Meiyou

In Chinese, meiyou(pronounced mayo) means don’t have. First meiyou of the day: Meiyou Internet. That’s right we didn’t have internet. We didn’t know what was wrong, but we knew that we didn’t owe any money and some friends in our building also didn’t have internet. So we went to Starbucks.

I wanted to get a Coconut Mocha Frappuccino, which is one of the special drinks right now, but meiyou coconut (the second meiyou of the day), so I just got a Mocha Frappuccino. After getting our drinks, we sat down to get some work done. When you connect to the internet in Starbucks in China, you get a page that asks you for your phone number, and then you get a text message with the wifi passcode. Well, I tried the process several time because sometimes it takes several times for the code to work. However, I kept getting this pop-up box that said something in Chinese. After trying this at least half a dozen time, I realized that I could view the page in English. This is when I learnt that the internet was not working at Starbucks. This was the third meiyou of the day.

So we decided to leave Starbucks a little early, and go to the Thai Restaurant for dinner. I lead everyone astray by taking them out of the wrong exit, but we explored a little bit, and we got to see Eric Liddell’s house. Finally after retracing out steps, we found the Thai Restaurant, but it did not open until 5:30, and it was only 5 o’clock.  (This isn’t really a meiyou, but I’ll call it meiyou 3.5).

Because we had a half an hour to kill, we decided to walk around the area, which is very beautiful. After some exploring, we went back to the Thai restaurant and enjoyed delicious Thai food.

However, our whole purpose for this trip was to get internet, and we still have not succeeded in this endeavor. So we took a taxi back to our apartment complex and decided to go to a coffee shop in our complex. Our intention was just to sit in the coffee shop, and use their free internet, but (fourth meiyou of the day) meiyou free wifi. We had to buy something. So we thought about getting scones, which are only 7kuai (a little over a $1), but they told us that we each had to get a drink, which are 25-30 kuai ($4-5).  We decided to bite the bullet and buy drinks.

After blissfully enjoying the loveliness that the internet has to offer, we decided to head home. However, when we got back to our building, the doors to our building we locked. They are never locked, and we don’t have a keycode to the building (fifth and final meiyou of the day). Thankfully, a Korean family, who seemed just as surprised as we were to see that the door was locked, was coming out as we were hoping to go in, so they opened the door for us. 

Thus ended my meiyou day. However, yesterday was a wonderful day of bonding and adventure, which makes all the meiyous worth it.

Today Marks My One Year Anniversary in China

Boy has a lot happened in a year. I have lived in two different cities in China, been in 5 different countries, lived in 3 different apartments, made lots of friends, had many adventures, and cried more times than I would like to admit. Even though I have had a roller coaster year, it has been wonderful, and I don’t for one second regret coming.

When I look back at where I was a year ago, I can’t believe how much has changed. If I were to go back and tell myself where I would be in a year, I would probably be pretty shocked. It would probably have made the school easier, but I don’t think that I would have grown as much from the experience.

While so much has changed, some things are the same. I began last year feeling so overwhelmed and insecure about who I was as a teacher. This year some of those feelings are beginning to creep up. Being at a new school with new students, new co-workers, and a new curriculum for the second year in a row is rather overwhelming. On the other hand, this year I have a year of teaching experience, and I have had the whole summer to settle into my new home. (Last year, I only had a day before the school year started). I am also settling into someplace familiar rather than moving to a completely different place.

When one comes to such junctures, it seems appropriate to not only reflect, but also set goals for the future. At New Years, I set the following goals for myself:

1. I will write more.
2. I want to improve my Chinese.
3. I want to stay more on top of my schoolwork.

In some ways, I have reached these goals, so I think that I will slightly edit/ add to them:

1. I will write in my prayer journal more. I have been really bad about keeping up my quiet times, and I know that it will only be harder when school starts. I don’t want this to go to the wayside just because I get busy.
2. I will finish Book 1 of Chinese Made Easier by the end of the semester. I really felt like my Chinese improved over the four weeks of intensive study, and I basically learned all the vocabulary for rest of book one. However, I did not learn all the grammar. I want to keep up the momentum that I had this summer.
3. I want to be involved in something besides teaching. Last year, I hesitated to get involved in too much because I was so overwhelmed with schoolwork, but now I feel much more confident in my ability to stay on top of my schoolwork. So I want to branch out. I’m not sure what I want to do, but I want to do something.

Happy Anniversary China! In our first year, we have gone through several trials and tribulations, but they say that the first year is the hardest. I look forward to many wonderful years together.

