Tea Time

Today was a long and busy day. It was our last day of school before break, I received two Christmas packages, and then I went with my Chinese friend to a place called 一商茶中心 (yi1 shang1 cha2 zhong1 xin1) which directly translates to “one trade tea center”. Basically, it is a giant tea mall. Imagine a mall but with more stores, and they all sell tea or all things related to tea, like tea pots, tea cups, tea tables, tea tins, etc. The atmosphere is very calm and quiet, which is different from other mall-type locations throughout China. The people are all incredibly calm, polite, and friendly. For someone like me, who, with her roommates, had an entire cabinet devoted to tea in college, and who is an introvert by nature, it was basically a dream come true.

One of several entrances to the tea center.  It extended very far down to the left of the picture.  We didn't even see it all.

(This next section is quite detailed, as I wanted to describe as much of the tea making process as I could. Proceed at your own risk. )


After walking through a few different stores, we came to a flower tea shop that my friend had previously bought tea from. We asked about the rose teas (the main reason I wanted to go tea shopping), of which there were two varieties, a wild rose, and a farm raised rose (what's the actual word for that? I cannot think of it). Since I had not had rose tea before, and wasn't sure which kind to buy, the woman who owned the tea shop had us sit down and prepared tea for us from each variety so we could try and decide which we preferred. I wish I had remembered to take pictures there, but I was too engrossed in the process and in drinking tea. I'm so glad I was there with my friend because while my Chinese listening skills are okay, I couldn't catch everything the woman was describing about the table, and the process of making and drinking the tea. It was a very peaceful experience.


Here's my basic understanding of the traditional way to prepare and drink tea:
When tea is prepared, it is first “washed” with a little of the boiled water which is then discarded. Then it is steeped for less than a minute, strained into a small tea pot, and poured in the small washed cups. (Each cup has enough space for a few sips of tea). When you drink the tea, you first smell it to enjoy its fragrance, then take a small sip and let the flavor rest in your mouth for a few seconds before swallowing. It is best for the tea to be warm, not too hot, when you drink it as the flavor will be improved. Swallowing slowly is also advised. We repeated this process with every cup of tea. And since we had two different varieties of tea, this meant we drank probably around 15 or more cups of rose tea. After drinking tea for about 30 minutes, I decided I preferred the wild rose tea. The shopkeeper weighed out my rose tea, and also weighed me out a bag of chrysanthemum tea upon request. I paid, and after thank yous and goodbyes, we left to walk a little, and check out other shops.

My friend and I in the first tea shop, drinking our rose tea.

After walking for a while, and visiting a shop that sells beautiful tea sets, we ended up in a small tea shop where my friend asked about the kinds of tea they sold. When we walked in, we could see a man picking through the newest crop of 铁观音 (tie2 guan1 yin1), which is a type of oolong tea that many Chinese people enjoy drinking. The woman who helped run the shop brought us to the back of the shop to sample her tea. We first tried a white tea, which was very good. But I also wanted to get some tea as a gift for someone, so we asked about packaging of teas. My friend wasn't satisfied with the tins they had there for tea, so the woman brought us to two different tea tin shops until we found one I liked. 

The tea tin

Once I had selected my tin, we returned to her shop to try her 铁观音. In her shop, (and I'm assuming all tea shops), she sold multiple varieties of this same type of tea that differed in quality, reflected in price per half kilogram. We sampled four different quality levels: 150 kuai/half kilo, 260 kuai, 350 kuai, and 600 kuai. There were still other quality levels both cheaper and more expensive.

Two different quality levels of the tea.  The one on the left is not as high quality as the one on the right.  Basically impossible to tell from a distance, but up close, you can see the differences in the color and size of the leaves.

The tea table and various pots

Straining the tea

Pouring the tea into the cups

We must have tried the teas for at least an hour, but it was like time moved at a different pace. It was such a peaceful experience to watch her prepare and pour the tea, and to drink the tea, and to listen to her and my friend's conversation about the tea in Chinese. I found myself noticing and appreciating subtle differences in fragrance, and taste. We had the 150 kuai tea last, after sampling the 600 kuai tea, and man could I tell the difference.

Pouring boiled water over the tea leaves.  The leaves fill that whole bowl.

Straining the tea, again.  This is after the second steeping of the same leaves.  Before we drink, she gives us the pot and the lid to inhale the fragrance of the leaves.

