did you just say crack?

today i went from "english teacher in china" to "world wanderer." that's right. i am no longer teaching english. i taught my last class today. actually, to be more accurate, i gave my last set of exams. for the past two weeks i have been doing interviews with my students-my 500+ students. i spent a lot, a lot, a lot of time hearing about chinese new year (which is most often referred to as spring festival here) and birthday celebrations. it was...well, it was what it was-twenty hours of listening to chinglish on a limited number of topics-no one's idea of fun. but i would like to share one quote that kind of made it all (ok, not all, but at least that day) worth it. in reference to how chinese people celebrate spring festival- "...families have a large meal and then the parents will give the children money to buy crack." he pauses after i give him my 'slightly confused look.' i have given this look frequently in the last two weeks. he goes on to explain himself, "you know the sssss...boom!" me, "oh, oh. yeah. FIREcrackERs." him, "yeah, yeah, yeah. firecrackers." so rest assured. china's opium struggles continue to be a thing of the distant pass. but i made it through and my teaching responsibilities are done. don't get me wrong, my to do list is still a mile long, but i have officially shifted my life status to "world wanderer, searcher of the next step, one who is seeing the journey as the destination." so that's the big news. i will be in my city just about one more week and then randi and i are off for new places and experiences.

on a separate note. cockroach season is in full swing. two nights ago, as i went into the kitchen late one night i was greeted by a big fella who quickly scurried away out of sight, out of reach. last night, as i went to enter the kitchen again, i was actually expecting to see him again. he didn't disappoint. there he was, middle of the kitchen floor. i still had the slippers from the night before by the door so i went for the "throw one ball high to distract them and hit them with the second ball" trick. only i did it with the slippers and it worked masterfully. i was actually trying to pin him down with the one and gone in for the kill with the other but i missed, he got disoriented, i closed and took care of business. now you may be saying to yourself, jake, really? have you lost it? cockroach killing techniques? but i say to you, have you ever tried to kill these things before? they are fast AND agile. and you need a direct blow here. glances to to exoskeleton won't hack it. but this roach, he was a big one. maybe a PR for my apartment. and so i thought i was safe. but as i was typing an email a few minutes ago i saw one scurry by my feet and under my desk from the corner of my eye. looks like the hunter has another challenge before him.

Graduation: Broken Bottles and Rented Gowns

this week the graduating seniors are leaving (read-getting kicked off) campus. typically they are allowed to leave until the end of the year, but since the school has an upcoming evaluation from the education embassy (or something like that) they are leaving early so they don't create distractions. and to be honest, this is a good idea. since it is their last week things have been a little different around here. most notably at night. i right next door to the female student dormitories. typically, this isn't all that bad and my biggest complaint is that some girls get locked out at night (they lock the dormitory about 11:30 and instead of realizing they are "SOL" they bang and bang on the door yelling for the woman in charge of the dormitory to come and unlock the door. its pretty ridiculous and makes me wish there was a clear path of trajectory from my complex to the door, although this would also need to be accompanied by a store which sells water balloons. but the last few nights, the noise for the dormitories has taken on a whole new...realm of obnoxiousness. the seniors in an act of defiance?/celebration?/utter euphoria(?) throw glass bottles and other items that will make a loud crash out their windows and then scream. yeah...totally ridiculous and definitely wouldn't fly as a tradition thing in the states, but as well all know, this is not the states. so yeah. well into the night my sleep has been accompanied by breaking bottles, screams, and a higher number of slightly inebriated graduating students who were celebrating too much and TOO late.

an a faster note. the second, more amusing, sight this week has been that of seniors taking pictures all around campus in graduation gowns. the "official" ceremony thing doesn't really happen here like it does in the states, but some groups of students get together, rent gowns, and take pictures for an afternoon and the most random places on campuses (next to trees, the track, the main gate, the cafeteria, anywhere). this would be pure misery for me. i am glad i don't teach seniors. chinese students are absolutely obsessed with taking pictures, its ridiculous. i am glad i don't have to reach to point of exhaustion just from smiling too much.

duibuqi, mei you daizi

not sure if you will find this as fascinating as i do. but on june 1st china, and i mean all of china, began charging for plastic bags (as well as outlawing the use of thin plastic bags). that's not really the fascinating part. the fascinating part is that China was using 3 billion plastic bags a day. yeah. 3 billion. they were using more in one month than the U.S. was using in a year, and we all know how much the U.S. likes to waste, i mean use, stuff. so it has been entertaining to see people walking around with groceries in hand and denying plastic bags left and right. it's still taking a little while to catch on in the streets, but you can definitely tell there is a difference. actually, i think it's amazing. and that more cities/nations should consider it. i mean if you really think about it, we waste so many plastic bags. and its not too difficult to get paper or just carry the one thing you bought at the store. either way, its been amusing and i was quick to learn the word for bag so i wouldn't have to pay any thing extra. but shops aren't really even carrying bags anymore, which isn't really a problem anyway (duibuqi, mei you daizi=sorry, we don't have any bags-or its something like that). so i am not sure what bag consumption is down to now, but i know the world is a little less littered with plastic bags.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/01/china_plastic_bag_ban.php

