Kinda Like Tom Hanks in the Terminal here....

Greetings from Seoul, South Korea! However, all has not gone well here and I find myself stranded with both time, money, and options being very limited.
Since the Chinese government put a stop to getting visas in Hong Kong, I needed to go outside the country to get my Z visa. I was told by SAFEA (the gov agency that handles foreigner issues) that Korea would be an acceptable alternative however when I went to the Consulate this morning, I was denied entry because my paperwork was not done through a Korean travel agency. This protocol has been in effect since mid 2007, but was shocking news to not only me but SAFEA as well. Seems to me, a major change like that would tend to get noticed by them before 2 years, but apparently not. So, in order to get the documentation that I need for the travel agency, I need to get a form from the Korean government which will take 15 days to get the paper, plus an additional 2-4 days for the visa paperwork to go through. Not good.
Many thanks go to Doro and Jackie for helping me here and Jessie for assisting on the Chinese side and discussing what options i do have. One would be staying here in Korea for 15 days at this hostel and trying to find my way around the city in that time, the other would be to get SAFEA to resend the paperwork to my home in the US and then go through this whole fun process in the US, where I have the advantage of being fluent in the language for a change. However, I do not have the money for either option, so I am working with SAFEA to see if they will finance me seeing as though it was their mistake. Please pray that this whole situation can be quickly and finally resolved.

Sunday

We made it South Korea safe enough and since the embassy doesn't open until Monday, we spent the last two days exploring the city a bit. It's a very nice city but very expensive. Things are about 1.5 to 2 times American prices, which is quite a sticker shock considering in Beijing, things are about a tenth the price. It's a little bit weird to be an environment where nothing is censored or restricted again.

Things I Learned Today

-Just because mass transit is only 1 kwai, doesn't mean you should do it.
-You can fit an amazing amount of people on a public transit bus. More than you'd think.
-And then you can fit even more.
-There is absolutely no concept of personal space. Especially on a public bus.

-12 yuan haircuts are a good deal.
-My hair causes a great deal of entertainment to people when blow dried.
-The 20 something guy cutting my hair who looks like Rufio from Hook takes a very long time to cut hair.
-If he asks you if you want to keep something, like sideburns, front curls, any answer you say will be translated to him as "Yes, please cut it. or No, I don't want it. Please cut it."
-I have a gray hair.
-Free scalp massages in hot lemongrass water are very relaxing.


-Taxi drivers spend a great deal of energy to get your business and would promise to take you anywhere if you would choose them, maybe all this energy exerted is why they get tired 90% of the way and drop you off a half mile away from campus.
-They also have a terrible memory, that is why they say 15 yuan in pre-deal negotiations, but then say 25 when you get out. Their memory improves significantly and rather rapidly when a mandarin speaking person is also a passenger.

-The Chinese staff make a great barbecue, but they are not to be trusted with charcoal in their hands.
-Charcoal doesn't wash off of my face and arms very easily.
-Revenge is a dish best served cold ;)

Graduation

Today was the graduation ceremony for the May session and my third session overall. It's usually a very formal affair with too many speeches that are mostly Chinese, but it's also a time for goodbyes and plenty of pictures. This country is really good for my ego, because I feel like I have my own personal paparazzi during ceremonies like this. Usually a dozen or so Chinese students will bump and jostle each other to take pictures and then try to crowd in to take a picture with me or have me sign something. My class also gave me a very nice gift. A large tapestry, about five feet high, and 18 inches wide with a traditional painting in the center of a serene landscape. Very ornate and very expensive. I was most appreciative. Some of the students have expressed interest in coming back for future sessions as administrative assistants to help out us facilitators and we would definitely appreciate their help and their company once more.

In other news, on Saturday, I fly down to Korea and hopefully end this whole visa saga.

