Wow…the last few weeks have been very busy.

The same old China: lack of communication between the University and the foreign teacher and interesting talks due to the language barrier, keep us on our toes at all times. We apologize for the delay since our last newsletter but along with the busy schedule we did not have internet for two weeks. The school was trying to get us on their internet service but it was not working with our new computers which had vista and there were many other problems like the fact that it would be 5 times more expensive and it would be a slower internet. Anyway, finally the school decided to go back to the old internet which we are very grateful for. (We are not sure but we think the purpose of the new internet was for the school to keep a better eye on what we were doing on the internet. Something to keep in your thoughts.)

For Carrie, she traveled to South Korea for five days to visit a friend from South Korea which she met in London when she was there four years ago. She was gone from the 19th till the 24th. South Korea is so beautiful and so westernized compared to China. There were coffee shops and small sandwich shops everywhere. Traffic was organized, people actually stopped at red lights and the stayed in between the lines of the road. Not a lot of honking and people where not crossing the street when or where ever they pleased but only at crosswalks when the lights signaled for them to cross. China or at least the area which we are located in is very flat and the air quality is bad. In South Korea, about 50% of it is mountains, so it reminded Carrie a lot of back home. Trees and grass were everywhere, and above all, the air was so clean and clear. It was also extremely nice, yet sad at the same time, because South Korea, unlike China, also celebrates Christmas as a national holiday so the entire city was decorated. While Carrie was in South Korea she spent two days at the most southern tip in a town called Busan, which is a big tourist area, beautiful sandy beached and great views of the water.

Mark stayed behind and spent the weekend in Beijing with Bobby and Evie. He was able to enjoy western food so he had a great time. Another highlight was that they were able to get into the Beijing Opera. Some business had rented out the entire theatre for an anniversary party so when Mark showed up to get tickets they thought that the three of them were with the company and let them in for free. The great part was that they were given VIP passes and ended up sitting in the very front, at a table on the floor with all sorts of goodies. However, in Beijing Mark got a cold which he is still trying to get over and has passed it on to Carrie.

All fifteen of the foreign teachers as well as a few other foreigners which we have meet around town and some Chinese friends all came together the Sunday after Thanksgiving to celebrate Thanksgiving. We had a total of 35 people crammed together in the hallway of one of the dorm building. A dozen or so tables stretched down the middle of the hallway as we all circled around and passed the different potluck style dishes around. All of the teachers and their families sent them different ingredients so that we were able to have a normal Thanksgiving menu plus some Chinese dishes. The only thing that we were not able to have was a turkey. So we had chicken and duck instead.

We had our first snowfall on December 10th. It was very nice to see the ground all white outside. Unfortunately, Mark cannot enjoy it because he was sick and has been now for two weeks. Carrie taught his class for him which he appreciated very much (the class appreciated it too because they were able to watch a movie in class).

Christmas is coming soon and all of the teachers are getting ready to celebrate together. We hope that all of your plans are going well as you get ready to celebrate the Christmas and the New Year. We are going to be finished with classes in 2 weeks and then we will have 2 months off for winter vacation. Some of you might think “Wow I would love 2 months off for Christmas or winter holiday” but this time is actually very difficult because we live in a city where there is not much to do and almost all of the students will go home for the break. So that leaves us with deciding whether we will travel or be very bored in Qinhuangdao for a little over two months. We did decide to travel over the break but we don’t know exactly where we are going other than a city near Hong Kong where we want to visit one or our students. Other than that, we will probably spend about a month traveling and staying at hostels (about $8 a night or less) and then come back to Qinhuangdao to rest for the remainder of our break. We have been saving part of our paycheck every month so that we can travel and are very excited to see different parts of China. If anyone has any suggestion on where to travel please let us know. You can either respond to this blog or you can sent us an email at carrie_roddy@yahoo.com.

October Events

Wow...Everything went amazingly. So, the last two weeks have been really crazy. Now that we have "Grease" rehearsals every Saturday for four hours and then also having a two hour class we really do not have any down time to relax. Starting this Saturday we are getting into the three Western beliefs. Through multiple conversations with students they are really enjoying our Saturday classes and each week, more and more students are coming. It's a blessing. Last class taught on "American Elections" (by: Mark) had over 100 students! This is amazing especially considering this is an optional class and some students will skip there classes at that time to come to our class. oops!
The Halloween party went great. We had some where from 350 to 400 students at some point and even though not all dressed up in costume they did get excited about the dancing, which is not typical. We had invited the break dance team and they came and put on a performance. We had the local bakery put together some Halloween looking cookies together for us and handed out lots of candy. We taught those typical dances like the: YMCA, Macarena, and the chicken dance (Yes that dance you do at the ball- park). All of the students really enjoyed the bobbing for apples. They were putting their full heads in the buckets, pushing each other out of the way and the crowd loved every bit of it.

The next night we had our Open Mic Night which was also a success. We went to a local coffee shop and all teachers from ELT Edge invited students and ended up with about 40 people total. At one time, the coffee shop was so crowded that you could not walk or move around. A lot of student got up and read a poem or sang a song. It was great!

Mark had been playing basketball every week with the English Department teachers and some other teachers from the university. It has been a great time for him to get to know the teachers better. We hope that maybe this relationship will help him with our "job" over here. Also Mark loves to play basketball, so it is a win-win situation.

