Xin nian kuai le!!!

It's 2013 here in China.

So far this year, I have celebrated with my team and an awesome family, slipped and fallen on the ice, gotten to see a lot of Changchun courtesy of a very confused but chill taxi driver, nearly frozen while walking across campus, and finally made it home to my warm, semi-clean apartment.

And we're less than two hours in.

It's gonna be a great year!!

Happy new year, y'all!!!

Not My Favorite Word

My word for this year is surrender.  It's hung on my living room wall and it pops up on my screen when I power my phone on. 

That doesn't mean that I like it.

Lately Sara Groves' song Open My Hands has been on constant replay in my mind (and on my itunes).  And this morning I listened to Tim Keller speak about Rom 12:1-2, how we are to constantly offer ourselves as living sacrifices because we know that the Father is both infinitely wise and infinitely loving -- so in fact the only reasonable course of action is to surrender our lives full to him.  And then tonight it was Mark Driscoll, speaking on Luke 11:5-13, about how even very imperfect human fathers delight in giving their children good gifts -- how much more the perfect Father?  And shouldn't we, knowing that He loves us and is only ever good, be moved to ask boldly and trust Him fully?

Notice a pattern?

I still want to cling to my own ideas and plans and worries and dreams.  Which is dumb, and it shows how twisted my heart is.  I say that I believe He is only ever always good, but then I stress out about everything that you can imagine.  If I'll find another job that I love.  If I'll be single for the rest of my life.  If I'll get my grading done on time.  If I will ever get to see broken relationships being used for good.  If I'm going to fall down the stairs and break my leg.  What grad school I should go to.  What activities to use in a lesson.  You name it... chances are that I worry about it.

And then there are the good things that I really want to hang onto.  Last week my team was talking about Abraham sacrificing Isaac -- can you imagine how hard it was for him to be willing to obey and not to say, "EXCUSE me??  Do you remember that this child is the miraculous fulfillment of a promise that YOU made to me?"

Yeah, I do that a lot.

But instead -- instead I need to let go of all of my life, all of my worries and all of my plans and all of the things that have only been given to me to steward -- and instead trust that He is good.  I want to learn more and more to live and to pray as if I really believe that He withholds no good thing from us.

I believe in a blessing I don't understand
I've seen rain fall on wicked and the just
Rain is no measure of his faithfulness
He withholds no good thing from us
No good thing from us, no good thing from us

I believe in a peace that flows deeper than pain
That broken find healing in love
Pain is no measure of his faithfulness
He withholds no good thing from us
No good thing from us, no good thing from us

I will open my hands, will open my heart
I will open my hands, will open my heart
I am nodding my head an emphatic yes
To all that You have for me

I believe in a fountain that will never dry
Though I've thirsted and didn't have enough
Thirst is no measure of his faithfulness
He withholds no good thing from us
No good thing from us, no good thing from us

I will open my hands, will open my heart
I will open my hands, will open my heart
I am nodding my head an emphatic yes
To all that You have for me

No good thing from us
No good thing from us
He withholds no good thing from us

I will open my hands, will open my heart
I will open my hands, will open my heart
I am nodding my head an emphatic yes
To all that You have for me

[Sara Groves, Open My Hands]

--
overcome evil with good

Thankfulness and the struggle between consumerism and relationships

Around Thanksgiving, some of my classes were writing down things that they were thankful for or reasons why people give thanks.  The activity overall bombed, but I thought the things they were writing were interesting, so I saved a handful of the slips of paper that they wrote on.

Here's the list.

thankful teacher teach me. made me knowladgeable.

parents

My parents gives my life.

mother

it is the way of manners

Family gives me love

My parents love me.

sun

My parents give me life

thanks for my friends give me happiness

My girlfriend play with me ["play" is common Chinglish for "hangs out"]

love. friendly

My boyfriend like me.  Me too.

Parents give me life

friends

thankful my small brother bring me many happy time

harmonious family

Friends give me warm

study in class

Teacher educate me

my parents, because they birthd me.

Because they always help me. when I was in difficult.

Because the people have a thankful heart.

harvest

thankful: my parents give my life and educate me.

thanks for my families careness to me

love

good health

A healthy body

thanks for our teachers tell more things about the world

Notice a theme?  Like how nearly all of these are focused on relationships?  China is caught in this really weird tension between a history of valuing relationships and community a ton and the alluring pull of consumerism and materialism.  

This was super evident as I gave their finals these last two weeks too.  Finals were great because I had time to talk with each student individually and in small groups, and since we had talked about a lot of things this semester, I could ask them questions like, "What are life  lessons that you have learned?"  "What are your biggest dreams for your future?"  "If you had a time machine, what time in the past/future would you want to visit?"  

Their answers were probably pretty evenly divided between really obvious/shallow and heartbreakingly honest and deep.

The label "shallow" doesn't mean that they weren't honest, just that I hope they get more significant dreams at some point...soon... -- "I want to be a successful businessman" and "I want to earn a lot of money" and "I want to buy a house and a car" and "I would go back to my childhood because there was less pressure."

Then there were answers like, "I would go back to my childhood because I was unkind to my grandmother... and she is dead now... and I wish I could do it again" or "I want to go forward in the future, to know how long I will live" or "I want to know when the people who are important to me will die, so that I know how much time I will have with them."

They know life is short and that they fail in a lot of ways.  There is so much pressure to perform well in Chinese society that it's pretty impossible to not realize that.  

And so...

And so I hope that they will learn quickly, learn soon, that no material things, no amount of success, not even their relationships with their friends and family will be able to make those things right.

Finals are done, hello grading!

So I had this brilliant plan that eventually I would blog about all of the crazy names that my students have.  I was going to write that post last night as I was grading their finals, and I even began making a list of the names.

But then I realized -- maybe that post would still be funny, but it wasn't as funny to me as it was at the beginning of the semester. 

After long enough in China, it becomes very difficult to remember what is and is not a normal English name, and it just doesn't seem terribly relevant.  So my students named Panda and Vampire and Savis and Wisdom and Vinki and Rainky and Fairy and Gang Woo and Yellow and Coca and Sosy and Simy and Talent and Sky and Leaf and Ice and Seven --well, those are just their names, and now I have a semester-worth of memories associated with them by those names, and it seems weird to think of changing them.

I think a lot of life in China is like that.  At the beginning, it's really strange to do dishes by filling up a plastic tub in the shower (because that's where the hot water is), and it's strange to take taxis all the time (because they are not that expensive in China), and it's strange to not be able to drink water from the tap (because that's habit), and it's strange to be on a bus so full that you and three other people are standing down in the stairwell and nearly getting smashed by the doors every time they open, and it's strange to be practically illiterate.

But then -- gradually -- those things stop seeming so weird and you realize that you're doing all of those things by habit.  It makes readjusting to living in America challenging, because your brain has to compartmentalize what is okay in China and what's okay in America -- or decide which things you want to hold onto in both places.  

