Goodbye, Xanga

So after four years of blogging on Xanga, I'm fed up. After China blocked Xanga, I thought I'd be ok because I was able to use a proxy server. The proxy server works and lets me access my blog, but uploading pictures and especially videos is pain-stakingly slow (even trying to post this has taken me forever!). And now, the proxy server is moody and I have to restart my computer every time I want to have it on. So, the frustration has now outweighed the fondness I have for my Xanga blog which I've used for more than four years - 1,506 days, Xanga tells me.  I'm moving on and (hopefully) moving up and using Blogger. Blogger is still blocked in China, but I can log in and post to it without a problem and I can post to Blogger via email which is a nice feature, especially when I'm traveling and can't use a proxy server.

Another better feature about Blogger is that anyone can comment on my blog! I love to know who's reading my posts and to get feedback on what I write. Feel free to leave me a comment. Plus, it'll help me know that I haven't lost all of my blog followers by switching.

Here's my new blog address:

http://kimginchina.blogspot.com

So here's how I celebrated my 26th birthday in China . . . (long post but a lot happened!)

"Happy Birthday to you . . ."

To start off my birthday, Amy and Brad took me to a newly opened massage place Friday afternoon.  We all had had an incredibly long, taxing week and a massage sounded like a gift from heaven, not to mention a fun way to celebrate a birthday.  The greeter (for lack of a better word) recommended the 2 hour foot wash/massage/body massage.  We agreed and were treated to the most amazing massage ever.  I had no idea there were that many way to rub someone's foot but it felt so good.  The package also included a paraffin wax foot treatment where they painted hot wax all over our feet, wrapped them up and then after the wax hardened it's taken off and your feet are so soft.  After foot treatment was full body massage.  Some of the ways we were pulled and stretched and jiggled (yeah, there's just no other word for it) would have been rather awkward in any other context, but our masseurs/masseuse (weird words) were quite professional and had a good sense of humor and were obviously enjoying having three foreigners to work on.  For the final part of our massage we got walked on!  You lay flat and your masseur holds on to these handles on the ceiling and proceeds to walk and slide up and down you back.  I was a little unsure how I liked it at first, but decided it felt good.  In addition to having a great massage, I've haven't laughed that much in a long time.  Brad's so tall that the girl who was giving him a massage kept laughing that she couldn't get him in the right positions.  Funny things kept coming up with us trying to understand the Chinese.  Such a great time.  And because it was afternoon, we got a 20% discount.  2 1/2 hours of massage therapy for only 70 yuan which is less than $10!  We think it's going to have to be a monthly or every other week event.

(when the massage was over, we had a little fun trying out the ceiling handle bars . . . here's Brad "walking" on me)

" . . . happy Birthday to you . . . "

Friday night Mary Beth came out from Yidu and joined us for supper at Pizza Hut.  Last year I had a big birthday dinner at the then newly-opened Pizza Hut so I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to continue the tradition.  We had fun eating and talking together and then came back to our house for Black Magic cupcakes (with cream cheese frosting . . . yum!) for dessert.  Mary Beth spent the night and it was fun to be able to just chat with her way into the night.

" . . . happy birssday, Miss Kim . . . "

My students were so sweet for my birthday.  The birthday wishes and started as early as Tuesday in my classes.  On Tuesday two of my boys gave a present.  I opened it to find one glove inside (a brown striped glove with a stuffed bunny head on the back).  When I asked where the other glove was they said it was coming with another boy in the Friday class.  On Friday, Steve presented me with the match.  They just did it to be silly which makes me happy.  One of my students crocheted me a beautiful scarf.  My Wednesday 4:00 class made a big card which they all signed and wrote notes to me on and left outside my door Saturday morning.  Their notes were so sweet and cute . . . I have to share one.  This girl had struggled with her speech the week before and I had had to talk to her after class and then have her give her speech again the next week.  Here's the note she wrote me:

Dear Kim:
Happy Birthday!  Also Happy everyday!  I love your sweet smile, your special teaching and your kindness.  There is an very important sentence I must tell you.  That is, I love you and thank you so much for encouraging me and not leaving me fall behind!  I will always remember you and love your classes.  ~Kelly

Sometimes the students are overly complimentary but a note like that from a student really is encouraging to me and helps me to know that I'm making an impact on these kids.

