An American Girl in a Chinese World

It is the day after Thanksgiving, so we found it very appropriate to go shopping! Its no Black Friday, but it is China....so I would say its pretty close ;) We decided to head to Walmart, this sounded like a place with possible Christmas decorations. It was... there was one side of an aisle dedicated to our favorite holiday! This was the moment we started laughing. The ornaments, decorations, and tree selections were so limited, but so funny! Coming from a place where there are whole stores with anything Christmas now to a place where we rejoice when we find something that matches! :) We are SO thankful we found a tree and items to fill our home full of the Christmas Spirit!

On the way to our gym is a little pet shop. Every time I walk by there is the cutest little fur ball sitting in a cage and I can't help but stop by to pick it up. It will be a happy/sad moment the day mini bear has found a home :(

Tonight during tutor time with Tom and Jerry we worked on the "th" sound. It is crazy how hard it is for them to hear the difference and also to say it correctly. As I was sitting there trying to explain the importance of being able to say them right, this video came to mind...

While watching a movie tonight a beetle fell from our ceiling. How is that possible you ask? I have no idea. That is why i sit here feet off the ground, jumping at every noise, and scanning the floor every few seconds. I don't like bugs... especially this bug.It is a Chinese bug, who knows what kind of thing it could spray, heck it could even jump! After all there are ninjas in China... lol

The night began with J and I heading to Starbucks.He was meeting his bud and I was just going to enjoy the nice weather and improve my angry bird skills. You know that feeling you get when someone is watching you..I was feeling it pretty heavy. It may have been the breath of the Chinese kid over my shoulder or the nice sound affects he was making, but needless to say I was being watched. As I continued to pass levels, the noises got closer and closer until a chair was pulled up right next to me. I offered him to play, but he politely refused...the first time. The second time, he jumped at the offer. We instantly became friends. With the very little Chinese I know, we managed to play against and laugh at each other. He told me his name, age, and taught me the word for bomb. For an hour and a half I was able to make a friend without either one of us being able to speak to one another...all because of a popular game and probably because of my amazing angry bird skills! lol What a cool fee...

One of my favorite things about the Holiday Season is the Christmas cards! I love pictures! I love seeing how everyone is doing!I will miss getting all of them and being able to send you all one! I designed a "dream" card that I would want you all to receive. haha Pretend this is in the mail and on the way to your home!! :) Stationery card View the entire collection of cards.

If I could explain to you the excitement of receiving packages here, i would.....but I can't! The joy of getting that phone call saying you have something to pick up gives you goosebumps and that butterfly thing in your stomach. It is so hard not to run the whole way there or not to open it on the way back home. I love it! Special thanks to: My mom aka packing queen!- You are so loving and thoughtful and I feel so loved with the amount of time and effort put into getting them to me!Thank you for our pan, candy,vanilla, and everything else! Lisa and the girls - Your pictures brought tears to my eyes! I totally have them where all can see my beautiful cousins! Also thanks for the nyquil! Grandma Sue and Don - Thanks for the sweet card, the muffins, mixes, and love sent our way! Sara - Wes's pictures are SO darn cute!!! Alodie - Crowder pictures and shirt on display in the Majors's house!! you rock! Tanner Family - Thank you for your gifts and sweet card!! Ann - thank you f...

First Holiday I will not be at home. I have a feeling this time next week I will be missing home pretty bad. It is funny, because thanksgiving was never one of my favorite holidays. Food was food, I hate being stuffed and lazy, and I realize now that I took my family for granted. Now American food…sounds amazing!! Oh How I wish I could be so stuffed and lay around the house with family! Puzzles, games, and just spending time enjoying everyone! The team here will have dinner and we have found a place to order a turkey, but it won’t be the same without all the kiddos running around, grandma’s rolls, the boring thanksgiving parade, and my mom, dad, and sisters all around. This is an adventure we are on here in China, but sometimes adventures can be rough. I will miss you guys! Thankful turkey love sent your way!

Every Thursday night the woman on my team meet together to have accountability and to catch up on life. Considering that fact that I like to talk, this night is always something I look forward to. Last time we met I came up with questions that we would all have to answer….like a get to know you better game ☺ It was so much fun! It is amazing how much you can get to know someone when you take time to ask questions. I realized that night, that questions is one of the ways I receive love. I absolutely love it when someone has a question or wants to understand and get to know me better! I thrive when someone really has time for me and has a desire to learn about me. This was a fun fact that I learned about myself and I wanted to share. I am going to try to put that into action and try to be intentional with asking questions to others…I want their hearts to feel all warm and fuzzy like mine!

