Picture RANDOMNESS!

So, this post is by M. The "Two Little Pencils in China" blog-process thus far has been this: K will send me text and sometimes a few specific photos to upload. I then post exactly what she sends. In addition, she also sends me a separate link to her snapfish photos which could include somewhere between 150 and 400 pictures per album. This past weekend I spent some time perusing these photos and decided that you all needed to see more of China via the camera. So I picked out some that I liked. Hehe.

Because K is not directly involved in this particular post, I will be commenting to the best of my ability...and I warn you now that these comments might...or might not..be an accurate reflection of what K and T were hoping to convey when they took the picture. They can clarify when they return to the States. There is absolutely NO ORDER to these following photos because they uploaded so randomly. I am sorry about that...but when you have looked over 1000 pictures, you simply want to post them. :) Here goes...

I'm thinking hokey pokey? What about you? In all seriousness, K mentioned that she had to teach folk dancing one evening and this may be from that night. I really think it's the hokey pokey. Don't you?

T teaching:

Calamari anyone?

Random

Not sure what the fireworks were about but I like to think that K and T got to celebrate the US 4th of July while they were there...

Todd celebrated his birthday in China...

Wonder what kind of meat it was...wonder if T knew...

Not totally deprived if you can get to Starbucks and McDonalds:

And when you have four kids...

Looks familiar...

They performed a wedding...in English I think...as an exercise:

Asian cuisine:


Out and about in town.




I have NO idea:

Dorm life:

Teamwork:

Oh my...

Late-night TV?

This and That

So we finally made it to the weekend! This has been an off-the-charts busy week for us, not to mention the day of sickness for me. Thursday and Friday were both 10-12 hour days--not teaching all that time, but having to be "on" in the lecture hall or one-to-one's with students. We returned to the restaurant where I had imbibed the suspect tea--this was last night for "dinner." I was already cranky and tired and I was fairly certain this place was not on its "A game," but we went nonetheless. The menu offered some western food--"pizza" and "spaghetti," although you can imagine this was more of an interpretation than an exact representation...anyway, our whole team was there and our leader ordered a couple pizzas and then a bunch of Chinese food...sadly, it took nine of the waitresses to come tell us that they were out of pizza...there were more people serving us than were in our group--i guess we were the biggest show in town :) so we ended up eating several Chinese dishes and our leader ordered a steak for the table...i did not drink the tea :) This weekend we have a few scheduled activities and then some down-time, which is much needed. Tomorrow morning we will visit a house--the same house we visited last Sunday...if you squinted you would think you were in a house in the USA. Hymns, choir (and robes no less!), a bulletin, and a similar format...only with some fun Chinese differences :) Anime' cartoon figures decorating the screen for the lyrics for the songs, giant AC units scattered around...and people who were very curious about us...last weekend one of our teammates (who is a former male model and very handsome) had almost a flash mob aorund him outside of the house wanting to take pictures with him...we got a good chuckle out of it (and took some pix oursleves)...perhaps you have seen some of them? Hard to know what you are seeing but I suppose we will explain a lot when we return. OK we have a meeting now so I have to run. All is well-the kids are great and in Jax and we come home in two weeks! Cheers to you all!

Wow...the Midpoint Already!

So we are past the half way point and I am already beginning to become nostalgic about our experience here. It helps that I had an entire day off due to tummy troubles and did nothing but sleep and think. I am on the mend after a couple doses of cipro...but let me tell you that being sick in China is an entirely different proposition than in the US. Our teammate likened the spread of the news that I was sick to Paul Revere's night ride...by the morning every single Chinese teacher knew I was sick with stomach issues...they made me a card (we are blue without you!) and one of my students brought me fruit--dragon fruit, "dragon eyes," and a watermelon. They ALL asked me today if I was better...all 90+ of them :) It was touching... and I was sad to miss a day of teaching because so much happens in a day...today we did a north american wedding with the Chinese teachers...it was awesome--sparked so many discussions and thoughts that perhaps they have not thought of before...and I had a "date" with three of my teachers to a foreign language bar...we discussed their marriages--one lives in a different city than her husband, one seems happily married, and one's husband left her three years ago (and she has twin girls)...so much brokenness and a society that is not set-up to deal with these things in public. We have been able to speak boldly here but in a culturally sensitive way and they are receptive...i think they are longing for the hope and joy that we have and can't figure out how to get it...glad we have a few more weeks to discuss. Anyway, tonight we have additional teaching activities and finish around 8..it has been a long but worthwhile day. Interestingly, there is gatorade in Changsha :) and mountain dew... :)

