Graduation, birthday celebration, and year 10 field trip!

你好！This past weekend was CRAZY! So let's get you caught up.

Saturday was graduation. I cried as I watched my students get their diplomas and ask to take pictures with me. Chinese graduations are all very different but our ceremony (we have a ceremony because we're trying to be a more western school) involved a lot of speeches, videos, and songs/"performances." The students walked up 5 at a time to get a box with their diploma on top of it (not sure what was in the box) and shake hands with the principals. Then their family members were allowed to walk on stage and give them a bouquet of flowers. Then they filtered off stage and went back to their seats to take off their robe and get ready for their class song. Pretty much everyone looked like they were going to prom. Their hair was all nicely done with a full face of make up and gorgeous prom dresses on. They performed their song and concluded with all the grade twelve teachers coming on stage to hug them and take pictures with them. After the ceremony there was a dinner for the faculty.

Sunday was my birthday. I bought a bunch of pizza and beer for my friends and we played drinking games in the afternoon. Then Christine brought over cake from Aili (the cake was my present) and we pigged out on that. About 4ish hours later everyone passed out into a food coma (it might've been a beer coma). I really really enjoyed my time with my friends and I'm so glad everyone made the effort to  come over to my apartment to help me celebrate.

Monday-Wednesday was the year 10 field trip. We went to a city called Jiaozuo (焦作) in Henan (河南) province. We stayed near Yuntai Shan (云台山). It was a seven hour bus ride to our location from school. First we hiked down to Hongshi Xia (红石峡）then we went to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner. After dinner a few students invited Christine and I to play Uno with them.

The next day we didn't have to be up until 7 so the students stayed up until half past 10! I was too tired to stay up so I went back to my room and passed out. The second day we went back to Yuntai Shan and climbed the tallest peak called Zhuyu Feng (茱萸峰). At the top we were about 1300 meters above sea level. Of course I shouted off the top. Then we climbed down and went to another gorge that I can't remember the name of and after that I climbed up a third mountain to see monkeys perform! It was an exhausting but totally worth it day. I had so much fun bonding with the students. I got to know my dance club kids a little better and they created a new nickname for me >.< MONKEY! After the mountains we went back to the hotel and rested for about a half hour. Then we all met for dinner but before we went to dinner we went to a "grocery store." When I say grocery store what I really mean to say is exhibition hall where you have lots of people trying to sell you stuff and offer you samples while you weave your way to the exit. I had a blast trying everything and my Chinese colleagues enjoyed seeing the people's reactions to my not being able to communicate with them. I ended up buying some Juhua Cha (菊花茶）for the summer to come. Then we went to dinner and called it an early night since we had to be up at 6am the next morning.

On Wednesday we went to another part of Yuntai Shan called Qinglong Xia (青龙峡). There was a cable car available but we could also hike it. I along with about 75% of everyone else decided to hike down. It was beautiful and even better, there were few people so I raced some students down for a bit. Once we got to the end of the hike we were given the choice to take the cable car up or hike up but we only had an hour to hike up if so chose to do so. I timed our hike down and it took us and hour and a half so there was NO WAY I was hiking up in less than an hour. I settled for the cable car and as I was approaching the top, I saw two boys walking up! TWO STUDENTS HIKED UP! I was thoroughly impressed! They were proud of themselves (as well they should be!). Then we boarded the bus and headed for Jinan. We got to school around 9pm (it was a LONG bus ride) and home around 10. I was exhausted to say the least but it was totally worth it. I had a blast and the kids all enjoyed getting to know me a little better. I studied Chinese with them and they loved hearing my improvement by the end of the trip. If I'm ever given the chance to do it again, I will gladly jump up and ask when.

On Friday I head out to Beijing for Dragon Boat Festival. I'm pretty excited to see some of my friends from Hawaii who live there. I'm also going to a music festival ON THE GREAT WALL!!!!! I can't wait to get home to tell you all about it :D Until then... Laters!

