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!!!

Moving Again.... and everything in between.....

I accepted the job in Huilongguan, which means I had to move again. Let me just say that I am done moving. If this job doesn't work out then I am heading back home to Kentucky. So on Friday I had to again pack up all my things so that I would be ready to move when the school could provide a driver to come and help me. (That was a positive, the school provided someone to come and help me get my stuff and take me to the new apartment that they provided). I was kind of sad to have to leave that apartment because it was cozy. I know I had only lived there for a week but I knew my way around and I liked my roommate and I had my own bathroom! That is very hard to find in China, your very own bathroom. My new school called me Friday afternoon and said that I would be moving on Monday. I was happy and sad with this news. I had already packed everything up so I was ready to move, but I was glad that I would get to stay in my apartment in Wangjing for one more weekend. I also didn't know what to expect of the school come Monday. I know I had visited and actually liked it, but it had been 2 weeks what if I didn't like it anymore?
 
So Friday night I had my home tutoring. It has been nice having something to do regularly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday each week. I know it sounds like a lot but I need to keep myself busy because too much time in my room with nothing to do just makes me even more homesick. The little boy's birthday was Saturday and the family invited me to the party. They said there was going to be 70 people there! That's more like a family reunion rather than a birthday party. LOL. But they were going to come pick me and up so how could I say no? So Friday night they asked me to teach him a song to sing the next day at his party. Teach him a song in one day? Ok so like Row Row Row Your Boat, right? No. The mom wanted a song like, Let It Go. I know I had been practicing that song with him on Wednesday but there was no way I could have him ready to sing it (like she wanted) by Saturday. It would have been nice to know that she wanted him to sing something in English at his party and I would have been working on something the past couple of weeks. But anyways, we practiced Let It Go and Row, Row, Row Your Boat (because maybe I could convince her that this would be a simpler song for him to do in front of everyone). When class was over we had accomplished the second verse of Let It Go, but it was nowhere near ready to be performed in front of an audience. But the good news was that he had mastered Row, Row, Row Your Boat. LOL. I tried to convince his mom that Let It Go wasn't ready. She said ok, but I don't think she understood me. 
 
So she took me home and dropped me off at the apartment. I told her that next week I start a new job in Huilongguan and it will be easier if she just picks me up at the subway station by her house. She said ok and then she would drop me off at my apartment in Wangjing. This began the odd conversation of trying to tell her that she has to drop me off at the subway because I have to move again. She looked at me and said, “What? Moving 3 times in 2 months.” Yes. :(. I don't plan on moving anymore. Then she proceeded to call one of her friends to try and get me a job in Wangjing. I tried to tell her that I was ok with this new job but it got lost in translation (another motto for living in China). So when we got to my apartment her friend that owns a school was ready to offer me a job, but I told her that it had to go through my agent (recruiter) because he was handling my jobs. Let me just say, "Thank God for my agent." because I probably would have been on a plane how last week (and I know some of you are probably think why does she have an agent, I wanted her home last month! LOL). So he talked to her and it worked out. I am still going to be teaching in Huilongguan. I don't think I could have handled another job change. 
 
Saturday morning, I was picked up at 10:30am to go to the birthday party. The father and his parents picked me up. It was a quiet car ride. I always feel bad because I don't talk very much because I can't speak Chinese and then they feel bad because they can't speak English. I am perfectly ok with them speaking Chinese but I know they want to include me in the conversation. Hopefully one day I will know how to communicate in Chinese. It took us an hour to get to the party because of the crazy traffic in Beijing. Also it was Saturday morning and I swear everyone and their mother are traveling. When we get to the party I am greet with a bunch of Ni Haos (Chinese for Hello). I just smile back and say Ni Hao. At least there is one person there that could speak English, the cousin of the boy I tutor. She is my age so we stayed together for the whole party. I felt kind of bad because she had to do a lot of translating for me. But she was able to practice her English with me, so I guess it all worked out. She even taught me a few new Chinese phrases! After the party the family took me home. I got home around 4pm. I definitely wasn't expecting to be at the party for so long. 
 
My roommate came back around 5 and we decided to go out to get some food and then some ice cream because we have been talking about Cold Stone Creamery since she got here. So we walked up the street and found a Canadian/Irish Hockey bar. So we look at the menu and decide to eat because we were hungry and didn't know if we would find anything else. Of course no one else is eating, only us. Everyone is drinking and watching the Rugby (yes Rugby) game. The food was not that good, I guess normal bar food. So we finished our meals and left to go to Cold Stone, which was our main purpose for going out anyways! LOL. On our way to get ice cream we saw a movie store. This store had every move that has come out and it only cost 15RMB. For those of you not familiar with Chinese currency, that is about $2.50. The store had the movie Divergent, which just came out on DVD in the states, and I just had to get it. So I spent the 15RMB praying that the movie was good quality and not some videotaped screening. It wasn't! It was actually great, China doesn't have copyright laws so they have a lot of pirated movies. I know where I will be going to get my movies from now on!
 