I love living in China, but sometimes it's confusing because there are so many things that are so different from what my life would be like in America... but they are just totally normal here, so I don't think about them much.  It's hard to know what to talk about with people who aren't in China, because so much of it doesn't make sense until you live here.

And maybe it doesn't make sense even then... but it works.  :)

圣诞快乐！

We've got a white Christmas...

Happy last Sunday of Advent!!

Random thoughts and updates

It's been a busy week here.

Full of giving finals to students (most of them did half of their finals this past week and will do the other half next week) -- which is great because I get to spend time with them one on one or in small groups, and I get to ask them questions such as "What have been turning points in your life?"  or "What do you want to do after you graduate?  Why?"  It is exhausting because it's hard to try to listen to so many answers and grade them too, but it has really been a good time of getting some more individual time with each student.

This past week has also been full of trying to get ready for Christmas!  We won't teach on Tuesday (the classes were rescheduled to other days), which is great, but it feels strange to still be in the middle of working around Christmas.  I'm excited to celebrate it with my team though, and both Christmas and a lot of talk about the end of the world have been raising great opportunities to talk with students about deeper things and what we value in life.  :)

The campus is beautiful with all of the snow... and we are all looking forward to the upcoming break for Chinese New Year and the chances to travel to warmer places!  

Internet in China is being kind of limited lately, so I have not really been on facebook and other things may or may not work, although email is usually pretty reliable.  :)

Please be asking for all of us to have endurance and a lot of love as we finish out the semester -- everything from truly listening to our students and continuing to forge relationships to dealing with logistic hassles that arise with exam times/rooms and grading a lot of stuff.  :)  Also as we all seek wisdom on what to pursue next year...

Thanks!

--
overcome evil with good

Advent

Today I lit the third candle... this month has been flying past!  A few nights ago I watched part of The Nativity Story with some sisters and some of their friends.  It provided a good backdrop for them to have some conversations.  I had never seen the movie before, and it made me think about some things too.

The movie opens with a voice singing
Veni, veni Emmanuel
Captivum solve Israel
Qui gemit in exilio
Privatus Dei Filio...
and the next scene is Herod's men butchering the babies. 

It's a gruesome and sickening scene, but I am so thankful that the Word has such gritty and dreadful stories. 

Because if that wasn't the kind of unpleasant, bloody,sarx world that He came into to save, there would be no reason to celebrate at all.

But He came here.

Into this world where people starve and fight and abuse and cheat and hate and kill and die.  And didn't I just tell all of my students last week that's why we decorate with lights at Christmas time?  Because we know that the world is darker and harsher even than the cold, early-dark nights here in DongBei, in the northeast.  And we rejoice (because what other response could there be?) because He came here.

And after we talked about that in all of my classes, we sang (in English though, not Latin).  It's a song of longing.

And I long for Him to come in so many ways.  To come again and renew this world and make all the sad things come untrue.  To come to my students.

These Hebrew words seem incredibly appropriate at this time, as we wait and long together: ברוך אתה ה' א‑לוהינו מלך העולם, שהחינו
וקימנו והגענו לזמן הזה.‏

Blessed are You...Who has kept us alive, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season.

Happy advent. 

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie....

No matter what Pittsburgh Dad has to say about it, sometimes If You Give a Mouse a Cookie... really is where it's at.

At least, it perfectly described how I felt this morning in my first class.

Please keep in mind that sometimes I can guess how my classes will react to certain situations. For instance, if I walk into a wall to illustrate my point in telling them a story, it is highly likely that they will laugh. If I give them a quiz, they will groan. If they are speaking Chinese in their group during class and I walk over, they will smack each other and say, "Speak English!!!" (And then I will laugh.) If, when it is time for break, I yell, "SPEAK CHINESE!" they will laugh.

Sometimes, though, I fail miserably at predicting how they'll respond to things that I do, and sometimes all that I can say to myself is, Well, you should have seen that coming.

This week all of my classes are reviewing main points of the material we've covered over the semester in preparation for their final exam, which will be spread over the next two weeks. Also, we are talking about Christmas. Part of talking about Christmas means talking about various traditions and where they came from (trees, lights, gifts, caroling, etc) and then part of it is them guessing what I do for Christmas. So there were various questions, like, "What do you think I eat on Christmas?" "What do you think I do on Christmas Eve?" "What kind of cookies does my family make?"

Here's the question that was the kicker: "What is my favorite Christmas song?"

Now, O Reader, maybe you can anticipate what happens at this point. I'd like to say that it was just the fact that it was an 8 am class, or that we're nearly to the end of the semester... but for whatever reason, I hadn't thought about the consequences of posing this question.

This is what I should have realized:

Of course, if you (being their foreign teacher) tell the class that you have a favorite Christmas song, and if it furthermore is one that they don't know (which is to say, if it isn't Jingle Bells) – say, maybe, O Come, O Come Emmanuel – they will all beg you to sing it.

And when you agree to this and begin singing, of course out pop cameras/cell phones to record, and you may crack up in the middle of singing, because of course you should have expected this – China is paparazzi grand central, after all – but it is still funny.

And then you may get to teach the chorus to your class and explain why you love this song and the story behind it.

And they may all sing with you.

And in that moment, you will not know if you should laugh with crazy joy at what is happening or cry with awestruck wonder.

So that was my morning.

Two funny notes.

1. I scare myself every time I sing this, because I'm afraid that I'll switch into Latin by mistake. Although my students at least are so busy gawking that it's quite possible none of them would notice.

2. After this had all transpired, as I walked around the classroom to answer random last questions about their final, one of my students put his hand up. "Teacher!!"

   "Yes Jim?"

   "Do you know Jason Mars?" he asked me. Poor Jason Mraz. His last name gets slaughtered a lot.

   "Yep," I said. "What's your favorite song by him?"

   "I'm Yours!"

   "Good song," I said, grateful for having just been at KTV last Friday and the way KTV forces me to sort of keep up on American pop music.

I enjoy being surprised by my classes sometimes. And the opportunities it brings.

It is a truth universally acknowledged...

that if a foreigner does not understand you, the best course of action is to speak at increasing volumes.

Some people take this to new levels by skipping moderate volumes entirely.  A few nights ago, Sydney, Kelsey and I were taking a taxi back from JiangShan -- it's only about a five minute drive -- and the driver began yelling as soon as we got in.  Fortunately his Chinese was quite clear or at least he had an accent that I'm familiar with, so I understood more of what he was saying than I normally do.  (For the record, my Chinese really is pretty terrible and I haven't learned much more this year, due to being busy with other things... like teaching...)

