Hot Pot in the Dorms

Last night, some of Matt's grad students invited us to have dinner with them in the dorms. It was a great time and pretty smart of them. Since student dorms have no heat, cooking "hot pot" keeps the room pretty warm!


Hot pot is a traditional Chinese style of cooking in which you boil some really spicy soup and then drop meat, veggies, and noodles into it to cook. We ate and ate and ate... For two hours we ate, then I had to leave to meet someone else. Matt stayed longer and ate even more.

Penpals

Back in October, I had this great idea that I thought would be so simple...

I gave my students an assignment to write a letter to one of my friends in America. I would grade their grammar and writing style; and, in turn, they would make friends with someone new who could share with them about life, culture, and all kinds of things! It may have been a great idea, but definitely not a simple one!

After finally gathering all the letters from my students, I sent them off to America (half to one city, half to another city). Needless to say, I underestimated the time it takes to get 150 students to write a letter, then to grade them, send them off, have my state-side friends write response letters, then have them all sent back to China again! Yet, finally, after nearly 3 months, I gave the students their return letters from their penpals this week. I have to say that all the headache, the two hours in line at the post office (3 different times), and the hassle of grading was totally worth it! The students were so excited to get letters from these "strangers" in America.

So, thank you to everyone in Knoxville who participated!

Unfortunately, the Cleveland letters got lost in the mail and then returned to me in China. (Aaagh!) So, I am attempting to send them off again very soon. Be on the lookout for them!

The Post-Christmas Post

It's Saturday here; and although our Christmas party that had been planned for students was unfortunately canceled at the last minute, we've really enjoyed the past few days, anyway. On Christmas Eve, we headed into the downtown for a Christmas concert at a local club.

Then, on Friday, we took it easy around here... Made cinnamon rolls, chatted with the families, opened gifts and hung around most of the day. Students dropped in and out to say Merry Christmas and drop off gifts for us (which really should be another blog in itself considering some of the things we received!). We really enjoyed spending the day with them. At about 3pm, some girls came over insisting to help me finish cooking for our 4pm party with our American friends. So, they helped me finish the Christmas cookies! Then on Friday evening, we got together with friends, ate some yummy finger foods and played games. Our Jenga tower reached 36 stories, which according to the box, means we are "real pros"! Then today, we, along with some local friends, headed out into some of poorer areas and workers' dormitories to spread a little Christmas cheer. It was definitely a highlight of the week!

Click here or on the photo above to see more pictures!

Thank you all for keeping my mom in your thoughts this week. She is out of surgery and recovering well. What a great Christmas gift!

A Surprise Christmas Greeting

I was using the Chinese Internet's largest search engine called Baidu last night to find some video clips from Christmas movies and TV series for class. I searched for "Friends Christmas." Imagine my HUGE surprise, when the second page of results popped up a video of MY friends at Christmas! Check it out... You may know these folks!

Click on the image above to link to the video

The Sweet Potato Guy

Although I'm not a huge fan of eating sweet potatoes, I love the smell of them here in China. These guys cook them in a large metal container on the back of their tri-cycles and then sell them on the street for about $0.25.

A Long Week

It's been a long week for us. Many of you have already heard, but for those of you who haven't, we ask for you to help us in praying for something. Last week, my (Amy's) mom was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Since the initial shock, we have learned that the prognosis seems really good. The doctors caught it early as the result of an unrelated X-ray, and it seems the problem can be taken care of with surgery to remove the affected kidney. There will be another couple tests on Tuesday to ensure that it hasn't spread elsewhere. Please keep my mom in mind over the next couple of Tuesdays: Dec. 15 is the test, Dec. 22 is the operation.

It is definitely not easy being so far away from her and the rest of the family at this time. But we feel so blessed that our Father has given us peace and confidence in Him.

Thanks for joining us in lifting her up.

JiLiang Idol

You may wonder why Matt's students are covered in Christmas tree garland and clutching stuffed animals and roses while they appear to be singing...

Students here love to perform. Really, really love it. Singing competitions are a normal occurrence, and usually (like last night) only about half of the students on stage can actually carry a tune. But no one seems to mind and no one gets booed. Instead, students (despite their singing ability) are given tons of gifts, hugged, kissed, etc. by their friends, admirers and classmates... All while singing!

A Few More Photos...

From Me desperately trying to avoid the photo...and failing

From The full spread of food

From Our friends with whom we celebrated

From The Tree

Three Days of Thankfulness

We celebrated Thanksgiving here on Friday evening with our friends and had a great time. As is the Thanksgiving tradition, there was more food than we could possibly eat--leading to lots of yummy leftovers. After dinner we hung out and played Scattegories for a while before walking home in an attempt to burn a few of those calories. It was delicious; and this morning, I am still stuffed. Unfortunately, the camera battery died mid-celebration, but there will be more pictures later as friends email them to me. The final spread of food was definitely picture worthy!

On Thursday, Matt and I kept things low-key, baking calzones and going to a coffee house. It may seem very un-American, but we enjoyed it. :-)

We also enjoyed sharing the holiday with students a bit. On Wednesday, I baked my first-ever pumpkin pies for the students coming to our English Corner. They were so excited to try some traditional Thanksgiving food and totally loved it. Some girls ate three slices; we had to convince them to save some pie for the guys coming later!

thanksgiving 2009

(Click the photo to see a bigger slideshow.)