Family and Friends

I am returned from Nanchang and Christmas festivities. However, I shall hold off on updating until I return from Nanjing on Friday.

Tomorrow I head to Nanjing with Jennifer for New Years and all that jazz. Maybe get some shopping in. Do a little sight seeing. All on a budget, of course.

Love you all. Thank you so much for all my amazing gifts and cards. I'm a very lucky girl.

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night

This will be a short update because I have laundry to do, things to pack, and presents to wrap.

This evening Jennifer, Cary, and I joined the head honchos for a feast of epic portions. It was good. Many a ganbei occurred. Chinese was spoken. All in all, a successful banquet.
After a few too many ganbei the laowei laoshi (foreign teachers) headed to a school performance. We saw singing, dancing, and comedy acts from the English department kiddos. It was too cold in the auditorium, so we headed out after a few acts. Now I am home.

Why is my Chinese so much better with alcohol? Bah...

Tomorrow I head to Nanchang for Christmas. I shall attempt to get on skype for Christmas day in order to talk to the fam and wish them a happy to-do. I return on Sunday while Nathan and his parents head to Beijing. Then I shall be off to Nanjing with Jennifer sometime soon after my return. It's going to be a busy next few days.

I really have to admit, it doesn't feel anything like Christmas here. Perhaps the lack of family is the reason. Or maybe I have no Christmas spirit this year. I don't know. Christmas in China... weird.

Shenme?

So... this past weekend. It was pretty cool, I must say.

On Friday I released my Secretary's early (we had finished final exams) and rushed to the train station so that I could arrive in Nanchang at 5:30pm in order to see Jane Goodall speak. Nathan met me at the station and we took off for the hotel where she was giving her presentation.
The hotel was gorgeous and large. We found some of our friends sitting at one of the tables and decided to join them. In the middle of the room was a large vegetarian buffet which looked delicious. Due to traffic, the event was delayed and ended up starting about an hour later than planned.
After a majority of the crowd had arrived, we each got our turn at the buffet. Jane, of course, went first, then the rest of the tables. The food was smashing. The curry, garlic bread, cheesy cauliflower, and spaghetti were my favorites. I could definitely be happy eating like that everyday. After munching for awhile, Jane stood up to speak. It was a pretty good speech. She talked about her time with the chimps, her childhood, and how we need to work together to save our planet. I'll upload some videos later although I'm not sure how the sound quality will be, it was rather hard to hear her at times.
After her speech, Nathan and I bought some souvenirs for her to sign. I bought two of her books, translated into Chinese (they ran out of the English copies) and had her sign one for Hayley and one for me. I took a couple pictures with her, but the one where I'm looking at the camera is so awful I refuse to show it.

We were pretty wiped after the speech so we headed back to Nathan's place to get a good night's rest.

The next day I had to work at the wine tasting/promotion from 3-8pm. Nathan and I had some noodles for lunch before heading into town and finding the Rainbow Mall. I met Steven, the manager, there and he put me to work right away. Nathan stuck around for most of the event, sampling the wine. I had to pour wine for the customers who came in to sample it, clean glasses, and do a lot of standing. It reminded me of my days at the Marriott. I ended up drinking quite a bit of the wine myself. Pretty delicious.
After five rather long hours, I was free to go. I bid my new friends farewell and Nathan and I headed off to a French bistro to meet FeiFei, Nik, Pearl, and Simon for dinner. Everything at the bistro was half off and we feasted. I enjoyed a nice spaghetti and some amazing bruschetta. I should have had dessert as well, but alas, I was too full.
After dinner we went to a jazz bar with the group, but the jazz music was over and it was karaoke time instead. They sang some pretty depressing songs, and I wasn't feeling it, so we headed home.

On Sunday I had work again. Nathan and I headed into Nanchang early so that we could get some sushi at a restaurant near the Rainbow mall. It was tasty and I hope we go back there again.

Nathan dropped me at the Rainbow mall with my bags, bid me farewell, and went off to do his Christmas shopping. I did the same old, pouring drinks, drinking drinks, and chatting with the others at the wine tasting booth. Steven, the manager, took me to dinner at a Korean restaurant. We ordered a very spicy rice and some chicken which they cooked in front of us. I was worried I would get sick from it all, but I'm doing just fine surprisingly.
After my mandatory five hours I bid them adieu, was presented with some cash and a 400rmb bottle of wine, and went on my way. I grabbed a cab to the train station, was dropped off up the road from the station (the cabs are only allowed up to a certain point on the road going to the station) was given directions by the cabby, and headed off. It was incredibly cold outside, but my bags and red wine glow kept me warm.
I had about an hour to wait for the train, which was then further delayed another 25 minutes. This left me plenty of time to chat with the locals in our quasi-Chinese-English way that we do. I actually had pretty decent conversations with some of the people there, and we found ways around the words that I didn't know.
I arrived in Jiujiang to light snow at 11:45pm. David was my knight in shining car, and picked me up from the station, dropping me off at the door to my hotel.

Today was fairly dull. Jennifer and I went to Nana (a store) to see if I could find some sneakers in my size, but no luck. On our way to the store we saw a toddler get hit by a high school kid on a bike. It was frightening. Jennifer scooped up the little girl and we were surrounded by parents, although none who claimed the little girl. Poor thing was in tears and it took a few minutes before someone came to claim her. Luckily the kids here wear about 8 layers in the winter time, so she was well padded but will probably be a little bruised.

Today was my last secretary class. We watched High School Musical 2. Wow... longest two hours of my life. The freezing cold, can see your breath, classroom didn't help.

Tomorrow.... who knows? I've got to finish up grades, do a little shopping, but that's about it. I'll probably clean my apartment and start packing for Nanchang again.



I forgot how addicting these peanut m&ms are...
This is my Christmas tree. Isn't it beautiful?

Just got home....