Have you ever heard a Chinese person sing p!nk? I have! This past week we had the coolest opportunity to go to a concert! Not only a concert but a concert performed by Americans! The group consisted of 11 people from Austin Texas. I was so excited to be able to hear English songs, and was hoping for a bit of country…with them being from Texas and all. The opening act was a punk rock band. With the lead singer in bright pink leather pants…I knew what ever was going to be sung would be great! To my surprise this punk rocker Chinese chick, totally sang “perfect” in English and it was good! The rest of the concert was wonderful! Our students, teachers, and Jeremy were dancing and singing right along with the Texans! What a nice taste of home!

Nothing like an early morning businessmen song!

Hilly Road Almost every day on our journey to campus as we are climbing the big hill, I thank the Father for our scooter! It is so convenient and the very fact that I don’t have to pedal up that hill is wonderful! Pedaling up a hill is not fun for anyone, but could you imagine if you had your chart full of veggies, fruit, or water jugs that you sold for a living behind your pedaling bike? I can’t! Talk about muscles burning! What I love about this culture, is that many times you will see a complete stranger on his scooter or electric bike; stick out his foot or hand and push the chart as he goes up the hill. So simple, but yet, makes someone else day so so much easier! I have been looking for an opportunity to do this, I will let ya know when I do.

Teaching English is not very difficult. I speak therefore I can somewhat teach. I have now become pretty busy with tutoring. I have an English class of 5 kindergarteners, 2 middle-school boys, 1 older woman, 1 college student, and probably 1 elementary school girl. These people impress me so much with the fact that they are so dedicated to learning another language. For the most part teaching them vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation, and just improving their conversation skills has been great. This Sunday night while talking with Tom and Jerry…I hit a bump in the road! “Mrs. Major’s what is a restroom?” “ I explained its where the toilet is. “AHHHWWWAAAA!!!, you rest on the toilet?!?” Then total laughter filled the room! It was going to take awhile before they regained their composer. Haha English does not make sense sometimes, not even to me. But it certainly is fun to see how people react to some of our cultural and language obscurities!

Let me introduce you to my little buds! Tom (left) is 16 and Jerry (right) is 13. I tutor them on Sunday evenings for two hours. In the beginning they were shy and it was harder to get them to talk. Now, 6 weeks into it, I can't get them to stop talking! I really like them! They have a great English, sometimes I think they are better than some of my college freshman! Jerry has a lot of energy and it can be hard to get him to sit still, so sometimes I will just tell him to go running up and down the stairs while me and Tom keeping talking :) It has been fun to teach younger kids and to come up with some creative ideas that keep them interested! We are hoping to get a few more tutoring jobs like them :)

“Jiayou, jiayou!” The crowd cheered as the runners gave it their all dashing to the finish line. It was the sports competition day all over china. We went to cheer our students on and to have a good time! This day was SO much fun! It was full of so many funny and cool China things. Here are a few: - They will run in jeans and dress shoes. - If one person owns some track shoes….everyone will take turns wearing them when it came time for them to race. (Americans would go buy their own) - Near the end of the race your friends will start running along side you….cheering in your ear and ready to catch you as soon as you cross the finish line. - At the end of a race….you are suppose to act dead. Well at least that is what it looks like. They just fall down and act like that was the hardest task ever to be accomplished! SO FUNNY! The friends carry them off and tend to their needs. ( I thought something was horribly wrong when the first girl did this, but after the next 10 did….I began to pick...

Don’t you just hate it when you open your closet and realize out of all the clothes you own, none of them match or go together? I do! I am not sure the Chinese ever have that feeling. I have come to the conclusion that Chinese don’t even turn on the light, they grab some pants….grab a shirt….and they have an outfit. My first two months, the “pretty + pretty = pretty” concept was so strange. They find a pretty shirt + pretty pants = a pretty outfit. However, just this past week I realized I didn’t bring any good winter shoes and that my feet were going to freeze on the scooter. Solution: Wear some warm socks that don’t match with my open foot shoes….in America I would have been mocked and laughed at. Here… fit right in. This got me thinking. I wonder how much of what I wear is because of what other people will think of me rather than me wearing it because I like it? I get more stares here in a day than I have my entire life ,yet I never feel as if I am being judged. I never feel like ...