Saturday

Saturday I had a small class in the morning on Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages (TESOL) that started out chaotic but ended pretty smooth. I was then free for the the rest of the day and not quite sure what to do with it. So 2 other guys and I thought it would be a good idea to go to the village for some groceries and a mutton stick dinner. So as we're walking down the main drag through this tiny village (East Coast readers think Heidlersburg, Midwest: Harrisburg) we instantly become the center of attraction. One of the guys I'm with, Brandon, knows this little bike shop where he can get his bike adjusted, so we head there. A bike is a pretty useful thing to have around campus as it shortens the walk from the facilitator dorm to the classrooms by several minutes and in the course of a day, those add up. Plus, it's also useful to quickly get to the village if you want to buy some stuff. While the guy is fixing the bike, we decide to go across the street to this little diner to get some baoza which is like a dumpling filled with vegetables and meat. Really cheap, really good. They're also really spicy which is why its a good idea to have something to drink nearby and we tried to order a Coke in mandarin which sounds a little different here (bǎishìkělè) After mangling it a few times for the woman who ran the store and doing very amusing hand gestures, she finally got it and said. Oh, Coca-Cola! Score one for globalization, I guess.
After this tasty snack we head back to the bike shop where the guy has a choice for Brandon, tube one or tube two. he explains the differences between the two in rapid-fire vernacular so he might as well have been explaining how to fuel a nuclear reactor. Once again, our attempts at communication serve only as entertainment to the crowd watching. However the guy manages to get across that he can fix the bike, but it would almost be cheaper to get a new one, and what do you know, he sells them too. Brandon agrees to fix it but I wouldn't mind getting one, so i look them over. The first one he brings out is an older model girls bike painted bright pink. Pass.
The next one is a very simple black bike. 1 gear, good chain, good tires, very dusty. He asks if i want to try it, and I do, so with a dozen or so onlookers I bike out onto the main road trying not to figure this bike out while not running over everyone or into anything or being run over. Remember, this a fairly busy village and everything is right on the main drag there, so there's construction vehicles going through, trucks, cars, taxis, scooters, you name it. Also chickens doing their thing nearby large piles of feed or dirt or gravel and kids running everywhere. I take a quick loop and don't hit anything so as I'm coming back to the little shop, I go to slow down and discover that brakes are an option in China...one this bike doesnt come installed with. I manage to stop it with my feet and after more than a few laughs from the crowd, the shopguy takes it back, tightens a few things and gives it back, This time they work. So for a cool sixty kwai,(less than ten dollars) i have wheels.

Friday

I just had an excellent evening with some of my teammates. We had a 2 and a half hour Bible study basically on just a few verses in 2 Peter that was most excellent followed by a great time of prayer. Afterwards, we just talked in the kitchen for over an hour, just talking, laughing, and eating scrambled eggs with pork spice and sausage. I can not imagine a better way to spend an evening or a better team with which to spend it.

Easter

I just got back from teaching Easter in my holiday club. What a rush of emotions that is. I have so much to keep in mind when i do it, certainly not the least of which is trying to keep in line with the government. This time also had the added tension of having several Muslim students in class. Nevertheless, i was basically able to read the Passion story and the resurrection account almost right out of the text and then also covered the secular versions of easter as well. It was a good night.

Congratulations, Mary and John!

I just got back from a Chinese engagement party that I was very honored to have been invited to. This was Chinese culture 101. A Chinese staff worker here, Mary, celebrates her birthday today and so when she got to a classroom for a suprise birthday party, her boyfriend (not a staff worker) was here as well with a little something else in mind. It was a very romantic, very fun evening and I noticed a lot of similarities between American engagement parties and Asian celebrations. For instance, is there anywhere in the world that doesn't do the Chicken Dance? However, the bride to be was given a very ornately wrapped gift that turned out to be a small turtle in an aquarium. Everybody oohed and ahhhed and a million pictures were taken of Mary and the turtle and I heard something that sounded suspiciously like "ceremonial reptile." Yeah, not sure what that was all about. She either has a new pet or an awful raw Hors d'œuvre. The rest of the night was filled with cake, music and dancing. Several chinese pop love songs were played as well as some American including the Carpenters and Steven Curtis Chapman. Though I could understand precious little of the toasts and speeches, it was wonderful and exciting evening.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

There are scheduled times of day for the students to read in English and we provide magazines and books for them. Normally, it's Time or National Geographic but these two students found a little something different. I just love the look of what i can only call "professional curiosity."



Can anyone come up with a good caption for this?