It's been a fairly eventful weekend. However, it's midnight, so I'm off to bed rather than updating. You can look forward to learning about:

• Meeting Jane Goodall
• Working at a wine promotion
• Successful conversations in Chinese

in my next post.

Goodnight.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

I hope you find the peace you seek, Aunt Melissa.

Please keep my family in your thoughts as we recover from this shock, mourn, and find peace again.

Let final exams commence!

Had my first round of final exams today. Good times, except my kids act like they're five and can't be quiet when others are talking. Really?! Really?! You're nineteen plus years old? I don't believe it. We finished class early which was nice.

I've just spent three hours grading papers and am now finished. It's amazing. AMAZING!
While grading papers I re-discovered some of those stories I asked the kids to write about a magic land that they made up. So... here are a few more for your viewing pleasure:

"I hope my magic land has two cute dogs. We are good friends. There is a clean river through the land which with many green grass, various trees. Birds, cloud, the sun in the sky. And I'm the princess, live with my family happily."

"I'm a Queen in a big and happiness family there is no war, no enemy, no resentment and also sadness. We just have happiness, happy, harmony, and peace. I have two great sodiers to protect our country. A witches and a wizards. They are all kind hearted, smart and responsibilities for the country. Witches specialize in open conflict and wizards take care of me carefully in my daily life. In my land, flowers, grasses, tree and animals are all lovely, prospectively and rigorous, they are all marks I have a warm beautiful, happiness country. In my kingdom, spring is green, red. Summer is golden, Autumn is yellow and winter is white. The beautiful scenery, good gards, lovely animals consists of my kingdom is a large kingdom. I love my kingdom, love everything in my kingdom."

"At the 3 BC, there is a girl who was controlled by witches in the jungle. She was waiting for the right person to take she free. One day, a hospitally man come across the jungle he met the girl. She told him what happened at her and hope he can save her. The man was deepen by her and decide to save her. But if he wants to save her he must hit the evil witches. At the same time, there were so many strange animals such as dinosaurs, but the man was a strong person. The man and the girl come across lots of difficulties but at last, the girl was free. The witches was died, the man and the girl live a happy life."

"A long time ago, There were a woman with her two children living in a town. Unfortunately, when her elder child 15 years old, Their mother was dead. So the sister should take her little brother, her little brother only 8 years old she felt very frustrated, she had no confidence on life. But she had duty, she should bring up her little brother she lived hardly. One day, she and her little brother went into a mountain. They saw a big cave, They surprised about that, so they went into. Walking into the cave, They saw many strange things, such as statues, snakes some ugly frogs. They were afraid about that. When they were nervous, a frog came to them, in fact, the frog was a lucky thing, it would give them good luck. Sister catched it, then she and her brother came into another world, the world's people were very friendly, They lived happliy together. She and her little brother were adopted by a rich couple. They had a good life at last."

"Ten thousand years ago, a little boy was captured by a witch who was a vicious woman. From that day on, the witch taught him magic to help him kill people. Because the witch lived on blood of people. The witch lived in a cave about 400 years. Every violent animal served her. When the boy grew up, when he try to kill an old men, suddenly he saw a frightened girl. The old men's girl. He fell in love with the girl at the first sight. So he didn't kill them. Later, he did not want to help the witch, and the girl changed him a lot. At last, many people fight the witch together, they successed at last. The girl and the boy and many people lived happily."



Today I received two more boxes from Mom. My Christmas tree is looking very festive with all my wonderful presents underneath it. I am so blessed. I do have to save, the M&M's had been opened, perhaps by some hungry customs inspectors, and some were scattered throughout the box.

Right, I have some Christmas cards I need to tape shut.

Wuuuuuuhooooohan

Before Nathan arrived on Friday, Cary, Jennifer, and I had a delicious meal of homemade spaghetti at Cary's place. He is a good cook and at some point I'm going to talk him into a deal where I buy the groceries and he does the cooking. This seems like a good plan.
I met Nathan at the train station around 8pm where we bought our train tickets for the next morning (7:45am) to Wuhan. We decided to stay in and sleep since we were both exhausted and knew we had an early morning on Saturday.

Bright and early we woke the next morning, showered, packed, and headed to the station. Our train actually ended up departing early, but we made it. It was a long ride which we mostly napped through. Upon arrival at Wuchang (a borough of Wuhan) Nathan and I immediately went to buy our train tickets home for the next day. Unfortunately the latest and most convenient train was at 10:15am. After waiting for half an hour to get our tickets it was time to find a hotel. Well, lo and behold, there one stood right across the bustling street.
We made our way to the Crowne Hotel and checked in. It was quite a nice place complete with complimentary breakfast in the morning. We dropped off our bags, asked which bus to take to Hanyang (another borough) and set off.
It was a mighty chilly walk to the bus. On the way, Nathan literally saved my life by grabbing me and spinning me around before I got hit by a bus. It was certainly a close call. We finally found our bus and headed off to French Street to find the Aloha Hawaiian restaurant.
Upon arrival at French Street it took us a few minutes to find the restaurant, but when we did, bliss. The food was amazing, the owner was nice, the area was great, and best of all, it was all heated. Nathan had a huge burger while I scarfed down some enchiladas. Tasty-licious.
We wandered around the neighborhood the restaurant was near for awhile before hopping on a bus back to Wuchang. We went back to our room for a little nap, deciding we would head out to see Hankou (another borough) once it had gotten darker.

