Much has sprung this spring!

Temperatures are rising. A blanket of green can be seen across trees and grasses. Dust somehow finds its way into my eye every time I go outside. And I've pulled out my very old, rusty bike which has already needed several repairs. Yes, Spring is here!! I have loved seeing nature come back to life this year. I've always appreciated this, but it has never been so apparent to me! The grounds crew on my campus has been busy digging up old flower beds and planting new life. Thanks to a very rainless Fall and Winter, Baoding had all but shrivelled up in dryness. I guess my appreciation for new beauty this stems from having adjusted to an environment that really is not as beautiful as home.

Other new things have been happening as well. We held our first English Night at Jon and Ryan's campus at the beginning of March, and we held the second one on April 7th. We also started an English Night at Hebei University where I teach on March 31st. These nights are exhausting but incredibly fun! We can't help but laugh along with the students at their sheer joy in seeing us make fools of ourselves in skits or watching their peers play games. Here's a glimpse of what the night looks like:

Playing musical chairs with boys as chairs. The students shrieked in amusement when the found out they had to sit on boys' laps.

Our Kung Fu skit: my character is horrible at kung fu (and style)!

Usually we sing three songs, play a couple of games, perform a skit that has a continuing story, and then end the night with a lecture. Ryan gave the first lecture on loving actively, and Amelia gave the second lecture on how to have hope. These have opened up great opportunities for deep discussions with students concerning these issues. Sometimes this happens during the time afterwards where we just spend time conversing with students who want to practice their English. One boy excitedly waited in a short line to talk with me and when he could, he told me that he's seen me running many times at the track. Only he said it like this: "I see you running - so slow- round and round the ring- so slow. Next time I will come follow you." Haha, luckily I caught his meaning of him wanting to just say hi next time, and I wasn't offended that he emphasized the slow part. : ) Our aim in having English nights is to expose students to American culture and fun and to spread some joy...so far, mission accomplished. : )

My punishment for waiting so long to update my blog is that I have no idea what to write about next. So much has happened! Most notably, my parents and brother came to China!!! We had a blast exploring the sights of Beijing and jam-packing all we could do in two short days before headed to Baoding. We were able to visit Tianamen Square, the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, a large shopping market, and The Great Wall. I've been to Beijing many times, so I wasn't worried about taking my family around without a translator, but a lot of mishaps occured that were out of ordinary. At the first restaurant we went to, I was saying how cheap it would be since we ordered so little, but when the bill came it was over 100 yuan. I guess our server thought Mom and Dad wanted to try the absolute best tea available, because she gave us the 60 yuan pot when I had asked for the free pot of tea! In my broken Chinese I worked it out so we only had to pay half of that. Then, when it came time to leave our hotel and head to the train station, we toted all the suitcases out to a taxi, whose driver took one look at our bags and refused to take us. Confused, we haggled with him until he opened his trunk that we found completely clean and empty...go figure. Anyway, Dad and Nick rode in that taxi, while Amelia, Mom and I rode in taxi whose driver was much more cheerful. I mean MUCH more cheerful. This man was so excited to have foreigners in his car, and though he couldn't speak English well, he managed to say "Mama" and point to every roast duck restaurant we passed insinuating that I should take her there. And who needs English when you can flap your hands and say "wa wa wa" to show that the place served duck? We died laughing every time it happened. Then, he managed to find out it was birthday the next day and sang "Appy buthday tooo yooouuu..." I couldn't have asked for a more heartfelt birthday wish. : )

Overall, my family's visit was incredible. They were able to attend my classes, enduring many questions from my curious and beyond-excited students. They also enjoyed exploring my city by walking streets and simply observing the new culture around them. Outdoor markets, fan dances in the parks, and chunky little babies in split-pants toddling around with their grandparents are just a few of things that fascinated them. I'm so glad to have shared my experience here with them! I think it's impossible to visit here without leaving changed somehow...

And that brings me to a bittersweet note: leaving. There's a month and a half left before I leave for America - our departure date is June 22. Saying goodbye to this place I love now will be extremely difficult. We've been talking a lot about finishing strong and being present in what we're doing now, cause it's easy to get caught up in thinking about home. I can't even believe it's been 7 1/2 months, but looking back, it's fun to see how far we've come - and I'm excited for what our remaining time has in store! There's much left to cultivate in the relationships that have grown and blossomed in miraculous ways so far...we've seen fruit produced and we're anticipating some more!

