China. Miao songs. Miao dances. Dead birds at the dinner table. Climbing rice terraces. Way blocking ceremonies. Wooden plank beds. Tongue numbing Hunan peppers. 7cup. Chinese barbeque. Swimming near waterfalls. Coning in Jishou. Service club. Fenghuang. Olympics 2012. Halloween in August. KTV. Chinese birthday parties. Teaching. Learning. Graduation. Tears on tears on tears.

Some of the above mentioned things are things I thought I would never experience in my life. I think the biggest one (literally – ha) is China. If you had asked me a year ago if I thought I would ever go to China, the answer would have been no. China wasn’t really on my radar before SoS, but now I can’t stop thinking about it. Oh how things change.

After a delayed flight from Shanghai to Osaka and an…exciting (?)…time at the Kansai airport, I am finally at my friend’s house in Japan. However, my brain is still in China mode. Jishou mode, really. When we were in Shanghai on Saturday and Sunday, I couldn’t get used to the large amount of foreigners that we were seeing. I was confused by the English around me. Shanghai was a whole different world, nothing close to the China I had come to know and love over the past two months. Even now, in Japan, Japanese sounds a little strange to me (words I never thought I would type in my life). I’ve become so used to hearing Chinese that everything that isn’t Chinese is now foreign.

Maybe it was the food that got me. There were so many things I encountered this summer that I thought I would never eat or never even thought people could (would?) eat. The list of foods I’ve consumed with reckless abandon this summer includes pig feet and noodles, goose feet, pickled chicken feet, duck blood and rice, pig blood, frog, duck collar bone, and donkey meat dumplings! Who wouldn’t fall in love with a country that has food like this?

Slight jokes about food aside, I really believe it was the people that got me to love China so much. At first, it was my fellow SoSers, who are all amazing teachers and friends, who helped to spark my China craze. Soon, it became the PIJ students and Jishou residents that made me be willing to consider a serious relationship with China. I woke up in the morning excited to see what challenges and surprises my kids would have for me, I was excited to walk down the streets and wave at my neighborhood friends, and I nearly died from excitement every week when it was time for service club. One of the best parts of the summer has been seeing my relationships with all of these people change and grow as time went on. Sometimes I still can’t believe that I was given this amazing opportunity so early in my life.

SoS taught me a lot this summer. Not only did I learn about teaching, but I learned about learning and communication. I found that I had more in common with my baby Phoenixes (who are now full fledged Phoenixes!) that I could have ever imagined. As I was hoping at the beginning of the summer, as I taught my students, they also taught me. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. Everyday that we’re apart, I think of something else that I can take away from this summer.

Overall, after leaving Jishou, I’ve realized that my life is turning upside down, just when you would think it should be getting back to “normal.” I don’t know what normal is anymore, but I’m okay with that.

Thank you so much, PiA. I owe you big time.

– Kelsey

It feels like it wasn’t too long ago that students were meeting us at the Jishou train station and welcoming us to China, yet we’ll be going back to that train station in less than a week to start making our way home. As the students love to say: time flies when you’re having fun. This week has gone by so quickly, so I’m going to take this post to do a recap of the past couple days.

On Wednesday we had the PIJ 2012 Summer Olympics! Although I spent Monday and Tuesday running around like a crazy person trying to finalize everything for the games, everything worked out. Every level was full of spirit, and all of the students seemed to have a great time during all of the events, especially the relay. I wasn’t sure how well the Strong Man competition was going to be received, but Cameron and Nick did a phenomenal job running it, and I have to say, I have never seen a more intense game of limbo in my life than I did on Wednesday.
The final scores for the day were: Unicorns – 80 points, Dragons – 55 points, Lions – 50 points, Phoenixes – 25 points.

Thursday was our last day of precept, and that afternoon also marked our time for individuals session with the students. Alyssa, Alex, and I had more of an impromtu English corner with our Phoenixes. Britney had made us all bracelets with three really cool Chinese knots in the middle of them. One knot represented a teacher, another represented Britney, and the middle knot represented the Phoenixes. I was so excited when she gave them to us! It was so sweet of her. She also taught me how to make the bracelets – I can’t wait to try it out for myself later.

