I wanted to share the video of the little dancers from the Chri.stmas performance! Sometimes my job is awesome!
Thursday, December 27, 2012
He's the Reason for the Season!
This Chris.tmas season was filled with so much joy and so many blessing provided by Father. Being away from our families was hard, but I wouldn't have missed this opportunity to share the true meaning of Chris.tmas with all of my students and friends for anything in the world! Heres a little glimpse into all of the happenings of the past week.
First off, Camille and I are currently still living in our dorm room. We tried to make it as festive as we could with the little we had to work with.
We added Chris.tmas lights to our balcony a.k.a the outside bathroom!
Our very miniature Chris.tmas tree and gifts. The ornaments my mom so lovingly sent for a bigger tree were just put on display! Again, we did what we could!
The week of Chris.tmas started with my lesson for all of my high school students. For almost two weeks, we practiced singing Chris.tmas carols in English so that we could all go caroling together before Chris.tmas Day. More importantly, every class read the story of the Son's birth! Here is the link to the video that we watched in class. It is a cute story told by children of the Son's birth. I thought some of you might enjoy watching it!
The Saturday before Chris.tmas was a very busy, fun-filled day. Camille and I started the day by having our hair and makeup done for our dance performance that afternoon. This explains the interesting Santa outfits from my previous post. Camille and I also work at a training center, for younger children, called Gallop. The center was having a show for Chris.tmas and asked if we would be in it and help by teaching the other teachers how to dance. Obviously we said yes! So we dressed up in Santa outfits with the other teachers and danced for all of the students and parents. Even Dawn joined us in the dance!
Camille, Dawn, and I before the performance.
One of my students, Mary, who is quite a character. She also performed in the show, telling the story of Cinderella, entirely in English!
This is Celia. She runs Gallop and asked us to be in the show.
Some of the other teachers we work with who were also in the dance. 
Many of the students also performed. The little girls in red were a big hit, as they danced to "Gangnam Style". Basically, I spent the afternoon dancing, teaching children how to dance, and handing out gifts and candy!
Later Saturday night, we continued the tradition started last year and went caroling with our students. Camille and I invited all of the high school students we teach from our school and our good friends Brad and Dana invited all of their students from the No. 3 High School. This means we invited about 3,000 students to go caroling Saturday night! It was wonderful! Hundreds of students turned up and I was excited and surprised by how many of my own students came. We passed out lyric sheets and santa hats and sang as many songs as the students knew. (We had been practicing in class) After, we got to hang out with our students and take pictures. They love to take pictures of all of us because they don't meet many foreigners!
Some of my students. I was surprised by how many of my "bad" students came. I didn't even think they liked me or English, but I guess I was wrong! The boy in the red is named Craig and he sleeps in every class, yet he still came! He was much better in class this week ;)
Two of my best English speakers, Ethan and Catherine!
These are some of my wonderful Grade 2 students. This is the second year that I get to teach these wonderful kids and so many more of them came caroling this year than last year.
The decorated Chu.rch.
They even sell interesting memorabilia outside of the Chu.rch, including light up reindeer ears!
Inside the Chu.rch. I was so encouraged to see so many fellow believers in my own city!
On Chris.tmas Day, our school decided to take us out to lunch.
The picture is bad, but these are our headmasters and bosses, including Diana. None of them really celebrate Chris.tmas as it is not celebrated in China as it is in America, but they know how important it is to Camille and me. It was a really sweet gesture from them and fun to spend time with them in a relaxed manner outside of school, they even allowed us to pr@ay before the meal, just like we would if we were home for Chris.tmas lunch!
Another wonderful treat from our school was getting to spend a night in the nicest hotel in Huangshi. Since Camille and I have been living together in a student dormitory with an outside bathroom (let me remind you that it snowed, so it is really cold outside), we were very excited about this.
In the lobby ready to check into our room!
The view from our room! I can't believe I'm still in Huangshi!
You are probably wondering why I'm sharing this on my blog, but that is how happy I was to have a soft bed, and indoor bathroom, and best thing yet, a BATHTUB! Sometimes, its the little things in life!
Best Chris.tmas present!
We finished Christmas by going to dinner with some of our closest friends, including Dawn and Wu Xia.
Aaron, Wu Xia, Camille, Me, Brad, Dana, Baby Leila, and Dawn!