Anyway.  Here was the conversation as I remember it...  it was dark out and quite cold so we were in a hurry.

me:  *flagging down the taxi and then dashing to get in*  "Huaqiao Wai Yuan!" [name of our school]
Sydney and Kelsey jumped in the back.
driver:  *yelling something something something, possibly with KUAI KUAI KUAI LE*  [about how we were in a hurry]
all of us:  *laughing*
driver:  "NIMEN SHI NAGUO REN????" [what country are you from?]
me:  "Women shi meigguoren!" [we're Americans!]  "Ni ne?"  [how about you?]
driver:  "ZHONGGUOREN something!"  [I'm Chinese of course!!!]
me:   *deciding that this was absurd and if he was going to yell, I was too*  "ZHENDEMA????"  [really????}
driver:  "ZHENDE!!  NI HUI SHOU HANYU MA?"  [of course!! you can speak Chinese?]
me:  "YI DIAN DIAN.  NI HUI SHOU YINGYU MA?" [just a little, can you speak English?]
driver:  "NO!!!"
me:  *laughing*
*random conversation about how I was sort of translating for Syd and Kelsey and they sort of understood, at this point I wasn't catching a lot of what he was saying so I was just using a sound that is the most useful sound in Chinese since it either means "Yeah" or "I have no clue what you're talking about" or "what???" depending on what intonation you give it...]
Sydney and Kelsey:  *begin singing in the back seat*
me:  "TAMEN SHI FENGLE!!!"  [they're crazy!]
driver:  *yelling something about being crazy and asking if they were my friends...*
me:  "...Dui... tamen shi wode pengyou..." [yeah... they're my friends...]
*random other conversations about craziness and other stuff I was not understanding...*
me:  *as we got to the university*  "NI KEYI JINRU MA?"  [can you go in? -- rather than dropping us off at the gate]
driver:  "BU KEYI!!! something something something"  [I can't!]
me:  "SHENME??? WEISHENME??????"  [What???? WHY?????]
driver: "TA BU something something" [he (the guard) won't let me!]
me:  "WOMEN SHI LAOSHI!!!"  [We're teachers!]
driver:  "NIMEN SHI LAOSHI??  Ahhh... KEYI!"  [You're teachers?  Oh.... I can!]
...and then he dropped us off and we paid him.

It was an exciting ride.

I have to say, though, he was one of the calmer drivers I've had.  On the way to the Thanksgiving dinner in our city or something, I was in a taxi with an insane driver.  He nearly rearended the car in front of us... which was a police car... which had no license plate.

If I was a taxi driver, I'd probably yell at foreigners too.

*facepalm* Time to get a t-shirt made....

To be honest... that is my (internal) reaction to a lot of things that my students ask me about...

Especially this question, which a student just asked me over QQ (instant messaging):

i don't know what topics should we choose to talk with foreigner

I have gotten variants of this questions so many times that I think I should get a response t-shirt made.  Any suggestions for what that t-shirt should say?

Here are my two ideas:

Foreigners are people, too.

and

I'm from another country, not another planet.

(Usually what I tell my students is, "...well.... what do you talk about with Chinese?"  And then they stare at me as if they have no idea how this could possibly be relevant.)

(picture taken earlier this semester on campus, because the yellow hoodie "I wear what I want" summed up China fashion.)

One final down, 307 to go...

Or something like that.  I have about 308 students, but I may have forgotten one or two.

One final down? you may be asking.  I thought finals weren't happening for another week or two.

So did I.  As scheduled, this week all of my non-English classes (students studying marketing, accounting, business administration, human resources, tourism...) were finishing up the last chapter in their text book.  Next week we'll review for the final and talk about Christmas, and then the two weeks after that is when they'll take their finals.

Well, most of them.

Yesterday I walked into my HR class early and was chatting with some of them about the jiaozi (dumpling) making party that we're having in my apartment on Saturday evening. 

"Excuse me teacher," said Kyla, Blake standing behind her.  "He joined the army, so he needs to take his final today."

She said this in the same tone of voice that they use to comment on the weather or ask me if I've eaten breakfast yet.  Matter of fact, in other words.

I was taken aback (to say the least) and confused (also an understatement.)  Joining the army means that he needs to take the final today?  Sorry, what?  I hadn't even finished deciding that rubric I was going to use or actually thought much about administering the final.  Fortunately, Hilary, Chandler and I had written the basic final last weekend since we teach the same grade level from the same book.

"What?" I said, sort of hoping this was their idea of a joke on their foreign teacher.  "But the final isn't for a few more weeks."

"I know," Kyla told me.  "But he joined the army, so he needs to take it today."

"I don't think that's possible," I said.  (This is a pretty good answer in China; it is possibly the firmest negative you can give, while not really blaming the impossibility on anyone specific.)

Kyla was undaunted.  "He needs to take it this week, our other teacher said so."

"Huh," I said, pulling my cellphone out.  "Let me talk to my team leader and I'll get right back to you on that."

It was a surprise to Danielle as well that I had a student joining the army, but at least she understood the situation.

So... Blake took his final this afternoon.  Giving finals is pretty fun for me (aside from grading) because it means that I get one-on-one time with each student.  It also means that there is a time limit on this (which is a good thing with some students.)

Sometimes living in China feels like an extreme obstacle course.  Something is always different than what I was expecting.

...such as the power going out for a few hours last night.  It's back on now, along with the heat, for which I am VERY thankful!

And....

Because I have a bunch of great pictures to share....

Here are some not particularly related pictures.



Hilary and I dyed my hair.  This was a picture I took to satisfy a friend who was being impatient about seeing it.  Question from my students (who I've been teaching all semester, mind you...) "Teacher, your hair... is it the nature?"


Sometimes my students' English runs out in the middle of a quiz, and then I get answers like this about American traditions about Thanksgiving:  pum....... (something in Chinese which maybe mentions pie?)


Coming soon to a dining hall near you, for only 16 kuai... Exploding Chicken!


The library :)


What do you do when the power goes out?  Head to a coffeeshop on the other side of town so you have electricity and heat.  And then set your camera on the table and proceed to take pictures.  Duh.


Please note the length of the spoon relative to the bottle of milk tea.  Anyone else seeing a potential issue there?

I love living in China.

Baby, it's cold outside!!!

Here is the view from my office window.

My team!

Okay, so I know that this post has been promised for a long time, and finally I'm writing it. :)

There are two teams at our school, which is a little confusing, as we teach for the same departments, have Sunday night fellowship together, hang out, and live in stairwells that are next to each other. Within our separate teams, we turn in lesson plans to our team leader (who has been in China longer), have Word studies together, and provide a lot of each others' accountability, encouragement, and support.

I'm on an all-girl team. Our team leader is Danielle, who loves birthday parties, baking, and her pet rabbit Zorro. Then there is Sydney, who taught for a semester in GERMANY and who keeps us all laughing. Hilary is the brave soul on our team who had not lived out of the US before; she's also an awesome baker!! Depreena is our storyteller (seriously, she should be a professional!) and my buddy in all things Biblical language related. Mel is our representative Canadian; she lives in the apartment above mine and we do a lot of our lesson planning (or attempted lesson planning...) together.

Here's what it looks like...

Today has been a pretty average day in my life (whatever that means).  Meaning, I woke up (which is generally my least favorite part of the entire day!  And I teach at 8 am four days a week... lucky me!) and taught two classes.  Teaching has definitely become more natural feeling... like it's my job instead of panic attack inducing... which I am very happy for. 

