A Nation in Mourning

Up till now I've avoided blogging about the 8.0 (according to the latest CCTV9 measurement report) earthquake that hit Sichuan Province last week. I figured the news agencies were all over the story, and my fellow China bloggers were keeping folks back home updated. I couldn't think of anything to add. Perhaps a product of our culture or merely a sad commentary on the times we're living in, I often find it difficult to relate to tragic events, particularly when they occur "out of sight". It really wasn't until yesterday that I began to feel the impact of what happened and what is continuing to happen. China has declared a three day mourning period which began Monday at 2:28, exactly one week to the minute that the earthquake hit. William and I were in a taxi heading back to my school from the medical college during this time. At 2:28 sirens went off, and there was a steady stream of horn honking for about a minute. Our driver along with many others pulled to the shoulder and drove the slowest I've ever seen Chinese taxi drivers drive. As we made our way down foot massage street, I was watching the faces of the Chinese shop owners and employees who had come to their doorsteps to watch the procession, and that was when the magnitude of this tragedy finally began to sink in. Anytime anything happens, it's so easy to immediately begin comparing the ways different cultures handle the same situations. National tragedies always evoke national unity (9/11, Hurricane Katrina, 5.12). This is true of both cultures I know and maybe the rest that I don't know. However, there have been some distinctly Chinese methods employed recently in the handling of the aftermath of the Beichuan Earthquake, and I thought it educational to discuss some of the most noticeable ones for those of you back home.

After the quake hit, the Chinese government and people mobilized, and in the opinion of those of us who have watched the presses for any updates, it seems their response has been quite respectable. Every department and every class at our school has rallied together to raise money and donate other supplies to take to Sichuan. Unfortunately, the earthquake caused some serious road destruction, and currently only planes have access to the hardest hit areas. Regardless, students have responded with sincerity and personal conviction to serve the people hurt in the earthquake. Each week my freshmen English majors are to turn in journal entries updating me on the month-long challenge they gave themselves. Last Friday Leon wrote the following:

The Challenge of Love

I know what had happened this week. I know this week is difficult for China. I also know what has happened this year. It’s so bad. I think this year for China is a real challenge. I don’t want to see more people get hurt. Crying is not useful.

I love my family. I love them. I love my classmates. I love my teachers. If they’re all right, I’m all right. I know the bad things didn’t happen first. Don’t be afraid. The earthquake comes one after one. What should we do? Can we bear it? Will we be hurt? I think this is enough. This is life. Maybe yesterday you are all right, today or tomorrow the bad things happens. All will be over. I love my family, classmates and my teachers. Are you all right? Don’t worry. Still I am and will stay with you.

Another similarity between our cultures: tangible death causes us to evaluate life. It must be terrifying to contemplate death when physical life is all there is.

The three days of mourning are interesting. First of all, entertainment is not allowed. Clubs, K-TV, and any other "entertainment" establishments have been mandatorily closed for the three days. Students are told to not engage in anything entertaining. Darla was told by a Chinese teacher not to show her previously scheduled film in class. Yesterday William and I went to play basketball at the medical school. The courts were deserted which thwarted our plans. We had anticipated joining one of the groups already playing since we didn't have a ball of our own, but there was no one to play with. We then came to my school where I have a ball we could use. My school's courts were nearly deserted, as well. There were four other boys playing basketball, and I shudder to think what might happen to them if they were caught. In addition to the no entertainment rule, all television stations are only allowed to show earthquake coverage. My television has about thirty some channels, and only three or four different reports can be seen. Tudou, a popular website that allows free movie downloads, currently has only twelve or so possible downloads - all earthquake footage. Films cannot even be searched on this website as far as we've seen. Speaking of websites, color has been removed from them for these three days of mourning. Everything is in black and white (for example, www.google.com.cn). Oh, and the Olympic torch has, of course, paused to observe this time. One of my students told me that this mandatory period of "silence" is a good method to cause people to stop and think more deeply, to take an introspective look, and to pray for those who were affected. I asked him if people would take advantage of this time. He couldn't say. For as long as human history has been chronicled and for as long as mankind continues, we will continue to mistake visible actions for invisible motives. It's not that I don't respect setting aside three days of mourning. I most certainly do! It's not even that I don't appreciate the methods implemented to bring about three days of silence. It's commendable. And the motives on the side of the government are totally honorable. I'm merely thinking about the underlying idea that people can become what they should be by placing specific requirements on them. I guess I'm really applying this situation to one more personal. There's an idea that sitting in the pew every Sunday and Wednesday makes for a good Follower. The more the outer cup is shiny, the better. Faith, Hope, Love. These aren't things that can be forced into your children, into your friends, or into your families by making certain things mandatory (whether verbally or, more commonly, through social pressure). I definitely want to avoid a soapbox. I know that you will know a tree by its fruit, but I also know that our view of fruit can be skewed sometimes. I think lemons are beautiful fruit, but I'm not such a fan of eating them. Durian, on the other hand, has a horrible wrap for its garlicky, dirty feet smell, but it's some of the tastiest fruit you will find (if you dare to try it). My point is that even if we can identify a tree by its fruit, maybe our view of the fruit itself is not truly representative of the type of tree our Father has asked us to be. So what came first, the chicken or the egg? Hmm, who really cares. The more important question for which there is an answer is what comes first, sincerity and love in one's heart or visible acts of sincerity and love? "First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will also be clean."

Gandhi once said, "Ask the poor. They'll tell you who the Disciples are." There's a certain amount of truth in that, and the implications are clear. I was just thinking about the mass amounts of aid that are being given and will continue to be given to Beichuan Earthquake survivors. These humanitarian endeavors are amazing examples of mankind's ability to empathize and serve others. Disciples are asked to do more. How are We set apart from others? The lines are blurred quite often because we confuse tangible actions with intangible qualities. Dr. Larry Crabb, author of Inside Out, wrote, "Because we refuse to apply the ointment that burns off the diseased crust (looking inside ourselves and bringing to the surface the pain that keeps us from unconditionally loving others), we settle for natural goodness, for the nice things we do that Believers and non-Believers alike are capable of choosing. We seldom experience supernatural goodness, the release of the energy of Chr*st that is deposited deeply within us through salvation." I'm so thankful for the Chinese government, the Chinese people, and the foreign governments' aid to Sichuan Province. The world knows how to meet the needs of those terribly affected by horrifically large tragedies. But its up to His Children to meet the needs of those terribly affected by the horrors we don't often see: the horrors of abandonment, abuse, animosity...Love is the fruit of the trees we've been called to be. Love motivates purely and acts sincerely. Love doesn't take time off or wait for serious tragedies to occur before acting. Love sees compassionately the needs of others here and now. Clean the inside...the rest will follow suit.

LEADING WITH A DISCLAIMER

The sheer length of time since my last update should guarantee at least one or two interesting anecdotes. Sadly, it doesn’t. But I’ve promised to update my faithful readers (or reader, maybe) and attempt to pull something together.

Teaching is bittersweet at the moment. I have one class that I’m really enjoying. Around Easter we watched the film The Ultimate Gift. It’s a cute, Hallmark-quality film about a spoiled young man who is offered the opportunity to receive a series of “gifts” that lead up to an unknown “ultimate” gift. The series of gifts included learning such important lessons as the values of work, money, family, friends, learning, gratitude, dreams, one day, and a couple others. I had planned to show the video, discuss what I consider to be the ultimate gift by doing a cultural talk on Easter, and then move on. However, in light of my students’ overwhelming appreciation for the film, I decided to give them an assignment that would require a bit of work on their part. I asked them to choose one of the “gifts” they feel they personally need to learn and challenge themselves for one month to learn it. For example, if they need to learn the value of money, they might choose to live on a limited amount of money for the whole month or to use their money to help others who are in financial straits. Each week they have to write a journal entry detailing the progress of their challenge, and at the end of the month, they will be presenting the lessons they learned from their challenge. While a large majority is taking the easiest approach possible to this project, the few who are taking it seriously are blowing my mind with the challenges they’ve given themselves and the work they’re putting into meeting the challenges. Here are some highlights:

1) Percy – No doubt the least liked boy in class because of the frank and rather rude comments he makes quite often (which he calls “honesty”), Percy chose the gift of friendship and has challenged himself by first cleaning up his personal appearance (Previously he never thought it important to impress his classmates so he grew his hair long and attempted a disturbingly stringy mustache. This, coupled with his infrequent showers, more than put off his classmates. Since the challenge, he has shaved, cut his hair and cleaned up his appearance.) He is also putting forth more of an effort to be friendly, helpful, and less judgmental of his classmates.

2) Felisha – Felisha is a quiet girl who has chosen to challenge herself to pass her P.E. class. As simple as it sounds, this challenge is huge for her. Not only was she not blessed with any athletic prowess, but the P.E. course they have this semester includes running hurdles, laps, and doing various jumping events. Felisha has challenged herself to run more (even though she hates it) and practice each activity more often and more devotedly. She’s already made huge progress. Before the challenge she couldn’t run one lap around the track; now she can run four!

3) Zita – Zita is a very closed off girl. She seldom talks in class, and I’ve only seen her smile once or twice. She’s the only girl who hasn’t taken the opportunity to come to my apartment for a visit (surprising only because everyone else jumps at the chance). Anyway, she has chosen to challenge herself to learn the gift of family. She has a very poor relationship with her father as a result of some negative experiences in childhood. This month she has challenged herself to confront her father and to begin to rebuild their relationship.