Tuesday

So it doesn't look like the block is going anywhere anytime soon, so for now I will continue to update using my loophole, for as long as that remains open. Normally, when the chinese government blocks something, they normally unblock something as well. So I am thinking that in the future, they will unblock Blogspot just to block something else.

Here's what I have been doing in the past few days. Saturday was by far, my busiest day, being involved in TESOL training all day. TESOL stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and it utilizes several different approaches to standard teaching to help maximize the efficiency of both the teacher and the student in language acquisition. The vast majority of the students here are English teachers themselves, so they really love to learn these new methods that we use, so that they can take it back to their students. I have heard nothing but praise from the students for these methods, but some are worried if they go back to their school districts and begin to use them, straying from the traditional format, that they will get into trouble with other teachers and their headmasters. More than one student said they will try to get their headmasters to come to TIP to learn what it is all about. The best example of this was a school district in Beijing (one of the finest in the country as far as academic excellence and technology in the classroom) sent several of their teachers here for training. The headmaster got curious, came himself, and now it is a district requirement that ALL teachers in ALL departments in ALL schools in this district must attend TIP. This was a huge boost to us, because the Ministry of Education definitely took notice of this.

Government Censorship

Currently the Chinese government is blocking all blogs, including blogspot, where this blog is hosted. I have found a way past the block and that's how this message is being typed, it's not very reliable, but it works. I will post more again when the block is lifted.

Visa Issues -THIRD UPDATE- Stuck to Top. Look Below for Updates

THIRD UPDATE: So Jessie, the Chinese liason, has given me some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I am not required to go all the way back to America for my visa, but rather out of the country, meaning Japan or South Korea. I've contacted the Alumni Relations desk at Central to see what alumni we have in these areas and I have a possible contact in Tokyo that I've emailed and I'm waiting to hear back for any in Seoul. That's the relative easy part. The hard part is funding this little bureaucratic excursion. I'm looking into seeing if any Chinese travel agents can offer me a better deal than Expedia, which puts airfare to both of those countries at around $1,000. So please continue to pray about this and as usual, i will keep you updated.
ADDENDUM TO THIRD UPDATE: I have a confirmed place in Tokyo to stay with a former alum, and I found another site that offers airfare at about $750, still arm and a leg, but a little better.
SECOND ADDENDUM TO THIRD UPDATE: A marvelously wonderful Chinese staff girl here has found airfare to and from Seoul, via a Chinese travel agency, for about 2,000....RMB, or about 288 American. I'm waiting to see if there are any alumni in South Korea. Also, a Korean-American facilitator has expressed interest in going with me, and I could most definitely use her translation skills and general company.
THIRD ADDENDUM TO THIRD UPDATE: It is now confirmed that I will be going to Seoul with an American who speaks Chinese and Korean fluently, and quite possibly another Chinese American. The dates will be May 30 through June 5. Which allows us to finish this session and get back in plenty of time before the new session starts.

SECOND UPDATE: After a long talk between myself, Julia and Jessie (the Chinese girl who found herself liason between us and the Government visa office, things looking cheerfully confusing. Several options were discussed but there are two which seem to be the way it will be done. The first is to get all the paperwork and 90% of the process done here in Beijing and then, in accordance to new Chinese laws, fly back to the US, more specifically, the Embassy in Los Angeles, get the Z visa and then turn around and fly back. Expensive, tiring but permanent. The second option, which is being looked into as you read this, is to work with the Government and get an F Visa which is only good for 4 months, but can be renewed three times at a fraction of the cost of flying back to LA. With this visa, I am still required to leave China, but not go back to my native country, so more than likely, I will be in Hong Kong to do this. This is a fairly complicated matter and with new procedures and regulations occurring almost daily, please keep this whole matter in mind and if you wouldn't mind talking to Dad about it, I would be most grateful.

UPDATE: I talked to Dr. Yu yesterday, the head of ESEC and both him and Julia (the head of TIP) are confidant that with the new organization they are partnered with that is directly connected to the Government, that I will be able to get my visa. All the things that are required, I have, so needless to say this is pretty good news. I will keep you informed.

