舞会

舞会 is Wu Hui which means dance party.
跳舞 is Tiao Wu meaning dance.
聚会 is Ju Hui meaning party.
Take the Wu from dance and the Hui from party, and you've got a dance party (Wu Hui)!

We wanted to do something fun with our tutors and decided that doing some goofy group dances would loosen everybody up and help people get to know each other better.

We did the chicken dance, hokey pokey, electric slide, the cha-cha shuffle, Macarena, hoedown throwdown, and even a little Chinese dancing. The dances were simple enough that our tutors could follow along with minimal translation.




Gabe and Chip with their tutors


Taking a dance break with mine and Chip's tutor. My tutor is pregnant, so she was more into watching the dances than participating.


This year I am blessed to serve with these great people (minus the cute baby) on an activity planning committee. We organized the decorations (dancing cartoon animals which were dearly loved by our tutors), food, dances, and invitations. Our first event was a hit!


Our Chinese is definitely still in progress. Chip told me earlier this week that his tutor would not be able to come to the dance party. (Note: She speaks very little English.) But then she showed up. I was so surprised to see her and told her that in Chinese. Confused, she said she told Wang Zi (Chip) that she was coming. We smiled and laughed at Chip's expense knowing that his Chinese listening and comprehension are not so good.
Oh well, just one of the many misunderstandings we experience every day. :)

On the Weekends

On the weekends, we love exploring this new big city & spending time with friends.

Friday night was my first hot pot since last spring when I puked all night after eating it. Honestly, it still isn't my favorite meal, but we were with a big group of classmates so it was a good time.

The restaurant was quite nice with aesthetic presentation of all the dishes. Humorously, this is a fancy plate of raman with the seasoning packet served in the artsy blue bowl.

Chip was excited to discover donuts in Changchun.
(We convinced the clerk to hop in the photo.)


There's even a bowling alley in a hotel near our apartment.


One weekend, we surprised our friend, Amanda, with a party and cake for her birthday.



One of the great things about Changchun is that there are 70+ people from our organization in the city (including multiple teaching teams, the language school, and families), so we really are a large community. Our "city-team" has gotten together twice so far this semester.

The first get-together was at NanHu (South Lake) park where we invited Chinese friends and played games and picnicked together.

Chip's team losing tog-o-war. Note: My team won!


Our second outing was yesterday--we had a service at Jing Yue Tan where we hiked up a hill, picnicked, and worshiped together in His beautiful creation.

Me and my friend, Erica, getting a high and windy view of the city.
Changchun is no small place!

The funniest (and maybe most frustrating) part of this outing was how Chinese people would see us & then come do photo shoots.
Can you see the people taking photos in the back of the below shot?


It's so nice to study hard all week long and then to have fun people to fellowship with on the weekends. After being on a team of four last year, we are not taking community for granted!

Water

You can't live long without water.

In China, you can't drink the tap water. You can boil it, then drink, and we do that for hot drinks, but it is nice to have some drinking water on hand.

In Qufu, about all we had to do to order water was call and say, "I'm a foreign teacher" in Chinese, and the guy knew how much water to bring and where to bring it. We would leave the money and empty jugs outside our door, and we would open the door later to find full jugs. It was really simple.

When we moved into our apartment in Changchun we had a little water, but after a few days here, we needed to order more. I got the phone number and some language tips from a teacher, and made the call. It was a disaster. They asked me all sorts of questions which I didn't understand, they wanted to come at a time that we wouldn't be home (which, as it turns out, you have to be home when they bring your water here in Changchun), and all I could really say in Chinese was, "I don't understand. I'm sorry." I hung up and cried.

Then a Chinese friend came to help us with the call. She apologized to the water service and said next time I would be able to do it on my own (high expectations, in my opinion). She said the water would arrive after noon the next day.

Chip and I hurried back from class the next day to be home when the water arrived. Five hours later, it came. (Delaying, of course, any other plans we had for our day).

Today I needed to order water again. I've been dreading it. My tutor helped me with the phrase, "Can you please come between 3:30 and 5:30pm?" The water lady said yes. It was simple. And the water came according to plan. Language success!

Other language successes:

• Talking to neighbor kids in our apartment complex
• A half hour (broken) conversation in Chinese with my tutor about our weekends
• Buying postcards (Well, semi-success. They have cartoons on them and Korean writing, but they are postcards).
  

Language failures/comedies:

• Chip told his tutor "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy birthday"
• Neighbor telling me about her cat [mao] and me thinking the whole time that she was talking about the former chairman of China [mao zedong].
  

A look around campus

As we walk to class in the morning, Chip likes to greet the students we pass with "zao sheng hao" (good morning). Most look surprised or ignore assuming he's not talking to them. It's become a fun game, though. Today three people returned the greeting. Next week he'll try to beat his record!


Our campus, and really this entire city, is full of beautiful flowers. I am sure they will disappear when the weather gets cold, so I'm appreciating them while they last.


Above is our academic building. We have class on the 4th and 12th floors. The freshmen are currently doing military training so we hear their marching counts throughout the day.


This is our amazing teacher pleased with the flowers and chocolate our class gave to her for Teacher's Day. She is so patient and always smiling. But we're still nervous to speak Chinese.

Table for two? Actually, this was lunch with our classmates but we were the first to arrive.


It's really a nice campus.
We'll show you more photos in a few months when it's all covered in snow.

Chinese 101

Welcome to Northeast Normal University in Changchun, Jilin!

We are one week into Chinese language study. This week was all about perfecting the Chinese sounds--putting our tongues and lips in the correct positions and making sounds that feel a bit uncomfortable to us native English speakers. We spent our mornings practicing in mass with our 14 classmates with Chinese speakers beside us correcting our form and pronunciation.

We have a break for lunch with classmates in the school cafeteria. We have ordered different dishes each day from Muslim noodles to Korean rice bowls. Most dishes have been good, but they do cost a bit more than what we were used to in little Qufu.

In the afternoon, we have two hours of one-on-one practice with Chinese tutors.

I know a little Chinese, and Chip knows less than me. The tutor pictured below helped us last week in a practice session, so she experienced Chip's low level firsthand. This Monday when tutors were assigned, she was assigned to Chip. That night she went home and cried. She was nervous because she knew he spoke little Chinese and she speaks little English. After one week of tutoring Chip, she is feeling more confident. Yesterday she told me Wang Zi (Chip) is a very good student.

Check out this page from our textbook. At the bottom you can see the pinyin (alphabetical spelling of Chinese characters) which was my former level, but this week I read the top section. I read characters! As we begin to recognize characters, the world around us is coming alive & it is pretty dang exciting.