Ni hao!

I hope everyone is doing well. Has it been two weeks since my last update already? (Actually, I'm really asking. I can't remember if it has or not...) Well everything is speeding along here. Teaching has been a good experience! My students are great.  They like to play games--we have played Simon Says and Vocab Slap and I Never...They really enjoyed my story of the Bye Bash at SBU where around 200 students played Simon Says to win an iPod!

I have also enjoyed living with my roommates, although the time has not been devoid of discouragement. I don't feel as close to them as I would like, even as we are working on our fourth week here. While I have had a few opportunities to talk with them about important things, they are generally very quiet and studious. Also with our different schedules, it is very difficult to find time to spend all together! But I'm hoping that this week, with more effort, we can enjoy some time together. I also would like to devote more time to yarping for them and the rest of the students here, maybe yarper-walking around the campus in the mornings.

I am feeling better about our language lessons... although we still don't get to practice as much as we like. I think we are having a quiz this week! Last Saturday we met my cousin for lunch for my birthday and we successfully ordered lunch in Chinese, at a Korean restaurant! And it all came out like it was supposed to! That was a very exciting time. I have had fun talking with shopkeepers and taxi drivers and such.

Last week I found out that my dad is coming here in August! He is going to teach a class at a university near Shanghai and then he will meet us in Beijing to visit for a few days. I am very excited to see him and show him around. It is such a Dad-thing (not dad, but Dad) that he was invited to teach here while I am going to be here! Dad is amazing.

Also speaking of language, I am thinking that Chinese is easier than English in some respects. Learning the days of the week and the months of the year is so easy. All you have to know is numbers, really... Monday is "xing qi yi" which basically means first day of the week. Amazing! January is "yi yue"--first month! None of these crazy names you have to memorize. Which month is it? Oh it's qi yue! The seventh month! Wo de shang ri shi qi yue er shi er hao! That means "my birthday is July 22!" Which, it was. It was very interesting to have my 21st

birthday in a country where 21 really means 20, or even 19. Since people are considered a year old when they are born, and then they turn another year old on Chinese New Year, some people say that they are two years older than they actually are! You have to ask what year they were born, in order to figure it out. But it's kind of different saying "Oh I'm turning 21" and people are saying , "Oh you are so young," and I am saying "Well not as young as you think..." but it's funny.

On Saturday I got my two favorite meals here--Korean: gong pun gi (sweet and sour chicken--amazing) and then for dinner, Chinese: guo bao rou (sweet and sour pork--amazing!) So that was fun. Also, my roommates had qi pao made for me--a traditional dress! It is very beautiful. Being measured for it was interesting--there is always an uncomfortable feeling that comes with someone laughing hysterically and saying things in Chinese, and then calling other people over to laugh with them. Apparently I have an abnormally long torso compared to a Chinese person... hahaha it was fun though.

Not only am I teaching an English conversation class and participating in the English House program, but I am also now leading discussions for a group of students from the Vision English Club. This is just a couple of hours a week, but it is a really excellent opportunity to just sit down and talk to students about their lives and even get information for my ethnography study! It just started last week, but it was really fun and I am excited about being involved. It is nice to be with the students on more of a friend-level than a teacher-level because it is easier to just hang out. In some ways it's difficult being in English house and teaching because most of the students in our classes are in English House too. It seems like itwould be a good thing, right? But it's different seeing your students in the community showers than in the classroom... and really, the other teachers at the university don't experience anything like that. So it is a very unique situation, and one that I just need to get used to... but in other ways, it's nice to be able to see the girls outside of class and whatthey are like on a day-to-day basis.

Dad is just doing such amazing things here. There is a lot of activity because YUST (Yanbian University of Science and Technology) is opening up a sister school in NK!!! It's the first time something like that has been approved by the NK government. The sister school will be PUST, and it will be located in the capitol of NK. It is scheduled to open in April! And for their English department, they are actually asking for Americans to come teach. What an unbelievable opportunity! (Unfortunately, you have to have a Master's degree to get in... so neither Jeanna nor I could just slip in there after we're done with our semester abroad... haha.)

What's so amazing is what the school will be bringing over there. See, the school where I am at is very special. I would say 95% of the staff (in all departments, everywhere) are brothers and sisters. They say 80% of the students are by the time they leave. It is very different here from other places in this country. Last Sunday we had a ceremony where the President of the university presented us with certificates and such, and then led us all in singing an amazing song about grace...He is working here, and it is incredible!

Well I think I will wrap this up now. Thank you for all the encouragement you have given me and all the yarping you are doing! It means so much to know that you care and are thinking of us. Please intercede for our roommates and students!

In Him,

Joanna