APPLEs and peanut butter!

PEANUT BUTTER... PEANUT BUTTER! That's the word of the day! HUH!

Despite the strict weight limit we were supposed to abide by in packing for China, I made sure that I did NOT leave home without a big jar of Peter Pan Peanut Butter. Having never been to China before, I had no idea what to expect when it came to the food I would be eating. I guess I figured that if worse came to worse, I would be able to live off of that peanut butter for a month. I was SO glad I brought it with me. Don't get me wrong though, I LOVED the food (for the most part) while I was there. One of my FAVORITE snacks is apples and peanut butter, and so I introduced it to one of my good friends in China. She LOVED it! Here are some pictures of the most amazing afternoon I had in China....and of course, apples and peanut butter were on the menu!

My sweet friend and me eating apples and peanut butter!

She loved it ALMOST as much as me!

I love peanut butter, yes I do! I love peanut butter, how 'bout you?

I just love this girl!

Fun times!

We didn't only have apples and peanut butter...I also taught her how to make PB&J. Pictures of that to come later!

Our team would make frequent trips to the Super Walmart in downtown...and everytime we stocked up on more peanut butter! It was fun!

My peanut butter became a quick conversation starter while I was in China. I had so many AMAZING conversations with students over peanut butter. One of my favorite stories from my whole time in China comes from the pictures in this post! If you haven't heard it and would like to, PLEASE let me know! I would LOVE to tell you! It's amazing what Father can do through something like peanut butter!

Hidden Treasures

Hidden Treasures

This precious video sums up my heart! All of the orphans in China (and everywhere else too :)!) truly are hidden treasures.

Reveille

You're right...this post has NOTHING to do with China, but I just had to post this pic of Christi and me with the First Lady of Texas A&M. We love you Reveille! Gig 'em Ags!

Softly call the Muster....

Texas A&M is known for it's traditions; the traditions are what sets A&M apart from other universities. Today, April 21, happens to be the day that my favorite Aggie tradition takes place...Aggie Muster. Muster started MANY years ago as a way to get together with your college friends and remember your days at A&M. Part of remembering your college days is remembering the friends you had at A&M who have passed away since the last Aggie Muster. Aggie Muster ceremonies are held all over the world. Infact, "If there is an Aggie within one-hundred miles of you, you are expected to get together, eat a little, and live over the days you spent at the A&M College of Texas". My favorite part of the Muster ceremony is "The Roll Call of the Absent". The names of all the Aggies who have passed away since April 21, 2006 are read. As each Aggie's name is read, a friend or family member answers "Here!" for them and a candle is lit in their memory. Check out more about AGGIE MUSTER! It's such a great tradition.

Have you eaten....

Ni chi le ma? ...or in English, have you eaten? I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I was asked this question last summer. Of course, my kind students knowing that I didn't speak much Chinese would always use the English version of the question.

You may not be thinking that it is a very interesting question, but every time (for the first couple of weeks) I answered their question I was guaranteed to receive puzzled looks. Their puzzled looks to my answer ALWAYS puzzled me. You see, they would ask me, "Have you eaten yet?" Usually when I was asked I was on my way, so I responded, "No, I'm on my way. Do you want to come?" It never failed that they would stop, give me a puzzle look, and then walk off not knowing what to say.

What did I do? I went to my team leader who happens to live in China and asked what was going on. Why did they always look so puzzled and not know how to respond when I answered their question? You see, no one told me that "Ni chi le ma?" was a typical greeting in China...I guess kind of used interchangeably with something like "how are you?". All my students wanted to hear from me was a simple "yes". That one simple word would have saved so much confusion. They didn't know how to respond when I asked them to join me for lunch/dinner because they had already eaten.

When I caught on to their "greeting", I was so excited! It really made me feel "Chinese". It was also pretty fun to "beat" them to asking the question. "Have you eaten?" quickly became an ongoing game between a couple of my students and me. So much fun!

Here are just a few "eating" pictures...in fact, these ended up being some of my FAVORITE pictures that I took in China!

Ni chi le ma?

Happy Birthday Brynn!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS BRYNN!!!!!

In honor of your birthday, this post is for you!

I was looking through my pics from the summer, and these were a couple of my favorites. There were actually a ton more, but I chose these three!

JAMAICA!

I looked for the picture of us in our matching/misspelled shirts. Then I remembered that you are the only one who has a copy of that pic because my camera was stolen that day. You are too precious, my friend!

Beautiful Guilin! Yay for being roomies for that weekend!

Playing/dancing/singing in the rain....dancing to "My Heart Will Go On".....N*Sync....and the list could go on forever! So many memories from the summer! You are amazing, sweet Brynn! I miss you like crazy, and I hope that your birthday was incredible! Sheng ri kuai le! Love you!

R-U-S-S-I-A! Russia, Russia! All the WAY!

The second half of the summer of 2006 was spent in Nanning, Guangxi, PRC. I (along with the rest of my team) taught conversational English to middle school and high school students. Most of the students in China are very good at reading and writing in English, but their speaking and listening skills aren't as good. The organization I go with sends college students into the schools for this reason....for 4 weeks, the students are being taught English by native English speakers who, for the most part, cannot communicate effectively to them in Chinese. They are forced to work on their speaking and listening. It was amazing to see the improvement in all of the students in only a 4 week time period!

