About a month into this excursion I realized there were going to be plenty of moments where no words would capture my feelings. That’s when I discovered the phrase “Welcome to China”, mind you your arms must be thrown up into the air and your head shaken to get the full effect. This is the closest I’ve come to expressing my feelings.

Since I’ve discovered this line I have used it on numerous occasions to which all westerns have agreed. A child tinkling on the bus while the mother holds his legs spread eagle, “Welcome to China.” Afternoon planes never being less than 2hours delayed, “Welcome to China.” Class is canceled tomorrow (from your students but not a word from administration), “Welcome to China.” Shall I continue, okay you get the picture.

The truth, I’m getting sick of this phrase but it seems to be the only thing keeping me from insanity. I know common sense and culture is unique to each country and I know “West is not always Best”. I wouldn’t dream of forcing American ways on anyone but really basic human nature people? Anyone?

It is interesting to note that at lunch today Bonnie, Katie and I had a rather surprising conversation on the effect of propaganda here. After so long you just stop resisting. Scary, but true.

I seem to only add to my near death experiences here. Normally I do not consider myself absentminded or stupid but as of late there is really no other way to describe myself.

Walking anywhere is dangerous here as cars can and do drive anywhere they please. There are really no designated sidewalks and walking to the front gate can be a Frogger level at times. Just last week as I was headed out for the evening I was making my way around the round about at the front gate when a car approached from behind. Do I go left or do I go right? I choose the wrong direction I went left and so did the car. The sound of the brakes reverberated in my ears until I was  sitting safely on the bus.

Embarrassing as it is to admit that was not my first close call with a moving vehicle, not by a long shot. Although it was a step down from the buses I’ve walked in front of here.

Thank Heaven for safety shutoffs.

I don't think this is a good thing...

Adam and Dantzelle have left Weifang. I am left alone at the school. My circle of Western friends has begun to shrink. Over the next month and a half that circle will continue to shrink. I cling to two rays of sunshine, I will always have Katie and Thomas across town and Kelly will join me in the Spring!

I can hardly believe it is already December, and half way through at that. I feel like I got here last month some days, others I feel the 3 months 2 weeks 5 days and 15hours. I am so grateful I had the opportunity to meet Adam and Dantzelle and all their help in adjusting to life in China. I think it safe and only honest to admit I couldn’t have adjusted so quickly without them. I will feel their absence but am grateful for their time.

Best of luck you two, with all your future travels. The memories we’ve shared will always be dear and thank goodness when all else fails I can call you when I need someone to understand life in China.

Tonight is the Branch Christmas Party, there will be a White Elephant* gift exchange. I’ve always disliked White Elephant exchanges as I am terrible at selecting a gift. I think the games is fun and I love participating but my gift is always so unoriginal.

This year I finally did it!! I got the best gift.

The White Elephant gift of White Elephant gifts in my opinion.

The mismatched, pieced together, furry toilet seat warmer.  And for the novice or those who can’t figure out how to get this thing on the toilet I found the instructions while wrapping.

Even the foreigner can follow the pictures.

So I can proudly attend the Christmas Party armed with this gift. Hehehe

*White Elephant is a party game where each guest brings a small gag gift to be exchanged in unique or random fashion. Traditionally people try to bring a random item that will get a good laugh.

If I didn’t know with certainty that the Chinese are incapable of subtle hints my first Christmas present would have offended me. Two students dropped by for photos Friday afternoon. I’m really quite touched my students want to take pictures, they don’t seem to want to pay attention or participate in class. But hey the Chinese will never miss a photo sho0t, which is what “Can I come to your apartment for a quick picture” really means.

By now I know the drill. The standing half hug with the victory sign, then the stoic face, then the sitting leaning, then we get all crazy and take pictures all over my living room (the backgrounds varying, the nativity and scrolls seem to be the biggest hits). They always come bearing gifts, usually oranges, crackers or the occasional  bracelet. Today’s was a shocker. It was a Christmas gift Lucy said as she knew Christmas was coming soon. I was touched, my first Christmas gift of the season!

I really hope my face didn’t give away my taken back feelings.

I’ve stopped wearing make-up as of late because well I’m just lazy and really who am I trying to impress around here? My first thought was she was trying to make a statement but that was very very wrong of me. Lucy would never, could never make such a statement, wish I could say the same for some of her classmates. I was debating to pick up a new blush so now I’m good.

So Merry Christmas to all!

Okay I just realized how long this was, I needed to vent. Sorry, I obviously got carried away

Ahhh! I’m still cooling down.  A 45min bus ride turned into a two hour ping-pong game! We were suppose to have one last shrimp fry before Adam and Dantzelle took off. Okay so the journey started at 5:20 I decided to go ahead of Adam and Dantzelle as I didn’t want to sit around until Dantz finished classes. I was half way to Jusco (supermarket) when I realized I didn’t grab the money I had laid out, crap okay just skimp at the store.

I was trying to get ingredients for Easy Almond Roca for the Christmas Party this weekend. I needed to use Katie and Thomas’s toaster oven so couldn’t put shopping off. Chocolate is so dang expensive here. Don’t even try finding chocolate chips so I settled on a Y20 Dove bar got the rest and tried to find a bus direct to the University, this is were all my troubles began.

I should have just walked the extra two blocks and grabbed the 16 but no I wanted to be lazy. I called Katie and she told me the 52 would work but I would have to transfer to the 16 once I got to DongFong Lu, okay I can do that. Well obviously not. As warned the bus went down shady back allies but got back on a main road headed east. I thought it was the wrong street but I noticed that the 16 ran parallel so I jumped off, NEVER CHANGE your answer. That was something I learned in Elementary always go with the first answer second guessing is ALWAYS wrong.

