Not so long til Christmas break...

Hello everyone!!!

I know it's been a little while now, my apologies. However, I've been really busy and have felt like I've been flying by the seat of my pants for the last two weeks. We had our third test last week. I had a paper due the previous week, and for the last two weeks I've been working on filming a movie in CHinese with my friends to put on display at a movie festival our study abroad program is having.

So I'll start with some exciting news and move the most exciting at the end of my post. I am going to get to sing with my Chinese home- stay sister Kou Dan at IES's China night. It's essentially like a sending off performance type of thing for all of IES and the people involved the night before everyone leaves. We're gonna sing Beijing welcomes you (that would be the title of the song in English). I'm super excited, but it's going to be a bit of a feat singing it as it is like a 7 minute song, meaning 7 minutes worth of words to memorize. haha The other bit of really cool news is that I will be appearing on a Beijing television talk show this upcoming thursday to be interviewed on what being a foreigner in China is like. We've had several lessons on how to talk about that in my classes so I should be able to use a lot of Chinese. I'm super excited and want to represent Americans well. So prayers for that would be very welcome!

The coolest news now. Tonight Lisa and I led a "Dad meeting" with four Chinese girls. I was supposed to prepare a lesson, but in the end decided that a more or less question answer format was best. The night went really well and we got to lay down the framework of who "Dad" is and what his son did for us. So cool! It was such a wonderful opportunity and I think all of the girls were even more interested at the end of the night so I'm looking forward to continuing to invest in them. Now we just need to get some guys to start coming.

In other news, I went to see some of the Ming dynasty's tombs this weekend with my home stay mom. My home stay mom brought back the closest thing to a Chinese burrito you will find in China for dinner tonight. My friends and I got our butts kicked by my Chinese kung fu teacher and one of my friends who does martial arts back in the U.S. for our movie's fight scene today, and my home stay mom called me "xiao huai dan" the other day. It means little bad egg, or in a better translation, little bastard. It's supposedly a term of endearment in China according to my Chinese teachers and I believe them as my mom said it with a smile on her face the whole time and doesn't seem like she could ever say anything mean.

Well, we've got a really light week with Thanksgiving coming up, so I should be able to update more, but for those family members I will be missing. Travel safe, I'll be missing you and all the delicious food we always eat.

Oh, also, the Chinese government finally turned on the heat after weeks of shivering in my home stay. I first wanted to thank Hu Jin Tao and second wanted to let my parents that due to the increase in the internal temperature of my house I am now showering every other day instead of every third or fourth.

God Bless!!!

Long Weekend Trip!

So this past weekend I had go to Anyang with about 11 of my classmates and two teachers. Anyang was the capital of the Shang dynasty and where oracle bone writing (a really early version of Chinese writing) was developed. We were supposed to get to participate in an archeology dig but that fell through when that actually found something the day we were supposed to get to dig. In Anyang we went to an the Oracle Bone museum, went to a Chinese high school, and went to a Chinese history of Chinese museum. My favorite of the three was going to the high school. The visit to the high school began as I would have expected. We met with a group of three high school students and they hung out with us and showed us around their campus a bit. I got to ask them what they like to do, what school is like, and what they want to do one day. What they liked to do was nothing out of the ordinary (ping pong, badminton, basketball, watch movies and t.v.), but then the fun started. They asked me to sing a song, I'm not really sure why, but I did because I like to sing, and it's China and they were high school students. I had nothing to lose. hahaha So after I sang they complemented me and I of course did the customary Chinese thing and declined all praise and said I sing terribly. Then we arrived at their sports competition. Two times a year their school has a sports competition and we were lucky enough to be attending on one of those days. The entire school, clad in their blue and white jumpsuit uniforms, were in the stands and surrounding the track watching their fellow classmates participate in a number of different track and field events. It reminded me a bit of high school football games when each event began because the roar of the crowd at the beginning of each event sent chills running up my spine. One of my classmates participated in the 1500 meter race and won by about 10 seconds, I digress. Anyways, as soon as we arrived at the track we were bombarded by people wanting to take pictures and meet with us. I literally felt like I might have been a superstar for about two hours. If any white person is in need of an ego boost, just walk into a Chinese high school outside of a large city and wait for the students to begin to ask you for pictures and want to talk to you, all the while telling you you're so handsome or beautiful. After getting a bit of free space I ended up playing some basketball with some of the guys I had met, but then we had to stop because the teachers were afraid it was taking attention away from the school competition. This also happened when I was challenged to a dance competition... I'm rather glad that happened because while I believe I dance fairly well, I was greatly overmatched in this competition. So after all of this and telling some number of people I can't count that I had forgot all of my contact info (as a foreigner, giving out contact info is typically a no- no, acquaintances will ask you to come see them for months. I'm still receiving texts from some girls I met in Harbin and had a five minute conversation with), we left and went to a tower somewhere in the middle of the city. We climbed it, snapped a few pictures, relaxed and reveled in our previous celebrity status and went to the hotel to sleep before dinner.

