Colorado

Since coming home from China I have moved to Colorado. I'm currently living in Silverthorne and working at Keystone. I'm in the Central Reservation office booking reservations for Vail and Beaver Creek. So if you are interested in booking a vacation for either of these resorts call 888.605.7576.
I moved up here around November 5th and started working on the 8th. I'm at just about a month and a half on the job. I work about 5 days a week, but have gotten in 20 days of riding so far! With the job I got a free pass for Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin. One of the coolest things Vail Resorts has started this year is EpicMix. When you buy a lift ticket or a season pass your lift ticket will have an RF chip implanted in it. With this chip they are able to track which lifts you get on, on the mountain and therefore calculate your vertical feet. It's pretty cool and at the office we have started a friendly competition to see who can get the most vertical feet this season. It makes for a fun discussion at work, but is also a great incentive to get on the mountain. I've currently boarded over 225,000 vertical feet. The one bad thing about the system is it is still in its Beta form and they are working out the bugs. A-Basin also doesn't participate in the RF reading. So my vertical feet is missing 2 days at A-Basin and a few runs here and there on other days.
I'm really enjoying my time up here! I love seeing the mountains everyday.
More to come...

Update

I think its time to fill the rest of you in on whats been going on here. I have enjoyed my time in China very much and I will always look back on it with a smile on my face. I will also have to come back some time, because I still haven't made it to the Great Wall.
     The thing is I don't really like teaching. It has been a struggle for me to get out of bed in the mornings, because I'm not looking forward to the day. I was also told before I came that not knowing Chinese really wasn't a big deal and you don't really need to know it if you are working in an international school. I beg to differ at least in my case. One of my favorite things about Europe was being able to talk to people and be involved in the community to a certain extent. I can't do that here. I would describe not knowing Chinese as just surviving here, but I don't want to just survive I want to thrive!
     So I have made up my mind to come and I am at peace with the idea. I have talked to the airline and I have a ticket. Then talking with one of my best friends last night she told me that her lymph nodes are potentially cancerous. I believe God was preparing me to hear that. He knew that I would want to be home with her for this. There are no such things a coincidences.
     So I will be landing in Tulsa Wednesday evening if all of my flights go as planned. I wish it had ended a little differently, but right now all I want to to is come home.

9.16.10

We have been going over the body and I read Eric Carle’s book “From Head to Toe” today. It was so much fun. His pictures wowed them. I had to wait a good minute to read the page, because they were so excited about the pictures. There is an animal on each page and you go over a body part, the first page is a penguin and you turn your head, a monkey and you wave your arms. Well one of the pages is a donkey and he kicks his legs and the picture has a girl kicking her legs behind her. In one of my classes they got really into the book and were doing this action and it was so funny to see all 35 of them kicking their leg just like the picture. I wish that I had a camera, but just know that they looked great. We have also been singing “Head and shoulders knees and toes” and it is by far their favorite song we have sung. I think it is because of the motions. You aren’t just using your hands, but you get to move your whole body. I do have to say though that the girl that sings has a really high voice and I can’t sing anyways, but to try and sing with her is impossible. I’m going to have to remember next time to find singers that I can sing with. I just mouth the words when she goes that high.

The book with the young ones was to much. I would have thought they would have gotten a little more, but oh well. Life goes on and we sing our song.

     I went exploring with Helen to a new part of town this evening. It is more what I would call downtown. There are a lot of shops and big hotels. I didn’t take my camera, but this places needs some pictures, especially at night. I would compare it to Vegas. I’ve never been to Vegas, but I’ve watched enough CSI that I’m pretty confident in saying this. There were neon lights all over the place and tons of people everywhere. One of the places we went to is called Walking Street. It is one of the few places in Zhongshan that cars aren’t allowed on, which is really nice. Walking Street is basically a strip mall, but a little more classy. It is the part of town that a lot of Europeans inhabited a back in the day. I’m not really sure how far back, but I would say about 100 years ago. The buildings along the Walking Street look like they could be from Europe. It is quite a difference from the rest of the city, because the rest of the city has this weird tile on the outside. If you look at the picture of the Primary School that is what most of the buildings look like, but not on Walking Street. They are more elegant and stucoed-ish.

     There is a McDonalds on the end of Walking Street and as me and Helen got closer we saw a group of people standing around right outside of the McD’s. Then we noticed a few police motorcycles and I peered into the circle and there were two guys sitting on the ground. It looked almost like they had stolen something from the McD’s because the policeman was holding a McD’s bag. Then I noticed that both men had their thumbs zip-tied together. Instead of handcuffs the Chinese law enforcement uses zip-ties.

     Me and Helen took a rickshaw back to our apartments. It is really fun to ride in these things, you really get to see a lot of the city this way. I highly recommend it! We passed one of the parks and there were loads of people out dancing and playing badminton. The parks all of “playground” equipment, but I see more adults using it as exercise equipment than I have little kids playing on it.  