Pouring another round

It felt so good to just slow down and enjoy the taste of tea, and to learn about tea. During our last round of tea tasting I couldn't help but think that something like this could never happen in America. The closest thing I could compare it to was a wine tasting, but even that doesn't really come close. At a wine tasting you have a small glass of several different types of wine. The wines are different from each other, and you can discuss and compare the subtle notes of flavor, sure. But this was cup after cup of the same type of tea, at different levels of quality, steeped multiple times, and it was a mental and sensual journey that I have never experienced before. It was both refreshing, and exhausting at the same time. It definitely made me appreciate tea more, and I'm very glad I was able to have a small experience of this part of Chinese culture.

A shot of the store and another shop across the hall

Another section of the tea shop

Beautiful bags

My haul. :)

I highly recommend the experience to anyone who is in China. And go with your Chinese friend so they can explain things to you if you don't know what's going on.

And if you made it to the bottom of this post, congratulations, you get some wisdom from my favorite fictional tea lover, Uncle Iroh (Avatar the Last Airbender).

Water

It's fall now in Tianjin.  And I also realize, over 2 months since I wrote a blog post.  And this post is about neither of those things.  This is about some day-to-day life things that you may not know about living in China.

Today I called to have a water tong delivered. A tong is a 5? gallon jug of drinkable water.  We don't drink the water here from the tap unless it's boiled or filtered.  I set up ordering the tongs about a month and a half ago, but haven't needed to order a new one yet. I have avoided doing this as long as possible because I fear business/transaction related things in any language, but especially Chinese. But I felt that I couldn't put it off any longer because my second tong will probably run out this week, and I don't want to have to boil all my drinking water. The call went smoothly, and I felt good about myself, so I began making cookies while awaiting the delivery man.  I had just put shortening on the stove to melt when I heard a knock at the door. Here’s what transpired (In Chinese):

Me (Opening the door): “Hello”
Man: “Hello. I’m here to deliver water.”
Me (handing him the empty water tong): “Yes.  Here you go”
Man: “Where do you want this?”
Me: “Here’s fine”
Man: “Oh…the ticket?”
Me: “Huh?”
Man: “The ticket”
Me: “Ohhh…so sorry. Here it is.”

I handed him one of 9 remaining tickets for the water tongs I had already purchased, bid him goodbye, and shut the door.

I triumphantly returned to the kitchen to begin measuring out more ingredients. I was just thinking “See, Erin, what were you afraid of?  That went great. Only a minor mistake on your part," when I heard another knock on the door.  Wondering who it could be, I opened the door.  It was the water delivery man again.

Man: “The ticket’s wrong.”
Me: “Huh??”
Man (showing me the ticket): “The ticket’s wrong..”
Me (hearing my tiny pot of shortening fall off the gas burner in the kitchen) “Hold on.”

I rescued my shortening, turned off my music, and returned to the delivery man.

Me: “Sorry.  I had something on the stove. What’s wrong?"
Man: “The ticket’s wrong. It’s not the same brand of water”

I then realized the brand of water he brought was not the same as what was on my ticket, and therefore not the kind of water I had ordered. So the water brought to me was wrong.  I managed somehow out of politeness to not point this out.

Man (showing me a slip of paper with an address on it): “This is you, right?”
Me: “Yes, and these tickets are what you guys gave me.”
Man: “Do you want to change the water?”
Me: “Is that what we should do? I’m okay with this kind for today.”
Man: “Is it okay? Pay the difference?”
Me: “I have to pay?”
Man: “No. I pay you.”
Me: “Oh. This brand is cheaper than my brand?”
Man: “Yes, yes. This one is 12. Your brand is 16. I’ll pay you 4.”
Me: “That’s fine.”
Man: “Okay.”

He pulls out 4 kuai to give to me.

Man (noticing my water dispenser and other tong of water): “But you still have water.”
Me: “Yes. But I’ll probably run out this week, which is why I wanted another tong.”
Man: “But there’s still water there.  I can’t put this one on.”
Me: “That’s fine.  You don’t need to put it on there.  I can do it myself.”
Man: “But I need to take it with me.”
Me: “What?”
Man: “I need to take this.”
Me: “Why? I just gave you one right now.”
Man: “Oh. really?”

I walk into the hallway to show him the empty tong I gave him not 5 minutes before.

Man: “Ohh. Okay.  So, do you want the brand on the tickets after this instead of this brand.”
Me: “Yes.” (What I was really thinking was “that is what I ordered…”)
Man: “Okay.  Goodbye.”
Me: “Bye”

This, my friends, is why I avoid business as much as possible.
I find that however simple the business I’m trying to transact should be, it always ends up being much more complicated when I’m involved.

But at least I have water to drink.  And I spoke Chinese. 

And now I have cookies to go eat.

A Weekend of Firsts

1. First overnight guest.

My dearest friend Bethany came to visit before she had to fly back to America.

It was the most wonderful Friday in the history of ever.

2. First night intentionally staying up past 10pm. 

It was very hard getting up after only 3 hours of sleep, but it was so worth it.

