Alright, now for this weeks spoils! This past week I taught my class heroes. I taught them what a hero is and traits of heroes; then I had them write who their hero was and I gave them points for standing up and reading what they wrote about their heroes. The responses were ones I'll never forget. Some of their heroes were the normal "Kobe Bryant" (and other NBA players), "Chairmen Mao", or "Superman", but some of the responses really touched me, some of which I'll type below:
"I think my father is hero. He gives me good education and he gives money for some poor people."
"My father is my hero, because he works very hard. He gives our family much love. He doesn't give me much pressure. He hope that we are all happy."
"My father, because he always encourage me to study and deal with the problem. He is very kindness and he love family. He is bravery."
"My mother is my hero. She is courage and selfless. She has lots of love. She is conviction."
"My mother is my hero. She is a teacher. She very selfless and has love."
"My parents is my hero. They are selfless and they love me very much."
"My hero is myself because I think I has conviction to do anything. I will have conviction to do everything. Just do it by myself never give up."
"My hero is you! Because I think you are the best woman of I know from America and I feel you are selfless and fortitude, so I feel you are my hero."
There were so many about family members, and it just reminds me how close Chinese families are, how much they love eachother, and how much of their lives are spent making eachother welcome and happy and loved despite all the pressures and adversity they all face. Many older teenagers I teach boldly spoke of the love they hope to have like that of their mother someday- most boys here are not ashamed to express their love for their mother. The respect for their family members here in China makes me almost want to raise my family here. This week I plan to give my lesson on some slang words and compliments and provide a way for them to earn more points. I tallied their points and told them which classes were in the lead with points for a party and who needed to kick it up a notch, so my students are as good as ever, trying to earn that party. It's awesome! Have I mentioned I LOVE being a teacher?! The week after that I plan to do a talent show with my class. Life is SO good.
So last Monday the three of us (Sam, Madi, and I) went to the Liuzi Miao Temple (the one I've already been to but they were bums that one day), and also exploring, which was way fun. This week we also have played glow-in-the-dark frisbee and just had a good time whenever we could find it. Then this weekend I went to Daoxian to visit Lawrence and Quincy and Madi and Sam went to Longhui to visit the girls there. I love Lawrence and Quincy, and I felt I should be there this weekend, which was amazing! I got to travel by myself. I bought my train ticket, got to the station by myself, was able to ask some people where I was supposed to be, and they helped me know. Then I met a nice lady who's English name is Dora on the train. She speaks a little English, so we exchanged lessons back and forth on the way to Daoxian, where she happens to be a primary school teacher. She helped me know where to get off and knew exactly where I needed to go to meet up with Lawrence and stayed with me until I found him. She is one swell lady! She even invited me to a primary school party in Daoxian at the end of May. Oh I love the Chinese. Now some of you might think "So what? You succeeded getting on and off a train and meeting someone." If you say this, you have never traveled in a foreign country for the first time by yourself where the language is super hard to pick up with all the dialects and everything is inconsistent. That was Saturday afternoon. Quincy, Lawrence, and I visited for a while and then we went out to "Dicos", an American-style restaurant where we had chicken sandwiches and ice cream, and then we decided to KTV (sing karaoke). On our way there, we ran into a Wahaha Water campaign and since we are beautiful American foreigners, they brought us up on their stage and we got to dance and gather a crowd. We even got to do a commercial for them: "Wahaha Wahaha We Love You!" It was a blast, just up there grooving and crowds taking photos as if we are the coolest things ever to walk on the streets of Daoxian...well, maybe we are. Wahaha. Hehe. So we did go KTVing with Mike (a native who happens to be LDS) and David, Lawrence and Quincy's liaison, and it was a blast! We sang (Mike and David had to leave early) for hours, dancing as we went, and we literally sang our voices out! Man, I haven't had this kind of fun since I left the US. It's great to be with such outgoing people! Then we got back and we visited for a while, laughing and talking about everything. It's AMAZING to be around people with good senses of humor and don't take things seriously all the time. Oh man, I can't even describe how much fun I had. :) It was a blast!
Sunday we called in for church, which was good, and still "pooped" from the night before, we took naps, and then I taught them how to make an amazing egg, pepper, tomato, onion dish that turned out very well. For dinner we went to Mike's parent's house, where the food was pretty amazing! They had eel, whole chicken (as always), pork stuffed gross greens, jiaozi (dumplings, a personal favorite), steamed buns, bamboo shoots and beef, a cucumber dish, and a few others. Man, the Chinese know how to cook anything! So many things I thought were nasty in America have now grown on me so much because of the way the Chinese cook it. I now like cucumber, egg plant, pineapple, mushrooms, straight up peppers, cabbage, to name a few. The Chinese do so many things right we American's are missing out on. I love it here.
Today we went to the Daoxian pagoda-it's a pagoda on a hill that was built in 1624 and although it's decomposing, it's super awesome and has an excellent view (pics will be on my blog). It took us an hour in the humid heat (still no sun) to walk there and then another to walk back, but it was worth it. After that Quincy had classes, but Lawrence and I went to check out some instruments, and I bought a traditional Chinese instrument, a 2 stringed fiddle called an er hu (二胡), literally meaning "2 strings", go figure. The pagoda and trip to the music store wrapped up my time in Daoxian, and then I went to the train station and got a ticket back to Lingling, and once again I was spoiled. The first 1/2 hour of the train I was standing, pretty cramped, but I took out a book and started reading when a train security steward told me to come with him. I had a split second of panic, wondering why he'd chosen the foreigner among the cramped crowd, and wondering if he'd request to see my ticket, which the ticket lady accidently stamped for the 18th instead of the 17th but no one had noticed so far. Then we got to a mini cabin between trains and he told me to come in there. He set my bag down in front of him, and we just talked. That's all. We just talked about why I was in China and asked about America, and had no other disposition than to give me some space from the crowd and let me sit down. Such a nice guy. Then when we got to my stop in Lingling, he told me to come with him again, he plowed through the crowded bus and let me out first before the stampede of the others. I wish I'd gotten the chance to thank him, but once I got out a crowd separated us, but he'll definitely be in my prayers. I was pretty tired from the weekend, my feet were hurting randomly, and it was super nice to not have to stand the last hour on the train. That guy will definitely be in my prayers. See how the Lord works? Everything turned out great! I actually don't mind traveling alone now. For the first time I felt a little pressure here and there, but all in all, it's a great chance. I had no one else to worry about keeping close to me-I could just freely talk to the people and go where I pleased. It was a great feeling to be in Lingling and have all the moto taxi drivers bargain with eachother to see which one of them could take the beautiful lao wai (foreigner) home. Can't say I looked like a million bucks either. I was hot, sweaty, completely toasted from the sun, and smelling like smoke from the bus, but the people still welcome the beautiful foreigners, so it was nice to be home again. I love China.
I love you all!
Nikki
Pic 1: The Liu zi Temple
Pic 2: A painting inside
Pic 3: Exploring
Pic 4: Some old guys fishing
Pic 5: Our river
Pic 6: A sweet, green, diving board
Pic 7: That's my village
Pic 1: A cute little "girl" I met on the train
Pic 2: KTV! Mike singing, David interpretive dancing, and Quincy and Lawrence in the back
Pic 3: All 3 of us on a roll!
Pic 4: Cookin' it up
Pic 5: The stage we danced on! Wahaha
Pic 6: Daoxian Pagoda
Pic 7: Great view from the top, huh?
Pic 8: Cool huh?
Pic 9: Learning how to play an er hu
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