A beautiful weekend

Hurrah for another wonderful weekend in Hangzhou! After a busy week of classes and homework we went out to celebrate a Chinese friends birthday at KTV (a karaoke place) for the evening (during which, I lost my phone!). It was a lot of fun, but we were up late and Saturday was a long day for everyone. Saturday, everyone had the opportunity to go to the National Tea Museum to drink Longjing Tea. Longjing tea cost about 3,000 yuan ($600) for ½ a kilogram and we enjoyed the tea for the entire day for free! We also watched the process of roasting the tea by hand and picked the leaves on top of a beautiful mountain. The only down-side of the trip was having thousands of pictures taken for the newspaper publicity the entire day. At the end of the long day, Mike and I went out on a nice little date at the Korean Grill we tried the weekend before. This time it was wonderful because it was only Mike and I… I didn’t have to worry about accidently eating lamb, no one was stealing our food off the grill, and we could actually talk to each other.. Another huge plus was our amazing fu wu yuan (service person). There wasn’t very much meat on the buffet, so she came up to us and said “How can you help me?” Luckily I thought she said “Would you like meat?” and I said “niu rou, (beef)” and Mike asked for some other meats. (Mike told me later she asked “How can you help me” and I thought it was funny that we still got our point across.. For the rest of our dinner she was bringing us food that wasn’t offered on the buffet, including these fresh whole fish that were really good (For those of you who know me, I don’t like fish!). At the end of the dinner I would have left her a HUGE tip, but it’s disrespectful to leave tips in China so we told her “feichang gan xie” which means super thank you (there’s not a good way to translate it, but it’s really polite).
Today has just been a lazy-ish day. I slept in until 9:00 and then Mike and I went to buy laundry soap and eat lunch. We came back to the office for a while and I studied for my Chinese test tomorrow and then we hiked up a nearby mountain (that’s why it wasn’t a lazy day). Currently I am researching our trip to Tibet in June while eating a 5 yuan (less than one USD) papaya. 

weekend in Shanghai

Starting from before the departure for Shanghai, the weekend was interesting. I went downtown to help a teacher and then took a taxi to meet everyone to eat at an “all you can eat Korean cook your own food buffet.” I called our friend Penny to tell the taxi driver the address, and he literally took me less than one block! I thought I was lost and I was a little scared, but it turns out I was in the right place, I was just ripped off by a taxi! The food at the restaurant was super good, but the next morning was tooooo early. We woke up at 7 AM to take a van to Shanghai and we were running behind so there was no down time. We went to many places such as Gardens, malls, and other small shops. At night, we went to the hotel, but some of the students didn’t know they needed their passports, so they tried to go to the police station to get a pass, but it would have cost 500 yuan (about 120 USD)! Robert’s new wife (A guy studying with Central from Texas who has a new Chinese wife) used to work at a travel agency so praise to God, we got a hotel . This hotel was very nice, but we were so tired that we basically went straight to bed. The next morning (Sunday) we went to many more places, the aquarium, the science museum, and another mall… With all of these places to visit, it was very hard to see everything, so I wish that we had time to visit everything in its entirety! Also, Shanghai is famous for it’s “soup filled botiza” but we were unable to try it because we ran out of budget 
I am very glad that I get to go back to Shanghai so I can try it, and see the Pearl Tower, as well as all of the new Buildings from the world EXPO!

