SEOMUN

I'm sitting on the floor in the middle of a classroom in the middle of a school in the middle of Korea. Seoul, Korea to be exact. I'm at my first MUN (Model United Nations) conference. Do you know how hard it's been to teach a class that's completely experiential when you have no experience? Do you know how hard it is to teach a class to students who know much more about the subject matter than you do? It's difficult, my friends. Very difficult. So, it's nice to see all my planning and preparation come together at last, to finally 'get a clue'. Maybe I'll actually know what I'm talking about in class now.

The best part about this trip is watching the students. When you teach kids, you only know them in the frame of reference you teach them in. So, if I have a student in my History class, I only know them based on their performance in my class. If I have them in MUN class, I only know them based on their participation in class. That's what I love about coaching and having students over to my house and going on trips with them; it gives me another frame of reference. I find out that the quiet student is actually pretty outgoing but not in History class because they're not with their friends or they're not confident about the subject matter. Or maybe a student who's struggling in my class is a genius in Math or Science or maybe they're an excellent soccer player or actor. That's what this conference is about...peeling back another layer to my students' personalities. I'm watching them speak out, give opinions, take leadership, engage in super intelligent discussions, work with others at a level that is very unusual even with your best students. And it's all for the sake of creating a better world. That's what MUN is about- making our world a better place. My students spend hours every week thinking about other people, working on ways to solve their problems and collaborating with others to make it happen. It's incredible, really.

Some other not-as-awesome things to mention...

• I got to eat at Buger King last night
• I had a REAL Diet Coke today, totally different than Chinese Diet Coke
• The air is so fresh and unpolluted here
• The toilet in my hotel room has a beday, I have no idea how to spell it, but you know, that thing that squirts up water in the toilet
• Most people speak English which is semi-refreshing and a little disconcerting all at the same time. Why disconcerting, you ask? The thing is, when one gets used to not being understood, one might say things inappropriate for public conversation, things that should be said under one's breath or in a whisper to one's friend. It's a bad habit one might get into and have a hard time readjusting when around many people who understand one's language.
• I'm hoping to meet up wht a friend from college this week. She works here in Seoul.
• We are having our conference at this ginormous building. It's a conferernce building that has it's own underground mall. And when I say "mall", I really mean underground-magicplace-so-big-and-fantastic-that-it's-just-an-expectation-that-you'll-get-lost-but-who-really-cares-because-you're-surrounded-by-so-many-awesome-food-joints-that-you-could-eat-there-forever-and-still-not-get-to-every-knook-and-cranny mall. What an ingenius idea to combine a meeting place with food and shopping. I mean, who goes to meetings? Now there's a place that gives conference-goers something to do during the conference.

I'm off to my next meeting, and yes, I'm actually going to the meetings. It's all about the kids this week.

**Addendum**

I was sitting on the floor writing this post. Apparently, I chose the only spot that was covered in some sort of tile glue. White glue. Glue that decided to stick to my pants. My black pants. Awesome.

30 and Counting

Today is my 30th birthday. Thirty. Three-zero. Good thing I look like a twelve year old. Literally. Last summer I had a salesman come to my door and ask if my parents were home. After, telling him several times that it was my house, he said, "Oh, you just look so young. Like, 12 years old young." I wanted to scratch his eyes out. Instead, I politely slammed the door in his face.

Anyway, I've been looking back over the past three decades and I thought I would list thirty things/facts about myself that you may or may not know about me. If you don't care to bored out of your mind, stop reading now. If you want to get to know me better in a slightly disturbing way, keep reading!

