Scratchy Towels and Spiders

This afternoon as I sat my desk working on one of my assignments I looked up in the corner of the large window facing out to the balcony and exclaimed, “Alas! I've been expecting you!”

To give you a bit of background, over the course of the 3½ months I’ve lived here I have had my fair share of bug infestations. Spiders happened to be highest ranking on the leader board of creepy visitors and I have taken to naming them so as to keep track of them. This particular spider went by the name Karl and he was the son of Simon (the only spider I befriended who tragically died). Karl had been making me quite anxious and as made his home on my balcony, where clothes hung to dry. Fearful that he would either hide in my clothes or make his way inside, my trips out the balcony were brief in nature.

So as I sat there, staring at the silhouette of Karl, I had been long awaiting this moment for him to encroach on my sovereignty and thus convict himself to death. So I grabbed the broom from the kitchen, put on a pair of hard-bottomed shoes, and sang my best version of the Survivor theme song as I sent Karl to a “better place” (aka not in my apartment).

I’m tempted to say that life is hard here. But the truth is that life is inconvenient. I am used to the luxuries of hot water, heaters/air-conditioning, spider-infestation free living and a particular amount of certainty in the way food is handled. But these are just that...luxuries. Every moment I am frustrated by the speed bumps of no electricity, internet or water for a day or more or by sickness from the water or food, I am reminded that I have no right to these things.

Back home I have a sense of entitlement. I live by the basic American principles that every person has the right to life, liberty and high speed internet. Thus it’s easy to get frustrated when I find myself coexisting with spiders or the reality that dryers do not exist in this whole town. I am learning to appreciate things here—to enjoy the speed bumps and slow moments. When my electricity goes out it is an invitation to spend time with friends outdoors. When I kill the multitude of spiders it is an opportunity to grow in my swiftness, ability to sing Survivor, and bring me one step closer to my dream of becoming Indiana Jones. These moments help me to see myself in a proper way: wholly undeserving of luxuries, conveniences and even to have today.

International Celebrity

It is not an uncommon thing for businesses here to want foreigners to advertise for them--to give them a sort of "international vibe," I suppose. As you ascend the escalator to the local grocery store, on either side are blown up pictures of foreigners jubilantly shopping for produce. The foreigners in town and I joke that "ALL the foreigners shop at this grocery store!" But the truth is there are only a handful of foreigners in the whole town.

Thus I wasn't too surprised when I got a call from the Dean asking my neighbor (another foreigner) and I to join him at a restaurant to help them advertise. I immediately asked, "Is this for a commercial?!" He assured me it wasn't, it was simply a new restaurant in town that wanted foreigners to eat at their establishment to give them the "international vibe." This also wasn't unheard of, so I complied.

When we arrived to this mysterious restaurant, it had turned out that wasn't a new restaurant at all. It was nearly 10 years old. As we walked inside I was surprised to find it was quite a fancy establishment. Relieved that it wasn't some publicity stunt, we walked upstairs to the table prepared for us. As I led the way around the corner I found an entire camera crew capturing our every move. One of the cameramen got a great close-up of my face as I had to shuffle past him to get to my seat.

As we sat around the table, they taped us chatting and ordering. Before the food had arrived, my neighbor, who has eaten at this place before, was asked to do an interview. "That stinks for him," I chuckled, thankful that I had never been here before. But as soon as he finished, they called me over for my interview. I laughed at them and exclaimed, "How can I talk about the food here if I've never actually eaten it?" But the director prompted me to make up stuff about the delicious food, the ambiance, and their wonderful customer service.

So there was at a dimly lit private table, laughing from the sheer awkwardness into the mic they clipped on me. I made up extravagant compliments about the restaurant and they made up extravagant compliments about what at beautiful American girl I was and how gracefully I laughed. (If you have ever heard me laugh, you know that I am NOT a graceful laugher). They set before me an array of dishes and I remarked "I must look very hungry to you." (I'm crossing my fingers that that will not be aired.) One by one they prompted me to take a drink of this and take a bite of that. I picked up my chopsticks and casually (as casual as you can be with a camera in your face) took a bite from the rice dish. Suddenly, my interviewer and the camera crew gasped. "We have never seen a foreigner use chopsticks so gracefully!" they exclaimed. They then proceeded to take close-up shots of me handling food with chopsticks.

I was thankful when the interview concluded. I returned to our table and continued to be videotaped as we ate and chat. We met the owner and talked about the restaurant. By the end of the night we had had a great meal and the food was completely free, which in my opinion made the whole thing worth it. I have no idea when the commercial will air locally, but I am thankful that I don't have cable.