So now it's back to class and NO SHAVE NOVEMBER!!!! I need to focus on my beard. With my hair getting longer and longer by the second I may be able to pass as an entirely new person when I come back in December.

Well.... I Love everyone back home!!! And miss you!

And Go Dawgs!!! I don't care if we just got heart broken by Florida...

Hello Again!

So the last week since my Chinese brother's wedding has been a busy one. I had a midterm in government and Chinese quizzes every day as usual. We've got a Chinese midterm coming up this upcoming thursday though, so this next week is going to be packed with Chinese.

Recently, I've found my Chinese to be getting much much better. I'm beginning to be able to explain a story or an experience to my host family only having to use my dictionary for a few choice words. I've also found that there are several very simple subject areas where I can hold a pretty good conversation. These subject areas mostly have to do with introducing myself and meeting someone else. I can now explain where I am from, what I like to do, and explain why I am in China. I can then understand the person I am talking to when I ask them the same questions. There are other areas where I am becoming quite comfortable speaking Chinese, but I've found that I can hold a pretty smooth conversation within these areas.

This week I had the opportunity to meet my Chinese brother and sister's co- workers. They have different jobs so I met their co- workers on separate occasions. My sister works at an army hospital. So she is a part of the army. Meeting her co- workers was very interesting for me especially when I found out that all of her co- workers and her boss who was present are party members. It was cool to just hang out with them and eat and drink. They want to take me out to KTV sometime. I think that would be a ton of fun, however the one worry I would have would be the amount of alcohol I may be forced to consume. In China, if someone toasts then you must drink with them (it's considered a bit rude not to), and if they say ganbei, that means you have to finish what is in your glass. haha My Chinese sister's boss particularly enjoyed ganbei's and we were at lunch... So naturally I would guess he would drink even more in a KTV type of situation. So while I would be wary of this situation, I think I would fair fine because I've got the foreigner card for not understanding customs if I stopped doing the ganbei's, and then I could always make up an excuse and say I'm sick. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to say I've drank enough and I don't want to get drunk. That card doesn't seem to trump Chinese people's insistence on you drinking. I'm really excited to hopefully get to talk to my Chinese sister and her co- workers about how the party works once my Chinese is pretty good. To foreigners, the party is very much a mystery. The only in we really have understanding the process in which decisions are made come from the documents of government meetings leading up to the Tiananmen Square Massacre. We just read a few of those in Government and Politics class.

Meeting my brother's co- workers was quite similar to meeting my sister's co- workers. We met them at dinner and ate, and through the process of many toasts put a bit of a dent in the boxes upon boxes of alcohol that my family has left over from the wedding. Fortunately I didn't have to make up any excuses to not drink as none of my brother's friends like to drink too much and therefore didn't envoke any ganbei's. The dinner with my brother's co- workers was more or less an introduction of his new wife to them. So it was cool to once again, just as at the wedding, see my brother run between three tables toasting and visiting with everyone present.

