Winter Holiday Success!

你好 bloggers! Get ready for a long post because I have three weeks to catch you up on :D

Week 1: I started my break on January 23rd. I chilled in Jinan for a  couple of days and quite frankly, I don't remember much of what I did because no one was around, I was pretty antsy to leave for Hong Kong, and I had nothing to do. So let's fast forward to January 27th when I left for Hong Kong. After a rough few hours traveling, Michael, Christine, and I get to our hotel around 2am. We were tired and cranky so we took that first day of getting there to just rest up. We explored around the hotel and got our bearings. We bought our Disneyland tickets and learned the ropes of traveling while in Hong Kong. We stayed at the Auberge hotel in Discovery Bay... I highly recommend it. It's on the pricier side but everything they offer is TOTALLY worth it! While in Hong Kong M, C and I went to Disneyland, Central, and Kowloon. Everywhere we went we were in awe of how orderly and clean everything was. I guess that shows how low our standards became from living in Jinan for 6 months. People were friendly and helpful everywhere we went. We found that mostly everyone speaks English, Cantonese, Mandarin, or at least two if not all three languages. I was incredibly impressed. Although I liked being there for the week, by the end I was missing mainland China. I was ready to go on to my next adventure. My recommendations if you ever go to Hong Kong: Disneyland (of course), Central (go up the outdoor escalator and just walk around), and The Peak (go on a clear day and you'll get amazing views of Hong Kong).

Week 2: I came back home to Jinan and spent a day to recover from traveling. I did laundry, hung out with my roomie and her bf, and enjoyed the peace and quiet of not having many people on our floor of our apartment. Then my family came! I met them at the Jinan West train station and showed them my neighborhood. Then we went to their hotel and went to dinner. Eric joined us for dinner. I had a chance to brush up on my Chinese since I didn't need it much in Hong Kong. The next day we were off to Beijing. While we were there we did EVERYTHING. Great wall, Tian'anmen square, Forbidden city, Temple of Heaven, Confucius and Lama temple... I mean honestly... If you think tourist location, you found us there. We walked A LOT. I got a lot of shopping done as well ;) My family had a great time and I loved being in China with them. I can't wait for them to come back next year. If you're like us, and like seeing the major sights in foreign countries, I highly recommend hiring a private tour guide and hiking the Great Wall in a spot that isn't where many other people go. The tour guide should know where to go. Also, Forbidden City is definitely somewhere to go during warmer months because there will probably be more activity than what we saw. The temples are a neat experience so if that peaks your interest, definitely go but don't go on a Monday. If you're more into shopping and experiencing the modern day Beijing, hang out in Xidan. There you'll find malls next to malls connected by malls. Joy City has the world's longest escalator and that's totally worth a visit. You can also see many younger people and business-looking people moving from place to place in a hurry.  It's a fun place that feels more developed than the rest of China. After our week was up in Beijing it was time for me to move on Shanghai. I had to say goodbye to my family at the train station.

Week 3: I spent three nights, two full days, and two half days in Shanghai. I got there Wednesday evening and struggled to find my hostel. I checked in and started exploring immediately (I only had a few days there). Before I even found a place to eat I ran into my friend in the hostel I was staying at! We started playing pool and she introduced me to her other friends. I ate at the bar while they played more pool. Then we met more people in the hostel (turns out pool is a pretty easy way to meet new people) and hung out all night. A group of them went out to a club but I stayed back. I was way too tired. The next day I met up with another one of my friends and he took me around Shanghai. We walked around Nanjing road, The Bund, and Tianzifang. It was shockingly warm even though it was drizzling and overcast. Later that night I went shopping with some new friends from the hostel and we went out to a club to celebrate Valentine's day eve. Then I met up with them the next day to do some tourist sites. If you get a chance to visit Shanghai I recommend: The Bund, Pudong, Nanjing East Road, and Yu Gardens and Bazaar. I loved the environment of Shanghai so much! It reminded me a lot of Brisbane in Australia, a big city but didn't feel crowded. I can't wait for Disneyland to open in Shanghai!!! I want to live in Shanghai soooo badly that I've already started planning for when my contract ends in 2015 >.< I'm setting myself up for a long year a head of me....