For dinner on Thursday I met up with Reuben, Nick, and several students for what the teachers thought was going to be a picnic. The three of us were under the impression that we were going to pick up some dinner to go, and then eat it on the field at the middle school. The students just laughed at us, and told us that a picnic is for eating snacks…after eating dinner. Eating with the students is one of my absolute favorite things to do, so I had no problems with sitting around chilling after dinner. The girls got us lotus root, tofu, and duck collarbone (? Nobody can seem to agree on what part of the duck it is…) to munch on after dinner and before English corner. Duck collarbone may sound strange, but my advice to you is to just go for it. It is absolutely delicious.

Today was effectively the last day of school! All of the students had their final exams today, and there is no more official learning to be done next week. Today was also the day of the speech contest! I had the pleasure of watching the Phoenixes and Unicorns compete in the morning, and judged the Dragons in the afternoon. Only two Phoenixes competed in the contest today. I can’t even begin to describe how proud I am of Ryan and Dada. The two of them have improved so much over the summer, and today really showcased that for me at the contest. Although neither Phoenix placed at the contest, they (and the rest of my Phoenixes) are still number one in my heart! (Is that enough Velveeta for you, home office?)

Anyway, after the awards ceremony for the contest, I went out with some teachers and students to celebrate Andy’s birthday! We ate at a delicious hot pot restaurant and then went to a bakery for some cake. Tomorrow I’m heading off to do a homestay, Monday is Halloween, Tuesday is the day of the Talent Show, and Wednesday is graduation.

Everything is going by so quickly and I’m not ready to leave yet…

Every morning this week after I walked into class, Ken greeted me by telling me how many more gold medals China has in the Olympics than the US does. However, he had to change his tune today, and somewhat regretfully informed me that China and America have the same amount of golds. I haven’t been able to really keep up with the Olympics here (a combination of not being able to figure out our Chinese remote and not being able to stay awake past 11:30 on weekdays…) but I always enjoy his updates. I also like that some of my students are excited enough about the Olympics to talk about them with me using some pretty enthusiastic English, which I find fantastic.

Anyway, even if I don’t exactly know what is going on in the 2012 London Olympics, it’s okay, because I am in change of the 2012 PIJ Olympics along with Nick and Miryam! When Cameron told me I was one of the organizers for our summer Olympics, I was so excited. Earlier this week, the Olympic committee sat down and decided the events for this summer’s Olympics. I now present to you the line up for this summer:

– tug of war
– basketball
– ping pong
– Strong Man (including planks, push ups, limbo, 100 m race, and wall sits)
– badminton
– relay race (containing a hot dog eating contest, ball on spoon race, sack race, and water pitcher relay)

I’m most excited for the relay race, because it includes 12 people from each level and I think it will be extremely fun to watch. I got the idea for the water pitcher relay from the summer camp I worked at last year, and I wasn’t sure how popular the idea was going to be with our Chinese students. Luckily, after I explained it today, the kids seemed really pumped to try it out. The concept for the water pitcher relay race is fairly simple. The teams sit on the ground in lines, with a large basin of water at the front of each line and an empty bucket at the end of each line. The first person in the line needs to fill up a pitcher with water and (carefully) pass it overhead to the person behind her/him. The last person in line dumps the water into the bucket at the end of the line, and the first team to fill up their bucket wins. I’m expecting this to be ridiculous when the kids try it out later.

Dragons, Lions, and Unicorns better watch out, because the Phoenixes are getting ready to bring their A games to next Wednesday’s Olympics. Go big or go home. If you’re not first, you’re last. (That one’s for you, Dad.)

– Kelsey

As part of last Friday’s test, the Phoenixes had to write stories starting with the phrase “Once upon a time.” One of my students wrote about a girl who had to grow up without parents and support herself. The moral of her story was “where there’s a way, there’s a will.”

Although Britney didn’t get the wording quite right, I think “where there’s a will, there’s a way” is the perfect phrase for the Phoenixes. We have our fair share of struggles during class, usually stemming from a lack of English vocabulary. However, I think the students have definitely improved at describing words for me over the past two weeks, and they are becoming less shy about asking questions as time goes on. Sometimes, I can see that they lack the confidence to try and explain what they’re talking about, but when they try their best, things always work out. They don’t need to use Chinese in the classroom, because they really are capable of explaining themselves in English. My students are so smart and know a lot of things; I think the biggest problem most of the time is that they are too scared to push themselves that extra step and simply don’t realize how much they truly know.

