New Years Parties

China doesn't really celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas, but they have something bigger! Bigger than the turkey you got from Pick 'n Save or the assortment of Christmas cookies your mom made. China has Spring Festival. Otherwise known as Chinese New Year. Since traditionally, China follows the Lunar calender, the New Year changes from year to year. Sometime around the end of January to beginning/middle of February. To prepare of it, there are New Year's Concerts/parties. Last year I attended one, this year, I've already attended two. The first one was put on for foreigners throughout Wuhan. The second on, by Wuhan University. The second one was only traditional Chinese music, very nice, but nothing too special. I was the only foreigner. The first one... amazing! It was more like a variety show. Enjoy the pictures...

 

 The concert started with a group of zithers. It was very soft, smooth, and relaxing. 

Two co-workers from school. The girl is from Europe (Natalie) and the guy is from America/New Zealand (Linus)

Some of the performances were singers. They even had bubbles. :)

This performance was very interesting. I'll try loading a video of it. Hard to explain it.

We also saw a short Beijing Opera

It was cool, but the "music" is a lot of banging on what sounds like pots and pans, so it hurt your ears after a while.

The acrobats were very interesting to watch.

She could move in very unique ways.

They were both very strong.

This just amazed me!

There was a group of dancing girls. I enjoyed it.

The ending was a Chinese orchestra. Different sounding than a Western orchestra. They were quite good.

Exam Time = Funny Presentations

For my final exams, the students have to give an "Academic Presentation". Basically, one class is doing a persuasive presentation based on a debate topic. The other class is doing an informative presentation based on a topic I gave them. The second class has poor English so I gave them easier topics. They will be going to America, so I decided to give them topics about America. Today I had some presentations about American farms, Wisconsin (yup, I had one do a report on WI!), American sports, American food, President Obama, and a few others.

Sometimes I learn a lot of interesting things, sometimes I have to bite my tongue not to laugh, sometimes I can't hide my confusion. Let me share some of the fun things I experienced this morning.

topic: American weddings  mistake: every time this girl said "bride" she pronounced it "bridge"
topic: Obama  mistake: he kept pronouncing his name "Opama"
topic: American food   mistake: He was explaining pepperoni pizza he said, "Pepperoni pizza has hum, cream, and bread" not sure what hum and cream is
topic:Wisconsin   mistake:one of our special products is Panax. I had no idea what it was. I googled it and found out that Panax is the scientific name of ginseng. Little did I know that WI is a main producer of this product!
topic: Jay Chou (famous Taiwanese singer) mistake: not really a mistake, but the girl decided to include his name, age, weight, height, and blood type on her power-point. He has type O blood, if your curious.
topic: understanding other cultures mistake: his conclusion-word for word, "In a nutshell, it is not the only way to understand another culture by living or visiting there. We can read books, surf the Internet, make foreigners and even go to customs of the village. Above these, not only cheap and convenient." make foreigners.... huh????

I have the other half next week. I can't wait!

Before I forget

I just got home from a long afternoon/evening/night. I wanted to blog before I forgot what I did. It's Chri-tmas weekend, which means I'll be super busy until Late Sunday night. I was asked a month ago or so if I wanted to go to one of the kids' study kid's piano recital. I said, "If I'm free, I'd love to go". It's a fun experience and good to support our study friends outside of study. It wasn't the typical piano recital like you may be thinking. Here's what it was like.
1. It was for 3-12 year olds
2. It cost $45 to attend
3. There were 100 performances
4. It was fancy!
5. I was impressed! These young children, some very very young, would go on stage (often alone) and perform in front of at least 300 people. There were lights, microphones, and MC's. The real deal! They would play from 20 seconds to 2 minutes all memorized. Some of the songs I could play, some of them I couldn't (unless I practiced a while)
After the performance, which lasted 3 hours (7-10pm) the family of the boy wanted to take me and 2 other friends out for Evening tea. This isn't just tea and snacks as I thought, It was a whole BIG meal! Overall, a very interesting, fun night. I'm a little surprised I stayed awake during the whole 3 hours of little kid piano playing. :) I have a picture of all the kids, but I'm too tired right now to get my purse and upload the picture.

Tomorrow we have a Chrstmas Eve Day service, then lunch, gift exchange, nap, supper, and SHOPPING! Chrstmas Eve night here is like the day after Thanksgiving morning!!! I'm excited to see all the people! But now, it's bedtime. Merry Chstmas everyone!

