Chapter 17 - The Little Kid

Well I had just got done teaching at a junior school so that means I have to travel away from my original school to get there. Well the pathway/trail to get there is sort of different. Goes from wide paths to narrow walkways where only 1 person can fit. From pavement to dirty, rocky terrain.
It has it all! There are even times where you feel like you are in the middle of a crop field and then you are walking through someones' front yard! So walking to and from the junior school is always fun and adventurous, you never know what is around the next corner. One time we came across a guy singing so loud to a group of people. It appeared that their were having a party. Another time there was a dog blocking the pathway. But today we had yet a different encounter. I rounded a corner and standing there was a little chinese kid! Now I don't know if it was a boy or a girl. (You look at the pic and you tell me!) Since I feel badly calling "it" or "the kid" for the sake of this story I am going to say it is a little boy! So I'm sorry if the family of that chinese kid ever reads this and your kid is a girl, I do apologize.
So there stood the boy! Wearing his hat, a couple of top layers making him look like a big boy but probably he is really tiny, just a bunch of layers on! (Like the kid from a "A Christmas Story"). Of course I stopped in my tracks because I was very curious. This pathway was sort of out in the middle of nowhere with only a few houses in the general area. Well I stood there staring at him! He just stood there not moving an inch staring right back at me. Now usually chinese kids reach out when they see people with light skin or hands(thats for someone they know who they are) kids usually point or run and get their parents. Not this kid. He just stood there as still as a statue. Incredible how still he was. I dropped to one knee, that way I was eye level with him. I said hello and he still held his ground of not talking or moving. There would be an occasional blink here and there but that was it! I seriously was staring at this kid for at least 3 to 5 mins and I slowly raised back to my feet. Looked up at Lee and back down at this little boy. Then his bottom lips started to quiver, then a frowny face came, the eyes closed mouth open and he began to cry. Not knowing what to do, I kept looking at him walking slowly away and he started to let off on the tears and Lee and I headed around the corner disappearing on the pathway. Cute little kid and left a cute little story in my heart to tell to everyone! Now the pics show the beautiful scenery I see while walking on the path to the other school! Always a nice walk! Hope everyone loves the story and I hope you know that I love you all!! Jordan

Chapter 16 - A Chinese Funeral

The kids were sent home early this Friday because something very sad happened. A teacher at our school passed away :-( Due to a car crash. There are no safety belts for passengers. :-( To celebrate, the Chinese do a very long mourning period, almost 5 days straight. Well on the last night, the one I got to attend, is the day to say their thanks and prayers. Everyone is wearing black and the close family members of the lady that passed away were wearing a white cloth around their head.
This symbolizes that holy spirits may watch over them. White is the most popular color when it comes to death for the Chinese. They fear death because they believe that once they die they are just food for the worms. So white is a holy color that they may be saved. So the family members wear the white head bands to show that their loved lived a great life and want to be saved. I was told that's why all their hospital walls are white...to show the spirits they are grateful and wish to not lose any to death. Well a guy led a massive prayer and everyone (including I) bowed after almost every sentence. Then music started and the music's tone was strong but yet very heart warming. It started out so slow and began to build than it grew until it reached t he climax and the fireworks were going off like crazy! After that the 3 sons gave their thanks and then everyone got in line and walked through some cloth drapes into a room where he coffin was located! As they walked out the family of he person that passed away were in a line. They got to see everyone walk out in tears and people would say something to he family members!
These are some of the decorations that alot of the chinese people give the family to show that they care! There were like 15 of these at the party/funeral. Different shapes and colors but all had the same symbol and the symbol is memory or remembrance Oh almost forgot, I was given this pin to attach to me. It's white and had some Chinese characters which translated into "just mourn" and I think people keep it on until they were done mourning!
Some people were taking them off and throwing them in the fire. Others kept them on so I don't know what the purpose or meaning behind them is.I decided to keep mine and put in my journal. After the whole ceremony there are games, dancing, drinking and lots of other fun activities because remember the Chinese fear death so on the last day they do fun things to bring happy spirits to the dead before they bury them in the ground the folloowing day! Oh and they party ALL NIGHT!!!!
Very cool experience, but sad to see that they fear death. I don't fear death because of the church! I am so thankful for the church and all that it teaches me! I wanted so badly to tell the people that we will be with them again someday (but it's not allowed) :-( Sad to think that the Chinese would be so much happier if they had the church in their hearts! I hope some day that China will accept the church because once it's happens many souls will be saved and so many great things will happen from it! Once the missionaries get into China they will change this country and really start to reveal it's true beauty!
I love everyone so much!
Love, Jordan

