Lovell Family Blog

That is the question… that I get asked almost everyday.

It’s quite a peculiar thing to be asked. Usually it involves a bunch of girls that are huddled together. Then they start whispering and giggling. After a girl get choosen to be the voice of the group, they all gather around and ask the aforementioned question: Do you have a girlfriend. Now when I think about my sexy voice and incredibly manly physique, I am not really surprised at all.

Haha, of course I kid with that but is suprising to think that so many girls can a crush on you. It’s just not… normal. Today was one of those days that proved just that and also made me a bit weary of staying after class.

As I was talking to students after class this afternoon (Class 11), one girl came up to the front of the class. She started talking to me in Chinese and, of course, I didn’t have a clue what she was saying. After having no success getting across what she was trying to say, she then took a piece of chalk and wrote on the board “I need a boy.” I asked what that was about and then I proceed to be asked by a bunch of girls if I had a girlfriend and if I would be their boyfriend. Oh dear.

After that I told them I was leaving and that they should eat some food. They told me that they wanted to eat with me but I told them that I couldn’t because we were eating downtown. They later followed me all the way back to the apartment. Oh my.

So yeah, this place is interesting. I know this might not make sense to those that are reading this but I love those “What the heck?” moments and being thrown for a loop. I love it because it makes me happy and brings a smile to my face in the best kind of way.

As of this past Monday we had been in Huayuan for exactly. We have gotten our jiggity on in the town square, climbed a cemetary hill and burnt our mouths with spicy food but we had yet to visit the town market. The reason is pathetically simple. At first we didn’t know that the town had one and then later we couldn’t find it but we were determined to experience that part of the Chinese culture.

Our good friend from the land of the Dutch who taught at this school before, Shari Nijman, helped us out in our search by making an amazingly well made map. From that we found out that there was not just one market, but two albeit one was substancially smaller than the other.

I am going to focus this entry on the bigger market because the other one truly is a lot smaller and not a lot was there worth mentioning. Come to find out we had actually been to the other market before. Well, kind of. We had actually been above it where some shops are.

The market is a bit hidden off the street but you go down a big set of stairs, you arrive. Once you make it to the bottom, you first notice the smell. But it smells like China. Anyway, the market area is HUGE. Like massive. Loads of fresh veggies and meat. Going there you will find things that you have seen before in your life. Things you can see through. :S

Now don’t get me wrong, it is a really neat place. For experience sake et al but I would never buy anything there. Sanitation is sub par, dogs are going in between the isles and nothing is clean. Not to mention the blood on the floor when you go through the meat area. That being said, I know that most of the food that I have eaten here has come from these types of markets so as long as it tastes decent going down, that is fine by me.

Once you go through the food area of the market you go back to the “farm.” I say farm because there are lot of animals there. This  is where people buy different animals for the meat they consume. Everything from birds to dogs to turtles where there. Most surprising? We found a mole and two porkipines. It was really sad to see and I just wanted to buy them all just to set them free. I have a bit more sympathy for vegitarians. 🙂

I have posted a video of it below. PLEASE note that is kind of graphic and if you are squimish, I would recommend not looking. But if you are wanting to see a bit of the Chinese culture, have at it.

 

 

Well, I got super distracted this evening and it is getting late so I am going to keep this one short.

But basically I have become addicted to Minesweeper. I won 5 games today on the hardest difficulty and I feel kind of proud of myself. I am going to win some more tomorrow and get my win percentage over 10 percent. It will be marvilous. 🙂

Anyway, there are two things that I will be investigating tomorrow. I have found that a very small group of kids like to touch my booty. I don’t know why but I am going to interrogate the next kid that does it. 🙂 Also we were told of two market in the town that we have not been to and we are going to attempt to find them tomorrow. Should be interesting because, well, markets are always interesting. On my shopping list is a turtle. 🙂

So I will report on those two things tomorrow. Weather has been cold and rainy so we are hoping that tomorrow serves us a nice warm day. Love you all and I hope that all is going well!

 

So basically we had been plagued with power outages with power outages the past couple of days. It has been kind of rediculous. On Friday we had a power outage from 7 am to about 6 pm and then on Saturday we had a power outage from 4 pm until about 7 pm.