As I was headed to lunch, I got a text from Depreena saying that there was a package for me in the library (where the half of the post office that mail comes to is located... as opposed to the half where you send mail out... and neither of which places sells stamps, as far as I've been able to figure out.)  I was surprised and excited, and pretty curious about what this box was.  So I went promptly there (forget lunch!) and chatted along the way with my student Marion, who was also doing something in that direction. 

And there was indeed a huge box!

I was good and took it along with me to lunch... ate... went back to my apartment and opened it... and then left the contents alone until after my office hours.

Office hours:  wherein today I took a nap (props to a culture where that is generally acceptable...), worked on lesson plans, and was quite chilly.  By the end of my three hours in the office, I had put my coat, scarf, and hat back on. 

This had a rather amusing consequence.  A few minutes after all the other teachers had left the office (there are eight of us in there), a student came in.  She was asking me very quickly in Chinese where one of the other teachers were, and I wasn't quite sure what she said, so I pulled off my hat so that I'd actually be able to hear her...

And she gasped. 

Apparently she hadn't realized that I wasn't Chinese...

Anyway... after office hours I properly opened the package to discover SUPER warm socks and a really soft blanket from the McP's!  What an awesome surprise!  (And I know... I didn't save it for Christmas... but I figured it was cold now...)

Then I headed out to the cafeteria for lunch with a brother and sister.  We ate, goofed around, and talked about some deeper stuff.  It is so, so cool beyond words to be able to have these types of conversations.  I really am getting to do exactly what I had hoped to be able to do here -- investing in the lives of brothers and sisters -- and that fact blows my mind.

After dinner, what's better than playing in the snow/on the frozen-over pond?  So we waded through the snow (which is really dry and powdery) and jumped down onto the frozen pond and stomped out names and shapes and made snow angels and skated around in our sneakers.  So. Much. Fun.  I felt like a freshman again!

Then we parted ways, and I came back to my apartment, supposedly to work on my lesson plans for next week... but I have no idea what I want to do with my translation kids, so I've been working on stuff for the study with my team that we'll be doing tomorrow night. 

Hopefully a new newsletter will be out soon!  :)  The comm department (which kindly mails them to y'all) has been a bit swamped of late, but it is in the works.

Things you could be lifting for us...
~a few people are sick right now
~we're all tired and need perseverance and new energy as we finish the semester
~relationships with students (as always)

Thanks!

(no photos today as they aren't wanting to load/attach)

Random!

I've been meaning to blog for a while about a few things. Some of them are just random things that I've realized and felt like sharing.

1. About the Chinese language

I don't know what insane part of my mind thought that I'd be able to come, work full time, get to know my team, get to know students, etc... and somehow learn Chinese. Sure, I've learned a little more (which is sort of inevitable when you live in the country...) but my Chinese is still pretty terrible. This leads to a lot of interesting situations.

For instance, I have learned that I have the habit of repeating whatever words I do happen to know. Generally, this works pretty well with Chinese, simply because of the structure of the language. Basically, a lot of questions follow this sort of format:

Now we're going to eat dinner, good or not good?

This thing, do you want or not want?

And to answer, you simply repeat the option that you wanted. Good, not good, want, not want. It's handy.

The problems arise when I really didn't understand any of the rest of the question, but for whatever reason automatically respond as if I had.

This just happened in the photocopy room (seriously, those women are some of my heroes). She held up two of my papers and asked a question. Here's what I heard:

Chinese chinese chinese chinese, keyi a?

Keyi means "can I"/ "may I"/ "is it permitted"/ "is it okay".

My default response to keyi questions is affirmative, which is probably a horrible idea, especially when it's taxi or bong bong che drivers asking.*

"Keyi!" I said.

And it worked out really well, but sometimes it worries me a little bit the number of questions that I answer with only the foggiest of ideas what I was being asked.

*As a disclaimer, I think this is my default because I assume that generally, most Chinese people have a better idea of what is and is not a good idea/what is going on than I do. Someday I'm sure I'll be proven wrong, but in the meantime... it keeps life interesting.

2. Pictures.

For some reason, it makes me really happy that people on the other side of the planet also like to draw things on frosted over windows and that these things include smiley faces and hand-footprints.

Thursday Student Stories

(actually, one story from Wednesday first...)

me:  "Will, what are you thankful for?"

Will:  "My mother!"

me:  "Okay, what else?"

Will:  "My father!"

me:  "What else?  Try to--"

Will:  "My uncle!"

me:  "Um..."

Will:  "My aunt!"

Phoenix:  "So basically his family... Will, just say FAMILY and think of something else!"

me:  "Yeah, think of something besides family --"

Will:  "MY COUSIN!!!!"

me:  *facepalm*  *walks off to check on someone else*

~~~~~

[from class 6]

me:  "Luther, where's Jean?"

Luther:  *thinks about this*  "He went home!  Because his... grandfather is...."

me:  *expecting something morbid/serious as Luther tried to think of the words*

Luther:  "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!"

me:  *laughing*  "Okay... so where's Talent?"

~~~

[from class 7, pre-class]

Jones:  "Keeler!  We are very sorry!"

me:  *confused*

Jones:  "Last week, you had the party... but we thought it was this week... so we did not come... we were very sad..."

me:  "Oh, I am sad too... but it is alright..."

Jones:  "So we want to have a party with you again sometime!"

me:  "Oh, maybe!"

...

some of the girls who did come:  "We had so much fun!"

me:  "I had so much fun too!"

them:  "We want to cook for you!"

me:  "Uh... I thought all that you could cook was eggs and rice!"

them:  *laughing*  "No, we want to make dumplings for you!  We will make them, you don't have to do anything!"

me:  "That would be fun!  We'll have to do that sometime."

them:  "How about Saturday?"

me:  *thinking... that could possibly work... wait no*  "I'm sorry, this week is really crazy, but we'll find another time."

them:  "Whenever you are free, call us!"

...

[during class, as I am walking around the room]

Vingo:  "So... are you busy on Saturday?"

me:  "Yeah, I am."

Vingo:  "Oh, we want to come cook at your apartment."

me:  "That is what your classmates were telling me..."

Vingo:  "How about next Saturday?"

me:  "Hmm... maybe... I'll check and get back to you..."

...

one of the guys:  "We will all come next time!"

me:  "Cool!  ...but my apartment will be really crowded!"

him:  "Yes... that's okay, we will ALL come!!"

me:  "Okay... awesome."

...

[after class, as we walked to the dining hall]

one of the girls:  "Keeler, do you have a knife?"

me:  "Yes..."

her:  "Do you cook in your apartment often?"

me:  "Yes... well, on the weekend --"

her:  "So you have salt?"

me:  "Yes..."

them:  "Okay, so we don't have to buy salt."

...