Today: So now I'm back at work and turns out it wasn't that hard to come back to Jinan. I started working yesterday and hit the ground running. It wasn't until I had a lull in the day that I started to realize, yea vacation's over and not traveling for another 6 months is gonna suck. Oh well. I start teaching my culture class tomorrow so I'm pretty excited for that. I have 35 students, most of whom I don't know so this should be an interesting semester. It was snowing in Jinan again today so whoever told me that it should start warming up second semester was seriously mistaken. It feels colder than when I left. Oh well. I'll live... I hope lol. In April I have two 3-day holidays... Tomb sweeping day and labor day. I hope I'll be able to travel during those so that I won't be too depressed from not traveling. This week is a long week and I'll be working my 7-day work week... I'll be sure to update you on all things Jinan next week when I get through the first week of the new semester! Until then... Laters!

Finals are here!

大家好! It's that time of week again and I feel a bit scattered. This week is finals week so I've got quite a bit going on. I have "homework" that needs to be turned in by the end of next week. I have to go through each lesson and label which core standard each lesson met. It's tedious and stupid because he doesn't actually want us to say what we did and what they mastered. He just wants some kind of paperwork so that we can submit it for accreditation. I'm REALLY starting to hate my administrator. He's no longer knocking on our apartment door and just letting himself in.... yes even when I'm in a towel on my way to the shower! He started doing it when my roommate's boyfriend was sick. I get that he wanted to check in and see how he was doing but not knocking, inviting yourself in, and waking up someone who isn't even in his own apartment when the residents of the apartment are at work?! That's a bit much. And now I'm even more paranoid to leave the door unlocked EVER even when there are people in the apartment. Clearly, boundaries don't exist. UGH.

Last week we had a 7 day work week and this week we only have 5. The primary students are on break now so it's finally calm at the cafeteria for breakfast and dinner. Unfortunately we can't eat there during the break, which isn't terrible because I'll be traveling most of the time anyway. But still, I need to find places to eat when I'm in Jinan. Spring Festival is coming up and that will be when life will pretty much stop because there will be so many people going home. I hope I'll be able to find places that I can eat at since I don't have a kitchen... I'm a little worried about it but hopefully it'll be OK. I'm super excited for Hong Kong Disneyland! and Hong Kong in general. Beijing should be fun but COLD! Also, incredibly crowded. Then Shanghai is my last stop, which is actually cut short :( My boss made an announcement on Friday that we're required to be at work Sunday Feb 16th instead of Monday Feb 17th. So I'm one of the few people who can actually rearrange my schedule since I can't buy train tickets until 10 days before the traveling date. But for my coworkers who bought plane tickets and can't switch their flight times, they will be required to use one of their allotted "sick days."

Craziness is happening more so than usual here at JNFLS. I'm used to the random, "Oh by the way, this week was switched to a long week." I'm even getting used to the sudden, "This week you'll work 10 days because you will have two days off next week. But next week you'll only have to work 6 days because then it will be the weekend." It just sucks when our plans for a national holiday has to change. It's so hard to plan trips! I probably won't have much to update you on next week since all I'm doing this week is exam fun. But when I get back from my trips, I will have A LOT to catch you up on. Until then... Laters!

Woosh!

OMG where has the time gone?! The Christmas season always goes by so quickly. It went by especially fast here in China because I didn't have any days off until the new year. I performed twice in 2013 in CHINA!! Oh yea!! I choreographed and performed a lyrical piece with a student while another student sang. This performance was for the New Year Charity Concert. Then I choreographed and performed a solo dance for the faculty New Year's party. It was really fun to be able to perform again and I got a lot of compliments that Sharon, Tony, and Jeremiah needed to translate for me >.<