But I am starting to like it because when the power goes out, so does the internet. 🙂 I have gotten a lot better at my card games so watch out. Plus it also forces us out of the apartment, which is always a plus.

Not much happened this weekend as it was cloudy, cold and rainy but we did discover some new things. Jordan and I have decided that we are going to become conisuers of street food so we tried a bunch of different foods this fast weekend. It is always exciting because you don’t know what you are going to get and it is super cheap. You can eat like a champ for less than 2 USD. I love it. It is amazing how many food vendors come out at night. I am starting to think that this town never sleeps.

We also found a market of sorts but didn’t spend much time there because of the fact that it was late and what not. It is definitely on list of must sees to finish exploring. We are told that they sell dogs there and we are hoping that we can maybe buy a turtle there. Stay tuned.

As for other things, well, the weather is kind of limiting us for our adventures but I doubt that will stop us. We will see…

So on Friday’s I only have one class, which is Class 11. I was bummed last week since the class was cancelled because of the funeral. This class is my favorite because they seem to participate the most and have the best English skills.

 

Unfortunately todays class was cancelled. I was told by some of the students that it was cancelled because the had an activity time beforehand and the teachers wanted them to relax and rest during the time I was to teach. With nothing else to do because the power was out, I decided to stick around and talk to the students.

One of the main things that we talked about was music. One student told me that she wanted me to sing a song. She then came up to the board and wrote “Pork your face.” I laughed out load at that. I then had to commence the difficult task of explaining what a “Poker face” was. Priceless.

Later I was able to convince her to sing Justin Beiber for my good ol’ video camera. I have attached the video above and as you can see it took a little persuation but I got her to sing it. She did a really good job and I was quite proud of her. I then give her one of my Idaho potato pins. 🙂

Anyway, I hope all is well. More adventures planned for tomorrow!

So adventures today weren’t quite as high on the epicness level that yesterday’s was, but still pretty cool to me.

On Thursdays I have one class in the evening and one in the afternoon.  My first class today was really good and I was super pumped for my last class. As such I took both my camera AND camcorder to relive the excitement that I knew I was surely going to experience. So I stuffed those in my back back and headed off to the class.

As I approached the last building I noticed that it was unusually quiet. As I rounded the next corner, I was taken aback by two perfectly straight rows of desks in front of the classrooms. I then talked to a teacher that was walking by those desks and was told that I was not going to be teaching because they were testing. While a part of me was disappointed that I wasn’t going to be teaching, the other part of me was amazed at the discipline that was being displayed.

While our classes seem to be so hectic and fun, when the Chinese teachers come around the kids are as straight as a fiddle (as my mom would say). While I was standing there looking at the students that were testing, you could not hear a sound. Also, not one kid turned around to look at me. It was amazing.

In other news, this week Jordan and I have been teaching about careers. At the end of class we would have kids write on a piece of paper (in proper sentences) what their English name was. As I was going around helping students in my class today, one kid quickly hid his notebook away. I managed to get it from him and this is what it said: “My name is Martin Luther King and I want to be a terrorist.”

What the heck are you supposed to do about that?! Haha, I was left totally perplexed because you don’t want to take it lightly because it is a serious thing. You also don’t want to be too serious because then the class won’t like you. Overall though, it was worth a good chuckle. We have had some kids say that they want to be a DJ, a thief and, my favorite, a superstar. It is a lot of fun teaching these classes. It makes me smile. 🙂

So do you remember how I mentioned that we experience new things everyday? Well, like I said before, today was no exception.

Our new experience? The lone ranger. Well, that is what I call him at least. Look right at the picture.

Adding to my list of things that never cease to amaze me is the amount of children that run free. I say run free because it is literally like that. Kids are running everywhere doing crazy things with no parents around. And if parents are around, the toddlers are usually playing with a broom inches away from cars that don’t stop for anyone. It’s just totally, yeah man.

Anyway, today Jordan and I taught at the school outside of the campus. On our way there we take a shortcut that takes us past some houses that are kind of “off the beaten path,” as we might say. On our way back home we were brought face to face with the lone ranger. Literally face to face because the child did not move an inch.