"Running"

Yesterday morning some girls invited me to go running with them. As it turns out "running" means a light jog for 1/4 mile and then walking for another 2 hours. Though it wasn't what I originally expected, I was glad to spend time with them. We ended up walking around this beautiful lake thats in the center of town. I was reminded of how beautiful this place is. I thought I would share with you some of the pictures from our "run"

English Corner

My days have been full here with language class and studying, spending time with students and teachers, doing research for culture acquisition, and doing studies with students. Being the extrovert that I am, I’m always looking for ways to spend time with people. Thus, a few weeks into the semester I began attending English Corner, which is a program many foreign universities have to help students improve their English. I heard from my neighbor that the Corner had been struggling for the past few years, so we decided to meet with the student coordinator and give her some tips. So we met and discussed possibilities and she took our advice gladly.

The night of English Corner came around and it was nothing short of a train wreck. I sat through it curiously wondering if she was intentionally doing the opposite of everything we suggested. It can best be described as 2 hours of awkwardness.

Knowing that English Corner is an effective way to help students to improve their English and that it is a great opportunity for me to meet student outside of the English department, I decided to set up a meeting with the Foreign Language Dean.

We met on a Tuesday and used the Chinese way of making indirect suggestions. Thankfully his response was positive and agreed to talk with the student in charge.

Not knowing what would come of the discussion, I had low expectations. That Friday (2 days before English Corner) I received a call from the Dean informing me that I am now in charge of English Corner.

Grateful, but shocked, I had to get right to work planning and preparing for English Corner. I was a bit nervous at first being handed such responsibility with little guideline and resources. But, the first English Corner went wonderfully and though we are limited in resources there is much potential. This weekend was my third English Corner and we have almost tripled in size! I am really thankful for this opportunity to learn and grow in leadership. Most of all I am thrilled by the opportunity to spend time with students!

Animal Noises

I have officially completed my first week of language classes. 

At 7pm the night before my first class session I received a text from my friend, who is the Dean of International Students. "Sb and I will come tomorrow morning to fix your clothes line." A couple things should be noted before I continue:

1. It is common for Chinese to be ambiguous about time. "Morning" could mean any number of things, which means you need to either be prepared at all times or be alright with encountering strangers in your pajamas. 

1. The men were coming to fix my clothesline, which was non-existent when I arrived to the university. This task was imperative because dryers are non-existent here. 

1. I have no idea who "Sb" is.

The following morning (the day of my first language class) I had eaten, dressed, and cleaned my apartment by 7am. The Dean and a man in camo pants, who I am assuming was Sb, arrived at 9:10. They greeted me and brushed past quickly to the balcony to begin work. Sb began tearing down things, as the Dean and I sat in the dining room discussing the history of Hotel Del Coronado and the narcissism of my generation. Whilst Sb drilled loudly, I heard a faint knock at the door. Jo Laoshi stood a whole foot shorter than me with her platform heels on and small smile in the corner of her mouth.

We sat across from the Dean who was reading a textbook at the table, and began slowly working our way through what you might consider the Chinese alphabet. She gracefully pronounced the sounds like a song, and I echoed her with something that sounded more like farm animal noises. We worked diligently, pausing only for the sound of Sb’s drill to pass. After two hours had gone by I had a new clothesline, a mess of dust and trash covering my balcony, and had successfully butchered every Chinese word thrown my way.

We continued to meet every day for two hours in the morning. The second day there was a greater ease between Jo Laoshi and I. Maybe it was the lack of drilling noises or just that we were more comfortable with each other. She doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Chinese so we share our own language that is predominantly made up of hand gestures. By the end of the week my animal noises had begun to develop to sound more like a broken Chinese-speaking robot. But, today we were able to talk to one another in choppy sentences. We talked about work and children, and laughed at my poor pronunciation and redundant questions in the textbook. At the end of our secessions she always gathers her textbook and tea, turns to me with a smile and says, 明天见 (see you tomorrow).

Start of the Semester

I can’t believe it is already March, which means I’ve been here for a month now! Things are starting to feel relatively normal about living here. I define normal as being able to wake up in the morning and remember where I am.

The college is in full swing now. The students are back and classes have officially started. The campus seemed to transform overnight from a desolate quiet place to an organism alive with student bustling about. I was informed of this transformation promptly at 6:00 am (*please note that the sun doesn’t rise here until almost 9:00 am) when a loud speaker with cheesy commercial music and incoherent voices echoed boisterously throughout the university. I have no idea what they were saying but they seemed to be ushering in the new semester.

The new semester means new neighbors, who happen to be a hall full of teenage boys from a neighboring country. They are here with an exchange program between the college and their school back home. Why they have an exchange program for junior high and high school boys to come to college is beyond me. I have had limited interaction with them, but have been able to discover a few things about them. Their favorite past times include: smoking, singing in falsetto, slamming doors, “stomping the yard”, and spitting in the hallway. From speaking with some of the locals they are often considered rambunctious and rude. From my perspective, they are a source of humor with their ridiculous behavior (i.e. blaring Christina Aguilera songs) and they serve as a sort of antonym to my presence. We are both foreigners here and they create a wide distinction between myself and other guests of this country.  I hope to do my best to understand the people and the culture, to respect them, and be gracious and loving.

