Xi' an Sites and Sounds!

Several years ago I was watching an episode of the Amazing Race and the contestants were in China and had to find a clue at the Terra Cotta Warriors. That was the first time I saw or heard of them. Ever since then I have wanted to see them. When we decided to go to Xi' an this weekend people said there was not much to do there... I beg to differ!!!! We had a long weekend due to having Good Friday off, but I really wanted to be back for church on Easter Sunday. With the help of Sri we found a flight that left Beijing at 7:30 Am on Friday and a return to leave Xi'an at 9:30 PM on Saturday. We thought with most of two days we would have plenty of time.

We had a smooth flight and arrived in Xi'an with no problems. Our first glitch came when we tried to hire a car to go straight to the Terra Cotta Warriors. Unlike other places I have traveled where you can walk out of the airport and negotiate with any number of drivers to go places, the travel agency at the airport had some type of monopoly on this. Our only options were a one way trip to the Warriors for 300 rmb or a driver for 8 hours to the warriors and then around town for 500. So we paid the 500. I I return, I will make arrangements ahead of time for a driver to pick me up.

Anyway, we got to the site and were immediately accosted by an English speaking guide who wanted to give us a tour. She was charging 100 rmb so we decided to go for it. Her English was excellent and she did share lots of very interesting information with us. The site of the warriors was every bit as amazing as I expected it to be. I just could not get over the power that emperor had over the people, that he command them to build all of that for his after life, and he was obeyed, this is the same guy who had forced hundreds of thousands of guys to leave everything and go build the great wall. He wanted his burial plans to be so secret that he actually had 700,000 workers buried alive after they built the warriors. It was really amazing.

After the warriors we went on a tour of a silk making factory. It was really nice and interesting. The tour was free, and they really wanted us to buy something, but all the things there were quite expensive. After the tour we had our very expensive driver take us to our hotel and got checked in. We were upgraded to a super deluxe room and ended up having a really nice view of the bell tower and drum tower outside our window.

After settling in we went exploring and looking for lunch. We first went to restaurant which proclaimed in large English words their famous dumplings. Upon arriving, we found out they did not have an English menu or pictures on their menu. So we left there and entered the Muslim district. We searched for awhile and finally found a hole in the wall restaurant where they assured us they did have an English menu. When Tiffany asked for it they said, just a minute, someone else is using it now! That gave us a good laugh. For just under 5 dollars we filled up on noodles and meat skewers. It was very yummy! After eating we meandered through the streets of the Muslim District buying a few souvenirs and enjoying the sites. Some things were very similar to Beijing, but other things were quite different. We ended our site seeing for the day with a tour of the drum tower. We got to the hotel and crashed for the rest of the evening. I did go out on the balcony and take pics of the towers lit up.

On day two we began with a tour of the bell tower and a performance there. Next we went to the City Walls were for 3 dollars you could rent a bike for 100 minutes and ride the perimeter of the city. Tiffany and I loved this, and Shawn humored us by being a very good sport about it even though biking is not her thing. After the city walls we went searching for lunch and found even more of a hole in the wall restaurant than the day before. This place had a guy pulling noodles out front. They did not have an English menu, but did have picture menu on the wall. We stood in the middle of the tiny restaurant and pointed at the picture that looked good to us :) It worked out because we got really huge portions for less than a dollar each!

After lunch we toured a display of Steles- huge plaques with writing on them. Lots of them were copies of Buddhist teachings and historical writings. They also had an interesting display of stone carvings from several ancient dynasties. We ended the day with a tour of the Small Goose Pagoda and a really nice historical museum. After a quick meal at the hotel that was much more expense, and much less tasty than our other meals on the trip, we headed back to the hotel for our trip back home.

I love history in general, so seeing things that were made by people who lived thousands of years ago was awe inspiring for me. I was amazed by the extent of Shi Huangdi's power, and also his fear of death. His belief in the after life led him to build this huge army to protect him and also caused the death of hundreds of thousands of his people. How sad that he did not understand God's truth. Even more heart breaking for me was the influence of Buddhism in this area. I see Buddhism here in Beijing often, and it makes me sad, but as I read about the history of Xi'an, I saw the rise of the religion. I also saw hundreds of statues of buddhas that have been found and preserved. Even more heartbreaking was the site of people kneeling and worshipping theses statues. If you are a believer, please join in my lifting up these individuals that they may come to an understanding of the one who can give them true peace and true salvation!