Weddings, drama, and work

Good morning, afternoon, evening (depending on when you're reading this) bloggers! My weeks in Jinan are getting longer and longer, which means that I forget to update you all on a regular basis. But fear not! My weekend was hectic and interesting so I have much to catch you up on! So let's get started...
Last week was a short week so we had a half day on Friday. I went to the gym and my dance teachers tried to practice their English with me while I practiced my Chinese with them. Then they invited me to go out with them! I was like, "Oh that's very sweet but I'm tired and have a busy weekend so I can't. Sorry." Then one of my teachers said something to a friend of mine at the gym in Chinese and my friend translated, "She said, 'I told you Chunzi wouldn't hang out with us. She's too..... fun for us." I just about died laughing! They think I'm "too fun" to hang out with them. Honestly, I just didn't have time because I had to run some errands for the weddings on Saturday and Sunday! I felt bad so I promised them I'd go out with them another time.
Saturday: Gigi's wedding! I was invited to my beautiful coworker's wedding and I said I would attend. So prior to Saturday my other coworker, Michael, told me to meet him at 8:30am so that we could catch the shuttle out to the location (which is like a 40-50 minute drive from our apartments without traffic). I agreed but then Jessie (another of my Chinese coworkers) came into my office and spoke to Michael in Chinese then turned to me and said, "Oh Chelsey! You're coming with me and Sharon to the wedding. I will tell you the time later." So I kinda just nodded dumbly and said, "Oh uhhhh OK." Michael didn't seem to mind because he still had plans to go to Gigi's wedding with Grace and Jeremiah. So Saturday morning comes along and I get ready to leave. I walk out of my door and Sarah (my boss's wife and our librarian) opens her door and says, "Can I go with you to Gigi's wedding?" I said, "Oh.... Well Sharon's picking me up in 15 minutes and I have to walk to her apartment to meet her so I'm leaving now." She turned on her heel, shoved money in an envelope, and then shoved the envelope in my hand saying, "Fine then, here. YOU give this to Gigi. You know, I don't know what I did that was so offensive to everyone but it really hurts my feelings." Then she slammed her door in my face. I'm more than a little confused and still have no idea why she was so angry with me. But to this day (Wednesday) she still has not said a word to me. So I tried to shake the negative feelings I was having and left to go meet Sharon. We then picked up Jessie and Ada and off we went to the wedding. It was a pretty traditional wedding and my coworker looked absolutely stunning. It started at 11:18 with the groom picking up a bouquet of flowers from the fountain on the stage and then shouting on the catwalk stage for his lovely bride to enter the room. She entered on his second call with her father and walked onto the stage. He knelt down and gave her the bouquet. She accepted it and they proceeded with MANY MANY MANY ceremonies. If I described them all here, we'd be here all day. All you really need to know is that it was VERY different from Western weddings. Then we had lunch and went home by 1:15.
Saturday night: I went shopping with Lucy underground beneath Wanda plaza and had a blast! We got a lot accomplished in just a few hours.
Sunday: Emma's wedding! A lot of my foreign coworkers were invited so I shared a cab with my friends to the wedding... It started at 11:08am so we had to get there by about 10am to make sure we all got seats. When we got there, Sarah of course, didn't say a word to me and said hello to everyone else. Emma's wedding was similar to Gigi's wedding except when we had lunch, we went to a different floor and the foreigners all went into a separate room from the Chinese people. Brian and Sarah didn't stay for lunch. We all ate and had a great time. Then we left at about 1:45pm.
Monday and Tuesday: Finals for my students. I didn't give my kids a final because they submitted a paper before they left for their senior trip. So I just hung out with them and answered any questions they still had about college life. I did a dance that I choreographed for them along with a slideshow of pictures from the year. Then they all wanted to dance so I put on some music and we had fun.
Graduation is coming up on Saturday and my birthday is the day after that. Then I'm going on a field trip to the Hunan Province with the 10th graders so I won't be able to update you until I get back. But a day after I get back to Jinan, it's the weekend of Dragon Boat Festival so I'm going to Beijing to celebrate my birthday and the festival with my friends from Hawaii. I'm pretty excited for everything going on and I can't wait to see everyone in Beijing again! I'll do my best to update you as time goes on but like I said, my weeks are getting longer and my days blend together. Yesterday I forgot it was Tuesday! That's just embarrassing haha! I'll be sure to update you the second I get the chance. Until then... Laters!