This is a view of the classrooms. My classroom is the first door on the right on the 2nd floor.

A view of the courtyard with some of the kids playing!

The primary school that was next door. This pic is from the balcony of my dorm room.

My teaching partner, Aaron, and me!

My AMAZING class! RUSSIA!!

The last picture is a picture of my students for the summer. I spent many hours with these 15 amazing Chinese students. They ranged in age from 12-17 years old. The students were placed in classes based on their English proficiency. I was in Class 4...meaning that these kids were right in the middle. Many of them KNEW English well, but they were not very confident in their abilities. It was neat to see that change throughout the summer.

As you can see, my class was "Russia". Since the Olympics will be in Beijing in 2008, we added some "English Olympics" as a fun way to help them learn. Each class was a different country and they would compete against each other once a week. Surprisingly, Russia turned out to be pretty competitive....and I'm not sure who it was to make them that way!! JK. Most of you know me and know that I am VERY competitive!! We spent a lot of time practicing our cheers and chants because I wanted them to be the LOUDEST CLASS!! And yes, they did that quite well! It was so much fun to hear them cheer and chant with their Chinese accents.

I do have some video of that, but I'm not sure how to make it work. So...I will work on it, and try to get it up here sometime so that you can hear them too!

R-U-S-S-I-A! Russia, Russia! All the WAY!

We are from Russia! We are the best YA! We are from Russia! We are gonna crush YA!

Blog Makeover!

I just wanted to say thanks to Emily for the absolutely amazing blog makeover. She has done an incredible job with her blog, and I am so glad that she helped me on mine. You should check out her blog! Her family adopted AnnaClaire in December from China, and I have enjoyed following the blog...so I know that you will too.

Emily...if you read this, thank you so much! I am enjoying my blog's new look!

An Interesting Beginning...

I have a question for you...

What happens when you put a senior at Texas A&M who will be graduating in 28 days in an extremely boring class at 9:10 in the morning where you learn about "feeding cows"?

You guessed it...a song about our trip to China! I put my "Cabin Cheer" skills to use from the summers at T bar M and changed up "The Brady Bunch" theme song. Enjoy...


Here's a story about Team Nanning
Who was headed to the province of Guangxi
All twelve had hearts to serve, to serve their Father
Re-named: Team Wahaha

Here's a story about Team Yining
Eight who planned to spend their summer in Xinjiang
Unknown to them, their plans were changing
Now they were Team Bu Dong

Till the one day when Team Nanning met Team Yining
As they stopped the bus in Guangzhou from Hong Kong
Their TWO small teams would soon become ONE big team
That's the way they all became Team WaBuDong

Team WaBuDong...Team WaBuDong...

That's the way WE became Team WaBuDong!

The original Team Yining...aka Team BuDong!

Sorry Team Nanning (Team Wahaha)...I didn't have a picture of just you guys.


Here it is....Team WaBuDong...minus our two fearless leaders.

Incase you haven't heard the story...

I was on the original Team Yining. Our plans were to travel to Xinjiang in the northwestern part of China. While we were in route to Hong Kong something happened with the school we were going to be working with, and they were unable to host us. Here we are...in China with nowhere to go. We landed in Hong Kong, bused to Guangzhou and were waiting to make two more connecting flights to Yining, Xinjiang when they broke the news to us. Our team as a whole was completely shocked (at least I know I was). Our ENTIRE summer plans had changed in a matter of moments. At that point, instead of two more flights we boarded a train for about 12 hours. That is another story in and of itself....

I didn't know the reason why all of this was happening at the time, but throughout the summer I began to understand why we were in Nanning and not Yining. Through this huge setback at the very beginning of my time in China, I learned that our Father has everything under control and sees a much bigger picture than I could ever imagine!

Team WaBuDong...you guys are amazing! This summer won't be the same without you!

AND THIS WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING...

Recap of Summer 2006

I decided that it would be fun to "recap" last summer as a way to get excited and ready to go back to China this summer. So from now until June 30 (departure day), I will try to post some of my favorite pics/stories from last summer.

To all my friends in Nanning who are reading this... I hope that you enjoy the pictures and it reminds you of all of the fun times we had together at Camp China!! 我爱你！

Easter Snow

Ok...so I know that this blog is for my trip to China this summer, but its for everything else as well.

Sunday was Easter (yes, I am aware that I just stated the obvious). But something strange happened this Easter in good ole East Texas...SNOW. Yes, I know it's shocking, but I do have pictures for proof.

Saturday afternoon it decided to snow and really didn't stop snowing until early Sunday morning. It was so pretty to see all of the spring flowers covered in snow. Jenny and I decided to make the most out of our Snow Day despite the fact that I was totally unprepared. I had only brought shorts and tshirts home with me for the weekend. So, if you know Jenny and I very well at all, you would know that we would improvise, and this is what we came up with...our Easter snow outfits.

What an interesting/memorable Easter! Yes, the snow this Easter was so much fun, but it's so important to remember the REAL reason we celebrate...thank you Father for Your sacrifice!

I'm new at this...

Ok...so I am not the most computer literate person in the world. Infact, I am going to go ahead and say it...im very computer illiterate. That, however, isn't going to stop me. I am determined to figure this whole blogging thing out. Just give me a little time...oh ya, and any pointers/tips for improvement are GREATLY appreciated!