Thursday night, despite having class the next day, two friends and I went out salsa dancing. Originally the plan was for the group to be much larger. One of our friends continues to lose weight here in China and has had a lot of trouble putting any back on, and she's dipped into a weight that doctors here consider to be dangerous. So she has decided upon her parent's and a few doctor's prompting to go back home. Originally we were going out to spend time with her, but she ended up deciding to go back to the IES dorms after dinner, taking several of our other friends with her. This depleted our numbers to three. Despite the small numbers it was a great time and my salsa improved quite a bit with the help of an instructor at the club. So much fun!

That brings me to this weekend. I tried to plan a surprise going away party for Hanna, but her friends that are closer to her than I am told me that she probably wouldn't appreciate it as she doesn't really want to call attention to herself. I wasn't told not to have it until after I'd already sent out an e-mail to all of IES. This situation presented two really cool opportunities. One was seeing how tight knit our study abroad program is. I sent out the e- mail and immediately had people to help and was told by many people that it was a really cool idea, and they were really looking forward to it. The other cool opportunity came in canceling the party. Having received complement's on the idea there was a selfish part of me that didn't want to cancel the party. So having to cancel it gave "Dad" an opportunity to humble me to his will. All take all of those opportunities. I love seeing "dad" increase in my life, and me decrease.

Well, I love all of you and hope you're doing well!

Yours,

Colton

Chinese Weddings and my Experience with my Homestay thus far

所有的中国人都是我的老师。This phrase (All Chinese people are my teachers) may best describe my experience in China so far, particularly within my home- stay. For those in China for the first time, I feel that each day is a learning experience. Whether it is learning to dodge traffic across the street, peel grapes, watch your back for sneaky electric bike riders, to bargain ferociously, the language, or Chinese culture, every day includes a new lesson to be learned. This learning experience has been most evident within the confines of my Chinese home- stay or as I would rather call them, my Chinese family.

I recently had the opportunity to attend and in some ways take active part in my Chinese older brother’s wedding. This is where I got my lesson on Chinese culture for the day, and I really want to share my experiences as I think others will find them quite interesting and in some cases humorous. Having been to a few American weddings, the differences were stark, and I often found myself wondering what exactly was going on. The day began around eight when most of my mother’s family gathered at our house before heading to the wedding ceremony. After a typical breakfast of baozi (bread with a meat and vegetable filling) and milk, we left in a train of cars whose drivers consisted mostly of co- workers and friends. We arrived at a hotel close by and then went in. We then went up to the bride’s room and began a process of negotiating for the bride’s family to open the door and let us in to the room to pick up the bride to go to the wedding. After several rounds of negotiating, which included a surplus of coaxing (through the cracked door), excessive knocking or pounding on the door, the exchange of countless hong bao (decorated red envelopes filled with money), and a song sung by myself (thankfully per-prepared for the IES singing competition the night before) the bride’s family allowed us in. Then we were finally permitted to accompany the bride to the wedding after the groom found the bride’s shoes, which were hidden only for the groom to find. Once arriving at the wedding venue, another hotel, it took all of a few minutes to realize that the wedding about to take place was going to be much different than the American weddings I have seen. This realization came as I entered the room to the tune of the Star Wars sound track, followed by Olympics music. The differences continued, ranging from the lack of a formal hand off of the bride to the groom by the bride’s father to an exchanging of gifts between the bride and groom and their new parents-in-law. After watching the bride and groom move from table to table toasting and playing games prepared for them by guests, the wedding was over and it was time to head home.

