Pictures Worth Ten Thousand Words

I can't even begin to summarize the last several weeks. There were moments that inspired me, others that tested my limits and many many exhausting nights that I was afraid would never end. I loved it all and am sad that it has all come to an end. I am back in the U.S. and will head of to college in less than a week to begin a much more routine schedule. 

This post includes only a few of the fun times my team had with our students. 

The last few days of classes were so much fun and the relationships each of us as teachers had invested in began to really blossom. Our students even invited us to spend the Saturday after the camp ended with them at a theme park! That day is most definitely in my top 5 favorite days of all time. I was exhausted as you will see in the pictures, but I had sooo much fun! 

Our team spent our last week in Asia visiting the city of  Harbin, China. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from that trip to share, but it was truly the PERFECT way to end a five week trip in Asia. The city leader from Harbin had arranged for university students to volunteer as tour guides for all of us. We walked all over Harbin and had some of the most delicious food I've ever had in my life. It was awesome! 

Ok, I'll stop talking now and get on with some fun pictures. These pictures don't show it all, but I hope they can at least give you a glimpse into the trip that has changed me forever. I have grown and experienced so much grace I can't even begin to describe it all. 

I want to apologize for the sporadic posts. Wifi availability was scare and it was frustrating to be so limited in my communication capabilities. I appreciate your patience.

Thank you again for supporting me along this journey.  I have left a piece of my heart in Asia with my students and it was because of you that those relationships exist. 

Now take a look at the beautiful (and embarrassing) memories you helped to make possible!

This my favorite picture of Hong Kong. I just wanted to show it one more time :)

It rained ALOT. Here is a snap shot of Anna and me after a shopping spree at Mong Kok in the rain. 

 Our team just chilling and playing some good ol' apples to apples. 

(left to right) Chandler, Dani, me, Anna

Our team took us out to "Hot Pot" which is a dinner of raw food and a boiling pot of broth in the middle. Think "The Melting Pot" asian style. Mostly delicious minus the chicken testicle and weird veggies. Surprisingly, duck intestine is quite tasty!  Here are a few pictures from that night. 

(left to right) Abbe, Nicole, me

(left to right) Abbe and I being silly :) 

Oh Jason...he's not even one of my students, but he had some unspoken feelings he wanted to share at dinner. I was obviously thrilled! 

Jackson, Chandler, and Amber being silly with some students

The whole group from dinner. I'm not really sure what I was thinking during this picture, but it wasn't a well executed facial expression on my part.

Ok, this picture is a little better! At least I look slightly more normal this time around. 

These two pictures were taken on the last day of class. The picture below on the left shows me with Anna. A very dear and sweet student from my class. She speaks English very well and even showed me her piano playing talents! We definitely shared a special connection during the three weeks I was at her school. 

The picture below that is me with Abbe again. Abbe was by far the most outspoken and enthusiastic of my students. Any game we played she HAD to win and we all heard about it when she got out. She brought plenty of laughter into the class room. 

Abbe organized a secret poster board gift for me from my class. They made it in the shape of a flower in my favorite color. It included pictures from my facebook page as well as pictures we had taken together during the summer. It was the sweetest gift I have ever received. It includes a note from each one of my students and lots of fun memories. Here Abbe, me, Niko, and Sally show off this AWESOME gift! 

Here is my enture class holding their well deserved certificates!  

Niko and a few other students on our first roller coaster of the day at Ocean Park on the Saturday following our last week of English camp! 

After we spent a day at the Ocean Park theme park our students arranged for a few of us to have an indoor BBQ. After dinner we got crazy and started stacking things on our heads. As you can see I was impressed by my amazing student David's creativity :). 

Here is Jackson, Chandler, me, Amber, Dani, and Anna taking a few last minute photos with some of our students before we had to say goodbye. 

There are sooo many stories I could share and honestly I feel like I've left the best memories and pictures out, but I couldn't do it all justice. Sadly, so much that happened in Asia will stay there, but the experience has changed me forever. 

