Posts
Just a real quick note with my schedule for the next few days! I will write more soon on here hopefully so keep checking back. I would really appreciate all of your thoughts the next few days. All of my layovers are really short so it will be close with all of my flights making them as well as my bags making all the different planes! Thanks and it was great seeing all of you this summer!
Megan
PS-if you want to receive my email/paper newsletters, leave a comment or email me your email and address!! Also if you have moved recently please also send me updates!
Friday 7.15 AM-Fly out of Little Rock
11.00 AM Arrive in Newark
12.05 PM-Fly out of Newark
Saturday 1.35 PM (China time) Arrive in Beijing
3.55 PM Fly out of Beijing
5.30 PM Arrive in Changchun
Sunday 6.00 AM Take a train to Harbin
9.00 AM Arrive in Harbin and meet with shipping company to ship all of my things to Changchun
3.45 PM Take train back to Changchun
5.30 PM Arrive in Changchun
Monday Medical Exams and Orientation for Language School begins!!!
August 15, 2008
April 28, 2008
Happy Birthday Calvin and Millie
So yesterday was Calvin, a kid on another team here in Harbin's birthday. After fellowship we had a birthday party for him (he turned 8). It was fairy tale themed so we all "dressed up" as fairy tale characters, ate Chinese food and played games including fairy tale charades and telling fairy tales from memory with a flannel board. Pretty interesting to hear people's renditions of the old stories we have all forgotten.
That night we celebrated my teammate, Millie's birthday by going to this Middle Eastern restaurant near our school. It is a little pricy but so good. We had all kinds of great food and enjoyed the great atmosphere of the restaurant.
This week is going to be an interesting one. Thursday is May holiday and so we have no class on Thursday or Friday, which is nice. I thought about taking a trip but decided to save money and work. So, tomorrow and wednesday I'll be giving midterms and then the last part of the week I am really going to try to get all my grading done and the tests for my thesis picked out to give in China and the US. I am studying the potential connection between creativity and computational math performance in the US and China so I'll be giving a creativity and math test in both China and the US so I have to get the tests picked out soon, translated and given.
Not much else exciting going on. 60 days until I fly back to America for the summer. That is pretty exciting. I'll be back on June 27, in grad classes in TN June 29, graduating from grad school on July 26, and then flying back to China again on August 15 so it will be a short trip but I am definitely looking forward to seeing many friends but also wanting to enjoy the rest of my time here this semester!
April 27, 2008
Pictures
Eating at Han's BBQ with some former students
About to go to KTV Karaoke
Singing at KTV!
Trying to stay warm!
Catherine and I staying warm!
So flickr is currently down in China so here are some pictures I have been talking about the last two posts! Check flickr in the next day or two though and hopefully it will be back!
Note-pictures are now up on flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/chinamegan)
April 26, 2008
50 degree temperature drop? No big deal
So last Sunday it was around 85+ degrees here. Beautiful weather-it was wonderful; all the flowers were blooming. Fast forward to Wednesday 35 degrees with huge snowflakes for 5 or so hours. I was so sad to bring back my wool coat and put the chaco sandals back in the closet. I am so ready for it to be warm and spring but I still have to wait. I guess we do need to keep those long underwear out.
I got interviewed for the Heilongjiang Daily (newspaper of Heilongjiang (my) province) on Thursday. Pretty exciting. They asked us about the changes we have seen taking place over the last 30 years. Since I have only lived in China for a year and a half, it was pretty difficult to articulate. So we just kind of talked about what foreigners know and think about China and why we came and all that. It was fun at least to hear my Chinese colleague, Leslie, do translation (they really only spoke Chinese and my Chinese is not that good). It is so helpful to hear something in both languages-really gives me a better understanding of grammar.
So you know that peg game they always have at like Cracker Barrel and places like that where you jump pegs until you only have one? Well I got sent an Easter one of those and got it out tonight while hanging out with my Chinese friends. I was always pretty bad at the game and never had patience to figure it out. The next thing I knew, 3 different people had mastered how to play it in just a few minutes. I tell you, these HIT students are smart! We had a fun time just hanging out tonight-they were all tired so we just relaxed. We cuddled under blankets (since our heat went off a few weeks ago and it's cold again our apts are pretty chilly), talked a lot, listened to Norah Jones, made chocolate chip cookies, watched a little "House" and even did a little yoga.
Last week I gave the written part of the midterm for Oral English Sophomores. This week I will be continuing their midterm with the oral part and giving my juniors the writing midterm. It is a fun filled week. They will also turn in their research paper. So, I have 40 oral midterms, 40 writing midterms, and 40 research papers to grade-fun! I always thought writing a bibliography was hard to learn growing up. I've decided it's also quite difficult to teach-so many rules and so picky! Hopefully they looked at their notes carefully when working otherwise I am going to be using a lot of red pens!