I’m excited to listen to their presentations coming up. My other classes are less than exciting. My non-English major classes last only seven weeks, two of which fall on holidays so we don’t meet. It’s hard to get anything done in five weeks. Plus, this semester my students hardly understand any English so having a productive class is like pulling teeth.

EARTHQUAKE

By now most of you have probably heard of the earthquake that hit central China Monday afternoon. We did indeed feel it in Shiyan. Jessica and I were in her apartment killing time before heading to class when things in her living room began to sway. It was a different feeling than the last earthquake we felt a month ago. This one lasted much longer but seemed to be more fluid in its movement than the last one, which seemed to be rather abrasive. I’ve been reading the news, and this earthquake was quite destructive. I haven’t heard the extent of the damage, but many lives have been affected.

SHANGHAI FAMILY REUNION

Jessica's putting me to shame by the amount of times she's blogged this month so I'm going to try to catch up.

Halley, a sister and third year student from my school, and I took a quick, five day trip to Shanghai last week. My oldest brother and his wife (Ashley and Jamie) were given an incredible opportunity to spend five days in Shanghai so Halley and I booked train and plane tickets there and back (excitement abounds here in Shiyan since the new advent of this incredible Internet based computer system which now allows us to book return tickets from the comfort of our own city rather than the archaic system of depending on friends or friends' friends who live in the particular city we need to return from to secure tickets for us). We left late Wednesday night after a torturous English corner experience and arrived in Wuhan with a pleasantly long layover in Hankou where we enjoyed an afternoon with Danielle and her friend Sunny.

Thursday night we arrived in Shanghai and made our way to a "hotel". I had looked for hostels semi-close to where Ashley and Jamie would be staying, and the cheapest one I found was 70 yuan a night. Halley, however, found a Chinese hotel especially suited for students on a tight budget. It wasn't really a hotel but a large apartment in which beds were rented out to travelers or new residents for a mere 17 yuan a night. It was a fairly nice place to stay, but neither Halley nor I felt comfortable taking showers there. Is it a bad sign when I can go five days without showering and hardly feel bothered by it? In China it's important to wash your feet before you go to bed so I made sure to comply to this cultural standard.

Friday Halley and I met up with Ashley and Jamie, and we spent the day walking and walking and walking some more. I have to be terribly honest and admit that Shanghai is not the most exciting city in China nor is it laid out well for tourists. However, I did really enjoy the architecture in the Yu Yuan Old Town, the parks which were quite lovely, and the famous Shanghai skyline that most definitely does not disappoint, particularly at night.

Saturday Ashley and Jamie did some souvenir shopping while Halley and I met her cousin and went to Fudang University. I didn't have anything of particular interest I wished to see, and Halley was quite excited about visiting this university which, to her, was the equivalent of touring Harvard. Later we met up with an old friend who has been working in Shanghai for a year. Janis tried to show us around a little but ended up proving that more often than not it's the locals who know the least about their city. Let me take this opportunity to segue into my challenge to anyone who is reading this: take time to discover the interesting things surrounding you!

Sunday Ashley and Jamie went to the Botanical Gardens which were quite a ways from where we were staying so Halley, Janis and I opted to visit Century Park. We spent the morning meandering about and even took an hour to ride a three person bike which was an interesting experience. Later that afternoon we were able to catch up with Ashley and Jamie and meet with the Family which was a totally rewarding way to spend a couple hours.

Halley and I left Sunday night after one last dinner hoorah with my family. Even though the Shanghai lifestyle pales in comparison to my Shiyan lifestyle, I was really glad to share a few China experiences with my brother and sister-in-law. I was especially grateful they could meet Halley and Janis because when all is said and done, China is best represented by its people, not its developed cities, not its pollution or crowds or even food (though the food does make for an enjoyable China experience), but by those individuals who represent the reason why I've chosen to come back yet another year.

Traveling with Halley was a great adventure in and of itself. She's so pure-hearted and good-natured. This trip represented a plethora of firsts for her: her first time to go to Wuhan, her first plane ride, her first time in Shanghai, her first subway ride, her first cappuccino, her first time to have a hard sleeper bed on the train, her first time to pray in English. She helped me remember the beauty of finding enjoyment in simple experiences.

THOUGHTS ON MEAGERNESS

One month. One hundred and sixty nine yuan. Here’s what I learned:

1) We can cook Chinese food affordably. Jessica can make awesome fried rice. Brian does a delicious tofu and onion dish, and I feel pretty confident I can do a reasonable job of scraping together some basic ingredients to make almost anything edible.

2) One finds surprising rewards in taking time to walk someplace instead of taking the bus or driving. Saving time by faster transportation isn’t always the better choice. Walking is good for the spirit. A slow pace is good for the soul.

3) Money can never buy a true family or faithful companionship. I feel so grateful for spending this time with Jessica and Brian who were a daily encouragement and devoted companions. And, though Darla lives on the other side of town, just knowing she was participating in this experience with us was a blessing.

4) I think I’ve realized what I appreciate most about having a sufficient amount of money to cover my daily needs; having money is convenient. Honestly, I’ve never been a big spender. I seldom buy things, and so I really thought being “meager” wouldn’t be a far stretch from the way I generally live each month. But I learned that the most significance I place on money is in terms of convenience: grabbing food to eat at a restaurant is far more convenient than buying vegetables (meat is too expensive!) down the hill, trucking back up to the apartment, cooking, and finally cleaning up afterwards. Making decisions to go into town involve more planning to ensure enough time has been allocated for walking there and back. Visiting friends who live far away becomes much more difficult. Making plans with others involves considering how much money I have to spend and what kind of bind a certain activity might put me in later. Ah, convenience. Sadly, I realized that poor people are also an inconvenience on others. Those without money are not able to participate in the types of activities we generally take for granted: eating out, watching TV, using the Internet, basic traveling, etc. We’ve realized that friendships are more difficult to continue when the relationship does not share a similar financial status. This month we’ve felt a significant decline in the amount of e-mails from back home. While it can be argued that those back home knew our Internet usage would be meager and, therefore, decided it must be pointless to keep us updated on their lives, I think it is important to note that we seldom keep relationships with people from whom we do not receive equal effort and involvement. How many relationships do we actually have in which we are giving more than we are receiving or investing more than the other party (and all the while not complaining about this discrepancy)? So this made me think. Why do we not help feed the hungry or give money to the poor? Is it because we don’t care? Is it because we don’t love? I think, actually, we do care and we do love. Much of the reason for not helping those in poverty comes from the fact that it’s inconvenient. Poverty does not come and find us in our pleasant housing and comfortable neighborhoods. Poverty can’t knock on our doors; it’s too busy just trying to survive. We must meet poverty where it is. We, who have the blessing of financial convenience, must inconvenience ourselves to find the poor, to help them where they are. After a month of being conscious of the small amount of money I have to spend, of the limitations I have on everything I do, and of the inconveniences that come with penny pinching, I am convinced that those living in poverty do not have a responsibility to find us before we should feel compelled to help them. We have a responsibility to find them. And, I think we’ll find the more we help others, the less we’ll think about ourselves and the less we’ll consider serving an inconvenience. I hope!

A COUPLE FIRSTS

Completely blank. That’s what happens to me when I sit down to blog at a reasonable hour with little to no demands on my time. Midnight is when I find my true inspiration – a fact that plagued me with little sleep during my college years. But it’s nine thirty, I just finished my one hour English lecture (supposed to be two) and my one hour interrogation from fifty some curious students, and I have nothing else to do…so I’m blogging.

Well, Meager March has turned into a month of firsts for me (not intentionally, but well executed nonetheless during a month that could easily have proven to be very boring). The first “first” is that I was electrocuted. I’ve never been electrocuted before – even that time when I touched the “electric” fence while at Cullman, Alabama just to see what it was like. Maybe the electricity was off or maybe we were lied to about it to prevent us from crossing the fence that lead to pastureland filled with terrifying and mean-hearted cows. Anyway, a couple weeks ago I had just washed my hands and had only pat-dried them (which means they were still wet). I then noticed the blow drier was still plugged in, a pet peeve of mine – when things are not put up after being used. So I unplugged it; only, the adapter didn’t come out with the plug, and my wet fingers clumsily touched the prongs that were still barely inserted into the adapter. I got quite a jolt. It was exhilarating, but I wouldn’t recommend it. My hand was a bit shaky after that for a few minutes.

The second, more exciting “first” came Monday night at 11:24 pm. I generally fall asleep before eleven, but this night I found myself tirelessly thinking in bed when suddenly it began to shake. Then I noticed the whole room felt like it was moving. It didn’t last long, and I immediately thought that the Germans above me were causing the racket (a justifiable thought because they’re quite loud actually – often jumping up and down and running and moving furniture late into the night). But then I thought it might have been an earthquake. I’ve never been in an earthquake before so I couldn’t really be sure. I fell asleep contemplating the cause of the shaking but was awoken at midnight by a phone call from Michael Scofield (from China not Prison Break) who asked if I’d felt the earthquake and said a lot of students had congregated outside. He was just checking on me, and given the inherited and fake cheery voice I put on for people who wake me up (so as not to let on that they have just interrupted my slumber), I think he felt assured of my peace of mind of having survived this harrowing experience. I mean, how many people live through earthquakes that measure a whopping 4.3 on the Richter scale and occur 30 miles from one’s location?