The students that I am the most proud of are the ones that persevere and display a huge desire to improve their English. It is so encouraging to see them working hard, and to see that hard work pay off in the long run. Even though I’ve only spent two and a half weeks with my students, I can already see a huge difference in how they act. Students that used to never answer questions are now shouting out example sentences for me in class, one of my youngest, and quietest, students nearly sprinted across the classroom to win a point for her team in a vocabulary game, and several students show up to class early in the mornings to study. I can see the change outside the classroom, too. Today after dinner, Dada asked me to help her with her pronunciation, and we practiced saying the word “turtle” for close to 10 minutes. (Turtle is a harder word to say than you would think, by the way.)

Moments like this are why I came to China.

A girl named Cherry wrote her “Once upon a time” story about….a girl called Cherry who entered an English program. Sound familiar? Anyway, the last two (slightly edited) lines in her story were: “With the help of the teacher, she began to slowly have the courage to speak English. Finally, her English improved and she found confidence.” Reading stories like this one and seeing students like Cherry improve over the weeks and recognize their own achievements makes me really happy to be a teacher!

– Kelsey

Today I had the pleasure of going on my first Service Club adventure. Jessica and I took two Phoenixes (Alisa and Linda), two Unicorns (Shining and Coco), and two Dragons (Joy and Julia) with us to an orphanage that is about 25 minutes away by taxi. I had heard a little about the orphanage from Jessica and Miryam, who had both gone last Thursday, but still wasn’t quite sure what to expect. For today’s trip, Jessica and I wanted to bring some crayons for coloring, but we didn’t have time to go to the store. (We’ll be ready next week!) Despite that, I think we had an extremely successful visit overall.

We met the students outside our apartment (in the rain) at 3:30 so we would have time to catch taxis, get to the orphanage, and spend about an hour there, from four to five. After we took a stomach churning taxi ride to the building with the orphanage, we climbed into a slightly unreliable looking elevator and headed up to the sixth floor. What we discovered there was a floor full of elderly people, so we then walked up one flight of stairs and ended up in the correct location. We were greeted by one very enthusiastic boy who kept repeating “hello, hello!” to us. I was surprised – most of the children at the orphanage are mentally disabled, so I definitely wasn’t expecting anyone to know even the most simple English. The boy that welcomed us to the orphanage was cheerful, and the other kids were also very excited to see us. Based on what I saw, I can’t imagine that the kids there get many visitors, which is sad, even if it is understandable.

Anyway, things were a little bit awkward when we first arrived. We didn’t have any toys for the kids, and I don’t think any of the students I was with had any experience with mentally disabled children, so we weren’t quite sure what to do. One of my students admitted to me in a small voice, “I’m a little frightened.” However, we all quickly got over our initial reservations once we began to realize how excited the kids were to see us. Everyone started to pair off with the kids and play with them in very simple ways. The boy that had first greeted us loved to walk up to people, say “hello,” and get a high five. Another girl who didn’t speak was just content to sit and listen to us speak.

I was the only person from Service Club there today that can’t speak Chinese, but I connected with one of the little girls there anyway. At first, I just sat next to her, said hi, and waved to her for a while. She gave me a big smile in return, and tried to speak with me. She would only say one sound, and I don’t think she understood any of the English I said to her, but I could tell she was thrilled that I was giving her so much attention. Together we looked at a bulletin board covered in pictures of the kids from the orphanage, admired all of the pictures in the hallway leading to the different rooms, took turns clapping different patterns to each other, and took a tour of the floor. I enjoyed the tour with her the most. She took me into almost every room on the floor. In each place, we would wave at whoever was in the room together and she would point to different things for me to look at. Most things were simple, such as a pair of shoes, or even the wall, but they were interesting to her. At one point, when we were outside, she was pointing at the raindrops that had collected on the balcony, and some flower petals that had fallen down. When I picked up one of the petals and let it fall back onto the balcony, the little girl looked at me like I had done the most amazing magic trick in the world. At first, she wouldn’t touch the petal herself, but she eventually gave it a try after I did it a few more times. When she finally picked it up, she gave me one of the biggest smiles I have ever seen. It was a really special moment.