Out and About

The task of describing what’s happened over the last month is rather daunting to me. Everything about this length of time has been sweet, refreshing, fun, challenging, and full of blessing. So instead of writing a detailed account of everything, which would only be exciting to me, I’ll try to highlight the best…

# 1 Dan’s Visit – The smile on my face might be the only thing you need to see in order to understand what it meant for Dan to come to China. We had so much fun together talking and catching up on the last 5 months of being separate. It was such a gift for him to spend time with my closest Chinese friends, get to know my team, and see our relationship grow even in the 2 weeks he was here. We traveled to the Great Wall, Tianamen Square, and then further to the south to Fuzhou to see his family.


#2 Staff Conference in Shenzhen – All 12 members of IECS + Newt, Claire, and Tony + Lee and Paula Corder + beach and warm weather = AMAZING. We enjoyed one another’s company so much! Lee and Paula came to host the first IECS Staff Conference with Newt and Claire, and they came prepared to pour into us. Each day we had 2 sessions with at least one additional Word study from one of them. Lee’s sessions were focused on developing core values and time management to put a big picture behind what we’re already doing. This has already proven to be a gift that brings freedom to my time, not burdensome routines and schedules. The week we spent here has energized me for this next semester! In addition to great learning, we all had a blast doing a picture scavenger hunt on the beach, going to Chinese theme parks, and spending a lot of time at Starbucks near our hotel. : )

#3 Relaxing in Sanya – My Baoding team planned to spend a week in the southern most part of China with the intentions of not doing much. Our hostel was a 5-minute walk to the beach, so that’s where most of our time was spent – well, in between hot spring visits with skin-eating fish and biking around the island on a tandem bike or a motorcycle. We found a Western restaurant that was strikingly similar to an Applebee’s, so if we weren’t doing any of the above, we were sitting at Rainbow eating big burgers or chicken wraps! I also happened to meet the friend of a girl I met in Beijing at Rainbow, so he hung out with us for most of the week. Nicole (the girl from Beijing) and Andrew (the guy I met in Sanya) came from the same university in America to study Chinese in a northern city. They both visited Baoding for a few days before returning to the north. Other IECS friends came to hang out also – Brad and Jess Distad and Peter and Shannon Lucas-Roberts…all of whom shared in the blessing of getting sunburned before returning to winterish conditions at home. : )


#4 Visa Hunting in Hong Kong – Due to only having a 180-day visa, our school had to send us to Hong Kong to get a work visa. We didn’t realize how ill prepared we were until we got there. In the process of trying to find the right building, we lost Jon for about an hour. Relieved to find him at our correct destination (which was unknown to us) we searched for another hour for how to get our visa. The happy ending is that it all worked out. Enough said. : ) Hong Kong is an awesome city. It’s so close to China, yet so far away from Chineseness. We enjoyed shopping, browsing an art museum, eating more Western food, and trekking up a mountain at night to see an incredible view of the city. But almost more amazing than all of that was watching the Steelers win the Superbowl 12 hrs after the fact at a sports bar we found!


All in all our escapades were great. Upon returning to Baoding, I’ve been relaxing as well as doing some reading and studying. I’m still awaiting my full teaching schedule for next semester, so until then I’ll prepare for the two classes I do know about. : ) I’m under the impression that classes start on February 23rd…we’ll see.

The Blinkin' Lights!

I have spent the last two weeks trying to figure out how to get Christmas lights that don't blink! I've purchased 3 different strands expecting no blink...and for 5 minutes, they didn't. So, I stranded them on my little Charlie Brown tree and plugged them in only to find that they were blinking! This wouldn't be a big deal, but only half the strand was blinking. So, I unstrung them and bought new lights that didn't blink, that is, until I put them on my tree!! I just so happened to have the old blinking lights plugged in and when I turned around after discovering my new lights were also blinking, I found my old lights completely constant and beautiful like they should be! No blink. Ugh, all the work gone to waste. So, once again, I unstranded the new lights and replaced them with the old ones. And for 3 days there was no blink. It was awesome. Then yesterday I turned on the tree and there was the blinkin' blink! So it's staying this way. I'll just have to deal with the temperamental blink. Here's what my tree looks like. (Keep in mind I had to time the picture just right in order to capture the whole thing lit up!)