The calendar new year has come and gone. I spent some time with my friends here. It was interesting to celebrate without fireworks... It wasn't that much fun :/ But enough about the past.... Now on to the future with Chinese New Year and Spring Festival! I'm currently working day 3 of 7 today... I went back to work on Saturday and will work until Friday with regular classes. Then next week Monday I will stay late (until 7:30pm) to start giving speaking exams to my students. Written exams start Wednesday and continue until Friday. But I have no written exams to grade this time around. We have Monday-Thursday of grading and working before our winter holiday starts so I'm not really sure what I'll be doing during that time since I won't have classes or grading. Maybe learning more Chinese??? For winter holiday I will be going to Hong Kong for a week, Beijing for a week and Shanghai for 4 days. I'm pretty excited but also a little nervous... That's a lot of traveling during the busiest time of the year here and I hope I'll be able to find places to stay/train tickets!!!! I will be going to Hong Kong Disneyland of course and next year when Disneyland opens in Shanghai, I'm hopefully going there as well. But for now, I'm just focusing on getting through this holiday. So January 31st is Chinese New Year (I will be in HK for that!) and Spring Festival is February 10th (I will be in Beijing for that WITH MY FAMILY)!!!!!! My parents and aunty will be coming to visit for a week and a half and I'm pretty excited to have them up here. My Chinese sucks but at least we'll be in a city that has a plethora of English speakers :D Then I'm going to Shanghai to visit Jeremiah. His mother lives there so that's why he's going there for the holiday. He claims he's from Shanghai but really he's from 4 other cities that spread out across southern China. He just speaks Shanghaihua and has a Shanghai accent :P

So that's all I really have in terms of updates for you... I know my post is short this time around but when things start happening too quickly, I forget what's going on. As you can tell from my post, my brain is pretty scattered. I'm trying to focus on one thing at a time but it's not working so well. I'm too excited for the winter holiday to be here and the fact that I'm finishing up my first semester of working a legit job in my career and... and... and... BEING IN CHINA!!!!!!!! I'm just so crazy right now! I love it here and can't wait to share this culture with my family :D I'll probably update you all next week but the next few weeks after that I may be MIA. I'll try to keep you posted if I can! Until then... Laters!

Christmas post

圣诞节快乐 bloggers! (That means Merry Christmas) I know it's not exactly Christmas but since I'm not sure what my schedule looks like for Christmas yet... I'll post as usual and if I can get online on Christmas, I'll post another message for you all. But the internet here isn't always the most reliable. It shuts off randomly to prevent students from using it. So last week was crazy and Charity Concert rehearsals are absolutely chaotic. The director said that if he sees even the slightest problem with any pieces, he'll pull them from the show. Ummm yea talk about pressure! Luckily he wanted me to perform more than he wanted my students to look good... so we're performing whether we're performance ready or not... Time to kick my students' butts into shape! I had another student who has had professional singing training help my singer since I can't sing and therefore can't teach her. I worked with my student who I'm dancing with and hopefully everything will be good.

 

On Friday I had a foreign teachers' Christmas dinner. It was entertaining to see all the administrators from the various campuses wasted! I told one administrator who didn't speak much English that if I get drunk I can't talk to him in Chinese and we won't be able to talk. So he helped me escape from drinking that night. He told everyone who tried to spike my drink without me looking that he would "GanBei" them, which means that they have to finish their glass out of respect to him. It's nice to have people high up :) I had a ridiculous vocabulary lesson though... He kept teaching me words that I couldn't say >.< It was a great night regardless and I'm glad I was able to converse with someone with my limited Chinese.

On Saturday I went hiking at 9am. It was FREEZING! But also really fun. The entire hike took a couple of hours and then I went to lunch at Parc 66, took a nap at Cafe 89, and went to dinner at Parc 66 again. I was out all day and it was AWESOME! Normally I get bored staying at home so finding places in town where I can feel comfortable enough to just hang out in all day... it's like being a cast member of Friends and just sitting in Central Perk all the time! I have two cafes that I hang out in now... Cafe 89 on FuRongJie and T House near ShanDong Normal University. The staff speaks no English so it forces me to practice my Chinese. 

On Sunday I ran around town doing a bunch of errands. I finished my Christmas cards for my Chinese friends and started working on the cards for my foreign colleagues. It was a very productive day but today is where it gets FUN!

