Musings of a History Gypsy

The Great Camera Caper

2012-01-03T22:52:00.002+08:00

For those who are regular readers, you already know the long, sad story of my battle with cameras since leaving the USA in July. For the sake of newer readers, however, I'll go ahead and summary the whole story, rather than just starting with the conclusion.

So, here is the "bullet point" version of my long-lasting camera escapades:

When packing to leave the USA, I had the hindrance of having to first move everything from Virginia to Michigan. Because of that, some things got hopelessly lost. Among those hopelessly lost items were both my universal camera battery charger and the cords to connect either of my digital cameras to my computer (in lieu of the charger, the cord would actually have sufficed for charging the cameras, so really I could have gotten by with just one cord). So, no way to charge the cameras and no way to access the pictures on the cameras. Hoping optimistically that I would be able to find a charger and cord in China for at least one of the cameras, I went ahead and packed both cameras.

Once I arrived in China, I discovered that no, cords could not be found, nor could acceptable chargers. So, I now had two completely useless digital cameras.

I spent a ridiculous sum ordering the appropriate cord for my Cybershot off of Amazon. It took a while for it to clear customs and make it to me, but once it finally did . . . I learned that it was for a later model than the one I have. So, still two useless cameras.

I attempted again at some different stores to see if I could find the necessary cord for at least one of the cameras in China -- no luck. I felt saddened and a bit covetous every time a friend whipped out her camera to snap pictures of all of the beautiful and new things we were seeing and experiencing in those first months.

I did considerable research into the best cameras for my purposes and went ahead and ordered a new camera off of Amazon. I figured that it would prove to be worth the investment, since both the amount of megapixels and the zoom were so much higher than either of my cameras. I awaited the arrival of my new camera in eager anticipation of the wonderful photos I would soon be able to take . . .

Chinese customs kidnapped my new camera.

Weeks passed . . .

I filled out forms, sent copies of everything from the sales slip to a copy of my passport, and even had our school receptionist do a bit of begging and beseeching on my behalf.

More weeks passed . . .

Finally after paying a ridiculous ransom (they called it a customs fee), I received my new camera. The first days in China were long past, but at least I could finally catch up on photo-taking . . . or could I?

The new camera, as it turned out, did not come with an SD card. The internal memory could only store up to twelve photos.

I went to the electronics stores around town, only to learn that none of them carried the type of SD card that my new camera required. I now had two completely useless cameras and one partially useless one.

I felt like weeping as time after time, I had the privilege of traveling to various places throughout China (Hwangdao, Beijing, Weihai, Penglai, Weifang, Shenyang), only to be unable to capture any of it on film. So many special moments had to go completely unrecorded. I was able to get some photos from friends, but it just wasn't the same.

Months passed . . .

The first semester of school ended . . .

On my daytrip down to Gyeongju, I stopped at an electronics store that has a reputation for having everything. I asked for an SD card, showed them the camera, they got out an SD card for me . . . and it was the wrong size. The two salesmen informed me that I would have to get it online.

Here in Seoul, I decided to put forth one last effort. I went to an E-Mart, figuring that I would once again be disappointed. Even when the salesman handed me the SD card and I payed for it, I was still convinced that it would turn out to be the wrong one and I would have to return it. At a Starbucks, with considerable trepidation, I inserted the card into the camera . . . and it fit. At last, I had a digital camera that I could use! Overjoyed, I began to mentally plan out where I could go to start experimenting, at long last, with my wonderful new camera that finally was usable . . .

The battery died.

I left the charger in China.

Resolutions for 2012

2012-01-01T02:13:00.001+08:00

I'm resuming my former tradition of making and attempting to keep New Year's resolutions (I took a year off in 2011, after I failed to keep several of my 10 resolutions in 2010). And so (drumroll please), here are my official resolutions for 2012:

1. I am going to renew a resolution I made back in 2009: To focus on the things that I can alter, not the things that I wish I could alter.

2. I resolve to learn at least two new skills this year.

3. I resolve to improve even faster at my Chinese. For starters, I am aiming to know 100 characters by the time I resume my Chinese lessons on January 30 (right now I know about 50 characters).

4. I resolve to walk more . . . once I get this ankle straightened out.

5. I resolve to finish writing Sidhe Eyes (my fellow authors at Lantern Hollow Press will cheer on this resolution, especially since the book was supposed to be finished last summer originally).

2011 in Review

2011-12-31T21:45:00.001+08:00

2011 was . . . wow, even I am at a loss as to how to describe it. I think this is the best I can do: 2011 was a bipolar teenage female year having a very rough, long menstrual cycle and occasionally getting drunk or taking mind-altering anti-psychotic medications in order to cope with it, and also battling numerous authority issues. Yup, that about sums up 2011.

History students will one day study this year -- actually, my history students will study it for a little while when they return to school at the end of January! It was the year of protests, revolutions, scandals, dead despots, and the world media's obsession with Pippa Middleton's rear end. I don't have space for all of the events that took place, but here were just a few that captured my attention:

The US finally got Bin Laden. Now I am not a person who rejoices in death of anyone, but here I had to make an exception. That man was evil. I don't care that another will just rise up to take his place; Bin Laden had a special kind of dreadful hate about him, and I cheered when I read that he was gone from the world at last. I still have nightmares sometimes about September 11 -- that day will likely haunt me for the rest of my life, and I didn't even lose anyone that day. I cannot forget the horrible, wrenching fear that gripped us all that day and the days that followed. My teenage journal records all the sleepless nights I spent as a high-schooler, convinced that we were headed for World War III.
The Arab Spring. It was like a game of Middle Eastern dominoes, with revolutions breaking out right and left and Twitter and Facebook suddenly playing a role that their creators never imagined. I hope and pray that the new governments will do better by their people than the old, but . . . I am not holding my breath.
The deaths of Qaddafi and Kim. Two more evil men, both of whom had hands and hearts so blackened with blood and corruption that they almost ceased to be human. Others will take their places, sadly. Especially in the case of North Korea, winter is far from over.
A whole bunch of people throughout the US got really mad, had no common goals/aims/ideologies, and decided to riot and basically make lawless pests of themselves. I'm sorry -- I just can't take the "Occupy" protesters seriously. Change is not brought about by neglecting your responsibilities, shouting, waving signs (several of them with abominably bad spelling, by the way), and trying to goad the police into using gas. What takes place when those protesters gather is nothing grander than small-scale anarchy -- it's like a bunch of overgrown toddlers throwing tantrums because Mommy won't let them breastfeed anymore. Yes, change needs to happen, though I am certain I disagree with most of the protesters as to exactly what type of change is necessary. There is certainly a better way to bring it about.

2011 was a big year in my personal life as well. I really have no historical significance at all, although I do like to hope that I at least brighten whatever corner I happen to be in (I do try, anyway). However, since this is MY blog, I'm going to indulge in mild narcissism and review some of the big events that happened to me this year:

I brought in 2011 with no clear idea of what my future held, other than that I was pretty sure God was ignoring my wishes and calling me back to the classroom. After the Manasses experience, I had sworn off ever teaching again. Fortunately, God knows what's best for me and never listens to my feeble protests (to be fair, He does make the journey very pleasant once I stop kicking and screaming). It was not until February that I became aware that I was likely headed back overseas in my future -- and even then, I confess that I had plenty of doubts. I had two dogs, tons of furniture, and a car -- how could I possibly leave the USA?
I fought the War of the Thesis. It was bloody, exhausting, fraught with danger and difficulty, plus the CIA tried to reclassify a large portion of the documents that I needed. At several points, both my thesis chair and I believed that the thing would never be written. I had nightmares about showing up to my defense with nothing to defend. I even wrote a short story about my thesis becoming self-aware, coming to life, and trying to kill me. On April 23, just a few months after I started, I was able to write on this blog, "As of 10:00 am today, the horrible, monstrous, insidious, ill-formed offspring of my feeble mind, also known as my thesis, which has plagued me like a host of ten thousand camels tap-dancing on my shoulders in combat boots, is finally written." On May 2, I defended the monster and passed with flying colors! In the same vein, I graduated on May 13 with my Master of Arts degree in history, having completed it in a year and a half, and finishing with High Distinction (solid 4.0). That's pretty much the biggest achievement in my 27 years of life.
There was, of course, the car accident on May 6. A distracted young driver hit me head-on on a mountain road. She is now trying to push a claim against me. Ah, irresponsible, greedy Americans -- how they warm they heart.
I moved to China! It was by far the biggest decision of my life, but once I made it, I never doubted that it was the right choice (even though my family thought I was nuts -- they usually do, so I lovingly ignored them). Since leaving in late July, I have found a degree of happiness and contentment that I previously could never have imagined. I teach at a fantastic school with the finest group of educators I have ever met, and my students are a brilliant and witty ensemble of pure awesomeness. I don't have a single student that I would like to lead to the guillotine! I occasionally indulge in the mental image of bopping one or two of them, but on the whole, I love 'em all! I also have had my heart completely stolen away by China -- who would ever have foreseen it?
My mom got sick. This was, for me, probably the most difficult thing to get through in 2011. She's doing all right now, but for a while, she had me pretty terrified. It's really tough to grapple with sick relatives and not be able to do anything for them because you're thousands of miles away.
I wound up on this surprise extended journey in Korea, all because of an obstinate ankle that refuses to behave.

And so, I face 2012 with a lot less uncertainty than I faced 2011 (for one thing, I have THE BEST JOB EVER! and for another, I don't have to worry about whether or not I can actually write a thesis). As I enter another year, I do have a few questions on my mind:

Will I start the new year with an operation?
When do I get to leave Korea and go back to China (not that Korea isn't a great country, but China is home)?
Will Kim Jong-Un be as evil as his father? What will happen here in Asia because of him?
How will I ever get this bloodsucking reckless driver off my back? Doesn't she realize that I'm as good as a pauper?!
How soon is too soon to give my freshmen a pop quiz next semester?
Being out of sight, is it only a matter of time before I'm out of mind for the people I left behind in the USA? Has it already happened with some?
How can I better brighten my corner? Am I doing enough?

Farewell, 2011! Welcome into the world, 2012!

And a happy New Year to everyone!

"No Unnecessary Walking"

2011-12-31T15:01:00.002+08:00

The doctor said "no unnecessary walking".

I am not a good patient. When a doctor tells me to rest and drink lots of fluids, I go to work instead (but I do increase my coffee intake -- hey, coffee is a fluid!). Actually, I don't even go to the doctor for most illnesses. I follow the example set by my mother and wait until it's bronchitis or plague. I'm a Thompson -- we're tough! (And stubborn, and accident-prone . . . ). When I sprain my ankle, I often don't bother to ice it (but I do wrap and elevate . . . and then walk on it). I never finish antibiotics -- I stop when the symptoms stop or when I just plain forget to take them. Yes, thanks to that habit, I will probably be one of those people who die of antibiotic-resistant ear infection someday. When I had my wisdom teeth removed, I pulled out my own stitches -- and the pain was a lot more bearable after I did so. I don't read all the warnings on medication. I don't measure out my cough syrup -- I just take a big gulp from the bottle when I feel like I need it. I never stay on crutches as long as I'm supposed to.

Yes, I am a very, very bad patient. A patient with no patience for being a patient, in fact. Which, coupled with chronic badluckitus, is not a good combination. Not at all. I am very often a patient, and I seldom listen to all the directions.

I really am trying to be a good patient right now. I'm trying not to walk . . . but not walking is BORING! I watched a Chinese soap opera with Korean subtitles today (I understood about 10% of what was said and absolutely none of the subtitles). I studied my Chinese characters. I played Sparkle on my iPad. I threw a rope for my friend's dog. I did laundry. I planned writing assignments for my sophomores and my freshmen (mwa ha ha). I practiced my epitome-of-evil-supervillain-history-teacher laugh. I tried not to think about how much I really wanted a long walk . . . even in freezing-beyond-belief, so-cold-that-your-eyeballs-turn-to-iceballs Seoul. Occasionally, I cast hate-filled glances at my ankle and talked aloud of amputation (the ankle heard me. I don't care if it doesn't have ears).

Four more days until I return to the hospital for more tests. Four more days of being a good patient. . . . You know, I wouldn't mind taking a cross-country trip to Jinju again . . . maybe walk around that castle for a few hours?

Okay, fine. I'll go find another Chinese soap opera with Korean subtitles.

Bad News, Bad News, and Good News

2011-12-29T17:11:00.002+08:00

Okay, good news first: According to the doctor whom I saw at the hospital today, I'm not just imagining things -- there actually is something wrong with me! (Yes, this is good news. Few things are as annoying as pain or other symptoms with a cause that a doctor cannot locate.)

The first bad news: My ankle is worse off than I thought. I thought that I just had a stretched ligament, from all of the sprains I've had over the past nine years. Wrong! Apparently, somewhere down the road, I managed to tear that ligament. And, there is a problem with my leg that I never knew about (the muscle has had damage and weakening owing to the ankle problems, and it is in turn contributing to the ankle problems). I wound up being at the hospital until about 3:00 today, and in addition to my two doctor appointments, also squeezed in a radiology visit. Thank goodness I have really good insurance now!

The second bad news: I have to stay in Korea a bit longer than planned, because I need to do more testing to determine what is to be done with me. I definitely have to have physical therapy, both for the ankle and for the leg, but I also am probably going to wind up having surgery. I'll find out for sure after some more testing and related mafan on the 4th of January. Until then, the doctor warned me "No unnecessary walking." Not sure what that means, in a country (continent, actually) where one walks just about everywhere, but I guess that means no more cross-country trips this week. Good thing I did Gyeongju yesterday!

Stephanie Returns to Gyeongju

2011-12-29T17:03:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I stood in the exact same spot where I had stood three years ago. Actually, I probably stood in a lot of the same spots where I was three years ago. Sadly, a lot of things have changed since then. I was hoping to prove Daphne du Maurier wrong for once, but she really was uncannily correct when she wrote, "We can never go back to Manderly."

I flew into Korea on the 27th, and since this voyage is mostly for the purpose of having my bad ankle finally tended to, I opted to go down to Gyeongju on the 28th, before any doctor had the chance to tell me to stay off my ankle. They've gotten a high speed train down there since I was there, which means that it now takes just a little over two hours to go from the top of Korea to near the bottom (i.e. Seoul to Gyeongju).

I won't lie -- I was feeling pretty sappy and emotional about going back for a visit. I had eager plans to surprise Cate, my wonderful former boss. I thought there might be a chance of even running into former students, though they would have grown quite a bit since I saw them last. That year that I spent there in Gyeongju was one of the most foundational years of my life -- it was the year that I went from being a pathetic, broken shell of a human being (2006 and 2007 were not kind to me), took back the reins, and grew into a person I could feel confident being. I had a lot of spiritual growth during that year, too.

I anticipated that Gyeongju would not be exactly the same as I left it -- after all, Korea changes incredibly quickly. I just didn't count on one very sad change . . .

English World is gone. The small, successful hagwon (academy) where I worked for that lovely year has left without a trace. Perhaps it failed during the economic hardships that have struck the world, or perhaps Cate just grew tired of the stress of running it. I have no idea where she is now -- English World was the only link to finding her. In its place is a completely different business now, and the building, though fundamentally the same, is also changed.

I walked all around the city, ignoring the protests from my ankle, marveling at what had changed and what had stayed the same. Many of the stores I patronized are still there, even the dinky little Hello Kitty store where I used to buy stationary. The coffee place that I loved most is now a different type of restaurant, though the outer decor of the building is the same. I found the spot downtown where I fell and sprained my bad ankle during my first month in Korea, and avoided a repeat. I chuckled when I crossed the street at the same crosswalk where the infamous pears-down-the-shirt incident took place. I avoided slipping on the curb where I tumbled off my bike one morning, and I gave a friendly wave to the tomb that I used to pass each day on my way to English World. I stopped at the "fish cookie lady's" stand to buy the treat that I used to love -- and she misunderstood my request for two cookies, made me buy a whole bag instead, and yelled at me. A creepy guy tried to get me to share his sausage-on-a-stick. He did not stir any sentimental memories for me.

In the end, between all of the cross-country travel, I only spent about 4 hours back in Gyeongju. And, honestly, those four hours were a bit disappointing -- no joyous reunions, the "fish cookie lady" has turned mean and senile, and the foreign friends have all gone on to other places. Nevertheless, I'm glad I had the chance to go back for a day. The last time I was there, I really thought it was the last time. It was nice to be wrong.

And to Cate, wherever she may be now: Thanks for a wonderful year, and for being one of the best bosses I ever worked for. I'll never forget all of your kindness to me.

Keeping Christmas in China

2011-12-29T16:15:00.003+08:00

This year was my first Christmas in China, and I am happy to say that it was suitably special. I opted for a four-day-long observance of the holiday, since it is, after all, my favorite holiday (yup, I'm corny that way).

On the 23rd, I kicked off my festivities by inviting some of my closest Chinese friends (and a couple of American friends) over for a traditional Midwestern dinner and my favorite Christmas movie -- It's a Wonderful Life. I made a really simple chicken casserole, which my Chinese friends loved, to my relief (I always worry that they won't like our buttery western foods, but they always surprise me). The movie was even more meaningful than usual, likely because I had to explain quite a bit of it to my friends. I got to see it from their perspective, and I realized that it really is a film of universal truths.

I was invited to quite a few festivities on Christmas Eve, but after a wonderful-but-exhausting semester of school, I really just wanted a lazy day to myself. So, I spent the entire day in my pajamas, watching movies and playing Age of Empires (I am proud to say that Napoleon, Queen Elizabeth, Ivan the Terrible, and Queen Isabella were all soundly defeated). I slept in far later than any adult should (I think it was about 11:00 when I finally got up!) and I ate decidedly unhealthy junk food. It was just the tonic I needed, especially after all the stress from finals -- my students think they have it tough, but they don't realize how painful the grading process can be!

Christmas was really unique. I mean, really, really unique. I enjoyed a traditional English Christmas, complete with turkey and crackers (the kind that explode and have goodies inside, not the kind that one eats with cheese). I celebrated with a few British friends, a sweet Finnish gal, two fellow Americans, and several new Chinese friends. We had a riotous game of multi-lingual charades after dinner. One of the highlights was me pretending to be a watermelon. Another wonderful moment was watching someone else act out a very energetic octopus.

On Boxing Day, my last full day in China before departing for my trip to Korea, I had a wonderful stew dinner with several other foreigners. It was like an evening spent with family -- the kind of family that one likes belonging to, not the kind that binds and gags.

I hope you all had lovely Christmases, too, readers!

This Past Month . . .

2011-12-17T22:31:00.001+08:00

For the sake of relatives whom I have not, perhaps, done well at calling or otherwise communicating with (although, to be fair, that is a two-way street -- you relatives could email me once in a while, you know!) and readers who may have wondered why I didn't blog for nearly a month, here is a summary of what's gone on this past month:

My VPN stopped working and a multitude of other technological problems/frustrations took place. Hence, no access to my blog for weeks.
I tried out multiple types of (PAINFUL) Chinese medicine on my bad ankle, and finally decided to bite the bullet and look into surgery. So, I'm heading to Korea in ten days, with the main purpose of the trip being to see a doctor. Perhaps if we fix this ankle, I might be less clumsy! (Or just find another body part to keep injuring.)
I got put in charge of designing/planning a game for our entire high school, which we'll do next week. Needless to say, the game involves spies. ☺
I was coerced into eating another type of fish. It wasn't horrible, so long as I kept my mind off of what I was eating.
I got lost trying to cut through the hospital to get to a bus stop and wound up in a maternity ward. (To be fair, that hospital is MUCH bigger than it looks at first glance.)
I was introduced to three more fruits that I have never heard of before (which do not, to my knowledge, have English names). All three, by the way, were quite tasty.
I accidentally taught moderately offensive English slang to a group of Chinese friends.
I got to relive part of my thesis research by teaching my sophomores about the Ottoman Empire.
I had my first experience with a Chinese tailor: After doing a spectacular free-fall down the front steps of one of the buildings at school, I tore my only pair of black slacks (and skinned up my knees, naturally). The tailor not only completely repaired the large hole in one day, but also did it for less than a dollar! I only wish knees could be repaired so promptly!
I discovered that, contrary to the beliefs of several friends and students, a stapler CAN in fact be used to successfully repair a severely torn backpack.
It snowed a few times -- and very graciously all melted within the same days that it fell.

I'm Alive! -- Just Weary. Very, Very Weary.

2011-12-17T22:03:00.001+08:00

I wonder, is it possible for a teacher to get Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from the week before final exams? If so, I am definitely a casualty.

Honestly, it shouldn't have been that stressful of a week. I had no teaching to do, for one thing (let me clarify that statement by reassuring all my readers that I do, in fact, love teaching). All I had to do, initially, was spend the week reviewing with my students so that they could go forth and do well on their final exam on Friday. Should have been an easy week, right?

Wrong.

Remember back in May when that irresponsible twenty-year-old wasn't paying attention, was driving in the middle of the road, and managed to hit my car head-on on a mountain road? I decided to behave in accordance with my Christian worldview and didn't sue, even though I had ample grounds for it. After all, I was injured: internal bleeding, concussion, whiplash, massive bruising, worsening migraines . . . and let's not forget the psychological impact, either. I have not driven a car even once since May 6 -- and I don't want to. I still have nightmares about the crash. I still relive the fear, emotion, tension, etc. every time that I recall the crash or look at the photos. As much as I may strive to stay in control and sensible, that crash really shook me up.

I bring this up, because it's all back in the forefront of my mind: The woman who hit me (who was AT FAULT) had the audacity and greed file a claim against me. I spent last weekend writing a seven-page account of the accident, which I sent, along with photos, to the insurance companies involved. Two more emails from them followed, hounding and harassing me for details and documents that I simply do not have. This, readers, is just one example of what is wrong with the United States. Victims don't have rights. The person who caused that accident, who is to blame for my injuries and etc., gets to continue to intrude into my life six months later. She can waste time and money of others with . . . you know what; I am going to cut this rant off right here. Suffice to say, I am pretty irritated.

On Wednesday, my stress was up the wazoo, what with the emails and other mafan from this legal hassle. I barely slept that night, with the result that on Thursday I had my worst migraine in months. I went into school an hour late, hoping an extra hour of sleep would help, but it did no good. On the bright side, I did get to practice nearly all of my Chinese vocabulary from lesson 8, as the taxi driver had no idea how to get to our school (even after calling and talking to our receptionist) and I had to direct him most of the way. Unfortunately, I had to fight nausea and vertigo the entire day, not to mention being in excruciating pain. Ordinarily, I would have called in sick under circumstances like that, but with my freshmen taking their final the very next day, I was worried that they wouldn't do well without a final review day with me. I figured that one day of suffering for me was worth it if it helped them do better on a test that is worth 20% of their total semester grade.

Friday dawned a better day, I am glad to say. I had some great encouragement from some Chinese friends, my secret santa left me another in a line of wonderful gifts (a fuzzy blanket that just begs for hot chocolate and a good book), and our principal gave me a good pep talk. With my students all taking their finals together in the lunchroom, I had most of the schoolday to myself, so I could do some planning and tackle a bit of grading. I had the chance to check out the middle school science fair and get an idea of the sort of students I'll be having in the next few years (some good prospects, I think). I was particularly looking forward to seeing the project done by a coworker's daughter: this incredibly creative young girl gave spiders drugs (alcohol, sleeping pills, and caffeine) to see how it impacted their ability to spin webs. Now that is a student that I want in my class! (So long as she doesn't bring spiders to class, of course -- those things are definitely the spawn of Satan.)

Yay Duck and Yuck Duck scores from this week:

Yay Duck: My freshmen did an AWESOME job on their huge history project -- they completely blew me away! My Chinese lessons are still going really well. I was finally able to get a new adaptor for my Mac, so I no longer have a dead computer. I leave for Korea in ten days! The semester is, for all practical purposes, over!

Yuck Duck: The legal mess from the US (hey, that rhymes!). I've had the same migraine, off and on, since Wednesday night. The semester is, for all practical purposes, over.

Facing Fears and Receiving Bows

2011-11-19T20:01:00.001+08:00

Aside from the rampant internet problems that continue to prevent me from being able to call my family, the past few days were full of milestones and memorable moments. Yay Duck really got a workout this week!

On Thursday, I summoned all available courage and, feeling not unlike a Renaissance traveler facing the Ottoman Turks, went to a Chinese dentist for the first time. I am privileged to work at a school that has its own dental office just down the hall from my classroom, and after suffering for quite a while from what I believed to be a cracked filling, I decided to take advantage of the free dental care provided to me as a teacher. I really had no reason to be afraid, as I soon learned. Our school dentist spent much of her life in Iowa, so she speaks excellent English. Additionally, she is definitely the best dentist I have ever visited: incredibly kind, soothing, and capable. As it turned out, I had a cavity rather than a filling problem, and it was quite large owing to my inability to afford a dentist for the past three years (I had no insurance during that time). Dr. Li numbed me quite nicely, drilled out the decay, and gave me a filling that is so well done that it cannot be distinguished from the actual tooth -- and she got it all done in time for me to go teach my freshman Ancient World History class! Other than having one side of my face numb (my freshies were quite sympathetic), I was just fine! At lunch, which came next, I unfortunately chomped up my lip pretty well owing to not being able to feel it, much to the amused sympathy of the friends I was eating with.

After school on Thursday, I had a wonderful evening with some very dear Chinese friends who had me over for dinner. I particularly enjoyed playing several games of "poker" with one of my favorite little girls in the world (the daughter of a friend; I also teach English to this bubbly smartie as sort of a sideline activity).

