This is Cherie and I having fun at a Christmas party we had for the Chinese English teachers we work with!

On Christmas morning Andrew and I decided to make fresh squeezed orange juice for everyone by hand, we did not have a juicer. It took 48 oranges and I think I had blisters afterwards. But it was worth it for that one glass I had!!

A lot of sleeping happened Christmas day!

On our way to football

On the crowded bus!

Football

On Saturday we played a big game of football. The guy that I play tennis with every week organizes a big football game after each holiday. So he brings some guys and some of his Chinese students. We played for 2 and a half hours! It is a fun time and on my team was a Chinese student named Kobe (like Kobe Bryant b/c he loves b-ball), and he has never played football before, but he was out of control. I named him MVP of the game. This kid could run all over and catch anything. We were going for a touch down and he ran into a soccer goal caught the ball and fell through the net and still held on to the ball. He was so tangled in the net that two guys had to help him out of it. Every time he would run a play he would shout out "I will catch it" and sure enough he would show up and catch the ball out of nowhere.

We had a really fun morning and thankfully it the wind was not blowing so it was not too cold to play!!

Christmas Happenings

On Christmas Eve we had a party for our entire team at Shi Yi the school that is about 30 minutes from us. They warned us that it will be really really hard to find a cab on Christmas Eve b/c a lot of people are coming into our district for a Christmas Eve service and it is also rush hour. So four of us left really early in order to get there on time. I had to take 4 two liters of pop and the other girls had dishes of baked goods. We waited outside for 45 minutes for cab, and we were freezing so we called the Shi Yi people and found a bus number that we could take. The only problem was the bus was the most commonly used bus and it was rush hour. It was SOO crowded, after we got on there was a man standing on the street with his arms stretched out shoving people into the bus so that he could get on, and the bus driver was yelling b/c he could not shut the doors. It was insane. Then this sweet Chinese lady started talking to us in English and helped us figure out what stop to get off on, and she told us we had to move to the other end of the bus in order to get off. Well I could not even move my arms let alone walk to the other end of the bus. So she took my arm and started pulling us through the bus, she was hitting people with pop. It was unreal. The bus was really hot and stuffy and one of the girls with us was not feeling well, and the bus was really jerky, and the girl threw up but held it in her mouth for 10 minutes until we got off the bus (sorry for the details but it was unreal).

We finally got off and thankfully there was a cab right next to the bus stop that we were able to take the rest of the way. But when we got in the cab we did not know where to go b/c the directions are complicated to get to Shi Yi. So I called someone and figured out the directions but as we were nearing the school I could not remember which gate was right so I told the cab driver to stop like 3 times and then go again and he was so entertained by my mistakes, he would laugh every time I messed up. We finally made it to the right place an hour and 45 minutes after we left our school.

Once we got there it was great and we had a lot of fun and ate a lot of good food.

Christmas:

Christmas day was great, we had a gift exchange in the morning with brunch. Then in the afternoon all of us are either sick or exhausted from a crazy week with activities with students that we all napped all afternoon and then ate dinner together. It was a relaxing really enjoyable Christmas here in Beijing. Although, it did not really feel like Christmas but it was still a fun day. We ended the day watching the nativity story (the movie) and it was a great reminder of why we celebrate Christmas.

Our awesome crooked Christmas tree in our apartment. Notice the box I got in the mail and how it isn't open, I am waiting until Christmas, and it has been soo hard.

Marley from the Christmas Carol

Christmas Time Christmas Time... I can't wait for Christmas Time!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

I just finished my classes on this beautiful Christmas Eve day. I get Thursday and Friday off of school. Then I only have to teach Monday and Tuesday of next week and I am done for a month and a half!

You might be wondering, how do you celebrate Christmas in China, a country that does not celebrate Christmas. Great question! We have actually had so much fun getting ready for Christmas. Every Tuesday during my office hours we do Christmas crafts, and this week in class we explain why we celebrate Chrismtas, which is a great time for us to share with our students the "true" meaning of Christmas. On our team we do a gift exchange and I am spending today doing last minute shopping. I am on a search for wrapping paper, it is kind of scarce here.

