Hello Everyone,
The past two weeks have been a myriad of twists and turns. Trains, planes and insane taxi drivers; full of grilled duck neck, red bean ice cream and a grilled tarantula that caused Katy to say "I wish you had another guy here so you would eat it!"
For those of you who have seen our last couple of photo gallaries you may have noticed a pleathora of crying children at the end of one. Well that one was definatly a paradigm shifter for me. I have never really been a fan of short term trips. I often associate them with wasted resources, security disasters and overall migrane producing infantile adventure. Well, we went to this little river town called Badong in the Three Gorges with a group that is helping with AIDS education and they had brought a group of people from Canada who loves China to help with an English camp. After my pumpkin expierience a few days earlier I was keenly aware that these kids had never seen a foriegner before...and neither had most of their teachers. The group that came taught well, trained the teachers and loved on them all. There wasn't a dry eye under 35 years old from that town when we left and we still recieve forlorn emails saying "Won't you ever come back...please" It was amazing and the effects were so great I can't wait to tell you about them in person!
So we came here to Xian a few days ago to look into a teaching position athe teachers college. Our first meeting was pretty dissapointing because the vice-principal lady that was supposed to meet us.....forgot. It was a downer for a while. But Katy and I went p>r> walking around campus last night and it was a redeeming time for both of us. The Terra Cotta Warriors are well worth seeing if you are ever in these neck of the woods, definatly one of my top ten ever. Perhaps what was most eye opening was the terrible fear of death that the man who made them had along with the futility of the whole project itself.
Emporer Qin (pronounced like the English "chin") was the first to unite China, its language and even it's Great Wall. He was terrified of death though and sent thousands of young men and women into the world searching for the "Islands of the Immortals" where the fountain of youth was...they didn't find it...and he died. In the last thirty years of his life he had several hundred thousand people build his tomb along with the Terra Cotta warriors. Aparantly, like the Taj Majal, he had all the workers executed (They say 700,000!) so they wouldn't tell the world where the tomb was. Anyway, 4 years....just 4 years!!! after the project was finished, a peasent uprising led by one of his generals tore the whole project down and destroyed everyone of the warriors. What a waste. The ultimate example of "You can't take it with you."
On another note, Katy and I are still thinking about whether to come here in January for 2:1/2 years or to go straight to Wheaton to finish Grad school. Please continue to lift us up as we have had difficult and emotional week (though very healthy spiriutally) as we have had to admit our wants and desires and let them go. There is so much wisdom in both of the decisions as well as infinate variables on both sides that it is no longer worth trying to "figure them all out" we want to be able to just listen, hear and obey. For me, I have felt more than once this week daddy saying: "Hey, who is dad here?" :-)
We are both glad that He is...
Looking forward to telling you more when we have time face to face,
Jonathan and Katy
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Twists and Turns of Inter-Continental Communication
Hello All,
I have tried to update our webpage for the past week or so but I haven't been able to access my site. But..... I just found about a work-around so that I can update this one! We are heading out into town now but I will post tonight. I don't know how to change the link on our website at the moment however. Hope all is well!
Jonathan
I have tried to update our webpage for the past week or so but I haven't been able to access my site. But..... I just found about a work-around so that I can update this one! We are heading out into town now but I will post tonight. I don't know how to change the link on our website at the moment however. Hope all is well!
Jonathan
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Busy, Busy, Busy
Hi Everyone,
Things are going well here at Hangzhou Foreign Languages School...better than I think both of us expected. The school is even more beautiful than we expected and the staff is really encouraging. I will post some pictures tomorrow after the wedding so you all can see what we have been up to.
We have been teaching 6 classes a day. Three classes with two different sets of students with class sizes of 26. Most of the students can read some English but the majority have very little listening or speaking ability. That is where we come in. Many doors have been opened in the last few days. We spread the word to a few people that we were going to do a mock wedding for a couple of classes to come watch. It was going to be small with 50 or so students. Word spread and the school gave us the 350 person auditorium for two "performances" tomorrow morning and afternoon with a packed house in each along with accompanying video for the rest of the 1200 students to watch. Yikes!!! Nothing like planning two weddings in two days with a "cast" of 50 sixth graders! Please think of us!!!
We have also been asked to fill some other roles as Katy and I were part of the small team to plan the Christmas party, and I have been asked to co-host the camp's closing ceremonies. It has really turned out to be a good time to get a feel for China (albeit the wealthy portion, though we did get to meet some teachers from the villages and spend the day with them) by getting a few needed phrases down as well as spending some quality time with our dear friend Kelly.