One of my funny students from last year sent me a text message at 12:01 Friday night/Saturday morning so that he could be the very first person to tell me happy birthday on my birthday.  I got messages all day on Saturday from students telling me happy birthday.  Two girls who came over Saturday morning to study gave me a tea set gift (yes, another one . . . they mean well but this is my fourth or fifth tea cup set) and an amazing card.  They used the word "happy" over and over to make the Chinese characters for Happy Birthday and wrote "happy birthday" in English, Chinese, Korean, French, and Japanese for me. 

 . . . happy birthday to you."

The night of my birthday, my friends put together a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater.  We were all given a character and clues throughout the night and had to try to figure out who was the murder by the time dinner and dessert were over.  It was so incredibly much fun.  The setting was 1935 England and I was Lady Dianna Whittington whose husband was just murdered in their own house.  Our story had a dutchess, my mother-in-law the countess dowager, a famous actress, a world renown-author, a vicar, a tennis star, and Venetian detective and an unexpected guest in it.  We even tried (as much as possible) to dress our part and get the correct props.  In the end Amy was the murderer but Brad turned out to be a German spy who was guilty for a previous murder.  Thelma (a.k.a. Katie) was an actress in love with my husband and Jian was just out for my husbands money!  Scandalous!   

Here are a few pictures but if you want to see more you can go to the Facebook link at the bottom.

The dinner guests at Whittington Hall

How well do we pull of the 1920s-30s flapper look? . . . in China no less!  (um no, Katie didn't really take up smoking . . . it's a marker)


Dahling . . . did you hear?? . . . .


Collin, Thelma, and Daphne


Me, a murderer!?  Impossible!

For a present I got a crossword puzzle book (to go with the theme) and then I got personalized crosswords with funny clues made by Brad, Amy, Beth, and Katie.  Everybody went in and gave me a membership at the newly renovated gym in town which I had been wanting to join.  I also got a handmade wooden Chinese comb, earrings, a "cake" made by Kristy (out of cloth and personalized for me), and some great coffee.  After we washed all the dishes at midnight we watched the movie "Clue" (yeah, just like the board game . . . I didn't even know there was a movie) to complete the Murder Mystery night.

A big, big thanks to my amazing Yichang friends for throwing me such a great party!  I couldn't believe how much work and time and effort went into my party and my gifts.  You are all wonderful!

More Photos

And, of course, I must mention the wonderful birthday box I got from my family.  Mom, dad, Kara and John sent me fun food and new clothes, a great hat, and other fun little things from home.  I can't say enough how much I love and appreciate my family and am thankful for how much they care about me. 

Although "Happy Everyday" (as they like to say here) might be overly optimistic, "Happy Every Birthday" is definitely true in China . . . at least when you have the friends and family and students that I have!

See, I told you so . . .

A couple weeks ago, I emailed one of my former Two Plus Two students who is now living in Australia.  If you haven't heard me rant about the Two Plus Two Program before, here's a recap.  The 2+2 students are supposed to study here and then go abroad to study for two years.  Sounds great.  The problem - they're students whose college entrance exams scores probably weren't high enough for them to get into an four-year university here.  The second problem - they come from wealthy families.  The overall feeling is that these students are spoiled and lazy and that the school has no recourse to make them go to class or do anything because their parents are, in a sense, just buying their "education."  Now, I must say, there are some really good students that I've had who have been in the 2+2 program.  Some of the students are motivated, hard-working, and genuinely seem to appreciate the chance that they have to go abroad.  But as a whole, when I have to teach the 2+2ers, it's like pulling teeth to get them to speak or practice English at all!  They know they're going to be living in England or Australia in less than two years.  They know that their English level is not at all where it should be, yet they still do nothing or just never go to any of their classes!  It drives me crazy sometimes.  Anyways, going back to my student's email . . . I wrote and just said hi and asked how he was doing.  Here's his reply:

