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At the end of 2003: Happy New Year!

Shengdan kuai le (merry Christmas) and Xinnian kaui le (happy New Year) from Harbin! In January my contract with the university and my "year" (322 days) in northeast Asia will be complete. These days everyone is looking forward to the long vacation around the traditional lunar New Year's Day, which I think is January 21st this year. That is the most important holiday of the year, but no one minds celebrating the New Year twice. In fact, I have just finished listening to President Hu's holiday greetings on central television.

Winter set in about mid-November, and the temperature hasn't been above 32°F since then. Harbin is known to reach very cold temperatures frequently, even -40°F, but this December has been mild. Although it often was about 0°F, it has often been warmer, too. Since the weather is so consistent, Harbin is a great place for ice lanterns and ice sculptures. I will see these things on Friday, January 2nd, so if you don't see the picture above, check again after the 2nd. I just couldn't resist the chance to send my New Year's greetings in advance, because my teacher-inspired scheme to send everyone a Christmas postcard has failed (she claims there are beautiful postcards with winter scenes at the post office store, but I was unable to find them).

My classes and exams are now finished, and I am relieved. You see, two of my classes actually asked me to offer an extra exam! They are preparing for the important exam that will allow them to study in Britain, and since my exams closely follow the format of the speaking portion of that exam, they wanted more chances to practice for the interview with me. Plus, I decided that it would be very sensible to have a Christmas party with each of my seven classes, including the movie A Charlie Brown Christmas. The result was mayhem! I am grateful for the help of Phil, Bethany, and Matt N. so that I could show the movie.

You know it is impossible for me to concentrate exclusively on teaching. There was another rock concert on November 29, so I had to attend! The quality of all the bands had improved, and my favorite was the group that wore the gray coveralls, although several groups were almost as good. On December 19, I went to a new cafe to hear Joel (an American) play some songs (in English). Then on Christmas Day and the 27th, I attended services that were full of skits, dancing, and singing. So it is easy to be entertained even when you can't understand the language.

At the Dongfu office, the culture nights have been increasing in popularity. We were overcrowded with nearly 90 in attendance for the Thanksgiving culture night. Next, we had some friends help us with a culture night about Scotland, so I learned to bake shortbread. For Christmas, we tried to avoid the crowding problem by presenting the culture night at a university first, and once again at the office, but we still had 80 people. It's so nice to see people who are enthusiastic about studying English, because it helps us to be more enthusiastic about teaching it.

This year of teaching has been a big challenge for me. To be honest, as I look back on this experience as it draws to a close, I could have done a lot of things better. I could have studied harder, taught better, prayed more, been more aggressive about forming friendships and trying to do difficult tasks, and been less aggressive in defense of my American ideas about personal rights and politeness. But when we learn to walk, and we fall down, we must let Dad pick us up off the floor for another try!

So, I'm trying again. In February I'll begin working part-time for Dongfu again as an English teacher, plus some office work. I will also attempt to take a language class at Hei Da (intensive reading, which for some reason really means grammar). This will be a six-month trial, after which we will evaluate the productiveness of that setup. There are still a lot of work permit, visa, housing and financial issues to be ironed out. I hope you are in support of my idea. Your feedback is always welcome. Dongfu company has many difficulties to overcome, so please remember all of the company members.

Supposedly tickets have been purchased, and I will be flying home on January 12th! I'm excited about this vacation, and I want to have a chance to visit everyone before February 15th. Well, perhaps Calgary, Denver, and Florida are out of my reach, but hopefully I can visit the majority of my family and friends. Since my vacation falls at a time when you are NOT on vacation, I expect you to get in touch with me about a time when you are free to meet me. See you soon!

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Another try: March

Harbin has a very dismal appearance in the winter. The bright flowers, leaves and grass are not there to disguise the crumbling workmanship of the buildings and the flaky or streaky paint. There hasn't been any rain to remove the accumulated filth from the streets and sidewalks. Unless the snow is fresh, everything is covered with a layer of soot.

Spring is definitely here. The temperature fluctuates, but is certainly warmer than December or January. The wind is strong and carries a lot of dirt, which helped the black snow to melt away during the warmer days. People are wearing their lighter coats now and then.