Any guesses about what will be happening in my apartment next Saturday?

~~~

[in class 8]

me:  "Wisdom!"

Wisdom:  *bouncing to his feet*  "Yes!!"

me:  "What do you want to achieve in life?"

Wisdom:  "SAVE THE WORLD!!!!!!"

....

me:  *checking on a group that was putting the story of Thanksgiving in order*  "No, the numbers are wrong... you have to read it and figure out what order it should go in.  It's like a puzzle."

Sky:  *very forlornly*  "Why do you puzzle me?"

me:  "To make you think!"

Sky:  *unhappily*  "We don't want to think..."

me:  "You're students, it's your job to think!"

~~~~

I love them.

Flattery and Thankfulness

We've been talking about Thanksgiving in my classes this week.

"I'm thankful for my teacher," Will said. I rolled my eyes. My students have been saying this all week – and okay, it probably is true – but as an American, that is something I'm uncomfortable with accepting in class. It seems somewhere between a cop out and trying to earn brownie points.

"My English teacher," he clarified.

"Thanks Will," I said, rolling my eyes some more.

"My American English teacher." I guess he wanted to make sure that I got the point.

I decided that maybe ignoring him was a good idea. He sits smack in front of my podium – his desk is shoved up against it – so we've sort of gotten to know each other better these past few weeks.

"My beautiful American English teacher!" he proclaimed.

I picked up my (full) water bottle. "Seriously, Will, someday..."

When we were doing micro-teaching back in Beijing, I threatened to throw Oliver out the window, which probably distressed whoever was grading my classroom management skills.

I feel like Oliver and Will might be great friends.

"I'm thankful that you are in my class," I said to Will later, because I am. I enjoy laughing, particularly in that class. "I'm thankful that you are speaking English."

"I like to speak English!" he declared, which I had my doubts about. "I like it because I like my English teacher!"

Sometimes I don't know if I should laugh or bang my head against my podium.

So... I'm thankful for... flattery?

Seriously though, I am thankful for having students who make me laugh in the middle of classes that are full of bleh, and I am thankful for the way that relationships form in the strangest of ways. I don't think Will had ever listened to me until I laughed at him banging his head because he was goofing around instead of paying attention.

I am thankful for laughter.

I Do Not Think That Word Means... (a chronicle of epic adventures)

Some days in China there is not much to say except Oh China.

Because so many things happen.

This afternoon, Mel and I walked into the "red and yellow" market (thus creatively named by us for its red and yellow sign).  It's chilly outside (although was warm enough today that I was fine in a hoodie -- lovely!) so of course my glasses steamed up the instant we walked through the doors.  We had been drinking bubble tea as we walked, and I had just finished mine as we got inside.

"Oh, here's the trashcan!" Mel said helpfully.  I pushed my glasses up on top of my head and put my cup inside.

At least, I tried to put my cup inside.  But it seemed to be rather full.  So I shoved my cup a little harder, realizing that something was not working and wondering what on earth was on top of the trashcan and trying to see what was inside and get my glasses untangled from my hair.  And one of the women who works there was coming over to see what the crazy foreigner (read: me, this is where it's a little unlucky to stick out so obviously) was doing. 

All three of us came to the same conclusion at about the same time.  "Oh no!" Mel said, pointing to something else.  "THIS is the trashcan!"  The saleslady was also telling us something... and I realized that yeah, the thing I was trying to put my cup in was definitely not a trashcan.

Fail.

Oh well, we bought our vegetables and continued onward to the meat market.

~~~~~

At the meat market (which sells a lot of things besides meat... such as vegetables and oil and jiaozi and cloth and coats and... everything pretty much) I was buying a lot of frozen chicken, since it is my duty to prepare cola chicken for both teams for our Thanksgiving dinner part 1, which will be held on Wednesday evening next week if all goes according to plan.  There was another man buying chicken ahead of us, which the chicken-seller was vigorously chopping up.

The man ahead of us was very excited about his purchase and wanted very much for Mel and I to be able to share in his excitement.  Unfortunately, all of his friendly and energetic admonitions to Mel that she should translate what he was saying for me did nothing to magically teach either of us all the words that he was using that we didn't understand.  (This is where it is lucky for me that I look foreign... random strangers in the market don't expect me to speak Putonghua -- Mandarin.)  So all we really got was a lot of zenme shuo-ing (how to say....?) and hysterical miming of a chicken beak and wings and xiao ji, xiao ji (small chicken!  small chicken!!) and he finally took his bagged chicken and went off with many ecstatic smiles bestowed upon us. 

I still haven't the foggiest clue what he was trying to tell us.  We could see that it was a small chicken.  We could see that it had wings and a beak.  I hope that he enjoyed eating it as much as he enjoyed anticipating it. 

~~~~~

Then we went to JiangShan, a street where we do a lot of shopping.  We were buying all sorts of things (which involved some other stories about not-quite-communication), but I think the highlight of that section of the day came as we were leaving the last shop and going out to find a taxi to take us back to campus. 

I slipped.

Earlier in the day I had slid down a ramp, but managed to stay on my feet despite the fact that I was carrying an awful lot of frozen chicken.  This time, on the other hand, with both hands quite full, I went from walking along to on the ground and I have no memory of being in a state of falling in between. 

Mel's response, of course, was asking if I was okay and trying to help me up while laughing so hard herself that I thought she was also going to get to experience the joys of being on an icy stone surface.  And that is a true friend.  (For anyone present for Rachel Sush's epic fall down the stairs at XiaDa last year... this was probably comparable.) 

~~~~~

I am just going to mention the fact that our taxi had a female driver and the picture of the licensed operator showed a rather beefy male.  It seemed like a fitting bit in the day.

~~~~~

And that class of 37 that I invited?  Ten of them came tonight.  Ten was a great number.  Hilary helped me prep snacks like a rockstar (see, Amy in FoCo, what you have me saying?) -- raw veggies with ranch dip (thanks to the FoCo people) and oreos and crackers and candy and drinks and we played a lot of UNO and Mel hang out with us and students sang and danced and gave each other grief and we laughed a lot and they inspected all of the pictures on my wall intensely.

The way we played UNO was a little different than anything I've ever done before... rather than "uno" meaning "I am down to having one card" it meant "I have no playable cards and must draw".  I thought about trying to correct this, but it didn't seem worth it, and the game was going alright anyway, so... my apologies to anyone else who plays UNO with my HR class.

It was Lola's birthday.  They said they were honored to be at my apartment.  I was honored that was how she spent her birthday evening!

We did get some pictures, I'll hopefully post at least one or two later.

It was a great day.

Random bits from today

me:  "Hi Bamboo!"
Bamboo:  "Hello teacher!"
me:  "Where are you going?"
Bamboo:  "The liblaly!"
me:  "...okay cool!"

me:  "So I invited a class over Saturday evening, it's one of my smaller ones, only 37 students."
Depreena:  *pauses in putting on her make-up*  "You invited THIRTY-SEVEN PEOPLE?"
me:  "Uh... yeah?"

I don't know who had the brilliant idea to pave over all of campus.  But the marble strips?  They are marble strips of DEATH.

Mel:  "Imma go up and get my computer, because I feel like you'll still be up in an hour anyway."
me:  "You know me too well!"
Mel:  "And... I'm gonna leave my phone here to make sure I really do come back."
me:  "You know yourself too well!!"

