Hello Readers of My Blog,
OK, so the reason this is so late is because I have a lot on my plate right now: I gave myself so much to do for my classes that absorb all spare time I have, I’m planning the next two weeks for Beijing and Xiamen, David comes home, EFY giving me issues, and I’m trying to help all my students prepare for their exams and open my apartment for them to come and relax or have company over.
I lost my voice last week in Daoxian KTVing and so I sounded terrible, but my students are loving and forgiving and still listen to me. This past week I taught my students about slang and compliments. Here everyone says things as they think they are. They’ll point and yell to their friends when they see a foreigner, they’ll tell someone they are fat and should exercise and stop eating junk food, and they will knock on your door until you answer it because it is apparently rude to not answer here in China. I taught them about American mindsets on these things, and it surprised them. They all loved the lesson and now use the slang and give compliments to me when they see me, and I hope they give them to their classmates just as much.
So I got accepted as an EFY counselor! They were pretty unprofessional about the whole thing, but I’m happy that with all my extra efforts, checking up, and waiting, I can be a counselor for 4 different weeks this summer, ranging from Nauvoo to Colorado to Rexburg. I’m excited!
Then this past weekend we were supposed to go to Guilin but it was looking like rain, so we decided to all gather here in Lingling to chill. Jacob Harlan (the founder of China Horizons, sort my boss) came and we had a great time together! Saturday Sam, Madi, Twinkle, the Shuangpai girls, and I went to Lengshuitang and walked around and took some pics, which was fun. Twinkle and I came back to Lingling and did a little more shopping for yarn for my class for this week. Twinkle is amazing! She is pretty much the Chinese version of me, if I were to grow up here. Her heart is so good, and she spends so much time with me in my apartment and talking about our lives and seeing pictures, that even though I cannot even passively proselyte, she wants to know how she can serve a mission. I gave her my old camera because it is the first step in documenting her fulfilling her dreams as a tai chi coach, translator, or being like Opra and helping children in Africa, and I have full confidence that she will change the world and who am I to discourage such a strong Spirit? When Jacob and the Dong’an couple came in we went out to eat and just hung out together. Jacob got buttery flavor so we got to eat popcorn with it…it was good! He showed me how to make popcorn in a wok, which I’m excited to do when I get home-popcorn like that is so good!
For my lesson this week I decided to do my lesson on “Making a Difference”. Many people in China feel like they are so insignificant in the big world, that chances are high their dreams will not come true, and that they’ll never be able to make a difference in the world. I decided that I’d take my students outside and we’d get into a circle, and then I, armed with a ball of yarn, would hold onto the string end and throw it to someone in the class, followed by a compliment. Since we’ve talked about compliments and traits of heroes these past two weeks I figured it was a good way to give them practice as well as learn the object lesson. Once they’d get the ball of yarn I’d give a compliment, then they’d hold onto the string and throw it to another person, and so on, creating a spider web-looking design inside the circle. Once we’d demonstrated how the strings crossed and each string when moved will move all the other strings because they cross, I let them play basketball for 10 minutes (so they could have at least 10 minutes total free time for the week), and then we met back in the classroom where I explained the ripple effect and how every day they are alive they make a difference in all the people they connect with, and like a ripple in the water, they can only see the immediate effect, but the ripple goes on and on.
