Lovell Family Blog

So yeah, I put the title of this post talking about humility and I put a picture of this women. It may not make sense but bear with me for a moment. I wish to write a post about Chinese humility. Please consider these two examples:

So this lady is pretty much Jordan and I’s favorite person. She is a street food vendor in our town and it is amazing. She takes teach small balls of dough, covers one side with meat (I am secretly hoping that it is dog :P) and throws it on the skillet/grill.  She then flattens it out (as you can see in the picture), spreads some spicy red sauce and then some other toping. Last, she lets it cook for a while and then serves it to us is a bag. Price: 2 yuan.

Yesterday we got some food from our street vendor lady and then headed to the town square just down the road a couple hundred yards. Once we sat down to eat our food, these ladies came over to us with boxes full of different stuff talking to us in Chinese. What they were wanting to do was to shine our shoes. Jordan obliged and had a really nice shine job done on his shoes. Does a polish on my shoes will crack the leather so I didn’t get one but for the sake of the experience I think I am going take the risk and do it anyway. 🙂 Price: 2 yuan.

So for 4 yuan or 75 cents in US money, one can get lunch AND their shoes polished. What really amazed me is that all of these people do this everyday no matter the weather. They also seem to put their best into the job at hand for what is pennies. And best of all, they always have a smile.

And this is where it comes full circle about humility. I have never heard someone say thank you since I have been in mainland. Honestly, one could think of this as rude but truth be told, I didn’t notice. That is until I read a section in my “Encountering the Chinese” book. It helped me understand that, with the Chinese culture, it is just the opposite. From the book:

“Traditionally, the Chinese are unlikely to respond to a compliment with thanks or any other acknowledgement of its validity. To do so would demonstrate a lack of the indispensable virtue of humility. Chinese people’s concern for humility is apparent everywhere.

… [For example,] saying thank you to a compliment regarding a family member is the same as accepting without protest a compliment about oneself — a sure sign of bad manners.” Encountering the Chinese: A Modern Country, An Ancient Culture, pp 39, 40

So there you have it. It sure gave me a new understanding of humility and a greater appreciation for what these people work so hard to do here. When we left after having Jordan had his shoes shines, we went back and gave her a tip. The people are great!

p.s. Sorry I don’t have a picture of the shoe shining lady. It wouldn’t upload for some reason.

 

Apparently a twit is a pregnant Goldfish. Pretty cool fact but I am a little doubtful that it is true. But who cares! It’s awesome!

Anyway, today marks three weeks here in China. Personally, I don’t know whether I feel like I have been here a while or if it feels like I have been here for only a couple of day. Kind of in between.

But it is definitely exciting. Anyway, not much happened today because it was Sunday and we had church. Thankfully we had power this time and were able to listen to it. Having it over telephone is a great experience because I find that I can focus better on the messages. So yeah, not much to write about tonight but there will be plenty for tomorrow. 🙂

On another note, a jelly fish is 95 percent water. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three and five. To the normal person they are just normal number. I mean, you have five fingers right? You might see them every day and not think another thing about it.

Not for us.

For us, it is a painful reminder. That we are out of shape that is. This are the only numbers posted in our apartment building that indicate what for you are currently on. We live on the 7th floor and we moan and groan whenever we see those numbers and how much our legs are burning. Life is hard. 😛 BUT! You will all love our sexy muscular legs when we come back. 🙂

Today was spent out on the town. In a matter of 24 hours, both of our voltage converters/adapters went dead. Sad thing really but thankfully someone in China must have been thinking of silly Americans who weren’t prepared. On the power strip here they accept American plugs and thankfully our power adapters are dual voltage compatable.

So as such, I say that LIFE IS GREAT! Every day is an adventure and it is great! Be jealous that you aren’t here. It’s really okay. 🙂

 

So the translation for the above title: Hello class!

And that is what I (attempt to) say at the beginning of class. We both just finished our first week of classes to day. I am proud to say that I am really starting to enjoy it. Since I only taught one class today, I had plenty of time to read up on my China culture book and I learned a lot reading today.

One thing that Jordan and I have been doing is asking how old people are. What the book said that ask someone’s age is not a taboo subject but people are becoming a bit more sensitive about it. It said that most women find it uncomfortable to be asked their age and so they will just give a general age instead of specific one. That would explain why every girl we have asked is aged 26 years old. 😛 Opps.