We will be here the next week or so and then on to Wuhan for another week or so. The days all run together but it really is a full time. Yesterday we took all the students to Hangzhou's famous Xi Hue or West Lake, it was totally gorgeous, imagine Central Park with awesome temples and pagodas everywhere, peacocks prancing by and about 2 million people!!! The best part was that as we were walking in this downtown park with our 2 million friends A WILD BOAR CAME FLYING OUT OF THE BUSHES, SCARED THE BATS OUT OF THE STUDENTS (okay, I didn't like it too much either) AND RAN BACK INTO THE BUSHES!
So tomorrow I get to tell 800 people what true love is. Please think about me in this.
I appreciate it and we are grateful for all of you. You are a part of this just as much as we are. We do not doubt for a moment that these are coincidences unwrought by good thoughts.
Jonathan (For Katy)
Things are going well here at Hangzhou Foreign Languages School...better than I think both of us expected. The school is even more beautiful than we expected and the staff is really encouraging. I will post some pictures tomorrow after the wedding so you all can see what we have been up to.
We have been teaching 6 classes a day. Three classes with two different sets of students with class sizes of 26. Most of the students can read some English but the majority have very little listening or speaking ability. That is where we come in. Many doors have been opened in the last few days. We spread the word to a few people that we were going to do a mock wedding for a couple of classes to come watch. It was going to be small with 50 or so students. Word spread and the school gave us the 350 person auditorium for two "performances" tomorrow morning and afternoon with a packed house in each along with accompanying video for the rest of the 1200 students to watch. Yikes!!! Nothing like planning two weddings in two days with a "cast" of 50 sixth graders! Please think of us!!!
We have also been asked to fill some other roles as Katy and I were part of the small team to plan the Christmas party, and I have been asked to co-host the camp's closing ceremonies. It has really turned out to be a good time to get a feel for China (albeit the wealthy portion, though we did get to meet some teachers from the villages and spend the day with them) by getting a few needed phrases down as well as spending some quality time with our dear friend Kelly.
We will be here the next week or so and then on to Wuhan for another week or so. The days all run together but it really is a full time. Yesterday we took all the students to Hangzhou's famous Xi Hue or West Lake, it was totally gorgeous, imagine Central Park with awesome temples and pagodas everywhere, peacocks prancing by and about 2 million people!!! The best part was that as we were walking in this downtown park with our 2 million friends A WILD BOAR CAME FLYING OUT OF THE BUSHES, SCARED THE BATS OUT OF THE STUDENTS (okay, I didn't like it too much either) AND RAN BACK INTO THE BUSHES!
So tomorrow I get to tell 800 people what true love is. Please think about me in this.
I appreciate it and we are grateful for all of you. You are a part of this just as much as we are. We do not doubt for a moment that these are coincidences unwrought by good thoughts.
Jonathan (For Katy)
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Interesting Tidbits from "Middle Land" (China)
Hello All,
We have been here in Hangzhou for 5 or 6 days at the moment (it's one of the two, but the days are really running together.) Teaching is going well at the language school. Our first day here was full of interesting tidbits of Chinese culture and since we have arrived in country I have been compiling a mental list of need to know information that I wanted to share. So.... here they are in no particular order. Some are just observations, but if some of them sound funny.....they are.
1) The day we arrived at camp the head counselar told us that we should watch out for severe behavior disorders. He said the reason is that 95 percent of the kids are spoiled only children. That was an interesting underconsidered consequence of that infamous policy.....bratty kids!
2) The banner welcoming us to the Foriegn Language school was a banner welcoming us to the camp. It read "Welcome capers to English School!" (Not my typo)
3) The term "communism" means different things to people of different socio-economic classes.
4) Wu Mart is the coolest store in the world! They have turtles all bagged up and ready to go at the meat counter. The best thing is, is that they are still quite alive and I only noticed it when I saw a bag scamper accross the counter to freedom. (Unfortunatly "freedom" was a 3 1/2 foot fall to the floor.)
5) Squatty potties are cool! According to the Chinese "western toilets" are gross. After all, who wants to sit on the same seat as everyone else?
6) Along those same lines. They wash our clothes here but they won't wash our socks and underwear. As a matter of fact, the majority of Chinese people who have washing machines don't either. Apparantly "they make the other clothes dirty in the machine." I am dead serious.
