Merry Christmas from China!

I am not sure where I left off before but things here have been going very well!

We had Thanksgiving with many friends, on Thanksgiving and on the Saturday after. The pictures from both encounters are online at http://picasaweb.google.com/riggs2820.

December came suddenly, and I can't believe its nearly over. On Christmas Day we will have been here exactly 4 months. It feels like it has been so much longer, and we still have over 6 months to go!

December was mostly filled with classes. We assigned our students a written paper for their final and the draft of that paper was due the first week of December. Even today I was still grading more papers. That is pretty much what we did everyday for this month. I am not sure how many students we have total but we teach 16 classes with 30-40 students in each one, so its quite a few. They begin their finals this week.

We went to a town called Zhenjiang on December 9th. Its very near here, only about 30 minutes away by train. We were invited by a student of ours because it is his home town. We saw many great things and had our personal tour guide thewhole time. It was very interesting to see parks and temples from the point of view of a Chinese person. We came upon a place in this park that used to have many stone structures but they had been destoryed during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. The student referred to it as "that stupid thing" that destroyed Chinese cutlural relics and history. It was just a very interesting day for us.

Unfortunately when we arrived back to Nanjing that night we were not feeling very well. We got the flu and I spent almost all of that next week in bed. We both missed classes on Monday and Tuesday because we were too ill to do much of anything. Wednesday we went to class but I was still not feeling so well. One of our bosses came and saw me and they cancelled my Thursday classes for me. I finally taught on Friday and began to feel better.

We are both much better now. Scott has a bit of a cold but not too bad.

On Sunday (yesterday) we went to a big dinner held by the government of Jiangsu Province for all the foreign teachers. It was really nice, wonderful food and all kinds of entertainment. Some of it was a little crazy (one chinese girl sang "Complicated" by Avril Lavgine and a Hawaiian guy played a song in Chinese using a ukelele to accompany himself and his wife who danced with shakers) and some was really nice. There was a drawing and we won a little stuffed panda with bamboo in his mouth and a ugly santa doll. It was really a good time.

Our school very kindly gave us this Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off for us to celebrate Christmas. We went to Shanghai on this last Friday night and we found some great shopping. But sadly it was raining really bad on Saturday and so we came home early. We will probably head back as soon as we finish finals here at the school.

So we have a few gifts for eachother and from people at home that we will open tomorrow morning for Christmas! In the tradition of Scott's family we will be making a big breakfast for ourselves. We found REAL pancake mix and Mrs. Butterworth's syrup in Shanghai so we got some of that. We also bought bacon (kind of expensive here so this is the first time we've had it) and a grater so we would try to make hashbrowns. Maia is coming over and we are going to have wonderful food and then open our gifts for eachother and the ones from home.

So Merry Christmas to all our family and friends! We miss you all and wish we could be there but save all your joy and love so you can show it to us when we come home next July! (It'll be Christmas in July then! :))

Katie and Scott


ps - always check picasa for new pictures. we will put some up from our Christmas morning and our Christmas night party

Today...

...was a very odd day in terms of weather. It is pretty cold here all the time now but we never know how cold its going to be since we don't watch the Chinese news.

Today I opened a window and it was very cold outside. So were wore sweaters and heavy coats to our 8am class. That afternoon, when we went to class around 1:30pm, it was almost hot outside. It had warmed up considerably. Class lasted until about 5pm. When we came outside, it was so foggy you couldn't see the next building, but it wasn't that cold. Just odd to me...

Ok! So tonight, we leave for Beijing! I know I said I was going to post about the trip to Ningbo, but I didn't. I will try to make it a priority to post about Beijing, but I won't make any promises so I won't feel bad if I never do it.

We are taking an all-night train to Beijing. Its going to be about 10 hours. We leave tonight at 10:21pm and arrive at about 7am tomorrow morning. It should be a very new experience for us. I'll be sure to post pictures.

Speaking of posting pictures, we have a new website for pictures! There are 5 albums so far and its so much faster to load the pictures on there rather than here. Go take a look at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/riggs2820

The pictures there are of Ningbo, Nanjing, and a Halloween party we had.

We will update you more later!!

The Purple Mountain Excursion!

Monday October 1st - We climbed Purple Mountain (for the first time - I am guessing there will be more times).


We were invited by a student in my English Majors class. He told me that he and some of his friends were climbing Purple Mountain and wanted Scott and I to join. Purple Mountain is a large "hill" behind the school and many students have talked about climbing it all the time. We've been asked multiple times if we'd gone yet, so when Eddie asked I said sure.

