This was the first Thanksgiving that I didn't have turkey because there doesn't seem to be any turkey in China. Although I missed the traditional spread from home and being with my family, it was fun making some Thanksgiving dishes with the challenge of only a hot plate and toaster oven. It was really cool eating a big dinner with the other foreign teachers, Teddy (our waiban), Steve and his family, Zhen zhen (Ken's girlfriend) and Qin Chen. It was especially funny watching them experience the strangeness that is American food as I completely understood what they were going through having been trying new foods almost daily for the past 3 months.

Sean and I decided to try to make green bean casserole, deviled eggs, stuffed mushrooms, apple crisp and chocolate cup cakes for the dinner. Some ingredients that were missing were the following: cream of mushroom soup, french fried onions, paprika, and nutmeg. We had to go to a bigger, international store to get Cinnamon, canned green beans, mustard, miracle whip, frosting, cup cake mix, Parmesan cheese and bacon. It was fun trying to make everything by hand but it was also a lot of work. We spent about two days cooking everything mainly because the toaster oven is small and we had to time all of the different rounds of baking to be ready for Thursday night.

One of my tutors came to help with the apple crisp but unfortunately she didn't really like it. She said the Cinnamon smelled terrible. One of Sean's tutors came over to sample a chocolate cupcake and upon consumption he said "cool!" Overall, the dishes turned out fine. The green bean casserole required the most work as we had to make and thicken the cream of mushroom soup and then french fry a million little onions. It turned out a little blander than hoped but it was still a taste of home. The cup cakes and apple crisp were a big hit and turned out great. I think the favorites were the deviled eggs (topped with olives instead of paprika) and the stuffed mushrooms which were delicious. The other teachers brought stuffing, baked apples, mashed potatoes and fruit. We ordered in KFC and that also tasted great.


We all left Ken's overly full and very satisfied. The good thing is we have some apple crisp and green bean casserole leftovers to enjoy tomorrow. All the food will be good fuel for the 1/2 marathon that Ken, Sean and I are running on Sunday. We are leaving early Saturday morning and coming back Sunday afternoon. It should be a fun (but tiring) trip!

This week's lesson was about Thanksgiving and it was a blast. It is a lot of fun teaching about a holiday that I really enjoy to students who are interested in it and have never experienced it. Talking about the food and the traditions over and over again for seven different classes not only made me a little hungry but a little homesick too. Fortunately, the foreign teachers are having their own Thanksgiving potluck tonight so that will be a little taste of home.


In each class I started off by talking about when Thanksgiving is and why it started. Then I showed them all pictures of common dishes that Americans eat on Thanksgiving like mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, green bean casserole, gravy, turkey and pumpkin pie. When I asked them what foods they wanted to try the most everyone said first they wanted to eat turkey (there is no turkey here) and secondly they wanted to try pumpkin pie. Next we played a trivia game about Thanksgiving with questions like: How long do you cook a turkey for? What does a turkey say in English? In how many different languages can you say 'thank you'? etc. The game was a tic-tac-toe style competition so the students liked it.


Next we played a game about recipes. I gave each group six unlabeled recipes for common Thanksgiving foods. They had to decide which dishes the recipes described. The recipes that stumped almost every group were dinner rolls and gravy. I think the favorite game of the day was when we played "I'm going to Thanksgiving dinner and I'm going to bring . . ." For this game I had students stand in circles of ten. One person started and said "I'm going to Thanksgiving dinner and I'm going to bring turkey." The next person had to say "I'm going to Thanksgiving dinner and I'm going to bring turkey and mashed potatoes" and so on. The students loved it and many groups wanted to go around the circle twice.

Recently, living in Changzhou has been a little like camping. A little too much like camping, actually. There are the normal reasons like sleeping under a mosquito net tent, hiking over a construction site to the bus stop and squatting to go the bathroom. Lately, however, another reason has been moved to the top of the list and that is the lack of running water. This has been an ongoing problem since the beginning, but it hasn't gotten really bad until now. For example, almost since we got here, the water shut off every night from midnight until about 8am. This means that most days I brush my teeth using water from my water bottle which is now located in a rather permanent spot next to my bathroom sink. Since we are near to the building of a new road, there has been some problems with the pipes and we have been without water for about four days now. It is getting annoying to not be able to do laundry, wash dishes, take a shower or wash my hands. The students are without water as well and I am amazed at how well they deal with these kinds of issues. They complain, but not near as much as I would imagine Hope or OSU students if these kinds of shenanigans were pulled on campus.

