For Lesson 14 in my Sophomore Oral classes, we talked about movies and movies terms. I gave them the assignment of reenacting a movie they have seen. I told them it could be from any country (America, China or Korea) as long as the dialogue was spoken in English. I must say that I TOTALLY enjoyed their acting and creativity. Each group had 3 to 5 minutes, had to split their movie into 3 to 5 scenes, and had to include all 4 to 5 people in their group in some sort of speaking role. Highlights included: 1) a horror flick from Japan called “Death Note” where, if you wrote a person’s name in a book, they would die by a heart attack (at one point, a student “attacked” another with a clever); 2) “Superman Returns” was acted out superbly with a flawless execution of “flying” and “laser vision”; 3) a lot of running happened when “Forrest Gump” appeared; and 4) a Chinese film (that starred Bruce Lee) had a student kicking the butts of some Japanese martial arts students who killed Bruce Lee’s master. The entire project was absolute fun and I can’t wait until the Freshmen have their debut on Thursday.

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It’s hard to believe that in less than four weeks I’ll be headed home! Every year, I place a countdown outside my room. I always start at “40 days to go!” and slowly the number drops. I know that when I start this, the days go by so quickly. It seems just like yesterday that it was 40, but today I’m writing the number 28. Amazing! I’m in the process of trying to get final tests made, planning my next three weeks of lessons, finishing my grad homework, beginning the “Great 2007 Packup”, and winding down the term.

The team has received word a couple of days ago about the replacement teammates but nothing positive yet. You see, Robb and the Norries will be leaving Siping this year. Robb will return home to Canada; the Norries will start language school in Changchun. Because of this, replacement teachers are being assigned. The Chinese government must accept them before they become official, so, once they are, I’ll introduce them.

The weather is now quite Spring in Siping. The trees have greened, many flowers are in bloom, and the sky is full of chipping birds. It’s getting warmer as we’ve been in the 70’s this week. More and more people are out, such as the elderly and little babies. Sure, some of them are still wearing jackets and coats, but I’ve broken out my shorts and am ready for the heat. Thank God for air conditioning!

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Well, today I got out of the volleyball game. So believe me when I say I sure didn’t miss nuthin’. Apparently, Seth, Robb and Wu were all up to bat and the team did poorly. It’s not like we practice or anything. Really…

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Yesterday was just a weird day.

First of all, I got a call from Dave at 7 AM saying he couldn’t get to class because he was feeling ill and he asked me to teach it. Now, normally, Wednesday morning is the time that I get grading done, get organized for my Freshman Oral classes on Thursday and prep for Junior Writing. However, this didn’t happen then.

After class, I had scheduled some students to come over and we were together for about 2 ½ hours. They watched “Jumanji” (which I forgot how funny it was) while I wrote my Chinese characters.

I then checked my email afterwards to find out that at 2:30 PM, our department had a volleyball game and I had to play! <I had not practiced nor played since my left leg injury ONE YEAR AGO!> Needless to say, I wasn’t too thrilled. And I kept texting Robb, trying to find a way out of it. Now, I have a 4 PM class, so I thought I could make it back…but noooo! Even though we arrived at 2:30 PM, we didn’t play until 4:00 PM. And then, after three games were completed, we had to play another after 5:00 PM. So I sent some text messages to Seth’s & my classes telling them we wouldn’t be there. We then played our second match and lost two in a row. (What do you expect when you gather people who’ve never played together AND don’t even practice volleyball!? Oh well…)

After the games, we had a celebration meal (because the female teachers’ team did well). The meal consisted of an 18-course meal, many words were spoken by everyone, and a lot of drinks were shared (yes, no beer for me J). Robb, Seth & I finally returned home around 7:15 PM that evening.

Unbeknownst to me at the time of yesterday’s losses, we were still going to have to play three more teams! So today I’ll probably have to skip more classes as well to get my “volleyball on”. I’m taking my camera this time, so you can see all of us in action.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 5448.

I received an email from Jonny and he and his family (including the in-laws) will be on their way to Siping tomorrow night and arriving in the morning. It has been strange not to see them around, but I think they’re too busy trying to be good parents. It will also be cool to see what Maryssa thinks of Samantha!

My Chinese is to the point where swirls of wrong words often occur when I am speaking. For example, I was sharing a meal with a couple of students. I was trying to say “little brother” but for some reason I said “prostitute”. Hmmm, very different words indeed! I can definitely recognize more characters than I can write, so my Chinese is coming along gradually.

In department news, there was a campus-wide basketball tournament among the students. The Foreign Language Department won. The team was called “The Untouchables” (courtesy of me), and I guess that is what they were. The team was made of up of very good basketball players and, not to mention, very tall ones, too. Height is definitely a logistical advantage in China.

I’ve also begun “packing up”. I’ve started to clean out drawers and going through stuff that I will take with me to America and stuff that will stay here in China. Our Foreign Affairs Office is currently solidifying our tickets home this summer, so, once I get a confirmation on that, I’ll let everyone know my definite dates.

Last night I gave a lecture about how students can deal with cultural differences. I think the typical Chinese college student knows very little about the world and its cultures. I hope in the best way that I knew how they were able to understand more about how to relate to others. The highlight of the night was me acting out all the ways that I have changed in living in China, such as always being stared at or pushing and shoving when getting on a train. I told them when a Chinese says to me "老外, 老外" (Chinese for "foreigner"), I yell back, "中国人, 中国人" (Chinese for "Chinese"). I am definitely a ham!