Reflections on Summer 2012

 Today marks my last official day of summer, and I am trying to spend it just relaxing rather than doing schoolwork. So far, I have watched three episodes of Smallville (Did I mention that I bought all 10 seasons for 55 kuai, less than $10!?) Then I went to a local coffee shop and finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird for the sixth time. While this was schoolwork, I simply love this book. I think that few book are as convicting and as real as it is. Upon finishing it, I decided that when I do my Masters Thesis, I will write about TKAM. I already have title: Trash, Sin, and Squalor: A Study of Prejudice and Religion in To Kill a Mockingbird.  Anyways after finishing the book, I returned home to write my blog posts.

 This summer I spent four weeks studying Chinese, had one week of vacation, and then taught for three weeks at an English Language Intensive Class that we offered at the school. Certain aspects of this summer were rather hard. A lot of people went to various places around the world while I spent the entire summer here. I moved to a new place and was trying to settle in and find my place, but with so many people gone, it was a bit difficult. Now as people are coming back, those feelings seem rather distant, and this place truly is beginning to feel like home.  One thing that really helped was teaching the English class. I learned so much about teaching ESL, and it gave me a new perspective of those students who really struggled in my English class last year. On top of that, we had a great group of kids, and the teachers worked really well together.

As you can see, I had a very busy summer, and it was not really much of a vacation. However, after having the past two days off, I am looking forward to this school year. When I look at how busy I was, it doesn’t feel like I had much of a vacation, but when I look at all the other things that I was able to do this summer, I see that I really did have a good summer. The highlights include: 

•  Reading approx. 3,246 pages for fun
• Watching one season of Once Upon a Time, Gilmore Girls, and Smallville and two seasons of Sherlock
• Spending two days in Beijing
• Getting to know numerous people and going many different places with them
• Watching every episode to date of the Lizzie Bennett Diaries (If you are a Pride and Prejudice fan and you have not watched this youtube series, then stop reading and go to this link right now http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KisuGP2lcPs - Please note this series is wonderful, but in effort to modernize certain aspects of the book, this series can be a bit on the PG-13 side.)

So here’s to a good school year.

A Review Of The Books That I Have Read Thus Far This Summer – Part II

A Review of the Books that I have read thus far this summer – Part II

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

 

Let me begin by saying that I did like the book. I liked the book for what it was intending to do. 1) I love that is a picture of how God loves us. 2) I like that it does not steer clear of difficult material (I think that far too many Christians are simply way too sheltered from the harsh realities of this world). The Church needs to be talking about human trafficking and abuse.  3) It was a fast read, and it was interesting.

I do have a few issues with the book though. 1) I hate that Angel is so beautiful. I don’t think that this is true to the allegory. God is not attracted to us because we are beautiful, but he loves us in spite of our ugliness. 2) I also think that this book portrays the lie that God will swoop down from heaven and say here is the person that you are going to marry. I know that is the case with Hosea, but in general that is not the case. 3) I don’t understand why they consummated the marriage when they did. 4) I think that Francine Rivers tried to make Michael human, but at the same time, I have a hard time believing that any man would be that forgiving and willing to fight for a woman that he loves. Like other Christian romances, I think that this book gives women unrealistic expectations about men. 5) I read many reviews that said this book was pornographic. I would not go that far, and I was not in the least bit offended that a Christian book would include the prostitution scenes (see what I said above). However, some of the scenes between Michael and Angel were edgy (for a Christian novel). And the final scene was just rather awkward. 6) The epilogue was far too sugar-coated and happily ever after.

 [Spoiler Alert] 7) I don’t get the relationship between Paul and Mariam. He’s such a jerk, and yet she’s in-love with him. What is worse, this relationship is promoted.  8) I don’t think that the author wants us to sympathize with Angel and her desire to be on her own, but I do. She spends her entire life enslaved to one man or another. I think that her three years in San Francisco were exactly what she needed to do. In fact, I would say that she should have done that before she married Michael. I got the feeling like we were supposed to want her to stay with Michael and never have that dream of fulfilled.

I feel like I am being critical, but overall, I did like the book. I think that it did a good job of showing God’s forgiveness. However, I think that it, like all novels, needs to be read with a critical eye.

The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers

When I told someone that I was reading Redeeming Love, she suggested The Atonement Child. Let’s just say that I did not have high expectations for a book with the first line “It was a cold January night when the unthinkable, unpardonable happened.” I read the first thirty or so pages, and put it down without the intention of picking it back up. However, I did because I wanted to read something that was a quick and easy read.