A Chinese Dream House

A dream house is a place of when you have a good dream you offer up thanks to make your good dreams come true. So in the pic there are 2 people who represent certain gods. Just before them there are some shot glasses filled with ? (a good chance that its bijo). Someone must have had a good dream and to make that dream happen they offered the gods a drink. There is also some fruit on a plate, some rice sticks (i think) a cup of some juice and on the outside there are some incense sticks so someone must have offered up insense. They have the little dream houses almost everywhere. It is sort of like a chinese dream catcher in simple words.

Chapter 15 - Day out with Angela

Hello everyone,
i know its been awhile since my last update and i do apologize for that. So here i am to tell you about a day that i spent with 2 of my Students. well first off i got a phone call and it was Angela inviting me to come to lunch with her and Zoey to lunch. Now im thinking how did she get my number? I havent given my phone number to any kids. Come to find out that she tracked down Stone, the guy that takes care of us, and she got my number from him. She is very smart. Well we met and and started walking to Zoey's house. Wasnt far from the school and was a pretty nice house. the house looked great on the outside, just was a little barren on the inside.
Angela and zoey started to make lunch, well they just warmed up some leftover for the night before (i tell myself) and everything was good. Now the chinese with every meal have this hot pot. Sits on the table plugged in or with a fire under keeping it hot. Sort of like the main course. well this was the fish. Fish like the fish in lake powell that eat all the junk. Those fish! Also in the hot pot were dumplings in the juices. Now those were good i tried to eat as many of those quickly because there were only a few and i liked them.
Also there was a bowl of a chinese special meat call low rong which i think it was lamb and it has been the best meat i have since ive been in china! there were bones but they were ribs! and you know that i love ribs. Then there was this traditional bowl of something. Being traditional i had to try. yeah i shouldnt of tried, it was nasty! It was very soft and chewy and it was EXTREMELY spicy. Got about 4 chews in and realized it was horrible! So i just gave a big swallow to put that flaming hot loogie in my tummy. After lunch was over they went out and grabbed what looked like some tamales. They were a triangular shape and steaming. Angela started unwrapping these chinese tamales and then grabbed a chop stick and skewered it.
She poured sugar on the outside and you ate it right off the chopstick. Very good dessert. Then we decided to start walking to the park and that was quite a walk but totally worth it. well we got to the part Zoey ran off and came back with ice cream! Their ice cream is different but it is pretty good! I like it. I said thank you and its weird the chinese barely accept compliments or thank yous. Zoey said dont say thank you, you a a great friend thats why i get you ice cream and we take you to the park, no need to say thank you because we already know that you are thankful. Now those were sort of my words but that is what i got out of her telling me. So the rules are different and im trying to figure them all out as fast as i can.
At the park there was like a little trail that goes all over this mountain. At parts there are play grounds. In another area there are ponds with fish in them, or places where you can dress up in chinese clothes and they take pics of you. I plan on doing this in the summer. Or even little huts that have guys inside them playing cards or girls playing mahjong.
We came across this huge circle and there were these weird rocks! They looked so different and their texture is like no rock i have ever touched in the states so i had fun climbing on these rocks.
OF course i picked the biggest rock to conquer! Also in the park is an ancient library on the biggesst hill. We went up there and saw a wedding couple getting pics. The photographer asked us to leave because i was making the bride too nervous. hahahaha.
We came to a huge plaza where there was a huge group of people. Being curious i went oover and started looking at what was going on and come to find that the group of people were about to have a tug of war. So i jumped in on the girls side and we totally kicked the boys trash. me and my manly muscles.! That's right! They had all sorts of activities going on. Tug of war, badmitton, pics, and even jump rope. they took the rope they used for the tug of war and used it to start a huge jump rope. Everyone was jumping in, laughing and having so much fun. (and these were adults!) I dont think i would ever see this sort of thing in the states. Then i played some badmitton and totally had a blast. The ladies liked playing me for some reason and they were really good. i got my trashed kicked. hahaha
Then a lady asked for my photo and this started a domino effect. cameras' starting coming out like crazy and then 2 big red and green flags joined in and every picture had these flags in it. Come to realize that this whole event was a company party and the flags were the name of the company. So i got pics with the president of the company and everyone else in the company. Would be really funny to find their website and see their homepage and there might be a picture of me with their whole company. hahaha. Great way to spend a Saturday here in China! The library was closed because it was a saturday but i will go back and get pics of it on the inside. we left after the company party we headed back to school because Zoey and Angela had to study! Yeah study on a saturday night! Its amazing how much dedication they have to their schooling. It was a great day and i hope more days like this happen more often.
From a sunny day in Huan Yuan China
Love, Jordan

