Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we invited all the people from Shijiazhuang to come down and spend it with us. We held it at the school and made a ton of food. In the end we invited some students as well and they loved eating American Thanksgiving food. You have to realize this was probably the first time they ever experienced something like this. I know my students loved it and had a really great time. The school even came and took pictures of all of us and the food we made. It was sad that we couldnt spend it with our families but it was nice to be able to spend it with our second families that we have created here in China.

My trip to The Great Wall Simitai

Long story short, we went to Beijing to go and climb the great wall. Matt and I ended up having to take a private car as there were no buses running there because of the season. It wasnt too expensive just more than I wanted to pay but well worth it. We got there and it took us an hour and a half to climb the wall and another hour to climb back down. Once we got almost to the bottom there is a place where you can zip line the rest of the way down and so we did. It was AWESOME! I should have taken a video but didn't, oh well. One interesting thing is I met a guy from Muscatine Iowa while climbing the wall (small world). I took a picture of him doing a handstand on the wall so he could flip it to make it look like he was holding the wall up. He is going to be sending me the picture in the future. Otherwise here are the pics of my Great Wall experience.

12 Things I Have Learned in China Thus Far

1. Crossing the street is like playing Frogger
2. It is okay to drink beer and liquor at lunch time and then go back to work
3. People not only eat dogs here they keep them as pets too
4. People are always worried about you wearing enough clothes and drinking enough hot water
5. Compared to American prices everything here is a steal
6. No tipping saves you a lot of money
7. Please is no longer a necessary word to remember
8. What is a line again?
9. Stop asking why and just go with it
10. Dogs are not the only ones who poop and pee on the street
11. A public toilet is very much that...PUBLIC
12. and the most important phrase that has served me quite well even though it can sometimes be embarrassing: Ting Bu Dong!!!

Need an Update

There is so much to talk about. Let's start at the beginning.
Classes have been going great. Awhile ago I showed my classes the pictures from our trip to Shanghai and Suzhou...they loved them. Most of them have not had the opportunity to travel and I think they like the fact they can live a little vicariously through me and the other foreign teachers through our pictures and our stories. I have tried some games as well that they seem to really like. They go crazy for the game categories where I divide the class into four teams, have them pick one person from each team to come up to the board and then I give them 45 seconds to write as many things from a category that I choose. The other game that gets a good response is the dating game. I pick one boy and three girls or one girl and three boys and ask them questions. Whoever gets to five points first is the winner of a date (just pretend). There is a lot of oooooo's and ahhhhh's from the class. It gets them riled up and embarrassed which is adorable at their age.
Another interesting happening was Kirk's visit to Shijiazhuang and to Handan. Lauren and I went up to the Shiz to see Kirk and the others since he wasn't going to be able to stay in Handan as long as he had first planned. It was a great time. When he came to Handan it was quite an entertaining experience. Let's just say lots of toasting and good times. Plus I am totally jealous of Kirk's Chinese. I find myself in situations all the time where I wish hard that I could speak Chinese as well as he does. Mine is terrible and mostly broken when I try to speak it. Most of the time I can get my point across but I still want to know more...much more!
A couple of months ago the school had a sports meet. The students competed in events like the high jump and running. Some of these kids are super fast and it is quite impressive. There was also an event for us where we do a 4x100 meter relay. We came in dead last but it was still fun and all the students cheered for us and the school gave us a notebook for our efforts. All in all it was a great time and an excuse for the kids to have a little fun instead of studying all the time..which is basically what their lives are.