Christmastime is Here!

Well, Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas-time! It has been a busy time for us here, with school functions, holiday festivities and the general making-merry that you just have to do this time of year. Especially since we're so far away from home, we really wanted to make fun and cozy memories in the midst of busy life. So, Thanksgiving came, and we had to work! But that weekend we got together with our friends here and had a real feast. I will say that we pulled out all the stops and made a dinner that American chefs would have been proud of, and we did it by trekking around town to find ingredients and roasting turkeys in large toaster ovens! It really was delicious. As our Chinese friends warned would happen, that following week started with balmy mid-50's degree weather and overnight it turned to low 30's and snow flurries in some areas of the city. We didn't see any snow, but we did feel the cold, which sure blasted in quickly. And, though the sun offers some kind relief if you're standing in it, the cold has been brisk and bountiful since it started. Which means, layers upon layers of clothing. You should see us pick out what to wear in the morning! I used to decide what to wear based on what might look somewhat cute or coordinated, but now it's all about what fits underneath what, in order to have the most layers possible without looking like Blimpy!

Christmasy Tree!

As I said earlier, things have been extraordinarily busy, but we've managed to find time for a few fun things. We've done a little Christmas shopping, going out into the busy bustle that is Wuhan shopping centers on any given weekend, and now are even crazier as the holidays are here! Even though traditionally the Chinese do not celebrate Christmas, we see quite a lot of Christmas decorations, as you can see us with the Christmas tree below. Please note that this picture was taken right before Thanksgiving, back when we could have bare arms and not freeze to death! Even if it's not celebrated in exactly the same way as it is at home, the shopping spirit is about the same. And I guess Christmas Day is a huge shopping day here. Well, we will not be going out shopping that day, for so many reasons. Wuhan just gets fancier by the minute. Actually, there is an H&M that just opened, and it was fun to check that out this weekend. Another thing we did this weekend is eat roasted chestnuts from a street vendor. It's probably the most commonly sold food item on the streets these days, and I'd been wanting to try them. Especially since we always since about "Chestnuts roasting on the open fire" every Christmas! They were good. They're a little sweet and soft, and so nice and warm on a cold day. I want to go back out to get more!
On Christmas Spirit and other festive things, we have a Christmas tree decorated with three special ornaments from home, plus a smattering of shiny colored balls we bought at Walmart here :) And twinkle lights of course. We're also serious about watching all the important Christmas movies, and so far have gotten in a few. And I've made a few Christmas cookies, but need to make more! Really, it is less convenient to do everything culinary that I like to do, here, but with some creativity we have managed well! So I think we won't be suffering for the important traditional cookies and other random, fun things.

As you can see from the rest of the pictures, we got to go on a day trip with all of the teachers from our school. It started with a fancy dinner the night before and then the next day we got up and went to Mulan Mountain! I could go on and on about that trip, but we had a good time, it was a beautiful day (not too cold!) and we made some memories. Luke liked the swan-ducks, and there was some nice scenery too. The bottom picture is me with several of the Kindergarten teachers I work with, and Brynn, our friend on the far right who is here from the States with her husband Cody.

We hope that you are having a nice start to the Christmas season, and that it is a blessed time. We'd love to hear from you anytime!

Love,
Luke and Steph

Happenings

All right, it's blog time!

One of the opening ceremonies' performances

Classes getting ready to enter for the opening ceremonies

Something that's pretty big over here is to have elaborate events that involve a lot of people, organization, and stress. It's pretty fun until we stop to think, wow, there have been 4 or 5 of such events in the past month, that's one a week! For example..... The end of October had the whole school participate in School Sports Day.  It started with the opening ceremonies, in which each class paraded around the gym singing their team cheer and then three separate groups each did a choreographed song/dance. Then the events began. Jump rope, three legged race, basketball dribbling, shot put, short and long distance running, and many others. I participated in the jump rope and was pretty proud of my 80 skips in 1 minute. Then I saw one of my first grader's score: 100 skips. Below are some pics from the all day event. It ended with individual winners being awarded with very authentic looking gold, silver, and bronze medals.