On Friday, I had an only slightly less fear-inspiring moment than facing the dentist: I faced a dictation test from my Chinese teacher. Despite coming right on the heals of a vocabulary test (yes, dear Jackie gave me TWO tests in ONE day!), I managed to write all of the characters correctly . . . well, aside from messing up a bit on stroke order (I really didn't care -- I was too ecstatic about actually remembering how to write the characters). Oh, and I also got 100% on my vocabulary test. ☺

Earlier in the day on Friday, I had one of those special "I really love my freshmen" moments (I have these frequently): We had an assembly earlier in the day where one of our school counselors discussed cultural integration and cultural politeness with the students. He finished by having some teachers and students show how to properly greet one another according to our different cultures here at the school (our student body is about 80% Korean, 20% assorted other cultures, and then our faculty is a mix of Chinese, Korean, American, Filipino, South African, Indian, Australian, Finish, Malaysian, etc.). When I went into my classroom after lunch, a mob of my freshies were waiting for me at the front of the classroom. They promptly bowed to me and said "Annyong haseyo" in eager, smiling unison. How cute is that?

The End-of-the-Day Bus Ballet

2011-11-06T14:36:00.001+08:00

At the end of each school day, as we teachers embark on the journey home, we are treated to a special show: "The Dance of the School Buses". On some days, it is a short performance, with only a few students nearly being flattened and some intermittent horn-honking. Other days, we are witness to five or more buses all determined to enter the school gates simultaneously, while at least ten other vehicles block them (with musical accompaniment from several shouting guards, a few bystanders, and an irritated policeman). One Friday, however . . .

The ballet opens with a backdrop of a gloomy, rainy day at the school campus. Our heroine, Stephanie, spectacularly avoids injury while darting down slippery steps and even-more-slippery path, convinced she is about to miss the bus (having been somewhat distracted by melancholy reflections on her poor performance on a Chinese dictation quiz minutes earlier). Off to stage right, a chorus of jacket-clad children frolic on playground equipment, oblivious to the rain. Off to stage left are more buildings, with assorted extras scattered hither and thither.

As Stephanie nears the buses, she becomes immediately aware that, regardless of whether or not she moves in time, bus #8 is going to back off the drive and into the grass . . . where she is presently standing. Whilst hopping out of the path of bus #8, Stephanie nearly encounters bus #5, also intent on backing up into the grass (and possibly into bus #8 as well). The guard, who is one of the focal figures in this scene, darts to and fro amongst buses, somehow avoiding getting hit. It is CRUCIAL that each bus driver initially ignore him -- this is all part of the dance.

A chorus-line of cars in varying colors now approaches, completely blocking any buses from exiting the gate. Although there is absolutely no room for them, a chorus-line of construction vehicles joins the cars, gracefully weaving in between one another at rapid speed in death-defying fashion. It is CRUCIAL that each vehicle come within at least one and a half inches of one another -- this, too, is all part of the dance.

Teachers and students, standing wherever they can fit (all nicely warmed by the buses that are never more than six inches from their bodies), now flock onto the buses in musically disorganized fashion. There are, naturally, fewer seats than there are people. Rearrangement of some of the passengers takes place, while, simultaneously, the guard continues to dart about between buses, the horn symphony plays background music, and the far-more-vehicles-than-any-sane-person-would-ever-cram-into-one-area continue to interweave -- right wear Stephanie's bus is determined to go.

The uneven, potholed dirt road, complete with lose stones, is now nearly as crowded as Black Friday at Best Buy. A choir of shouting people add to the festivity of the scene. Every vehicle moves at once, some in the same direction (mere coincidence), and most in opposite directions. Our heroine bravely digs her long fingernails into her thigh as a defense mechanism against panic (until you have witnessed this bus-ballet in person, it is impossible to grasp the intensity of it).

At 4:48, the 3:45 bus at last makes it off the dirt drive and onto the main road. Stephanie releases a breath that she has been holding since 3:46.

Pictures from Weifang (courtesy of Kathryn)

2011-11-06T14:25:00.001+08:00

Memorial to Eric Liddell, who died in the
concentration camp that is now a park.

This gorgeous archway opens into what was once a concentration camp.

Kathryn, my closest non-Chinese friend here in the "Middle Kingdom"

This place is so enchanting that I am convinced dragons must live there.

Doing my best "Chinese pose" in the archway.

Even with the algae, I still thought this spot was pretty.

Paths like this one demand to be walked down.

Memorial to those who were imprisoned at the concentration camp.

This canopy was overhead on one of the many paths through Liddell Park.

The base of the memorial, listing the names.

More Penglai Photos (Courtesy of Kathryn and Susie)

2011-10-31T00:03:00.003+08:00

Here are a few more photos from lovely Penglai. It really is a special place.

Memorial to Lottie Moon

Southern Baptist church next to Lottie's church

Yes, occasionally I wind up in photographs. Susie said, "Stephanie, stand there!"

They were preparing for a wedding at our hotel.
In China, wedding = lots of fireworks.

These sorts of things always get inflated for weddings.
Behind the balloon creatures is the hotel we stayed at.

Penglai Photos (Courtesy of Kathryn)

2011-10-30T23:52:00.003+08:00

Here are some more photos from our enchanting travels two weeks ago:

Just look at these "delectables" for sale! Anyone hungry?

Perhaps this tasty lunch would please your palate more.

Yummy!

Boats lined up along the waterfront.

A gorgeous temple and pagoda

China is full of beautiful architectural features like this.

There's just something cool about seeing all these old boats lined up.
I wonder what stories they could tell?

More old-fashioned boats at sea (Yellow Sea)

I love the fantastic colors of this pagoda.

Closer shot of the temple (pictured earlier)

The Eight Immortals (Linda and Maggie explained some of the legends about them to me)

Chinese countryside

Kathryn and I

Every now and then, I have to pinch myself --
I just can't believe that I get to LIVE in this country!

Such an awesome sight!

This is by the church that Lottie Moon built. This path makes me want to run down it!

Penglai Pingua Pictures

2011-10-30T23:15:00.000+08:00

Thanks to my dear friends Susie (one of the Chinese teachers) and Kathryn (one of the English teachers), here are some apple (pingua in Chinese) photos from Penglai (taken during our trip two weeks ago):

Don't you just want to bite into those wonderfully juicy apples and have the juice drip down your chin? As you can see, some of the loveliest Fuji apples in the world are grown in China. They were so delectable-looking that I wound up buying ten kilos of them! Does anyone have any apple recipes that they would care to share? ☺

We saw several trucks like this one carting large loads of apples. There were also the more old-fashioned carts hooked up to bicycles.

I estimate that we saw more than twenty of these roadside stands selling the apples.

Finally, Something that Translates into Every Language!

2011-10-20T12:43:00.000+08:00

In the midst of all of the fun/difficulty/jubilation/headache (it really is a mixed bag) of learning Chinese, I finally found one sure-fire thing that translates well with minimal confusion.

Are you ready for it?

It's a cough. Or, in my case, a massive, dramatic, whole-body-wracking, enough-to-knock-me-over-if-I-weighed-twenty-pounds-less attack of coughing. As one might infer, I am sick at the moment. As in, sick enough that I even took a sick day today (and have, naturally, spent the entire day babysitting my email just in case the substitute needs any help with my classes -- which she won't, because she is capable and brilliant, but I am such a teach-a-holic that I have to worry anyway).

I started getting sick earlier in the week, with the usual completely disgusting alien-goop pouring from my sinuses, a sore throat, and a chronic headache. By Tuesday, the cough had arrived. Tuesday night, the fevers and chills showed up, and I shivered and hacked my way through a very unpleasant night (but, on the bright side, got all of the freshmen projects graded since I couldn't sleep).

Wednesday was just plain miserable. I had a three-hour department meeting and two classes receiving tests, and I coughed my way pathetically through all three (I ran and got some very odd-tasting but reasonably effective Chinese cough drops from our very kind school doctor so that I did not distract my sophomores too much during their test). In the morning, I was cranky from being sick and stressed and lacking sleep, and I inadvertently put my foot in my mouth complaining about something being done wrong, only to run into the person who had done it . . . who graciously accepted my profuse series of apologies and even made a few of her own (have I ever mentioned how dearly I love the Chinese people in my life and just how kind, lovely, friendly, hard-working, etc. they are? -- now you know how horrible I felt when I accidentally said something negative about one of them).

By noon, I knew I should go home . . . but I had planned an afterschool help class for my freshman, who are taking their test as I write this very post, and I could not bear to cancel it and leave them hanging (some of them were really nervous about their test). So, I battled my way through the day, though I did inform one of our Chinese co-teachers (i.e. designated substitute teachers and generally awesome people who do pretty much everything, while being unbelievably sweet) that I would need her to teach my classes the next day. A sick day was no longer an option for me -- it was something I had to do. I hate taking sick days . . . . I really, really hate it. But, since I couldn't go more than five minutes without coughing, there was no way around it.

I foolishly forgot to bring Nyquil when I moved here from the US, and oh, have I suffered for that mistake! What I wouldn't give for some of that wonderful, merciful, drowsiness-inducing potion that got me through so many past rounds of "plague". With no other recourse, I decided to be brave and go to a Chinese drugstore after school in the hopes of finding something for, at the very least, the sore throat and cough.

When I entered the store, it occurred to me that I do not yet know any Chinese words related to illness, other than the words for diarrhea and vomiting, which were two of the first words I learned (you may draw your own conclusions from this revelation). I do know "tong" (pain) from when I went for massage and "bu hao" (not good), which is quite utilitarian, but that is a pretty small arsenal to have, particularly in a city full of thousands of helpful, friendly people who want to help the poor foreigner by offering loads of well-meant assistance . . . all in words that the foreigner has not yet learned from her beloved Chinese teacher. I boldly went forward anyway, confident in my ever-increasing charades skills.

I really need not have worried. The smiling pharmacist asked me (I assume, since it was Chinese words that I don't know yet) what was wrong with me (or what I needed, or more than likely something to that effect -- although she could have been asking if I like to watch water polo, for all I know). I pointed to my throat and said "Zhe shi bu hao" (This is not good) and then, before I could employ any charades skills at all, I erupted into a timely fit of lung-flinging coughs. The pharmacist nodded sagely, said something sympathetic that I understood the spirit of if not the meaning, and then went behind the counter and got something for me. I paid an insanely cheap price for it, went to the store for "sick foods" and then came home and opened the box to discover . . . . very nasty looking cough syrup (they all are, I know, but this one has the added bonus of being brown and a little frothy on top).

Since the dosage instructions were, of course, all in Chinese characters that I haven't learned yet (well, except for "ren" which means person and really doesn't help), I shrugged my shoulders, gritted my teeth, plugged my nose, and slurped down 20 milliliters of the stuff (it had a little measuring cup with it, just like in the States). The flavor tasted strongly of ginseng and ginger, intermingled with . . . swamp water, perhaps? I, fortunately, had had the foresight to have a chaser (Sprite) right at my elbow. The stuff was pretty effective for a few hours, although it made my brain a little fuzzy (or maybe the fever did that -- who can really say?).

Today, my sick day, my nasty medicine and I have spent the morning curled up on the couch together. My illness, whatever it is, apparently beat up my voice and stole its lunch money, but one really doesn't need a voice to sit on a couch huddled miserably under a blanket. At around 10:00 our ayi arrived, so there has been the "Yay Duck" of actually getting to see and talk to her (in my limited Chinese, since the only English she knows is limited to "hi" and "sorry"). Our ayi is very sweet and concerned -- she checked me for fever and offered to do something that I didn't understand (so I politely turned her down). She periodically checks on me in between cleaning, and says sympathetic things in her lovely language that I really want to someday be fluent in. Although a cough does translate into Chinese flawlessly, I really can't wait until I know enough verbs and nouns to be able to carry on a meaningful conversation!

An Enchanting Weekend: Penglai and Weifang, Part I

2011-10-16T22:03:00.001+08:00

A group of about thirty of us took a trip this weekend to two gorgeous areas of China, Penglai and Weifang (they are about four hours away from where I live). It was a trip full of history, magical moments, odd gustatory experiences (in other words, I ate something that should NEVER be eaten), beautiful Chinese songs, and of course, plenty of "squattie potties"!

I started out on the foreigner bus, which picked us up at 7:30 am on Saturday. At a brief stop, however, we were told that anyone who wanted to could feel free to switch to the other bus (which the Chinese staff were on). I immediately told my friend Kathryn that we should switch, and she agreed. It's not that I don't enjoy the other foreigners (they're all the salt of the earth, as far as I'm concerned), it's just that my closest friends here, besides Kathryn, are Chinese. Three of them have become family to me over the past nearly three months that I have been here. In the midst of the difficult time that this last month has been, what with worrying about my mother constantly, Maggie, Linda, and Susie have gone above and beyond to encourage and love me. So, I am always excited to spend time with them.

Maggie, Linda, and Susie cheered when we boarded their bus. And then, after some preliminaries, Maggie promptly starting teaching Kathryn and I how to say "rest area" and "highway" in Chinese, much to the great delight of the other Chinese staff on the bus ("You never stop having lessons," one person laughed). I then taught Maggie how to say "wind turbine" and "toll booth" (betcha can't guess what kind of scenery we were going past!), and then Maggie and Linda wanted to see if I could still remember the three words that Linda taught me in Weihai ("sand", "sea", and "beach"). I accidentally used the wrong tone when saying "sand", and thus learned how to say "foolish". Isn't Chinese fun?! Linda amused herself (and me) by teaching me about four more ways to say foolish, three of which I have, sadly, forgotten. Everyone on our bus, including Kathryn and I, had brought snacks, so a lot of sharing of food went on (I love that particular Asian custom!). I got to try yet another new fruit, which I really enjoyed, but I can't tell what it is called because I only heard the name in Chinese just once, over the excited din of conversation, and Linda and Susie had no idea what to call it in English (it probably doesn't have an English name).

Coming into Penglai, we saw on one side of the bus apple orchards, rich with luscious fruit, stretching endlessly into the horizon. On the other side, we were treated to thriving vineyards backed by the glistening sea. We stopped to look at the thousands of apples, then boarded the bus again and went to a stunning scenic area where we ate lunch. I didn't eat anything too odd; the oddest thing was the fanged fish that glared at me with its accusing eye, and I wasn't about to touch that, no matter how much Maggie encouraged me to do so. After lunch, we had a wonderful walk along the sea, admiring the beauty of various statues honoring the Eight Immortals (heros of old Chinese myth, whom Maggie and Linda told me quite a bit about) and the temples and pagodas.

We next headed to our first main destination: Lottie Moon's church. The building was restored and allowed to reopen following the Cultural Revolution, and the Southern Baptist church has since donated the funds to build a second church, which is next door. We stopped in to hear the choir practicing in Lottie's church (I think she would have loved to have peeked into the future and seen/heard that). Afterwards, we went into the other church to learn more about Lottie's life. The talk was bittersweet; we learned that the pastor of the second church, as well of his wife, were killed with an ax by a former church member just last summer. It was tragic to hear, particularly when we learned what wonderful people the Qins were.

We walked around, admiring the buildings and nearly feeling the history of the place course through our veins, then checked into our hotel. Dinner was, as it always is in China, an adventure. Owing to Maggie not telling me what I was eating until I had already swallowed it, I inadvertently ate sea intestines (not sure what manner of sea creature they were once a functioning part of, actually) and, to my horror, a tube worm. Although the flavor of both was just fine, I just couldn't bring myself to take another bite of that particular dish -- I have to draw the line somewhere, and worms definitely cross it. The corn soup with pink sprinkles in it (as in the kind that one generally finds on cupcakes or ice cream sundaes) was delicious, as was the sweet and sour chicken, the mouthwateringly piquant chicken necks, and the wonderful spicy eggplant.

After dinner, a bunch of us took a long walk in the refreshingly cold evening air. When we got back, I offered to teach Maggie how to play Quiddler, a fun card game that I brought from the states (the object, in a nutshell, is to make words). Kathryn and another friend of ours, Ben, were also eager to learn, so we had a great game together. Maggie loved the chance to improve her English, grabbing my arm every time an unfamiliar word was played and saying "Lao-San, shen-me yi si?" ("Lao-San, what does it mean?" In the end, she learned about ten new words. Maggie loved the game!

As Kathryn and I settled ourselves into our beds that night, chatting amiably, I could still seem to detect the faint flavor of the worm I had eaten earlier that night, despite the best efforts of my toothpaste. I knew it was just my imagination (the worm had no aftertaste), but it was nevertheless persuasive. On the whole, however, I fell asleep with happy memories of the day playing about in my mind.

Yay Duck: The scenery, the history, the time with treasured friends, the extra Chinese lessons, the beautiful singing at the church, and the chance to share one of my favorite games with some of my favorite people.

Yuck Duck: The worm.

More about my weekend adventures in my next post!

At Last, an Answer to the Ageless Question . . .

2011-10-16T20:35:00.000+08:00

During yet another phenomenal weekend spent with Chinese friends (and fellow foreign friends, too), I at last remembered to ask about a question which has intrigued me, and many others, I'm sure, for years.

As any American child knows, any time that you dig a deep hole, people ask if you are digging to China. Or, if you are a child similar to the child that I was, digging all the way to China is your actual intent. Ever since I was a little girl, I have wondered if Chinese people do the same thing in reverse. When they did a hole, do they say that they are digging to America?

So, yesterday my friend Kathryn and I, while out on a stroll with Maggie, decided to answer this ageless question. Maggie was quite amused to hear about our childhood adventures of digging to China. But, sadly, she informed us that the Chinese do not do the same thing in reverse. She had, in fact, never heard of such a thing, delightful as she found it.

And so, dear friends, the answer is no. But perhaps that is subject to change -- Maggie really liked the idea of digging a hole to America!

Stephanie's Latest Addiction

2011-10-09T22:42:00.000+08:00

As those close to me know, I have a habit of going through phases where I crave a certain food above all other things, sometimes to ridiculous extents. There was, for example, the Great Grapefruit Binge of 2001, in which I went through the equivalent of an orchard in about two weeks' time. In college I went through my Rice Phase and my Cheese and Crackers Fortnight. There was the Frozen Mango Madness in Korea, which cropped up for weeks at a time throughout my year there, as well as the Jajang Myeon Period, in which I ate that same dish for lunch and dinner for about three weeks straight (and still wasn't sick of it). Shortly after I arrived here in China, I experienced the Dragonfruit Bender of 2011, and subsequently learned that overabundance of dragonfruit in the diet has unpleasant side effects for the tummy.

I have recently become enamored with red dates. I cannot get enough of them! I was introduced to red date yogurt by my friend Kathryn several weeks ago, and have been eating it almost daily ever since. I love it because it is not too sweet, and it has just the slightest edge to the flavor. While in Weihai, Linda and her husband introduced me to the actual fruit, which I immediately took to.

I find that the flavor is best when the dates are in their mostly green phase of life. They are called red dates because they turn red after being dried. There are apparently two different types of them, and my kind friends had me sample both. Those pictured above are the sort that I like best.

Some of the Chinese staff at school were explaining to me recently that red dates (also known as Chinese dates or jujubes) have a ton of health benefits, and when I researched the matter, I found that they were quite right. Apparently, these have been used in Chinese medicine for over 1,000 years! They are good for strengthening the blood, helping to cure anemia, and they are supposed to aid the spleen and several other organs. Additionally (and for me, most importantly), they taste utterly delicious.

The texture is similar to that of an apple when the dates are fresh, and their size is comparable to that of a grape. They are not too pricy of an indulgence: I bought about a pound of them from Lotus today and paid the equivalent of less than three dollars for them. You'd pay more than that for chips or a lot of other snacks, and these are way better for you. I prefer to just munch them as-is, but I have seen a ton of recipes for them, so I may experiment a bit later.

Adventures in Weihai

2011-10-08T21:34:00.001+08:00

I just returned from a phenomenal staff retreat in Weihai, the city where I almost lived (I had a job offer there that I came very close to not turning down). Initially, I felt apprehension mingled in amongst my anticipation -- although excited about the chance to spend time with several dear friends, I wondered exactly how much fun one could have while stuck on crutches with an ankle that swells up like an angry balloon at the slightest provocation. I need not have worried -- my incredibly sweet Chinese friends made it a wonderful time!

I spent most of my time as the foreign minority among Chinese, and I couldn't have been happier! I got to know several staff members that I had not previously gotten to spend much time with (their jobs and mine don't really intersect). I also spent a lot of time being looked after by my "older sisters" Maggie and Linda and my "little sister" Susie. They took me all over the place, frequently grabbing my crutches to make sure that I didn't slip and fall or get flung through the air (yes, they know me well already). We also had two fantastic and inspiring seminars.

There were several unique and special moments during the trip:

I received a nickname from my Chinese friends. Since there are four Stephanies at school, Maggie decided to rename me "Lao-San" (basically, it means that I am the third age-wise). It seems to be catching on, so I may have a lengthy future as Lao-San. Fortunately, I like it.
I ate jellyfish! I did not like it!
I ate "hundred year old egg" -- duck egg that is covered with mud and buried, then dug up and served after it turns black. (Surprisingly, it tastes good, and obviously, I had no idea what it was before I ate it. I thought it was just an odd garnish on the tofu.)
I ate a chicken foot. It showed up in one of the dishes at dinner, so I figured I might as well eat it. Not bad, but not awesome.
I ate pig heart. This was another instance where I did not actually know what I was eating (it just happened to be in my soup at the Korean soup restaurant that friends and I went to). It was okay, but I did not care for the texture. Maggie insisted that it was good for my skin and that I should finish it all, but I had filled up on soup, rice, and kimchi and had no desire to eat more.
I ate a very odd sweet cold soup which had a texture and appearance exactly like the results of a giant's head cold . . . if the giant had something horribly wrong with his sinuses. I liked it, although it looked dreadful (that seems to happen a lot here in China). I was eating dinner with a tableful of teens and preteens, so I opted to set a good example by not telling the kids what I thought the soup resembled until after dinner.
I got to go sailing with three friends. We had perfect weather, albeit chilly, and managed not to get wet. Poor dear Ruth, the Chinese teacher who shares my classroom, was not so lucky. She and her husband were enjoying a very cute voyage in a kayak, then tipped right as they were coming into shore!
I taught a whole bunch of American slang to several of the Chinese staff. I figured it was only fair, since they are always teaching me Chinese words.
I learned several new words, including beach, sea, sand, Chinese donut (that's really the best translation for it), and "let's go".
I was forced to dance. As one of our team-building activities, our small groups had to each do the same song and dance in front of everyone. My group was a bit unimpressed by the motions that were supposed to go with the song, so we improvised and changed it up in the third stanza, ending with a bow. We received cheers and applause for our efforts, though we didn't win.
Maggie made me speak Chinese only (well, as close as I could get) while we were out and about on our first day (not for the whole day, just a large portion of it). I was really surprised by how much I can understand; unfortunately, my vocabulary is very noun-heavy at the moment, so my limited verbs really cut down on my conversation potential.

So, although the crutches are a "Yuck Duck", the entire time in Weihai was mega "Yay Duck"!

Off to Beijing! . . . with Two Unwanted Accomplices

2011-10-06T00:19:00.000+08:00

On Saturday morning, at the wee hour of 6:00, the bus came by to pick up Beth and I, along with some coworkers, and cart us off to the airport. It was time for our teachers' conference in Beijing, an event we've all been looking forward to, even if it did cut into our week-long October holiday. Travel is always a bit hectic, but in my case, there was the further complication of "Eustace and Puddleglum" -- the crutches I've been hobbling about on since Wednesday.

Wednesday was an exhausting day -- so exhausting, in fact, that I am sorry to admit to having a rather negative attitude towards the mandatory dinner that new staff had to attend after school. While I appreciated the constant care offered to us by the school, I felt smothered at the time, and really would have preferred a quiet evening of leftovers on the couch with Beth. The heavy rain and the fact that I left my umbrella at school did not improve my mood. The dinner was delicious, prepared by a very sweet Korean couple from school, but I was so deeply entrenched in my unhappy mood that not even food could cheer me up. Standing in the rain with the Braces (the couple that I traveled to China with) for more than half an hour waiting for a taxi after dinner and getting soaked continued to make me secretly cranky. It was oddly fitting when I slipped on the slippery tile sidewalk on the way home and sprained my ankle . . . and then repeated the performance the next morning in the foyer.

I went in to see Dr. Ruth, our school nurse, shortly after she arrived at school on Thursday morning. She examined my swollen ankle, wrapped it, and sentenced me to a week of crutches. With our school being full of staircases (I teach on the third floor), crutches and a sprained ankle made my week end on a completely exhausted note. It also meant that three of our staff were now on crutches, leading students to speculate about a possible curse. Nitta broke her foot when her sink fell on it a few days before my injury, and a second grade teacher, Karen, had a knee injury weeks ago (followed by surgery while we were in Beijing). Fortunately for me, the rest of the staff and my students were all quite sweet to me, carrying my lunch tray for me, moving obstacles out of me path, and even helping me up the stairs.

We had a pretty uneventful flight to Beijing, although it was a pretty cramped ride to the airport (one staff member had to ride on the luggage because there wasn't a seat). All of our luggage made it, and I managed not to wipe out while disembarking from the plane (it probably helped that Vickie was assisting me). We arrived at our hotel in a short amount of time, and were thrilled with how nice it was -- the softest beds I've ever seen in Asia, for one thing!

Since the conference wouldn't start until that evening, a group of us headed off to Beijing's Dirt Market, a really cool place with minority artisans sell their wares. It was tough having to do my exploring and shopping on crutches, but it sure beat staying alone in my hotel room, so I grimaced and bore it. We split up into twos, since you can't bargain effectively if you are in a larger group of foreigners. My friend Jane (not the same Jane who is married to our head principal), principal of our new Early Childhood Center, opted to go with me. We have similar interests, so we had a great time together. We got matching jade bracelets at unbelievable prices and each picked up a piece of art (a painting of cherry blossoms for my bedroom and a painting of the ocean for her office). We had lots of fun looking at the unique crafts and antiques. After the Dirt Market, we all headed (and hobbled) off to Peder's, a fantastic Mexican restaurant, where I had the best milkshake I've had in years (mmmm, Bailey's!) and chicken/beef enchiladas.

The conference itself was quite interesting, and even inspiring at times. I only had one session disappoint me, although I did later wish that I had gone to more of one woman's sessions, as I found hers to be the most helpful. One of the focuses was on fine arts, and I got some great ideas for further fine arts integration in my classroom. I also went to a really interesting seminar about women in the UAE, which made me even more thankful to be in China!