The child was probably no more than two years old. When we first saw him we looked for some parents around. No one around. No one calling his name. Jordan and I chuckled in disbelief but immediately did the first thing any easily intrigued person would do: we started taking pictures.

After taking a couple of cool pictures of our “face off” with our little lone ranger I started down the path. Jordan stayed where he was looking at the child so I decided that I would try to take another cool picture of that stare down. Right as a pulled out my camera I hear Jordan say “uh-oh”. A split second later the child started crying. It was absolutely hilarious and I wish I had my camera out when that had happened because it was priceless.

I love it here! Experiences like these make my day!

Overall, I would have to say that weekends have been pretty exciting and always full of adventure and this past weekend was no exception.

It seems that the more that we have been making friends here, the more people want to take us out. Earlier last week, Stone, our English-speaking helper, told us that he was going to have a friend of his take us out to see some sight and we complied with no complaints. 🙂

Saturday morning came along and we met up with the daughter of Stone’s friend. She showed us to where her father was parked and we were off. While we were walking to the car we tried asking where we were going and the only thing that we understood was going to some power station. But that was perfectly okay because it definitely adds to the adventure.

The car ride was fun and adventurous but not as eye-popping as the initial trip to the school was. I don’t know whether to start this sentence with fortunately or unfortunately but I was the only one in the car with a working seat belt. 🙂

After driving for about two hours, we made it to the power station which actually turned out to be a dam in the middle of nowhere. This was pretty cool because it was so peaceful. It was our first time in a while where we didn’t hear spitting or honking or whatever China normally chooses for us to hear. It was also pretty recently built so it was cool seeing the architecture of the dam.

After leaving the dam, we drove through a tunnel which, ironically, did not have any power to turn on the lights. We then reached our destination about a mile up the road. Where we stopped was a town built right beside the reservoir and I guess I could compare its size to, say, Idaho City; very small.

We then had lunch on a small boathouse restaurant thingy docked right off the muddy shore. It was really cool because they were cooking food on the first floor right as you walked in and then you went upstairs to an open air deck where we ate. I have attached a video of the experience after the break. It’s definitely worth watching to see how cool it is.

After that we hopped on a boat (after I slipped in the mud). Now this wasn’t just an ordinary boat but one of those long rickety Chinese-style boats. A very quiet 15-year-old boy directed the boat along with a single oar. It amazed me how he was able to stay balanced and not fall off. The whole experience was breathtaking with the peacefulness, calm and the stillness of the water just a couple inches off the edge of the boat.

After the boat ride we headed back to the school. I would have to say that it was one of the best weekends that I have had so far. Click the pictures below to see a video of the boat ride and the restaurant. Thanks for reading.

As I was think about what to write about in regards to this post I started to feel a bit … sheltered. I felt this right when I started to realize that up until coming to China I had never seen a stray dog.

Now that I am in China I see them everywhere. So kids, once you see a stray dog, you are no long sheltered.

Now I do kid, but truth be told, there are a lot of dogs here and I mean a lot of dogs. I know this might not seem that worth of a post but it seems interesting to me that most of the dogs are homeless. On our way downtown we see a lot of dogs. Overall, it has been both very interesting and a little disheartening at the same time.

It has been very interesting because you get to see how dogs work in the “wild,” meaning dogs that are not domesticated like in the States. When we walk there we get to see the pack mentality as we see certain dogs always with the same other dogs of the same sex. We also get to see the territorial side of it to because you always see the same dogs in the same areas every time that we go past. We are starting to recognize the dogs more often and who knows; maybe we will start giving them names. 🙂

Now I say that it has been a little disheartening because a lot of the dogs seem to have a medical issue. One of the dogs we see seems to have ear infection because he is constantly tilting his head to one side. In addition, if there is pile of garbage there will usually be a dog nearby digging through it. It is kind of sad.

I am kind of bummed because we can’t pet these animals out fear of being bitten. Even though it is a small thing, it reminds me of why I am here; to experience the culture. Small things like this have helped me to become “unsheltered.”

On a happy note, there were some cute puppies that we playing in the street. It was pretty darn cute so I took a video. Click the image below to watch.

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!