Thank you for following along on this incredible adventure! 

My Team With a Few of our Students!

Here’s one picture to preview of what’s to come! 

This is our whole team plus several of our students after we enjoyed a lovely “Hot Pot” dinner (Hong Kong style!) 

Hong Kong Observed

As I’ve spent the last three weeks in Hong Kong, I have seen alot. I think every member of my team has experienced a few moments of over stimulation at times when there is way too much going on for our brains to comprehend. Despite the sensory overload, there have been a few meaningful observations that have stuck in my head that I wanted to share. 

Lesson One~Willingly Revise Associations

In other words, sometime slimy, chewy, and puke green foods are still viewed as perfectly edible options. Gross right? 

This one was a hard lesson to learn. Sometimes there is a combination of rubbery slime on the menu…now that was hard to swallow, literally! At one point I was presented with duck intestine, cow lung, and chicken testicles within a 10-minute period and I’m proud to say I partook in all that was added to my plate. One thing that I have to say that has been especially awesome about my Hong Kong students and new friends are that they never ever “expect” me to eat everything. They always ask first. They don’t assume that I’m used to eating cow tongue or oyster guts. Still, I do feel an obligation to at least take one bite before chugging a couple cans of 7Up to get rid of the unpalatable taste I’ve just encountered.

Although it may be cliché to share adventurous food stories from Asia, I do believe there is a more important lesson I am encountering beyond simply becoming a pro at eating oyster dumplings with chopsticks and smiling through the not-so-delicious menu choices. If all I remember after I leave Hong Kong is how well I “endured” its culture, then I’ve missed the point. 

My goal is not to merely experience, but to understand the Hong Kong lifestyle. I may not LOVE everything I see, hear, and touch, but I should still be engaged in whatever cultural phenomenon I encounter. No matter what places my world-wide travels take me during my life I want to learn to love what the natives love and attempt to find the beauty and good “flavors” in everything I am willing to try. 

Lesson Two~ Say What You Mean to Say

      If you’re tired-sometimes its ok to say I’m tired. When you need help or have an opinion-share it.

If you value another person’s contributions tell them why. If you want someone to know how you feel…then say it. My students have taught me that life it too short to paraphrase one’s real opinion. They are so blunt. If they think I look not so great in that picture…they will tell me If they didn’t think I explained a lesson very well-they let me know what I did wrong. But they also will turn around and tell me how beautiful they think I am. I never take a compliment at face value, but my students are so honest that they really do mean what they say. The moment they are bored they make sure to vocalize it. On the same note, if they are really enjoying the lesson they also want to share why. They don’t hold back.

I actually believe nearly everything that comes out of my student’s mouth. It’s sort of a crazy concept to grasp. I actually trust their opinion. I don’t necessarily take it as timeless words of wisdom (these are 15 and 16 year old young adults we’re talking about), but they do speak with authenticity, which is more than I can often claim. 

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      Lesson Three-Always Be Present in the Present

My mind runs a million miles an hour. I’m always thinking ahead. This lifestyle definitely has its perks, but I do have a tendency to miss the important things that are right in front of me. In Hong Kong your mind should be present always on the now. You are here and you should be respectful and show honor to all those who are also with you at that moment. It’s a lot of pressure. The moment I seem disinterested or preoccupied I get a “Are you bored?” or “You tired?” question thrown my away and I’m immediately embarrassed to be caught pondering on things other than what’s next on the lunch menu. 

I hope to learn much more before I get on my flight back to the mainland, but these are a few of the cool and really valuable lessons I have been learning over the past couple of weeks. Next week, I hope to share a few more pictures of my team and show you more pictures of all my students and the city the call home!

Longest Post in History

I finally have some legitimate time and wifi available so I'm just gonna go nuts on this blog. 
Who knows when the next time I'm able to post will be, so I will just divide my thoughts into chapters (ha! I told you this was a monumental post!) and you can read as much or as little as you would like. 

