It's been awhile since I've last written a blog - - our internet is still flaky at home, and its hard to find a time to write, when the internet will let me post it!

(Students working together during the first lesson).

A few Saturday's ago, I was able to go into a small city in the countryside. The city was called Heishan, and it was about a 3 hour drive south of Shenyang. Shaun was asked to go teach, and I was asked to go as the photographer...in one day I took nearly 400 pictures!

(We saw many donkeys pulling carts all over the town, and when we were taking pictures, one passed in front of us).

It was a very fun and interesting day. We left really early in the morning, and since I never go outside of Shenyang unless by train, it was a cool drive to see the countryside and actually be on a highway. Shenyang is a HUGE city. When we got to Heishan, class started right away. The lesson that was prepared was way too hard for the students. We got to improvise and teach about time, making plans, what we do on the weekend, and other things like that. There were about 50 students in one classroom with rows of long desks and a chalkboard at the front. Overall, even though the students were shy, we think they enjoyed the day.

(Signing the notebooks for the students.)

After teaching, we went to lunch at a restaurant in the town and had a traditional northeastern Chinese meal. And then, we went into the countryside to teach a lesson at a school there. There were about 100 students in the second lesson, and Shaun taught simple phrases and greetings. The students were very eager to have us sign their papers...Wayne, the Chinese teacher that went with us, said it was the first time many of the students had ever seen a white person.
(A man walking in the countryside).
The students were very interested in why we came to China and if we like it or not, what our name is, and tried to ask us as much as they can with their English skills. They were all so cute, and I really enjoyed seeing the countryside, meeting the students and just getting to experience the whole day.

Since then, we have all been enjoying life in Shenyang and hanging out together. The weather is starting to get nicer and its been pretty warm on certain days. Josh, the newest intern, came about a month ago now, and he fits right in with all of us. We have been making a lot of American dinners as a group...tacos, grilled cheese and tomato soup, Shaun and Josh made us hamburgers and french fries...it's been fun to hang out, cook, play cards, and watch movies at night. Last week we had an intern breakfast at Eli and Mollie's apartment. Because they live in the same complex as us, our apartment was bragging that we got to sleep in the latest because we only had to walk ten steps to get to their apartment...So, the night before, we had an impromptu "sleep over" at our apartment. Shaun, Jensen and Josh decided to watch a movie and sleep over so that they too could just walk ten steps to get to Mollie and Eli's. It was fun, all 5 of us slept on the big rug and watched a movie..it felt like we were in the 5th grade all over again! Breakfast was really fun, it's always fun when the whole group is together...After breakfast we got to play a makeshift game of ultimate frisbee. It's been a busy but good week!

Hope everyone is doing well at home. Emily - Happy Birthday! I wish I was there to celebrate with you today! Much love.

Starting Over and Halfway..

..Starting Over..
One huge perk of my internship with Langston is that part of our contract is to attend language classes to learn Mandarin. Because of a few different factors, we had to switch up Mandarin classes, and as of yesterday, I have one hour a day of private Mandarin lessons with Mr. Zhang (Zhang laoshi) who only speaks Chinese. I walked out of class feeling really overwhelmed, and kind of like I am starting over. The board was covered in Chinese characters and I am not too sure what my homework assignment was…but, in the end, starting over or not, I think this is a great opportunity for me. I can’t use English as a crutch for explanations, I am forced to speak in Chinese and use the (few) words I know. I am getting an hour of only Chinese lessons every day I go into work, and even though these next few weeks will kick my butt, it will help me get closer and closer to the long term goal of becoming fluent.

..Halfway..
Today is exactly halfway from when I arrived in Shenyang to when I leave. Crazy. I can’t believe that I have been here for three months and that there are only three more months to go. On one hand, I don’t want to go at all, but on another, I am getting really excited to sit on my parents’ deck just talking with the whole family since we will finally all be in Portland again. I don’t want to leave Shenyang, and the roommates and close friends I have here, or the students/staff at the school, but I know that each adventure in life is just for a season. But, even with not wanting to leave, I am really starting to miss friends and family, and just being able to spend time with them talking and doing nothing, I miss eating dinner with my parents, Portland and sunny weather of Tempe, and of course being able to dry my clothes in a dryer. :)

When I sat down to write this blog, I thought it’d be fun to share some highlights of the last few months, but, it seems that it is so hard to describe, because really, it’s the little things…
I love going to the market down the street from my apartment and fumbling through communicating to try and order vegetables, fruit, eggs and meat.
I love learning Chinese, and being able to speak to people or understand what people are saying to me.
I love the students. Ok, to be perfectly honest, I love most of the students!
I love the train rides to different cities and getting to explore different cities.
I love that for the last few weeks Lindsey and I have slept on each end of the couch every night because the beds in our rooms are far too hard.
I love that I ordered water for our water cooler and the person actually understood me.
I love getting packages and little reminders of home, which also serve as reminders that I am getting to experience a totally different life and culture here.

I’m sure the list could go on and on and on…but, it is truly the little things and relationships that I have that make this such a once in a lifetime opportunity. That’s all for now, and hey, I’ll see you in three months. Much love.

YouTube

Yesterday, I did my CCF (culture class) on YouTube. The students and I had a good laugh watching random videos and learning about the monster of a website. At the end of class, we made a video and posted it on YouTube. I told them, "my parents and friends really want to see this video, so tell them something about China.." and here is what they said. I swear I didn't put them up to anything! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHBvhrmLLmU

Snapshots..

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2452368&id=10003281&l=d449e4def5

Much love.

A Few Feet From North Korea!

(The Yalu River between China, left, and North Korea, right.)

This last weekend, I was able to go to take the train for 4 hours to Dandong. Dandong is a smaller city (by China's scale) and is on the Yalu River, which separates China from North Korea. It was a really fun weekend, and by far, the closest I will ever get to go to Pyongyang or anywhere else in NK.

