"Typical" - End of October Update

Throughout all the updates, pictures and phone calls that I have made, I don't think I have really described life in China as an ESL teacher. You may have an idea of the bigger events that are happening in our lives, but the real experience is in the daily living and moment to moment lifestyle of China. This isn't to say that the big events of our lives aren't important, but only that they are made up of lots of smaller ones along the way.

Since there's no such thing as a truly "typical" week, I'll just write about last week to give you an idea of what life here is like.

Monday
For Rachel and I, our teaching schedules runs from Tuesday through Sunday, so what better way to start the week than with a day off? Never looked forward to Mondays so much in my life. Tuesday isn't bad either, mostly because I only have to teach for three hours and the classes don't start before lunch. A typical Monday is spent sleeping in and eating a homemade breakfast. Pancakes and oatmeal are among our favorites. Then we either sit around and read or go explore the 'small' city of 1.8 million people. To end the day we have friends over and spend time reading and discussing a certain Book. This week was a little different because we started our day with reading together. I believe that will be the new "normal."

Our reading group consists of 5 people, three of which are Chinese. We are on rotation for leading discussion, but are never quite sure which way we are rotating. The first time I led discussion, I was only given one day notice. Turned out well enough though. I don't have to prepare as much as an American meeting because I must speak slowly in order to be understood. Discussion also involves a lot of questions, which also makes the time pass quickly. As long as I have information about my topic, the questions are really what lead the discussion. I personally enjoy that much more than a lecture or hearing one person's opinion.

The same goes for when one of the Chinese lead the discussion. They are responsible to bring a discussion topic, though the questions are really what control the conversation. I think it's absolutely great that they can lead a discussion in a foreign language though, I certainly would not be able to do that.


Tuesday
As I said before, Tuesday is my second favorite day of the week. Classes are late enough that we are able to sleep in and still get to work well before classes actually start. I teach 3 classes, but only 6 students. Rachel teaches one class of two students. The interesting part of this particular Tuesday involved construction. Over the holiday, they began remodeling the entire school and they were still working on it when we returned to classes. They were just finishing the offices around lunch time, but until then Rachel and I worked with our laptops on a sofa in the hall. For my first class, we met in the almost completed offices. After lunch, they finished two more class rooms just in time for Rachel and I to teach.

Operating a school building while its being remodeled is very interesting. It would be one thing if it was one room at a time, or if the mess was contained even slightly, but that's not what happened. As students came in for class they had to step over power cords, climb over furniture and avoid wet glue on the floor. Even during my class I had to keep the fan on so to keep the room from filling with dust. I know that I wouldn't be sending my child to a school building under construction in America, but to them it seemed normal.

Wednesday - Friday
Rachel and I woke up Wednesday to start the more aggressive part of our week, only to find that we didn't have any running water. At first I thought we just didn't have any pressure built up, then it turns out we had no water at all. Couldn't wash the dishes, take a shower or even brush our teeth in the sink. Then, right before we leave for the school, it turns back on. I figured they must have been doing something with the water line and had to turn off power for a little while.

The next day we wake up and I try to make breakfast and I notice our electric stove isn't working. It doesn't work 100% to begin with, this time it wouldn't even turn on. Neither would the kitchen light, or the fan. We had lost power. The curious thing was, we still had all the running water. I would have thought that one would have determined the other. I am finding that isn't the case.

On Friday, and the power was back on, but the water was off again. When I got to the school, I mentioned these things to Tim, who is responsible for our living conditions. "Yes, this happens often. It is normal, we did not have power either. You get used to it," he said with a nervous grin.

Saturday -Sunday
By Saturday construction on the school was finished and we could prepare for classes properly. At least, that is what I would have thought. This weekend we had a few demo classes, which means the schedule got changed around a dozen different times and Rachel and I didn't even know what classes we taught until a few hours before they began. When I consider that I have to be at different schools to teach demo classes, it is amazing I made it to all my classes this week at all!