1. I don't like the different foods on my plate to touch if they're of differing flavors. In other words, I don't mind most salty things to touch like corn and mashed potatoes but I don't want salty and sweet things to touch like olives and sweet potato pie...can you tell I'm already dreaming of Thanksgiving dinner?
2. I've know my Father for over 25 years. I was just thinking about that today. That's a really long time. Am I really where I should be in a 25 year relationship?
3. Two things I look at on a man are his hands and his forehead. I know, strange. But if a guy has nice hands and/or a good forehead, rrrrrrrrrr!
4. I'm debating cutting my hair.
5. Out of most of the places I've lived, I've lived there twice. Colorado, twice. Indiana, twice. Florida, twice.
6. I love the color red. And teal.
7. I'm like a tornado in my sleep. Many times I wake up in the middle of the night completely bound by my clothes that are twisted all the way around because I roll around so much. Sometimes, I actually have to get up out of bed to readjust before I can go back to sleep. OCD?
8. I am surrounded by about 4 tubes of carmex (lipbalm) as I type this. Can you say "addiction"?
9. I never thought I'd say this but...I miss south Florida. As in the actual place. Of course I miss the people, but I'm talking the actual area. That, my friends, is proof that He really does work miracles.
10. On the other hand, I haven't been homesick much. I love China. I miss the freedom of having a car but besides that, it's all good.
11. 21 is my favorite numer. My second favorite is 12.
12. I've watched the entire 10 seasons of "Friends" since I've been here. It's kept me sane and helped me procrastinate all at the same time. Yes, I've also managed to keep a pretty busy social life.
13. We did karaoke for my birthday this weekend, it's fantastic. Nothing like karaoke in the states. We had a private room, chose all our own songs, had a couple of mics. People danced, there were group songs. It was amazing.
14. I love Diet Coke.
15. Red (any variation) is the only color I will paint my toenails.
16. I love eating with chopsticks. In fact, even when I go back to the States to visit, I think I'll have to eat everything with chopsticks. It just makes eating so much more fun.
17. I miss being in college sometimes. And the friends I had there.
18. I have about 50 words in my Chinese repertoire.
19. I hate the smell of vanilla candles.
20. I have clock in my room but the ticking is so loud that I took the batteries out. It's still up on my wall but just for decoration. I know, it makes no sense.
21. One time when I was on a traveling group for my college, while in the van on a very long drive to our next stop, one of the other team members and I spent hours coming up with names of border towns. You know, like Texoma or Mexicali...Colsas (Colorado-Kansas)...literally hours.
22. I did some serious exploring today and found this magical place that reminded me a lot of home. Except for all the staring, at me of course.
23. I can't wait for fall to come, if it ever comes. I need red and orange leaves in my life.
24. I had a dream about a friend from high school last night. Where in the world did that come from?
25. I rarely ever iron. I'm all about the spray bottle pat down.
26. Can you tell I'm getting desperate? It's past my bedtime and this is taking so long.
27. I helped lead worship at fellowship on Sunday. I'm so excited to get involved. It's been too long.
28. Have I ever mentioned that you have to have your passport to go to fellowship?
29. I have no idea how I was able to function so long without a laptop. Seriously, how was I able to live before l.w.l. (life with laptop)?
30. I am living one of my dreams by the age of 30, living and working in China. Not many people can say that. He has been so faithful to me.

Picturesque China

Some things about my life in China- photo style

For the most part, China has done a great job at fixing all of it's "off" signage but every once in a while you get a treat like this one...

or this one...

Some of my closest friends here. We were celebrating Justin's birthday. Not a lot of single guys so on many occasions, he's the only guy.

Yes, I've climbed all those stairs and many, many more. On my way to see some temples and such.

I run into random characters like this super smiley kiwi all the time...

Apparently, I'm crazy allergic to mosquitoes. Anaphalactic shock, here I come.

This is a certificate for restaraunts to show their level of goodness...not a great place to eat. Of course, all I had to do was look at the light switch on the wall with all it's hand grime to know what kind of place it was...