7) MSG is just a fancy transliterated acronym for "Causation for extreme colon discomobulation."
8) All 20 minute taxi rides should cost between 2 and 3 dollars US.
9) Don't ask what kind of meat it is. Just make sure it is hot.
10) Quilted Northern is my one true love. Never shall I leave her. Never shall I forsake her. She is my greatest comfort and my most desired companion. Oh how I love her!!!
11) Don't drink ice water, even when it is 90 degrees. You should get a fancy insulated Nalgene bottle and drink hot water. It "makes your tummy warm" and anyway "cold water is bad for your stomach."
12) "Drinking a beverage with a meal is bad for your digestion......."
13) A Chinese government official has the most difficult job in the world. Aside from clear differences of opinion, they still have a monumental juggling act going on. Twice the population of the US lives on a few dollars a day and the other similar number is screaming out of the Third world and into the First. The scale of everything is unbelievable. It makes the "super-cities" of Europe look rather pale (no pun to London). New York is a close proximity...just imagine that every other building was currently under construction.
These are just the ones that I can remember at the moment, but I will be sure to keep you duely informed. All fun aside, teaching is going really well and it is really digressing (at leaderships insistance) to an English themed Summer Camp. The kids get so lambasted by school work during the year that it is good for them to have a break (even though they are still in 4 hours of lecture a day).
China is so competative due to the number of people entering University and the work force every year that I have had to rethink my wrong perspective of the parents here that make there kids study so much that when you ask they what they do for fun they reply "study and homework." The parents really don't have any other choice. If their kids don't pass the entrance exam (and do quite well on it) for university, they won't get in. Period. There just isn't any room. Perhaps this has been the most eye opening realization thus far....though the MSG has caused me to open my eyes a time or two!
Hope all is well,
Jonathan (For Katy)
We have been here in Hangzhou for 5 or 6 days at the moment (it's one of the two, but the days are really running together.) Teaching is going well at the language school. Our first day here was full of interesting tidbits of Chinese culture and since we have arrived in country I have been compiling a mental list of need to know information that I wanted to share. So.... here they are in no particular order. Some are just observations, but if some of them sound funny.....they are.
1) The day we arrived at camp the head counselar told us that we should watch out for severe behavior disorders. He said the reason is that 95 percent of the kids are spoiled only children. That was an interesting underconsidered consequence of that infamous policy.....bratty kids!
2) The banner welcoming us to the Foriegn Language school was a banner welcoming us to the camp. It read "Welcome capers to English School!" (Not my typo)
3) The term "communism" means different things to people of different socio-economic classes.
4) Wu Mart is the coolest store in the world! They have turtles all bagged up and ready to go at the meat counter. The best thing is, is that they are still quite alive and I only noticed it when I saw a bag scamper accross the counter to freedom. (Unfortunatly "freedom" was a 3 1/2 foot fall to the floor.)
5) Squatty potties are cool! According to the Chinese "western toilets" are gross. After all, who wants to sit on the same seat as everyone else?
6) Along those same lines. They wash our clothes here but they won't wash our socks and underwear. As a matter of fact, the majority of Chinese people who have washing machines don't either. Apparantly "they make the other clothes dirty in the machine." I am dead serious.
7) MSG is just a fancy transliterated acronym for "Causation for extreme colon discomobulation."
8) All 20 minute taxi rides should cost between 2 and 3 dollars US.
9) Don't ask what kind of meat it is. Just make sure it is hot.
10) Quilted Northern is my one true love. Never shall I leave her. Never shall I forsake her. She is my greatest comfort and my most desired companion. Oh how I love her!!!
11) Don't drink ice water, even when it is 90 degrees. You should get a fancy insulated Nalgene bottle and drink hot water. It "makes your tummy warm" and anyway "cold water is bad for your stomach."
12) "Drinking a beverage with a meal is bad for your digestion......."
13) A Chinese government official has the most difficult job in the world. Aside from clear differences of opinion, they still have a monumental juggling act going on. Twice the population of the US lives on a few dollars a day and the other similar number is screaming out of the Third world and into the First. The scale of everything is unbelievable. It makes the "super-cities" of Europe look rather pale (no pun to London). New York is a close proximity...just imagine that every other building was currently under construction.