Disclaimer: I ran out of time and battery power before I could revise this, so please forgive any all all errors. I will try to be more meticulous and polished with my writing in the future. 

~Chapter 1~ "My Team" 
Let me just say I am soo thankful for my awesome team!!!! I am blessed. They are brilliantly intelligent people who know how to have a fun time with a 130 Chinese students. Each one has challenged me in a very good way. We are all VERY different from one another, but boy do we know how to be crazy, silly dorks together. 

Amber-My INCREDIBLE team leader from the beautiful state of Tennessee. She's truly beautiful on the inside and out and she has done an incredible job straddling the fine line between friend and group decision maker. Pretty much what I'm trying to say is her awesomeness has resulted in some productive (and hilarious) class planning meetings. 

Dani-My fellow hipster has been such an encouragement to me. We are on the same page on nearly everything which has been soo wonderful. We share a very deep and passionate love for sleep, coffee, and quality alone time. We have already made far more Starbucks runs than I care to admit. Best of all, we both recognize that need for solitude and are able to help each other find a way to separate ourselves from the group and just recharge alone. 

Jackson-Well he's hilarious. He's the super creative have a million games type of teacher. I'm thankful for a guy like Jackson to keep things light and funny. Also, someone has to be willing to deal with 50 girl's teacher crushes and so far he has handled it with class!

Anna-The Irish Dancer. She is the sweetest teacher. Truly gorgeous and loves her kids. She has the positive attitude that is refreshing when we're all up til 1 lesson planning as a team. Did I mention she is a pro at Irish Dance? well, it's true and I'm a little jealous!!!

Chandler-The level-headed voice of reason in the group. Chandler is the man. I mean it he is the glue to this team in a very important way. He somehow manages to keep us on topic and on target with the important goals. He's a huge encouragement and a dry sense of humor that is making its way to the surface. 

(From Left to Right) Anna, Me, and Dani at training before we began teaching :)
MANY more (complete team) pictures to follow 

~Chapter 2~ "Hong Kong" 
This city is so cool! I don't want to spend too much time on the city, but it would be a shame not to admit that this is an incredible place. I've posted a couple pictures, but there's something about walking around this place that is so very modern. I love it! 

~Chapter 3~ "The Students"
I don't normally form close relationships. I'm more of the wade-into-the-water-slowly kind of girl so I didn't really create huge expectations for myself when it came to teacher/student bonding.

 Of course I wanted to grow as close to my students as possible, but I didn't really know how that was all going to work. I will try to share some more specific stories about individual students after I've had more sleep, but suffice it to say I will be leaving a little piece of my heart in Hong Kong. 

I've already dried tears, nursed sprained ankles, and had inside jokes with these incredible students. They are each so beautiful and brilliant in unique and incredible ways. They challenge my creativity. They are seriously so smart that each night I'm scratching my brain trying to think of ways to make each lesson more difficult. 

But, they are so patient with me. I am blessed...so very blessed. My fellow team mates are fighting the battle of unengaged, sleeping, or distracted students and here I am just trying to keep up with my little einsteins. I can't wait to share some pictures with you all! I wish you could meet each one of them. They are wonderful. 

As I said earlier, I'm not normally very quick at developing deep friendships, but these 15, 16, and 17 year old students are overwhelming me with their own love and excitement that I'm having a hard time not growing close to each and every one of them. 

~Chapter 4~ "The Culture" 
During our training week, some of our sessions were designed to introduce us to Asian culture. I have to admit that I wasn't very familiar with Asian culture, at least not in an experiential sense. Chinese cultural specifically is truly amazing. Of course, there are plenty of negatives. Many Americans think of ancient foot biding, the more modern one child policy, or other oppressive cultural traditions; however, there are soo many other Chinese cultural positives that are often under valued in the average Western mindset. 