I’ve decided to go back to the States for a few weeks this summer. I had originally intended to stay in China during the summer and make my annual trip home during the winter break next year. However, I think it’s best I go home for a few weeks, and since I’ve made that decision, I’m increasingly looking forward to spending time with my family and friends.

My oldest brother and his wife are hoping to visit Shanghai for a few days next week, and I’m planning to take a couple days off from work to meet them there. This semester many of the Shiyan foreigners’ families have come for visits, and it’s such a blessing for all of us.

Well, in an effort to quit babbling while the quitting’s good, I’m signing off for now. Love much!

Mid-March Update

It’s been a busy month. I’ll try to keep this update concise, but I can already tell it’s going to end up grotesquely long. My apologies!

This semester we’ve each been given a heavy load of classes, most of mine yet to begin. I’m teaching a freshmen English majors’ course which meets twice a week. It’s the one class I really look forward to teaching; the other classes are necessary annoyances filled (for the most part) with too many students unmotivated to do the work it takes to learn English well and yet expecting me to work miracles. But I love my majors. We’ve been spending a lot of time together outside of class, and that’s made a huge difference in class. Barriers set up by the student/teacher relationship tend to be torn down after an afternoon of volleyball and basketball or an evening of horrific, personal animal attack accounts (one girl’s brother was bitten in the head by a pig, had to have six stitches and still doesn’t grow hair on his head in that spot. Stop laughing, Jessica!). In a couple of weeks, I begin another English majors’ class (sophomores this time), which will be followed a few weeks later with four new, seven week long classes.

Meager March is going well. The most drastic changes in our daily lives have involved meal times. We’ve cooked at home a lot and seem to be continuously eating leftovers. There are days when we’re totally meager and days where we cheat a bit (eating some things we’ve stored in our pantry) and days where we’re totally blessed by the kindness of others. (William took us out to dinner at Happy Guy’s this evening since his mom’s in town visiting for a few days.) We’re walking a lot more, choosing a brisk hour and a half walk to the medical school over a forty minute, one kuai bus ride. The exercise has been great for us. We’ve also toned down our Internet usage. Apparently, all my friends and family back home have toned down their e-mail sending to me during this time too because I barely have anything to respond to when I do check my e-mail once a week. (Yes, that’s a plug for all those who read this to send me messages even if I don’t check my e-mail everyday. I still need to hear from y’all!) We seldom watch movies now also which has forced us to find alternative methods of entertainment (sadly, this often results in Jessica, Brian and me just staring at each other and contemplating things like who is the worse person, the one who laughs when the word “paralyzed” is mentioned or the one who laughs when the phrase “do your duty” is spoken; in other words, is it better to be heartless or brainless?). Actually, we’ve been pretty productive or constructive or whatever you want to call it. I’ve read several books during the time we might normally watch a movie, we’ve been spending more time studying together, and I think we have done a better job preparing for class and building relationships with our students this semester as well. So what’s the most difficult part of Meager March? I’d say ignoring the local folks (Happy Guy, the fruit ladies, the street rice people, and juice lady) because we can’t afford their products right now. We feel guilty abandoning them. Also, I’m tired of washing dishes. With our eating at home everyday, I feel like I’m constantly doing dishes (minus the times Brian or Jess help out). But the family dining style of sitting around the table in the evening eating while discussing our day has been a total bonus.

Meager March challenges have been mostly successful thus far. Jessica and I were able to get five of Brian’s students to dress up like the Beijing Olympic mascots, write a poem about him, and present it all to him on his birthday last week. It was awesome, and I must say, Jess and I hit that challenge out of the park with flying colors. (Since I moved to China, I tend to mix metaphors. It’s a growing problem.) Actually, the only challenge I’m personally failing at the moment is the memorization of the book of Philippians. I still have two weeks to memorize it, but I was supposed to be doing a chapter a week and I don’t even have the first chapter memorized yet. There’s time, though.

Today was an especially sunny and warm day. Jessica and I walked to Box Coffee to ask the owners if they would grind some out of date whole bean Starbucks coffee Brian’s had since last year. The owners were really cool about it, and Jessica and I were able to chat a bit with them in Chinese about coffee and, well, coffee I think was the main topic of conversation, but it was interesting anyway. They didn’t charge us anything for the grinding of two pounds of coffee beans. We gave them a bag of coffee that was way out of date, and given their connoisseur-like knowledge of coffee, it was probably slightly offensive to offer them year old coffee, but they were gracious, and the four of us shared a cup of an uncommonly strong medium roast that should have been consumed a long time ago. Come April I’ll be setting up camp in that coffee shop and pumping myself full of caffeine in an effort to gear up from what will prove to be an energy expending month – Active April.

We’ve begun meeting all day on Sundays. We have our Meeting in the morning, enjoy lunch together, and then spend the afternoon playing sports outside or playing games inside (depending on the weather). We then cook dinner, which is always a huge affair. Usually the Chinese family members make dishes and the foreigners add a soup or something else that’s not too difficult to make. We have some amazing cooks in our Family. After dinner we have another study or discussion or singing before dispersing around nine o’clock. It’s an incredibly long and totally rewarding way to spend our Sundays, and I’ve certainly felt blessed by taking a whole day to encourage and be encouraged by the brothers and sisters.

A couple weeks ago on one such Sunday afternoon, we were playing volleyball when I turned around to see a small brown and very well groomed dog doing a front paw stand while urinating, back legs kicked high in the air, on a rock. I yelled out in my surprise, but when the others turned around to see what I was staring at, the dog had dropped back down to four legs, appearing totally normal. I tried to explain what I saw, but, of course, no one believed me. Today, however, I was totally vindicated. As Jessica, Brian and I were walking down the hill to Happy Guy’s, we saw (all of us) the same dog urinating on a dumpster or wall or something with its hind legs kicked high in the air. It’s an amazing feat of acrobatics, and while I don’t blame the others for having not believed my account of this the first time, I feel totally pleased that my story was corroborated by yet another fortuitous encounter with this dog.

I often feel like I witness incredible things in China that are unexplainable in the very least and unbelievable to anyone not privy to the evidence I have stowed away in my memory. A couple days ago, for instance, I was standing on the street waiting for my dinner date when I saw a totally adorable one-year-old kid being carried by his dad up the hill. When they passed me, I smiled at the baby who winked at me and nodded his head. For about fifteen feet, the baby kept winking and nodding his head at me, even returning my wave, until they disappeared behind a building. It was like watching those talking baby movies where computer generation is clearly responsible for the facial expressions on the babies’ faces; only this kid was real, not digitally touched up, just incredibly expressive. Jessica refuses to believe me. “I think you thought you saw the baby wink,” she says. I’m not too worried about proving myself, though. Eventually, we’ll run into the boy wonder again on the street, and as the baby winks at us over and over again, I’ll remember the dog and how the truth always surfaces, no matter how absurd.

Did you know that Beijing can control the weather? Well, not totally, but they spend lots of money on something called “cloud seeding”. Basically, when there are clouds that might cause rain at some point in the future (most likely at an inconvenient time like during the Olympics or before other big events), some folks load rocket launchers with silver iodide and shoot it up into the clouds. The silver iodide concentrates moisture and causes the rain to come down sooner than it would otherwise. Interesting stuff that’s considered unbelievable by some…

Oh, another little tidbit of trivia I’ll add before going to bed: one of my students told me that Shiyan was listed as the third most pleasant Chinese city to live in. For one reason, it’s really safe. I don’t know the other “official” reasons, although I certainly have my personal reasons for why it should be considered the first most pleasant city to live in, but then, I haven’t been to every other city in China so I’m sure I’m a bit biased. At any rate, I thought Mom would be glad to hear that Shiyan is considered both a safe and pleasant place to live.

Grace and peace to you all.

MEAGER MARCH

Last semester I was doing some research into the beggar/homeless situation in China and found an article entitled "China extends cost of living benefits to homeless, beggars". According to this article from August 2007, the government will offer a basic living allowance to those begging because of poverty. The basic living allowance for those living in urban areas has been set at 169.6 yuan ($23.75). So, if someone living in a city makes, say, 100 yuan each month, the government will give that person an additional 69.6 yuan to reach the aforementioned basic living allowance. I was both immediately struck and convicted by this insanely small amount of money the government has stated to be sufficient for basic living costs. This article was the inspiration for what has become known as "Meager March". Originally the idea was to challenge ourselves to live only on 169.6 yuan for the entire month. However, the specifics of Meager March are very much hazy as a whole because there's no right or wrong way to participate. The most important thing is for the people who participate to discover their own purpose, their own motivation, and their own need for becoming involved. One of my personal motivations for participating in Meager March comes from a realization that I am so abundantly blessed, I've lost touch with an understanding of what it is like to not merely be without things like luxuries but to be especially concerned that even basic necessities might be inaccessible. One of my purposes for participating is to rediscover forms of entertainment that cost nothing but are productive, meaningful and challenging. The great thing about Meager March is that I'm likely to be challenged and convicted in ways I can't even conceive now.

