life in china

I thought you might enjoy seeing a photo of some of my students! One cold, windy afternoon, the students invited my friend, Shannon, and I to join them for Hot Pot. It was great fun!

I feel really blessed to have found the perfect job to help ease the transition into a new culture. Teaching English has given me opportunities to build relationships with local people, and even make some lasting friendships. I have had students into my home, and Bo and I have been invited into some of their homes (which is a really big deal). My students have helped me with countless tasks, from grocery shopping to figuring out how to keep mosquitos out of my house. They also teach me so much, and are eager to share about their culture as well as learn about mine.

March wrapped up my 6 month teaching commitment, and I considered quitting my job because I have honestly maxed-out my schedule lately. But I just couldn’t give it up completely, because that would mean possibly missing out on future friendships. So as of this month, I am working part-time. Three days a week, an NO weekends!! Yippee!

I just couldn’t abandon these guys…

By the way, the girl sitting down is my Canadian colleague, Shannon, not a student… as if you couldn’t tell!

Bo and I had to go back to BJ for a couple of days so that he could get his shoulder checked out. The report was good, the x-rays showed that he is healing nicely, and we should be right on schedule for his other surgery in August (to remove the metal plate).

We only spent about 30 minutes at the hospital, so we actually got to do some sightseeing this time! We spent a day at the Forbidden City, which was pretty awesome. All of the trees and flowers were blooming, and the colors were amazing. After we got home, I realized that almost all of my photos were of trees. But I couldn’t help it! They were so gorgeous! I told my mom that I when I move back to the States, I want to landscape my whole yard with Chinese plants and trees. Did I mention I love them?

Here are some photos from our tour of the Forbidden City…

After a long day of tourism, we were amazed to find a “real” Texas BBQ restaurant. Of course we had to give it a try. Here is a photo of my meal… ribs, beans, cole slaw, and potato salad …served on a Texas shaped plate… and actually really delicious.

Or maybe it has just been too long since my last meal at Corky’s.

I did not come to China with the intention of studying Chinese, but after a few months of frustration with the language barrier, I decided to start lessons. Out of desperation, really.

Lucky for me, I have the best teacher in the world, and as it turns out, I really love learning this crazy, crazy language. One day, I will write a whole post about my beautiful teacher, Lavender, who I adore. But not today. Today I want to brag a little. Ha!

I find that nothing helps you learn Chinese like riding in taxis. The drivers are usually very chatty, and none of them speak a lick of English. If you don’t understand Chinese, they will usually just repeat the question or comment over and over (and louder and louder) until you understand or just jump out the window. I love it! They are relentless, but I get plenty of practice.

I have officially been here for 6 months, but I have only been studying Chinese (regularly) for 3. I can definitely understand WAY more than I can say, but sometimes I find myself having a real conversation and I admit… it makes me giddy. 

Tonight I got into the car of a very boisterous taxi driver (Shi Fu: pronounced like sure-foo). He was VERY excited to give this foreign girl a ride home, and he talked my ear off for the full 10 minutes. Here is the conversation (all in Chinese):

Shi Fu: Hello!!!!!!!!!

Me: Hello!!!!!!

Shi Fu: Where do you want to go?

Me: Jin Hai Guang Chang, next to the Olympic Sailing Center.

Shi Fu: Where are you from?

Me: America

Shi Fu: (making gesture towards his face) You are beautiful!!

Me: Thank you, sir.

Shi Fu: America is very big.

Me: China is also very big.

Shi Fu: I like America.

Me: I like China.

Shi Fu: Yes, but I like to sing American music.

Me: Do you like Karaoke?

Shi Fu: I like to sing, but my voice is very bad. (and then he demonstrates this)

Me: (pointing to my favorite Karaoke place on the left) That is the Karaoke place that I like.

Shi Fu: Do you want to go there now? (starts to turn the steering wheel)

Me: No! Turn right up ahead!

Shi Fu: Do you live there? (pointing to an apartment building that is not mine)

Me: No! Go straight, then turn left… Okay, stop here.

Shi Fu: 8 kuai (this is the amount of money I owe). You go home now. 

Me: Thank you. Bye!

Shi Fu: Bye!

Did you know that the title of this blog is actually Chinglish? I have used that phrase so many times, but never realized (until I moved here) that it is actually a direct translation from the Chinese way to say “I haven’t seen you in such a long time!” Ha!

Anyway, things have been crazy lately. Busy, busy. With work, language lessons, and a few other balls in the air, I haven’t had much time to blog. Sorry, family!! I will try to do better!

Last weekend was a 3 day weekend for the Tomb Festival, which meant that Bo and I got to spend a beautiful spring Monday doing whatever we wanted. And we wanted to fly a kite.

Bo brought this huge panda kite home a few weeks ago and I died laughing. But it was fun to fly it, and the kids in our neighborhood enjoyed seeing it up in the air… for the 5 minutes we flew it before the wind died for the rest of the day. No joke. We spent an hour stringing the thing up, and 5 minutes flying it. But at least I brought my camera!!