9.15.10

     As I walk to the Kindergarten every morning there are a wide variety of people that I see. Some I am starting to recognize, because I see them everyday. There is one older woman inparticular that refuses to smile at me. Most people at least nod their head back. But she scowls at me, the complete opposite of most people. The other day she was in conversation with her friends and as I walked past I smiled and nodded like I do everyday and she stopped talking, looked at me and then scowled as I walked past. One day she will smile back : )

     This week in the afternoons with my L2 kids we are making paper lanterns in celebration of the coming Mid-Autumn Festival. The festival is basically to worship the moon. So with these lanterns my first group of kids I seriously overestimated their ability to use scissors. They needed to cut out the border of the lantern on the dark solid line. Unfortunately, they all cut on the dotted line about an inch below the solid line, then insisted on mutilating the rest of the paper. They all had puzzles by the end of class. There was only one girl that walked away with what the lantern should have looked like and two other girls that we were able to salvage enough so it looked like a lantern. From then on out I had the borders pre-cut, so all they had to do was color and then make a few basic cuts and I helped glue it in a circle. The other classes have been much more successful. One of my classes kept trying to include me in their conversation. However, my lack of Chinese made this very difficult. I needed to know a little so that I knew they weren’t bad mouthing me.

     On Tuesdays and Wednesday the school offers a Yoga class for the teachers and I went Wednesday last week and Tuesday and Wednesday this week. I’ve just come from the Wednesday class and that Chinese instructor had us in a few positions that I wasn’t really sure were possible at first. I’m going to be sore or something in the morning. I’m hoping that by the end of the term I will be a little more flexible though. The class itself is pretty enjoyable. The instructor is really nice, but doesn’t speak any English, so if I’m doing something wrong she comes over and gently pushes my body into the right position. I’m sure as soon as me and Helen walk in she is like, “great the stiff foreigners are back,” because those Chinese teachers are much more flexible than either one of us. But she just smiles and helps us out. 

     Some days I think that I really want to come home where life is comfortable and easy. I wouldn't have any real struggles except deciding what to have for dinner. But then I think about the amazing opportunity I have been given and all of things I will learn this year and experiences I will have and people I have met and will meet. It is only a year and everything at home will still be there when I get back. I have to keep reminding myself of that. I do get to come home, I'm not here forever. This year will really make me appreciate life back in America. I look forward to seeing what is next. 

More Pictures

This is the gate to the Primary School Gate. This is where I live and I have to walk through the gate back and forth every day. The guards are all really nice and say hello to me as I go back and forth.

This is the front of the Primary School 

After climbing 5 flights of stairs this is the hallway that leads to my apartment.  There is a basketball court on the floor below. The lock on the gated door never works and I spend about ten minutes trying to get the key to go in the lock.

This is the view from my bedroom window. You can see the basketball court below. 

There are two guys that love playing basketball.  They are there almost every evening. I checked to see if they could see in my room, but my windows are tinted so they can't during the day. And yes my window has bars.

This is a little park right outside of the Primary School gates. In the evenings there are a group of grandmas that come out and do some form of exercise. I may come and join them one evening. 

This is the front of the Kindergarten. It is about a 5 min walk from the Primary School. 

I discussed mooncakes in my last blog and thought a picture would do better than my description. Here you can see the nice yolk in the middle. 

Teacher's Day

     Today was Teacher’s Day. I got a carnation from one of the moms and the school gave all of the teachers Mooncakes. I was told by a few of the teachers that the moon cakes we got are sweet, good and contain an egg yoke. There are other types of moon cakes, some have meat in the middle and are salt and some have nuts and are sweet, but ours have egg yokes. So at lunch I started eating my moon cake thinking that when they said egg yoke, they meant that the yoke was mixed into the filling. There is a breadish outside and then sweet bean paste on the inside. So I’m eating and then all of a sudden I look down and I see this bright orange matter peaking out of the bean paste. I nibbled around it and discovered it was the egg yoke. And I mean the yoke. They had baked just a hunk of egg yoke into the middle of the moon cake. Not mixed in, just whole. The yoke isn’t sweetened, so if you don’t want a nice bite of almost bitterness, don’t take a large chunk of the yoke, it doesn’t end well.

     We sang “If your happy and you know it” in my N2 classes and just singing and doing silly motions keeps them really entertained.

     I’ve been teaching the kids high fives and they love it. It is our new favorite thing. They all want to give high fives as they leave the classroom. Yoda even gave me a high five. He looked at my hand like he was contemplating the deeper meaning of a hand, but then slowly gave me a high five. He smiled afterwards and gave me a small wave and then went back to his normal expression of not quite a scowl, but a deep concentration of the meaning of life.

     I received a few basic supplies from the school today such as a few glue sticks, a few child safe scissors, a stapler and 12 boxes of colored pencils and a small sharpener. I was so excited about the colored pencils, because I had been using my markers with the kids in the afternoon and one of my tables is covered in all different colors now. I figured pencils where also better than crayons, because they would melt in my classroom over the weekend without the air conditioner. So I open up one of the boxes to get it ready for my afternoon kids only to find that the pencils weren't sharpened and the only sharpener they had given me was a small inch long thing. So now I have 144 colored pencils that need sharpening and only a small sharpener for them all. I know what I'm getting at Fu Mart this weekend : ) Oh and all of the pencils say Made in China on them. How fitting.

     Today was my last day to roll mats! Hooray! One of my groups was so restless, they could tell it was Friday, so I let them just play and goof off with the mats after we had rolled them up. I showed them that they could look through the whole in the middle of the roll and they thought it was fun and we waved at each other through the wholes. Then one of the boys started using the mat to 'shoot' his friend. They started a small war in my classroom. Once shooting each other wasn't fun anymore they both turned their guns on me. I played along and had a very dramatic death. They came over to see if I was ok and I jumped up at them and they giggled with joy and ran away. We did this at least 5 more times until I had to take them back to class. 

