Observations on my last night in China

I can't find my customs form, even though I saw it a week ago and specifically put it somewhere safe so I wouldn't have this problem. I know I'll probably find it tucked away in some obscure corner of my suitcase when I'm unpacking, but after shuffling things around in my suitcase so many times today to evenly distribute the weight, I'm done. I'll just fill out another one tomorrow before flying home.

Home.

The saying goes: "Home is where the heart is." And for my whole life, I've been saying: "My heart belongs to New England." Because it does. My family, my house, my doctors, my best friends, and the experiences I am built out of are all in New England. And there is something about the woods and the roads and rocks and lakes just sets my soul on fire. I've been looking forward to breathing clean and fres New England air for a while now (and even more so after spending two and a half days in Beijing).

But as I sit here in my empty apartment, on my flat-board bed in the heart of Weihai, China, I realize that not all of my heart belongs to New England anymore. Truth is, half of my heart resides here, within the halls of my teaching building, in the walls of my classroom and in the hands of every one of my 60 students.

I came to China to see the world; to prove to myself that I am capable of overcoming the limits cancer had put on me and to see if I'm really meant to teach. I came to China for myself and with the thought that I might be able to change a couple of lives.

And then I lived in China. And I fell in love with the people and the culture and my job and my students. And I learned so much from being here. I learned how to work hard in order to be a good teacher and how to sacrifice everything I had to be even better. I learned how to give more of myself than ever so that I could better their lives. I learned what it felt like to have bad days and how to push through them. I learned how to revel in small victories and how to recognize the rewards of being a teacher. I don't know if I changed many lives, although I like to think I did. Without a doubt, though, my life has been changed in every way possible. I learned how to love unconditionally; for I love my students in a way that I never understood, nor thought I was capable of. It's like I discovered a whole new chamber of my heart that I didn't know existed and it has now been filled over capacity with love for my kids.

Unconditionally.

That's the kind of love that my students have shown me here. No matter who I put in Chinese chair, sent to the teacher or punished, at the end of the day, all of my students still loved me. They didn't see my faults or flaws or imperfections. They didn't judge me for my scars or even ask questions. They didn't know my background or my story. They just loved me; and they loved me in a way I've never been loved before. Simple, pure and honest. And although I don't feel like I'm worthy of that kind of love, it has motivated me to be that kind of person that is. And that is what I am walking away with from this experience:

I want to be the kind of person who is worthy of the unconditional love that my students have shown me.

Warning: Heart Wrenching Photos Ahead:

The hardest day of all of China:

The last day of teaching.

Our kids were devastated; and once they started crying, we started crying.

And there was a lot of crying.

After about 40 minutes of endless wailing, we decided we didn't want out last memories of our kids to be them in tears, so we worked hard to cheer them up (a lot of candy and kool-aid) and we were able to snap some of these happier photos during the last part of class:

Beijing: Tiana'men Square, Forbidden City and The Great Wall

After an emotional last day of teaching (which you can read about in the post above) we all packed up and headed to the bus station to catch our sleeper bus to Beijing. I love traveling by sleeper bus! I wish we had them in the states:

We got into Beijing the next morning at 5:30 AM. We couldn't check into our hostel, so we just dropped out stuff off, caught the metro and then explored Tiana'men Square. IT IS HUGE! It's the largest public square in the world!

Being American in China automatically puts us to minor celebrity status. We were stopped and asked if we could take photos with different groups and families easily 15 times. 

This is the People's Monument in Tian'amen Square.

Later, we got to wander around the Forbidden City! We even got in for 20 RMB instead of 60 because we showed them our student ID. WOO! The Forbidden City is HUGE! It was really cool to see, but we were really tired from all of the walking and without having a tour guide, a lot of the stuff looked the same by the end of the day. It was still really cool to see, though! SO much history.

The next day, we took a bus through our hostel to THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA! The part that we went to isn't restored, so there are almost no tourists or hawkers on it. It was so cool to be on a REAL part of the Great Wall! Unfortunately, the weather wasn't that great so we didn't get to see the whole expanse of it, but I still hiked up it. IT was SO steep and quite the accomplishment for me and my knee, but worth it!

I AM A SURVIVOR! AND I STOOD ON TOP OF THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA!

Cyndi and I walked down together and suffered from super shaky legs.

Soooo steep!

The next day, we spent all day at the Silk Street and Pearl Market. Six floors of shopping, shopping and more shopping! We had a bit of a stressful time getting back to the bus station (we had a hard time catching a cab and ended up having to take the metro) but once we got on, we all slept soundly on our way back to Weihai. 

It was a quick and exhausting trip, but so much fun! 

Entering the last week of teaching

These are the two classes I teach (second and third grade) and tomorrow is my last day with them.

And I think it's safe to say that leaving them will be the hardest thing I'll have to do in China.

These kids light up my life; they make me laugh and they keep me on my toes

and I love them.

They have changed my life. 

Snapshots on Monday

These kids light up my life!

