Category: China

About a week ago, tragedy struck our school. While the details provided to us were scant, what we did know was that one of the English teachers at the school was killed in a tragic accident. Unfortunately, we never had the chance to meet the teacher but we got to witness an incredible showing of Chinese culture.

In America, a funeral is just a one day affair. Essentially people gather, a memorial service is held and then the dead are buried.  This is not the case in China. It is almost a week long affair.

Right after the teacher was killed, a big party tent area was set up on one of the areas of campus. The first night that was set up there was a lot of music and yelling that could even be heard at our apartment a good 300 meters away. While we initially though the complete opposite, this is actually the traditional way of remembering the dead.

So to remember dead it seems the Chinese will set up big tents and, in a way, party for the next couple days. There is a lot of music and a lot of food. It is a completely organized affair as thoroughly evidenced by endless supply of food and stacks of coal for the numerous fire rings.

As we were not family or even casual aquantences of the teacher we decided, out of respect, not spend a lot of time there. On Friday, the last day of the “memorial” we went there to have lunch and the food was great. The kids at the school were let out of school early and as such we also had a chance to meet some of the other English teachers at the school. Ruth, one of the teachers, was really nice and helped answer the questions that Jordan and I had about the funeral.

We went back later that night for, what I guess we would call in a America, the memorial service. This is where you could see the true way that the Chinese mourn for those who have passed on. At this time everyone that was there gathered around some speakers that near the front of the large tent area and listened to some speeches given by the family.

It was absolutely amazing to observe this. On one hand we did not understand a word of what was being said but on the other it was amazing to notice that there are some emotions in life that seem to transend the language barrier. The sadness of the people around us seemed to almost settle on us like a blanket had been placed on our shoulders. It was amazing.

After the speeches were finished, those in attendence went to a partitioned off area to, we assume, to view the body for the last time. We did not view the body out of respect because we did not know the teacher. After everyone had been through, we decided to leave and the people there started to play some drums. See the video below.

This is the thing I love about being here. That is getting to experience things that millions would never have to chance to. It has definitely opened my eyes and enlightened me to the different perspectives that the world has to offer.

Also, out of respect we only took a couple (like 2) of pictures while there. We did take a video of the music that was being play after the service has ended. Click the pic below to watch!

So yeah, I meant to have more up for your Sunday reading pleasure but some higher forces were working to stop me. A force with lots and lots of power to control my connection to the outside world.

Sounds mysterious? Nah, it was just a power outage that happened while I was writing up a blog entry. When we lose power that also means that we lose the internet as well. So all of this means that I have a lot of catching up to do but at least I am still posting every day. 🙂

Anyway, I will guess I will explain a little about the power outages that we have since I have already mentioned it before. What you might or might not know is that China is the biggest consumer of energy in the world. While I don’t know the exact reasons why, China seems to have a policy of implementing random rolling black-outs, presumably to save energy.

Since we have been here most have happened at night when we are asleep. We have had some time where it has been a little inconvenient, such as like when church is happening and once during one of Jordan’s classes.

But yeah, it is back on now and as soon as I can I will work on updates. Thanks for reading!

Subscribe to my blog that is. 🙂 Haha, I kid, but today I did a bit of tinkering with the blog. I added a new logo in the top right concern. Let me know what you think in the comments. I can’t decide want I want to do with it though because I am not really sure if it adds value to it but we will see.

So the two big additions:

On the right you can see that I added a subscription “widget.” I figured it would be nice to have a super easy way that people could subscribe to my blog and found this through Feedburner. So basically what you do is type in your email and then click “Subscribe.” After that the next screen with ask you to type in a word (to make sure that you aren’t a computer) and that is it! One caveat though. After you complete the process, an email will be sent to you with an activation link. You will need to open up that initial email and click the verification link to complete the subscription process.

The next thing I added, which I should’ve done a while ago, is the ability for people to register with this blog. You can still leave a comment without registering but this way you can customize a profile on the blog. I am still doing some tinkering with this particular aspect especially with being able to add your own profile pic. Still figuring that one out but I will keep you posted.

Anyway, check it out and I hope that you enjoy the changes. Once again, let me know what you think in the comments!

So today was a bit of a long day. We spend most of the day outside and I have a ton to share about it.But, there is a problem. I am feeling kind of lazy and tired so I am going to save it for Sunday.

Anyway, I have gotten a couple of emails asking about the earthquake and if I was still alive. 😀 Well, I am happy to report that I am dead but yet have maintained full use of my limbs in digits. 🙂 Actually, nothing happened here. I wouldn’t be surprised if we are the only ones in the town that do know about it.

So tomorrow will be a day full of updating for the blog. So that means that you will have a Sunday full of reading. I don’t know if anyone takes a true interest to my blog entries but whether you do or not, these will be a good read!

Take care and thanks for all the concern!

Think potatoes. Yes, potatoes. As you can see in the picture to the right is a bag that has blueberries on it.

And yes, that is a bag of potato chip. 🙂 One thing that never ceases to amaze me every time that I go to the grocery store is the emmense and very unique selection of flavors. While shopping for food today I decided to try something new, blueberry flavored Lay’s potato chips.