The holidays were wonderful. I was a bit nervous, because last year I felt home-sick and cried a lot at this time. But this year, Father really poured out His love on me and answered so many pr@yers. He lifted my spirits when things didn't go as planned. He provided good internet so that I could talk to my family back home. He gave me so many opportunities to share joy and love with people here! He even provided a bathtub!
I hope everyone had as an enjoyable and uplifting holiday as I did here in China! Here is a message from my students to all of you! Thank you for all of your pr@yers!
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Merry Christmas World!
Merry Christmas from China!!!!!
A post is coming soon of all the wonderful things that have been happening here, including an explanation of the Santa outfits!
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Under Construction
The following message has been copied and pasted straight off of Camille's blog. I wanted to tell you the exact same message, so why not make my life a little easier by copying hers? I know I haven't written a blog post in a while, but this will explain part of the reason why. Also, I just got my vpn working again, after about 3 weeks without it, (a vpn is what allows me onto to specific websites such as my blog and facebook that are blocked in the country I currently live in). So now that its up and running, you can expect more exciting posts in the future. Just a forewarning, this post is mostly informational and not exactly exciting!
From Camille:
I know it's been awhile. Partially it's my fault and partially it's China's fault. Overall, it's been a whirlwind couple of weeks. Lesley and I are officially nomads roaming around the city of Huangshi with limited internet access, hence my lack of blogging here recently. I'll break the story down for you.
On December 2, Les and I were having a lovely Sunday evening at our apartment hanging out with Dawn when we heard a knock on our door. It was our neighbor from the apartment below us. She was talking 90 miles a minute, so of course Les and I had no clue what was going on. Thankfully Dawn was there and was able to translate. Apparently, water was leaking into her apartment from our apartment. We called our boss and she said she would take care of it the next day, but we should turn off our water. I quickly jumped into the shower, not knowing it would be my last wonderfully hot one for a long, long time.
The next morning, we packed a few things so we could stay at our dorm room at school for a few days until the leaking pipe in our floor could be fixed. Well to cut a very long story short, a few days has now turned into 2 weeks. Since the pipe was broken, which meant our entire bathroom floor had to be ripped up, the school decided to "decorate" (remodel) our entire bathroom. This sounds amazing and in the end I'm sure it will be, but right now it's not very fun.
The school said the repairs and remodel would take about 15 days. Les and I have become well aware that China deadlines aren't real. So when they say 2 weeks, you should go ahead and double it and that is a more accurate timeline. Two weeks have passed since we moved out and here is the current state of our bathroom/apartment.
This picture was taken the first time we went to the apartment, during the destruction phase.
The inside of our bathroom.
The current state of our dining room. Yes, that is a huge pile of debris and dirt.
The current state of our bathroom. Looks like they got the concrete down.
So to sum it up, we are now living at school in our dorm room Monday to Friday and a hotel on the weekends. We are prying to be back in our apartment by Christmas, but as you can see from the picture it's not likely. Right now Les and I are struggling with a lack of sleep from very hard beds and some stomach problems from all the cafeteria food we have to eat. (Our dorm room doesn't have a kitchen, so we have to eat what the kids eat everyday) If you could be prying for those two issues specifically, it would be much appreciated.
Sorry this blog is a bit of a downer, but just wanted to let everyone know what's been going on and why I haven't been able to keep in touch as often as I like to. We are surviving and trying to keep up our good spirits. This is China and some things just don't always go as planned. Hopefully, we will be able to ring in the new year back in our apartment with our brand new Western toilet!
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
梅兰
After one year, two months and two weeks, I was finally given a Chinese name! One of the teachers at school decided to name Camille and I. I was very excited about this and wanted to share it with you. Mr. Chen, a fellow teacher, said he thought long and hard about what our names should be and hoped we liked them. I love my new name, its has a beautiful meaning and is easy for me to pronounce...kind of important! My new name is.....
For those of you who can't read Chinese, my name is Méi lán. It means "plum orchid". Here are some pictures of the plum flower, so you know what my name is. Feel free to call me by my new name from now on!
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Freedom Rings...From China
The US Election is over and done now and Obama has been reelected as the President. Camille and I were very proud of ourselves for going through the process of absentee voting all the way from China! I was very happy to still be a part of this process. It was also very interesting to view the entire election process from here. Being so far away allowed me to gain a different perspective on everything.
