Four Months in China

Well it's official... I have been in China for exactly 4 months. It has been a roller coaster here. It's true what they say about culture shock being ups and downs. When I think back to my first month here it feels like years ago but also like a couple days. I can't believe it has been 4 months, it really doesn't feel like 4 months when I think about it. I have made a lot of new friends and done a lot of things that I would never had done back home.

It is really interesting to live in a foreign country. You don't know the language, but you pick it up along the way. I have gotten good at getting what I need from the local stores and traveling by taxi, but when it comes to having a conversation with the locals I am at a loss. I know bits and pieces of Chinese but not enough to hold a conversation. I did buy Rosetta Stone (for 70RMB which is like $11) so I am beginning that but it could take awhile.

Traveling in China is an experience all on its own. I feel like I am an expert at taking the subway. LOL. It's actually a great way to get around and it only costs 2RMB, that's like 30 cents. The only things you have to get over is the amount of time it takes to get places. To get to church it is like 5 stops and it takes almost an hour. To get to some of the tourist attractions it could take over an hour. But it is cheap and you get to be stared at by Chinese the whole time. LOL. You start to get past the staring after a couple of trips.

So my job has been pretty good. I really love the awesome foreigners I work with and our Chinese assistants are pretty awesome too! I just started using ClassDojo (a classroom management tool) in my class and it is going great! My kids are listening and paying attention more. We set goals for them to reach so I think they are really excited about getting candy or a toy if they can get enough points by the end of the week!

I haven't really done any sightseeing since I moved to Huilongguan. I did go shopping at some markets. I bought some scarves and a nice cardigan for pretty cheap. As we went to one of our favorite "western" restaurants in SanLiTun, The Den. So let me just say The Den has amazing french fries and sandwiches and it's always on our list of places to go. Shopping is fun here, you never know what you are going to find. And it is always great to have AWESOME company ;). Can't wait to do more shopping and sightseeing.

APEC is having a week long conference here in Beijing. So all the schools are closing for 6 days. Factories are closing and less cars are being allowed to drive during this week. Can you guess why? Pollution! Since leaders from around Asia are going to be here in Beijing, they want the air quality to be amazing! So what are we going to do with the 6 days off, EXPLORE CHINA! We've made a list and we are going to have a great time! #theadventuresofAllieandTanith

I signed my contract with the school yesterday. I wish they would have let me read it thoroughly before signing. I found that if I decide to end my contract early I will have to pay a month's salary. :( I had to sign the contract so that they could get all of my work visa papers sent in. I don't know what is next for me after leaving IVY but I know God has great plans.

God is doing so much in me during my time here in China. I am learning a lot about who I am and who He has created me to be. I am learning to trust Him and not worry so much about what is going to happen. Everything always works out in perfect timing.

It Gets Easier, Right?

I really need to get better at updating this! I feel like I only update every two weeks and so I have to sit and type like a short novel about everything that is going on! If only I would update every few days or something! I will try to work on that. Maybe updating about what I am eating for lunch, oh wait I don't usually eat lunch. Guess I will have to figure something out! :)

Well where to begin... I have really been enjoying my job at Ivy School. My kids are great and so stinking cute! They are so smart and so much fun to teach. It makes me sad that I will have to leave them at some point. I don't know when that day is, but I am already dreading it. I am also enjoying my extra cooking classes in the mornings. It is so cool that I get to teach cooking. I love cooking! And now I get paid to do it (kind of!). The past couple of weeks I have taught the kids how to make a peanut butter and jelly roll, a banana roll, and this week we are making fresh fruit yogurt! YUMM! This week's recipe was a last minute decision so I am hoping the kids like it! They are my guinea pigs. :). Once I get more comfortable I plan to do some more American cooking :) (I have no idea what that entails but I am excited!). 

The Wangjing West Subway Station. I know this station like the back of my hand!

I am riding the subway every afternoon to get back and forth between Wangjing. I think I have filled up all my time and I feel a little insane but I love everything I am doing and don't really want to cut anything out! I am still doing home tutoring Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I love the little boy! He has truly captured my heart. I just wish his parents would allow me to teach him instead of them giving me stuff that is English and they think he should learn. I know they are frustrated because he isn't memorizing the things they want him to know, but I am doing what they tell me to do. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks this will change. They want me to start teaching him a simple story and song every week. Great I can do that! That was my plan from the beginning! (Sorry for the tangent ramble, it has just been stressing me out a little).

Anyways..... I have really enjoyed getting to know some of the other foreign teachers at my school. Last Saturday we made dinner together! OMG it was delicious! We made chicken, broccoli, corn, and purple potatoes (yes they really were purple and they were YUMMY!). And we just hung out all night! It was great! So glad I get to work with these AWESOME ladies everyday! 