After sleeping and watching a movie or two, we headed back out into the cold, misty night. We grabbed a cab to Hankou and asked the driver to take us to the Yellow Crane Tower. He ended up dropping us off in the middle of an intersection, pointing where to go. Except... we took a wrong turn and ended up in the middle of a busy street food street instead. It was amazing! They served everything! We were tempted to grab food, even though we were still full from before, but held off in hopes that we would find the sushi restaurant we had been planning on eating at. After the food street we found a shopping street with tons of vendors hawking various goods. Nathan asked for directions a few more times, and eventually we found the tower. Only... it was closed. We took a couple pictures of it all lit up, then hailed a cab to take us to Jiqing Street, reportedly a hot spot in the evening time.
The driver dropped us off and we looked around confused. This was a hot spot? No one really seemed to be around, no live music, just a few street food vendors and some cold looking people. We decided to move on and search out the Japanese restaurant. We hailed another cab and off we went.
The driver dropped us off at a giant mall. We wandered inside and I was almost overwhelmed. Floors and floors of glorious shopping! Not only the legitimate stores, but those small street like stalls were set up in the back. Heaven on earth. We looked for the restaurant and after asking where it was a couple times, were turned back out onto the street. We decided we weren't really starving yet, so we went to the walking street we had seen earlier, then on to the street-stall shopping street. Nathan bought nice leather gloves and I bought... nothing!!!! Can you believe it? I'm still in shock. I need to find a girl who will want to go back with me so that I can actually get my shop on.
Eventually I got hungry and cranky, so Nathan and I found a 'French' restaurant. We ordered some food which turned out to be pretty decent then headed back to the hotel, exhausted.

This morning we enjoyed a very Chinese breakfast before catching our train. It was a long train ride, but very pleasant and we had some nice time to talk and nap. Nathan headed on to Nanchang, and I hopped off in Jiujiang.
I grabbed a motorcycle home, and now here I am. It's only 6:02pm, but I am wiped.
My secretary's are watching a movie tomorrow and I need to mail Christmas cards/presents. Shame on me. They will be late. Sorry!

I'm honestly considering moving to Wuhan, perhaps for no reason other than the AMAZING SHOPPING! And... perhaps the western food. Mmmm... enchiladas.

By the way... this is gorgeous in purple and light blue!!!

No snow here

Heard it snowed in Texas. No snow here. In fact, it really hasn't been that cold this week at all. Yesterday was in the 60's. My kind of winter.

Stomach bug had turned into full blown horrible head cold. My nose is a snot factory and my appetite is gone.

Nathan comes tomorrow. We're going to Wuhan on Saturday to take a look around.

Next week is final exams! Almost done....

This will be short

Been teaching my kids about Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Ramadan, and Christmas this week. It's been pretty great.

Got the wine job, but we're still sussing out the details. Doesn't pay much, but it will be a great way to make connections. I'm a bit mad that it's so many hours, 10am-8pm, which means way less time with Nathan, but I'll see him a few days later for Christmas, so no big.


Still a bit under the weather from that stomach whatever.

Right. Bed.

Crap... where'd that eyeball come from?

Nathan and I managed to have a pretty eventful weekend in Nanchang.

On Saturday morning we woke at the butt crack of dawn (aka 8am) so that we could be ready by 9:30am to head off to a friend of Nathan's, Will, hometown. We were supposed to be joined by Peter and Pearl from what I heard, but it was a no go for them as they had other things going on. We hopped into the mian bao che (a van that looks like a loaf of bread, sorta) that Will had rented and headed down the incredibly bumpy road. And when I say bumpy... well, we've all got sore tailbones now.


We picked up Will's friend, fresh from the army, who was waiting for us at the bus station then headed on to Will's house. When we arrived we met his father who had such a thick accent even Nathan couldn't understand him. Since I usually don't understand what's going on most of the time anyways, I just smiled and nodded as per usual.

Lunch wasn't quite ready yet so we decided to head on down to the park which Will's father had designed. It was amazing! Very beautiful indeed. We walked around the park for a bit before deciding to hop into one of the paddle boats that you could rent. Only... the paddle boat turned out to be a motorized boat instead, though it only went about 7km and hour. Our two Chinese pals hopped in the back, leaving Nathan to drive and me riding shotgun.


We drove around the lake for awhile, spying on kissing couples and naughty children who were lighting fires in the grass. As we were driving along, not minding our own business, we saw some chunks of wood floating in the water. Curiousity got the better of us and we decided to take a looksee. Nathan pulled over next to one of the chunks of wood and Will, who was sitting behind him, pulled it out of the water. Lo and behold we had found secret fishing nets and two very large fish stuck in them! According to Will, fishing in the lake is illegal so after debating on whether or not to free the fish, we decided to just let it be and placed them back in the water. As we started to drive off we heard a sucking noise and then a bit of clunking, then no more motor. Well, crap, that wasn't good, what was that? The horror! Our little fishy friends had indeed been sucked into our motor. Will and Nathan let out sighs as Will announced, "I think it's dead. There goes an eyeball."


After mourning for the very fish we had set out to rescue and had now murdered, we then had to deal with dilemma of how to get back to shore. No problem! The number of the boat rental men was right there in front of me, painted on the dashboard of the boat. Will called them men to explain the situation, and we watched as a few men clambered into a boat and headed towards us.


When they finally reached us, we expected them to tow us back to shore, especially since it was effing freezing out there in that boat. However, as soon as the men saw the rather large fish we had 'caught' they announced that they wanted to keep it. Apparently fish that big are worth quite a bit of money and these guys had greedy looks in their eyes. We told them there was another net out there still floating around the lake. They nodded and headed off towards it. Waiiiiittttt a minute! What about us?! Obviously they had other things on their minds and decided to leave us out there while they took care of business. Nathan tried the motor again, and to our surprise it worked. We decided to head back to shore, trailing our booty.

We were quickly ushered out of our boat once we had docked. We left the lake with no fish, but a great story at least. When we finally made it back to Will's house, the food was all prepared and waiting for us at the table. It was a delicious meal that his mother had spent the entire morning preparing. Quite the feast.


After finishing and spending some quality time in front of the television while we digested, we decided to walk to walking/shopping street. Nathan finally bought a pair of leather gloves that he had been wanting, and I bought... nothing! It's amazing!

