What I Do...

So, after 7 months of silence, I've decided to give it another row at blogging. This is post #2 of the day. Maybe that means something, maybe it doesn't. Remember: low expectations, high happiness.

Most of you know I do a lot of traveling for my job, you just may not understand why. Well, I coach volleyball, volunteer with Vida (spiritual getaway), take students on fall and spring trips and teach a class called MUN (Model United Nations). All of those trips add up to a grand total of about 55 days of travel/staying in hotels each year. Crazy right? I know!


The biggest part of all that travel is for my MUN class. MUN in short, is a conference that allows students to come together and discuss/debate/solve world issues all while representing a specific country. For instance, a student maybe representing the country of Iran while discussing nuclear proliferation. The student, regardless of personal opinion, must discuss, debate and resolve as if they were an ambassador from Iran. Loyal and true to Iranian law and leadership. They spend 3-4 days, 8 hours a day discussing the issues assigned to them in their forum. They practice public speaking, debating, compromising, role-playing...there's a lot more to it than that but those are the very basics.

Dun-da-da-da!!!! Sunday finished up the last MUN trip of the school year for me. Wahoo! I love traveling but I'm so glad to be done for a couple of months. Anyway, we went to Seoul, Singapore, Boston, Beijing and hosted one here in Qingdao (MUNiSC) this year. The big daddy being the one we host. Not in size but in work load. I spent the last 6 months preparing for this conference. We created a new website (found here) and did a bunch of other stuff (that I won't bore you with) to get ready. It was three days long, consisted of about 210 students, 20 advisors, 9 schools and a 5+ star hotel.


MUNiSC 2011...Discussing, Debating, Resolving...

If you want to see more pictures or learn more about what I do, go to the website. http://munisc.qmischina.com/

....

Life is full of the tedious. Alarm clocks, bus rides, grading, grocery shopping,. The same ole, same ole. I get up, I get ready for school, I teach, I come home, I go to bed, I start again the next day. There's the occasional insert of dinner with friends, day at Fellowship, and shopping trips but mostly my life is the same every day. I think sometimes it gets tiring.

Then the world shakes and thousands of people are gone in an instance. People who were doing the same tedious things I do. In fact, they may have been in the middle of the monotonous when the walls came crumbling down around them.

And that's when those boring, every day things become...more. More important. More valued. I have electricity that sets the alarm off, roads to ride the bus on, a school to do my grading in, and food in the grocery store to buy. I get to worry about what to have for dinner and where I'm going this weekend.

There are millions not too far from me that were worrying about the same things just last week and now...now, they have nothing. They're just grateful to be alive.

That's what's on my mind today.

Remember...

my old blog and how I used to write every day? It's been 7 months since I've written here. Maybe some day I'll pick it back up again. Hm...if I could just write without worrying about being witty or interesting...I think that would make it easier.

Maybe I should change my blog title to "Low Expectations, High Happiness". That could set the mood for readers when/if they ever come here again.

That is all.

School It Up

I'm almost finished with my first full week of school. I can already tell it's going to be a fantastic year despite the fact that I've already given out two detentions. Yes, I'm THAT teacher.
Anyway, my excitement over the year is building. Seems strange since school's already started, but it's true. The more time I spend with my students, the more lesson plans I create, the more team teaching I do, the more travel plans I make, the more excited I get. I suppose it's a mix between starting with a clean slate with freshman students, actually knowing what I'm doing this year, and having time to do it all.

My freshman students tend to stare at me in wonder. I think it's mostly because they're not quite sure what to make of me yet. Am I funny? Am I scary? I'm just so loud and animated. But at least they laugh at my jokes. That's all I care about. :)

I'm getting to "team teach" this year. I'm only teaching one of the three sections of 9th grade World History so I've been working really closely with the other WH teacher. He's super smart and experienced in teaching the class so he has a ton of ideas and resources. It's nice to brain storm and have new things available. And he seems to enjoy working together too which is nice. Not everyone likes cooperative teaching.

I'm starting the trip planning part for MUN for this semester. We'll be going to Singapore and South Korea (for some reason, I almost wrote North). I actually KNOW what I'm doing!!! I know what students to choose, who deserves to go and who will be best. I know what hotel to stay at and how to get plane tickets. I know how to get to and from the airport. I have some ideas for sight seeing. I have chaperones planned and...well, it's just good.

