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Hey, everyone! I'm back from the China trip! Man was it great! But I'm oh so happy to be home. So, you all ready for a long post? I've got my journal here so I can remember what happened every day and some of the feelings I had. If you want to learn about the whole two week trip, keep reading.
Friday, July 25: Our departure day. I can't really remember what time we left or anything, but it was pretty early in the morning. I only got five hours of sleep Thursday night, but I was so excited about leaving I was wide awake. Our whole team met at the airport and we all wore our blue shirts. You know we made shirts, right? If not, we bought royal blue polos and a guy we know embroidered them with a torch on the left breast pocket with the Chinese love symbol and "China 2008" on the sleeve. Anyway, we wore them so we'd see eachother easily.
Our plane took off for Vancouver and it was TINY! It only seated 53 people. Going from Seattle to Vancouver was not a problem. It took under an hour! The Vancouver airport was the best airport I've ever seen! It was very nice with waterfalls, fish tanks, indoor ponds. It had a very relaxing atmosphere about it.
But from there, we hopped on the 11 hour trip from Vancouver to Beijing. I've traveled on planes before, but the longest was eight - nine hours, from Seattle to Florida. But this was a long trip. Thankfully there were personal TVs on the back of every chair for people. They had movies, shows, music, and a map to show you where you were, the temperature outside, everything.
I ended up watching "Spiderwick Chronicles", "Horton Hears a Who", and "Nim's Island".
Through this long flight, I found out I get motion sickness. I think it's just on the long rides, though. 'Cause last year when we went to Florida, I was fine. Anyway, they served us three meals. Boy was I glad I brought snacks. That plane food was nasty. Even the little chocolate pudding they had was not worth eating. For our last meal an hour before we landed they told us we'd be having noodle special. We got excited, but what was set in front of me was not what I thought would be called a "noodle special". Cup of noodle. I ate it more than I had the others and immediately I started feeling naseous. Right after I ate about half to the cup, the plane made this huge sudden drop. My stomach didn't seem to agree with that. So it decided to throw a fit.
I didn't feel good the rest of the way. We hopped on a plane from Beijing to another city just under 2 hours away, and I slept most of the time. But on our way down I grabbed the little throw up bag just in case. I was feeling horrible! And that was a huge discouragement. Already the trip was starting off wrong.
(By the way: by this time, we had crossed the International Dateline, which meant it was now Saturday).
The airport was small, so we were able to easily find the guy we were meeting. "Bob" is his name. He was there, holding in his hand a video camera, the red light on as we walked toward them. I hid in the back because I knew I was pale with dry lips, looking like at any time my stomach would finally push my noodles back up.
Bob had brought with him a Chinese friend, "Mike". He could talk a little english so my dad spoke with him for a minute.
Now it was time to get on the bus. Being sick, I hopped onto the front and a nurse that came with us gave me some naseua medicine that knocked me out. I was so happy to go to sleep and get rid of the pain. But 45 minutes later, I woke up, opened my little bag and the noodles were free. Wow I felt so much better! And by that time we were only 15 minutes away from the hotel. It was about 10 or 11 at night and the Chinese people with us were like, "Do you want to stop off for dinner?" Everyone on the bus said to just take us to the hotel. As soon as we got to the hotel and got dressed real quick, dropped on my bed and fell asleep.
Let me tell you, those beds are hard. Basically, you're sleeping on wood covered in sheets. Since I sleep on the floor with my siblings every weekend, I was kind of fine with it, but throughout the two weeks there were some people who ended up having some problems.
Sunday, July 27: In the Beijing airport I had already become scared...far more than I thought I'd be. With my stomach, the long travel, and the feeling of being lost in a strange country, I was feeling really discouraged. This is a little something called culture shock and it only grew worse for me the next day.
Sunday we had breakfast: dumplings, potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, and other vegetables.
My sister, Skittles, has blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. And she was the superstar of the city. Everywhere we went, Chinese would be taking her aside and taking pictures, fawning over her. It was hilarious.