For example, I taught a demo class at another school this Sunday. The class turned out to be a single student three years old and as spoiled as they come. She was determined that she wouldn't learn any English until she got some cake. Instead of giving in, this three year old little girl got up and walked down the street to find some cake - right in the middle of class. Tim stopped her and told her she had to study first before she could get cake. After much crying and arguing between Tim and this 3 year old girl, Tim presented her with two options. She could either study English or she could walk home. She chose to walk - nearly 3 miles. The parent was so impressed by how Tim handled the situation, they they signed her up for classes! Even if she doesn't learn any of the language, they are hoping she will learn some good character.

End of October
Since writing this, the co-founders of the school, Kurt and Cathy, have come for a visit. Although they only stayed for two days, they were a huge encouragement to all of us teachers at Apple Tree. They had to continue on to a conference down in Hong Kong (all the pastors in mainland China travel to Hong Kong where they can meet freely before returning to their homes.) While they were here, we had a chance to host a young Chinese lady named Penny. She is tentatively planning to open an Apple Tree in her home town, so she saw everything we are doing here at our school. In between touring our three Apple Tree locations here in Pingxiang, Kurt & Cathy & Penny joined our discussion group for a total of 8! We were blessed to have them.

While they were here, Kurt and Cathy also encouraged us strongly to continue learning Mandarin. Since then, we have had more lessons and have tried to pick up more of the language around us. It's slow going, but we are getting better at it.

That's it for now! Please continue to write to us when you can and keep us "in mind!"

The "Average" week of some pilgrims,
Jeremy and Rachel VanStrien

Post Holiday Update

In China, the first week of October is the Mid-Autumn Festival. It began with the Moon Festival on Sunday and Monday was a national holiday, much like our 4^th of July. Unlike our 4^th of July, we got a whole week off of school and work-related responsibilities. Almost everyone takes the opportunity to travel or at least take some time off during this holiday. Rachel and I definitely followed suit, even if we didn't have the most restful vacation. Only a few days ago, Rachel and I were camping up in the mountains of China with friends of ours. With little Chinese, no map and only an hour to prepare, we spent 4 days in the Wu Gong Mountains (literally “The Kung-Fu Mountains”) and had a great time.

The idea started out great, then quickly changed when our host wanted to leave a day earlier than we originally planned. I bought our sleeping bags and backpack the same morning we left, and our friends arrived only 2 hours prior to leaving for the mountains. They had just gotten off the train when we had to pack up and leave again. We still managed to get everything we needed and leave only a few minutes late.

The mountains were breathtaking in more ways than one. They were some of the steepest climbs and highest mountains I have ever climbed. At times we found ourselves climbing nearly straight up for what seemed like miles. And just when it like we reached the peak of the mountain we would start climbing again. Or if weren't going up, we would be going down at a similar angle for a similar distance. By day two, my legs were hurting so bad I had to make a knee brace for my left leg.

All these things were more than worth it when we turned around and looked over the mountain range. Stretching far above the city smog line, countless mountain tops were spread as far as the eye could see. Deep lush valleys filled with trees and bamboo lay below us, and rocky cliffs hundreds of feet down. I couldn't help but stand and wonder at the beauty of the creation.

I could write another page's worth of information about what we saw and experienced, but that isn't what I think is most important. The best part of the whole trip was spending time with our English friends and being able to have real conversations about life. Getting the chance to catch up on life and talk about what really matters was so refreshing, even more than getting above the smog of the city.

It was very valuable for me to hear a different perspective from someone in the same position as me, teaching ESL in China. It made me begin to think of my own feelings toward my situation and my plans for the future. Since the trip, I have been asking questions like, “How is China playing into my life long goals?” “How can I make the most of my time in China?” Not only that, but “How can I be the greatest blessing to the people around me?” and “How do I use this opportunity to the greatest extent?” Questions like these have been screaming through my head ever since we had lunch on the mountain top. Now I just need to start finding the answers.

The spiritual encouragement was the most valuable to me. Friends of a common belief and culture are able to challenge us in ways we really needed. It has been an answer to pray to have them around and spend time with them. I only hope that we were the same to them during their stay. I also hope we are able to be that kind of blessing to the people around us on a daily basis. That is one of the big areas of concern for Rachel and I as we continue to teach in China: How can we be a blessing to people in a culture we don't understand?

