My Place

Culture Shock. 

It's that thing everyone who goes to a foreign country has to experience some time or another. 

It can hit from the very beginning as the monster of unfamiliarity or creep in more subtly over the passing weeks as the slug of discomfort and dissatisfaction, but at some point you have to look it in the face. 

Well, we can all conclude that I stared at it in terror from the very beginning--maybe even before I got here. 

But this week, culture shock began to morph into something else...because I finally started to find my place. Or, we could say, my place here was shown to me a bit more. 

My students, my darling, naughty, crazy babies, finally started to turn into little people with their own names, faces, and personalities. Not all 280-something of them, mind you, but some of them. And we are beginning to learn how to interact with each other in the classroom because I'm getting to know them and they are getting to know me. 

Can you see my twins, Tom and Marty? They both suck their thumbs. And Hannah looks really displeased about being in class. 

Jonah is sneaky, hilarious, and full of himself. He likes to waggle his eyebrows at everybody else when his team gets a point in class.

Stuart's glasses make his eyes look bigger than they actually are.

On Friday night we were invited to a party simply because our foreign selves would give the party-thrower a little face.

  Ok, whatever, it's a party, LET'S GO.

The food was fabulous, the people were fun, we had to sing in front of everybody, and I got to show off my dancing skills. Some of our co-teachers were there as well, so in the midst of the fun I felt us becoming more friends than just co-teachers. And while I saw more of their fun sides, I also got to peek through the cracks of their happy faces--where they were tired from working too hard, where life was not quite as full as it could be, where there was a lack of hope behind the smiles. 

That's what that brought me here in the first place, isn't it?

I'm telling you, it was quite the sha-bang.

On Saturday night, we got to help out with a program that was a cross between youth group and English corner. 

How was it?

Fan-flipping-tastic.

We sang songs, played a game, and talked about respect. We got to meet university student volunteers, parents, and the children who were coming to practice their English. And I got to spend time with two special little girls who were in sixth and seventh grade. At the end of it, my team leader (dear Susie) came up to me and said, 

"Tonight I feel like I saw a REAL Laura Love smile for the first time."

Huh. That's cool. 

Campus was empty today because of October Holiday (and today is Mid-Autumn Festival, ya'll), so I got to take a walk with the Father without everyone craning their necks to stare at me. I got to appreciate the trees we have here and I was given a reminder that, even though I'm far from home, time continues on the same way. It's still Fall, and in some places there is still beauty. 

On top of it all, according to my calculations, I'm finally fully funded to be here. 

Amazing.

This week it felt like the Father was finally saying, "Here is your place, my daughter, and I am providing for you." Because, for right now, it is, and He is.

My Wednesday.

Coloring Disney princess pictures during my one-on-one time with Susie this morning. 

Eating last night's pumpkin bread (not as good as American pumpkin bread, but we enjoy what we have).

Hot chocolate. 

Every lesson of the day going well. 

Playing the part of sassy teacher and doing a good job of it.

Joking around with your co-teachers and feeling like friends.

A student named Foster coming into Class 18 late and crying silently for the rest of class because his mother had just come for a visit. 

David from Class 14 giving me a handful of dried red fruits. 

Seeing Warren from Class 18 actually smile at me.

Wishing I knew more of the girls' names.

Meeting the new foreign teacher from California. 

Getting a giant box of apples and a box of mooncakes from the school. 

Eating a mooncake and a half.

Finding out mooncakes have a thousand calories each. 

Doing P90x. 

Spending the evening trying to figure out what delicious things to do with all those apples. 

Remembering that you have two days left until a week-long holiday. 

Today, China feels like a good place to be.

I hope everyone appreciates this.

Mischievous Connor and grumpy Dylan. 

Mooncakes and apples.

Nature Exists.

Sometimes, you just have to get away--especially when you live in a city with more smog than the Industrial Revolution (I can't verify that fact, but it wouldn't surprise me). 

Anyway, the nearest getaway for us at Zhong Bei ("Jong-Bay"), a university on the edge of town that's at the foot of the mountains (mountains?? MOUNTAINS??!?!). Another team of teachers form our organization is there, which automatically makes us friends, which automatically means we can come crashing in whenever we really need it (if we ask nicely). 

I needed it. 

So last weekend I dragged Alex out there with me and we had quite the adventure. 

The trip over to Zhong Bei consists of three different bus rides. Sounds like fun, right?? Right. 

Wonder of wonders, as we waited at the first bus stop, a car full of some of our teacher friends rolled by and they kindly offered us a ride to our next stop. SWEET.

So we hopped on the next bus in a much shorter amount of time...and then stayed on it for the rest of eternity. We each had two bags and about two inches of breathing space. I love China buses. 

When we finally got off (right in the nick of time), we happened to meet somebody who was going to the same place as we were. So what did we do? We hopped in his buddy's car and we all rode there together. (sorry mom and dad for making poor decisions) (I'm still alive!). 

And then...there we were. Omagoodgracious.

We met up with our teacher friends and they directed us to a path leading up the mountains. I said "Oh! A short hike!" I should have learned by now that "Hike" in Chinese is translated "Climbing a ridiculous amount of stairs" (I made that up) (but really). The stairs, however, were worth it. It's the most beautiful thing I've seen since being in China. 