After some time walking around, Nathan and I decided it was time to head back. We bid Will and his friend farewell and hopped in a mian bao che. The ride back was yet again bumpy, but farely uneventful.

We spent a few hours being lazy and just hanging out at the apartment. We knew we would be going out for the evening but we weren't sure who would be joining us. I had developed a bit of a tummy ache due to eating unfamiliar food, but luckily Nik was kind enough to provide me with pepto.

Nik, Nathan, and I headed to a noodle restaurant for dinner. My stomach was still bothering me, so I didn't eat much, but they were definitely some of the most delicious noodles I have ever eaten. I was so sad that I couldn't eat more than a few, but I have plans to return there when I am next in Nanchang. After eating, we hopped in a mian bao che and headed into town. We were dropped off near the Star Walk, a street with all of the night clubs. After bouncing from club to club to see where was the best to spend the evening, we settled on Grammy. Unhappy with the table they gave us, they brought us out an even bigger table from storage, which fit our needs perfectly.

After a few minutes sitting around waiting for people to show up, Stewart and Cici finally arrived. We ordered drinks and the fun began. Mostly it was your typical night club evening, drinking and dancing, a few awkward pictures, new Chinese friends. Good times.


We headed to Stewart's bar after Grammy to hang out and talk to people. One of the gentlemen there, Bruce, told me about an interesting position at wine company that's opened up and tomorrow I shall get more information about it. Could be interesting.

We headed out after a couple hours at Stewart's. We got back around 3:30am. Nathan and I spent most of today sleeping and watching movies, nothing eventful. We did almost manage to miss my train though I made it with barely enough time.

On the train I met two students who attend my school and the father of a student at my school. He was an incredibly interesting man who speaks English relatively fluently. He was an English teacher for 10 years and now works as a translator. He offered me Chinese lessons which I plan to take him up on, for sure.

Now I'm off to bed. Only two more weeks of school!


P.S. Just did a google search of my name and pulled up this, from a class I took at UNT.

The busiest bee

Again. Busy, busy.
Nanchang this weekend.

No update. Too busy.
xoxo

Right, so....

I will hold on to Mom and Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas presents until I see them.

As of right now, I'm planning to go to Hong Kong to meet Grandma and Grandpa. However, I still don't know what my schedule looks like, so I can't guarantee it. I do wish they were a bit more organized about it all, but what can ya do?

I had a great class today. The kids really responded to the pronunciation stuff. They tried to ask me about the phonetic alphabet... but I was clueless. Sorry kids, but this squiggly line inside these two straight lines doesn't mean a thing to me. We overcame this barrier, though, and I think they really learned something helpful today. I even saw some girls taking notes. Success.

Jennifer and I just got back from a highly successful shopping trip. Well, successful for me, anyways. I got some of the final Christmas presents that I need. I also bought a beautiful coat which I bargained them down from 388 to 88. Not a bad way to go at all. Tomorrow we're going to wrap up the Christmas shopping as much as possible as both our wallets and ourselves need a little break.

The Christmas cards are almost finished and today I found envelopes. They will be mailed soon. Perhaps when I go to Nanchang as I'll need Nathan's Chinese skills, or I'll talk to Hamlin or Sophie. Either way, they will be mailed.

I'm off to add the 'L' sound to my power point. Can't believe I left that out.

Just so you know...

Your gifts will probably be late since I haven't mailed them yet. Sorry. In fact, I haven't even bought most of them yet! I haven't been too good about my Christmas shopping this year.


What I do have though is pretty brilliant, and you should all look forward to your awesome presents. Jenna's is all finished and waiting to be mailed, as is Lindsey's, Pat's, Grandpa's, Rache and Brit's, and Tess's. Except I'm not mailing Tess's because we agreed to have mom just act as a courier for us so we could save some money. Haha.
That leaves me:
Grandma, Nana, Dad, Renee, Isaac, Mom, Jeff, Kelly, Lauren, Nathan, and Nathan's parents. Actually, that isn't too bad at all.

I'm getting baby stuff for Liz, but I'll hold off on mailing that until Mom and I go to Beijing during spring festival as I'm sure they have a ton of cute stuff there for babies.

Christmas is for being broke.


Today I taught my secretary's about birthday traditions. This week we're concentrating on pronunciation.
Next week we're doing slang. The week after that is finals. The week after that is our last week, and since I have Christmas and Boxing day off, it's not a full week, so we'll just be making Christmas cards. Huzzah. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I'm still not sure what to do for my final exams. I'm thinking I'll just have them write a poem, song, or skit to perform. That would be easiest (for me... no papers to grade!).

Speaking of papers. Crap. You do not even need to know this, but there are about 1000 dialogues sitting on my windowsill waiting to be graded... and they probably won't be. I think I'll just take a certain number and grade them on those. Eh. I don't know yet.

Twenty-four days until Christmas! (I can say that, because it's night time here.)

I totally get to celebrate Christmas a day before you do. Bwahaha.

Turkey Day Deux

Jennifer and I had a rather pleasant Thanksgiving day meal at the S(mile) & N(ice) Hotel. I ate duck in place of turkey, although I'm not much of a fan. I also had sushi, potato salad, eggplant, and Thai spicy soup. Tasty, but not so traditional.


Nathan came up this weekend and I busted out the Thanksgiving food mom had sent to me. We had green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, turkey, gravy, and stuffing, corn, and peas. All made in the wonder that is the microwave. It was pretty darn tasty too.


We spent most of the weekend doing our usual dvd shopping and watching, eating, and being lazy.

I've just spent a few hours putting together a couple power point presentations on birthday's and pronunciation for my kiddos. I'll try them out tomorrow on my secretary's.