Our email is down right now-well, kind of. We can get emails but we can't send emails unless we go through webmail so if I am slow in responding to any of your emails, that is why! Also why I am writing on here. Hope you are all having a great week! Check out my flickr for pictures to come soon I hope!
I got interviewed for the Heilongjiang Daily (newspaper of Heilongjiang (my) province) on Thursday. Pretty exciting. They asked us about the changes we have seen taking place over the last 30 years. Since I have only lived in China for a year and a half, it was pretty difficult to articulate. So we just kind of talked about what foreigners know and think about China and why we came and all that. It was fun at least to hear my Chinese colleague, Leslie, do translation (they really only spoke Chinese and my Chinese is not that good). It is so helpful to hear something in both languages-really gives me a better understanding of grammar.
So you know that peg game they always have at like Cracker Barrel and places like that where you jump pegs until you only have one? Well I got sent an Easter one of those and got it out tonight while hanging out with my Chinese friends. I was always pretty bad at the game and never had patience to figure it out. The next thing I knew, 3 different people had mastered how to play it in just a few minutes. I tell you, these HIT students are smart! We had a fun time just hanging out tonight-they were all tired so we just relaxed. We cuddled under blankets (since our heat went off a few weeks ago and it's cold again our apts are pretty chilly), talked a lot, listened to Norah Jones, made chocolate chip cookies, watched a little "House" and even did a little yoga.
Last week I gave the written part of the midterm for Oral English Sophomores. This week I will be continuing their midterm with the oral part and giving my juniors the writing midterm. It is a fun filled week. They will also turn in their research paper. So, I have 40 oral midterms, 40 writing midterms, and 40 research papers to grade-fun! I always thought writing a bibliography was hard to learn growing up. I've decided it's also quite difficult to teach-so many rules and so picky! Hopefully they looked at their notes carefully when working otherwise I am going to be using a lot of red pens!
Our email is down right now-well, kind of. We can get emails but we can't send emails unless we go through webmail so if I am slow in responding to any of your emails, that is why! Also why I am writing on here. Hope you are all having a great week! Check out my flickr for pictures to come soon I hope!
April 20, 2008
Back again
So we now have access again here in China so we'll see how long it lasts again! Here is from my latest email and I'll try to update hopefully a few times a week here so check back. Make sure to check out my flickr site of pictures at www.flickr.com/photos/chinamegan
So Friday night I met up with some of my students from last semester. They met me at my dorm around 5 pm and headed to the "famous" Han's BBQ in Harbin. Students really seem to love this place. We got our own special little room and first went through the buffet line. In the buffet you get cold dishes such as fresh vegetables and fruit, some fruit salads and Chinese cold dishes. Among these included a dish made from "fish skin" and another with cow stomach (at least that is what I am pretty sure it was. At least someone's stomach-when I got it my students said they thought it was tofu; it was not). I did not get the strange looking dish that was "fish skin," however my student did and then asked me to try it. It wasn't skin like you peel off when skinning a fish, but more like white gelatin like material with some grey. The texture was indescribable.
Then later the waiters bring around various meets off of skewers and put it on your plate. Some were quite tasty, others were quite interesting. These included various animals' legs, chicken hearts, squid (very tough), a lot of fat, and many other parts of meet that my students did not know how to translate, which was OK with me. I don't eat a ton of meat really and so this kind of restaurant is somewhat challenging for me. I just cover it in this barbecue/ketchup sauce and put it in without thinking about it-mostly tasted pretty good!! The restaurant is sort of Russian themed and so we used forks and knives, which was fun to use with Chinese students-we talked about the "proper" way of using them (mom-you should be so proud). My favorite was one student, who always kept both in his hands and while chewing put the ends to the table like a child; so funny.
We had some great conversations and afterwards went to KTV, the Chinese oh-so-popular karaoke. We got our room and had some great times signing, using the tambourine and laughing together (I even sang Thriller for them and did the dance-it was great!). Around 10.30 I went ahead home because I was tired from classes all morning. It was a great evening.
So Friday night I met up with some of my students from last semester. They met me at my dorm around 5 pm and headed to the "famous" Han's BBQ in Harbin. Students really seem to love this place. We got our own special little room and first went through the buffet line. In the buffet you get cold dishes such as fresh vegetables and fruit, some fruit salads and Chinese cold dishes. Among these included a dish made from "fish skin" and another with cow stomach (at least that is what I am pretty sure it was. At least someone's stomach-when I got it my students said they thought it was tofu; it was not). I did not get the strange looking dish that was "fish skin," however my student did and then asked me to try it. It wasn't skin like you peel off when skinning a fish, but more like white gelatin like material with some grey. The texture was indescribable.