weekend in Shanghai

Starting from before the departure for Shanghai, the weekend was interesting. I went downtown to help a teacher and then took a taxi to meet everyone to eat at an “all you can eat Korean cook your own food buffet.” I called our friend Penny to tell the taxi driver the address, and he literally took me less than one block! I thought I was lost and I was a little scared, but it turns out I was in the right place, I was just ripped off by a taxi! The food at the restaurant was super good, but the next morning was tooooo early. We woke up at 7 AM to take a van to Shanghai and we were running behind so there was no down time. We went to many places such as Gardens, malls, and other small shops. At night, we went to the hotel, but some of the students didn’t know they needed their passports, so they tried to go to the police station to get a pass, but it would have cost 500 yuan (about 120 USD)! Robert’s new wife (A guy studying with Central from Texas who has a new Chinese wife) used to work at a travel agency so praise to God, we got a hotel . This hotel was very nice, but we were so tired that we basically went straight to bed. The next morning (Sunday) we went to many more places, the aquarium, the science museum, and another mall… With all of these places to visit, it was very hard to see everything, so I wish that we had time to visit everything in its entirety! Also, Shanghai is famous for it’s “soup filled botiza” but we were unable to try it because we ran out of budget 
I am very glad that I get to go back to Shanghai so I can try it, and see the Pearl Tower, as well as all of the new Buildings from the world EXPO!

one month

I have decided that it is a better idea not to blog everyday because it is harder to recognize changes as a whole if you focus on one day at a time. After having been in China for about a month, it is interesting to look back. We have been to many places in Hangzhou, taken nearly two weeks of class, and taught many hours in school(s). I have became more willing to eat new things, but still hope that I don’t order lamb. I have become more comfortable with being referred to as beautiful, even though it is very awkward at times. And last but not least, I have learned that I must study in the mornings in order to remember all of my Chinese characters (This is not so fun because I have to wake up at 5 or 6 AM). Having said all of this, I am busy, but it is a positive busy. In the states, I often woke up, went to class all day, went to work until late at night, and then stayed up late doing homework or something not so beneficial. I feel as if my “time spent” is valuable, and I have time to do what needs to be done. I think that 4 hours of language is a good amount of time to spend working on the language each day, but through Central we go on excursions, which sometimes make me busier.
The most interesting thing that I have discovered is that the restaurants are very different. I do not think that there are health codes or food regulations even in markets! For example, on Lantern’s Day we bought meat, and it was just sitting on a table in the open! I think that is one reason why the Chinese are so strong 

one week done!

Sorry for not blogging for a long time! Things have been busy, I have 4 hours of language every day, and other things. Language class is going well, but very fast, the other classes are so far proving to be fun! Currently, I think we are going to some type of gathering later tonight (it's 8 PM now), but I am not sure. I can't wait to be able to use my Chinese and travel, however my English is getting worse! (I have been using some Spanish) My internship consists of teaching phonics and simple phrases, so I have learned to make simpler English phrases, in addition to using more Chinese.

It's fun to go shopping and bargain, but I think I am getting a lot of clothes :) Dani is excited because she will get to borrow my new scarf that I showed her on skype, but I guess that our rooming situation is stressful because we would love to live with everyone! I am excited to be able to travel China more, but I would like to figure out what we need to do in order to travel to Tibet (I guess we need a special permit).

Sorry, my blogs still don't make that much sense! It's hard to talk about everything going on!

silly boys

My apologies for the network that we use to access the programs from! Facebook and my blog have been unavailable for me to access! The first two days of class were rather simple, but long and stressful. There are students in my class who do not speak English, but the teacher asks them to introduce themselves in English, and they speak in English- this makes me feel bad for them! However, everyone in my class is rather nice, and it is just like a Elementary classroom where you learn phonics and letters! We even have a class clown, only many students are working on their masters degrees, or they are much older. When we were introducing ourselves in listening class, Zoe went first and I went second. We introduced ourselves in English and the teacher said “any questions?” and boys in the class asked us if we had phone numbers and if we had boyfriends. It was rather odd that they asked this, but there are only 6 girls in my class of 30, I thought it was odd that we were singled out. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are my long days. I have class and my internship all day, and then Wednesdays I have Lit. class at night. I don’t feel very overwhelmed yet, but I am glad that I am not working!