The racks and racks of kleenex packets. Every girl keeps little packets of kleenex with her for toilet paper - thus, the kleenex industry is huge and you can get whatever your fanny fancies from designer Hello Kitty to plain pastels. Currently, I am using fairies.

The bathrooms have been a little bit of an adventure as well. My apartment is outfitted with one western toliet (upstairs) and one squatter toliet (downstairs). Most public places, however, only have squatters and the other Chinese women definitely have me beat in this area. Some of the bathrooms are fine, but others are pretty gnarly especially since toilet paper is not flushed but just thrown away in the trash can beside the squatter. It is a coordinated woman (most of the time with heels and tights/nylons) who can successfully balance on the slippery pee-covered squatter surface, de-pants, relieve herself and then recover and exit without several possible (and routinely experienced by me) mishaps. Things get really crazy when a) the squatters have no doors b) you forget to bring your kleenex with you (toilet paper is not provided anywhere) c) you are wearing flip flops d) there are no squatters but just one long public trough e) you are on a moving train. I do not recommend any of the latter for the squatter novice. This takes practice and I am lucky that my parents taught me how to squat while camping at a young age. Who knew this skill would be valued later in life half a world away?

Here are some journal responses to the prompts "describe your life then and now" and "describe the most important thing in your life."

"Then and Now"

"When I was a child, my mother used to tell me that as a girl, you’d better be restrained. Even though I didn’t know the meaning of “restrained”, I followed my mother’s words. I did everything as my mother had told me. Worked slowly, never talked to the person who I didn’t know and so on. At that time, my teachers and classmates perceived me as shy and introverted.

Now I grow up and I’m 20 years old. During the growing time, I experienced a lot and I changed my disposition. I don’t want to be an introverted person at all. When I talk to others and share the interest things with them, I feel happy. When I take part in some activities, I enjoy myself. I like music and I’ve took part in the singing competitions three times. I was so excited when I standed on the stage and faced the audiences. I like my disposition now very much.”

"The most important thing to me"

“In my opinion, the most important thing to me is hardworking. “Nothing in the world is difficult for one who sets his mind to it.” That’s true. There is no genius in the world. The successful person gets his achievement, the person realizes his dream. They have one thing in common, they must pay a lot of efforts on their work. As a student, study is the most important thing to me. No pain, no gain. So, hardworking is a very important thing.

When I was studying in middle school, my parents used to tell me that only hardworking could help me to achieve the success. But I was a lazy person. I always put off my duties till the final dispatch. So I lost a lot of things. When I was mentioned that it was never too late to begin to study, I promised that I must put my whole heart into study. That’s hardworking. Now, I’ve entered college and I still have to work hard. If not, I’ll lose again. Life is competitive.”

Sean and I met Ben during the first few weeks of school at the hospital when we were doing a physical that was required to get our resident visa. He was waiting in line ready to have blood drawn and we started chatting. Ben teaches at another college in Changzhou where he is the only American. He is from New York City and studied Spanish at Vassar College in New York. He plans to get his masters in Spanish translation in a college in Madrid next year. He also happens to be tall, blond and bear a striking resemblance to the vampire Edward in Twilight. For this last reason, the female Chinese students are particularly fond of Ben.

We have seen Ben a few times at the Euro Bar or at Ken's for poker night. This week he called us up and asked if we wanted to join him for his 22nd birthday party on Thursday night. The celebration ended up being really fun. First we ate at an Italian-type restaurant in one of the malls downtown, played pool at a local pool hall and then went to a bar/club called SoHo.

