Fully caught up and life is flying by

There was a teacher retreat today with all the English teachers. We went to a "farm" then dinner. The farm turned out to be more of a large field area with different activities that you could partake in. We shot some arrows at the archery range, went grass sledding, tried out the bumper cars, looked at the dirty water of the fish catching area, got thrown around by a bungee cord catastrophe, and went grass skiing! I was actually the best one at grass skiing since it is sort of a mix between roller blading and snow skiing but it wasn't as fun as either because you couldn't really go fast and the skis were awkward, but it was worth a try. Afterward we went to dinner at a nearby place that is famous for their corn and pigeons. We each got a whole pigeon to eat for our main course and of course ate it with plastic gloves on (the Chinese don't like to get their hands dirty with finger food). Since I was with them and eating pigeon...I decided to go all out, beyond the body I ate the neck and brain as well. Then we headed back for home. I was sad because Fuat was sick so he didn't feel up to coming but I got to hang out with some of the English teachers which was fun. But despite the fact that they're all fluent in English for most of dinner everyone spoke Chinese...oh well.


The year is winding down quickly and for those of us who are staying we're scrounging around for a school to pick for next year. Luckily my job is easy and I'll be staying at 2nd Senior High School. Greg and Andrew both want to change schools and are looking at senior schools in Xili with three main options - one of them being my school. Today Greg came by to check the place out. He got a chance to see the amazingness that is my school :) I forgot to take a picture while he was here so decided I'd show an update on our art building. It is moving along fast!


Bringing happiness to all with a scavenger hunt :) Jess and I are planning a Shenzhen wide scavenger hunt for CTLC. It will include Dongmen, clues about the metro stops and a wide variety of stuff they have to find/take pictures of. I am very excited.


This is Helen, one of the four 7 year old girls that I tutor on the weekends. She is by far my best student and it's her parents that set the whole thing up. But still...I don't know how parents do it. I spend two hours with these four girls and I am wiped out for the rest of the day. Teaching is just exhausting. And even for the girls after about an hour and a half they get really restless and start running around the room. The worst part of it all is the moms sit in with us and see the chaos that ensues.


Teppanyaki! This is a fun night outing in Shenzhen for us CTLCers. You pay 150 RMB (~$20) and as long as you have less than 10 people, it is a all you can eat/drink with no time limit! The family plus the G/Jens got together and went for it. Jess had never been so she wanted to before she left. We got sushi, wine, seafood, lamb chops, more sushi, steak, and so much more until we were all stuffed. We even closed the place out staying right until the end. Afterward we headed for the G/Jens and hung out there for the night. It was a successful evening!

Long time no see

Minnie! She has sprouted...something! As of today it's at least three times as tall as the sprout in this picture and she seems to be keeping on growing.


I have been trying my best all year to capture the unique style of Chinese women's clothing. They like their clothes to be as gaudy as possible usually and often include sequence, bows, animals, etc. This purse was just too great to pass up the photo op. The picture is of stones that have painted cats on them. And the cats for the most part are creepy as can be. Who would ever think that would actually sell??


Cliff and I spent the day wandering around Nanshan. We went to book city and then I really wanted stick food. So we decided to hit up Leah's neighborhood since that was the closest we could think of. This guy came begging for money and was willing to pose for a picture since Cliff gave him a kuai.


