Saturday... 2 days before I leave China

Wow I can't believe this is almost over! We have really enjoyed it and learned so much. Yesterday we climbed the great wall which was aweomse and hard. The history is so great here and I really Enjoy it. I miss Jingzhou so much though. I've realized I don't like big cities very much and miss the personal relationships at the other place. As for Beijing it is pretty and full of great things but I am ready to come home I don't care for too big cities and don't want to stay to long here. I really wish I could go back to Jingzhou though and would trade my plane ticket tomorrow if I could, I'm out until I get back home but I hope you all are doing well.

When I stopped - Wed. June 16th

Sorry I have been unable to do it for awhile I realize! Things have been going good and I am learning more and more stuff everyday. Stuff about the culture, the work here, my life and how I work, people who live here and daily life. All of this is so awesome and I can't really write about most of it either. You pretty much missed only one week. This was our last week in Jingzhou you missed. We didn't have much planned during this week. Mainly it was saying goodbye to the people we had met and building even closer relationships. We did go to Yichang though and saw the Dam and Three Gorges. The university took us there and it was gorgeous. We went with the girl in the office. It was really good talking to her more and getting to know more about her. The three gorges held alot of the province's heritage and history. I even got to play an instrument with some of the Pros there. They tried to teach some of it to me but I'm slow and don't speak much Chinese. We got to see all the war stuff and hike down the mountain we went up through a gorgeous scenic route. Also that last week in Jingzhou we through a Tex Mexican style dinner for the friends we have met. This went off fairly well. Many of the students don't really like it because it was spicy. We made tacos from pork meat since that was all we could find. We brought our own tortillas and made a salsa from random peppers we found in the store and fresh tomatos. Getting to know the students even deeper was better. We got to talk to them about more than just school and such. It was really good and I will look back on it as one of the greatest times. We talked at the meeting sunday morning and that went fairly well. As i'm writing this I am really missing Jingzhou and the people there. In a later post, when I get back home, I will post some of what I feel as "accomplishments" (I don't really like this terminology) and things I would change if I did again. I will also put some about the work there and how we helped with that. I can't yet as I am in Beijing and Beijing is worse than Jingzhou in that. But one thing I can say as I look back on Jingzhou is one thing I would change or do differently is spend more time with the few than meeeting many people. I don't know how much of that is possible as we were constantly meeting new people. There were a few though that I wish I could have spent more time with and got to know even more. I feel that would have been even more effective. I will miss the people there quite a bit and expecially those who I really got to know. I have been blessed by their lives.
We are in Beijing though right now so I will post some current things. We flew out sunday night from the airport. This was one "adventure" getting to Beijing. First we tried to get train tickets. They didn't take american credit cards online so we went through someone elses because you couldn't get it from the agency without getting a bus ticket with it. So we got the train tickets and a few hours later we get a call saying the train is full and we can't get the tickets. So we quickly try to decide what to do. We decide the only other option is getting plane tickets so we get those. A few hours later I get a call again saying they need to confirm my address. They wouldn't take my address so it became even more complicated oh and the date was changed. We got it worked out though and got even the date changed back. We get to the airport Sunday and wait and find out there is a storm in Beijing (it only rains like 8 days here keep in mind) and so our plane is delayed 6 1/2 hours. We wait through that to arrive in Beijing at 6:30 the next morning. That day we were really tired. We went and saw one of madison's friends who we our house sitting for because they left yesterday. Well at night I get a fever of 102 but luckly it is going away. It didn't stop us. Yesterday we went to the biggest mall in Asia. It was pretty cool and BIG. It's amazing how western it is though. They had Starbucks, DQ, Harley Davidson, and many moe but those were the surprising ones. There we also fell into a tourist trap and got led to a hotel to buy paintings which we couldn't get out of. We looked it up when we got home and it was on the internet as a clear tourist trap to watch out for, LOL. That night though we went on snack street. Snack street is just a street full of food that is exotic and weird. I didn't have many things weird only like crab legs and a meatball that wasn't any meat we recognized. There were LIVE scorpions though on sticks, Sea horses, Starfish, squid...a nd you name it. OH also cockroaches and other bugs are included in that list. It was a great experience though. Today, even though I'm still kind of sick, we went to the Forbidden City and Tienmen Square. These were very interesting. The Inside city was really spectacular and the square was big (DONT mention anything about it!!!!!!!!!!). That has been the day. Oh we ate at a korean restraunt it was ok, but not my favorite I like Chinese food better. Good Night wo Ai Ni... Peace with you

