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.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Friday, August 21, 2015
A Weekend of Firsts
1. First overnight guest.
2. First night intentionally staying up past 10pm.
3. First time a Chinese taxi driver has ever good naturedly/sarcastically joked with me/us in Chinese.
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.
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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.
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| Subway Selfie |
5. First time sending someone off at the Tianjin West Train Station
6. First time riding the Tianjin subway by myself!
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| 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.
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| A tiny piece of the guo3 zi |
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| 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.
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| 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!
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
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.
What are you thankful for today?
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
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.
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| Rejoice Always, Pray Without Ceasing, Give Thanks in All Circumstances |
What are you thankful for today?
Sunday, August 2, 2015
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.)
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
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.
*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.
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 |
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| Veggies and eggs for inside the tortillas |
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| Homemade tortillas |
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| 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.
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| 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.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
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 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.
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| My bed with new IKEA bedding...and my accidental navy blue fitted sheet and black flat sheet... |
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| Guest bedroom |
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| New pillows, plants, and rug |
Monday, May 18, 2015
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
Friday, April 25, 2014
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 20th, 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.
~~~~~~~
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
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