I have been informed of some rather stressful visa news that you can please keep in mind. Right now, I am in the country on a 30 day tourist visa with the original plan being to go down to Hong Kong and get my Class Z Residence Visa. Basically, the same as a greencard in the United States, if I am not mistaken.
However, I was just told that the police have tightened visa security issues and now no longer just leaving Chinese borders will suffice and the new requirement states that in order to get the Class Z, one needs to return to the country where the passport was issued, ie The United States of America to apply. Needless to say, this complicates things a great deal. However, I have several people working on a way around this to keep in the country, as well as a new organization that has partnered with ESEC-TIP to help out with visa issues. Right now, that's about all I know, but please, please keep this in mind. I will keep you posted, but until I know more I am trusting in the One who sent me here in the first place.

Basic Schedule

So this is the basic schedule I have and the basic schedule for the students. For my east coast readers, flip the AM and the PM and you have Beijing Time, for central time readers, add an hour then flip the AM and the PM.

7:15 AM. Wake up, look over powerpoint for first class, get ready for the day, etc.

8AM. Diction. As part of the morning exercises, I teach diction. Basically, saying "sh" "th" "uu" and "put your tongue like this" a lot. When you look at diction from this standpoint, English is very tough. Many of these sounds, Chinese simply doesn't have or is rarely used. For example the "th" sound. Many Chinese use the "s" sound for "th", resulting in phrases like "Sank You" and "my toos hurts." It's quite difficult for Chinese to overcome these barriers, so when you hear one properly pronouncing the "th" sound, it tends to shock you at first.

9 AM-12PM. First class is over, I'm heading back to the dorm to prepare for what's next. However, chances are good, at least one person will stop me with a new updated schedule or a revised lesson plan that needs to be incorporated right away. This tends to take the most time and i spend the next few hours going over the lesson plans for the afternoon and evening classes, as well as sitting on a quick staff meeting or discussing issues of equipment, students, room availability or some combination of all the above.

12PM. Lunch is required to be spent with the students in the cafeteria. The cafeteria is universally loathed by the students and staff, but the discussions and friendships made make it worth it.

1-2:3oPM. Nap time. This is a break in the day, and is also a cultural thing. Good luck getting anything done in China this time of day.

2:30-4PM Famous Speeches and Fairy Tales. This class teaches the students a bit of western/American culture by the use of famous historical speeches and the retelling of fairy tales. The student's have a sheet with the speech or story, but several blanks in it. After listening to it several times, they pick up the words and afterwards we have discussion on it. Today was Barbara Bush's Commencement at Wellsley College.

4PM. Time to prepare for Evening Club and catch my breath a little. Clubs are smaller classes that are grouped on interest. Like all things here, attendance is mandatory for students. Being 5 minutes late to a class results in a tardy. 3 tardies equal one absence. 3 absences and you are dropped from the program.

6PM. Dinner with Club.

7-8PM. Club meeting.

8:30-9:15PM. Depending on day, staff meeting or Bible study. Sometimes they end earlier, sometimes they go longer.

9:15-10PM. Subgroups from the staff meeting to discuss more role specific agendas or small groups from the Bible study.

11PM or So. Bed time. :)

Holiday Club

Yesterday was the first day of clubs. Clubs are an activity that the students do at night, that is required. They are more interest based than regular classes, and there are such clubs as Sports Club, Holiday Club, Travel Club etc. Facilitators are assigned to a club to teach it and mine was Holiday Club. So last night, I turned the club over to a man from the visiting Oregon team, who just happened to be a pastor in an Oregon church, to explain the American holiday of Christmas. Both sides, religious and secular, were presented as well as several hymns and carols. It felt a little odd to be singing Joy to the World and Jingle Bells in mid May! Most of the students were pretty curious and a few were even enthusiastic about singing such songs like Holy Night with all the choruses. Definitely a great opportunity!

In Other News...

I fixed the comment box now to where anyone can comment, rather than only signed in members.

Sunday

I went to the church in the Hadian district today, you can see a picture of it below. It is quite an excellent place, completely legal and registered with the Chinese government. The senior pastor, Pastor Wu, was even tapped to be the official chaplain for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Imagine leading a church and the government comes to you asking you to be the spiritual head of the Olympics! I've been to the English service here many times but today's sermon was particularly good and so I thought I'd share a few of the points with you.
The text was from Luke 15 and the subject was the Prodigal Son. The title was "Swine Flu."

