三峡

This week was the National Holiday and the whole country gets a week off work, so me and 7 of my friends went through the famous Three Gorges, that my University is named after. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is my holiday:The day before we left I got this most wonderful package from my parents, my CHACOS, crisco (so I can make pumpkin pie!!), ranch dressing mix, maple and brown sugar oatmeal, kettle corn, cocoa (so I can make no bake cookies :), the best gum in the world, and vanilla. It was the best day of my life.And the best part was getting to spend time with my wonderful friends. My spirit is always refreshed and encouraged by being around them.

If you've ever played Nertz, you know that it can be an intense and sometimes downright vicious game...well six Americans are enough to draw a crowd anywhere in China, but six Americans playing Nertz draws an entire boatload of curious/slightly inebriated Chinese to watch. We had an audience during the game, which made it a lot more fun, and so did the drunk guys yelling Chinese at us. All in all it was quite an experience on our "cruise" through the Three Gorges. I can only imagine how beautiful they were before the dam flooded the area.

Today I woke up to the third blue sky I've seen in 宜昌. It was glorious. Had a Good conversation with a Chinese friend, and got to praise the One who made it all.


"I have an irrepressible desire to live till I can be assured that the world is a little better for my having lived in it."
- Abraham Lincoln

我爱中国

I tried to go shoe shopping today because I realized that my black tennis shoes looked pretty tacky with my brown dress pants but when I asked for a size 40 the lady laughed at me. Chinese women have very small feet. Must be all those years of foot binding. So I wore the black tennis shoes anyway. I'm going to get stared at no matter what I do, so I may as well give them something to look at. I also had an uncommonly large number of complete strangers taking my picture today at the dam show. I don't know why you would want pictures of someone you don't know on your camera, but apparently I was more interesting than the performers. Seriously I saw more cameras pointed at us, than at the stage.

Tonight the 三峡大学 (Three Gorges University) took us on a special trip to the Three Gorges Dam, where we got to see a dam performance with lots of really talented singers and dancers and some who were very obviously not the ones singing but still pretended to, and some who made me want to shove toilet paper in my ears. Which I did. They took us to the International Hotel and fed us a fancy banquet, which as I've already mentioned are considerably inferior to street food in my humble opinion. At our table were two Chinese, two Australians, and two French people in addition to the three Americans. Here's where things get interesting. The French teachers knew very limited English but were fluent in Spanish. Elizabeth majored in Spanish in college, and I know a decent amount, so we spent the majority of the time talking in Spanish. Talk about a mixture of cultures! After eating we got to watch Jian and most of the Aussies and a few others drink baijo until they were laughing at everything and feeling really good. That's always entertaining.

After dinner we went down to the river where we got VIP seats to watch the fireworks show. If you didn't realize that the Chinese invented fireworks, rest assured that they will inform you. They are very proud, and rightfully so. It was the closest I've ever been to a show of that magnitude, and one of the better shows I've ever seen. If only I could have ignored the horrible singing they were blasting at us, I would have thoroughly enjoyed the evening. People here set off fireworks randomly all day and night, just for the heck of it. At first I thought I was hearing the freshman military training, but nope, it's the Chinese being proud of their invention. Usually it's during the day though, and I can't see them, so this was a spectacular show.


"At a time ago I am not fond of English because my English is very poor. But now when I meet you. I believe you can help me improve my English. From now on. I began fond of English and fond of you."
-one of my lovely students

P.S. I got to watch the new Office, so Josh don't worry ;)

里蒙

I've officially been a college professor for two days now, and it's been simply amazing. I was born for this job. Maybe that's jumping the gun a bit considering there's a lot of class time left in the semester, but I seriously couldn't love it more. After my first class yesterday I got this text message: "thank you for giving us a unforgetabel class,you class is as beautiful as you! you have get a sucessful start!"

Today two of my students texted me and asked for help. When I got to the library I found out that what they wanted was to introduce me to one of their friends. So I tried to take them out for smoothies at Drinking Cool, and somehow the sneaky fiends managed to pay before I could. It's so tricky to try and beat a Chinese person to the bill! I know I have more money than them but they will never let me pay. Then they invited me to Children's Park where we played bumper cars and acted like children. I had so much fun! It was just the four of us, and I wish I could describe how cute they are. My Chinese students are the most precious things... Then my new friend bought me a baby turtle because I couldn't stop staring at the little buggers. They were so cute! After that I went to dinner with my co-teacher and ate the most delicious soup my lips have ever touched. So it's been a busy day, but an oober fun one!

It's lesson planning time, but if you think of a name for my new pet turtle, leave me a comment!


"Every person ends up somewhere, but only a few people end up somewhere on purpose."
-can't remember where I plagarized that from

我是老师

Today was lovely. I met some Indian brothers who were awesome, and we all went to lunch together after an encouraging time. I've decided I absolutely love the Chinese method of eating out. Everybody decides on dishes together, and you put them in the middle and each person gets what they want from the communal dishes. It makes you feel so much closer, like family, than each person ordering their own thing. I also love the amount of vegetables they serve, and I never thought I would say this, but I love tofu. The only thing is, I looked up the health benefits of tofu, just for fun, and there are many but I discovered something distressing! The method used to make tofu from soy milk is the SAME as the method used to make cheese from real milk. WHY can't the Chinese make cheese then?????? Although speaking of milk, I will not be drinking any of that any time soon. Apparently Chinese milk is making lots of people sick. Good thing tofu has lots of calcium too!

