Sorry for the delay

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay in posts but as of 12 days ago, the country where I currently reside has censored Google Blogger. Two months ago said country shut down Youtube which limited some of the fun things I can add to the posts...and now this.

It is very frustrating not being able to access your own blog. I am currently using a proxy server to submit this post but do not have the option to post any pictures or media. My brother is going to make some posts on my behalf so I can include some pics.

I'm hoping this is a short term measure in response to a certain book being published so close to the 20th anniversary of a certain event. If you don't know what I'm talking about, thats OK, you probably don't follow the politics of the country I am living in :)

Anyhow...we'll see how this "text only" post looks...

Chinese lessons Pt. 2

Well, I continue to plug away at daily Chinese lessons as a student of Shi You University. I have moved up to the next higher class or B ban but not so much because of my great Chinese ability but because half of the class are not such good students. That's a polite way of putting it.

I vacillate between being distressed that I am never going to learn this language and I'm just wasting my time and the sheer joy of realizing, "Wait, I just understood what that person said." My teachers are very encouraging although one insists on calling me, "Mr. Steve" because she says I am as old as her father. "Gee thanks! Makes my day...really!!"



I've gotten to know the local Catholic priest who is in the same class as I. He's Korean and ministers to the foreign Korean population in the city. I've also gotten to know a group of Pakistani students who are rather...mmm..."colorful" in their speech. They are pretty funny guys and genuinely looking for friends. I recently took them to lunch at a local restaurant which served a decent curry. They responded by inviting me to the Muslim cafeteria on campus for lunch.



Well...I keep plugging away at Chinese. I'm a fairly intelligent guy but languages just do not come easily too me. I find though its like working out or running...if you just "push through" at that moment you want to give up, you reach a new level.

Problem is, I have a LOT more "pushing through" to do... :)

Don't I Have Something To Say?

Steve has been after me to contribute to our 'family journal'. I managed to get things started back in Boulder, with the help of Kelly Nelson, to show family and friends where we would be moving to - but I have not done an entry since we arrived here in China.

Maybe I'm overwhelmed? Maybe I have stage-fright? Maybe Steve seems to be handling things just fine?

Let's see... I've gone from just hanging around and settling in the 1st month we were here, to the fall semester being asked to co-teach Kindergarten & 1st Grade along with 4 secondary art classes a week plus evenings with the boarding students, to my current schedule since Jan., 2 art classes a week and evenings at home with the boarding students.

Since Steve has started his classes, I've been given another chunk of time all to myself. From 8 am-12 pm, I have the house to myself. What to do... As any lady of leisure could tell you, 'there just aren't enough hours in the day.'

Seriously, I have begun to devote myself to the study of the word and to prayer. Sounds like a simple objective, but I tell you there are so many distractions trying, waiting, in line to fill up my time in the morning. I've had to learn to put off making my SKYPE calls, to ignore an untidy room (or 2), and to just be honest with God about where my mental state of mind is - and He takes it from there.

Now, my quiet times are usually not very quiet. I've found a poorly edited worship time from a 2007 conference that took place in Hong Kong and dance around my tiny apartment like nobody's business! (There is construction going on in the apartment next door and I've caused them to go silent many a time, probably trying to figure out what the foreigner is up to now.) God puts things on my heart to declare aloud and prayers that bring heaven to earth for me.

I've been listening to the most freeing podcasts on God's grace. (If you're interested, I can give you the sites to find them.) My mind has been a playground for the enemy for far too long.

Yikes, I'm getting a bit too heavy for our family blog. I'm going to back off from there, and tell you 'I'm having a good time'!

We enjoy the staff we're working with here and the people we've met at the International Fellowship - but we sure do miss all of you back home. The countdown to summer has begun... 9 weeks til school's out!!! See you soon. ~Tammy

Book Week & Golf

This week at Yew Chung International School has been Book Week. It is a whole week focused on literacy and week is capped off with all the students dressing up as a literary figure. Gabriel, of course, wanted to be someone from The Lord of the Rings so Tammy worked with a local tailor in town here to put together an appropriate "hobbit" like guise. Complete with "ring" necklace and hairy feet, Gabriel spent the day as Frodo Baggins. He then went on to win various contests including trivia questions on Star Wars. :)



After the school day, a number of teachers got together to take advantage of an offer to go and hit some golf balls and have a lesson at a local 9 hole golf course. It was a fun opportunity for all of us and they even had some left handed golf clubs for Tammy. After an hour of hitting golf balls we headed into the club lounge to have a beer. We ordered 4 beers and the waitress informed us they only had one beer. This was strange as we were looking at the fairly diverse beverage list. We said if they only had one beer (not one type, but literally 1 bottle of beer) left, then maybe we could get some coke or soda. She said they were out and had only water.


















You have to live in China to appreciate the moment. No apology, no explanation. Just matter of fact, "Do you want the one beer or water?" Well, we took the one beer, split it among 4 glasses and had a good laugh.


Hey, the golf was good!

"The Embassy" otherwise known as Starbucks

There was a time when I used to avoid Starbucks. Partly because I didn't like the coffee, partly to avoid the bandwagon everyone was jumping on, but mostly I was fundementally opposed to an organization that seemed to have three franchises in site from any rooftop.

Over the last couple years as I regularly met at Starbucks in Boulder with friends for prayer and worked at a business that had its own Starbuck, my stance softened until I too capitulated to the love the rest of humanity seems to have for Starbucks.