As I gave them this speech, the Spirit attended the classes. Students that had the most difficult time trying to understand the instructions for the yarn game even will all my gestures and simple words understood the message I was saying fully. The Spirit needs no human interpretation, for He speaks to the heart, not the ear. This is the first time I can recall ever having been part of a miracle like this. I guess you could say it was the gift of interpretation of tongues on their part, and it was incredible. All my students were thoroughly touched as I told them I’d remember them all forever and miss them when I went home because they have changed my life forever and I’m a different person because I know them. Some cried, others said I was very wise, but all of them said they’d never forget me and they all love me. Right before this week of teaching, Sunday, I decided that I not only wanted to play the “Make a Difference” game outside with the yarn, but I wanted to give them something as well to remind them of the lesson. Sunday afternoon I started making bracelets from the same yarn I was going to use for the game. I just cut them a little more than wrist circumference, and tied 5 knots in them. The middle knot represents them. The yarn itself represents their life, and the two knots on either side of the middle represented the people in the past who have touched their lives the most and the people who will touch their lives in the future, respectfully. It has taken me all week long to do them, which is the main reason this update is late. It takes me about 1.3 minutes to do each bracelet and I did a total of 720+, so thankfully I got some help finishing them for the end of the week. This week’s lesson by far has been the most productive and impressionable. They got to learn a game, practice English, have a few minutes of freedom, feel the Spirit and my confidence and love for them, and then they received a bracelet to remind them of this lesson. The understanding, love, trust, and strength from their eyes totally made this time in China completely worthwhile if not anything else! Oh I love my children. I love teaching. So those are a couple obvious miracles. The other miracle was the weather. See, the reason we didn’t travel this past weekend was because it was supposed to rain all weekend and all this week. Well I prayed in faith that the weather would be nice and sunny instead so I could teach the message most effectively, knowing full well God had a hand in my lesson planning. Well it cleared up just in time for my classes on Tuesday-it was sunny, but some of my students still complained that it was too hot. I adjusted my prayers a little for Wednesday that the weather would be “comfortable”, and it was. It only increased my testimony that God really pays attention to the details of our prayers and wants to remind us that He knows best. So that is what, at least 3 solid miracles this week?! I love being a part of them!
As well as those miracles, I came across a foreigner who works here in Lingling…you know what foreign passport means? I CAN SHARE THE GOSPEL WITH THEM! HaHA! She’s a black lady who lives in Lengshuitang but works here at a daycare in Lingling, and this Monday I’m inviting her to have FHE with Sam, Madi, and I, and we’ll have a picnic and just talk about life…and when Nikki talks to people about her favorite things….happy day! So pray for me. ;)
This upcoming weekend David comes home, so you’ll bet I’ll spend some time talking to him. All of my friends and students here in China know he’s coming home, so they are all happy with me and want to meet him. I love this culture! This next week I’ll go to Beijing, and spend a week there with my cousin Robert Tate, who has lived here for over a year. He has helped me with my tickets to and from Beijing, and he has planned some amazing things-he is the coolest ever! I feel so spoiled already. Living here for so long and knowing the language and culture is definitely a sweet hookup, so I’m in good hands with good connections-I won’t even have to pay for a hotel in Beijing-he has a friend there we will stay with! I will leave for Beijing Wednesday the 3rd, and then I’ll spend the week there, be able to attend the actual branch for church on Sunday (!!!), and then I’ll head to Xiamen the next week to travel with Madi and Sam (I have 2 weeks off while my students test). Then I’ll come home, well back to Lingling, teach 2 more weeks of classes (or however many they tell us at last minute-that is how they do things out here), and then I’m planning to come home July 2nd, because I couldn’t get my flight changed to a more convenient date. Can’t believe I’m coming home. I really don’t want to, but being an EFY counselor, seeing family (including extended), and David are good incentives.
I love you all! Thank you for all your prayers!
Pic 1: Madi coming in from the rain
Pic 2: A man pushing his kid's stroller in the street
Pic 3: Chinese clothing (anything with English on it is cool)
Pic 4: A statue
Pic 5: Jacob making wokcorn in my kitchen!
Pic 6: Our beautiful school this Spring
Pic 1: Chinese recycling
Pic 2: Jake, the boyfriend of my student Stella (shh, don't tell, they aren't allowed to have bf's/gf's in high school). He showed me some magic tricks.
Pic 3: Jake messing with my er hu
Pic 4: Stella, me, and Jake (you can see my bracelet project in the background)
Pic 5-8: Madi and I decided to get hair makeovers.
Pic 1: More Madi-Nikki fun
Pic 2-4: The Yarn Game
Pic 5: Madi enjoying the remains of the knotty yarn!
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This has been one full week! I have yet to hear from EFY to know if I have a counselor job this Summer except that they'll contact me soon, but I did talk to my China Horizons director Jacob who told me that because of the worldwide expo going on in Shanghai this July, it is only a 50-50 chance I'll get to change my flight to the later date I wanted to to travel, so if I can't change it, I'll be coming home July 2nd. I admit that would be nice to have some family time and road trips and reunions together, but that would mean I wouldn't be able to visit Tibet or the other cities I've wanted to visit. It's strange to be on such a fast downward homeward slope. I have 2 more weeks of teaching, then 2 weeks of holiday (in which I'm planning to go to Beijing and Xiamen for each week respectively), then probably one or two more weeks of teaching (at least one of those will be a party for my best classes), and then I'm done! Crazy huh?