A traditional Lion Dance. These guys danced/jumped around on the poles. It was impressive to watch them work so well together.

This is the skyline of Zhongshan from the south. 

This is the skyline from the north-ish

Thoughts

I’ve forgotten to mention that I went to dinner with an American couple. I met them at the Bible Study I went to on Sunday. They are from Arkansas and Tennessee and have been living in China for the past three years. I went to their apartment Tuesday and they grilled hamburgers on their balcony. It was such a good meal and they are a great couple to spend time with. They are a great contact to know.

     I shaved my legs this morning for the second time since I’ve been here and I’m going to have to figure out how to use distilled safe drinking water to shave, because my legs itched so bad I almost couldn’t stand it. They don’t do that normally so I have to believe it is from shaving and then the water getting in my pores. I can’t drink the water that comes out of my faucet I have to buy water or I’ve got one of those kettles that boils water and I can drink it once it has been boiled. It makes me wonder if I started mixing in a tiny bit of faucet water with my safe water if in a year you can be acclimated to the water enough that I could have small drinks out of the faucet. I may begin a new experiment.

     The weather here is tropical and humid. As in I start sweating the instant I step outside even though the temperature is in the low 80s. It has got me thinking about the hardness of my bed and tile floors everywhere. These are for hygienic reasons. If there was carpet or a soft squashy bed they would mold or be perpetually wet all the time. The bed has to be hard to stay dry and the floor has to be tile to stay clean.

     Something God has been showing me since I’ve been here is how much He is in everything. I spend a good portion of my morning in prayer and I notice how much better my day goes. I feel better and at peace about everything that happens. I know He has me here for a reason and I’m beginning to wonder if Kindergarten is just a side job. It is what got me to China, but not my real focus. 

9.9.10

 Last night I went to yoga with a few of the Chinese teachers and Helen. It was a lot of fun to get to spend time with some of the other teachers. Afterwards I worked on a few of my lesson plans and went to bed with it raining. Around 2:30 I woke up to the loudest clap of thunder I have ever heard. My entire apartment shook! The thunder might as well have been inside my apartment. Then all of the alarms on the bikes and cars went off. This repeated about 5 times before the storm moved on.

     This morning I did ‘morning exercise’ with the kids. The teachers have choreographed basic movements to a few songs and the children ‘exercise’ each morning. It was funny, because I didn’t know the motions any better than the kids, so we were all in the same boat together.

     There are definitely good days and bad days. Some of my lessons I think are great, but they don't go as well as I would have thought and some of the ones that I’m not so thrilled about go over really well. I taught my L2 classes the Cha, Cha Slide and it wasn’t quite as good as I thought. They really enjoyed it, but it was a little harder for them to follow than I thought it would be. I needed the words to be just a hair slower. We will sing it again for the next few days and see if it gets a little better. My N1 kids I had an umbrella and a kite so we could learn about the weather and it was good. I let them play with the stuff and it went over well. The most shocking part of the day was when we did big/small. I had them stand up and we stretched out our arms wide for big and the hunched down for small and they loved popping back up to be big! It was the highlight of the lesson. I never would have guessed.

     For me, my favorite part was when Yoda waved good-bye to me. He has just given me this scowl up until now, but he gave me a small wave. And he participated a little in big/small. He normally just looks at me like I’m the most ridiculous person he has ever met.

     In the afternoons I see the L2 students again. There are three classes and each class sends me 7 kids for twenty minutes. So I have three twenty minute classes and I see each of the L2 students once each week. I have a four week rotation for these afternoon classes. Week one is Montessori, week two arts and crafts, week three imagination theme and week four centers. So this week has been Montessori and the objective is for each student to be able to roll up a mat and then walk around it. Someone has either taught these kids this already or they are born with the natural ability to roll a mat perfectly, because I've had four days worth of kids and not a single one of them has had any problems rolling a mat what so ever. This means that we are finished with the lesson in about 5 minutes at most. I've been setting up the mats as an obstacle course and letting them run around them until they get tired and then we color. I've got a wall full of kindergarten drawings now and my room looks a little more used/homey. 

9.7.10

     I've come to the realization that teaching isn't something I want to do for the rest of my life. I think this year will be enough. I also don't think it would matter what grade it was, teaching just isn't my calling. I enjoy seeing the kids and giving high fives, but doing pretty much the same thing seven times in a row can get a little boring for me. It is a little bit of a challenge to see what they will like and what the kids want to do and what they can do. That does keep it a little more exciting for me. I'm just going to have to try new things and see what works and what doesn't.
     I have one kid in my N1D class that looks like a young Yoda. His ears almost come to a point and the stick out just right and he's eyes look so serious and like he is almost mad, but not quite, because he is thinking about whether he should be mad or not. I love seeing this kid stare at me from the bus each morning, I want to make faces back at him as he stares at me.