Some event finalists!

Down to the finish line!

The next week had us do the school-wide crazy hat day, which is the American Teachers' opportunity to share the festivities of Fall, Halloween, and Harvest Parties with the Chinese Students. Each student and teacher came to school with an elaborately created hat (working on getting pictures). Hats ranged from 3 feet tall rolled up construction paper with feathers, tinsel, and you name it attached, to baseball caps adorned with Mcdonald's French Fry boxes, fake fruit, or kitchen utensils. Students were divided into groups and then went to four different stations. I taught a lesson on Halloween in America, and other teachers ran a craft, game, and snack station. Then the four groups split into smaller groups and went around the whole school, trick-or-treating at doors of rooms. They loved it! Very crazy, but hey, it was crazy hat day wasn't it?



Throughout the two weeks mentioned above our company held it's annual basketball tournament. This is a pretty competitive tourny with teams made up of different departments in the company. Thus, our school was considered a department and we had a team. Low and behold, we ended up getting to the semi-final game! Unfortunately, we got destroyed by last year's champion (and many of our supporters claimed fowl play on the ref's part) and ended the tournament on kind of a sad note. But it was very fun and I have found a new sport I enjoy!

The basketball team

Then the next week the kindergarten had the annual harvest party. Stephanie was in charge of a cookie baking and frosting station. The night before the party she made 5 batches of cookie dough and the appropriate amount of frosting. Then during the party she helped kindergartners ranging from 2 1/2 to 5 1/2 years old (and their parents) shape, bake, and frost cookies. Mmmmm, the whole school smelled of freshly baked yummy treats! The parents (and other teachers) were very impressed with the elaborateness of the baking/frosting (do you see the theme of elaborateness yet?)

Speaking of cookies, the day after the kindergarten harvest party (so a Saturday) our company's apartment complex (dubbed the LQ, which stands for Living Quarters) held their harvest party and sports day. So Friday night, we helped our American teacher friends bake 600 oatmeal raisin cookies. These were for us to sell at the American Teacher's Booth. At this particular event, tables full of wares line the two streets that run through our complex. People from or associated with the Semiconductor Manufacturing Company that our school is with, brought food, clothes, purses, and all kinds of other things to sell. It was like a flea market in our front yard! So we had a booth of oatmeal raisin cookies and hot chocolate. We easily sold out of both. Along with the market, the LQ harvest party involved sports events that teams participated in. Below are some pics of a few of the games we played. The tug-o-war was the finale of the party and our teachers won 3rd place! Not bad for a group of academics.....

Get the marble down the chute into the bucket!

tug-o-war!

Finally, after this party we were finished with elaborate events for a while. However, the following week was mid-term week, which involved mid-terms, grading, and report cards. Phew!

To sum all of this up, life is pretty crazy here. However, with every elaborate event we invest ourselves in  we take another step towards relationships, camaraderie, and open doors. Because participation and investment in such events is so valued here, we are doing something worthwhile when we join in. It is saying that though we are foreigners who make mistakes and are inconveniences most of the time, we want to do what the Chinese are doing and this builds many bridges in a culture that is so reliant on relationship. Please think of us as as life goes on and we always need renewed energy and time to rest in the midst of it.

Until next time,



L and S

Fall in Wuhan

Hello all!

As the seasons of Wuhan start to change from Summer to Fall we can't help but think of the same changes happening among family and friends. We hope this Fall brings you many opportunities to drink apple cider, carve pumpkins, and jump in leaf piles!

Speaking of pumpkins, Steph found a Chinese citizen of the squash family that resembles a small pumpkin, and she is ready and raring to boil it, mash it, mix it, and then magically turn it into yummy treats. I am looking forward to pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, and pumpkin biscuits! With Steph being such a great cook/baker, being far away from home is not as bad as it could be, what with her being able to whip up familiar foods.

Most of the grade 2 students from my level two English class

An underwater adventure!