That's all for now. I have more travels coming up soon. In one more week I have a week of field trips with my class that involves a three day trip to the coastal city of Qinghuangdao. I believe I am finally going to see, for the first time, the Great Wall!! I will keep you posted!

A Speedy Trip to Qingdao

I have now been in China 7 months. Many things that seemed so strange just a short time ago are now normal. Taking the bus to work, shopping at open markets, having an Ayi clean my apartment have all become normal. But I still have occasional moments when I am amazed at the difference. Last weekend I planned to go on trip with some friends as we had a long weekend off school. It was ideal for travel as it was not a Chines holiday so we would not be traveling with a millions of our closest Chinese friends. We decided on Qingdao, a city on the coast along the Yellow sea. Chris discovered that we could fly cheaper than we could take the train. The flight was actually about 90 US dollars. It was so bizarre to me that I could fly away for a weekend, stay at a nice hotel, eat great food, and do lots of touristy things for a very small amount of money. I thought of all the scrimping and saving I would have had to do in the US to take a similar trip. It was so nice to just be able to afford it.

So the city we chose is known for three things. Beautiful beaches in the summer (it is still quite cold here), a famous brewery (none of us on the trip a beer drinkers), and a big mountain not too far from town (I am the only one of the group who really enjoys hiking). So we arrived in Qingdao with a very fuzzy idea of what we would do there. We did have a few suggestions from the teachers who went there on a field trip with the 8th graders earlier this year. We found a tourist magazine that listed 20 things to see in Qingdao. It was so much fun trying to find and see all twenty things on the list. It included a pagoda, a pier, beaches, several different buildings famous for their architecture, several high places that you could see a great view, and the brewery. We managed to see all but the brewery. We also included a couple things not on the list such as the Olympic sailing venue and the underwater world aquarium. We managed to pack a whole lot of stuff into a very short three days two nights. It was such a sweet time hanging out with friends, exploring a strange city, and trying to achieve a fun goal. What a great blessing this trip was. I can't wait for the next long weekend. My goal is to visit XiAn and the famous Terra Cotta warriors!

The rest of my life is going well. I am blessed each week by my small group. We have started meeting at my apartment for the past few weeks and it has been fun getting to open up my home on a regular basis. I am staying on track with my plan to read the Bible chronologically in a year. I am doing this with a group of friends that I teach with. It has been great accountability and made for good discussion as we read the same plan together. I feel like my life is so full here. Most evenings have something planned or spontaneous. I rarely spend an evening home alone. My circles of friends are growing larger and it is great to have such diverse groups of friends. I am enjoying getting to know Chinese friends as well as colleagues from many countries around the world. I feel like all these relationships are causing me to grow as an individual.

My class is doing well. They have definitely shown signs of turning middle schoolers on me, but I am trying to reign them back in fifth grade for a bit longer. They are a really great group of students and I am regularly impressed by the effort they put forth in everything they do.

Well, I feel like I am rambling a bit so I will go for now. Time is flying here in China. It is so exciting to be part of this land, this people, and this work at this time.

A Night at the Improv

Recently I had the opportunity to take several of my students to an improv workshop hosted by another international school here in Beijing. My kids loved the experience and we all learned a lot about improv acting. The classes were taught by members of the Beijing Improv, an English speaking theater group here. I thought it would be fun to go see them perform and I found a couple other girls that were up for it. I hoped that it would be a little less raunchy than a similar performance in the US. We started the evening with food at a new Russian restaurant that Tiffany really likes. Unfortunately I had several misses with my ordering. I ordered a salmon dish that was not at all what I expected. The real dissapointment was the dessert. I ordered cheese crepes thinking that it would be a sweet cream cheese filling. Sadly, it was a crepe wrap surrounding melted mozzarella Cheese. This would have been good with tacos or pizza, but when I was looking forward to a sweet dessert, it did not satisfy.

After that we went to the hutong where the theater was located. On the way we checked out several interesting shops located in the hutong. One of the funniest things I saw was a doll of Obama. The intereting thing was that it was in a shop full of communist wares. The Obama doll was in a superman costume. And his neighbors on the rack were Fidel Castro and Chairman Mao. I am just going to leave it at that.