My school... is unique

Well let's see where to start... The seniors have been in and out of school all month because of CIE and AP exams. So this week they're supposed to be coming back to school. And when I say "supposed to" I mean, it's an option for them to come back to campus before they graduate. There are currently about 20 +/- 5 in the entire grade actually on campus. There should be over 100. So the director of our school decided the students needed a change in schedule because that would encourage students to come back to school. This whole month they've had 10 self study periods. As in, they just study on their own for their remaining AP and CIE exams. Now that most of those are done, they don't need to study. So my director called a meeting for all grade 12 teachers and students at 9am yesterday. She asked, "What do you want in your daily schedules?" The students sat there as they do so silent that you could hear a pin drop. Finally I broke the silence and said, "How about games outside?" Some of the girls perked up and said yes and some of the boys agreed alright, I guess I can get off my computer long enough to get out into the polluted air. Then we sat in silence again for about 5 (LONG) minutes and finally a students said, "Can we learn about food in the UK and US?" We agreed, we'd offer that course. Then Tim (my coworker) said, "How about dance? I can't tell you how many times I've been asked to dance by a girl that I liked and I had to say, 'Sorry I can't dance.'" So all the boys immediately jumped up and said, "YES!" REALLY?! THANKS A LOT! The girls that are already part of my dance club were like hell yea more dance with Chelsey! So that got thrown on the board. Then (and thankfully last) a student said, "How about daily life skills?" I asked, "What do you mean by that?" And the only example he could come up with was, "Like how to catch a bus." ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! WE LIVE IN A CITY AND YOU CATCH BUSES ALL THE TIME! OMG..... So Sharon was like Yea let's do that too! So our new schedule is as follows:
1-Self-study (realistically, time to wake up)
2-Outdoor activities
3-Outdoor activities
4-Daily life skills
5-Self-study (realistically, time to sleep)
6-Foods
7-Dance

This is probably the funniest schedule I've ever seen. And I'm "teaching" 3 of the periods. I mean, I'm all for having fun but these kids don't want to do these classes. It's all a front for the kids to look like they're doing something while really watching TV shows and movies in their classrooms. On the plus side, I had kids actually request to do a dance class yesterday so I taught them the Electric Slide, Cupid Shuffle, and Cha Cha Slide. They LOVED it! So now that I know they wanna learn how to dance at parties and not so much how to dance like they're getting ready to perform, I can have some fun with that. They graduating May 24th so it's only for a couple of weeks. In the next week we don't really have much going on except a couple weddings so I'll update you about those next week. Until then... Laters!

Hawaii Crew and Suzhou!

Woah! Where did the time go?! So let's catch you bloggers up... The weekend before last (April 26th) I went to Beijing for an over night trip. I went because my dad's friend was hosting a Hawaii night. I went, ate awesome food, met amazing people, and enjoyed my time away from work. I was seriously in the best mood EVER! The Hawaii Crew was so much fun to chat with and we all enjoyed being around other Hawaii people. It made me miss home a lot more than I had been. So now I have people to visit in Beijing and for my birthday, I'm hoping to make it back for a party with my new friends :D

The next week was pretty short because we had a holiday starting Thursday. I went with three of my friends to Suzhou. But before we got to Suzhou, we had some troubles. We hopped in a cab to go to the train station. Half way there, our cab starts to smell like burning rubber. The cabby pulls over, pops the hood, and then yells something at us in Chinese. He gestures for us to get out and starts saying how much we owe him. We were like wtf?! So to get him to shut up, we paid him. He got back in his car and drove away. We had no idea where we were and the street/ally we were on/in did not have any cars driving by let alone cabs... So we go into a children's store and using broken Chinese ask if the woman can call us a cab. She does so and 16 minutes later we finally get one to come pick us up. We get to the train station with about 30 mins to get our tickets, go through security, grab lunch, and board our train. Talk about stressful! So we get to the ticket office and the woman types in the confirmation number, types in our passport numbers, and gives us three tickets. She speaks in Chinese and 10 mins later we decipher that she can't find Joanna's ticket. So we talk (again in broken Chinese) and she goes to another computer where we can't see her. Turns out I had typed in Joanna's passport number wrong when I booked the ticket so she couldn't find the reservation. She eventually found it and I had only switched two numbers by accident. So, angry and frustrated (and a little embarrassed), we finally get what we needed and go into the waiting area. We get a quick lunch and board our train. 3 hours later we arrive in Suzhou! From there it was actually not bad. We get in a cab and get a little lost. The cabby gets out of his car and asks for directions. He gets us there and we easily check in. We even got an upgrade for free! Then we grab our bags and go toward the elevators. Our room was on the 40th floor and we got into an elevator. Turns out, elevators only go to certain floors and we got into the elevator that stops at floor 35 >.< Yea terrible mistake on our part. So we FINALLY get to our hotel suite and settle in. Then we went exploring. While in Suzhou we went to Tiger Hill and a silk museum. Overall it was a really great trip and it was fun to get away from Jinan.