However, Meager March is an imperfect challenge for a variety of reasons. First, we don't pay for our apartments, electricity, water, television, Internet, and phone. If we were in poverty, we wouldn't have these "perks" and 169.6 yuan would be, in my opinion, wholly inadequate to cover all the basic costs one would encounter daily, monthly, etc. In light of this (and to fulfill one of my purposes for Meager March), I will be charging myself for Internet usage (an undebatable luxury) the amount it would cost to use the Internet at an Internet bar. What this really means is I will seldom be using the Internet because I won't be able to afford it. Although there's some debate as to whether the TV should be off-limits during Meager March, I, personally, will be abstaining from or charging myself for television viewing. I also plan to be more conservation friendly by using less electricity and less water. I hope to become more conscious of the actions I take and the decisions I make. Realistically, though, I do realize that I'm still blessed during March with things like a warm apartment and hot running water that I wouldn't have on the government mandated basic living allowance.

That said, 169.6 yuan is still a small amount of money, and there are several things we will be changing about our daily lifestyles to accommodate this decrease in funds. For example, the majority of our monthly expenses probably goes towards food. We eat out for nearly every meal (which is still very economical since food is so affordable here), but for the next month we will be pulling our community funds to purchase cheap vegetables and other foods to cook things like porridge at home. Another very small yet, for the month of March, significant cost is bus fair. It takes only one yuan to ride the bus, but that's two yuan round trip which adds up quickly. Therefore, we will be walking a lot more.

The second reason Meager March is an imperfect challenge is because we have responsibilities here that cannot and should not be ignored. For example, I often use the Internet to prepare for classes. Previously, I mentioned I will charge myself for Internet usage, but that only applies to personal entertainment and unnecessary activity. I consider using the Internet for school something unavoidable and quite necessary so I will not be charging myself for time spent in class preparation. We are also here working for a specific purpose which involves a lot of relationship building. If there is a need to spend money to further the work here, then we will not hesitate to spend liberally.

Meager March has evolved into a beautiful event with participants from other cities in China creating their own purpose for and method of becoming involved. I've heard that some friends in Wuhan have modified Meager March: for every yuan they spend on themselves, they will spend the same amount on others. I love this idea!

A MONTH OF CHALLENGES

We've also decided to make March a month of challenges (as much in an effort to create some entertainment outside of costly activities as to get us outdoors and active so as to avoid "cabin fever"). Here's what we have so far:

Brian to Jessica and me: Coax five students from one of his classes to dress up like the five Beijing Olympic Mascots and sing "Happy Birthday" to him on his birthday - March 11th.

Brian to me: Get two people to buy him the two remaining Beijing Olympic Mascot keychains he hasn't acquired merely by hinting he would like to have them (no asking, begging, or bullying shall be allowed in this challenge).

Me to Brian: It's a secret, but it involves Jessica's class.

Me to Jessica: No make-up for the whole month!! (Except for class)

Amanda to Me: Once a week, send a text message to a friend expressing the way I feel about him/her with lyrics from a song.

Me to Amanda: Choose four things she does everyday and fast from each one for an entire week, beginning with one the first week, and changing to another the second week and so on. For example, she might fast from listening to music the first week. The second week she might fast from eating sugar. Etc.

So my challenge to YOU is to find a way to challenge yourself during March. It's a great way to grow personally and a fun way to step out of the humdrum doldrums that we so easily fall into.

Take luck! I'll be back for Active April...

THE END, THE BEGINNING OR THE BEGINNING OF THE END?

Hanyu and I are fighting. I wish I could say it's just a mild lover's spat, but with each passing day my frustration grows. After a year of flirting back and forth, we finally had a three week long, whirlwind love affair in January. The amount of time I spent putting into our relationship during those three weeks hardly felt like work as Hanyu was also providing me with new life. Every minute I gave to Hanyu, I was being rewarded with self-confidence and an energy I haven't felt in a long time. Imagine my extreme disappointment, then, when I arrived back home only to feel neglected by the very thing in which I had invested so much faith and hope. Granted, I told Hanyu I needed a little space (10 hours a day/six days a week is enough to make even the most needy person step back for a breather), but I didn't expect to be ignored for two whole weeks! Okay, I'll be honest. Maybe I'm the one ignoring Hanyu, but the excitement in our relationship has left us. Now it seems like Hanyu is apathetic to my attempts at restoring our relationship, and I just don't seem to have the energy to make it work. Not that I haven't tried. Several times I've attempted to reopen that line of communication we once had, but in the end, it's hard to love what doesn't need or care to be loved. Hanyu does, after all, have about 1.3+ billion lovers; what's one more? The worst part about our relationship is that I can't seem to get away from Hanyu. Everywhere I look, everywhere I go, everything I do reminds me of Hanyu and what almost was or what could be. Even tonight I'm unable to sleep because Hanyu is pervading my thoughts. However, as sleepless as I become, as much frustration as I can muster, as much self-confidence as I lose, I know that I won't give up on our relationship. I need Hanyu whether the feeling is mutual or not. I guess, when all is said and done, I want to be able to say I conquered Hanyu. I triumphed. Hanyu is my Mt. Everest, my White Whale, my Shrew. However difficult, however frustrating, however degrading, I will overcome. Or else, I'll take Hanyu down with me...

OTHER THINGS

The new semester begins next week. I'm not sure what I'll be teaching or when or anything remotely helpful in preparing for my classes, but I'm okay with that. I do have several new teaching ideas which I'm excited to try out. Of course, it depends on which classes I'm given as to what I'm able to actually do, but I do feel better equipped to teach a foreign language ever since my Chinese language school experience this winter. My dad thinks every teacher should go back to school periodically to remember what it's like to be a student. He says it helps them become better teachers. I agree with him. He also says we should teach lots of infinitives. I don't know why.

I always thought boredom was supposed to breed creativity, but I'm finding myself in mind-numbing daily rituals which accomplish nothing. I'm so looking forward to a sense of normalcy; I'm ready for the new semester.

Today was China's Lantern Festival which means its the official end of Spring Festival celebrations and yet another day of fireworks explosions. I watched some fireworks from my balcony but the excessive celebration we encounter each year during this time has helped to reduce the excitement I used to feel in watching the big explosions in the sky. We avoided Liuyan where there was scheduled a huge fireworks display, opting rather to stay home and eat chicken legs and mac and cheese (I'm trying to use up some of my on-hand food before next month). In a poor attempt to celebrate Mother Language Day, we put in the movie Sister Act and enjoyed reliving early 90s music and the classical remakes of songs like "I Will Follow Him" and "My God" ("My Guy"). As many times as I've seen that movie (more than I'd like to admit), there were a few parts that seemed to jump out at me this time. One quote which I think is helpful to ponder daily particularly struck me: "God has brought you here - take the hint." It's pretty straight forward so I won't try to wax philosophical, but it might serve as good wake up call to anyone questioning what to do with his/her life (or to anyone NOT questioning what to do with his/her life).

Alright, well, I hope everyone who reads this is doing well. I try to remember you all in my thoughts and prayers. Oh, and Hanyu is the Chinese language...just to clarify things....(-:

THREE A.M. RAMBLINGS

It was bound to happen. I actually expected it sooner. Tonight a firework went off dangerously close to us as we were lingering outside McDonald's contemplating what to do next with our Valentine's Day evening. Some residue from the explosion fell into my hair, but aside from yet another mild heart attack brought on by these sudden crashing booms, we were left unharmed.

A few of us who are in town decided to celebrate this annual lover's holiday by gathering for a dinner of hot pot. The streets, the restaurants, the stores were all crowded, and I noticed for the first time a lingerie store which seemed to come out of the woodworks for this special occasion. I guess Valentine's Day calls for women to shed their layers of matching, unattractive pajamas for something a little more impractical.

In People's Square people had gathered to shoot off fireworks (recklessly in the direction of people at times) and to light a fire underneath paper lanterns (yes, a fire underneath paper lanterns) which carried messages of well wishes into the sky. They traveled rather high becoming distant lights in the night's darkness. Of the several we watched go up, only one turned into a burning disaster and left a glorious trail of fire in its wake as it gracefully drifted to the ground.

XIANGFAN

On Monday I took a bus to Xiangfan, a city about two hours from Shiyan. My friend Alice had invited me to spend a couple days with her family. I always like visiting my friends' hometowns and meeting their families to look for clues as to what has shaped their personalities. I guess it's the psychological perspective of discovering how both nature and nurture have influenced the person I have come to know independent of these things that's thrilling for me.

Anyway, Alice's parents and aunts and uncles, cousins, etc. were all very kind and welcoming as is my usual experience with a Chinese family. My three weeks of Chinese language school did little to help me communicate with them, however, as what little Mandarin I know is useless in aiding me while trying to understand the Xiangfan dialect. I suppose I depended too much on Alice to translate too. I'm sure I could have made a better effort to communicate, but I clam up when I'm around people (i.e., Alice) who understand English. I actually do much better with people who speak no English or at least no more English than I speak Chinese. Regardless, Alice's parents did their best to include me, an effort that is more appreciated than they could know.

I was also fortunate to be taken on a tour of the city during my two days there. Monday afternoon Alice's dad took us to the Mi Fei Memorial Hall which is a park-like area dedicated to the works of this famous calligrapher from the Song Dynasty. I had to Google all this information later because I didn't really understand anything while I was there. I did for the first time, however, have a new appreciation for calligraphy. After spending a few weeks learning to write characters, seeing both the precision and beauty of Mi Fei's work was astounding.