The only hiccough I have met this past week  (that has really stressed me out) is that my work visa was denied. :( Sad day. But my boss thinks there is another way to go about getting it. There is another TEFL course I could take here in China that is supposedly offered through the Education Cabinet of China. Supposedly with this TEFL course (mind you I already have my TEFL certification that I paid a lot of money for) they will look past the 2 year experience that are required for the work visa. My hesitations are that I have to miss a week's worth of pay to take this class and my boss is only paying half the tuition (1500RMB = $250). So technically I am paying for the class with the missed work wages and still losing money. The good thing is my agent is paying the other half of the class so it is suppose to look like I am getting the class for free. But the class is also like an hour away from my apartment so I would have to commute back and forth on the subway everyday for 7 days, at the most busiest times of the day (8am and 5pm). Of course all of this is coming from my own funds. The other option would be to stay at the hotel where the class is being offered but that would cost me 2100RMB ($325). 

I think I am worked up over this class for many reasons. 1) I asked God for the work visa to be denied if I was supposed to go home in December. Well the visa was denied but does that mean I shouldn't try for this other way just in case? Also the thought of leaving China in December kind of saddens me :(. I mean I miss everyone back home, but I am having a pretty good time in China despite the work visa stuff. 2) I already have the TEFL certification and the class I took was long and intense and to be honest it kind of pisses me off that China won't acknowledge it because I don't have 2 years experience. 3) This class is only a week so how intense is it going to be? Yeah I'm not looking forward to that. 4)It seems like I am out to lose quite a bit if this doesn't work out for me to get the work visa. 5) There is money coming out of my pocket for this class that I don't really want to take. 

I may be overthinking the class and everything, but it has caused me a lot of stress the past couple of days. So I am continuing to pray that God leads the way like he has the whole time I have been here. I know that I can trust God to take care of me and this situation. I just have to keep reminding myself that he is bigger than all this. Also I have to remember to cast all my worries and fears on him. I know his plan for me is great and if that plan includes me coming home in December or staying in China longer, I know it will be the best plan for me! Thanks for praying and being with me on this journey! :)

**one of these days I am going to have a blog post that only has positive things to say about what is going on! God has great plans!**

China.... it's getting better

So I started my new school on September 1st. And let me just say that day, in general, was not too great. I got to the school and thought everyone seemed nice (and they still are!). I observed my roommate for the day. Basically everything about the school went great. After lunch one of the guys at the school helped me move all my stuff from my apartment in Wangjing to my new apartment here in Huilongguan. So everything was good but there was still a part of me that wanted to go home. I couldn't put my finger on the exact reason, I was just feeling defeated. Even though I liked the school I just didn't want to be there.

After I was moved in and the work day was over I was headed back to Wangjing for my one to one tutoring. It's not to bad to take the subway there and they pick me up from the subway station. I am becoming a pro at taking the subway (it will be weird to come back to KY where there is no subway and I will have to drive). One-to-one tutoring went good. I really enjoy the boy and the family. I only wish I knew more Chinese so that I could communicate with them better, maybe someday!

On my way home it started to pour down rain :(. This sucked because I didn't have an umbrella. It was like we were riding under a waterfall, there was so much water coming from the sky. When I got to the Huilongguan subway station it was packed because everyone was waiting inside for the rain to let up. Great. I was apart of this crowd too because I had my computer with me and I didn't really want to get drenched. As time passed it didn't seem like the rain was going to let up anytime soon. So I decided to make a run for the bus. I just really wanted to get home and go to sleep. I made it to the bus stop and waited under the bridge (thankfully there was a bridge that you could take cover under). When the bus came it felt like the rain came down harder. There was a really nice Chinese lady that shared her umbrella with me as we waited for the bus driver to open the door. 

Once on the bus I had to figure out which stop to get off at. My roommate had sent me the name of the apartment complex but left out which bus stop I should get off at. :(. And I had only been there once so I didn't remember what the area looked like and it was dark. So I guessed. Well, my guess was 2 stops off. I get off and nothing look familiar. Thankfully, a really nice Chinese couple stopped and helped me. They searched on their phones for my apartment complex and even looked up the bus stop for me. So they told me to get back on the bus for 2 more stops and get off at Ma Lian Dian Cun. So I waited for the bus. There is no light at this bus stop so I don't know how the bus driver saw me but he did and he stopped. Well the attendant however did not and as I am stepping on the first step she closes the door on me. Yes that is right I had the bus doors closed on me! All I could say was "OWWW". I don't know the Chinese word for this but everyone on the bus is staring at me and then the attendant finally opens the doors and keeps saying "Duibuqi" which means I'm sorry. Now I am really ready to just get back to the apartment. 