This week is Christmas week, which brings a lot of scheduling issues. Tutoring and club/activity time are cancelled for the week. Today (Monday) is the IC Christmas party for students. Each foreign teacher is paired up with a class. Of course Giles and I combined our classes so that all of A-Level 12s are together instead of class 18 with me and 19 with Giles. Byron and Angela (our Chinese co-teachers) left the entire thing up to us because we were (and by that I mean I was) so excited to be celebrating Christmas with them :D 

On Tuesday (Christmas eve) and Wednesday (Christmas day) we have classes as usual. We were supposed to have those days off but our schedule changed last week so that we're working. Thursday the foreign teachers have the option to take a holiday because the students have a national exam on Friday so they'll be doing self-study all day Thursday... I don't really get that day off because I have Charity Concert rehearsal on the stage. So I don't have to go all the way to work but I do have to go to the stage. Friday we have to come into work but we don't have classes. Saturday, if you're not in the concert you have regular classes. If you are in the concert, you have dress rehearsal at 7am... So That's meeeee, dress rehearsal 7am. The concert starts at 1 and ends at 3 (Saturday is supposed to be our go home at 12:30 day but we get an extended day because of this concert).

Here's where the fun starts: Sunday... This starts a new week with two possibilities for schedules. Possibility 1: We work full days Sunday and Monday with normal classes (not sure if it'll be a short or long week schedule yet). Then on Tuesday students get a half day and the staff stays late to celebrate the new year during which I have to perform during the faculty talent show (so yes we're at school more than 12 hours). With this possibility, we get January 1-5 off and start a new week January 6. Possibility 2: We have a half day of work Sunday, which will really be the faculty celebration since the students won't come in at all (again this is where I might perform). Then we have off Monday-Wednesday and then work a 10-day work week starting Thursday. So full days normal classes January 2-Januray 11. Either way, we need to make up those days we take off for the New Year. It will be a rough few weeks! I'll be sure to update you when I know what my schedule looks like. Until then... Laters!

I'm on time!

Ni Hao bloggers! :D Here’s the update!

I last left you on Thursday, a bit late on my part sorry about that. But here’s what happened on Friday… So I finished teaching my dance to my student and now all we have to do is clean it up. She’s not great at dancing but she’s trying really hard so I’m enjoying working with her (most days). After work I went to the gym with Giles and Jeremiah to go work on my solo for the faculty party. I didn’t have the studio to myself but it still felt amazing to be on a dance floor again. I worked on my leaps and had a few Chinese women try to imitate me…. That was awkward. Then we went out to eat at a really really delicious restaurant.

Saturday I had to work because it’s a long week. So I went about my business and decorated the bulletin board. Then after work I went to RT Mart (like Walmart but better and cheaper). I picked up a ton of snacks, both for my students and myself. I worked a little on my Christmas cards for my office and friends. It was pretty low key because I mean really, when you have to work but have no classes, you have no stories.

Sunday I finished my Christmas shopping! Yayyyyyy I also had an awesome experience speaking Chinese :D :D I talked with a guy who asked me in Chinese if I was Chinese and when I said no, he asked me where I was from. I said America and he continued to argue with me, “No you must be Chinese!” It was really funny because I don’t have a great vocab base but I know how to say that I am not Chinese and I only speak a little Chinese. He complimented me on my accent saying that I sounded like I was from Shan Dong. Well I would hope so since everyone I’m learning Chinese from is also from Shan Dong. Except Liu Jun. He’s from Shang Hai and speaks Shang Hai Hua. Anyway after shopping I went home and played a little DS then went to dinner and ate amazing dumplings. Overall it was a pretty fun weekend, even if we only had 24 hours.

This week is a short week, which means that we get both Saturday AND Sunday off. Woooooo! But then the week after that is an extended long week. Which means that we WORK both Saturday AND Sunday. Then we go into a short week. So really what it means is that we’re working 14 straight days in a row. At least it’s not 12 hour days like I’ve been pulling for the last week >.< I hate staying here late. They shut off the heat once the sun goes down. You’d think that common sense would tell them that we need heat MORE when the sun goes down. But nope. Frozen! Oh well. I’ll be sure to keep you updated :) Until then… Laters!