Ben brought with him several Finnish exchange students who are studying at his college. Because we were foreigners, we got star treatment as usual and they gave us a table in the middle of the bar with plenty of free drinks and elaborate bowls of cut-up and sliced fruit. The bar was smoky and loud like normal, but seemed a little classier than some of the others we went to. There was live music, dancing and unusual mixes of music by the deejay.

They put on quite a show for Ben's birthday including the happy birthday song in both Chinese and English, lavish applause and a parade of waiters with a flaming champagne bottle. Throughout the night any other foreigner that walked in was simply directed to our table so we ended up meeting quite a few other teachers in the area. The party was fun and I am sure that it will be a birthday that Ben will remember for a long time.

An interesting fact about Ben is that he is an avid whistler. Really. He was in the elite whistling group at Vassar called the "Aircapellas" and they performed at the National Whistling Conference every year. You can check out some of their performances on YouTube here - they are pretty impressive and hilarious. Incidentally, the National Whistling Conference will be held in China this year in the city of Qindao in May and Ben plans to attend and compete as a solo whistler. Who knew there was a National Whistling Convention? The things you learn when you teach abroad . . .

This past week President Obama came to Asia and visited Singapore, Japan, China and South Korea. He spent four days in China which included trips to Shanghai and Beijing. In Shanghai he spent time speaking in a town hall style meeting with university students where he talked about human rights (especially the treatment of Tibetans and the Uighur people in Xinjiang province) and censorship (the Chinese do not have access to many internet sites including ones like Twitter, Facebook and Blogger). I like what Daniel had to say about this in his blog, "Also speaking of great moments in censorship, Obama is in China and during one of his speeches called on the Chinese government to uncensor the internet, a comment that was promptly censored in all the Chinese sources."

After spending time in Shanghai, Obama traveled to Beijing where he met with Chinese leader Hu Jintao and the two spent time talking about trade, the economy, nuclear weapons in North Korea and Iran, and the environment among other things. While in Beijing, Obama was also able to visit the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. Most of the news reports that I have listened to or read seem to think that overall the visit went fine and was necessary to maintain positive relations with China, but popular opinion shows that most people think he made little actual progress. Some blame him for focusing too much on similarities and shared interests between the two countries instead of trying to work through some important and central disagreements.

My students were very excited about Obama's visit and spent a few minutes talking about it in class this week. Most said that China would be very welcoming to him while a few said that the jury was still out on the U.S leader and that they would wait and see if they approved of his policies or not. I used Obama's visit as a segue way to talk about racism in China (a touchy subject) which led to an semi-awkward and difficult discussion, but one in which I learned quite a bit. When I asked the students if they could ever envision having a leader who wasn't of Han descent (the huge ethnic majority) the answer was a resounding "never."

These past few days I have been reading a lot of student journals because I want to hand them back next week. My students write about a lot of things: their stresses and worries in the university, their families, dating, weekend activities, current events and what they want their lives to be like in the future. It is really interesting to read the writing of someone who has learned English as a second language because many times the grammar is completely correct but the phrasing sounds awkward or the vocabulary is antiquated. Other times the students use English in completely new and creative ways to describe something. This might simply be a translation from Chinese, but since I don't know Chinese, it sounds impressive to me. It is also entertaining because there is always a hodgepodge of British English and American English spellings, sayings and vocabulary contained in the same essay.

There's a few key phrases that I see over and over again and I can't help but wonder if they were overly emphasized while learning grammar or drilled into them culturally. Here are the popular words/phrases that seem to be chosen by default:

"Nothing is impossible"
"In a word . . ." (to make a conclusion)
"Harmonious"
"Resilient"
"It's a pity"
"Lovely"
"Delicious"
"Beautiful"
"Every coin has two sides" (to explain the advantages and disadvantages of something)
"Time flies"
"No pains no gains"

Here's a journal entry that I read today (nothing has been changed or edited):

"I can still clearly remember that there was a large bamboo grove near my former house in my childhood. Sometimes I watched the bamboo trees bend under pressure from the wind and watched them return gracefully to their upright or original position after the wind had died down.

