Differences

Hey again! So, I told you in my last post that I would fill you in on some culture in my next blog, so this blog is primarily for that.

I have two amazing Chinese teachers, who come from different backgrounds, but have been great at giving me insight into the Chinese lifestyle. My first teacher is from the village, but has moved to the city to live, learn, and work. My second teacher is from the city and very knowledgeable in Mandarin, since it is what she majored in during her college years (equivalent to an English degree in the States). I asked both of my teachers separately about the 1 child policy and they both said things have changed some in the last few years. There is still the 1 child policy, but some recent changes have been made, such as if both parents are only children (no siblings) then they are allowed to have 2 children. As far as for other families the 1 child policy is still strongly suggested, but for those who choose to have more than 1, then many restrictions will be placed on those families (there are 1.3 billion people in China and a little more than 1 million of them are in Xi'an). Many of those restrictions include having to pay 100,000 rmb ($15,000) per each additional child, school fees every year for each additional child, a non-recognized birth for each additional child, and a forfeiture of any governmental job for the parents.

• Due to having to pay a 100,000 rmb fee for each additional child, many believe that only Doctors or Lawyers, or someone considered middle to high class can afford to have more than one child
• The Chinese government recognizes that for the first child of a family that child will receive all the benefits of an education free of charge, but that for each additional child fees must be paid in order to allow those children an education
• For each additional child born the government chooses not to acknowledge the birth of the children and in some cases it is very difficult to get a birth certificate issued
• If a family has more than 1 child then neither of the parents are allowed to have a government job, and if they were already in a government job then they will be fired

Something else that I learned is that although there are 1600 different surnames in China, there are eleven that are common. Those eleven include: Chen, Lin, Huang, Zhang, Li, Wang, Zhao, Wu, Liu, Yang, and Zhou. Another interesting fact about surnames is that when a couple gets married the bride keeps her surname. The only time that she takes on the form of her husband's surname is during introductions to signify her marital status and to whom. Also, in some families (depending on which dynasty traditions that are chosen to be followed) the father-in-law or grandfather names the child after the mother has given birth in order to prevent conflict among the parents.

It has definitely been, and I am sure will continue to be, an experience learning about Chinese culture. Some things I may never fully understand, but no matter what I will still love these people who have already captured my heart.

Once last tidbit before I conclude this post - I know many of you are interested in my progression with Mandarin Chinese. In two weeks I will be done with book 1 and moving into book 2. It normally takes 16 weeks to complete book 1 considered it contains 31 pronunciation lessons and 10 basic lessons (going to the market, post office, etc.), but we will be done in 8 weeks time. I have definitely have had my struggles and frustrations, but feel good about the pace at which we are moving, since it will only help me to be able to communicate that much sooner with the people here.

I hope that you all have a wonderful week and that it is filled with joy and contentment.

All Things New

Wow, it is hard to believe that another week has already come and gone. I finally understand what my parents meant when they always used to say that time flies - as a kid time seems to go by so slowly, but as an adult there are days when you wonder what happened to the day.

Well, I finally got to go to Papa John's and it was everything I was hoping the pizza would be! The decision was made to go this past Saturday, as it was one of my friend's birthday (his 4th), and he invited everyone to join him at Papa John's. The day turned out to be beautiful with a clear blue sky and plenty of sunshine, so after pizza we moved outside to walk around the area where there were carnival rides for the kids. After a little while downtown we came back to my friend's apartment to watch Transformers (his favorite movie). It was a fun day.

Tonight I started teaching what will be once a week swim lessons. My friends F & M (the ones that took me to the French restaurant) had asked me if I would be willing to teach their 2 teenage children swimming, and if I would specifically work with them on their swimming strokes. The children are home schooled, so they needed to find someone to teach them in order to fulfill their Physical Education requirements, and it worked out perfectly that I could help them. This semester is a trial run and if things go well the next few months then there is a possibility of teaching some other foreign home school students too. I am also hoping that this will open up more opportunities with people that we meet at the pool. If nothing else I am enjoying getting to swim with some friends once a week and to do what I love in some fashion - teach.

I know this post is a little short, so I plan on posting another this week, which will include more on Chinese culture. In the meantime I have added another picture album from my trip to the Aquarium here a few weeks ago during the Holiday. Only in China can you find a dinosaur, alien, eskimo, and fish all in one place!

To Be or Not to Be...

...that is the question. No, I am not quoting Hamlet from Shakespeare; however, it does have some semblance to things that I am learning here in China, which I will share with you momentarily. To be or not to be are actually equative verbs (positive and negative) used in forming questions in Chinese. For example, if I wanted to ask if you are American in Mandarin it would be: "Ni shi Meiguoren ma? OR Ni shi-bu-shi Meiguoren?" The shi (to be) and bu shi (not to be) in the second question when translated to English has a literal meaning of: "You be or not be American?" Many translations to English from Mandarin are funny and will give you a good laugh, but I believe also hold a deeper meaning into the mindset of the Chinese people.

