Dinner & Dorms [part 1]

Three weeks ago I wasn’t teaching. While everyone else had started class, Miss Laura and I were sitting around, lesson plans our full time job. I was standing in the dining hall, “reading” the Chinese menu. I knew what I wanted, but perhaps if I stood looking at the menu I could convince the cooks that I actually knew what I was talking about. “Ni rou mein” I said to the cook, and I received back an empty stare. “Ni rou mien” I tried again, and another blank stare. “Come on, Kayla, you’ve done this before, how did you say it last time?” A person dressed in camouflage soon appeared to my left. Camouflage screamed freshman, as all freshman undergo military training for a month before school actually starts. I turned to her, her eyes looked willing to help. “Beef noodles?” I said, praying and hoping she spoke English. “Ni rou mein!” she told the cook for me. Bingo.

“Thank you, thank you! Xie xie!” Humbling experience #265 with my terrible Chinese.

She was hanging around. Obviously because she knew “beef noodles” she had to speak more English, right? 

“Do you like university?” I asked. There was a pause, her eyes rolling to the upper right corner as she was processing my question.

“No, I don’t like. Too much…” she began to march.

“Ah, you do not like military training?” her eyes glazed over: that question was too hard. “Uh… what is your major?” Her eyes rolled up again, her face began to blush

“I…I…”

 “What will you study?”, trying to phrase the question differently.

“English”, she said.

“A freshman English major,” I thought, “she could be one of my students.”

“Oh!” I exclaimed “I am an English teacher! Wo shi ingwen laoshi!”

Another blank stare, and a blush.

“Ni rou mien!” shouted the cook.

“Ni rou mein” I repeated. I went to grab my noodles, when I turned around, she was gone.

A few nights ago was the first time Miss Laura and I went out to dinner with our students. Actually, we were joined by all of the female teachers from team. We were meeting these students outside of our dorm. Six o clock came. “Catherine, Cosmo!” Miss Laura said, “ it is so good to see you!” I have had these girls in class…once, a week prior, and only for two hours, surrounded by 30 other faces. {Thank you, Miss Laura for helping with the names.} One of the two girls took a step closer to me, our faces six inches apart.

“Miss Kayla, you remember me?” she said in a playful tone.

“Yes, you are Cosmo!”. Her eyes got big and round.

“Nooooo!” she said playfully, waving a pointer finger for emphasis. “Beef noodles!” The puzzle was complete and a huge smile spread across both of our faces. “Of course I remember” I said. “My Chinese is very bad.”

“Yes, I know”. We all busted into laughter and started our way to the dining hall.

Throughout dinner, Cosmo and I talked and giggled. With only two weeks of teaching, it was possible to carry on a semi-steady conversation (if that’s not an accomplishment, I don’t know what is).  I corrected her English, she corrected my Chinese. We exchanged opinions about dance, American fashion, and dreams. Like two silly girls, we caused distraction after distraction from our corner of the table, talking jibberish and exchanging facial expressions. “I think we will be good friends,” she said. “I am only this outgoing around my friends.”

Our conversation continued to pop dancing, lock dancing, and the generational gap between parents and child [woah hold up: these students can’t answer a question about their major, but can talk about a generational gap between them and their parents?! Somethin’ doesn’t add up]. Cosmo's face came within an inch away from me. “Miss Kayla, I have a secret” she whispered.

“What is it?”

“I love you.”

We both pulled away at the same time. Her eyes were wide with sincerity with a slight twinkle.

"I love you, too."

New friends.

Mud Pie

"L is for the way you look at me. 

O is for the only one I see.

V is very, very extraordinary. 

E is even more than anyone that you adore can"

If you were like me as a child, you would watch the same movie over and over again. My childhood was serenaded with this song, starting first on the Little Rascals, then showing up in The Parent Trap (with Lindsay Lohan). These videos would be played in our household VCR at least once a week (*gasp..do you remember what a VCR is?). Needless to say, this song above was on their soundtracks. It’s a classic, right? How many awesome classics can you remember dancing to wedding after wedding? Each includes a whole ton of fun, all those mushy gushy feelings, and maybe even being held by someone of the opposite gender. Now, I’m a definite lover of music, this should be no surprise to anyone who knows me.  Frankly speaking, most music is a lie. I can’t help but be overwhelmed with my gut feeling that they’ve got it all wrong.