3. First time a Chinese taxi driver has ever good naturedly/sarcastically joked with me/us in Chinese.

He told Bethany 别回来。中国不要你。(Don't come back. China doesn't want you) as we were exiting the taxi at the subway station.  This was after we had told him how she was going back to America today, but really hoped to come back to China.  (It was quite obviously a joke.  Don't worry.  Everyone was smiling and laughing. :) )

4. First time riding the subway in Tianjin.  

Subway Selfie

5. First time sending someone off at the Tianjin West Train Station

6. First time riding the Tianjin subway by myself!  

And first time EVER seeing a metro station in China with this few people

7. First time eating 煎饼果子 (jian1 bing guo3 zi), a thin pancake with egg, green onions, cilantro, spices, and a guo3 zi (a fried dough twisty thing).  It's a Tianjin breakfast specialty.  And it's delicious.

A tiny piece of the guo3 zi

What was left of my jian1 bing by the time I got home

8. First time problem solving my way into having 2 yuan to take the bus.  

I proudly bought my jian1 bing with exact change.  Which meant my smallest bill was a 5.  Oops.  

So I wandered until I found a small market that sold my favorite cold drink.

Bing1 hong2 cha2: Iced tea = 3 yuan

9. First time finding and taking the bus in Tianjin by myself!  Huge thanks to the PandaBus app.

And only my second time taking a bus in Tianjin.  

So I now know of 2 different bus lines that go back to my apartment complex:

857 and 703

10. First time having a lengthy conversation with a Chinese gentleman after getting off a bus at the same stop.

He taught me how to say his teaching subject: Economic Management 经济管理  (jing1ji4 guan1li3).

I taught him about Claude Debussy.

Otherwise we both completely understood each other.

It was all in Chinese.

It was awesome.

11. First time taking a nap at 10am because tonight will be my...

12. First time going to an all company dinner/gathering!

I hope your weekend is full of joyful adventures too!

Thankful

In the spirit of transparency, honesty, and vulnerability, I want to share this with you.  Today started off as "one of those days".  The kind where I found myself crying at my kitchen sink at 6:30 am while preparing my lunch. 

Nothing huge had occurred to upset me.  It was just a build up of little, seemingly unimportant things. 

Like how there were 10 little fruit flies hanging out on the wall behind my sink.  And flying into my hair.
Or the feathers covering my living room floor that had come out of my couch cushions two days prior when I took off the covers to wash, and had had absolutely no energy to sweep up. 
Or the couch cushion cover zipper that broke when I tried to put the clean cover back on. 
Or my stomach that has just not been feeling normal for days. 
Or my 2nd grade class the day before that went HORRIBLY
Or my feelings of loneliness at school while I get used to my teaching schedule and the long lengths of time where I do not teach, or see another human being, and sit and work in my freezing cold classroom by myself.
Or the all-Chinese text message from my phone company that when run through Google translate seemed to be saying I owed 600 yuan in overages.  Which made no sense.
Or the fact that my cellphone said it had no service/network.  Which made me think my cell service had been shut off.

So in order to combat all of these tiny little negatives weighing me down, I decided (after some more crying, and lots of caring, praying friends) to focus on the things I'm thankful for.  So here goes:

1. The many friends who saw me in my sadness and talked to me and prayed with me throughout the day
2.  The 2nd grade class that went really well today
3. My 5th graders (half of whom are boys), who when told they could sing higher and better than they were, actually listened, tried, and succeeded at singing higher and better
4. The chance to help out the secondary choral teacher make recordings of voice parts for practice tracks of some really awesome pieces of choral music.
5. A conversation in Chinese with the fantastic, joyful woman who cleans the music wing.
6. Catching the 3:30 bus after school to make it home by 4.
7. A cool breeze to walk home in.
8. Almost blue skies

 9. Yummy cold noodles from a street vendor: 5 yuan, or $0.82.  Take that, Dollar Menu

 10. This view while I ate my noodles.  And the open doors and windows to let in a breeze instead of using the A/C

 11. Being able to walk to go buy groceries
12. Making salad with chicken, fresh veggies, and a yogurt-dill dressing for super cheap.  I've now bought and cooked chicken the same number of times as the last time I lived in China (that was for a whole year).  Chicken is just more readily available here in Tianjin in ways I feel safe purchasing it.

 13. Finally finding and buying tape so I can put up things on my walls.

 14. Finally getting the paper for my thankfulness poster so I can remember to be thankful each day before I leave the house.

Rejoice Always, Pray Without Ceasing, Give Thanks in All Circumstances

What are you thankful for today?

Destiny

I almost didn't leave my apartment this afternoon.