Tuesday we took a family field trip to Gulongzhong, a beautiful area just outside the city where Liu Bei, founder of the Shu Han Kingdom during the Middle Kingdoms Period (220-280 A.D.) was said to visit Zhuge Liang, a famous strategist, three times for war advice which subsequently aided him in overtaking some opposing forces. The history is interesting enough, I suppose (again, it was lost on me at the time), but the scenery was absolutely gorgeous.

We returned home Wednesday. I had planned to visit another friend in Xi'an, but now I have no desire to fight the relentless mass of people traveling during the holiday season so I'll just remain in Shiyan until school starts. The city's still not back to normal. Our favorite restaurants are closed and the campus is littered with lots of children and no college students, but I imagine in the coming days the community will settle down from the high that is Spring Festival and return to the routine I've grown to love.

THE CHALLENGE BEGINS

Brian and I arrived in Shiyan yesterday evening. It was an uneventful journey home for the most part which is usually a blessing. We flew to Wuhan from Kunming and exited the airplane at exactly midnight, just in time to catch the fireworks welcoming in the new Chinese Year of the Rat. Actually, you can't really miss the fireworks during this time as they go off for days before and after the actual new year. As we were taking off from Kunming, we could see fireworks blanketing the city. I've never seen fireworks from above before.

Now we're home and not really sure what to do with our time. I've been invited to go to Xi'an to spend some time with a sister and her family there, and Brian's been invited to visit Happy Guy and his family (who will not be back until at least after the 13th, news I'm trying to deal with since it means no Happy Guy's for longer than I want to contemplate). Neither of us, though, wants to think about getting out so soon after returning home so I'm not sure if we will take our friends up on their offers. In the meantime, we have to figure out what to do with our time while everyone is still gone vacationing or visiting family. Today is "Laugh and Get Rich" Day so the only plan we have on our agenda is to watch a funny movie and attempt to raise enough money by laughing for Brian to open his coffee shop. Wish us luck!

FOCUS/FESTIVE FEBRUARY

The new month brings a new challenge. Originally we had decided on Focus February to encourage us as we studied Chinese (the boys and I at the language school and Jessica as she saunters about S.E. Asia). Having spent the last three weeks intensively studying Chinese, I haven't started this month out too well. I finished my last class yesterday morning and haven't picked up my Chinese book since. It's only been a day, though, and I have every intention of refocusing on my studies as February (and the subsequent months) move right along.

We also decided that upon reuniting in Shiyan we would transition from Focus February to Festive February where every day we would celebrate whatever holiday is listed for that day. I've decided, however, to do my best to spend all of February with a spirit of festivity. So far it's going well. February 1st was Bubble Gum Day so we went to the foreign import store, bought some Twisted Tornado Bubbalicious gum and had a few bubble blowing contests. February 2nd was Groundhog Day so we downloaded the movie and watched it last night. Today is a little more difficult. We can't watch the Super Bowl which is the main event for this day, but we did pay tribute to the Four Chaplains who lost their lives heroically during WWII. Tomorrow is "Dump Your Significant Jerk Day", but that one's lost on me. Somehow, I'm going to have to celebrate Liberace Day!

So Jolly January was pretty difficult. I'd say I failed being jolly more times than I even caught myself. The highlights of my failures would probably be on January 1st when I mentioned a negative thing about one of our English Department folks. It's sad to fail on the first day. The other would be when I talked poorly of David Arquette's acting abilities. It's hard knowing the reason I'm not able to eat sweets is because of a slip up regarding someone such as him. But it was an interesting challenge, one I hope to continue daily.

LANGUAGE SCHOOL - The End

I finished 20 days of classes yesterday morning. We covered 10 lessons, and I supposedly should know upwards of 700 characters. We skipped the first book so I don't know as much as I'm supposed to (or maybe I do?), but I have definitely learned a lot. William said in the beginning that the main thing he hopes to take away from these three weeks is the knowledge of how to study Chinese. I feel like I've been given quite a boost in my Chinese learning. I still can't speak the language worth anything (although, my tones are improving), but I've learned to read a little and to write a little, and that's given me a lot of momentum. I bought the next two books in the series we've been using, and I'm excited to get started with book three.

WUHAN FRIENDS

Wednesday morning three of our friends from Wuhan (Carole, Rachel, and Dennis) arrived in Kunming. They were supposed to arrive a day earlier, but because of the horrific snowstorm that's been ravaging central and southern China, they were detained by a day (they spent 12 hours in the freezing Wuhan train station waiting for their train to arrive and then were delayed en-route to Kunming by another 12 hours). We met them for lunch on Wednesday and took them to Salvador's (our favorite Kunming restaurant) Wednesday evening. It's been such a blessing having them around. I think we were all beginning to drag a bit from our daily study routine and having such friendly faces to visit with every evening certainly helped me through the rest of the week.

They left today to tour a couple famous places in this province (Yunnan). They had planned to leave earlier, but Rachel got really sick and was in no condition to travel. We aren't glad that Rachel was so sick, but it was most definitely great to have them stick around an extra day or two. Carole, whose idea Festive February was, has been helping me celebrate each day, and I'm going to miss having her and her enthusiasm around.

KEATS' FIELD TRIP

Today was my first day free of class, but it was actually quite busy. This morning our school took us on a field trip to the Golden Temple Park. It's near the International Horticultural Exhibition which is really well known for all the different kinds of plants it has, but it's expensive to visit. The park we went to had several Chinese artifacts, pagodas, temples, greenhouses and Chinese people singing in chorus. It was an enjoyable way to spend the morning, and the mild hike up to the temple was good for our bodies which have atrophied greatly in the last three weeks. Kunming has some beautiful flowers, and the weather has been outstandingly pleasant. I don't think I'm mentally or physically prepared to return to the bleak and cold reality of Shiyan.

Hmm, return. Brian and I bought plane tickets to Wuhan. We leave Wednesday and hope to catch a bus to Shiyan Thursday (which is the Chinese New Year). I had hopes this year of celebrating the Spring Festival with a Chinese family, but the wintry weather made it rather undesirable at best (and impossible at worst) to get to where I needed to be in time to do this. Instead, Brian and I will be arriving in Shiyan on Spring Festival Day where we will have to scrounge our cupboards for food since all the restaurants and stores will be closed. I'm really looking forward to being home, though.

Well, the boys still have one more class tomorrow morning. I finished early so that my teacher could return to her hometown for Spring Festival. I have big plans tomorrow morning of going to Salvador's, getting some good coffee, and relaxing with a book for a few hours. After all, it's "Solo Diner's Eat Out Week"!

SLEEPLESS IN KUNMING

Granted it's not even eleven o'clock and I probably shouldn't be sleeping yet, but with my early class schedule each morning, I've been trying to go to bed by ten or a little after each night. Generally, I get up around six thirty with the intention of finishing the homework I didn't do the day before. It's been awhile since I've been on such a regimented schedule. Anyway, I can't seem to fall asleep so I thought I would blog a bit. There's not a lot to say so I apologize if everything sounds mundane; it pretty much is...

We've found ourselves recently addicted to watching 80 minutes of The Office each evening after dinner. It's taking away from our study time (which proves brutal in the mornings when we're tested over the things we were supposed to be working on the night before), but Canadian research shows that relaxing by watching The Office before studying can greatly improve the absorption rate of the material studied, or so we like to tell ourselves.

Last Saturday evening most, or maybe all, of the students at Keats Language School were taken to a nice restaurant for dinner (care of Keats herself). The students here have varied backgrounds, as one might expect, and come from many different parts of the world. The dinner was quite enjoyable as it's been awhile since we've socialized with other non-Chinese people. Since that dinner, however, we seldom run into the ones we conversed with that evening, with the exception of Susanna, a girl from Canada who is ever ready to provide us with the latest research in learning methods (hence, the aforementioned The Office statement).

It was hard for me to get into studying this week. Monday was killer, and Tuesday took some serious pep talks to get me focusing. Today went well, though, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow's class. There are twelve lessons in my textbook, and Huang Laoshi seems confident that we'll get through them all. We're averaging about one lesson every two days. By the end of this month, I think we'll have crammed an entire semester's worth of material into four weeks (or less, actually, because we're meeting six days a week instead of five). My reading and writing of Chinese have both improved dramatically, but my grammar and oral Chinese are pathetic at best.

Huang Laoshi has been great. She's really patient with me and seems to know what she's doing. She does have these little quirks, however, that make me understand what it must be like to be a Chinese student. Nearly every day she corrects something about the way I do certain things which are seemingly (at least to me) insignificant. For example, in the last week and a half, she has repeatedly forced me to place my writing tablet perpendicular to my body (rather than slanting it at a forty five degree angle which provides a more natural writing position for my hand). She also has corrected the way I write my "4"s, my "t"s, my "F"s and has told me that I recently picked up the bad habit of putting my head too close to my paper when I write. I didn't tell her that I've had that habit all my life. She probably would have replied that this is the reason I'm wearing glasses today. Nevertheless, I appreciate her attention and dedication to instilling in me the "best" way to do things (whether I agree with these ways or not). I merely hope that when I leave, I will take away what I learned about Chinese and not what she tried to change about my performance techniques.

Well, I should probably try to get some sleep. I've got another fun day of learning ahead of me!