Everyone that went to Service Club today found at least one kid to hang out with for nearly an hour. At the end of that hour, I could definitely see a difference in the people I had walked in the doors with at four today. At first, everyone had been a little apprehensive, but at the end, all of that was gone, and I think a lot of barriers had been broken. When we were walking back to the apartments later today and I was listening to what the students had to say, I was struck by what Shining said, and so happy that he seemed to get so much out of the visit.

What he said, to the best of my memory, was this: “Even if they can’t speak, they can still hear us. I think it’s important that we talk to them. We shouldn’t look down on them – we should pay attention to them.” I couldn’t agree with him more, and I’m so glad I’ll be able to go back next week. Even if we didn’t have a lot prepared for the kids today, I think even the fact that we took the time to give them our undivided attention for one hour made a huge difference in their lives, as well as ours.

– Kelsey

The residents of the girls’ apartment have been dropping like flies. I thought that I could avoid it, regardless of the fact that my roommate Miryam and co-teacher Alyssa had both fallen victim to vicious colds. Extra emphasis on the vicious.

I thought I was safe, but I was wrong.

The cold caught up to me yesterday afternoon, so today I had to go to the first full day of class battling a cough. I thought I was holding my own pretty well, but Britney remarked a minute into class, “Teacher, it seems like you have cold.” She was right, but I didn’t let my cold hold me back. When I got feedback on index cards from the students at the end of class, most seemed to think I was very happy, and one girl suggested that I drink honey tea. I was a little surprised, and very touched, with how concerned they seemed about me, regardless of the fact we haven’t known each other that long.

Several students and I had planned on seeing each other at yoga club this afternoon, but I wasn’t feeling well enough to go to yoga at four today. Instead of getting all of the students sick as well, I stayed home in the afternoon and took a well needed nap. Right after class, Alyssa and I went to get some fried rice from a shop close to our apartment. On the way there, I ran into Britney, who gave me a cup of rice porridge. She told me it would help my throat, and said that I should make sure to rest this afternoon.

The surprises, and acts of kindness, didn’t stop there. After eating our fried rice, and on our way to another shop, Alyssa and I ran into Diana and Dada, two of our students. Diana handed me a bag containing what looked like two giant, brown eggs. (They turned out to be dried kiwis.) She and Dada looked at each other for a minute, then tried to explain using only English how I was supposed to cut the kiwi in half and put the inside in boiled water to make a tea. Drinking the tea should make my throat better, they said.

Needless to say, I have never had tea made from a dried kiwi before. I was a little apprehensive when making my tea earlier tonight, but I figured it was worth a try. The kiwi looked more than a little scary when cut open, and turned the boiled water brown. The tea also smelled a little strange. I’m not quite sure how to describe it…the tea tastes like it smells, but has a slightly sweet aftertaste.

Anyway, I’m excited for day two, ready for class, and armed with a pitcher of kiwi tea. In the words of my student Alisa, “that’s all (:”

Kelsey

As teased earlier, here comes the dead bird story. I can only hope I do the story justice. (Also, because I’m covering the dead bird story, I do not take responsibility for talking about the rice paddy adventure with Alyssa, Eliot, and Cameron.)

Alyssa and I were roommates in Wugao and stayed with a nice host family comprised of a father, a mother, and a daughter. The father and daughter spoke Mandarin and the mother only spoke Miao. I speak neither language, so I knew I was in for a fun time (think lots of hand motions, blank stares, and awkward laughter). At first, nobody in our host family seemed super keen on interacting with us, but after a day (and the fateful dinner where we spoke about Miao hairstyles) the father seemed to really open up to us. Alyssa and I had a great time that night, so we invited Eliot and Reuben over to hang out with us during our last night in Wugao.