 I was in third grade, standing on the porch waiting for the bus to pick me up and I was using my top-notch persuasive skills to get my mother to allow me to listen to the Backstreet Boys. In our household at the time, the Backstreet Boys weren’t allowed. “Well Kayla,” said mother dearest, “what do the Backstreet Boys sing about?” “Well...love!” Come on Mom, step into the mind of your 8-year-old. All the cool people sing about love (and obviously, all the cool girls at school were listening to the Backstreet Boys)! So simple, so naive, I hadn’t a clue as to what that really meant. And here I sit 14 years later still naive with a view of love that is still too simple.

I’ve already been pinned as the “love girl” here on team—anything having to do with love, I’m basically all over it. You’re probably right now processing the stereotype “it’s just because she’s a girl and girls are driven by a need to feel loved” blahblahblah. Please! Wait! Stop! I promise, I promise you I’m not your average girl in terms of this lovey-dovey crap (ok, so it’s not crap, but you get my gist). The deal is I’ve just been really driven to uncover what this little four letter word truly stands for. This is what I’ve got so far… Now please, keep in mind I’m just a kid, no scholar, no expert. I’m not claiming to know squat-diddly. In a way I feel like my overalls are rolled up to my knees, my sneakers are untied, my hair is whisped all over the place and I’m presenting you with the prettiest mud-pie you have ever seen. I even picked a dandelion out of the garden to add my own special touch.  But the mud-pie is all mine and I’ve been cooking it for hours and hours and hours: the mud-pie of Love.

Love is a verb.

Verbs are words of action.

There is no other verb that incorporates more action than Love.

It is the most active word one could ever speak of, or ever try to complete. In fact, it is so full of action, that no one can truly complete it [as a human]. Crazy, with our casual use of such an active word that we would still be trapped in the obesity epidemic…. I digress…

You see, there’s this Book from like, a really long time ago. It’s really a big compilation of books and letters and doo-dads that are basically life changing. In this Book, there is this author John, who [turns out] is a pretty romantic guy. As I was reading a lot of his work I was quickly able to see that John had a lot of really good insights on LOVE. He talks so much about it and truly challenges his audience to allow it to drive their life. At first, I thought “yea, ok, he’s got some good stuff to say.” Upon further investigation I came to find that John was, in fact, the disciple that J-dawg loved. [You know, the big J.C.?] So here’s what Im thinkin’:

• First of all, what a cool title. “John, the disciple that J.C. loved”.

• Given the title, can you imagine what John was exposed to? What an awesome life that must have been to be loved by J.C…in the flesh! I mean, we’re all loved by Him, and He loved all of his disciples. But to have ‘J.C loving you’ as part of your title? As what people know you by? Hello, that’s awesome. John got to experience His love in a one on one way that neither you nor I can fathom. That being said...

• With all that John got to experience the dude is probably the best love-expert that ever walked the earth.  Plus, he’s a really good author--we have books that were written by him (they’re in the big Book). His writing style is seriously unique when pinned next to all the other authors. I’m pretty sure he and I would be good friends. I digress…  

For a long period in my life [and even today to some degree] I really and truly had/have no tolerance for any lovey-dovey heart tingly stuff. But to quote (the one and only) me from a recent reflection: “day by day I’m more and more convinced that our lives are nothing more than a quest in seeking, obtaining, understanding {and implementing} a Great Romance.” We love because He first loved us, and He is love. For centuries and centuries this epic plot has been in existence to win the world back with this Ultimate Love. It’s like Harry Potter on every trippy drug and beefy steroid multiplied by an exponentially growing number.