Pictures from Cookies!

Alisa, Jack, and Jess figuring out the art of Christmas cookies.

Edward's turn!

Time to decorate. :) Jess enjoyed this part.

Alisa and Jack- New friends

Some people (John, bottom left) were more interested in the music.

Nicole showed off her talent of decorating.

Need I saw more??? It was a fun time.

Final products

One friend came late (really late-9:40pm). We decided to make another batch for our students. He helped.

He got to the level of the table 1) to roll it easier and 2) to make sure it was thin enough. He was a very fast learner!

Long time no see (好久不见-haojiu bujian)

It's been a while since I updated this, been a bit busy, but here it goes...

I went to my old fruit stand last night. Saw the fruit guy. We exchanged "long time no sees" (Usually when I go, his mom is there. Haven't seen him all year I think). Then he asked me something and I think it was "are you going home?" I told him I was going to a friend's house. I later told a Chinese friend what he asked. My friend thinks he asked if I went home this past summer. Opps... miscommunication there. :)

We had a big city-wide Chrstmas party last Saturday. We sang songs, read the STORY, had snacks, played a game, met a lot of new people, and had a great time! One of my new friend's (He hasn't been to study yet) had this as his status on QQ (China instant messenger) "Best Chrstmas ever! I sang songs, watched a performance, and met many new American friends (paraphrased)." He later told Julie that he wanted to join our studies and learn more. Thank HIM. :) He's busy with tests this week, but maybe next week he'll come. By the way, his name is Jess. He is boy Jess, I am girl Jess. :)

Tonight I will be having friends over to make and decorate Chri-tmas cookies. One of them is asking me lots of questions online about it. She is EXCITED! I can't want for them to come and share this with them, a good bonding experience. We have invited about 12 Chinese friends over, we have no idea how many will show up. It's exam time, so they are often quite busy. I'll post pictures of tonight later this week.

If I don't post again before Christmas, I'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. HE has come and HE will come again. Now is the time he has given us to tell others about the most amazing gift anyone could give.

A trip to the Arcade

Sunday a big group of us went to Burtons. It's a western coffee shop, restaurant, and bar. We went during the restaurant time. Got a lot of great Western food, talked, and had a good time. Altogether there were 17 of us. 11 of so Chinese and the rest Americans. We payed and ate the good 'ol Chinese way (at least at my table) We all ordered the food we wanted, then we split the bill evenly, then we ate off of everyone's plates! Sort of defeated the point of ordering our own food, but it was delicious! Steak, pizza, salad, mac and cheese, french fries... Mmmmm....

Afterwards, some of our Chinese friends decided to do a little shopping. I happily joined along. Didn't need anything, but I enjoy hanging out with them. So glad I did! We ended up going to an Arcade (while one of the girl's shopped) It was me and 5 friends, 4 boys and a girl. I have never been to an arcade place in China and even in America, all I know is Shakey's. So... one of the guys "adopted" me and we went to play some games. We did drums, basketball, bowling, air hockey, throw balls at  bugs, and ended with me riding a horse. I was a jockey and had to ride the horse in the race. 1) it was very tiring! 2) I had quite the crowd of people watching me. :)

Overall, an amazing night! I had so much fun hanging out with my friends. Monday morning I woke up with a sore arm... guess I need to exercise a little more. :)

A Vacation? Really?

Vacations here can pop up on you unexpected. Not because you are so busy that you can't believe it's vacation time already, but because you didn't know there would be a vacation! Sunday night I started planning my schedule for the final exam. I will see each student for about 7 minutes. Add a minute for transition time, 85 students, equals about 10 hours worth of finals! Well, as I was just finishing the schedule which would happen on Jan 2 and 3, I was told (by a student, at 11pm) that they don't have school on Jan 2 or 3. What!!!??? Since when? Why? The last week of school is 1 week away from then, why a vacation? Well, that just means I will be giving most of my exams a week earlier... sorry kids, not my fault. Hopefully they still do well, some are at risk of failing. :(

The other vacation has been planned much sooner. It's the vacation with my parents. In 1 month they will arrive in Beijing!!! They have their ticket, their passport, their visa, and they are ready to go! Except for the packing... that's not ready yet. :)

Smelling Something

Everyday as I walk to and from different places there are things you notice. You notice the vast amounts of people,  the traffic, the sounds, and... the smells. If you have been to China you can appreciate some of them, if you have not, I hope you can imagine them.