We also explored the oldest street in the city. There was many Buddhist temples. Scary-looking statues stood to the side before you entered. At the very entrance to the temple, a pot of incense was burning. Now, my stomach was still settling from the night before and the Chinese food in the morning, so the smell did not help me at all.
And by now, culture shock was really setting in. The smells in some parts of the city were so nauseating, the sights of the butcher shop, the difference between America and China, it was all hitting me. Overall, I was not in a good mood...at all.
We soon went to lunch and a Chinese group kept peeking into our room, smiling and fawning over the foreigners. (Note: foreigner in Chinese actually means "big nose"). Soon they came in, and it turned out that they were a wedding party. The woman was dressed all in red, just beautiful. She came in with a tray and tea on top. A man (who we assumed was the groom) held a teapot. She started going around the room, telling everyone to drink. (She spoke English very well and ended up being an english teacher). Drinking the tea was like a toast, wishing them a good marriage.
(Note: A famous question for the Chinese when meeting someone: "How old are you?". It's like when we ask "How are you?")
When we got back to the hotel, I was still feeling really discouraged, still suffering from culture shock. I loved the people, but the actual place made me feel really uncomfortable. Everything was dirty, even the air. The smells in some places sent a wave of nauseua over me. Then I started thinking about my calling to go to Israel. Would the flights make me sick? Would the Israeli streets be dirty? Would the people be dirty? What's the food like? What kind of customs do they have? Discomfot and the feeling of being lost surrounded me. I ended up breaking down and going to my parent's hotel room. My mom and I prayed together and went to bed.
Monday, July 28: The end of culture shock. Somehow, peace had come over me during the night and I woke up feeling encouraged. I remembered that this was only a two week trip. China is not my calling - it's Israel. And why would God send me on a mission I didn't enjoy? Of course there's going to be discomfort along the way, but I knew I'd enjoy Israel. I'd be home in two weeks, anyway.
Today was the opening ceremony, where we were introduced to the teachers we'd be teaching. You see, the reason we came was to help teach english to english teachers. And in the opening ceremony, we were introduced. At 2 we began teaching. Each of us were assigned to classes, beginning at 2 and going until 4:50. The first class would end at 3:20 and the next class would begin at 3:30.
The first day was just introducing ourselves, sharing pictures, our likes and dislikes. And we let the students pick out their English names. It was awkward sometimes, and we had to speak slow and pronounce our words very accurately.
The heads of the education board invited us to a banquet that night, but had a sudden important meeting at the last minute. So we went to a free dinner. I tried lamb there and loved it! That was another huge encouragement, since lamb is a huge dish in Israel. They also had cow tendon (which I tried), and a chicken. A whole chicken. The head was still there.
(Note: the Chinese are CRAZY drivers. Lanes might as well not even be there. At one point, the taxi we were in started driving on the wrong side of the road. Cars were heading toward us and and turned into our hotel right before they hit us;
Note: they honk for two things: to let people know they're coming, and sometimes to announce they're turning;
Note: the Chinese like seeing leftovers on plates, because it lets them know we've had enough food and we are satisfied)
Tuesday, July 29: We went to the market that morning and I found some souveneirs for friends. That morning I got a journal for my english teacher, a Chinese picture book for my history teacher, a chaligraphy pen for my math teacher, and a bowl and spoon for a friend.
Then teaching began. Our first class ended up being the open, friendly, and good in english group. But our second class only had one who was real experienced, so it was difficult teaching them.
Every evening we'd have an activity with the students. Tonight was our first: ultimate frisbee. We taught them how to play and began. Or...the others began. My sister and I were talking with two girls: one being a daughter of a lady from our second class, and the daughter's friend. We ended up getting their e-mails. What was really cool was that when we met them, they gave us gifts. I got a beautiful journal and my sister got a wallet that she now uses.