It all began with 'to be or not to be' as I was studying the other day, and I just couldn't get the thought out of my head. Many would say that the literal translation of the phrase is: 'is it better to live or to die?' Continuing with that mindset I thought about what does it mean to live and what does it mean to die, and what does that look like from a perspective a great Friend of mine has always taught me -that to truly live you must first die to self. I also thought about a quote someone used with this same subject one time that says: "You live once, you die twice. You die once, you live twice." That freedom is found in dying to self, and finding your purpose in Someone who will freely give that in order for us to truly live both here on earth and in eternity. Which brings me to the Chinese people - I have discovered that they have the concept right, just the wrong perspective and teaching which has led them to make the decisions they have made. For them, freedom is found in material possessions, both in their life here on earth, and those taken with them in the after-life, as well as many other views revolving around that concept. So, what does all this mean for me? Well, this once again re-affirms to me why I have the amazing opportunity I have to live and do life among the Chinese people - to be an example of what 'to be or not to be' means to me by living it out everyday. My journey through life so far has led me down the path as an educator, who has been given the ability to go and make a difference in the world. Even though in my own teachable moments I often need to be reminded of this, I plan on bringing REAL LIFE to the people of Xi'an!

More coming soon.....

Terracotta Warriors & Chinese National Holiday

Hey again! Well, this past week has been extremely busy, but definitely fun. I spent the beginning of the week with my friends at the grocery store, with what seemed like everybody else in town, in preparation for places being closed for the National Holiday, which runs from October 1 -8. No one was really sure if places would be closed just for Thursday (the first day of the National Holiday), or for the whole week, but we wanted to be prepared no matter what. The rest of my week included going to see the Terracotta Warriors, and several times of hanging out with my friends and taking walks around some parts of town.

I enjoyed my visit to the Terracotta Warriors, and found it quite interesting. My friend Jess was taking her mom and sister, who were in town visiting, and since it was something I wanted to do, it worked out perfectly for me to join them. I skipped class to go on Wednesday, but only after my teacher encouraged me to go since it is part of the history of Xi'an, and I could do the reviewing of previous lessons from that day's class as homework. We left in the morning to catch a bus to the train station (15-20 minutes with all the stops), where we would catch another bus from there to the warriors (which takes an hour). We could have scheduled to get a driver to take us, but we were up for the adventure and realized that this would allow us to ride the bus with all the people heading home to the village for the Holiday. We discovered that there are several buses that leave from the train station with the final stop being the Terracotta Warriors, but that they all make stops at villages along the way. Trying to get on one of these buses was somewhat chaotic at first since there were so many people, and the Chinese do not believe in orderly lines, but rather to push your way onto the bus. Eventually the workers and guards were able to create lines and get things more organized, so we only ended up waiting for about 15 minutes. The bus ride there was very nice and I enjoyed seeing more parts of Xi'an that I do not get to see everyday. We arrived at the museum and spent close to 3 hours there, taking in the sites and learning the history of the warriors. If I included all the information in here about the Terracotta Warriors, it would take an entire blog, so hopefully this description will suffice: the Terracotta Warriors are from the first Qin Dynasty ruler, Emperor Qin Shi Huang, and represents the emperor’s ability to control the resources of the newly unified China during his reign, and his attempt to re-create and maintain that empire in the afterlife. Somethings about his reign are fascinating and highly advanced for his time, but other things are just sad and indescribable (like people being buried alive to protect the secrets of the burial tomb).

On Thursday, as China was celebrating the National Holiday of 60 years of the People's Republic of China, my friends and I gathered to celebrate the freedom that we each have been given. One of our friends (the ones that took me to the French restuarant) hosted the event at their home and we had a potluck lunch. Our host provided chili and cornbread, while everyone else brought fruit, veggies, and desserts. We enjoyed the fellowship of one another and watched the parade of the 60th anniversary on television while eating. The parade reminded us of watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, with decorative floats and dance exhibitions, but one thing about the parade that was definitely odd (and would not be found in any American parades) was when they celebrated by rolling out of all the Chinese military tanks, and then showed the submarines, and aircraft carriers out in nearby waters. After lunch and the parade we spent the rest of the day outside on the grass playing the dutch blitz card game.

This weekend a few of us ventured out downtown, and while there we checked to see if Papa John's had opened up on the National Holiday as planned, but we found that it will probably be another week before they are ready to open. This Papa John's will be different in comparison to the States, in that they will have a dining room so you can eat there if you want. While there we did venture next door to the Dairy Queen to get a blizzard. If you are ever looking for an adventure, and you can always find them here in China, you can try a Jelly or Green Tea blizzards at Dairy Queen. I chose to pass on those flavors and instead went with the Georgia mudfudge, which was really good.

I have posted 2 albums of pictures for you to enjoy at your leisure. The first album is of the Terracotta Warriors, while the other is just random pictures from the journey to and from the museum. For those of you who have not looked at the photo albums before it is very simple. Click the picture in the right hand column under the word 'PICTURES' and it will direct you to a new web page with all my photos. Once you see the albums of photos, simply click the album that you would like to look at, and then you can view them. You can choose to click the first picture and then click on the word slideshow (which typically changes pictures every 3 seconds; though you can change that option) or you can double click the first picture to open it and then from there you can advance through the pictures at your own pace by clicking the arrow directly above the picture, taking you to the next one.