Then later the waiters bring around various meets off of skewers and put it on your plate. Some were quite tasty, others were quite interesting. These included various animals' legs, chicken hearts, squid (very tough), a lot of fat, and many other parts of meet that my students did not know how to translate, which was OK with me. I don't eat a ton of meat really and so this kind of restaurant is somewhat challenging for me. I just cover it in this barbecue/ketchup sauce and put it in without thinking about it-mostly tasted pretty good!! The restaurant is sort of Russian themed and so we used forks and knives, which was fun to use with Chinese students-we talked about the "proper" way of using them (mom-you should be so proud). My favorite was one student, who always kept both in his hands and while chewing put the ends to the table like a child; so funny.
We had some great conversations and afterwards went to KTV, the Chinese oh-so-popular karaoke. We got our room and had some great times signing, using the tambourine and laughing together (I even sang Thriller for them and did the dance-it was great!). Around 10.30 I went ahead home because I was tired from classes all morning. It was a great evening.
October 22, 2007
I'm back...
Today is an exciting morning as I just realized that Blogspot is back in China!!! I don't know how long I will be able to write on here but while I have it I will try to write frequently to take full advantage!
It is about 6.30 AM right now as I sit at my computer. Outside is all hazy and cold-about 34 but I see blue starting to poke through the clouds. I just finished my morning Japanese stretching exercises (one of the Japanese teachers here and another American and I do Japanese morning exercises every morning at 6.10 together. It is pretty fun and a good way to get the mornings going.) I don't teach today so it is very tempting to go back to bed and sleep sleep sleep. However, I am determined today to get stuff done. I am feeling very overwhelmed by the amount of work I need to do and I am wanting to go with my teammate, Bethany, and a Chinese friend to the Harbin Provincial museum this afternoon.
Things have been going well lately. I definitely am feeling at home and used to life here. I have been getting into a more regular schedule of life lately and am feeling pretty good about that. I have been trying to go to bed between 10 and 10.30 each night so that I can get close to 8 hours of sleep. It has been a hard adjustment because it definitely cuts out time I could be doing other things at night so that's why I think I feel like I always have stuff to do. I am just having to learn to manage my time better-something I always struggle with. I have also been cooking a lot lately. At first, it just seemed to take so much time but now I am really starting to enjoy it. I have mostly just been experimenting with different things so I just grab lots of vegetables out of the fridge and start chopping. I feel like a chef or something!
Chinese study has been going well. For a while this year I was at this point in language learning where I was stuck at this wall and to move past it would require a lot of individual work and motivation and I feel like I am starting to get past that point now which is good. I meet 2-4 hours with my tutor from last year and then now 2-3 hours on Sunday with a new friend who is teaching me who doesn't really speak English. It has been hard as it is so tiring to be listening in Chinese only for 2-3 hours but so good for me. She is real funny to so that helps! I have been studying little flash cards learning characters like crazy and probably know a little more that 400 characters, which may sound like a lot but really isn't that much considering how many there are. I really enjoy learning the characters though and they give a lot of insight into the culture. It has been fun to see my improvement in listening this semester especially in the study I am in on Saturday nights. It is about 95 percent in Chinese now, which is great, and I am starting to understand more and more and able to follow what is happening and what they are talking about. It is so great that it is in Chinese as well because they are really taking ownership of the study and are teaching each other-a great thing.
I am thinking of taking a walk now to the morning market before heading to the gym. I have never been (usually am asleep) but hear they have everything imaginable for sale so I figure it would be something fun to check out. Make sure to check out my flickr regularly as I am putting different pictures up on it. (www.flickr.com/photos/chinamegan).
It is about 6.30 AM right now as I sit at my computer. Outside is all hazy and cold-about 34 but I see blue starting to poke through the clouds. I just finished my morning Japanese stretching exercises (one of the Japanese teachers here and another American and I do Japanese morning exercises every morning at 6.10 together. It is pretty fun and a good way to get the mornings going.) I don't teach today so it is very tempting to go back to bed and sleep sleep sleep. However, I am determined today to get stuff done. I am feeling very overwhelmed by the amount of work I need to do and I am wanting to go with my teammate, Bethany, and a Chinese friend to the Harbin Provincial museum this afternoon.
Things have been going well lately. I definitely am feeling at home and used to life here. I have been getting into a more regular schedule of life lately and am feeling pretty good about that. I have been trying to go to bed between 10 and 10.30 each night so that I can get close to 8 hours of sleep. It has been a hard adjustment because it definitely cuts out time I could be doing other things at night so that's why I think I feel like I always have stuff to do. I am just having to learn to manage my time better-something I always struggle with. I have also been cooking a lot lately. At first, it just seemed to take so much time but now I am really starting to enjoy it. I have mostly just been experimenting with different things so I just grab lots of vegetables out of the fridge and start chopping. I feel like a chef or something!