These are just {some} of my thoughts. There are oh, so many more. Instead, I’m about to get all teacher on you: I’m not going to give you any answers. Your own education is your own responsibility. I’ve done my job by exposing you to greatness; the rest is up to you. [if you’ve never checked out the Book before, check out John, first. If you’re looking for something to do in your spare time check out first John.]

it's kind of a funny story

Sometimes in life, unexpected things happen. Often times in China unexpected things happen. Sometimes you go to the bank—hoping to open a bank account—only to realize that after sitting there for an hour, that branch of the bank doesn’t open accounts. Instead, you might have to go to the “downtown” office, which just so happens to be on the other side of the city. Not only that, but because you’re a foreigner, no taxi wants to pick you up and deal with the inconvenient language barrier.  Now, you’ll have to get accustomed to the fact that things just take longer in China, and these smallest of things can make you feel run over by a freight train by the time they’re complete… and that’s just for the average citizen! Begin a foreigner in China not only does it take twice as long, but that freight train that hits you is also packed to the brim with dynamite.

So, perhaps, if you are a part of a group of seven people who all need to obtain a bank account, be sure that you have at least four hours on your hand to do so (just for the record, you know, in case you ever end up in a similar situation as to what Team Harbin ended up in today). Also, no matter where you’re going, and for no matter how long you'll be gone, be sure to close all windows to the outside as things with wings have a tendency to fly in open spaces. Wouldn’t want you to get a bird stuck in your office, or have it poop on every desk, or even worse, your student’s homework! And no matter what you might think, actually imitating the bird and trying to speak its language does no good in coaxing it out a window. Not that I know from experience… it’s just a forewarning.

That dot above Lauren's head may or not be a bird...

So close, yet so far.

Lauren's look of defeat after chasing.

Teammate Tuesday: Michael

Summer 2010. We had arrived in Beijing, our first time stepping into China. Training in was over, it was time for Camp China to begin. Still a little woozy from jet lag we all grabbed our bags and I plopped myself down on the bus, ready to get to the hotel. The seat next to me was soon taken by this guy (the one to the right). For the next hour we talked about life, our excitements about China, how we got here, college, and everything else in between. How was I supposed to know that a year later we would both be back, serving on the same team? From a one hour bus ride to one year in China, I guess it was destiny that Michael and I were supposed to be friends.

Introducing, Mr. Michael Spannuth, the garbanzo bean of Team Harbin (that's such a fun word to say...garbanzo!) Michael has lived the majority of his life in Aurora, Colorado and attended Colorado State University. He obtained a B.S. degree in Mathematics and in approximately 234 days we'll be celebrating Michael's birthday (that would be May 12 for those of you who don't want to count all those days.) Ahh yes, Michael's major has come in quite handy a time or two whilst with the team, however we've certainly learned the importance of always having a calculator around just in case.

One thing you need to know about Michael is that he is in love with spicy food. Luckily for him, the Chinese enjoy adding large amounts of cilantro to a lot of their dishes adding some nice flavor and spice of which Michael's taste buds approve. His favorite Chinese food thus far is from one of our favorite restaurants in Beijing self-titled "Fannies" [as the owner always wears a fanny pack]. The dish is called "spicy pork and cilantro". His M&Ms of choice would be peanut butter ["of course"] and the cookies that take home the prize are chocolate chocolate chip. "My favorite movie fluctuates depending on the day, but 'Kung Pow! Enter The Fist' is always good." Michael's favorite fast food place in the states is 'Spoons'. "It is a great soup, salad & sandwich place in Fort Collins, CO that has soup. I imagine the Soup Nazi soup from Seinfeld tastes like it."

Michael wants the world to know that "if you play with fire, you don't always get burned." Michael has a hobby of playing with pyrotechnics and performing some really cool stunts with them too! Michael says "if I had a million dollars I'd have to invest wisely and turn that million into 10 (or more)." In my 49 days of knowing Michael, my guess would be that fair percentage of that 10 million might end up being spent towards fire-related objects. :)

If Michael could meet any person from history, he'd like to have a chat with CS Lewis. "I think we'd get along." Also, Michael says "I can't deny that I'm looking forward to seeing the ways in which I'm going to grow through this year in Harbin." And just for the record, he would only eat a crayon if I was forced to do so...except if it was aquamarine. Three of Michael's favorite hobbies include fire poi, anything frisbee-related ("especially frisbee golf"), and organizing things. "I'll never forget. Once when I was a child I broke a finger and had to get a cast. I thought it was the coolest thing ever."

