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

   
   

   
   

   
   

Advice for a foreigner spending a day at a Chinese person's home

 a.k.a. Memoirs of a visit to a Chinese person's home

1. Bring a gift. Fruit is usually a safe bet. Cookies are cool too.
2. You will be asked “are you hungry?” and supplied with fruit and nuts to eat to your heart's content. Please, eat, but remember that this is only a snack and you will have lunch soon.
3. You may be served some “strange” dishes like sheep's stomach and intestines for lunch. Eat as much as you can to be polite. Don't think about the villi waving at you from your piece of intestine. Satisfy your actual appetite with the guo bao rou.
4. Wear enough clothes to keep you warm when you go for a walk in the snow to visit the Confucius museum and neighboring Engineering university. Also, practice walking backwards in case the wind tries to blow snow into your face.
5. Be prepared to sit in someone's bedroom and watch an English movie while the Chinese family hangs out in other parts of the apartment.
6. You may be offered ice cream before dinner because your hosts are concerned that you are hungry from waiting for dinner. You do not need to accept this ice cream, but please, find a culturally appropriate way to turn it down.
7. Eat those chicken hearts with a smile on your face and love in your heart.
8. Come ready with a song, or two, or six. Swing dancing or some other ability wouldn't be turned down either.
9. Have fun, talk, laugh, and learn because Chinese people are awesome!!

Jump

Let me tell you a story. It's a true story. It's a story of how I completely stepped outside my comfort zone and did something incredibly insane. It is not the story of how I am teaching in China, although now that I think about it, that also fits the description. No, this is the story of how I jumped off a cliff.

When my dear friend said she wanted to go cliff jumping, I immediately thought “good for you. I'll stay standing on the ground, thank you very much.” However, before I knew it, I (or some crazy alter ego, let's call her Crazy Erin) had agreed to also hurl my body off a cliff into the ocean (as well as snorkeling and a delicious beach bbq). My decision was helped along by the acquisition of a few friends who also wanted to jump off the cliff and the fact that there was no way I was going to be the chicken who didn't jump. So we made plans to book the tour for the next day.

I spent most of the night awake, feeling slightly queasy and calculating in my head exactly how fast my body would hit the water with gravity at 9.81 m/s^2, jumping from a height of 8 meters.

The next day I calmed down, however, when the time actually came to go to the cliff. I had some relaxing time sitting on a beach and snorkeling to prepare myself for the insane thing I was about to do.

Before I knew it, we were in a long boat on the ocean driving up to the cliff. Then there I was tying on rubber shoes. I stepped to the edge of the boat and thought “Am I really going to do this?” Crazy Erin said “shut up and dive off the boat” (I apparently developed a Smeagol-Gollum complex that day). So I dived off the boat into the ocean waves. And when I say waves, I do not mean tiny, gentle waves, but real, rolling ocean waves. As one of my friends said, it felt like we were at war and swimming to shore, and I completely agree. It was surreal.

After some intense swimming, I made it to “shore” which was actually a medium-sized coral rock jutting out of the waves. I gave my hand to our Thai guide and he helped me climb up onto the rock. I walked past him, saw the cliff, and said, out loud, “you have got to be kidding me.” I had been expecting stairs or some gentle slope up to the cliff, but instead, I was faced with a wall of jutting coral rock that I was supposed to just climb up. I did not sign up for this! I signed up to jump off a cliff, not climb one! I'm absolutely terrified of rock climbing!

I looked up at one of my friends climbing up, noticed his shaking legs, and was empowered by a moment of shared fear to climb up as well. Before I knew it, Crazy Erin was grabbing hand and foot holds in the rock and pulling herself up the side of the cliff. (Luckily, the actual rock climbing part was not very long, and then it was just a more “gentle” climb up and across uneven, jutting spires of rock).

Once I made it to the top, I watched a couple people jump into the water. I was standing by the 10 meter jumping spot, but I must have looked terrified because the Thai guide told me to go over to the 8 meter spot. I willingly obeyed (although Crazy Erin did feel a little disappointment at not jumping from the 10 meters).