Our entire team is having a party tonight (Christmas eve). We will have lots of food, games, singing, and movies. Then tomorrow we spend with our smaller team at each individual school and do our gift exchanges. We are having brunch and singing and spending time together tomorrow.

Other Christmas fun:

It has been really really cold here. This weekend it was in the negative and a very bad windchill. Walking and riding your bike in the cold with wind is like torture, but it makes for a good work out b/c we ride and walk extra extra fast. And I am so thankful for having McDonald's all over b/c they have really good cheap hot chocolate!

Last night Micah Chambers and Colleen Derry's drama classes at Ren Da performed their dramas they have been working on all semester. One did Sherlock Holmes and the other did a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. They were really good, but it was hilarious to see Chinese students do a Christmas Carol. It was fun to watch.

Cookies everywhere

Laura and I are making Christmas crafts during our office hours every Tuesday. So far we have made red and green paper chains and snowflakes. For this week we thought we would make cookies in the office with students (b/c most of them have no idea what baking is) however we realized that would be chaos. So we decided to make enough cookies the night before.

We got some Christmas cookie cutters from Jana, but we did not start baking until after our meeting on Monday, so we did not start to make cookies until 9:30 at night and we had planned on making 200 christmas cut out cookies.

Thankfully, we were able to borrow some toaster ovens, so we had three ovens going, but we did not realize how long it would take to roll and cut the dough. We finished by 1am but we did have a lot of decapitated gingerbread men, elves and Santa Clause b/c we were using a coffee table to roll out the dough on and it was not very big, but our kitchen is even smaller. So we blame the oddly formed cookies on our work environment.

It turned out great. We had red and green icing the kids could use to frost the cookies and we made them hot chocolate! It was quite a hit and the kids loved it!! Most kids have never had sugar cookies before. And it was great b/c we invited all our classes to come to the office and we were able to get some of our students to come to the office for the first time!

Oh SH**

My senior students are giving commercials for their last speech b/c it uses persuasive speaking and informative speaking together. And they get to have a lot of fun making up creative speeches!

Anyways, my last class went today and this kid got up there and started giving his speech and kept using the word Sh**. The amazing thing was he did not seemed phased by it (the Chinese students definitely know the English curse words)and was just going on with his speech. At first I could not understand what he was saying, but that can be a usual thing. I have some students who can give an entire speech and I never figure out their topic by the end. This kids english was not very good, and about half way through the speech the kids and I realized what he is saying and we are all laughing b/c he is just using the word every five seconds, and you can tell by this point he does not know what he was saying. Finally he stops and asks what is wrong and they tell him. He turned bright red and apologized over and over again to me.

Now I have two problems 1. I still don't know what his speech was on and I don't think he finished but it was to crazy at the moment 2. How do you grade a speech when all you could understand is the word Sh**

Shady business

I just purchased 5 tickets to Malaysia for my friends and I over the spring festival. The travel agent lady told me a car will arrive in front of our school on Wednesday and I can meet the man and give him all my money and he will give me the tickets. This sounds pretty shady. I will be carrying an envelope with a lot of money it and getting into an unknown car. Oh the things I do in China!

The first picture is of me waiting to go outside. If you cannot tell I have three pairs of pants on and 3 shirts, and once I am outside the scarf turns into a face protector.

The second picture is of a bunch of us standing and freezing waiting for the bus.

Bicycle menace!!

So everytime I go out to my bike there is always new trash in my basket, and it is almost a game now, waiting to see what new items will be in my basket. However, that was funny but someone has crossed the line, I went out last weekend to get on my bike and a biker was coming at me so I went to ring my bell, and when I flipped the flicker there was no sound. I look down and someone ripped the bell off of my bike!! How mean! So now I ride around saying DING, DING, DING, but people only look and laugh at me. So I really just need to brave the cold and go to the bike store and buy myself a new bell. I had no idea how much I used it until I did not have one. They are very important b/c people are always walking out in front of you or cars pulling next to you.

