Olympics pictures

Okay, so I've finally gotten some pictures from the Olympics up! :) Aren't you proud?? Enjoy!

He is...Happiness

"He is....Happiness." This is how one of the Chinese teachers described him to me; and, it is a statement that although it may not be exactly grammatically correct, is the only way to describe him.

Psalm 127:3

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD

His name is Jasper. He is somewhere between his 3rd and 4th year of life. He gives the best hugs out of any of my Kindergarteners. When he is sad, you can see it in his whole body (even if his face desperately tries to be happy), and he gives even better hugs. And when he is happy, he is happy with all that he is. When he's excited, he is the most excited. Sometimes he just can't control his excitement, the will of every atom in his body to LIVE—and then he gets in trouble for not sitting nicely :( He is genuine. He tries so hard to be good. He repeats anything you tell him louder, and with a bigger smile. He yearns to be loved. His name is Jasper.

Recently, my P1 students have been learning the dialogue:
"I'm sorry!"
"That's okay!"

At John's suggestion, I had 3-4 students form a line. Starting with the first student in line, I shuffled him backwards until he lightly bumped the student behing him. At that point, he would turn around and say: "I'm sorry!" And the other student would reply: "that's okay!" We would continue down the line until each student had bumped the student behind them and put this dialogue to use.

We hadn't reviewed this dialogue for about a week (which was also about the length of time that Jasper had been missing from class) and so I had slightly forgotten about the activity. Then, one morning, as all of the students were lining up on their dots, and forming two lines, I was walking along the line and talking with the children. Jasper was stading on the dot next to me, and I saw him moving over toward me, then promptly turn, and every so carefully, stick out his bottom until it bumpped my knee. He then swung around and with his shoulders shrugged (like I had forgotten I taught them) his high pitched voice calls something to me. I look at him and smile, and then continue to talk to the other child (Jasper often says things that no one can understand—not even the Chinese teachers). But then, he did it again. I'm a bit confused, as I still can't figure out exactly what he is saying after he so carefully knocks me with his bottom. Well, the third time was the charm. Finaly, I caught the muffled words "I'm sorry!" thrust from his mouth. At this I heard a click in my head (gears turning) and I reponded, "that's okay!" Jasper, content to finaly have gotten what he came for, then moved on to the next student who he walked straight at, did an about face, carefully bumped with his bottom, did another about face, and called "I'm sorry!" the entire time, being completely overjoyed that he knew just what to say after purposely bumping into people with his bottom. :)

And that, is just one of many Jasper Stories.

New Friends

Not more than a block from our school/living quarters, is one of the coolest local streets in our Pudong, Shanghai area. Coming from an apartment area, and a school, that is sometimes a bit too full of westerners for living in China, this street is a breath of "fresh" air. It is lined with the types of little shops seen all over China. The ones that sell a conglomeration of different items ranging from household plumbing, to house slippers, to cell phone recharge cards, to pots and pans, to fake dvds. All of this is crowded into a space not much bigger than most people's front rooms, which is lined floor to ceiling with shelves. The pots sit next to the house slippers, the batteries site next to shower heads, and all of it looks as if, at the smallest movement, it would all some tumbling down creating a more jumbled mess than it already is. Intermingled with these catch-all shops are fruit and vegetables shops that lead back into wet markets selling grown goods along side unrefrigerated pigs legs, live fish, frogs, etc; hair salons, quicky marts (think 7-11), and small eateries.

At night this road becomes alive as meat-on-a-stick (the name says it all) sellers park their bikes along the side of the already narrow street, unfolding from the back a magically packed coal grill, complete with sticks, meat, and veggies for grilling. As the housing here generally has very small rooms, at night, after work, people migrate outdoors to relax, and hang out with friends. Fried noodle vendors and hot pot sellers park their wagons beside the meat-on-a-stick sellers, and before you know it, it's like a small street fair.