9.6.10

  Today was a very successful day in Kindergarten. I had more than enough things planned for all of my classes. L2 we did a word/letter match and they loved it! I had Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd and Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm written on the board and then I had a picture of an apple, bird, cat, dog, jacket, kite, lion and monkey. I would hold up on of the flashcards with a picture/word on it and ask them which letter it went with. I would hold it in front of the wrong letter and they would get so excited, because that was not the right letter. When I would hold the word in front of the right one they gave me a definite “yes”. We had so much fun. N1 having a lot of little things to do was perfect. We were constantly changing, so they never really got fidgety. My second to last class, however, was really, really quiet. It was almost creepy. I couldn’t get them to say anything. So I was trying to get them to say the color red and I just happened to have a red ball. So instead of getting the entire class to say red, I asked each of them individually to say read and when they did I then handed them the ball. Then they got to throw it back to me. This went over really well. I was glad to have a few smiles as they tossed it back. My last class is taught by a girl that just graduated with a Financial Accounting degree, she is in the same boat as me, but I think her class may be my favorite. They don’t know a lot of words, so they are excited to learn. Sometimes when they get really excited they just yell. It is really pretty funny, but then we calm them back down and they will say what I want them to. We just have to get our yells out.

http://www.foxtrot.com/2009/12/12062009/

http://www.foxtrot.com/2010/01/01242010/

This afternoon was good as well. I had seven kids for twenty minutes from my L2 A,B,C classes. I rolled a mat and then they showed me that they could roll the mat. Then we all walked around the mat. I really haven’t figured out the point to this, but I’m told to teach it and so I do. After we finished rolling out mats I had cut pieces of paper in half and I let them draw pictures and I have hung them on the wall. It adds just a little something to have kid drawings up.

After the kids left I sat down on the mat next to my books and looked over my lesson plans for tomorrow and I had about ten minutes before I had to go down and stand at the gate to wave good-bye to the kids and I laid down. One of the worker ladies came in just as I had fallen asleep and I think I startled her more than she startled me. I don’t think she thought I was in my room. It was a good thing she came in though, because I would have slept for a while.

Overall a good day. I’m just taking it one day at a time. 

9.4.10

I’ve recovered a little from my disasters N1 classes. I think the problem is that I was focusing on one thing a day, but we need to do lots of little things each day, but repeat those things throughout the week. Instead of just doing a on Monday we do a, 1 and red on Monday and then add b, 2, blue on Tuesday. That way we are repeating, but adding new things.

     I spent a great evening and afternoon with Femke and Helen. We had a girls night/afternoon. Last night we had dinner and then a movie. The dinner was great and the movie really cheesy. The Expendables was good if you are looking for an action movie with not much else. We did get a good laugh out of it though.

     This afternoon we went to one of the coffee shops and talked for hours. It was really nice, because I learned a lot about them. They also asked me some great questions about Christianity and I hope I gave them answers they needed to hear. They seemed to really consider what I said, so that was encouraging. We then went to one of the streets in Zhongshan that is a market, a mile worth of tents. We had tea in a little shop on the road as well. It was great, because it was a side of Zhongshan I hadn’t seen yet.

     I just checked my bank statement and I took out 1000yuen and it was only $149. I was expecting a much worse exchange rate, b/c that is pretty close to what I got from the bank at home. And My bank only charged $1 or it would have only been $148. At home I have a $2 charge for using a none Liberty Federal ATM. So that was a good surprise. 

9.5.10 Sunday

This morning was great. I went to a Bible Study with Christine and a few other foreigners. Most of them were a little older and some even had kids, but it was so nice to have a small group of Christian friends. I also have to remember that I would be classified more as a young adult and not a college kid anymore. I’m beyond that stage of life even if I am only 22. One of the couples has even invited me to dinner! So Tuesday I will get a western meal. They are from Arkansas and Tennessee. I can’t wait. And they were all so nice and I can’t wait till next week.

     This afternoon I did a little exploring/shopping. I bought a few things all by myself and the language barrier wasn’t even that bad. We figured it out in the end. I may have paid a little more for the things, because I bought them in a store and not at a market, but I did it by myself.  I also bought some juice at a little juice bar and one of the guys there could speak English. It seemed so strange that he could speak English, but was working at a local juice shop and not at a bigger/better job. Oh, well it helped me out. I’m also getting pretty good at b

9.3.10

Rock, paper, scissors went over smoothly for my older kids (L2) yesterday, but I realized very quickly that it wouldn’t work for the younger ones (N1). This put me with nothing to do. I tried to wing it by talking about the letter Aa, but there is only so much you can do and it only took 5 minutes at most.

     What I learned about games is that they are great except for the fact that the rules are in English and they don’t know English. Even the basic concept of rock, paper, scissors was hard, b/c they don’t know enough English for the game to make sense. This puts me at a loss for what to do with little kids when all the games I know take to much explanation. 

9.1.10

     First day of Kindergarten

     To start the day off I stood in front of the gate and said “Good Morning” to everyone who walked up. It was about a thirty minute ordeal and there was no breeze. Even at 8:30 in the morning you know you are in the tropics. All of the kids wear uniforms. They are white with either blue trim for the boys or pink trim for the girls. They also have a uniform for PE. This uniform is also white, but it has red trim regardless of whether the kid is a boy or girl. The Kindergarten teachers have to change over 30 kids in and out of the uniforms. 

This morning I didn’t have my normal class and I won’t have my normal classes this afternoon either. So I’m pretty much free for the day. I’ve not been given very clear directions about tomorrow either. What I did do today is go and visit all of my class. It was very apparent the teachers that discipline their students versus the ones who don’t. It will make for a very diverse range of teaching. I’m nervous and the anticipation of starting real classes is not helping. I’m ready to start to see if I will sink or swim. I’m treading water, so neither right now.