WHOA.

On the way up, we heard some crazy yelling and "AAAAAAHHHHH!!!" noises. My immediate thought: "Who fell??" Ends up Chinese people like to yell at the top of mountains like Yetis. We did it, too. It was AWESOME. 

There was also this really cool pagoda that looked like a snake. 

At the pagoda, some random little girls squirmed their way into our pictures. One of their moms used to be a teacher at our school. Cool!

It was a really neat pagoda. 

When we got back, we found our friends' children looking for grubs in the dirt. Apparently these grubs had been eating the grass...so the solution was to tear out all the grass and dig out the grubs. 

Oh, China. 

The rest of our time there was spent in bliss: eating pumpkin bread, watching Veggie Tales and Spirit, taking a shower in a shower that had a tub under it, drinking Starbucks coffee from a coffeemaker, and going to a park for some alone time. Yes, I used to take these things for granted. 

For a day, I breathed fresh air and it was oh-so-wonderful.

Mees Love ees learning.

So....I've been a Foreign English Teacher in China for 2 1/2 weeks now. 

YUH, it's flown by for me, too. 

Yes, I love what I do. I don't love every lesson, I don't love every class period, but I do love teaching and I LOVE being called "Mees Love". 

I love seeing excited (if a little bit naughty) faces every time I come into class. I love hugs in the hallway and "HALLO MEES LOVE HOW AH YOU?" when my students walk by and children who excitedly show me to their parents when they are getting picked up on the weekend.

Picked up on the weekend? What? 

Oh yes, that. Well, you see, this school is different than your typical American school. Here are 10 key differences. 

(1)

It's a boarding school. This means that sometimes you'll run across a kindergartner (yes, KINDERGARTNER) on the playground wailing "MAMAMAMAMAMAMA....." It also means that this place is flooded with parents' cars on the weekends when they come to pick their kids up. Watching them come is what we like to call "Saturday morning cartoons". 

(2)

Because it's a boarding school, they've got some night classes. Yeah, you heard me. NIGHT classes.

(3)

Recitation is the thing. Recitation, mind you, is not a bad thing, especially in a collectivist culture. It just makes planning a lot different. Discussions, worksheets, creative writing, making up skits....that's all out the door. My lessons are full of activities that allow the kids to repeat every. little. thing. I. say. That can make things a little tricky. 

"My name is Miss Love." 

"MA NAME IS MEES LOVE."

*facepalm*

(4)

Classroom management looks different, too. Gone are the days of "Move your color" and individual behavior plans. Up until yesterday I was trying to use the same forms of management I would use in the states, which worked for the first week while the kids were still in shock over my American beauty. But now that the shock's worn off, they've found that I'm not like their other teachers and I won't verbally assault them when they do wrong (and even if I did, they wouldn't understand me!) SO. After much frustration, I've taken up the tactic of some of my Chinese co-teachers: TEAMS. Split the class into teams on the blackboard, put magnets under each team when you see them acting like they're saints, and SHABAM, they all turn into straight-spined, bug-eyed, cross-armed little Asian mice. It's like magic. Collectivism at its finest. 

(5)

They know the ABC song. It's different from our ABC song. Trying to teach them ours is, therefore, useless. 

(6)

The bathroom is a trench with three "cells" that don't have doors. How do you use this? You squat over the trench and hope a first grader doesn't walk in. Also, the trench gets flushed all at once and may be sitting for a while between flushing...so try to walk the route to classes that doesn't go by the bathroom unless you really feel like being inundated with pee smell. 

(7)

Recess consists of structured marching, dancing, and jump roping. And when you march (or walk anywhere), you have to yell, "EE, AR, EE!" ("ONE, TWO, ONE!") You also have to follow the direction of the class monitor--one of your classmates who just happens to be responsible enough to have the privilege of carrying around a whistle and yelling at you. 

(8)

Students get ten minute breaks between classes, and while there are hallway "rules", they spend most of the break yelling, running around, smacking into each other, sliding down the tiled floor, wrestling, yelling some more, and grabbing hold of the foreign teacher as she walks by. 

(9)

At the beginning of class, music plays over the intercom and a voice says, "Mates, class weel begin! Ples pree-pare!" At the end it says, "Schoolmates, we are pleased to have a ten-minute break. *blablasomethingIcanneverremember* Ples remember the hallway jrules!" On the way to lunch, we always hear these three songs over the intercom: Did You Ever See a Lassie?, How do you do, Mary Margaret?, and Our School Will Shine. Yes, I do sing along with them all the way to lunch. Yes, they are sung in a fantastic Chinglish accent. 

(10)

30% of the time, the electronics in the classroom will not work. Ples, pree-pare for this. 

Those are only a few differences. 

It's all been quite a learning experience--almost as if four years of learning how to be a teacher still didn't really prepare me for this. 

But that's ok. 

Mees Love weel learn.

One of those days...

....When you wake up feeling like someone is intermittently stabbing you in the stomach with a knife (and you're going" WHERE DID THIS COME FROM??")