We left Zhuhai and headed back to Macau to get breakfast. Macau is really known for their egg tarts. We met up with Andrew, Stella and Roz at St. John's Cathedral facade and then went up on the fort. We ate lunch at this nice Portuguese place where Jess and I split two dishes, one of them was Pineapple Rice that actually came in a pineapple! Then we went to the A-Ma temple and the Maritime Museum both of which were interesting. At the A-Ma temple they had all sorts of incense up to celebrate Tomb Sweeping Day, where Chinese honor their ancestors. These cone shaped things are huge incense that can burn for up to a month. After that Jess, Marie, Cliff and I started heading for home. Jess and I had tickets for the 6:00 ferry and the other two were hoping to get tickets as well. We boarded a bus and ended up missing our stop/it might not have existed. Before we knew it (and after we had started to get worried) we wound up back at the Zhuhai boarder crossing! The four of us bolted for a taxi and found one with a guy who didn't even speak Mandarin. We finally got him to understand where we wanted to go and were trying our best to get him to hurry. Jess and I barreled out of the taxi (unfortunately falling over poor Marie) and ran for the gate. We checked our tickets with 6 minutes to spare and got into a customs line about 20 people long. As the Chinese do, people kept trying to cut us so we did our best to stand our ground. When we got through customs we ran for our gate and luckily were actually a few minutes early. We made it back to China with time to spare for dinner and for Jess to catch her bus. Sadly Marie and Cliff didn't get tickets and ended up having to buy super-class tickets for the 8:40 ferry.


All of us had two days off for a Chinese holiday - Tomb Sweeping Day. So a bunch of us went to Macau for a day and a half. Jess and I went together and spent Sunday afternoon strolling around the city and getting to know different places. Macau was a Portuguese colony until not so long ago so a lot of the buildings were very European and it was an extremely clean city. Then we met up with Marie, Gen, Jen, and Cliff for dinner at this really good Portuguese place. They even gave us complimentary bread and butter!! The food was amazing and we were really lucky to get a table because there were more reservations than the place seemed to be able to handle. But the owner was nice and gave us a late reservation. Jose, a friend of Jess's that just moved to Shenzhen, also joined us. Then we went to take advantage of the other thing Macau is known for, casinos. The casinos there were a lot different than American ones I thought though. Everyone was very intense and it was all about winning money not about having fun at all. So we ended up not staying long, but I did win 80 HKD before we left on a game similar to craps. Then we headed for our hotel in Zhuhai - a neighboring Chinese city.


Before going to dinner Andrew and I went exploring in Xili for a bit. I had always seen a rollerskating rink while I was on the bus so I wanted to find it! We wandered around for awhile but were finally successful. And we're pretty sure it's only 10 kuai to go - so rollerskating here we come!


Good morning China! So jet lag hit me a lot worse this time around. It took me over a week to get on the right schedule again. My problem was I was waking up at 4 or 5 every morning and not being able to fall back asleep. So Thursday I decided it was a good idea to take a nap at 430pm...ended up sleeping until 930. So then went to bed at 1am and woke up at 4am not able to sleep anymore. That did not help. But finally I forced myself to stay awake for a full day and get some rest. The upside of it all was 1) I got a lot of work done between 4-6am and 2) I got to see the sun rise on a couple mornings.


Gross! All through my flights back home to China I knew my heel had been bothering me but I didn't realize it was that bad. I think it was too much walking around in heels while I was home. Still....very gross. I haven't beaten up my foot that badly since Beijing.


The new semester of Chinese class is in full swing! Since a lot of people dropped out all the level one classes got combined into one so now I get the beautiful Jessica as my talking partner which I was excited about (not because I didn't love my previous one Cliff! Just because I don't get to see Jess very often). But she's a much better student than I am - she pays attention very diligently while I'd rather be passing notes (though I restrain myself for her sake).


If you look back at October 20th you will see my picture of the day is the lovely trash can pushed to the side of the road that served as my bus stop for who knows how long. Well the day finally came! My bus stop has been put back together again just like brand new. We still don't have a sign but hey...who can be picky?

Nick, we all miss you

I am extremely glad I went home. With the food poisoning, and various other things that went wrong during the voyage there I thought life was telling me I shouldn't be going but it wasn't true. Once I reached Iowa I knew that there was no where else I should be. With that said, I was still really happy to be going back to China. Lately I had been homesick a lot so I was worried that I might not want to go back, but that didn't happen. At home I missed my friends back in China and missed traveling around the city and being a part of my school. This is the mat in the elevator up to my room at school and it was the first thing I saw that made me think 'I'm back in my China home again' with a smile.