New Blog

It seemed a little strange to add stuff about China onto a blog labeled Austria, so I've created a new blog

http://rachaelchinakindy.blogspot.com/

Enjoy : )

8.31.2010

It is hot here. I’ve been trying to convince myself that it isn’t to bad, but it is hot and humid. I think I’m chronicle dehydrated. I can’t drink enough water to stay hydrated. I sweat it all out on my walk from my flat to the Kindy.

     I finally got a curriculum that is more than a few flashcards! It is very strangely organized we go over on letter a week in N1 and a few letters a week in L2. We also talk about on colour (and yes I spelled it right) and one shape each week for N1 and a few colours and a few shapes for L2. If I were in charge we would do a unit on colors and a unit on numbers. They are suppose to know the alphabet, so that is just review and fine to do one a week. We also sing old nursery rhymes. The first week is Two Little Dicky Birds for N1 and Polly, Put the Kettle On for L2.

     Something that I am having to learn here is humility. I cannot get around on my own right now and venturing into the city by myself seems a little unintelligent. I can’t read anything. I am learning a few symbols and I can recognize them, but saying them is an entirely different story. I am having to rely on people more here than I ever have in my entire life. I am fairly independent, but I’m finding it very hard to be on my own here. I need others. This is something very new for me. 

Getting my bearings...a little

Today has been a much better day at Kindergarten. I decorated my room and it colorful. I even had a few of the other teachers help me decide where to put chairs and a few furniture items. It was nice to have them come in and help out. I had some die cuts that I was stapling to the door and I shocked and awed them. They were all amazed and wished America wasn’t so far away so they could have some of their own. It is funny how little things like that impress them. I had teachers coming in all day to look at the things from USA.

     One of the office staff I thought was a little snobby I found out today doesn’t know very much English, so she hasn’t been avoiding me she just couldn’t talk to me very well. It was nice to know that she is quite the snob I originally thought she was. I’ve also found out that as long as I’m doing my own thing and not in the way they are more than willing to help me with small jobs when I do go into the office.

     I drew a few pictures today, because after lunch I realized that I didn’t have a “color” bulletin board yet. It doesn’t look as professional as some of the other boards, but I did a pretty good job at drawing the objects, so I’m calling it a good day.

     There is still a blank corner in my room, but I may need it for the afternoon lessons. I did get a schedule for the morning, so I’ve got three back to back classes from 9:30-10:30 then a 10 min break and then four back to back classes from 10:40-12:00. The first three classes are L2 A,B,C and then the four classes are N1 A,B,C,D. N1 students will be 3-4 years old and L2 students will be 4-5. So they will be young and from what I can gather from the teachers they do not know a lot of English, so we will be basically starting from scratch. They really don’t seem to have gotten a lot of English before even though I know they had an English teacher and that English is taught a little in the classrooms.

     When I was in Europe it was very easy to blend in and become almost European. I fit the part, but here I stand out. There is no way for me to blend in, so I have decided to embrace the fact that I am different and I do draw attention to myself no matter what I do. So I think I’m already the crazy American at work, so I’m taking that out with me. On my walk to and from school I have started smiling at everyone who passes me. I really think it kind of weirds them out, because everyone immediately directs their gaze elsewhere. When I am at the school and parents come they love saying “Hello” to me though. I think it is because they expect that from the foreign teacher, but out in the streets they are not ready for that. However, today I did have a little boy run up to me and was so excited to show me that he know how to say “Hello.” He was just beaming as he said it and I waved and said hello back and I think it made his day. He was excited! It is moments like that that are so worth it. 

Ponderings

8.29.2010

CS Lewis states, “It is a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel. Enemy-Occupied territory-that is what this world is.” I see that more here than I ever have while in America. There have been times at home when I have sensed the war, but only for a minute and I could always remove myself from it. I knew I could go home and I would be back on safe ground, but here, here I wonder if even my flat is safe from the enemy. When I’m connected to the internet I wonder who is watching me. It is a horrible thought to know that here I am never truly out of enemy territory.

I am officially addicted to facebook. I have spent far to long trying to unblock this stupid site. Maybe this is a good thing to be cut off from it cold turkey. I need to know what is going on in normal peoples lives!!

Guided Exploration

8.28.2010

     I went on a tour of some of the surrounding places in Zhongshan. The organization that put on the event is Friends of Foreigners, so if you are not Chinese they provide everything for free. We started of the day with a look at a giant statue of Mr. Zhongshan himself. He over looks the city from the south and has quite a monument built for him. This was the meeting place for all of the “foreigners.” CHES had five people besides me, Helen, Femke, Sven, Bob and Jerry. Helen is the one from Scotland, Femke and Sven are Dutch, Bob is another American and Jerry is English. A few other schools had teachers there (Bond even made there teachers wear matching shirts, we called them the clones), but then there were a lot of business men as well. We really did have a group from all over the world. All of them were very friendly and it made for a great day. The theme of the day was Zhongshan through the eyes of foreigners, so our objective was to take a lot of pictures and there is a photo competition that last for a few weeks. They want to make a brochure and our pictures would be in it. What was funny was that there were a lot of amateur photographers there taking pictures of us taking pictures. I have never been so photographed in my life. So if you are ever in Zhongshan you might just see me on a brochure.

     After we all met and got out pictures of Mr. Zhongshan we headed to Xiolan and had a boat tour down one of the canals. We were served tea on the boat. All of the locals came out and waved at us as we rode down the canals in our boats. It was like we were the main attraction for the day, instead of us being entertained we were the entertainment.