Things proceeded along a similar path as the night before. I experienced it differently than the other three SOSers, though, because I was only one of us that didn’t speak Mandarin. I got the majority of the conversation secondhand. However, it was easy to understand most of our host father’s jokes because he used a lot of body language. In the middle of one of our conversations, he casually reached behind himself and grabbed a dead bird off of a table. Needless to say, the four of us were shocked. Apparently, he wasn’t going to use the bird for anything – he had found it that day and just found it interesting to keep around (and show us). He was pretty amused by our reactions to it, because he was waving it all over the place, and whenever it got close to any of us, we would quickly lean away from it. Everyone shared a good laugh when host dad pretended to throw the bird at me, and I jumped back so quickly I almost fell off of my stool. After that, dinner ended, and we took some family pictures (sans bird).

Our last night in the Miao village was a fun one, but I’m glad we moved on to the Dong village yesterday. I knew there could only be more adventures to be had. Similar to the Miao villages we have visited, we were greeted by a “way blocking” committee. The overall mission of these groups of enthusiastic, singing women is to stand in your way and not let you in to the village until you take a drink from a bowl that one of them is holding. At this village, we were greeted with rice wine instead of tea;  to be quite honest, I didn’t even taste the rice wine because there was an added twist: super spicy fish. After drinking from a bowl held by one woman, another one promptly fed me a small morsel of fish. I was not ready for the spice that assaulted my mouth, and I thought my tongue was on fire. Not necessarily in a bad way…but not a super great way, either. It was an experience.

The crowd of woman was accompanied by an even larger crowd of children, which I was really excited about. In the Wugao, we didn’t get to see that many children, and the ones we did see were usually boys. However, at the Dong village, there were so many children everywhere, of all ages, and the distribution between boys and girls seemed fairly equal. When we had some free time after passing the way blocking committee, I went outside to explore with the rest of the SOS girls. The kids seemed happy to meet us and show us around, even if they were a bit shy at first. I made sure to show them the pictures I took, and I was always greeted with a cheerful laugh in response.

I’ve really enjoyed hiking through these beautiful Chinese mountainsides (despite the occasionally dangerous rice paddies? Too soon to joke, Eliot?) and visiting a handful of villages. Each one has its own unique charms to reveal. Similar to Reuben, I can’t believe that our WildChina trip is going to end so soon.

The next time you hear from me, I’ll be in Jishou!

– Kelsey

I’m starting to think that the PiA office is going to start calling me the problem child of the summer.

That sounds like a bold claim, but I’m sure I’m already that kid. You know, the one who had to play phone tag with Tina until her flight iteranary got worked out. The one who couldn’t get a visa with the rest of the group because her passport was going to expire too early. The one that missed the deadline for the first blog post (oops).

I’m working through it all one step at a time. My flights have been booked, I’m writing a post now, my new passport came in the mail last Friday (valid until 2022!), and I’m heading into DC tomorrow to go to the Chinese embassy. I’m still a little worried (and sorry for making more trouble for Cameron and Eliot), but I’m confident everything will work out. It always does.

After my trip into DC tomorrow, the next thing on my to-do list is starting to pack…or, starting to plan to pack. Knowing me, I’ll leave most of the packing for the night of the 19th, and it will be a little stressful, but it will get done. (I can just sleep on the plane, right?) Cameron and Eliot gave us a packing list, which should make things somewhat easier, but I’m still a little concerned about the 40 pound limit. Or, maybe, more than that, I’m just worried I won’t have enough room, regardless of the weight limit. All of us have to bring along 12 pairs of sunglasses to Jishou, and I don’t want them to get broken, so packing them might be a little challenging. After that, my next order of business is to pack a deflated rugby ball. I had been toying with the idea for a little bit, but hadn’t really decided to bring it along until I spoke with Anastasia (who also played rugby at Princeton!!) during the orientation weekend. (If my parents are reading this, I bet they’re both groaning and thinking something along the lines of “our daughter was supposed to write a post about China, and she managed to start talking about rugby. Again.” In my defense, I heard that there is a sports club, and figured I could introduce something new!)

Anyway, as the 20th grows closer, I’m growing more impatient for all the adventures I know are coming my way. WildChina. Battling with bugs. Getting by without knowing any Chinese. Trying new food. And, most importantly, teaching!

Bring it on.

– Kelsey