Another thing that I learned is that the amount of time that someone spends with you after you leave someplace is a sign of respect. So for example let say you go to a Chinese family’s apartment for dinner. If the person respects you a lot, they will not only walk with you to the door, but down the stairs, out the door and possibly to your bus stop. This was something that we have noticed before and it is pretty cool to know what it is.

Now even with this knowledge, I did something I regret today. After my one class today, there was a kid in my class that came up beside me right after I left that class and started talking to me. He asked me how I liked his class and we had a good conversation about what I was doing at the school. Without thinking for some reason, I told him that I had to go and I left him.

Right after I did that I remember what I had read and I felt terrible. I shouldn’t have done that when the kid was making such an effort to speak to me. I really regret that I am going to make sure that the next time I see him that I spend some time with him. But I am here to learn and that was definitely an experience to learn from.

And that is what I am loving about this. I am learning so much about the Chinese and I am loving it. In the west we wouldn’t have thought a think about it but now I am starting to think different. It is great.

Anyway, I post some pics up top of my classroom and some of the kids from class 11. I love it! They are so eager to take pictures and have fun. 🙂

So to explain why I have posted a picture of a metal bowl, I will tell you about the 15th of February. That day was our first full day here at the school. Our English Liason, Stone, took us to the town center so that we could do some shopping and get some credit on a SIM card for our mobile phones. We definately needed his help because it seems that here in this area, not one soul speaks English.

So we enter the China Mobile store and Stone starts talking with the lady behind the desk and paying for our cell phone credit. After a while of standing around not having a clue of what was going on, the lady behind the desk proceeded to hand us what you see in the pictures. A large metal bowl.

We asked Stone what it was for and he said that it was a gift from China Mobile for getting a phone number. haha, it was pretty cool. I mean, I never got anything from Verizon when I signed contract with them. While I have only used it to carry soaking wet clothes from the washer to outside, I know that this would mean a lot to some normal Chinese person.

So we have been teaching more classes and it seems to be going very well. The enhancements I have made to my lessons are helping and I am really enjoying it. Unfortunately Jordan has come down with a bit of a head cold with a sore throat and a really runny nose. Poor kid. Hopefully he will be feeling better soon. Pray for him!

Well, it is the morning here so I best get on with my day. You know, “being productive”. 🙂 Love you all!

So I think I am getting the hang of the whole chopsticks deal. I can tell you that I definitely am not holding them right. The way that I figure it is that whatever gets the job done is good enough. Over the past three week I have only used a fork once. Actually I guess that is a lie. When we first got here until when the cafeteria opened we were living off these instant noodles and I did use the small fork in there. But I petition that it doesn’t count. 🙂

But as you can see in the picture above, a wonderfully amazing attribute of digital dexterity is require and I am able take big ol’ bites.

Anyway, teaching was a lot better today. I had a class in the morning and it went pretty well despite the kids knowing less than my previous class. What helped was that I focus more on simple explanations and examples. The class was also more willing to participate. At the beginning of the class I looked like a dork because I couldn’t get my thumb drive working but thankfully God’s graces got it working again.

In the afternoon, Jordan and I headed out of the school campus with Stone to the Junior 1 school that we have classes at. This school seems to be apart of our school that we are living at but for some reason they are located more downtown. Once we got there we were a little bummed to find out that they didn’t have a projector so we decided to double team the classes.

And it went really well! Lots better than my previous classes. The first class (Class 20) had they youngest group of children that we had taught so far. The first class was (compared to our second one) a dud because we hadn’t planned on not having a projector and so we were going at it kind of willy nilly.

The second class was better because the class was older, more anxious to show us their work and participatory. Oh, and let’s not forget that they were better at English. I loved the second class because there was a small kid that loved it when I gave him a noogie and a fat kid that was the clown of class. Overall, I did enjoy the class and it was a lot easier to keep the classes under control then it was with the classes that we had taught previously. It was a real pleasure to teach those two classes.

My impression of teaching so far is that it seems there are some characteristics of a particular class that are just plain out of your control but thankfully these are no unsurmountable. While the training that we received in Shenzhen was great, it takes on a different light and perspective when you have actual practical experience to compare it to. I am excited for the journey that this is going to take me on and I can already see myself being bummed at the end of the semester right when I am getting a hang of it.

Love you all! Keep smilin’!

So as the title of this entry implies, we started our teaching today. At about 12:30, Stone found us and handed us the teaching schedule for the semester. Poor Jordan was teaching in just over an hour and didn’t have a whole lot of time. Jordan’s first class was at 1:50 p.m. and it seemed that it went pretty well, which got me excited for my class.

