Talent Show

Today was fun. We got to skip two of our afternoon classes because there was a talent show going on! There were many different songs, dances, and plays. Brady and I participated in one with our senior students. I was a little nervous because I had to say a phrase in Chinese. There were tons of students there, so it was a little intimidating. After a lot of practice and writing the phrase on my hand, I think it went well. It was really fun to watch the students ‘do their thing’ and enjoy theater so much.

I am pretty tired and really looking forward to my four day weekend coming up! Interesting side note: they don’t really care about new years coming up this weekend since they follow the lunar calendar, so I am not sure there will be anything going on for new years here.  The good news is my dad and brother will be here for the Chinese New Year. Apparently you don’t sleep at all because there are fireworks continually going off. Not surprising at all.

The last blog about Christmas.

Okay, so Christmas came and went pretty fast here. It was enjoyable, but I did really miss my family. I love whoever invented skype though, because it was wonderful to open my presents with the fam via skype! It makes the world just a little smaller.

My favorite thing I did over Christmas weekend happen on Christmas eve. Brady set up a movie night with the students and I joined. We watched Santa Claus. Always a good movie. Earlier in the night, the students asked if I wanted to go outside and they mentioned something about flying something...and I was confused. So they invited me to their classroom. I walk in and see red lanterns. You write your hopes and dreams on them, light the bottom on fire, and watch them beautifully disappear into the night sky. They blend in with the stars. I am not trying to sound corny,  but it was really one of the coolest things ever.

You can see my signature!

And there it goes!

I really enjoy that class too, so it made it really fun to do with them. I loved it.
I also got to skype with Kara Koerner on Christmas Eve, so that was fun too!
Christmas morning, I got up and IMMEDIATELY went to my computer. I realized I had told my family I would skype with them at 6pm their time, but for some reason I thought my time. I woke up 20 minutes later than I was supposed to, but thankfully they were still there. I opened my presents and just talked with them. It was wonderful and very much appreciated.
After, Brady, Juhnex, and I had a nice brunch. The rest of the day was pretty much devoted to the Christmas party for the international floor of our school. We sang some Christmas carols, played some games, exchanged Christmas presents, had a talent show, and had some food. It was good.

This is my boss's interpretation of Holiday Spirit.

The whole group. When in doubt, flash a peace sign.

My neighbor and Student, Iris, and her cousin Tiger.
I love that I have a tiger next door to me. 

All in all a nice Christmas! I don't know if I need to do another one without my family, but I am very thankful for the people I have met here.
The next day: back to classes. Chinese people don't even get a day off here. I just got one because I am a foreign teacher. Craziness.
This weekend Brady and I will go to Shanghai, so hopefully that will be a blast!
Hope your Christmas was great!

Chinese Christmas parties.

I know it my last post I talked about how it was odd that they do Christmas trees and decorations, but Christmas parties are even more odd.
First, this afternoon, I went to the Kindergarden Christmas show. My roommate is a teacher there, so her brother and I went to watch. They told the whole story of Jesus and it was really ALLL about Jesus. I was really perplexed by this. Don't get me wrong, I think it is great, but there were muslims and hindus in the performance. I asked my roommate about this, and she just laughed and said the parents had no idea what was going on. They just liked seeing their kids on stage. It is interesting to me that this communist country can have way more said about Jesus in school that American schools ever could. Granted, maybe if it was in Chinese people would be upset, but America has much stricter regulations on this stuff. Kind of crazy. What else was funny is that the MC would randomly be like, "everyone stand!" or "everyone on your feet!" and only a few of us would stand. I thought it was humorous because no one knew what was going on, so slowly people started to stand. haha that is probably me every day and I am not aware of it.

Then, tonight I went to another Chinese Christmas party put on by another school. I showed up with my boss and another foreign teacher and his wife. We got to sit in the front row, which was pretty fun. Brady was actually the host of the event. It is still humorous to me that he was the host, when he has no relation to the school or anyone that goes there, whatsoever. It was a fun opportunity and he did a nice job though! The party was basically a talent show. The acts were all in Chinese, and there were 16 different acts. There was one English Christmas song, and other than that everything was Chinese and not related to Christmas at all. There was a Chinese santa though. The was a little boring to me because I didn't understand anything that was going on, but the Chinese people seemed to enjoyed it, so that is good. The funniest act to me was one that was entitled "Jazz music." I thought it would be a saxophone player or something. Nope, it was a girl with super provocative clothing dancing like she was in an american music video. I just got a kick that it was labeled as Jazz music.

Well, I am off to skype, and then go to sleep. When I wake up it will be Christmas Eve!