We got back Saturday afternoon and had to be back at work Sunday... We have wayyyy too many days in our work week this week >.< 13 to be exact... Our next day off is May 17th! The next four days are dedicated to Naviance training so that should be.... boring.  The only exciting thing that's happening for a while is that we have new counselors and teachers interning so that they can prep for the new year. I'll be able to meet new people and make new friends. My seniors graduate May 24th so that's also a little exciting except for the fact that none of my students are actually at school right now. Meh. Hopefully I'll have more to update you on next week but if not, it'll be a while for my next post. Until then... Laters!

Busy weekend past, busy weekend future

Hey hey bloggers! This past week was the first long week we've had in 3... count 'em... THREE weeks! So as you can imagine, I'm running off of adrenaline. So let's discuss last week. I'll admit I don't remember much from the week except for my culture class is down to four students and every now and then three show up. I receive work from a student who's traveling with her family via email but she hasn't been in class all month. This is typical of the grade 12 students. They already got the scores they need and the school will fake their transcript grades to show that they did well in their second semester of senior year. So none of them go to class. They watch movies on their iPads and play games on their phones.... ALL DAY LONG!!! Or they just don't come to class. It drives me nuts. But enough about the negative. Let's move on to the positive :D

On Tuesday or Wednesday (I forget which day) my boss's boss, the director of the school, asked me to go to a single's party on Saturday. Here's a little background for those of you who don't know Chinese culture. A girl who's single at age 27 is considered "left overs." You're past your prime, you're no longer desired, your parents (or in this case your boss) should arrange a marriage for you. It's old fashioned but the culture still exists. I'm 24 and will be 25 in a month. My boss is worried about me because I'm not finding Chinese guys to date and potentially marry. So she asked me to skip work and attend the single's party. The party was an event that the school hosted. They asked for RSVP's from all teachers and then matched numbers with townies. So for example, 60 female teachers said yes so the school found 60 males from around Jinan to participate. Mostly everyone was around 24-30. I told my boss that I didn't want to participate because 1) I don't speak Chinese and 2) I don't want to be matched up by my psychotic school. So she said, "Ok you can just be in the audience and cheer on the girls from our center. I hope they can find love." I don't think she knows what love is. Then she asks me to make signs (the kine you see at sporting events) for each of the girls. I made cheering signs and each teacher from our center who was in the audience was able to hold one for each of the girls who was participating. So basically this whole event was a game show to match up JNFLS teachers to random Jinan townies. They played a few games and if the couple won, they got matching mugs as prizes (keep in mind the couple has never met until this day). Then the women had to display a talent for the men to judge them on. Then the men had to write their number on a card and give it to a girl and if the girl liked him back, she would give her card to him. If you exchange cards, you're successfully matched and you begin your relationship after the event. Three teachers from my center were given cards but only two of them gave their cards back. My boss went ape sh*t when guys weren't choosing the girls from our center. She almost left in tears because she's genuinely worried that there will be girls who won't get married at her center. I swear this whole thing was bizarre! My boss said that if I don't have a boyfriend next year, I will be required to participate. I'm kind of afraid that she might actually fire me for not participating.

