November in a nutshell

Well, November has been flying by! I can't believe its almost thanksgiving. I'm sad I won't be home to be with family, but on the plus side, Brady and I get to go to Hong Kong on Friday to get our work visa. We will be there for about 4 days, so I am really excited for that! I am trying to research what we should do there and there is a ton of stuff! Seems like the views are amazing, but it is a very expensive city. Should be fun no matter what!
The last month has consisted of a pretty normal routine. We teach two weeks in a row, and then have a weekend off. This weekend if my weekend off. Yesterday we had a man visit from England and we all went out to lunch. It was fun! There were probably about 12 of us, and we got invited to go to the city of Nimbo (I think) in three weekends for a fun party/bonfire/swimming/hiking weekend. I don't really know why we were invited, but it is through the company that the man from England came with. The women seemed super nice and their English was good, so why not? Another Chinese teacher was invited too, so that will make it more fun too! I hope it actually happens.
Over the past few weekends we have gone to Hangzhou two times. One time was to specifically give a presentation at another school on Eau Claire. The other time was to go on a tour, put on by Jack, and then do English exams for the other school again. We went around West lake, which is absolutely beautiful, and the took us out to huge meals. It was really fun to seem more of China and also be with people who speak English. There was a girl whose english name is Michelle, and she spent the day with us. She is super sweet and great to talk with. We also got to go to the countryside, which was nice because we have been in cities since we got here. Even though we did some work, it was really fun.
Tomorrow we will head to Hangzhou again, but this time with all our staff. There are 10 of us all together and we are doing some "team bonding." I think I will laugh a lot of the time because it is a funny bunch of people. Should be a good time though. It seems like everyone loves Hangzhou.
Recently I have gotten really sick of noodles. I have been cooking my own meals, and it is hard to cook when you can't read any ingredients because everything is in Chinese, so all my meals have been super simple. So, Brady's roommate took me to buy a rice cooker, so that is a lot better! Also, Brady and I have been cooking some meals together because he really enjoys cooking and is good at it, so it is a treat for me!

Well, Happy Thanksgiving!

Chinese TV debut

I apologize for the lack of post-age recently. I don't really have an excuse except that I just didn't really feel like it. These last two weeks have been pretty eventful though!

The beginning of this story starts out on a Wednesday. Brady and I were just sitting in our office doing work, when our boss John comes in and asks us if we want to get paid to dance on TV. I am picturing an event and we are just the token white people in the crowd, so I was like, yeah, that sounds great! Brady said "yeah, we can't lose in this situation!" Which we would later laugh about.

Friday evening comes, I just got back from playing ball games with the students, when John comes and finds me, telling me that we need to go to the directors hotel room to practice our lines. WHAT? WE HAVE LINES? yes we do. It is all about how much we love China and how we want to make our fortune here. We get there, meet the main actor guy, who does not speak ANY english, but is still directing us in when we should speak. Praise the Lord we had voice overs and did not have to learn the actual chinese words. That would have been a huge fail. Brady and I leave that night not exactly sure what is going on, but we were fine with it.

Fast forward: Its sunday night, we are just hanging out doing our own thing, when John tells us that we need to go practice. We go to a theater that has a lot of seats in it to practice coming onto stage. WE ARE IN A CLEAR BOX AND A MAGICIAN WILL GET US OUT. that is so weird. Brady was hidden. At first I was super pumped, thinking that I got the better end of the deal because I didn't have to climb underneath the box and be really uncomfortable. These thoughts were short-lived due to the fact that I needed to be waving furiously at the audience and be the person that everyone is looking at, while I am sitting (seemingly) alone in a clear box. Anyways, we practiced with the magician who was very nice. It was a funny experience though. My knees were pretty bruised the next day.

It is now Wednesday, the day of our performance. We got out of our teaching duties, which was a nice break. We show up at 9 am and we see all the back up dancers and the people that we will be dancing with. No one speaks any english. At all. It was fun. Brady had two guys that he worked closest with, and I was with two girls. They basically led us to do whatever we needed to do. It was fine. Then, we had a lunch break. After the lunch break we had our dress rehearsal. The girls that I was working closest with had on prom dresses. I was in a t-shirt and jeans as desired by the director. Kind of weird. Everyone looked good though! Aside from Brady and I and our typical American attire.

The show started at 7:30 so we had to get there at 5. It was a long time, but it was fun. The people there were really nice. Our boss, John, really wanted to go out front as people were getting here. I innocently thought we were just going for a walk. Little did I know he wanted to do some marketing for our school. So we were out front and journalists came up to us asking questions and wanting pictures. I felt a little weird. At least they spoke english though!

