An American Girl in a Chinese World

Saying good-bye to our life our first year in China is more emotional than I thought it would be. The process of packing and preparing to move to another place in China is both an exciting but anxious time for me. This place became my home and now my home is in transition like me. We will be moving all our stuff to the other campus before we leave for America. This is a stressful but adventurous time!

There is a first time for everything....hopefully there will not be a second time for everything.

Our school treated us to a lunch banquet today to thank us for our time and professionalism this academic year. It was a very nice restaurant with expensive foods. Unfortunately I am not impressed with how expensive food tastes! We had an assortment of seafood. Including Jelly fish, eel, carnivorous fish, fish eggs,and fried duck tendons. I am proud to say I did eat some eel, fish, and duck parts, but could not manage to try the fish eggs or jelly fish :) The 2 hour lunch was a gradual meal. They would deliver one dish and another 15 minutes later, another dish would appear on the table. Pacing yourself is very important.The last dish were individual bowls of long noodles. They said the meaning of this dish was that we would have a long ongoing relationship even though we are leaving. Hence the really long noodles everyone was slurping!Throughout the lunch there were toasts every 5 minutes. We felt so honored and appreciated. Near the end they presented both Jeremy and Rachel with an ...

It surprised me this week when I realized that the last 3 weeks went by in 3 days. The reality started to sink in. These students, the ones we have invested time and love into; we are going to be saying good-bye to. Even though next semester we will remain in Nanjing, the school we are moving to is about 45 minutes away, which will hinder our ability to keep in good contact with them. We have felt so blessed at this school. We love the students and they seem to love us too :) Last night we got a call from a group of freshman inviting us to a good-bye dinner with them. They treated us to a great meal and wonderful conversations!

Saying we enjoy these American students is an understatement! We decided to try to cramp everyone in our living room and put our tiny kitchen to the test! We cooked mexican food for 12 people and played a variety of games, with mafia being the game of the evening! It has been so fun to have these passionate brothers and sisters over for dinners. I love cooking american type foods for those who have been american food deprived! haha They seem to think it is the BEST food in the world!! :) We will miss them!

What is better than jiaozi (chinese dumplings)....making your own. A beautiful co-worker and friend invited us over to meet her family and have her mother and father teach us how to make one of my favorite dishes! It was so much fun being in a Chinese home and being able to speak and understand some of our lunch conversation. Hope you enjoy my step by step picture tutorial :)

This past Saturday was my new best friends birthday! Rose was turning 25 :) I wanted it to be something that was special and that she wouldn't expect....so I planned a surprise party!! I only invited her closet friends and we had her boyfriend bring her by her favorite coffee shop before going on their "movie" date. When she arrived we were hiding behind the register and jumped out while throwing balloons! It was wonderful, her face was priceless and you could immediately tell she felt special. Goal accomplished. I made her brownies, her favorite, a cute cake, and then we sat around telling stories! It wasn't a loud party, but a meaningful one...just the perfect party for Rose. That night  I received an e-mail from Rose: " Tama, I was moved so much by u.  This was the first birthday party I had. Everything was comfortable. It's also my first surprise party. I heard some of my roommates gave a surprise birthday party to another roommate dur...

The past 4 weeks we have had the great pleasure of hosting 2 teams in Nanjing. A group of 13 college students from Memphis and another group of 9 college students from the IUPUI campus. They have come to Nanjing for 6 weeks to help with the work here! Having fresh passionate faces around has been amazing! Its is a wonderful group and I have really enjoyed getting to know them better! I had no idea how much I would like teaching others about China and helping them survive here :) Every Sunday night we have 3 of them over for some american dinner and dessert. I love cooking for college students we are american food deprived....they eat your food like it is the best in the world! I always feel like a great chef when they are here! They head back to the states about the same time as us. It is going to be sad to say good bye but I am hoping I will get to see the IUPUI group in Indy this summer! :)

Sheng ri kuai le Happy Birthday! Jeremy had a birthday and it was great!                                                                                                                                 We ate dinner, sang a song and had cake! He is so special we celebrated twice... the people, decorations, and company were nice! Our new brother we did not forget we celebrated his birth and it was legit! The party was a blast and lots of fun, thanking the father for all He has done!!

I received a text asking if I would be willing to dance in a competition. Of course I agreed, who wouldn't want to dance in front of all your Chinese students? It turned out it was the waltz...of all dances?! I was also not told that I would be expected to dance in heels! haha This evening was a competition between all the English major classes. It was so much fun! There were many performances and moving speeches. The competition lasted for almost 3 hours and we enjoyed every minute of it. This video is of my dance with one of our closest friends as my dancing partner!