On the 27th I headed back for my other home - China. I only had to take two flights on the way back which was nice and watched four movies on the longer one. What was even better was that I brought with me a suitcase of clothes and American food that I could transport easily.


My last night at home, Dad, Carol, Matt and I went out and played Bridge. It was great!! Matt and I of course didn't do very well, but we never do playing with each other so it was ok. We had fun just playing the game. Plus a number of the bridge players in the area that I know were there too so it was nice to say hi.


I even got to see it snow!! I was super excited that I ended up not missing out on an entire year of the beautiful white flakes coming from the sky. I did let Jenny and Alli know I was home and got to see each of them which was really nice. Jenny and I went to a favorite local Coney Island and got non-China hot dogs and then went to the movies. Alli and I went out to eat as well and it was wonderful catching up and eating good food.


Most of my time back in Michigan I just stayed home. I knew that if I put out a message that I was back that I would just be jumping from place to place trying to see everyone in such a short time. Instead I spent some very quality time at home. I got to gorge out on a lot of tasty American food, watch TV in ENLISH, and play with our cat, Georgia.


The next day the four of us headed back up to Michigan. Though I was home for a very sad occasion, I was happy to be in America for a bit. I even got to borrow my car from Matt for a couple days and drive around.


The funeral was very nice. The family lives in a small town and almost everyone from the town seemed to come. Nick had been an Eagle Scout and his whole trip showed up as well and did a small ceremony for him. You could see how many lives Nick had been a part of. Wade and I talked for awhile after and we agreed that we understood Nick was gone but we still couldn't wrap our minds around the idea that he wouldn't be at Thanksgiving or Springbrook (our summer family reunion) this year. Maybe it will never seem true that he is gone.


I landed in Detroit at 11pm on Sunday and we left for Iowa at 6am on Monday. It was Mom, Dad, Matt and I for the road trip. We made it into town about halfway through the private family viewing. We walked in to a room with almost all of our extended family members there, ready with hugs. Before the open viewing started we all sat in a circle telling stories of Nick. It was a terrible occasion to be together, but despite the sad event we were all laughing. Nick had been such a character and had brought light to so many of our lives that we couldn't help but smile at the memories. My favorite story of Nick, that I still laugh at today is about a pumpkin. See, my Grandpa is a very stern old man and as a young kid he could be the scariest person you knew. Definitely not a person to make made or to cross. Well when Nick was really little he went up to Grandpa and just stared at him for a bit. As a kid he was confused. Grandpa seemed to have regular sized arms and legs but he had this great ol belly and Nick couldn't figure it out. So finally Nick got up the nerve and said "Grandpa, do you have a pumpkin under your shirt?". Now I know this story probably isn't funny to you because you don't know our Grandpa the way we did, but trust me, it's a hilarious story.
Once the open viewing started most of the family drifted to different parts of the building to give Julie and Todd time to talk with the attendees, which there were a ton of. Dad had asked me to take pictures for him so my cousin Wade and I went around to accomplish the task. I wasn't sure it was a polite time to be taking pictures so Wade would get some people to talk to him to distract them and then I would take a candid shot of them. It worked perfectly. The younger cousins all found a play room and dragged my brother in to entertain them. After everyone left we went back to Julie and Todd's house for dinner and to keep them company. I can't imagine the feeling that those two had when everyone left and they were alone again.


