My Violin Class

So I've been teaching an afterschool activity once a week to beginner violinists.  This has been the youngest group I've taught; ages 5-7.  It would be better if I could see them twice or three times a week.  I have started teaching private lessons over here.  I have one student who is working on the Bach double.  We performed it December 3rd at a store that raises money for the local orphanage.  We had a crowd of Taiwanese families who were fans.  It was so cute, because after every Christmas song we played they would clap.  It's so nice to have people appreciate music.  Usually when I have gone to live music performances at the Chinese Yulan Theather the Chinese people are talking and answering their cell phones.

Christmas Chimney

So to decorate for Christmas I had my students create a Chimney and hang their stockings they made over the chimney.  This is at the end of the hallway and a great focal point for people.  We also made a Christmas tree and put it on the wall.  This was a spontaneous thing to do.  Sometimes the most fun in teaching comes with spontaneity and a willingness to be creativity and let kids have fun.

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein is one of my heroes.  I have his poster on my classroom door.  There is a quote that says, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."  I think this is so true and this is what I try to impress on my students--to be creative.  God is creative, he is the Creator and He made us in His image--and we have the ability to create and invent.  I believe these are God given tools for humanity to use to glorify God--the ultimate creator.  My school also teaches Success Orientations; positive behavoirs to have in life.  So each month whatever we are focusing on I add a speech bubble to Einstein.  One month was RESPONSIBILITY.  So he said,"Be Responsible."  The other month was TRUSTWORTHINESS.  So he asks, "Can I trust you?"  

My Michael Jackson Student

So as you can see this is my little 8 year old wanna be Michael Jackson student.  He is constantly singing his songs and trying to dance like him.  He is a crack up.  I have actually had to put a damper on his dancing, because it is not appropriate for school.  Sometimes it's hard not to laugh at him, but I have to put on my serious teacher face and then he will calm down.

Students at the University

I've been going to the Dongguan University Tuesday nights with a group of fellow foreigners to lead an English corner.  Over 300 students attend.  We celebrated Thanksgiving dinner with the students and were able to feed them as everyone brought something to share.  One student Rena approached me one Tuesday and asked me to come to her study class on Monday nights to teach her class about Christmas.  I've gone two times.  There are 45 students in her class.  They are so sweet and open.  The first day I came when I walked in the students clapped.  It was strange to have them clap after almost everything I said.  The next time I came I was prepared to teach them song Christmas songs when I was surprised to find out that they had made me chicken soup, sweet water and had prepared songs of their own to sing for me.  I will go one more time to share some more about Christmas.  You can see Rena and I together in the picture, some girls from her dorm room and a group of guys singing.  Monday night is a stretch for me, because I go by myself so I have to take public transportation.  On Tuesday nights the group I go with hire a private driver.  Getting around in China can be so complicated and feels like a rat race at times.

McDonalds Crowded All the Time

So if you ever are in traffic or at a restaurant and think why it is so crowded.  Just take a look at this picture.  This is the third floor of a McDonalds and every single seat was taken.  Sometimes the amount of people in China is so overwhelming.  It's amazing people can all live together and survive.  I was just trying to get an ice cream.  It was a hot day.

60 Years

So China celebrated it's 60th Birthday for Communism.  China has come so far since 1949.  She has been through so much turmoil.  She has transformed indeed.  Today she sits as a strong force in the world.  The Middle Kingdom has once again returned and traders from far and wide come to her gates to glean from her.  I watched the CCTV program of Tienamen Square.  Very interesting as China showed off her military strength.  Thousands of troops and tanks rolled past the president.  I felt a strange sense of pride for China and found myself missing my own country and the patriotism celebrated on our birthday of independence.  My hope is that the people of China will taste more freedoms these next 60 years of China's history. 

Fall Festival

On October 30th the school had a Fall Festival.  My class dressed up so cute.  We had several traditional Korean dresses, a vampire, a wizard, a pirate, an angel and a flower fairy.  The schoolI had organized the Festival as the committee chair and was very grateful when it was all over.  I was supposed to be Captain Lady McRay, but everyone thought I was a gypsy.  Just can't get away from gypsiness. 

October 15

My Creative Students

I have a poster of Albert Einstein on my front door.  It says, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”  This is what I try to encourage in my classroom.  These students are very creative when given the freedom to be so.  In reading we worked on one Reader’s Theater play of the Emperor’s New Clothes.  They designed their own costumes out of paper.  Every unit I try to do a reader’s theater play.  This second unit we’ve been working on Where the Wild Things Are.  They love reading and acting it out.  Today they spontaeneously asked if they could make invitations to some other classes.  I loved their initiative and independent endeavor so I went with the flow and to encourage their creativity.  It is so neat to see a claws working together and doing something they think is fun. 

