Homesickness and Blue Hearts

I have to admit, I've been a little homesick the past week or so. Don't get me wrong, it's been fun, adventuresome, challenging even, to be here in ZhengZhou, but there's just something about your own bed and pillow, or maybe it's the walking into a grocery store and knowing where everything is... you know... familiarity. It's hard to come by over here.

I haven't been feeling very well lately, either. So that doesn't help anything. I've got this weird thing going on with my esophagus where it feels like anything I eat--it doesn't matter if it's food or water--is as large as a walnut and I can feel it going down the whole way. It only hurts when I eat. I've never experienced this before, but I googled it and found a doctor describing the condition and saying that if it doesn't clear up within a week to go get an endoscopy. I'm pretty sure that means they stick a rubber tube down your throat and take pictures while they go down.... yeehaw. So if anyone has a rather short prayer list, you can stick me and my malfunctioning esophagus on it. Thanks.

Ready for a good story? Two days ago, I had this esophagus thing and a pretty good sized headache going on. I was sitting in my listening and speaking class, supposed to be TA-ing for the regular teacher but I was having a really hard time concentrating on anything. He tends to teach in, um, rather loud tones, and my head was unappreciative of the noise. I must say... that this was my favorite class to teach. I got along really well with the students in that class and I had a lot of fun teaching it. During the class, I noticed that one of the normally enthusiastic girls was looking about how I felt... slouched against the corner with her hand on her head. I slipped out of the classroom and got her a little present... not much, but enough to cheer her up a bit. After the class, I was handing out homework that I had marked, and I gave her the present. She looked at it, then her face lit up and said... OH OH! We have something for you!!! Turn around! So I turned around and hid my eyes and they counted... One... TWo... THREE! and I turned around and there were four of them each holding out a large marshmallow heart on a stick. It was like a little bouquet of hearts! I was so surprised! It totally made my day.

Well, that's not all there was to it. The NEXT day, I was walking home with Justin and I had in my hand one of the marshmallow hearts. We were walking along and talking about the day, when we noticed a little old man coming toward us, holding out his hand for money. I didn't have any money, so I said "mayo" (however you spell that), but I DID have a blue marshmallow heart! So with a slight bow, I gave him the heart on a stick, and his whole face changed when he looked at it. He smiled a sort of sentimental smile, like he had known love before but he couldn't believe that anyone (much less a little white girl) could give anything that sweet to an old man like him. Justin and I kept walking along, and every now and then we would look back and find the old man still staring in awe at his blue heart, his face so happy and content.

I am pretty sure that that marshmallow heart will never get eaten.

Next installment.... Shauli Temple.

One Month and Counting

Today we will have been in China for one month. One month, can you believe it? It really seems like it's been longer... but all the same, I am glad that we have two more months left.

This week I finally started teaching. That means that I am preparing all of the materials, lessons, and activities, then teaching the class, but the original teacher of the class is in the room observing. It has been really good to get some classroom experience and to hear the feedback of the other teacher. What's more, I think I'm pretty good at teaching ESL. Not to say that I don't have a lot to learn... but it feels really natural, I don't get nervous in front of the classroom, and it's very satisfying. I hope I will continue to love it for a long time and will become the kind of teacher who leaves an imprint on students' lives.

Last weekend, Justin bought a really large spinning top and a big whip. The idea is to wrap the whip around the top, then yank on it really hard to get the top to spin. Then, when you see the top wearing down, you crack it with the whip to make it keep going. All the old grandpas play this in the park, so he has been going there just about every day to crack the whips with them. I haven't personally witnessed this, but you can just imagine a young white man in there with all the gramps and a crowd of people gathering to watch him try and fail or succeed. Justin said that the crowd roars when he gets a good whip crack in. It's a good way to have fellowship with people even without knowing the language. You can read more about this on his blog: http://blogs.briercrest.ca

The speed in China is set to "mosey". On the sidewalks there are people walking, arms crossed against their backs, in a sort of mosey "Bill Jack" sort of way. At first it was kind of annoying getting stuck behind them and feeling the need to walk faster, but now I see that their pace of life is much slower than in the U.S. and I sorta like it. I should say, however, that on the roads, it's another story. When you step inside any vehicle, the speed is immediately set to "ramming".