The show started and thankfully we were the second act. We got out of the magic box without a hitch and it went relatively smoothly. People kept telling us we did well, so we thought that it must have been pretty good. Brady found the video online. It is the most embarrassing thing you will ever see. I was crying I was laughing so hard. We look ridiculous. All-in-all though, it was super fun and I am really happy we did it!

This is Brady and I with our boss, John, who set this whole thing up for us. I think he was  the most excited.

Brady and I with Dong and Matthew (the magician)

Where we were performing.

This is us during our performance. hahaha 

This is us making our entrance out of the magic box. Obviously.

Brady uploaded the video to his blog, so if you want, check it out here: http://dontdrinkwhiskeyitstoorisky.blogspot.com/2011/11/firsts.html

It is at the end of the post! Hope you enjoy :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!

Happy Birthday Dad! I hope your day is better after watching this. This is one of my classes. They are seniors in high school and really great to work with. Please note that on the board to the left is a drawing of my face that one of the students drew. It says "father I love you." haha i love these students and their peace signs. Hope you enjoy!

A little adventure and getting siiiiick.

After we got back from Wuhzen, life was pretty relaxing. I did some lesson planning, went on a fun adventure around Keqiao. It was a good time. We found an indoor ski place, what?! Definitely going to need to try that before I leave. We also climbed a hill, got a little lost, but had a good time just exploring. I also skyped with Kara Koerner, which I really enjoyed!

So Saturday morning, the first day back from our Holiday. I woke up and it was just a normal morning. I drank some coffee, ate some oatmeal, and got ready to go teach. I had a class at 7:30 that morning, so I arrived in the office around 7:10. While walking out of my apartment, I started to feel dizzy and saw some spots. I knew that this was not good, but I needed to teach. I went to class and it got very complicated. I couldn't read my lesson plan or book, so needless to say, class was probably less than good. Oh well. After class I ran into Brady, who asked how I was doing, I said that I was not doing well. Thankfully, he mentioned to my boss that I was not feeling well, and my boss advised me to go lay down. Right when I got up to my apartment I threw up a few times. No fun. I had a pounding headache and could not sleep after that. Maybe I just needed some rest? I strongly believe that it was the fish that I ate the night before. Whoops. I taught classes in the afternoon, because my stomach wasn't feeling queasy anymore. Thankfully, Gregory took over the "ball games" for me that Brady and I are supposed to do together, so I didn't have to go run around.

The next day, I woke up and felt great though, so thankfully it was quick!

A little travel...

 So before I came to China, I was told I was going to be placed in Xiamen, which obviously did not happen. There is one other person from EC teaching in China through the same program as Brady and I. Her name is Sarah. She was placed in Xiamen. This week we had a national holiday. Sarah was traveling with her roommate, Ivy, to Ivy's hometown. We thought it would be fun to all meet up. So Brady and I decided to join them in Tiongxang, which is right next to the ancient city of Wuzhen. We really left everything until the last minute, and it really could not have gone smoother. One of the other teachers, Thistle, was going to the bus station, so she helped us get our ticket and on the bus. We got there, borrowed a phone from strangers, and met up with Sarah and Ivy. It was fun to be with another American.

We got to our hotel, which was super nice, and centrally located to Ivy's house, so that was great too. We set out to explore the town. In this city there were a lot more people that spoke english too, so that was fun.  We stopped, got some tea/lattes, went to walmart, experienced the coolest dinner. The dinner was fondue, but really fun. One broth was spicy, the other one was mild. Ivy's friend Sophia joined us. It was a good time. After we went to a tea place where we got some "jasmine pearl tea" very good. They also served snacks like dried pork and crab, that was a little much for me after dinner.

The next morning we got up to experience the great city of Wuzhen! It was really cool. They call it the Chinese Venice. It was really pretty. Ivy's parents bought us our tickets, which was incredibly nice. We went through a lot of museums, and my favorite one was the foot-binding museum. There was so much information and shoes that people would wear when they got their feet to only be 3 inches. Ow. We also saw an ancient chinese shadow puppet show. I really enjoyed that. Ivy's parents made us a delicious lunch to eat at her grandparents, and it was so great. It was also fun to be in a Chinese house. After that, back to the Ancient city, where we explored more, made our way through the herds of people, and just had a good time. There were fun snacks to try: goo stuff, sunflowers, among other things. It was a good cultural experience.

That night, Ivy's parents, who don't speak any english, took us to a family restaurant. It was so good. We finished it all. After that,  we went back to the hotel and I fell asleep pretty fast.