October 12 Making the Planets

Making the Planets

I’ve been having so much fun with my students.  We have been studying space.  Each student was assigned a planet and we made paper mache planets.  I did this last year, too.  The children love making their own planet.  Today they were painting their planets and saying, “We are planet artists.”  I’ve been playing Dvorak’s Symphony Number 9 when the students work on space stuff.  I don’t tell them it’s Dvorak I tell them it’s the space song.  When they start working they ask, “Can we listen to the space song?”

Pittsburg B-B-Q in Hojie October 4, 2009

My Chinese neighbor invited me to a friends house for dinner.  Yes the Chinese have houses.  Sometimes I forget this amid the sprawl of skyscraper apartments.  But the wealthy have homes.  We drove to Hojie, a neighboring city to Dongguan.  I didn’t know it was going to be a B-B-Q, but it was fantastic.  So many delicious hot dogs and ribs.  I felt like I was back in America.  The man of the house was an American from Pittsburg, who had been in China for 15 years.  So many families came over.  So many different languages were spoken at the B-B-Q, Chinese, German, French, Thai, English, Indian.  It was fun to see all the children running around, white children, mixed races of children, playing, speaking Mandarine.  Very cool and very fun!  On the way home my poor neighbor ran out of gas in the middle of the road-very dangerous in China.  She called some friends to help.  Now I can say I’ve run out of gas in China.  hahaha

Mid Autumn Festival October 3, 2009

In China the next big holiday celebrated besides Chinese New Year is the Midautumn Festival.  It takes place during the full moon in October.  People give each other moon cakes all the way leading up to the full moon.  My Chinese neighbor invited me over on the night of the full moon for a dinner, tea and mooncakes.  We watched CCTV’s special performance.  The Chinese love musical performances and dancing.  It’s really neat to see a country united for special performances for their special holidays.  Traditional songs are sung.  One interesting performance I saw was a combining of Chinese opera singing with modern pop singing; quite different and unique.  So many fireworks went off it was beautiful.  The Chinese sure know how to put on a fireworks display.  All the songs were about the moon, poetry about the moon, how it unites people and lovers.  That night under the full moon I saw lots of floating lanterns in the sky.  I bought myself a wishing lantern and lit it under the full moon and watched it float away.  It’s very magical.

The Coconut Bar and Beach

The last day the sun came out so gorgeously and graced the island in a lovely, romantic glow.  The beach in front of our hotel was still off limits for swimming.  I jumped in, but agot whistled at by some guard.  So I walked a little ways down the beach where other Chinese were swimming.  The water was so warm and the waves were perfect for body surfing.  It reminded me of my summers as a child on the California beaches.  After the typhoon so many shells and coral had been washed ashore that I was able to collect several beautiful pieces. 

 

The three of us were able to eat dinner out on the beach at the Coconut Bar, which was part of the hotel.  Of course I can’t eat coconut-I die.  So I’ve learned how to very dramatically express this to people who I order from.  Anyways I didn’t drink any coconut, though it would have been nice.  But I sat at this bar sipping a Corona watching the sunset, feeling like I was in some James Bond movie.  Now I’ve experienced a James Bond moment.  haha

Philipino Band

So one night my Philipino teacher friend and I set out all decked to the nines for dinner near the Crown Plaza at Yaloong Bay for dinner and shopping.  As we were walking we ran across some live music-a Philipino band.  My friend was like, “oh they are philipinos I can tell,” and then the lead singer looks at us and points and says, “hey philipino.”  We stayed and listened.  I danced crazy while my friend just watched.  Some Russians started dancing too and I danced with them.  I had fun and tried so hard to get my friend to dance, but we must all keep up appearances sometimes.  Yet I say who cares let loose sometimes and be fancy free.  I’ve learned this from my family.  Thank you crazy family. Celebrate life while you can especially in a typhoon. Hahaha

Butterfly Park

One thing I did on Hainan was rent a bike and bike around Yaloong Bay.  I found the Butterfly Park, which I really wanted to see.  It was pretty rainy from the typhoon so not too many butterflies were flying around, but it was still neat to walk around the park.  I saw a strange spikey turtle that was supposed to be 1,000 years old.  Don’t know if it was true or not.  It was said to be a lucky turtle.

Hainan Island

For my holiday in October I went to Hainan Island.  My first tropical island.  I stayed in the Holiday Inn Resort on the beach.  It was so nice and so amazing.  Ironically there was a typhoon while I was there.  So for two days I had to stay in the hotel and off the beach.  But the hotel had nice things to do like an exercise room and a spa.  I traveled with two other teachers.  We had fun inspite of typhoons and I would definently go back to Hainan.