At that moment the word "resilience" came to my mind all of a sudden. When used in reference to a person this word means his ability to instantly recover from shock, depression and any other situation that challenge the limits of a person's emotions. On some occasions, I often felt a mix of emotions that threatened my health. And even I felt emotionally drained, mentally exhausted and appeared some unpleasant physical symptoms. While watching the bamboo grove in the wind, I was always at peace.

The bamboo tree bent but didn't break. It seemed to tell me that I might try my best to make the situation get the best of me in that life was a mixture of good times and bad times, happy moments and unhappy moments. Bad times or unhappy moments might bring us anguish or suffering. In my point of view, when we wish for a better tomorrow or a better situation, things may not be as bad as they seem to be. The anguish or suffering may be easier to deal with if the end result is worth doing.

In a word, it depends on us. When meeting up with difficulties and setbacks, we need to show the resilience, like the bamboo tree, bend, but never break."

A couple of weeks after the freshmen arrived there was a day when everyone could sign up for different clubs and get involved in extracurricular activities. Ken decided to form a club as well so he got some markers and poster board, began signing up members and thus Beer Club was born.


The club is not as frat-like as the name sounds (I too was skeptical at first). It is basically an excuse to get some of the older Chinese students together, have fun, speak English and learn more about university culture on American college campuses. The club meets biweekly at Ken's house. I didn't make it to the first meeting but I went last Sunday night and had a good time. A typical meeting consists of an introduction with a power point on a certain topic (ie how beer is made, different kinds of beer, common drinking games), sampling new kinds of beer and comparing it to Chinese Snow beer and plenty of time to socialize and talk with other members.


This past meeting Ken introduced Budweiser to everyone and explained the mechanics of Power Hour. In this drinking activity, participants have to drink a shot of beer every minute for sixty minutes. There is usually music that accompanies this game and a new song switches every minute to alert everyone that it's time for the next drink. I had never done a Power Hour before so I fit right in with the Chinese who were also new to the sport. There was no way I was going to drink that much beer so I hung in as best I could and did halfsies.


Overall I would say that the second meeting of Beer Club was a success. There was minimal spillage and breakage of bottles and as the night went on, nobody minded as much that we were snacking on peanuts that were actually quite raw instead of cooked. The Chinese students had a great time. Partying, mingling and socializing isn't as much of a part of the Chinese college experience as it is in the U.S. and it was obvious that the students enjoyed the chance to relax and let loose a little. With heavy class loads, high academic pressures, a lack of interest in college football or basketball and the nonexistence of bars or parties, Jiangsu Teachers University of Technology is a far cry from places like The Ohio State University in Columbus. Thank goodness for foreign teachers and organizations like Beer Club that can bridge this gap one minute and one shot of beer at a time.

It has been just an average weekend in Changzhou. Friday night the boys went out to eat at a new Japanese restaurant a ways away in the north of the city. They were hoping to try an all-you-can-eat sushi special. I went to work in the city and then headed to McDonalds afterward for some chicken nuggets, fries, cold Coke and a chocolate sundae. As usual, because there are not many foreigners in Changzhou, I was stared at a lot and many people tried to talk with me. A lot of students from the university approached me to say hi as well - many whom I had never seen before and didn't know. They were all very curious as to where Sean was and what I was doing.

Craving more tastes of America I headed to the only Starbucks in the city which is horribly overpriced but undeniably delicious. For example, on campus I can get a whole meal for 5 RMB and my meal at McDonalds cost 25 RMB. On campus I can buy a bubble milk tea (similar to a chai tea) for 2 RMB and a coffee at Starbucks cost 32 RMB. Starbucks and McDonalds are two of the more common expat watering holes and it is always interesting to see who you will meet. One of the coolest things about traveling is meeting other people who are like-minded and other travelers are almost always willing to strike up a conversation with fellow foreigners.

Last time I was in Starbucks I chatted with a twenty-something Turk who was in Changzhou for business. This time I met three Germans also in the city on business, a student from Chicago and another from Venezuela. I was planning on listening to music and writing some letters, but as soon as I ordered my coffee and finished chatting with the Germans, the two students came right over and sat down at my table. They introduced themselves as Karl (19 from Chicago) and Else (17 from Venezuela). They are here for one year through an exchange program and actually live with Chinese families and attend one of the local high schools.

