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.