Although I don’t choose to celebrate or acknowledge Valentines Day myself, I would like to send a little love out to all of my readers on behalf of the billions of Chinese folk who ADORE this holiday and celebrate in the colorful, glittery, passionate, over-the-top way that only Chinese know how to celebrate (anything). And while I think it’s silly to pay 5 times too much for flowers just because a marketing company once dreamed up a way to stimulate the economy by tugging on our heart strings, here is a blue rose from all my peeps in Qingdao. (Sans glitter, and frills, and ribbons, and pearls, and teddy bears that accompany ACTUAL blue roses in Qingdao).

Love ya, mean it!

Warning: If you don’t want to see the gnarly pic of Bo’s staples, be careful how fast you scroll down. I am putting it at the very end of this long post so that you can refrain from looking if you choose. I had to add it on for my dad, though. He loves that kind of stuff…

Well, we are finally back home. FINALLY!! Oh, how I missed Qingdao… beautiful, clean, small Qingdao (okay, there are 4 million people here, but when you compare it to 11 million in Beijing, you start to feel small). It was a long, tiring couple of weeks, but everything went really well with the surgery and now we can try to resume life as usual. Or as close to usual as possible when one of you lacks the use of an extremity.

I can sum up our time in Beijing by saying it was stressful, confusing, frustrating, and exhausting. But that is not all. It was also fun, comfortable, joyous, and a total blessing. And since I have so much to tell you about, I think I’ll start with the fun, joyous, blessing part…

In Beijing, we stayed with the AMAZING Harvey family. They were friends of friends of friends, and welcomed us (perfect strangers) into their home when they heard about our situation. They have a guest room and bathroom in their home that is always ready in case someone needs it. It was so wonderful to have a comfortable, private space to rest as we navigated through so much unfamiliar territory. And I can’t tell you what a blessing it was to have the support and pryers of a like-minded couple during it all. They were what made this roller coaster tolerable. Bo and I agree that in our whole lives, we are not sure if we have ever truly experienced selfless hospitality like we did through the Harveys in Beijing. We showed up at their home and they made us feel like family. Words can’t explain, but He provided what we needed through this family and we are thankful.

Next, I have to mention the Tapleys, our fabulous Australian friends who also happen to be our neighbors. They were the ones who hooked us up with the family in Beijing, advised us about the good hospitals, and were just constantly on-call for anything we needed back in QD while we were away. Tash even had my whole house cleaned for me when I got home last night. Bless her. This family has helped us in so many ways over the past few months, but they were life-savers once again this time and we are so thankful.

Lastly, Bo had his surgery at Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) in Beijing. He had excellent care, skilled surgeons and medical staff, a flat panel TV, and a comfy bed. Again, thankful.

Confession: over the last 2 weeks, Bo and I looked at each other a few times and said, “this is the worst thing we have ever been through,” but when I look back at all the blessings and how His hand was totally in control, I can’t help but feel good about everything. It actually makes the stressful, confusing, frustrating, and  exhausting part of the story seem rather unimportant. Maybe I’ll save that part of the story for another post.

For now. pictures…

A broken bone and still Settlin.’ The Harveys are big Catan fans, which was SO great because you might remember that Catan night was high on our to-do list during “the holiday that wasn’t.”

Waiting for surgery, playin’ UNO. Don’t you love the hospital jammies they gave him?

I was bored while I waited for Bo to come back, so I just went outside to snap pics around the hospital.

There aren’t as many as there used to be, but I’m pretty sure Beijing still has the largest bicycle population in the world.

This store was next to the hospital. If you are familiar with my obsession with changing my hair, then you may find the humor in the product sold at my “namesake”…wigs!!

Mom, thought you might want to see the Chinese characters for “library.”

After surgery. They had CNN…we haven’t watched American news in months… woah, depressing.

And here is Bo getting out of jail after 4 days in the hospital. The nurses were SO CUTE!! They all wore little nurse dresses and matching pink cardigans. And the hats completely made the outfit. Loved it!

And finally… the gore.. Bo’s incision… I made the photo really small to try to cut down on the gross factor…

Yuck! For a woman, a scar like this would be devastating. But funny enough, I think Bo is a little proud. The staples come out in 2 weeks. More details later…

We made it to Beijing. We saw the doc and yes, Bo needs surgery. We are trying to make decisions. I’ll let you know.

We are travelling to Beijing tomorrow to get a THIRD opinion on Bo’s condition. So far, 2 doctors have recommended surgery, but the level of care here during a holiday is well below what we are used to in the States. I definitely don’t want anybody cutting into my babe unless it is absolutely necessary. And to give you an example of what we have been dealing with:

Me: (through a translator) Is the American doctor here today? I would like to talk to someone who speaks English so I can understand EXACTLY why surgery is necessary.

Doc: No, he’s not here today.

Me: When will he be back? Can we call him in?

Doc: If you want to talk to an American doctor, you should go back to America.