So many stories.

As you may have guessed from the lack of posting, the past week has been extremely busy.  Honestly, now through the end of December is probably going to be crazy, since there are really no breaks until the end of the semester (end of December/beginning of January).  The good news for us is that when break does come, it comes in full force -- nearly two months of no classes to celebrate the Chinese New Year, when almost everyone in China goes home.  We're making our plans too; all of us will go to Thailand for a conference and of course I'm planning to hit up Xiamen, other plans are in the works.  :)

Anyway, without further ado, here are stories from today...

~~~

After my first class had ended and I was erasing everything from the board, the next class came in.  One of the guys stared at me, walked up to the front, still quite intently staring at me, and stopped.  I had no idea what he wanted. 

"You are very beautiful," he said.

...never sure how to respond to that one, especially from a student who I've never seen before.  I think he got an answer along the lines of, "Uhh.... thanks?"

~~~

In my third class, ten minutes from the end of class as I was writing on the board, I heard some of the girls in the front (who I don't think have any interest whatsoever in attending an English class...) whispering xia ke le... class is over...

"No, it isn't," I snapped. 

They had no clue who I was talking to, so I turned around and looked at them and said it again.  "Huh?" they said.

"Class is not over, we still have ten minutes." 

There has to be a happy medium between students who assume that I'm fluent in Chinese and students who assume that I know none.

~~~

When class did end, as kids were gathering up their books and I was throwing my stuff into my backpack, I remembered that I had a question for Wisdom (who's a guy).  "Wisdom," I said, since he was right in front of me.  "How's saving the world going?"

Back at the beginning of the semester they each filled out an index card with vital information such as their student ID number, their English name, their phone number, any questions that they had for me, goals for the semester... stuff like that.  His goal read, "Save the world."

He stared at me with total confusion and tried to pull another student, Sky, in to translate.  Sky and I are friends.  "No," I told her, "He can understand me, he just needs to listen."  (Sometimes I will go through other students as translators, but I knew that Wisdom's English is not bad and that if he worked at it, he would definitely figure out more or less what I was talking about.)  Much to her classmate's dismay, Sky smiled, nodded, and waved goodbye. 

And he did figure out the gist of what I was asking and answered me. 

~~~

As I walked back from building IV to my apartment (they're quite close by) I saw a few of the girls from the class I had just finished teaching tussling with each other, maybe mock fighting over a scarf.  "LAOSHI!!!" Allison screamed.  I answered... because I do answer to teacher now... in Chinese and English... and then realized that she actually was talking to one of her Chinese teachers.  But since I was apparently going to be sympathetic, she latched onto me (literally) and we talked for a minute or two about this and that and then I left to go to my apartment.

~~~

And then I came up the stairs to my apartment, prepared to get started on the things that need to happen this weekend, thinking about maybe doing a load of laundry.

Or not.

My washing machine disappeared!

The good news: it's not a total mystery.  I talked to Finn (who works downstairs) when I was ordering water and he said that yeah, they took it -- which is great since it hasn't been working properly since I moved in.  He'll call when there's news. 

I still feel a bit like the Grinch visited. 

~~~

The next few days are going to be full of wrapping up paperwork for TESOL certification (which is a pain to attain but is going to be awesome to have!), having a first study with some sisters on campus :), hosting the family of our city leader for dinner (which is going to be fun; we love hanging out with their boys and getting to spend time with their family), and attending a party that we got ourselves into... it sounded like a great idea... you know, back in September. :)

Say Who?

Sometimes I stray from the lesson plan intentionally. 

Class 7 is one of my favorite classes.  They're extremely motivated and generally well disciplined, which makes them a joy to work with.  I'm consistently able to challenge them a little more than most of my classes and push them to go further. 

Yesterday I realized that they didn't know each other's English names well, and since they were flying through the material and we were going to have some extra time anyway, we took a three or four minute "break" in the middle of class to discuss names and play a fast name game. 

And no wonder they were having problems with names!  This class of 37 has Kristina-with-a-K, Christina-with-a-C, Krystal, and Cris.

Does the fun end there?  Oh no, of course not.  Actually, those four aren't even where we run into most of the problems!

The more serious issues arise when we get to Tyler, Kyla, and Keeler.

And then I threw in the trump card.  "Keeler is my family name.  My first name is Hannah..." and one of the girls in that class is another Hanna.

The good news:  they pay a lot of attention to eye contact!

break time... it seemed like Rusell intended to take full advantage of that!

Life Lessons

Last week my classes were talking about life lessons that they've learned.  They were supposed to lean that life lessons are things learned outside of class that are important for their whole lives.

Today I wished to pass along two important life lessons that I've learned recently. 

1) It is really a very excellent idea to make sure that your washer has drained from the last time you did laundry before you start throwing new dirty clothes in since the washing machine doubles as a hamper.  Because then you have to drain the washing machine and the dirty stuff is wet.  And gross.

2)  Marinating chicken in coke has tasty results.  Marinating chicken in orange flavored Mirinda pop... not so much.  That was a poor choice.  Adding day old weird flavored ramen noodles really did not improve it. 

Oh well.

Just thought I'd share the wisdom.  :)

Present Faith, Future Hope

Each Sunday night, the two teams at my school come together for a time of fellowship.  Our message tonight was entitled "Present Faith and Future Hope" by Alistair Begg and centered on Psalm 16.  My job for the night was to pick music, for which there was no shortage of options; one of the songs that I chose was It is Well.

It's very difficult for me to name a favorite hymn because, in all honesty, I love a lot of hymns.  (Who doesn't love sound theology set to memorable tunes?)  However, I think it's safe to say that It is Well is one of my favorite hymns.  Because every time I sing it, it is a huge challenge to me. 

First of all, it was written by a guy whose family had drowned.  That right there puts it into some perspective; he knew that things didn't necessarily have to be well with your soul.

Second, the first time I remember hearing it was at a funeral.  Any song that you learn at a funeral colors the way you hear it for a long time afterwards. 

Third, we sang it at Geneva the spring of my junior year while we waited together to find out what had become of Devon.  And it seemed like the best song to sing together, acknowledging that life does not work out the way that we would write it for ourselves.  But that, despite all that, God is good and our souls can be well.

I love that this song moves from a discussion of person problems:  the immediate circumstances of life (peace, sorrows) to the assurance that we have (despite Satan and trials, our status rests in the completed work of Christ) to the eternal and overarching end (when He returns.)

My team has been thinking and talking a lot about 2 Cor 4:16-18.

So we do not lose heart.  
Though our outer self is wasting away, 
our inner self is being renewed day by day.
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us 
an eternal weight of glory
beyond all comparison,
as we look not to the things that are seen
but to the things that are unseen.
For the things that are seen are transient,
but the things that are unseen are eternal.

That is our faith and our hope for the future.

Encouragement

It's funny to me how last night I was thinking about how I want to encourage my students, and today I find myself encouraged in so many ways by my awesome students.