So this week I'm teaching a Christmas lesson to my students and I've been exposing them only to the most important aspects of this beloved holiday: I begin with Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You". Then we have a riveting discussion about how it's not about the presents underneath the Christmas tree or wishing for snow...it's about being with the people you love. See, she speaks some truth afterall! Then I show them some pictures of the Nativity and explain some vocabulary before singing "Silent Night". They love singing, but the best part is explaining the "Round yon Virgin Mother and Child" line. Students don't know the definition of virgin, so they also receive a little sex-ed in this lesson. Then I restrain myself from singing "Deck the Halls" (only to hear the fa la la la la part, haha) and instead we sing "Jingle Bells". I love watching the smiles across room as they sing, because they know this song. And finally we finish up with reading the Christmas Story...not the you'll-shoot-your-eye-out one...the real one. I have to stop and explain some of the events, like why Joseph wanted to divorce Mary at first and why the baby was placed in a manger. Telling the story to fresh ears has made me appreciate this Season so much more. Although China has caught on to the economic benefit of selling Christmas goods, I'm refreshed by not being surrounded by people who take the Story for granted and forget the amazing Gift that we received. This has kept me from taking it for granted myself, and I've enjoyed experiencing the newness with students.

Speaking of new things, last Saturday I was finally able to meet up with the girl who wanted to try peanut butter and jelly. She carefully and cautiously made her own sandwich after watching me do it, and then she took several small bites before expressing with a mouthful that she thought it was very delicious! But she couldn't understand why we would eat it for lunch and not breakfast. : ) Later in the day, I took two of my writing students to the Honey Pool for coffee and cheesecake and it was their first "coffee shop" experience. Chinese people usually don't eat much sugar, and I'm pretty sure I pumped 'em up with enough to last them for a month.

Last night my team held a Christmas party for some of our Chinese friends. It was complete with hot chocolate, great music, a Christmas tree, a white elephant gift exchange, and…a Christmas pageant. Ryan narrated the story while Jon and I assumed the roles of Mary and Joseph. Amelia was the angel, Tim was the shepherd, and Cameron was the wise man. Amelia’s stuffed frog played the role of the precious Baby, and he was wrapped in our finest swaddling cloths (a.k.a. my blanky). We laughed a lot and the students loved it – I’m afraid to know what will happen with all the pictures they took, but here’s a peek for yourself...





Hope your Christmases are all very merry as well!!!

So thankful...

I am overwhelmed with gratitude right now. It's Thanksgiving Day, but it doesn't really feel like it. I woke up this morning at 6 am to get ready for my 8 am class. This is the first time I've worked on Thanksgiving - but I told my students this morning that if I had to work today, I'm glad that I got to come teach such awesome students. I could see little smiles all around the room - I love it when they smile.

I'm not watching the Thanksgiving Day parade or smelling any amazing food that my mom is cooking...instead, I'm waiting for a student's reply to my invitation to come over and eat peanut butter and jelly with me. We tried to do it yesterday, but she called me in tears to let me know she had to cancel. I've never seen anyone as excited as this girl was to have peanut butter and jelly - she'll truly be overwhelmed with gratitude if it works out. :)

I was reminded this morning before class that I am exactly where I'm supposed to be right now. At the moment I don't feel sad about not being at home with my family - I definitely miss my family and all the wonderful food we usually share this day, but I've been brought to China for this time right now, and for that I am so thankful! Plus, I've been showered with "Happy Thanksgiving" messages today - it's only 11:45 am, and I've received 18 text messages from students and teachers telling me thank you and wishing me a great Thanksgiving. The first one came at 7am! How awesome is it that they care enough to recognize the importance of this day for us? Tonight, my team will cook some American food, bake some cookies, spend some time thanking the One who brought us here, and replace the football watching tradition with watching a movie. :) Then this weekend, we will all travel to LangFang to meet up with the other 7 members of IECS plus our leaders Newt and Claire and Tony and Lily. Here we'll have some traditional Thanksgiving food!! Can't wait...

My heart and mind are so easily distracted by what I do not have sometimes. This week I've battled to have the right focus of being thankful for what I do have: an incredibly loving team who fulfills the call to carry one another's burdens, amazing friends who love me and encourage me even from across the world, an opportunity to experience my Maker in this new setting, and a chance to pour out Love that has so richly filled me and can no longer be contained.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

In Need of a Lil Fixin'

The coolness of fall has finally settled over Baoding. Fortunately, it’s been an abnormally warm autumn, because China has a regulated “heat day” which starts on November 15th. Until then, our rooms will continue to be about as chilly as it is outside.

It’s been fun to experience fall in China – I mean it’s no “Boston in the fall” – but I’m finding that I appreciate it differently than I do at home. I have to look for the slight color changes in the leaves, but when I see it, I’m elated. Elated is one of the vocabulary words for my writing students. : ) Recently, I assigned students to write a scary short story in honor of Halloween. It was a fun assignment to give, and now I have the wonderful task of reading almost 80 scary stories, and many of them are legitimately terrifying! One day after class, I was sitting in my cold room by myself when I received this text message from one of my students:
If you found yourself in a dark room…


Walls around you are red…


And blood comes from everywhere…


Don’t be scared!