     The next stop was a old square in Xiolan where we saw a Lion Dance and calligraphy. The lion dance was very impressive. Two guys wear a lion costume and made the lion dance. They were so animated and really gave life to the costume. What made it even more impressive was when they jumped on these poles about 5-6 ft off the ground and made the lion dance while hoping from pole to pole. The calligraphy was nice to see, but other wise not a lot to say about it.

     Lunch was in a typical Chinese lunch. About 8 dishes placed on a lazy susan in the middle of the table and everyone shares.

     After lunch I think the bus drivers got lost, because they made a few u-turns and were on the bus much longer than our itinerary said we should have been, but we eventually made it to the “ancient” city. This was somewhat disappointing, because it was just a few temples and not really a village. Our tour guide did tell us that the sea came up to that part of Zhongshan, so that was interesting to know.

     The last stop of the day was a Buddhist temple. Again very interesting to see, but not a lot to say about it. The monks were going through their evening chants and rituals for us to see, but it really felt like we were invading on their personal lives and in the way. I didn’t take a lot of pictures, because it just didn’t seem right. Me and Femke did find a fly that was deep in meditation hanging to the branch of a willow tree, though.

     Of all the people that I’ve met I think Femke and Sven are my favorite to be around. Helen is also a great addition to the group. Its interesting, because the Chinese automatically associate Femke and Sven as brother and sister because they are both tall and from Holland, but when you get to know them they are very different. Femke is really funny and jokes around a lot. She enjoys life and is carefree. Sven also has a great sense of humor, but when he speaks his English is very proper and when he jokes you are almost not sure if he is really being sarcastic or not. But when you have both of them together there is very rarely a dull moment. I was laughing the entire day!

The First Few Days

8.26.10    

    So far the people that I've met are a wide variety.  Bob is also an American and a crazy old man. He doesn’t care what you think of him he will do what he wants. Helen is Scottish and teaching at the primary school. She is quite the talker, but very sweet. There are also two Dutch people at the secondary school, Femke and Sven. Last night I went to dinner with Helen, Femke and Sven. There really isn’t a dull moment when they are around and I laughed the whole evening. I wish I had gone to sleep a little earlier, but we did meet a group of Americans living in Zhongshan. Abby lives down the hall from me and he is from India. He seems very nice and is also a Christian.

     Today all three campuses went to lunch together at the King Hotel. It was a little boring because everything was in Chinese. But there were a few priceless moments. CHES was given an award from the Department of Education and when he handed the award to Mrs. Chio the intro music from Star Wars played. I could help but let out a small giggle and the Chinese lady next to me asked what was so funny, but she hadn’t see Star Wars and didn’t understand. A few minutes later this music begins that is very dramatic and then on a lout part of the music the doors to the room fly open and a parade of waiters come out all carrying roasted piglets. It was epic! I have never seen the start of a meal so dramatically introduced. The best part was that the piglets had red flashing light hearts safety pinned to where the eyes should have been. So not only were the piglets given a grand entrance, but they were decorated with the cheesiest thing made in China. Once these piglets make it to the table one of the waitresses begins dismantling the piglet with a pair of scissors that you would expect someone to be trimming bushes with. She cut everything up into bite size piece except the head.  I later found out that the piglets are good luck to have at an event.

     Something that has baffled me a little is where the “rubbish” goes. China doesn’t seem to be going green at all, but what I can’t figure out is where the landfill is. This makes me a little nervous, because that trash has to go somewhere.

     Going back to the hierarchy thing again. It is interesting to see some of the jobs that people here are willing to do. But the conclusion I have come to is that those people sweeping the roads and planting flowers are happy to be doing those things, because it is a job regardless of what they are doing. There are so many people that these jobs where just made up so there would be enough work for everyone.

     I also had a moment when I felt like I was in a spy movie. We are walking down the stairs of the hotel after our all school lunch and C comes up next to me and starts talking. It was very loud in the stairwell so it was the perfect place to chat about church. She said she would let me sleep this Sunday, but if next Sunday I was ready she knew of a few options and said she would be in touch. It was crazy and like she was passing off information to me just like in a spy movie, because as soon as we got out of the stairwell she was gone and the Chinese lady who was making sure I made it to and from the Kindergarten was right there showing me which bus we were suppose to be getting on.

Arriving

     I have officially arrived in Hong Kong and am waiting to be taken to the CHES flat.

     This morning seems a world away and in a sense it almost is. It was a lot harder to walk away from my family than I thought it would be and when my Dad said “I love you” I lost it.

     It has never ceased to amaze me how smoothly everything has gone. I had no problems in Tulsa or Detroit, in fact both planes arrived to their destination early. 16 hours if far to long to be in a plane, but I did have a two college kids sitting next to me, which was nice because it gave me someone to talk to. The girl has my skype name so we will se if anything comes from it. 16 hours gives you a lot of time to think. I realized that on a plane you are stuck going forward. There is no reverse and there is no eject button. You are trapped on the plane until it touches ground one way or another. Especially when you are over the ocean, there you can’t even make an emergency landing. Its not like being in a car and if you change your mind you can turn around, it forces you to go through with your decision.

     As we were landing I had this realization that I maybe a little bit over my head. It feels like a sink or swim situation and right now I’m struggling to tread water. As I got off the airplane signs were in English, but if they weren’t I would be completely and utterly lost. When I was in Europe I never had this fear. I could always at least make out a few words regardless of the language and I knew German which gave me an upper hand. Here not so much.