You get the smell of stinky tofu. Which smells a little like... well, it's hard to describe. I asked some of my friends and here are their replies:

• it smells stinky- Chinese friend
• a baboon’s left butt cheek-Jonathan
• poop and BO combined- Andy
• I'm not exactly sure, just bad. - Brian
• crap = Nicole
• rotting flesh...? It's very hard to describe.-Julie

The exhaust from the cars and buses next to you on the street.

The cigarrete of the man in front of, next to, and behind you on the street.

But last night I got another smell. I smelled smoke, real smoke. I looked over and oh.... look, the dumpster is on fire. Well, the contents inside of the dumpster. Hmm.. no one is really noticing, I guess it's ok... I will say, the dumpster is all metal, so chances are it won't spread, but I still feel that SOMEONE would notice and do something about it.All well, that's just the way it is.

Bike Math

   1 new, to me, bike
   1 out of shape foreigner
   1 medium hill
+ 20 minute ride to school
-------------------------------------
   1 very tired person in the beginning of class

   1 new, to me, bike
   30-45 degrees F
   2 mittens
   1 face mask
+ 1 scarf
--------------------------
    a bundled up foreigner ready to hit the road on her bike!

My bike on my porch. What's great is the gears have a guard, so my pants don't get caught in them.

Here you can see my green bell and blue lock. I don't have any gears, but it still works ok.

  

One of a kind

My student, Ocean (it's not as weird name once you teach him all semester) invited me to see a band with him and some other students. At first I said "no" because it was 100rmb, which is about $15. Quite a lot for China. However, I was rethinking, it seemed like a fun group that was going, and the singer seemed good too. Tamas Wells, check him out. He's from Australia. Nice, low paced music.

Well... on to the story. So, we went, they got me a student ID card (I was a Chinese tonight) so my ticket was cheaper.I went with a friend, so I didn't feel too bad hanging out with a bunch of kids 7 years younger than me. However, she is 4 years younger than me, so that's not much of a difference. But she seems much much older...

I know... get on with the story... My friend, students, and I listened to the mostly slow paced, good songs for about an hour. Then, for the last song Tamas said he needs some help with this one. That he needs 8 people to come on the stage. Well, I decided this is a great opportunity for me! So, I put my hand up real high (not hard when most people around you are the same height and shorter). Then I heard my students yell my name from the front right corner of the stage. I go over by them and Tamas catches my eye... he nodded and smiled! I'm going on stage! They did a beach boys song "Do you Wanna Dance". The 8 of us were the dancers in the back. My students recorded it all. In fact, I think more than one of them did! It was quite fun. Was a bit surprised I did it, but, being the ONLY foreigner in the place, I had extra pump of courage. That's right, as I looked around all night, The band and I were the only people not of Asian decent.

Afterwards my students wanted some autographs, so I stuck around with them and took a taxi back. Overall, a fun night. Glad I went and hey, I found a new band I like! Check out Tamas Wells online.

p.s. I forgot my camera this day, so I don't even have a single picture. :(

A Variety of...

G-d gives us a variety of many things in life: fruit, trees, animals, languages, faith strengths... friends

He has especially given me a variety of the last one. I have many friends. One of my Chinese friends said he thinks I have more Chinese friends than he has! Probably because part of my job here is to make and keep friends. Cool job, huh? I'm not here to brag about the number of friends I have, but it's a post of thanks.

Thanks for friends like John and Edward who, although have come to studies for over a year, still are questioning and fighting us. They keep us on our toes. What questions will they ask tonight? They keep us in the WORD.

Lily, who has the most curiosity I've ever seen. She comes early to study to learn more about the Book. She does homework during the week to make the one-on-one studies more productive. She's excited about everything! She is soaking it all it. She reminds us that the HS is working and our work is important.

I am thankful for friends like Julian, who, although is busy with school, will happily take time out of his day to help a foreign friend buy a bike.

Bruce, who is always ready to help you even if his English isn't the greatest. He's also willing to ask questions in study even if he knows we might not understand him.

Eunice, who can't speak English at all, but enjoys welcoming me (and my study buddies) into her home each week to 1)feed us 2)teach me the art of cooking Chinese food and 3)give us a place to teach her son as well as 10 other children about HIM and HIS SON.