My first and only class for the day was at 3:45 pm. Previously, we found out that there is no way to connect our computers and the only way to show our PowerPoint was to connect a thumb drive. I showed up for the class a little bit early and got everything set up. Class went somewhat smoothly and I was able to get through everything. I mainly focused on introducing myself and the class room rules. I then had everyone write their English name and their favorite number on a piece of paper and hand it in. After the class I looked at all the names and it is funny the names that they choose. Some examples of names they choose were Kobe Bryant, Boil, Salad and Bud. haha, poor kids.

Anyway, the teaching was tougher than I expected. My kids struggled more than I though and I had a hard time getting them to participate. But one thing that they did love was seeing my pictures from home. Shout out to my mom for sending me some last minute.

Overall, and I hate to say this, I feel a bit bummed and discouraged after today’s teaching. It seemed that Jordan had classes that were participating and had good English and mine was the opposite. I am sure that my next classes be better though. I really hope so. I figure that I just need to cater my lessons to each class and teach according. I just how to teach them something they don’t understand when they don’t even know the language. Only time will tell but I am sure that it will be exciting.

Anyways, here is my schedule of teaching. We teach the same classes each week so it seems that our teaching load is low. Good thing because then we can focus a bit more individually on the students. Here it is:

Monday:

3:45-4:30 p.m. (Class 23)

Tuesday:

3:45-4:30 p.m. (Class 14)

Wednesday:

9:10-9:55 a.m. (Class 15)

3:45-4:30 p.m. (Class 21)

Thursday:

11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (Class 17)

2:45-3:30 p.m. (Class 12)

Friday:

4:40-5:25 p.m. (Class 11)

This is part two of my catch up entry. See my last post (part 1) for a gallery of pics!

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On the rest of the days we weren’t so lucky having cloudy and cold weather but we still managed to make it into town and shop some. We did find a couple chicken restaurants. Let me tell you, it is a challenge ordering food here but it is kind of fun at the same time. The chicken sandwiches tasted good but my very first one was uncooked and had a load of mayo. I couldn’t finish it. The other chicken restruant we found was been so at least we have a little bit of ‘western’ to escape to. We also found this awesome street vendor that cooks these little flatbreads and they are super cheap to. She is going to get a lot of our business.

On Saturday we finally bought an iron and had our toilet fixed and a bunch of light bulbs. We were also grateful to get a water cooler with loads of purified water.

Sunday was an interesting experience. We were woken up by a bajillion really loud fireworks going off at 7:30 in the morning. We then found that they did a rolling blackout in our area so our apartment got kind of chilly. Since the cafeteria is finally open we got breakfast and headed back to our apartment for church. Since the power was out we had to have someone Skype our phone so the connection for church was really bad and we couldn’t understand anything. But we did take the sacrament so it wasn’t all bad. We definitely have next Sunday to look forward too.

So that brings us to today, Monday, February 21, 2011. Kids and teacher have all come back to our school and there is finally some life to our school. Unfortunately we have not received our teaching schedule. So we are just in limbo, twiddling our thumbs and the like. I have managed to get caught up on my blog with exhaustive detail and Jordan has beaten a bunch of levels on our favorite RollerCoaster Tycoon. We have also jumped on the Hogwarts Express and we will be watching year 5 tonight; a first time experience for Jordan.

Love you all! I will be updating more about the school and our apartment soon. Hang tight!

So I have finally caught up! This entry is part 1 covering the last week. Sorry for the lack of detail; I just wanted to get this caught up. Make sure to catch the gallery after the break!

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Tuesday, February 15^th was our first full day on campus. I have been here about a week and I will just summarize our experience so I can be fully caught up with this blog.

So yeah, Tuesday was our first day and Stone, our English speaking liaison took us out for ‘brunch.’ Every since we have been here it has been chilly and Tuesday was especially cold. Since it was colder than normal, the restaurant that we ate at did something cool. Or warm I should say. It seems that the tables in this area of China have areas to put hot coals under the table. They did this and it sure was amazing how it did keep us warm.

Stone ordered a bunch of different items of both the vegetable and meat varieties. The highlight of the meal was the hot pot that had the chicken’s head floating at the top. It was awesome! After that, Stone showed us a shortcut to getting into town. He told us where to go shopping and we bought some food and water. We also got credit for the cell phones that were given us and we headed back to the school.

