Fuzhou and the Flu

I know this is late but here it goes...

A little over a week ago, the school sent us on a trip with other teachers to southern China, where we went to Fuzhou and Wuyishan. We were under the idea that the school would fly us there, but boy were we wrong, a 24 hour train ride was in store for us on a fabulous Chinese train. We weren't too down in the dumps about it - until the train became very late and Luke and I both got sick.

Luke and I traveled with Lili, Jennie and RuJing down south, Rani was unable to make it because she was sick and Erick opted to stay behind with his wife and child. If only we had been so wise.

Fuzhou itself was not bad, except for the fact that I had been hit with a terrible fever and could barely walk 4 steps without being out of breath. It was not fun, but I managed and we went to the famous West Lake Park and to a book store to buy a book for RuJing. Other than that, the city itself did not have much to offer. It was very much like Zhengzhou and so we waited to head over to Wuyishan where we could get outside some more, away from the city.

Sadly, we had to get on another train when we did this and this time, we were forced on hard seats again, surrounded by smoking Chinese that had no respect for the others around them. I understand that I may sound bitter, but I was. I continued to break out in a fever, my head wanted to explode everywhere and it was too crowded to lay down. Oh well.

The next day we set off to climb Wuyishan. It was very pretty and we all loved getting back to nature - sadly though, I could still not walk more than one or two flights of stairs before breaking out in a coughing fit. I looked really great and all of the Chinese avoided me, I am sure they thought I had H1N1. I laughed it off and continued.

We not only climbed the mountain but were able to raft down the river. That was an adventure all together. It is no shock to us, that we, the Americans, are bigger and heavier than the Chinese. So at the ticket booth, we informed the man that we needed to only have 4 or 5 five people on our raft, versus 6, because we would indeed, sink the boat. Being Chinese, he waived us on, not paying attention to the laowais.

Sure enough - when we reached the boat, the two 'captains' informed us that we were indeed sinking the boat, and needed to pay an additional 10 yuan to receive passage down the river. I am not proud of how I reacted, but felt in my feverish state that it needed to be done. I proceeded to yell in English that he was crazy and we had told the people at the front about our 'situation' and he could kiss it where the sun didn't shine. Perhaps I didn't express myself as nicely as that, but I made my point and away we were, sinking ship and all.

Overall, it was a very pretty mountain and we were able to get really great pictures for our future home, wherever that will be. I sadly did not recover and still have a cough a week later, I am feeling better after going to the school doctor and getting some medicine. Hopefully I will get better soon. I am very fortunate to have Lili as my teaching partner, who was able to take classes for me so I could sleep and try to get better.

Photos are up on shutterfly so you can check them out. Enjoy.

A Very Happy Thanksgiving

Sorry for the delay in updates. A couple days ago was of course Thanksgiving. Last year, Luke and I were lucky enough to be in the Philippines with our good friends Katrina and Mark, but this year we were also blessed to have family in the mix.

We decided that instead of going out, we would host a dinner and invite all of the foreign teachers. The task seemed large, but worth it to be with the people we care about. Luke and Lili were wonderful and traveled to Metro to get some supplies, and our families in America were really great to mail us some necessities (stuffing and cranberry sauce).

The two of them spent all day in the kitchen, and I was stuck in bed watching movies - not by choice, but because I was sick with the flu. It didn't stop me from enjoying the cheer. They made ham, apple crisp, gravy and plenty of other food. Everyone from both campus' came and brought a dish and we ended up having a pretty big Thanksgiving feast.

As is tradition, we went around the table and said what we were thankful for and then proceeded to gobble down all of the wonderful food. It was really great to be around so many people for the holiday.

But anyway - it got me thinking about what I was thankful for and here it goes:
Family (both mine and Luke's): I am really lucky to have two really supportive families behind me who help me out whenever I need it and will encourage Luke and I to always do better.
Health: I jokingly coughed my way through this one - but I am thankful that almost everyone in my life is healthy and or getting better.
Adventure: I am thankful that Luke and I have this opportunity to teach abroad again and will try to take as much away from it as I can, so I can always look back on this time fondly in my life.
My hubby: Luke is great and always there for me, so I am thankful for him.
My babies: I am thankful for my dogs and that they are still healthy and kicking.
Friends: I am so so sooo thankful for all of my friends who I can count on when I need them the most. They are fantastic.

There is a lot more that I am thankful for, but those are just a few of them. I hope that everyone stateside and international had a wonderful Thanksgiving and ate lots and lots of food.

True to form, the Christmas decorations are now up and we are preparing for my favorite time of year. >.<

Breast Cancer Awareness

All of you who know me know that I am big on breast cancer awareness. I do Race for the Cure and always try to promote women to be aware and safe. I am lucky to have a couple of breast cancer survivors in my family and hope that as we continue on we will find a cure.

I stumbled upon this video the other day and fell in love. It shows what great people we have in Portland/Oregon and make me love my home state even more than I already do.

I hope you enjoy it and feel free to share the love and promote Breast Cancer Awareness.

Time to Sing Kumbaya

Well it sounds like Zhengzhou is making the news in America! I received an e-mail from my mom letting me know that our snow/ice storm made the Oregonian. I told my students about it and they were pretty excited that people in my hometown knew about Zhengzhou. It has been pretty bizarre and I guess they have not gotten snow like this for close to 10 years. Thankfully it is beginning to warm up again (we hit 28 degrees today!) and some of the snow is melting so I am actually able to run at a decent pace.

Randomly, we lost power yesterday. It was pretty strange considering it was only the school that lost power (no where else on the block) and there was no storm to accompany the outage. We made the best of it by getting together, lighting some candles, telling fortunes and bonding. Aside from the cold, it is one of my favorite China moments.