You are in my heart!

I couldn’t help but sigh in relief and laugh, cause I was spooked out at first as I scrolled down on my phone to finish the message!

Anyway, I think reality has set in a little deeper that I’m in China for this next year. I’m realizing that people at home can’t possibly understand everything that goes on here, and it seems even more impossible for me to adequately relay it all in a nutshell. Accepting this a hard pill for me to swallow sometimes, and this is when homesickness begins to set in a little. However, there’s always something pulling at my heart to look at the bigger picture. The same something also always reminds me that hard times are necessary for growth and strength. The most ordinary thing happened today that made me remember this.

After a couple of weeks of knowing that my bike tires were getting flat, I finally decided to stop to pump them up. There’s an alley that we often use to exit campus and two bike-fixing businesses are always there day in and day out fixing bikes. The husband and wife duo were the ones whose business I chose to use. At first, the guy handed me the pumper thing to do it myself. I successfully filled the front tire – and, as always, I was a spectacle for all the passer-bys. But when I tried to do the back tire, it wouldn’t fill. The man had to come and help me. Quickly, he found the problem and carefully showed me what needed to be fixed. I can’t tell you how quickly he tore the bike apart and pulled off the tire and kept track of every nut and bolt he was unscrewing. He knew exactly what he was doing, because fixing bikes is probably the only thing this man has done his whole life. It might sound strange – even a little cheesy- but I couldn’t help but relate my life to my poor old bicycle as I was standing there waiting. I often think that I only need to be filled up with a little air and I’ll be all fixed up and ready to go. But really, I need so much careful detailing and pulling apart to get to the heart of what really needs to be fixed. Especially since I’ve been in China, I’ve appreciated so much more the great Bicycle Fixer in my life. He cares for every nut and bolt, and carefully examines me to show me where I’ve gone wrong. He knows what He’s doing – because loving and caring for broken lives is His occupation. There’s no reason not to trust Him, and even when I feel a little isolated or disconnected, He is there to put my old and broken thoughts back in order and make them new and whole again. I’m sure I’ll have to return to the bicycle guy again sometime – but it’s okay, cause I know that only means I’ll have a stronger bike in the end.

And just for fun, here's a picture of the building I live in. This was one of my favorite weather-days in China.




And this was when we celebrated Ryan's birthday. Tony was with us from Beijing, and he thought it'd be funny to write numbers on our faces in frosting and line up to take a picture. :)



So, that's all for the beginning of November...

Outweighed

I keep talking about the great differences between Chinese and American culture, because they continue to astound me. This past Monday my team was instructed to cancel our classes, because we needed to go to the capital city of Hebei Province to get our physicals. These are physicals that we were instructed to get in the States before we came to China, but we had to get them again. So, at 7 am on Monday all of the new teachers loaded a small bus and drove 2 1/2 hours away to get a routine physical. You know, just the basics: pee in a cup, eye check, blood sample...chest X-ray exam...EKG...and yes, an ultrasound. The latter two were the most interesting. I laughed the whole way through the ultrasound, but the smiles were gone as soon as it was EKG time. The lady giving it yanked up whatever she wanted to and clipped and clamped whatever she wanted to. Luckily the whole deal was over before I could complain. We all made it through and were able to laugh about it on the way home.

Everyday there's something that happens that I can't explain or make sense of in my mind. I often try to figure it out only to end up feeling frustrated. I'm learning that I don't always need to ask why...like, why did I have to get to an ultrasound? Or why did we need to get physicals that we already got? Trying to figure it out only takes away my focus for being here. While we were in Beijing this last weekend with the other IECS members, a few of us shared our most favorite and least favorite things about being in China. It was so amazing to hear how much everyone's favorite things far outweighed any of the not-so-good things. I shouldn't have been so surprised because the truth is that "our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all."

While I'm talking about favorite things, I'll mention a few of them from the past week. I got to see the Bird's Nest and the Watercube in Beijing when we were looking for the finish line of Brad and Peter's marathon!! No one else was quite as excited I was...I think when I saw it, I had a "whoa, I can't believe I'm in China" moment. Those happen every once in a while and they catch me off guard. After the race, a bunch of us went to get lunch at a place called Texas Pete's. Walking into the southern homestyle atmosphere, I felt like I stepped out of China for an hour and into the U.S. We got big burgers and fries and finished it with the most amazing ice cream I've ever had. I'm pretty sure we'll visit again. I was quite thankful for this burger experience, cause later in the week I was asked by a student if I wanted to try Baoding's famous donkey burger. I've heard a lot about them, and it was inevitable that I would have to eat one sometime, so I accepted her invitation to "have a try." It actually wasn't as bad as I thought...it resembled pulled pork, only saltier. I think my tolerance for trying new and very different food is improving!