Nice. So we are off to Beijing United Hospital, where we can talk to a Western trained Doc and also a surgeon who speaks English. I’ll post updates as we have them.

I always thought we’d be climbing the Great Wall on our first visit to Beijing. I wonder if we can fit that into our schedule…

The day started out like this…

And ended up like this…

Broken collar bone. Surgery may be ahead. I’ll keep you posted.

I just woke up and ran straight to my computer because I can’t wait to tell you about last night. Wowza! What a night it was!! So fun, and exciting, and LOUD… and very special because we were able to spend such and important holiday with a very sweet local family. I should point out to you that it is really a huge honor to be invited into someone’s home like we were. Imagine if you invited some foreigners that you barely knew into your home to share your family Christmas. Same thing. Yes, it was a real honor.

So, New Year’s Eve can be summed up with 3 words: Family, Food, and FIREWORKS!!! I write that last one in capital letters because I promise, you have never seen fireworks like these. I know I hadn’t. As a matter of fact, the experience was so insane, that I decided to capture it on video instead of trying to describe it to you. Words will not do last night justice.

Family: Like I said before, this is China’s biggest holiday of the year, and one to be celebrated with family. In most homes, families will gather around the TV to watch a 4 hour long variety show called The Spring Festival Gala. About a billion people watch this program every year. In my opinion, this is true for 3 reasons:

1) it is produced by the government and therefore shown on every channel

2) since it has been airing for over 30 years, it has become a tradition

3) propaganda goes really well with fireworks.

Food: Chinese dumplings are one of the most important foods of Chinese New Year. Since the shape of the dumpling is similar to ancient Chinese gold or silver ingots, they symbolize wealth. Traditionally, the members of a family get together to make dumplings during the New Year’s Eve (now, while watching the Gala). Very traditional families may hide a coin in one of the dumplings. The person who finds the coin is supposed to have good fortune in the New Year.

After making the dumplings, we sat down to a feast of local Qingdao seafood.

That last dish is made of sticky rice and is topped with the Chinese character, Fu, a character which pops up alot during the Festival. Most families hang a large paper Fu upside down on their front door. This is the only time when a Chinese character is written upside down on purpose. Why?? Because the Fu character means lucky or good fortune.  In Chinese, saying “fu dao le” (foo-dow-luh) means “luck or fortune has arrived”. But the word “dao” can also mean to fall down or turn upside-down. So, literally turning the character Fu upside-down is a play on words implying fortune has arrived. Pretty cool, huh?

Fireworks: A little background… The legend goes that every New Year, a man-eating sea monster called Nian (which coincidentally means “year”) shows up to attack the villagers and kill their livestock. The bright lights and loud noises of the fireworks are said to scare him away.

There is also a tradition involving burning money in the streets for your dead ancestors. I’m still a little fuzzy on this one because they obviously don’t burn real money, and I’m not sure why dead people need money anyway. Maybe by next year I’ll have this one figured out (but at least this sort of explains the men building a fire in the road on the video).

The experience is impossible to explain. Just watch the video. Things to remember as you are watching:

1) Anyone, anywhere can shoot fireworks, so they are going off in every direction. Literally thousands of people are shooting fireworks at the same time around the city. You are surrounded by fire, and noise, and chaos. Thus, the screaming (mine).

2) The fireworks go on ALL night, and continue throughout the entire festival. Yes, 10 days. Some people I know that have been living here for years, now leave China during the holiday just to escape the noise!

3) The Chinese invented fireworks. Don’t know if that is really relevant to the video, but I thought I needed a third point. I blame my Southern Baptist roots.

I know the video is a bit lengthy, but I think that if you watch the whole thing you will get a taste of what the night was like for us. Again, WOWZA!!

Bo and I are officially on vacation!

Yippeeeee!

A full 10 days off work!

Yahooooo!!

Okay, enough rubbing it in.

I am really looking forward to lots of blogging over the next week as Spring Festival unfolds. We have many exciting things planned during our time off this week, including going skiing and holding a Catan night at our apartment. I know that some people might not share our excitement about Catan night, but trust me, it’s exciting if you belong to our family.

So, more later…for now, I am off to bake my 3rd batch of muffins. During the Festival, when you visit friends, you must always go bearing gifts. And the homemade kind are the best!

Bo and I both had a few clothing items that needed repairing. Hems and what-not. And since I am in no way the domestic goddess that I wish I was, I couldn’t quite handle these things myself. I asked around, and found out about a little tailor shop in the mall close to our apartment.

We took our stuff in, and were shocked when the lady took the items and immediately began fixing them. While we waited! And she was so incredibly quick! I think we were standing there for 10 minutes max (including the time it took to pay).

The pants cost fifty cents to hem, and my dress that needed to be taken down a size cost about a dollar fifty. Love it! I couldn’t help thinking about the 8 pairs of pants that I had hemmed for $10-15 each right before I came here.

I think it is safe to say that I am going to be ruined for life after living here. I’m officially spoiled by the cheapness.