Tomorrow we are off to Fuzhou for a school sponsored trip. I am pretty excited because we are finally going to be part of a tour group that gets matching hats! If you have been to China - it is all about the matching apparel and we are finally going to get to walk around in one of those groups. Selfishly - I just want the hat, but oh well. We leave in the afternoon and then spend the next three days exploring a mountain and a coastal town. I am pretty excited to not teach anymore - tomorrow will be our 10th day of teaching in a row, so we have earned this much needed three day weekend. I will post plenty of photos for you when I return.

That is all for now.

Tis the Season

Well - it is officially winter here in Zhengzhou. We woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow that soon turned to a flurry. The ground is white and we are supposed to get another 4-6 inches tonight which will be really pretty.

Luke and I are pleased that we have snow this year, seeing as last year, we got one little dusting and nothing more. This year is looking up for freezing my tail off.

During lunch, there was a clearing and I was able to get my run in which made me very happy. I guess running in the winter motivates me (mostly to get warm). I did 7 miles today in 1 hour! I was really pleased with myself and averaged under 9 minute miles the whole time. I can tell that I am getting better and really excited to continue my work outs. I am nervous about running in the snow but I think I will just have to slow down a little. I am getting pumped for my half marathon in January and July. I know that I will do well.

Not too much else is happening. The school is sending us to southern China (Fuzhou) next week so we are all excited to go on another adventure. I will update you if anything else is going on.

1/2 Marathon: Training Day 5

Well - another Monday, another training day. Yesterday I ran 5 miles with 4 sprints and felt great! I was able to average under 9 minute miles for all 5 and didn't die. I was pretty excited to see my time improve as much as it has. My goal is to run around 10 minute miles when I do my 1/2 marathon, but we will see how I feel.

The weather has made its turn for the worse and is cold cold cold. It is again winter in Zhengzhou with the wind and all. Poor Lili was not pleased yesterday when we ventured out to class and back. Being out of hot coco - I have moved back to drinking milk tea, which is delicious.

We also were very lucky to receive two packages this week from the M parents and Shirley. We are excited for all of the books and study material for the Praxis. I am nervous about taking another standardized test, but if I need it to get into Concordia then that is what I will do. I am determined to get into that school because I adore it.

For some odd reason, I have also been inspired to start listening to jazz music recently. So I have been hanging out with my good friends, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald - you know, the whole gang. I am not sure Luke is too pleased with this but he is a very supportive spouse.

Next week, the school is sending us on one of our first trips and we are going to southern China, Fuzhou to be exact. We are hoping to hop a ferry and get to Taiwan, but I doubt that the school will allow us to go that far away from the group. Fuzhou has a mountain though that should be very interesting. I am mostly interested in the warmer climate - especially now.

Tomorrow we start our Chinese lessons again. While Lili was in Chengdu, she came across an English bookstore and bough a couple of learning Chinese books - so we are planning on using them and having Rujing just go through the lessons with us. Hopefully that will kick us into Chinese learning gear. All of us really want to improve our language abilities and we will see how it works out.

Sorry this update is so choppy - it is cold outside and early so I am most likely not making the most sense. We miss and love you all.

XOXO

1/2 Marathon: Training Day 4

A new personal best! This morning I woke up at 7 am and decided to do my run, which ended up being 7.03 miles!

I had my personal best of 6 miles last week, and feel great that I continued on and kept going for the extra one. I did a loop down to the university, back to my campus, around an extra block, around the branch campus (on pavement) and then did the last two miles on the track. I did find that my legs were much more sore after running on the paved ground, but liked that there was a change in scenery, versus going the whole 7 on the track.

For a celebration, my dear husband, took me out to sushi for lunch and is making homemade pizzas for dinner. I am a lucky girl.

I have two days off and then another 4, which isn't too bad. I am pretty excited that I am keeping with my schedule and sticking to the mileage. I am pretty confident that on Jan. 14th I am going to be able to do my 1/2 marathon! I will keep you posted on my progress.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

The end of October is here, and the laowais of Zhengzhou Foreign Language School decided to end the month right - with a Halloween bash to be remembered.
It started a week ago, when we began the countdown to Halloween with different horror movies every night. This was mostly for our awesome cousin Lili who has not watched many thrillers in her day. We started with Nightmare Before Christmas and Dracula,and ended with 30 Days of Night. It was a fun way to lead up to October 31st.

On the actual day day, we went and purchased watermelons to carve (because there are no pumpkins here for some reason). We took it very seriously... (well, Luke and Lili did). I created a very...well...normal looking watermelon and Luke took on the challenge of Snape. Sadly, most people mistook it for a tribute to Benjamin Franklin. I of course started to sing songs from the Broadway classic 1776 - and Luke was not too pleased with me. Anywho...



After that - we put together costumes. Luke decided his about two weeks ago and went as Wolverine. He was very true to the character and lifted weights for two weeks, dyed his hair black/brown and even shaved chops. He decided to make claws and probably did one of the best jobs I have ever seen. He can be so motivated. : )
I threw my costume together at the last minutes and went as Alice Cullen. Mostly because, vampires are easy to do. I was pretty excited to help out with everyone's costumes though and we ended the night with Bellatrix Lestrange, a pregnant Bella Swan, Rosalie Cullen and Jane Fonda.



We all went to dinner in costume and had plenty of Chinese people laughing at us. We didn't mind and totally ate it up. Luke told the waitress that we were vampires and she stayed away from Lili and I for the rest of dinner. Oh well - we weren't that hungry - yet.

Overall - it was a great night, made great but wonderful friends. I am posting some shots here, but you will also find them on our shutterfly site. So you can check them out if you would like!

Love you and I will keep you posted with our other exploits.