Tutors and the T-shirt

Celebrating my tutor's 22nd birthday

Handsome Chip

 

Handsome Chip. . .and that's not the name of the post just because I think so.  These photos are from the evening Chip spent with his junior writing students (now seniors) while we were in Qufu.  University seniors in China spend most of their year studying for a major exam in order to do postgraduate study or looking for work. So many of them are not on campus much by this time in spring semester which made it difficult for Chip to reconnect with many of his students.  But some students were committed and traveled back from their hometowns (the ones that lived near enough) to come see their former teacher!  Once these photos got posted to 人人网 (China's Facebook), there were lots of "handsome Chip" comments on the photos.

  

 

Most of these students have post-college plans.  One bright student will do postgraduate study at Nankai in Tianjin (a famous school in China), another will teach English at a private school in her hometown, and Loity (the male student) is moving to Liberia to work as a translator for one of China's many projects in Africa. While there were many more students Chip would have loved to have seen, it was great to be able to connect with this group. 

Like We'd Never Left

Ever since the day we left Qufu, I have been dreaming of going back.  I wondered if I had idealized the place in my mind, but once we arrived and saw our students faces, I knew that I hadn't.  Qufu, the tranquil hometown of Confucius, really is as special as I remembered it to be.

Such joy on their faces (and on ours)

We went to the classrooms to surprise the students.

We sat and chatted about their year and impressed them with our minimal Chinese.

As we walked around campus, we kept running into friends.  This is a postgraduate student that attended the yoga class I attended last year.

Bernie, the French teacher, who is a believer and taught with us last year and is teaching in Qufu again this year.  Next year she will likely return to France.

Chip gave his bike to these guys when we moved.  We passed them on campus, they stopped the bike, and ran towards Chip and attack-hugged him.

Ordering some of our favorite Qufu street food

 
Eating with our Foreign Affairs Officer from last year.  She worked to persuade to come back to Qufu once we finish language study.
 

One thing we love about Qufu is the the serene village life is just outside of the campus gate.  It's the perfect place for a walk or a bike ride.  Now that we live in a big city, it was nice to retreat into the solitude of nature.

 

Last year I loved visiting my students in their dorm.  I even once spent the night one of the student rooms (click here), so it was good to go back to the dorm and just sit and chat.

Outside of the dormitory--lots of laundry drying

These girls had just bought matching skirts off of the internet.  They let me join in the fun and try on one of their roommate's skirts.

The room I slept in last year

Some of the brightest students I taught last year

Singing Karaoke

Some of my former students invited me out for a night of singing karaoke.  We sang both Chinese and English songs.  We had a blast!  Note:  While I was singing it up at karaoke, Chip was out with students he taught last year, but we don't have photos from his excursion. 

Adding the Jazzercise moves to Rhianna's "Shut Up and Drive"

Singing "My Heart Will Go On"--undeniably every Chinese person's favorite English song

The girl in the black and white stripes was my running buddy last year. For old times sake, she and I went running late one night while I was in Qufu.

One of my former students lives locally and her parents both teach at the university.  Her family is generous and loved overfeeding us last year.  And they did it again!  They took us to a countryside restaurant where they grow their own vegetables and raise their own animals.  Food is served in little huts outside.  They ordered far too much food and we sat and talked for a few hours.

The student and her mother (who speaks very fast Chinese, but we did out best to keep up)

Their were lots of chickens and rabbits, but the pigs were the cutest!

Big momma pig with 15 babies

At Confucius Square saying some goodbyes before we caught our train

 

 

Of course, we have many more stories from the weekend, more than can be shared here.  Sorry if the photos seem monotonous to you.  They are precious people to us.  We left part of our hearts in Qufu.

Going home with bags of Qufu snacks to share with our Changchun friends!

Returning to our China Hometown

We are headed back to Qufu this weekend to visit our students from last year.  Tonight we will take a night train to Beijing and then a speed train to Qufu on Friday morning.  We will return to Changchun on Monday morning.  We are SO excited to see our students once again.  Please be lifting up this weekend--for meaningful conversations and reunions.

Language Victory:  I had to go to the ticket office four different days to get tickets for all four legs of our journey (not because there was a problem, just because this is how it works in China).  In the past when I have gone to get tickets, I usually reach a point somewhere in the transaction where I just cannot understand the person behind the counter and then search for someone in line who speaks a little English or who can explain it using charades.  But not this time.  This time I got the tickets without any problem.  If the trains I wanted weren't available, I was able to talk through it with the seller and find another train.  Better still, there was a Middle Eastern woman and Venezuelan man in line in front of me and they couldn't understand the ticket seller, and I got to help them! They waited for me after I was done purchasing my tickets and said, "We have more questions.  Can you help us read the ticket?"  This was a simple feat thanks to Lesson 29 in our textbook about train travel.  It is so exciting to see progress!