My apartment is nice and cool and air conditioned.  Outside is crazy hot with the most stifling humidity I have ever experienced.

But I needed vegetables and things with which to make dinner, so I unwillingly stepped out of my apartment and made the 10 minute walk to the Family Center grocery store.  I am so glad I did.

Because I left my apartment I:
1. Got to chat with a couple from my company for a few minutes
2. Picked out some fresh veggies at the market
3. Literally almost cried in front of the milk section because the milk I bought 1 week ago is apparently no longer carried, and I didn't know what to do (not everything can be positive...)
4. Got some advice on which rice to purchase from a British person (I still didn't buy rice, though, as I want more advice from people in my company.)

All the rice options...

5. Successfully purchased my groceries
6. Bought a hot water kettle from the local hardware/housewares store
7. Chatted in Chinese with the lovely man who runs said housewares store
8. Learned the words for latitude and longitude in Chinese from said man. (They're Wei3 Du4, and Jing1 Du4 if you're interested)
9. Got to chat with another couple from my company for a few minutes
10. Struck up a wonderful conversation in Chinese with a young woman and her mother over the young woman's adorable 1 year old girl (see more below the pictures)
                 AND.......
11. Made my first real dinner in my apartment

Dough for my tortillas

Veggies and eggs for inside the tortillas

Homemade tortillas

My dinner

More about number 10.  I almost passed these people by with no more than a wave.  But they were trying to get the cute little girl to say hello to her Ayi (auntie), a.k.a. me.  I felt compelled to stay and talk with them a little, so I asked them how old she was and this started a conversation about where I'm from and what I'm doing in Tianjin.  After the grandmother forced me to take her seat on the bench, she asked me if I was teaching English at the international school.  I corrected her to tell her I'm teaching music.  She then excitedly informed me that she is a music teacher, too.  She teaches voice lessons out of her home right in the complex where we all live. And her daughter is a cellist in the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra.  I then talked with them both for about another 15 minutes.  In Chinese. Mostly...

The daughter, Liu Chang, and I exchanged *WeChat information and promised to keep in touch often.  The two women also said we will get together again soon.

Before I left in order to get my cold items in my fridge, Liu Chang told me that she believed our meeting was 有缘 (you3 yuan2), or 'destiny'.  I'm inclined to agree. 

I am extremely glad I decided to step out of my apartment door.

Liu Chang and I

*WeChat is a Chinese app that serves as a free instant messaging and social media platform.  And it works across countries too, so if you want to get WeChat send me a message and I will add you and we can basically text halfway around the world for free.  And it's in English, so don't worry about having to decipher Chinese.

Apartment Tour

I'm going to blame this lame blog post title on jet lag.  FYI, Jet lag does some weird things to your brain.  Like causing you to experience slap happy hysterical laughter, tears included, over something that's not even really that funny.  Or staring blankly into the distance instead of answering a question because you cannot even begin to process what you are thinking.  But I digress.  This post is not about jet lag.  It's about showing you a tour of my apartment here in China.

I arrived safely in China late Sunday morning and got internet set up in my apartment Wednesday afternoon.  So I am finally able to update all of you, my faithful readers, on my life here in China!

It has been an incredibly busy few days, and a lot of that time has been devoted to getting phone service, discovering our city, finding food, and shopping for apartment essentials.

So, without further ado, here is a video I took on the first day of my arrival in my city.  My wonderful host person helped me unpack and organize and take this video!  And since I've purchased things like pillows and bedding since this video, I've included some pictures of those at the bottom of this post.

And I'm sorry I can't write more coherently right now.  Let's blame that on the jet lag, too.

I'm not super happy with how the quality of the video turned out on YouTube.

But it took hours to upload, so we'll unfortunately have to deal.

My bed with new IKEA bedding...and my accidental navy blue fitted sheet and black flat sheet...

Guest bedroom

New pillows, plants, and rug

Long Time No See

How to begin? Hello! Long time no see! 好久不见！(hao3 jiu3 bu2 jian4)


I have picked up my pen, figuratively speaking, after a long hiatus to announce to my little blogosphere that in about 2 months time I will be returning to China to teach music at an International school. To many of you who are reading this, this is not news since I probably told you in person, but if I don't ever see you, then, surprise!


The main reason I decided to start blogging again is that I have way too many thoughts and emotions to really understand what I'm thinking and feeling most of the time. If you've ever had to make a major life transition then you may understand what this is like.