These are just the ones that I can remember at the moment, but I will be sure to keep you duely informed. All fun aside, teaching is going really well and it is really digressing (at leaderships insistance) to an English themed Summer Camp. The kids get so lambasted by school work during the year that it is good for them to have a break (even though they are still in 4 hours of lecture a day).
China is so competative due to the number of people entering University and the work force every year that I have had to rethink my wrong perspective of the parents here that make there kids study so much that when you ask they what they do for fun they reply "study and homework." The parents really don't have any other choice. If their kids don't pass the entrance exam (and do quite well on it) for university, they won't get in. Period. There just isn't any room. Perhaps this has been the most eye opening realization thus far....though the MSG has caused me to open my eyes a time or two!
Hope all is well,
Jonathan (For Katy)
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Let the Caged Bird Sing
We have walked and walked the past few days. Blown away at every turn with both the unparalleled opulence of the palaces here in Beijing as well as the incredible amount of construction going on in this enormous city as they get ready for "Beijing 2008." We have been lucky to meet a friend here who is teaching English and Business at a local university and we have befriended a few of the students.
It is downright amazing the platform a white-faced person who is willing to teach English has with his/her students immediately. Many social workers around the world would give their thumb for this... We have been lucky to have a few of the students take us around the past two days. Yesterday we went to the most ornate and GIGANTIC temple complex I have ever seen called the Summer Palace had an amazing "Hot Pot" dinner (where the 7 of us ate our fill in a private room for a whopping 14 dollars!) Our conversations with the students were really good. It has been impressed upon me that whatever the beliefs or leadership persuasions here, there are 1.3 billion dearly loved people here.
The students spent 3 hours yesterday presenting us with every Chinese taboo, superstition, cultural dynamic and business practices that they could think about it. I would have given someone 500 bucks for their presentations, but they were totally excited to present them to us. Today we went to the Great Wall and Bei Hai "park" (another enormous palace complex Bei Hai = Northern Sea). Again the students were awesome and saved us a fortune by showing us how to get into places cheaper and ride public transportation as well as good places to eat for a buck!
A brief aside....As we were looking at the menus I notices that the translation of a dish basically said that the meat had been boiled in the urine of a small cow. I laughed quite easily at this. The girls with us said that the restaurant's "ching-lish" was poor!
As I said before, the students are really open about their views when they are away from everyone else. Without going into details, it was clear that the desire for liberty is universal. This was made abundantly clear when the Way was referred to positively by a seeker because it "doesn't seem to be all about rules." a / m / e / n
As for the catchy title: I went for a walk this evening to talk to dad and think about the people here. I ended up on something slightly resembling a street. It was very dark, very narrow and very long. People were passing by on bikes and the occasional car, and there were little shops still open on one side of the street. As I was walking I began to get a bit nervous and question the wisdom of my choice of location for my walk. I came upon a non-descript shop brightly lit with florescent bulbs and the most beautiful Chinese young woman I have seen yet sitting against the door frame. She smiled at me and waved and I politely waved back. As I walked on a few more steps she smoothly extended her arm and beaconed me forward. Now, I don't know for sure what she wanted but whatever it was it most likely wasn't anything good.
I quickened my pace and the place just seemed darker. The only sound was the clack clack of sandaled feet as they walked by and the silent stare of a very confused old man standing on the side of the street exposing himself for all the world to see. I couldn't help but see the brokenness of the situation and think that tonight this poor young woman would probably be abused and began to hope that one day a group of friends would meet on this street. As I walked on a few more blocks in the darkness that was more than what is not seen with the eye; I heard another young woman singing her heart out in a melody that my soul remembers from somewhere deep even if the words were unknown to my ears. I looked and she was silhouetted against a dark building by the open door behind her. The juxtaposition of the two young ladies could not be more clear. The first was bound by a darkness that is so deluded that it's presence is likely only occasionally felt...if at all.
The second woman, silhouetted as she was, singing a melody with uncharacteristic abandon...it literally screamed of freedom. Not the political connotation that is so often associated with this word, but with the soul's longing to be free from the bondage that holds it down. This too is universal for those who are alone, even to those who cannot put words, let alone the remedy, to their situation. Her song wafted through the street like a long caged bird finally liberated from silent darkness that once held her. I dwelt on this as I walked and then I noticed something interesting....the next woman who came by me on a bike was singing. The next man I came across at an open shop was singing, and the next one was humming a tune I almost recognized. The unseen darkness lifted and the thought of this being an "un-wise" choice for a walking location was dispelled as well as the fear that had silently slipped up the back of my spine. I was sure that I had seen what I was supposed to see and the message was beautifully driven home. There is only one light in the darkness, and how will they know unless......