There was so much to do in Beijing that even without crutches I would not have been able to do as much as I wanted. I decided that sightseeing should wait until I have two good feet (or at least one good foot and one sullenly-behaving foot), so I did not go to the Great Wall or any of the cultural sights that I long to see. I instead focused on making some necessary purchases for improving life, such as a pair of Uggs to get me through the upcoming Chinese fall and winter (with my Renaud's Disease, cold weather is horrible). I managed to bargain my way down to a great price on a beautiful new purse (apparently, I am much better at bargaining here than I am in Mexico -- I guess I've gotten more stubborn in my "old age"). I got to eat at the best Indian restaurant I've ever been to, I had a horrendously crowded IKEA experience, and I got to meet up with all of the friends I made at PFO and find out how they were adjusting to their respective cities.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the oddest and coolest part of my trip to Beijing: I ran into a girl from Galesburg, Michigan, which is remarkably close to my hometown. When we started talking, we discovered that her home church was one of the five that supported my high school! She turned out to know several people that I went to school with. Then, just to make things even odder, we met another girl who currently lives in Guam and works with a girl that I went to high school with and that my Galesburg friend went to church with! Talk about six degrees of separation!

A large group of us, including two of the three cripples and several babies, traveled on the same late flight back from Beijing. When the bus (that picked us up from the airport) deposited the last of us by the back gate of our apartment area, our head principal and his wife decided to shove me into a wheelchair and give me a ride back to my building (since I had nearly fallen down the stairs when disembarking from the plane earlier, I think they were motivated by practicality as well as charity). Dave suggested to Jane that she let go of the chair while we were heading downhill, which meant that my not-quite-runaway wheelchair (Jane was running behind it) nearly took out dear Tien (wife of one of our school counselors), who was pushing her son's stroller. Tien is, fortunately, an agile jumper. We made it back without further incident, and I gratefully collapsed into bed shortly thereafter (it was a little after midnight when we got in).

Although Beijing was a fun city to visit, it is not nearly as friendly or as uncrowded (by comparison) as Qingdao, and quite frankly, you could not pay me to live there! I had a great time, despite the ankle, but I am really glad to be home!

Pichaiyuan on a Sunday

2011-10-05T23:17:00.001+08:00

Two Sundays ago, some of the Chinese staff from school took out several of us new foreign staff. They wanted to show us a really neat area, Pichaiyuan, and introduce us to even more of the local food. Susie, the one who organized things, divided us foreigners into pairs and small groups and then assigned a Chinese staff person to each group, which was a great idea. I was happy to have Linda, whom I had only recently met but very much wanted to know better, placed in charge of my group.

My favorite of the foods that we got to try was a soup that Linda explained is called "tofu brains" when you translate it into English. I am sorry to say, it is not a pretty dish. In fact, it looks like vomited cottage cheese floating in a bowl of mucus. If you can overcome the appearance, however, (as I did), it is really delicious. Honestly! Another thing I enjoyed was the mutton on a stick. Susie claimed that it was spicy, but I disagreed. So, Linda got me another one that had about five times the usual amount of red pepper on it. I offered to share, but this is not a province accustomed to truly spicy food, so my Chinese friends declined the offer. One of them remarked "I would die!' when offered a bite. I guess Korea really did give me tastebuds of steel when it comes to spiciness!

We also got to see some of the fantastic Chinese crafts for sale, such as the adorable pens that they make and little carvings made from vegetables. We saw a lot of pretty scenery, and even got to check out a neat bookstore on our way home. It was one of the most fun days I've had here in China, which is saying a lot.

Our happy group, after a few hours of good food and exploring.

New Haircut

2011-09-24T21:06:00.000+08:00

Having had a stressful few weeks, I was in need of some change. Whacking my hair off seemed a good option.

So, this morning I went to a salon where they speak only Chinese (relax, I had Beth with me), and had a wonderfully relaxing head massage as they washed my hair (oh, I do so LOVE Asia!). Then, using a mixture of charades, Chinese, Chinglish, and some help from a guy who turned out to speak excellent English, Beth and I managed to communicate that I wanted my hair cut to my shoulders, with layers and face framing. The man came who was to cut my hair . . . and within a moment, I knew that I was in the hands of The Artist (you should pronounce that word with an accent in your head in order to have the proper effect).

He was a very trendy fellow. Chinese, with blond, "pretty boy" hair, tight red pants, shirt stylishly unbuttoned just the "correct" amount, and a demeanor that bespoke dedication to Hair (capitalization essential). He examined. He unsheathed his scissors in a way I have only seen in sitcoms. Never have I witnessed such dedication to craft -- it was as though my head were a canvas, and he was da Vinci. Every individual strand of hair received his personal attention. He molded, he shaped . . . in his capable hands, my hair yielded to a master and actually behaved.

This grand production, "Mysterious Foreigner in the Hands of The Artist," naturally, attracted a fair amount of attention. Soon, we had a crowd of about ten Chinese people gathered around us: five employees of the salon, three customers, and two people that I honestly believe just came in off the street to observe the show. There was considered conversation, all in low, hushed voices, as the masses of hair continued to plummet to the floor. It was a little unnerving for the foreigner, who rapidly became aware that she was losing a bit more hair than she had intended. As The Artist worked, however, I began to see something -- an incredibly cute, flattering hairstyle -- emerging, and I realized that I had nothing to fear.

The production continued after the cutting, thinning, and such was done. The Artist stepped back and an underling (I assume, from the respective demeanors of both parties) came forward to handle the mundane process of drying my hair. When it was, I thought, done, The Artist returned. A few strands troubled him, and were immediately trimmed. Other flaws that I could not discern were likewise fixed. Then, The Artist finished drying every single individual strand of my hair, molding each of them to face the right direction. I have never in my life received such attention at a hair salon -- it was $500 service, for the equivalent of $10. Wow; somedays I really, really love China even more than usual.

To make the whole thing even more theatrical, the group around us actually applauded when it was over!

Here's a "before" photo of my shaggy long hair, which had managed to grow three inches since I came to China (honestly, my hair and nails have never in my life grown as fast as they do here):

And, here's the New Look, courtesy of The Artist (the photos do not do it justice; I had gotten a bit windblown from going grocery shopping, pearl-shopping at Jimolu, and two taxi rides with the window down):

"Going Chinese"

2011-09-24T20:30:00.000+08:00

One of the Chinese staff at school remarked to me the other day that I'm "becoming very Chinese". I agreed and told her that I'm basically an "egg" -- I'm white on the outside but yellow on the inside (and no, that is not a racist comment; it's a joke made between friends of different races, and both of of us found it funny)! The same thing happened to me in Korea; for me, Asia is just a really good fit and I find it comfortable to assimilate into the culture in various ways.

The particular form of cultural assimilation that inspired my friend's comment was that I went out last Friday for a massage with other coworkers and decided to try cupping while I was at it. Cupping is an expensive trendy thing on the US West Coast; in China, it's pretty normal and very inexpensive (about $3 for ten minutes). Several of our Chinese staff swear by the health benefits of it. In fact, one of them, Shine, was talking just recently about how her mother-in-law does cupping on her entire family any time one of them starts to feel sick, and it apparently makes them much better.

Personally, I have very high respect for Asian medicine and Asian health ideas. In Korea, I personally witnessed the way spicy food and kimchi cured colds in a fraction of the time, and I saw the way that acupuncture cured my boss, Cate, after she had spent a miserable week dealing with horrible indigestion (it was so bad that she could barely get up). I have had Korean, Thai, and Chinese massages, and have personally experienced remarkable health benefits from each. The holistic way that they view the body makes sense and has positive results. So, when Chinese friends/coworkers were telling me that cupping worked, it seemed to me worth giving it a try, even if my American brain had no idea how it could possibly be any good.

For those who don't know what cupping is, here's a description of my experience: Following my two-hour massage (at which point I was ready to melt onto the floor), the masseuse took a torch and lit it. Then, holding it mere inches from my bared back (a bit intimidating, yes), he used it to burn the oxygen out of glasses, which he then stuck to my back. The lack of oxygen created a vacuum, which sucked an impressive amount of my skin up into each of the glasses. Although this process may sound painful, it actually only hurt on my lower back, and not badly at that. When the guy pulled the glasses off of me, the "SPLOCKing" noise could be heard in the next room, much to the delight of my coworkers.

So how was my experience? To be honest, I think there might be something to cupping. I definitely had a spring in my step that hasn't been there in a while, I had a noticeable lack of muscle pain (yes, I know, the massage definitely helped with that, too), I slept better than ever the next two nights, and I really felt invigorated. I've decided to try cupping once a month for the next six months, just to see if it makes a difference.

Below, see the results of cupping -- and no, those bruises really didn't hurt! (The lighting and the webcam washed out some of the bruises -- I had a total of seventeen of them.)

Vignettes from the Past Few Weeks

2011-09-21T22:22:00.000+08:00

I'm sorry about the lack of posts this month -- let's just say, I've been lucky to find time to sleep, let alone write! Meetings, essays, tests, creating lessons, technology problems, more technology problems . . . Stephanie has been a stressed gal lately. But, here are some little vignettes:

Ayi
Our ayi is a blessing beyond belief. Coming home to those beautifully polished floors twice a week and a delicious home-cooked meal every Tuesday . . . ahh, healing experiences. Ayi made jaoza (dumplings) two weeks ago, and they were so heavenly that I could actually hear the Hallelujah chorus in my head with every bite I took. Beth and I ate off those things for about a week, since Ayi clearly thinks we are starving. Last week, following our exhausting round of four meetings in one day, we were delighted to come home to something marvelously spicy. I can't wait to see what Ayi comes up with today!

Volleyball

The girls have really impressed me. When we first started, they could barely hit during scrimmages. In one of our early practices, I joked that poor So Young was a magnet, because she got hit in the head SIX times! In another early practices, all of the girls who wear glasses managed to get hit in the face (?!). Now, they are SO much more accurate! As always, they continue to be a very upbeat, team-spiritied bunch, but now they're adding some real skill to that. I really think we have a shot at doing well in our first game next week.

Lotus

For three weeks, I walked sadly past Lotus's fruit and vegetable stand, which was closed because her husband was in hospital with pneumonia. Thank goodness, he is just fine now. On Saturday, Lotus was back, to the immense joy of all of us foreigners in this neighborhood. We all love Lotus! I told her that we were all sad to go so long without seeing her, and she said that she really missed all of us, too.

The Joys of Technology (Can You Hear the Sarcasm?)

I had a professor in college who was fond of warning us, "Those who live by technology will die by technology." He could not have been more correct lately! We teachers have joked that the theme of this school year is technological difficulties. Between our dear host country continually blocking things left and right on the internet (some days Google works, and other days it doesn't), the issues with our network, the server issues (got struck by lightening back in August, for one thing), and of course, all of the email mayhem, we have all begun to twitch a bit when we think about technology. Last week, we had a particularly "amusing" incident: One branch of our company did something that messed up email, then sent an email to tell us about it! I laughed aloud over that one. It took a few days to get the mess straightened out, which meant that I had no way of accessing the ninth grade essays, which the students had emailed to me. Argh. We worked out a potential solution to future issues in our last high school meeting (thank heaven for an on-the-ball high school principal!) and we have a solution as well for getting out urgent messages reliably: We now have a whiteboard in the teachers' lounge. Yup, we're kickin' it old school!

A Test for the Sophs

My sophomores took their first "Ms. Thompson" test on Monday, and oh what a joy it was. I have the unfortunate quality of actually caring about these kids, which means I make a lot of work for myself. In this instance, I created four different versions of the test, to make cheating almost impossible, and put both a map and a huge essay on the thing. Ug. That was some painful grading! So laborious! For the most part, I was pretty happy with the results. In my smaller class, every student passed! In fact, the class average for them was 95.7%, which meant that I brought in snack cakes for them today as a reward. In my larger class, only two kids failed. Most kids were in the A-B range, with a few Cs and Ds. I can live with those grades! I was a bit dismayed by just how badly a few kids did (I told the class that a couple of tests caused me physical pain and made me punch the sofa), but I was thrilled with how seriously almost all of the students took the essay. I allowed a cheat sheet for it (3x5 inch, and I didn't let them use it until they had handed in the main portion of the test), hoping that it would mean better thought out essays, and my plan worked! Most students gave good introductions and conclusions, had very specific details, and even spelled everything correctly. I think I may continue to allow essay cheat sheets on future tests.

Presentations for the Freshies

My adorably stressed freshmen had their first papers and their first big solo presentations! They had to give a thorough explanation of their own personal worldview in their paper, then present it to the class within very specific guidelines. I was, on the whole, quite impressed with what a good bunch of presenters I have in this class. All of them came prepared, most had excellent eye contact, and they followed the directions! What good freshies I have! They were a bit frightened of the time requirement (two and a half to three minutes for the speeches), but most kids did just fine staying within the limits. To let them know when two and a half and then three minutes were up, I squeaked Yay Duck. Alice, a very cute and likable Korean girl (all but one of my freshies are Korean, actually) in the class, had sage advice for her classmates after she had finished her speech: "Just don't focus on the squeak. At first you feel afraid of the squeak, but if you relax, you don't have to fear the squeak. And you feel very good when it is all over."

Chinese Lessons

I accused Jackie on Monday of deliberately trying to make my head go sailing off from the sheer amount of material we covered. She smiled and nodded. Today, it was more like facial calisthenics. We focused on some sounds that require considerable effort (particularly the ü sound), and my mouth was actually sore when we finished! However, both days Jackie accessed my efforts as "Fei chang hao!" (fantastic). Apparently, we will finish pinyin on Monday, and then we move on to focusing on vocabulary. I'm excited because I've been dying to be able to communicate better with Chinese people, particularly now that I have a new volunteer activity that allows me to interact more with them. I continue to love my Chinese lessons, despite all the work. Last week, I actually had the chance to teach my teacher! Jackie taught me the word for panda, and was surprised to learn that many American zoos have them (she's never been to the USA, so she is always interested to hear about what it's like). I mentioned that red pandas are more common in zoos, which thoroughly confused Jackie -- she had no idea what animal I was talking about! I tried to describe them, but she was still definitely envisioning a literal red panda, so after class, I emailed her a picture. She had never seen a red panda, and was enthralled with how cute they are. I think these cultural interactions, where we learn about each other's home countries (or in that case, about our own), are probably even more enjoyable for me than learning the language. I love it when Jackie explains the reasoning behind certain words or tells me bits of history. I love, too, the large number of Chinese friends that I'm making.

Transition

I am certainly still in transition. For those of you who have never lived abroad, I don't know that I can accurately put into words exactly what it is like -- you really have to live abroad in order to understand it. It's a whole score of emotional, physical, psychological issues that a person goes through simultaneously, but also in stages (or in some cases, onslaughts). With my mother experiencing health problems back in my passport country, my transition has had a definite shift. This week was really rough, because emotions that I have not really worked through came to the surface all at once and demanded attention from me. On Monday, I had a bit of a breakdown after school, which I worked my way through with a very long walk on the rocks in the ocean, followed by dinner with Beth. Probably the amount of stress I've been under has made my emotions more of an issue than they would otherwise be.

There are definitely a lot more emotions at play for me now than what I experienced in Korea, and not just because of what's going on with my mother -- plus, China is really a completely different ballgame. Like in Korea, I have not experienced any homesickness -- quite the contrary; despite all the issues, I feel quite at home here, even more so than I did in Korea. Korea, however, felt more like a short-term adventure that I knew would be of only a one or two year duration. China, from the start, is guaranteed to be two years. But I am already feeling quite strongly that it will not end there. I could easily see myself staying here for a very long time, assuming I am not called elsewhere. I love my job, I work for good people, I have comfortable living conditions, I have friends, and I have an excellent fellowship.

Some people have wondered whether I have experienced any feelings of isolation. Well, not many. I have had a few moments, mostly earlier this week, but on the whole, living in community the way that we do here, I am generally not alone (either physically or mentally). People here are really compassionate, and they tend to notice when someone is not running on all cylinders, so I feel very cared about and cared for. I have tons of support and love here: I get a lot of hugs, I found a muffin in my cubbyhole in the teachers' lounge yesterday, I get regular emails (when we aren't having tech issues, that is), I've gotten notes, and I get invited places more often than ever before. People always want to stop and chat when they run into me, which perfectly fulfills my psychological need to get out a high minimum number of words each day! And speaking of invitations, I get at least two dinner invitations every week! Nitta is an encouraging and supportive principal, so even though I just agreed to take on even more work at school (?!), I feel very appreciated and valued at work.

On the whole, although transition has its ups and downs, it's a river that I can ford my way across.

The Longest Week

2011-09-08T21:16:00.000+08:00

This week shall live in my memory as one of supreme exhaustion and duration. I am convinced that it has not been a week at all, but rather, a month. Surely one cannot cram this much into a mere seven-day period!

On Sunday, following an enlightening "book study", I went out to lunch with a friend and her pre-teen daughter. Her daughter just arrived back from a summer in America, owing to a passport nightmare that left her stranded in the USA for more than a month. Poor India had quite the rough time! She's a delightful, mature, and witty girl to be around, so I thoroughly enjoyed getting a chance to know her. And of course, I really enjoyed getting to have my favorite Korean meal, dak galbi, for lunch! To make Sunday even better, we stopped at a Korean supermarket, where I was able to get milk that doesn't come in a box on a shelf, reasonably-priced cereal, my favorite Korean pancake mix, and a tasty milkshake. Then I followed all that with six hours of lesson-planning at home, which made my injured left hand swell up impressively.

On Monday, I had numerous problems with the internet, a common issue here, and thus had a miserable time finishing up my lesson plans for the week during my planning periods. At my Chinese lesson, I discovered another sound that is extremely hard for me to make correctly. During my first class, I dealt with two kids who came dangerously close to getting detentions (a rarity in my classes, thankfully). After school, I had volleyball practice with my JV girls, so I took the late bus home at 5:00. I then spent five hours grading, a sizable portion of which was spent moaning over a quiz that one class should have done MUCH better on. I resisted the urge to put either the quizzes or my head in the oven.

Tuesday had two very involved lesson plans, more computer/internet battles, a war with my online gradebook (which it is still sulking over), a high school faculty meeting, and then . . . another late night. Make that, an exceedingly late night! We were having College Night at school, an event where parents could come and get all of their questions answered about things like AP classes, transcripts, university requirements, SAT, etc. Since I am teaching and creating the College Prep class, I was asked to give a presentation about my class and about the SAT. Since College Night was to start at 6:30 and we live 40 minutes from school, it made no sense to go home. So, Nitta graciously took those of us who were staying over (herself, me, the director of student services, our Korean liaison, and one of the high school counselors) out to dinner at a wonderful Western restaurant.

We got back to school just in time to set up, and then it was one looooooooong night! We had a good turnout of parents, and they were chock full of questions. Plus, since most of them don't speak English, our liaison Vickie (a dear Korean gal) had to translate everyone else's presentations. When she got to her own presentation and started trying to go back and forth between languages, Nitta kindly translated for her. Although exhausted, I did enjoy listening to the translations, as I always do. Hearing Korean spoken just gives me warm fuzzies inside. I made the parents really happy by introducing myself in Korean to them and bowing properly -- Nitta and Vickie had egged me on at dinner to do this, saying that the parents would love it. They were really interested in my presentation, as I had anticipated (Korean parents are very devoted to getting their kids into the best universities). Many of the parents were dismayed to learn that their children had missed a chance to take my class this semester; I have a feeling that my class-list for next semester is going to grow quite rapidly! After our successful but wearying evening, we wound up leaving school at 9:30 pm. On the way home, Nitta made an offer that was intended to be sweet but which was actually a bit ominous: Knowing that I've had a lot on my mind lately, she told me that if I ever need help keeping busy, I can feel free to come to her. I replied, "Nitta, did you really just make me that offer after tonight?!"

On Wednesday, my body announced its disappointment in only getting three hours of sleep for the past few days (I've had too much on my mind to be able to sleep). I ignored it, and taught two very strenuous lessons, then coached another volleyball practice and left at five, yearning to go to sleep. I ignored the yearning and instead went to dinner at a coworker's place, which turned out to be wonderful therapy. We had sort of a mini-UN group of three Americans, a Chinese-Canadian, a Malaysian-Indian-Australian, and a South African. We had fantastic conversations about the worst jobs we've ever had, previous students we've taught, current students and their dramatic lives, and language mishaps we've had here in China. We also had a really neat discussion about bad words -- now I know that the term "fanny pack" is extremely offensive in several other cultures, and that I need to never again use any of the language that I heard from my British friends in Korea (apparently, many of those words they used were uber-offensive).

I had an "entertaining" taxi ride home. Despite my practically shouting at the driver in Chinese to stop by the back gate of the apartment complex, he completely ignored me and took me to the front gate, giving me a nice long walk in the rain while carrying both of my computers (I have grading saved on one and need the Mac for creating my lessons). I really need to ask Jackie to teach me some stronger language so that taxi drivers will take me more seriously!

It's still not over. Despite taking the early bus today (a bold decision that I resolutely stuck to despite my need to work on things in my classroom), it's been another draining day. Three hours of sleep yet again last night, loads of material to cover today, lessons for next week to start arranging for (I'm having one of the Chinese staff in as a guest speaker in College Prep), and on top of that, I'm dog-sitting for friends for the next few days, which meant finding time for two decent walks and picking up groceries for while I am staying over here.

Tomorrow will be exhausting, too. Quizzes in every class, plus I'm giving an emotional presentation to all of my history classes: In light of September 11, I've decided to do a special presentation about the events, my memories from the day, and the Al Qaida perspective for why the attacks occurred (I want kids to look at both sides of stories, even if it is really controversial -- that's part of being good historians). Then in the evening, there will be a birthday dinner for one of my closest friends here. On Saturday, there's a shopping trip to a massive store (it's sort of like Sam's Club). In the evening, we're having a massive birthday bonfire on the beach to celebrate about six birthdays and to create a good excuse for lighting things on fire. Someone has already spoken about having lunch with me on Sunday (I have forgotten whom . . . oops). Sometime this weekend, I've got to write a test for two classes and get all of my grading done for mid-quarter.

Whew! Don't things ever slow down around here?! Thank goodness we have no school on Monday! (Naturally, teachers still "get to" go in.)

-------------------------------------------------------

Yay Duck: People obviously like me, as they keep inviting me places. I have the world's best coworkers. I am never bored. Also, my principal apparently thinks I am very qualified.

Yuck Duck: I'm exhausted, but can't sleep. I'm stressed. I've had four Renaud's attacks this week. I have grading out the wazoo (why did I assign all this homework?!). My hand is still recovering slowly from being injured at Fall Camp. I'm worried about my mother. I worry that I'm not good enough to coach a sport (I mean, let's face it -- athletic and I have never been used in the same sentence).

Ah, Language! Thou Art So . . . Humorous

2011-09-08T20:21:00.000+08:00

I have a theory: I believe that the Chinese people deliberately created their language in such a way as to ensure that foreigners regularly look extremely foolish. Recent events bear this theory out.

In my last Chinese lesson, my teacher asked me (in Chinese) whether or not I like birds. I meant to say, "I like birds." I said what I thought was "I like birds." My very sweet teacher began laughing quite hard, even harder than she laughs when we successfully get my tongue tied in knots trying to say similar-sounding words in rapid succession. In fact, she was tearing up from laughing so hard. This was a good indication to me that I had made a mistake. When Jackie could finally speak, she informed me that I used the wrong tone when saying the word "bird". So, what I actually said to her was "I like to pee." We enjoyed a long mutual laugh over that one!

I was fortunate, actually. Our lovely, innocent, ladylike kindergarten teacher had a much worse language faux pas recently. Being a Star Wars fan, she thought it would be fun to name one of her fish Qui-Gon. She excitedly quizzed her little kindergartners over and over about the new class pet's name, and they eagerly shouted it back. Many, many times. She noticed a look of concerned surprise on the face of her Chinese teacher's aide (never a good sign). Later, the lady mentioned to her that that particular word means "orgasm" in Chinese. Oops!

We foreigners aren't the only ones making these "fun" blunders, of course. Back when I taught in Korea, I was asked to give English names to some new students. Normally, I would just name the kids on their first day in class, but this particular time, Cate (my boss) asked me just to write down the names for her, so she could tell the kids in advance (cue ominous organ music). The next day, I asked the adorable new boy in my second-grade class to introduce himself to his classmates. Loudly and proudly, he announced, "My name is Phallus!" At least, that is exactly what word he said. I was, naturally, nearly struck dead with horror. His name was actually Felix, but Cate had not known how to pronounce it. I quickly corrected him, then made sure to tell Cate what that mispronounced name actually meant. From then on, we went back to having me name the kids in class!

The Longest Bridge in the World (Photos)

2011-09-03T12:39:00.000+08:00

These are photos I took from the bus while we were crossing the longest bridge in the world, across a portion of the Yellow Sea. Needless to say, it's a REALLY long bridge, and the photos do not do it justice. The last shot shows some of the far side of Qingdao, which is a considerable distance from where I live and where the school is (Qingdao is quite big).

I wish I could post photos from Fall Camp, but for two reasons, I cannot:

1) I was far too busy with the girls to even think about taking photos!

2) Had I taken any, I still wouldn't be able to post them. There are just too many sick, depraved people in this world for me to even THINK of sharing photos of our very beautiful teenage girls (particularly with most of them being Asian). I prefer to keep my girls safe in this very disgusting age, so my blog readers will never get to see any of my students. I wish the world were otherwise.

FIT

2011-09-02T22:28:00.001+08:00

Oh, the sacrifices I make here. Imagine . . . being forced to stay in a really nice hotel with all meals provided, a trip to a gorgeous beach with wonderful warm water, crossing the longest bridge in the world (with beautiful views of the Yellow Sea), and, in short, two incredibly fun days. The girls loved everything that we did, so there were no issues with teenage attitudes or anything like that (honestly, we don't really have that issue under normal circumstances).