This week, Dane Lewis, one of the board members with ELT Edge came to China to catch up with us all and work with us and the schools. He will actually be at our school over the weekend and we will have lots of time to talk with him and be encouraged with a new and excited face. We are all very excited to see him. This week, one of the Chinese teachers had to leave and go back to his home town for his grandmother has passed away. A few of us are picking up some of his classes. He is a great teacher and friend of ours. Please join us in keeping him, as well as his family in your thought.

All of the foreign tearchers are beginning to prepare for our Thanksgiving meal (It takes almost a month to prepare since it is so difficult to find some of the foods in China). We are all very excited about this and can't wait for the taste of 'home' on Thanksgiving Day. Since we don't get that day off of school we will acctually celebrate it on the Sunday after.

October Craziness

This Month has been the month of birthdays in China. We have been going to student's birthday party every week. A few of our close students all had a birthday within one week we had a big birthday party for all of them. Amy and Carrie made an American style cake, we all went out to BBQ and then came back to our apartment for a little dance party. The boys were not in the mood to dance so they sat in the other room and talked. It was a lot of fun.

There are so many new things going on. As of October 13, Mark started his freshman classes. So, that means he has twice the amount of classes then he did before. It also means than on even weeks he has 18 hours of class time plus two hours on Monday nights for a movie and then 14 hours of class time plus two hours for a movie on the odd weeks. Carrie was told Monday that she has a new class as well. She may also take some of Mark's classes because she is still only teaching 8 hours a week. This week Carrie is working with her Cooperator who teaches the same students and is putting on a debate, "Is the prospect of growing old a bleak one?" They will have the debate in each of her classes. We are hoping that this will initiate some good conversation.

We started a Saturday class two weeks ago and have had an amazing turnout. Both weeks we have had about 90 students show up and have had great conversations. The first week Mark lead and talked about business and how to get a job. The last weekend Alex discussed sociology. In this lecture they seemed really excited about the discussion of Karl Marx because they study his work in many of their Chinese classes. So for them to hear a foreigner’s point of view on him and his views intrigued them. Next week Amy and Alex will be talking about poetry and have a small workshop for the students. This topic was chosen because the following weekend, November 1st, we are putting on an Open Mic Night. So we wanted to encourage the students to participate.

The day before the Open Mic Night is Halloween, and we will be having a costume party in one of the big auditoriums here on campus. We are working with the local bakery to make some Halloween styled cup cakes and cookies. Mark is working on the music, so if any one has any suggestions I am sure he will appreciate them.

Last Saturday, October 18th, we had auditions for "Grease." Candice is a theater major and really wanted to use some of her degree while here in China. So, we came together and decided on having a Chinese version of the musical "Grease." We had 6 boys and 25 girls come and try out. The turn out as not as big as we were hoping but just enough for all of the parts as well as technical help like: sound, costumes, stage crew, etc. So, Candice and I spent about 6 - 8 hours going over the audition forms and deciding on who gets what role. We have made our decision and will have our first read through this Saturday. Let’s hope it all goes well. We are not planning on performing "Grease" until the end of the school year, maybe in May. So, well will have a lot of time to work with each student and their English, let’s hope for patience.

Carrie is hoping to travel to South Korea next month to visit her friend Shim Ji Yeon who she meet while she was in London. Last semester they tried to meet up but it never seemed to come together. So, Carrie is hoping to fly to S. Korea on November 19th and then return on the 24th.

So far the weather here has been really nice. Lately, it has been a little chilly in the morning and at night but in the 70's during the afternoon. Today was the first day of rain and hasn't really warmed up at all. All the trees are starting to change colors, but is nothing like Gig Harbor.

Week Five in China

Starting on September twenty-seventh we had a weeklong vacation which started with a sports meet here at our university which all foreign teachers participated in. Mark took second in the Basketball shooting contest and the high-jump. Carrie took part in the 100m, 4 x 100m relay and the long-jump. She placed first in all three. After the sports meet everyone separated on their own adventures. We were planning on traveling south along the east coast to a beautiful city called Qingdao to visit an old student who graduated from our university last year. But with all of China going on Holiday we were not able to get a seat ticket and were unwilling to stand on a train for twelve hours. So, we ended up staying and doing some site-seeing here in our town.

On Tuesday, September 30th, we went to the local zoo and were able to get within feet of many dangerous and not so dangerous animals. It was very exciting. On Wednesday, October 1st a few of us foreign teachers and one of Carrie's old students went to People's Park. People's Park has a bunch of theme park rides and food, as well as open grass fields and beautiful ponds. We spent most of our time playing frisbee and teaching the chinese who passed by how to throw a frisbee. Other than that we spent most of our time lesson planning and visiting with students.

We started classes the week of the eighth and have been busy ever since. Like we said in the last newsletter Mark is teaching six hours right now until the freshmen start and then he will be teaching twelve hours or eighteen hours a week depending whether it is an odd or even week. Carrie has only six hours the whole semester. But, on top of classes our group here at this university has decided to do a weekly English corner on Thursday for two hours for those students who may not have a foreign teacher but would like to practice their English. We have enlisted some students who are a part of the family to come and help us build relationship as well as to give them the opportunity to help speak and translate English.

We have also made a list of bigger events that we will put on each month. In September we will not be doing anything, but in October we will have a Halloween party at our university for all the students. Last year it was really successful. November first we will have an open mic night at a local coffee shop for all three of the universities which ELT Edge is located at. Then in December, we will have a Christmas party. Somewhere in these months we will also have a spelling bee. Last year we had the first spelling be here at our school which went very well. Now that the students have a better idea of what to expect we are thinking it will be that much better this year.