Feeling better, though I did wake up to a coughing fit last night due to a ridiculously itchy throat. I am, however, recovered for the most part. Mild phlegm in the back of the throat.

Just had a nice skype with mom to hash out our plans for her trip here. Looks like Beijing and Harbin are a go. We're going to freeze our butts off.

Bed for me!

You don't have to read this...

I've just been perusing the online goods since I'm DONE GRADING MIDTERMS! Huzzah.

New things that I heart can be found here (burgundy), here (magenta), here, here (red), here (teal) (black) (burgundy), here (red) (magenta) (grey), here, here, here (red) (teal), and here.

I'm ready for Nathan to be here.

And I'm still sick. Awful.

And everyone ate pie... except Jessica

Why is there no pie in China?!?!

I got lots of nice 'Happy Thanksgiving' text messages from my students today. It's nice to know they care.

I'm posting pictures of my secretary's hand turkeys, and some pictures of my BE3 class working on their hand turkeys. This has ended up being a really fun project, and you should hear their gasps of surprise as I hand out the colored pencils. Pretty funny.


My kids have been giving me copies of the school photos we took also. I love it! Please take note of how I am one of the few who is smiling. To the right of me is Max, he's my co-teacher and helps me out with stuff, and to my left is Hanz, head of the English department. This is my BE3 class in it's entirety. I have them split into two different classes though, so it's not quite so overwhelming as it appears.


Remember how I said that Jennifer, Cary, and I were going down to David's pizza place to take pictures for his brochure? Well Jennifer and I went in there the other day and were asked if it was us who was on this brochure by a customer, and it was! We got copies:
Why he chose this awful picture of all of us, I have no idea. I look like an alien or something. Freaky.

We're still not really sure what the dates are that we'll be getting out of school/starting the new semester. I hope we find out soon, I'm on the verge of burnout.

My laptop is pretty dead. I've installed all the stuff I can, but it shuts itself off after a maximum of 5 minutes being on. It's not the blue screen of death anymore, just... death. I can't get the battery to charge, and since that's a new (for the most part) battery, it's got to be the laptop itself which is at issue and not the battery.
I have decided I'm going to buy myself a new laptop next year, after mom has visited and we've gone on our trip. I'm leaning towards the Lenovo Ideapad S10. It comes with a built in camera, is light (only 3lbs), easy to carry, and comes in pink. I'm also going to get an external harddrive since all my pictures and powerpoints are on the computer the school has provided for me. Factoring in how long it will take me to save, I'll be looking to get the notebook around March. I am still keeping in mind that I would prefer a mac, but at this point, it's unnecessary, and a smaller laptop would do just fine and also be much cheaper.

I'm sick, which is unpleasant. Nathan, Jennifer, and Cary have all managed to give me whatever they have. My throat has been sore for the past couple days, and lecturing hasn't been helping. Hopefully it will be better by next week, because we're doing pronunciation which means I'll need to be able to talk for the full two hours. I also have that snot that doesn't come out your nose but gets stuck in the back of your throat. I know you wanted to know that.

It's pretty terrible to hear about Mumbai. My heart goes out to everyone there and who has been affected. I hope that Grandma and Grandpa will be safe on their trip!

Hopefully I'll finish my Christmas card painting this weekend. Nathan will be here though, so I can't promise that will happen.

Right, I'm going to grade some papers, and if I have time, see if Jennifer wants to go to the S&N Hotel for some buffet dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I'm jealous you get to eat pie and turkey and pie and more pie......

No update

Too many papers to grade tonight.

xoxo

Everyone is thankful for the food and their parents

Jennifer and I just got back from eating at New York pizza. I had a long island iced tea, but it was a bit strong.

I taught Thanksgiving again today to BE3. This is what they are thankful for:

"I am thankful that my parents love me! I love them, too. Also thank you, Jessica! Because you give us the chance to paint the Turkey. I like painting very interesting!"

"I am thankful for my family, my teachers, my friends, and all the people who help me!"

"I am thankful for my partent give me wonderful life and my teachers' and friends' helps. I love them loves."

"I am thankful for my mother of giving me live and love, for giving me too much."

It's been a pretty uneventful day. I bought new paint brushes which will make the Christmas card painting much easier, since before I only had three paintbrushes and the bristles were splitting.

Crap. I have a ton of papers to grade. Better get going.

Gots so much to do.....

I have to grade papers and work on Christmas cards, so this will be brief.

Had a great time making hand turkeys with my secretary's today. They seemed to really enjoy my Thanksgiving lesson, we did tongue twisters, arts and crafts, and talked about what we're thankful for. Good times.

I'll take pictures of their turkeys soon.

My secretary's are thankful for:

"I am thankful for my parents! I want to do my best and make them happy."

"I'm thankful for God. thankful for Love from my parents and friends thankful for teachers who teach me many things. Thankful for everything. I'm happy."

"I am thankful for parents gives my life."

"I am thankful for you teached our draft the largest turky. This day I am very happy and wish you can teach our more useful things."

After class I took more pictures with my BE1 kids. Then had some rest and relaxation before heading to the art store to get more supplies.

Now it's dinner time along with grading midterm papers. I have to work on my Christmas cards too.


Man.. that Thanksgiving food sure looks tempting.

The truth is...

It was a great weekend but went by too quickly.
Nathan and I took a couple of his friends to eat Thai food. They didn't seem to like it that much. Shame. We also went to Metro to do a little shopping. I bought a Christmas stocking and a new dvd player. It's working great so far, I'm enjoying the 4400.

We went out Saturday night, but it was pretty low key. Just a few drinks with Nikolai, Peter, and Nik's girlfriend.

I'm looking forward to next weekend. Seeing Nathan again and enjoying a Thanksgiving feast. It will be delightful.

Nathan and I have been debating about where we'll live next year. It's looking like either Jiujiang or Nanchang. We want to live together again, but we both like our schools and areas. Quite the dilemma. We still have plenty of time to decide though.