KEATS LANGUAGE SCHOOL IN KUNMING

Brian, William and I arrived in Kunming last Sunday morning. We were greeted at Keats Language School by Keats herself (not her real name) and shown our accommodations. We all live on the fifteenth floor (each in our own little dorm room which includes a comfy bed, desk, TV, refrigerator, bathroom and hot water all day long). After we were shown our rooms, we were taken to a nearby restaurant to eat "across the bridge" noodles, a famous Kunming dish. When you order these noodles, you are brought a huge bowl of hot chicken broth, a bowl of noodles and a plate of raw meats, vegetables, and a quail egg. The chicken broth is so hot that it cooks the other ingredients when they are added to it. It's pretty good. After brunch we returned to our rooms to unpack and rest before meeting our teachers.

After meeting our teachers, they took us to the local Carrefour to buy some food stuffs for the week. There was a small foreign foods section so we were able to buy cheese, salsa, cereal and real milk (well, milk more like we're used to anyway). I know it's only been a week, but I'm not sure what we did in the afternoon/evening of Sunday.

Monday morning class began at 8:30. My teacher wanted to start with learning Pinyin (which I already know) and doing very basic things. By the end of the four hours, we had moved quite a ways ahead from where we began. Every day we have class for four hours in the morning with a fifteen minute break at some point. On the first day of class, I came back from my break, and my teacher, Ao Dan, was very serious and asked if she could admit something to me. I said, "Sure!" Turns out, she really didn't want to stay and teach. She was homesick (she's young, still a college student) and really wanted to go home for the break. She told Keats about this, but Keats told her it was impossible for her to abandon me, and that she would just have to finish teaching. So after awhile, I realized what Ao Dan wanted from me was to tell Keats that she just wasn't going to work out and that I would like to change teachers. Apparently, that was the only way she could be released from her responsibilities. So, on that first day, after class I asked Keats for another teacher. I felt like a jerk because I've never acted unsatisfied about anything or anyone before, but it was the only way that Ao Dan could go home, and she needed to.

Tuesday: Tuesday my studies really began. Keats gave me a really professional instructor. Huang Laoshi (Teacher Huang) speaks mostly Chinese to me (whereas, Ao Dan spoke mostly English), and she's very strict. Well, she's strict, but she's also very patient and kind. She's currently working on her Master's Degree, I think. She's 27, married and has a child. I know she's not much older than me, but it certainly feels like she is.

Daily Schedule (our lives are strictly regimented so here's the rundown):
6:30 - 8:00 ~ Study Chinese, quiet devotional, breakfast
8:10 - 12:10 ~ One-on-one study with Huang Laoshi
12:30 - 1:30 ~ Lunch with the boys (We usually try to eat near the school. There's a huge concentration of Lonely Planet approved Chinese and Western restaurants in our area. We actually prefer the cheap, dirty places but have only found a few of them thus far.)
1:30 - 2:30 ~ Watch an episode of "Band of Brothers" (William brought the series with him, and it's proven to be the daily relaxation method of choice for us.)
2:30 - 6:30 ~ Good Good Study, Day Day Up (A Chinese saying that we use to remind ourselves to study hard. Those four hours for me are generally spent doing homework exercises, writing Chinese characters, and trying to memorize a grotesque amount of words.)
6:30 - 8:00 ~ Go for a walk, get lost, find a place to eat, and then come back
8:00 - 10:00 ~ Study
10:00 ~ Bed and sweet, sweet rest

We seldom stray from this schedule. The days go by pretty quickly. I don't feel like I'm getting enough study time in even though I'm spending upwards of nine or ten hours looking over the material. Crazy!

OUR WEEKEND PASSES HAVE BEEN REVOKED

Yesterday we found out that instead of studying five days a week and having two days for the weekend, we would also have class on Saturday. If we didn't, then we would have class on Spring Festival, and our teachers wouldn't be able to spend that day at home with their families. It's equivalent of making us work on Christmas so we aren't complaining about it.

"SOMEONE PINCH ME" - William

Today after class, the boys and I agreed to reward our hard work with a day of splurging. I don't think we prepared ourselves for what we would encounter. We took a taxi to the Green Lake Park, got lost while trying to find our way out, and then finally emerged near one of Kunming's universities. We found the street that we wanted (we were in search of a coffee house named Salvador's) and walked down "Western Alley". I haven't seen so many international food and clothing shops since I was home this summer. There was a French bakery shop, a Prague cafe, countless coffee shops, and Thai and Indian restaurants. We found Salvador's with little trouble. It's a quaint little place packed full of foreigners. We found a nice spot in the loft and ordered our heart's out (i.e., quesadillas, coffee, and dessert in the form of sugar covered in sugar with sugar sprinkled on top).

Quite satisfied, we left in search of the university book store. We found a Mandarin bookstore instead and bought a few bilingual books. Now that we're learning to read characters, we need some books for practice. We then found a DVD shop with the complete seasons of every show from Doogie Howser to The Office to Seinfeld. Brian bought The Office which I'm happy about because I'm apparently way out of the loop having never seen an episode.

While the boys were buying their DVDs, I spotted a shop across the street which looked a little different than the rest. I was pretty sure it was an import store. As soon as I walked in, I was overwhelmed by things like Smuckers' jam, Airheads, jellybeans, and Bubbalicious. I was so much in my own world that when William yelled, "A&W!", it took a good ten seconds to process what he was saying. We found A&W root beer and cream soda, Dr. Pepper, and Mt. Dew. They had so many things that we just can't find anywhere. It was overwhelming. We were in a daze, but when when the clerk said there was an upstairs too, it didn't take long for William to bolt up the stairs. There we found Pop Tarts, cereal, and several other things that I can't recall. At this point, I was beginning to feel a little sick, and we left pretty quickly after that. It's hard to explain just what we were feeling, but within the span of three hours (beginning with Salvador's continuing through the bookstore and ending with the import store), I nearly cried from joy (or something) several times. Maybe it was just from spending six days straight studying a language so foreign from my own and then immersing myself so completely into something absolutely familiar.

We returned to our school after that to rest before joining the other students tonight for dinner. We're supposed to meet up at six to go out. Tomorrow is our day off, but I think we'll spend it studying since we didn't study today. I have to write a journal entry about what we did today (in Chinese!) and memorize tons of words (their meaning and how to write them) so I've got a lot to do tomorrow.

But our first week is finished.

FEI FEI AND THE MYSTERY OF THE DISAPPEARING GUARDS

Call it a conspiracy. Call it a coincidence. Call it what you will, but there's a strange something (my students would call it a phenomenon, meaning something unexplainable that happens quite often) that keeps occurring, and I wish to share it with all my faithful blog readers.

I can't recall the first time it happened. Maybe it happened several times before I really noticed it. Who can say? Regardless, I'd like to start by introducing our local guard station and our faithful Pee Wee. After entering the alley that leads to our campus and walking past the outdoor food market and past several local restaurants (like Happy Guys), you come to a guard station which, as I understand, is the official entrance from this particular road into our school. It's not much of a station. There's a small, glassed-in building, large enough for one person to sit and watch passersby while fulfilling his most important role of raising the crossing arm for what little traffic passes through. During the day, the crossing arm remains up, and the guard usually just stands outside watching people walk by.

Last year there was one guard in particular who had the look of an eight year old little boy playing dress up in his father's uniform. He also carried a strong resemblance to Pee Wee Herman and thus became known as Pee Wee. Since we walk past the guards several times a day, we like to create a friendly rapport with them. Generally, this merely includes a little head nod and a "ni hao". But with Pee Wee, it was different. We broke through any and all barriers that might have existed between us and developed a much deeper and more open relationship with him. As this was last year, Derek was still here, and he often joked with Pee Wee as he passed by, saying, "Hello, Pee Wee. Tomorrow I will steal your hat." For some reason, Derek's dream was to take the hat off of Pee Wee's head and to run away with it. This occurred daily for weeks, and Pee Wee always laughed, and everyone was jovial. Then, suddenly and with no explanation, Pee Wee disappeared! No more Pee Wee greeting us gleefully as we passed by. We assumed his dismissal was a result of the amount of time he spent in the guard station singing into the phone serenading, we presumed, his girlfriend. Or maybe he just didn't have that reserved guard look the higher ups were going for. Regardless, we missed him.

One day several weeks later as I was passing by the guard station, I looked up and Pee Wee had returned! I asked him where he'd been all my life, uh, I mean, in the past few weeks, and he said he had been moved to another station. My joy at his return was short-lived, however, and that was the last time I ever saw Pee Wee.

Oh, Fei Fei, yet another beloved figure in our daily lives. Fei Fei was a little kid, maybe two or three or eight years old, who quite frequently spoke to us as we passed by his parents' little convenience shop located about ten feet from the guard station. Fei Fei was playful, cute and talented (the kid could balance on the edge of a trash can and relieve himself while shouting "hellos" at us as we tried to avoid eye contact in an effort to not impose on this otherwise private business). A few months later at the peak of our relationship with Fei Fei, we walked up the alley one day to discover Fei Fei's parents' store empty and demolished (making way for a future iron bowl restaurant and another convenience store). Fei Fei and his family were gone too, along with Fei Fei's happy "hellos".

Is it a coincidence that the people we get close to disappear suddenly and without explanation?

