跟上课有关系

(related to class)

I love my Chinese department class teacher. She definitely keeps me smiling. She is always telling us things to do to stay healthy. Today she spent a long time talking about how there are a lot of colds going around so we need to make sure to wear plenty of clothing. This is a very Chinese thing to be saying as well. She has told us to make sure to eat plenty of green vegetables to keep us thinking better and smarter (including telling Korean students that even tho almost all Koreans hate cilantro, they should still try it because it will help them study). She also told us this story of people being killed by being hit by a car by the main gate of our school and ended with “注意安全”　-be mindful of safety!

We have this one student who only comes to class half the time and when he is there he is usually falling asleep. At first the teacher was so concerned, asking him what he did the night before, to drink water, to get more sleep, go in the hall and walk around a bit. Then we started to make sample sentences about him when he was asleep and repeating them in rote. Pretty funny and slightly awkward. Today she just started to say "wake up" 起床 which is usually what you say when you wake up in the morning. The kid just kind of smiled awkwardly. It's like there is no shame.

Monday we were reviewing the four seasons in class. My teacher asked my Japanese student what season it was. He replied, "winter." This would be the logical answer seeing that the high is below freezing and it was in the teens that day. However, of course he was wrong-it is spring. In China, seasons have very specific days. She proceeded to tell us that we can start shedding layers the first of May. Pretty much we are supposed to put on long underwear the first of October and take them off the first of May. Conveniently, there are also national holidays these days.

Unrelated to class-below is a picture I wanted to share. This is after our Saturday small group last weekend. Just goes to show-some things don't even change when you move to the other side of the world...

...boys love video and computer games

St. Patrick's Day Spud Party

There was definitely not a potato famine at my St. Patrick's day party! I decided with us being so busy studying the last few weeks we needed to have a night to have fun and relax a little so I decided to have a St. Patrick's day party. We had an awesome potato bar (complete with green sour cream and beer chili), green snickerdoodles, and beer bread (yes all the alcohol cooks out of these!) It was a great night. Everyone wore green (Amy won best costume and got a prize!). We ate until we were so full. I also prepared a (I think fun) St Patrick's trivia game that required everyone to guess interesting facts about St. Patrick's day and the meanings of some Irish slang words! (FYI-Peeler means police!) We ended the night with a crazy game of Catch Phrase (no Chinese allowed)! (FYI-"Irish goths wear these..." answer: leather skirts) Below are a few pictures as well as on my flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chinamegan). Check them out!

waiting for potatoes!

Amy and me

my tutor and me making snickerdoodles and dying water green!

making their potatoes!

我第一次经历地震！

(my first time to experience an EARTHQUAKE!)

Today I experienced my first earthquake. I was sitting talking about the meaning of 因此　when all of a sudden i felt like someone dropped something super heavy on my floor then the whole apartment seemed to be shaking! It only lasted about 3 or so seconds but we were both a little shaken up about it. I asked my tutor what that was and she said there was no way it was an earthquake because they don't have earthquakes in the NE of China. We then hear dogs barking and people in my stairwell talking/yelling. I called my downstairs neighbor who also felt it and she said it must be either an earthquake or big explosion. (you should have seen me try to explain "explosion" in Chinese. My tutor thought I was describing a volcano and looked at my like I was crazy thinking a volcano went off in Changchun.) We thought maybe it was just our building. We then start hearing that people all over the city felt it!

Because I live on the 7th floor, the movement was bigger than people lower and my neighbor told me I should get out of the building. After thinking about the fact that my building is not the newest building, my tutor and I finally decide to end 15 minutes early and leave the building! I shopped around then went to my friend's house to hang out for a while (she lives on the 2nd floor-I felt more safe there for some reason. However thinking back, I don't know if that is actually safer-more floors to fall on top of you.) My friend (who went to college in CA) was not impressed and told me it was not a big earthquake (I had no idea I just thought it was scary!). We looked it up and found out it was actually a 5.1 earthquake off the coast of Japan (supposedly felt like a 2.0 here in Changchun). Anyways, all that to say, I survived my first earthquake! It definitely got a lot of people nervous though and I heard all the students in universities all left the buildings and were just wandering outside their campus. After last spring, they have good reason. Another good reminder to continue to remember the rebuilding and mourning of loss from last year's Sichuan earthquake in China.

To read about my earthquake, check out.... http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009ekaf.php#details

流水了

(leaking water)

This morning is my one day to sleep in every other week. Every other Sunday I am starting to go to Chinese fellowship but this is my week to stay home and rest. I was enjoying a nice morning of sleeping in, checking email and starting to study. Then my downstairs neighbor calls to tell me there is water leaking from my floor (I live on the 7th floor-top). I go outside to see the pipes for our radiators are leaking down the stairs (all the way to the first floor). I knocked on my neighbor's door (he is an American as well with amazing Chinese language skills). We both go down looking for a number for a building manager. There is none. Finally we run into some people who live on the 3rd floor. They look through notebooks they have with bunches of numbers and we start calling them-all say that they either aren't responsible for it, don't know what we are talking about, or one even was a pizza restaurant. We both called our landlords who said they would make some calls. The people on the 3rd floor were pretty helpful but you could tell they thought, as probably the whole stairwell of people thought, that it was our responsibility to get it fixed because we lived on the top floor. Finally we found a number for someone who could fix it but they don't get back from lunch until 1.30 so we waited for that. Eventually around 2 a man came, borrowed my step ladder, changed out a little part and said ok and it was all fixed. That easy to fix yet so hard to find the right person whose responsibility it is to fix it. This is life in China. Thank goodness for helpful 3rd floor neighbors and my American neighbor who could describe the situation better than I could.

the pipe after it was fixed (yes these are our radiator pipes in our stairwell)

the problem: the silver thing on top had to be replaced

the result: water leaking all the way to 1st floor

我非努力学习不可

(wo fei nuli xuexi bu ke--i must study very diligently)

my textbook, practice notebook, and some of the flashcards I am studying and will study this semester

Today I started my second week back to classes. It feels like I have been back in classes for months when its only been one week. I am pretty excited about the semester and have already learned so much within the first week. This semester is definitely going to be much more challenging which I am very excited about.