I could go on and on talking about the friends HE has given me. The friends who, when you walk to the bus stop with them, you can't help but smile. Smile at their curiosity, their kindness, their English mistakes, their concern for our well being. Friends who will jump at the opportunity to help.  Friends from HIM who we get the joy of telling about HIM.

Thanks be to Him! He is great!

What's New?

It's been a few days since my last post. What has happened??
1) I decorated my room for Christmas. Even have some lights. I'll get some pictures later.
2) As I was smooshed in a crowded bus inching it's way towards my bus stop, I decided to buy a bike. Will do that tomorrow.
3) We had our first snow today, although it didn't stick, it still fell down.
4) I explained HIS Grace to a friend tonight at study.
5) I just finished my last leftovers from our Thanksgiving meal. I've been eating mashed potatoes for every breakfast and lunch (which usually occurs at the same time since I've been getting up a little late lately and decide it's not worth eating breakfast at 9:30).
6) I am in the process of reviewing a friend's personal statement for his Doctorate application for an American University. Hmm.. hope this goes well. :)

Thanksgiving in Wuhan

Thanksgiving has come and gone and now the Christmas season is here. I hope all of my friends and family enjoyed their Thanksgiving with loved ones. This year was yet another year to be thankful for all the wonderful things HE gives us every day. I'm working on a list of what I am thankful for, tell ya later. For now... I will tell you about Thanksgiving half the way around the world.

 First, China doesn't celebrate this American holiday. I asked my students what they know about Thanksgiving and most of them only knew that we eat Turkey (which in Chinese translates as "fire chicken"). Don't worry, I taught them all about the Pilgrims and Native Americans. Then, as a discussion topic, they had to pretend they were turkeys and Thanksgiving was near. They had to tell the class why we should eat their partner over them. Quite entertaining!

Thursday evening the four of us in the middle area of the city (Nicole, Peter, Darin, and myself) treated our friends to a Thanksgiving meal- Chinese style. We found a restaurant with a big private room and ordered the dishes. Altogether we had 15 people show up. It was a great time to show our friends how thankful we are for them.

Vivien, Joanna, Peter, John Wayne, Tracy, Bruce, Edward

Sherry, Jacquline, Nicole, Julian, Darin, Jonathan, Lisa

This was our Chinese Thanksgiving Feast! From the rice going clockwise: Rice, spicy bean sprouts, mushroom broth, something I forgot, donkey/cucumbers, spicy french fries, sweet and sour pork, eggplant, in the middle is tofu.

Today (Sunday) we had our FoC Thanksgiving meal. We all met at Beth and Sarah's home and worked on our feast. The final result was amazing! It felt just like a real family dinner. We had potatoes, chicken, rolls, veggies, fruit, cornbread casserole, sweet potatoes, stuffing, bacon wrapped hot dogs, wine, and of course... pie! After dinner we played some games and people fell asleep on the couch while watching football. Kidding... no football here. We watched a movie.

Our Western Feast!

Before tonight it didn't really feel like Thanksgiving, however, having our whole "family" together is a great way to spend the holiday. I am Thankful for my great support system over here. Keep us in your thoughts especially as Winter comes and sicknesses are seeming to conquer us one by one.

Care Skin Bathe Turban

I never know what to call it in English, but now I know. It's a bathe turban. More commonly known as a loofah or a pouf. I bought one today and started reading the description... enjoy! (If it doesn't make sense, it's ok)

Add some shower juice is it is it make foam to be abundant all over to wipe to wipe away, smooth and incomparable before taking a shower, is it carry on keep-fit massage to whole body, let skin gloss extraordina rily of you happy easily to equal to, fine and smooth and rich flexibly, like bud being generally pleasant. 
If anyone would like to rewrite it into what you THINK they meant, give it a shot. I'd love to see what you get! :)

Worth the wait

Went to get a massage tonight. The lady told us it would take 10 minutes, then we would start. We waited 15 and Nicole started. I waited another 30 and finally my guy came. I was a little annoyed for having to wait so long. But it was worth the wait... He was so good I felt like I was floating on the table. As I was laying there I was thinking... I can't wait for my parents to come and experience this. I hope they are able to experience a Chinese massage when they are here and will enjoy it at least 1/2 as much as I do.