As we were talking to the two girls, I noticed my dad surrounded by high school and college students. That is so like my dad! His assignment was to teach a lecture class in the morning, but today had been his first day. And he doesn't teach the high school and college students. They must've talked the whole time. It was hilarious!
Wednesday, July 30: Tuesday, some members from our team decided we'd have a different breakfast this morning. We were getting sick of the same thing every day at breakfast. So this morning, some team members had gone out and bought food. We all met in someone's hotel room and ate. OH! The food was so good compared to what we'd been having. Bananas, peaches, breakfast cookies, Twinkie-type-things, peanut butter...it was refreshing.
Then Satan started attacking. My mom became really sick. The flight had done something to her body so she became really constipated, and on top of that she got a bladder infection. My sister got a sore throat, and someone else had messed up her back and had a headache.
In the classes, my sister helps my mom and I help my roommate. My sister was feeling to bad to go, so I decided to help my mom because she wasn't feeling well. My roommate allowed me to help my mom, so I went to her class. Unfortunately, sometime later, there was some miscommunication and my roommate understood that I wanted to continue helping my mom's class. Thankfully, I learned of that and God gave me strength to bring up the subject that night. We got it sorted out and I helped my roommate with teaching the next day.
At dinner I urged myself to sit by someone who'd gone to Israel, and he also happens to be my guitar teacher. I started asking him about the culture. He didn't tell me much, but he did say he'd bring pictures of his trip the next guitar practice.
Singing was this evening's activity. We sang "My Bonnie", "The Ants Go Marching", "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes", "It's a Small World", and "Deep and Wide". It was cool teaching them to the Chinese and seeing them get so involved.
Thursday, July 31: Today we were able to teach more of American culture to the students.
That night we got a tour of the hospital from a doctor that asked us out to dinner. It was...interesting. Not a hospital I would want to be treated in. They just don't have the technology that we do for things. And there I learned something scary. 80% of women get C-sections. Not because they need it, but because the hospitals get more money from C-sections, so they do that to the woman. Apparently it's very scary, though. Can you believe that? And the birth room looked scary. There were three beds in the same room, both probably harder than our hotel beds, and really narrow. Not something I would want to give birth on.
At the dinner that night, I had the chance to try cow stomach liner. But I passed it up. It's okay. I'd already had cow tendon. I didn't need another part.
Friday, August 1: Not much happened that morning. The plan was for our classes to take them out and have them tell us in English what everything was. We only took our first class and they took us to a temple - the one we went to on Sunday. So all the unanswered questions we had were cleared.
They told us that the scary-looking statues on the side are the demons. They come get you and drag you down to hell if you do something bad. You can ask for forgiveness from the god, but you will not always get forgiveness.
Everyone in my class talks about my dad's class and how they love it! It was so cool hearing them fawn over his teaching. He is a great teacher, and with him resigning from his cop job, he's even considered teaching. Anyway, there was one student that said "Mr. Chris" - my dad - "says that without struggle there is no improvement. So he makes us struggle a lot in class." Everyone cracked up at that when we told our team.
Our second class did a ton better job today. We played a few games with them that really made them talk. They laughed and joked, and had so much fun! It was awesome seeing them open up.
Saturday, August 2: Okay, today I learned that a Chinese vacation is a ton different from an American vacation. Our destination was Chinghai Lake on our day off. It was three hours away, but we'd been told it was beautiful. We had two Chinese leading the tour.
An American vacation: head for the destination and get there; once you're there relax and do things at a leisurely pace.
A Chinese vacation: Head for the destination, but stop at little places along the way and it's all go-go-go!
The whole way we wanted to just get there and enjoy the lake. But our tour guides wanted us to stop at this park, this river, this site along the way.
Chinghai Lake was beautiful! It was a bright blue, and with the white, puffy clouds in the sky it made a great picture. We went to lunch and by that time were too tired to do anything. The tour guides told us we were going to go to Sand Island and then make a four-hour trip around Chinghai Lake. FOUR HOURS?!?!? we all thought. We told them no and headed home.
