the University is nice and big right near a big park.

As for my future, I'm still thinking a lot about that. What to do, what to do?

The second day of the dance competition was really fun. I was prepared to see more Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty versions, but yay they were all more creative then that. I want to brag, cuz the day before were mostly Brenda's classes, and this time they were all mine! There were actually 2 groups of guys that played like a real band. I had no idea they could play drums and guitars and sing... not super great mind you... but it was really cute to see them try to be all rock star. Some of the dancing was really great. So proud of them.

*Click*

The Rat Trap Dude and the Rats
He's holding a bundle of his new fangled invention, as several unlucky live rats are coming to terms with the fact that they may never get those hooks out of their mouths.


Dancers from today's competition at the new school

 

Eves Dropping

This afternoon the students had another dance competition. It's always kinda fun and entertaining to see the students perform infront of their peers. They seem to really love Snow White and Cinderella. Last term they did like 4 renditions of it, and today I saw at least 5 or 6 versions. It's already old now... in my head anyway. I wonder how many times they will redo it tomorrow. Today there were some guys who did a cool choreagraphed thing with numchucks.

It's so hot these days. It's no wonder the poor students are so exhasted all of the time. There's 60 bodies crammed into a small room with large windows for the sun to dehydrate for 10 hours a day. Yikes, it got hot fast. And they say this is nothin'. Kinda like in Minnesota when we say, "cold 'nuf for ya? You ain't seen nothin' yet." But I still prefer the warm weather to the cold.

I finally got so sick of my refriderator today. It's been randomly shutting off when it feels like it, and I've lost a lot of good food already. The only way to get it back running was to kick it. So I got fed up, so Brenda and I went into her old apartment today (one floor just below mine) to fetch her old fridge. (We all have mini fridges, so we can handle the move). But holy growing green stuff, Batman. It was so sick. As soon as we opened the door we got a thick shower of mold spores. It was everywhere. The walls were black, and the green plastic chair was yeah... greeeeener and fuzzier. The fridge had been shut, and we opened it to find lots of lovely blackness. Wow. No wonder I get so lethargic and stuffy in my apartment right above this giant petry dish. If I didn't have the AC going all the time, my place wouldn't look or smell much different. We still made the switch, though. I cleaned out all the crap and now I'm happy to have a consistently running fridge.

This weeks lesson isn't all that exciting. They don't seem to appreciate my efforts to try to make lessons interesting, exciting, and yes entertaining. So I'm kind of giving them some grammar, reading, and comprehension excersizes out of spite. I'm so bad!! But I figure it's good for them. They read a short story about the real life of Hetty Green, the richest woman in the world in 1900, but who lived as if she were impovershed simply because she couldn't bare to spend her money. At the end of class we are playing a game, though. And it works so well. Boys vs. Girls. I go around asking questions, but they are not allowed to say Yes, No, or I don't know. If a girl says one of those, the boys get a point... and visa versa. It's really funny when I trick them like "Do you have any pets?"... "uh, I do not have any pets".... "really?" "Yes"... ha ha, every one likes it a lot.

It's kinda fun to be able to understand just enough Chinese... more than they realize. Today I road back with the headmaster in his brand new Honda wagon nicely purchased by the school for his personal use (wonder who's idea that was). Anyway, road back with him and like six other Chinese teachers. They were all chatting away, and then they started talking about me. This is what I heard,

"Can she understand what we're saying?"

"No, she can't speak Chinese."

"Does any one here speak English?"

"I don't.........I don't..........I don't.........ha ha ha ha ha"

"Isn't she pretty?"

"Where is she from?"

"She's from America."

"America, oohh."

"She is so pretty."

"She's so young"

etc etc etc

Yadda Yadda yadda! I just sat back and listened. It's kinda like the feeling you might get if you overheard people talking behind your back. But I was cool that I could understand so much, and the fact that they think I'm absolutely clueless makes it really fun.

A Wednesday Saturday

Today is Saturday in truth, but for me today is Wednesday. They have such a weird system here. In order to give us back-to-back free days, we have to start school on the weekend. Weekends do not have the same value here as they do in the States. So tomorrow is a Friday Sunday, then on Monday we will begin the week as usual. I'm still not sure when school ends exactly. No one knows. Isn't that so hard to imagine!? In the States we get out syllabi and our schedules way in advance and we always know what to expect, we always know key dates for what-not. But here, they just make up the schedule as they go. Believe me, it's really hard to get used to! Just another one of those interesting cultural differences that I experience every day. If you don't have a sense of humor and a good amount of flexibility, you would never be able to live overseas.

So the last of my holidays is over. It's all down hill from here, and soon I will be coming home! The six day holiday was nice. I didn't do much at all. At first I was a little bored, but then I began to really enjoy just relaxing. I slept a lot, watched a lot of tv and movies, went shopping, ate out, and walked around in the hot hot sun. One of the chemestry teacher's from our school has been asking me for weeks to get together with his daughter so she can practice her English. So Thursday I agreed to go out with their family. The He (pronounced Huh) family. They took me to eat at KFC, and we ate lots of chicken. At first it was a little awekward because none of their Enlglish is really great, and I didn't know what to say. But eventually the ten year old girl warmed up to me and became quite the chatter box. She found it more enjoyable trying to teach me Chinese. After dinner we went to a bookstore and looked at the English learning books. She has a very simple and limited vocabulary, but we were able to communicate well enough. She was a cutie. They want to invite me to their home next time. I was a little bummed cuz none of my students called to get together with me over the holiday. So I'm glad I got to spend time with the He's.

Yesterday there was a man on the corner of our street selling his new fangled rat traps. It was really interesting to see. His invention was like fishing for rats. If you can imagine, it's this string, and on the end of it is something like a springed bobby pin. When a rat takes food from the tip, it springs into a V and hooks into the rat's mouth. He had five or six LIVE rats who fell prey to his traps. They were all hooked by the mouth to these strings trying to get away. That guy was selling his traps like hot cakes. He had a loud speaker and was advertising real loudly. I took some pics that I'll try to post for you to see.

Allergies haven't been bothering me much lately. So thank you all for your prayers. I know it's because you lift me up. I appreciate it more than you know.

Worker's Day

Today is International Worker's day. Does the US do anything with this? This is the second international holiday that I've heard of for the first time. The first was Women's day. China observes them both. We get a 6 day holiday! So I've been sleeping in till super late and being as lazy as I want. Sadly, that can lead to a bit of boredom. I can only go out for just a little while by myself. It's just not safe!
The other day, Brenda, Arthur, Anna and I went out to eat and then bowling. We found this new place that serves pizza! It's nothing like you and I imagine pizza to be, but it was close enough. Bowling was just the girls. Arthur has had a back pain for months, and just recently learned that he had a slipped disc! So he's been going to the doc regularly to get physical therapy, including somekind of electromagnetic shock accupuncture. I did the best ever in bowling. I got more strikes and spares then I ever have! And the last time we were bowling was like two months ago! So they were all messing around saying that I had been practicing on my own time behind their backs.
We had an interesting conversation about idioms. Arthur and Anna's first language is Russian, yet they are very fluent in English. They were saying how translating English idioms literally into Russian, they sound so crazy! Then they translated some of their idioms into English and it was very interesting to hear, because some didn't make any sense at all! They told one that they thought we would find very strange that translates into English: why do you point out the speck in someones eye when you have a log in yours. I smiled, and said that it comes from the Bible!! They were very surprised to hear that! It has been a Russian "idiom" for ages!

I just want you all to know that my girl Kelly Hope Miller will be officially graduating from college soon! Congratulations, Kelly. I love you a ton, and wish I could be there to see you walk.