We left from the school at around 9:00 on Thursday, with a gaggle of extremely excited teenage girls. Yes, teenagers actually showing excitement about spending quality time with their teachers and high school principal -- these things actually HAPPEN here! We piled our 87 girls, ten teachers (a great cultural gumbo of three Chinese, one Korean, a South African, and five Americans), assorting luggage, and ten watermelons into two buses and a van, and the adventure was on! We were headed to Huang Dou, a beautiful island off the coast of Qingdao. To get there, we rode through an incredibly long tunnel under the Yellow Sea (which the girls - and me - all thought was pretty neat).

Our theme, which we teachers spent weeks putting together, was FIT: being fit spiritually, mentally, emotionally, relationally, academically, physically, and spiritually. We explained to the girls that to be truly fit, they needed a holistic balance of all of these, a concept which they readily embraced. For one of our first fit-themed activities, we had in advance told the girls that they were going to have a healthy lunch competition. They were broken into eight teams, which were a mix of girls from each grade, with either one or two seniors in charge (we like giving the seniors opportunities for leadership, and the younger grades enjoy having an "older sister" relationship with their upperclassmen). Each team had a budget of only 30 kuai (almost $4) per person, including the teacher in charge of their group (each group got at least one teacher). The girls had to prepare a lunch that was healthy, delicious, and colorful. My worst fear was that I would wind up with a group that did tuna in some capacity -- I regard tuna as a dish best reserved for cats. I was overcome with relief and delight when I learned that my gang of girls had decided to do chicken fajitas (not a common dish here in China!). For dessert, they had a traditional Korean rice punch that I love. I told the girls that they were superstars for picking such a delicious lunch sans tuna -- and the judges of the lunch competition agreed, because my girls came in FIRST place! Other groups did lunches like kimbap, bibimbap, and sandwiches. One group made homemade banana milkshakes for their dessert.

After lunch, we sent the girls up to briefly get settled in their rooms. Then it was off to the beach! This being China, we naturally had to have a wee bit of drama with that: we had forgotten the money for the beach (it was a pay-beach) back at the hotel (luckily, Shine, one of the Chinese teachers happened to have exactly enough money with her) and the guards there kept trying to insist that they needed identification from each of us in order to go. After about ten minutes of playing the "No, you don't" "Yes, we do" game with a few of the teachers (I was busy amusing forty-odd impatient girls back on one of the buses), the guards finally relented and we were able to proceed. That's one of the things I've found about China: You often have to accomplish things in difficult, odd, or roundabout ways and they usually take seven times as long to happen (we call it the "Rule of Seven"), but eventually, things always somehow work out.

We had a blast at the beach. We started with a game called "Butt Wars" where to people try to knock each other down using only their butts as weapons. I joined in, partnered with one of my history students. We had a stalemate: neither of us could knock the other down! After that game, we played something even more violent: "Kick the Bucket". In that game, the seniors had to guard a bucket while ALL of the other girls tried to rush in and kick it over. If a senior tagged any girl on the back with both hands (or if another girl got a senior), that person was out. We played three times, each time involving a lot of grabbing and a lot of girls on the ground. No injuries, though! Well, no human injuries: the bucket died.

The next (and probably most violent) game was "Steal the Bacon", in which we divided 86 girls (one had gotten sick shortly after we arrived, so a teacher stayed behind at the hotel with her) into two teams, which stood about thirty feet apart, facing one another. In the middle were two black rubber tubes (the kind that go inside of tires). Each girl had a number, and when we called out numbers, those girls had to run and fight to drag the tubes over to their line in order to score a point (one point per tube). This game was hilarious to watch! During one round, one girl decided to pull the legs of another out from under her; then, she and her teammate carried both the girl AND the tube over to their side! In another round, a rather quiet, shy, and timid sophomore (who is also a new student this year) managed to steal a tube while the other girls were fighting over the other one. She made it all the way to her side, unchallenged! She was as shocked as anyone, and began jumping up and down shouting, "I did it! I got it!" I was so thrilled to see her accomplish that; I absolutely adore that girl (if I were allowed to have favorites, she would make the ever-growing list).

After that game, we encouraged our absolutely filthy, sand-covered and sweaty girls to go swimming in the very welcoming ocean. I meant to just go wading right then (I had my bathing suit on under my clothes, so I was planning to go swimming later), but then I overheard a few girls discussing the merits of throwing Ms. Thompson in the water, so I decided to just dive in and get thoroughly wet (Nitta, our awesome high school principal, made the same decision based on overhearing a similar discussion). A few girls who decided to splash me were promptly dealt with, and then I went wave-jumping with the girls, which made them all very happy. They really love doing things with teachers (I'm still in shock over this)!

After swimming with them for a while, I went to join some of my freshies for a walk on the beach. I happened to find a sea urchin, which sparked a Teachable Moment. I showed it to the girls, who had never seen one before. Before I knew it, I was teaching about sea shells, sea creatures, and ocean ecology to a group of about ten fascinated freshmen! We found some more urchins, several other types of shells in various pretty colors, and even a few jellyfish. I explained how to properly clean the shells that they wanted to keep, so hopefully no parents have to suffer any nasty smells this weekend.

When we got back to join the group, it was time for devouring all those luscious watermelons, building sand castles, more swimming, more "Steal the Bacon", and lots of talking. It was, in short, the perfect day at the beach. Despite the large group of girls, we had only two injuries, both minor: a skinned leg and a cut foot. Neither of them were on me.

We did showers and then dinner once we got back to the hotel, followed by praise songs. Nothing is quite as awesome as all those happy teenagers singing and dancing with enormous smiles. Our guidance counselor Amy did a talk on emotional wellness followed by a journaling activity, and then we had a Casino Night-style game night for the girls. Kathryn and I taught some of the girls how to play Spoons, which was a major hit (definitely the most popular game of the night). At 10:30 pm, all girls, except seniors (they got to stay up as late as they wanted), were to be in their rooms, and we teachers did our rounds of room checks. I had the whole tenth floor in my jurisdiction, which meant about 13 juniors.

The only dark spot of the weekend (well, I actually do find it amusing now) was the disappearance of all but three of the juniors from my floor. One girl informed me that the seniors had collected them. I immediately went downstairs to find help, where I learned from Kelly, one of our Chinese staff, that she also had missing junior. Together, we split up to look for them. About half an hour later, we located the reprobates, who had gone back to the proper floor while we were searching for them. I then sternly sent them all to bed.

Today, we enjoyed a fantastic (and enormous) breakfast, followed by some more praise songs. After that, I gave my little talk about relational fitness. I had decided to talk about toxic friends. Using student volunteers to act out the parts (which they were great at!), I described six types of toxic friends: leaches, ditchers, excluders, users, backstabbers, and teasers. I then explained the harm that each can do, and how to handle them appropriately. For my activity, I had a game that the girls really enjoyed. Once I had finished, we awarded the prizes for the four winning groups and the two girls who were teacher-selected MVPs. We then concluded with a wrap-up activity in which each team of girls had to find some way of presenting all that we had talked about regarding fitness. The girls had about an hour, and then they wowed us. We saw well-drawn posters, side-splitting skits, a super cute song, and obvious evidence that the girls had put thought into their work. We were quite proud of our girls as we dismissed for lunch!

We left right after lunch. Girls were divided according to where they lived, and I wound up being the only teacher on my bus! I reminded the girls to pay close attention as we drove, because we were about to experience one of the neatest parts of our little retreat: We crossed the longest bridge in the world! The views of the Yellow Sea and the mountains were beautiful. After we had crossed into Qingdao, it was apparently time for a new game called "Photograph Ms. Thompson". I have no idea what sparked it, but most of the girls on the bus suddenly wanted me to repeatedly pose for them. A gaggle of the girls also informed me that I have the nicest teeth (I'll have to thank my childhood dentist and orthodontist when I'm next in the States for a visit). The things they compliment about!

Although it was the most fun two days in recent memory, I was nevertheless happy to arrive home to my spotless apartment (courtesy of Ayi, who came in to clean on Thursday), where I soon had an unpleasant migraine to deal with. Fortunately, it was of short duration. The day concluded with spaghetti and a movie with the roomie, who just returned from Middle School Fall Camp.

Gosh, I really do SUFFER living here in China!

Bump, Set, Spike!

2011-08-31T22:24:00.000+08:00

Did I mention that I'm helping to coach the JV girls' volleyball team? Yeah, go ahead and laugh. I laughed, too, when I actually got taken up on my offer to help!

My initial thought was that this would be a good way to get to know some of the girls even better, as well as a chance to get more involved with the school. It's all that and more. It's also God's way of answering that New Year's resolution that I make each year about getting more active.

I had a slight problem initially -- I didn't pack any workout clothes when I came here to China! And, being of much larger size than the typical Asian woman, I knew that finding workout pants or shorts here was a pipe-dream. I did, however, finally work out a solution: I bought a pair of men's pants, in a size that I don't care to mention! They fit just fine, so today I was able to be at the practice. Sadly, I forgot to bring my shoes with me (to school; I do have athletic shoes here in China), so I was stuck going barefoot rather than risking hurting myself in my sandals.

It was a lot of fun at the practice, but also very sweat-inducing, and not just for the girls! We two coaches joined them for some activities. Sam, the head coach, made the rather unfortunate rule that if no one on the side could hit the ball on the serve, that entire side had to do 10 push-ups on the spot. After doing 20 push-ups in quick succession, we decided to alter the rule. Shortly thereafter, we wisely abandoned it, our arms now having the strength and might of cooked spaghetti.

The girls on the team are nothing short of adorable, and are quite sweet. A few are in my classes, which is nice, since it helps me to learn their names better (I'm still struggling to recall kids' names when they're not sitting in their assigned seats in my classroom). I'll have more chances for getting girls' names mastered over the next two days, when we're all at Fall Camp together (all of the high school girls and female teachers will be together -- the boys and male teachers have a different trip planned at the same time). Hopefully, I can manage to make it through both Fall Camp AND volleyball season without serious injury or mishap.

Hey, miracles can happen.

The Acquisition of Slime

2011-08-31T22:10:00.001+08:00

It's quite entertaining to live in a country where you don't speak the language. Take it from me -- I've done it twice!

There are, of course, the delightful and confusing escapades that happen in the grocery store. These are made all the more possible here in China because over here (and, to a lesser extent, in some parts of Korea), grocery store layouts frequently defy reason, intuition, common sense . . . in fact, sometimes I think they plot out grocery stores with a deliberate intention of confusing foreigners! Surely that must be why one finds baby food amongst the pasta, frozen chicken nuggets and frozen french fries in the fruit and vegetable section, and creepy eels swimming around their tank . . . right by the bakery.

Occasionally, packaging has English on it, but the English is often less than helpful. I've bought "pork lib soup", "hot love tea", and something that claimed to be strawberry cheese (but was actually yogurt). With minimal command of language and rapidly-decreasing-but-still-stubbornly-present expectations of logic, one can have quite the jolly time getting thoroughly muddled. For instance, during one shopping venture in Korea, I purchased what I thought was a package of wet wipes, only to discover later that it was white clay. What clay was doing in amongst tissues and paper towels is a mystery that I shall likely never unravel.

Only a few weeks ago, I desperately wanted some hand lotion. Since pretty much everything here in China is written in characters, reading the bottles was not an option. And no, going by appearance doesn't really work either, when the brands are unfamiliar (and keep in mind that placement in the store is nothing more than a highly deceptive rabbit trail). I found an employee who was eager to help me, but we lacked a common language. I tried asking for the product first in English, then in Korean. No luck. I had hoped that the Chinese word might magically turn out to be similar. I then pantomimed rubbing lotion on my hands. The lady smiled widely and led me . . . to the soap aisle. I shook my head and tried again.

After a minute of failed charades, the woman finally said, "Bo-dy lo-shun?" I nodded eagerly and told her yes in Chinese (that much I can say!). She gave me a choice between two bottles, I picked one, and I went on my merry way. A few minutes later, she chased me down. "No, no -- no bo-dy lo-shun. Bo-dy wa-shuh!" I handed the bottle back, and she showed me one that was actually lotion. This time, I disliked the high price. I managed to recall the word for "cheaper," though I butchered the pronunciation. She smiled again and left, then returned a few minutes later with two more bottles for me to choose from. One was whitening lotion -- I quickly dismissed that one! The other, in English, said on it "Grapefruit body contouring for quick penetration happy cuticle healthy." It sounded safe enough. When I got home, I discovered that it was an odd green slime. To this day, I have no idea what it actually is. It does, however, moisturize my hands very well!

Technology in the Classroom

2011-08-30T21:24:00.000+08:00

GoAnimate.com: Renaissance Man by historychic

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

This is an animated video I made to test out the possibilities of a new program I found online. I think it has real possibilities in the classroom.

The Rest of the Classroom Pictures

2011-08-30T20:58:00.000+08:00

Along the wall under the "Sophomore Piracy" bulletin board is where I am in the process of creating my SAT word wall. I'll post pictures of that once it starts looking impressive. My plan is to eventually have SAT words going all over the classroom, on all four walls (possibly some on the ceiling, too).

Each TIme I Stop to Breathe, Another Day Has Gone

2011-08-30T20:22:00.000+08:00

It astounds me when I pause to realize just how busy I am. I'm given a degree of freedom in my classroom that would be utterly unheard of in the States, but with so much freedom comes a lot of work. I'm creating one of my classes, College Prep, completely from the ground up (it's a brand new class at our school). In my "spare" time, I'm reading, researching, studying, researching studying . . . anything that it takes to create a stellar course that will really make a difference in preparing our students. Already I am seeing tangible results. Today, my eight students in that class (a fun mixture of six Koreans, one American, and a Dane) successfully worked together to answer twelve SAT-level analogy problems, and got all of them right. A week ago, they struggled with low-level ones and were utterly terrified of facing these questions on the SAT. Seeing them grow in confidence as well as skill is all that I need by way of motivation.

It really helps that I have such an excellent working relationship with the high school principal. She's fresh out of the classroom, so she completely understands teachers and does all that she can to support us effectively. She's great about letting me try out any of the crazy schemes I come up with for improving student performance. For example, she enthusiastically agreed when I asked today if I can throw an after-school SAT study party before each offering of the SAT at our school. My idea is to allow any students preparing to take it at that time, as well as the eight in my prep class, to come for some fun study games and collaborative preparation. Most of the students, particularly the English language learners, are terrified of the SAT. My hope is to take away some of the terror, but leave the awe, and also help them to realize that studying with others is much more fun while still being effective.

I've been playing around with some different uses of technology in my history classes, with good results. My kids are acing their quizzes, giving me high hopes for when I administer their first tests. Of course, for me, the fun part is seeing how enthusiastic they all are about starting class each day. None of the kids seem to dislike history -- in fact, most kids regularly comment on how much they like it! The tenth graders are currently neck-deep in the Renaissance, which is not my favorite area of history in all honesty. So, I spiced up all that history of art and such by throwing in extra emphasis on those ambitious, scandal-laden, just-plain-dirty Medicis and my old friend Machiavelli (I spent so much time studying him in Dr. Saxon's class that I feel as though I knew the man intimately). The bigger class of sophomores whined a little over all of the notes they had to take during my Machiavelli lecture on Monday, but I told 'em, "Toughen up, cream-puffs! Sore hands build character!" The freshies, meanwhile, were quite excited today when I set them loose researching the worldviews of three major religions today. They're a curious bunch, which makes them a joy to teach. I'm finding that they really enjoy getting to track down answers for themselves.

Aside from the teaching load, there are a ton of other things going on lately. Tomorrow a group of us are having a baked potato party. I have my Chinese lessons to keep up with, and I'm trying to spend a bit of extra time in practice each day so that I can learn quicker. I'm helping to coach the JV volleyball team. Fall Camp is on Thursday this week, an event which we teachers have been diligently planning for weeks. The high school girls are going to a gorgeous island, where they'll spend a night in a very nice hotel. To get there, we get to cross the world's longest bridge, and then on the way back, we'll get to go through a tunnel that goes under the Yellow Sea. Our theme for the week is holistic fitness: fit spiritually, fit physically, fit relationally, fit dietarily, etc. I'm going to be giving the girls a short talk about relational fitness. I've settled on the topic "Don't Be a Mean Girl" -- I'll talk about building up each other rather than tearing down, along with accompanying activities afterward. We've planned a "casino night" for the girls, complete with different games, from which they can win prizes. Kathryn and I are going to teach them Spoons, one of my favorite card games.

On Saturday, the day after we return from Fall Camp (it's just two days and one night), our new Early Childhood Center (ECC) has its grand opening, at which I've agreed to help run a station where children will decorate cookies (I agreed to help in exchange for cookies). On the 6th, we're having a College Night, at which I've been asked to give a presentation about my College Prep class (speaking to parents . . . yikes!). Mid-quarter is fast approaching, with grades due. About that time, I'll have a major paper to grade from the freshies and the sophs are getting their first test. One of my college prep girls is taking the SAT in October, and I've offered to give her some private tutoring, should she need it. And then there's the teachers' conference in Beijing during the first week of October. Oh, and the Vision Trip I'm going on mid-October for a weekend. Whew! My poor calendar is looking exceedingly obese these days!

Classroom Pictures (Because My Camera Finally Cleared Customs!)

2011-08-29T22:46:00.000+08:00

Here's a few, anyway. The internet here loads photos at an irritatingly slow pace, so I'll have to load the rest tomorrow.

"Mā, Má, Mă, Mà"

2011-08-29T21:37:00.000+08:00

Chinese lessons are going well. I've had three lessons so far, and I really like my teacher. Jackie is so sweet, and she's an excellent instructor. She and the other teachers say that my pronunciation is excellent and that I'm a fast learner, which is not at all what I expected! I was certain that I would be absolutely horrible, as Mandarin is such a difficult language to learn. How nice to be surprised!

Despite my unexpected skill, Mandarin is definitely a lot of work. I move my head up or down in order to get my tones right (remember, each vowel sound has four possible tones), with the result that I sometimes get a sore neck after a lesson! My head usually feels tightly crammed as well, since the teachers teach us through immersion. Jackie conducts most of my lesson in Chinese, which means I have to think fast to figure out what she's telling me to do! Most of what we've done in my three lessons so far has been to go over pinyin pronunciations. It feels a bit silly, since in English these are just meaningless syllables. Some of them, like bīng and sān, I already recognize as words. Others, I have yet to learn.

In today's lesson, I discovered a word that I am certain could lead to an amusing mishap. Apparently, if I use the wrong tone when saying the word "soup", I could accidentally ask for sugar or candy! (Tāng is soup; táng is sugar or candy.) Beth reassures me that most Chinese people should be able to figure out from context what I actually mean. Whew!

I had my first big Chinese breakthrough on August 17, when I managed to call the water company and order a new bottle of water for our apartment (tap water is not safe to drink in China), in Chinese. You cannot possibly know the euphoria I felt when the water actually arrived! That's one of the things I love about living overseas: minuscule achievements are worthy of celebration. I treated myself to a fresh mango for my success!

Just Like America . . . Almost

2011-08-29T21:20:00.000+08:00

Saturday was a busy, busy day. Kathryn, one of the secondary English teachers (we met at PFO), and I went to Carrefour with some Filipino coworkers in the morning. Kathryn hoped to find a new cell phone and I desperately needed a new SD card (my new digital camera FINALLY cleared customs after a three-week incarceration!). Sadly, we found neither of those things. So, I have a wonderful new camera that can only have twelve pictures at a time on it. Sigh. Can't catch a break with these camera issues, can I?

We did, however, take care of various little odds and ends that we've been desiring. I, for one, was quite delighted to finally locate a toothbrush holder, something which I couldn't find the last time that I was there. I also found a new hair straightener. I had bought one in the States that can accept the correct voltage, but the plug will not fit, even in my plug adapter. After our shopping, the Ymases treated us to Subway for lunch. Yup, we have a Subway! It was just like the ones in the US, except for the fun of trying to explain what we wanted on our subs. I kept saying "bu yao" ("don't want") and pointing at the iceberg lettuce, but the fellow gave it to me anyway. The real fun came when I was happily eating my sandwich . . . and bit into a piece of paper! Ah, the fun surprises one occasionally finds in food here!

I had two major accomplishments on Saturday: I managed to tell a taxi where to take me, in Chinese, twice! And we actually got where we wanted to go! Well, almost. For going home, the driver didn't know exactly where my apartment complex was. I forgot the word for "turn left," so I couldn't correct him when he headed for the yacht club instead of the complex. I kept saying "no", but that did nothing. Finally, realizing that there was no way I could correct him without the word "left", I just called out "Gou le! Gou le!" (thinking that that meant "We've arrived.") As I realized today, what I actually said to him was "Enough! Enough!" (I should have said "daole".) Oh well; he stopped!

It's the Small Things in Life . . .

2011-08-29T20:47:00.000+08:00

Sometimes, it surprises me to discover little things that are missing here in China that REALLY make life immeasurably better. Dental floss is one such thing. Oh, I'm sure it must be around here SOMEWHERE, but it is currently doing a splendid job at hiding.

On Sunday, following a night spent with a massive migraine and no meds for it (ran out last week and haven't had time to get to the international clinic), I decided to force myself to move forward in my transition between cultures. For the past month, I've been sort of stuck in one phase. I eat out and I eat when friends cook, but the only cooking I myself have done has been ramen or oatmeal, with the single exception of the night I made special dip for friends (which met with the most enthusiastic reception that delicious dish has ever received). For some reason, I have felt afraid to cook -- I guess I'm just too bewildered still by all the differences and such. On Friday, the day after payday, I forced myself to buy some raw meat. On Sunday, I forced myself to cook it. It was delicious and . . . bits of it and that night's popcorn got stuck uncomfortably between my teeth.

Have you ever desperately wanted one little thing and been completely without it? You know, like in church when there's a really long-winded speaker and you have a sinus infection but no kleenexes? Now imagine knowing that those wished-for kleenexes are thousands of miles away. I was absolutely miserably, all for want of a little piece of dental floss. Ridiculous, isn't it?!

I tried several alternatives. I brushed my teeth, which didn't help. I tried to force the toothbrush bristles between my teeth, which only marginally improved the situation. I don't have a sewing kit, so thread was not an option. I tried bending a paperclip and using that . . . and successfully got it stuck between two back teeth. That would likely have lessened my authority in the classroom, but after a desperate struggle, I managed to wiggle it out. That experiment should never be repeated. I next tried using the bit of thin plastic from a price tag on my new bag, but it was too wide to fit between me teeth, and after the paperclip incident, I was unwilling to try too hard. It looked like the bits of meat, the popcorn hulls, and I were just going to have to grow old with one another.

Tonight, after dinner at Canvas, a wonderful little slice of Americana here in China, Beth and I stopped by our local Carrefour (a huge store) to pick up a few things. We needed a rice cooker for our new ayi to use and I needed playing cards, spoons, and stickers for the high school girls' fall camp later this week (I'll explain about that in another post). While at Carrefour, I was overjoyed to discover packages of little tooth flossers (those plastic toothpick and dental floss hybrids that one occasionally gets from the dentist). Few moments of life have held as much rapture as the moment when I got home, opened the package, and finally flossed that gunk out of my teeth. As I remarked to Beth immediately after releasing a very happy sigh, "It's the small things in life."

Summary of a Typical Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday

2011-08-28T15:02:00.000+08:00

5:00 am: The cell phone alarm, a bouncy and annoying Chinese pop song, goes off for the first time. Grumbling, I smack the snooze button. For the next half hour, the phone and I play a game of "Wake up, you lazy human!"and "No, I won't, you irritating piece of technology!"

5:30 am: The cell phone wins. I drag my defeated self into the shower, grunting a good morning to Beth as I do so (she grunts back in reply).

6:00 am: Showered and dressed, I now turn my attention to my hair, which tends to react with the Chinese humidity by turning into a splendid imitation of a brown bush.

6:30 am: I rush about like a crazy bumblebee, collecting graded homework, laptop, keys, thermos of coffee, and other such essentials. I then hustle down to the bus stop, joined by several coworkers.

6:40 am: The bus departs. Anyone who misses it has to take a taxi.

7:15-ish am: The bus arrives at school, and a mass exodus of teachers climbs off and heads up the many, many steps into the secondary building (elementary teachers luck out: hardly any stairs!). Usually, there is a morning meeting of some sort.

8:00 am: Students arrive in droves. I retreat to the teacher's lounge to work on grading, powerpoints, or lesson plans. A Chinese class is going on in my classroom at this time, so until the renovations complete on the new history-and-English office, the teacher's lounge is my workroom.

9:30 am: Time for homeroom. I go up to my classroom, on the third floor, where my chatty and energetic batch of 16 ninth-graders await. I do something with them for fifteen minutes, then release them. A few usually linger to chat with me for a minute or two.

9:45 am: The entire secondary school pauses for our fifteen minute "Tea Break".

10:00 am: If it's a Monday or Wednesday, I go upstairs for my Chinese lesson with Jackie, my private tutor. My lessons last for fifty minutes each. At the moment, we're working on correct pronunciation of pinyin (Jackie says my pronunciation is almost perfect). After my lesson, I usually take care of copying or printing needs. If it's a Tuesday or Thursday, it's time for the first class of the day, my college prep class. There are just eight kids in the class, and they are a mixture of freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. Right now, we're busy studying for the SAT, which means lots of research and planning for me and a ton of work for them. They're up to the challenge, though. I am quite impressed with how willing they are to take on tremendous study loads.

11:30 am: If it's a Monday or Wednesday, it's time for the first class of the day: my big batch (20) of tenth grade modern world history students. They are the noisiest class, but are still angelic by American school standards. There are some very neat personalities in this bunch. If it's a Tuesday or Thursday, I teach my ninth grade ancient world history class at this time. They are my quietest class; I question whether they are actually teenagers or not. Personally, I think that they are too respectful and studious to be teenagers! Classes with them are enjoyable and smooth, and I am convinced that a few of them are already capable of college-level work. I usually feel sorry to have to let these kids go to their next class!