Oh, and he desperately wants you to know that in his opinion, "Wordpress is better =P". Click the link to the left to see Michael's blog {and the other blogs of Team Harbin as well!}

Look Mom, I'm a Teacher!

Team Fresh all psyched to get the show on the road!

There is a saying that on the first day of school, the teacher is actually more nervous than the students. This statement holds so much truth, especially when experienced first hand. The beautiful thing about teaching [that no college textbook will ever tell you] is that it’s just like riding a bike {that is, as long as the proper amount of work and preparation have gone forth before the actual lesson day :)}

It was a morning to gather thoughts and to gather plans and handouts. This was the hour that Team Fresh(man) had been preparing for for over a week. Laura and I met in the office, talking through our plans, piggy-backing on one another as the lesson-child that we had created was preparing for takeoff. We posed for pictures, cracked some jokes, and spurred on our fellow teammates who are now one-week seasoned teachers. The time was drawing close, our posters gathered, I soon became one of those people who wanted every pencil in a straight line, perfectly aligned. With minutes remaining, Laura pulled out her laptop and there, in the foreign teachers office, Team Fresh and Lauren took part in a Katy Perry dance party to rev ourselves up for the upcoming class, reminding ourselves that “Baby, you are a firework!”. Down the stairs we went, confused by the numbering of the classrooms. “I teach in 411. Why do all of these doors say 09-2?” Lauren guided me to where I was supposed to go, and there I set up camp. In the far corner were two girls sweeping the classroom, their jaws dropping upon my entrance. “Hello!” Giggles. Time was drawing closer and students were coming back to their classrooms.

“Oh no, you are the teacher! You are so beautiful!”

(if I had a dollar for every time I heard those four words…)

"Gaga" and "W", two peas in a pod.

Class was about to begin; as the students poured in the weary faces changed into fresh bubbles of excitement as something new was about to happen. Anything that I did brought entertainment, applause, and [always] giggles. On Tuesdays I teach two oral English classes with 38 students in each. These are all freshman business English majors, all of whom come from Heilongjiang province. Some of my favorite names include ‘Pretty’, ‘Rock’, ‘Eleven’, ‘W’…and yes, even a ‘Gaga’.

Have no fear, most of my students have common English names as well [but we all know there are always those ‘special’ people that make the class more interesting].

Simon and Peter sit next to each other. Oh, the irony.

As our first class ended, Laura and I traded classrooms {I mentioned earlier that we are co-teachers, literally teaching each others classes}. This was such an awesome opportunity for our students to see the friendship between Miss Laura and myself, what an awesome testament to our community and the importance of relationships! Our students often don’t get to see teachers (or foreigners for that matter) interacting on a day-to-day basis. After round 2 of our lesson-child, Miss Laura and I were beat tired; overall, we quickly agreed that our day was nothing but a huge success and a major Blessing!

As I poured over the “needs analysis” of my students, I could feel bubbling emotion and joy, eagerness, and hope for all that is to come in this upcoming semester and year. I am so very excited to get to know them, to help them, to love them.

Before I go, I thought I would leave you with a few words from my classes that made me smile.

“Firstly, I think my English speaking is not very well. So how can I improve fastly? Secondly, it’s a stupid question: do you like Twilight’s team Jacob?”

-Vicky

“I like dancing and singing. Maybe every girl like doing it! That’s my hobby! I like High School Musical. I always hope I can sing with a boy who sings song well! That’s my second dream! And I like English teacher very much. I will study hard!! I always don’t concentrate on one thing. So please help me solve it!”

-Jessica

“I like listening to music. I like the word ‘hope’. I think we must have ‘hope’ in our heart in life. We can firmly believe tomorrow is very great.”

-Hope

Teammate Tuesday: Wes

Meet Wesley Parlette, our spicy green bean on our team. Wes recently graduated from Stevenson University with a B.S in Middle School Education (Social Studies and English concentration). His hometown is Columbia, Maryland and traditionally celebrates his birthday on June 7th [the day he was born].