My camera was also broken during the May Holiday. I just got it back this afternoon from the store where I purchased it and they replaced the broken lens. So now I’m good to go.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 5428.

I just returned from a weekend excursion to Beijing. I saw baby Wu, bought some gifts for friends and family back home, ate pizza and hamburgers, and enjoyed some sweet relaxation. I even feel well-rested after my 4:30 AM wake-up call to get off the train!

On a different note, last year some of you may remember that the team raised money (with the help of the students from our school) for three cleft-palate surgeries for three children. Recently, one of them was adopted. Kat & Sarah were able to meet the parents and share a meal. Anyway, the Wus recently showed me the family’s blog, so, if you want to follow their life, check ‘em out at http://ourjourney3.blogspot.com. Below you can also see two pictures. In the “before” pic, she is the baby on the left. In the “after” pic, you can hardly tell she had a surgery. There’s still more work to be done, but now she has parents to take her home. Amazing!

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Tonight I am headed to Beijing to see baby Wu and have my last shopping excursion before going to America. I can always find really cool Chinese gifts in Beijing for people back home in America, so it’s time to spend some money! I should be back on Sunday morning, so I’ll update any happenings then. Love, Peace & Chicken Grease!

Number of views as of this blog entry: 5382.

Two weeks ago I went to a student friend’s hometown for his second elder sister’s wedding. Highlights of the trip were:

1)           Seeing my friend and his sister argue with drivers and other service staff because they would charge more than usual (I get this because I’m a foreigner).

2)          Completely missing a train in Beijing due to lack of communication (I didn’t know where to go – i.e., I didn’t know the train number).

3)          Visiting a rural Chinese home/family.

4)          Actually seeing the festivities of a Chinese wedding.

5)          Meeting too many people that I had no clue how to talk to (their local dialect was foreign to me; however, my Mandarin is not good enough to have in-depth conversations).

6)          Sitting at a “men only” table and watching these same men drink themselves into oblivion.

7)          Having pork juice, 7 UP, and beer poured on me! (It was actually quite funny!)

8)          Having some amazing jiaozi that my friend’s grandmother made (I mean, a-maz-ing!).

9)          Sitting around a table and feeling at home when everybody had left at the end of the wedding day.

10)       Having completely confusion conversations (both with English translation mishaps & cultural differences) that led me to pay for a night in a 5 Star Hotel that sleeps three but was a room for two. (Thank you, God, for discounts!)

11)        Being stuck in a Baoding (a town south of Beijing) coffee shop for 5 hours because my friend wanted to buy “gifts” (Jeez!) and I sure as heck didn’t want to roam a city with a suitcase!

12)       Meeting a young man from the south of China on a trip to Beijing to see his uncles and, while waiting for my train, had an English corner with me – which happened to last for two more hours on the train because he (and his family) rode on the same one. (FYI: I just talked to him tonight; he’s a funny one.)

13)       Sleeping at our organization’s HQ next to another guy who actually woke me up with his snoring. (If you know me, I NEVER wake up for anything, so this guy was beyond loud!).

14)       Enjoying a week of traveling madness that was definitely well-worth it.

Also, see the picture album “Gāoyì (高邑) Wedding” for shots of the wedding day and see the video below of when the bride arrived to the groom’s family home.

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Well, here’s the true news on baby Wu. Samantha Grace Wu was born at 8:12 PM on Friday night, May 11^th, 2007 in Beijing, China. She weighed 6 and a half pounds and was 19” long. Look in the album “Baby Wu” to see the first four pictures that Jonny sent.

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Rachel and Jonny had their baby at 8:12 PM. That’s all I’m saying now until since they probably want to tell their friends and family all the details. I will post more information later. Congrats guys!

Number of views as of this blog entry: 5314.

I’ve been home since Sunday, but I haven’t updated anything. Here are the three reasons: 1) I am BEYOND tired. I have yet to tell you of my extensive journey to the south of Beijing and back. And I’m even too tired to blog about it. (I actually slept almost 9 hours last night!) 2) I have been grading Five-Paragraph Essay Mid-Terms. I have a total of 85 to grade, so they take a while. And sometimes this task is mind-numbing. 3) I have been busy with classes and students. The schedule from Tuesday caused my feet to hit the ground running, so I’m behind in different tasks that usually are done by today (that is, Wednesday morning). On Friday, I hope to update about my trip and my experiences. Until then…

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I awoke to the sounds of a lively train at 5:30 AM. Some little kid made the noise of a legion gone wild and Seth and I really wanted to strangle him. The train didn’t get into Beijing until 7:45 AM, but the patrons in our sleeper car felt like 5:30 AM was good enough. Insane is what I say!

Anyway, Seth parted ways as he is going to Japan to be with his parents. They are teachers there. He should be boarding his domestic flight to eastern China and be arriving in Osaka by this afternoon. Jonny and I headed to the west side of Beijing to see Rachel and Mavis, Jonny’s sister. Mavis has been hanging out with Rachel until Jonny came. Jonny and Rachel will stay in Beijing until their baby is born.

I have just taken a shower at our organization’s Beijing HQ and will head out for some shopping and Western food eating. Yeah! I will be on a train to Gāoyì (高邑) by 3:50 PM  and should have arrived to my destination by 8 PM.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 5202.