All that was left for me to do was step across the uneven terrain a few feet and stand next to the Thai guide on the edge. Every part of my being wanted to reach out for the stranger's hand to give me confidence to step up to the edge but I (and this was me, not Crazy Erin) told myself “No. You will not be that person.” So I moved the few steps to the uneven edge on my own and looked down the 25 feet at the ocean below, thinking “okay, you're gonna jump, and make your body like a pencil, and you're gonna be fine, and you're not gonna drown, and you'll be fine, it'll be great...” Then:

Thai man: “3...”

My thoughts: “Why is he counting down? I'm not ready. I need time to prepare myself.”

Thai man: “2...”

My thoughts: “Really not ready. I don't want to jump when he says “1”. I can't!! No! I will jump at “1”. If I don't jump when he says “1” I will never jump. I will not be that person!!!”

Thai man: “1!”

                                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And then I threw my body off the cliff. My next immediate thought was “what did I just do?!?”, my legs started to curve up like that would keep me from hitting the water, and then I thought “no! Pencil! Pencil!!”, and then I slammed into the ocean butt first, gasped from the shock and pain, and ingested some salt water. Not the most graceful experience, but, I did it! I jumped off a cliff!!! I freaking jumped off a cliff!!!!

All that remained was to swim back through the ocean waves, avoid the boat propellor (narrow escape), climb the ladder, and throw my exhausted, exhilarated body onto the “deck”, and tell Crazy Erin, “you had your fun, and now we don't need to do that again for a long time.”

Airport Adventures

Cathy, Lora, Hillary, and I took what can only be described as a scintillating journey into the world of an overnight layover in a Chinese airport. This is my account of that journey.

February 13^th, 2013

11:19 pm: Location: Guangzhou Airport. Mission: Claim the seats where we will bed down for the night.

11:26 pm: Seats claimed. Lora and I journey into the unchartered regions of the airport in search of food and water.

11:31 pm: Water located. Lora ventures off on her own to search for food. Don't know if I'll ever see her again.

11:54 pm: Lora returns. No food anywhere. We tighten our belts and await the morning.

February 14^th, 2013

12:02 am: I cram my body into two narrow seats. Pretend my back and neck are not in pain.  Fall into fitful sleep.

1:17 am: Awoken by the sound of birds chirping. I uncover my eyes and groan inwardly. Still hours 'til dawn. Adjust position, attempt to find sleep once more.

3:17 am: It's my watch. Our bags are safe. No change in the surroundings. Two confused Chinese women stand shouting out letters of the alphabet. I look for the dawn and a return to sanity.

4:21 am: Eerie screams echo through the airport. Can't tell if they're coming closer or not.

4:56 am: Startled into awareness by a sudden rumbling emitting from a slumbering Chinese man.

5:29 am: We mourn the loss of Lora's purse zipper. Sleeplessness has begun to take its toll. We need nourishment. Soon we will march on the gates.

5:53 am: Lora and I abandon the others in search of airport security.

6:30 am: We've passed security. We press on wearily past the few open food shops, cursing whoever dared charge 48 yuan for 10 dumplings, denying our frugal stomachs sustenance. We satisfy our hunger on overpriced apples.

7:35 am: Lora and I rouse ourselves from our stupor long enough to board the plane. We did it! We survived the airport!!

Adventure is out there!

Some days I go to do something and I just know that it's going to turn into a blog post later.  Today was one of those days.

Lora and I ventured out into the -20 F weather this morning with the plan of going to 中央大街(Central Street), buying some yummy bread, and seeing the Songhua River (since we've lived in Harbin for 5 months now and have yet to visit it).

We hopped on the 114 bus and made our way to the back where we were able to get a seat (hooray!) for our impending 1 hour bus ride.  We were soon joined by a group of Chinese high school students who also happened to be going to Central Street.  We discovered they're staying at our college to take the art gaokao exam.  We chatted with them throughout the bus ride, and parted ways after we arrived at Central Street, but only after they bought us ice cream.

Because ice cream is the first thing I want to eat when surrounded by ice sculptures....

Hanging out with the violin sculpture

Lora and I bought our bread and walked in the direction of the river.  Here's the entrance to walk down to it.