What I liked about the book: 1) I like that the events in the book weren’t sugar coated. After Dynah is raped, her life is completely torn apart, which I think is realistic. 2) I like the character of Joe.

What I did not like: 1) I got tired of reading the same abortion arguments over and over again. 2) It seemed like everyone and her mother (literally) had, had an abortion. 3) Dynah never really deals with her rape because the focus of the story becomes an anti-abortion tirade. 4) I did not feel like the character of Ethan was very realistic or sympathetic. I think that his reactions were realistic to an extent, but they were just taken one step too far. 5) The last page and a half of the book (before the Epilogue) made me angry. 6) Even though I really liked the last line, I am not sure what the point of the Epilogue was.

I didn’t really care for this book. The writing was rather weak, and as I said before, I felt like it turned into an anti-abortion tirade. Even though I am pro-life, I feel like this book had two issues that it needed to deal with, rape and abortion, and it really only dealt with the later.

After reading these two Christian fiction books, I am reminded why I quit reading Christian fiction. I enjoy reading Christian non-fiction, but Christian fiction feels very contrived. Both of these books focused solely on plot development, and they ended in nicely wrapped up, sugar coated little worlds.

I have realized why I have been so critical of the books that I have read this summer. I haven’t read a lot of modern fiction for fun since high school. I’ve been reading mostly classics, which is like eating a steak dinner. Now I am going back and trying to eat a McDonalds cheeseburger after only eating steak for the past 5 or so years. I think that I should probably stick to the steak.

Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood

This was the steak that I needed. The images were beautiful, the plot was intricately woven together, and the characters were complex and real.

I found the plot very similar to The Blind Assassin in that as a woman is looking back on her life and dealing with the difficulties of her childhood, her outlet for these issues is her art. Even though the plot was similar at the very basic level, I felt like the novel itself was still very different. Looking at the cover, I expected this novel the have the sci-fi elements that The Blind Assassin does, but they were not present.

I did feel like the end dragged a bit, and there were certain moral decisions that I did not agree with (This book is definitely PG-13). However overall, I really enjoyed the book. I hurt for the main character, Elaine, and the book made me think and question how I have treated people. I found it rather convicting. This is what good books should do convict you and make you think.

A List Of Three Random Items That Will Make You Stop And Want To Read This Blog Post

I thought about naming this blog post Electricity, Pizza, and Bicycles or Power, Frustration, and Thievery. However, I didn’t think that these were clever enough to actually catch your attention, so I came up with this brilliant title, and I sure you are waiting with bated breath to read about my adventures.  Never fear; I shall not keep you waiting any longer.

Most expats in China have what we like to call a Bad China Day. This is a day when things are frustrating or overwhelming because life is so different from our home cultures, we don’t speak the language well, and there are people EVERYWHERE. Yesterday evening was one of those nights. The day itself was good, but the evening was another story.

It all began on Sunday night when our power went out. To people living outside of China you are probably thinking was there a storm or some other problem. The answer is no. In China, you buy electricity on a card. Then you put this card into box in your apartment building that controls the electricity. When you run out of money, your power goes out. There are other warnings such as blinking lights on the box. Anyways, our power went out, but if you put the card back into your box, you get 10 RMBs worth of electricity. So we had power the rest of the night.

Since it was somewhat late on Sunday night, we didn’t go to get our card refilled that night. My roommate went the next day to get the card refilled. Now for Qingdaoren, you need to know that we don’t have those ATM things that we used to fill our cards. We take our cards to a shop and they fill it. So my roommate took it to be refilled, and I was supposed to go pick it up that night at 7:30. Our 10 RMBs worth of electricity ran out around 4:30ish, but we had dinner plans, so it wasn’t a big deal.

After dinner, I had a pizza box with leftover pizza in it, which I carried with me to the shop (Hence, pizza in the list of proposed titles). Using my limited Chinese and some charades I asked the man for my card.  He looked through the cards that he had and went to the back. Then returned and looked through the cards again.  He told me that I would have to come back tomorrow. He said a whole bunch of other words, but that was the basic idea. It seemed like he didn’t know where my card was, which really worried me. I called my roommate thinking that maybe she had picked it up already or something like that, but I couldn’t get ahold of her. So I walked back to my apartment wondering what to do next.