Chinese study has been going well. For a while this year I was at this point in language learning where I was stuck at this wall and to move past it would require a lot of individual work and motivation and I feel like I am starting to get past that point now which is good. I meet 2-4 hours with my tutor from last year and then now 2-3 hours on Sunday with a new friend who is teaching me who doesn't really speak English. It has been hard as it is so tiring to be listening in Chinese only for 2-3 hours but so good for me. She is real funny to so that helps! I have been studying little flash cards learning characters like crazy and probably know a little more that 400 characters, which may sound like a lot but really isn't that much considering how many there are. I really enjoy learning the characters though and they give a lot of insight into the culture. It has been fun to see my improvement in listening this semester especially in the study I am in on Saturday nights. It is about 95 percent in Chinese now, which is great, and I am starting to understand more and more and able to follow what is happening and what they are talking about. It is so great that it is in Chinese as well because they are really taking ownership of the study and are teaching each other-a great thing.
I am thinking of taking a walk now to the morning market before heading to the gym. I have never been (usually am asleep) but hear they have everything imaginable for sale so I figure it would be something fun to check out. Make sure to check out my flickr regularly as I am putting different pictures up on it. (www.flickr.com/photos/chinamegan).
August 22, 2007
Going on year two...
I am sitting at home right now with laundry in the washing machine and dryer, clothes and other supplies spread all over my sister's bed and so much more to do before leaving. I head out tomorrow morning around 6 or so am to drive to little rock, fly to chicago and then from chicago straight to beijing. I'll arrive around 3 pm China time into the Beijing airport on Friday.
I'm really excited about heading back to China and am really ready. I have had a great time this summer seeing friends and catching up on everyone's lives. It was so good to see friends yet it is still very hard to say the goodbyes again for another year, knowing how I will miss my friends. Everyone has been great this summer. I am excited to see my friends in China though. I will be in Beijing for about 4 days with my organization doing some training and team building and that will be good to see some of my friends in the organization who live in other parts of China. I will then fly out to Harbin on the 28th to return to my home there. I am so excited to see all of my Chinese friends there and spend time with them again. I am also so excited to get back into the regular flow of life. I feel like I have been living out of a suitcase for the last 2 months and it will be great to feel like I am back in my home again.
I know this year is going to be a very different year. I wont be having to do as much adjusting as I did last year and will really be able to pour time into my friendships there and teaching. I know there will be different things to adjust to about living in China-coming from a different culture, I am always learning and needing to learn more. It will also be a different year having a totally different team. My team will consist of 3 girls this year: myself, my returning team leader, and a new teacher to China. Please be thinking about this and asking the father that we will be able to work together well. I am also planning on spending a lot of time studying Chinese this year. I think it is so important to learn the language of the culture one lives in so I am going to be making language a top priority (other than teaching, of course!)
That's about all for now. Be sure to check out my flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chinamegan) to see pictures-I updated them the other day of pictures from the spring and will have some more up soon as well as pictures from this summer. Let me know if you have a change in address/email or would like to receive my newsletters and do not. Thanks for remembering me as I am traveling tomorrow.
I'm really excited about heading back to China and am really ready. I have had a great time this summer seeing friends and catching up on everyone's lives. It was so good to see friends yet it is still very hard to say the goodbyes again for another year, knowing how I will miss my friends. Everyone has been great this summer. I am excited to see my friends in China though. I will be in Beijing for about 4 days with my organization doing some training and team building and that will be good to see some of my friends in the organization who live in other parts of China. I will then fly out to Harbin on the 28th to return to my home there. I am so excited to see all of my Chinese friends there and spend time with them again. I am also so excited to get back into the regular flow of life. I feel like I have been living out of a suitcase for the last 2 months and it will be great to feel like I am back in my home again.
I know this year is going to be a very different year. I wont be having to do as much adjusting as I did last year and will really be able to pour time into my friendships there and teaching. I know there will be different things to adjust to about living in China-coming from a different culture, I am always learning and needing to learn more. It will also be a different year having a totally different team. My team will consist of 3 girls this year: myself, my returning team leader, and a new teacher to China. Please be thinking about this and asking the father that we will be able to work together well. I am also planning on spending a lot of time studying Chinese this year. I think it is so important to learn the language of the culture one lives in so I am going to be making language a top priority (other than teaching, of course!)
That's about all for now. Be sure to check out my flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chinamegan) to see pictures-I updated them the other day of pictures from the spring and will have some more up soon as well as pictures from this summer. Let me know if you have a change in address/email or would like to receive my newsletters and do not. Thanks for remembering me as I am traveling tomorrow.
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