This Great Work

 Even a few weeks into it, I'm still stunned I have a teaching gig here in China.  Some have asked more details about how it happened.   I don't really know for sure, but I think, that since volunteering is not a thing here, when I volunteered to help, they didn't have any concept of that.  Not knowing what to do with a person who volunteers, they thought I could teach a class--that required a teaching certificate.  Thankfully I have teaching experience and a teaching certificate, so I got a job.  Easy peasy! (China style) It is a dream job, really.  It's like teaching extraordinarily bright, on task, eager 2nd graders.  And without certain standards that I have to teach to, I can just do what I want. (even more dream-job-ish)  I can teach difficult English grammar lessons, teach correct pronunciation or I can just be creative and have fun!  I will do a little of the first two and a lot of the latter.   The first week I re...

To be frankly honest, living in China is difficult. The language barrier is huge--it's one thing to not be able to understand, but to not be able to read is even more difficult (try ordering something online or finding your way on a map in Chinese....), in-person shopping is so difficult (not having a vehicle to carry enough supplies for the week requires you to make multiple trips; nor can all shopping be done at one store), the red tape in China is ever present, online school is very stretching for the girls (and therefore to parent),  not to mention the difficulty of being away from family and friends.  Thankfully, many things have become easier as we have learned lots, figured out a little bit and received at least some pay (as of yet, we still haven't to receive the additional amount the US company is sending over and the back pay for the months we didn't get paid).  But there are still pretty big frequent struggles. To mitigate the difficulties we face, it is absolu...

We're not entirely sure how we got this little gig, but it was a fun one! I got the We-Chat contact of a Chinese person who was associated with a themed hotel that featured Chinese history.  I planned on using it down the road for an educational field trip.  But the person was quite persistent that we come soon.  So I told him we'd come September 16th.  Then he asked if we could come for the Mid-Autumn festival the weekend earlier.  I suggested Friday the 9th (so we could be home for church).  But he insisted on the 10th for the actual festival.  We got permission to check out a half hour late so we could do our church meetings from the hotel. (although, they didn't know that's why we needed a later time!)  We arrived at the hotel after lunch on the 10th and were greeted by several people.  After we were checked in, the girls and I had to pick out traditional clothing to wear (Tom got out of it...) and they took us up to our rooms.  The ...

From a very young age, Greta's favorite animal has been the giant panda. Collections of pandas have filled her room....stuffed animals, jewelry, notebooks, bags, shoes, decorations, books....if it has a panda on it, we probably own it.  One of her consolations about moving to China has been to see pandas in real life.  (The bucket list is to hold a panda, but that is closed up tight right now....)   There are pandas in the Changzhou zoo.  We were waiting for a pay check and the weather to cool down a bit before going.  The time finally came.  It was ear-to-ear grinning all around. In addition to pandas, here are a few other tidbits about our zoo day: As we have learned, *everything* is different in China, the zoo was not an exception.  They have double (or more..) the amount of animals in the enclosures that we would have in the US. The visitors get to feed the animals if they buy the food from the zoo.  This creates a condition that many of ...