Update in Pictures

Today's post will be in the form of pictures. K promises that text will accompany the next one...

A Typical Day...

Hi my friends! We are doing well. Teaching has been intense these past few days--yesterday being the longest. Thought we would describe a "typical" day:

We start at 7:45 and go until 11:30 (with a short break) then we teach again from 2:30-4.Then in the evenings (some, not all) we have culture activities from 6:30 until 8. And I taught folk dancing last night...just close your eyes and picture that :) It was fun watching them--they were all laughing and having fun--all 90 of them :) Needless to say I was exhausted. Today was better---one of our morning sessions was led by our team leader as a lecture (of course in an unair-conditioned lecture hall, but that's neither here nor there). I have sweat much... Let me walk you through a typical day... 5:30 a.m. the alarm goes off...we press snooze several times. We finally drag ourselves out of bed and begin getting ready. I usually stumble into the shower room--the room is wet all the time--toilet, floor, walls...there is a small hose from somewhere? that drains into that room...dripping dripping always dripping. I shower and get ready enough to chat with the kids on skype. Then it is a mad dash to get out the door--do I have all my books, papers, notes, room key, name tag, water, toilet paper??? We meet briefly in our leaders room--a time for reflection and lifting and reading from the word. Then we walk down our three flights of stairs to the "dining hall," which is NOTHING like any dining hall on any campus in the US. Round banquet tables fill the room, with an elevated platform all along the side containing many more round tables inside "rooms" which have curtains to seal them off from the masses. We sit in one of these rooms and settle into breakfast: today it was a small yogurt drink, hard boiled eggs, bread, apples, and some kind of soupy porridge. Some days we have hot milk or tea, steamed bread and perhaps some noodles. We usually have a good laugh at breakfast over a chopstick mishap or something our team leader has said and then we trek upstairs to the fourth floor to open our classrooms and begin our teaching day. As I suck wind at the top of the stairs (although this is improving daily), I can already see over half my students waiting in the hallway--they are early...very very early...always...class begins formally at 8 with an "early bird" lesson at 7:45...all but one of my students are early birds every day. They file into the room, smiling, telling me good morning, asking if I rested well. The small talk and banter during this time has opened some doors that I plan to walk through this summer...so many deep questions, curiosities...why are you and Mr. G so joyful? We think you are a wonderful teacher...(and then the slyly sneak over the the AC unit and turn it from 22C to 26C...and to be polite I just ignore it and move on...it is an ongoing battle of the cultures...a comfortable temperature in the US is "slightly" lower than here...and by slightly I mean not-so-slightly :) Today for early bird I taught the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," which we all enjoyed. I played the only version I have, which is The Blanks singing it accopanied by a ukelele...actually a very pretty version...and I sang along because they all think I have this great singing voice...and funnily enough I probably do sound better over here because I am not nervous singing in front of them...I don't know why but it's true. So the lesson begins and I teach from 8 until 9:30, then we have a break...but my students seem glued to their chairs...I repeat, "you are free to have a break," and then maybe half move, three or four of them coming up front to chat with me...is that your son? was this taken at Christmas? your dog is so cute! you are a very happy family...and it goes on and on until the break is over at 10 and we begin again. Class ends for the morning at 11:30 and I make it out of the room around 11:45 and walk downstairs to lunch with Mr. G and our other teammate Mr K. We sit in our same curtained room and before they close the students are taking pictures of us. We eat spicy everything--spicy tofu, spicy fish, spicy something I can't identify...I have quit asking if it is spicy...IT IS...all of it, but delicious. We use chopsticks and our little spoons and use tissues out of a pack as napkins (this is the custom). We drink tea and perhaps a bottle of sprite if it has been ordered (we don't do the ordering)...and we eat rice...mei fahn...with every meal...with chopsticks...in fact a fork would seem awkward right now (although I could probably adjust :)). We talk with our Chinese liasons during lunch (they sit with us at every meal) and discuss the finer points of our culture...idioms, TV shows, dating...the conversations always elicit smiles and laughter, and the Chinese get a major kick out of our faces when we bite into the peppers...And then lunch is over and it is time for xio xi...my favorite aspect of Chinese culture...xio xi (show she) is basically a siesta..a NAP...I LOVE IT. Mr G and I return to our room and snooze until about 2 and then peel ourselves out of bed and return to our classrooms to begin the afternoon session. We finish about 4 but we also have students who are signed up for "one-to-ones" where they have ten minutes of our undivided attention to discuss anything they desire. Today I spoke with a young man whose father is the deputy provost of this college...i did not know this until today...good piece of information to file away...it was a good conversation and I enjoyed getting to know him further. I dismissed him after we chatted about my family and the transformer movie and his upcoming trip to Japan...and then I turned off my AC and lights, locked the door, found Mr G sitting in his classroom with his students as they planned for a cultural presentation and I returned here to the dorm room.