 

Hong Kong is Way Cooler than I Thought

So I'm in Hong Kong for the second time in my life and have discovered that it is a very cool city.  I have to exit every 60 days, because of my visa.  So I came to HK this weekend with another teacher.  We walked around Kowloon area then took a ferry across the bay to HK Island.  She wanted to spend the night so we found the Hong Kong Hostel and booked a room, which is in Causeway Bay overlooking the water and the sailboats.  It's so pretty.  The subway is a fantastic way to get around, so fast and easy to use.  I really wish more cities in America would have subway systems.  At night the streets are bugeoning with people.  So many people in HK.  It feels like New York City.  We took the tram up to the Peak that overlooks HK.  It is so beautiful at night.  Anyways I'm excited to re-discover HK and realize that I do like it.  I look forward to exiting in another 60 days here.  Now that I'm in HK I will update my blog for friends and family to know what has been happening these past weeks while I've been on the mainland.

My Nephew

I saw my nephew for the first time when I went home. He is so amazing.  I've talked to him on skype before.  When he saw him for the first time he kept touching my face to make sure I was real.  It was so cute.  Babies are amazing.  

My Uncle's Family

Coming home is about family.  It's been great to see my family that knows me so well.  This is my uncle, world traveller himself and a magic musician.  Whatever instrument he touches it's like magic, because he can make the most beautiful sounds, whether it's guitar, banjo, piano, or erhu.  On one of his world tours he met a beautiful Taiwanese girl.  It's quite the romantic tale.

Swing Dancing

When I came back to America one of my goals was to go swing dancing.  I love swing dancing.  It's such great exercise and a great safe social thing to do.  I went with one of my girlfriends from college who likes to swing dance, too.  There was a live band playing Dixieland jazz.  It's so wonderful to be back in America listening to live music and dancing again.  In China people dance at night in the park, too.

Seattle Symphony

It was wonderful to return to the music community here in the NW.  I attended the Seattle Symphony's final concert for the year.  My mom took me out and we dressed up and we had a good mother/daughter time.  It's nice to see the familiar faces of many musicians I know, respect, and love.  It was a nice surprise to see one of my former stand partners sitting in the first violin section of the symphony.  Playing with the Seattle Symphony had been one of my dreams and aspiration. I was headed in that direction before I injured my arm and had been given an audition with the symphony.  But God decided to take me down a different path that led to China and I'm grateful.  

Home in the NW

Yeah I'm home in the NorthWest.  I can breath in fresh air.  It is so beautiful here.  I love my hometown, my home state, my home country.  Returning to America has helped me see it with new eyes.  I love America and appreciate her more.  We have so much freedom.  After living in a communist country coming home has been a huge shock for me.  I was not prepared for the reverse culture shock I would experience coming back.  When I first got off the plane I was so surprised to be surrounded by so many large, tall, fat, sloppily dressed people.  People have so much more freedom here in America.  Even the trees are freer.  They can grow naturally.  In China the trees are constantly pruned and moved wherever.  You see trees planted in perfectly straight rows that don't seem natural, actually it is eerie.  You see men moving 30 feet trees to desired locations.  I can walk on grass now and not be in trouble.  You can't walk on the grass in China.  America is so beautiful.  In Chinese America translates into literally beautiful land and it is.  Today I watched some sailboats on the sound.  I had to let out a big old whoop, "I'm home and I'm free." 

Happy Mother's Day

I love you mom.  Wish I could be there with you today.  This is such a great picture of my mom, being the supportive loving strength she is to our family.  My brother was commissioned last week as a second lieutenant in the Air Force.  All I can say is the Air Force is lucky to have him.  He's gonna be a great Combat Systems Officer.  America you are lucky to have men like my brother to defend you.  Please show your respect and support to our troops who daily lay their lives on the line for your freedoms.  In the background is my grandfather, veteran, retired Master Sargeant.  Mom you raised us well and taught us about honor, respect, dignity, and justice.  Thank you.

Bike Ride Through the Mountains and Bamboo Boat Float

One of my favorite part of Youngshou was the bike ride through the mountains.  Our group rented bikes.  Each person choose his/her vehicle.  Some people rented motor scooters, some single bikes, and some tandem bikes.  I was on the super cheap budget so I rented my own bike for around $3 us dollars for the day.  It was so fun to go as a group and bike through traffic then get out into the amazing mountains.  We rode down country roads.  Haha makes me think of Take Me Home Country Roads.  

When we had biked out pretty far into the country we stopped along the river and rented bamboo boats to float back.  It was so peaceful to float down the river looking at the mountains.  My friend Dasha and I just started singing worship songs.  The whole earth is echoing His praise no matter where you go the Heavens and Earth declare His majesty.