“Don’t let them see you sweat”

     I do have to say that Hong Kong is a very English friendly place. I have again had no problems. I was worried about lugging three bags on wheels and it almost was a problem getting on the train. However, there are Chinese attendants to help you with your excess American luggage. Thank you random women, you will never know how much your little bit of help, helped calm my nerves ever so slightly. 

The Beginning

Two years ago I traveled to China on a mission trip. While there we visited a school. I never fully understood the connection, but we spent the afternoon talking to teachers and students. By the end of the day the vice principal asked if I would be interested in a job when I graduated. She was this amazingly adventurous Australian lady who instantly made you feel welcome. I love traveling and adventure so right off the bat I told her yes. We emailed a little when I got home, but I wasn’t going to graduate for another two years, so I put it to the back of my mine.

This past February I received an email from the Australian asking if I was still interested in teaching English at CHES. So I filled out the application, but at the same time I kept other options open. When it came right down to it none of the other options were working out, so I pursued working in China.

I was accepted for the position, but waiting for a contract took well over a month. When the contract arrived I received a big shock with it. I was going to be a Kindergarten teacher. When filling out the application and communicating with the Australian I had assumed high school age, because that is who we talked to and that is where she works.

As of right now I have a plane ticket, a visa, suitcases, dresses and supplies. I leave in a little over three weeks and I’m not sure what I am getting myself into. The contract is vague and the school has told me very little as to what my job will really entail. It is a waiting game until August 23^rd now. 

2 Months Later

I have been home 2 months and 1 1/2 days.
I'm not really sure why I'm writing this, I guess in case anyone stumbles across it later.
When I look back sometimes it feels like it was all a dream and that I woke up from this amazing fairy tale. The best (worst now) part was I didn't have to be asleep for my dreams to come true.
I tried to reread my posts and ended up bawling my eyes out. I may have found my one true love: traveling and being in Europe. I miss that place so much it hurts. I would give anything to be back traveling and speaking German. There is still so much I didn't get to do.
Going over and the first few days I was warned of the effects of culture shock upon entering a country. I have to say I never experienced a big degree of culture shock. I have been to Europe and knew what to expect. Something that was mentioned to me that I just disregarded was "re-entry" culture shock. This is when you go back into your own culture and experience culture shock upon coming home. I think this is what I am going through and bad. I can't look at my pictures without crying and wishing I was back there.
I need new adventures to start creating new memories; not to take the place of these, but to make them hurt less and so I have other things to look back on and enjoy.

Getting Home and Now

The most difficult part of my entire journey, Barcelona excluded. I left Amy and Jordan in Amsterdam and continued on my own. For this next part a map of Europe is handy. I was in Amsterdam and I needed to get to Salzburg, because that is where my two big bags of stuff were and they needed to come home with me. Once I had the bags I then needed to get to Frankfurt to fly home. Amsterdam is on one side of Germany and Salzburg on the other. I booked my train to take me from Amsterdam to Hamburg and then Hamburg to Munich and then to Salzburg. I was to leave Amsterdam at 7 in the evening and sleep on the train until 3 in the morning when we got to Hamburg. I was really looking forward to sleeping because I hadn’t got much the last few days. This, however, didn’t happen. I got maybe an hour if I’m optimistic. I got the train tickets fairly cheap and I soon found out why. This train was slow and stopped at every city in between Amsterdam and Hamburg. What was unusual was the fact that the stop was never called out. I never knew which city we were approaching. About 2 hours into the trip we pulled into a station and sat for about an hour and then the train left or so we thought. Instead of continuing down the tracks it stops about 100 yrds from the station and backs up onto another track. When I looked out the window there were giant army tanks, about 20 of them. We sat in this position for about 30 minutes while passengers from another train got onto ours. Then we started forward only to stop and back up onto our original track. We did this for over 3 hrs. Originally I had set an alarm to wake me up about 30 minutes before the train would arrive in Hamburg. The conductor told us we were taking out a few of the cities along the way, so I had no idea what time we would arrive in Hamburg. Sleeping at this point was almost completely out of the question. I would dose just a little in between stops, but I could never completely go to sleep for fear of missing my stop. I finally arrived in Hamburg an hour after my train was scheduled to leave. Thank goodness the lady at the ticket counter was nice. She was able to get me a new train that left for Munich in a few minutes from when I got there. This next train I did sleep about 2 hours, but I was getting ansy to be in Salzburg. I finally made it surprisingly only 2 hours later than I had originally thought. This gave me just enough time to walk through the Christmas Markets one last time, head to my host families house, shower, repack and get back on the train to Munich. Once I had repacked my bags, one was a giant backpack and the other a rolling suitcase, I had doubled my body weight. These bags were packed to the max! I struggled getting them on the bus to go to the train station and then lugging them through the train station and onto the train. Being on the train was the easiest part. A shining moment came when I was in the Munich train station and saw Tim. He was one of the other guys in the program. He helped carry one of my bags and it was just nice to see a familiar face. The train that took me from Munich to Frankfurt was suppose to be 3 hrs, but ended up being 5. Once in Frankfurt I got on another train and made it to the airport around 2:30 in the morning. My flight was leaving at 8 the next morning and I hadn’t booked a hostel. I was really glad of this decision, because that would have meant lugging those bags even further. So I found a nice bench and attempted to sleep. All in all I got about 2 hrs. When I went to check in I had this fear of being charged who knows how many dollars, because of the extra weight my bags were. Luckily the flying gods looked favorable on me and I wasn’t charged extra. By the time I made it through security we were almost ready to board the flight, so I grabbed something to eat and to get rid of my last Euros. When I got on the flight I found my seat, next to the window. I laid my head on the window and passed out. When I finally regained consciousness I looked at my computer screen and we were 7 ½ hrs into the flight. I also found out that we had sat in the airport an extra 1 ½ hrs, because the lights weren’t working on the plane. So I slept for 9 hrs on my flight home. I missed all the movies and free drinks, but it sure did feel good to sleep. It had been almost 3 days since I had had a good nights sleep. (Crossing the channel I only slept about 4 hrs that night and then maybe 2 or 3 on the train and in the airport the next two nights traveling.) So we landed in Chicago at the same time my flight was leaving to go to Tulsa. One of the scariest moments happened while going through customs. I had my temporary passport and when I got up to the window the man told me his supervisor was going to have to look at it. I had to go in a back room and wait with all kinds of police officers around, not really knowing if they were going to let me in the country. Thankfully they did! I had to reclaim my bags and figure out how to get back to Tulsa. The man at the ticket desk was very friendly and got me on the waiting list for the next flight and an actual seat for a really late flight. I got some food and watched a movie on my laptop and just waited at the gate to see if which flight I would be on. I made the early one. This plane was late leaving Chicago, but I made it to Tulsa around 6:30 on the evening of December 19^th. Almost four whole months in Europe.