Every single day I experience more emotions than I know what to do with, and frequently all at the same time. I am stressed about all of the end-of-the-year school things I have to do, wanting the stress to be over, and not wanting the stress to be over, because that means I will not teach these students ever again. I am simultaneously puppy-dog excited about whoever my new students will be. I am soul-achingly sad to leave the people I love here: my family, my friends, my church family, my students, my coworkers, our new dog (I know, not technically a person, but already I love him). I am thrilled to meet the people I will live and serve with over the next two years. I am afraid to leave the comforts of home: the familiar, the routine, the Starbucks, the easy access to cheese and tortillas. My heart leaps at the thought of being in China once more. I can't wait to study Chinese more, eat Chinese food, speak with Chinese people, drink nai cha, take overcrowded busses....


If you felt that was a lot to read, then you're right. It's also a lot to experience at one time, all the time. And that is not even everything.


I am overwhelmed with the prospect of finishing my time here in New Jersey well, and preparing myself well to return to China at the same time. Time is dwindling. I'm done with school in less than a month. I have four more Sundays as music minister at my church. I start training for China in a month's time. This is unfathomable to me.


So, all that said, I'm going to try to regularly post between now and my departure (as yet undetermined) one specific thing that I will miss, and one specific thing I am excited about. Since it's Monday, and Mondays are currently one of my days at the Catholic school, I'll start there.


I will miss morning times at the Catholic school where I currently teach. I will miss the whole school (quietly) gathering together to hear a scripture lesson, listen to announcements, celebrate birthdays and achievements, sing a hymn, and salute the flag, and sing a patriotic song.


I am excited to experience and fall in love with my new school's morning traditions, whatever those may be.






That's all for now. Because I am a teacher and it's late and there's school tomorrow. :) 下次见！


~Erin

Faithfulness, Trust, and 童话

I like music. A lot. If you know me, you're saying “Duh!”. But in all seriousness, music is the most powerful tool at my disposal for learning new things, connecting to others, and expressing myself. It is also often through songs that Father teaches me things or reinforces things I should already know but have as of yet failed to grasp. One of those lessons that I have been currently learning is that of trusting in God; being able to trust that He is faithful, and that I can fully trust Him with every aspect of my life - especially my uncertain future.

~~~~~~~~

Story Time:

Around Thanksgiving of 2011, my dear friend and I sat down for a few hours and memorized all of the words to a song. Said song is called 童话 (Tong Hua) which translated into English means “Fairy Tale”. It is an incredibly beautiful, sappy, sad, tear jerking Chinese love song. And I'm still proud that we learned and memorized all of the words in the space of a few hours, because my Chinese was pretty much nonexistent at that point in time. 童话 became 'my' Chinese song after that as I prepared myself to go to China. I listened to other Chinese songs, but this was the only one I really truly knew. Every time I heard 童话 I became filled with excitement over my future journey to China.


(side note: 童话 was written in 2005 by Malaysian Chinese artist Michael Wong and is one of those songs that pretty much everyone knows and loves).




Well, come August 2012, after a month studying in Beijing, I found myself journeying by train to Harbin with my teammates where I would live for the next 10 months. It was a long train ride that got us to the Harbin train station at some ridiculously late hour. We were exhausted, and had to haul our luggage up stairs to get out into the night to get taxis to our school. I felt nervous, and was apprehensive of pretty much everything at that point. As we emerged into the night and marveled at the raucous crowds of people and the bright neon Chinese signs I heard a song wafting out of some bar or club. That song was 童话. I exclaimed “I love this song” and hummed along, which elicited a smile from Vincent, our Foreign Affairs Liason. And at that moment, all of my fears and trepidations for the coming year ceased. It felt like God was telling me, “You are home. Don't be afraid. This is home. I am with you.”




Through the year in Harbin, I experienced many, many ups and downs. Life was hard a lot of the time. But it was also really rewarding. 童话 would pop up occasionally. It was an initial source of bonding with a teammate. I would pull it out to perform for and connect with some students in a restaurant, or on a field, or at karaoke. I would hear it sometimes when walking on the street. (It is still pretty popular even though it's not as current. It's a classic.) It was like part of the background music or playlist of my life.




Fast forward to June 20^th, 2013. My last day in Harbin. I had been emotional for weeks. But this day was the hardest by far. I had to say my final goodbyes to my students, my campus, and my friends and leave the city that I had come to love through the hardships of the year. As we all waited around in front of our apartment building for the bus to come to take us to the train station I stood in a circle with some of my students. After aimless chatting and awkward silences someone said, “sing a song”. So we sang “you are my sunshine” together, since I had taught it to all my classes, and it was like our theme song. After it ended, someone else said “sing a Chinese song”. So of course I pulled the only Chinese song I knew out of my 'pocket' and started into 童话。 Just a few bars in, I looked around at my students and saw tears escaping from some eyes, and then watched two students completely lose it. I barely lasted past the end of the song before I was a complete blubbering mess. Then I hugged each student goodbye and sobbed my way onto the bus that would bring me to the end of my time in Harbin.