It is officially WINTER!

I complained all four years of college b/c the wind was bad when I walked around Cedar Lake. Well I take all of that complaining back b/c I really had not experienced what a cold winter is. Winter has come to Beijing and it is cold, but the cold is not always the problem it is the wind that comes with the cold that is very hard to bear. To get anywhere I have to ride a bicycle and when I went to the store last week I had tears in my eyes from the wind and they froze on my cheeks, and riding into the cold wind is hard on a bicycle! Long johns could be the best invention ever! I teach in common classrooms and not the students normal classrooms and they are not heated well and the windows are stuck open right in the front of the classroom where I stand. So I teach with my winter coat on and I really want to wear my hat but figured I better not. However it does make things quite hilarious when we all bundle up with tons of layers just to go down the street for dinner.

On another note, my friend, Micah and I have been helping teach a youth group on Sunday mornings and it has been awesome. We are starting with the basics of the good book and how we know it is true and why we think it is true, and is that enough to give our lives for what it says. We have had awesome discussions with our kids, last week we did a court case and the book was on trial. They brought up such good arguments. But I am learning so much from this. Understanding the foundation for everything I hold to, it is refreshing and reassuring! Even through struggles I have seen that there is one thing in my life that is constant!

China's GOT TALENT!!

The foreign teachers were asked to help judge the auditions for the upcoming school talent show. No one else had time to go so Cherie and I decided to go and check it out. We show up and there were junior students everywhere singing and taking pictures, so we knew we were in the right place! They girl in charge gave us the papers on how to judge the contestants, things like performance, tone, pitch, basic, and so on. At first we thought we were the only judges and were positive we were not qualified b/c we do not understand Chinese, however, other girls showed up to judge as well.
So China does not have as much talent as I thought in the junior section. There were some good voices but the acts were a little rough.

My favorite act was the group of 5 boys and 2 girls. The girls sang a song while the boys held hands and swayed behind him.

Also, one rather chubby boy got up and sang alone a very high pitched love song with absolutely no emotion.

My favorite was group of boys who did a rap using a broom and beating each other up.

Check out

My picture website for new pictures of thanksgiving and my birthday! http://picasaweb.google.com/oadolph

FOOTBALL!!

This is me after two Thanksgivings and I was completely full but still trying to eat more apple crisp.

Thanksgiving!!

My Thanksgiving started Tuesday night when my roommate and I peeled and cut 45 potatoes because we were suppose to provide the mashed potatoes. We filled 8 mixing bowls with pieces of sliced potatoes. Our team’s thanksgiving meal was on Wednesday. Cherie and I started cooking potatoes at about 3:30. We had four hot plates of boiling potatoes, and thankfully we had some help stirring and mixing. I never knew how great hand blenders are until I had to mash and mix all our potatoes. I woke up the next day with a sore arm. The potatoes got done right on time, and we had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner, with all the traditional foods except turkey! It was soo delicious to eat so many familiar foods from home. After eating our team spent the evening playing games and relaxing, it was a great day. I ended the night by watching a movie in bed with a bunch of other people (it is great having a huge bed).
The next morning we had a football game, we had four teams of 7 playing and played for about 2 and half hours and it was great. It was a chilly morning but great for football! The rest of the day a couple other girls and I prepared another thanksgiving dinner for the 3 american kids that go to school here. So we got to have two amazing meals in a row. It amazes me that I made whole thanksgiving dinner in a toaster oven without all the ingredients I needed and everything turned out tasty and nothing was burnt (Erica I wish you were here so you could have witnessed my sweet cooking skills!). It was quite the experience cooking a large meal in a toaster oven with only one hot plate. The only thing that did not turn out so well was the pie crust I tried to make, I used so much butter that when we cooked the pumpkin pie it was floating in a pool of butter. However, the pie still tasted good!
Thanksgiving night we put up our Christmas tree and played games while listening to Christmas music. I love the holidays!!!!