At the post office ready to mail in my vote!
Dawn had to help us, of course. Here she is writing Chinese on our envelopes headed for America.
Yay for the privilege to choose our own leader!
The week of the election, I taught my students about the election process in America and the difference between America and China and how our leaders are chosen. Most people in other countries around the world know who the President of the United States is and some follow the election. The majority of my students know who Obama is and said they would vote for Obama if they were American. When asked why, they responded that they didn't know who the "other" man was. Or if they did know Romney, they didn't like him because he doesn't like China. Not all of the students felt this way, there were always a few who chose Romney. What they know about the two men is limited, but still impressive considering he is the leader of another country and not their own. How much do you know about the leader of China? How much do I even know? And I live here! What I learned about most people here is that they chose which person they liked based solely on how they related to China. In that case, Obama won hands down, because he appears "to dislike China less than Romney" (from the words of a Chinese friend).
Personally, I was happy to be so far removed from the campaigning and election. When casting my vote and teaching my students about the election, I was reminded of how much freedom and acknowledgement we have as individuals in America, that most people around the world do not experience. Least of all, we can talk about politics openly. But, seeing all of the harsh words coming from news channels, facebook, and email from both parties, I was saddened by what has come of America. It is sad to see that our nation was so divided when it came to choosing the right man for the job. How can we improve ourselves as a nation if we constantly battle amongst ourselves. But now that is over and we can all move forward. All we can do now is respect the leader that was chosen and pr@y that he truly has a relationship with Father and will lead America in the right direction for the next four years! Try to remember all of the blessings and opportunities you've been given!
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
I've got friends in low places...
Last week our students had military training, which means that we had yet another week off of school. Instead of sticking around Huanghsi with nothing to do, Camille and I took a spontaneous trip to Guangzhou to visit our friends, Crista and Dan, from back home. Crista went to grad school with Camille and me, and was one of my teaching partners. They have been living here since January and we have been trying for ten months to visit them, so we were very excited for the opportunity. Plus, it is already quite cold in Huangshi...I'm talking jackets and boots already, but it was nice and warm down south!
Camille and I with Crista and another friend, Claire, on the way to see the river at night.
Most of the buildings on the river light up at night. This tower is one of the things Guangzhou is famous for.
Our hosts, Dan and Crista.
In front of the tower.
Getting legit pedicures...we can't get these in Huangshi!
We also went to Macao for a day. It is even further south and is known as the Vegas of China. It has several replicas of hotels and figures from Las Vegas, as well as the largest hotel in the world, The Venetian.
We got McDonalds!! In America, I never eat McDonalds, but in China it is such a treat and comfort of home! I ordered a cup of water with my food and they gave me this little baby cup. You can't really tell how small it is in this picture, but I promise you, it was smaller than my hand! Notice how high the straw comes out!
Cool alleyway leading to St. Paul's ruins.
A stand of dried meat. There were tons of these along the alleyway.
St. Paul's Ruins.
Birdcages in the tree at the park.
More birdcages at the park.
This was Dan's reenactment of some Chinese tourists, who were taking pictures like this as we were walking by. I failed to get a picture of the real deal, so I made Dan reenact it for us!
Crista holding on for dear life on the crazy bus ride....
to the beach! This was my first time to see the beach in China and the first time to put my feet in the South China Sea.
Playing in the park. Many parks in China have equipment like this for people to use for exercise or for play! This one was a battle of who was stronger....I obviously lost!
This one is supposed to massage your back.
We passed this couple getting professional pictures taken of them. Couples in China like to wear matching shirts/matching clothes. We see this all the time! I'm so glad we snapped some pictures of this priceless moment!
Oh the train ride back...Camille and I could only get a seat ticket for an overnight train ride from Guangzhou to Wuhan, which was about 11 hours long. In China, the train stations sell out of bed and seat tickets, so they then begin selling standing room tickets. This picture doesn't even begin to describe the chaos and crowdedness of that train car!! It was insane, they never even turned off the lights! It was interesting to do it once, but I doubt I will ever do it again!
This adorable boy came over to watch some videos and play some games with us on Camille's ipad. He made for some good entertainment for the long train ride!
This was such a fun trip and such a great time catching up with friends! Camille and I loved being around fellow Louisianians again! Thanks so much, Crista and Dan, for hosting us!
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