Although both of them seemed very intelligent and well-traveled they had a lot to say about the current culture shocks they were experiencing and some of their frustrations about studying abroad in a city like Changzhou. They said that their daily routines were brutal and demanding - just like the average life of any Chinese high school student. School started at 7:00 am and went until 5:15. Most students stayed at the school to continue studying until 7 or 9pm at night. Then they went home and went to bed. This was not the study abroad experience that Karl and Else had hoped for, although they are both learning Chinese at an incredible rate. Karl also lamented on the fact that since he is black, he gets stared at even more than a white foreigner. He said recently that he has been asked about 10 times a day if he is Barack Obama (since Obama is coming to visit this week).

We talked about language for a little bit too. Both Karl and Else are interested in law school and then something to do with politics and international relations. They are well on their way considering they are both under twenty years of age, have studied abroad in several countries and can speak multiple languages. Karl can speak English, Spanish, Korean, Japanese and Chinese. Else can speak Spanish, English, Portuguese, French and Chinese.

After talking for awhile more, our coffees were gone and Starbucks was closing. We exchanged numbers and then headed our separate ways in different taxis. It is always nice to meet other foreigners and hear about how different their lives are even though we live in the same city. I rode home thinking how impressive it was that those students were so young but already knew several languages and vowed to study to try and study Chinese more diligently on Saturday. We'll see if that actually happens =)

Don’t get me wrong, I am having fun living and working in China but sometimes the smells get to me especially because the quality of the air is pretty bad already. This post isn’t meant to be mean or insensitive so don’t take it the wrong way – it is just a way to vent about a small frustration that comes with residing in Changzhou.

The smells we commonly detect each day are or resemble the following:

"Top Ten Most Common Smells in Changzhou, China"

10. Fish
9. Wet dog
8. Organic Chem. lab
7. Exhaust
6. B.O.
5. Smoke (from cigarettes and fireworks)
4. Unknown meats and veggies being cooked/grilled/boiled in strange sauces/spices
3. Sewage
2. Model glue
1. Burning rubber

"Top Ten Smells not found in Changzhou, China"

10. Lysol
9. Clean air
8. Glade plug-ins
7. New car smell
6. Coffee
5. Dryer sheets
4. Mouthwash and toothpaste
3. Anything being baked
2. Flowers
1. Perfume, cologne, deodorant, or body spray

I think I changed the comments section so anyone can post - you don't have to have a Google account. Let me know if you are still having problems. Thanks =)

Last Sunday we were invited to a Chinese professor's house. Her English name is Shelly and she teaches Chinese literature at the university. She wants to learn English and was also very interested in our lives and American culture in general. One of my students, Eunice, is her English tutor and she went along with us to help translate. Shelly lives nearby, only three stops away on the #28 bus and we arrived at her apartment in no time at all. She lives on the top floor of a nice complex in a fancy apartment complete with a rooftop garden. Her husband was away on business, she informed us and also said that she feels lonely a lot of the time by herself.


We sat down to tea and looked through some of her pictures in her photo album. Then she gave us some gifts which created an awkward situation as we had not brought anything for her, but Eunice assured me that it was fine. After tea we walked along the river and visited a market nearby. Shelly and Eunice pointed out some of the more interesting Chinese vegetables and we asked about some of the produce that was unrecognizable to us.


After the market we headed to lunch at a place called Kung Fu Beef. This type of lunch is called "hot pot" and it is a special kind of experience similar to fondue. My students always talk about how much fun it is to eat hot pot together with a group of friends. A hot pot meal consists of a large pot in the middle of the table heated by a gas flame underneath the table. The pot is filled with broth and then you can order many different kinds of meat, tofu and vegetables to be cooked in the pot. Then everyone digs in with chopsticks and dips their food in mixtures of sauces available on the side. The whole affair is quite warm because of the proximity to the constantly boiling pot of broth and fortunately we were seated next to an air conditioner.