March 18 is the 31st consecutive day I've been in China, bringing my total count to 352. I was in Harbin this time last year, too. It's hard to look back and remember how I felt as I experienced everything for the first time. I'm calling this my second try, because I want to live here with more purpose and be mindful of opportunities. But I haven't got much of a plan. I've signed an agreement with my friends from TEAM to work for them until mid-August. After that, I'm not sure what will happen.

On January 12, I arrived in Grand Rapids, and proceeded to have the most excellent vacation that I can remember. I had missed everyone so much, and it brought me so much joy to see for myself how my friends and family were doing. It was a refreshing time that I think has prepared me well to live in Harbin again.

I arrived in Harbin on February 17, late in the afternoon. I went to my new home, the Jensens' apartment, where I had stored my stuff during the holiday. On the 19th I had to teach four hours of classes, and then board an overnight train north to the city of Heihe. The TEAM company, Dongfu, was to give an English teaching seminar to college and high school English teachers, and I had to go along to help. Although I was not at all pleased to be traveling so soon after I had arrived in Harbin, it was an interesting experience. After all, I also needed to know more about teaching! The teachers were much more cooperative than my university students are.

Heihe is a city on the Heilong River, which is the border with Russia. Across the river is a Russian city, and the residents often cross the river. It isn't that simple for foreigners like me, though, so I didn't go across on the ice.

During our time in Heihe, the normal college English department sent us to Anhui city to see a museum about the various border disputes with Russia and a memorial about Russian aggression. Although nothing was translated into English, it had very interesting exhibits.

We spent six days in Heihe, and the morning our train (soft sleeper car, no less!) arrived in Harbin I was scheduled to teach four hours again. So it has taken me quite a while to really get settled in to my new apartment and get a work schedule ironed out. I finally feel like I've got things cleaned and organized good enough, and my roommate and I are getting along fine. I even got to hang out with some people my age a couple of times!

These days I'm taking 13 hours of language class at Hei Da, teaching 4 hours at Hei Da, working at the Dongfu office most afternoons, attending a local club on Saturday nights and foreigners' house club on Sunday mornings. Some other teaching hours should be coming soon. I also work for the office every other Tuesday night, which is the Culture Night. Last Tuesday, I was in charge. Praise the Father that it went well and few people came because we didn't have enough helpers!

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May note

Hello! Today is Monday, May 24, my 100th day in NE Asia this year. That brings my the total amount of time I have lived abroad to 419 days. I'm feeling pretty good right now, and I hope you are too.

This spring the weather has been a little different than it was last year. For example, this spring it has been cloudy quite a bit and even rains once in a while, but last year it was unfailingly sunny. The temperature ranges between the high 50's and the low 70's. One thing is the same, though, and that is the wind. This year I experienced my first two dust storms, with brown clouds straight from the desert of Mongolia. A brown sky is more eerie than an impending thunderstorm. Still, Harbin weather has been more reliable than Michigan weather, and there have been plenty of nice days. I like cool weather anyway. It sounds like there has been too much rain in Michigan this month.

I have a lot of chances to be outside when I'm walking to classes or going to the Dongfu office. The office is in downtown Harbin, and Hei Da is in the SW. I have walked from the Dongfu neighborhood all the way home to Hei Da two evenings in a row, and it takes more than two hours. The first time, I needed to walk off some stress after work and deliberately took roads and paths that led away from the bus route on Big Straight Street. It was really interesting to see the rundown one-story houses, the fancy new apartment buildings, outdoor markets and bus routes I hadn't used. I ended up as far away from Big Straight Street as the old zoo, but I still ended up intersecting it after it turned (no, it isn't completely straight!). I cut through a park at sunset and found it full of people enjoying the nice weather, with a big group crowding around an ensemble performing with traditional instruments. They were really good, and I stayed to listen to one song. The next night, my friend Catherine and I ate too much dinner at Le Jazz/Kenny Rogers Roasters, and began walking home, and ended up going the whole way on foot.