In my extra class tonight I started talking to one of my students about my name. He asked me if there is more than one Jessica in my class, how do they know what to call me. I then proceeded to teach my small group of students about nicknames, last names, and middle names. I had all of my immediate family's names on the board with circles around the common names. I also had a 2 minute lesson on how to pronounce my last name. Names in China are much different than names in the States. It was a fun little cultural lesson. :)

Teaching at University

As some of you may know, I am teaching at a university this year. It's completely different than my time teaching last year. Last year I taught 1st and 2nd grade. They were small, cute, and super excited about having a foreign teacher. This year I am teaching college freshman. They are not so small, not always cute, but luckily, still excited about learning English.

Every Monday I teach a Study Skills class. This class is to help prepare the students to go abroad and study in a university there. I cover topics such as taking notes, time management, stress management, how to give a speech, etc. The topics are a bit dry and their English level is a bit low, which causes some difficulties. The classes are also a bit big, about 30 students in each class.

On Tuesdays and Fridays I teach an Oral English class. This class is an opportunity for the students to use the English they learn in other classes. It gives me an opportunity to present topics and discussions to encourage talking. I have 2 classes of 12 each. An amazing number! I enjoy teaching this class and have gotten close to these students. Some topics have included crime, teachers, Taylor Swift, characteristics of a person, traveling, and many many more!

Two of my best students: Olivia and Sybil. They both work very hard in class.

Students working on designing their Halloween costumes.

Two of my favorite students: Jim and Ken. Jim (on the left) is AMAZING at violin

Two of my most talkative students, Larry and Jerry. Yeah, I get their names confused sometimes...

Chinese/American Dentists

I know you got some of the differences last time I went to the dentist, but this time I am making a side by side list of how they are the same/different. If I wasn't the patient, this would all be quite amusing, so I hope you enjoy this cultural lesson. :) I'll try to make them in a logical order, but bear with me. I'm just going to write as I think...dangerous, I know. Please don't take this in a "I don't like China" way. Read this as in a "This is different" way.

America: People make appointments, then wait in the waiting room until their name is called. As you wait you watch tv or read old magazines. Sometimes there is quiet music in the background.
China: People make appointments (sometimes) but you don't really have to get there on time. People wait next to the current person getting their dental work done so they can be sure to be next. There is a Chinese soap opera on in the "waiting" room if anyone wants to sit down. Otherwise you hear music blasting from the streets (even while you are in the chair)

America: Dentists speak English.
China: Not all speak English, so a translator is needed. Thanks Adam!

America: The hygienist preps you for anything that needs to be done. She/he is also at the dentist's side to aid in any way needed.
China: There are no hygienists, the doctor does any prep work needed as well as any busy work to get ready for the day. He/she is also the only hands in your mouth, ever.

America: You have detailed records on file at the dentist. If you switch dentists, you can ask for your file.
China: They give you a book when you get there to keep your records. You bring it back every time you go. If you go to a different dentist, you get a new book.

America: There are at least 3-4 utensils in your mouth at all times: mirror, water spitter, water sucker, and the drill (sorry, don't know all the technical terms)
China: There are 2 utensils in your mouth: mirror and drill. You spit in a sink and rinse your own mouth.

America: They numb you up and may even give you laughing gas.
China: They only numb you if you beg them too.

America:You have individual cubicles for privacy.
China: You are all in the same room so if someone screams in pain, you all hear it. Short story: There was a lady next to me who was getting something done. I heard her moaning and flinching quite often.

America: You are taken to a back room to get your work done. It is away from any distractions.
China: You are taken towards the back (sort of) but can still hear the street and anyone outside. Outside people can also look inside and see what's going on.

America: They put the fillings in each individual tooth so you can still floss once you go home.
China: They put the filling across the teeth so there are no gaps, which means, shorter time spending on flossing!

America: The filling fits perfectly on your teeth so you don't even notice that there is a filling in your mouth.
China: The filling is smooth, and I can tell that something is different in that part of the mouth.

America: You can't eat anything hard on the side of the filling for 24 hours.
China: You can't eat anything hard on that side of the filling forever! Yeah, not sure how that's going to work. :(

America: Everything is clean and looks perfect.
China: I'm assuming everything is clean, but not sure. I do know my light would flicker every once in a while. Also, not sure what caused it.

America: The dentist wears goggles and magnifying glasses to 1) keep anything flying around you out of their eyes and 2) allow them to see better.
China: No glasses for either dentist or patient. I got a little something near my eye once. But it was ok, I got it out. :)

America: After you've finished with your work you leave and say bye to the dentist.
China: After you've finished with your work, you get a photo op with the dentist and your translator.