A view from Laoshan, my hiking trip. Looks like a European town, doesn't it? I love all the beautiful scenery here.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival/Communism

I love the fall. Changing leaves, cooler weather, football games, the smell of winter coming...okay, so I'm not experiencing any of those things here. At least not yet. I'm assuming the leaves will eventually change and the weather will eventually get cooler but let's face it, the only football the Chinese know is the round ball kind and the only smells we get are rotting trash. But, one thing I get here that I'd never get in the US...Mid-Autumn Festival break slash 60th year celebration of the Chinese communist government. What does that mean to me? 6 days out of school. Yippee!! Never thought I'd be celebrating communism and yet here I am...?

Update of life in China since the last time I blogged...

• I've had my picture taken with a camera phone at least 6 times and probably many more without my knowledge.
• I've traveled to Laoshan (the mountains) for a retreat with all the highschool girls and survived.
• I just got back from a staff retreat in a city called Wei Hai. We stayed at a beautiful hotel right on the beach. Played a lot of beach volleyball, went swimming, slept, read books, ate good food and laughed a lot.
• I'm still coaching volleyball. We've had only one game this season with one left. Eh, at least it's been a lot of fun.
• My 30th birthday is Monday. Crazy. Going to do KTV (karaoke) to celebrate.
• I've started playing the guitar. I'm really excited about it.
• Also, I started singing worship at my fellowship. Still getting my feet wet.
• I'm pretty sure I'm going to Bali for Chinese New Year. Apparently, everyone travels for that holiday and I don't want to be left behind. It's pretty cheap to travel from China to other parts of the world. As long as they're on this side of the world.
• The first quarter of school is almost over. I think we have two weeks left. It's going by so quickly!
• I'm working on my Chinese. I've got about 30 or so words in my vocabulary thus far. Maybe a few more. But I've almost learned all the pronunciations so I'll be working on the actual words and sentence structure next. I'm very excited about it. It's hard to do what I came to do until I can communicate, at least on a basic level.
• I'm am frightenly allergic to mosquitoes. I haven't really been able to pin it down exactly nor has the Dr. but certain types of bites cause serious swelling and rashes. I got a huge bit on my arm a couple of weeks ago and my eye was swollen shut for two days.
• With in the next two months, I will be going on a tour of a couple of cities (can't remember the name) for a weekend trip, to a volleyball tournament in Shenyang, on an MUN trip in Korea, and on an 8 day trip to Singapore for MUN. So much traveling, so little time. That means out of about the first 12 weeks of school, I will be gone for 7 of the weekends. At least it's not coming out of my pocket. :)
• I have not cooked one meal since I've been here outside of noodles, sandwhiches, and reheating. I'm just never home in the evenings. And if I am, ayi has cooked and I eat that. Someday maybe when I've finally learned where to find all the things I need.

I think my next post will be a few pictures to show you some of the things I've been talking about.

This is Why I'm Hot, This is Why I'm Hot, This is Why, This is Why...

If your lucky enough to be friends with me on facebook (ha!), then you've seen my updates in reference to "hot yoga". I thought I would share with you my experiences and even a couple of pictures.





Now, if you've never heard of hot yoga, let me help you better understand by giving you a visual...




It's like doing this....

In this...

















The idea, I'm guessing because I really don't know for sure, is that you sweat out all your toxins while building up your muscle control. I personally think, and this is just my opinion, the idea is to make a person as miserable as possible in a 75 minute time span. It's like 120 degrees in the room. They have a humidifier on, a heating fan full blast plus the heat turned up AND heated floors. In fact, the floors are so hot, I hate to even touch it. The first time I was doing HY, I was literally dying, sweating my brains out, on the verge of passing out or thowing up, or quite possibly both and I couldn't WAIT to lie down. And of course, I scalded my skin on the frying pan floor.


So, you walk in the room and immediately the sweat is pouring off you. My arms are sweating. The tops of my feet are sweating, my ears...every nook and cranny (never spelled that word before). I'm trying to do these poses but I can't grab on to anything because I'm all slicked up. One second I have ahold of my leg behind me and the next second it's flying through the air towards the poor Chinese woman (a sixth of my size) next to me. If it were to ever make contact with her, it would literally chop her in half with the force. Ha, I'm just cracking up thinking about it.