March 19th brought me what all of us fear while in China - the news that a loved one has passed away. The day started out really well. The "family" had stayed up in Longgang then I went to tutor and then it was off to the G/Jens for dinner and game night to celebrate Cliff's birthday. I had created a game for the occasion and was working on the computer most of the time putting in final touches. I can't even think about what would have happened if I had taken a moment to check my email at that time. The night ended well and Andrew and I headed home at a decent hour. Once back in my room I opened my gmail account to a message from my Dad entitled "Very bad news". My cousin Nick had died the day before at the age of 23, possibly from a drug overdose. Writing this now I still can't fully believe it is true and am crushed from the loss. My father's side of the family is very fortunate because we have all made an effort to stay close over the years even though we're spread across the country. Nick and I were part of the older cousin group and had always been close during family reunions. This year Nick and I did even better with staying in touch, we communicated through Facebook once or twice a week talking about life, books, family, and random thoughts we decided to share. I got a chance to learn about his time at school, some of his friends, and his dreams of the future.
I always wondered how I would react if someone close to me died unexpectedly. I usually decided I probably wouldn't cry and I would just be in a daze. I've never been an extremely emotional person and if I ever get that way most of my emotions just shut down till I feel nothing. I was wrong. The moment I opened that email the tears started flowing. I cried more than I think I ever have in my life, until there were no more tears to shed. I didn't know what to do. I wasn't home. I wasn't with my family. All I knew was I had to find a way to change that, to make the journey home so I could be with them and be there to support Nick's parents and brother as well as be supported by our large family.
I spent the next couple hours (between 11pm and 2am) calling different family members trying to figure out what was going on and if all of this was true; booking a plane ticket; informing my school I was leaving; and figuring out everything else that needed to happen to travel across the world. From opening that email to making it to Mom's house in Michigan was probably the worst 24 hours of my life. After finishing preparations, I went to sleep for a few hours before I had to leave. At about 430am (a half hour before my alarm was supposed to go off) I woke up from the need to throw up. It turned out I had food poisoning for the first time since I've gotten to China. I ended up throwing up 6 times before I boarded my first flight. So now awake I decided to leave early and made my way to the airport in Hong Kong. I flew from HK to Tokyo to Newark. In Newark I had a couple hour layover so my friend Dana who lives in NJ came to visit me. It was great to see her and nice to just have a friendly face for a bit. Then I took the last flight from there to Detroit where my mom and brother were waiting. On the drive home I found out that my dog Mickey, who we had had since I was eight and was more like a sibling than a pet, had died a few weeks ago. It was not a fun time. But I had made it home and that was all that mattered.
My heart goes out to my Aunt Julie, Uncle Todd and cousin Lee. The thought of what they must have gone through and what they are still going through is overwhelming. What it must be like to lose a son, a brother, I don't think anyone can know that pain until they experience it themselves. Nick had his problems, as everyone does, but overall he was a wonderful guy. He was caring to a point that was unbelievable, he was smart and intellectual, he was funny, he was adventurous, he was Nick. The world is a sadder place without him.
I want to send a thank you out also to Jessica, for talking with me and supporting me through everything, to Brian, for being an understanding boss, to my Mom and Uncle Wade for helping me pay for plane tickets, to my Dad for taking me to Iowa and being there, and to my friends in China for their emails of love.

London Bridges Falling Down

Another of my new tutoring positions is helping four 7 year old girls for two hours on Saturday afternoons. The parents got me an English learning story book - The Swan Princess. It took over an hour for us to get through the first page of the story. But the time actually went by really fast and the girls were really well behaved. When we had about a half hour left the girls started to lose focus so I taught them London Bridges Falling Down. I enjoyed my time with them and just hope that the fact that the time is Saturday afternoons doesn't force me to have to give up the job.


Family dinner! The family, minus Ben, plus Stella, all joined at Jess and Marie's for a Friday night meal. We had salad, mashed potatoes, chicken wings, corn, Italian chicken pasta, and garlic bread. Yummy! Afterward we had a nice night in, watched a movie and chilled out. Jess and I stayed up till after 4am talking which was really nice. (Three of us ended up with food poisoning on Sunday....our meal? lets hope not)


We went out to the basketball beer garden tonight. The place has never been the most sanitary and that is a part of the appeal almost, but this still grossed some people out. Behind our table at the back of one of the stalls was a bucket full of shrimp. Every two minutes a rat would come out of his hiding spot, run up to the bucket, climb on top, support himself with his back feet and reach in and grab a shrimp. He would then run back to hide his future meal. Some say disgusting - but I thought he was the cutest thing.