I begin teaching tomorrow and I am SO excited! I've had some issues with my schedule, meaning that my school thinks I'm a pushover and wants me to teach more than my contract says I will. We have a great friend though, and I talked to him about it and half of the problem has been alleviated already. Hopefully the rest will be resolved tomorrow. Ask and you shall recieve.


"I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
~Henry David Thoreau

And also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

武昌 and 恩施

It's strange to me that some people were made to stay at home and some were made to wander. I'm without a doubt happier when I am traveling. Something about new people, new scenes, new places gets my blood flowing. I have a need to keep moving like some people have a need to have a family and settle down. I wonder why I am different. What is it about me that causes me to leave?

There are two types of travelers. Some people start off in the general direction of their destination and enjoy figuring things out along the way, getting a kick out of problems and obstacles. The other type wants to know every road change, when and where they will stop, and every turn. It drives them crazy to have an unknown in the schedule. I am without a doubt the first type. I feel stifled when I know exactly what I am doing ahead of time. Like there is no room for excitement, no room for adventure. The more surprises, the more fun!

I just got back from two consecutive trips, both wonderful, and both completely different. Frist I went to Wuhan with Brad and Amy and had an absolutely killer time. We were going non-stop and laughing about everything. It was a pretty much perfect trip. I may be morally opposed to Starbucks but that doesn't mean I'm strong. I went three times, and just sat for hours talking to my amazing friends. We even met a guy there, who is riding his bike around the world! I hope I'm as cool as him when I'm old. We also went lazer-tagging. All in all it would be hard to improve that weekend.

The next morning I got on a bus at 7am to Enshi to visit some of my favorite people in the world. People kept telling me to fly or to take the overnight bus so I could wake up and be there, but I am so indredibly glad I took the day bus. If China were cleaner it could be the most beautiful country in the world. Looking out the window just made me more in love with the one who made it all. My breath is taken away every time we round a corner. This trip was a lot more relaxed, partly because I was the only one going, and I never plan things to do in advance. We did an awful lot of just sitting around, either talking or reading together. It was every bit as wonderful in a totally different way. Jess let me borrow so many books, which just makes my heart happy. We had some of the best conversations I can remember having, and just encouraged each other. I could give a lot more details if anyone asks, but my fingers hurt right now so I'm going to just leave you with the cliff-notes version.

While Nate and Jess were walking me to the bus station, we ran into a girl they knew, who speaks English, and we got to talking and found out that she was on the same bus as me, going to Yichang. When we got on the bus we realized our seats were right next to each other! Tell me that was an accident... So we spent 10 hours trying to sleep but getting to talk quite a bit, and I found out that she was planning to spend from 6:30am to 1pm at the bus station waiting on her train. I refuse to let that happen, so she came home with me and got to shower, and eat, and take a nice long nap. I had to go get my residence permit and my schedule, so I feel bad because I kind of left her by herself, but she enjoyed it much more than sitting at the bus station all day half-asleep. I got my teaching schedule today, and I start on Monday, so I can't wait for that! I also met my co-teacher, and we spent a lot of today just hanging out and getting to know each other. I think we are going to be good friends!

Oh and in other news my shower broke today, so I hope Jian gets that fixed soon or he's going to have a stinky teacher to deal with and no one wants that.


"I sometimes look into the endless heavens, the cosmos of which we can't find the edge, and ask [Him] what it means. Did you really do all of this to dazzle us? Do you really keep it shifting, rolling round the pinions to stave off boredom? ...forbid Your glory would be our distraction. And ...forbid we would ignore Your glory."
-Donald Miller, Through Painted Deserts
A book which I realize I already quoted, but is a must-have on every road trip, long or short. And rest assured I will be quoting it again.

武汉

In only two short weeks it already feels like I'm leaving home to go to Wuhan. The noise of kids playing basketball outside of my apartment all day and night has become as normal as the Oklahoma wind was two weeks ago. I will miss the wrinkly and toothless folks who spread hopeful blankets of fruits and vegetables out every morning for us city folks to peruse. I hardly feel like I've been here long enough to appreciate the American jewels that cheese and coffee will be. I've noticed their absence only vaguely in the insignificant number of days since Yichang became...home.

I'll be in Wuhan until Monday, and then on Tuesday I'm heading to Enshi to visit Nate and Jess and Dave!! I'm overjoyed to see those great friends, and I'm sure they are equally joyous to receive the pasta, cheese, and movies I'm bringing them.

Today a girl helped me find some sunglasses in a store, and then told me that she wants to be friends with me, and gave me her phone number. I haven't even started teaching yet, and the number of Chinese friends I have is growing steadily. I've never met such friendly and helpful people in my life. I was playing the "ungame" with some of Zack and Elizabeth's students, when the question I drew asked, "What is your purpose in life?" What a great opportunity! I wonder if someone powerful had a hand in that.


"Everybody has to leave, everybody has to leave their home and come back so they can love it again for all new reasons."
-Donald Miller Through Painted Deserts

我叫卡铁

Here's the irony of the situation. I figured out how to make chicken noodle soup today in my apartment. Today, for the first time in four days, I can breathe, I'm only coughing occasionally, my fever is gone, and I can walk without thinking I'm going to pass out. Why oh why couldn't I have discovered this greatness one of the last four days when I felt sick every time I put something in my mouth? Sorry (Sammie) that there haven't been any updates lately. All I've done is lay in my apartment and watch movies and try not to die. Life hasn't been incredibly eventful. I'll try to do something a little more interesting for you to read about tomorrow. Maybe I'll go bungee jumping off the three gorges, I saw a place for that the other day. Just kidding Mom.