While getting to go to a Chinese wedding was an absolutely incredible experience, what I think what has been the most fulfilling part of my home-stay experience is actually feeling like I am now part of a Chinese family. It’s hard for me to explain why I feel this way or how I came to feel this way. I am in the lowest level of the language intensive program, and while my Chinese improves daily, my conversations with my family seldom pass the level of most three or four year-olds. What I do know is that there is some feeling of understanding and love between my host mother and I, even if I only understand about thirty percent of what she says to me. This is where my opening statement that 所有的中国人都是我的老师 relates. Living in a home- stay, not only do I learn new Chinese words, phrases, and culture on a daily basis, but I also learn about love and being part of a family. Before I ever met my home- stay family I made a decision that I wanted to become a part of the family, not just be a foreign exchange student. With this mind- set I have learned so much about how I should love my own family in the U.S. I feel that often times having grown up with our parents and siblings for our entire life we lose intentionality in establishing and building relationships with them. I know that this is a truth in my life and one that I seek to change. Each day in China, I think about making an effort to spend time with my mom and brother. It started out as simple as just doing my homework in the living room, and has moved to day trips with my host mom, which often include my friends as well. It’s this intentionality that I have learned the most from. Seeing how simply making an effort to spend time with someone has fostered a relationship that I would associate with familial love, has forced me to think about how poorly I have invested in my relationships with my own parents. It’s forced me to think of ways I can begin to make this intentional effort when I get back to college in America. Through the process of learning to become a part of a Chinese family I feel that I have not only realized the value of my own family and the depth to which I love them, but also how to better express my love for my family. While, I greatly value the learning of the Chinese culture and Chinese language that my home- stay family leads me in, it is the knowledge I have gained on loving my family that I treasure the most. I will conclude by saying I love you Mom, Dad, and Kiersten, and I can’t wait to see all of you this Christmas.

- God Bless

Colton Houseman- 何凯涛

Home Sweet Beijing

Hello!

Well, I've finally returned from my two week trip around Northeast China, and now am forced to begin working on the papers and projects about our travels we have to turn in to our Chinese teachers in class Thursday. So, now I must begin the arduous process of putting two weeks into one blog post. haha Here goes:

Starting out with my group (of 18 students, one Chinese teacher, and the program director) we got on an overnight train and went to Yanji. Since I have never travelled by train I was super excited despite the daunting amount of time that we had to travel on the train, 25 hours. Anyways, overnight trains consist of a hallway on the right side of the car and little open (as in lacking a door) compartments on the left side. There are six bunks in each compartment, three stacked on top of each other on each side of the compartment. I originally had a bottom bunk, but when I got to my bed a Chinese woman asked if I could switch with her mother because her mother was elderly, so of course I switched. Having a top bunk was actually quite pleasant outside of having about two feet of head room to maneuver. It really didn't matter since the only time I was in my bunk was when I was sleeping. When we arrived in Yanji we went to a Korean restaurant that had a kang. Kang is essentially a heated floor. The table you sit at is about a foot off of the floor and you sit on the floor of the kang, of course not wearing shoes. The next day we left to go hiking in Chang bai shan forest. Upon waking up, one thing immediately stood out as one looked out the window. It was going to be a wet hike... It was raining and it did not appear as if there was any mercy in mother nature's disposition for the day. So after trying to wait out the rain till 11, buying better rain gear (all camo, perfect for hiking 6 miles from the North Korean border), and heading to where we would start our hike, the rain finally subsided. When we arrived at our "trail- head" one thing became very clear. Past 15 feet into the forest, there was not a trail. Nonetheless we began our hike bushwacking through all kinds of brush scaling logs, and tip toeing through briars. After about an hour another thing was becoming quite apparent as we rambled through the forest in no particular direction. Our guide was not fully sure on where he was going. I think this became most apparent when he started rushing ahead and then looking in circles as if to find his bearings. About an hour and a half in we came to a few creeks. We passed over them without much thought and then came to what we thought were a few puddles. Then a few puddles became a strand of puddles, and the strand of puddles became somewhat of a swamp. After having soaked my shoes and socks in, at times knee deep water, almost tested the water resistance capabilities of my camera, and screamed "jia you" ( a chinese saying for like push on, or like take hope, or something of the sort, essentially its like a moral boost saying in Chinese) to fellow classmates at least a hundred times we scaled a bank to a road which I later found out was the road we were dropped off at, just deeper into the forest. Having familiarized ourselves with the terrain of some of the Korean war, learned a bit about being Rambo, and in the process exhausted each of our pairs of dry socks for our two day camping trip we continued on up the road. Eventually we were given a choice of staying on the road or bushwacking it again, as both would lead us to our "campsite." After hiking along a pretty stream and seeing how natives of the area capture frogs to eat (one foot deep holes in the ground ) and crossing a "bridge" of two logs next to each other, each of about half a foot in diameter, we got back to the road. After following the road a bit longer we came to where we thought there would be a campsite. There was no such place. haha It only got more exciting!!! After shouldering all of our suitcases, as we thought the car carrying our luggage was supposed to be able to drive to our campsite, we treked back into the forest to get to where our tour guides said our campsite was. This portion of the trip got interesting really quick as no more than 10 feet in we had to cross a bridge more rickety than the first and then a second covered in moss, with all of luggage. We finally made camp about a 10 minute hike in. There was not a cleared area and we were forced to clear the area of trees and the such ourselves, while trying to put up tents and start a fire as the sun was going down and we were losing light. We then had kabobs, fire roasted bread, and smores for dinner, and went to bed after attempting to dry our socks and shoes near the fire. I unfortunately melted a bit of one sock as apparently putting something too close to fire will do that, but reduced amount of moisture was well worth the charred top of my sock. All in all this may have been one of my favorite days of the trip. It was packed with so much adventure and adversity and everyone kept their spirits up and just kept going. It was really cool to see a group of people who didn't know each other very well to really come together in one day due to all sorts of obstacles we had to overcome to get to our campsite.