Walking along in China

Isn't this a neat picture? I found it on Lee's blog.

Chapter 14- Jordan the Entertainer!

Ni Hao (knee how)

Hello in Chinese!

Hahaha so I had a very strange thing happen to me today. Well I was down at the town plaza this evening. Lee was looking for an electronics store to get a wireless router (this might help skype I hope) no luck finding the store the journeys end was at the plaza. Now since it has been very cold we have not been down town at night. Well its starting to warm up (FINALLY!!!) and the place is completely different! There are a TON of people! People line dancing, vendors like you wouldn’t believe, beggars, and entertainers. There are lights all over the place. On buildings, bridges, in the ground, on arches. Just everywhere disco lights! I love it down there. Well I was walking and there was this old man with a microphone and he had about 5 people around. Me being very curious started to look into the middle of the circle. The old man saw me and started to get very excited!
He gave me the microphone and was saying something in chinese super fast. Well I talked in the microphone which connected to an amp which echoed my voice across the whole plaza. So im just talking jibberish into this microphone and before I know it there are 30 people around. Just listening to me speak English. I said hello to everyone and then I remembered that I had some postcards of Idaho in my back pack, the ones I show my students. Got those out and everyone started crowding around closer trying to look at these pics. People were saying beautiful, very beautiful, or America. After that I starting singing "row row your boat". Which they loved! Hahaha I was a nerd. But I really enjoyed myself. Then I start running out of things to do so I would just walk around this circle asking random people random questions. Of course the question would be in English but the answer would always be in chinese. Was a lot of fun and I loved it. SO here are some pic of me in the crowded circle acting like a freaking loser. Hahahah.

Also earlier i mentioned something about finding popcorn on the street that was so good! Well i added a pic of her and the girls that work for her. They work in this coffee shop. Havent tried any of their drinks but i do plan on it in the summer because the drink look more like a fruit mix. Bet the girls all start to giggle and blush each time i buy popcorn or even walk past their store! It's so funny.
But i added a pic so you had an idea of what it sort of looks like. Not sure if you can tell but if you look closely at the wall on the right in the shop. Well its covered in sticky notes! the coolest thing ever!

Cant wait till it warms up just a little bit more because if a little heat brought out this much fun just wait and see what a lot of heat will bring.

This is Jordan from Hua Yuan China signing off.