Despite this possibly being the strangest flavor combination, it was actually pretty good. When you open up the bag, it seems like honest to goodness blueberry muffin.

The very first bite does take you by surprise though because the first taste sensation is salt and vinegar chip and then blue berry muffin. After that, thankfully, you do not notice the salt and vinegar and it become a delightful taste sensation. I am excited to buy my next bag. 🙂 Up next, dog. 😛 (I kid!)

Anyway, I got a lot to write about these next couple of days. Even those I was kidding earlier, I am going to write about dogs and also a funeral that we attended tonight. In addition, tomorrow we have a teacher at our school who is going to take us on a sight-seeing trip in the morning. Jordan and I are both really excited. Stay tuned!

Included below our videos of our professional and amazing analysis of the potatoes herein examined. Click the pictures to watch the videos!

Every week we try to teach something that will improve the kids ability to speak properly. Since we get a lot of students saying that they eated lunch, we decided to focus and teach past, present and future tense. In teaching this week I had an interesting experience that reminded me about how important listening is.

So on Monday and Tuesday this week my classes went great. The kids understood the lesson just fine, payed attention and listened well. Then came my Wednesday morning class. Normally that class has been one of my favorites. But not then.

The class, unfortunately, was horrible. It was the worst teaching experience that I have so far. The class was noisy and did not participate. I don’t think the lack of participation was because they didn’t want to but because they weren’t paying attention and, most importantly, they weren’t listening. It was so unfortunate for them because they didn’t gain anything from the lesson and I was just fustrated.

They I had a turn around today. At my first class today I decided to try something that I haven’t done before. I took a minute at the beginning of class to emphasis with them the importance of listening and how when we try hard to listen we learn a lot. Well, it pretty much made a world of difference. The class was quiet, attentive and most definately listening.

Although this might not seem like much to you, it really left an impression with me. It made me set a personal goal to listen more to those around me. Which is important because you never know what you might learn when you put forth that extra effort to listen.

So do it. Open up your ears a bit more and you might be surprised what comes in.

And beyond words it is. But that is mainly because neither of us understand any words that the other person is saying. I am kind of reminded about the numerous scenes from the Rush Hour series where Chris Tucker asks Jackie Chan, “Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?” 🙂

Anyway, this past Monday we did our usual fladbread lady and a shoe shine. I decided to take the plunge and got my precious shoes shined. While a shine on the particular leather of my shoes will damage it, I figured that it would be fun and those ladies need the money more than I do.

So if you remember my post about Chinese humility, I mentioned the shoe shining ladies but had no pictures because of technical difficulties. Well, they are fixed and I have posted a video too. Click the image below to watch the spit shine in progress!

So I have decided that I like taking pictures. And that I love sepia tone. If you notice in the picture above, it is actually cloudy. But the great thing about sepia tone is that it makes it (almost) look sunny and not so depressing. I like it!

Anyway, this week we have started our presentation on past, present and future tense. The variance between the classes amazing me. Take for example yesterday. Jordan and I team taught a lesson and we didn’t do very well because it took to long for the class to understand the concept. Then compare that to the class I had today.

The very first week class fourteen was the one that struggled the most. Didn’t understand much of what I was teaching and didn’t participate very much. Today the class was perfect. On my first slide I had the words past, present and future with their Chinese translation. The strange thing was that I didn’t have to do any explaining. The understood it perfectly the first time and were all participating.

So yeah, everyday is pretty much an adventure and I love it. So much to look forward to. 🙂

For those that try to follow this blog, sorry that I haven’t updated it for a while. On the 2nd our internet cable broke and we now have gotten it fixed. So here I am. 🙂

So I asked if you want to be a super star. Forget the whole spending years enhancing your already amazing set of skills. Just come to China! As you can see, we are pretty much celebrities everywhere that we go. Yesterday (Saturday) some of our students, Zoe and Angela, asked us to have lunch with them. After we had lunch with them we went to the city park. This area was awesome with great landscaping that surrounded a pagoda-looking library at the top of the hill. We spent some time walking around the park taking some cool pictures. The cool part came when we started walking uphill.

When we got on to of the hill that is when things started getting interesting. In front of the library is a big cement gathering area and there was a bunch of adults (singles I am guessing ;)) doing various activities. Jordan and I jumped in on a game of Tug-o-war and that was when chaos broke loose.

Swarms upon swarms of people (mostly adult but there were some children) came to get pictures with Jordan and I. It was awesome! It was crazy and we felt like celebrities! It is amazing how excited seeing two people that are tall and white skinned. 😛 Thankfully our friends Zoe and Angela were willing to help with our Chinese and took pictures of us. At that point I learned that Chinese people love their diagonal photos, as you can see in the top photo.

In all of that mess, there was one family that came up to me that I thought were really great. I was taking some pictures when I hear a Chinese lady say “Hello” to me. I turn around and see the lady with her probably 12 year old daughter. The mother said, “My daughter is studying English and wanted to say hello.” Of course I could resist. We had a small conversation and I came away impressed at how hard her daughter was trying to speak English the best she could. It never ceases to amaze me the work that some children put into there education. Before she left we got a picture together:

Anyway, as of today we have been in China for a month. For the first time it now feels like time is flying by. Being here is a lot of fun and it is going to fast!