Tutoring

So in January I went to the police station to get my Visa taken care of. A police man called me into his office and (in not so many words) asked me to tutor him. I said sure and smiled not expecting to get a call because many people ask, but no one usually means it. Last week I get a call to go to the principal's office. I have no idea who the principal is, let alone where his office is, so one of the Chinese teachers took me there. I really thought I was in trouble.

I get in there and there are a bunch of people just laughing and speaking Chinese. A man stands up and speaks to me in Chinese. It is the police man. Oh no. Another woman was there and asks me if I could tutor three children at the same time. I laugh and say of course because I am so happy I am not in trouble ( I don't know what i would be in trouble for, I just have never been called to the principal's office.) So now, I am tutoring the police man's child and two other children.

So fast forward to last night. I meet the children and they are really cute. I was very nervous because I had no idea what their English level would be. It was okay. Better than I anticipated.  So we went to the classroom and the parents stayed and watched for the full two hours. Seriously, that was not fun. I liked the kids a lot, but having the parents there made me feel really weird. It makes sense that they want to make sure that their money is being well spent, but I was not a fan.

It was a success though because they will be back the same time next week. Hopefully without the parents staying for the full two hours.

Well, I have two more classes today and then I am off to Ningbo. Apparently China's largest theme park is there. I am thinking that could be a good time. I'll have to see if Janice wants to do it. Otherwise I will just be at the beach and mountains, which I am definitely not complaining about. :)

Have a great day!

well hello there.

It has only been three months, so I thought I should give you a summary of what I have been up to.

1. My dad and Nick came to visit. It was a blast! They came to my city, met all the teachers and students, and went to dinner with my staff. It was so nice to have someone come and understand my life here! Then we went to Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing. The highlights were: climbing the great wall. (It was more uphill than I had anticipated, but nonetheless one of the coolest experiences.) In Hong Kong we went to Macau and saw Sally Carlson, which was fun to have another blast from the past. Her life in Hong Kong seems super great. We also went to the Beijing Zoo and saw a crazy amount of cool animals. We did a lot of touristy things and I was so sad to see them go. It was wonderful having them here.
2. Traveled to Xiamen to see another teacher from EC, Sara. She lives in the beautiful coastal city of Xiamen so it was fun to see a different perspective. We visited a famous chinese Island, and went to an Island of Taiwan which was super cool. I really enjoyed my time there. Sara also came to visit Brady and me two weekends ago for his birthday. It was a great weekend!
3. I have a legitimate Chinese friend now. Her name is Jenee. We go dancing in the park together (with 50 other men and women) and it is super fun! Sometimes we go shopping or walking. I feel as though I am learning a lot more about Chinese culture through her.  Like how much they really love KTV, which is basically like a karaoke place where you rent out a room with friends. I think they could be there all day and have no issue with it.
4. The rain was horrible here for about 2 months. I don't think I could ever live in a rainy city. Seriously, about 5 days of sunshine in 2 months. I did not like that at all. Now it is sunny though, so I am happy!
5. I am loving the weather and going for walks. I do that a lot here. There is a nice river/lake right in front of my school that I can walk around.
6. Classes. My senior 2 students are still amazing, they are so cute and eager to learn. My senior 3 students are the opposite. They are in their senior slide, so I have had to adjust my classes accordingly. I still enjoy them, just maybe not being their teacher so much ;)
7. This weekend my roommate and I are going to Ningbo for the Holiday. I think it seems like a nice city, so it should be fun.

This is the beach in Xiamen that Sara and I went to.

Top of the great wall!

Jackie Chan or Pat Sweeney? I'm not sure.

This is cooler than it looks. The floor is see-through so it is super freaky to look down! It is like the sky walk in the Grand Canyon.

We saw Pandas at the Beijing Zoo!

I will try not to stink at updating again.

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!