America: Before you leave you pay whatever your insurance doesn't cover.
China: Before you leave you pay 200rmb (about $31) for a filling.

Even during the dental work, I could tell things were different, but I don't know how to explain them to you. What have I learned from this experience... if possible, don't go to a Chinese dentist, but if you have to, you will survive. I had an encouraging thought from a fellow FoCer, "Going to the dentist in China is one of my worst nightmares... and your living it!" -Aaron S.

I survived. Even at the dentist HE was at my side. I was nervous and afraid of what would happen, but I kept remembering the passages that I learned when I was little about trusting in HIM and casting all my cares on HIM. I survived and you could to. Here's the man who fixed my cracked filling....

I like how she included the bar in the picture.

Here's the trio. After they took (no lie at least 8) pictures, I had to get out my camera. Look how young this guy looks! He could be my little brother. I think I told you last time that he's 28. But he might be 27.

Unrelated topics

I got three tidbits for you. First, if you haven't been checking facebook regularly to see my updated posts, you may have missed that Nicole found an amazing thing at the grocery store! Frozen pizza! One thing I do miss from back home is a good 'ol frozen pizza for supper, or lunch, or breakfast. It was a bit expensive (5x the price of an average Chinese lunch), but it was time for a treat. Nicole did the honors of baking  and cutting it. It was great. Not as good as American pizza (it's from Germany), but close.

Not sure why this picture is this way. I even tried downloading it again. Here's the pizza and Nicole cutting it with the meat clever. You use meat clevers in China for everything. Cutting meat, veggies, pizza, doesn't matter.  We lack a pizza cutter. Probably cause this was the first time we ever needed one.

Next unrelated topic. I bought a pillow yesterday. It was very small see...

Super small! Do we have pillows like these in America?

Then I cut it open and it became really big!!!

Now she's happy!

As you can see, one chopstick. The other one fell on the floor.

Third, I made myself a Chinese meal the other night. The mom at our kid's study taught me how to cook a dish. Mushrooms and lettuce. However, everything was prepped when she taught me, so I didn't know what kind of mushrooms or what kind of lettuce it was. I had the wrong kind of lettuce, added too much oil and too much salt, not enough garlic. BUT overall, I would call it a success. :)

Knots

There were two different knots in life the past week. The first one happened after doing my laundry. The second one happened before kids' study. Let me explain...

Washing machines here are good. Not great, but good. They are good in the sense that you don't have to wash your clothes by hands. They also make doing laundry interesting. You throw your clothes in and you never know for sure how they will come out. Here is the knot I received the other day.

The second knot was a knot of people. I came early to kids study this past Saturday. After watching the mom make some of the food, I went into the living room to see what was going on. Brian decided to play the human knot game. This is where you grab random people's hands, then you try to untangle yourself. The Dad at the home took a picture of us. Unfortunately, we were defeated by the knot. After trying for some time, it was time to eat. Next week... we will win!!!!!!

The Dentist

Before I left for China I made sure I visited the dentist. I did this for two reasons. 1) I'm still under my parent's insurance so I wanted to take advantage of that and 2) I didn't want to go to the dentist in China. Well... that didn't happen.

After I arrived in China, I noticed that my filling was cracked. Hm... how long can I wait to get that repaired? After talking with the dentist and another dentist friend, I decided it was best to fix it now. I can always get it fixed again in the States if needed. I did some research on places to go where there are western style dentists. However, with the price, and the traveling it was a bit troublesome. So, I decided to check out places in Wuhan.


I went to one place this morning with a Chinese friend. His English is great, but he is a bit younger so inexperienced in how dentists should work. After I went to get my x-ray and saw how dirty this place was, I didn't feel comfortable having any work done here. Plus, without a fellow American with me to help me, I decided to leave and ask Adam (our Shepherd) what he thinks would be best. We decided to try the place next to his apartment. He lives in an expensive area, so we figured this place would be much better. And perhaps they have worked with other foreigners before.

See, you can see them work on this lady. :)

I walked in, we explained what I needed, then I sat down. After sitting for about 30 seconds the dentist office asked to take my picture. Hm... maybe they haven't worked with foreigners before! Adam translated, told my dentist I was afraid of the pain and talked him into giving me a shot of local anesthetics. Hopefully it won't hurt too bad. Well, as he started drilling, I slowly started to feel more and more pain. Yup, I was flinching. They had to remove my filling in order to replace it. It was quite deep! The best part... Nicole was sitting there watching this all too. It's an open room with 5 or 6 dentists chairs. Check out the pictures.