This semester we again befriended the new guards. There are two in particular that we like. One is Handsome Guard who was clearly named by Jessica and me, though I haven't heard Brian object, and the other doesn't have a name, an unnoticed detail which is soon to be dealt with. They're really gentle men, and they always smile and nod their head at us as we pass.

For Thanksgiving this year we made several small loaves of banana bread to give to some of the people we come into contact with on a daily basis (the fruit ladies, the rice man and his wife, juice lady and underwear king, Happy Guy and his family, the Muslim noodle folks, and the two guards). We added a little note in English with a Chinese translation that said how grateful we are for them and that we thank God for how they make our lives in China easier and nicer. When we delivered these little tokens of gratitude, the guard on duty was Handsome Guard. He, like all the rest of our friends, at first refused the bread, but when our Chinese friends explained the meaning behind it, he placed it on his little desk, gave us his dreamy smile, and we left. The next day (seriously), he was gone, and we haven't seen him since.

Here is the irony: I was never able to give the other guard his banana bread (even though we made him a loaf) because we left that night for Wuhan, and he wasn't on duty that whole day. So the guard whom we have yet to name and who did not receive the small gift from us is still employed at the guard station, but the guard whom we did name and who did receive the small gift from us has not been heard from since that fateful day in November.

Is it a conspiracy that those we get close to suddenly and quite dramatically disappear?

Just a few days ago Brian, Jessica and I were walking to Happy Guys for lunch when a group of children ran past us. Among them was Fei Fei! Although he had not aged in the eight months since we've seen him, there was no mistaking his face and exuberant manner. Speechless, I made weird noises to get Brian's attention and then yelled, "Fei Fei", and pointed in the kid's direction. Brian was able to confirm the sighting just before Fei Fei disappeared around a corner. We haven't seen Fei Fei since that unexpected day, but I'm now filled with great hope that one day we will again encounter Pee Wee and Handsome Guard.

As it's "Jovial January" and I'm avoiding negative thoughts, I'll leave you to your own interpretation of these events that may or may not include an evil mastermind named Mr. V (pronounced WE) determined to destroy us foreigners with his impressive and unlimited arsenal of Chinglish.

JOVIAL JANUARY

CHRISTMAS
Christmas is over and while this tends to be the highlight of most people's year, I hope no one will mind if I glaze over details and do a quick run through of our "Shiyan Christmas".

Generally speaking, we do a GREAT job of bringing the Christmas festivities and traditions from home into our lives in China. The only powers working against us are our schools and the city. Both seem intent on making us celebrate Christmas their way. On the Saturday before Christmas, we attended the city-wide Christmas party. Having made it clear that we don't care to perform any song and dance routines (and having been told our style isn't quite Chinese enough to be adequate for such a special occasion), the school no longer requires anything of us except our attendance. There were several performances - mostly younger children singing, dancing or playing instruments, but a few foreigners in town decided to do their own acts. Shortly into the performances, Bena, an African woman who teaches at William and Priscilla's school, asked us if we would join her in singing "O Holy Night". We can't say no to Bena; she's such a beautiful character. Five minutes later Brian, Jessica, Darla and I were on stage with Bena who is blessed with an incredibly powerful and off-key voice singing the worst rendition of "O Holy Night" that, I would venture to say, has ever been sung. A few days later a call from our friend Zoe confirmed our worst nightmare - the local news station had retrieved footage of our song and was broadcasting it for all to hear! But the city-wide party as a whole was enjoyable enough, and we all received mugs as a parting gift.

Christmas Eve we were asked to go to our school's annual foreign language department Christmas dinner. We were late (also an annual tradition), but it didn't matter because we were given our own private room (while the rest of the Chinese members of the foreign language department were all congregated together in a larger room). It's only mildly offensive to not be included with the rest of department, and since we avoided all the drunken toasts and awkward conversations, it worked out for the best.

Afterwards Brian, Jessica and I came back home to celebrate a quiet Christmas Eve. William came over and we watched "How Santa Clause Conquered the Martians", a gift from my brother and his wife which had fortuitously arrived earlier that day. The movie was perfectly terrible.

CHRISTMAS DAY
In the morning, Jessica, Darla and I cooked a breakfast of cinnamon rolls and quiche. All the single Shiyaners, Shiyanites, Shiyanren (whichever we are) had a very merry stocking stuffer Christmas morning in Jessica's apartment. We really just killed time the rest of the day until the first annual Tacky Sweater Progressive Dinner Celebration began around four thirty. In true western fashion, we completely stuffed ourselves on real food before gorging ourselves with dessert. It was a nice Christmas. For more details, please see Brian's blog at http://bnealinchina.blogspot.com or Jessica's at http://jessicainthefareast.blogspot.com.

NEW YEAR'S
Yichang was the place to be for New Year's Eve. Having the great desire to spend this time with our Yichang (Beth, Amy, Brad, Katie, Kim) and Wuhan (Danielle, Carole, Rachel, Jeremy, Laurie, Megan) pals yet the need to be in Shiyan after being gone so much in the month previous, we decided to leave for Yichang Monday morning (arrived early afternoon) and return the following day (left early afternoon). It's a seven hour bus/train ride...

The Yichang folks do New Year's right (are becoming locally famous for it in fact), and we started the fun with a video scavenger hunt. We had three teams of four people (my team consisted of Brian, Beth, Carole and me) and two hours to shoot several films (a western, a kung fu, a Titanic), video various things (dancing in the square, pushing to get on the bus, singing "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" with some Chinese people) and take pictures at specific locations (the bridge, by "Da Shan's" picture, in the international hotel). There were a lot of items, and I'd like to point out that my team was the only one to complete the entire list (even if the split pants baby was a bit of a flop).

We ate dinner at Pizza Hut, a place that some of you who read this are probably taking for granted! Then we retreated to Kim and Katie's place for snacks and to hang out till the New Year. Last year Brad created the "apple on the chopstick" drop to bring in the new year, and they spruced it up a bit this year by placing some sparklers into the apple which bore the Chinese character "fu" (meaning luck or something similar). It was pretty exciting for some reason that escapes me.

After the New Year's salutations died down, we all gathered in the living room and sang praises to our God. It was so powerful to be reminded of the great year we were given and to be encouraged to use this new year in service to Him.

SPRING FESTIVAL
Our winter break is beginning. In one week, we will all be moving in different directions (some for traveling, some for studying, some for going home). Brian, William and I leave next week for Kunming to study Chinese for one month. It will be strange to be a student again. I'm excited about the opportunity, though. Most of us will be gone for about a month or so.

Oh, Jovial January - the newest of our alliterated months. During this month, we are not allowed to say anything bad about anyone, a task proving very difficult at times. If we say something bad, we are not allowed to eat anything sweet for the rest of the day (since bitterness leaves our mouth, we will not be allowed to put sweets into it). Sadly, we failed the very first day, but we've been doing much better since.

DESTINATION DECEMBER

Who knows why we do anything? I think there are probably a variety of reasons why we decided to travel in December. Lots of things came together to make this particular month the month to take a few days off and get out of town. With my light teaching schedule and the decision to not travel during October holiday, I was feeling the itch in early November to get on a train and see where it would take me. Hong Kong, which has become the Mecca for those of us older folks around here, was on my wish list, and Brian and Jessica both were prepared to rearrange some classes for a week long journey with me. We planned to travel the week before Christmas because my classes would be finished and the other two would be nearing the end of theirs. Plus, we already had an alliterated name for November - No Shave November - which meant "Destination December" was meant to be (and we were meant to wait).

With a destination in mind and date to leave arranged, we came off our Thanksgiving high to tread through the first couple weeks of December. The weekdays themselves are generally uneventful. I finished my classes the first week of December and scheduled movie nights in their place the following week. I had a small group of students from my Monday and Wednesday night classes come those evenings to watch a film. The students who came happen to be my favorite (though they were chosen to come as a reward to their winning an ABC of Slang Balderdash game the week before), and we had a really good time together. They're pretty shy still (I'm their first foreign teacher, friend, etc.), but I'm hoping to continue building good relationships with them. I have high hopes for 'em!

RUSSIAN HATS (or, BIG CITY FUN IN SMALL TOWN FORM)

However uneventful the weekdays are, the weekends make up for it! The second weekend in December, we were visited by two of our awesome Wuhan sisters, Danielle and Carole. They arrived late Friday night, heralding fun train-ride stories involving Mariah Carey's Hero and Communist jacket pillows. It's okay if this doesn't make sense because so often, most things don't! Saturday morning we had a foreign girls brunch/study at Qi Yuan (my school). We've been doing an all girls, all foreigner brunch/study each Saturday morning and moving it around from school to school. It's been a fantastic uplift for me each time we meet. This particular week we were blessed to have some bacon, biscuits and gravy, banana bread and apple cinnamon muffins for brunch (thus noted, because this type of food is exciting for us!). We talked about affirmation and many other things, and I'm constantly reminded each week in these settings just how fortunate I am to be around other deeply spiritual ladies.

In the early afternoon, we went to the local orphanage. We really want to be a blessing to the children there, but it's hard sometimes knowing what we can do for them that will be the most helpful. We hoped to be able to make weekly visits, but the orphanage director just recently limited our coming to twice a month. It was a rainy day when we went this time. I'm not sure where all the kids were, but we were only able to meet with a handful. We sang a lot of songs from our songbook and flirted with the ultra-cute, shy little boy who easily won the hearts of all the girls there.