one day until classes

I haven’t gotten very much accomplished in the last few days because it was raining! My internet wouldn’t work, so I couldn’t blog or do my homework, but Zoe, Jackie and I had a wonderful day of shopping  It’s fun to shop at this one building downtown because you can bargain, but we don’t know Chinese. Some people are friendly because of our lack of knowledge, but some people raise the prices. Today wasn’t rainy, so Mike and I went exploring and ate at a new restaurant. It’s called PHO 1000, and it was tasty, but more expensive than some places.
Tomorrow is the first day of class. Mondays (so far) I only have Chinese class from 8AM until 11:30 and then I have the rest of the day free! Wish me luck!

registering for classes

Today we got our class placements, and apparently 3 of us did not get registered for classes. Li Shumin had to go and fix it for us, and we are currently sitting in the office trying to figure out everyone's class times for the other classes. I am taking 10 credits of language, 3 credits of ESL internship, 3 credits for an ESL course, and 3 credits for Chinese Literature. This sounds like a lot, but average credits are 24 or more in China. Mike and I learned today that you can take only 10 credits but still stay at the college for the full semester, this gives us a great chance to travel and see things! Things are kind of confusing because the China program has new things coming up, but it is working out. I am excited to get the semester on it's way, but not so excited that some of these courses may be at night!

Today was another rainy day, so we couldn't go to the temple. Instead we saw the new Jackie Chan movie! It was all in Chinese, but Zoe and I had fun guessing what it was about.

My first day of teaching!

For those of you who know how things in the education world go for me... today was just like any other.

I walked in to Mrs. Lily's office, and she told me that the other teachers loved my accent, so I was going to teach TODAY! She showed me what we were doing (numbers 1 to 5, phonics/letters, and animal sounds) and then she took me into the first of five classrooms. I love that the English teacher is not a native speaker, because many of her letters sound the same, g and j, and mouth/ nose also sound the same.

After I helped the kids with letter sounds, the kids introduced themselves. The teacher gave them all English names, and some of them were not typical English names. After going to all of the classrooms, I ate lunch with Mrs. Lily. Lunch was really good! (I'm not sure what we ate) We sat for another hour or so and talked about English words and Chinese words, and Mrs. Lily is happy that I can teach her English! She also told me that I can have an opportunity to work and teach English part-time. I am not sure if I am allowed to do this, but I think I am going to look into it!

I have to come up with some songs for the students for next week, so if you can think of any.. send them my way... I really need a letter song.. (not the ABC's)

Another rainy day in Hangzhou

Yes, it was rainy and cold again! The original plan was to go boating to an island on West Lake, but we ended up just going to a tea house instead. The tea house was fantastic! We ordered 10 different kinds of tea, and then just played card games, scrabble, and ate from the buffet for about 4 hours! There was a ton of awesome fruits and nuts, as well as food that was warm.. Since we were in our own little room (like many dining places) they kept bringing us more food that wasn't on the buffet as well. It was very relaxing and fun, however it began POURING on us on the way back! I'm SUPER glad that Jackie and I wore our rain boots on the plane.. I have worn them a lot! Since rainy days are so tiring, I took a nap/ read for a while and then came to the office.

Not being surprised, I received my online book for my ESL course, so the reading has begun and I am going to my internship tomorrow morning at 9:00 :)

Internship :)

Today was just a rainy day in China. We didn't have anything planned, but we did some wandering, and met some cool people from Brasil. In the afternoon, Li Shumin took me to meet the teacher and director of the Kindergarten. It's hard for me to call it Kindergarten, because it seems more like a daycare, but nevertheless, it was really cool! I have to work hard to understand the English teacher, and I think it will be good for both of us to practice in our *second language* :) For example, someone came in the room and said something about the heater, and she said "how do you say alligator" and I didn't know what she was talking about, but after she said "elevator" and pointed, I explained the difference and told her that was an air conditioner... It was interesting, but it will be good :) Since we don't have class times yet, I did not know when I could meet with her each week.