The bus comes to MaLianDianCun and I get off. Now where do I go? I start going left and I feel like this is the wrong direction so I turn around and go right. Thankfully I see the entrance that we drove through when we moved my stuff. So I walk through the entrance. Now which way did we go? I should have been paying more attention when we moved my things. So here I am in the pouring rain trying to remember where my new apartment is. I remember we turned left and the apartment was on the right near a fence. So I am walking as fast as a can, thankfully the rain begins to let up. I see a row of apartments that looks familiar but there are two building. So I call my roommate to ask what the building number is, but he is busy and doesn't answer. So I call my boss at the school, he doesn't know so he says to call his assistant. I call hall his assistant and she doesn't know and she tells me to call my roommate. Well, now I am back to where I started. So I walk down the street looking at the doors. I come to the last door and there is something familiar about it. The buttons to call the apartments are blue! I remember that from earlier! So I try my key, IT WORKS!!! Thank the LORD! I am so glad to be in from the rain and know that my apartment is only 4 flights of stairs away. So I walk up the stairs to the apartment. 

I am finally home for the night! Now I am not unpacked but that is ok. I just needed to find some comfy clothes to wear and my bedding. As I am fixing my bed, my boss' assistant calls me. She asks if I found it. I told her yes I did. She said good, if you didn't I was just going to tell you to head north. LOL. Seriously head north. I don't even know where I am and she expected me to know which way north was. I literally laughed out loud.

So my first night in Huilongguan was definitely an experience. I definitely wanted to go home. I didn't know why I was still here. Everyone back home keeps saying they would have left already, so why was I still here? The only answer I could find was that I knew this is where God wanted me. My new question was for how long?

So the rest of the week was hard. The school was nice but there was still something in me that wanted to leave and just get on a plane and head home. I begin thinking of the best ways to get home and how I would be able to get home. I knew that my school is working on getting my work visa so I said that if I don't get my visa then I will just go home in December. I began praying that my work visa wouldn't go through. I was praying that whatever God had me doing here would be over by December so I could go home. I really wanted to come home, even though I felt like if I do go home in December then I had failed here. I want to follow where God leads me so is he going to lead me home in December or is my work visa going to come through and I stay longer? Both options scared me. 

Being scared was a new feeling for me. When I was getting ready to come to China everyone asked me if I was scared. I was never really scared, I was more excited and nervous about what the future held for me and super excited to travel to somewhere I had never been or thought I would be. And once I was here I was never really scared just nervous. But now, I was scared of leaving and scared of staying. This wasn't right. God is not a God of fear. This was the devil trying to get me to feel like a failure. During the week God sent people into my life to speak to me and show me that he is here with me. I know this is where God wants me and that he has great plans for me here. I am still not sure of the timetable for my stay in China, but that is in God's hands and I think he knows that if I knew the timetable I would focus on going home rathering than being here. 

This week has been a lot better. I started teaching on my own on Tuesday, because Monday was a holiday (the Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival). I had a really great day! My morning science class went great and the kids seemed to enjoy it! And my afternoon English class was great! I definitely had a better experience in one day than I did at SmartKids for the whole month! I didn't feel homesick at all this week! That's a major improvement. I enjoyed every day this week! And I got the school address so I could have letters and packages sent to me! That is super exciting. I can't wait to start getting mail from home!

I had to go get my health check done on Wednesday for my work visa. That was fun! Not! I already don't like going to the doctor and now I have to go to Chinese doctors. YAY! So the foreign hospital is an hour and a half away from Wangjing. We got to the hospital around 8:30am and the line was out the door. YAY more lines to stand in! So for the health check they check your eyesight, your height and weight, do a check x-ray, an EKG, draw blood, and do an ultrasound. Yes all of that to check for infectious diseases. I really didn't mind all of it except for the blood. I hate when they have to draw blood because they have a hard time finding a vein in my arm. Well the girl found one but my goodness it was a deep one and it hurt! So now I have a bruise on my arm and it put me in a foul mood for a little bit. And the whole thing cost me 652RMB. 

I think the health check was the only damper on my week. Everything else was great! And I even had some great news from my health check. I have lost 50+ lbs since I have been here in China. I haven't really been doing anything to lose weight but you do walk everywhere here and you sweat everyday. Some of my friends think I am starving myself because I don't eat a lot here, but you eat rice with everything and that fills you up! LOL. 

So things in China seem to be looking up. I know this is where I am supposed to be I just don't know for how long. I know God has great plans for me here and I can't wait to see what they are. I guess right now I am just going to enjoy what time I have here and wait for the work visa. I know that if I don't get it then I am supposed to go home in December and if i do get it then I will be in China for a little bit longer. :)

Thought I would share this video by Jon Jorgenson. About Who You Are. This one is for women. I just think it is great and it has been speaking to me the past couple of days. God has created us! And we are AWESOME!!!