Moving on to Sunday. I PERFORMED! It was fun but also very Chinese. It was an outdoor event with no line up or schedule really. They kinda just had me stand around and then said, "You're next!" So I said, "Oh! Uh Ok!" I got a reaction out of the crowd and they seemed to love my dance. No one came up to me and talked to me after so I just left with my friends from work and a student who came to watch. We went to Melena's for dinner and had a blast celebrating Easter, 4/20, and my "successful" performance. But I think what really made the day come to a fantastic close was when my friends said, "OK let's book tickets for Labor Day Holiday!" We book our tickets for Suzhou so we're officially going! I'm so excited :D

This week is pretty chill even though it's a long week. The seniors are leaving for their senior trip on Thursday, which means no classes for me. Then Saturday I'm headed to Beijing for a party and I'll be back to work on Monday. My next holiday is May 1-3 (of course I have to work Sunday-Saturday the following week but we won't think about that just yet). It's a busy few weeks ahead of me but it should be pretty fun! I'll definitely keep you updated on all that happens as time goes on. Until then... Laters!

Oh. It's Thursday!

Wait... when did it become Thursday?! Oh my how time flies. Well let's see if I can get you all caught up on life in China. The last two weeks have been short weeks! Meaning we've had at least two days off each week! It's been amazing. Two Friday's ago, I had a movie night with my friends (we watched Frozen and yes, I'm obsessed with the songs now). Saturday we went out to dinner and had a great time bonding a little more on a less negative level. Then Sunday I took it easy, relaxed, worked out a little, you know... the usual :P Then the week went by. I gave my students a few lessons about the hook up culture in universities and I helped with the AP psych class since they're getting ready for their test coming up in May. My boss gave me the task of finishing the course description catalog for next year by April 30th. Again, WHY IS THAT MY JOB?! Ugh.... Anywayyyy moving on to last weekend. Last weekend was Tomb Sweeping Holiday. It's a festival type of thing where Chinese people go to their hometown or where ever it is that their ancestors are buried and they burn fake "afterlife" money. They do this so that their ancestors will have money to life off of in their afterlife.
It was kind of a neat experience to walk down the street and see all the mini bonfires of fake money on the sidewalk. 
So Friday, I didn't do anything special. I just went to the gym to do my usual work out. Saturday I woke up and Skyped with my grad school adviser which was really nice. It was fun to have someone to share my experiences with and to teach her about all the differences of being a counselor in China. Then I went to Coffee Time to read a little and spend some time by myself. On my way back home I ran into the Linfield crew playing basketball and decided I could use a little exercise. We ended up playing for a few hours and headed out to dinner after that. It was an awesome day but not as awesome as Sunday. Sunday I met up with Jessie, one of my Chinese friends and colleagues. We went shopping from 12:30 to about 2:30 and then spent two hours hanging out at Coffee Time. She really wanted me to see the night lights so we found some other things to do while we killed time. We watched a wedding photo shoot in a Christian church and listen to some people singing. We had dinner and FINALLY the lights came on around 6:30. We took a ton of pictures! It was so cute how happy she was when we decided to go home. She said that she had a great day and I agreed. It was nice to spend time with a new friend and get to know her better. Fortunately that's not where my weekend ended :D Monday we had a holiday! I worked on my lesson plans and created PowerPoints and presentations, etc. It was a productive yet relaxing day.
I found out during the weekend that my friend, Michael, got hit by a motorbike while he was standing on the sidewalk waiting for one of our Chinese colleagues. His muscle is badly bruised but fortunately his bones are ok. He said the bike hit him hard enough for the rider to actually get bounced out of the seat. Then the rider scrambled to collect himself, got back on the bike, and took off. Michael said that he looked scared and we're guessing because hitting a foreigner with your motorize vehicle probably costs a hefty fine. Only in China do you have the chance of getting hit with a motorbike on a sidewalk while you're not moving. RIDICULOUS!
This week has gone by fast and I haven't really had a chance to catch my breath. Good thing tomorrow is a half day and we have two days for the weekend! I'm getting spoiled with these two day weekends. It'll be rough when we have our back to back long weeks next week. But it's ok because we have another holiday coming up May 1-4 :D I'm hoping to go to Suzhou and Hangzhou. Hopefully I can find someone to go with me! If there's anything else exciting that happens I'll be sure to keep you updated. Until then... Laters!