From the orphanage, a quick trip to the Korean Market provided awesome Russian hats with sweet, furry ear-flaps. We ate a quick dinner at Happy Guys, took some compromising photos in the Russian hats (Jessica, Danielle, and Carole, that is) and rested up before our big night on the town.

Life is a musical here. Or at least we try to make it such. Singing and dancing often happen spontaneously and serve as the answer to any mundane atmosphere we encounter. Saturday night we decided to go dancing. Given my Caucasian genes and restrictive upbringing, my rhythm is basically non-existent, but it was still a lot of fun hanging out, laughing and dancing the night away (or at least the hour or two we were out).

Intent on giving our Wuhan friends a fun experience worthy of the one they afforded us two weeks previously when we visited them for Thanksgiving, we decided to continue our musical weekend on Sunday. After our morning meeting, we went to Priscilla's to watch Hairspray and to take showers. Then we headed over to enjoy an hour of KTV (karaoke). I don't generally enjoy KTV when I go with students or other people (it's too loud and taken too seriously), but with some loud and crazy Americans, we had a blast singing and dancing in our little private room.

After KTV we went to UBC Coffee for some fried ice cream balls. You never know what type of ice cream you'll get, but the funnel-cake crust is delicious regardless. The flavors of ice cream appear to be green, off-white, purple and red. Now, one might say those aren't flavors; they're colors. To which I would respond, orange is both a color and a fruit, and in China, it's a person too! The green is my favorite flavor, I think.

Every evening in People's Square, which is very near UBC Coffee, the old people of the community get together for a little dance party/exercise routine. We, of course, decided to join them after our fried ice cream balls were sitting heavy in our tummies. There were a few different styles of dancing,: the classic, Native American-like, powwow shuffle - the easiest yet least impressive style, the subdued Irish jig - which looks easy, but proves otherwise upon attempting to imitate it, and the Chinese four-step - called that for lack of better understanding of what was happening. The old people were very kind and patient in allowing us to mimic them and even took a little time to slowly show us the steps. We didn't stay too long. As we were leaving, Jessica and Carole decided to teach them the Electric Slide. They drew quite a crowd of interested folks, and a few of the bolder Chinese followed their lead. It was great fun.

Sadly, all good times must come to an end, and Danielle and Carole left us Monday morning. Fortunately, Wuhan isn't too far away...

CHENGDU

After a few hiccups in our travel plans, Hong Kong was put on a back burner (a destination to be revisited next semester), and Brian, Jessica and I agreed to visit Chengdu instead. Chengdu is the fifth largest city in China and is located in Sichuan Province. It's about a twelve or thirteen hour train ride from us. Chengdu is one of those cities in China that everyone will tell you is beautiful and amazing and you must visit it. Afterall, there are pandas there, lots and lots of pandas.

We didn't really plan anything for the trip. With Lonely Planet China in hand, we set off for Chengdu last Thursday night (on Jessica's birthday which we celebrated with banana pancakes in the morning, dinner and cake in the evening and a dart/stress relief board in the, well, forever actually).

Our main objectives in Chengdu were 1) hold a panda (well, that was Jessica's dream which we promised to fulfill for her as her birthday present from Brian and me), 2) eat Mexican food at Pete's Tex-Mex restaurant, and 3) visit Starbucks (although, I'm saddened by this admittance, I do look forward to finding Starbucks in the bigger cities we visit).

From the train station in Chengdu, we lugged our big bags to a taxi and were taken to Pete's restaurant first thing. The food was too amazing to describe. The atmosphere, too, was so great. The whole place had a ski lodge around Christmas type of feel to it. There were a lot of foreigners, and Brian, Jessica and I found it difficult to not stare at them!

From Pete's we found a hostel called Sim's which I recommend to anyone traveling to Chengdu. It's one of the better hostels I've stayed in, and Sim (the owner) is super cool. We did find a Starbucks that evening after we had bought a few books from a bookstore that sold a small collection of English books (several of them classics which was exciting). We spent a few hours reading at Starbucks before heading to our hostel for the night.

Saturday found us making our way to interesting spots in the city. We checked out the Tibetan district and ate some "authentic" Tibetan food. We also went to People's Park because we had read about an underground thrill ride which took you by rickety train past strange wonders and through a shark's mouth. We were so excited about this ride, but our hopes were dashed (the first, but certainly not the last time on this trip) when a self-selling tour guide told us the ride had been turned into an underground ghost town. We decided to check it out, nevertheless, and paid five yuan to walk through this sadly decrepit excuse for a haunted house. We made our own fun, however, by frightening the other unfortunate souls who were also duped into paying five yuan for this thrill-less spectacle.

Saturday night we attended the Sichuan opera which absolutely did not disappoint (minus the fact we were promised VIP seats in the first five rows and paid for such, but were given eighth row seats). It wasn't crowded as I had expected it to be. Included in the variety show were the traditional high-pitched opera that China is famous for, shadow puppets, hand puppets, an acrobatic routine, a traditional Chinese comedy, and the changing faces extravaganza. The changing of the faces (not to be confused with the changing of the guard, though I'm finding my descriptive skills to be inadequate at the moment) was quite amazing. These skilled masters could change their masks in the blink of an eye. I was and continue to be in awe of their abilities.

Sunday we took a day trip to LeShan, a nearby mountain which boasts the largest carved Buddha in the world. We arrived in the LeShan village around lunchtime, and after eating some local dishes (spicy enough to help Brian get his spice back which had been lost in recent weeks), we set off by foot to find this Giant Buddha. Entrance into the park was more expensive than I wanted to pay, but when you come this far, you can't turn back. We paid the 70 yuan and began the short trek to the top of the Giant Buddha. It also didn't disappoint. It's quite huge. They say it's fingernail is longer than the height of an average person. Upon observance, this height is clearly referring to the average Chinese person, but, even so, the carved statue is still huge.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the park, getting lost, freaking out about birds (Jessica), visiting empty tombs and broken relics, exploring a vacant temple guarded by a ferocious dog, and finding our way out. LeShan is pretty cool. I enjoyed my time there. That night we went to an Irish pub and had the best steak burger and chicken burger I have ever had. The music was good, and it was a nice way to round out the day.

Monday we had great plans. Just kidding. Brian and I slept in while Jessica went to visit a monastery nearby. We met up for lunch at Grandma's Kitchen which turned out to be a branch of Grandma's Kitchen in the Jazz Lounge we had hoped to go to that night. (Sadly, the Jazz Lounge would have no live music that night so we didn't end up going there.) Since Grandma's Kitchen was a flop (too expensive), we went to the Cajara Indian restaurant next door where Jessica fell in love with our Tibetan waiter and my love for Bollywood was rekindled. You never know what good may come from altered plans!

We also found another foreign language bookstore and bought still more books to add to our collection. As before, we found a Starbucks soon after our purchases and read for several hours. That evening we went back to our hostel early and relaxed in the restaurant/rec room. Since we couldn't play Mahjong (no suitable table), Jessica and Brian taught me Texas Holdem'.

Tuesday was all about the pandas. We left early in the morning because we had read that pandas are most active between nine and ten in the morning. They spend most of their time sleeping each day (something about bamboo being too fibrous to be of much nutritional value and sleep being the best way to reserve what energy they do obtain from the bamboo). The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding (that's the panda place's name) was surprisingly well kept. It was definitely one of the most professionally maintained attractions I've been to in Asia. We visited the Giant Panda Enclosures, the Young Panda Enclosures, and the Baby Panda Nursery (our favorite site) several times, actually. We just kept meandering back and forth. Near the nursery we were supposed to be able to pay to hold a panda, but for whatever reason, there was nowhere to do this. I'm not sure if our timing was bad, if the camera crew we saw was filming something important and, thereby, monopolizing the pandas' time, or if the place is just disorganized during off-season tourist times, but we left the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding dejected (Jessica's word) and resentful towards Lonely Planet which we feel did not prepare us for the possibility that we wouldn't be able to hold a panda.

The only cure for disappointment met by resentment and sprinkled with a little anger was dessert and coffee from Starbucks. Having thus been slightly (or momentarily) appeased, we spent the rest of the evening reading and counting the hours until we could board our train for our sweet little hometown. While Shiyan may not be the most fantastic city in China, it certainly doesn't boast great things which it will fail to deliver!

It's not that Chengdu is a terrible city, but it lacks personality. It lacks character. I'm happy I visited it, and I'm content to never revisit it. The highlights of this trip definitely consisted of our awesome book purchases (and the time to relax and read them at Starbucks), the food from various countries we partook of, Sim's hostel, some incredibly cute pets which have inspired Jessica and me to get a puppy in the near future, my company (Jessica and Brian, yay, for fun travel buddies!), and these sweet head scarves Jessica and I bought (one scarf which can be used in a variety of ways to completely change the look or fashion for which I am striving, given my mood or the occasion in which I find myself).

We are glad to be home. It's good timing too because Christmas festivities begin very soon. I'm not exactly prepared for them. I feel that this year has reached that point similar to the point at which the sun has nearly set. It's the only time when you actually see the sun moving down. It goes so quickly that if you look away for even one second, you might miss the top of the sun disappearing beyond the horizon. I feel that right now I'm watching the year slipping down so quickly into the horizon that I can't look away or I'll miss it! But that's okay; the new year promises great things.