During one of our weekend classes that we had to teach last weekend I mentioned to some of my PhD students that we were climbing Purple Mountain on Monday so they wondered if they could join. I figured why not and before I could get it out one of the guys said, "the more the merrier!" I also invited Maia, she teaches 1st graders so they didn't invite her to do anything. She needed student friends.

So, Scott, Maia and I showed up at 8am in front on teaching building 5 to meet what I thought would be us, 2 PhD students and Eddie and a couple friends. This is what showed up:

It came to over 20 people who began the trip from the school. I am pretty sure we picked up people on the hill too. Most of the time I had no idea who was in our group.

So we began the trek - and it was hard. You would think that since we are at a much lower elevation and its a small "mountain" it'd be no problem. Well, you would be wrong. There were stairs all the way up, straight up. No switchbacks or dirt paths here. Paved staircases all the way to the top with a few landings. When I was getting really worn out I would see a landing and think "Finally! We're so close!" only to get there and see more stairs. It was a hard trek. Most of the Chinese students seemed to have no problem, but they were sweet and waited for us. It got real bad at one point where I thought I was going to be sick, but it passed. After a couple hours of this uphill battle - we really did arrive at the top.

Look at those stairs!

There were many things to see at the top. First thing we did was climb a little bit higher (no stairs this top) to the actual tallest point. Up here many people were suprised to see foreigners so we got to talk to many new people. One couple encouraged their daughter to talk to us and took many pictures with us. Many other people wanted pictures and to say hi. As we were coming down Eddie said to me, "they all like you very much!"

Maia and I with Jack (see how sweaty he is? it was hot!), little Jenny (the girl whose parents continued to encourage her to speak to us), and another man

There was a park we paid to get into and have some lunch. There was a Large Buddha, one of the largest in the area (how they ever got it up there is a mystery to me). Also, a dragon statue climbing up the hill. There was a park for kids, lots of cabins, other statues and structures all over the place. Peacocks were kept in a large cage near the park where we ate lunch. We walked to a cave where a famous Chinese man named Liu Ji hid from his enemies who were trying to have him murdered and lived there for over a year during the Ming Dynasty.

We were really excited to see Buddha.

We hiked over to the Observatory, which is on another "peak" of the "mountain." I was ready to head down anytime, but there was so much the students wanted us to see. It was 45 yuan to get into the Observatory so we decided to save it for another time.

So we began to head down. Much to our surprise, there was a road on this side of the mountain. There was the Observatory and a very nice restuarant here so there were many cars. We started walking down the road and I thought, "well this will be a nice direct way down." I am always so wrong. Jack, good 'ol Jack, wanted to show us his shortcuts. The first was going down a very steep hill in a bamboo forested area. You had to grip the bamboo to keep from falling down the hill, so thats what we did. I really felt this in my arms the next morning.

After the bamboo, which really was a quick and not too terrible way down, I thought "well if all the shortcuts are like that we'll be down in no time." Once again, I am so far off. This time we took a short that was sometimes not as steep, but there were no bamboo trees. I fell twice (and Scott also fell twice) going down this steep, dirt trail. Part of the way down, after we had lost sight of the road long ago, we came to a little fork in the trails and Jack said,"I'm not sure which is the way." So we were lost.

Eventually we found the right trail and made it down safely and back to the streets. But, once we found ourselves down the hill, we found ourselves short of people. Eddie, the student who had invited us in the first place, was among the missing. They joined us about 10 minutes later, after some frantic phone calls and searching.

We had returned to civilization! The trip really was a great time, but it made us realize that we really need to get into shape before we attempt that again.

Next up will be stories from Ningbo! We spent a couple days there during this break. We're back to classes now and things are going well. :)

Wonderful Weekend

Hello Everyone!

Things are going well here. We are currently on holiday from school. It is the 58th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China so everyone has the week off! We did teach this weekend, but it was easy. We just showed a movie. Anyway - onto the stories~

On Friday the 28th we had an easy day, just one morning class. Friday began well. It was a cloudy day and the temperature was perfect! It was probably around 75 degrees or so and it was amazing. It has been so hot and humid here and that day was like being home. All of our students thought it was too cold and wore jackets to class. Scott and I were in short sleeves. It was great.