Shout out to baby sister

This post is dedicated to my baby younger sister, Abby. She left for Zambia on June 1st (and has arrived safely). She, along with a few other teammates, will be living there for the next seven weeks doing an assortment of stuff, like working in orphanages and child development centers, doing AIDS education, visiting terminal patients in hospitals, working with youth groups, and whatever else comes up. She has long had a passion for Africa and it's great to see her stepping out to make this trip happen and see first hand the things she has been learning about for a long time. I still remember choosing to do a big research paper on water and food shortages in Africa when she was in high school. I must say, I am very proud of her and I am excited, not only for the ways she will serve there, but also for how she will be grown and stretched. So if you want to keep her in your Thoughts too, that would be great.

what!?!? june?

and its june. how did that even happen? no way i have been in china nine and a half months already. i guess the date doesn't lie.

and...i'm back...blogging that is

hello faithful readers (mom and friends with google reader, which i highly recommend for everyone). i am back. my internet decided to stop working for 5 weeks. thanks to my incessant complaining, it is back. ridiculous. i suppose i could have attempted to blog from elsewhere, but when time elsewhere is limited, it is usually spent trying to email people back so they don't view me as a major bum. so i think i am going to go to bullet points to capture the last six weeks. in no particular order...

-there was a massive earthquake 350 miles north of my city. it has affected all of china one way or another. as for me personally, i didn't even really feel it, i was teaching on the second floor. but i guess my building swayed a bit and i ended up not having all my classes canceled for the day. my province is ok. the victims are well cared for. contacts of my fellowship here are working hard around the fringes to makes sure no one is falling through the cracks as far as aid goes. its been good to help out in that way even though it feels so minor. but please continue to be Thinking of the people there and Hoping for softened hearts and listening ears about a Love that conquers death and despair.

-my school is having an evaluation/inspection/accreditation in three weeks. this has meant massive amounts of construction and other superficial presentation type things. they had a type of practice inspection (i think they paid some kind of consultants to come in and tell them what they were doing wrong) a few weeks ago and it was crazy. there were no longer cars in the street, the buildings were squeaky clean, all of the students were in class, all of the students were wearing these little pins and such. the bathrooms didn't smell. it was crazy. and that was just practice. there were students at various posts around campus and there sole job was to...pick up cigarette butts, i know, exciting. but it was ridiculous. it was such a facade. it wasn't an accurate assessment of our campus at all. its not like our campus is in awful shape, but the show that was put on was sickening. its kind of like they just clean and fix everything on the surface so it looks good for a few weeks and then it all goes back to normal again. like now, you can't really tell that we had the practice round, but when the real inspection happens in three weeks, i can't imagine what campus will be like. i will report back about this-just funny highlights.

-oh, but because of the inspection. i am finished teaching on june 20th. my supervising professor didn't want me to have to worry about the pressure of being evaluated so she told me just to finish early. this is probably more for their benefit than mine, but i am definitely not complaining. you see, my classes aren't your typical chinese english classes. i dont think the whole having people moving all around the class talking about whatever comes to my mind really qualifies as the "task oriented" teaching they want to present at inspection time. but like i said, no complaints. and because there is a holiday next week my schedule is a little different and i had to move some speaking exams forward a week. my supervising professor decided she didn't want me to have to juggle exams and classes and all that so she decided to just make it so i only give exams in june. so the whole month of june, i work a total of 20 hours. but it does include me having conversations with 500 students, giving them an arbitrary speaking grade. oh, and after my supervising teacher cleared out my schedule she handed me 36 pages of a book she translated from chinese to english. i am going to look over it to make sure it's correct. this is very common in china. a you scratch my back, i scratch yours mentality. it even has its own special name-guanxi. its like networking and small favors on steroids. but i am happy to do it. after all, this is also the teacher that covers for me when i go on vacation.

-my good friend randi, aka doc, is coming visit me! she arrives june 25th. we are going to hang out in my city for a few days and then we are off to tour china. i am very very excited. it will be so nice to have a friend from home have a small glance at my experience here. i haven't quite worked out our travel itinerary yet because the earthquake kind of threw a wrench in my route. no worries though. it'll be sweet. but we will travel up to beijing together. she leaves the 17th of july for seattle. i leave the 18th for switzerland.

-yes, switzerland is working out. looks like i will be meeting 7(+?) amazing friends in rupperswil, switzerland in the end of july. i can't really express how amazing it will be. yeah. epic. and after a week in switzerland. and after switzerland it's off to germany with one of my best friends to see his birthplace among other things. and then a two day jaunt in dublin and back in good old michigan on august 2nd.

-i still have no idea where i will be heading after spending time at home in michigan. it looked like i might have a job opportunity in seattle, but it fell through, so i am back sitting in the dark just waiting for some guidance. i am just working on trusting and i know He is faithful, so no worries, but i am quite curious as to where i am going to be led. your Thoughts on this are beyond appreciated.

well, if you made it this far, i am very impressed. i think that is all i will focus on now. hopefully more consistent posts (hopefully with a little more flare and excitement) are in store for the days ahead. thanks for checking in.