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.

Just a little info

In my last post, I forgot to give my mailing address in case anyone wants to send mail. I'm not sure how long it would take to get to me, but I'd say it's worth trying... :) I'm in the process of trying to find a post office here where I can send stuff out. Here's my address:

Emily Green
No. 2 Building Rm. 205
Overseas Student Hotel
Hebei University
No. 180 Wusidong Road Baoding City
071002 Hebei Province, China

Also, I wanted to post some pictures of my room...it's a pretty nice place.

Here's the bedroom:

And the kitchen:

My bathroom/laundry room/ ?? room:

The little shower head right next to the toilet:

There ya go...a little tour of my new home! I hope it makes you want to come visit. :)

Mariah Carey??

Ya know how we Americans often think that Chinese people all look the same? Well, 1) I'm definitely finding this to be false and 2) I think they think the same thing about Americans. Tony, our Chinese IECS guy, told me earlier this week that I look like Mariah Carey. He tried to convince my team of the resemblance, and they half-heartedly agreed for his sake. I just laughed.
There are so many unexpected things that have happened so far in China...Mariah only being one of them. Today for lunch with some school officials, I ate duck neck and and I "fished" around for a piece of fish meat right underneath its little fin. Even more unexpectedly, I somewhat enjoyed both!
Earlier this week we to K-TV (a popular karaoke place) with students and had so much fun with them singing and dancing around. Americans do karaoke to make fools of themselves and show everyone how bad our voices really are, and Chinese people do karaoke to show how incredible their voices really are. It's fun to listen to them sing their hearts out! We look forward to K-TVing again.
I was previously under the impression that China had no good coffee to offer, but we have found this wonderful little place called the Honey Pool that serves great coffee and amazing cheesecake. Any hopes of me eating healthier in China are now out the window! :)
Oh, funny story...at dinner the other night, Tim asked Tony how to say the name of this new little potato dish we were eating. Tony thought for a second and said "I forgot" in his Chinese accent. I looked back to Tim and saw sincere concentration on his face as he repeated "I-fah-got, I-fah-got," thinking that he was learning the Chinese name for the dish. I gently informed him that Tony really had just forgotten the name, and we all laughed pretty hard at Tim's blunder.
Well, I'm through my first week of teaching, and I'm already on a break. We have this week off due to National Day in China. On Friday we're going to Beijing to meet up with the other IECS people, so it should be a lot of fun.
As for now, I'm gonna go get me some dinner to replace the duck neck from earlier today...

Out with the old. In with the new.

When I was packing to leave, I kept saying that I felt like I had not enough of anything and too much of everything. Now that I've settled in a little bit, I think I packed just the right amount for this new place - my home. The definiton of home has changed for me a little bit in the last few months. Some would say that home is where your rump rests...and I'm beginning to see that this is true! My old view of home is having a stove and a sink in the kitchen. My new view doesn't have these things; it has a water cooler for sanitary drinking purposes and a microwave. My old home has a bathroom with a shower head enclosed in a tub of some sort. My new home has a shower head that sprays directly on my toilet...no tub. It also has a new rule: thou must not flush toilet paper. My teammates Ryan and Jon tested the validity of this rule for all of us by choosing not to abide by it. Unfortunately, the rule is there for a reason, because they returned to a very flooded room earlier this week. Now we know!

I'm sure all of you are aware of my previous mode of transportation...the classic blue, wood-paneled mini-van. I need to inform you, much to your dismay, that its days have come to an end. However, I have a new mode of transportation now! You might call it an upgrade...I bought it from this place:


Amelia and I bought used bikes today to get around campus a little easier. It will allow us to get to class faster and also to get to places like the market in Baoding, because it's huge. We paid 90 yuan for our bikes, which comes out to around $13. The guy in the red shirt helped us find the place and bargain the price. I will say that every mode of transportation in China scares me to death. So think of me as I ride around on my new purple bike. :) Oh, and about the market...I've never experienced more people or more things to buy in one place before. Everyone on my team had carts loaded up to the brim, which isn't customary in China due to the fact that the market doesn't provide bags for you. So whatever you buy, you carry somehow. This was a wake-up call once we got to the check-out line. We had to have a taxi take us back to the university.


So, out with the old and in with the new. I've learned a lot about what this really means this past year in terms of getting rid of the old self and putting on the new creation that I am. I'm so excited to continue to learn about this in this new place. More stories of new things are yet to come...