I got off and tried my hand at characters. I knew the characters for South Gate (南门) found the stop four away and waited for the bus. Mind you I take full responsibility for the following adventure but the Chinese sure are not helpful when it comes to directions! Let me lay out what I know, Katie and Thomas work at Weifang University which in Chinese would be Weifang Daxue. They live outside the South Gate which is Nan men. Okay so logically put the two together and you get their stop right?!? Well the bus stop sign had a stop that read Nan men, I assumed (yes I know what assuming means) as Weifang University was a big place in town they were just dealing with gates. I hopped on the bus and asked the Driver Weifang Daxue nan men. He said no and point across the street to the opposite bus stop. The 16’s are tricky here there are two 16 routes both will eventually pass the University South Gate.

That is when I should have gone with my first answer yet again. I knew which direction I wanted to go. So why I was letting someone direct me differently when there was obviously a language barrier is right up there with getting in that cab with a stranger. I crossed the street and looked at the board again okay, I’ll give the driver this much to get to the stop marked Nan men I needed the opposite side of the road but turns out I was reading the wrong stop. I figured this out 15 min later when I realized I was back on the street I started on, back at Jusco. My heart sank, I called Katie to figure out what had happened, that’s when I found out all though it is a University they don’t call it Daxue it is Xueyuan or College! What the heck! So the bus stop I needed was on the original side labeled, Weifang Xueyuan Nan men. What I can’t figure out is why the driver didn’t catch my drift when I said University (Daxue). Daxue Nan men should at least indicate I want to go to a school. Turns out Nan men bus stop is a shopping mall. COME ON PEOPLE work with the foreigner here please!!!!!

I get off cross the street and broad yet another bus. This one was the right one I knew for sure as it was the bus stop I should have just walked to in the first place! By then I was completely exasperated with the whole situation but mostly at myself as I should have just gone with my first instinct.

I’ve come to realize I can gauge my mood by the volume level on my Zune. It is normally at about 6 while riding a bus. By the time I made the final switch I was on 14. 20 is when I buy a ticket for the next plane out of China. Excessive today, yes, hormones aren’t helping anything. To top it all off I missed my stop as I was too absorbed in self pity. So what should have been a Y2 45min ride was Y4 2hour ping-pong game across Weifang. By the time I reached Katie and Thomas’s I was on 16 and then Katie asked for the bread crumbs I’d promised to pick up. Whoops, Katie is just to gracious she was on the ball with a substitution and not a hint of frustration.

So lesson learned always go with answer number one. NEVER EVER EVER change your answer.

I know this post might be coming out from left field for some but to catch you up to speed here is a post just recently finished but posted on a much much earlier date. http://blog.addingstamps.com/2009/10/i-think-the-world-is-coming-to-an-end/

As I continue my Children’s Oral English class I have begun falling in love with the students. I love them all but of course I have my favorites, Rose is just this bundle of joy who has a smile that could melt any Ice Queen, yes I’m the Ice Queen here, and then of course there is Gary. He is the youngest at 6 and the smallest 6 year-old I’ve ever seen. For a kid who’s missing his two front teeth he has great pronunciation and his reading skills are amazing.

Next is Ke Xin, she meets me at my apartment each evening and walks me to class. Half our walk is her correcting my Chinese and the other half is her giggling her way through prompted English questions from her mom. Margaret is 10 and is my co-teacher, at times translating where needed and encouraging the other students.

Oranges from YRC & a card from Ke Xin

I never thought I’d go by Miss Kayte but hey it beats Miss Reagan (not that I don’t love my last name, which I do greatly and don’t plan on giving it up in the next decade or anything) it is just so old sounding. My students have begun bringing little gifts to class which always make my day.

The gifts are always straight from the children’s hearts, a chocolate here and a little wrapped candy there. YRC’s little package was quite inventive. From the size of the package I thought he had confused the vocabulary. Upon opening the bag I was delightfully surprised. I’d heard about the tiny oranges but had not had the pleasure of trying them yet. They are quite delicious!

Juicy and sweet!

Over the last few days Dantzelle and I have been discussing the Chinese zodiac and the personalities that are associated with them. Her zodiac, the tiger, matches her personality pretty well. So I decided to try mine. To start off I got the rabbit or hare, or better yet the BUNNY,  from the start I was rolling my eyes. So here is the word for word description from Chinese.astrology.com  

When in China do as the Chinese.

Well that’s me according the my Chinese Zodiac!

It was breathtaking to say the least. One of Adam and Dantzelle’s students took them to a fabulous little restaurant around the corner from the school. When they described the atmosphere they said think Communist. Okay, communist, nope nothing could have prepared me for this place. I’m just going to adding pictures, for pictures really do say a thousand words.

The back wall of the restaurant.

Hail to the leaders, can you name them all?

Can't beat those Waitress uniforms.

Great posters all over.

A flag or two, but in case you didn't get the hint this is a Chinese restaurant.

So I'm thinking they stretched that photo, I don't remember him being so wide.

Family Style, going to miss that to be honest.

One thing I’m still trying to get over is not lowering my voice when I say the word Communism. It is not equivalent with a bad word nor does it have a negative connotation here, yet I still throw side ways glances when I say it out loud. This restaurant was a little nerve jarring to say the least but everyone in it viewed it as any good American would view your grandmother’s kitchen. A wholesome place embodying all those home taught ideals.

So Mao’s Dinner is what I’ll call it.