Oh Christmas.

Well, Christmas has come and gone. It was quite an experience here in China. Michael and I were invited to Christmas parties that our students were throwing. We thought it was all one big party but turns out we were invited to 8 parties, all at 6PM Thursday and we had already promised to attend them all. Thankfully, they were all on the same floor of the same building - so we got to make an appearance at all of them. Many of my sweet students gave me gifts. I must say that my favorite was a set (his&hers) of cell phone holders. They are plush heads (one male one female) with a slit in the top of the head for your cell phone. Genius. We use them every night.

Also, our school administration invited us to a "party." When we arrived we found that it was a large student production in an auditorium. I was a little peeved at having to sit and wait for 2 hours for the thing to start but found it to be well worth it. I can only compare it to a bad high school talent show. I have included a video of my favorite act below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgdzdqfij10

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year!!

A Changed Perspective

Several things have happened over the past couple of days that have changed my perspective on life. I thought about blogging about them. Telling you how I feel my life has changed by what I have seen and heard. But that's not really what I want to do. I don't want you to see how my life has changed; I want YOUR life to change. So instead of reading my blog today, I want you to read something else. At first glance, you may think it is a little long. But keep reading. I promise you won't regret it. Let the Father speak to you today. Are you listening to Him? Are you fulfilling His purpose for you?

kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com

PS - this will also explain the new button (Amazima) that I have added to the page.

Finally Settling In

After being in China for over 3 months, I finally feel like I'm starting to settle in. I have been getting to know my students better and really enjoy being with them. And now that I'm not as homesick as before, I have been able to start having some fun. Here's a glimpse of the last couple of weeks:

I thought I would be excited when No-Shave November ended, but little did I know...

These Boys are crazy.

I was getting down about not being home for Christmas, so Michael and I went on a hunt for Christmas decorations. They are few and far between here in Hangzhou, but we did manage to find a few things. Just imagine buying all of your decorations from the Dollar store and you'll get a pretty good picture of our selection. However, we had a good time and have added a little Christmas cheer to our apartment.

It's about a foot tall and took all of about 5 minutes to decorate. Hey, I'm just excited we have a tree! It'll be our very own Charlie Brown Christmas.

Last weekend we went on a short overnight trip to Shanghai. We're only about an hour and a half away. We thought it was neat to be able to say that we were going to Shanghai for the weekend! We've got some friends that live there. So, we visited with them some. We also got to go to a real mall and got to eat at a hamburger & milkshake joint. On Sunday, we met with some Chinese family there and had a wonderful time! It was a great weekend!

The Pearl Tower

The one in the middle is the building Tom Cruise jumps on in Mission Impossible 3.

Our dinner in Shanghai. Curly fries and sweet tea!!!

One of the attendees at our Sunday morning meeting. I hope to have a baby girl that looks just like this one day!!

A Chinese Thanksgiving

Here's a little glimpse of the "Family" Thanksgiving we had here in China:

The boys' kitchen

The women's kitchen :)

the turkey

The rest of the spread

Loading our plates!

We were so blessed to have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Even though we are far away from our blood family we were still able to enjoy this tradition - even without an oven! This was also a great reminder that the Big Man Upstairs is taking care of us constantly!

A Night Out

Boy do I ever feel like a horse's pa-toot.

For the past 10 weeks, I have been dreading my business English class. I did not enjoy teaching this class, and did not really take to any of the students - who are all seniors. All seniors in our university finish their courses early, so they can find a place to intern for their final semester. So, I gave final exams this week. I was so excited to not have to see these students anymore.

In order to help motivate the students to participate in class, I had an on-going competition for them. All the students were in teams. At the end of the semester, whichever team had the most points, got a free night out to Papa Johns. So last night, Michael and I met 10 of my students to take them out to Papa Johns (this is a lot nicer than it would be in the States, I promise). As I have said, I didn't really connect with any of these students, so I wasn't exactly excited about our night out.

I had the best time.

Turns out, these students are wonderful! We laughed and all had a really good time. During the course of the meal, they found out that I have been trying to find some shoes to wear in the winter, but haven't been able to find where to get them. So after dinner, they all (even the boys) took us shopping. They helped me find the perfect pair of boots. And not only that, they worked some magic as well. The man wanted to sell me the boots for 600 yuan (somewhere between $85 to $100). Those students (all 10 of them) argued and bargained with the man until he finally said he would sell them to me for 70 yuan (about $10). As an American, I would have never been able to get such a good price without their help!

At the end of the night, they hugged me and told me they would miss me. And I felt the same about them. We exchanged some information so that hopefully we can keep in touch. And at the end of the night I realized for the first time that I am happy to be in China.

Some Common Myths Debunked

Myth #1: All people in China wear pointy bamboo hats.

Fact: Very few people in China wear pointy bamboo hats - only farmers and manual laborers that spend a lot of time out in the sun.

Myth #2: China is a very rural country covered completely in rice fields.

Fact: Although China does have a great number of rice fields, it is also a very urban country. It's large cities are much like those in America - huge numbers of people, taxis and other forms of public transportation, lots of colleges and universities, and skyscrapers.

Myth #3: Everyone in China eats cat.

Fact: Although I cannot completely debunk this myth, I can say that as a vegetarian who lives in China, I have never eaten cat (to my knowledge), so that's at least one person.

Myth #4: Chinese people love MSG.

Fact: Okay, the fact is, Chinese people really do love MSG... they put it in almost everything.

Myth #5: You get free fortune cookies at the end of your meal at Chinese restaurants.

Fact: This might surprise you, but this only happens in America. I have been in China for 3 months now and have never been offered a fortune cookie at the end of a meal. Come to think of it, I've never even seen a fortune cookie in China.

This concludes this session of Common Myths Debunked... I will update you if I find any more truths here in this wonderful country we call China.

Student Spotlight

Well, this has not started out to be the greatest week in China. It has been raining for about 6 days straight - and it's very cold. Not a good combination. It's one of those times when you don't want to get out in the cold and rain, but you're tired of being cooped up in the house! I also just found out this morning that my Grandad (my last living grandparent) had a heart attack yesterday. He is okay, luckily he called my mom 2 days ago complaining about pains and she told him to go to the hospital - so he was actually in the hospital when he had the attack. I'm also a little bummed to be missing out on the holidays back home. But in an effort at some light-heartedness, I am going to introduce you to one of my students. He is a Freshman English major. His English name is W - yes, the letter W.

(W is the one in the middle - black shirt, big hair)

Contrary to how he may appear, W is actually very shy and a very good student. But you have not yet seen his distinguishing characteristic: his fingernails -

W's fingernails.

I have heard somewhere before that having long fingernails is a status symbol - you can only have long fingernails if you are wealthy enough to not have to do manual labor. If this is true, W is the richest person I know.