The next morning we woke up in our tents to the sound of rain and then as one got out of their sleeping bag the feeling of water in the bottom of their tent. Quite pleasant.... We eventually hiked a few minutes and saw two waterfalls right by our campsite. So pretty, I love waterfalls so much. Then we packed up camp and headed back across the bridges with our luggage and down the road to be picked up by our bus. We were supposed to camp two nights, but since all of our stuff was soaked and it was getting cold, we made the smart decision and let mother nature win. The next day we went to Chang Bai Shan and Tianchi. It was so incredibly pretty. Absolutely insane. I'm fairly sure it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I couldn't help but continually think about how some one could ever deny the existence of God with such beauty surrounding us every day. I also had to keep checking to make sure I wasn't dreaming. haha That day we also went to hot springs... Which was like a really large hot tub, and lots of naked asian men. haha We weren't allowed to wear bathing suits so we added a vanilla tint to the predominantly yellow population in the hot spring. It was funny to see how awkward and out of place a lot of the guys on our trip seemed to be feeling. I'd have to say that I was a bit thankful for having changed in locker rooms for football and baseball in high school as I didn't feel to nervous and was able to enjoy the hot springs. The next day we went to Yanbian. After arriving we had Korean barbeque, and it was so good. The food is cooked in the middle right in front of you and then you wrap it in lettuce slices to eat it. I definitely look forward to eating that again. The next day we went to the college in Yanbian and met with some students. The girl I got to know was named Vita. We got about an hour to hang out and it was really cool to hear about Northeast Chinese culture, Chinese college student culture, and just to hang out. For lunch we went and learned how to make Dan gao. It's essentially rice bread. You mash up sticky rice til it is like a dough and then you cook it. It was really good. After we played some dress up with some traditional Korean garb of the people who taught us to make dan gao we got the day off. Later that night I met up with Vita and one of her friends Louise for dinner because I wanted to learn more from them about Northeastern Chinese culture. I also wanted to see what they thought about "dad". Dinner was awesome and they taught me a bunch of really useful stuff. I also found out that one of them knew "Dad" and the other didn't. I'm actually hoping to talk to them some more some day, but distance may be a factor in me getting that opportunity, but I did get their e mails. The following day we went to see the North Korean border. Since our teacher was American they wouldn't let us walk on the bridge to the border line, but we still got a pretty good look at the stark difference between the two countries. My heart absolutely breaks for that country. The difference in only appearances in the two cities was enough. On top of that I simply can not comprehend the amount of brainwashing that goes on to keep the people of North Korea from revolting. That country's government is absolutely sick...