I can't do hardly any of the moves (I have a lot more of me to work around than most of the people in there). It's funny because if the instructor sees one of the ladies who are taking the class in the wrong position, she'll come over and help them adjust into the right position. Yah, not me. They won't even walk near me. And they refuse to make eye contact. Apparently in the world of hot yoga, I'm a lost cause. Or maybe it's because they're afraid of the wild limbs flailing through the air at any given moment.

Except for one time. During the first class, we were doing this position, and I'm sure it has a name, where you lay on your stomach, bend your knees, grab your ankles behind you and look up. You kind of become like the bottom of a rocking chair. Well, that is just something this body is not meant to do. Not now. Not ever. But that didn't stop the instruction lady. No, no, no. She actually came over, sat on top of me, and jerked my shoulders back just enough to not quite but almost, rip my vertebrae into two pieces. My back may never be the same again.


By the time the class is over, my clothes are sopping wet from head to toe. My body is shaking from the contortionism (word?), and my eyes are buring from all the sweat dripping into them. But, I LOVE IT. I do. I don't know why. Masochistic, perhaps. There's just something about it. I've done it three times now and by the next day, even though I'm incredibly sore, I can't wait to go back the next week.


You know, of course, when I told my mother that I was doing hot yoga, she immediately asked me if we did any spiritual rituals in the class. Rest assured my friends. We find no "chi", we do not "center" our selves, we don't work out "the bad spirits'. No, instead, we listen to elevator music, stretch ourselves silly and sweat out every drop of hydration in our bodies. We do end the session with "Namaste". But I promise, it won't get any more Buddist than that.

Your prize for reading this incredibly long entry is some pictures of the place and well, ME! An "after" shot.




Blasted heat fan!


















The room after hot yoga is done.

















The surprisingly delicious soup given to us after
the workout. It's supposed to be nutrient-filled
or something.















A hot mess.

Adjustments

I've been making a list over the last few weeks of things I'm still having to adjust too. Things besides the obvious...

• Smog- it's rarely ever a non-hazy day
• Grocery shopping several times a week- because I don't have a car and can only carry so much by myself, I can only buy a few things at a time. That means I have to go shopping 2-3 times a week. Of course, I'm not doing any shopping right now because my fridge is broken.
• Taking 3 hours to do anything- because of the traffic and the need for public transportation things just take longer. You just have to factor in more walking time, the actual getting a taxi or catching the bus, the busy stores...it drives me crazy sometimes. And then sometimes I love it because it's so very Chinese.
• Smoking in doors- you can smoke in any building here. It's just very strange to be eating dinner and have the person next to you light up. Not a big deal, just strange.
• No answering machines or voicemails- I have no idea why not, but China doesn't have answering machines or voicemails. Texting is the way to go here. Or email. I rarely ever call people here. And if you know me, you know that just feeds my phone phobia (I hate talking on the phone unless you're one of my parents or five friends who know how it works)
• Men not holding the doors/letting women go first- this does not apply to the men I work with. They're very gentlemenly. In the Chinese society, there's really no such thing as chivalry. I mean, they love their women but it's not really shown in a public societal (word?) way. If chivalry ever comes in to play, it'll be because of an older person with gray hair or a very pregnant woman. They do revere pregnant women. It's just an odd balance, something I love to watch being played out on a public bus.
• The smells- when I say smells, I'm not referring to flowery-freshly-cut-lawn-BBQed-chicken-makes-you-love-the-summer-smell. I'm talking about plug-your-nose-close-your-mouth-and-run-away-as-fast-as-you-can-before-you-vomit-your-everloving-brains-out-because-you've-never-smelled-something-so-repulsively-disgusting. And they're every where. In one block, you can walk across 10 different unbelievably stinky smells. And they never mix. They are completely independent of any other smells in that area. Blech!
• The niceness of the people- the Chinese are so incredibly kind and helpful. Lovely people. For instance, every day, I walk by the guard station to get to my bus. It's usually about 6:30 am and even though I'm not a morning person, I always yell "hello" (in Chinese) to them. And they, there's usually 2 or 3 of them, always yell "hello" back. Well, today I was running late and wasn't even thinking about it as I raced past them. All of a sudden, I had 3 grown Chinese men, yelling "HELLO" at me. They had the biggest grins on their faces. It was so sweet. These are the same men that have helped me on more than one occasion carry something to my building. And this isn't an unusual thing. The Chinese are always so kind and helpful. I love it!
• Risking your life to cross a street- and when I say "risking", I mean "RISKING". You are literally playing "Frogger" every time you cross a street. One lane, stop. Two lanes, stop. Race across the last 3 lanes hoping the cars will slow down for you. But don't EVER run in front of a bus or a taxi because they just won't stop. Seriously.
• Dragonflys- I've never seen so many. They travel in groups sometimes.
• Smelling other peoples food in my apartment- I've lived in apartments before but this is the first time that I've been able to smell what other tennants are eating. Makes me very hungry most times.
• The low counters- no joke, my kitchen counters come up to the middle of my thigh. I'm going to be permanently hunched over the next time you see me. Just call me "Quazzi".
• The lack of guy friends- all the men are married here. They are lovely young (and older) men. And it's not even about having "single" guys here. It's about having guy friends. I've always had really close guy friends. In fact, most of my adult life, I've had a guy best friend or two. So, it's strange to be here and to be constantly surrounded by women. Love the women. Wonderful, amazing women. But strange to not really have any interaction with guys.