Soon after I entered the darkened abyss of my apartment, my roommate called me, and told me that she had taken the card to a different shop. (I have only been here a month and a half and I only knew of the one). Very excited that I was not going to have to sleep in an un-air conditioned apartment all night, I merrily skipped to elevator. When I got downstairs, some of my enthusiasm had worn off, and I really did not want to have to walk to the front of the apartment complex again (about a 7-10 min walk), so I decided to ride my bike.

I went over to my bike and unlocked it and was about ready to climb on it when I realized that my bicycle seat had been stolen. Needless to say, I made the long trek to the store on foot.

This particular store is a rather overwhelming store because so many people are crammed into such a small space. So I waited in the “line” for my turn, and people cut in front of me because this setting makes me even more timid about using my terribly impressive Chinese skills (emphasis on the terribly). Finally, I was able to squeak out that I needed my electricity card, and low and behold they had it.  Thus ending adventures.

(Please note that while the events in this blog post are entirely factual some of the emotions may have been exaggerated for effect.)

Chipotle and Other Wonderful Finds in Beijing

Ok, so it wasn’t a real Chipotle, but I had to get your attention somehow. It is called The Avocado Tree, and it is Chipotle’s Chinese cousin. Excellent food with Chipotle style burritos and many of the same choices as Chipotle. Also it was very reasonably priced.

In this area, near the US Embassy, there is also a mall with a Starbucks, several restaurants, a spa, a pool, and a GIANT import store in the basement.

At first this area is a bit difficult to navigate, but I will give you directions. First of all this map has south at the top rather than North; don’t let that confuse you.

1)   To get to this area take Subway line 10 to the Sanyuanqiao stop.

2)   You will exit by way of Exit B, the North East Exit.

3)   When you get the chance, you will need to cross the street. Because this is a busy highway, there are only a few places where you can cross the street.

4)   Walk Past the Hilton. The Hilton should be on your left and the Weston should be on your right, and you should be on the same side of the street as the Hilton. Turn left onto the road in front of the Hilton.

5)   You will now walk past the front entrance of the Hilton. Keep going until this road deadends into Dong Fang East Road.

To Get to the Mall

1)   Turn left and walk until almost the end of the road.

2)   It will be on your right.

To get to the Avocado Tree

1)   Turn left.       

2)   Walk to the intersection of Dong Fang East Road and Xiao Yun Road. Dong Fang East Road dead-ends into Xiao Yun Road.

3)   Cross Xiao Yun Road and go through a Chinese looking gate. You will probably think that you are going the wrong way, but just keep going. You will have to veer slightly to the right.

4)   Once you have walked through this area, you will reach a green gate. Go through it.

5)   Turn left. (Sorry, I don’t know the name if the road.)

6)   There will be several restaurants. The Avocado Tree is probably 5 or so restaurants down.

Another good find of the trip was the 365 Inn, a Hostel very near Tiananmen Square and many other tourist sights in Beijing. It was 130 RMB per person per night for a private room, and the rooms were almost China Hotel quality. Also, you cannot beat the location. While I did not take advantage of everything they had to offer, they had tours and trips to The Great Wall and such.

http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/365-Inn/Beijing/16667

Lastly, I would like to recommend Mark as a driver to and from The Great Wall. I am not sure how it works with other people, but he picked us up at the Lishuiqiao stop of line 10. Then he drove us to the part of The Great Wall that we wanted to go to. We went to the Huang Ha part. Let me take this time to say that this part of The Great Wall is not for the faint of heart or the out of shape, like me. (I did not think that I would be able to finish the climb to get to the wall). However, it is remote and beautiful, and if you want to go to a part of the wall that is not over-run with tourists, this is the place for you. Back to Mark, he speaks excellent English, and he is very friendly and personable. His phone number is 138-1016-3719 or you can email him at markzhang2009@gmail.com

A Review Of The Books That I Have Read Thus Far This Summer

I have really enjoyed reading for fun this summer. In these reviews, I will do my best to keep spoilers to an absolute minimum.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows by JK Rowling

A Simply Beautiful Book

 Yes, I have finally finished the Harry Potter series. As you can see all of the books that I have read this summer have been young adult books, but the Harry Potter books have a quality to them that the other books simply do not have. The world is so detailed and real, and everything so intricately woven together that I am simply amazed by Rowling genius. There were definitely sections that I read several times because they were so beautifully written.