Tuesday evening was kind of hard for me. I don’t know why but it seemed the reality of our situation hit me. Up to this point we hadn’t had internet and as such no communication with the outside world for a while. Plus there was no one at our school so it felt that we were in the movie I Am Legend.

The thing about our town is that is huge (to us at least) but very small in Chinese standards. Plus our town is impossible to find on a map and we are least seven hours away from anyone in our China Horizons group. I dunno, for some reason that feeling of loneliness overcame me.

Anyway, I got over it the following day. On Wednesday we were able to borrow the internet from our neighbor and that lifted our spirit. So we spent most of the day chatting and emailing family. Our neighbor is a English (like from England :)) chap that has been living here in China for several years. He is really nice and seems to know the area fairly well.

On Thursday the clouds cleared and the sun came out. After being house bound it seemed fit for us to go outside and explore and that is what we did. We were walking around the town for about 2.5 hours and barely hit all of it. We also spent some more time exploring a certain area. Jordan saw a hill that he wanted to go to that had some cool cemetery stone looking thing. We went up there and were treated to some really cool views of city on side and the country side on the other.

We noticed some cool things while we were out. They have a truck that comes by at different points of the day and sprays water on the road. While it is out it plays ice cream truck music so people know it is there. Also we saw a group of guys carrying cinderblocks up a hill with that wooden bar with two hooks carried on their shoulders. It looked intense and I felt like I was in Mulan. 🙂 Lastly, I was able to get over a 1000 firecrackers for about 4 US dollars. 🙂

Thursday night was also the last day of the Chinese New Year festival celebration and there was lots of fireworks going off. People also lit lanterns and sent them off floating in the sky. It was a really cool night.

Click below to check out a bunch of pictures!

Continue reading “The week review (Part 1, w/gallery!)”

This is the second entry about the trip to our school and the adventure that ensued. To watch a video of it, click the picture at the bottom of the post. 🙂

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So after about half an hour we arrived at the bus station and that was a bit of a nightmare. Because the arrangements had been made a bit last minute, the travel details were not really clear. We kept hearing different stuff from the people we were with so it made us a bit worried. We called Steven, the person that Jacob worked with to get this arranged, and he explained all of it to us and that calmed our fears. Star got the ticket for us and we were on our way.

The ride was pretty normal. It was the typical Chinese bus experience: lots of different smells and spitting. Once we got on and everyone was seated, a bunch of different vendors came on aboard trying to sell papers, food and snacks. The ride was about 4.5 hours but because it was so cramped it was hard to fall asleep. There was a little kid on the bus that Jordan gave some candy to and the kid’s smile was adorable. It’s great how nervous the Chinese get around us but it is awesome how they react when you reach out to them.

The bus arrived in a town called Jishou and some of Steven’s friends were there to meet us, Ivy and Ashley. Both spoke pretty good English and they took us to some fish restaurant. Thankfully they ordered chicken and pork (with bone of course). The food was super spicy and everyone’s eyes were running. Haha, thankfully I wasn’t alone in thinking the food was hot. There I had my first experience with a squatter toilet. It wasn’t that bad. But I will relieve you of having to read my explanation of that. 😛

After the meal, we caught a hired car; basically a beat up Hyundai Elantra like Jordan used to drive. Boy that was quite the experience! Instead of taking the nice smooth highway, it seemed that he was taking the back roads route. At first it was relatively normal, with a couple near misses and some narrowly avoided head-on collisions. Then all of the sudden he turned off the road and on to a highway. The thing about this highway was that it wasn’t finish.

It seems as though they build massive highways here and never finish them and that was the type we were driving on. Where joints would normally be for a bridge, there was just dirt. Where there wasn’t dirt you could see all the way. All the way down that is. The ride also involved some unfinished tunnels. Jordan and I were getting tired but didn’t want to go to sleep for fear of our lives. It was literally that crazy. By the way, there were no seat belts in the back where I was sitting. Watch a video of it by clicking the image at the end of the post!

We finally made it to the school and met our English speaking liaison Stone. He showed us up seven flights of stairs to our apartment and we got our luggage in. I will talk more about the apartment in another blog entry. We went to the bedroom to find a king sized bed. Only one at this time so Jordan slept on one side and I on the other. The town was really cold and all the windows in our apartment were open so it was freezing inside too. We turned up the heater to full blast (after struggling to read the Chinese characters), put on a movie and went to sleep.