We had a great time and started with a hot pot of beef intestine and mushrooms. Slowly we added in giant croutons, lettuce, potatoes, carrots, turnips, tofu, beef strips, sprouts, tree ears (a type of fungus that grows on trees) and wax gourd. Eunice and Shelly let us know when each type of food was ready to be eaten as they all required different cooking times in the pot. The meal was finished with a small dessert that tasted like an elephant ear in the shape of a long donut. It was delicious. We walked home way too full but satisfied with our first hot pot experience.

It's been raining for days, I don't have to teach today and I am currently not motivated enough to try and study some Chinese so I thought I'd take a second and briefly introduce the other English teachers that are here. Sean and I feel really lucky that all of the other guys here are really cool, fun and easy to get along with.

Ken hails from the great state of Iowa but went to school in Tulsa where he studied economics and Spanish. He's studied abroad in Spain when he was an undergraduate and can speak Spanish (he's also getting pretty good at Chinese). He was here teaching English last year as well and has been a big help and a great resource for us. Ken is always entertaining to be around and his most recent exploit has been to start a beer club on campus in which the culture of beer is discussed and new types are sampled bi-weekly. His blog is listed as "Ken's blog" if you want to read more about what he has to say.


Daniel has also been here for a year already and is from Washington D.C. He went to school in Madison, Wisconsin where he studied creative writing. Daniel has done a lot of traveling in his life and has lived in Australia and Belgium with his family. He is always up for planning a new trip or adventure somewhere and trying out new bars and restaurants in the city (our most recent experiment was a Brazilian restaurant where they constantly brought different grilled meats to the table - delicious). I have heard Ken call Daniel a "renaissance man" because he knows a lot about a lot of things especially history, literature, current movies and books and pop culture. If you want to read more about his experience check out "Please don't run over me."


Peter is from North Carolina and went to school there as well. I think he studied philosophy or religion and German, but I am not sure. He can speak German and he speaks Chinese well. Peter has been teaching at a different school in China through CIEE for the past six months but decided to switch to this school for the rest of his contract. We are glad he switched because he's really fun to hang out with and is quite the dancer. The students are fascinated with his blond hair and I always have students who want to talk about how he looks like a "pop star" or how he is the identical twin of Michael Schofield from the show Prison Break (when he had shaved his head). If you want to read Peter's blog it is called "The world is polygonal."

Jordan is new to living in China and teaching English just like Sean and I. He was in our orientation with CIEE and came to this school with us. Jordan is from Lake Tahoe in California and is finishing up his masters degree in psychology. He decided to come to China because he wanted to do something different. He is into art and has studied a type of Chinese martial arts before he came here. He used to be my neighbor in the neighborhood of the villas but has since moved to the hotel for some better accommodations. Jordan is really easy-going and the students adore him (especially the girls).

So that's the group of English teachers at Jiangsu Teachers University of Technology. It is really nice to have a group of Americans to hang out with and travel together. Everyone is curious, adventurous, intelligent and funny which makes for a fun time when we get together.

*Ken, Daniel, Peter and Jordan - sorry if I didn't get your details right, I tried my best!

The track meet wrapped up on Saturday and a few of us participated in some different events. I started off with the abdominal crunch competition against the other lady teachers and ended up getting third. Perhaps this is due to P90X and Coach Tony's insistence of AbRipperX three times a week. Then I ran the 800 and got third in that as well. It was quite a challenge and frustrating that the race was a lot more painful and a lot slower than it had been for me in high school and college track. There's nothing like a half mile sprint with college students watching to remind me that I am slowly creeping up to being thirty years old.


Ken ran the 800 as well and got first place while proudly sporting an American flag bandanna. Ken and Peter also participated in the push-up competition and both placed in the top five. This competition was especially hilarious as Chinese professors stripped down to their tank tops formed a small, cramped circle around the push-upping pairs on the floor. Muscles were flexed and there were several rather impressive displays of manliness along with much arguing and debates over correct form and what was considered a valid push-up or not.


The foreign language department scored fourth overall in the track meet which everyone was excited about. I am sure they are happy to have the foreigners' points count for their department and the word is that we will receive cash compensation for our participation and our places and finishes in each event.