~~~~~~~

It wasn't until months later as I was reflecting on China and agonizing over my current life situation and my plans and hopes for the future that it hit me. 童话 had come full circle. As I entered Harbin, it was a promise that Harbin would be my home, and that God would be with me through the whole journey. As I exited Harbin, it was as if God was saying “Do you see? Do you remember? This place has become your home, just as I promised. These students that you didn't even know 10 months ago became people whom you loved and were loathe to leave. I was with you when things were horrible, and I was with you when they were great. I am faithful. I am always faithful.”


Tonight I Skyped with one of my teammates from China, and got to share with her some of my current life story and the things I've been learning since coming back from China. I know that I want to go back to China in the future. And I also know that I need to stay in New Jersey for at least another year for many reasons, and I am committed to that decision. But it's scary. With that decision comes the possibility and the fear that I have forever allowed the door to return to China to close.


After I hung up, I proceeded to return to my Chinese language studies that I had been doing before the call (I study Chinese at most spare moments in my life in some way). And somehow they led me to a video of 童话. I watched the video and read the Chinese lyrics. I was at first just amazed by how much of the Chinese I actually understood. And then it hit me again. This is my promise/covenant song in everything regarding China. God is faithful. If He wants me to go back, I will go back. I have nothing to fear. He is with me in the sea of uncertainty that is my life just as He was with me in Harbin. He is always faithful.






If you're interested, here's a link to the music video:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOeFSgQEsMQ


And here's an English translation (it's not the best, but you can get the general idea):


http://www.lyricsmansion.com/result_east/tong-hua-%28english-translation%29-lyrics-guang-liang.html

We're not in China anymore...

America is a little different from China.

Today I...

Eavesdropped on airport conversations (on accident) because they were in English and I could understand them.

Hugged my parents.

Rode in a car that wasn't a taxi.

Stood outside and listened to cicadas and the two cars that drove by.

Slept on a bed that felt like fluffy clouds.

Ate a bagel. With cheese.  Said cheese was neither incredibly fake nor cheddar.

Did laundry in a washer (with liquid laundry soap) AND a dryer.

Walked barefoot outside on the grass.

Talked to people in America on a cellphone.

Talked to people in America in person.

Had to remind myself that toilet paper goes in the toilet.

Didn't have to mop my bathroom after I took a shower.

Cooked on a stove.

This is so surreal.

China Nights

Cathy, Lora, and I went to a night market tonight.  I've been wanting to go for a while, and since we only have two weeks left in Harbin, time is running out! I wish I could explain everything in a way to help you understand what an Asian night market is like.  It's unlike anything I have ever experienced in America.  All of the people, the noises, the smells are too great in number to count.  It's so busy, but not a hurried busy.  You can't hurry through a Chinese market.  There's too many people moseying along. 

So, I'll try to help you understand through pictures and videos of the whole experience. 

The first thing we did was buy a bunch of different street foods for our dinner.  I had a slice of watermelon on a stick, delicious spicy doufu (tofu), and a deep fried huge potato curl on a stick.

The doufu lady frying the yummy doufu!

Enjoying the doufu

Fried potato on a stick.  So delicious it has a heavenly glow.

After sating our hunger, we perused the hundreds of stalls selling things like ginormous stuffed animals, housewares, clothing (including undergarments), awesome lighters, and bejeweled headbands. 

I bought a Chinglish T-shirt.  I've been wanting one for a long time, and it was pretty inexpensive.  It also makes absolutely no sense.

Along the top, it says: "Moussy glmaucw with an nupaarlelled negry that enmacred the world"

I also got an adorable dress for super cheap.  It was funny looking through the piles of clothes at the shop I purchased the dress from because the owner of the stall would toss things he thought we would like our way all while shouting at the people walking by to come to his stall.  Basically he was telling them "Look, the foreigners are shopping here.  You should buy my things too." 

Foreigners = Free Advertisement

After almost three hours of walking around, we were exhausted.  So we trudged our way back through the crowds of people and then ran to catch the 104 bus so we could get back to school.

My attempt at a picture of the crowd of people behind us

I had more bus video, but the internet is not happy, so it will not upload.  I'll try again later!

May Flowers

Spring basically happened overnight.  One day everything was dry and barren, still recovering from the April snows, and the next grass was popping out of the ground and buds were starting to appear on trees and bushes.

Cathy and I decided to walk around campus to capture some of the beauty.

First, the lovely Cathy on one of the tree-lined paths that leads away from our apartment building.

Opening blossoms

A shot of Teaching Building 1 (where our office is located and where I teach 3 classes)

Stopping to smell the flowers.