I am grateful for the opportunity to be here this Summer with the one I love and so many at home thinking of us this Summer. We are off to Hangzhou tomorrow and I will be able to access the internet more often to update things as we go, thus avoiding massive posts like this. :-)
Feel free to post responses if you managed to read it all!
Love,
Jonathan (for Katy)
It is downright amazing the platform a white-faced person who is willing to teach English has with his/her students immediately. Many social workers around the world would give their thumb for this... We have been lucky to have a few of the students take us around the past two days. Yesterday we went to the most ornate and GIGANTIC temple complex I have ever seen called the Summer Palace had an amazing "Hot Pot" dinner (where the 7 of us ate our fill in a private room for a whopping 14 dollars!) Our conversations with the students were really good. It has been impressed upon me that whatever the beliefs or leadership persuasions here, there are 1.3 billion dearly loved people here.
The students spent 3 hours yesterday presenting us with every Chinese taboo, superstition, cultural dynamic and business practices that they could think about it. I would have given someone 500 bucks for their presentations, but they were totally excited to present them to us. Today we went to the Great Wall and Bei Hai "park" (another enormous palace complex Bei Hai = Northern Sea). Again the students were awesome and saved us a fortune by showing us how to get into places cheaper and ride public transportation as well as good places to eat for a buck!
A brief aside....As we were looking at the menus I notices that the translation of a dish basically said that the meat had been boiled in the urine of a small cow. I laughed quite easily at this. The girls with us said that the restaurant's "ching-lish" was poor!
As I said before, the students are really open about their views when they are away from everyone else. Without going into details, it was clear that the desire for liberty is universal. This was made abundantly clear when the Way was referred to positively by a seeker because it "doesn't seem to be all about rules." a / m / e / n
As for the catchy title: I went for a walk this evening to talk to dad and think about the people here. I ended up on something slightly resembling a street. It was very dark, very narrow and very long. People were passing by on bikes and the occasional car, and there were little shops still open on one side of the street. As I was walking I began to get a bit nervous and question the wisdom of my choice of location for my walk. I came upon a non-descript shop brightly lit with florescent bulbs and the most beautiful Chinese young woman I have seen yet sitting against the door frame. She smiled at me and waved and I politely waved back. As I walked on a few more steps she smoothly extended her arm and beaconed me forward. Now, I don't know for sure what she wanted but whatever it was it most likely wasn't anything good.
I quickened my pace and the place just seemed darker. The only sound was the clack clack of sandaled feet as they walked by and the silent stare of a very confused old man standing on the side of the street exposing himself for all the world to see. I couldn't help but see the brokenness of the situation and think that tonight this poor young woman would probably be abused and began to hope that one day a group of friends would meet on this street. As I walked on a few more blocks in the darkness that was more than what is not seen with the eye; I heard another young woman singing her heart out in a melody that my soul remembers from somewhere deep even if the words were unknown to my ears. I looked and she was silhouetted against a dark building by the open door behind her. The juxtaposition of the two young ladies could not be more clear. The first was bound by a darkness that is so deluded that it's presence is likely only occasionally felt...if at all.
The second woman, silhouetted as she was, singing a melody with uncharacteristic abandon...it literally screamed of freedom. Not the political connotation that is so often associated with this word, but with the soul's longing to be free from the bondage that holds it down. This too is universal for those who are alone, even to those who cannot put words, let alone the remedy, to their situation. Her song wafted through the street like a long caged bird finally liberated from silent darkness that once held her. I dwelt on this as I walked and then I noticed something interesting....the next woman who came by me on a bike was singing. The next man I came across at an open shop was singing, and the next one was humming a tune I almost recognized. The unseen darkness lifted and the thought of this being an "un-wise" choice for a walking location was dispelled as well as the fear that had silently slipped up the back of my spine. I was sure that I had seen what I was supposed to see and the message was beautifully driven home. There is only one light in the darkness, and how will they know unless......
I am grateful for the opportunity to be here this Summer with the one I love and so many at home thinking of us this Summer. We are off to Hangzhou tomorrow and I will be able to access the internet more often to update things as we go, thus avoiding massive posts like this. :-)
Feel free to post responses if you managed to read it all!
Love,
Jonathan (for Katy)
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