The next morning, we ate a great breakfast at the hotel, and then went to the train station to figure out our way home. Ivy helped us get a ticket, and then we said our goodbyes. We met some super nice people once we got on the train, Elaine and Jake (their english names) Jake is an engineer, and Elaine is studying law. Their english was super good, and they really helped us take a lot of time off of our traveling. It was great. They were fun to talk to as well. 

All in all, it was a fun trip. A good experience as well. Something that has been consistent since we have arrived in China is how nice everyone we have run into has been. Not only do people go out of their way to help us, but they also will pay for us to do things. Even if we don't know them. It is crazy to me. They will go so far our of their way.  I want to be like this. It has been such a blessing and so much fun. They also really love America. Whenever we say we are from America, people get really excited. It is nice.

This morning, back in Keqiao, I was doing my laundry. I was checking to see how it was drying on the rooftop and I locked myself out of my room. Not the first time, but my roommate had to fly back to the Philippines to get her visa, so I had no way to get back in. A man from the security office came up, kicked down my door, and just started working on a new lock. Whooops. I felt really bad. He just laughed. I think I may have increased the "stupid american" thought a little more here with that.  Oh well. I will try not to lock myself out in the next two weeks. 

Break Time!

So today is the first day of the National Holiday. As far as I can tell, its like a fall-break, I don't think there is a cultural holiday or anything like that. We have off until next saturday which is really nice. Today, the new Chemistry/Math teacher comes from Pakistan. I am excited to meet him. It will be nice to have all the teachers here. And, now I won't be the new person, so that is also good! All the foreign teachers are going out to a lunch tomorrow, so that should be fun as well.
Classes have been going really well. I teach IELTS (the exam to go to school in other countries) to two grades. So my main goal is to get them to speak as much english as possible and correct the grammar and teach them new words and such. One grade only has 3 girls in it, they are the "juniors" of the school.  I really enjoy them. Then there are the seniors, who have 11 students. They have a lot of fun and get a little rambunctious at times, but they are really fun to work with. The last class is A-level. I believe they are the smarter sophomore level students, so they get a ton of homework and kind of have attitudes, but I enjoy them nonetheless. The content for A-level is the least fun to work with, so I am trying to find ways to make my lesson plans more exciting. I think one of my biggest challenges in teaching is the fact that in each class, there are all different levels of students. Some students can speak english really well, and others find it hard to piece together a sentence. It is hard finding the right pace: challenging the students that already understand and know the information, while not leaving anyone behind. I think this will be a continual problem that I work on.
Last night, three of the Philippine teachers were making dinner and invited Brady and I to join. It was super good and a nice relaxing night. I went to bed around 10:30 but woke up to really loud noises at about 3:30am. I look out my window and there are TONS of fireworks going off. Maybe it is for the national holiday? or maybe just because its friday. I will never know, but it was pretty to see. A little confusing at 3:30 in the morning too.
It has been very rainy here. I believe it has rained everyday this week except for one. Today there is a breach in the rain as well, so I am doing some long awaited laundry. We dry our clothes outside, so the weather is a key factor in when to do laundry.

medical exam!

So today was the infamous medical exam. I had heard really bad things and some not-so-bad things. I am happy to report that it wasn't quite as bad as I had anticipated. First, we got there and took some pictures, then after a 3 minute wait, we were brought upstairs to give blood samples. They usher you right in and waste no time. Praise the Lord they got it on the first try for me, so that was relatively easy. Still gross to watch the blood flow out of you Then we had to give a urine sample, just typical medical stuff. Side note: for bathrooms, it is the typical whole in the ground, bathroom. It is tiled so that is nice, but no toilet bowl. Next, we had to go up a floor and get our eyes checked. My vision is not as good as it used to be. Oh well. After that, I went into a room where the woman did not speak english. She motioned for me to lay down and rubber her hands all over my stomach. It tickled so much! She was laughing at me. I like to think we bonded in that moment. Next, I went to another room entitled surgery. This was the most bizarre moment, they put metal things around one foot and both arms, then proceeded to rub some type of goo on my stomach, and just waited. I just laid there on the table, waiting, while she was just looking at me, also waiting for the test to be done. I was happy to get out of that one. Next, I had an ultra sound, a first for me. I didn't realize they looked more at your rib cage then your stomach. Based on the movies I have seen, I was anticipating the goo to be a little colder than it was, so that was a pleasant surprise. With that, I went to get my x-rays done and now all I have to do is wait for it to come back to I can apply for my work visa in Hong Kong! I am excited that I get to go to Hong Kong and the school is paying. Not too shabby.