When that comes in spurts all day. 

When your roommate starts throwing up for the second time that week. 

When you hardly slept the night before because you were thinking about bedbugs. 

When you start getting allergies.

When the man who brings big jugs of drinkable water up to your apartment hasn't come in over a week. 

When you've called him three times. 

When you feel like you can't eat all day. 

When you have a lesson observation and for the life of you, you can't get those kids to say "My name is". 

When you forget that the class after that is three lessons behind, the electronics aren't working, and you didn't bring ANY materials for the lesson you need to do with them. 

When the same co-teacher got to watch you have two bad lessons in a row. 

When the monster of headaches shows up after that. 

When your apartment still smells like cabbage.

When you wake up from your nap with a bedbug beside you. 

When you find out that you can't get the apartment sprayed...and steaming and washing everything every day is obviously not working. 

When you had been looking forward to a toasted beef-and-mozzarella sandwich ALL DAY but you forgot to plug the toaster oven in and by the time you see that it's unplugged you are HUNGRY and DON'T CARE ANYMORE and you stick it in the MICROWAVE and end up with a SOGGY, MISERABLE SANDWICH.

Suffering looks different for everybody all the time. Sometimes it's a giant catastrophe, and sometimes it's a pile of little things like not having a dryer or an oven or drinking water or paint on the walls. Sometimes it's learning to live in a new place. 

These are the things the Father is using to refine my attitude as my responses turn from "Whyyyy???" to "Help me trust you, Daddy."

My BABIES

GUYS. 

I

MET
MY
BABIES
THIS
WEEK.

Five months of preparation, waiting, and talking to the Father about these guys and I finally got 'em.
MY BABIES.

I don't know if you noticed there, but the two pictures featured above aren't of the same classroom or the same kids. Why is that?
Well, I have a lot of babies---280-something of them, to be sort-of exact.

WHAT???

That's right. I've got eight different classes of second graders that I teach twice a week. There are 35 or 36 kids in each class.
That's a daggum lot of kiddos.

While classroom management is not the easiest thing in world, I'm actually really excited about having so many students. Why? Well, yes, because I get to touch lots of little lives, but also
BECAUSE I GET TO NAME THEM.

See, in English class, everyone gets an English name. Some of the kids got English names in first grade...boring names like Leo, Ally, and Sue. But Miss Love got to name all the kids who forgot their names or are new to the school and never had one. I get to name them whatever I want.And here are just a few of my favorite names:

Mickey, Piper, Luna, Ron, Harry, Dudley (those three sit together), Hansel, Gretel, Babs, Buddy, Fisher, Monty, Beau, Fiona, Kentrel, Rock, Barbie (and Ken), Walt, Ernie, Burt, Ramona, Raven, Lance, Prince, Flynn, Ryder, Myrna, Fabio, Channing, Ernest, Milton, Gus, and Ginger.

Not to mention my princesses: Cinderella, Belle, Snow White (she already had this name!), Ariel, Tiana, and Jasmine.

My team leader asked, "Laura, does this mean you are going to name your own kids weird names someday?"
I replied, "No. This is just my chance to do whatever I want."

Anyways, I've got lots of kids and 16 random 35-minute class periods a week. My time not teaching is spent in the teacher office hanging out with the Chinese English teachers and my two teammates who are also in second grade (the rest of my team is in first grade), so my schedule looks like this:

Oh, the Chinese English teachers. There are five in second grade and one of them accompanies us to every class. Whichever teacher this is helps with management, any necessary interpretation, and moral support. They are also loads of fun and all of us are looking forward to building relationships with them this year.

(My desk is the first one on the right. Obviously the messiest one.)

There are 20 second grade classes in the school, each with 35 or 36 kids. There are 4,000-5,000 students in the school altogether---and that's preschool through 6th (yeah WHOA that's a lot of kids). I have Grade 2 classes 12-19. Some of these classes had English last year and thus our classes begin:

Me: "Hello, class!"
Class: "Hello, Miss Love!"

Some of the classes are new to the school and our classes begin:

Me: "Hello, class!"
Class: "...herro, cnass.....?"

Sometimes I have this conversation:

Me: "What do you YOU like?"
Student: "I LIKE AH ORANGE. I LIKE MOM AND DAD. I LIKE MONKAYS."

Sometimes I have this conversation:

Me: "What's your English name?"
Student: *panicked blank stare*

Sometimes my powerpoints work and the students know some English and the lesson really hits it off. And sometimes the ceiling is leaking and there's a lake in the middle of the classroom and all the desks are pushed against the wall and the power isn't working and the students don't know any English and it's the last class of the day and it BOMBS.

But that's part of being a teacher.
I LOVE being a teacher.
I love my students.
I love my Chinese co-teachers.

I also love running into random really really really cute babies all over campus.

Some of the older students. LOOK AT THEIR CUTE TIES.

Structured recess...because unstructured recess would be more chaotic than the zombie apocalypse.

LITTLE TINY BABIES IN CUTE RAINBOW COATS AND BOUNCING RAINBOW BABY BOOTS.

This is where I was called
This is where I fit right now.
And I love it.