That night we went to an Orchestra Concert held by the school. It was very interesting because it was a show for the Freshman. The freshman had just finished their month-long compulsory military training and this was in celebration of that. All freshman at Universities in China are required to complete this military training. They would march around campus and stand at attention on the fields and such. It was very interesting to watch. Now, after the holiday, they will actually start classes. The concert itself was fantastic. Really wonderful music.

On Sunday we had to teach another class in the morning, but it went really well. Scott played a movie in his classroom and most of my class went there but 4 guys stayed in my class. We just sat around and talked for over an hour and a half (the duration of the class). It was so interesting to talk to these guys.

One man, english name is Jack, is in his 30s and has a 14 year old daughter and a two year old son. He is from Southern China and he said that in his area they don't have to abide by the family planning rules. There are also many Muslims in his area and if he had the opportunity to chose a religion he would follow Islam. He lives at the school and his wife is 29 hours away by train.

Another man is probably in his later 20s. He is Jack's roommate and his name is Carmen. He is also married and has only been so since August 16th of this year. His wife is in Hunan Province which is about 14 hours from here by train. The next time he will see her is January 1st when she comes to visit him for the winter holiday.

Another man is probably in his mid to late 40s. His english name is Thomas. He told us that he got married because his parents encouraged him to. When he was 30 his parents told him he was getting too old and needed to get married. He made it clear that it was his choice but he wanted to be obdient to his parents. His wife is also in his hometown but I am not sure how far away it is. He also has a son. He was one of three children and being the oldest he had to be married before the other two could be married, so that was another factor in his being married.

It was just incredible to listen to these guys talk about their lives and their ideas about the world and about China. As most of you know, I could spend the rest of my life being a social historian and just collecting people's stories about their lives. It was fascinating. Mostly they asked each other questions about their lives and wives and I was just an observer. I wasn't sure what questions would be considered rude so I mostly spoke about life in the US and other not so personal topics.

After classes we were invited to a reception held by the government of Jiangsu Province. It was a really nice luncheon at a hotel. The governor of Jiangsu Province was there (like the governor of Colorado) and the Mayor of Nanjing amongst other important people. This is a picture of the stage:

It was an interesting place. The food was very good and some of the entertainment was good as well, and some was, interesting. If I had not been wearing jeans I would have tried to go up and intorduce myself to the Mayor of Nanjing. I have never been to any dinner or anything with the governor of Colorado or the Mayor of Denver, but I come to China and they invite me over in my first month here! It was really a reception to celebrate the holiday but also welcome and thank all the foreign teachers in the province. I saw a few people I knew and made some new friends!

I could continue to ramble but I'll halt for now. Monday we climbed Purple Mountain and that is a long story all in itself. I will save that for another post, and when I can get pictures from it!

:)

Beginning Classes

Hello everyone!

So we've been pretty busy here trying to prepare ourselves for classes. We taught our first classes last Monday and Tuesday and it was a very eye-opening experience. I never knew how much work needed to be done beforehand to have a lesson ready. We thought it would be mostly an introduction day, with us talking about ourselves and the students talking about themselves. Instead, we found ourselves looking at each other a lot, not really knowing what to do next. You have to find a lot of things to do to fill an hour and a half! The students didn't speak up much unelss you specifically called on them. I found I still talk too fast. I feel pretty bad about that one - I talk too fast that even people who speak English as their native language can't understand me (sorry mom!), so I really need to slow it down here.

After the classes made us realize what needed to be done we've just been working on our lessons for this week. Starting this Monday we'll be teaching all the classes (this last week it was only the two). There are 16 classes total, all for an hour and a half each. With the exception of the 3 PhD classes, we only see the students once a week. We're planning on using the same lesson for each class since they are all at about the same level. I think there will be little modifications to fit each class, but thats really to be expected.

Something interesting happened this week - I was offered another job! Two days a week I will be teaching english at an elementary school to 7 year old students. I got all the materials yesterday and have been reading over those because they want me to start on Monday! The book is very progressive, talking about all these different theories of intelligence and how best to help children learn, and I think it might be a little difficult. I guess we'll see how it goes!

While Scott and I were looking at the elementary school so I would know where it was for Monday, we were offered another job! A friend of Echo (the woman from the Department of Education who brought us to China and has been so wonderful since we arrived!) has a group of 8 students who would like private tutoring. They want Scott and I to each take four of the kids for an hour and teach them english! We're still thinking about that one but it sounds like another interesting experience and a little extra travel money!

The people here are really excited to learn english. We saw an ad on a bus today that said "English will change your child's future." When I asked some of the students in my English major class why they wanted to learn some said "to get a good job after college" and another "because my parents told me to." Its very interesting to see how people believe that learning this language will change their lives and really help them.

