Not Your Average Tutoring Session

 Some days my tutor and I study at my house.  Other days we study on-campus.  When she asked me where we would have class on Friday I said she could choose.  Her response, "新天地" which means New World, but in Changchun 新天地 is a big mall with a river flowing through it, kiddie rides, lots of shopping, and all sorts of restaurants.  Then she asked me in Chinese, "Can you ride a bus by yourself?"  I assured her that I could, so the next day she met me as I stepped off the bus near the mall.

She said she comes to 新天地 often to 遛 (stroll) or 逛街 (window shop).  But I think she mainly goes for the food.  After exploring all four floors, we entered a large food court area where, over the course of two hours, she ordered eight different snacks/dishes.  We ate Chinese custard, deep fried cubed and breaded sweet potato cake (tasted like an American carnival food),rice noodles, green tea ice cream, vegetable "meat" balls, a spicy leg of chicken, and sweet donut bread.  I was feeling ill from over-sampling food and she just kept going back for more--and she's not a chubby girl!

My tutor playing with her kid brother's toys

Then she invited me over to her house (which is not too far from the mall).  I met her mom and adorable two year 小弟弟, little brother.  We had a great afternoon together--different from the average tutoring session of book study.  My tutor has shared that she is anti-religion, so I was surprised to see a Buddhist shrine in her living room.  I am hoping for an opportunity to ask her more about it in the future.  This tutor loves to talk and it is so exciting to be in a place with my Chinese that we can talk pretty comfortably (on a basic level) every day for two hours.  Year two of language study is off to a good start!

Chinese Corner

I have been to many an English Corner in my two years in China.  An English Corner is an open activity for Chinese students, or even people in the community, to come together and practice English.  Chip and I have often been invited as speakers or simply helpers to encourage English study.  We usually get the students involved in some sort of discussions and provide drinks and snacks.  All of this seems normal to me.

Saturday night I went to my first Chinese Corner--a place where I could practice Chinese with Chinese students.  I expected it to be like an English Corner.  My mistake. It was very educational.

1.  The high-heeled hostess began her formal presentation with quick Chinese of which I only caught bits and pieces--probably how most Chinese students feel at English Corners.

2.  Then two girls came out and performed an Inner Mongolian dance.  These students were dressed up in costumes and had clearly practiced and prepared for this performance.  Following their dance, the hostess announced in Chinese, "Who's next?  Who wants to come up and do a dance or sing a song?"  Every table had a Chinese student leader.  The student at my table pressured me and the others at my table to get up and perform.  Silly me, I had forgotten to prepare a dance.  We all refused.

 

3.After only one singing performance and lots of failed pressuring, the host then requested people to come up and share an unforgettable story about life in China.  I know, I've got stories, but in that moment I could not think of anything to say in English, much less the confidence to share it in Chinese.  A little heads up would have been nice. 

4.  The next activity was origami--we folded paper into rabbit shoes.  Please don't ask me why.  It seemed like a strange activity to do with college students, but then maybe that's what Chinese students think of the silly activities we create at English Corners.

Me, my Japanese friend, two Chinese students, and my classmate Jess posing with our paper rabbit shoes.

5.  The last two games were musical chairs and the human knot game.  I jumped right up and enthusiastically pranced around the chairs--the first activity we had done all night that I had no fear joining.  After a few rounds of musical chairs we were sweaty (crowded room, no AC). We, foreign students from all around the world, then pushed to the center of the room, grabbed two random hands until we were all well-knotted, and worked to untangle our sweaty selves.

 We ended the night laughing and I was glad I had gone for the sake of practicing Chinese, meeting other foreign students, and the gained insight into how differently Westerners and Chinese view these sorts of activities.  I now realize that all that time I spent trying to get students to discuss at English Corners, in reality, they were probably thinking, "I wish that American girl would stop asking so many questions and just let me perform a dance."

Outdoor English Corner

Waiting for the students to arrive

Last night was Canaan Land Cafe's first English Corner, something the cafe/English training school plans to do every Saturday evening.  I was honored to be asked to speak with the high school age group and my friend, Jess, worked with the younger kids.  

The fearless leaders at the Cafe (and one cute boy who joined the photo)

There was a great turnout and lots of curiosity from people on the street.

Jess and I intently trying to learn names and get to know the students.

The boy in the yellow shirt followed me there and kept hitting on me--not the highlight of the night.

Playing games as a group

They followed the rules well and we were both very impressed by everyone's English level.

In my group, we discussed American high schools and compared them with Chinese high schools.  One of the more significant differences?  American high schoolers are done by 3pm while Chinese high schoolers are at school until 8pm every night.  Other differences included Chinese students wear uniforms, sometimes live in dorms at their high school, only attend high school if they can test into it, they cannot date (except secretly), and they could not even imagine having their own car and driving to school.  It was a good discussion--educational for both me and them.

 

At the end of the night, most young people said they planned to come back next week.  May Canaan Land Cafe be a place where students feel safe to come and study, learn, and find Truth.

Couples T-shirts

 

It's common in China for young dating couples and even married couples to wear matching clothes.  T-shirts are most common, but we have seen matching sweaters, jackets, pants, tennis shoes, and even all of the above worn at once. Chip and I decided to embrace the culture and get couples t-shirts.  Cartoon characters wearing Mao suits--very Chinese cool.

Chip's shirts says 老婆最大which means his wife is the leader.

My shirts says 老公最二which means her husband is a fool.