(please excuse my Hello Kitty glasses. It's a China thing)

My sweet girl, Jane.

Vicky and Madison:

Ruth, Vicky and Madison

Beth!

Amy and Jimmy:

Joe (He has a personality larger than life and I LOVE it)

Joe, Travis and Jake being tough:

Megan and I:

Ralph, Leo and I

Baby's Day Out!

One of the downfalls (though I hesitate to use that word) to living on the campus of Da Guanghua is that we don't get to experience some of the intimate details of the Chinese Culture that one may get to experience if they stayed with a host family. On Saturday, however, I got to spend the entire day with the sweetest Chinese family and see life in China through their eyes. One of ILP's students, Monica, and her parents invited a few of us to spend the day Cherry Picking, but our morning at the orchard turned into a whole day of adventures. We met the family at 8:30 in the morning and we ran errands with them (the bank, the supermarket and the gas station) before driving into the foothills of Weihai and spending the morning in the middle of a beautiful cherry orchard. We picked a ton of cherries, and ate even more! After, Monica's parents and their friend, Larry (who speaks very good English and did a lot of interpreting for us) took us to a Buddah temple at the top of a mountain (It roughly translates into the "Temple of Happiness for Everyone) and we got to tour around it and learn about it. Then, we met up with a bunch of other families and had the Chinese version of a BBQ (they basically put meat on sticks, rolls on sticks, chicken legs on sticks, chicken necks on sticks, peppers on stick...everything, on sticks over a small smokey pit). It was really funny, because Monica's mom set us up a little tent and put all four of us Americans in it and said: "You will rest." We think that she was just being nice and saying we could hang out in the tent, but it was really funny to see all of these families running around outside, cooking and the four of us just sitting out of the way, in a tent. After we ate, we walked around the village a little bit, before we got in the car and drove to the beach. We spent a few hours there in the late afternoon sunshine, were we proceeded to bury Monica's feet at least 20 separate times. We talked with Larry about American Chinese food and how different (and better) it is than the American version. The Chinese are convinced that all American's eat are hamburgers, so we explained told him about tacos, spaghetti, and the American version of BBQ. Then, the family took us to dinner at a restaurant that served a ton of different veggie and tofu dishes. Monica's mom and dad were so excited for us to try it, that they kept on dumping things on our plates...and some of it was good...some of it was not. (Steaming tofu soup, for example...not a winner). We had a blast talking about teaching, America, China and everything in between. Larry was an excellent interpreter, but it was so amazing to me to see how little we needed him. Communicating with a language barrier can be tricky at times, but you don't always need to speak to get a point across. We spent 12 hours with Monica and her family and we didn't speak a lot to them, but we communicated just fine. And seeing what life was like in China for one family was really eye-opening; there was a lot of minor differences, but the love and care and generosity that I see in my own family was all there in theirs. It was a huge comfort, and it was one of my most favorite days I've spent here in China.

Cherry Picking

I will blog more in-depth about this later today or tomorrow, but for now, here is a little snapshot of my day out with the sweetest Chinese family around:

spontaneous speaking

the whole goal of the ILP method is to get the students to spontaneously speak the target language without being prompted by the teacher. The last couple of weeks, my kids had finally been getting to the point where they would yell: "SCISSORS!" when they needed scissors without me saying "we need scissors" first. So, I was excited that they were slowly starting to get the hang of it. Today, as my second graders were working on their penguin craft, Beth (who often chooses to speak in single words) looked up at me and said (without any prompting): "Teecha Cheltzie, can I have the glue?" Full sentence, correct grammar and everything. I was so excited and surprised that I didn't say anything for a few seconds. Spontaneous speaking in the target language. One simple sentence, and I've never felt more rewarded for my efforts in teaching them.

24 Days left

I will miss real Chinese food.

Children's Day

Children's Day finally came on Friday and it was a whirlwind of teaching, preforming and having a blast. Not only did I have to teach all 32 of my second graders at the same time (we teach them in groups of 8-9 usually) but I had to do it in front of ALL of their parents in the morning! Talk about intimidating! But, my kids were rockstars and we had a great lesson that went smoothly! After the parents watched us teach, it was time for the showcase. Our kids have been practicing for it for a long time, so it was so exciting to see them get up their in their little costumes and preform. This was probably my favorite performance of the day. My second grade class sang twinkle twinkle little star while some of my cutest little girls danced in the front: Vicky, Beth, Dora, Mary and Emily. Too cute.




The Chinese are very big on showcasing the Americans, so naturally, we were asked to preform a dance at the Children's Day showcase as well. This is all 20 of us on stage, dancing to Justin Bieber in front of all the staff, our students and their parents. You can hear our kids singing along (they LOVE the Biebs) and they even got up and danced with us in their seats. Julianna rented us the shiny red jackets. We were a hit!



Children's Day ended by all of the little first graders singing to us and yes, I cried. I love my students so much, and they have taught me so many incredible things over the last four months. I only have two full weeks left with them and I plan on enjoying every minute of it.