Collectivism-In a political or economic sense, collectivism possesses a more controversial connotation, but in a social aspect it is truly admirable quality. The problems of one individual are the problems of the whole. I see this so clearly in the attitude of my students. They care for their friends in a much more sincere way than many American high school students. There is this sense one should do whatever he can to help improve the success of his peers. If one student doesn't know the answer then the entire class will feed him the correct answer. A few times, I have discovered I need to be more creative in my game designs, because too often every activity becomes a group activity when I meant for it to be more individual. 

Respect-I have to say this is soo cool. As a VERY insecure, inexperienced English teacher, the high level of respect my students have shown me has been pretty fantastic. They apologize for EVERYTHING!!!! They think I know way more than I do, which is only slightly terrifying, and they love to share anything and everything with me. This sort of respect it actually really difficult to explain. But I have learned a lot about how important it is for me to spread a little more respect all around. It is revitalizing and empowering. I feel more confident because my students have shown me a level of respect I have never felt before. It's pretty cool if you ask me. 

Gratefulness- I'm running out of battery power soo I'll be brief on this one, but I actually have lost count (I've only been teaching for 4 days!) of the amount of presents I've been given by my students. They want to share all their candy and chocolate with me...and....well it's rude to refuse right!?!? The principal at my school bought us some delicious iced milk teas just because he heard our team favored a particular kind. It is humbling to say the least. Generosity is in abundance here in China and it is a beautiful thing to observe. 

That's all for now. Many more stories to come, just no promises on how soon. 

Grace and Peace to you all! 

A Thousand Apologies

I am sorry for being MIA this past week or so. I have VERY limited wifi at the moment. I should be able to publish a more lengthy post tomorrow. I also hope to have more internet access within the next couple of days. 

MUCH more to come soon!!!!

A Very Busy Body!

These past several days have been jam packed. So much so that all the dozens of sessions and meetings have begun to run together in my tired little brain. Despite my exhaustion, I can honestly say I have begun to fall in love with the Chinese culture. I'm bursting with excitement to meet my students next Monday. I cannot wait to hear their stories and learn more about what makes each of them uniquely them. The privilege of sharing my love of the English language with my Hong Kong students is something I am having a hard time waiting for, to put it nicely. 

I appreciate how my leaders and instructors from this training week have emphasized the need of loving and investing into my students. As I better understand and respect Asian culture, I grow more and more excited about the upcoming opportunity to begin sincere and exciting  friendships with my students and other Hong Kong neighbors. 


That's all for now, but soon I hope to show you all a picture and share a mini bio of my Hong Kong Team with whom I work and live with pretty much twenty-four hours a day. 

Until then,
                     晚安

This is the lovely view I witnessed while sitting outside with a few of my team members. These mountains are breathtaking! 

Welcome to the Pearl of the Orient!

I made it!

I am currently forcing myself to stay awake one more hour before I call it quits. I have been up since about 2 am Hong Kong time and I feel it. 

So far the order of our trip is has been:
 All of the teams met up in LAX and spent about 5 hours together before making our way to our gate. 

We then boarded a plane bound for Hong Kong at the oh so unhappy hour of 1am Pacific Daylight Time. As miserable as all that sounds it was actually the perfect way to bond as a group. Three-fourths of our group will be staying at the same university lodging all summer so it was nice to get to know my roommates ahead of time. 

In order to fight the urge to go to bed as soon as our plane landed at 6:30 am,  my instructors and support team have kept me and my fellow teachers busy with meals, team building workshops, or silly get-to-know-you skits (which thankfully will not make on to the world wide web). 

I am exhausted so I will keep this post short and only one picture. I hope you can forgive any grammatical errors I'm not really very motivated to proof read. 

Once again, and I promise this will be my last reminder,  please do not post any comments even though the feature is available. 

I am so very excited to share my summer experiences with you. I already can see that I will learn about myself and how the Father wants to use me as well. 

And with that, I bid you goodnight. 

  This is the view outside my living room. I'm not complaining.