There are two small restaurants along this road that I particularly enjoy. One is the dumpling place (they sell dumplings), and the other is the Muslim Noodle place (they sell Muslim style noodle dishes). We name all the restaurants here by what kind of food they have, as we usually don't know their Chinese names.

The other day, two of the other Kindergarten teachers: Terry and Buffy, their friend who was visiting from Canada: Owen, and I, headed over to the Muslim Noodle place for lunch. It was a beautiful day, and eating at the Muslim Noodle place was a perfect chance to enjoy some cheap food (a full plate of noodles for about a dollar) and the great weather.

After snagging an available table outside, Buffy, Owen and I headed next next door to the convenience store to buy some drinks. When we came out, we found that Terry was now sitting at the table stationed beside ours (but belonging to the restaurant next door) with 3 other Chinese people. As we came over, one of the men motioned for us to pull up chairs, telling us (in Chinese) to join them, while at the same time waving down the waitress to order more food. When we protested saying that we had already ordered a full meal from the restaurant next door he waved off our words saying (again in Chinese) that it was okay, we could share, and that they had Hen hao chur --Very good food.

Buffy and Terry (whose Chinese is much better than mine) proceeded to have a good chat with the 3 Chinese people there. We found out who had kids, how old they were, where they lived, etc. These 3 strangers willingly shared all the food at their table with us, while talking cheerfully about the limited subjects we could. We talked about how China has so many beautiful places to see, and found out various places they had been traveling. Meanwhile, this whole episode also made me realize how dismal my Chinese was, and motivated me (again) to work harder at getting to a conversational level that was above "I am a teacher," "I'm from America," "It's nice to meet you."

Most of all, I was amazed at the kindness of strangers, and the willingness of these people to invite us into their lives, even if it was just for lunch. At one point in the conversation, more than halfway through the meal, Owen turned to me and said "Wait, so you guys don't know these people?" Nope, we didn't. And, not only did they share their food, and pay for the lunches we had already ordered from the other restaurant; but more so they shared a meal as if we were old friends. :)

The Bamboo Forrest: A C-land hiking extravaganza

As our bus wound it's way up the side of a mountain I was both surprised and excited. I was excited because: 1. we were seeing mountains covered in trees and bamboo!! (this is a far cry from the forever flat, cemented streets of Shanghai). 2. We were on our way to go hiking, which I dearly love and haven't gotten quiet enough of while living in a city of 18 million people. I was surprised because as our bus sped it's way up slope, I noticed that there were actually guard rails between the road and the sheer drop that didn't level out for many hundreds of feet.

After much climbing, our bus pulled it's way nearer to a parking lot. Judging by the number of other buses, and the sheer mass of people I should have known what lay ahead. However, for the time, my mind was aglitter with the prospect of hiking in an uphill direction.

Making our way through the parking lot, and up to the entrance our guide informed us that there were 3 levels on the way up at which you could cross over from the upward path, to the downward path. We were told, if we were "very strong" we could make it to the third level. We had 1.5 hours to make it to the top, and make it down (we were shooting for the 3rd level) so we headed up the path in earnest.

We quickly came upon a wall of people. Apparently all of China had come to this same hike on the same day. As we wound in and out, between, through, around, making our way up the man-made sometimes cement, sometimes rebar, path and stairs.

As we hiked up, dressed in running shoes, shorts, and a t-shirt-- and, became overall more sweaty than we were when we started, I was amazed to see Chinese women and men, dressed to the nines, and wearing dress shoes.. or even... high heels.

Chris caught these great shots of a couple anonymous woman hikers:


Hiking in China sure is different than hiking in the US.

In other news:
• We made it to the very top-3rd level- strong hiker- level in our allotted time.
• We were hiking in what was considered a "bamboo forrest," so it was no surprise when I came across a wonderland of bamboo sticks that had been chopped down. Well pole vaulter mode kicked in, and my excitement for using one of the original pole vault poles kicked in:

Ahhh gude times.