On another note, I came home early today. Every day I've felt a little funny and today the cold hit full force. I cannot believe I'm sick during the first week of school. Ridiculous. I stayed for all my classes (it's just too much trouble to miss classes unless it's absolutely necessary) and left after my lunch meeting. It felt good to take a nap and watch a movie. I made a delicous dinner, mostly because that's all I'm doing these days, cooking. Even when I'm sick. A girl's got to eat. It's the dishes I hate. Those I will wait to do until tomorrow when my eyes aren't pounding.

Back To School

A week from tomorrow begins 9 months of craziness. Actually, that's not true. My school year starts tomorrow with an MUN conference in Beijing. That means I'll be traveling about 25-30 days this semester. I'll be going to Beijing twice, Singapore, Seoul and somewhere in China for a volleyball tournament. Thank goodness my classload is different this year.



Last year, I taught AP World History and MUN (Model United Nations). See here if you want to learn more about MUN. Both turned out to be full time jobs. That means 1 person doing 2 jobs. I averaged out my work time for the year and it turned out to be about 80 hours a week. That doesn't include additional meetings or the 1.5 hours a day spent in transit or coaching volleyball. It was a really tough year. I was teaching two classes, one that I just wasn't smart enough for (AP) and the other, all the students knew more than I did and were super loyal to the previous teacher (MUN). I've never worked so hard or felt so inept. I think part of it was that the students that I was (and will be) teaching are so different here than they are in the US.

In the States, it's all about relationships. Once they know and trust me, they might listen to what I have to teach them. But mostly, it was about just getting through the class. Loving them and getting to know them was much more important. I was working with kids who had been abandoned by their parents, raised by grandparents, students who had immediate family members in gangs or serving life sentences in prison, students who had parents that didn't care one iota about how they did in school, it was just a glorified babysitting job. You had to be rough and abrupt and fun and tell stories and play games and do activities.

But here, it is literally the complete opposite. My classes are about 90% Korean. The rest are mostly Westerners that have almost genius IQs. For them, it's all about Academics. The more the teacher knows, the more respect the students have. First academics, then the relationship. And they don't want to mess around with group work or activities (specifically my AP), they want all lecture all the time. Maybe some discussion. To lecture for 1.5 hours is very difficult. I had to stud 4-6 hours for every class period. And I still didn't feel ready.

Last year was kind of that I-don't-have-the-time-to-prepare-properly-so-everything's-going-to-suffer year. I was doing a halfway job in everything. I had to, that's the only way things got done. And I hated it.

Looking back though, I did have some success. Even though the individual classes didn't go well, I was able to take my MUNers on trips all over the world successfully, host a large conference in Qingdao and my APers did VERY well on their exam. 13 out of 15 got 3s or above ( six with 5s). And I feel like I've grown tremendously as a teacher. Last year stretched me professionally unlike any other year. I definitely wasn't able to coast like I have in previous jobs.

THIS year, things will be different. I now know what I'm doing in MUN. I will have actual lesson plans and activities. I will know how to plan the trips and what paperwork to fill out. I'm already working on the conference we host next February. And the biggest news...I'm NOT teaching AP anymore. Woohoo! Man, I loved the students- we spent a lot of time together (A LOT!) but I will not miss that class. Instead, I'll be teaching World History I to 9th graders. We can do fun stuff and take our time. I don't have to lecture everyday. I can't express how happy that makes me. :) Man, it's going to be so fun! And I'm incorporating a whole bunch of stuff including student blogs and current events and well, I don't know what else yet, but it's going to be AWESOME!

I'm really excited about school this year. Yay. I think it's going to be a great year. I'm finally getting to teach the same subject two years in a row and stay in the same classroom. That in and of itself is a big deal. Anyway, God is good (of course, He was even last year when things were hard).

The following is for my mother but you all are welcome to read.