I'm surprised I'm still sane.

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Good morning Bloggers! My my, this week has been busy! Before we get into what I’ve been up to this week, let’s take a trip back to when I first started working here…

Back in September we were given a translated document that stated all of the conditions under which we were medically insured. In our contract with the school it states that we are given insurance. We were never asked to sign any documents pertaining to our insurance (which honestly should’ve been our first clue to the troubles we were in for). We were just told that the document is not to be used for any other purposes except to serve as translation. In January, one of my coworkers got sick and needed to go to the hospital for IV antibiotics. Her husband paid out of pocket and was told that they would be reimbursed.  Our "translated document" also confirmed that they would be reimbursed for the treatments. When we returned from Spring Festival holiday in February, my colleagues filed an insurance claim to get their money back. We just recently found out, within the last two weeks, that our school JUST NOW paid the insurance company bill to cover us. So we were without insurance for the first 7 months we were working here. And honestly, I still haven’t signed anything so I’m not 100% sure that I’m insured right now. So for the last week I’ve been busy helping my colleagues collect evidence to build a case for them to get their money back. It’s been quite the process. We’re still not sure if they’ll see their money again even though our contract clearly states that we should have been insured. I mean seriously, my colleagues paid equivalent to 1,000USD for the antibiotics AND got her pay cut equivalent to 500USD because she had missed so many days of work. If the school won’t pay her medical bills, they’re violating out contract. It’s so frustrating to watch this happen because if it happened once, I can almost guarantee that it’ll happen again if someone else gets sick. We’re given two days of paid sick leave per semester and because people don’t wanna lose money (and I don’t blame them) they come to school and teach sick. I get that you need to be here for your students but by coming to work sick, you’re risking all of us getting sick! Stay home and rest! Easy for me to say when I have Juice Plus+ on my side but still.

In other news, my boss is giving me projects that are in his job description. He has me creating course descriptions for the course catalog. How should I know what each class is teaching?! You have all the syllabi, why don’t you cut and paste each teacher’s course description into another document and call it a course catalog? Oh right. Because it’s easier to transfer all syllabi onto my thumb drive or email them to me so that I can do that and then email it back to you, have you write notes on a hard copy that you printed off and then give them to me to edit. WHAT?! That makes no sense… Although when you say that you live in Jinan, Shangdon Provence on your emails, I guess it makes sense to have someone who knows how to spell do these projects for you. Just so everyone knows, we live in the Shandong Province, not the Shangdon Provence.

Last story, I swear. So I teach a culture class to my students and this week I taught them about the hook up culture on college campuses. Yes, they do exist, yes our students need to be aware of what they may see and how to say no if they so choose. I had a talk from… an administrator. Not quite sure what his title is but he comes into my office and says, “Excuse me Chelsey I need to talk to you about your lessons.” I said, “Of course. What about my lessons?” He then says, “I completely agree that our students need to know this because it is important but maybe if you could just avoid using the word ‘sex’ or ‘sexual intercourse’ it will be better.” I said, “OK but that’s as technical as I can get. How would you like me to address the action of having sex if I can’t say sex?” He suggested, “Maybe call it ‘seduction’ or ‘doing it.’” Uhhhh Ok…? Also, he said that I can’t, as in I’m forbidden, to talk about STI’s. I asked, “But don’t you think that’s important for them to know?” He said, “Yes of course but it’s not that present in China so they can learn about it from their schools when they go to university.” HOLD UP! What?! I can believe to an extent that STI’s aren’t that present in China because their culture just isn’t as promiscuous as the US’s. But you REALLY don’t think they need to know about STI’s before gong to university in the states?! Really?! Chinese education doesn’t teach sex ed correctly. They teach it definitely but they’re taught everything wrong… For example they are taught that using multiple condoms (not just two but more than two) is more effective than using just one. “The more you use, the more protected you are.” Ummmm no. FALSE! WTH Chinese government?! I’m genuinely worried about my students in the states. I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope they use common sense and learn quickly!

Ok that’s it for now. I’ll be sure to update you next week. There are some crazy things happening this weekend and next week so I’ll probably be writing a lot more. Until then… Laters!