...and we're back!

Paris, Dublin, and now home in New York city... it's been a great week!

There were many things that were wonderful ~ to name just a few: cafe au lait, chocolat croissant, Jardin des Tuileries, lunch with Marie, Gallerie Lafayette, glass of chilled Sancerre on a warm night, Shakespeare & Co, answered prayer for lost keys, sipping wine in the back garden, lovely weather for a picnic at Stephen's Green, and Jen Paul & Grace.

Enjoying the balmy New York August weather from the lovely new apartment, catching up a bit on email and staring down the stacks of boxes in the bedroom. I hope to win the stare down ... or unpack them this week.

Part 3: Singapore - A truly wonderful surprise!

Kevin & I arrived Singapore late Sunday night. To be honest, I knew precious little about the place before cramming on the plane with the guide book (thanks domad!). Kevin's conference began Monday morning so we made plans to meet for dinner Monday evening. I loved many things about Singapore - it is a tropical island, essentially, with a sophisticated metropolis that has been shaped by many people groups who have been through the city as it's a major trade route. There are influences from the British, French, Chinese, Malay and Indian people to name a few. This appears in the eateries, the shopping, and the architecture. All set on an island with palm trees, orchids and birds of paradise growing along the sidewalks. Such a fascinating place!Monday morning I wandered a bit around the 'Colonial area' and just fell in love with the Raffles Hotel which is plantation white with archways and gardens within its grounds. Wonderfully, the downtown area is only a short cab ride from the 'East Coast' shoreline and it was a great treat to walk barefoot along the beach and in the waves! So refreshing to see God's beauty in creation, the sky and the sea. In the afternoon I walked through the shopping district and was surprised by many malls. Many many malls. Kevin and I met and went to the Chijmes area - it was a convent in the 1800s and, when the sisters moved, it became an area with many restaurants. We had a good dinner of middle Eastern food and then went for ice cream at Raffles Creamery. Perhaps the highlight of the evening was walking by a hotel that was having a Durian Festival. Now, a certain brother is somewhat expert and has spoken on the subject of exotic fruits. Durian, aka 'stinky fruit', falls into this category. You can imagine how excited we were to take photos with the gi-normous plaster durian! And then, a lovely woman eating durian with friends at an outdoor table saw us taking photos and offered us a piece of durian! What a moment! I'd never had it so I tried only a small bite. Sort of like the texture of mango and the flavor of onion. Kevin offered me a second bite. "I'm good, thanks though." It was a fun day, and Singapore a happy surprise of a city!

Part 2: Seoul, Korea

Last Thursday, after a tearful goodbye in Beijing, I flew to Seoul to meet up with brother Kevin & his university friend Eunice. She grew up in Seoul and now visits her folks during the summer - fortunately while we were there! Friday we met up, drove all around, saw an open air market and went to a mountain which has at its top the 'N Seoul Tower'. A healthy hike up to the top, the views were great and we took many many photos. We strolled back down, had a delicious lunch at a fusion restaurant in Eunice's neighborhood and she showed us around, her church, her elementary school, some local shops. We ended our day with a vegetarian 'Buddhist temple food' restaurant for dinner followed by a stroll in the park. Next day, Saturday, we had a late lunch and hopped on the city tour bus, getting off at the historic village Namsangol. We had a late dinner at a restaurant famous for their oysters - and with good reason! Beautiful, delicious and large! It was the first two-bite oyster I'd ever had! Sunday morning Eunice saw us off and we were on our way to Singapore.

Couple of thoughts on Seoul (I was there for about 48 hours, so apply many many grains of salt to the following..)

Coming from Beijing, Seoul seemed really really clean. And orderly and polite. Perhaps it really is, or perhaps it is in my mind when compared to Beijing.

Exchange rates took a minute to get used to. The current rate is about $1 USD to about 1,200 Korean Won. Right. So a cup of coffee may cost you 4,500 Won. Dinner for two? About 36,000 Won. Souvenir magnet? 2,000 Won. The iTouch calculator feature? Priceless.

Stepping off the plane into Korea I knew two words of Korean: yo bosay-o (which is a greeting when you answer the phone) and kim-cheewhich is one of my favorite dishes. Completely my fault for not learning more prior to my trip. So I asked Eunice for some basics.
Thanks = Kam sa Ham nee dah (phonetically)
Hello =ahn Yong Ha say-o
Yes = Neh
No = Anio

Now, I'm no linguist. But these seemed like a lot of syllables. So I asked Eunice, do you ever abbreviate? No, you always say the whole thing. It took a full two days for me to remember all the syllables of KamSaHamNeeDah and make my mouth say it at the right time. For the first 36 hours I was like a happy mute, nodding and smiling because I knew no words!

Three Cities, Three Countries, Seven Days

Tian Jin, Seoul, and Singapore

Part 1: Tian Jin, China
Last Tuesday & Wednesday I traveled with my friend and fellow TIP teammate Karen to Tian Jin. One of her students from last summer, Linda, invited her to visit. Tian Jin is a city of 10million people and a two hour drive from Beijing.
We took the express train though and arrived in under 30 minutes. On Tuesday we walked all over the city with Linda and her husband and on Wednesday Linda, Karen and I visited Linda's parents.
We pretty much ate our way through the city! Linda and her husband were the epitome of hospitality, treating us to many delicious traditional foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Highlights: hotpot dinner with meat (sliced pork, ox stomach, bone marrow,meatballs), vegetables and noodles; breakfast dish that was like a thin omelet, wrapped in a thin pancake with delicious sauce, so that it looked like a burrito of sorts (super yummy); flavored ice, a mountain of ice with some milk in it, and topped with red bean sauce and corn (yep, it's a dessert); pears and peaches picked straight from the trees at Linda's folks' house in the countryside; homemade dumplings and "jar-bing" which is like a bouza but with a thin breadwrapping and fried, all with vegetables, and soooo good!

Among other culinary adventures, Karen & I fixed an 'American breakfast' for Linda and her husband. A trip to the grocery store was very interesting and it was no small miracle that we found baking powder for the pancake recipe.

"Baking powder?" Asked Linda,
"Yes, baking powder... It is... hmm, white, like flour, you put it in when you are baking, and...". Yea...

I think Karen and I were both praying when she was staring at the shelves and said "Baking powder!". And there it was, in English no less, Baking Powder. We got up early to cook so that we could eat with Mr Sung before he went to work. Perhaps most challenging was when we went to toast the bread... No toaster. No problem! We'll use the oven. No oven. Turns out, you *can* use a wok to toast bread. Carefully, though... I burned the first piece or two. Karen was a rock star making the pancakes, adding milk and flour and sugar to counteract the super salty butter (was it salted butter? We may never know...).
All in all the pancakes with peaches, scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast made for a good breakfast. Perhaps my favorite moment of all in Tian Jin was when Linda showed us her mother's prayer room. There was a table acting as an altar, framed pictures of many different gods, incense, and music that sounded like chanting. Her mother found us there and showed us the ritual way she prays, standing, kneeling, prostrated on a cushion before the altar. We said, "May we show you how we pray?" and told yes. We stood, all four, in a circle, held hands, bowed our heads and Karen prayed to Jesus, asking His blessing on China, its people, and Linda and her family, that they may have joy as they know the greatness of His love. Linda translated to Chinese for her mother, and we all said Amen together.

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