Spring Festival

Hello everyone, sorry it has been so long since we last updated. This last month and a half have been such a blessing. We were able to visit so many places in China and talk to so many of our students during our travels. In visiting our students, we were able to see a whole different side of China. We learned about how such large cities like Shanghai and Qingdao were formed by European culture to how difficult it is for farmers to survive in China. Throughout all of the traveling, we were able to visit 7 students and made contact with 10 other people who could speak at least a little bit of English so we obtained their email address and phone number so we can "talk" to them later. So without further ado, here is our trip.

We left by train for Beijing on the 10^th of January and flew out of Beijing to Qingdao on the 11^th. Now normally it is cheaper to take the train than fly but a student helped us search the internet for the best flight prices and all of our flights (besides one) beat the price of the train, we even got a flight for 99 Yuan ($13). When we arrived in Qingdao, we met a student named Stone who graduated last year from our school. We had many great talks with him and he showed us around the beautiful city of Qingdao. The city was developed by Germans through a forced lease (much like Britain developing Hong Kong). This city had some amazing architecture that was still in use all over the city. It was bitterly cold in Qingdao however because it is still in Northern China and it is right on the ocean. It snowed off and on for the first two days we were there. Here is an excerpt from Mark’s journal on their first night in Qingdao:

“When our flight arrived at the airport in Qingdao it was –9° Celsius. Stone met us at the airport and we rode the bus from the airport to downtown, which took longer than our flight. As we quickly walked the pier it began to snow slightly. While it was extremely cold on the pier the snow made for some amazing scenery. …[T]o explain how cold our room was when we came into our hotel room, we could see our breath inside. The heater was broken but instead of a new room they decided to bring in a portable heater that heated an area of about 3 feet around it. [The next day] The wind chill factor was around -25° C (for all of you Fahrenheit people -13° F).”

Even though it sounds terrible we still had an amazing time with Stone visiting Qingdao but the stay was short and we left on the 13^th.

Arriving in Shanghai on the night of the 13^th made for a lot of fun because it took a while for our taxi driver to find our hostel. Finally we checked into our hostel at 2am and after our shower were able to go to sleep at 3:30am. Needless to say, we slept in a little bit the next morning. Later we met up with Echo a student and someone we would consider a part of our family. We scheduled a day that we could later meet up with her and her friends to go and see some parts of Shanghai. We also met a student named Max who showed us around Shanghai for a day with his friend. We went to the Shanghai museum where we saw artifacts that were dated back as far at 5000 years. Max also took us to the first meeting place of the Communist Party of China (Now turned into a museum). Shanghai was great to visit but Carrie and I were ready to get out of the big city and so we flew down to Xiamen on the 20^th were we spent one night at Xiamen University and the took a bus to Nanpu. Carrie’s student from last year meet us and took us around Xiamen in the morning and then headed to his home town in the evening.

Nanpu is a small village where Andy lives. It is a farming village in the middle of the mountains where Andy’s parents have a house. They currently don’t live in the house because they cannot make enough money farming so they have jobs in the city and come out to the house once a year for Spring Festival (The Chinese New Year). We spent our first week in Nanpu visiting all of Andy’s family and friends in his village and nearby town. We were able to meet many of his teachers from middle school all the way up to high school. It was easy to see what kind of influence they had on his life when he was younger. Spring Festival started on January 26^th with tons of fireworks and lots of worshiping god’s. They would sacrifice pig heads and all sorts of things. It was a definite culture difference and we learned a lot. Every night has some kind of significance to it and all of the villagers displayed some kind of sacrifice for their god. The Spring Festival is a time for all Chinese to be with their friends and family. Every day we would walk around the village and meet all of Andy’s family or old classmates. No matter whom we meet or where we went, each person was extremely welcoming and excited to see two foreigners. Everyone wanted to have us over for a big feast and shower us with love. When it came time to leave each person’s house it was as if we were a part of their family, they would follow us out of the house and down the street. These people have such amazing hearts and love for each other. They will do anything for each other without the expectations of getting anything in return.