Our willow-lined road

Okay, not necessarily pretty, but it's nice to see our apartment building not covered in snow!

Culture

First off, I apologize for not blogging for the entire month of April.  It was absolutely insane, and I have no idea where that month went.  Maybe it was the teaching on 2 separate weekends thing and planning and administering midterm exams.  At any rate, I'm back and reflecting on culture.  I return to America in less than 2 months, and that has gotten me thinking about all of the things that are different between these two countries.

As you probably know, life in China is a little different than life in America. I'm pretty accustomed to Chinese cultural rules at this point. I have embraced many of these rules as my own. This means I'm probably a little fuzzy on the American ones. So here's a heads up to my friends back in the U.S.A. Feel free to (gently) reprimand me if you notice me doing these things in a couple months.

1. Standing too close
   Personal bubbles don't exist in China. There's a whole heck of a lot of people here. Sometimes you're on a bus literally crammed full of people and you have to have your body shoved up against a complete stranger with your arm reaching around some man's waist to be able to hold onto a bar to keep from being flung into other people by the jerking of the bus. This is totally okay.
2. Pushing
   This is linked into the “standing too close” thing. Again, China has a lot of people. If you want to get on or off a bus, order food, or enter or exit a building, you have to be pushy. Literally. If you don't push people or jostle for your position, you're not going to get what you need. Sorry in advance.
3. Being unable to stand in line
   And this goes with the “pushing” thing. People don't really stand in lines here. You kind of form small mobs and then push to the front. People will cut in front of you if you're not assertive enough so you've just got to keep pushing forward. This also connects with “standing too close”. In the cases where there is something resembling a line, it is perfectly acceptable to be immediately behind the person in front of you. I understand that this is probably not the case in America unless things have completely changed in the last 10 months.
4. Linking arms or holding hands
   I often link arms or hold hands with my friends (girls, not boys) here. To be fair, I did this before, but after living in a culture where it is the norm, I'll probably be even more likely to forget that it's mostly not okay in America. So if you're not comfortable with me standing really close and holding your hand while I talk to you, just let me know.
5. Table Manners
   This mostly applies to eating out. I'm much more inclined to slurp. I've also become pretty adept at shoveling large amounts of food into my body in short periods of time as our lunch period is limited. So sometimes I might be more focused on the food than the conversation.
   Also, if you eat something with bones here, it is completely expected that you remove said bones from your mouth and pile them up on the table, not on a plate. The same is done with any tissues you use during the meal.
   Finally, at Chinese restaurants, you order a bunch of dishes and everyone shares. I like this a lot. I'm probably going to complain that we don't do this often in America. Please forgive me.
6. Being bad at speaking English
   Okay, this one's not a cultural thing. It's just something that will probably annoy you. I teach English and I try my hardest to maintain my grasp on correct grammar and a wide, intelligent vocabulary. However, I fail at that a lot of the time. A lot of my days are spent communicating with students whose first language does not have any verb tenses and therefore struggle with English and its gazillion verb tenses. I've gotten really good at communicating my ideas in English almost entirely in the present tense, simple future, and simple past since using other tenses often causes my students with a low English level to look at me with glazed-over eyes. Though I do still try out present continuous, present perfect, past perfect, and past continuous first, sometimes I just get myself grammatically confused. Please help me.
   I also apologize if I say things like “have a try”, “have a rest”, “just so-so”, and countless other Chinglish phrases that I probably don't even realize I use.

I hope you find this helpful and informative for the future. I will make cultural mistakes. Let's just laugh at them together and move on.

Mondays

I type this as I savor the last bites of my tiny little “french bread cake”, a gift from a student.

It's 8pm and I've just finished my night class.

I must admit, when I got my schedule for the semester I panicked at the words “night class”. Who honestly wants to teach a group of 41 Sophomore Finance students oral English at 6pm every week? Not me.

I've now taught this class for 3 weeks, and it has its challenges, but it's also been one of my best classes.

Monday nights have become special to me.

They've allowed me to be there when a friend needed English help.

They've given me sweet moments to chat with the awesome boys who always stay after class to work.

They've given me time to walk and talk with the boyfriend and girlfriend who sit in the front row and work really hard to improve their English.

They've given me the opportunity to run into 6 girls from my TCFL class from last semester (as well as their two Korean students).

Mondays are a gift.

I am blessed beyond measure.

Telephone

Speaking Chinese is a little nerve wracking face to face.  On the phone, it's terrifying.  If I can't see someone and fill in the multiple gaps in my Chinese with gestures, I am at a loss and freeze up.