On the way back home we stopped off at a small, desert-like area for a leg-stretcher walk. I stayed and about 20 minutes later saw everyone coming back, two people on a motorcycle joining them. Nobody looked happy. My mom had my sister's arm in a vise grip and the two were walking fast. As everyone boarded, two people from our team stayed behind to talk to the motorcycle people. One guy on the cycle brought his hand up as though he were going to slap the woman standing there. It turned out that these guys had just appeared riding in the dunes and started riding really close to our group. One guy got off the cycle and started heading straight for a teen on our team. They were very threatening, holding up fists, yelling in Chinese, and riding their motorcycle really close to people. They started heading for the women and children, one guy even headed for a four-year-old! The team quickly left, but all the guys were riled up and ready for a fight to defend. Thankfully, it wasn't needed. No one knows what their problem was.
Sunday, August 3: The resting day. Walking around the city, shopping, and just leisurely searching around. I ended up getting dolls for a friend, charms for three other friends, and chopsticks for another friend. My mom's bladder infection still hadn't gone away. She was feeling the worst during the afternoon. She got really scared because she didn't want to have to go to the hospital or anything. She felt tons better the next day though!
We ran into one of our students and she invited us to her house. We told her we were available after the evening activity.
Monday, August 4: Nothing much happened in class or during the morning. Baseball was the evening activity. The Chinese loved it and many were good at it. Many times the rules were ignored, but we had tons of fun. About seven of us followed the girl that'd invited us to her home to her house to visit. Her mom had prepared TONS of snacks. Nuts, candies, cookies, fruit, and every time we finished something, she and her husband handed us more! We were so stuffed by the end of the night!
Tuesday, August 5: We took both classes out into town today. Unfortunately, my shoes started rubbing up against my ankles after lunch, making scratches. I put Band-Aids on them, but my shoes scraped them off. I just had to keep walking. The sun was beating down, too and the groups took us everywhere. My problems: sores on my ankles, beating sun, I was wearing pants.
With the first class we went to a park. They took photos with us, talked with us, and we ended up having a great time.
But then came our second class. I really didn't want to go out with this class. They were quiet, but one lady loved doing, doing, doing! I was exhausted from the last walk and my ankles really hurt. But we had to go. I started thinking and came up with this conclusion: Even though my feet were sore, my legs were tired, my body was hot, and I was exhausted, we were there not for comfort, but to make relationships. And I knew of many people who had gone through far worse for far longer. I figured I could survive an hour.
At the market I bought earrings for myself. They were beautiful and I couldn't help but get them. I was way underspending anyway. The charms I'd bought for two friends had Chinese writing on them, so I asked an english-speaking Chinese guy what they meant and he said blessing and friendship. Perfect!
The evening activity was our dancing! Two of our team members did a swing dance, then we performed our line dance. It was so cool seeing the Chinese enjoy the dance so much and it was so fun performing it for them. After our dances, they did their dances and I tried one out. It wasn't too difficult.
There was one guy on our team that shared his experience during that night. He's a little bit of a bigger guy and a few college guys came up to him. One patted him on the stomach and said "Happy every day!" So we all laugh about it now. We even found a plaque in a trinket shop that said "Happy Every Day!"
Wednesday, August 6: We shopped more and I got more souveneirs. Over the week, I'd started feeling guilty about enjoying the first class so much but really not loving the second. I wasn't sure what to do.
Tonight was the basketball game - our team against the Chinese college student team. We got beat bad, but you could tell they had fun. My dad fell two times trying to save the ball, and one guy got hit in the forehead with someone's elbow by accident.
Thursday, August 7: Our last teaching day. Classes went as normal until the last half hour when we gave the students our gifts and said goodbye to eachother. Our second class took us out to buy each of us an umbrella, so now I have a Chinese umbrella.