Christmas time in Keqiao City

I wish it would snow, but it is not cold enough here to snow. Oh well, apparently you can buy fake snow here, so maybe I'll get some for Christmas.
I think its a little funny they celebrate Christmas here. Very few people, if any, believe in Jesus, but stores want to capitalize  on another holiday so people will spend money. They have Christmas trees at all the malls and shopping centers, and sometimes even a weird santa next to it.
The kids have really been getting into the "Christmas spirit." I have been showing them a christmas song a day, and they seem to really be enjoying that. I think I am enjoying it more. It is like a little piece of home. Two of my classes have gone all out for Christmas decorations. One is really classy and neatly decorated, and the other is like walking into the jungle. The amount of craziness in the room is ALMOST too much for me to handle.
A few days ago, some of the senior students asked Brady and I to be in their "drama" type thing. Our parts were pretty easy to learn. Apparently it is a school-wide talent show. We had try-outs tonight. It was fun because it seemed like all my students were there, so I felt like I knew a lot of people! That is the first time that I have walked somewhere and knew a bunch of people, so that was really fun for me. Brady and I are a little confused as to what the play about. We are basically the only English parts, but we do hear the word Obama a few times. Maybe they are making fun of us? America? One of them tried to tell me that Kevin, one of our students, is saying that Obama is his friend. Seems a little ridiculous. Brady had to speak a little Chinese at one point, and the crowd went WILD. they loved it. It was fun to see!
Apparently on Christmas eve, they eat apples to bring them peace. So that will be something funny to do on Christmas Eve. It seems like this will be a very busy weekend, but very enjoyable nonetheless! I am excited for the two Christmas parties we have this weekend.
I pulled my bosses name for secret santa. I was perplexed when thinking about what to get an older Chinese man that seems to have everything he wants. So I got him tea. He gave Brady and I some tea, that was very different tasting from anything I had ever tried, so I got him some tea that the sales lady told me older men like. Hopefully he likes it!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas, classes, and a haircut.

As I start writing this, I am sitting in my room, in my new Chinese pajamas, drinking a cup of decaf coffee, and wearing a very humorous face mask that is supposed to be an exfoliant, but looks more like a hockey mask on me. I thought I would write about a few day to day things.
Firstly, classes are going well. I showed the movie Elf to one of my classes and that was a success. I am enjoying my classes on the international floor. While some days are harder then others depending on the students desire to learn, how many classes I have, or any other factors that go into my day, I am enjoying it. The days I have 5 or 6 classes are harder for me, but definitely still manageable.
One of my classes, Senior 3 (meaning they are in 12th grade) got 4 more boys in it this week. I believe that brings the total up to 12 students. That is by no means a big class, it just means I need to change somethings around.
Senior 2 (11th grade) got one new boy. You would think that adding one person wouldn't really change anything, but when you only have three girls in the class to begin with, adding one person, let alone a boy, changes a lot.
A-level classes are going a lot better! I am enjoying the students a lot more. We are having fun together and learning a lot!
Secondly, Christmas is coming! I got a package in the mail the other day from my lovely mother, and I am SO EXCITED. It has Christmas presents! I really want to open it, but I know that this would make my Christmas less exciting, so that is not going to happen. There are cute stockings too! For Christmas, my boss John, invited Brady and I to a Christmas party on the 23rd. I have no idea who or what it is for, but I am thinking it should be a good time. I'm pretty sure the only reason we were invited is because we are either white or american, maybe both. We also are going to plan a Christmas party for the international students. We are trying to figure out what we will do, but no matter what I think it will be a good time. Also, we are going to have a staff christmas party. I got everyone these cute snowflake boxes that I am going to fill with candy and give to them for their Christmas present. I am really excited! It is nice that I will be busy having fun!  I also decorated my apartment for Christmas.
Thirdly, I got my haircut. By a person that doesn't speak any English. It was humorous. Maybe a little shorter than I wanted, but overall I like it. My roommate and I went together. It was good to have some girl time.
Fourthly, Brady and I went to Shaoxing because he discovered a grocery store with a large amount of international food items! It was really fun! I got some stuff that I would get at home, so that is a treat!
Fifthly, my dad and my brother, Nick, will be here in less than a month! I am SO excited and can't wait for them to get here!!!! We will have such a good time! Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai, watch out! I get three weeks off for the Chinese new year, so it is great that I can have so much time with them!! I seriously can't wait!

Well, that is all on my random thoughts this lovely evening. It hasn't snowed here yet, but I am hoping it will soon. There is frost on the ground every morning, so it kind of seems like snow.

Happy Christmas Season!

Hong Kong!

So we've been back from the great place of Hong Kong for awhile, but I am finally getting around to writing about it!
Instead of flying directly into Hong Kong, we flew into Shenzhen, which was 1/4th of the cost. Because we flew into the neighboring city, we had quite a way to go. It ended up taking like 3 1/2 hours to get to our hotel from the airport, taking trains, but it was a good way to get into the city and thankfully it wasn't too crazy. We had to do customs in the middle of a train station, and that went smoothly as well.
When we got the place with tons of hotels, we were pretty tired. (Side note: we had already booked a hotel for Sunday/Monday, but our boss said that we could get it cheaper if we just showed up and bargained with them. So that is what we did for Friday/Saturday.) Since we didn't have a place to stay, we were kind of confused. The place we were at was called the Chungking Mansions. It was really really crowded and there were tons of "knock-off" stores selling random things. Everyone wanted to know if we wanted a cell phone, purse, suit, etc. We talked to a few people but none of them were as cheap as our boss said we could get. So, one man was pretty cheap so we decided to follow him up to the 6th floor to see the hotel. It was not very nice, but we took it. It was a place where you wake up, and you just feel dirty. Oh well. Thankfully Hong Kong is an exciting city, so you don't hang out in your hotel room.