Then we headed to Cold Stone. Finally! We had seriously been talking about Cold Stone the whole week, saying that we would go but every time we got back to the apartment we were either full or didn't want to go back out in the smoggy, humid weather. The Cold Stone was just like back home in Kentucky, if only everyone who worked there only spoke Chinese. But you chose your ice cream and then they would mix things in for you. Now they do have different flavors here, like green tea ice cream and dumpling flavored ice cream. LOL just kidding, there is no dumpling flavored ice cream. They had the normal: sweet cream, chocolate, cheesecake, mint, etc. I played it safe and got the chocolate ice cream. My roommate got the green tea (she said she had it in Korea). Then they mixed in different toppings according to the signature creations. We did our best at trying to describe the other thing we wanted mixed in. Then they tossed the perfectly formed ball of ice cream in the air and caught it in the cup. I think they have been taking lessons from my brother because they did it pretty well. However, it will never be as good as back home because the ice cream is made by my brother and tossed in the air (I promise it makes the ice cream taste better). But it is almost like a performance. So if you are in Lexington head to Cold Stone and make sure you ask them to catch the ice cream in the cup, you know you want some! (I want some as I am writing this. LOL)
 
On Sunday I went to church. I love going to church, even if it is a farther distance now that I moved and will be even farther when I move again. I like that I have a place that feels like a family. I know a lot of people there and they know me. God has really provided a great place for me connect with other believers and be encouraged during my time in China! After church, my agent and I met my roommate at Carrefour (a local and foreign store in Beijing, probably my favorite place to shop for food and other basic necessities). She was buying a comforter and coffee pot and then we were going to head to IKEA. Although I really didn't want to go to IKEA on a Sunday because it is super busy. I swear people go to IKEA for fun on the weekends and for the 1RMB ice cream cone. We decided to go to Ladies market instead because our agent said we could get things there cheaper. Well the market did sell the things she wanted but none of the designs she liked. Also we were trying to bargain hunt and they were not interested in haggling. LOL.

After we left the market we all decided to go home. It was later than we expected to get home. Both of us were planning on getting some things done in the afternoon to prepare for the start of our jobs. But instead we got back to the apartment and decided to go out to the Korean restaurant down the street to get some dinner. I know we are in China and are getting Korean food for dinner. But it was delicious, I ordered the Kimchi fried rice and it was sooooo good. Yes all I ate for dinner was rice but it was delicious and it filled me up and I still had some left over. It’s always fun to order food and get the check in China because you have to say things in Chinese. Well the two of us don’t have a large Chinese vocabulary, so it was hard to get the waitress to bring us to-go containers. She was trying to order us an entirely new dish but give it to us to-go. Thankfully the nice Chinese family at the table next to us could speak a little English and tell our waitress what we wanted. It is so nice to meet friendly Chinese people. I don’t know what people are talking about when they say all Chinese people are rude. It just isn’t true!

Then on Monday I had to leave the apartment at 6:45 to catch the bus so that I could make it to the school in Huilongguan on time. At least the bus wasn’t really crowded but the subway was CRAZY! I am so glad the school provides an apartment because I really don’t want to ride that subway in the morning every day. However I do end up having to ride the subway every day to go back and forth to Wangjing for my home tutoring and church activities. But I like that I am filling my time, it makes it hard to be homesick.

My first day at the school was pretty nice. I followed my new roommate around, shadowing his classes. He is really nice and helpful. The school is actually pretty easy. The students have theme English, where they are introduced a new theme each week with flashcards and then they build on that theme throughout the week. They also have different special classes, such as cooking, science, drama, and arts & crafts. Either the teacher incorporates these special classes into the lessons or they have another teacher come. There is also a break for the teachers from 11-2 for lunch and nap time. I love having this break! It will definitely come in handy to prepare lessons or to take a quick nap between classes. LOL.

I should be getting a schedule of my classes either tomorrow or Friday. I was told that I am going to be teaching cooking and science classes in the morning (which is easy because I just do the same lesson over and over again with different classes) and then have an English class in the afternoon. I am actually really excited about this because I love cooking and I love doing science experiments and activities. And in the afternoon the English teaching is actually really simple. I have to present the vocabulary, play a game, sing songs, and have students use the words in a sentence. I know it sounds like a lot but it actually seems quite simple. At least I am hoping it is! J Next week is my first day teaching!!!

One of the other foreign teachers at the school is a Christian. She started talking to me yesterday and it was God’s timing because I was ready to pack up my bags and reschedule my plane ticket. We started talking about church and music. It was really comforting to know that another teacher is a Christian and that we can encourage each other and help each other. And I can see this becoming a great friendship. I know there is a reason God has me at this school. I don’t know how long I will be here in China but I know that God has a purpose for me. I can’t wait to see what he does in and through me. For I may not know how or why something happens but I trust that God is taking care of me!