[SPOILER ALERT] This is not to say that they are perfect. I was not impressed with the Epilogue, and I don’t get why Harry dropped the resurrection stone in the woods.  When I saw that in the movie, I thought that it was something that they added. Maybe I missed something, but it seems odd. Also, I thought that the romantic relationships should either have been more developed or not a part of the book. This is not to say that I want them to become the sole focus of the book though. I just thought it seemed like there wasn’t much of a relationship and then all of the sudden they were married. This might be a fault of the Epilogue and not of the books themselves. Despite these minor flaws, I thought that the books were brilliant.

I know that a lot of Christians get all up in arms over these books, but I cannot help but see the parallels. They are not as strong as say Narnia but rather more like Lord of the Rings.  The top two virtues in these books are love and sacrifice, and I believe they are also the most important tenants of Christianity. This is not to say that you can simply take everything in these books at face value. We must read everything with a critical eye, which I might suggest that some people do not do if it is labeled a Christian book. I think that there are far more dangerous thoughts that have been put into our media that Christians do not seem to have a problem with.

Love Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

What a let down after Harry Potter!

When I saw this book in the library, I thought I loved Stargirl when I was in middle school. They didn’t have the first book, but I figured that I could still enjoy this book without rereading the first one. However, if I wanted to read the diary of teenage girl pinning after her former boyfriend, I would go back and read my old journals (except that I have don’t have a former boyfriend, but you get the picture).

I think that the plot of this book has potential, but we are too close to the narrator. I remember when I was taking creative writing in college I wrote a story and my professor suggested that I switch from first person to third person because the story would be better if we could get out of the narrator’s head. I would say the same is true for this book. I will be honest I did not actually finish reading this book because I was so annoyed.

One thing that I did not remember about the first book was how many Buddhist ideas were put into this book. Once again one most read with critical eye. I know I read the first book in middle school, but I think that this is a book that should be discussed if middle schoolers are going to be reading it.

A Crack in the Line by Michael Lawrence

A Very Interesting Book

A boy whose mother was killed in a train accident discovers an alternate reality in which a girl version of himself lives and his mother is still alive. This book was very interesting and it made me want to keep reading. However, I thought that the author introduced too many plot points that were unresolved by the end of the book. The ending was still good, but it left me with some questions. I did not realize until I began to write this review that this is the first book in a trilogy, so maybe these questions will be resolved in the next two books.  When I finished the book, I was not looking for a sequel; I just wanted a few plot points wrapped up a bit. Now that I know there are two more books, I am not sure how I feel, and I am not sure if I will read them.

I also wanted to note this book has a decent amount of language. Most of it is British swear words (Actually, that is how I figured out that the story was taking place in the UK. Is that sad?), so I was not particularly offended by it because I have not been conditioned to do so, but I know that others might be.

Match and Crossed by Ally Condie

A typical dystopia novel

In a future perfect word, the Society picks your perfect spouse for you except somehow Cassia has two matches: one is the one the Society wants for her, and one with unmentionable secrets. The world of this book very much reminds me of The Giver. I don’t think that the world itself was unique enough or developed enough to make it interesting. Also, I don’t know why all these authors think that love triangles are in and of themselves a good premise for a book. I still enjoyed the book, but I would not go as far to say that it is “storytelling with the resonance of a classic” (as it says on the inside front cover). I think that this author attempted to be literary, but she falls short. The concept of the story is interesting, but the pacing of the story is pretty slow, and it was very obviously written to be two books. I think that this is rather lazy writing though because she cannot make the reader interested enough in the plot to want to keep reading, so she drags out the plot until there finally is conflict and ends the book. That way the reader will feel obligated to read the second book. 

The second book Crossed begins pretty exciting, but towards the middle the pacing slows down and once again it is a bit boring. Then at the end she makes it exciting and once again ends the book. I was reading other reviews on this book and one of them said this, “It's like Condie had enough material for 2 books but the publisher's wanted to squeeze out three, and Crossed resulted.” I, personally, disagree with this reviewer. I think that Condie had enough material for one book, but dragged it out into three. These books are quick reads though, and if you want fluffy books that attempt to be literary and, mostly, fail then go for it.

I feel like I have been really critical in these reviews, but I have been very grateful for the time to read for pleasure. Even if I have not loved all the books, I have enjoyed reading them.

On my reading list for the rest of the summer

The Help – I saw the movie, and I really want to read the book.

Cat’s Eye– I loved the Blind Assassin, and ever since I wanted to read another Margaret Atwood novel.

Redeeming Love – I have heard mixed reviews on this book, but those who like it, love it, so I want to come up with my own opinions.