It was really fun to spend some time by water! After living so close to either Tempe Town Lake or the Willamette, I have missed being by water, and running by water. Not to say I went running on vacation this weekend though! :) But, we spent most of our time just walking along the river looking over to North Korea. In true Bates' family tradition, we made up many stories about who was on the other side and what the soldiers were doing.

(Shaun climbing up on the bridge next to one of the bullet holes.)

The main highlights of the trip were...
*Taking a boat tour along the river. We found out the hard way that binoculars cost 10kuai a person, but, had a sweet pair of binoculars to see NK even more clearly! Mostly all you could see of NK was smoke stacks, small buildings, many many boats, and lots of soldiers walking around.
*There is a bridge that used to span from the China coast to the NK coast, but the Koreans dismantled their 1/4 of it. This is also the same bridge that the US Air Force bombed in 1950 in the Korean War. We got to walk across the bridge and get as close as we could to North Korea...and the bridge was sweet too! There are still bullet holes, or small pieces of the bridge missing from when the US bombed it.
*The next morning, we found a coffee shop owned by a Canadian man. We had an American breakfast and I very much enjoyed a caramel latte while reading Time magazines! It is the little things like that which make for such a relaxing weekend!
*Spending time walking in the sun and wind (it felt very much like the Oregon coast), and just doing nothing but talking and hanging out.

(Doing a handstand on the bridge between China and North Korea.)

One of the great parts about traveling in different countries is traveling by train. I love it. I was able to see a huge part of the Czech Republic this last summer via the train, and it is such a different view traveling with other nationals from the country and getting a pretty sweet view of the countryside. The train ride both ways was during the day, it is always fun to just look out the window the whole way. The ride made me realize how diverse China really is. We passed through mountains and snow, and then ended up in a sunny city...We passed many small towns, where life is definitely a lot different than in Shenyang, saw people pulling carts through water by horses...I love getting a different picture of the country, one that you can't see in the big cities or on airplanes.

I am so glad that I got to go away this weekend, it was definitely a very fun and relaxing getaway and really cool to see a different part of China!

Pancakes, Field Trips, Pizza and T-shirts..

The internet is out at our house again…so this blog may be long due to the fact that I haven’t been able to post all week, so much to say! Sorry for the lack of emails lately…hopefully this blog will give a quick overview of what’s going on here.

Last Sunday, Shaun and I organized a pancake breakfast as a ‘get to know you better’ breakfast for the American and Chinese teaching staff. There are 9 American English teachers, and 10 Chinese teachers. We thought it would be fun to show a bit of America with a traditional pancake breakfast, pancakes, syrup, eggs, bacon and coffee. And, all the Americans were more than happy to get a taste of home. The maple syrup and coffee were hugely popular with the Americans, not so much with the Chinese…I guess there are some things that are uniquely American! It was really fun, everyone had a good time, and as always, it was an adventure to cook a big breakfast on hot plates!

Tuesday was a great day. During Chinese class, we were all a bit lazy and managed to convince our Chinese teacher, Veronica, to take us on a field trip. Oh, how I love field trips! She took us to the biggest bookstore in Shenyang. We all managed to pick up a few things; I found this sweet world map that has both the Chinese characters and English for all the major countries and cities. At the bookstore, there was Langston advertising…haha! We enjoyed taking pictures and posing next to the advertisement for where we already work!

That night, 4 students took us out to dinner at a pizza buffet place. It was almost like Izzy’s…for those Portlanders out there. It was really fun to hang out with them outside of school and get to talk, laugh and eat together. We had a lot of fun taking ridiculous pictures, and just hanging out together.

The rest of the week was spent planning a vacation! Part of our contract with Langston is that we each get a week of paid vacation. There is a 3 day Chinese holiday in May, so I am taking my vacation the last week in April, and in total, will get 11 days off. It is always so fun and exciting to plan a vacation.

Tonight, Rachel and Emily, two other interns, are hosting a Tacky T-shirt Party! We have seen many t-shirts in China where the English makes no sense, or there are hilarious typos, or the lack of copyright laws is made apparent….so tonight, everyone has to wear a tacky t-shirt that they found here. I can’t give away my t-shirt before the party, but I will say, it has something to do with a panda with a comical life-motto at the bottom. I will post pictures next week and let you take part in our tacky t-shirt party too!

As always, I still can’t believe how fast time is going. This week was 4 months until I am home and back in America, spending time with the parents, Emily and Giles! It will be fun, but again, it seems that there is still so much more to do and see here! I hope everyone is doing well…hopefully we’ll figure out the internet and I will be able to get back on Skype and email more regularly soon.

Always an adventure!

For dinner tonight, we though it would be a good change of pace to cook fish instead of chicken or beef. And, as most things are in China, it was an adventure!

To begin, It was a challenge to order the fish. Due to repetition, I have managed to learn how to order beef, ground beef, and chicken breast. But, tonight was a bit of a vocab challenge. We managed to get two small white fish of some kind...the kind is still to be determined.

If you know me well, you know I am a little hesitant to even cut raw chicken, so getting a live fish and watching it be caught and killed, (or walking out of the fish stand while it happened), having Shaun gut it at home, and then finding a way to bake it, was more than I was used to. Haha.

The Chinese are a lot more resourceful and eat all parts of the animal, so there were lots of 'extras' that we didn't need. Once we (by we, I mean Shaun, while Lindsey and I took pictures and watched and gawked) got it home, cleaned it all out and rinsed it...the fish kept moving! What the heck?! Even without a head, too!

After cooking it, the verdict is not too bad. I am not sure that it is necessarily something we will be doing all that often! These adventurous Tuesday nights will always make China memorable!