Briefly recapping the story, the young man who left his father to squander his money was soon starving and found himself desperate for food and living among the pigs. When he came to his senses, he returned home begging for forgiveness but his father threw his arms around him. Notice he didn't say "Yuck, get away from me. You've been living and eating among swine! You could have the flu!" He pressed him closer because he was his son. He also didn't care what the neighbors thought and in this time period, it would have been very shameful, but he didn't care, because he was his son and all was forgiven. He only wanted him home again!


On May 5, 2009, a private plane chartered by the Chinese government landed in Mexico City to rescue nearly 100 Chinese nationals stranded in Mexico due to the recent Swine Flu epidemic, particularly hard hitting in Mexico, and return them home. God sent his own way of coming home for us to rescue us out of the epidemic of sin. Like the father in the parable, God doesn't care what condition we are in when we come, He only wants us home again and He will take care of the rest!

Entrance Interviews and Orientation Madness90%

Today is the first day of student orientation here at TIP. Even for the most seasoned veteran, this can be a little hectic but for someone who's just getting back into the swing of things and finding out how much has changed and what not, it's downright chaotic.
One of the more interesting things about TIP is that students go by English names. 90% of them come with their own name already but if they don't have one, the staff can assign them one. Students picking their own name usually find an English word they like and just use that, thus in the past, there have been students by the names of Chairman, Lucky, Healthy, Gladiator, River, Winner, Mint, etc. One student I talked to recently picked out a science book and decided she was going to have the first word she saw in there as her name. The first word was Neurological, so she went for the second word: Synapse.

Teacher's Report

Incredible good news for ESEC-TIP today. Many of the teachers and school districts that have sent teachers to TIP got together and created a report of how they felt TIP helped them and their classroom. It is a tremendously glowing report that takes two volumes, and includes several pictures of past and present TIP teachers and students, even including five speeches from past students. This report was forwarded to the National Ministry of Education who in a sense, told us to keep up the good work.

Looking Forward to Some Help

The team heard yesterday that there will be some short term volunteers from Oregon and Amsterdam coming. Everyone here is really looking forward to the help, since we are grossly understaffed. It will be good for Wouter to have some more Dutch people to talk to, since he must feel doubly like a fish out of water, being a Dutch citizen among Americans in China. We were discussing what roles the Oregon/Dutch team could play in yesterday's staff meeting and it should be a most valuable help for the time that they are here.

Staff Day

Today was a bit of a staff get-together and general relaxation before the craziness of the session starts. We went to the Ming Tomb Reservoir where the triathalon for the 2008 Games were held. We learned a little about competitive kite flying and it was really fun, but the hardest part was just keeping the kites in the air. I have some pictures and I'll try to add them as soon as possible. The Chinese staff as well as the admin here brought a few water guns and soon the whole day just erupted into a massive water fight, much to the delight of a dozen or so Chinese onlookers. After coming home to change, we took a taxi out to the middle of nowhere, the far outskirts of Changping to this beautiful resort area where there was a restaurant open to the public. This resort had a little mini zoo featuring peacocks, wolves, and a few large domestic dogs. The dining room is outside, making it the only restaurant I've ever seen where you can play basketball while waiting for your food. The whole resort was wrapped around the breathtaking mountains and as we were starting to eat, the fiery red sun was just descending beneath two majestic peaks and I heard two of our Chinese staff softly start to sing…
shèng jié, shèng jié, shèng jié, de shì gé xià wàn néng de Shàng Dì....
pretty soon we were able to pick up on the tune and joined in....holy, holy holy is the Lord God Almighty!