May I just say? Gorgeous! Beautiful! Umm Yes!
I've got some Christmas cards to work on.

Can you ask me an easier question?

Tonight was the last round of speeches. One of my students, Ivan, gave presentation about a laptop. He was a great salesman, I want one now! And they're only 3999rmb. Not bad at all. If I can find one, I'm all over that. We only had 11 presenters and I didn't ask a single question the entire time. They kept looking at me, but there was really nothing to ask. Everyone did pretty well, and those who didn't, well, I wasn't really able to decipher what they were saying anyways.

Tomorrow we take pictures! I guess I'll have to make an effort to dress nicely. I'm thinking about chopping my bangs since they're down to my chin now. I have some scissors around here somewhere...

I did some more online 'shopping' today. I.e. I went online and put things in my online shopping cart to see how much I would spend. (Note: nothing was actually purchased.) Walmart is having a fabbo clearance sale. Want to see my goodies?
Even if you don't, tough, this is my blog.

You can check out the goods here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
All that goodness for only $51. Free shipping too. Nice.

Then I meandered over to Target to check out the clearance there. (You do know that if I was in the states right now I would be in the actual stores anyways, right?)
Found some more fabbo goodies you can see here , here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Total was $42.41. Not bad at all.

Why do I love shopping so much? I think it's because I'm a bit bored here. Plus I have no friends who want (operative word here) to go shopping with me. Perhaps another reason to move to a bigger city next year.

Class interviews/midterms went well today. I have many students who want to own their own business someday, mostly selling clothes. One student wants to own a car factory. A couple want to be fashion designers. All very interesting stuff.

Tomorrow I head down to Nanchang. Very exciting indeed!

Be a miracle...

Speech contest went better. They didn't badger me to ask questions this evening. I did ask a couple questions and I made the poor girl so nervous she couldn't answer the question anyways. One of my students got first or second place though, which was fantastic. She's a really great speaker and did fabulously on her midterm today as well.

I found these 'cup' soups at the store awhile back and have just started trying them. The tomato one is delicious and goes really well with a grilled cheese. Yum.

I've been doing pretty well at fighting my desire to go shopping lately. Ok... that's not true, I went shopping yesterday, but for Christmas presents! Not for myself! I really want a couple more pairs of boots though... and some sweaters. I've been 'windows' (ahahaha... get it? windows... like... never mind) shopping at the Forever 21 website. I pretty much love everything at their store.
I hate clothes shopping in China (purse and shoe shopping are another story). Nothing fits here, at least not in Jiujiang. I can't wait to go to Beijing and hit the Pearl Market. Get some jeans, polo's, purses. Mom and I most definitely will be heading there, I think.

I started painting Christmas cards today. I had a few disasters but a couple of them turned out cute. They're nothing fancy, but better than anything else offered over here.

The other day I bought a few new pens and today I discovered that one of them says, "Welcome to the terrific horrific teenage world." It's my new favorite.

Tomorrow I have two classes, plus the last day of the speech competition. Looks like it's going to be a busy day, but I like those.

Somewhere in the distance I can hear fireworks. Just so long as they're not right outside my window, I'm okay with them. Nathan told me I should throw water out my window onto them next time they shoot them off, but when they're that close to the window, perhaps it's just a better idea to keep it shut.

My brain is tired. I just spent an hour and a half trying to decipher what these speakers were saying, so I'm going to relax and paint some more.

What did you say? I know you didn't just say that to me.

Today is Tuesday, November 18, 2008. Liiiiiiiive from Jiujiang, China, your host, Jeeeeeeeessica.


Day one of midterms went okee-dokee. To say it was a success may be a bit much, but everyone was 'interviewed', papers were turned in, and we watched Mama Mia.
The only naughty thing my students did today was leave class early. Um... no, I didn't say you could leave early. Especially with the inspectors here! !@#$%$@#!!!! What are you thinking?!?! They're going to get an earful next week. The ladies who did stay got a nice bonus on their midterm exam.

Jennifer and I went lunching at McD. Their curry nuggets are just too hard to resist. We did a good thing though, and walked back to campus. I bought some Christmas card making supplies, so look for those in your mailbox in December. Addresses are welcome and needed.

This evening I judged a speech contest. Now this was an interesting experience. First of all, I was told I would have to ask no questions which was good because I couldn't understand but three or four words out of the students mouths who were giving speeches.
Then... after 8 students had finished their presentations, all of a sudden one of the commentators comes up to me and tells me I have to ask questions! WHAT?! Ok, so let's get down why this is not fair. First of all, there were 6 other judges besides me, the teachers of these students. They had alllllll gotten copies of the students speeches a few weeks ahead of the competition so that they could come up with questions to ask. Jessica got NO COPIES.
Reason number two, the students read from their power points which were also about as understandable as their speeches. I'm supposed to come up with questions from that? Are you joking?
And finally, the students speeches were three minutes long or less. Three minutes or less of incomprehensable speech does not give me much to work with, if anything at all.

I managed to ask one question to a student I could understand, and the second question I asked was CORRECTING the question of a teacher. And the student still couldn't answer it.

The head honcho came up to me after the contest and told me I should be prepared for tomorrow. Excuse me? I know you did not just tell me to be prepared. How about you be prepared by having a copy of the speeches for me? Hmmm? Tomorrow I may tell him where to stick it. Then walk out.

I was considering staying here another year, but I must admit that this certainly makes me question that. Nathan's school is looking more and more tempting after all. Plus the added bonus of us being able to live together again. We'll see how tomorrow night goes.

Best dinner yet

I just made grilled cheese sandwiches with onions melted into the cheese and cold lettuce on them. Absolutely delicious.

I'm watching Stick It. I forgot how funny and cheesy this movie is. I love it.