It sounds mean, but in Chinese it's funny.  I worried that it might be a little offensive, but our Chinese church friends assured us that it is genuinely funny. And in the eyes of the Chinese, the fact that we are wearing matching shirts is a sign of true love.

Just a Good Day

Miao Yu, Tutor Friend, and Me

 This morning as I left my apartment to catch the bus to fellowship, I was not looking forward to going.  Many of my closest believing Chinese friends had told me they would not be there today.  One has gone to the states to study,  one is getting married in a couple weeks and is too busy, and others were attending a different fellowship this week.  I walked to the bus stop closest to our home and ran into Miao Yu, a staff member and friend from our university.  She had stayed at a friend's apartment the night before, so she was at the bus stop nearest my home and headed to the same fellowship as me.  We sat and talked on the bus.  Tomorrow she will go to Beijing and then fly to Canada to teach at a university in Saskatchewan for a year.  After six and a half years serving at our university, she is doing something new.  We sat down in the sanctuary and she said, "I have attended this fellowship for eight years.  This is my last Sunday here for a long time."  I am so glad I got to share it with her.

After the service, we ran into one of the former tutors who was in town visiting for the weekend.  She graduated this past spring and next week will start her first job as a high school teacher in the province north of us.  And then I ran into my friend, Maria, who I thought would be at a different service this week.  What a blessing! 

Maria and Miao Yu

On the bus home, I met a believer, a friend of Miao Yu's, who is the year of the pig, 1983, just like me (which is sort of a bond in China).  She is married to a Korean believer, but he leaves in Korea, while she lives with a roommate here in Changchun and teaches foreigners Chinese.  She said she loves to have people over for dinner.  We exchanged phone numbers.  Looks like a made a new fellowship friend!

In the afternoon I went with a friend to a belly dancing class.  I have not been to an exercise class in China since we lived in Qufu a year ago.  While my belly dancing skills are not great, my Chinese has improved immensely since my aerobics days in Qufu.  I understood most of what the teacher was explaining (not that that means my body could do it).

Then as I walked home from the gym, a friendly Chinese man handed me a business card and said "水" (water) and pointed to big jugs of water (the water cooler kind).  After finally mastering how to order water last fall (see blog), the service stopped delivery in the spring.  We called other companies, but because of a new law about small vehicles on major roads, no one was willing to cross the major road in front of our apartment complex.  So since then we have been drinking boiled water from the tap.  We let it cool and then refrigerate so we have drinkable cold water during these hot summer days.  While it's a bit of a hassle, we have adjusted to it.  But when this guy pointed to those big jugs, I quickly asked if he would deliver to our complex.  He said no problem.  He offered to go that very moment, but I told him I first needed to buy fruit.  A nearby seller heard me and ushered me to her stand.  She asked if I was a believer.  I said, "你怎么知道?" (How did you know?) She said she believes, too.  

After buying the fruit, I threw it in the basket on the front of the water guy's motorbike and hopped on the back (he seemed like a reliable stranger) and gave him directions as we rode from his shop, across the busy road, and to my complex.  He charged a little extra for having to carry the jug up six flights of steps, but I don't blame him.

Saw friends and worshiped at fellowship, realized my Chinese is improving while toning my belly muscles, after months of boiling water, finally having water delivery again, and when I walked in the door with the water delivery guy, Chip was making dinner.  What can I say?  Just a good day.

Sewing Skirts

 

Chip got me a cute little sewing machine off of China's ebay for my birthday last April.  A classmate gave me some birthday money for fabric.  And finally this summer, I made a skirt.  Thanks to a pattern I found on Pinterest, it was easy to make and is comfortable to wear. I showed my friend, Yu Yue, the skirt last Sunday at fellowship and she wanted to make one, too.

She brought over some fabric that she had lying around her house.  She wanted to make a skirt for her mother. 


 

The fabric was stretchy and the perfect amount, so with my former skirt pattern, we made the skirt in under two hours.

So here's the final products!  Yu Yue's is a bit big because it's her mother's size, but we wanted to take a photo wearing them.  She e-mailed later to say that her mom loved the skirt and that she wants to make another one for herself.  If you want to make one, too, check my Pinterest "Sew and Sew" board for the Figgy's Flutter Circle Skirt, or e-mail me and I can send you the pattern.

By the way, do you recognize that shirt Yu Yue is wearing? 

ShenYang 沈阳

From Dalian, we took a train to ShenYang, the largest city in the northeast of China (followed in 2nd by Harbin, and then our home city of Changchun, the 3rd largest city in China's northeast).

ShenYang's Palace

Beijing's palace is the biggest and most famous home to China's great emperors, but ShenYang was the birthplace of the Qing dynasty.  Built between1625 and 1636, the ShenYang palace was home to Manchurian emperors for a short period before they moved back to Beijing to rule more centrally in the country.

Below is a collection of photos from our visit to the ShenYang Palace:

  

We also toured 北陵公园, the northern tombs park, which is the mausoleum of the second Qing emperor, Huang Taji, and his empress. More photos below:

Their tombs are supposedly under this mound of dirt

While we were in Shenyang, we also met up with one of Chip's tutors from this past year.  Her hometown is Shenyang so she invited us to dinner with her parents.  She said it was their first time to eat dinner with foreigners so they were very nervous.  She feared they would not know what to say so she chose a noisy restaurant so there would not be awkward silence.  In my opinion, noisy restaurants hinder ease of conversation in a second language, but I can be pretty chatty (even in Chinese) and me and her mom kept up a conversation most of the night.