Living in Huangdao China, my love for Starbucks has grown even stronger. In previous posts we explained how Huangdao is an "up and coming" development area across the bay from Qingdao proper. Its beautiful here but there is a sense of being "cut off" from some of the amenteties of the city across the bay.



Fortunantly there is a "Starbucks" here or as westerners refer to it, "The Embassy".

Starbucks is the one place where you can almost feel like you are back in the West.
The artwork, decor, and product is all exactly like we would have in the States.



Huge comfy chairs, relaxing music, and overpriced java create a "we're home" feel. Now, don't get me wrong, we love living in China, but sometimes...you just need to take a break and Starbucks offers a relaxing calm from the cultural storm that swirls around it. Recently a local man came in talking loudly on his cell. He sat near us and talked at a decibal that seemed to have the cups rattling. Tammy leaned over and got his attention and then motioned for him to "zip it". I was surprised by her boldness and that the guy really did quickly get off the phone. Tammy simply said, "He can talk as loud as he wants anywhere else, but he can't disturb the peace of The Embassy."



Huangdao does not have a huge foreign population so you end up seeing everyone in there at some point. I like nothing more than getting a large mug of black coffee and curling up with my video ipod to watch a downloaded episode of Meet the Press or This Week with George Stephanopoulos

Of course, they play Christmas music in March which is a little weird. And I can almost imagine the conversation that goes on behind that decision, "The White people like Christmas...give 'em Christmas."

Anyhow, Starbucks has become our place to chill and where everyone does seem to know your name.

Chinese Lessons

I'm a college student again and its keeping me pretty busy.

Both Tammy and I want have been wanting to learn Chinese and Gabriel is learning it everyday as a part of his curriculum. Well, one of the teachers who I work with here has a daughter that enrolled at the local university to study Chinese and mentioned that I may be interested in it.

Now studying Chinese as a college student is a lot more intensive than hiring a tutor or attending a Chinese lesson a couple times a week. As a student now of China Shiyou University I attend class Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM - 12:00 noon. The classes include not only spoken Mandarin (Putonghua) but reading and writing as well.



The university has over 20,000 students and the campus is not unlike what you would see back in the USA. On the first day after class I wandered around to get my bearings and discovered a bank, post office, cafeterias, barbershops and salons,as well as all types of shops and stores. The students who live on campus would never need to leave if they didn't want to.

I'm in the beginning "A ban" class and students proceed up through B ban, C ban etc. as they progress in their proficiency.

I may be in A ban a while...

...Academic studies have always come fairly easy to me but not so with Chinese. The teacher will often say to me, "Mingbai ma?" (Do you understand?) and I reply, "Wo mingbai." (I understand) but when I am asked to speak, my mind freezes up as it tries to translate concepts to Chinese from the English going on inside my head. What adds to the frustration is the teachers are teaching Chinese, in Chinese. That can expedite the immersion experience but can be very frustrating when trying to ask a question.

My class is pretty diverse too. There is one other American, three Koreans, a couple guys from Nepal, a guy from Somalia, and another from Kenya as well as a few guys from Pakistan and Kazakhstan. The guys from Kazakhstan are pretty funny. They are nice kids and always come up to shake my hand but studying Chinese is not their priority. They arrive late, leave early...and are not always entirely sober :)



They remind me of students I had in my class when I took a similar program in Beijing in 1991. The children of the Venezuelan ambassador were in my class and I would on occasion go out with them in the evenings. They were nice guys but were in a whole different league of "party" than I so I would insist on being dropped off back at the dormitory around 9 or 10 in the evening. They would then go out all night and sometimes arrive the next morning not even having gone to bed yet. As they slipped into classroom slightly glassy-eyed, I would nod at them and they would smile back and whisper that I missed a good time. Being a Christian and attempting to honor God I'm pretty convinced I hadn't missed a good time, but I would smile and nod nevertheless :)



Anyhow, I am really blessed to have this opportunity. This term I am doing a lot less teaching and that allows me to be able to go to classes in the morning. Undoubtedly I will be teaching much more in the fall and will not be able to continue but I'm hoping to lay a foundation in the language that I can build on in the future.

Weekend Away!

One of the yearly events the expatriate community living in Qingdao look forward to is the annual Pantomime or "Panto". It is a traditional British stage play with an emphasis on farce, song, dance, audience participation...and cross dressing???

In a city where one is hard pressed to find English language culture, a local play like this takes on far bigger appreciation. Being on the "other side" of the bay most of teachers at our school rode over on the school bus together and spent the night in a hotel in Qingdao.




The panto itself was a much larger production that I anticipated with elaborately designed sets and costumes. The acting was a little hit or miss but most of the performers were surprisingly good. My main complaint was that the show was performed in the auditorium of a large Chinese Middle School which lacked heat. At the end of three hours I was literally freezing. Thankfully the shows refreshments served hot "mulled" wine to keep the blood circulating.



After that we had a pizza night with some of the other families and then, when our wives were distracted with chit chat, the husbands snuck off to the DVD store around the corner. Seems I am not the only husband who gets in trouble for buying DVDs by the armful from the store. I scored on this visit walking out with the complete collection of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles .



Another reason we like to occasionally spend the night in Qingdao is to be able to arrive to church early on Sunday morning. (Which was kind of important since we had volunteered to be "greeters".) This week was our first week in our new location at the Intercontinental Hotel. The hotel is 5-star and really rolled out the red carpet for us. They even offered a highly discounted special lunch in their restaurant after the service. Even with the discount though it was pretty expensive, BUT, it sure tasted Gooooood!! :)



Anyhow, it was a fun weekend...too bad its Monday again!