Last day in China

Today is June 30 and my last day in China.
I'm writing from the airport, on my way to Korea (closely followed by Singapore, Paris & Dublin). And while I'm looking forward to the travel that lies ahead, I'm most touched today by the events of the past 5 weeks in China and sorry to have to leave. I wouldn't say that our daily life was easy, accommodations at the university dorms were simple, there is not much in the way of luxury in the place or food or surroundings. For example, construction down the hall on two dozen dorm rooms included the jackhammer on the concrete floors to make way for drains for bathrooms in each room. Construction was noisy, dusty, and daily from 6 am to 6 pm. Suffice it to say, it is not the construction I'll miss.
The thing that chokes me up each time I think about the fact that I'm leaving is the people. I've simply fallen in love with the warmhearts and the tender spirit that was so evident in the staff of the program and the students. One woman in particular is a strong follower of Jesus and I greatly admire her and her pursuit of Christ. Never before have I been so touched by an individual that I took a piece of jewelry off and offered it to her. Never before has a piece of jewelry, a ring I've been wearing for five years, had so little meaning when compared to my desire to give to her. Many of those I said goodbye to I will see again in heaven, and I'm so grateful. I hope - and pray! - I will see many again either in China or America or another place that God in His wisdom and creativitycould arrange! In the midst of the sadness of saying goodbye I am comforted that God has His children in His hand and nothing will separate those from His love.

Ok - enough deep & meaningful for one update. Here are some fun things that I'll miss...
Chinglish
From time to time words or sounds are adjusted a bit from what anative English speaker would say. We call that Chinglish. Please, a sample conversation in Chinglish.

Person A: Now, friend, here is some bitter melon. Very delicious. Please. [She puts the bitter melon on your plate]
Person B: Thank you, thank you very much [this sometimes sounds like 'Sank you, sank you wery much']
A: Some rice, you wanting?
B: Nooo, is not very delicious [not wery deliciours]. You know, in my hometown noodles are very delicious. Welcome to my hometown. [Ie'Please visit!]

Hand in hand
For some unknown reason, Chinese women are very affectionate with each other and will often walk along hand in hand or arm in arm. During training one of my teaching teammates walked up and held my hand. The New Yorker in me gave her a sharp glance.
"Um, hey. What's up?"
"I'm helping you," she smiled, "your students will do this to you.I'm de-sensitizing you. Does it make you uncomfortable?".
"Yep! Suredoes!".
Ultimately I got over myself and accepted it as a part of the culture, and in fact it's rather endearing, after the first few uncomfortable times.

Chopsticks
I'm going to miss chopsticks. I just really find them convenient. Maybe I'll start a trend back in America - chopsticks for all!

Tuesday, July 21"TIP = Total Immersion Program"There are two groups, Blue Group and Green Group that are on parallel tracks but divided for size. There are about 170 students in each group. They have a very full day with a mix of large group activities and smaller classes (classes are ~ 30 students) and clubs (clubs are about 20-60 students).Students are soooo sweet! Very affectionate too which is a bit of a surprise at first - they hold your hand while you talk and such. It's very endearing! And most are English teachers themselves, here to improve their oral English. So because they are teachers they listen well -- they understand what it is like!

Typical day for me:
6 am - Shower time - we are each signed up for a time slot
6:30-7:30 - Devotional time - this year I am reading through the One year Bible and praying each morning
7:30 - arrive at classroom
8 am - Announcements and Diction lesson for Blue Group. I teach the Diction lesson with Lisabeth.
9 am - Break. Sometimes I sit in on a class
10 am - Announcements and Diction lesson for Green Group. Same lesson but different group.
11 am - Break
12 noon - Lunch. We eat with the students at the cafeteria and chat it up in English.
1 pm - 2:30 pm - Rest time. Best custom ever. We seriously should consider it in the States!
2:30 - 4:30 pm - Afternoons are different every day. Some days I will meet with another teacher to plan for activities on the weekends like Scavenger Hunt or Talent Show. Sometimes I will take a break and go to a nearby town or to the park next to the campus (Yuan Ming Yuan, Old Summer Palace).
4:30 - 5:30 pm - Club time. Clubs such as "Holiday Club" or "Music Club" or "Sports Club" is a time for students to learn about American culture. I worked with Meghan on Holiday club for three days and we talked about Christmas, Valentine's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Easter.
6 pm - 7 pm - Dinner with Club
7 pm - 8pm - Games & Activities with class groups. I teach Diction in the morning so I don't have a class but am a class "buddy" with Doc and Silas's class. It's been great fun to get to know the students in that class and we play some board games and card games, also some name games and some fun group activities.evening.8 pm - ?? - Sometimes we visit the dorms to see the students and encourage them in their English only environment. It is an intense program, to speak only English for three solid weeks. Some nights we work on lesson plans for the next day. Some nights we go to town or just outside the campus gate to shop or eat.

Walking in Beijing

Greetings from Beijing! All's well here; we have limited internet connectivity, apologies for my delay in sharing news. It's been a great first couple of weeks!

"swine flu = really big deal in China"
We as Americans are a concern, so for the first seven days we were in dorms secluded and taking our temperature each day. We all worked to have a good attitude about it and in the end I think we did. It was good in that we had a solid week of uninterrupted training and bonding; there is a great deal in the trainings and we had, well, ample time for focused training! No distractions like the outside world! It has sincerely been very cool to meet all these people from around the US, each one with an amazing story of how & why they came to China for the summer. It's wonderful to have Britt and Chan from back home here on the team too, they are a joy to be around. There is a gentleman on our team who is really quite good, leading us as a group in many things, he is a DTS alum

"of COURSE you're not even in China for a week and you're already teaching swing dance"
One night, June 26, we were practicing 'American dances' that are popular among students in the program, you know the classics like Chicken Dance, YMCA, Cotton Eye Joe etc ;). Naturally at some point we were goofing around, one thing led to another and I taught about an hour of the basics of 6 count swing. :-o

"There's a city outside our dorms!"
Now that we are out of confinement we've mixed touring with prepping the campus. Couple of days ago we saw the Great Wall, it is remarkably impressive! To celebrate the 4th we went to an American restaurant - TGI Friday's! Today Sunday we're going to church at Haidian Church and then to the Silk Market for "retail therapy".. looking forward to seeing it after hearing so much about it.

"The real purpose"
Students arrive July 7 for "TIP" which is Total Immersion Program - all English and only English for 20 days. We are in the final throes of preparation, reviewing lesson plans and prepping materials. I've been assigned leading daily warm ups, vocal exercises and diction, including tongue twisters; a perfect fit for my background and training from theatre days! The whole program is shaping up to be fun and definitely reminds me of summer camp!

Feel free to send me email via gmail to keep in touch, or I'll read comments here when I'm back in August.
Happy 4th!!

~lg