1:00 pm: Lunch time, at last! I eat in the cafeteria with the kids just about every day, since I like being with them. We have four choices of lunch menu each day: Chinese, Korean, Western, or salad bar. Generally, the meal is quite good, especially considering it is school food!

1:40 pm: On Mondays and Wednesdays, I teach my second batch of tenth grade modern world history students. This class of fourteen is much quieter than the other tenth grade class. This is probably the most fun group of kids that I teach, mostly because of the personalities amongst them. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, my teaching day ends at lunch time, so this last period is used for getting ready for the next day or for doing grading.

3:00 pm: The school-day is over, and the students leave for home. A bunch of them stop to say goodbye to me. I occasionally amuse myself by teasing them with threats of an upcoming test (aw, don't feel sorry for them -- they like it!).

3:45 pm: The first staff bus leaves school, almost always with me on it. The other one doesn't leave until 5:00, and I generally prefer to do my grading and such either at home on the couch, or during my prep periods.

4:15-ish pm: We arrive at my apartment complex. The bunch of us teachers who live here walk in together, chatting about our days. I always pause to admire the ocean for a minute or so before going through the gate.

5:00-ish pm: If I'm not going out to dinner with other people (which is common -- most of us love eating out), I fix myself something spicy and eat in front of a movie or with a good book on Kindle. Lately, I've been on an Indiana Jones kick. After dinner, there is usually plenty of work to do to prepare for the next day.

10:00-ish pm: Sufficiently exhausted, I flop into bed with my Kindle and read until sleep overwhelms me.

Ten Years from Now . . . with Commentary

2011-08-28T14:02:00.001+08:00

In one of my high school classes, I was given the assignment of writing about what I expected my life to be like in ten years. At that time, at age 16, I made a scrapbook about my future. The assignment intrigued me, however, so a year later, I wrote a short essay on the topic, just for fun. I came across this essay recently, while sorting through some old files that had somehow wound up on one of my thumb drives. It was rather an appropriate discovery, since the essay, dated May 27, 2001, is discussing me at age 27, my current age. When I stumbled upon this little “blast from the past” the other day, I decided to add a bit of commentary from “future Stephanie.” The new commentary is in purple and is italicized, so as to keep from getting confused with the original essay.

Ten Years from Now

Ten years from now, in the year 2011, I will be twenty-seven years old. I’ll be older and hopefully wiser, and I will probably look even more like my dad than I already do, but at heart I’ll still be in many ways the same person that I am right now. I think I’m going to be a much better version of myself by then, so long as I don’t mess it up. Let’s step forward ten years and meet the Stephanie Thompson of 2011:

2011 Stephanie is seated at a very large desk in her office. She is currently working on her 3rd novel, a historical fiction story that takes place in Hollywood during the 1940s. She looks up from her work when she hears someone approach.

Dear Teenage Stephanie, have you any idea just how difficult it is to start and finish ONE novel? At 27, book one is still being completed! Interestingly, I did actually start that story about 1940s Hollywood (when I was a freshman in college), but at about eight pages in, I came down with a mixture of writers’ block and disgust at my plot, and subsequently deleted the whole story from my hard drive.

“Hi, younger me! I haven’t seen you around in ages . . . gosh, it’s been ten years! You won’t believe all that I’ve been up to! This is my new office that they gave me just last month. The library has been really excited about all the educational programs I’m starting. I’ve only been working here for about two years, but I plan to be here much, much longer.”

“Oh, you want to know about the photographs on my desk? Well, this is my husband and me on our honeymoon to Australia, where we went to the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park and got to meet Steve and Terri Irwin. And this is us on our first anniversary, when we were living in Oregon. I was expecting our daughter Kathryn at the time. This picture here is her latest school picture. She’s finishing up kindergarten right now. That picture over there on the wall is of our twins, Julie and Megan, who just turned three. The baby, Michael, is almost eight months old. That big picture by the potted rubber tree is our most recent family portrait. We had that done just a month ago. Those pictures on the bookcase are of some of the classic actors and actresses that I got to meet when I wrote my nonfiction book about film history. It was a big success. And this picture here is from our vacation to France last year.”

Ah, so this was in the latter stages of the “Crocodile Hunter” obsession. Frankly, that no longer sounds like an appealing honeymoon trip. Somehow, I just don’t find crocodiles and snakes romantic, now that I’m 27. And I never made it to France at 26 — I did go to Atlanta and South Carolina, though. You’ll be happy to know that the classic film obsession is still going strong. Boy, you sure have enough kids planned for us! I’m sorry to say, none of those four dear children have been born. I actually have 54 kids now, but I didn’t have to go through labor with any of them, and I get to send them home at the end of the school-day. Still, I have to admit to a bit of sadness that those four vivid little ones that you imagined never got to exist.

“When did we move to Switzerland? Oh, we came here a couple of years ago. We love it here in Bern. We have a beautiful chalet that sits on a hill. The kids love rolling down that hill! And there’s a nearby lake where we go boating. There’s a bakery close to us where we get croissants and delicious pastries on Saturday mornings. We take short train trips around Europe whenever we get the chance. And whenever Mom and Dad come to visit, we usually travel down to Italy or Spain so that they can have their beaches. Mom and Dad still don’t care enough about history!”

Well, Teenage Me, you were right about living overseas at age 27, but you picked the wrong continent! My “chalet on a green hill” is actually an apartment by the ocean. And instead of Bern, it’s in Qingdao. We don’t see much in the way of croissants and pastries here (actually, I’m not nearly as fond of either of those as I used to be), but we do live close to a very good kimbap place. It amuses me to think about how you would CRINGE if you saw some of the things that I eat now . . . only last week, I ate raw fish! That’s right, RAW FISH! You were right about one thing, though — Mom and Dad still don’t care enough about history!

“Oh, you want to know more about the past? Okay, well, I graduated with my degree in English from Evangel University, which is where my husband and I met. Then I got my masters in library science from the University of Michigan. My husband is an officer in the Navy. We have traveled a lot because of his job, but now we’re staying put for a while, which is great because I love working as a librarian here.”

Ah, yes, I do still admire a man in uniform . . . but Switzerland?? You did realize that Switzerland is landlocked, didn’t you? What on earth made you think the US Navy would station someone in Bern? You’ll be happy to know, though, that I did get my BA and MA: both in history, both from LU. I’m not sure why you wanted to go back to Michigan for an MA, but be very glad that you didn’t. You were right about getting to travel a lot.

“Well, that’s pretty much our life in a nutshell. I love my family and my career, I get to travel a lot, and I go to a really nice little church. So stay positive, younger me, because the future is going to be fantastic, even if the present isn’t!”

Yes, Teenage Stephanie, the future really is fantastic. You didn’t get very many of the things that you thought you wanted most — no husband, no kids — but you do grow up to be a very happy and fulfilled person. And someday, you really will finish that novel. Someday.

In Which Stephanie Addresses Reader Questions

2011-08-17T19:20:00.000+08:00

Some friends have emailed, skyped, or used other means to message me with questions in the past few weeks, so I thought I'd go ahead and do an entire blog post of answers, since other readers may have similar or identical questions.

Whatever became of that typhoon?
After getting us all hyped up and ready for mega waves, heavy rain, and insane winds, Muifa slowed down, turned, and beat the tar out of Korea instead. We did get that one day of enormous waves, followed by a storm that night, but then we heard nothing further from Muifa. Not even so much as a postcard!

What classes are you teaching? How many students do you have? What are the kids like?
I teach just four classes, as we have block scheduling. Our high school classes are an hour and a half on MTWT, and then just half an hour on Fridays. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I teach both of our sections of Modern World History (10th graders). I get planning periods from 8:00 am until 11:30, except for the fifteen minutes of homeroom (we have that MTWT; my homeroom kids are ninth graders). I then have class from 11:30 until 1:00, which is lunchtime (I eat in the cafeteria with the kids every day), and then again from 1:40 until 3:00, when we dismiss. For Tuesdays and Thursdays, I get planning period from 8:00 until 9:30, then homeroom and tea break, then classes all the way until lunch, at which point I am done teaching for the day. On those days, my classes are College Prep and one section of Ancient World History (9th graders). On Fridays, all of my classes meet.

For my fifteen minute homeroom on MTWT, I've themed each day. On Compassion Mondays, I discuss either a person or organization who is making a positive difference somewhere in the world. The kids were very interested in it this week: I talked about an anti-human trafficking organization (Justice ACTs) and how they rescued an Albino African girl from witch doctors who wanted to kill her. On Tough Question Tuesdays, I'll be focusing on a difficult moral question or situation each week. On Wacky Wednesdays, I show funny (and clean) YouTube videos. Today's videos were a huge hit: I introduced the kids to Julian Smith and Monty Python. Thursdays are Worldwide Thursdays, in which I'll talk about a recent significant news story somewhere in the world, and we'll have a little discussion about it.

I am amazed and astounded by just how good my students are. Most of them are Korean; I only have one or two "Western" kids per class. All of my students are quite attentive, respectful, and engaged in whatever we're doing. One of my tenth grade classes informed me today that they find my classes very fun and interesting, which I was delighted to hear. My biggest class is the first section of tenth graders: there are 20 kids in that class. My College Prep class is my smallest, which only 7 students. The other two classes have 14 and 16 kids, respectively. The kids are quite sweet. In each class, there are at least a few students eager to become "pets". They like to linger after class or come early just to talk to me. I really don't have any "bad" kids, though I do have a couple who will require a little extra encouragement and direction on my part. I can honestly say that I really like every single kid in each of my classes.

What creative things have you come up with in your classes?
Yes, my friends know me well! I love to come up with odd/creative/weird teaching techniques. In the tenth grade, I'm quite proud of what I've set up. Each month, the kids will play a month-long themed competition game with differing rules. This month, my Sophomores are pirates. I have split both classes into two teams, who will all play against each other, and each team has their own ship on my bulletin board, which I have set up to look like an ocean with lots of islands. Participation, good grades, and winning review games will earn the pirates treasure in their ships. They trade in treasure in order to move their ships around the board. They can land on islands, some of which are inhabited (though there is no way to tell until they've landed). Through excellent classroom participation and such, they can earn the rights to steal treasure from each other, fire at other ships, and also bury treasure on an island in order to keep from losing it (they just email me to let me know, so that it is secret from other pirate teams). And of course, they can earn the right to dig for treasure, too! At the end of the month, the pirate team with the most treasure will earn a special "No Homework" coupon that each team member will be able to use to skip one standard daily assignment or bellwork.

I am also doing another fun teaching idea with the Sophomores, as we study the Renaissance, our first unit. I have split them into small teams, and told them that they are traders in 1400. Today, they had to look at a map of Europe from that time period, and select where they will put their trade route (they had to explain their decision). They can make it as long or short as they want, but I explained to them some considerations and practicalities to keep in mind. Throughout the remainder of our Renaissance unit, they'll do research on the areas their trade routes are going through and will watch how those regions change over time. They'll also be sharing all this info with the class. We'll have small assignments to go along with this, like making postcards from some of the cities their routes stop at. One group wanted to know if they could engage in piracy, since their route involves the Mediterranean Sea; I told them that they can do a little bit at the moment, and more once we get into the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

My freshmen are currently being trained as historians. They learned to evaluate sources the other day, and tomorrow they'll be learning map skills and even practicing a bit of cartography. We won't get into the really fun and super creative stuff until we actually get into history, but they seem to be enjoying themselves. I've got fun projects and games up my sleeve for later.

How is China similar or different from Korea?
In some ways, it is super similar; in other ways, it is night and day. The general appearance of where I live (landscape, buildings, etc.) reminds me a great deal of Korea, which often confuses me. My brain thinks it is back in Korea and starts assuming it knows how to get somewhere, then gets quite turned around! The food is similar in that it is spicy usually and involves many similar ingredients; as much as I like the food, however, I have to say that Korean food is even better. Living-wise, I found Korea less bewildering and generally easier, which I kind of expected would be the case. Shopping and cooking are both a lot harder here. The humidity is also much worse. Overall, it is not unpleasant here -- I really do love it, and Qingdao is a beautiful city -- but I have definitely met with my fair share of "Yuck Duck" moments. For example, my brand new camera is STILL holed up in customs, with no sign of movement toward me. I just keep taking a deep breath whenever I get frustrated, and I try to focus on the "Yay Duck" stuff. The Chinese people that I've met are mostly friendly and hospitable, much like I found in Korea. I particularly like Lotus, the dear woman that I buy all of my fruits and vegetables from (she runs a little stand right in my apartment complex). She is very friendly and speaks good English, plus she has discerned my deep love of mangoes and always finds the very best ones for me!

What weird or unusual things have you been eating?
Let's see, here are the ones that spring to mind:

Green tea ice cream flavored Oreos (and they really are made by Oreo)
Vanilla ice cream flavored Oreos
Sea kelp and beef noodle soup with odd floating mini-hotdogs in it
Stewed tomatoes with eggs
Banana-flavored microwave popcorn
Apple-flavored soda
Coconut and palm juice
Aloe vera yogurt
An exceedingly odd type of ramen noodle soup that thoroughly defies description, which I still can't decide if I actually liked
A delicious type of Muslim noodles with beef and onions
Two different types of curries
Something unidentifiable that I sincerely hope was beef
Dragonfruit
Dragonfruit, vegetable, and crabmeat sushi
Kiwi and lime popcycles
Pea ice cream (yes, normal green peas)
Strawberry juice
Blueberry juice
Pea juice
Spicy pork rib ramen noodle soup

Living in Community

2011-08-17T18:16:00.001+08:00

I realized today that in just eight more days, it will be my first monthiversary in China. The thought made me rather reflective. As I was observing earlier today to a coworker, although she and I have been here for a pretty short time, we've gotten closer to most people than we would have gotten in a year's time in the States. Living over here today is a very special, unique experience. Coworkers are not just the people that I see at work: they're the people that I ride to school with, walk home from the bus with, go to dinner with, have movie nights with, do Sunday gatherings with, and, in a very real sense, live with. They're family. And, what's more, their children are becoming my family, too.

I see a lot of the kids when I'm walking back from the bus after school. They have a great life here! On several occasions lately, I've met up with a group of them in mixed ages, genders, and even races, having fantastic water fights. A few weeks ago, one of the girls had an "Amazing Race"-themed birthday party, and my apartment was one of the stops. Just last weekend, I was musing to myself that something sweet would really be nice to go with my lunch of extremely spicy noodles. Just then, I heard a knock at my door. It was a group of about six of the international kids, wanting to know if I'd like to buy any of the cookies they had baked together (the kids do that frequently here, I'm told, in order to earn some spending money or sometimes to raise money for charity). I was happy to purchase two particularly promising-looking peanut butter cookies.

The relationships with coworkers are by far the most special and important to me. My roommate and I, as well as my friend Kathryn (the other new single girl, whom I met during PFO), had dinner with a very sweet married couple from work last night. It was a wonderful evening. We talked with an openness and candor that is usually missing with people you've only known a short while; it felt as if we'd been friends for years! And the fact that their ayi, who prepared the dinner, is an excellent cook certainly increased how splendid of an evening it was!

Sweaty, Sticky Sunday

2011-08-14T15:22:00.000+08:00

Oh, the heat! Oh, the sweat! It's like taking a second shower every time that you step outside. Which makes me wonder sometimes, why do I even bother showering every morning? This morning, on the way to a gathering of foreigners, two friends and I decided to get there the cheap way, and took the bus. Big mistake! This being tourist season, Qingdao is presently loaded with visitors, and the bus we needed happens to be the only one that goes to the beach. Yipe! Now, in both Mexico and Korea, I had the experience of being on a crowded bus . . . or so I thought. Those buses were nothing compared to this morning! We were packed on so tightly that I was literally butt-to-butt with a complete stranger and breast-to-breast with another (fortunately female) stranger. Talk about international bonding!

After our gathering with other foreigners, the three of us, accompanied by a very sweet Brazilian girl, met up with three other friends for lunch. We went to a little hole-in-the-wall Muslim noodle restaurant. I have generally found, in my international experience, that the scudzier and more low-frills the restaurant is, the better the food will be (another rule, just like it, is that street food is the yummiest of all, despite, or perhaps because of, the lack of hygiene). This restaurant followed that rule. It had no air conditioning, a dirty floor, and no decorations whatsoever. It did have seats and a table. No beverages (common over here), so a few of us tripped next door to a little convenience store and picked up drinks. To order, we pointed to pictures of what we wanted. The food, when it came, was absolutely delicious. I had some sort of slightly spicy meat (no idea what kind of meat . . . I think it was beef) and noodles dish with loads of onions.

You know, noodles are a really deceptive dish. You can work away at them for fifteen minutes (and if your chopsticks are slippery, it really can be work), and still, your plate looks exactly the same. You eat still more and yet, to the eye, it looks as though you've made no progress whatsoever! I am thoroughly convinced that noodles mate and breed on the plate, and that's why they never seem to lessen.

We were joined in the restaurant by a sight that really gave me warm fuzzies inside: Two of our high school boys decided to take out their younger siblings and some other kids for lunch. How many teenagers do you know that would do that? It was really sweet to see a group of about ten kids ranging in age from about five to seventeen enjoying each other's company over a meal.

After lunch, we stopped off at Tommy Boy's, a little coffee place, for iced milk teas. My favorite there is the assam tea with pearls (tapiocas), but today I felt like trying something new, so I had a mixed pudding milk tea. Sound weird? It was, but I rather liked it. The pudding was actually little squares of chocolate gelatin-like substance, and there were tapiocas in it as well. After separating from the group, Beth and I made one more stop, at the fruit and vegetable stand near the entrance to our apartment complex. It's run by Lotus, a super-sweet Chinese lady who speaks good English and is always so friendly when we stop in there. She always has excellent produce, and she loves to choose the very best mangos and dragonfruit for me whenever I stop in (I'm nuts about both of those fruits). And no, safely ensconced in our air-conditioned apartment, it's time to knuckle down and write out lesson plans for the week . . . with a few movies playing in the background, of course.

Back in the Saddle Again

2011-08-10T20:43:00.000+08:00

I admit, even as excited as I have been about embarking on this new course (although not entirely new; looking back, the rest of my life was really leading up to this), I was still feeling a bit tentative about being back in a classroom, after that horrible hellish nightmare that was Emmanuel "Christian" School. I needn't have felt gun shy; today was a wonderful beginning.

The bus arrived for teachers at 6:40, just as it will every day from here on. Having gotten only four hours of sleep last night, I was a bit sleepy, but my nerves and excitement perked up my tired eyes. One of the great things about living in community the way that we do is traveling to and from school together. There are always friends to talk to, which greatly relieves a nervous mind. When we got to school, we all scurried to our classrooms to get those remaining final details taken care of. I was relieved to find that my last two posters for my main bulletin board had at some point printed out after I left yesterday (yesterday was a "bad China day" -- three hours of computer problems, upset stomach at lunch, a walk in the humidity that got much longer than planned after I got lost, heat exhaustion that caused me to almost faint, and a twisted knee). I was able to get the thirteen-foot bulletin finished to my satisfaction. I hate to brag, but it really is quite a cool board! I entitled it "Coming Attractions"and then created movie posters about various topics that I'll be covering in my classes this year.

The students arrived at 8:00, fresh-faced and eager . . . yes, actually eager. They wanted to be there! High-schoolers who actually look forward to the start of the school-year! It's another world here, I tell you. We got them (just the high-schoolers -- the other grades had their own activities) arranged by grades in the auditorium, then did an orientation assembly, complete with firm reminders about dress code. Nitta, our awesome high school principal, cheerfully informed the students that she has "beautiful" long skirts for girls who wear too short of shorts or skirts, and labcoats for those whose shirts are out of dress code. Additionally, she promised to acquire some "really attractive" shirts for any girls who come in wearing immodest tops. We actually don't have as strict of a dress code as one might expect. Kids are allowed to wear shorts (of an appropriate length) and jeans, and sneakers are perfectly all right. No holes, no flip-flops, nothing immodest (low cut, too tight, or too short), no tank tops, no track suits or athletic wear, and all shirts must have a collar. In other words, a perfectly reasonable dress code.

After the assembly, we dismissed the kids to their homerooms. True to their word, my fellow teachers really did put together a fantastic homeroom class for me. My ninth graders are a cheerful, obedient bunch, all with fun personalities. There's not a bad egg in the bunch! All but two of the kids are Asian, and I've got ten boys and five girls. I had the kids introduce themselves, each telling their name, how long they've been in China, and the thing that they are most looking forward to this year. Although all but two of my kids are not native English speakers, I was quite pleased with how well they speak. Of course, there's a bit of that Korean knack for extra syllables, but overall, they pronounce words well and have good vocabularies. After introductions, I informed the class that the best way to bond with new classmates is some good clean murder. They blinked in surprise, then laughed when I explained that we were going to play Mafia (it's a really fun and easy game that goes over quite well with kids). Unlike when I taught in the US, I only had to give directions once. What a difference THAT makes!

After a fun game of Mafia, I did two more academic games, both of which the kids loved. In the first game, a great one for English language-learners (without being dull for native speakers), I broke them up into three teams of five and put them in three columns. The kids in the front row each got a whiteboard and marker. I gave them a word, and they had to race to write a synonym. The first one to hold up their board (with a correct answer) earned a point for their team. They then passed the boards to the next players on their teams, and we went on from there. After a few rounds, I made the game more interesting by requesting antonyms sometimes. I was thrilled to see some really creative answers, rather than just simple short words. For my second academic game, which the kids liked even better, I would say the name of a place, and then the players would scramble to write the name of a place starting with the last letter of the one that I gave. I had another thrill of delight when I discovered how good these kids are at geography. One boy further gladdened me by asking if they could use ancient place names.

At 10:00, we gave the students a snack and bathroom break, then sent juniors and seniors outside and freshmen and sophomores to the gym for games. With the freshies and sophs, we played a really fun icebreaker game (to the joy of the students, teachers joined in, too): We had one less seat than people, arranged in a circle; the person without a seat had to go to the middle and call out something, like "People who have long hair" or "People who like to eat kimchi" and then everyone that the statement applied to had to get up and rush to another seat. Naturally, we all got hot and sweaty! I was fanning myself with my hand when one of my ninth graders noticed; that sweet girl immediately started fanning me! The game was hilarious to participate in and to watch. I thought it was particularly clever when one girl called out "People who have lived in Africa", which only applied to our South African teacher, thus positively guaranteeing the girl a seat! We sent the kids home at 11:30, and congratulated ourselves on a great first day.

Tomorrow, classes begin. We will be doing block scheduling this year: Four classes per day, in one and a half hour blocks. 'A' classes meet on Mondays and Wednesdays; 'B' classes meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Fridays, all classes meet for just 35 minutes each and we have an assembly. This week, since we only have two days for classes, we're doing Friday's schedule on both days. I can't wait to meet the rest of my kids!

Who Wouldn't Want to Go to a School Like This?

2011-08-08T22:16:00.000+08:00

I have to admit, I'm a little jealous of our students: I would have given my right eye to go to a school like ours as a teenager! Not only is it a gorgeous, spacious, and clean building; we do an incredible amount of extra things with the students. The school is divided into four houses, just like at Hogwarts (from the Harry Potter books). The houses compete in various games and competitions throughout the school year. I learned yesterday that my house is Morrison (our color is green . . . uh oh, that's Slytherin's color!). There are also "Homeroom Wars", in which homerooms compete against one another. Additionally, we have fantastic drama productions each year. Perhaps the most enticing thing to me, however, is the technology. All middle schoolers and high schoolers (and their teachers) get school-issued laptops, and we're making the most of them in the classroom!

I can't believe all the awesome "techy" tools I get to use as a teacher:

As I mentioned before, no textbooks for my history classes! We're trying out an online program that grants us access to loads and loads of primary documents, so that our students can learn history without constantly being bombarded by bias. Oh, they'll still get some, of course, since it is impossible to completely remove bias from any subject, but at least it won't be as overpowering as bias tends to be in most history textbooks.
With the enthusiastic support of my HOD (Head of Department), I'm pioneering the use of the Kindle app (it can be downloaded onto computers by students who don't have a Kindle reader) in my tenth grade Modern World History classes. With that, they'll be able to download autobiographies and other useful books for free, which will help immerse them in history better.
I just got my Moodle account set up today. With Moodle, I'll be able to have the kids do their bellwork on their laptops rather than wasting paper (plus, I'll have constant access for checking their work), set up discussion forums, and even administer quizzes online (which I don't actually plan to do; I prefer to quiz the old-fashioned way, on paper).
We're using Turnitin.com for all essays, papers, etc. I used that program in college, so I'm quite familiar with it. It's a plagiarism checking program that figures out whether students have copied work and even tracks down where they got it from.
We have a really good online program called PowerSchool that makes gradebooks easy to maintain and readily accessible to parents, in addition to its other charms. It also makes attendance, discipline, and such easy to track.
My classroom has an excellent speaker system and computer projector, so no annoying, old-fashioned overhead projector to battle with! Instead, I can use slideshows, show DVDs, utilize YouTube where appropriate . . . and of course, I plan to use Prezi (it does presentations that are even neater than what Keynote and PowerPoint can make) from time to time. I bought a clicker with a laser pointer in it back in the States, which will allow me or students to move about without being tied to the computer during presentations and lectures.

Our Friendly Neighborhood Typhoon

2011-08-07T13:42:00.001+08:00

Muifa actually hasn't even hit us yet, but already the waves are awesome! The sheer power and force of nature never ceases to amaze me. The same areas that I walked on by the water yesterday are now underwater . . . the water is almost up to the middle walkway on the sea wall (that walkway is about 10-15 feet below the top of the wall)! The huge waves keep beating on it, many of them splashing well over the wall and flooding the main walkway.