Moving along, the hospitals are an interesting place in China. Last week I woke up with a bladder infection... not sure HOW that happened (and ladies, yes, I am aware of the appropriate procedure to guard against such evils), but anyway.... there I was in the middle of the night with an unmistakable problem of an embarrassing and unusual kind. I tried unsuccessfully not to imagine us spending the rest of our savings on a Chinese hospital and doctors... and I tried SO hard NOT to imagine me trying to pantomime "bladder infection" to the doctor. Oh my. I tried, but like I said, was unsuccessful. So needless to say, neither Justin nor I got much sleep that night and we had a snapping session in the morning. All was well soon enough when I went in to the school, told the director what was going on, and she promptly sent me to the hospital with one of the Chinese teachers as my guide. WE found that a doctor visit, needed test, and medication came up to a grande total of about 15 US dollars. Amazing, isn't it? Not only that, but we were in and out of there in less than an hour and a half. It pays to know someone in China, I guess. The bathrooms in there were another story. Considerably less than amazing.

We leave for Kunming in about a week. Stay tuned for more.

Life in ZhengZhou

There's not much to report. We had a good trip to ZhengZhou, and even though I left my backpack with brand new laptop at Juliann's house (thankfully, not in the taxi cab), and even though our mattress is a block of wood, and even though we don't have a shower curtain and the shower stream feels like, as Justin put it, "tiny boiling hot icicles that hit your skin and then break", and even though we don't really know what to eat around here (but we did find a KFC), and even though we have a TV with only one English channel (and apparently China has had no new news for at least two weeks now... except, of course, the continuing updates on all the developments around the olympics), and even though people still laugh whenever I try to say anything in Mandarin.... we're managing alright.

I am getting settled in at ESLI in ZhengZhou. The students are pretty fun, though a bit more rowdy than I anticipated. I've only been observing so far... which is good, so I can get some thoughts together and formulate a teaching strategy before my actual first day teaching. Justin roams the streets and works on homework while I'm at the school.

Gotta say, though... it's difficult to go from lots of community to virtually none. We're already looking forward to being back in Kunming, if only for the people there.

Time for class.

Like a Mighty Wind

We both kinda anticipated that China would smell bad... we thought a combo of fish, poo, and stinky tofu. What we've discovered is that it's not China per se that really smells, it's China interacting with Justin's gut.

The other night, Justin farted while sleeping and it smelled so bad that it woke both of us up out of a dead slumber.

It's all part of the show, folks.

On Suitcases and Monkey Poo

Apparently, we love to pack because we keep doing it. meh.

Tomorrow, we're taking off to Zhengzhou, where I will teach English and Justin will study and write and hopefully meet some other foreigners so that he doesn't go insane.

Our time here has been very full but has also been a time to sleep in and recuperate both individually and as a couple. We'll miss staying in an apartment with a Brit family who are always catching us off guard with their antics and who have us thinking in British accents half the time. They adopted two little Chinese girls and are now over here to help with the foster care and preschool programs. Gotta say, little Chinese girls with British accents are about the cutest thing you've ever seen.

Oh, before I forget, we visited Monkey Mountain yesterday, which is exactly what it sounds like: a bunch of monkeys running around on a mountain, free to climb, bite, or charge at whoever ventures their way. Justin loved it, me not so much. Something about the thought of a rabies shot to the stomach kinda dampened the experience.

But anyway... other news... Justin bought a cheap guitar yesterday and has been happier with it nearby. I'm still not singing much these days, but... it's nice to sing with just him and I.

Sorry these posts get so long. Since we don't have consistent internet access, I feel like I have to tell everything while I can, and there is so much to tell. You can copy and paste them into five different word documents and then read one a day if that makes you feel any better.