Taught my secretary's job interview stuff today. They seemed to have fun and we laughed a lot in class. It was a nice, relaxed interview.

Tomorrow Cary and I are judging some presentation by the Trade kids. Apparently that's the plan for the next couple days.

Midterms start tomorrow! Exciting!


Do you like the new layout?

An update

This weekend was very nice. Nathan came up from Nanchang, arriving around 8:30pm at my apartment. We were both tired from teaching that day, so we decided to have a quiet night in, watching movies instead of going to a club.

The next morning we woke up relatively early and lazed about until we decided to go downtown for pizza and to hit the arcade. We ate our fill then decided to go to the dvd store, as this is our usual practice when Nathan is in Jiujiang. On our way to walking street we saw huge crowds of people, they were all watching a presentation being put on by a photography studio. Nathan and I found a picture that we both liked, a sort of 1930's Shanghai gangster look, and agreed that when we get engaged that will be our engagement photo. It was pretty awesome. We also saw a man selling furs on the street, which was really sad. All from endangered animals too. Nathan told the man that he liked the furs better on the animal. When we finally made it to the dvd store I bought Sleeping Beauty (the Disney version), Wall-E, Wanted, Mama Mia, and Hancock. I think that I will show Mama Mia next week to my students during midterms, because they really seem to love musicals.
It was a really nice temperature outside so we decided to walk around walking street. We meandered into the arcade we had visited a few weeks ago, and entertained some of the local kids by playing a kill the zombies type of game then some basketball. We did manage to beat the zombie game, although I think perhaps is was more a game of how much money do you have (you have to pay if you die and want to come back to life to keep playing) than a game of skill.
We walked home from downtown, taking a route I had never walked before. Luckily we managed to find our way back. Earlier we had decided we wanted burritos for dinner, so we stopped at Lian Sheng to stock up on tomatoes, lettuce, onions, and spices. The fresh produce was so cheap! We were still full when we got back so we watched Narnia 2, and Smart People so we could finish digesting the pizza from earlier.
Making the burritos turned out to be interesting since I didn't have a can opener. Nathan eventually busted the can open with a swiss army knife type thing. Luckily he didn't hurt himself! I think we didn't end up eating the burritos until midnight, but they were delicious!

Nathan left today. Since it's midterms week, I really don't have anything to prepare. I went to an art store with Nathan and stocked up on supplies for Thanksgiving week. I'm going to have my students make hand turkeys and write down something they are thankful for. It's tradition!

Oh! Yesterday I got a package from Leslie for my birthday with the book Three Cups of Tea in it. I'm pretty excited to read it, and I know Nathan is too. I also received a package from mom containing what will, at some point, be delicious Thanksgiving food. Apparently a container of fruit broke open during shipping, alarming the Chinese customs agents who consequently opened the box, took note of the items in the box, then taped it all shut with their official tape before sending it on to me. The broken container of fruit was still in there, just drained of all the syrup which usually preserves it. Ah well.

Cary is going to check with the S&N hotel to see if they will have a Thanksgiving buffet. It's unlikely, but we're keeping our fingers crossed.

Next weekend I'll be in Nanchang. I'm going to see if Pearl wants to do some Thanksgiving shopping with me, so I can pick up a can opener and anything else I may want to add to my feast.

I'm off to watch Wanted.

Dvd, Dvd, Dvd

I've had quite a bit of fun teaching job interview stuff to my kids this week. They all enjoy learning how to shake hands and how to answer interview questions.

I've been missing trapeze a lot lately. I have not a clue in the world how I would go about trying to find a trapeze here though. I'm guessing I would have to get one in the US then have it shipped here.

Jennifer and I went dvd shopping today. Found some good stuff, a few new shows to watch when I finish the 4400. I also got Jenna's Christmas present, which was good.

Meh. Sleepy.

A Good Evening

I've finished Boston Legal now and have moved on to the 4400. I'm a bit sad Boston Legal is all finished with.

This evening Jenn, Cary, and I went to the pizza place to take pictures for David's flier. Except... David is in Beijing and there was much confusion about what was supposed to be done. We took some silly pictures with his staff which will most likely have to be re-done upon his return. I probably blinked in more than half of them. I also had a Chinese child put in my lap a couple times, but she was just adorable, so that wasn't so bad.
Then we headed to Lian Sheng so that Jennifer could get juice. I bought bread and candy, because that's all I eat anymore other than McDonalds and pizza.... and curry.... and velveeta. Surprisingly I've lost weight being here.....

Cary and I decided to go to Le Nest to see if it was as crowded as everyone was saying it was. It was. We threw back a couple Buds, then were invited to the table of some new Chinese 'friends', one of whom I think may have been the owner of the club. We shared some drinks with them before departing.

I'm heading back to Le Nest on Friday because they're having a foreign DJ come in to perform and I have high hopes he'll be quite good. The DJ this evening wasn't bad though, and we only had to listen to three songs sung by a Chinese performer.

My ears are still ringing and I'm feeling a bit topsy turvey so I'm going to drink some water and head to bed.

I rather do enjoy going out for a drink on weeknights.

P.S. SSDD3: Deadjournal has hatred for me and won't let me post on your blog. Just wanted to say good luck in your search for a dog, and be sure to check out pure breed rescue dogs too. :)

Eat, sleep, repeat....

Nanchang was largely uneventful. Nathan and I ate a lot of Thai food, partied with friends, and watched a lot of tv. That really sums it all up.

Today I taught job interview information. It went over relatively well, although I'm not sure how much they absorbed. I was exhausted all day which was unfortunate, but I've napped now, so perhaps that won't be the case tomorrow. We did practice hand shakes and I made everyone shake my hand. Girls here have wimpy hand shakes, haha, so I had to toughen them up. It was funny and they all enjoyed it.