Tonight was the mock wedding. A couple decided they would get married again. The funny thing is, my dad married them almost three years ago, and would now be marrying them again. The couple's third anniversary is this Wednesday, and the mock wedding landed on the Chinese Valentine's Day.
Chinese were chosen for the bridesmaids and groomsmen. The bride's mom was there and so was her sister who was the maid of honor. Her dad was there as well and her brother who had to fill in as best man. The music played for the bridesmaids and everyone got in place. Then everyone stood and hummed "Here Comes the Bride". She had borrowed a white skirt and shirt and was wearing pink flip flops. She'd also bought some plastic for her hair and it was neatly fashioned as the veil. She walked down, my dad read some things about marriage and then she was given to her "soon-to-be" husband. Here's a funny thing about the Chinese. They do not kiss in public. So we asked the couple to make a big long kiss when it came to that time. The students laughed nervously when they did. The bride and groom laughed when my dad said "Now, I'm proud to announce, for the very first time, Mr. and Mrs..." It was funny. They even had cake to cut and feed a piece to eachother.
That morning I ended up getting this beautiful white and green boat statue with Chinese writing on it for one of my teachers. I can't wait to give it to him!
Right after the mock wedding I was flogged by students, most were mine, others I had no idea who they were. They took our pictures and talked with us. We were the last to leave the building. I was given quite a few gifts too which was so cool!
Friday, August 8: This morning was full of packing and TV. I went into my sister's room to pack and found her and her roommate watching a Chinese soap opera. It was hilarious! Since they had no clue what they were saying, they'd make it up themselves. Soon five people were in the room, laughing at the corny show.
That afternoon was the closing ceremony. Speeches were made to the students, certificates were handed out and we were each given a gift: an antelope on top of a podium covered in Chinese writing. It's beautiful!
Then we went outside to take pictures. It was bittersweet, saying goodbye to the students we'd grown to love. There were awkward silences because no one wanted to say goodbye, hugs, and gifts. Soon we had to go back to the hotel.
That night was a banquet hosted by the heads of the education committee. I tried octopus, some weird fish, and seaweed. We had a few toasts and couldn't drink our pop unless the leaders did. They could only move the lazy susan and we had to keep our glasses lower than theirs on toasts. It was cool, though.
Tonight we went to a team member's room where they honored everyone one by one with special qualities they'd brought to the team. Then we went to the team leader's room where we presented them with a large sum of money we'd ended up with from underspending then washed their feet. Wow, it was amazing seeing their reaction. They really looked so happy, so thankful that we'd come.
We then hung out in their room and were each given certificates. My dad got the certificate of "extreme extrovert" for always being surrounded by students asking for autographs and encouraging words. My sister got "Chinese supermodel" for always being pulled aside for pictures. I got "light the passion. share the dream". That touched me so much that the team leaders saw that passion inside me to share God's love to the people of Israel. Then we stayed for the Olympics opening ceremony. Did anyone watch it? It was amazing! The Chinese really put on a show!
Saturday, August 9: Traveling day. We headed out at 5 AM. What was I thinking when I sat in the back of the bus? I don't know, but I started feeling sick. Then the plane ride to Beijing didn't make me feel much better. We had a five-hour layover in Beijing. So we ate at Burger King, bought ice cream and looked at the gifts. Finally we boarded. They had new movies on the personal TVs. My dad let us watch "Iron Man". What an awesome movie! I would like a sequel though. The ending just didn't do it for me. Then I watched "Prince Caspian" and "Kung Fu Panda". By the last three hours, I was really feeling sick. Thankfully, we didn't have much of a layover in Canada but I really wasn't feeling good. The trip from Vancouver to Seattle was so short! Under an hour! Seeing Seattle below us, the Space Needle, Mount Rainier, even the clouds and the rain, made me so thankful to be home. We landed and were only focussed on getting to the baggage claim to see my brothers and Grandma. We were home!
I'll write about getting accustomed to American culture later ;P
In Christ,
Messenger
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