Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thanksgiving is not really celebrated in China. In fact, when I asked my students what they know about Thanksgiving, they mostly just knew about turkeys. I taught them all about the history of Thanksgiving and what we do now to celebrate. We even talked about the crazy shopping day afterwards. :)

For my activity I did the same as last year... "imagine it's one week before Thanksgiving and you and your partner are both turkeys. Write a speech persuading us to eat the other person." We then voted for who we wanted to eat. It was a lot of fun! The students got very creative.

Friday night we celebrated with our friends. We had Thanksgiving BBQ- food grilled outside. It was soooooo good! About 20 friends came and we squeezed in a small small room. Very cozy!

This Sunday we are having our Thanksgiving meal for FoC. That means potluck!!!!!!!! I'm bringing the potatoes. Yummy!

Jobs found in China

I've been wanting to make a post about this for a long time. Like over a year... I just haven't gotten around to making an actual list. So, I'm going to start. I may add to it in the future, but at least it's started. Here are some jobs that you can only (or more likely) find in China.

1. puddle sweeper- there are people who sweep the streets, part of that includes sweeping any puddles that have formed. This way no person, biker, or motor vehicle will have to cross the dangerous puddle.

2. pool ball setter upper- maybe we have these in America, but I've never seen them. When you go and play pool there is a person who will set up the balls for you after each game. How convenient!

3. bike watcher- riding your bike to the store? Don't want to risk someone taking it? Find a biker watcher. Pay them a mere 8 cents to watch your bike as long as you need!

4. cheerleader- this one I'm making up myself, but wherever you see workers, you almost always see too many. I think the others are there for moral support and cheering the team on.

5. theft avoider- shopping? thinking of stealing (hopefully not)? Even if you wanted to, it would be hard. As so you as step into an aisle in the store, an employee is right there beside you. It's like shopping with a friend :)

6. McDonald's delivery person- that's right! McDonald delivers. However, Pizza Hut does not... Things are a little backwards here :)

Hangzhou Marathon

 This weekend I went to Shanghai and Hangzhou. Mostly it was time spent to see friends, but the final event was the 2012 Hangzhou International Marathon. I ran in the mini marathon with Nicole, Kelsey, Sarah, David, Andy, and our Chinese friend Ivy. It was 7km full of unique obstacles...

We started out with an obstacle... we couldn't find where to check our bags... therefore we found some friends to hold them.

The first running obstacle happened in the beginning... look at this starting line! There were so many people we couldn't even think about running! We had to slowly inch our way to open places.

This is the "starting line" Nicole and I just pushed along until we could start running.

People in this mini marathon didn't always seem like very real athletes... you can run in just about anything...

I couldn't run 7km in those! Impressive!

Or with anyone by your side...

notice the same number on the backpack. That means they knew each other. I'm pretty sure the man is her grandfather cheering her on in the middle of the race. He was running alongside of her holding her bag.

I bet they held hands the entire race

Even large costumes are ok!

We also had obstacles of bridges. There were so many people that once we hit a bridge, and people wanted to walk up, we all had to squeeze onto it. It made some interesting dodging happen!

Bridge ahead!

Next obstacle: bikes/ motorbikes/ pedestrians. They didn't really stop just because we were running, we just had to make sure we avoided them. 

 It didn't matter what we had to avoid, we finished!

 

The end is almost in sight.

A Long Day

Tuesdays are a bit of a long day. I can't really complain because I only work three days a week (two of which are half days). However, today is a bit of a marathon. I have 8 hours of teaching on Tuesdays. 8-12 and 2-6. Thankfully, I have 2 hours off for lunch. That means I get to grab some street food (no cold lunches for me, few people pack a lunch here, it's super super convenient and cheap to eat outside) and then take a nap. I am very serious about my naps. There is a couch in our teachers' lounge. There is only one cushion, so most people don't sit on it, but sleeping works well. I don't trust the cushion (I'm sure it's never been washed) so I bring my own "pillow case" This pillow case is just a hand towel- small yet big enough. I also bring a blanket. So every Tuesday at about 12:30 I curl up on the couch for my hour long nap... it's glorious!

Today, and the next four weeks, we have a special activity after school. There is a speech contest and, since the speeches are in English, they ask the English teachers to judge them. That means that after supper, from 7-9, I got to listen to speeches and score them. They are ten minutes long and it's the strangest thing... the audience doesn't really listen to them. I'm not real sure why they are even there. There is so much talking going on that as a judge I got distracted. Even with the talking, it was interesting. These were the topics... Ernest Hemingway, the negative effects of mass  media, psychoanalysis, Gangnam style (it's a song), Mark Zuckerberg (or something), and Mass media and the truth. A variety of topics.

I have at least three more of those judging nights to go...

A small trip

I have off Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays this semester. It's a great break in the middle of the week (well, sort of middle and end of the week). Usually I just hang out in Wuhan, go to study, have friends over, or just relax and plan for the next week. This week I decided to travel!

Two years ago I went to a city called Yichang. I went with a friend and we explored the area. It's known for the Three Gorges, a beautiful place along the water. Since there is a super fast train to this place (only two hours one way) and I have some friends that live there, I decided to pay another visit. So, I jumped on a train and headed to Yichang! This is what I saw...

On the boat on the way to the final destination.

We rode up the mountain, then hiked down- definitely the best way to do it.

Just in case you didn't know!

I just like this picture.

Another one! This time it tells you in four languages!

It's true... It's a good place :)

My friend and Chinese teacher

A beautiful place hidden in China. :)

The big 10

This quarter in kids study we have been doing the "big 10". It has been nice to have clear goals in mind as we teach the story and topic each week. It has been fun, but also a bit challenging at times. For example, yesterday I taught the 6th commandment to 4-6th graders (mostly boys). As I taught it, their parents were watching and listening. I was nervous about it since the 1st commandment, but it went well. Kept it simple. ;)

Today I taught older kids the same material, but at a different place. We are a week behind, so I taught the 5th commandment. We were talking about how hating someone is as bad as murder. One boy responded, "Now I understand why everyone is a sinner, we can't keep this one." BINGO! Everyone is a sinner, we can't keep this one or any of them. He realized his sin, then I could share with him the love of a S-vior.

Soon we get to move on to the articles! There we really get to explain who HE is and what HE has done! :)