Dinner happens in 8 minutes so I will end this now...I think my brain must be in overload with all of the newness of everything--the language I am learning, the cultural nuances and subtleties, the teaching methods, the students' names (both English and Chinese), and trying to keep everything straight and filed in the correct place...and then there is missing my children and my family and friends, missing my cell phone, missing my bed...missing my chick fil a and dunkin donuts coffee and ICED TEA from anywhere! and on the other end of end of the continuum is realizing that I am right where I am supposed to be...i think that's all for now....love, K

Changsha

Ni Hao! We are a third of the way through our summer and we have arrived safely in Changsha. The weather here is quite warm--much like being in the south--but the food is very spicy. Here's a sample menu...breakfast--steamed bread, noodles, rice porridge, hot milk, and maybe hard boiled eggs...lunch--duck (and you know it's duck because the head is in the bowl, beak and all), very bony fish served with glass noodles (very very spicy), the greens from sweet potatoes (i didn't know they were edible but turns out they are quite tasty), eggplant and greens beans, carrots and pork, tofu (dried and then mixed in with peppers and sauce), and then rice (mei fahn) is served at the end of the meal. They also serve hot water (kai shui) and sometimes tea. We have also ordered bottles of pepsi or sprite, as hot water isn't always the most appetizing thing to wash down the meal. Dinners are similar to lunches with perhaps a few more dishes and maybe fried banana puffs for dessert. I have lost weight since we have been here--one, because I don't do spicy--two, I have been eating mostly veggies--three, I haven't been snacking! Occasionally we have Chinese oreos and other random Chinese snacks, but mostly I am guzzling bottled water and eating light every meal--a rather costly weight-loss program if you ask me...lol.