During the week-long Labor Day holiday, the first week of May, I also spent two days doing outdoor activities. Last year, everything was different because of SARS, but this year people weren't afraid to leave home. On May 3, I went with my roommate and some members of the club in Daowai to a small club in an outlying region of Harbin. There, along with some other clubs, they performed their Easter show again, ate a quick lunch, and then we climbed a big hill nearby to have fun and games. I'm really glad I went; it was very interesting to see what a recreational outing is like for my like-minded friends. On May 7, the Dongfu company hired a small van and we went to climb a small mountain a few hours outside of Harbin (a few pictures are at http://www2.gvsu.edu/~dyera). Then we had barbeque beside a river.

Every weekday morning I attend language class, but some of my classmates have different ideas about attendance. Usually only about nine out of seventeen students are in class! I seem to always be one step behind in my listening and vocabulary, so I still have a lot of no-clue-what-anyone-is-talking-about moments. My mid-term exam was 83, however, proving that I haven't lost my edge in faking my way through an exam. After I read through it several times, I was able to fill in a lot of vocabulary I didn't know by making a guess from sentence context in the grammar sections. I should be a professional test-taker.

On May 14th my classmates and I went out for dinner and afterwards we went bowling. It was fun and interesting to be in a diverse group of foreigners, especially since we needed to communicate in Chinese. In my class there are fourteen Koreans, a Russian, an Argentinan, and an American. My deskmate brought her kids to the restaurant, and our teacher showed up as we finished eating. The low point of the evening was when the restaurant succeeded in ripping us off because we were foreigners. My deskmate and her kids went home when we left the restaurant to go bowling. The rest of us "older" students went home from bowling at about midnight, but the majority of the Koreans went out drinking.

Last week I suddenly found out that this is the last week for my oral English classes. I have been having surprises like these for over a month (schedule changes, usually), and I'm happy to be finished if I can stop scrambling up my schedule. My students haven't all had a chance to give their presentations, so I had to schedule extra classes for them this week just to finish that, and there will be no time to give them an exam. I have been teaching these students for two terms now, longer than I've taught any other group, and soon they will be going to England to study. I hope I can offer them more help and friendship after I am finished being their teacher.

It hasn't been settled where I'll be teaching next week (the first week of June). My language class goes until mid-July, I think. My contract with Dongfu is over in mid-August. Then what? I don't know yet! I don't have family and friends here and I love living in Michigan, but I really like Harbin and I'm enjoying life in this city. It's hard to decide when to come home considering that it would mean the end of my Harbin experience, and I might not ever see Harbin again.

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The Unexpected Turn of Events

Ni hao (hello) from Harbin! How are you? I'm doing ok. right now it's early Saturday morning June 26, my 133rd consecutive day here, bringing my total to 452! Those numbers look pretty good, but they fall short of my goal of two years.

It has been fully summer here for several weeks now, and quite hot. Once it got up to about 96 degrees, and several times it has been about 90. At first the air was still pretty dry, but now the humidity has increased. Soon the rainy months will be here. Our patience through the winter has been rewarded by lots of flowers.

This month I have finished my first semester of language study. Overall, it was a great experience, and I learned a lot. I could have learned more, though: yesterday I took the final exam and my score was only 78, surprisingly high because I didn't have time to study. Hopefully I can build on this foundation in my free time.

I also taught at a small private school this month. It was a little strange. In almost every class someone new would attend, and I never quite knew what was going on. I enjoyed my Korean, Japanese, and Chinese students. I also led a Culture Night at the Dongfu office last Tuesday (about Robin Hood) and gave up on trying to do their bilingual web page. The English-only web pages are at chinateam.org. Take a look if you want to, and if you have any advice about why I'm unable to put up Chinese and English in UTF-8 encoding, please let me know!

A few weeks ago something came to my attention back home with my family, and I made a sort of emergency decision to return. So tomorrow, Sunday June 27, I will be flying back to Michigan and staying there indefinitely. Are you surprised? Me too! I had hoped to stay here until about January. It is very hard to leave, and hard to get ready to leave so quickly. Saying goodbye is so difficult, and I am not satisfied with my performance this spring. However, I must keep pressing on and maybe someday I will come back to Harbin.