When we got to the theater it was almost full. The event was a charity, so there were no advance tickets. We found seats, but many more people still came in. At one point a guy asked all the rows of seats to move back so some people could sit at the front on the floor. I kept picturing maximum capacity signs in every store, restaruant, and theater in the US. Maximum capacity and fire hazards are apparently not of great concern here. We were packed in that theater like sardines.

The first half was absolutely hilarious and really quite clean outside of some tasteless audience suggestions. There was quite a bit more crudeness and language inthe second half and I found that dissapointing. Overall it was a fun night and something different. I enjoyed it overall and was glad for the night out on the town.

In other news it snowed in Beijing this week. It was exciting for the students but also frustrating as it meant three days of indoor recess. Apparently the school rule about no outdoor recess when there is snow is very firm. I did get the opportunity to take one of my friends kids out back of my apartment and build a tiny snowman. We also had a snowball fight which fulfilled my inner craving to play in the snow. Thank goodness I had an 8 year old available. None of my friends were interested.
In general it was life as usual in Beijing with the snow. I kept thinking how school would have been cancelled in South Carolina. THe interesting thing was there were no snow plows, and very few shovels. Apparently the snow removal tool of choice is a large broom with long plant fibers on the end. Basically the same thing the street sweepers use to clean the streets. It did not seem like a great way to clear the streets and sidewalks, but that is what they used.

Well that's all for now. Hopefully I will have something much more interesting to write about soon.

Chinese New Year- fireworks and fires.

After this week I have much better understanding of Chinese New Year. I would have to equate it to Christmas in the US, but maybe a bit bigger. Maybe it's just because there are more people living here, and all of Asia celebrates this particular holiday. Maybe it's just because I live in Beijing, but I have been blown away by how the Chinese celebrate this holiday. It's called Spring Holiday as well as Chinese New Year. It's hard to wrap my mind around how it can be "spring holiday" when it is still freezing cold outside, but that's what it is. The Chinese teachers at school had 3 weeks to pull together a program for our celebration there. I was amazed at what they accomplished. All the classes sang two songs in Chinese. Some students did amazing recitations in Chinese. It was really beautiful. Even us teachers managed to sing a verse of the Olympics theme song in Chinese. (I think there were enough people to cover my horrific pronunciations.)

After school on Friday we had an entire week off. Saturday night I went out with friends to a Russian restaurant. It was my first time riding the subway. I have heard nightmare stories about the subway being so crowded that you could not force your way through the mass of bodies to get off when you needed to. So we get to the subway, and it was completely empty! Apparently everyone was out visiting family. It was unbelievable.

A few weeks ago, I asked my friend Sri where a good place to go and watch the New Year's Eve fireworks would be. In my mind I was thinking of 4th of July shows in the US. She kind of stared at me blankly and then said, everywhere! I was a bit confused by her answer until Chinese New Year's Eve. I went to a party at the home of my school headmaster. There had been fireworks going off here and there throughout the past couple days. But they really started going Sunday evening. I really don't have words to describe the fireworks at midnight, but they definitely put everything I have ever seen in the US to shame. They were unbelievable! Everywhere you looked, in every direction low and high, there were fireworks going off. It went on for hours. I will never forget walking home in the madness. Firetrucks and police cars patrolling the streets were almost the only vehicles out. People were everywhere watching and lighting the fireworks. It seriously sounded like a war zone. It went on for hours.

But they did not end there. The fireworks continued for the next 5 days. There is apparently now safety concern in the people putting them off. People set them off of balconies on apartment buildings, roofs, right next to buildings and cars. I saw to fires. One in bushes near the mall. The worst one I saw from Chris's apartment on the 21st floor. We were standing in her window watching the fireworks and commenting on how stupid it was to set them off so close to the buildings, when I thought I saw a fire. Sure enough, about two stories higher than hers there were flames coming out from around the air conditioning unit. It was a very helpless feeling seeing it and not being able to do anything. It was such drama though. We saw a guy in the apartment above notice the flames. We watched him run and get water and try to pore it down on the flames. After awhile the guy in the burning apartment saw the flames to and together they got it out. What a crazy thing to see. The whole thing had made me much more grateful for and understanding of safety laws concerning fireworks in the US. There have been lots of other fun things that have happened over the holiday, but I will save that for another day in the near future.

Still saying "I can't believe I am in China."

Well time is flying by. I can't believe I have been in China for five months already. Tonight I was thinking about how I still have these moments where it is just so surreal that I am really on the other side of the world. I wish I was more faithful about getting on here and sharing my experiences, but I will try to catch up.