Miss and love you tons

Chapter 13 - Tough to be a kid in China

Hello mother and everyone else,
So yesterday i had my eyes opened up. I went to my scheduled morning class and when i got there the class was so happy to have me teaching. (i always get there early so i have some time to play and interact with the kids). Well i was doing so and the kids were laughing and then it went all quiet. Their chinese english teacher had walked in. she pulled me outside and said that it was her time to teach and so i was like okay i will leave no problem. Well i went back in the classroom to get my backpack and the kids were like "aw dont leave". "you teach" they started getting louder, then the chinese teacher stomped her foot on the floor really hard & started yelling at them in chinese. Instantly their heads dropped. Here i am towering over this lady but yet i felt smaller than the kids in the desk. The fun laughing environment that was once there was a frozen wasteland where not even a stick breaking could be heard. I said "this is little awkward im just going to leave" i really said that but no one understood me of course. I turned around and gave a slight wave of happiness to the kids and only a few dared to wave back with their chinese teacher still there standing over the class. As i left she slammed her hand on the desk and then continued to yell at the kids in chinese. Horrible horrible i felt so mad but even worse i felt the pain for those kids ;-(
Later that day i had that class again and it was my class so i made it my job to make everyone smile because i know that they had a very hard day. so i taught a lesson on friends. my purpose was to show the kids that im their friend! All of them got it and it was a super fun class! and yes i did get everyone to smile!
Also after that class i was walking back to my flat and i saw one of my other classes so i stuck my head in to say hi and to see that there was no teacher. So they were like come in teach!!! so eager to learn! I was a little confused about where their teacher was but i guess they have a period in the day where they just study & read books when no teacher is in the classroom. So the class insisted that i stay and teach. well i have no lesson planned so i just started asking them questions in english. They have school from 8 in the morning to 9pm. Way too much school! They have 21 books that they have to have for class. They absolutely hate the books! they say they are boring! i looked through it and it was super boring. Stuff way too easy for them just work sort of stuff. And i asked if they liked their teachers. The only other teacher than myself that they like is their art teacher because he is funny. All the other teachers are mean, strict, give lots of homework and yell at them. here im about to break out in tears because you can hear it in their voice that they hate school, they are pressured so badly from their parents to do well in school because the parents pay alot of money to have their kids in this school. Also there is no time for them to be a kid! No recess, no weekends, nothing. Broke my heart. I asked a kid what he does do for fun and his response to me was "having you teach us english" my jaw dropped. i was in the class and i asked everyone if they felt the same. A girl stood up "can you teach us every period of the day?" it was one heart melting comment after another. so in this 45 min period where there was no teacher, the kids were the teacher. They taught me that they love to learn they just dont like how some teachers teach. They showed me how they truly felt and shared all their emotions because i think they see me as a friend! so today my eyes were opened up and i got to see the school and the teaching from the kids point of view. Now i just have to use this information to better my teaching so the kids can enjoy it and break away from the ordinary and actually start to love learning.
Well i love it here and it has been teaching me so many new things!!!
i love and miss you all
Jordan

Chapter 12 - Busy Teaching

I have been very busy! 2 teachers had to leave for business and guess who gets to cover her classes? That’s right. This guy (pointing to myself) So I have been teaching about 5 classes a day. Except yesterday...there was a huge assembly in the gym and it was packed! Look at the picture. There are so many kids. The whole thing lasted a little over an hour. It was so uncomfortable because almost every kid was crammed in there and I was sitting on this plastic stool!
There were thousands of these little red stools and all the kids were sitting on them! Except for the older kids in the seats in the bleachers. The seats are made of wood but are still very uncomfortable. Well the whole assembly was awarding like “honor students.
Now in the next picture I am with a gift holding one of these certificates. Her name is Angela and she is my class 10. She is super smart and is very kind! Helps me tons in the class. That class would be a circus if it wasn’t for her helping me out!

Teaching never gets old! Kids love to have you in your class and are super eager to learn! Yes there are some kids that sit in the back and don't participate but I try my hardest to get them involved. Some of them just don’t care. Like they know the material they just don’t care about school. So I am working on that. Also working on my chinese. I can introduce myself and that’s about it. I try practicing in front of my students and they love it because I know I totally butcher it.