Fall also brought us our first field trip experience at our school. Annually, our school takes a mid-autumn day-trip and this year had the whole school going to the newly opened "Polar Ocean Theme Park." We heard that these types of trips can be the apex of chaos: our students converging with hundreds of other students from multiple schools all firmly fixed at seeing as much as possible as fast as possible. How thankful we were to arrive at the Park to see hardly any people in attendance! Also, we had enough adults divided among our students to split off into groups of 4-5 students and one teacher. I had such a blast with my four students, who were all part of my grade 2 group. This was such a great experience considering it was the last day of our 7 day school week and we were pretty exhausted (due to us having a week long holiday at the beginning of October, we had school from the following saturday to Friday to make up for lost time). Attached are a few pictures from the trip. Unfortunately, since Steph is part of the kindergarten she had to stay back at the school. However, she gets to go on a field trip this coming week to the orange groves to pick oranges. Fun!

My group hiding in a shell

The field trip was an opportunity to spend time with students and teachers in a unique setting. I definitely felt like connections were made that will benefit relationships for the rest of the year.

Sorry this is a little short, but I just wanted to start getting into the swing of updating more regularly. More to come!

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers,



Luke and Steph

Hong Kong! And Other Fun Things.

By the way, we really need to keep up more often. You're all going to think we're boring and you'll forget us. Hmm...I'll think on it and see what I come up with.

Birthday Dinner: Yum!

We have been up to some fun these days. A couple of weeks ago it was my (Steph, here) birthday. It fell on a school day, but we had some really nice friends who were still willing to hang out that night and eat delicious Mexican food. And that morning I got to open a package from my family at home! It was very sweet, and I was a little extra homesick that day :) Then, that weekend we spent time with our friends Jesse and Emily, doing a bit of shopping and eating dinner together (see pic at right). It was special to have that time together, and it was special to be celebrated like that!



We were invited to the wedding of a teacher that I work with in the Kindergarten. So that same birthday weekend we got to go the wedding! It was a pretty fancy and elaborate wedding, and fun to see what a Chinese wedding looks like. They had some elements of tradition and some modern touches, and it was really neat. Fun to have the chance to be a part of the life of one of the teachers I work with too.

You Guessed It: Turtle!

One way that the extravagance of the wedding showed, was in the feast that we were served! There must have been more than twenty dishes, ranging from lamb and chicken to turtle and bullfrog! And much in between. We had yet to try anything too different from what we're used to at home, and this was our chance! There were a few things I liked, and then others that were not as much my favorite. But surprise! the turtle was pretty good. And the frog was okay, but I could live without it. Overall, it was a fun experience. For the most part we enjoy the food here. Wuhan is known for its spicy food, which is great, since we like spicy! Well, mostly I love spicy, but Luke is okay with most of it too.

Speaking of delicious food, we went to Hong Kong this past week! China has a national holiday in the first week of October, which meant vacation for us! So we took off for Hong Kong with those same friends I've mentioned, Jesse and Emily. They're the ones who looked out for us when we first moved here, and continue to be generous and great friends to us. So we bought fast train tickets to a city near the border of mainland China and Hong Kong, and then made our way down there! Oh yes, the food thing: we ate a lot of good food there, but the highlight was this Indian meal that pretty much was the highlight of the trip. SO GOOD. Wow, it was amazing, and when I think about it, I wish I could go back just so I could eat at that restaurant again. Amazing curries, chai, garlic naan, too bad I don't have pictures. I'll stop swooning.

Okay, so there were other reasons why Hong Kong was great too! We got to explore the city a bit, and do some shopping, and stay in a great hostel. Oh, where do I begin? Our hostel was located in this huge, sketchy looking high rise building called Chungking Mansion. Apparently, if you'll check out the movie Johnny English, the "outdoor scene" of the movie was filmed in front of Chungking. We're going to have to see it, because that would really be fabulous. Chungking Mansion on the big screen. As you walk through the building, there are vendors everywhere trying to sell you everything from spices to watch batteries to "hip hop clothing." And so many people from all over the world. And then we get to our actual hostel, which has only two rooms that they rent. It was run by these great Filipino women who were full of spunk and pizazz. I could go on about them, but you'll just have to take my word that they were a hoot and so great. I will say, that Luke was longer than the bed. But that was mostly just funny. We stuck a chair at the end of the bed so his feet didn't hang over.