This was most of the dentist office. There were a few more chairs on the right and one more behind.

 

 

 

Long story short, I have a temporary filling in right now. I will go back next week to get the permanent filling put in. So for the next week I cannot eat on my right side of my mouth, eat anything hard, or chewy. I might end up losing some weight this week. I'll let you know how the return to the dentist goes next week.

You can see the person on the left taking my picture. Adam is translating.

I was very thankful that Adam could translate so well. Here is my 28 year old dentist (we asked him his age)

A Day of Golf

As foreigners in China, we often get invited to unique parties or gatherings. If we can, we like to accept because we never know what will be in store for us. Here is a "party" I was invited to. I invited some friends to share in the experience.

I received an emailing saying their is a party which included free golf, wine tasting, tea tasting, a brief introduction to a new website to teach Chinese, and then a goodie bag. Why not!? I thought.

Nicole, Brian, Aaron, and I went with some people from my school. The party started off with 1 hour of free golf at a driving range. My first time at a driving range! They even had golf instructors there to help us. Unfortunately, they didn't speak English and we don't speak Chinese. It's ok. I had Golf and First Aid at MLC, so I sort of knew what I was doing.

After golf, they took us to a room with traditional Chinese snakes (this is how they spelled it). Really they were snacks, those two words are very confusing for friends. We had a demonstration on how to drink tea (there are quite a few steps to do it correctly), a demonstration on the new program. They even gave out some prizes. I got 2 tea cups and Nicole got an electronic thing to help her learn to write Chinese characters. Not real sure exactly what it is.

The afternoon ended with wine and baijiu tasting. Baijiu is a Chinese alcohol. It is very strong and doesn't taste very good. After I tried both of them, I remembered I had to teach in an hour and shouldn't drink too much. The people in charge told us we could drink as much as we would like. I didn't think it would be good for me to walk into class with the smell of alcohol on my breath.

Overall, it was an ok day. I think the free golf was worth the rest of the afternoon.

A Happy Day

Last Friday was a great day. Not because the weather was nice or my class behaved. Not because I found 100rmb ($15) in my pocket or because my favorite food was on sale. Although all of those things can make my day great, it's not the same as seeing the belief of a friend grow stronger. In this case, it was two friends.

We had a washing on Friday! We rejoiced here and others rejoiced up there. Linda and Adam were washed clean on Friday. They are my brother and sister in Him. After the washing, the both shared with us a little about their history of learning about Him. Here is a summary of one story from Linda. I copied it directly from Darin's blog, he wrote it so well, I thought it would be best to share it with all of you.

 When she was around the age of 1 she was sick. Her parents took her to the hospital to get the right help for her. They left the hospital thinking that everything was alright having just visited to get the proper treatment for her. When she got home Linda was crying, but there was no sound. Her great-grandmother insisted they go back to the hospital, even though they had just come from there. After some more urging they went back. The doctor treated her quickly and gave her the necessary medicine/treatment to save her life. If she had come 10 minutes later, Linda would not have made it. Her great-grandmother was a member of the Good Shepherd's flock. Linda's great-grandmother was the first member of His flock that she knew. The relationship between Linda and her great-grandmother was very special to her. The father knew that Linda would someday become part of His flock too. You may never know how He will use you for eternal purposes. Continue to be a light to those around you. Shine brightly in this world that needs to hear the good news.[if you want to read more of Darin's blog you can visit it at http://traveldarin.blogspot.com/]

Happy Halloween!

We had a costume party Saturday night to share with our friends what many people do on Halloween. It was also a great way to meet new friends because friends invited friends. What's the best way to intertwine Chinese and American culture? Costume party at KTV! KTV is karaoke. We reserved a big room for 20-30 people, dressed up, and went to show off. We had many different costumes; witches, a pumpkin, pirate, sailor, basketball player, goblins (I think that's what they were, they were scary), punk star, doctor, and others. When we first got there we had about 22 people, as the night went on more and more people joined. Altogether, we had over 40 people at the party! There was dancing, singing, and candy eating, as well as exchanging of phone numbers. Here are some pictures!

Creepy guy and a sailor

Doctor, pumpkin, sailor, creepy guy, witch

Nice witch, Hip-hopanda

Doctor and basketball player

Goblins? Not sure what Peter and Darin are, but they were strange.