I feel great, eating well. Exploring any new item of “food” I can get my hands on. Like everything here looks disgusting but actually really tastes very good! Finally found a source of dairy! It’s this fruit milk. They take like green apple juice and mix it with milk, but they also do bananas, oranges and I think I saw kiwi. But its very good and I will make sure to bring some home for everyone to try. Yes, even you amy!

Met a new friend and his name is Xiang but it sounds like “shawn” or “sean” so that is what I call him. Hahahah Well after dinner I was escorted, yes escorted, to the field where all their track and field events happen. They had so many things going on! There were kids being taught Kung Fu, kids running the mile (I think its required daily), kids preparing to do track, badminton, and there was Xiang. I had a soccer ball so he and I did penalty shots on each other. Very fun! He told me that a lot of the teachers play soccer on Saturdays so I am very excited to play with them. I’ll make sure to get lots of pics with them!

Well that’s just a gist of what my life has been going on. Staying busy and making more and more friends each and every day. If there is anything you want to see a picture of, please let me know. Might be fun for me to try and make it happen. I love and miss you all dearly! Swi gen. (means goodbye in chinese).

Love

Jordan

Chapter 11 - A Typical day in China

A Peaceful place in China -

Well this morning is a day where i teach at the other school. Well To walk there, you have to follow this tiny path and this morning/afternoon i stopped and took this peaceful pic of the farming gardens. Plus there was not a single person around! No honking, kids crying, no people yelling chinese. IT was quiet. Might be the first time that it has been quiet in China. So i hope the picture demonstrates how peaceful it was right when i took the picture.

At the other school which is SO much smaller, all the kids have figured out that the tall goofy looking kid is alot of fun. So kids are requesting that i play basketball, badmitten, or whatever game they are playing. Kids come up to me measuring themselves to me. Its so cute!

A Shoe Shine -

Well i had a break between 2 classes so Lee and I went to our tortilla lady for lunch! We both got a few for lunch and found a seat in the town square. Trust me there are going to be alot more pictures and stories generated from this place once it starts to warm up. Well there we are enjoying our lunch and this lady comes up to offer to shine our shoes. We denied..

Then just 2 minutes later another lady came by with her shoe cleaning station in hand and a stool and asked if she could shine my shoes, i asked how much. 2 rnb! Now remember its 7 rnb equals 1 us dollar. So i had her shine my shoes and she did a wonderful job! Made me super happy. I was jumping around clicking my heels together in the air! I was laughing, they were laughing... just a good memory. I even went back and paid her a little extra of course!!!

Dinner with the Top Dog -

Then after we got home not even 10 mins we were told that we are having a dinner with other foreign teachers. So out the door we went and we started walking to this restaurant. a car picked us up and with the guy that has been taking care of us. Stone. And the driver of the van/car was our principal! Yeah we are having dinner with principal and top dogs of our school! Even people from our China Horizons group! It was so good to see some familiar faces! The seating was of course the principal at the head of the table with his back to door that would exit the room. Guess where i was.... hahaha yeah i had my face to the exit door. All the foreign teachers were far from him. Hahaha but dinner was nice and you wouldn't believe all the alcohol and bai jiu. Now this a very strong drink and its clear as water. In fact, bai jiu translates into white liquor. Well the chinese do alot of toasts! Well usually the general rule of the toast you usually drink the same thing the person giving the toast is. Well no alcohol in this body so instead we got these kiwi drinks! Oh they were so yummy!!! I plan on bringing some home because oh they are very yummy. Well you have to like kiwi but if you do this is the drink for you! But the principal toasted to us thanking for our arrival at their school. IT was all in chinese but it was so cool because you could hear how thankful he really was to have us, all of us there.

After our dinner we went back to school campus walked around near the students class rooms and some of the past teachers introduced us to their old classes. It was a tons of fun! This was a good night out and we found many things to do in our little town which i am very excited about!
I best be getting to bed because i found out that i am covering for a teacher tomorrow morning at 9 in the morning! Would love to hear from everyone! Love you all and miss everyone! Wish i could have been there for a sunday dinner with everyone! i miss it! Please email with questions or stories!
Love everyone
Jordan