Us, across from the island where the laser show happened!

And then, we did some shopping at a huge market, and also in the district near our hostel. And there is a laser light show that you can see from the edge of the water, across to the main Hong Kong island. There are these huge high rise buildings that shoot lasers into the night sky, and the actual buildings light up too. We had a really nice time.


And so, here we are, on the eve of heading back to school. We feel as though we really were able to rest from school a bit. And maybe we're never really ready for vacation to be over, but that's okay! Some really great kids await at school tomorrow. And hopefully some good teaching! Sometimes in China, when you get vacation off, you have to make part of it up by having school on the weekend. So tomorrow is Saturday, and we'll be off to school. While you are all eating waffles and putting your feet up, right? Well, enjoy it, and don't feel too bad, because it was definitely worth having the break!

Thanks for being our friends, and keep in touch!

Love,
Steph

One Month Update!

Hello everyone! It has been one month and two days since we arrived in China and it is very hard to believe. Time has been flying and we have been pretty busy getting settled in our apartment, settled at school, and figuring out things like how to buy food, go shopping, etc. We hope that things will start settling down now that we have gotten our bearings a bit.

The "LQ" (Living, Quarters) where are apt. is. Our apt. is second from the top, in one of the stacks to the right of this pic.

We are enjoying a three day weekend thanks to "Mid-Autumn Day," and boy did it come at a good time! We are taking the opportunity to rest, do some cleaning, and be ready for the second week of school with kids. Our first week with kids was fun and challenging. Stephanie has some pretty rowdy kindergartners in a few of her classes, and so this week has been one of strategizing how to get them settled and comfortable in their English class. At least the little ones (2 to 2 1/2 year olds) have stopped crying when they get to school!

The view from our apt. deck. Looking to the right

My level two students (which is a class made up of first, second, third, and fifth graders, though the majority is second graders) are pretty rowdy too but they are settling down. I just discovered the magic of using puppets to help us speak English and they are loving it. I don't think I ever thought I'd do the puppet thing.......

The view from the deck of our apt. Looking to the left.

What has been most meaningful to our transition here is the welcome we have received from the teachers and administrators at the school. In general, it can be said that the people here are so welcoming, and are very giving of their time and resources to help us foreigners. Our fellow teachers have been very patient with us as we try to work our way through the language barriers. It seems the doors are very open for Stephanie and me to get to know some of them outside of school, and we look forward to this opportunity. There is hope to set up a language partner program, which would see each English teacher pair with a Chinese teacher, with each one assisting the other in language growth. This can no doubt result in out side of school hangouts. Excited for this. The leaders of our school are also very welcoming and understanding of the transition we are going through. Incredible examples of leadership that I will remember for years to come.

Our foreign friends! L-R: Luke, Cody, Brynn, Emily, Jesse. Cody and Brynn are new teachers from Mississippi. Jesse and Emily have been in Wuhan for around 6 years and Emily teaches at the school (only until the end of Sept. though).

Stephanie cleaning the shower!

Relationship are highly valued here. It seems like where I want to have life revolve around schedules, organization, and what I can control, the reality is that life here revolves around relationships. Very cool, and challenging for me at times, but it is routine to have folks dropping their work at the opportunity to help others, for the sake of relationship. Pretty cool, and results in much reflection on my part. Again, an open door for stretching us, and building bridges relationally.



Until next time,

L and S

Some funny things...

The other day, Luke and I went to WalMart, the nearest store where you can buy anything you need! Oh WalMart. We went to buy some groceries and other random things we needed. The experience was an adventure in itself--there were ladies who worked there, following us around and trying to help us find what we needed, but then getting us and them even more confused...and then someone who speaks a bit of English would show up and try to translate a bit--we were a circus!

And then we got to the meat section, which was like no meat section I've ever seen. Whole frozen chickens (and I mean whole, beak, claws, yep) just laying in frozen cases, with no packaging. What do people do, just grab one by the leg and take it home? Ah, but that is even tame. What do we come to next, but a refrigerated case with no lid full of huge bullfrogs. Just piled in there. Oh yeah, and they were alive! EW! It was so nasty. But this just scratches the surface.