The following day we went to Harbin where we spent two nights. We had most of the time off as free time, and one of the nights was the moon festival. For the moon festival we went to a restaurant that had a nationalistic skit and then a comedian. I actually got to dance in front of the restaurant while one of my classmates beat boxed. The comedian invited one of our class to come up and beat box and the guy who went up actually knows how. It was a ton of fun. After that we went to KTV which was really fun outside of seeing my classmates drink way past their limits and me not being able to sing due to a loss of my voice because of a cold. After Harbin we went to Shiwei which was super cold. It's right on the Russian border. The town was made up of a bunch of small log cabins. It has a population of about 4,000 unless it's winter, then it drops to 400. It's practically like in Siberia so everyone goes to the cities for winter. The coolest thing about Shiwei is that I got to ride a horse for the first time. I actually got the horse to gallop too!!! It was so much fun. I'd really really love to do that again. Our last destination was the grasslands. The grasslands were really pretty. They really reminded me of Nebraska, except instead of corn, just grass. haha I caught the sunrise and sunset from the top of a little knoll both days. Great alone time to be with God. Gotta love some G- time. haha While on the grasslands we got to learn about mongolian culture a bit. My favorite parts are their dancing and the fact that they wrestle. We got to wrestle a bunch and it was so much fun. Well, I'll probably end up adding to this, but for now that's all.

Hope everything back home is absolutely awesome!!!

Yours,

Colton

On the road again

Good Morning America!

Sorry, I know that was lame, but I love the time difference. It's so cool to me. So last week was a full week of studying!!!! Only to be followed by having a paper due tomorrow! So exciting. I took my first Chinese test this past Friday which I actually think I did quite well on. I'm really starting to see my speech improving. While there are many things I can not communicate, my listening has improved tremendously. I like listening. No chance to mess up there. Anyways, following our test on friday we all went out to celebrate! That consisted of going to bars where others drank in excess while I danced... Pretty typical! A new twist to this common equation is that a friend of mine taught me a bunch of salsa moves! So hopefully by the time the semester is over I'll not only know Chinese, but I'll also be able to swoon any woman off of her feet with a bit of salsa. The following morning I went to the zoo with two other friends. They had like ten pandas, more types of tigers than I've ever heard of and way too few penguins to quench my Happy Feet and Surf's Up thirst. Deet, I took plenty of close ups of the Pandas and will upload them soon. Later that day we had "text" study and a native came!!! It was so awesome!!! We're having to move "text" study because of that now, but that's okay! The next morning we had church which consisted of listening to broken english, singing in the choir, and spending 30 minutes trying to get a cab to take us less than 2 miles from where we got off the subway. Oh, I also didn't mention I watched the Dawgs lose at 3 in the morning.... sad day. Well, we leave for our two week trip this wednesday and I can't wait. North Korean and Russian borders here I come!!! When we get back my friends and I are going to go to a really pretty city in the south called Huangzhou too!!! Well, so long for now!!

- Colton

Excitement!!!

Hey!

So I'm currently preparing for my first Chinese test. The test is on Friday... I can't wait to get that over with. Anyways enough with the bad. Now the good!!!! I am preparing to leave for a two week trip around Northeastern China. I will get to hike near the North Korean border, camp, see a bunch of awesome scenery, and go to Harbin where I will see the ice festival when I come back in January. In preparation I bought a winter coat from the silk market today. I got a waterproof jacket with a fleece on the inside that can be zipped off, for about $73 - 500 kuai. In hindsight, I regret not haggling the price down even more. The trip to silk market was a very interesting one. I have never seen people fight for business as hard as these people did. At one point a woman tried to pull me into a store and only after a fifth time of saying "Bu Yao" ( I don't want) the fifth at about a yelling tone, was I released. After taking the subway back and getting my bike fixed I saw two guys hitting baseballs in a batting cage near my house that has been vacant every day I've passed it for the past two weeks. I really miss playing baseball so I stood and watched them right next to the cage. After watching one of them take many uncoordinated hacks at poorly thrown baseball's by his friend, they asked me if I'd like to play. I said of course and I'm fairly sure my enthusiasm probably could have been seen a mile away. After taking some swings, the guy who was throwing to me asked if I would like to play with them when they play games. I said of course. So hopefully I will get the chance to play some ball while I'm over here!!!! When I got home I showed my mom my purchase and asked her if the price I got was expensive or not. She said it wasn't, but I think she may have said that to make me feel good about it. Later at dinner I found out my older brother is getting married next month!!!!! He said I could come to the wedding too!!! The only downside to this is that he will move out... Well, I better go study, and there's only one more thing I want to say.