Wes' claim to fame so far is his wonderful interpretations of the Chinese language, sure to make us all laugh. ("BOO-yao! Foo-yu-in truhble nah.") His favorite movie-which we'll be sure to find on the street- is Napoleon Dynamite "because it's random and hilarious!" His favorite Chinese food is Sweet & Sour Pork [which is also a team favorite too]. Wes' favorite M&M's are the ones with the peanuts in them, and his favorite cookies are chocolate chip. Similarly to Laura and Lauren, his favorite fast-food restaurant is Chick-Fil-A. Maybe in this upcoming year we'll be learning a lesson in taming our cravings for waffle-fries and milkshakes whilst in China.

Wes is super creative in the classroom, and as we walk around campus as a group we can already hear students shouting "Mr. Wes! Mr. Wes!" with a smile. Wes is most looking forward to forming great relationships with these Chinese students; he's well on his way already!"I want the world to know that they have more potential than they think! If I had a million dollars I would put that in the bank immediately and then take time to figure out how to best invest it, so I can continue getting more money out of it!"

"I'll never forget. Once when I was a child I got out of bed after bedtime, went downstairs and picked up a penny. After going back upstairs I was determined to get the penny really clean. So, logically I used my moist tongue to do so! But then I accidentally swallowed the penny!"

Wes' three favorite hobbies include listening to music and singing along, dancing to sweet beats and laughing with friends! "If I had to eat any color crayon, I would like to eat the brown crayon because it should taste like milk chocolate, mmm!"

Beyond the Gate

 Just beyond our campus gate is a three-quarter mile stretch of road, lined on both sides with vendors. Oh, the road continues many miles but at the three-quarter mile marks where the nearest grocery store is to Heilongjiang East College; for us, the nearest destination where we can purchase a 340 gram jar of Skippy peanut butter. Smoke pours about into the streets from hand-crafted temporary grills; a variety of fresh meat and animal parts aligned on prepared skewers, all geared up to be purchased and devoured. Strewn blankets and merchandise perfectly aligned, beside them squat their sellers. Their faces, worn from life, their hands blotched with dirt and dust from setting up their fruit and vegetables day after day. Some take naps in their nearby vehicles, most busying themselves away at their cell phones. Occasional glances upward and some shouts of “Er kui! Er kui!" Shoppers {and we the foreigners} pass by, and back to the cell phones they go.

A personal favorite smell of China. A waft of summer, yet autumn. Crisp, sweet and delicious. To the right a man squats with what appears to be his own personal chimney, but upon further inspection one can see individual pockets in the iron structure. With giant gloves, he withdraws one to reveal a charred ear of corn, splotches of black and brown, its aroma sweet and tempting; an aroma that can make any woman [this woman] weak at the knees.

You can be walking, inspecting, and simply in awe of all the sights to see. Vendors after vendors of precious grapes, carts of apples, seat cushions and pirated DVD’s [most likely of exceedingly low quality]. A temporary heaven and feelings of bliss and the warm fuzzy thought of “I love China” prances across your mind. Recuperating from being weak at the knees, the feeling bolts upward toward the stomach only a mere number of steps away. You get hit, and by then, it’s too late; a breath of two-week-old excrements and bile. Your lungs do all they can to remain stable as you wish for the upcoming few seconds of your life to pass as quickly as they possibly can. “I’m gunna vom”, screams your mind. You spot the source, a street vendor a few meters ahead, plopping white cubes into a boiling, bubbling pot of something. 

Plop, plop, plop.

How could something that appears so harmless cause your internals to temporarily freeze, and your pace to quicken? Your lungs took part of the wall of what the Chinese call “stinky tofu”. These vendors provide dinner to passer-bys, and sometimes a quick treat on the way home from work. Cantaloupe on a stick, slices of watermelon, fried sweet-potato chips, grilled pancake looking things…and those fried cubes.

I am all about trying new things, but stinky tofu is where my stomach draws the line.