Wahhhh So late!

Hey bloggers, Sorry for the late reply but as it so happens, the Christmas/New Year season is upon us. That means extra busy schedules. You know how it is… So here’s the update:

Monday-Wednesday… Uhhh to be honest, I don’t really remember much from that long ago. So much happened on Thursday though :) So Tony walks into my office and tells me that I’m working with a student to dance for the New Year Charity concert. SWEET! So excited to be performing again! But of course this girl doesn’t come find me to talk to me until Thursday night, when one of her friends whom I asked to help me track her down, literally drags her to me. I’m headed off to tutoring session and he comes dragging this poor girl to me in the hallway. So we talk and she’s like yea let’s do it! So I spend all weekend choreographing the dance. Then I discover that there a girl who’s supposed to be playing the piano for us to dance to while still another girl is singing… Um HELLO?! Where was this information last week?! Yea non-existent. I asked the girls, “Do you know how hard it is to dance to live music? This is ridiculous.” So then the girl playing the piano said, “I will try to learn the song.” So I get her the sheet music for the song that I choreographed to and she comes back to talk to me Monday night saying, “This song is not very suitable for the piano. It sounds not good and I think we should play something classical.” Then she plays a song for me… Ok I’ll admit she played beautifully to the classical music but if she plays that, we’d have to change the dance and the singer would be out because there aren’t any classical pieces that she can sing. Oh and did I forget to mention that the girl who is dancing with me has three lessons of modern dance experience? And she wanted me to choreograph ballet for her… Um yea… Not only am I NOT qualified to choreograph ballet, YOU HAVE NO DANCE EXPERIENCE, GIRLFRIEND! This is not going to be an easy task. So I make the dance way way WAY easier for her and she still doesn’t know how to count to music so I do the #1 thing I was trained not to do: choreograph to the lyrics. AWFUL! Absolutely horrendous. But whatever. These are kids who watch wayyyy too many movies and expect to learn a dance and be performance ready within an hour of watching me do the dance. She doesn’t even try to dance while I’m dancing. She just watches it and says, “I will practice when you’re not looking”…. NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!! That’s not how this works! So it’s been three rehearsal days. I stayed late and took the 7:30pm bus home Monday-Wednesday so that we could rehearse as much as possible. She’s looking better but is still having a hard time with moving fluidly. Today (Thursday) we didn’t practice at all because the students had tests all day. I have until the 20^th to get her performance ready. I’m gonna need a miracle! I hope I can keep you updated as time goes on but time seems to be moving faster than I can run. Until then…Laters.

Hello December!

Hey hey bloggers! Are you ready for the next entry in the craziness that is China? Well here it is…

Last week was the most stressful week by far since I got here. Somewhere around 2-3 weeks ago the director of the school went to our librarian and asked if the foreign teachers could prepare a Thanksgiving dinner for the IC staff. That’s about 80 people. None of us had ever cooked for that many people before so we were all like uhhhh no…. But of course, like drinking (yes as in alcohol), if you refuse, you could be considered scum of the earth. So we all chose a dish to prepare for Thanksgiving. I chose decorations because, let’s face it, I can’t cook. So the senior 3s were supposed to help us prep the meal for the faculty so that we could partake in this “cultural sharing experience.” But then the point got brought up, “Why are the students helping us to cook when they won’t get to eat? The faculty should help us cook if they’re gonna be the ones eating.” So of course that blows up in our faces and the admin says, “great idea! You do two dinners! One on Friday with/for the students and one on Saturday with/for the staff.” Crap now we’re stuck doing two… Did I mention that by doing these dinners, we’re staying late at school? We stayed 2 hours past normal bus time home on Friday and 6 hours past normal bus time on Saturday… There went our weekend. So anyway, we start prepping for these dinners by telling the students what to bring from their hometown: cranberry sauce, spices, etc. All the students complained because they’re providing all the supplies for a dinner they didn’t ask to be a part of. Some of the ingredients, especially for 150+ people, can be upwards of 600 yuan (about 100 USD). Would you ever ask your students to provide $100 worth of stuff for other people? Probably not… but here in China, it’s the norm. 