Dear Kim,
I’m so supervised to receive this mail from our beautiful teacher—miss Kim. Em, I didn’t go with my classmates to England because my parents want me to stay in abroad as long as possible. Now I don’t think its good idea to go to Australia alone. In Australia, I have to cooking by myself, washing by myself, that’s mean everything by myself, terrible isn’t it. And the worst thing is you must use English everywhere. 
 
I think the new student in your class is pretty good. So I don’t have many advices. Just one thing, study hard especially oral English.
 
Hope things are going better.
 
                                   
                  Yours lovely,
                  Leslie

Ok, overlooking the humor of "supervised" instead of "surprised" and the "yours lovely" at the end or that this student is obviously just figuring out what it means to actually be an adult, let's focus on the sentence "The worst thing is you must use English everywhere."  What in the world did you expect!!??   Did you think everyone in Australia would speak Chinese??  Did you think that all your teachers were just being dumb when they said that you should study harder because you're actually going to have to use this??  Did you think that Miss Kim just liked to hear herself talk when she said that you should take advantage of the fact that you have foreign teachers to talk to and practice with??  Wait, you probably didn't hear me say that because you weren't in class.  I laugh and just shake my head at this email.  The WORST THING is that you must use English everywhere . . .  good grief.  Plus, you're talking to someone who lives in a foreign country and has to try to speak a foreign language every day.  And, I also manage to do my own washing, cooking, and cleaning.  I'm not personally offended and I'm not really trying to laugh at this student or minimize how hard it is to live in a foreign country by youself:  I liked him and hope he does well in Austrlia.  It's just the irony of it all that I find funny especially hearing it in a student's own words. 

Oh, I am older now, having had my 26th birthday yesterday.  I would like to say a huge HUGE thank-you to my wonderful Yichang friends for going all out and throwing me a great party and giving me amazing presents.  I will defintiely be posting pictures and writing about how I got to celebrate my birthday.  Also, my students were amazingly sweet and thoughtful and funny about my birthday.  As soon I consolidate pictures and get some time to sit down and wait for the computer to download stuff, I'll post about it.

Emotional TP

Things like this in China make me laugh.  "Happiness" toilet paper.  I never really thought about toilet paper making me happy, but when I saw these rolls of "Happiness" I realized that I'm less happy without toilet paper or when toilet paper is in short supply (thinking back on my trip to Tibet).  So I suppose you could conclude that toilet paper indirectly makes you happy since a lack of it makes you less happy.  And Chinese bathrooms which inevitably are without toilet paper are definitely less happy to use than bathrooms in America.  "Happiness" toilet paper is actually a good brand, in case you're wondering.  So, happy everyday and every trip to the bathroom.

Double Happiness

Since we had our big Halloween party on Saturday night so that more people could come, we decided to have a small Halloween dinner last night with just a few friends--me and Katie, Amy, Beth, Brad, and Dawson and Sandra, Shorel and Schafer.  Schafer got to wear his frog costume again and come trick-or-treat at our houses . . . so cute!  As with other holidays, we made amazing, creative themed food.  Pumpkin soup in black caldrons by Beth.  Orange muffins by Dawson.  Caramel apple slices by Katie.  Tombstone sandwiches and pumpkin shaped cupcakes by Amy, Vampire Repellent (garlic dip) that I made (thanks Kara for that mix you gave me a long time ago!).  Brad made "monster toes" out of mini hotdogs, ketchup, and tortilla strips (we were all rather grossed out by the monster toes by the end of the night . . . they really did look like toes!) and the Kleinerts brought hot chai tea and pumpkin bread.

We are all creative!  We are all funny!