Now

I’ve been home for almost a month and I miss Europe like crazy. I’m ready to go back. It is so weird being home. It is almost like time stood still while I was over there. Not a lot has changed, especially at OSU. I also went back to Camp for a weekend and this is where I really noticed how things hadn’t changed.

Amsterdam

Me and Amy arrived in Amsterdam around 11am and met up with Jordan, one of the guys from our program. It was a crazy thing that we found him. He was waiting for us at the station and we just happened to bump into him. It turned out his phone wasn’t working and if we hadn’t seen him in the station we may never have found him.

            It had snowed in Amsterdam the day before and there was about 3-4 inches on the ground. For Amsterdam this was the first snow in over 100yrs. It was throwing the city off a little bit and mainly effected the transportation systems. But for us it was fun to see the snow. We hadn’t really gotten that chance before.

            The first place we went to was the Heineken Brewery. Of all the breweries we went to this was the best. It was hands on and the attractions were well put together. Afterwards we found lunch and just walked around. The city is very unique in its style and there was plenty to just look at.

            We visited Anne Frank’s house and took a tour. When she says they lived in an attic this is only partially true. It was more like a flat or two story house on top of the warehouse. It was a lot bigger than I had anticipated.

            When it started getting dark Jordan took us to the red light district. I was really glad to have him along. There was about a 20 to 1 guy girl ratio. There wouldn’t have been any problems, but it was nice to have a guy along. Of all the things I’ve seen this may be one of the saddest. It hurts your heart a little.

Edinburgh

Amazing!!! If I had known I was going to like Scotland so much I would have stayed there they entire week after. The feel, layout and style of the city are hard to describe. Hopefully you can see pictures. It was just spectacular. I didn’t even get close to seeing everything worth seeing in just Edinburgh in a day and a half. That city needed at least 3 in itself and then the countryside and other surrounding cities needed a few days as well. I think I could have spent 2 or 3 weeks in Scotland and not have seen it all. It is always wet, not so much rain, but moisture in the air and everything has moss growing on it. Edinburgh is also so high on the globe that it is only light from 9-3ish. In the summer it is the reverse though.

            When we first arrived in town it was dark, but you could just see the castle looming over the city in the distance. The outline against the dark blue sky gave it a medieval, mystical feeling. After checking into the hostel we walked around and then did a walking tour. This one was fantastic! The guide was James and he knew a lot about Edinburgh and did a great job at presenting the city. It is old and full of history. I realized on this trip that I’m beginning to like history more and more and that I want to know more about Scottish history. I also decided that I’m going to watch Braveheart. I also learned an interesting fact. JK Rowling is credited with getting the idea for Harry Potter while sitting in The Elephant House in Edinburgh. From the windows in the café you can see Edinburgh castle and a school. The school was founded with the intent of letting at least 2 orphans be admitted every year. It also has four towers and “houses.” I ate in the café, but no great book ideas yet.

            That night we went on a ghost tour. It was great! Edinburgh has a lot of dark history and most of the stories of creepy things happening were explainable, some weren’t. We got to hear histories stories that are most of the time left out of textbooks.

            The next morning we visited the Scotch Museum and did a few last minute things, such as getting a picture with a man in a kilt and playing bagpipes. We then got on a train that took us to Glasgow. In Glasgow we walked through the city and got on another train that took us to the airport. From the airport flew back to London. Then another train to London’s central station and then from the central station another train to the coast. Once we got to the coast we then took a ferry, a really big hotel on the water, across the English Channel to the Netherlands. In the Netherlands we took two more trains to Amsterdam. All in all I do not suggest trying to get from Edinburgh to Amsterdam taking cheap transportation. Added up we might as well have gotten a flight. Oh well, I know for next time.

            Scotland surprised me. Of all the places in Europe it was not one that I thought I would enjoy or want to go back to. But I must say besides Germany it was my favorite place. I really want to see the Highlands and go to Inverse and see the Loch Ness monster. There is still so much to do there I hope to be able to go back and see more.