Christmas was great. I expected to be very homesick. While I had a few moments, for the most part I was ok. Skype really helps me keep connected with everyone, and I was able to call home on skype and see the whole family gathered for their celebration. A friend of mine who went home for the holiday was able to deliver my gifts, so it was fun watching everyone open the stuff I sent.

For the first time in my life I spent the holiday on the beach. To escape the cold of Beijing, a couple friends and I flew to Hainan, a small island off the southern tip of China. There I spent Christmas day lying on the beach, getting a massage in an open air hut, drinking coconut juice out of a young coconut, and eating fresh pineapple on a stick. I thoroughly enjoyed my first experience in a truly tropical environment. We also visited a minority village and rainforest. I really enjoyed seeing all the tropical fruit trees with fruit growing on them. One of the highlights was our visit to the Hot Springs. I felt so pampered as I went from the coconut milk pool to many other lovely springs. The most interesting was the "Fish Therapy" pool where little tiny fish eat the dead skin off of your feet and legs.

Another first for me was spending New Year's Eve at church. My friend Sri suggested it so we all went along. It was an amazingly powerful experience. The church leaders had people pray from different countries all over the world. Each person prayed in his own language for a different part of the world. Between prayers we sang praise songs. It was amazing to be part of such a passionate time of prayer and hope for what He is going to do around the world in the coming year. It was an amazing way to bring in 2009.

School started again for three short weeks before we break for Chinese New Year. I have one more week until that holiday begins. Tonight I had another " I can't believe I am in China moment." I went to club. Those of you who know me, know that this is not generally my form of entertainment. But tonight at this club, the Christian band Delirious was performing. It was an amazing thing. They were really limited as to which songs they were allowed to perform, and they almost did not make it due to visa "issues", but as I stood in a crowd of 1000 people, I was in awe of my mighty King.The lead singer in the middle of the concert said, "I can't believe we are in China!" And, as we sang "I can sing of your love forever!" I said to myself, "I can't believe I am in China experiencing this!"

Well, It is one week until the biggest holiday of the year here, Chinese New Year. From what everone tells me, that will blow my mind even more. I have some fun adventures planned, and hopefully I will have lots more to share soon.

The adventure continues.....

Holiday Happenings

Well my weekly blog has turned into a monthly one, but hopefully a little news is better than no news to those of you reading. This month has been one of ups and downs. The newness of the adventure has at times worn thin replaced by a lack of appreciation for certain parts of life here. Specifically the cold weather. I have given up on riding the bike and gone back to the crowded bus each morning. The other thing I don't enjoy is the very Chinese custom of spitting. It is unbelievable to me that two cultures could view this habit in such polar opposite ways. I am trying really hard to get over this one, but it's tough!

Anyway, moving on to more pleasant matters. The Christmas season has been interesting for me. Some things were just like home, others sooo different. I made the decision to stay in China over the holidays mostly to save 1,000 dollars. It has definitely been educational staying here. At school I planned to do many of the same types of things we did in the US leading up to Christmas. That bombed when I tried to do a writing assignment about a favorite family traditions. I discovered that less than half of my students even celebrate Christmas. Many of them even being from Christian families, don't actually celebrate in any of the ways that we Americans consider normal. This was a shocking revelation for me. It really made me appreciate so much more the special things about the holiday season that I have always enjoyed with my family. Even the secular things like decorating and gift giving, that have nothing to do with the real meaning of Christmas, are such a special part of the whole backdrop leading up to it. I did enjoy having the freedom for the first time in my teaching career to actually teach right from the Bible the Christmas story.

The pastor at church pointed out that here in China we are more likely to hear the words Merry Christmas than most cities in the US. It is a sad Irony that even though the words are known, the meaning is not. There are Christmas trees and lights and decorations everywhere. (Unfortunately large gaudy tinsel seems to be the decor of choice. The more colors the better seems to be the general decorating philosophy!)But, most people have no idea there is anything more than Santa Claus. At School we had a "Secret Santa" gift exchange among the teachers with a party for the big reveal. I was appointed to the decorating committee and spent quite a bit of time stressing over working with no budget and very limited resources to make the lunch room festive. A bunch of Poinsettias saved the day!