Towers of ice

A plethora of people

 We slipped out on to the river, and soon realized that we had no idea what we had actually planned to do on the river when we decided to come.  So we walked around for a while, turning away many people asking us to pay to ride in their 马拉车 (horse-drawn carriage), and not really knowing what we were supposed to be doing.  We finally decided to just go onto the river and start walking.  Lora and I trekked across about 2/3 of a mile of frozen river and made it to what we eventually realized was Sun Island.  As soon as we climbed the stairs off the river, I felt like we had stepped into another world.  It was incredibly quiet and empty, which is eerie if you live in China, because here you are always surrounded by noise and people.  We wandered around for a bit, enjoying the peacefulness, and the Russian architecture, then we decided we were getting cold, so we left.

I would be the one to find the music related statue

Lora and I booked it back across the river to combat the cold, had a lovely dinner at Pizza Hut (that place is fancy in China!), and went on a 20 minute expedition to find the bus stop where our desired bus was located.  We asked multiple people where our bus stop was, and literally chased after a bus for a while before we found it.  After our exhausting day of walking in the cold, I practically fell asleep as soon as we got on the bus, even though I was standing, and then actually fell asleep after about a half hour when I was able to acquire a seat.  Now it's not even 7 pm and I'm looking forward to 9 so I can justifiably go to bed! :)

If you care to see the Songhua River expedition in 'action', please enjoy these videos! 

How Sweet It Is

So, it's the Christmas season.  Most people would say that the Christmas season is over since Christmas day has already come and gone.  I, however, had classes, and finals to grade, and grades to input leading up to and following Christmas day, so that left no time for something I actually wanted to do: celebrate with students in my apartment.  So I'm going to go with the 12 days of Christmas idea.

I invited a small group of students from my TCFL class over tonight and here's what we did, in pictures.

Gifts of beautifully wrapped apples

First, some of my students gave me gifts upon arriving, and I made sure everyone had something to drink.

Then....

My wonderful Mama sent me a package that had sugar cookie mix in it!

 That's right!  We baked sugar cookies!

Stirring.

One of my favorite things about baking with Chinese students is how they will all take turns so well.  Every person got to "have a try" at stirring the cookies.

Cutting out cookies

I wish I had a video of them fighting to be the first one to put their cookie cutter into a freshly rolled-out piece of dough.  It was hilarious.

Decorating the cookies with colored sugar also sent from Mama!

Enjoying the cookies!

While the cookies were baking in batches, we sang songs and played games.

Singing a Chinese song together

One of the games we played was where you stand in a circle and count, one at a time.  (e.g. Sarah: "1", Erin: "2", Andrew: "3", and so on).  Sounds easy, right?  Well, every time the number is a multiple of 7, or has the number 7 as a part of it, you clap and don't say the number.  If you screw up, you have a "punishment" where you have to sing a song, or dance.  Here's one:

After a couple of hours, my students informed me, "it is late".  So then began the customary picture taking.

Then we had a hug circle, which was a China first for me.  Chinese people rarely hug.

And then it was time to say goodbye.

There is only one cookie left.  We ate a lot of cookies...

To eat, or not to eat...I didn't

A friend in my heart

So, somehow it's been a month since I last posted.  Wah!!! A month!!??!!!

I don't really have an excuse, other than grading mountains of midterms, teaching class, then turning around and preparing classes for finals, meeting with students, and trying to not be exhausted.  (I also didn't have internet for a while in there....but I think I've fixed the problem, and I'm back! yay!) Break will soon be here, and I'm trying not to look for it with too much anticipation.

You're probably wondering at the title of my post.  One thing that I've been doing is building friendships.

In one of my classes (okay, in my favorite class...) I taught my students a bunch of words to use to describe people's appearance.  It was hilarious, because I brought in my own clothing, and showed them the different hairstyles on myself.  The whole class is now skilled at using the words "v-neck", "blonde", and many others.

I gave the class a homework assignment to describe their best friend's appearance.
Here was one student's answer.

Everyone has friends in their life, but which is the most unforgettable one?  If you ask me, I will tell you who is the person in my heart.
She is a good-looking girl.  She is the one with long, blond hair.  She has blonde [I think she means brown] and green eyes.  She is the most active person in our class.  Her eye full of love and always shining.  She often wearing jeans, v-neck sweater, and boots.  She don't always wearing jewelry, but she always wearing a scarf because of the cold weather.  Do you know who is the girl?  She is my best teacher from other country.  Her name is in my heart.

Can I just say, it made my heart melt.  I love Chinese students.  That's all.