Naturally, I changed as soon as I got home from a gathering of friends, and raced outside to get a good look at those waves. (There were lots of other people out there too, Mother. And there was no way for me to get swept over the side.) I meandered about, snapping photos with one of my useless cameras (two years from now I'll be in the US for a visit and can get the photos off the camera), and wading on the sidewalk (about three inches deep in water). I found some friends of mine from the school, the Kubalskis, and joined them by the wall. We marveled at the magnificence of the waves, occasionally darting backward to avoid getting smacked by them as they came over the top of the wall. Kevin got soaked from head to foot by one of those waves, much to the delight of the Kubalski children, Hattie and Peyton (very nice kids).

Marcella remarked that these waves are coming at us from more than 700 miles away . . . we then speculated about what it'll be like when the storm actually gets here! After a while, the Kubalskis went in, and I found a very friendly Chinese woman who was eager to chat. She turned out to speak very good English, which made conversation ever so much easier. Sometimes I get a very strong feeling of bitterness towards those involved in that wretched Tower of Babel -- it would be so nice, once in a while, if languages were not quite so diverse! The woman and I enjoyed conversing and occasionally darting away from walls of water. I was impressed to see how one series of waves just down from us managed to bend a lightpost! From the waves at high tide last night, there were several tiles that had been ripped loose from the walkway and cast into the grass. From here in my living room, I can see and hear that the waves are continuing to multiply and to grow in size and speed.

The gates to my apartment complex have sandbags in front of them now, so clearly there is concern about the amount of water we're going to get. I'm curious about how drenched I'm going to get on the way to the bus stop tomorrow -- I probably won't be able to walk the path that I usually take, owing to the waves coming over the wall, so I may have to search for another, much longer, route.

Yup; a wave got me!

A Saturday Evening Walk

2011-08-06T21:38:00.000+08:00

With Typhoon Muifa set to visit us on Sunday night, I thought I might as well enjoy a long walk after work today (I went in for about seven hours to work on getting ready for students), while we're still enjoying nice weather. So, with my Kindle along in case a good reading spot turned up, I walked down the gorgeous walkway by the ocean, then went and climbed on the rocks for about an hour.

I enjoyed being alone with my thoughts as I hopped and skittered over rocks and boulders, occasionally splashing into a bit of trapped ocean water, or pausing to admire unique patterns of barnacles. It was low tide, so the waves weren't doing anything impressive or dangerous, and besides, there were dozens of Chinese people out there enjoying similar activities to my own, so I judged it as relatively safe fun. Knowing me, I could have found a way to make it dangerous, but lately, I have not been nearly as klutzy as usual (well, I did bang my head on the hood over the oven and jam a thumbnail tonight, but that's just child's play really). There were a few boulders that held particular interest to me: the way that the sun hit the barnacles and shells that covered them, they looked like they were made of gold.

As I meandered over some smaller rocks, I came upon a truly arresting sight: a bright purple starfish! His coloring was actually what I would call electric purple, with a bit of orange as well. He seemed content on the rock he was gripping, and I don't care for living souvenirs, so I marveled at him for a few minutes and then left him alone. I also enjoyed terrifying a small crab, who scuttled away at remarkable speed. There were loads of nasty sea-bug-like-creatures that resembled . . . I have no clue what they resembled. Alien life forms? They were quite creepy and their scurrying habits a bit disconcerting, so I avoided them. A helicopter flew overhead, so close and so low that I thought it may crash land on top of me, but then it landed next to the walkway directly above. It seemed to be somehow related to the China Coast Guard, though I can't be certain. I think it was surveying the coastline in preparation for Muifa, but there again, that is mere speculation.

After my time amongst the rocks and sea creatures, I climbed up to the wooden walkway by where the chopper had landed and walked all the way down to the Qingdao Yacht Club. I have to admit, in the years prior to coming here, it never occurred to me that China would actually have a yacht club -- but there is certainly a very nice one here. I also passed by the Olympic Sailing Center (it's right there with the yacht club), which you likely saw if you watched the Beijing Olympics. There was a white lighthouse that caught my eye, so I headed over to have a look at it. Lighthouses have captured my imagination ever since I was a little girl and saw Pete's Dragon or read the Boxcar Children book, The Lighthouse Mystery. From the ages of about 5 to 15 (oh, heck, I still do!), I often pondered how neat it might be to live in a lighthouse.

I circled the lighthouse, paused to curiously watch a few brides doing photo shoots there, and amused several small children merely by being a foreigner. One of the Yay Duck / Yuck Duck things about China is that staring is not considered rude. If people see someone they consider odd or interesting (of which foreigners are apparently both), they stare and point to their heart's content. On the one hand, it gets a bit annoying sometimes, although not so much after my year of Korea that got me accustomed to it. On the bright side, turnabout is fair play! I sometimes like to observe them!

On my way back, I felt that more rock-climbing was needed. I particularly fancied some enticing large barnacle-encrusted boulders closer to where the waves were hitting (relax, Mother, it was still low tide), so I headed in that direction. I had forgotten just how slippery my red sandals get when they're wet! Fear not, gentle readers, I did not fall! I slipped a little, but remained standing upright . . . or close to it, anyway. I found a perfectly nice rock in a more secluded area, where I sat quite comfortably and enjoyed my current book on my Kindle, contentedly listening to the waves smacking the rock in front of mine. When they got discernibly bigger and bolder (pun intended), I got up and hiked back up to the main walkway. I only wish that my new camera were here already, so that I could have photographed my gorgeous evening walk.

Well, Muifu is supposed to hit soon. Here's hoping that our windows hold out! We've already brought in the plants and the balcony furniture, and apparently the emergency plan is that teachers will hole up at the school if worse comes to worse and we have to evacuate (the school is on much higher ground and is a fair distance from the ocean). So far, Beth and I really aren't worrying. The Chinese people living in our area don't seem worried, and we figure they probably know best. Just to play it safe, though, in case we happened to lose power, we made sure to take showers and do the dishes tonight!

My First Typhoon?

2011-08-05T22:49:00.000+08:00

Apparently, Qingdao is directly in the path of Typhoon Muifa, from whom we're expecting a visit on Monday. The waves outside were already getting big today; it was a little bit like dodgeball walking to the bus this morning! The waves kept splashing over the wall, intent on attacking innocent pedestrians. I managed to avoid any undesired wetness, but I may not be so lucky this weekend!

Click HERE to see a map of Muifa's anticipated route.

The US government has already issued a warning for all of us Americans over here to take precautions and stock up on water, food, and such. So, I'm planning to stop by the grocery store on my way home tomorrow (I'm going in to school for part of the day to get more work done on my classroom). At the moment, Muifa is a category 2 typhoon, but it's expected to be a category 1 by the time it hits us. We're supposed to get winds of about 75-94 MPH and lots and lots of rain. Some areas are being warned of mudslides; fortunately, we are not among them. I just hope we don't get flooding or severe damage. Living within clear view of the ocean may not be so nice if that happens!

What a way to start our first week of school! (School starts on Wednesday, the 10th.)

A Yay-Yuck Day

2011-08-04T19:00:00.000+08:00

Today can best be summarized in one word: loooooooong. My head is crammed past capacity with new information, new concerns, new responsibilities, and my ever-increasing To Do list. And the students start in just 6 days!

To begin with, let's get the "Yuck Ducks" out of the way:

1. I've had an upset stomach and accompanying unpleasantness for the past two days. Today, my neck felt left out of the pain-fest, so it started hurting badly around noon, leading to a full-fledged massive headache by the time I boarded the bus to leave school at 4:30. Owing to the tummy issues, I haven't been able to eat much yesterday and today, which has made me feel even lousier.

2. There is just so much to do, in such a short amount of time. One teacher cheerily remarked to me today, "Don't worry about it; you WON'T get everything done." Though well-intentioned, her comment did little to reassure me.

3. The camera issue (see previous post). I keep seeing interesting, odd, and/or beautiful things that I want to photograph!

4. I bruised up both of my shins and my ankle the other day.

And, so as not to end on a negative note, here are the "Yay Ducks":

1. The other teachers in high school are absolutely wonderful people. I learned today that I will be a homeroom teacher to a group of ninth graders, in addition to my other responsibilities. Three of the other teachers got together and switched around the class lists to deliberately give me a really good group of ninth graders, since it's my first year here. So, I have the cream of the crop in my homeroom (honestly, there really aren't any kids that are bad; there are just a few that require a bit more work out of a teacher than others do).

2. The school lunches here are really, really good. For example, today we had a delicious yellow curry (which I would have enjoyed a whole lot more if I didn't have this very unhappy stomach).

3. Tonight we're hosting a big group of people (9) for dinner and Psych. Everyone is bubbly, friendly, and fun -- even to me in my present doped-up-on-pain-medication state.

4. I've been getting some great ideas for my classes. Three other teachers have commented that they really wish they could sit in on one of my classes!

5. I get along famously with the head of the social studies department and with the high school principal.

6. We had a faculty and staff picnic yesterday evening, where I got to meet dozens more people. So far, all of the kids that I've met are really sweet, and people keep going on and on about what a phenomenal group of tenth graders we have this year (I teach both tenth grade history classes).

Despite feeling absolutely lousy (and drugged), I'd still say that Yay Duck is firmly in the lead.

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Frustrations

2011-08-02T19:59:00.000+08:00

Woe is me! After spending more than an hour online tracking down the cord to my digital camera when I first arrived here, I was convinced that that would solve my problem of being unable to access pictures off my camera. The cord arrived today . . . and it was the wrong cord. In short, the seller lied about it being right for my camera. I went to Sony's website only to discover that they won't ship here. The cord on Amazon that I recognize by sight as being the correct one also only ships within the US. I checked to see if my new school laptop had a slot that would fit my memory card -- again, no luck. Finally, I realized that the only way I'll have any pictures in China is to break down and order yet another camera (making a grand total of three cameras in my possession, one of which doesn't work). Grrrrr! So, I broke down and ordered another camera (if I buy it here, it'll be entirely in Chinese and will cost more than what I spent online, including the cost of shipping).

To my "delight", I also discovered that I left the cord to my digital photo frame back in the USA, so there is no way to use it. This just isn't my day for electronics.

Yuck Duck: This entire situation with cameras.
Yay Duck: I got a lot done in my classroom today, including significant progress on the massive 13-foot-long bulletin board.

It just occurred to me; I had camera troubles in Korea, too (fell off my bike and damaged my digital camera, then had to buy another one)! Is this just my lot to bear when I live oversees? I have this sudden image of myself at a ripe old age, surrounded by cameras, each acquired in a different country that I lived in.

Painting the Bedroom

2011-08-01T17:50:00.001+08:00

Yesterday, I picked out the perfect color for the bedroom. It's called "fine silver" and it is a nice light grey, which perfectly matches the new duvet cover. Today, I painted.

Knowing me as you do, how do you think that went?

A. Stephanie stepped in the bucket of paint and splattered her entire floor.

B. Stephanie slipped and landed butt-first in the paint tray.

C. When Stephanie was up on the dresser, she dropped the paint tray on the floor and splattered paint everywhere.

D. Stephanie fell off the nightstand she was using as a ladder, but miraculously didn't spill paint.

E. None of the above. Something much, much worse and far more unusual happened.

F. All of the above. And then some.

Well, surprisingly, painting went quite well. Beth helped me tape and helped with some of the trim work before she left for dinner (she's bringing me back Indian food, bless her). Amazingly, the answer to the quiz up above is D. At one point, I did miscalculate the width of the nightstand, and wound up crashing to the floor. Somehow, I managed to keep the paintbrush up in the air (I was working on trim at the time). I may have bruised my hip a little, but other than that, I'm just fine. Ginger-peachy, in fact.

I hope to be able to post pictures soon. The bedroom is drying at the moment; once I get stuff moved back in, I think it's going to look really nice.

Riding in China (Shudder)

2011-08-01T10:47:00.000+08:00

A more appropriate title for this post might be "Sit Back and Say a Prayer." Or, "Taking Your Life in Your Hands and Trusting that the Maniac behind the Wheel Isn't Going to Kill You." Or "China's Secret Way for Cutting Down on Population: Automobiles." They would all make appropriate titles.

In the eight days that I have been here, I have managed to discern only one rule that drivers in China follow: Try to avoid hitting the car in front of you. The vehicles beside and behind, as well as all things smaller than you (especially pedestrians) are fair game.

Having spent a year in Korea, I thought I had already seen the world's wildest driving. They use the sidewalk as an extra lane, for pete's sake! But Korean drivers cannot hold a candle to Chinese drivers. There is a special kind of insanity on the roads here. If crazy driving ever becomes an Olympic event, China will medal in every category, and no one will be able to accuse them of cheating. I wish I could say that they do it well enough that there are no accidents, but that's different from Korea, too (I saw very few accidents over there). So far in China, I've seen at least six or seven accidents. I've seen a bus come within a foot of taking out a woman pushing a stroller. I've even dodged my own fair share of buses. I've seen fear in the eyes of my fellow teachers that will haunt me till the end of my life -- which may be soon, if Chinese drivers have their way.

Yesterday, Beth and I went to go get paint for my room. It took FOREVER to get a taxi, but at last we succeeded. He took us all the way to one of the major roads in the city, where we suddenly hit one of the oddest traffic jams I have ever witnessed. In the same section of road, there were cars attempting to go in all FOUR directions, simultaneously. No one had any intention of actually stopping and waiting their turn. Causing and complicating the mess was an accident: a car had hit a bus, and the two vehicles had been abandoned in the center of the upcoming intersection. So, our taxi was attempting to go one way, with cars going the same way or the opposite direction cutting in front of us and behind, while other cars behind us and on either side were trying to keep going straight. Our taxi wound up with a flat tire, so we had to get off and then catch another one, this time taking even longer than before.

Walking is particularly hazardous here. The common comparison made is that crossing a street is like being inside that old Atari game, Frogger. It's perfectly legal for cars to hit people, from what I've heard. There are very few crosswalks or walk signals, and generally those are ignored by cars, who just keep coming anyway. They usually honk at pedestrians for DARING to walk while there is a WALK signal. A few times, I've found myself trapped in the middle of a major road, waiting for the traffic to thin out in one lane so that I can make it across with all limbs accounted for and attached.

The school bus is perhaps the most terrifying part of daily life. I was talking to one of our Chinese staff the other day at dinner, and she said that even the Chinese staff are afraid to ride with one of our drivers! He's a nice fellow with kind eyes and a friendly smile, but he drives like a demon-possessed version of NCIS's Ziva David. He zips about, seldom braking, cutting off buses and cars alike, leaning on the horn as though it were a lifeline, and frequently using the lanes on the other side of the road when the correct lanes are too slow to please him. I'll never forget the day last week when he veered into the opposite twos lanes at top speed, straddling the both of them, in the path of two oncoming buses, whom he managed to avoid at the last possible minute. Then he wove into the correct lane, managing to fit our bus into an opening of only a few feet. The entire time that he did all this, his face was perfectly calm and placid. I, meanwhile, was gripping the seat in front of me for dear life, convinced that I wasn't going to live to teach a class here. One of the other teachers told me that it helps if you don't look.

Shopping in Taidong (a.k.a. Stephanie's First Chinese Victory)

2011-07-30T23:56:00.000+08:00

Today was a major victory for me: Despite having only been in China for six days, I managed to buy a flowerpot from a Chinese woman, using only Chinese to transact our business. I showed her which one I wanted, asked how much it was, then understood her when she answered me. I then paid for it and thanked her, and finished by saying goodbye. It's the small things in life that bring the most joy!

I was in Taidong today, which is sort of a suburb of Qingdao, where there are loads of inexpensive shops. Beth and I needed to get dishes, since the ones we had were owned by her former roommate, who will be back from vacation this week and will then reclaim her belongings (she's staying in Qingdao, just going to a different apartment). I still can't believe how well Beth and I get along and how similar our tastes are: it took us all of about ten minutes to pick out which plates we wanted at the kitchen store we went to. We found a gorgeous mostly-black plate that has white flowers on it, and then has green and blue in the center (the center sort of reminds me of a seashell in the way the colors show). We found a bowl that perfectly matched as well. We decided that we would need eight plates, since we frequently have company, and four bowls, since we don't usually serve soup when having guests. Unfortunately, there were only five of the plate that we loved. I suggested getting four of them and then picking four of a plate that coordinated, and Beth readily agreed. She happened upon a blue plate that has a black back and is round. It looked fantastic with what we had picked out, and there were exactly four of them at the shop! For our pieced-together set of dishes, we paid 200 kuai, which is about $30 American. And these are super NICE dishes, which would probably cost around $200 for a set back in the States. Awesome!

After the kitchen store, we went to the plant market, because I wanted to buy some plants for the apartment. Since we have such a nice balcony, and since I don't have any pets to mother, I have decided to create a garden for myself. Beth told me that the balcony is my domain, and that anything I do out there is fine by her. So, I decided that I would start myself out with three plants, then add more gradually. Next summer, I plan to grow tomatoes. I am also thinking about turning our hanging clothes line into a hanging herb garden next summer, since we can't use it for clothes during the summer (too humid) and since it is really sturdy (it's actually metal). For my first plants in my balcony "garden", I decided to get two flowering plants and one plant that smelled nice. We like to use our balcony a lot, so I figured that combination would offer the maximum amount of increased enjoyment.

I right away found a flowering plant that I fell in love with. It's something I've never seen before! It has pinkish red flowers that are small and really pretty, and then has lots of thorns as well. I'm not really sure how to even describe the thing! The saleswoman told me all about the plant in Chinese, and with the aid of Beth (who speaks a fair amount of Chinese, though she is far from fluent) and charades, I was able to understand some of it (I also, to my delight, picked up on a few words that I knew). Apparently, my new plant is actually three separate plants in one container. It will bush out and gain a pretty good size, and it will have tons of flowers. It likes lots of direct sunlight, which it will certainly get out there, and it only needs water when it gets dry. No other special instructions. I picked out an attractive large white pot for it (big enough that I shouldn't have to transplant it for a while, but not so big that it gets dwarfed by the pot), and the woman graciously potted it for me right there (they usually charge for that).

For my second plant, I chose one from the same woman. It's another plant that I've never seen. It is small and green, and I have no idea whether it will grow flowers. It's cute enough without them, honestly. What I love about it is how the round, thick leaves feel just like velvet, and the wonderful aromatic scent that it lets off. I chose a blue and white striped pot for it, and it now has a very happy home in the center of our balcony table. It really adds a lot to the aesthetics out there.

For my final plant, I went with a gorgeous red plant that I had seen before in hotels, but did not know the name of. After extensive searching on Google, I learned that my new flower is called an Anthurium. According to Google, they're supposed to be pretty easy to take care of, on top of the fact that they are stunningly gorgeous (as I had already observed). I also learned that they are best kept indoors, as they don't like constant sunlight and cannot handle super hot temperatures. So, the Anthurium will live in the living room, by the sliding glass door. For its pot, I found a striped pot that nicely coordinates with the blue striped one that I put the green plant in. That was the pot that I managed to buy with no help. I hope to find out what the other two plants are soon. I'll probably do some searching on Google tomorrow and see if I can figure it out.

I really wish I could post pictures of all these things, but I am still waiting for the camera cord to arrive (the one I ordered off of Amazon). In the meantime, just picture in your mind how beautiful my new plants are.

After the plant store, Beth and I walked toward Walmart (yup, we even have one here!) so that I could get some organizational boxes. On the way, we stopped by a little stand called Magic Lemon, which sells frozen treats. I saw a picture of something I had never seen before, which looked quite odd and therefore extremely desirable for consuming. Beth tenaciously described it using what Chinese words she knows, until eventually they figured out what we were talking about. Her efforts were worth it -- it was the most delicious thing I have eaten so far in China. It turned out to be actual pieces of mango on the bottom, with mango shaved ice on top of that, and then little balls that looked like golden caviar on top. The little balls were also mango-flavored (I think made from real mango), but the texture is hard to describe. The best description I can think of is to call them mango caviar!

Walmart successfully finished my household needs. I found some trays and boxes to aid in organization (I needed something for makeup and such in the bathroom, and something for organizing my desk drawers). I also found a nice little umbrella that should hold up well during this rainy season (we get a little bit of rain almost daily lately, but mostly we're getting sun), a throw pillow that perfectly matches the bedroom and brings in a bit of lime green, a few notebooks, more hangers (I ALWAYS underestimate how many I need), and a hedgehog t-shirt (I didn't pack many t-shirts because they're the one thing I can find in my size in Asia).

After we got home, we popped in a movie for a while. Around four, we had some unique fun: we got to assist with the birthday party of one of our school's eighth graders (her mom is a teacher). Maddie was having an "Amazing Race" birthday party, and we were the second stop. The girls had to solve a series of math problems to figure out to come to our apartment. When they got here (in their teams of three), we had two tasks for them to complete. First, one girl had to be blindfolded and had to apply several different make-up elements to one of her teammates, which the teammate would then have to keep on for the rest of the race. Then, the remaining teammate had to stick ten clothespins in her hair, which also had to stay in for the rest of the race. To find the next location, the girls had to put together a picture of the apartment, which had been cut up like a puzzle (each team got their own to put together). It was so much fun to have an apartment full of happy, giggling preteen girls (ages eleven to thirteen). I still can't get over how NICE all of the kids from our school are (at least, all that I have met, and the other teachers have commented that our kids all tend to be pretty sweet). The girls were only here for about twenty minutes at most, but they really wet my appetite for school to start.

It's looking like I'll have no shortage of quality time with teens and preteens this year. In addition to teaching high school, I volunteered to help with youth group immediately upon my arrival in Qingdao, an offer that was eagerly accepted. Then, at dinner tonight, I was asked to coach JV volleyball. I said that if I could get some help and some instruction, I think I may be able to do it. At the very least, I said that I could definitely assist someone else in coaching. I don't know all of the rules that there would be in an official game, and I have no experience in planning strategy, so those are the two concerns that I have. I do know how to play, of course, and I also know plenty about how to get the kids warmed up. So, we shall see -- I may be a coach, or I may just assist. Either way, I am happy to get really involved. I often think that the time outside of class can be some of the most valuable time a teacher spends with students. I am hoping to be not just a teacher, but also a mentor and a trusted ally.

Yay Ducks and Yuck Ducks from My First Week

2011-07-28T22:35:00.000+08:00

For an explanation of Yay Duck and Yuck Duck, click HERE.

Yay Ducks:

All of the other teachers are unbelievably nice and have been more welcoming than I could ever have imagined.
My roommate and I are kindred spirits.
I was informed by the high school principal that our high school students seldom need motivation to do well -- they do that very well on their own.
I have a gorgeous and large apartment with a fantastic view of the ocean from the balcony.
The food here is fantastic.
My classroom has loads of potential.
My VPN is allowing me access to my blog and Facebook, as well as all of the other sites I would otherwise have no way of getting on. I even heard from a friend that I may be able to get Netflix here with the VPN.
I get a brand new school laptop! No need to clutter my Mac with all the school stuff.
The weather here is gorgeous and sunny.
I am picking up Chinese much faster than I thought I would (though I am certainly no prodigy).
My jetlag is fading away.
All of my favorite Korean foods, which I have sorely missed for two years, are now available to me!

Yuck Ducks:

It's hard to be involved with Lantern Hollow Press from here -- I really feel/am out of the loop.
I have to miss the wedding of one of my dearest friends.
I still have no idea what my day-to-day schedule will look like, and I don't have class lists yet.
My apartment is so big! How will we ever keep it clean once school starts? (Actually, we're working on that. We're planning to get an Ayi to work for us two days a week.)
Most of the American foods that I enjoy are either not available or are really expensive. Fortunately, there are enough other delectables that I don't miss them too much. I am most likely going to have to break down at some point and shell out 64 kuai (about $9.80) for some oatmeal, though.
My classroom is still a mess. There is SO MUCH left to do!!!
My VPN likes to act up from time to time. Without it, the internet is a pretty sparse place, since China blocks so many sites.
My school laptop is a PC, which is highly inferior to a Mac. I am not nearly as proficient on PCs as I am on Macs.
The weather here is really hot. And humid.
Chinese is quite hard to learn.
My feet are killing me from all the walking. (Although I honestly am enjoying walking so much more -- the rest of me is feeling better from the exercise each day.)
Cheese is ridiculously expensive (and quite limited) here.

On the whole, Yay Duck is the clear winner. Although the Yuck Ducks sound like complaints, really I'm just trying to keep myself balanced so that I don't over-idealize my new situation -- really, none of the Yuck Ducks bother me very much (which should be Yay Duck #13). Even taking the Yuck Ducks into consideration, I still love China!

The Little Tramp Goes to School

2011-07-28T21:55:00.000+08:00

Charlie Chaplin could have done a great little movie about getting a classroom ready for students. And today, my experiences alone were ample fodder for such a film. (The Little Tramp, by the way, was Chaplin's most famous character.)

My classroom was last used by a man -- so, obviously, it is a complete mess right now. Yesterday, I stopped in for a moment to take a few pictures of it, and during the course of my visit, pulled down one of my maps and got it stuck. In my first performance in the classroom today, I wanted to get the map to go back up on the roll. Since I'm too short to reach the top part, I stood on a chair. I started to fiddle around with it, when suddenly . . . BANG! The map shot up so fast that it almost took me with it! I was so startled that I nearly fell off the chair.

I next started working on clearing out the three bookcases in the back of the room (which I may move somewhere else). Behind one of them were several posters, which I pulled out to look at. Suddenly, about a dozen nasty silvery-white bugs came crawling at full speed (which was impressively fast), all of them clearly intent on reaching me and perhaps conquering me. I dropped the posters with a yelp and leapt backwards! I then promptly headed downstairs to ask the school receptionist if I could get some cleaning supplies for my room and also some bug spray.

I decided to work on my bulletin boards, and so I measured both of them with my twelve-inch ruler. The big one, as I learned, is thirteen feet long and four feet wide. The "small" one is eight feet long and about three feet wide. Down on the second floor (my room is on the third floor), we have a teacher workroom with several rolls of paper for putting on bulletin boards, so I headed down there to cut my background paper. Being stupid, I opted to cut two thirteen-foot-long pieces for the big board (the paper is too narrow to cover the board with just one sheet). Since the workroom itself is only about fifteen feet long, that was a "fun" task. Then, there came the task of folding the sheets. Chaplin would have had a blast writing a scene with that! I found the best/only way to do it was to put the paper over my head and fold it from "inside" it. It's the closest I've ever come to being gift-wrapped. Later, I went back up and did the eight-foot sheet needed for the smaller board, and got to be gift-wrapped again.