I started a new tutoring gig a few weeks ago. It is for this Korean lady who spent three years in America at college but is starting to lose some of her English and wants to practice. I told her I was a literature major (conveniently leaving out the part that it was Children's literature) and she was sold. So now, once a week, we meet and discuss literary essays. Each week she gives me copies of a few more for me to read before our next visit. It's great and actually a really interesting and intellectual tutoring job - I'm even learning more English because of it. She lives in this really swanky apartment complex and I'm excited to meet with her each week now.


Our traditional Tuesday night dinner. Andrew and I were the only ones available this week so we stuck to Xili and headed for a part we hadn't fully explored yet. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but when looking for a good cheap meal the key is to keep your eyes pealed for round stacks of wooden trays (on the right in this picture). Where those are there are usually cheap dumplings. I had a good dinner of two trays for six kuai (less than $1).


My Women's Day present :) I received a wonderful pair of leopard print leggings for the occasion. I felt bad with the idea of not ever wearing them since the school had so kindly given them to me so on Monday I decided to try them out. I went to one class with them on. Afterward I went to my office and asked one of my fellow teachers how they looked - not going to lie I was pretty self conscious since leggings - especially animal print - are not quite my style. Well...I was informed that one, my outfit didn't match (which I agree is true but had nothing else to wear with leopard print leggings) and that such leggings were for older women so it looked a bit weird that someone my age was wearing them. I was told that I should give them to my mother. What?? First - can anyone see my mother wearing these? No. Second - since when have leggings been an older woman fashion?


Jess, Genevieve and I went to the free art museum today. There were some cool exhibits and it was Jess and I's first time there so we were happy to get to know a new part of Shenzhen. The thing that drove me nuts was the Chinese people. For some reason, their culture has never learned the "No Touching" rule. Anything they see they have to touch no matter the possible destruction. This family was going around to different paintings and encouraging their kids to get right up and personal with the art for pictures. What are they thinking???


The second day of the trip we went to some botanical gardens. They were really pretty and included multiple wedding parties taking their marriage pictures. It also included strawberry picking and grass sledding. One of my friends brought bubbles and all the girls went a bit bubble crazy for a moment. We had two of the school photographers with us so when the bubbles came out of course every girl needed to get a picture of her blowing bubbles. Then when they realized that it would be even better having one of the guys stand in with bubbles floating around everyone needed to get a picture doing that. Being the foreigner they pushed me to also join in the photo taking. I did get a chance to get to know some of the other female teachers so I was really happy for that opportunity. Two of them stuck with me for most of the day, one of them was quite awed at my foreignness and I would often find her staring at me but that's normal so I just laughed usually.


China is a big supporter of Women's Day which is awesome. Beyond getting a present all the women were invited to go on an overnight, all expense paid trip to a nearby town. The first night we left after school and went to a big banquet. The food was pretty good, and there was way too much of it. At the end of the meal the girls decided to play a game to get rid of some of the leftovers. They cleared a plate and used a spoon as a 'spin the bottle' kind of thing. Whoever the spoon pointed to had to eat a slice of meat that was left over. I got slightly worried because the meat they were pushing off on people was what I thought as one of the more disgusting dishes of the meal. Luckily the spoon never landed on me. In the end, the game was taking too long, so the girls would pile on four or five pieces at a time for the "winner", thank god I never won. After dinner we headed to a commercialized hot springs. The place was really neat. There were over 50 different little pools around the place so you would sit in one for a bit and then move on to another. Each one had a different thing in it to help you in some way. The strangest one to me was the Milk Pool - a pool of half water half milk. They told me it is supposed to help your skin. Who knows.