Anyway, our living accomodations are adequate. We have a dorm room with a desk, a fridge, a closet, a TV (not that it matters because I can't understand it), and then our bathroom is out through the sliding doors. The sink is in one room, and then the shower and toilet are in another--if you so desire, you can sit on the toilet and shower at the same time...very european :) There is a washing machine at the end of the hall, but the buttons are labeled in Chinese--we will tackle that one tonight :) We saw our classrooms yesterday--chalkboard, tables and chairs, TV, and stand-alone AC unit (PTL!)--our lecture hall does not have AC so send some cool thoughts our way :) We start teaching tomorrow after an opening ceremony--we are both very excited to begin. We visited a House this morning--I cannot wait to share all of the cool things like this we have been able to do since we have been here. Our brothers and sisters are vibrant and growing and so much more is happening than is visible to our western world. Our adventure yesterday to a village that was built during the MIng Dynasty (1300s) was very illuminating--the nuances and subtleties of this culture are many...and people are still living in this village and have been since it was built. We saw the smiles of young children and heard many observing us, even though they spoke in Chinese (some things are universally communicated), we shared a meal there and tasted what they have been tasting for hundreds of years, we saw people who, although they live differently than we do, lived in community and looked after one another. A grandfather with a deformed hand was carrying around his granddaughter--and he carried her all during our lunch and afterwards. Everyone was busy doing something...lots of chickens and dogs and vegetables and mushrooms drying in the sunshine. We drove past vast rice paddies on our way to this village--and towns, where in between the houses (perhaps 15 feet) would be a garden or a rice paddi, or a cow...my pictures help convey this further. So many juxtapositions here--old, new, modern, archaic, poor, extravagant, abundance, dearth...all on top of one another, competing, cooperating...many times I have said to T "I am seeing this but I don't know what I am seeing..."...so I need to run now :) Meeting time with our team. Blessings to all of you!

Hello from China!

One of the first lessons you must learn when you come to China is flexibility...and the journey of this blog is no exception. Without recounting the pathway to arriving here, I will just say that it has been frustrating and humorous and that I am grateful to finally have a place to assign these thoughts. :) Anyway, we are doing fine.

Beijing has been such an interesting city and I will be glad to have another day or so here after we finish teaching. The hotel where we have been staying is similar to a north American hotel, with a few differences (which can be big or small, depending on your perspective). The beds are very firm...no, scratch that...they are hard. The pillow has some kind of hulls (buckwheat?) but it is surprisingly comfortable. The room has been clean--like really, no complaints in that department! And although we can't drink the water (no one can here, actually), they provide us with a hot-pot for boiling, which has worked out nicely. We have done laundry in the sink several times, which has been rather cathartic and gratifying...and much less labor intense than laundry sessions back home :) Dryers are non-existent here, so everyone has clothing drying in their windows or outside. It takes about three days for stuff to dry fully. A major difference here is the number of people who smoke. After living in a clean indoor air state for a long time, you forget what it is like to be in a smoky environment. My lungs have been doing a double take :) They are in shock...Anyway, we have seen only a small chunk of the city, as we have been in training much of the time. But the piece we have seen has been so neat--I love just seeing the everyday...what people are spending their time doing when they aren't feeling on display for the foreigners. Lots of alfresco dining here...and people are always outside, together, laughing, playing checkers, mah jong, cards...and children are all over the place. Several have stolen my heart. We are the ones on display and it is fun to watch people's tactics for staring...some are subtle...some don't even try and they drop what they are doing or bump their bike into a parked car because they have to crane their neck all the way around to watch you...but they usually smile. We're curious too, aren't we? I will say that Chinese hospitality has America's beaten by a landslide...they are meticulous in their graciousness, in remembering that you asked for soy sauce the last time you ate at their restaurant and when you come again they place it on your table before you have even sat down. And the food...dirt cheap and delicious! Our team--that's 7 of us--has eaten out this whole week for about $100--lunches and dinners...and we are stuffed and it is amazingly tasty! And as for some of the deeper, more meangingful things that are happening here, I am so encouraged. Houses are being built--and although they may not look exactly like our houses in the US, there are many brothers and sisters who love the father and their faith is vibrant and growing.

We have experienced things here that I could not have predicted and many times, as we are singing a song about our father or petitioning him, I have to pinch myself and remind myself where I am...I have so much more to share about this when we return home. We are off now to the Forbidden City and some other sight-seeing...more to come! Please continue to remember us during your quiet times...we covet those thoughts and will need them in the weeks ahead.