View from the boardwalk.

Saturday morning came, and I had already made plans to meet up with  Sally Carlson, a girl that i was friends with in Middle School, but hadn't seen since. So Brady and I walked on the board walk. It was really pretty and relaxing. When we met up with Sally and it was really fun! We went out to a nice lunch and then went to a huge market where they sold a bunch of random stuff. I got a new pair of sunglasses. They are the same pattern that mom always wears, I like them. After that we just kind of walked around town and had a good time.

Sally and I. It is so fun she lives here!

View from Victoria peak

Sunday Brady was sick in the morning, so we didn't do too much. I slept in, which I appreciated. We also changed hotels to the one that I booked online, and it was so great! There actually really wasn't anything remarkable about it, but it was clean and had a great view, so I was happy. Sunday afternoon we went to check out a computer store, walked around, had subway for dinner. I really appreciated having a "western meal" it hit the spot. The super cool thing that we did on sunday was go up to "Victoria peak." It is the highest point in Hong Kong and it has a huge roof where you can see so far. It is fun to see everything during the day, and beautiful at night.

View from the other side of Victoria Peak

Monday: The reason we came here. We had to go apply for our work visa! We got up pretty early, and went to get in line at the visa place so we didn't have to be with a huge number of people. I think we were like the 16/17th people in there, we had all our documents that our boss gave us, and we were ready. They call my number, I go up there, and the lady was like "where is your medical report? You have to have a medical report." and I was like, "Oh it must be in there. My boss prepared all the documents and I got the medical exam, so it should be there." "Nope, you have until noon to get your documents faxed here, otherwise you can come back tomorrow." Brady was also missing his medical report. This is semi humorous because another teacher that went to Hong Kong 2 weeks before was also missing something. I figured since that teacher had to delay his trip by a day that my boss would make sure all our stuff was together. Nope. Right before I left, I went to his office, at the request of the secretary, and asked if he wanted to double check the documents. "He said no, no it is all there, I promise."

Bruce Lee: loved by all asians.

Praise the Lord that the other teacher had given us an international sim card to call the office. The only problem was the secretary and my boss were gone. So, with a lot of people's help, I got my document faxed to the visa place at 11:56, and Brady got his shortly after.
It was a stressful morning, but it all worked out!
That afternoon we ate lunch in a park, and then just walked around the Island. We went to a nice dinner and just hung out.
Tuesday, we went to pick up our visa, went on  a hunt for a bakery at the request of our boss, and got on the train to go back to Shenzhen. Our flight was delayed by an hour and a half, so we got back to the school around 11:30 pm. It was a long trip, but definitely an enjoyable city.

More time in Hangzhou...

Me, Jhunex (brady's roommate), Rashid, Gregory, and Olga.

This past Sunday my whole teaching staff went to Hangzhou. It was really fun. We went to one of our A-level student's restaurant. The house itself was owned by his great-grandfather, and then Billy's mother transformed it into a restaurant. It was in a valley, so there were huge hills all around with tea bushes growing on them. It is supposedly the best tea in China, and it was pretty good, but there is a lot of tea that claims to be the best in China. It reminds me of Elf when Will Farrell walks into the diner that says "worlds best coffee" and excitedly congratulates them. Anyways, we were at the restaurant for awhile. We just sat, drank tea, ate snacks, and chatted with the parents, students, and teachers of A-level. We were outside in the beautiful landscape and it was a sunny day, so it was pretty great. After we had done that for a few hours, we moved into the dining area for lunch. They gave us so much food! One thing that is fun about the chinese dining experience is that they give you so many dishes in the middle of the table, and you just share everything. Usually I like that, but since one of the teachers has had the flu pretty bad for awhile, I was extra careful about watching what he ate, and eating the other stuff. Convenient he only eats fish, nuts, and potatoes. Or at least that is what it seems like. When you are eating, celebrating and saying the chinese equivalent of "cheers" is very important, so what seemed like one by one, the parents would come to our table, say something in chinese and then we would all drink our glass. I was drinking coconut milk, which is pretty great. That kept happening, and then we realized that it was polite if we do it back, so we went around to the other tables, just saying "thank you" because that is the only thing we can really communicate to the parents who only speak chinese. After a very filling and fun meal, we went into the heart of Hangzhou and hiked up a large hill to the top which had great rock formations that you could climb all over. The hill itself was some sort of cool historic point, but not being able to read chinese I kind of missed that, so I just took in the beautiful views and was very thankful for the opportunity to be there. It was fun to hang out with my students this way and get a glimpse into what their family life is like.

My Boss John and me at the top of the hill.

On the way home from Hangzhou, Brady, Junex, and I were all in the back of the minivan and passed out for the hour trip. We were tired, but all in all it was a really nice day and a fun way to understand Chinese culture a little more.

The whole group!

A tower. It looks cool, not sure what it is though!