Ok, but my favorite part of this week happened tonight. All of the foreigners were invited to participate in English corner, because they were having a pumpkin carving night and wanted foreigners to show students how to do it. We walked into a room FULL of students applauding and yelling in excitement at seeing us. They had us introduce ourselves, give them a background on Halloween (which I was lucky enough to be appointed by my team to do), and teach them how to carve a pumpkin. It was so much fun!! I accidently forgot to carve in the bottom teeth on the pumpkin, and when I asked my group of students what we should name it, they said "Grandpa pumpkin." So then, they carved a second one with no bottom teeth and named it "Grandma pumkin."

A small picture of what the night looked like:




Then the students had a contest to see whose pumpkin was the best....
"Grandpa and Grandma" didn't win, but I was glad cause they said the winner had to sing a song. Not my idea of a great prize, but somehow the whole room ended up singing "My Heart Will Go On." And all I can say is, oh China...how different and how amazing you truly are! Being here far outweighs anything else I could possibly be doing right now...

Completely Surrounded

There have been several ways in which I have felt completely surrounded this past week. On Friday my Baoding team left for Beijing to meet up with the other International English and Cultural Studies people. We traveled by train, and since this last week was a National Holiday for China, everyone was taking the train. At least that's how it felt. We got to the station and found the line (a loose definition) for our train. The"line" began to move, and we inched our way forward to a small opening that led us to the train. I thought the worst was over until I boarded the train and wondered how in the world I was supposed to get to my seat. Instead of an aisle to walk through, there was a sea of people to climb over, push, and shove past. See, the train sells many more tickets than available seats, so it's standing room only. Unfortunately for us, our seats were at the back of the train car, so we had to shove through an incredibly thick line of people. But we made it! Through my frustration and being completey overwhelmed, I remembered that there was one who came to this world and was continually surrounded by people in undesirable places, and he had compassion for the crowds. I long to be the same!

Once we arrived, Tony met us to take us to our hotel, and since the other two teams weren't coming until Saturday, we spent the afternoon shopping at the Pearl Market. You can buy anything you'd ever want there and pay almost nothing for it in American money. Most of us got some warmer clothes and coats for winter. It is here that I was completely surrounded by vendors grabbing at me and yelling "Pretty lady, you want silk scarf? Lady, you buy shirts for husband? Lady, come see beautiful purses!" You can't browse or seem interested in anything or you're doomed. Amelia and I decided to check out some jeans, and of course you can't buy jeans without trying them on, so we asked where we could do that. She smiled kindly and held out two larger men's shirts and said "yes, yes...right behind here." So, right there in the middle of the market, we backed up into the corner and changed behind the shirts with the kind lady watching us. I'll tell ya, this way you won't ever question if you should buy it, they'll tell you it looks just perfect and that they'll give you a good price!


The next day was such a blessing to reunite with the other seven members from IECS. We all went out to lunch and celebrated the birthdays of Peter, Tony, and the soon-to-be birthday of Tony's baby, who should be coming this week! Afterwards, we had great time of giving thanks and sharing words of encouragement with one another. It was truly a time where my heart and soul felt refreshed. I was surrounded by a team who shares a love so deep, and it was so evident while we were together that it is because of this love that we're in China. Here's the whole group: From the top left: Peter and Shannon Lucas-Roberts, Courtney Corder, Amelia Martin, Jess Shamblee, Brad and Jessica Distad. Bottom left: Ryan, Tony, Tim, Jon, Me, and Will Corder.

Another memorable moment from Beijing was when Amelia and I ventured out on our own to go see the China Salsa Congress. She loves salsa dancing, and it was a coincidence that this congress was there the same night as us. It was a new experience for me, and I had a lot of fun. In the taxi on the way there, we were unpleasantly surrounded by the stench from the driver when he decided to use the steering wheel to pull himself forward and let a huge one rip. We couldn't contain our laughter cause it was so loud and so stinky. He didn't seem to care at all.

Overall, my time in Beijing was very refreshing and a very good way to end my holiday. I'm looking forward to teaching again this week and to being surrounded by my students each day.