All of us Americans in my organization usually have all of our classes together. However, this semester one of my other classmates and I are taking classes in a different department, the "Chinese department." We both came in with more Chinese than our other classmates and have been doing writing (characters) so we are taking classes with other foreigners this semester. It is sad to not be in class with our other American friends but also exciting because we can meet other foreigners and it will be more of a challenge.

I have enjoyed our class so far. Our teacher is very ambitious and has very high expectations of us. On the first day she explained what "preview" and "review" meant-in her view. It means no playing at night, no resting in the afternoon, nothing but study!! I am excited though-I work best when challenged. Last semester I only had to learn a few new words a week to be prepared for class each week. It is definitely going to be an adjustment as each lesson we have has 40+ new vocab plus many words in the lesson text and homework I don't yet know. I am also trying to keep up with learning how to write (and remember) all the new words I am learning (this entails me writing them all many times and using flashcards). Thankfully I have a great tutor who has been helping me a lot in understanding meanings and the usage of my new words and grammar patterns.

Fireworks

The other night, I guess in honor of Jason's parents visiting, we set off fireworks off of his roof. The great thing about China is that anyone can buy any fireworks. During the Spring Festival Jason bought a ton of fireworks and stored them until Thursday night. We all go out on to his balcony outside, shovel some snow with a dustbin and start bringing the fireworks out. We can actually get up onto the roof by climbing the bars on the windows so a few of us got up there to start out. Eventually though only a few boys stayed up there and us girls went down on the balcony for safety. It was crazy to be so close to the fireworks-a little too close at times! Great memory though.

climbing up to roof

handing fireworks up to roof

watching in wonder

all the fireworks before

watch video of fireworks here

Back in China

Sorry for the long delay in communication. I didn't have a lot of computer access during my time in Thailand and it has taken a while to get all settled back in China. As I said in previous emails, I went to Northern Thailand for about a month for my organization's annual conference. It was a great time to be together with people serving in China, Mongolia, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam and hear about what is happening all over Asia and encourage each other. It is also such a great time of relaxation and community as we sing together and listen to guest speakers and connect with friends. After conference I went with a few friends to a beach in Southern China to relax for a few days which was great to gear back up for this semester of classes starting next week!

Snorkeling near Krabi, Thailand

I have been back a little over a week and was able to take a short trip up to Harbin on Monday and Tuesday to watch some winter sports activities at the Winter Universiade (international competition for university students). Below is a little cap up of the day and how I was able to use my Chinese I have learned as well as how I feel the Father provides in the little things.

I went on Sunday afternoon to get a train ticket to Harbin in the morning and they were all sold out of seats so I had the choice: bed (expensive) or stand for the 3 hours and hope to find an empty seat. I went with stand and hoped for the best. I woke up and took a taxi Monday morning around 6am to train station, got on and found a row of 3 seats all empty and was able to sleep most of the way to Harbin. Such a blessing (I usually don't like traveling in China because it is so crowded and my legs are too long for the seats so it truly was an answer to thoughts). I arrive in Harbin, go to a coffee shop I love there and have coffee and practice writing characters and then go to "buy now" and buy ice skating tickets for that afternoon for me, Romain (french teacher I knew from last year) and Zouyan (his Chinese wife). We meet and have lunch at a cheap noodle place and then head to the event. We got some awesome seats when we were there and enjoyed watching Women's short program from 2-6 pm. I even met a girl from USA competing and got to cheer loudly for her!

Ice skating

At the Figure skating competition

At 6 I left skating to go try and find tickets to buy for the hockey game (US-Russia). I got to the ticket office near skating and they told me the tickets were sold out. I didn't give up though-I headed over to the stadium (at another location) and went to the ticket office there (after a chat with the security telling me I couldn't cross the little fence the short way but had to go all the way around the campus). Also sold out. I met a nice Chinese couple at the ticket office also looking for tickets. We split up-the woman went to the gym and the man came with me to the gate of the university campus the gym was at (this is around 6.30 pm). I call my friends meeting me there and tell them the situation-that I'm looking for tickets and hopefully I will find some and they should come on over. We waited and talked for about 45 minutes at the gate and his wife called and said she got them tickets; the man and I traded phone numbers and he said he would call me if he found tickets by the gym-I stayed and waited at the gate. Eventually I decided to head over to the gym to look for tickets. I met up with the man and we continued to look for me tickets together (he was SO helpful to stand in the cold with me and wait). Around 7.30 my friends arrive and one of them had found someone on the way in with tickets so we finally buy the tickets and head in-another answer to our thoughts!

Go USA!

The game was so fun to watch. Because there are so many Russians in Harbin the Russians definitely were the life of the audience chanting "Russia" over and over in Russian. I chanted USA and yelled too but was overpowered most of the time and my friends told me to not yell too loud because they were afraid of the large Russian crowd! :-) It was a sad game (Russia 8-0) but I stayed loyal to the end. I spent the night at my friend's house that night and took a train home the next morning back to Changchun (front aisle seat with no one sitting by me-another answer to the little things!). As I was returning I thought back over all the times I used Chinese during the day-it was good to see the improvement I have made and get excited about continuing my studies this semester.

In the penalty box!!! (after the game)