Our first "Dinner on the Street": grilled corn and "egg pancake burrito" with potato slivers & lettuce

Teammate Tuesday: Lauren

June 28th, 2011 was a special day. It was on June 28th that the emails finally were released with our city placements in China, and with the juicy details of who our [fabulous] teammates would be. It's one of those moments that will always be perfectly clear in your mind. As soon as the email was opened, the facebook stalking began to ensue. It was basically an immediate friendship between Lauren and myself, merely based on the fact that we had both celebrated a birthday two days before hand. To top things off, [through my years of experience in facebook stalking]  I came to find that she was/is an avid lover of "Criminal Minds". Again I say, immidiate friendship {for those of you who don't know, I too am a lover of anything that has to do with that TV show.}

So please, allow me to introduce you to my immediate friend, Lauren Ketron. She is the definite coffee bean of team Harbin, not only because she loves the beverage that they are a part of, but also because of her lovable (and endless) energy and pizzaz. Her hometown is Madison, Alabama and she recently graduated from Auburn University (AKA The Loveliest Village on the Plains) with a B.A. in English. Lauren has a three-way-tie between her favorite movies: "The Sandlot", "You've Got Mail", and "Dead Poets Society". "The Sandlot is hilarious and has some of the most-quotable lines in any movie, ever. You've Got Mail has Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan at their best, in my opinion. And the the English major and teacher in me can't help but to love Dead Poets Society!  Carpe diem!"

Lauren, too, will be going through a slight withdrawal this year as her favorite fast food restaurant is Chick-Fil-A. Her favorite Chinese food so far is yet again another three-way-tie: pineapple chicken, three treasures, and spicy green beans. Lauren's favorite M&M's are the classic milk chocolate, hand-dipped in peanut butter. Snickerdoodles win for her favorite cookie.

"Once when I was a child, I got on a really big "Harriet the Spy" kick. I just recently unearthed a journal of secret "spy" notes in my bedroom, full of really juicy details like, "It's 4:32 p.m.  A car just pulled up in front of the driveway of my neighbor's house and then drove away."  I think I was onto something... maybe I should have stuck with my spy gig?" Little does Lauren know that I too did the exact same thing. Immediate friends, I'm telling you.

Lauren's three favorite hobbies include reading, creative writing, and cheering on the Auburn football team! However most recently a newly acquired hobby of Lauren's [and basically all of team Harbin] is  scouting our grocery stores and collecting Chinese journals with awesome Chinglish phrases on them. {Chinglish (n): a combination of Chinese & English, often comical, and conveys a different meaning than intended.} If forced to eat a crayon, Lauren would choose to eat Laser Lemon "because I love all things lemon-flavored!"

If Lauren could meet any person from history she would choose to meet Elisabeth Elliot. "Her story has had such a huge impact on me, and I would love to sit and talk with her and just garner some of her wisdom!" Lauren says,
"If I had a million dollars, (and I was splurging totally on myself) I would travel to each continent, buy a Barnes & Noble bookstore's worth of books, and a set myself up with a lifetime supply of Almond Milk Tea.  Being real though, I would love to donate that money to Compassion International and International Justice Mission, to help get children out of poverty and bring an end to human trafficking."

One secret skill that Lauren has is that she is really good at impressions! What a surprise this was to our group when she pulled out this secret of hers. Lauren also has this bubbling laughter that once she gets going, one can't help but to laugh along with her. It especially gets going when shopping for Chinese Chinglish notebooks.

Lauren wants the world (or the followers of this blog) to know that "I now have TWO Kayla Maries in my life... my sister and the fabulous Miss Mini!  It's fate, I'm telling you. This and the fact that we have the same birthday means we were meant to be friends! Also, I'm most excited about seeing the Father working in mighty ways... both in us and in our community. Greater things are still to be done in Harbin!  On the point of community, I'm also really looking forward to growing even closer in unity and love with the rest of Team Harbin! "

Apartment Tour

Today is day six here in Harbin. Our first Saturday, my first PJ day. There is something special about lounging around your apartment, skyping your father, and writing yet another curriculum whilst in your pajamas. And you bet your bippy that is exactly what happened. Last night, we were given our teaching assignments which sent a new ripple of excitement through our entire team, as well as a tidal wave of confusion. It was announced that Laura and I will have all freshman classes, all of whom are majoring in English of some kind. Proudly, we've titled ourselves "Team Fresh". Don't worry, T-Shirts to come. :)


Laura and I spent the entire day together crafting our opening lesson plans {so that we are ready to go. So typical in China will you be approached and told "oh, you have to teach a class in 10 minutes"}, and planning how to structure our new course of 'Pronunciation and Phonetics'. Our class schedules have yet to be created due to the fact that all college freshman have to attend military training for a month. We are greatly excited about our curriculum, calm yet terribly confused about the scheduling [I'm not even going to try to explain it until things have been finalized],  and absolutely stoked to work together.