Because of the lack of modern technology in Andy’s village we spent a lot of our time traveling to other villages and into the main county to use the internet and to have hot showers. Many of Andy’s old teachers took us in with welcoming arms and allowed us to stay with them, use their internet and of course watch the super bowl. Anytime we went to a house they would bring out a bowl of snacks (oranges or candy) and constantly offer us treats. Along with all of the treats we were constantly drinking tea. The tea making in the South of China is nothing like that in the north. There are specific ways to prepare and serve the tea. We both felt that we were constantly eating and drinking tea from sunrise to sunset.

During our stay with Andy we went on two smaller trips to other villages around the province. We traveled about 30 minutes into the county and then one hour to another county where we then hired motorbikes to drive us 20 minutes to Andy’s high school classmate’s house on the ocean. His friend’s father is a business man who buys sea food and then sells it to other countries, or local grocery stores. We spent one day with them walking on the beach and playing mahjong. Our second trip was just the two us to another student’s house, Luke, about 2 hours from Andy’s house.

Luke’s village was similar to Andy’s in regards to technology or modern accommodations yet different in other ways. His village was made up of cement house lining the outside of the village and then closely and compactly built towards the center. There were narrow passage ways weaving through all the houses with small doorways entering each house. On the out skirts of the village were small farms. Luke’s mother and father have both passed away and he now lives with one of his four brothers. One of his brothers took us to a local sightseeing location which they called, “The Hill.” On our way to The Hill the two of us rode on a motorbike with Luke’s brother and then Luke and three other people were on another bike. It was very funny to see four people on one bike. Luke’s aunt is a tailor and she insisted on making Carrie a dress. Since we were only there for two days we were not able to see it and are waiting for Luke to arrive back at school in order to see it.

We ended up leaving on the Feb 4^th in the evening and took an overnight bus to Guangzhou where we then flew to Sanya. We arrived in Sanya on the 5^th and were welcomed with 85° F. Of course Mark spent most of his time playing beach volleyball and Carrie spent her time in the sun. For the first few days it was just the two of us, relaxing and just enjoying the sun. On the 9^th two other teachers through our organization meet up with us, Candice and Celeste. It was nice for Carrie to have someone to hang out with while Mark played his volleyball. We meet some other Americans who were on vacation, two people from Belgium, and many other foreigners. We ended up flying out of Sanya on the 14^th and went to Tianjin. From there we got a train to Qinhuangdao. It was the coldest 6 hour train ride ever. We arrived back at our apartment on the 15^th at 6am and spent most of the day sleeping.

Since we have been back our computer died and we were able to get it fixed, spent time preparing for classes which we have not yet been told which ones we are teaching. Slowly the other teachers have been getting back so we were able to have our first Sunday morning meet this last Sunday. Now we are just waiting for our classes to start on March 2^nd.

One of our biggest news updates and P requests is that one of teachers, Sarah, who has epilepsy, was sent to the hospital during her spring holiday travels. Doctors here did not know what to do so they filled her with pain medication while two other teachers who she was traveling with took care of her. She stayed in the hospital until her seizures slowed down long enough to send her back to the states. She will not be returning to China this next semester. If we could all join together and lift her up that would be great. She is now at Stanford for testing.

Hello Friends and Family,

Our travels are going great. So far we have made it to: Beijing, Qingdao, ShangHai, Xiamen, and Zhangpu (NanPu). We have done little touristy stuff and have focused the majority or our time on our students which has made or travels amazing. We have been able to see the real China and no that which created to impress foreigners. NanPu, which is where we are at now is a very small and remote village in the mountains. We are living with one of our students and had the chance to spend the Chinese New Year with him and his family. Which, if you don't know, is the largest and most important holiday of the year. We have spent a lot of time with the local school children here playing ping pong (table tennis), badminton, pool and basketball. Everyone is so amazed at our white skin and light colored hair. Our student and his family have also taught us how to play Majong. We are still learning but they all say that we are naturals. We have learned how to pump our own water out of the well for showers and drinking water. Carrie has learning how to make a few dishes. But the most amazing thing that we have learned is that a motorbike can hold four people. But that is four Chinese. We could only fit two Americans and one Chinese on our bike. Well, we hope you are all enjoying the cold weather of the winter and staying safe. We will try and post a picture slid show of some of our pictures but I am not sure if it will work. Once we get back to Qinhuangdao we will be able to share our photos with all of you. Miss you all a lot.