Well I should get going - we're going to the local street market tonight to look for a walkman. My elementary books came with a tape and I think I need to listen to it first before I try to play it in class on Monday. We might also find some dinner there, although we don't always know what kind of food we're looking at.

Hope you all are well!

Katie

Picture time!

Hello! If you're reading this after getting the e-mail, yay! I finally found a place I can update to with pictures and everything!



So let's begin with pictures:


If you see the picture from the previous post, Scott is holding this pig in the store before we bought it. After we got it home he was not so nice to it anymore. Here you see the pig pillow suspended from the drying rack on the ceiling of the living room. That door you see is to the kitchen. Not too long after this he stuck the pig pillow on top of the air conditioner in our bedroom. He thinks he's funny.



Last Saturday Scott and I went with my friend Maia and Echo (the woman from the Dept. of Education that basically got us here) all travelled to Zhenjiang. Its a town of about 2 million a half hour from here by express train. We went and met the other foreign teachers living there and teaching at the University. We went out and had dinner too. They are all wonderfully nice and funny people. We're hoping next time they can all come to Nanjing for some dinner. We've made plans to head to Zhenjiang again for a thanksgiving potluck (who knows what we'll be eating).


This is the group in Zhenjiang. In the back row we have (from left to right): Echo (she's standing on a chair and she's still not taller than some of the guys), Kellen (from OR), Nathan (from CO), George (from IN), and Matt from Australia. In the front we have Justin (from AK), Liz (from OR), Maia, me and Scott.


This was the sign for our train home. It says train D446 is coming at 8:29pm and its taking us from Zhenjiang and Nanjing. (In the middle line of red characters, the two on the left are the symbols for Nanjing).




We haven't begun teaching yet but I start on Monday. I have one class of English majors at 8am on Monday and the other at 8am on Tuesday. The rest of the classes don't start until the following week because those are classes for post-graduates and PhD candidates and they start later.

Our Anniversary was the second of September so we went out to celebrate. We went to the Confucian Temple here in Nanjing. It has turned into more of a shopping center, entertainment place but it was still really neat.

This is the river at night. You can take little gondola rides down the river. We chose to save that experience for a later date.




We did go on a tour of the Confucain Temple, though most of the signs were in Chinese so we didn't always know what we were looking at. This pagoda was in a garden and arts center at the end of the Temple. It was a really beautiful and serene place. They had traditional music playing. It was really lovely.


Here we are on our first anniversary. We got a little dressed up to go out. We did end up having dinner at McDonald's. It was great.


So classes don't start for a few more days. We going to go to those first classes together, just as a little introduction. I think we're both nervous to really begin so if these go well it'll give us more confidence to really begin the week of the 17th.

Hope you all are well!

Nanjing

Here we are living in Nanjing, China.

So far its great. I just miss the food at home. I want some Southwest Eggrolls. It makes me want them more to write about it.

Here is a picture from here:

This is Scott at Carrefour. Its supposed to be the French version of Walmart but really its just another store with lots of things with tags not printed in english so I have no idea what it is. Sometimes its obvious, sometimes its not. Usually with food, I have no idea what I'm buying.

He's holding my pig pillow.

I hope this posting works. Thus far most blogging websites like this have been blocked. I think I might be able to update this one (as I'm doing now) but not actually be able to see the finished webpage. Don't judge it if it looks silly. I have no idea what it looks like.

More Photos Time!!

This is the main entrance to Nanjing Forestry University. Its where we are living and teaching. We usually use the back entrance near our apartment. Most employees of the school live on campus as do most of the students.

This is the outside of our apartment building. It looks rather run down on the outside but its really a nice place. We enter through that big, green metal door and we're the apartment on the second floor on the left. Those are the windows to our kitchen and bathroom there on the second floor.

I'll include more pictures in the next post.

Right now we're still settling in. I start teaching on Monday with one 8am class and then another 8am class on Tuesday. Thats it for that week. The week of the 17th all our classes begin and both Scott and I will be teaching 8 classes a week (16 classes total at one hour and a half each). I'll let you know how those classes go.

Right now its getting rather late. I wanted to get to bed a little earlier so I can start getting up early to get ready for Monday. When we first arrived here we naturally woke up at 5 or 6 in the morning but now, without jetlag or a real job yet, we've settled into sleeping until 9 or so.

Good night and hopefully there will be more posts on this blog in the coming days!!