Tomorrow Jenn and I are going down to Davids to take pictures with his staff for some fliers he's having made. Hopefully he'll treat us to a free bbq chicken pizza in return. Yum, yum.

I believe that I've caught up on my e-mails now.

I also finished Pride and Prejudice, so I'm off to start the book mom bought me for my birthday. I'm rather in the mood for more books from that era now, I've finally grown to appreciate them. Plus, Pride and Prejudice must be one of the most romantic books ever written. *Swoon*



Much love.

Returned

I am returned from Nanchang, but rather busy making my job interview power point. I shall have to update about the weekend at a later point. Suffice to say, it was a good one.

Goodnight!

Quickie...

Just a quick entry before I run to the train station.

Since I shall not be returning to the US of A this coming summer, I've decided to plan a trip.

Right now my plan is to go to Sichuan where I want to see the new panda reserve, then on to Tibet, eventually ending up in Bhutan where I want to see the Taktshang Monastery.

I've found a new blog which is a good read: http://bryceandmallory.blogspot.com/
Definitely check it out, their travels sound amazing.

That is all.

Well then.....

I give up on trying to teach references, they don't get it.

I'm off to Nanchang for the weekend, and since class has been canceled for me on Monday, I shan't be back until Monday evening. I know you'll all be sad not to have updates.

I don't look forward to teaching all day tomorrow.

I got nothin'.


P.S. Yes, size small. :)

Also... I would like the Twilight books for Christmas.

Obama!

Well, today history was made. Obama was elected president. It's so crazy and wonderful all at the same time. I look forward to seeing some positive changes start occurring in the country now.

I was a lucky bunny today, indeed. I received not one, not two, but THREE packages from friends and family.
- Three delicious blocks of velveeta from Dad and Renee
- A gorgeous shirt and workout dvd from Lauren
-A giant box full of cookies, goldfish, cute fish shaped ice cube tray, tortilla chips, a couple somewhat moldy gourds, and granola bars from Rachel

Fabulous. I am rather spoiled. :)

Today I taught references, resumes, and cover letters. The kids just don't understand references. It seems everyone gets jobs through their guanxi (connections) and that's what they think I mean. It's been rather difficult attempting to explain that this is not how it works in the U.S. but I can't come up with a more effective way of teaching.

We got paid today which is lovely. I shall slip out to do some Christmas shopping at some point and mail those off so they get to their various destinations on time.

I think I might make myself a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner.

Updating early today.....

I'm updating early so I can have a relaxing evening watching Boston Legal.

Mom said that people have been wondering about Christmas presents (already!), so I figured I would list some things I would like and/or need:

-Contact solution - Opti Free
-Crest white strips
-Suave sweet pea and violet deodorant
-The Trapeze Diaries - Marie Carter
-The Early Arrival of Dreams : A year in China - Rosemary Mahoney
-The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver
-Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
-The Good Women of China - Xinran Xue (looks amazing!)
-I've also picked out some awesome clothes which can be seen (listed in order of would like most):
here, here, here, here, here (in lavender), here, here (in magenta), here, here, here, here (wine), here (navy/cream), here (navy), here, and here.


I was farting around on the internet reading blogs and one of them mentioned this site where you can morph your pictures with your partner to see what your children would look like. So... I did it for Nathan and I. And the results were amusing.

I don't really think they look much like us at all, but it was a fun experiment. It's unfortunate that they have inherited my large forehead. Haha. They look a little bit like aliens.

I've made it through 2 seasons of Boston Legal already. I only have four, so that stinks. It's such a good show.

Today I lectured about resumes, cover letters, and references. I'm pretty sure they still didn't get it, even though I made a power point, took two hours to explain three documents. I don't know how to get them to pay attention. I guess we'll see how they do for their midterm, they're required to bring in a copy of each when I interview them. If they get a bad grade they'll probably start paying more attention.

I'm off to loaf.

Well I was going to go to bed, but they are setting off fireworks 50 feet from my window again, so I'm going to give a quick update.

I'm sleepy.
Good times teaching my secretaries about American universities today. This week the rest of the kids are learning about cover letters, resumes, and references. So exciting.
Next week we're learning about job interviews, and the week after that are midterm exams. We live in such exciting times.

Hope everyone has been rocking the vote. I, of course, missed the deadline which is rather unfortunate.

Jennifer bought me snuggly pajamas for my birthday today. They are wonderful. I'll post a picture later.

There are really not enough hours in the day.

Goonight and good luck.

It's my party...

Nathan arrived around 8:30pm on Friday. Qiao, Jennifer, Nathan, and I (dressed as an angel) immediately headed to Le Nest (a club) to meet David who was already there holding a table for us. The place was packed! It was a rather grand time in which we danced and stood for many hours. I even ended up breaking a heel! Good times indeed.





The next day we slept in rather late. We decided to go dvd shopping and have McDonalds for lunch. Tasty. We were pretty successful in our dvd shopping and came away with some good finds, including Teeth.
We headed to the pizza place with Jennifer and Sophie around 6:30pm. Hamlin dropped off a gift for me, but unfortunately couldn't stay. David also had plans, so it was just the four of us. It still ended up being fun, and I'm glad I got to experience Sophie trying pizza for the first time.


We went to the grocery store after pizza because I wanted spaghetti sauce, but didn't find anything.
We returned to the apartment where we bid goodbye to Jenn and Sophie. Nathan and I spent the rest of the night watching movies.

Today was my actual birthday and I spent it alone for the most part watching Boston Legal and playing on the internet. I opened my gifts before Nathan left this morning, and I got some great stuff.



Sophie and her friend came over for about half an hour to make me long life noodles for my birthday which were delicious. She also brought me a nice cactus.


Cary was also kind enough to bring me a small cake and nice umbrella.

Now I've got to make up a lesson for tomorrow and continue working on my laptop. It's quasi-working at this point. Thanks again for the disks, Grandpa.