On a more official note, things at the school are going well. Just before the holiday, they began remodeling and upgrading the building. They are replacing all the old windows, putting in new floor, repainting all the walls, changing out the doors and moving other doors entirely. They started two days before the holiday and they will finish just before school starts on Tuesday... hopefully. When it is all said and done, it should look great. However, now it just looks like a mess. Just when Rachel got most of the books organized, we had to put them in storage so they could remodel. That means doing a lot of work to reorganize them once we get back to teaching. Of course, we will also be jumping back into lesson planning and other areas of responsibility.

Keep us in mind as we continue to learn how to be good English teachers. Especially for myself, because they gave me all the “naughty” students. We desire to do a good job, but we can teach only as much as students want to learn – which isn't always a whole lot. Another thing to keep in mind is our growing understanding of the Chinese culture and adapting to life here. We want to be accepted as much as possible, but we don't want to lose our identity or our own culture.

Blessings from some sore-from-backpacking pilgrims

Later

(Late) September Update

Dear friends and family,

I regret that this update is coming so late. So much has happened this month, I would have liked to write an update earlier. However, because so much has happened I haven't gotten around to it until now. I keep thinking that things will slow down once we have been here a while, or after we get used to teaching. That isn't the case. Earlier this month Rachel and I finished up trial classes with the school, then we left and returned for a wedding in the United States, and now we are back to teaching again. Even now, we 're keeping busy with advertising and promoting the school.

To give you an idea of something interesting that has happened... During the trial classes, Rachel and I had the opportunity to teach a trial class on the different English names for fruits. We used real fruits like apples, oranges and pears as a visual aid.

After class was over, I split a pear with Rachel in front of one of the Chinese teachers. He promptly told me not to cut the fruit. “Don't cut fruit, don't cut fruit!” he said to me. I thought he wanted it or we were going to use it later, but it turns out that cutting fruit is a bad symbol in China. To cut fruit in fruit of someone means that you want to divide the relationship. “Cut fruit in China means, no friends. Not good,” the Chinese teacher said.

Rachel and I couldn't help but laugh at our situation. No one would think twice about something so innocent in America, but cutting fruit has a lot of significance in China. A friendly act back in the states means “to divide friends” in China. Even still, we ate the pear.

One thing we have noticed more and more involves the joys and struggles of teaching. The funny part is, those joys and struggles have very little to do with teaching ESL. They depend on whether we have a good student or a bad student. I know that my teaching friends will appreciate this fact. I could be teaching something as boring as the physics behind the atomic bomb, but if I had good students I think even that would be enjoyable. :)

Monday is our weekend out here. Only once in a great while will we have to teach on Monday, and this week was not the case. We had the whole day to ourselves and we decided to make the most of it and throw a party (Not even joking). Rachel threw me a birthday party and invited all the other teachers over to eat cake and play games, and we all had a great time. I will admit though, it was strange to host a party where I did not speak the dominate language.

In China fruit is the main snack of choice, so I went and bought a bunch of fruit as well as some soda. Then comes my favorite party, Peanut butter and jelly. Instead of the normal America meal to go with cake, I made everyone a PB and J sandwich. My favorite food ever – just ask my dad!

The party went great and I got some wonderful presents. All very culturally Chinese. The best part though was having people over and not having to think about work or the different stresses of teaching. It has been the best day off so far!

Since we are done with all of our major traveling we have been able to slow down in some areas and get more involved in other areas. One of the bigger areas is the Christmas program. (It has nothing to do with Christmas other than when it takes place.) Rachel and one of the other teachers are heading up all the program planning and Tim is doing the promoting. We are hoping to get media attention, the press, and all the schools aware of what we are doing. If we succeed it will be great publicity for our school!

Next week is holiday. All the teachers get the whole week off for mid-autumn festival. Tim and Mabel are planning to take us up to the mountains for a day and go camping. We wanted to stay longer, so invited some other friends to come down from Northern China to do some hiking for a few days. It is going to be a great time!

Thanks to all the friends and family that read this and keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Rachel and I are realizing more and more how important that is for us. We will only need them more the longer we are here. We also have a growing appreciation for emails sent from home, even if only to talk about the random events of your day.

Blessings from some pilgrims,

Later