Well, I am concluding here for now, so until next time I hope that you all are doing well.

Accomplishments Outweigh the Frustrations

Where do I begin? Well, I will start with a recent situation that was somewhat frustrating, but a situation that I am glad happened because I found the answer that I had been searching for. You may recall that I had mentioned in previous posts about the possibility of going to Beijing at some point to meet with the organization that wanted me to teach English to athletes here in Xi'an. Well, long story short, after skyping with the Director and one of the top professors on September 11, the decision was made for me to go to Beijing as soon as possible (sometime between September 14 - 27). So, I proceeded to book my plane ticket and get things in order to leave the night of Wednesday, September 23 and return the night of Sunday, September 27; only to find out 2 days later that this meeting may not happen for awhile since the athlete foundation has had to put the expansion of the program to other cities on hold. I was a little frustrated to say the least since I felt like the Director and Professor had really pushed the issue of me coming as soon as possible, to only turn around and say that this could wait for awhile. However, when I really stepped back from the situation and thought about it, I really had a peace about the whole situation. I have really been excited about this program all along, and still think it is an amazing opportunity, yet one thing that didn't feel right was that if I came into this program now, I was going to have to spend 2-4 months in Beijing for training before coming back to Xi'an to run the program here. While that doesn't sound like such a bad thing, it really wasn't the best option for me right now, especially with my situation with language school. This whole first semester is so crucial to my ability to get around and to be able to communicate with people that to stop in the middle would not be the best option. There was also the concern of what would happen if I missed that much school since I am on a student visa, and whether my visa would be compromised. I also thought about my favorite book and how so many pages are filled with lines about waiting. I wanted this opportunity to happen soon, but I realized that if this opportunity is meant to happen then it will happen at the right time, and I just have to wait and see what will transpire.

I want to follow that up with a story of accomplishment for the week. You remember that plane ticket I mentioned that I already bought to go to Beijing? Well, turns out that ticket I purchased for a really great price was non-changeable and non-refundable. The company I used is a reputable one that specializes in flights throughout Asia and Europe, and one that all my friends use, it was just that apparently I didn't read the fine print of the ticket I purchased since it was a web special. When I called the company I spoke with a lady who said that she couldn't help me, but that I could maybe call the airline and tell them what happened and they might be able to help me. I called the airline, and after telling the lady on the other end my situation, asked if I could possibly switch my ticket to use in December instead. After speaking with her supervisor she confirmed that I could switch my ticket for a fee, but since I did not have a Chinese credit card, I would have to go to a booking office to pay the fee in cash of 120rmb ($18) within 48 hours to confirm my new flight. I thanked the lady as well as Someone else that I knew had a hand in the situation. So, on Wednesday afternoon this week I ventured out on my own with the address that the airline had sent me written in Chinese, flagged down a taxi, and headed across town to the booking office to pay my $18. The taxi driver dropped me off at the door to the building and I was able to find the office once I entered the building. An attendant working in the office spoke English (my back-up plan was to call one of my friends and have them talk in Chinese to the attendant) and she took care of canceling my old ticket and issuing my new one. As I was leaving the building I spotted a Starbucks to my left, so I stopped in for a coffee and ran into my friend Matt M. Matt and his wife were the ones who took me out to dinner at a French restaurant a few weeks ago. Matt and I chatted for a few minutes before I headed out to flag down another taxi to head home. It was a really good day, as well as an exciting adventure to take care of something with help from Someone who I consider a dear Friend.

I also want to share with you about my weekly plans. I have decided that on Friday afternoons I am going to start going to a place called the Village Cafe (coffee shop / western food / hangout place) that is about 10 minutes from my apartment and that is also across the street from one of the bigger universities. The Village Cafe attracts many students young and old that are from all over the world. It is my hope to go each week to hang out for a few hours in hopes of meeting people and forming relationships that will hopefully lead to me being able to mentor some of these students. I did not really have a chance to meet anyone today, since some students are getting ready to go home or travel next week for the holiday, but I still feel like in time this is going to open up some doors of opportunity.

Speaking of the holiday, starting next week on Thursday, October 1, marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and everyone has been getting ready for the big event for the past week. Flags are now flying everywhere and minor cosmetic things have been taking place for the big event. I am looking forward to sharing with you what the events of a week of celebration for this holiday entail. In the meantime, I will leave you with just a few more insights into things here in China.

* When someone refers to their home, it means an apartment (it is very rare to find a stand alone home here)

* You really have to use the correct tone with your words since a word with a 2nd tone spelled the same way as a word with the 4th tone are two totally different meanings

* If you like to be adventurous, you can try chicken flavored toothpaste that is sold in stores everywhere

Until next time, I wish you all well. Looking forward to checking in again soon.