I'll add more to this list as I go on.

Update #2

China is great. I'm adjusting pretty well. I haven't been homesick. I feel very content knowing this is exactly where I'm supposed to be.

School's been a little difficult this last week. I'm still trying to figure out curriculum for my AP class so the poor students are having to be very flexible and I'm having to keep them on track even though it all keeps changing. I hate feeling unsettled about it. And MUN is causing me some stress. It's a long story but it boils down to the idea that my students have more experience than I do right now so it's hard to teach. By the end of this semester things should be better. The lovely thing is, the kids are still respectful and kind. They still listen and respond. I love teaching here.

I'm coaching JV Volleyball. After saying that I wouldn't get involved in any extra-curricular activities this semester, here I am coaching. But I LOVE it. It's nice to have my own team. Yes, because I'm a control freak. And the girls are so willing to do whatever it takes. Such hard workers. I'm not sure how we'll do in games but if they've learned how to be a team, learned the basic rules and gotten a little stronger, then that's all I ask. I mean, I wouldn't mind winning some games but it's not the most important to me this year. And for those of you worried that I'm over doing it, stay calm. It's only 3 nights a week and we only have a game every other week. It's not serious v-ball, not like you'd find in the States. It's just really fun.

What else...our fridge at the apartment has been broken for 2 weeks. It's been...inconvenient. But yesterday we got a mini-fridge so at least we have something to store a little food in.

I started Chinese lessons this week. I'll have a couple or so hours a week during my free time at school for lessons. I'm very excited about it.

One of my friends here that I teach with just had a one of her best friends move here. He'll be teaching at the university. Anyway, he's a music guy so he and I are getting a group together to help lead music at our fellowship. I'm so happy about that. I've missed being involved in music. A lot. I think we're going to go for a more accoustic feel. Guitar, djembe (pronounces "jimbay") maybe a piano and a couple of voices (him and me). Yay! That's one of the things I do miss the most-being involved with music.

I have some good posts coming up. As soon as I feel the "oomph" to write them, I'll get them on here. Keep an eye out. One last thing...

I've had to make a tough decision over the last couple of weeks and even though I know it was the right choice, it's made me really sad, broken my heart a little. It's been a distraction some at school. So, if you would, please send up some thoughts for me.