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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Remember all those times I told you I loved the Chinese people? Well I’ve outdone myself once again. This week my love for China and the people have grown even more. Crazy how that works. This week I taught a lesson on American manners. I taught them some things that are rude to do in America, like hacking and spitting and blowing snot on the ground, telling people they are fat, etc, and I taught them some manner phrases, like “bless you” when someone sneezes, “please pass the ___”, “excuse me”, “sorry”, and so forth. Because I like to act things out as I say them to go for the full effect when communicating to ensure everyone understands regardless of their lingual level, they all had a blast! They found this lesson the more amusing so far, watching me up there hack a loogie, run out of the classroom to demonstrate how rude it is to peak into a window, or push past people without saying “excuse me”, pretend to belch or fart, man it was a lot of fun. OK, so from the sound of it, you’ll think I’m very immature, but honestly they learned it all! They didn’t miss a rule, and when we had a quiz at the end, everyone got 100%. So yes, maybe I sacrificed some reputational dignity from across the world, but it was worth it to see everyone succeed. :P
This week I have been able to spend more time with more students. I have met at least 10 new students from grade 3 and some have decided to come over and swap English lessons for Chinese ones, which I’m happy about. I’ve been able to exercise with some students, go out to eat with them, visit some places around town with them, and it’s been fabulous. One of my favorite students at this school downloaded the movie “Avatar” onto his hard drive, so I got to watch it with him (Bruce), and another favorite, William, both of whom I’ve mentioned before. As I was visiting with them, joking with them, and watching the movie with them, I realized something that has happened to me. Bruce, William, Cold Icy, Twinkle, Ginger, Evie, Stella, Angel, Shelly, Daphne, Patrick Jay, Albert Einstein, and so many others have become some of my best friends. Before I used to think of them as friends to hang out with on occasion so I wouldn’t be homesick and I’d teach them and they’d visit. Now I feel like they are some of my best friends. When I go home, they will be so hard to leave. I want to stay here in China, to be with them, to spend time with them, to learn from them. I feel like I have opened the door to a huge mine of valuable gems and I’ve only begun to scratch the surface. If I could, I’d want to stay here until December, when I’ll hopefully leave on my mission, but alas I could not get a good-paying job out here. I love my friends out here. They mean so much to me. No matter how hard I try, it is impossible for me to stay detached from people. I know I have less than 2 months left, but these are some of the best times of my life!
This weekend, Shuangpai, Daoxian, and Dong’an came up to Yongzhou and we explored the smoking factory (the largest tobacco plant in the area), because it is the cleanest place in all of Lingling. It has some amazing gardens, waterfalls, “clean” land, grass, flowers, and just some awesome sights. Bruce, William, and Twinkle went with us and got us in (it’s cool to have friends with connections), and we got some good pictures. Then we sort of split up and Sam and I visited some other places and got some more pics in some new parts of our town. Last night we all went KTVing (singing karaoke). Everyone just chills in a soundproof room with speakers and a karaoke, and we just sing with our friends. That was probably some of the most fun I’ve had with white people in China yet! Sometimes Americans just get really boring and complacent in China (no offense intended) and it’s nice to see them be normal, outgoing human beings again. So that was way fun.
So that was my week in a nutshell! I’m loving it here so much, I’m going to hate to leave, but I’m definitely willing to do whatever the Lord wants me to do. I think my English is getting worse the longer I stay here though. Yesterday I said “I think I’m overly the top rusty.” I’ve made fun of so many missionaries who come home doing things like that, and I think this is God’s way of telling me off. He’s so good to me and always knows what I need to learn. Haha, well that’s it for this week! I love you all!
Pic 1: Our group walking in the Smoking Factory area
Pic 2: Twinkle and I
Pic 3: Madi and I
Pic 4: Twinkle trying to catch fish
Pic 5: Playing in the flowers
Pic 6: It's clean, huh?
Pic 7: Super clean area
Pic 1: Me
Pic 2: In front of the smoking factory (the view)
Pic 3: A random normal farm on the side of the road
Pic 4: A bat on Madi's curtain (poor guy)
Pic 5: 9 Lao wai (foreigners) on the bus
Pic 6: KTV baby!
Pic 7: Quincy and Lawrence jammin' out
Pic 8: Backup singers
Pic 9: Lawrence and I
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