2008…has been an amazing and life changing year for Dong Da (our university). Every day we 

see the KING moving in the lives of our university students in our community. More than ever kids are starving to experience the KING'S love. Last semester our team built relationships with 400 kids and 165 of them heard good news.  We returned to China this past August not knowing what was in store for us, ELT Edge or the students here at Dong Da. Most of the Family was becoming seniors, which for those who do not know the school system in China, the second semester for seniors is spent off campus looking for a job. With that in mind, we knew that our family was moving on and that we needed to be looking and waiting for the opportunities to meet new people.

On December 20th we put on a Christmas Party for our campus and followed that up the next night by caroling around our campus.  We had 28 participants in the caroling and almost 100 students showed up to the Christmas party. Unfortunately we chose the coldest day of the year to date to stand outside caroling. When we arrived back home the temperature outside was -19 degrees Celsius (-1 F).  We were so proud of the students that came out to sing carols in the freezing cold.  At the Christmas Party we were able to teach some traditional carols and Mark read the Real Christmas story to the students. Christmas was great! We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day at a different school so that all of the teachers from ELT Edge could be together and celebrate.  We did some singing, read the Christmas story, watched some movies and played games all day.

After Christmas a few of the teachers here had their girlfriends and boyfriends come to visit. 

We became very busy trying to meet everyone and have group time with the teachers and the students before we all take off for two months for the winter holiday. Our anniversary was kind of spread out through three days. One day we went out to a nice western restaurant and the next day we went ice chairing together(ice chairing: think of a chair with runners and  you move with large ice picks in each hand that you dig into the ice to create momentum).  New Year's Eve we spend with one of our teachers who is at another School. Candice, a teachers at our school had a big New Year's party but earlier that day Sarah, who has epilepsy had a few seizures so we went and spent the evening with her just relaxing and watching TV.

Our winter holiday travels are expected to be long. We will be leaving Qinhuangdao on January 10^th for Beijing for one night and then we will be taking a plane to Qingdao. We have a friend from last semester there who we will get to spend a few days with. From there we will travel to

 Shanghai on the 13^th where we have three students that we know. We will spend about a week here where we will also go to Suzhou and Hangzhou just to visit. On the 20^th, if we are able to get a train ticket we will go south to Xiamen where Carrie’s student from last year will meet us. (For those of you who go to Fox Island “C” this is the same boy whose letter we read to you all.) He lives about two hour by bus from Xiamen and we will spend the Chinese New Year with him and his family. About 8 days or so. Then, one of Carrie’s friends, Veronica from WSU, is dating a boy who plays for the China Basketball Association (CBA) and is on a team in Guangdong. Veronica will be visiting her boyfriend and we intend to meet up with them. He has a game on the 2^nd and 4^th of February that we are going to try and attend. Then, we will travel further south to the Hainan Province and the city of Sanya, which is very similar to Hawaii. We are so excited to be in the warm weather. Also, the hostel that we will be staying at has ¥18 massages for an hour. That would equal about $2.70 an hour. After about a week or so in the sun we will head to Lijiang, Chengdu, Xian and then back to Beijing. We are planning to be back in Qinhuangdao around the 25^th of February, which will give us about a week to prepare for classes that start on the 2^nd of March.

                We will try to get on our blog and email from time to time to keep you all informed with how everything is going and where we are but we cannot guarantee anything. Most hostels though do have Internet. We are so excited about this trip and the ability to see more of this beautiful Country.

Again, we hope that you have all had an amazing holiday season. We love and miss all of you and America very much.