Finally we got what we needed, and I picked up some frozen rolls on our way out. There's a section of frozen rolls stuffed with things like meat, veggies, etc. And then, I found some that were plain, that I figured we could just stick in the oven and eat with some jam. One issue, was that there was no English on this package at all, but I was fairly certain of what I was getting. So anyway, we go home and decide to eat the rolls that night. I pop them in the oven, wait until they brown a little, and say, hurrah, they're done, let's eat! I grab one of them (ooh, hot!), pull it apart to spread some jam on, and what do I find, but a big pile of poo inside! Smeary, brown, gooey, poo. I shrieked in laughter at something so surprising, and then decided to inspect it. I discovered it was some sort of bean paste (like mashed beans, kind of) and it was sweet! Maybe not much better than poo. It was nasty tasting. I scooped it out and still did the jam thing, but there was still enough remnant to taste. Yes, I am still wanting to adventure with food, but next time I'm going to steer clear of the poo roll case.

Arrival!

Hey Team, this is El at the blog. We finally got access to our blog and so I'm doing a quick update for those interested. We have arrived! We are settling into our apartment, which is owned by the company that owns the school (for those of you who don't know, the school we are working at is for students who are children of employees of a massive semi-conductor manufacturing plant down the road). Our apartment is on the 11th floor of a 12 floor tall building and has some neat views of the the high-rises of the city of Wuhan. Where our LQ (living quarters) is, is out on the edge of the busy city areas.

Lunch on our flight to Shanghai (or maybe it was breakfast)

So far we have seen much of the city, as some wonderful friends have taken us under their wing to show us around. It is hard to describe what it is like here in China. Often it helps to compare one place to another, but the one word that comes to mind when I compare China to the US is: Different! From the way people drive, to how food is cooked, to how blood is drawn (we had to get our blood drawn. The experience was like nothing I've ever encountered before) Stephanie and I are constantly astounded at the lifestyle here. We really look forward to getting to know the people and culture more as we start working at the school.

Yesterday (the 15th) was our first day at the school, getting prepared for when the students arrive on the first of September. Both Stephanie and I are experiencing the challenge of working amongst the obvious blockade of language. There are a number of other english speaking teachers at the school, as well as employees who speak both Mandarin and English, but there is much clarification and experimentation still! We look forward to settling in at the school.

Based on our apparent enthusiasm,
this picture was probably taken early
on into our  25 hour journey.

The temperature seems to be getting hotter each day, which is insane because we thought it unbearable the day we arrived one week ago. Routinely over 90 degrees with 80-100 percent humidity has us perpetually sweaty and thirsty. Nothing relieves us more than a cold shower before bed and getting lullaby-ed to sleep by the hum of the AC. However, it is literally a rude awakening in the morning when we walk out of our cool bedroom and into the 80 degree and sticky living room.

Thank you for your thoughts! We definitely feel watched over and provided for.

Until next time,


El

Preparing!

Hi everyone! This is L taking a turn at updating the blog. This past month has seen us doing a lot of preparation. The picture below is of our spare bedroom in our apartment. We are slowly going through books, clothes, and random things, trying to keep the piles of what we want to bring to China smallish. 

We are less than a month from leaving and are getting more and more excited! Yesterday we mailed our passports off to Washington DC for a necessary step in the visa attaining process. Hopefully all goes well! It seems like the paperwork never ends. I know our blogposts have been few and far in between (if you could say that about two posts in all) but we are going to start updating regularly as we get closer to leaving, and after we have left. Love to you all!

L and S

Here We Go!

Hello Friends,

We are excited to keep sharing life with you even as we go to China! We're thankful for you, and will miss you very much. We'll update a bit as we get ready to go, and then come August, we'll be reporting from the other side of the world!

Love to you,

L&S

P.S. We just got back from a great trip visiting family and having all kinds of fun! We went to Disneyland, which was great fun and we celebrated our first wedding anniversary. Yippee!