Happy Moon Festival

Today is Mid-Autumn day and what a beautiful day it is. The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Moon Festival, Zhongqiu Festival, or in Chinese, Zhongqiujie, is one of the few most important holidays in the Chinese calendar, the others being Chinese New Year and Winter Solstice, and is a legal holiday in several countries. Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomelos under the moon together.The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which is usually around late September or early October in the Gregorian calendar. It is a date that parallels the autumnal equinox of the solar calendar, when the moon is supposedly at its fullest and roundest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties. Of course, our students are stuck here so we're providing little Moon Festival activities for them to help take the sting out of not being with their families.

I will be getting these ALL day. The first one isn't so bad....the next 300 aren't soo good :(

Goodbye Syrena

On an earlier post I wrote that you know you've been in China too long when you have been to more going away parties then birthday parties. This is so true. For the past few days, I have been going to goodbye dinners and events for Syrena, who returned to America today. This parting is especially sad as Syrena has been an integral part of TIP for the past two years, coming the same time as I did, in June 2008. The loss of Syrena leaves me as the sole surviving member of Summer 2008.

When I first got here two years ago, I noticed a grizzled old China veteran in his late twenties with a serious countenance and a beard the color of a forest fire. His name was Patrick and I was later to learn he had been in China for four (now six) years and every member of his team was long gone. I always have admired him, how he stays a constant despite the passing of one team after another. He's the keeper of memories that nobody else here shares, inside jokes that nobody else could get and a wealth of experience.

Today, I become the new Patrick.

CCCB reunion

If any of you don't know, I went to a very small Bible College in the Midwest. It constantly hovers around 400-450 students and half the town barely knew a thing about it. Yet for its size, it sends graduates all throughout the world. Amber Hope and myself are two, and we met up with Adam Ensign who graduated before I did, and thus been here a few more years. It was good to reconnect with him and be able to talk about people and places that nobody else at TIP knew about until Amber came. I found out that there are 12 CCCB alumni serving in Asia, 8 of them in China alone. Plans for a full-scale reunion are in the works.

This photo was taken and sent back to CCCB for use in their Mission Emphasis Week.

This is China

We have a saying here "T.I.C" meaning "This is China." It's used as a general all purpose explanation for something that doesn't make sense or when something quickly changes.
for example:
"I'm not quite sure what this food is..."
"Hmm, looks like chicken. I think I even see a beak."
"Yeah, but it tastes like beef..."
"Ah well, TIC"

or

"Beida needs to use all but one of your classrooms for the entire weekend for testing, starting tomorrow. Sorry for not telling you sooner. Hope this doesn't cause any inconvenience."
"No, not at all. I'm sure we can fit 280 students into one classroom the size of a broom closet and make emergency lesson plans in time. After all, TIC."

So this weekend I had my own TIC moment. Amber and I worked pretty hard on setting up our classroom for the new session and were really looking forward to it. Then we found that around 30-40 students that registered, never showed up. So one class had to be eliminated. All the other classes are new facilitators who vitally need the experience, so it came down to my class. So in the space of about ten minutes, I went from preparing an introductory power point for our students to going back to work in the salt mines of Danny's book. Ah well, TIC.

There Are Some Who Still Remember

new session

We've been on an extraordinarily long break so absolutely nothing of consequence has been happening, which is quite nice to take a break for a bit. However, with Danny being back in America for a bit, I see my chance to get back in the classroom. I was informed by the role planners for this session that this will happen. For the first time since November of 2009, I, along with fellow central alum Amber Hope, will be full class facilitators. I've only done a joint class once before, but this is more of a training session and I'm excited to see how this goes:)

Top Ten Signs You've Been In China Too Long

Saw this in a bar in Wudaokou, it's about the closest thing to truth as I've seen in a while.

• You're the last of your first group of friends still here.
• You have to pause and translate your phone number into English before giving it out.
• You ask fellow foreigners the all-important questions: "Where are you from?", "How long have you been here?" "How long are you here for?", "What are you here for?", and "How's your Chinese?" in order to be able to properly categorize them.
• Your family stops asking when you'll be coming back.
• You've been to more going-away parties than birthday parties.
• Racism is normal and accepted. Just try shopping while white and see the prices you're quoted.
• Other foreigners give you a funny look when you tell them how long you've been here.
• Pollution, what pollution?
• You get homesick for Chinese food when away from China.
• "Non-smoking", "last call", and "a healthy liver" are all things you doubt you'll ever see again.