Have you ever tried to staple an eight-foot sheet of paper to a bulletin board? It is not an easy task . . . needless to say, it took a while. I am happy to report that contrary to what my parents are likely suspecting at this moment, I did not staple my finger. Or my thumb. I did stab myself with a thumbtack, however (I tack things up first, then staple them, to avoid mistakes).

Shortly thereafter, one of the Chinese janitors came up with cleaning spray and paper towels from me. She tried to talk to me in Chinese, but since my Chinese is still in its infancy (it's still in the red, pruney, squalling, dripping with amniotic slime stage), I couldn't understand a word of what she was saying. I informed her that my Chinese is pretty bad (using much less picturesque language than what I just used here), and she smiled, gave me a hug, and said "I like you." Our entire Chinese staff is really sweet! She tried then to give me instructions, using a lot of charades, which I took to mean that the spray would not be useful for killing bugs. It was, however, quite useful for getting the dust, dirt, and grime off of my windowsills, desk, and bookcases. After cleaning, I moved my desk to a better direction (I prefer to have it catty-corner in the front corner of the classroom), cleaned out all of the drawers in my filing cabinet, and also shook the dust out of my curtains (yes, my classroom actually has REAL curtains!).

Unlike The Little Tramp, my day ended quite happily, with dinner at a great little Korean restaurant followed by a movie with my roommate and the mom and daughter from the Finnish-Australian family that lives directly above us. I am proud to report that my jetlag is finally dissipating, and I actually am feeling alive long past 2:00 pm in the day. Also, I received a little certificate today from the Chinese teachers for having excellent pronunciation in class! Who knew I would actually do well with Mandarin??

Wŏ Shì Mĕiguórén

2011-07-27T17:39:00.000+08:00

Today we started learning survival Chinese, following a morning of reviewing school policies and meeting with our respective principals (there are four of them under the head principal). I picked up on my new words and phrases much quicker than I thought I would, likely owing entirely to the skills of the Chinese staff.

We covered some basic phrases (such as "I am American", which is the title of this post), learned to count up to 100, and also learned the names of a few basic places in our city. I am a bit overwhelmed with so much Chinese floating around in my poor still-jetlagged brain (I think my jetlag here is a lot worse than what I had in Korea, and the only reason I can think of is that I'm older)!

Here, in pinyin (a phonetic way of writing Chinese, which is not a phonetic language), are a few of the new words and phrases I learned today:

Duì bu qĭ (dway boo chee) - Sorry
Méi guānxi (may gwan-chee) - It doesn't matter
Wŏ jiào Stephanie (wo jow) - My name is Stephanie.
One: yī (ee)
Two: èr (ar)
Three: sān
Four: sì (suh)
Five: wŭ (woo)

The accent marks over the letters denote which of the four tones to use in pronunciation. The four tones are (using the letter a as an example): ā, á, ă, and à. Each of these gets a different sound, which is part of why Chinese is hard to learn. Our teacher had us think of the voice as having five levels. In the first tone (ā), the sound is at level 5 only (the highest tone). In the second (á), the tone goes from level 3 to level 5. In the third (ă), the tone goes from level 2 to 1 to 5. Finally, in the fourth (ă), the tone goes from 5 to 1. If you now feel horribly confused, then you completely understand how I felt at first. Now, however, I am beginning to grasp the concept.

Photos that I Stole from Other New Teachers

2011-07-27T17:16:00.000+08:00

Since I am still waiting for a means of getting photos off of my camera and onto the computer (long story short: I lost the cord and have ordered a new one), I lifted some photos from the Facebook pages of two of the other new teachers, Ben and Warren. I'm sure they won't mind (and if they do, I will offer them cookies).

First, here are some pictures of the view from the roof of the school, taken the other day (the day that we got drenched in Qingdao's amusing imitation of a tropical storm):

Some of the views remind me a lot of the Philippines. The hill behind the school is actually a cemetery, but there are no bodies in it. China requires that all bodies be cremated. Unlike in the States, in China, families are responsible for maintaining their own plots -- there is not a caretaker looking after the entire cemetery.

The next few pictures are from our very rainy meal the other day, at the noodle place:

These two shots show the rural village that we walked through to get to the noodle place. The two people whose backs you see are Carl, the elementary principal, and Stacy, one of the teachers.

This is the small noodle place where we ate (on the left).

Here, our head principal, Dave, orders lunch for everyone. Our meals were 8 RMB apiece (about $1.24 in US money), which the school paid for.

The stools we sat on were quite small, but surprisingly comfortable. I think they were less than a foot high.

Those noodles sure were yummy!

Stacy laughs and does her best to avoid the sudden torrential downpour. 'Twas a memorable lunch, indeed.

Bedspreads and Bubble Tea

2011-07-26T20:56:00.001+08:00

After we new teachers finished our health checks, our very friendly bus driver from school, Mr. Wu, drove us out to Metro, a ginormous home store that is sort of what I imagine the lovechild of Ikea and Sam's Club would be like. Some of the other teachers met us there to help us shop, and to pick up things for themselves as well. Apparently, shopping at Metro is an Event.

Beth, my roommate, joined us as well. She and I decided last night that since we have such a gorgeous view from our balcony, we would really enjoy having a set of chairs and a small table out there. We thought it would make a wonderfully relaxing place to have our breakfast and coffee in the mornings before leaving for school. We found the perfect set right away: cute, comfortable, and quite reasonably priced (499 RMB, which is about $76, and we split the cost). While Beth waited for an employee to retrieve our set for us, I went on to the office supply aisle to pick up some of the things I still need for school, such as whiteboard erasers, paperclips, post-it notes, and binder clips. I found a really nice three-high paper tray which will be perfect for sorting homework into when I take it home to grade. I have a nice desk here at the apartment, so I was quite eager to start setting it up.

The best part of the Metro shopping trip was picking out my bedroom decor. I had originally planned to do my room in light turquoise and chocolate brown; however, there were no bedspreads in that color scheme. As my parents are well aware, I am notoriously hard to please when it comes to bedding. I once dragged Dad to ten different stores before I could find a bedspread that I liked! Deviating from my reputation, I actually found a duvet cover that I really liked! It's a color scheme that I never before thought of, but once I got everything home and on my bed, both Beth and I were amazed at just how good my new idea for the bedroom is going to look. The new colors are grey (both light and dark), white, and two shades of pink (one is almost a raspberry color). The duvet cover has all these colors; it has large grey and white stripes (more like sections than stripes, really) and two-tone pink tulips that amazingly match the pink sheets that I bought from the States perfectly. (I normally hate pink sheets, but they were exactly what I needed and were $9. Sometimes, price teaches me to like things.) Suddenly, those sheets are no longer nauseating, but actually look really attractive! Later this week, I'm going to paint my walls light gray. I'll also add some artwork to my walls.

As anyone who has lived in Asia knows, mattresses are REALLY firm here. Too firm for me, actually. I've been able to sleep at night owing to my jetlag, but my back has been cursing me. Memory foam pads are unheard of around here, so I found a different solution at Metro. Many Chinese still like to sleep on the floor on a pad rather than a bed. I bought one of those floor pads, and stuck it on my bed for extra padding. It's not much, but it does make a difference. I may add a second one, or maybe a cheap thick bedspread under the bottom sheet later if I decide that I want more padding, but I honestly think this will be sufficient. After picking up a few more household necessities, such as wastebaskets (one for my bedroom, one for my desk), Beth and I headed to the grocery area.

The grocery section at Metro is fabulous! Hard to find delicacies, like hot chocolate, are abundant. A bag of hot chocolate merrily leapt into my shopping cart, where it was promised a happy future in Beth's and my morning coffee. I found my favorite snack, dried peas, much to my delight. I decided to splurge on a box of cereal, which is quite expensive here in China. I figure I'll use it sparingly to make it last as long as possible. I was also thrilled to find refried beans, which I promised Beth I would turn into my family's delicious "Special Dip" sometime soon (it's sort of a taco dip that is delicious on chips). Beth, who likes all of the same foods as I do (I swear, the two of us are truly kindred spirits), was quite excited. I found kiwi juice, which I cannot wait to drink in the morning. I just love all of the wonderful fruit juices that you can find in Asia!

Beth and I also stocked up on candy for our classrooms, which I'm sure will delight our students. I figured my high-schoolers would get pretty excited over Chuppa Chups, which appeal to all ages, and some nice cola-flavored hard candies. I like to chuck a piece of candy at students when they give particularly good answers -- it's fun for me, plus the kids have incentive to work hard. This being China, we don't have to abide by the more ridiculous regulations at most American schools (I'm not calling all of them ridiculous, just some), so I went ahead and stocked up on cough drops to give to students. In the States, it's illegal in most states for a teacher to give a kid a cough drop! It annoys me, since a coughing student can be such a distraction for other kids, and having to send them to the office for a cough drop robs them of valuable learning time. Here, fortunately, we're more practical.

After our shopping venture, Beth and I came home for lunch. After eating, I got back to work on unpacking and putting away my purchases, while Beth and one of our students from school (a really sweet ninth grade girl) worked on baking cookies. While the cookies were in the oven, I took a break from my tasks and enjoyed spending some time with our guest, whom I sincerely hope will be in my section of ninth grade history. In fact, I want her in my class so much I may have to start pr*ying about this! Actually, there are two ninth graders that I am desperately hoping to get -- we just got a really neat family who have been living in Tanzania added to our school family, and the mother of the family shared with me how much her daughter loves history.

Since a different family is feeding me for dinner each night, tonight I got to know another family that I had only recently met. Allison and her husband took me out first to a tea stand to introduce me to bubble tea, which I had never had before. I love it! Bubble tea is a sweetened milk tea, served hot or cold (I opted for cold) which has large tapiocas in it. The tapiocas make for a rather odd beverage, but I really enjoyed the oddity, and the flavor was great! While we were there, we happened to run into one of the third grade teachers, who readily accepted the invitation to join us for dinner.

Tonight's dinner, to my utter joy, was Turkish food! Apparently, here in Qingdao, we have a Middle Eastern foodcourt tucked away in one of the shopping centers. I had a scrumptious lamb wrap, which tasted quite a bit like a gyro. It had the delicious yogurt sauce on it that I like so well. I never dreamed that we would have such a wealth of international restaurants here. And of course, it was great to get to spend time with more of my fellow teachers. Since I teach high school, I particularly liked getting to know two of the elementary teachers, whom I really won't run into much at school.

Well, the jetlagged body would really like to go to bed, so I think I'm going to listen to it. Good night, world!

"Basically Normal"

2011-07-26T20:11:00.000+08:00

Qingdao apparently felt a bit guilty for keeping all of drenched for the entire day yesterday, so today we were treated to beautiful sunshine, nice warm weather that was not overbearing, and a very pleasant breeze. It was the sort of day when a walk on the beach would have heavenly, but there was too much to do to fit that in just yet. I did, however, enjoy a very peaceful breakfast with the sliding glass door to the balcony open, and the light breeze flowed through the apartment, carrying with it the relaxing sounds of the ocean and that delightful salty scent. I had two new things with my breakfast this morning: at the store yesterday, I picked up a container of blueberry juice and a product that called itself strawberry cheese. Both intrigued me, and thus needed to be tried. The blueberry juice was delicious and was definitely what it claimed to be. The strawberry cheese had one of the oddest textures my mouth has ever encountered, along with quite bland flavor. I didn't really dislike it, but I have no interest in eating it again. Certainly, it was fun to try.

After that revitalizing start, the day itself became quite full, and even a smidgeon overwhelming. To begin with, today wound up being the day that we new teachers (there are seven of us at the moment: two married couples and three singles), accompanied by one of our Chinese staff members, went to get our mandatory health checks. Having done this before in Korea, I was prepared (or so I thought) for a lot of intrusive, "interesting" stuff to be done to me. I had no idea just how much the Chinese government wanted to know about me!

To begin with, there was paperwork to deal with; thankfully, Heidi, the sweet and wonderful Chinese staff person who went with us, had already filled out most of it. After pushing our way through the "line" (i.e. crowd) Chinese-style, we got photographed and documented, showed our passports, and then headed upstairs to begin the various procedures. We each had a list, and the procedures were each carried out in separate rooms (with at least two different rooms doing each of them, so waits tended to be short).

In my first room, I was given an eye test unlike any I have ever done before. The chart had nothing but "E"s on it. Some were facing the right way, some were backwards, some were lying on their backs napping (I assume; maybe they were daydreaming) and others were facedown, perhaps suffering from stomachaches. I had to cover one eye at a time and point which direction the "E"s were facing. Being quite jetlagged still, I was not up to my usual forte at charades, so it took the non-English-speaking Chinese ladies in that room a few minutes to get me to understand exactly what they wanted. Fortunately, they did not seem irritated: most Chinese so far seem to find me amusing, or just ignore me. To finish in that room, they weighed and measured me. That part I could have done without.

In the second room I entered, a doctor felt my neck and throat, took my pulse and blood pressure, looked down my throat, and listened to my chest. He, too, spoke no English, but it was pretty easy to figure out what he wanted from me. He seemed pleased with my low-side-of-normal blood pressure (90 over 64); I noticed that he gave me an approving nod as he recorded the numbers.

Feeling a bit proud of my good numbers, I went boldly onto the next room, where the EKG (ECG here in China) was to be performed. And here, the day took a turn for the awkward. The lady carrying out the procedure spoke some English, but also relied a bit on charades. She told me to lie down on the bed, which I did quite easily. She told me to lift up my shirt, which I also did, after she pulled the curtain closed (they didn't bother to do this for the men, so I was rather relieved by the gesture). Next, we ran into an area difficult for her to communicate. I was somewhat certain that she wanted me to lift up my bra; however, I was not positive. I recognized that if I interpreted her incorrectly, this could become a very awkward situation for both of us. Going out on a limb, I decided to assume that that was what she wanted, cringing inwardly as I complied. Fortunately for the woman and myself, it was exactly what she wanted me to do. She hooked things up to my chest, abdomen, ankle, and wrist, and performed one of the oddest EKGs I've ever had (I've had two of them in the US before). After we finished, I glanced at the computer just in time to see her typing, in English, her assessment of me. The words brought a smile to my face: "Basically normal."

Next, I walked over to another room for my blood draw. The Chinese wanted a lot more of my blood than the Koreans did: three tubes of it! I actually felt slightly lightheaded afterwards, probably owing to my small breakfast. The blood draw was promptly followed by another awkward procedure: they wanted a urine sample. Now, as most women know, "tinkling" on command is not the easiest thing for women to do. In the past, my experiences have involved western toilets. This time around, I had the "joy" of a squatty potty. There's a trick to squatties: you need the thigh muscles of an athlete. Otherwise, they are not a pleasant experience. I am happy to report that my year in Korea taught me well, so at least my shoes and clothing did not get sprinkled. The squatty, naturally, had no toilet paper or tissue, but fortunately I know well enough to always carry tissues when in Asia. I delivered my sample to the smiling women who awaited it, then traveled up to the fourth floor for my x-ray.

Just as I did in Korea, I had to have a chest x-ray. This time around, I got to keep my shirt on, which I appreciated after having had to bare my chest earlier (baring my chest is not a favorite activity of mine). The x-ray tech manipulated me into a position that closely resembled an impression of a chicken, in that I had my arms pushed into little wings behind my back. The whole thing was done very quickly.

For my final procedure, I got to have an ultrasound (men and women both have to do this). Once again, I sighed gratefully when the curtain was closed (apparently, there was no concern for men who might like privacy). The goop was generously applied, and my shirt drank a bit of it just for fun. The woman questioned me as to whether I had eaten breakfast, then seemed not to believe me when she couldn't locate my breakfast in me. "Small breakfast," I explained. And after my shirt had gotten another good gluttonous gulp of goop (try saying that ten times fast), my medical check was finished!

A Drenched Day

2011-07-25T19:26:00.000+08:00

Normally, Qingdao is apparently quite sunny and lovely in the summertime (humid, but habitable). At the present, however, the weather has chosen to take a sauna-ish turn, which meant that my roommate's glasses kept fogging up outdoors yesterday. Today, the weather decided to rain. A lot.

The day started out rather amusingly. I got up when the alarm on my cell phone declared it to be 6:50, noted that it seemed quite dark for that hour, then showered and dressed. Our bathroom was just recently remodeled, so we have a heavenly shower. In the shower, I noted with some consternation that my watch was off by a few hours. Sheesh, already broken in less than a week, I thought. After I finished dressing, I discovered that the small clock in my bedroom was in agreement with my watch . . . it was 3:00 am! The cell phone, I soon learned, was not like American ones that already know the correct time. It needed to be told. I corrected the error, put my pajamas back on, and quite happily went back to sleep. I dreamed that coming to China had been nothing but a dream, then woke up confused as to what was real and what wasn't. A cup of coffee restored me to clarity.

Along with several other teachers who live in my apartment complex, I caught the bus to school at 8:00, missing the rain by mere minutes. The teachers at the other complex, about fifteen minutes from ours, were not so lucky. When we arrived to pick them up, we remarked at how cute they looked, all huddling together under three umbrellas (there were about ten or twelve people).

When we arrived at the school, we had to make a run for it in pouring rain, waiting through a flooded walkway (about three inches deep). We escaped into one of the main buildings of Baishan, the Chinese private school that shares our campus. A small group of Chinese children laughed merrily at the sight of the soaked foreigners, and we all had to laugh as well. My jeans felt like they were now about fifty pounds! On the bright side, none of us felt hot anymore!

We new teachers took a tour of our gorgeous school, and I got to see my classroom for the first time (I will post pictures of both as soon as I purchase another cord for my camera). I never dreamed that I would have such ENORMOUS bulletin boards! I'm almost delirious with ideas for how to use them. My classroom is the nicest I've ever had, and I am looking forward with great anticipation to starting work on it tomorrow afternoon, after my health check and a shopping trip to a home store.

After our tour and a few tutorial sessions, we took a walk (the rain had stopped) through a really neat rural area, which seemed out of place in a big city, to a little outdoor noodle "restaurant". Basically, it was a very friendly Chinese woman cooking in a few pots under a large tarp. There were little wooden tables, with tiny wooden stools. As we sat hungrily awaiting our meal and munching on some delicious bread that our principal had purchased from another food stand, the skies opened up again, and a river was born. We were flooded in less than five minutes! The tarp kept us somewhat dry, though it kept swaying dangerously, worrying us that the strong winds may topple it. Our feet were in about three or four inches of water pretty quickly. We chose to find the situation amusing, and laughed and chatted while we ate our meal. Warren, a middle school math teacher, and I are both fond of spicy food, so we bravely seasoned our food with a large scoop of a concoction made from red peppers (the tiny uber-hot ones). We soon discovered that our food got exponentially hotter with each bite! By the end of the meal, my lips were ablaze and my clogged sinuses had completely cleared.

Since this is my first week, I'm being fed by different people at dinnertime each night (they do this for all of the new staff). Last night, my roommate cooked a fantastic spicy curry for me. Tonight, the Herzogs, a wonderful family, took me out for sushi. Although I don't do fish, there are plenty of other types of sushi that I enjoy, particularly one that I tried for the first time tonight which had dragonfruit in it.

Despite being completely soaked to the bone for more than half of the day, it was a really good day. I feel like I've come home. The stores are filled with all the wonderful things that I've been desperately missing since leaving Korea, I finally have food that is spicy enough to please me, there are loads of new things to try, all the people I've met are unbelievably sweet, the apartment is huge and attractive, the school blows my mind, and things just keep getting better. I can't wait for what the next few days will bring!

2011-07-25T16:59:00.002+08:00

Just a note -- Times and dates on here have now been changed to reflect my current time here in China.

Bonding with the Braces

2011-07-25T16:57:00.000+08:00

Well, I am in Qingdao, China at last! And what a trip it was . . .

While in Chicago on my six-hour layover, I managed to locate the Braces, a married couple bound for the same school. I was delighted to find them, largely since it meant someone to talk to. We had been rebooked to the same flight, which made us quite happy.

The flight from Chicago to Beijing was loooooooong, but not at all horrible. We wound up on American rather than United, which proved to be a very good thing. Most people here agree that United is really quite lousy on their flights to China. They give poor service (and next to none, at that) and they tend to treat Chinese passengers very rudely, which gets upsetting for those of us who care about them. American, on the other hand, gave excellent service and fed us to bursting point. We had a snack and three meals, along with six beverages during our thirteen hour flight. Each seat had its own LCD monitor, which a large selection of free movies and television shows. I watched three movies and five TV shows, played on my iPad, and even managed to nap a bit. There was no one in the seat beside me and I had a window, so I was able to stretch out a little and actually be quite comfortable. The only downside for me was that, owing to my cold, my nose leaked like a sieve for the entire flight and I got a sinus migraine for a bit (heavy meds soon defeated it, however).

Our school looked out for the Braces and I by arranging us a hotel room to freshen up in while we were enduring our long layover in Beijing. The airport there, by the way, is huge and gorgeous in the area that we arrived at (some other areas are not so pretty). We handed in our arrival cards, got our passports stamped, and then headed to the baggage claim, which was already spewing up baggage. I would like to point out that the Chinese get your baggage off the plain in about 1/4 of the time that it takes American airports (any of them that I have been to, which is many). So, big kudos to Chinese airports!

My bags were some of the first out, and all four made it safely. The airlines had done their very best to make sure that my brand new luggage got nicely scratched up. The Braces were not as lucky as I -- none of their seven pieces arrived. So, we headed off to the baggage inquiry area to look into what had happened. After about two hours, we finally ascertained that United had decided to give the baggage a vacation in Chicago rather than sending it on to American so that it could go to China -- of course, they also had gone out of their way to reassure the Braces that they transferred it. No kudos for United, and they probably shouldn't count on anything nice from Santa this Christmas. When we went to go through customs, we were shocked to find that no one was there. So, we shrugged our shoulders and just walked on through. China is full of surprises!

The Braces and I then took a shuttle to the gorgeous hotel, where we all had heavenly showers and then sat around watching CNN and nibbling on the snacks we had with us. We eventually dozed off for a little while, but we were a bit too keyed up for any quality sleep. At 7:30 am we caught a shuttle to the airport, where we raced to get to our gate in time, arriving just as our 8:40 flight was boarding.

A word about the security check: China, which is not nearly so full of freedoms as the United States, has a far more reasonable and easy security check in Beijing than any American airport I have been to. Not only do you get to keep your shoes on, they also were not the least bit concerned about my pillow, which had greatly troubled the TSA agents in both Grand Rapids and in Chicago when I traveled through there a few weeks ago. The China security people were also unbothered by my knitting needles, pens, tweezers, and nail clippers, all of which have previously gravely worried TSA officials in the USA.

At 10:30 am, the Braces and I arrived in beautiful Qingdao, and rushed toward the welcoming committee of our head principal, his wife, and my new roommate. Home at last!

The Start of the Journey

2011-07-23T05:25:00.000+08:00

The First Rule of International Travel is that something will go wrong. This rule is more dependable than the ability of telemarketers to sniff out the dinner hour and the dishonesty of politicians. This rule is an absolute certainty, in a world of few absolutes. Something will always go wrong on an international trip; the only uncertainty is how one will deal with the problem.

With this in mind, let me say that so far, my journey to China is remaining faithful to this rule. I knew when my visa came to me in only two days that, owing to the First Rule of International Travel, something was bound to go wrong on the trip itself. Being a seasoned traveler, I was right.

I arrived at Grand Rapids airport three hours early this morning, and was promptly informed of a storm that would be delaying my flight to Chicago. I figured that this meant that my "something wrong" would be having a delayed flight and then having to run to my gate with the frantic speed of a warthog fleeing a lion. Silly Stephanie! No, no, no, no delay at all. Instead, my flight was cancelled. Few words have quite the same heart-stopping impact at an airport as that always-in-red word "cancelled". I immediately jumped into action, rushing back to the ticket counter to beg for mercy and rerouting (I had not yet passed through security, since Grand Rapids airport is such a small one). The ticket agent sprang into action (kudos to United for having some very nice employees in Grand Rapids). She got me completely rebooked for all of my flights, a complicated process that took even longer than Superman's usual efforts to save the world (not her fault).

As a result, I left Grand Rapids at 3:25 pm instead of 11:27 am. It meant a few more hours to spend with my parents (yay duck! -- see the previous post for an explanation of yay duck). We had a leisurely lunch at a Mexican restaurant, since I figured it will probably be quite some time before I eat Mexican food again. My first flight was quite painless, made even more so because the kind United employee upgraded me to Economy Plus. My knees, unaccustomed to not being smashed up against the seat ahead of me during a flight, were quite grateful to her. Now I'm stuck in O'Hare for my first of two big layovers, a six-hour one (yuck duck -- again, see the previous post). At 9:05 pm, I will finally depart for Beijing, where, following the thirteen-hour flight, I will have my other mega-layover, this time for eight hours. Finally, at 8:30 am on the 24th, I'll arrive in Qingdao, which is beginning to take on the image of the Promised Land for me (fortunately I just have forty hours of airplane/airport journeying rather than forty years in a desert).

A "Pair-a-ducks"

2011-07-23T04:55:00.000+08:00

In our new staff orientation (in preparation for going overseas), one of our favorite speakers, Jerry Jones, gave us each a “Yay Duck” and a “Yuck Duck”. Yay Duck represents the good things; Yuck Duck represents the bad. Together they make a “pair-a-ducks” (paradox). When living overseas, you cannot have the one without the other. It is important to maintain a balance of both. To keep myself balanced and positive, I've been keeping the two fellows close to me -- in fact, they're excited to be traveling carry-on to China.

Departing in T-2 Days!