GOOOOO DAWGS!!! SIC' EM!!!

Pictures!!!

Hello Friends!

I haven't updated in I guess like a week or so, meaning I have a lot to say. haha School has hit full throttle and I now have a Chinese test looming this thursday and a paper due in a week and a half. I started my business class here and it is incredibly interesting. This week our business teacher highlighted Chinese business etiquette. In China, business cards are handed out like phone number, but they are not in any way taken lightly. Business cards must be handed out and received with two hands, and then once you have received a card you must take the time in front of the person you just exchanged with to analyze the card, maybe ask them a question or two about the information on the card, and then store it in a very safe place (not your pocket) in front of them. I've also learned more about two ideas that dominate culture. Those two concepts are guanxi and face. Guanxi means relationship. The concept of guanxi within a business setting is that you are expected to give gifts and even do some things for free in business relationships. This translates into Chinese daily life in the style that they eat. Literally any time the bill comes out, every person at the table fights to pay the bill. I have not really experienced this first hand because when I eat out with my friends from my program we go dutch like all college students do. haha Face is another very interesting concept. Essentially face is like your own pride. It is your image to others, or what others think about you. In Chinese culture, you never want to do anything that will cause another person to lose face as the person that you cause to lose face will remember and your gaunxi with that person has been damaged, potentially permanantly.

I've gotten to know my family a bit better this week. The language barrier is still quite significant so I have trouble communicating, but it's getting better. My older brother is a teachers assistant at a nearby college. My sister is an army doctor, and my mom loves going to the summer palace and is an avid stock trader. She spends at least an hour every day looking at the market. I got to go play badminton and ping pong with my older brother this past week on wednesday night. He said that I should come with him every wednesday night, and I really hope to do so. It was really fun getting to compete a bit with people speaking in a different language in a different country, but unfortunately I was heavily outmatched. Hopefully, I will get better.

On Friday my older sister took my friend Ryan and I out to a bar on the other side of town. The place was really nice! There were couches, tv's, lights, lasers, and all kinds of stuff all over the place. It was there that I had my first drink ever. hahaha So while my friend, sister, and her friends threw back beer after beer I stuck with little sips, finishing two on the night. hahaha It was a really cool experience!!! On Saturday two of my friends and I got our home stay families to go to the summer palace with us. It was so cool to see the parents talk an interact even though I had no clue what they were saying. The summer palace is so beautiful. The old Chinese style architecture is so stinking cool. Later that day my family took my to KTV which is karaoke. The big difference between karaoke here and back home is you rent your own room with whoever you're with instead of being out in front of a bunch of people. Also in between all of this my family tried to instruct me on why not to give to beggars. They apparently found out about me and a friend helping the man from last week get to church and were a bit concerned that I was giving to beggars. It was very frustrating because I don't have the language capabilities to explain my cause. My sister said that the Chinese government takes car of them, but I'm skeptical of that having seen the conditions many of them live in when we helped the get to church last week. I want to do some research on that. After that I watched UGA get they're first win of the year at 12:30 at night here. haha

Today I went to a different church than I did last week. This one was much smaller and worship was ran by a guy who is a student with my program. He had me sing in their choir team! hahaha They need as many english speakers as they can get to sing because there aren't many people who read English very well at the church and they do most of their songs in english.... So there was no pressure for me to sing well, reading English was the only requirement!!! hahaha

So this is the last bit. I'm just going to start listing funny stuff at the end of my posts.

- I've become strangely okay with the Chinese driving motto that other people will avoid me. haha

- A rickshaw driver tugged me and two other friends, a total of about 500 pounds, on his bike

- The use of lines is entirely foreign to the Chinese, cutsies is entirely okay

My homestay...