The other night I was just hanging out in my apartment when I got a phone call.   I saw it was from the Chinese man Bethany and I played cards with in the Kunming airport.  I answered the phone with fear in my heart.  (He speaks absolutely zero English).  I was able to hold my own for a little bit.  We established that I am back in Harbin.  Then I heard him say "(chinese chinese) nu peng you (girlfriend)" and panicked for a moment until a girl started talking to me, and I realized it was his girlfriend.  We talked for a little until I had asked her to repeat something about 4 times and still had no idea what she was saying.  I eventually had to say "ting bu dong", and she hung up. 
I redeemed myself a little by sending him a text in Chinese. "对不起。 我在电话中说中文不好。 我很紧张。"  (I'm sorry.  I'm bad at speaking Chinese on the phone.  I feel very nervous.)
I was also worried that he would reply to my text message and I would have no way to know what it said, but he just sent me "说的很好" (You spoke very well), which I can read!  Yay for being a tiny bit literate!  I didn't respond to his message, because I felt that his statement was completely untrue.  I did very badly at speaking.

Then today I got a phone call from a number I didn't recognize:
Me: Hello?
Other person: Hello.  shi (chinese chinese) lao shi (chinese chinese chinese) tai guo (chinese chinese). (translation: is........teacher.........Thailand..........)
Me: uh....?????
Other person: ming tian you shi ma? (are you busy tomorrow)
Me: mei you shi (no)
Other person: ni xihuan hua xue ma? (do you like (????))
Me: shen me yi si? (huh?)
Other person: ski.  ni xihuan ma? (do you like?)
Me: no! bu xihuan ski.
Other person: ni xihuan (chinese chinese) ma?
Me: huh?
Other person: climb mountain
Me: xihuan.  zhe shi shei??? (who is this???)
Other person: (repeat name I don't understand)
Me: deng yi hui'er. (wait a moment).

I ran down the hall to Cathy's apartment and passed her my phone.  (Hug your Chinese speaking friends, by the way.  They're the best!) She found out that this is one of the teachers I met in Thailand who is from Harbin.  She wanted to invite me to ski tomorrow, but I don't like to ski, so instead, next saturday we will climb mountains together.  I hope it's the hiking kind and not the rock climbing kind.

I may never pick up my phone again.

Change

Today I woke up with this plan:

-Finish the worksheet for TCFL

-Go print lesson plans and worksheets

-Make copies

-Finish job application for next year

-Relax

Then, I got a phone call.

Adrienne had just had her meeting with the school and informed me that I wouldn't be teaching my junior international trade and sophomore tcfl classes like we had thought this semester, but that I would be teaching sophomore international trade and finance majors this semester (in addition to my junior english majors from last semester).

Classes begin TOMORROW.

Change of plans.

I took a few minutes to pity myself for the shattering of my plans for the day, as well as the hours and hours I had spent crafting lesson plans for the two courses I will no longer actually be teaching.

And then I sat down at my computer and planned an intro lesson plan for the classes I will start to teach tomorrow, made new worksheets, and printed and copied things. And now I get to write a blog post about it.

The truth is, things change in China. A lot. And often, very suddenly. And I hate change. I tend to fight change with every fiber of my being. It's pretty exhausting. But you know what happens? I fight, struggle, and cry, but in the end, the change comes, and I adapt.

For example:

I had to move apartments a week before Thanksgiving last semester (nasty mold problem). I cried about it. I felt depressed. I thought it was going to be the straw that broke the camel's back. But it wasn't. I moved in to 206, and then got to hang out with my teammates on the 2^nd floor more often. I actually like my new apartment better than my old. The change was good for me.

So today, rather than focusing on all of the negative things I saw in the way the change of plans would affect me today and this semester, I am dwelling on all the good.

1. I get to try to not make the same mistakes with my new classes this semester that I did with my classes last semester.
2. I get to have the opportunity to know 200 new students that I wouldn't otherwise have known.
3. I get to sing “You are my sunshine” with my classes again.
4. I sent a text message to my TCFL students to tell them about how I wouldn't be their teacher this semester, and how I was sad, but still wanted to hang out, eat together, and have them over to my apartment. I was overwhelmed with responses like “don't be sad ~ we are friend! It never change forever”, “thank you my dear teacher! I am also very sad you cannot teach my class, because I like you so much! I wish you health and happy all the time!”, “I am happy to join your apartment. If you have free time, I want to hang out with you”, and many, many more.
5. This could give me more of an opportunity to pour into my TCFL students' lives now that I can just be their friend instead of the person responsible for their grade.
6. The heat is back on in our apartments!!
   
   

   

   Hobo Erin: before the heat was turned back on

   
   
7. The nai cha (milk tea) people came back! I love them!
   
   

   

   Desperate times call for....nai cha