So here are three stories today of my students being amazingly sweet and thoughtful in different ways.

~~~

"What did you eat this morning?" Ice asked me before my first class of the day.

I thought for a second, trying to figure out if there was some context for this question (was I eating breakfast by the window this morning that she saw me?  had we talked about breakfast before?  did she have something she wanted me to try?) and drew a blank.  "Uh... bread... and yogurt..." I ventured.  "What did you eat?"  (This is what I always do when I get a question I'm not sure about... make them answer it too.)

"Bread and *something in Chinese*, I don't know how to say it."

"What is it made of?"  (This is a question that typically my students can answer with no problem.)

"Beets."

"Ah."

And then she went and sat down.  That was the whole conversation.  I'm still not sure why she needed to know, but asking what you've been eating is a way of expressing care.  Although it still catches me off guard.

~~~

As I looked around the class, I noticed that Luther wasn't there, which is uncharacteristic.  Especially since I ran into him twice yesterday and obviously hadn't forgotten that he existed.  I had even teased him yesterday about if he was going to show us some kungfu at break time, since that is his area of expertise and pride.  He said oh no no, and I said, what???  I'm so sad!  I wanted to see it!

Oh well.

So class began, and about four minutes in, Luther and another guy came in, carrying...
a stack of bricks.

They set them down on a desk and took their seats with a little bit of waving and smiling and looking sheepish.

At break time, while Lecrae was playing, Luther came up.

"In the next class, I will do a kungfu demonstration," he told me, grinning ear to ear.

"Okay," I said, not sure if he meant the second half of our class or the class after ours.

He meant the second half of ours. 

The video is on facebook.

(I did have a moment of wondering If he breaks his hand while in my class.... what's the procedure?)

I think the way he grins reminds me of my little bro Ib, with a sudden grin of pleasure that lights up everything when he is pleased. 

~~~

On my way to lunch (which was a PICNIC lunch with Sydney because it is beautifully warm today!) I saw my student Emma, from one of my translation classes and yelled her name enough times that she realized I was talking to her and we stopped to talk for a minute.

And then she hugged me.

Which caught me totally off guard, but was very sweet.

~~~

I love my students.  :)

Currently Playing...

So I have decided upon a theme song for my classes. 

It is, perhaps, not the deepest, most meaningful song ever.  And saying that I chose it is a bit of a misnomer, it more of lodged itself in my head and refuses to get out.  But in case you are wondering how I currently feel about my life, the song is called 7 Things.  It's by Miley Cyrus.  You know, Hannah Montana... Billy Ray Cyrus' daughter...

Anyway.  It's a little embarrassing. 

However, I feel that with a little bit of tweaking, the song would perfectly fit my experiences. 

Some days my classes make me want to pull my hair out.  Some students make me want to just take preemptive ibuprofen before the class even starts, because I know that there will be reason for it at some point.

But no matter how frustrating they are, or how plain tired I am by the end of the day, I love my students.  I love it when they get so excited that they are jumping up and down when I find them in the dining hall because they've never eaten with a foreign teacher before.  (sophomore male... and yes, he is that excited about basically everything.  His name used to be Joy but he changed it because another guy in the class was also named Joy.)  I love it when they listen and when they do funny, creative things in class. 

I love watching relationships change as I get more opportunities to connect with my students and pour into them.  Because that is what I want to be doing right now -- encouraging them and honoring them as individual persons.  There are some students who I love so much that it makes me grin like an idiot every time I see them.

The 7 things I hate about you!
The 7 things I hate about you, oh you
You're vain, your games, you're insecure
You love me, you like her
You make me laugh, you make me cry
I don't know which side to buy
Your friends, they're jerks
When you act like them, just know it hurts
I wanna be with the one I know
 And the 7th thing I hate the most that you do
You make me love you

And then I get pop songs for teenagers stuck in my head. 

Loving my students obviously turns my brain into mush. 

Pet Peeve

I feel like I ought to insert a disclaimer before I get into the rest of this post.  I love China.  A lot.  There really are not too many things that I run into on a regular basis that drive me crazy or that just irritate me.  However, there are a few...

This is probably the top one.

It annoys me more than students copying off of each other's quizzes.  (Sometimes it's funny.)
It annoys me more than not understanding much of the language.  (You get used to it.)
It annoys me more than the crazy traffic.  (You also get used to this.)

Fingernails.

For some reason, guys here have no problem with having long fingernails.  And I mean well beyond any sensibility if they are trying to go for a slightly artsy look or something.  Nails that I would call long on American females.  I have no idea where this came from and I haven't figured out a polite way to ask yet, so when it's one of my students or friends... I just try not to watch his hands.

(It's okay, he wasn't texting in class.  Since he sits within arm's reach of me, I don't think he usually tries.  This was on break.  But can you see what I mean about the fingernails??)

It makes me want to give them nailclippers (or a pocket knife) and say, "Please do all of us a favor and trim your nails, unless you're trying out for the part of King Nebuchadnezzar.  YOU ARE A MAN."

Oh well.  The good side of this is that, seriously, if men's fingernails is my biggest problem with living in China, I think I'm doing alright.

Mondays

I love some of my classes so much that it's absurd. The kids are so much fun and I love getting to see their interests. My Monday translation class is one of the classes that I love, so it is a great class to start the week. They have a pretty high level of English so it is much easier for them to express themselves and for their creativity to shine through, which means that dialogues and any activity is more interesting.

And then there are things like this... at break I asked my one student Roger what he was drawing. He's always sketching manga-style characters, and it turns out that currently he's working on a comic strip about Zeus and Hera.

Please comprehend how mind blowing this is. Roger and I were having this conversation in English. He's writing the comic in Chinese, obviously (which looks super cool), and drawing it in a Japanese style. And the subject of this comic is Greek mythology.

I love it.

Also, this class cracks me up for the simple reason that Vinki and Rainky sit next to each other. Neither of them are super enthusiastic about answering questions in class and their names sound very similar. The result is that when I call on one of them, there is usually a moment of silence, and then Vinki says, “...Rainky or Vinki?” So I repeat (and sign it at them... they may subconsciously pick up the sign language alphabet before the end of the year...). And then I usually call on the other girl next.

It's really encouraging to have such a responsive class to kick off every week with!

Happy Monday!!!

Here's the view from my window, and it's still coming down...

Thoughts at the End of Week 8

(I wrote this on Thursday and then forgot to post it.)

Thoughts at the end of my week:

I love having so many students. There are more in some of my classes than there ought to be, but there are a lot who I am happy to have the chance to get to know.

I wish I knew how to handle the boys. It's easy to invite the girls to dinner, to lunch, to stroll across campus with them and chat – but it's decidely more difficult to do with the guys. So that is something for me to be thinking about and working on, because I have some awesome guys in my classes – some who are super friendly and responsive, some who have such good English that it's really difficult to keep them busy.

Students say the best stuff. Here are a few of my favorites from the past week.

Student: *after telling me about her English teachers*

"How about your English teachers?"

Me: "Um... my English teachers? I didn't have English teachers..."

...you know I'm a native right?