It’s not easy to forget you’re a foreigner here. The way most foreigners are treated appears to be an oxymoron. In some ways the people seem closed off and ambiguous, and in other ways they are generously inviting and curious. There are days where a storekeeper, after a frustrating attempt of asking a question, will shake her head and say, “Foreigners, they never understand!” And there are other days, when van-taxi drivers will offer me the front seat, smile at me kindly and go out of his way to assist me when the van eventually broke down. Sometimes these things happen within the span of the same day.

Two common occurrences of my day are: prolonged stares in my direction and mockingly being shouted “hello!” at from strangers. I have narrowed the local’s reaction to my presence here into 4 basic facial expressions.

1.     Disbelief: this is the expression of shock and awe and at times makes me feel like I’m a costumed character at Disneyland. It is often accompanied with a dropped jaw and whispering amongst a group. I mostly receive this look from small children and junior highers.

2.     Disdain: this expression is the typically a prolonged evil eye. This look is generally only given to me by the elderly in the community and is usually accompanied with a gesture of crossing to the opposite side of the street.

3.     Snickering: a self-explanatory expression usually given by groups of people.  This expression often makes me wonder if I have something on my face, my zippers down or something else of embarrassing nature.

4.     Discreet: the most rare, yet the expression I cherish the most. This is when people pretend not to stare at me until I pass them, but if I glance back I’ll find them staring. I think this has only happened twice.

*Please note these are just generalizations from my limited perspective. Obviously I can’t fully read what their faces mean and typically their expressions are a mixture of several of the ones listed above.

In the beginning the stares and whispers bothered me and resulted in me walking quickly through town with my head down. Now I’ve grown quite accustom to it and simply ignore it. Since I’ve been here my reactions to the culture have been as mixed as people’s expressions toward me. On days when its difficult to be here or I don’t understand something about the culture I enjoy thinking that my Father is the Father of these people. He knows them fully—language, quirks, emotions, and all.

Below are just a few pictures of the place I call home here:

My Living Room

My Bedroom

My Wall of Encouragement: letters and pictures from home

Settling Down

This is my home for the next 5 months!

I have arrived safe and sound in East Asia and finally got myself some consistent internet. This week I moved into my apartment on campus. It may be hard to tell from the photo but the university campus is silent and desolate. As is the rest of the city. 

The campus, the city, and actually the whole country is on national holiday right now, which will continue for the next couple weeks. This means that most stores and restaurants are closed. Streets that are typically teeming with people (or at least so I hear) are quiet.

It is a strange time to come and settle in this place because I have a feeling it will look and feel completely different in a couple of weeks. For now I fill my time with preparation logistically, but also of my mind and heart. In these next few weeks as I anticipate the coming of the students this quote by George Mueller gives me some direction in preparation, “Be assured if you walk with Him and look to Him and expect help from Him, He will never fail you.”So to begin well and to continue well throughout my  my priority is to walk with, look to and expect help from Him who is able.

To fill you in on the time from my arrival till now and how you can be specially lifting me up, can be summed up with two things: 1).thorn bushes and 2).ting bu dong.

First: The Thorn Bush (*disclaimer: this is not a story for the faint or easily nauseated)

On my first full day in the city I was getting acquainted with the house and agricultural business of my supervisors. They live on a huge farm so their son and his friend gave me two options: either we could tour the property via the longer, more scenic hike route or we could just walk on the paved road. Obviously, I chose the unpaved scenic hike. On this lovely tour I felt a pinch in my ankle to find that a thorn bush had not just punctured my skin with a thorn, but decided to impale my ankle with the whole twig along with a thorn. It didn’t hurt much so I insisted we press on. But, after the insistence of the two boys we returned to have my ankle looked at. I tried pulling the twig out, but it wouldn’t budge from either side. As three people proceeded to try to remove the twig gently, I finally convinced them to cut it out with a pair of scissors. Finally, without a tear or a wince they got it out. The friend of my supervisor’s son who came along for the hike was a local and when they finally bandaged my ankle he exclaimed, “Wow! American women are more courageous that the men here!” That made us all laugh! Please be lifting up my ankle as it is still healing, but doing well!

Second: Ting bu dong

is a phrase that means, “I hear you, but I don’t understand you.” It was one of the first phrases I learned when I came here the first time; and it my most commonly used phrase. It basically sums up my time thus far. People often try to speak to me in the local language and even if I did know the language well, they speak so fast they could be making up words or just humming and I wouldn’t know the difference! I wouldn’t be surprised if they nicknamed me Ting bu dong, it seems to be the only thing I can communicate well to them. Learning a new language and a new culture means admitting that you don’t know alot of things. And it means getting laughed at ALOT! But, its a wonderful lesson in humility and presses me to work hard to know the language and culture. In the mean time, I just laugh with them because I do sound funny and I probably look funny too!

I hope to update y’all more consistently as my internet is consistent! Thank you for your continual thoughts and support! It is much needed and deeply appreciated!