So two weeks ago I started working on the decorations. I had an idea of what I wanted in my head but I was having a hard time making that a reality since there was a lot of prep that needed to happen and I was running out of time. I ended up delegating some of the work to a few students, who by the way, MESSED IT ALL UP! I ended up having to throw away half of what they made because it wasn’t at all even close to what I had directed them to do. So I ended up doing 90% of the work myself. Technically I had to redo some of what they “undid” so I was pissed off. I stayed up until 11pm every night after work doing those stupid decorations. Then some students fell through on what they were supposed to bring in terms of supplies so I ended up going and getting them myself or asking Jeremiah for help in finding some of the supplies. Thank God for Jeremiah because he helped me out so much when I was so stressed that I wouldn’t get it all done in time. I even started crying in front of him, which I’ll admit is a bit embarrassing. Anyway, it all ended up working out. Every table had a tissue paper turkey, some tinsel, paper leaves with teachers’ names on it, and some tea candles. It was EXACTLY how I had imagined the table would look before I lost hope and started adjusting my decoration plans. It was totally worth it but during the week I was sleep deprived, a little delirious, and so sick of looking at my decorations. I ended up throwing everything away. Some of the teachers took my tissue paper turkeys home because they loved them so much and I was glad to be rid of them! So that’s my story… let’s see what some of the other stories were from my coworkers….

Every American teacher took a group of students to prepare a dish. Once the students got to the cafeteria they were pretty excited to get started. We all told them that they needed to wash their hands before starting to work with the food and every single one of them asked, “why?” It was gross when they told us why that was weird to them… apparently washing their hands with the water that comes out of the school’s sink taps puts more bacteria on their hands than not washing their hands at all! But they washed their hands regardless and started helping out. There were one or two mini food fights and students sampling every single food there was (even raw foods that should not be eaten raw). When I was done decorating I walked over to where the students were mixing what looked like cranberry sauce and one of my students grabbed a piece of bread, dipped it in the sauce, and said, “Chelsey! Try this it’s awesome!” Then he held it in front of my mouth like he wanted to feed it to me. I was like, “AHHHH NO THANKS!” Then he did it to his Chinese teacher (female) who let him feed her. CHINA IS SO WEIRD! He fed a few other girls in his class and I just watched in disbelief. I would never let a student feed me, let alone a male student! Weirdddddddd. I think all in all the students had a great time. We had turkey (that tasted more like duck than turkey), stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, something that was green (maybe mushed beans?) cranberry sauce, yams, pumpkin pie, apple crisp, and apple cider. It didn’t taste like America, but it was close enough.

The next night it was the faculty dinner and pretty much the same deal happened. It was like not-so-instant replay. The only difference between this prep time and last prep time was that the faculty chose to wear gloves while prepping the food IN REPLACEMENT OF washing their hands…… yea in America, we do both. So gross! The teachers also sampled EVERYTHING while preparing the food. The faculty really didn’t have as great of a time as the students and I think that was because they were giving up their time off of work to do it whereas the students were getting out of class to do it. So Saturday wasn’t as much fun but the food was still good and my decorations were AWESOME!

Unfortunately we only had one day off this week and I was EXHAUSTED. I was so frustrated that we were required to stay late on both Friday AND Saturday. They didn’t even really give us an option. They just said, yes you are doing it. So now I’m back at work and half falling asleep. On the plus side, the senior 3s I don’t teach are now saying hi to me and adding me on wechat :D New friends to teach me more Chinese! Yay! I think this week will feel boring compared to the stress of last week but I’m moving on to the joy of Christmas planning. December 28 is the school concert and I was just asked to dance in it! They’re trying to get students to dance in it but so far only singing and instruments are scheduled. I hope I can get students to dance with me! I don’t want to do a solo. I’m also making stocking cards for my officemates. The crafts never stop here in the counseling office! I’ll be sure to keep you updated as the week goes on. Until then…Laters!