Tuesday June 1st - Wednesday June 2nd

Tuesday:
Tuesday was Children's day here in China! childrents day was so awesome. We went to the Primary school after going to the banquet for class one. My fist class was an off class and so I just visited with some of the english teachers who also didn't have a class. The next class I went to was an music class. I didn't come to teach it but just to observe it. They were teaching a new song to the kids. They weren't teaching like we use to learn in elementary but they were teaching the actual notes, key, and solfesh of the song. The kids picked up the song fairly quick it was quite impressive. The teacher played piano when they also sang it. Next unexpectedly they asked me to play something and sing. Oh NO! I deffinetly don't play piano but one song. So I played Titanic and sang to it. It went bad to say the least. Oh well they enjoyed it and then we taught them what a cannon was. We taught them row row row your boat. They really enjoyed this and did it really well. It was alot of fun seeing how they did a music class over here. It is really cool to see as many students study music in their "free" time which doesn't really exist. My next clas was another 6th grade class. I did tongue twisters again . this time we taught them the rhythm also that you ahve to say with it. This made them so much fun and I have it recorded. They say them really well and truly want to try saying it. After this we wen to the canteen and then rested. We went to a really comfortable ofice and rested a little and hoped we didn't have to use the restroom which is two buildings over and the 4th floor. It was quite funny. Next was Party Time! Oh man this was fun.... I went to a great class. The kids did many performances like a talent show. They did many different performances. Many sang and dance and then one did an Erhu performance. Theses were 6th graders. The other one did another type of performance on an instrument and another did one on the clackers. It was so awesome and they are also recorded. They gave me a gift of this ancient drum figurine of the han dynasty. we went to many other classes that were awesome. One thing I am noticing is the red scarfs some of the children are wearing. From what I hear, but i don't know the whole story, they are a sign of members of the communist party. I am trying to learn more but may have to wait till I get back. The nicer looking students though are the ones mainly that wear them. All the students are so great though and I am lucky to have met many of them. We also tried many types of their candy as this is Children's day and they get alot of it on this day. It was such a good day. After school we went to a restraunt with the teachers from the primary school. It was so good seeing them outside of the classroom and talking to them more. They also taught us a Chinese Gambling game (we didn't gamble) called Majong or something like that. It was a very difficult game but alot of fun. I really enjoyed tuesday so much and it will be a day I remeber for a long time.
Wednesday:
wednesday was a good day and we didn't have anything on the schedule so we got to sleep. Sleeping is always good and then we went to the movie shop and a women's study. We studyed Elijah. It was so good. I'm out we are watching how to train a dragon. Peace and Love
GB you all,
Lindsay Smith

Sunday May 30th - MOnday May 31st

Sunday:
Sunday morning I felt sick at my stomach so I slept in and couldn't really go to the meeting so. that afternoon around 2pm we went to get noodles at a new noodle shop cause the old one was torn down. They were slightly delicious I got rice noodles so that made me happy. After words we went to the later night meeting and talked with the people there after words. Oh I had Persian cat food , it was actually the companies name of snacks but since we couldn't read the Chinese all we could read was Persia cat Food. It was funny. Afterwards instead of going witht he other americans here to eat and play settlers we went out with one of the sweetest girls here and had dumplings with her at a chinese restraunt. It was amazing time to spend with her and get to know her better. She took us shopping afterwards so Dr. Cavitt could get a jade necklace for his wife. I enjoyed just hanging out on the streets though and meeting interesting people. We went to sleep after that because we were wiped out.
Monday:
Monday was our first day in the primary school. It was a good day and a good morning as this was the first morning we had breakfast. We actually had cake for breakfast. My first class was just observing a class that dr. Cavitt was teaching. This was fun and interesting. The next class was one I taught. They were 4th or 5th graders. Before I went into the class the teacher told me that this is a problem class. I thought surely not, but they were. I came in and people were punching eachother and stuff. I knew not much could be accomplished if I taught so the teacher and I decided that we should just play english games. She had told me they really didn't like english and so she wanted to see if that could be changed. They started getting into some of the games though. We played alot of Hangman and english charades. It was awesome. The next class they just asked us to rest in the office so that is what we did. Then we had lunch in the canteen (cafeteria). It wasn't horrible but I still had to lie to save face.
Saving face is an interesting thing here which I will have to tell you more about when I get back, so ask me about it. The point is not to devalue the other person to their face. So in other words you praise them is the opposite. If they asked you if you like the food, you say yes in order to save face. Also the same with if they mis pronounce something. You don't ever say it there... There are many other instances and at first this was annoying, but eventually it got better and I realize it is just apart of the culture and so now I like embracing it.
Anyways, back to the day. The next class I taught was 3rd graders. I loved this age best. They were so much fun to be around and we talked about the animals. They learned new vocabulary and were brilliant. This was so good. We did the animal sounds and just had a blast together. I taught one more class that day which was another 6th grade class. This grade level was always the hardest. We mainly practiced the vocabulary they had already learned. Witht hem though I did tongue twisters. These were an absolute blast to do with them. They really enjoyed them and it helped with pronounciation. After that we had dinner at the canteen again. They served us shrimp. I don't know how to peal or tear off heads of shrimp, Thank you dad for always doing that for me, so it was a learning experiance. We did though and have pictures and video of us doing it for the first time. then of the eyes staring at us as we ate them. It was creepy. The shrimp tasted good and all though.
that night we went to a Senior recital of the Erhu. It was gorgeous and two hours of some of the best music. I love that instrument and wish I had one so I could learn it. It was gorgeous and all I could do was be mesmorized by her hands. It made me think about music alot and my music alot as well. Her passion was evident in the way she moved and such. I enjoyed it alot.