Student: "He thought you were Russian!"

me: "Why?"

Student: "Because you wear so little clothes!"

in other words, I wasn't wearing a coat and they thought that I should.

Also, I am really pretty certain that we covered the first day in class that I am American...

Student: "Keeler, I have had a question for a long time. Some words I know there are two pronunciations for, the English one and the American one. If I say it the English way, will you understand me?"

me: "Yes."

Students: very impressed

me: "It is like in China... you know... in the south they don't say shenme shenme, they say senme senme... but it is still the same word..."

Student: "No, I don't think so. There are four girls in my dorm from the south and I don't understand them at all."

me: "...are they speaking Putonghua (Mandarin) or something like Min Nan Yu,a different language?"

Student: "It is because of their accent."

me: "...okay."

me: "What is something new that you learned today?"

student: "I went to buy breakfast and I found that there is no money on my card. So I am very hungry."

me: ".....okay." calls on someone else

me: "Are you going to show us some kung fu today?"

student: "My stomach hurts a little..."

me: "Later --"

student: "Next week!"

me: "Okay."

Student: "In the library there is a kung fu club. You can come."

after a long discussion wherein I ask when this club meets since that would be helpful to know and me saying maybe I'd come by sometime

student: "Welcome!"

during student presentations, I notice a student sitting there reading a book and listening to her mp3 player, so I walk over to confiscate it

me: "Give me that."

student: "No! I'm studying!"

Yeah, I took it anyway and we had a talk later.

It's still overwhelming sometimes; I walk into the classroom and wonder what I'm doing here. I still feel a bit like I may wake up or that someday a student will look at me and go, "Hang on a second, you're not a teacher!" But I am getting to know more of them. When I ask them what they've learned in class, they have answers (which are relevant to what we were studying most of the time, meal cards aside.) I've seen some of them gain confidence about speaking.

And that is life.

Even late night snacks are different here...

Where else would I think, Wow, it's 11:30, what can I eat... Oh, mooncake!! I have a good supply of them, since our school gave each of us ten for mid-autumn festival. Luckily for me (and not to be taken for granted) I actually like them. (Unfortunately they are about a ten thousand calories each, and that is barely an exaggeration. Kind of like elite cram, if you're familiar with The Hobbit.)

Anyway, because a picture is worth a thousand words (and maybe also a thousand calories?)...

Been Reading

I love reading, because it's relaxing and because I get to learn about all sorts of random stuff. So here's what I've been reading since coming to China (minus a few that were free on kindle for very good reasons).

Scion of Cyador

This is somewhere in the middle of a sci-fi series by LE Modesitt. I haven't read the ones before or after it, and I had some trouble keeping characters straight for a while, but I really enjoyed a lot of the book (and I kind of want to read it again.)

Mao's Last Dancer

Borrowed this from Sharon when we were in Beijing; it was gripping and a good way to learn some history from a personal perspective.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

I had been intrigued by this book when I picked it up in a random bookstore in Pittsburgh where a group of us hung out before watching Coppelia this spring. It's a kind of random novel, interesting but not much more than that. It was kind of frustrating because a lot of characters seemed to lose out – which I suppose could be realistic, but there wasn't enough in the way of redemptive elements or challenging questions for me to really love this book.

The Kitchen God's Wife

The Bonesetter's Daughter

I was introduced to Amy Tan last year in Xiamen when we watched The Joy Luck Club, and I've really appreciated her writing about Chinese culture through telling the stories of women who emigrated to America.

So Brave, Young, and Handsome

Nothing too special about the story, but definitely worth reading for Enger's masterful wordsmithing.

When Character Was King

I picked this up in Beijing because someone was giving it away. It was good, it seemed pretty balanced and was well-written. I'd be curious to read something about Reagan from the opposite perspective. Frankly, I'm a little disenchanted with politics in the US in general right now (me and the rest of the population, right?)

Till We Have Faces

This is one of my favorite books ever. Lewis does an excellent job of raising questions through the retelling of mythology that pull at the edges of ultimate questions that humans have always asked, and he uses language beautifully.

A Prefect's Uncle

Random book by Wodehouse. It was okay, amusing in a British sort of sense, but nothing particularly deep. Of course, it was also free on kindle, so...

The Awakened (part I)

Good, not the best thing I've ever read, but good enough that I wouldn't have minded reading parts II and III when I finished. Not good enough for me to be inclined to pay for parts II and III when I have access to so many other free books right now. It ended really abruptly.

In the Presence of My Enemies

This was a good cultural education of a setting very different than mine... for which I am thankful.

Toxic

Again, a so-so kind of sci-fi/fantasty story... it wasn't a total waste of time to read, but it didn't serve much more than relaxation purposes.

A Beautiful Mind

I haven't seen the movie (I guess we weren't watching it for humanities my semester), and this book was a series of highs and lows. Parts of it were intellectually intriguing, and parts of it just dragged, seemingly endlessly. I typically have to push through biographies, though, so that may have been part of the problem.

The Lovely Bones

Eh. Memorable, but really creepy. Probably not something I'd recommend.

Riding the Bus With My Sister

This was a good book, telling one woman's story about living with a mentally handicapped adult sister. It was mostly sweet and pretty honest, which I appreciated.

Mitford 3 & 4

So I read the first two books in this series while I was in OK this past summer. They aren't profoundly life changing, but they're fun reads, good for chilling with.

My Unknown Child

An English woman's story of how she had an abortion and her life after that. It was okay, obviously not really a fun subject, but I admire her honesty in writing a book to help others.

Holy Fools

This book was like Name of the Rose meets Chocolat without being a particularly good story. So... skip it and read Name of the Rose instead.

A Million Little Pieces

Trippy is probably the best word to describe this memoir of a man going through drug rehab. I can't think of many situations I would recommend reading this for, if for no other reason than a lot of language that I don't really enjoy having banging around in my head. It was a pretty convincing reason to stay far away from substance abuse, though.

Kabul Beauty School

This was a really interesting read since I don't know much at all about Afghanistan. Also, the author had a lot of crazy adventures that make me feel like my life in China is totally normal in pretty much every possible way.

Eat Pray Love

Interesting in the kind of way that it's interesting to read decently well written stories of someone else's travels. I can't say that I'm a fan of her theology/philosophy, but she at least is pretty straightforward about that.

Currently reading or have to read: Boundaries (which I am two-thirds of the way through and have found one really good sentence), The Divine Conspiracy (which I owe an immense debt to Griffin for getting me into this book five or six years ago), The Pianist, and Celebration of Discipline.

What got returned after not much reading: The Barbarian Way. (It was annoying me, and I felt like I had other books in a similar genre that would be more beneficial.)

What I'm not reading: The Gulag Archipelago. So... I started this when I was coming back from OK, brought it with me on the plane to China, have had it the entire time here... and still haven't gotten past the first hundred pages I think. It is not light reading. Oh, Russian books. Maybe, maybe at some point this year I'll manage to summon up the necessary strength of character to progress. 

Got more suggestions for me?  ;)