Xi’an,
China - December 22, 2013
Well, I can
hardly believe that it is almost Christmas!
We have been in China for 4 months!
Time is flying by and before you know it, we will be back in the USofA
for a wee visit during the Chinese New Year Holiday! It is good this is only a year
assignment with a break in the middle, because I obviously need to build up my
ability to be away from our children and grandchildren for extended periods of time! It definitely is not easy.
This week
will be like any other….teaching. They
don’t celebrate Christmas here in China, at least not the way we do. Traditionally,
for Christmas (if they know anything about it at all) they will give each other
apples. As one of my students explained
to me, “The apple is all about the heart and when we exchange apples, it means we
wish you love and peace.”
We will
teach all week without a break for Christmas Eve or Christmas, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I LOVE these
students! They are some of the greatest
and most beautiful people to walk the earth.
Seriously, they have such pure and gentle hearts.
This past
week I gave my final exams. I sat down
with 3 students for 10 minutes at a time to just listen to them discuss a
topic, determined by me. A week prior, I
gave them a list of 14 topics that I might ask about, but they could not know
which topic or who they would be paired with.
I wanted absolute vulnerable speaking so I could get the best sense of
their speaking level. It is hard to
assess a student when they memorize or read their presentation. This was an amazing experience! As I asked them questions, I always ended with
the same 2 questions:
1. Tell
me about an experience or memory you have as a child. 2. If you could only use one word to describe
yourself, what would it be?
I was blown
away at the stories I heard… some funny, some sad, many uplifting. It was a chance for me to really see who they are
for a small moment and feel of the great love that God has for them. It really was amazing. I can’t even begin to describe the feelings I
had and how many times I was on the verge of tears. I love teaching!
Now, a few
more things about China:
TREE BEATINGS
Towards the middle of
October, it was not uncommon to walk along the road or through the campus and
see older women with long sticks, beating the branches on trees. At first I thought it quite odd until I
realized what it was all about. Of
course, why wait for the leaves to fall naturally from the tree when you can
beat the leaves out with a stick! It is
so much easier to rake all the leaves from one tree at the same time, right?
WEATHER and OPEN WINDOWS
The weather has of course
gotten quite chilly. We have been
hovering around the low 20’s for the past several weeks. At first I thought this was a welcome relief
to the intense heat we had upon arrival in August, but after a few days, I was
longing for the heat again! Our
classrooms have one small heater along the wall, which is in no way adequate to
heat an entire classroom paved with cold tiles. Many of the students huddle around the heater
and hold onto the pipes for warmth during the 10 min break we have during our 2
hour class period. The strange
phenomenon is that even though the students are freezing, they all feel it
necessary to open the windows and allow the fresh (not so fresh…see my next
heading for AQI) air inside the classroom.
It is back to the same window routine but reversed. Now I close it and they open it, I close it
and they open it. This was reversed
during the hot periods when I would open the window for some air flow (because
there is no A/C) and they would close it.
A student finally explained to me that you must “fight a cold with the
cold” and hence the reason they open the window for cold air to flow in. I guess they must also fight the heat with
heat. I’m still trying to figure out the
logic. By the end of the day, I’m frozen
from my head to my toes. Needless to
say, I’m buying some warm boots and long underwear as soon as I get to the
states where there are sizes to fit me!
AIR QUALITY INDEX (AQI)
You may have seen on world
news that we are having some of the worst air pollution in history right now. My phone has an app that I check daily to see
how bad/good our AQI is and for the past week it has been reading 500, which is
absolutely hazardous to your health. However,
my phone app tops out at 500, so we checked online instead and found that we are
currently dealing with 650+ here in Xi’an.
It looks like we are walking through fog, that is how bad it is. Just for some context, an AQI above 100 is
generally considered unhealthy — over 300, and we’re talking about a serious
hazard to health (i.e. it can be lethal).
Many people wear face-masks out and about.
China, burns a lot of coal and is the largest consumer of coal in
the world. Most of China’s coal is burned to produce electricity, and for
industrial uses such as making steel. So,
we are trying to keep safe and not breathe too deep, if that is possible.
MY CHRISTMAS
PRESENT
During our training we were told that NO ONE
in China has a dryer. That was challenge
enough for me! We dealt with no dryer
for a few months until I realized that Jordan's clothes were getting saggier and
saggier. With no dryer heat to shrink
cottons back to shape, he was looking a bit droopy. So, we did our research, found a cute little
Chinese gal that speaks English to help us and ordered a dryer from
Beijing. The shipping was a ridiculous
amount 8 RMB ($1.32) and the dryer itself was a whopping 1600 RMB ($263). Best present EVER!!!! My laundry has never looked better (at least
in China) and Jordan is no longer a sagger-bagger!
Woo hoo!
May this week find you all enjoying the magic
of Christmas and the peace it brings. We
love you all so much and miss you at this time of year. Merry Christmas!!
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