Mom, here's my class schedule:

Odd days (1,3,5)- WH1 9am-11:30am; MUN 1:30pm-3pm
Even days (2,4,6)- MUN 8am-9:30am; MUN 11:30am-1pm

I know it looks like I'm not doing much but I have Chinese two hours a week and MUN takes up most of my other prep time. Plus I'll be doing volleyball during first quarter and then traveling 2nd quarter.

"China Day"

Today, one of the hottest days of the summer, I found myself without electricity. For the entire day. My complex is switching how they electrify each apartment and needed all day to rewire. As of today, I am on pay-as-you-go-power. We have a card that we recharge when it runs out. I have this little slot on the breaker box thingy, I just slide my card in there and it refills my power-holder with units (are you impressed with my technical terms?). A little less convenient but probably cheaper. This way, I can look at any time to see how much electricity I'm using and how much I have left, which is AWESOME. You know I'll be checking every day to see where I'm at. In fact, I can't wait until tomorrow just to see how many units I've used.

Anyway, back to the heat. It's been in the upper 90s this week with really high humidity. In fact, tomorrow with the humidity index, it's supposed to be 115 degrees. Barf. I HATE humidity. I don't even think "hate" is a strong enough word. Even in 70 degree weather humidity kills me. But with this crazy heat, I'm literally a slurpy mess all the time unless I've been inside for awhile and dried off. I've totally stopped doing my hair and makeup which means I'm looking like a 12 year old.

It's midnight in China right now and there are fireworks going off. Arg, drives me crazy.

Anyway...back to my complaining...one more thing to whine about...

The apartment I moved into is fantastic. Slap some paint on the walls and just about any place looks nice. But with any apartment in China comes some "must fix" stuff. My kitchen and bathroom need some serious work. When we signed the lease, it was under the condition that we would build more cabinet space in the kitchen. I met with a cabinet guy the first week I moved in here. He only spoke Chinese and at that point I knew about 200 less words. Not that any of my new words have anything to do with "shelves, cupboards, width" and such. So, I spent my time motioning and grunting. I thought I communicated what I wanted. When the workers showed up today to install them, well, they're not what I was expecting. My entire kitchen is white. White walls, white counters, white cabinets. Not my favorite but not as bad as it could be (think smurf blue and sunshine yellow metal). So, following the theme, I asked the guy to make the cabinets white. Apparently, they don't have white (which I was never told) so he brought another color. Now, sometimes in China, one has to just suck it up and deal with things. This would usually be one of them, but I just can't bring myself to have one type of cabinets installed in the top part of my kitchen and another type in the bottom. So, now I have about 6 wall units all over the dining room floor. I'm so thankful that I get new storage in my kitchen. Talk to anyone here and it's a pretty special thing. But if we're going to do it, it should be done the right way. If possible. And if it can't be fixed, I'll deal with it...until I can paint them :).

Between the heat, non-electricity and cabinet mess, it was what we foreigners refer to as a "China Day". The kind of day where things happen that probably wouldn't happen in your home country and definitely not all in one day. Like..."it's the dead of summer and we're going turn your electricity off" or "we're out of that color so we're going to give you something different without consulting you" or "you don't have an elevator to get to the 5th floor so you get to melt from the heat on the way up". These days rarely ever occur, mostly because things don't often get to me here. I just kind of expect life to be a little harder than it should be. But I think the heat is making me grumpy these days.

There were some good things that happened today. I was able to go back to sleep after the workers left this morning. I went all the way into town, ate lunch, got a frappachino, and went back out to my apartment all for 6 kuai (about $1). I spent some time with friends and met a new co-worker. And my apartment is a cool 72 degrees and electrified as I type this.

I have high hopes for tomorrow...

One Down...

(on the plane on my way to China for the 1st time...crazy eyes)




Today is my 1 year anniversary of moving to China. I arrived here on July 25, 2010 sometime in the morning, a Saturday I think, feeling a little crazy from sleep deprivation. I have no doubt I looked a mess. I remember very clearly what the airport looked like, the drive to my apartment, the unexpected beauty of Qingdao and more specifically my apartment. I remember where I ate that night for dinner and who I hung out with. It was the first time I tried bubble tea (Taiwanese) and ate dak galbi (Korean). My feet were raw and blistered from my mishaps in the airport the day before (read here) and we walked a couple miles to and from dinner. Honestly, I think the thing I remember the most, it is literally almost palpable, was how overwhelmed I felt. I knew so little and had so far to go to even survive. In China and in my job.