It's been six days of hustle and bustle, sweeping and bleaching, shopping and organizing, and we still have a long way to go. Yet, within that time our humble abodes have turned from prison cells to cozy places of stay. Yes, lots of work is still to be done, but if you're looking for something to do for the next four minutes of your life, I encourage you to check out the following:


A quick tour of the apartment here at Heilongjiang East College. Located in Harbin, China.

Some Numbers

Nine hours, Eight people, Seven Team Harbin-ers, Six floors, Five washing machines, Four dining halls to choose from, Three different curriculums, Two hideous curtains, One big box.

On Monday, we took a nine-hour fast train up to Harbin, accompanied by our academic waiban [basically, our liaison], Vincent (making eight people, seven from team). One thing you need to know, Vincent is the man. He is part of the faculty here at the college and is our go-to guy for anything academic that we need. Our team absolutely loves and adores him and he is so incredibly excited to partner with us in our teaching. We’re even more exited because Vincent has been given a special project by the head people at Heilongjiang East College, and he’s hoping to implement it through us, the foreign teachers. More about that later.

Upon arriving, we received our room assignments. My apartment is on the sixth floor. More about that later.

So many exciting things are going on here in Harbin that our team was unaware of until rather recently. Last year there was a team of five foreign teachers here. Because previous teams have done such a wonderful job paving relationships and having successful teaching experiences, the school requested two more foreign teachers through our organization, thus our team of seven! Because of this new request, two more apartments had to be provided. As we’ve gone about our days helping one another clean (and clean…and clean) we’ve counted seven apartments, and five washers. Team Harbin will be having some laundry parties. More about that later.

We’ve had a brief {very brief} tour of the school and the campus of Heilongjiang East College. The main highlights of the tour included the most important things: where to eat. Eating is so important in Chinese culture. Lucky for us, the nearest dining hall is literally right next door to our dormitory building, which I’m sure will be a wonderful blessing on days when it is -20 degrees. All in all, there are four ‘dining halls’ to choose from, two of which being stretches of restaurants of mom & pop shops [which always have the best food]. More about that later.

These first few days have been an absolute whirlwind, but we are so fortunate; we couldn’t ask for anything more, He’s truly provided for us every single step of the way. Within hours of making a request (for things like drinking water, broken lights/drains, meal cards) our needs were met, questions answered, and the serving hearts of the Chinese people completely outstretched towards us; we are so undeserving.

Yesterday our team leader, Dan the Man, set the task before us of designing our curriculum for the semester. Yes, the whole curriculum [which is basically unheard of] under the special request of Vincent. For 8 to 10 hours yesterday, Team Harbin divided and conquered a whole curriculum for Freshman Oral English, Sophomore Oral English, and an Upper & Lower Level Writing class. Three whole curriculums, one day. This was the first time we had to truly get our academic butts in gear…metaphorically speaking. It was so encouraging to see how well we handled the stressful situation and viewing the results and creative ideas that we all came up with. These students are going to love their English classes. More about that later.

Our apartments (now that they're cleaned) are absolutely lovely: fully furnished, air conditioning [I'm assuming heating], a bed, desk and some fixins'. However, for my apartment in particular, two hideous curtains we're thrown into that "catch-all" of fixins'.  They are satin. They are a pale pink. They have a pattern of fans on them. They don't even block the sunlight. Oh China, how we disagree about fashionable design, but I am willing to work with you.

After a huge day of travel and another whole day of adjusting to the city, our team returned to our dormitory to find one huge box sitting in the lobby. You guessed it. It was none other than our IKEA lamps! They made it here, safe and sound, and all are currently in use in aiding the illumination of our apartments. Our excitement was overwhelming with us girls literally jumping up and down. Our ayi {dorm mother} whose name is san laoshi was equally as excited for us, even though we’re pretty sure she had no idea what was going on. Her hospitality and excitement made the moment even sweeter. More to about that

…later.