My class chose to have an international pot luck over a pizza party for our class Christmas party. That was a whole new adventure. Apparently the wonders of the cupcake have not yet arrived in China either. I had about 6 kids bring cakes to the party. We also had some Korean Sushi, some Korean Rice Cake and noodles, and some Chinese Dumplings. The only American food represented was pretzels and potato chips. I also had a Christmas party with the group of friends that I have become closest to over the past four months. We had a wonderful time exchanging gifts.

On top of all the Christmas festivities, grades had to be completed for second quarter report cards before we could leave for break. Procrastinator that I am, I had stacks of ungraded papers all over my desk. I could not help but think of my days at Armstrong when Harriet Baker and I were always the last ones to be finishing grades up. My fifth grade teammate across the hall and I were the only teachers left in the building at 7:00 in the evening on the last day of school frantically trying to get grades done. Somethings apparently never change, even if you move to the other side of the world. Well, I finally did get finished and even have plans mostly finished for when I go back to school in two weeks.

In the meantime, I am very excited about some travel within China to a much warmer climate in the southern part of the country. Maybe I will have more adventures to share when I return from that journey!

Thanksgiving

Well, I survived my first holiday away from all family. The days leading up to it were pretty emotional. I kept thinking about my mom's stuffing, and playing rook with the brothers after dinner. But when it came down to it, I was able to find the root of what Thanksgiving is all about, even on the other side of the world. Sri (from Indonesia) and I talked about doing a small dinner with our close friends. Several of the teachers were away at a conference in Hong Kong, so we thought it would be a small group. We thought maybe we would also invite a couple of the Chinese girls that work at school. I got to thinking that I am currently in a similar place to the pilgrims so long ago. NO, I am not near starvation. But I am in a foreign land. And I would not have survived had it not been for the gracious help of the Chinese speaking staff at the school. Just like the Pilgrims wanted to thank God for and with the Natives who had helped them so much, this was an opportunity for us foreigners to do the same.

But, when we approached Diane about this small dinner idea, things were immediately taken out of our hands and made much bigger. Before I knew what was happening, Diane had invited 25 people, ordered a turkey from a grocery store, and was planning decorations. I got Mom's apple pie recipe and her green jello salad and set about to make the meal feel a bit like home. I even managed to make a pretty yummy cranberry jello salad.

We actually had school on Thursday, but had Friday off to celebrate. So Friday evening we all gathered at Diane's. The meal was wonderful. It was mostly American with a few international side dishes such as Korean Kim bop and Chinese dumplings (both of which are delicious!) The only thing I missed was Mom's stuffing. After the meal there followed a rousing game of Catch Phrase. This was very interesting considering the limited English of many guests, as well as the very American culture of many of the words. However, everyone had a really fun time. I did not even have time to miss the traditional Rook games that we would have played at my own family meal.

In other areas of life, things are good. I have joined a small group that meets once a week. I have been greatly encouraged spirtually by this group. We are currently studying Collosians and I am so enjoying being involved in Bible Study again. I am also getting to know other people both on staff at school and outside of school. I have been practicing with the BICF Christmas choir and will be participating in the cantata in a couple weeks. That has been another fun way to meet people. School is typical. Lots of papers to grade, and a to do list that never gets finished. But I love my students and love the atmosphere. More than anything I love that I get to teach from the Bible everyday!

The weather is cold, and I am told it will get much worse before it gets better. In light of this information, and due to the fact that I am not Chinese sized, I have ordered a down coat from a taylor at a nearby market. I got to choose the fabric, the length, the zipper/button style, and pattern for about 50 American dollars. I get to pick it up in a couple days an look forward to being warm when I go out. For now, I am getting by with a jacket that was warm enough for South Carolina, but here... not so much.

Well, I guess that's all for now. In honor of American Thanksgiving, I will close with a list of things I am thankful for:

1. God showing me where I am to be and allowing me to have this GRAND adventure!

2. My mom, loving me and my students from the other side of the world. Showing me what a generous life truly looks like.

3. My Dad! How much he loves me. By putting up with mom's extravagant giving, by worrying about my flat bike tires and trying to find a solution all the way from SC.

4. Technology! I don't think I would have survived this experience nearly as well if I did not have Skype and Facebook to keep in touch with everyone.

5. My new friends in China. My life is so full now with the lovely people I have met and continue to meet here. It is such a blessing to see the community of Him on such a global scale and especially in this place!

6. All the family and friends at home that love me, pray for me, read my blog, comment on my pictures, and are living this adventure with me.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!!