Shopping in the Village

I just got back from the little rural village right outside of the campus, with Brandon an easy going year-long. It's about a mile square and the main street through the town has vendors on both sides selling fruits, vegetables, clothes, whatever. Some of the vendors will lead you into a much larger shop nearby. The whole town is like a big yard sale. There is definitely a lack of hygienic standards but fortune favors the brave and so Brandon and I picked up some drinks and supplies at this one store while we were going through the street attracting the attention of virtually everyone. We stopped at a little stand where an older man was steaming dumplings for a really cheap price. With only a handle on basic Mandarin phrases we were able to get a really good steamed dumpling lunch with an orange soda for about 5 RMB, or less than a dollar American. Sitting in the front of the man's house turned diner, I reflected on how this was the China that few got to see outside the pages of National Geographic, here far from the bustle and boom of Beijing, reflects the true character of the Chinese people. Impoverished but hard-working sun-up to sun-down and friendly to a fault. We stopped in another little store, about the size of a small American mini-mart, where the walls and aisles were packed with every thing from laundry soap to soda to mystery meat on a stick. When our thick accents proved too much for the shopkeeper, she called her teenage daughter who spoke English very well and she helped us pick out what we wanted and get the right prices for without adding the "foreigner surcharge" that is common elsewhere. I think from now on I'll try to do my shopping in this little village rather than take the taxi all the way across ChangPing to go to Wal-Mart.

Monday

Today was pretty cool. It was Kristi's last day in Beijing after nearly four years in China. The Chinese staff here took both her and her replacement (ie me) out to lunch at a nice place in ChangPing. Most restaurants in China do the family style serving method. They give out one or two menus and everybody picks something and then they bring it out in huge bowls and everyone picks what they want from what bowl when it comes by on the lazy susan. Soooo good. Usually some kind of salad with a spicy vingarette, gong bao chicken (you know its American cousin: Kung Pao) sweet and sour pork, beef and pepper, and bowl after bowl of fried dumplings. After lunch, another year-long, Doro, and I went out shopping for groceries and other supplies. Where does anyone go when they need to find good stuff cheap? Wal-Mart! There is a Supercenter here in ChangPing and is pretty much common to American Wal-Marts, including some imported stuff that is like gold over here including Kraft American sliced cheese, real chocolate and Cheetos! Of course, you pay for it but just knowing it's right here makes me happy. I also needed to pick up a Trac-Phone that is required for staff. Last summer, I didn't have one and running back and forth between buildings on campus for information in the high humidity of summer is an experience I do not want to repeat. I got a pretty cheap one, it's a major step down from my beloved iPhone but it will do the job well. They didnt sell SIM cards there at Wal-Mart so Doro and I had to trek across ChangPing to a small electronics booth in Merry-Mart (a Wal-Mart knockoff) to get one and activate it and then finally back on campus.

Sunday

This being the first full day in Beijing, i went to Haidian with a few current year-longs. The English church there is growing vastly and there is talk to move it to a larger location. You can see some pictures of the church and a video clip taken there last summer over on my Facebook. It was a good way to start out, church in the morning and then lunch across the street at this large bookstore that has its own food court. A few of the year-longs had some former students meet up with them and we hung out there for about an hour before heading back. To save some money, we took public transportation back which takes about 2 1/2 hours at about one sixth the cost of a taxi. However, like any large city, public transit is complicated, especially when everything is labeled in Mandarin. In time, everything will be figured out.

Arrival

Arriving in Beijing after the Olympics, i was curious to see how the city had changed. To some extent, it has but to another it has stayed the same. The city still has, in my opinion, the most ascetically pleasing airport in the world and it never ceases to amaze me just how massive it is. Going through the city, I noticed that smog, temporarily beat back last year, has started to get bad again, but no worse than most major American cities. Beijing is no longer covered in Olympic logos, but I am told all the major buildings from the Games are still in use for another purpose. For instance, the Bird's Nest is used as the home field for the Chinese national soccer team.
Though the massive facade that covered the city last summer is partially pulled back, revealing less prettier things, the citizens have not changed and are still as friendly as ever. My taxi driver knew only basic English used for driving purposes (take me to, left, straight, how much? your fare is, etc) he also knew the phrase "Go Lakers!"

First Blog

So I decided to set up this blog so that anyone who is interested in myself or teaching English in China can keep up. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to comment or use the email address I have posted here. However, please keep in mind my location and purpose before doing so. Due to class scheduling and general staff craziness, I can't promise a set schedule for updating, but I'll try to do my best.