Today, I think was a great picture of how far I've come in this last year.

This morning, I led worship at my fellowship. That is a BIG deal. Ask anyone who's worked with me closely in music and they know what an idiot I become on stage. I forget words and what comes next. I'm not a great public speaker, I talk too fast and my words get all mixed up. And yet, here I am, choosing songs, working on the flow, finding Scripture to read, bossing a band around, and leading people in worship. Now, I love to sing on a worship team. I love the involvement of corporate worship, hearing the congregation sing familiar songs so loudly, watching them raise their hands or bow their heads or close their eyes as they sing or cry or whisper to God. It is an intense and beautiful thing. I love singing harmony with other people and making up our own music. And I love it when everything clicks- the sound, the band, the words, the fluid motion of worship. That is a great thing. But, I do not enjoy leading. Well, that’s not completely true. I’ve co-led for a couple of different teams and I really enjoy that. I get to give input, help choose songs, sing lead sometimes, but I’m not responsible for the entire service. I love being in that position. Leading, however, is totally different. I map out the songs, how many times we do a chorus or verse, when someone prays or reads the Bible, what songs are chosen, how the band sounds…if I mess up, it’s completely noticeable (something that happens often but it’s just who I am so I deal with it). There's a lot to think about and keep track of, especially up on stage. I know I’m coming across as completely un-Spiritual. Many of you are reading this and thinking “Where does the Holy Spirit fit into this? Is it really all about you?” And my answer is “No, it’s not about me at all.” That’s the thing. If it was about me and my abilities, honestly, every time I led, it would be a major disaster. Things would never come together. Songs would get all mixed up, words would come out wrong and I definitely wouldn’t come in on the right key. But every week, things come together. Songs go (mostly) smoothly. Notes and beats are usually right on track. And people are actually able to focus on the real reason we’re there, to sing and pray and listen about who He is and what He’s doing for us. I say this completely outside of myself. It absolutely has nothing to do with me. God has me doing this truly terrifying thing, something that a year ago wouldn’t have even crossed my mind to do. Seriously, it was never even a thought in my head until about 6 months ago to ever step into this kind of position. And here I am, doing it. I love that I’m learning and being stretched in an area that I’m passionate about. Today’s praise and worship was fun and worshipful and most importantly, I think God was glorified.

Okay, so after fellowship, a few of us went to lunch together and then decided to go to Computer City. Computer City is like a mall but instead of having all different types of stores, it only has electronic stores. You can get just about anything your electronic loving little heart desires. CC is where I bought my iPod Touch last September and since a couple of my friends were wanting to buy one, that’s where I took them. Now if you’ve read my last blog or so, you know I’ve been taking Chinese classes for the last 4 weeks. I’ve gone from about 150 words to 400-500 probably. Well, the last time I was at CC getting my iPod, I knew about 4 words. Literally. A friend took me, one who had only been here a year but has a great grasp of the language, and helped me bargain for mine. And here I was a year later helping friends bargain for theirs. I wasn’t great, and thankfully the guy we were talking to was so very patient, but we were able to understand each other and a plan was made (we weren’t able to buy because they didn’t have any in stock so instead we made a plan to meet in town tomorrow to buy them…such is China...that arrangement is even harder to get across than just buying the dang thing). Anyway, it was a proud moment. In fact, I think I hi-fived a couple of people afterwards. I, of course, have SO FAR to go in my language study but it was exciting to be able to something as unimportant as that. You English-speakers living in English-speaking countries, you have no idea what it’s like to live in a place for a year and not EVER be able to communicate with someone properly. It gets very frustrating. And to know that it’ll be another 2-3 years before I’m even able to really have a decent conversation…arg.

Anyway, today was a good “full-circle” day to celebrate my life in China. I’m still happy to be here. I’m still in love with the country. I’m still sure this is where I’m supposed to be. After all the crazy and wonderful and extremely difficult things I’ve done and been through this year, I can’t wait to see what God’s preparing me for in the future. The unknown…it’s exciting and oh so terrifying all at the same time.