2011-07-21T05:07:00.003+08:00

Wow, I really cannot believe that my departure date is so close at hand. Even more amazingly, no catastrophes have happened yet! Oh, sure, I do have my traditional pre-departure sinus infection (ever prompt) and the careless individual who hit my car head-on back in May is trying to file a claim against me (she and her front-seat passenger were not wearing seatbelts and got hurt. Clearly, the solution is to blame someone else and try to get money.), but other than that, the roadblocks, hassles, and hair-pullingly stressful madness that preceded my year in Korea are nowhere to be seen. Could I really have an easy trip in my grasp?

The biggest stressor, in all honesty, has been packing. An extra suitcase costs $200 on United, so I have to limit myself to only one extra. For Korea, I made do with only two suitcases, but that was for one year whereas this jaunt to China will be at least two years. Furthermore, in Korea I was teaching ESL and did not have to worry about things like decorating a classroom or creating in-depth lesson plans for high schoolers. Also, I did not have a dress code in my hagwon — my director was perfectly happy with my wearing jeans and t-shirts. For my China school, I have to dress professionally. No complaints here — I think dress codes are a great idea, and I know from experience that students pay a great deal more attention when their teacher is well-dressed. The only downside is that I have to have more clothes than I did in Korea, which means three suitcases this time around.

Call Me Calamity

2011-06-22T01:09:00.004+08:00

"Where in the USA are you, Stephanie?" This is a question I've been getting asked a lot recently, and with good reason. The past few weeks and the next month are full to the brim with travel. I keep remarking to people, "I can't wait to get to China and sleep!"

From the 8th to 12th of June, I was in Albany, New York for my friend and former college roommate Sarah's wedding. She was the best roommate I've ever had (the girl fed me soup and changed my pajamas when I was sick -- how many friends will do that?), so being her maid of honor meant a lot to me. Finally, I got the opportunity to do something big and meaningful for her. It was also loads of fun catching up with her brothers, now that we were all free from the highly (ridiculously) restrictive/oppressive/strict/authoritarian college that we attended (which I, thankfully, transferred out of as a junior).

The beaming bride and I.

The wedding went beautifully, with very few hitches. Oh, it rained on the wedding day and I suffered the humiliation of requiring three people to help me zip my bridesmaid dress (stupid thesis weight gain!), but none of that mattered when Sarah walked down the aisle. In her white dress, her appearance was almost as beautiful as her soul. I got pretty emotional seeing her come down toward us, as fleeting images of freshman and sophomore years flitted past. I saw the two of us, playing pranks on our RA, strutting arm-in-arm down the commons while singing, pretending to be British secret agents while enjoying ice cream, scrubbing the dorm room furiously in order to pass our White Glove inspections . . . and now I'm tearing up again!

Being me, I naturally had to have at least one fiasco. Call me Calamity! On the day after the wedding, I was supposed to leave Albany and take the train back to Lynchburg, arriving home safely at 8:30 pm. Sarah, who in all the nine years I have known her has never been wrong, was convinced that my train left at 12:55 pm. I checked the ticket, saw "New York" and "12:55 pm" on it, and assumed that once again, Sarah was write. Perhaps it was the wedding excitement -- for the first time, Sarah was wrong. I learned this after her parents dropped me off at the train station. I thought it odd that my train number was not among those listed, even though it should be departing in less than half an hour. I checked the ticket . . . and discovered that I had looked at the wrong ticket when I checked the day before. My train had left without me four hours earlier!

I ran to the ticket counter and begged to be rebooked. The kindly ticket agent sadly informed me that all the trains to Virginia were morning trains. I would not be getting out that day. Since I knew that I had to move in three days, this situation just wouldn't work. I called out city after city in Virginia, which a headshake in response to each. I tried North Carolina -- no luck. Finally, in desperation, I asked to be routed to Washington, DC, then frantically called friends seeking someone willing to drive almost four hours up to retrieve me. I was in luck. My friend Cody, a knight after the order of Lancelot in spirit, graciously volunteered. He got lost on the way up, but no matter: at 9:30 that night, he found me. We made it in to Lynchburg at 2:30 am.

On the bright side, it was neat to see Union Station. And how fitting to visit DC one last time before leaving the country!

My Most Recent LHP Posts

2011-06-22T00:44:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since I've posted links to my Lantern Hollow Press blog articles, so here we go again! Be sure to leave comments -- I love hearing back from people on my posts!

Last Sunday, I discussed how I once used a college essay to get revenge on an evil professor: Revenge on a College Essay: Don't Make Stephanie Angry!

The Sunday before, while in New York for a dear friend's wedding, I posted a review of a wonderful Korean movie that I absolutely adore, The Classic: By Chance, by Coincidence, but Inevitable

The week before that, I discussed a really fun character type, Dumb Dora, highlighting two of my favorite examples: Characters and Caricatures: Dumb Dora (Part I)

For the three Sundays before those posts, I shared a few of my favorite recipes. Each one is splendid fuel for a day of happy writing: Food for Thought, Part I: Stephanie's Delicious Creamy Spinach and Cauliflower Soup, Food for Thought, Part II: Tantalizing Naan Pizza, Food for Thought, Part III: "Eggs Stephadict"

Following my car accident back in May, I wrote an article about the impact of pain and stress on the body, and what one should take into consideration when writing a character: Just How Much Can a Body Take?

If you'd like to enjoy some short stories, head over to Lantern Hollow Press and download the latest e-zine (also for sale on Kindle on Amazon). I published two of my short stories in the last e-zine, one of which was my first ever dark fantasy, and I have another short story coming out in the next e-zine (available August 1). We recently switched webmasters, so please forgive any glitches in the website -- we'll have it all ironed out very soon.

It All Begins to Sink in

2011-06-06T11:35:00.000+08:00

It's official: I'm finally realizing the full scope of what I'm about to do (not that I didn't before; it's just sinking in more now) and I am nervous! Not terrified, not having second thoughts, not wanting to back out, but just a little frightened. I am, after all, moving to CHINA. For TWO YEARS. Few sane people could make a move like that without feeling a bit frightened!

There is so much to do, and such a short time to do it all in (isn't there always?). As with Korea, visa documents are entirely dependent on the speed and whim of the country in question, and there is nothing I can do to move things along in a more timely manner. It's one of those tough cultural differences: Asians move at a very different speed than Americans. Of course, they also kick out butts at education and technology, so I guess there is definitely something to be said for their way of doing things. It just gets a little unnerving to an American-wired individual. I like things done NOW! I like fast, smooth transitions with everything possible done in advance and done in triplicate. I like lists and order. I would make an awesome micromanaging dictator.

I realized today that I am down to only six physical days left in Lynchburg (I've got to be in New York from the 8th to the 12th of June for a wedding). Considering how many things have yet to be done and how many things I'd love to do one last time, I feel like I'm on a circular treadmill, racing against a cheating clock. The stress gave me a spectacular migraine today, which, sadly, meant that I had to miss what would have been my last Sunday at my beloved church, St. Timothy's. I also managed to hurt my back when I overestimated my own strength and lost a battle with a solid oak dresser . . . well, I guess since I did manage to move the dresser, you could call it a draw rather than a loss. The dresser got the last laugh, but I got it moved where I wanted it.

The most difficult thing right now is the anxiety over whether or not I'll be able to take Eowyn with me to China. I have fallen head over heals for this little dog, and the thought of having to sell her and never getting to see her again absolutely breaks my heart. Isn't it amazing how God wired dogs to become just like family to us? They really are man's best friend.

So naughty . . . but oh so cute!

Graduated!

2011-06-02T23:49:00.000+08:00

On May 14, 2011, I graduated with my MA in history and a medal for High Distinction (4.0 GPA). Our speaker, who gave the best graduation speech I have ever listened to, was Hollywood screenwriter/director Randall Wallace.

Rachel and I. We're sleep-deprived and grateful to be DONE!

The ladies of Lantern Hollow Press, minus Kami.

All nine of the history department's new MAs.

The most fantastic graduation cake ever, courtesy of Rachel's sister Emily. She made it in the shape of an antique book! And it was a chocolate mocha cake! She knows us well.

A Blessing in Disguise (Really, Really Deep Disguise)

2011-06-02T23:12:00.000+08:00

One of the problems I encountered with my moving to China this summer was the issue of what to do with my car. After discussing the matter with my parents, I decided that storing it was not a viable option, so I would have to sell the vehicle. In this present economy, that was quite a daunting task. However, help with the car issue came in the form of disaster . . .

On May 6, I headed up to my friends' house in the mountains for an all-night Lord of the Rings marathon (yes, we're all very happy nerds). We planned to watch all three extended versions of the films, and in between films, we planned to each read aloud our favorite section from each of the novels. In case you're wondering, I had chosen the following scenes:

Fellowship of the Ring - The scene where Gimli is forced to wear a blindfold in Lothlorien, and Legolas volunteers to do the same. (This scene, sadly, was not included in the film.)
The Two Towers - The humorous scene where Sam forces Gollum to help him make stew and Gollum explains his dietary preferences. (I actually like the way the film portrayed this scene.)
Return of the King - The scene where Eowyn (my favorite character, of course) defeats the witch-king of Endor.

As I was rounding one of the many curves up on the mountain road leading to the Meltons' home, I suddenly came upon another vehicle approaching from the opposite direction. These mountain roads in Virginia, I should mention, are very narrow. When two vehicles meet, each much hug their side of the road in order to pass safely. This vehicle, however, was in the middle of the road and fast approaching. I made an effort to swerve to avoid them, but they neither slowed nor swerved (the other driver, a twenty-year-old, was clearly not paying attention). A front-end collision occurred.

The passengers of the other car (four people) claimed that they were all wearing seatbelts, and that all four seatbelts snapped off during the crash (hmmmm . . . ). I, as always, was securely seatbelted, so I was kept from serious harm. My seatbelt gave me a spectacular abdominal bruise and some chest bruising. The force of the impact gave me whiplash and bruising on the tailbone (not quite sure how/why the tailbone bruising happened). My brass owl on my necklace swung up and hit me in the head, apparently giving me a concussion (I learned of that later).

OnStar called immediately to see if I was all right. You know what? They really do respond exactly as portrayed in their commercials, and they really do stay on the line until help (which they call for) arrives. OnStar was a particular blessing to me, as my cell phone died right as I tried to call for help. They offered to call my friends for me, but I couldn't recall the number and couldn't access it either. Being in the mountains and the middle of nowhere, it took at least twenty minutes for the police and ambulance to arrive. The other car's passengers all had facial injuries from lack of seatbelts, but were otherwise all right. I declined to go in the ambulance, not realizing two things: 1. I was actually hurt worse than I thought and 2. I didn't know that my car insurance would cover it.

I had a remarkable answer to prayer during all this. The other people were a bit frightening, yelling at me and trying to blame me for the crash (even though they were 100% at fault, as the police eventually determined). I was trapped in my car, as the driver side door wouldn't open and I was in too much pain to try to find another way out (plus, I honestly was a bit afraid of the other people and their relatives who soon arrived at the scene). I prayed that God would send a late-arriving friend, have my other friends come looking for me, or else send a kindly neighbor who at least knew them. God did much better!

My friend David was repeatedly delayed as he tried to leave work that day and head up for the evening/night's festivities. Normally, he is prompt. He ended up arriving shortly after the accident, and was clear-thinking enough to take lots of pictures for me. He was the more opportune friend that God could have sent right then -- you see, David is a lawyer! After I spoke to the police (the officer only asked about five questions), David drove me up to the Meltons' and reassured me that I was not at fault for the accident. I knew I had done all that I could to drive safely and to try to avoid hitting the other car, but in my state of shock, I kept wondering if I was remembering everything correctly, and going back in my mind to see if I could think of anything I should have done differently. In the end, I finally realized the dismal truth: No matter how careful good drivers are, we can never be completely safe from people who just don't pay attention.

Poor little Flavia, the best car I ever owned.

In another example of God preparing in advance, I had, at the last minute before leaving home, grabbed my neck heat-wrap and my migraine pain medication. Although I felt just fine at the time, I had a sudden feeling that it would do well to be prepared, just in case I got a migraine. Normally, I don't bother to carry my migraine supplies for normal visits to friends. I was certainly glad to have them with me that night!

I ended up going to ER the next day, where they proved just how inept ER can be by focusing on only one problem and ignoring the others. It was not until a few days later that my severe neck pain led me to a chiropractor, who did x-rays. A week later, I went to my doctor for more pain medication (I had horrible unceasing pain after the accident, plus daily migraines). My doctor pointed out that I had had internal bleeding from the accident, an injury which people actually die from. ER should have known that a swollen, hard abdomen after an accident means internal bleeding, but they never bothered to listen to me, and I was too medicated to insist. Fortunately, God kept me safe.

So what was the hidden blessing in all this? Well, at least now I don't have to worry about selling my car!

The Defending of the Thesis

2011-06-02T22:50:00.006+08:00

In case you were wondering, I defended my thesis on May 2, and passed! Plenty of things went wrong, since this was, after all, me defending. I had only gotten two hours of sleep, I was dopey from benedryl (my spring/summer allergies have been HORRIBLE), and I forgot my adapter for the presentation and had to use someone else's laptop, which meant that my slideshow animations didn't work on the inferior PowerPoint (Keynote is SO MUCH better) and a few of my slides got warped or deleted.

Because my topic has not been written on (at least, not published about), I was commended for a thesis that discussed an exciting, unknown topic in the field of WWII espionage history. My committee members all enjoyed reading it, and they said that it was excellent work. So, I guess the nervous breakdowns and sleepless nights were all worth it!

Sleepless in Atlanta

2011-06-02T22:36:00.000+08:00

Well, that Atlanta trip back in April certainly proved that I can handle both the unexpected and a severe lack of sleep. I should do just fine as a teacher in China!

Owing to severe storms, my flight leaving Lynchburg was delayed twice. Instead of departing at 5:45 pm as planned, it wound up being after 8:00, which meant that I had to change my connecting flight in Charlotte to a later one. That flight then got slightly delayed. We took off around 10:00 pm and had a highly white-knuckled flight to Atlanta. I have not experienced so much turbulence since my harrowing flight in the Philippines a few years ago! It was like being trapped inside a stormy pinball machine. The plane bounced to and fro, while lightening flashed all around it. I admit, although I am a seasoned flyer, that I had to say more than one prayer that the plane wouldn't crash!

Once we got to Atlanta, the plane had to circle, as Atlanta was not allowing anyone to land. After nearly half an hour, the pilot announced that Atlanta had closed and evacuated their airport, and we would have to return to Charlotte. Everyone on the plane groaned quite loudly! We had an even more stomach-churning flight back, as the storm had worsened (this was the same storm system that spawned multiple tornadoes, one of which practically wiped out Ringgold, GA). When we returned to Charlotte, we were able to land, but not to disembark from the plane. In our absence, Charlotte airport had also closed and evacuated!

After spending more than an hour stuck in a landed plane, with a wild storm going on outside, the airport finally figured out what to do with all of us passengers. They announced that we would be leaving for Atlanta as soon as it could be done safely; in the meantime, we had to wait in Charlotte's abandoned airport. We all made mad scurries for electrical outlets, as EVERYONE had electronics (mostly cellphones) that needed recharging. I found a secluded area a ways from our gate and settled myself on the floor to recharge my own phone, which had died. From my iPod, I managed to email in and let my new employer know that I would be very late arriving in Atlanta.

Finally, we flew out to Atlanta again, crossing our fingers and hoping that we would actually get to land this time. Having pulled an all-nighter the night before in order to finish my thesis, I was now completely exhausted. After landing in Atlanta, getting my rental car, and driving to my hotel, I finally checked in at 5:30 am. I had been awake for 46 hours straight. I caught a two-hour nap, showered, then grabbed some expresso from Starbucks for breakfast and went in for my all-day psychological examination (it was to determine if I have the mental stability/stamina to handle life in China for two years or more).

Clearly, I am less crazy than my family and friends think. Despite all that went on before it, I passed my evaluation with flying colors and got the green light for China! A few weeks later, I was officially hired by the school and signed my contract.

I Gave Birth to a Thesis!

2011-04-27T21:24:00.000+08:00

So many people that I know are getting married or having babies lately. I just had a thesis.

Aw, isn't he cute? He has my eyes.

Mere minutes ago, I turned in the three copies of my 97-page baby to their new foster parents (my thesis committee). Having pulled another all-nighter in order to accomplish this feat, I now want to flop over in a dead heap. But, no such luck. There's work and then travel (I'm off to Atlanta tonight). Oh well; there'll be time enough to sleep when I'm dead!

Only five more days until I defend (shudder)!

Did I Really Just Write That?

2011-04-23T00:52:00.000+08:00

I'm in a state of shock at the moment. As of 10:00 am today, the horrible, monstrous, insidious, ill-formed offspring of my feeble mind, also known as my thesis, which has plagued me like a host of ten thousand camels tap-dancing on my shoulders in combat boots, is finally written. I actually wrote a thesis. I contributed something original, something on a topic which has not been covered, to the field of history. Forgive me while I faint.

Okay, had to get that out of my system - the faint, not the shock. No, I'm still in shock. I honestly never thought I'd be able to do it. I mean, have you ever considered what actually goes into writing a thesis? It is no ordinary paper. No reading a few books and then jotting down what you learned. For my thesis, I read 62 books, countless journal articles, more than 1,000 pages worth of US foreign affairs cables, more than 2,000 pages of declassified OSS documents, several US presidential executive orders, and a couple dozen newspaper articles. Oh, and I did that this semester . . . the same semester that I wrote the thesis. That would be why I am just now finishing the creature.

It's an odd sort of feeling, looking at the stack of pages that I created. I'm not sure yet whether to tenderly regard it as my beloved child or as a grotesquely mutilated fetus that somehow survived to make it out of the womb. I suppose I shall have to reserve judgment until my committee has reviewed the creature.

Bat Wings! Yea!

2011-04-08T01:44:00.000+08:00

It's so hard to believe that it's almost over. Graduation is in just over five weeks. One chapter remains to be written of the (evil) thesis, as well as an introduction and conclusion. Everything else is done! The classes have been finished for months. There are no papers other than thesis left to write. I have one poster session left to enter (hurray, my proposal was accepted). The GPA is a solid 4.0 and cannot be injured. Today I went to the bookstore and picked up my regalia: the gown with bat wings, the masters' hood, the cap, the tassel, and the stole (I'll get my "High Distinction" gold medal later). It's exhilarating and nerve-wracking all at once.

I have HOW little time left to finish and defend this blasted thesis?!

Inspired by the Great Pencil Massacre

2011-04-01T03:02:00.001+08:00

Inspired by the past few days of sharpening pencils for Assessment Day (I sharpened a grand total of 3,680!), the poet in me felt the need to compose a few soothing limericks:

There once a girl named Stephanie

Who had pencils ‘far as she could see.

Though she coughed from the lead

She kept plunging ahead,

Stephanie and her sharpeners three.

Poor Stephanie had pencils galore,

And boxes piled up with e’en more!

She sharpened each one

Till the whole pile was done,

Then, exhausted, collapsed to the floor!

III

Three sharpeners sat on a desk

Each acting quite statuesque

When the pencils in their stead

Started shedding their lead

And turned the act into burlesque

A grad student working at LU

Had numerous odd jobs to do.

Her bulging resume

Had a great deal to say

When at last she bid them adieu!

Thousands of pencils sat waiting

While the sharpeners kept on grating

Said a pencil to his friend,

“Dear, this is the end,

For I fear that my size is abating.”

One day I had pencils to grind

Till the noise put me out of my mind.

The whole office cheered

As the last pencil was sheared,

But cried when Dr. Letting resigned.

VII

There once was a girl in IE

Who went on a sharpening spree.

Poisoned by the lead,

She went nuts in her head,

And was quarantined by CDC

VIII

A proud student of academ-ese

Found her brain beginning to freeze.

Though she loved her subject,

She began to suspect,

She was killing herself by degrees.

It's China

2011-03-27T12:57:00.000+08:00

I finally made my decision the other day, and now have perfect peace about it. In just over four months, I'll be moving to China!

I'm a Pencil Pusher!

2011-03-24T01:25:00.001+08:00

Ever wonder how universities get all those sharpened #2 pencils for Assessment Day?

Some graduate assistant gets to sharpen them. All 3,640 of them.

Fortunately, I also get to watch NCIS (with headphones) while I do it. Well, only about 3,000 to go!

Torn

2011-03-22T15:38:00.001+08:00

It's one of the most difficult decisions I've ever made in my life. Never have I felt such an inner struggle over which way to choose. The choice boils down to two countries. I have two solid offers, and a third one likely coming (based on what I've heard). But which do I choose? China or Cambodia?

My heart positively bleeds for Asia. Its a continent that got under my skin and stayed there. God put that love there; I always thought Europe was my love when I was younger and playing with atlases (okay, I admit it, I still play with atlases). Since coming back from Korea, I doubt that I have gone more than two weeks at a time without dreaming about being back in Asia. I check the BBC news on Asia twice a day or more. I think about the people over there in need, and sometimes I just start crying. So many millions, so many souls to be reached, so many tragedies . . . so much need. I could give my life to Asia in a heartbeat.

But which do I choose? China or Cambodia?

Cambodia has suffered so much. War, genocide, governmental instability, poverty, disease (it has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world) . . . the country is full of need. The school that offered me the job is a small school in Sihanoukville. They have daily power outages. They can't attract highly qualified teachers because teachers with higher qualifications want more money, and the school can't pay very much. The school lacks a lot of resources, and they need a creative and innovative teacher who could build up a curriculum and take what she's given and make something more from it. I could make a difference here. I could use my God-given gifts and give to students who need good teachers if they're ever to get anywhere. I could use the pain from my past to empathize with souls in even more turmoil. I could meet Jesus when I die and tell Him that I fed His sheep. But they can't pay very much, and I have student loans. Could I live off the low pay after meeting the loans? Yes, but it would be tight. There would be no extras, no savings, no luxuries.

China has been through a lot as well. The cities that I would teach in (there are a few possibilities) are financially well off, but still in need of good teachers, and desperately in need of God. Communism makes it difficult for the spreading of the Gospel, but dedicated people keep at it. I would earn decent money by local standards (little by American standards, but that's never bothered me). I would be comfortable and taken care care of, although I would of course be under considerable restrictions. Still, I would have more than I needed. I would teach in a beautiful school full of every resource I needed. I would still be using my God-given talents for good and for the spreading of His Word. I would still be able to meet Jesus one day and tell Him I fed His sheep. There are just as many needs there as Cambodia; some are different and some are the same.

My heart aches for both countries. Somedays I wake up with China on my mind; some nights I go to bed thinking of Cambodia. I would be serving God in either location. I would be needed. I could fall in love with little Cambodian elementary students, or I could fall in love with international middle school students in China (Christian schools aren't allowed to teach Chinese students in China).

But which do I choose? China or Cambodia?

Contemporary Music that Inspires

2011-03-22T15:04:00.000+08:00

I thought I'd share a few contemporary Christian songs that I find inspiring, particularly recently (God's always on my mind, but He's taking up a whole lot more room these days). I often rail against CCM, because so much of what comes from this genre is what I refer to as "God is my boyfriend" music (songs where you can't really tell if the singer is singing about God or their significant other). These songs justify the genre.

I've been a fan of Steven Curtis Chapman since I was a teenager. I nearly wore out his song "Fingerprints of God", which comforted me tremendously during some of the more painful and dark teenage years. The song that has always hit me the most out of all of his work, however, is this one, "The Change":

I got into Switchfoot as an adult. Their music is great for the car, with its blend of catchiness and philosophy. "This Is Home" is a recent work of theirs that really caught my ear, particularly when paired with the Chronicles of Narnia:

And "I Can't Live a Day" by Avalon, of course, completely says it all:

Avalon blessed me more than any other music group during my crucial years, so it's only fitting to share another of their songs that has always spoken to me:

The Days Tick by . . .

2011-03-20T12:42:00.002+08:00

I have eleven days left in which to make my decision regarding the job offers I've received. It may not seem like enough time, but honestly, it is. And besides, I can't be unfair to schools and hold them in limbo just for me. They need to fill their vacant positions, and the sooner they are able to, the less stress there is upon their directors. So, I'm currently a location-researching-machine.

Thus far, I have offers from two different countries, each with their own sets of pros and cons. I can easily see myself in either location. Next Friday, just to add to the mental process, I have yet another interview, which I have quite a good feeling about. On the bright side, it's the first time in my life that I've ever had more than one job offer at a time. At the same time, I've always found multiple options to be a bit . . . well, stressful.

So what are my priorities in this job hunt?

Need. I'm going into this as a ministry, so I want to go to the place that needs me most, a place where I can make a real difference. In other words, poverty is an attraction. I want to go someplace where I can be a blessing to a school that cannot easily attract good teachers.
God's Guiding. If I cannot discern God leading me, then I don't want to go. It's one of those life lessons that I learned the hard way. ☺
Opportunity for innovation. One of my (many) complaints with the American educational system is that while it claims to encourage teacher creativity, it really doesn't. In fact, many schools are currently following policies and curriculums that are downright stifling. I suppose part of the problem is that schools don't really trust their teachers. One of the best parts of working overseas is the opportunity to try new methods, create original curriculum, and exercise my creativity to the maximum, for the benefit of my students.
Support. Wherever I go, I need to have a supportive base in the other faculty, the administration, and the local church or mission. I also, sadly, have to have enough financial support from the school to be able to not only live locally, but also pay my student loan payments.
Housing. I have to keep at least a little bit of safety in mind, so I'm only considering schools that provide housing. Believe me, in the places I'm looking, this is a necessity!
Countries that are not presently at war with the US. I figure this is a good general rule to follow, even though it would be phenomenal to teach in Afghanistan. Well, maybe someday after my great grandchildren finish fighting that war . . .

Wildflower

2011-03-12T02:28:00.003+08:00

I've had the song "Wildflower" by Point of Grace stuck in my head for the past few days. It's one of those songs that really could have been written specifically about my younger self.