And with that, I bid you goodnight. Er... goodmorning. whatever.

Oh, you found a brownie? No...

The quote of the week comes from our special outing to Pizza Fun, a buffet type place in Guiyang. I, having just returned from scrounging for western food, looked down at Justin's plate and said,

"Oh.... you found a brownie?"

To which he replied,

"No, that's chicken.

:-}

I have had the sniffles lately and have been craving comfort food, so Ju is making some chicken noodle soup tonight. Yesterday we went out with her Chinese parents and a posse of other people to visit an ancient stone village and to eat dinner. Since they are pretty wealthy, they ordered speciality food which was... erm... distinctly not comfort food. Dishes included cow ankle fat, some opaque-brown mushroom looking things, green glutunous rice stick things, spicy SPICY chicken chunks (bones included), pig feet with fat and skin.... and many, many more. The most useful phrase I've learned so far is, "Zhe shi shenme?" ("what is THAT?!"). Even with the weird food that no one (not even they) really ate, they were very hospitable and friendly and made us feel like home. All said, we had a good time.

We also had a great time out in the countryside, although it was very different than anything I could have expected. First of all came Earl. Well, FIRST of all came a 5 hour bus ride that was pretty brutal... but we'll skip that part because it's no fun.

First came Earl. He was found in the marketplace running around with all the other chickens. We picked him because he was the biggest and we wanted a good gift to bring to the family that we were visiting, since they would probably be feeding us and giving us a place to sleep that night. After much haggling, we finally set a price and the lady scooped him up and started preparing him for travel.... or at least... so we thought. Let's just say we came very close to seeing our first chicken decapitation. It was a rush, let me tell you. After that episode, we felt that he was worthy of a noble name, and so Justin named him Earl and carried him, on a stick, all the way up to the village.

We hiked up the mountain to the village and arrived near to dusk, enough time to take in a stunning view of the valley with the terraced rice fields and lush mountainsides. That night we ate dinner with Juliann's friends, an older lady who we called "Abo" (granny), and her husband. Abo was hilarious.... she was a spry old lady who would yell around, fixing dinner, grinning wildly, and pointing at our seats whenever we would get up and try to help her, demanding that we should sit back down.

The custom in China is that everyone gets a small bowl with chopsticks that they eat out of, and then there is one large bowl (or many bowls) in the center that everyone takes food from and puts in their bowl according to what they want. You kind of pick up food as you go. Well in the countryside, these little old ladies will eye your bowl and fill it up with rice and other, um, "tasty treats" while you're not looking. They don't take no for an answer, either, because "no" to them means "ask me again". It's like a game trying to say that you're finished eating. Crazy.

The really crazy thing, though, is the rice wine that they drink in the countryside BEFORE the meal. They filled our bowls with a really potent rice wine that we had to finish before eating any rice. Since we had eaten very little for lunch and it was almost 9:00pm before we ate dinner, we had very empty stomachs... so.... Justin got a little giggly and had to be shushed by the old granny for laughing too hard. hehehehe.

Those old grannies really loved Justin though, antics and all. They said that we must come back and visit sometime. We are inclined to oblige.

While we were out we also helped with the rice harvest, which entails three positions: cutting the rice stalks, beating the stalks against a box thingie to get the rice out, and then tying the beaten rice stalks into bundles (resembling a mini teepee), all of which must be done a certain way. They were pretty amused at us foreigners trying to master the knot in the bundle only to watch it fall apart when they touched it. We finally got the hang of it, and they seemed to appreciate the help. It's hard work. Our arms were all scratched up and swollen from the rice for days afterwards.

And there you have it. Our time has been so full of outings and tutoring sessions that today I decided to take a sick day / sabbath and not do anything but rest and spend some time writing. We leave for Zhengzhou on Saturday, where I will spend three weeks teaching English at a school, fulfilling the requirements for my TESL certificate.

China 2