A lot has gone on in just the last two days here. I got my homestay. They're all so sweet, but I'd say I undertsnad about 5% of what they say... haha I'm not gonna lie I'm pretty frustrated right now. It's very hard knowing what you want to say, but having absolutely no clue of how to say it. I really wish I could just fast- forward a couple weeks to when I can start carrying conversations with them. My immeadiate family consists of an older brother of 29 and a mother of over 60. Then I have aunts and uncles around a lot and an older sister from a different family ( I guess she'd be my cousin). Her name is Kou dan. It sounds almost exactly like my English name. My first night with them they took me out with the whole family for Hot Pot. It was really good, but some of it was super spicy, like make me sweat burn my tongue spicy. hahaha But it was good! I told them one of my favorite things to do was dance. So, Kou dan convinced the whole family to go to a club together.... I danced with my 60+ mother in a dance club. hahahaha It was an absolutely priceless moment. The whole night I had to refuse drinks and I felt bad because I couldnt really explain why very well. I really hope they don't think I'm rude. This morning I woke up early met Lisa and we went to pick up the man we met the other night. He showed us where he lived and then before we had left for church had bought us drinks and fruit. This man lives in complete poverty and he absolutely insisted upon treating us to those things. Want a lesson in giving? Take that one. We then headed out for church. One the way Lisa realized that I would most likely be the only white person in church and I was carrying a bag of fruit... I think I drew enough attention to myself. The whole service was in Chinese but they had translation on like a broadcasted station. So I listened to the service on some earphones. hahaha They sang Come Thou Fount, in Chinese, so unfortunately I couldn't understand or really sing along, but it was really cool to worship in the same place with other people speaking a different language. I think I'm past my honey moon stage with the study abroad thing because now I'm starting to get frustrated with stuff like not being able to speak well, having to bathe with a washclothe, and not being able to flush toilet paper. Little things... but I'm just a bit frustrated.

Chinese class has begun...

Wow! There's been a lot that has happened within the last two days. So much to write about, and even more to write about in about 12 hours after I receive my homestay family! So, I'll start from the beginning. Wednesday morning, that's yall's Tuesday night, we started language pledge. From the time I wake up til 4 pm I am no longer allowed to speak english, only Chinese. I have conflicting feelings towards the pledge as I appreciate how much it is going to help my Chinese, but it's so hard trying to communicate all that I want to in a day in Chinese. After we took our language pledge I went with all of the year round participants to the western hospital (most of the doctors are formerly from the west, so they're better doctors haha) and got my physical done. I needed the physical so that I can get my year- long multiple- entry visa. It was interesting to see how the Chinese do physicals differently. Instead of making an appointment and having a single doctor, you are shuffled around to 6-7 different rooms which each take care of a different portion of your physical. Once we finished with that we went back to the IES center and went to class. So class has started. No more vacation. I have to learn about 40 new Chinese words a night for a quiz every morning, a daunting task for those of you who can not relate. We also have four hours of Chinese class every day. Chinese class is actually rather enjoyable because I feel like I'm learning so much and improving my Chinese daily. What's funny is that the teachers teach primarily in Chinese. This makes class more fun as the teachers teach mostly through examples of the particular grammar structures we are learning, in Chinese. This style of teaching is often conducive to blank stares, discouraged smiles, and frustrated grimaces. I also had my fist Chinese Government and Politics class on Thursday. It's whole new ball game now. It's a 300 level course, something I have yet to take in college, and the syllabus looks a bit intimidating. We have between 60-70 pages of reading for every class and apparently class will be mostly discussion. All in all I'm really enjoying class here. If you don't want to read about my school, here's where things get interesting. Yesterday a bunch of us went out for lunch after class. After trying to communicate in Chinese (including hand motions and many unknown noises) with the upper- level Chinese students, we arrived at the place we were going to eat. At one point during lunch a friend of mine Lisa, from Honolulu, Hawaii who also loves "Dad", started asking a friend named Obechikwu (Yes he is African American) some questions about why he gets drunk as he was explaining why he liked it so much. He talked about how he loves to feel like he is out of control because he always tries to control what is going on in his life. Following that I joined in on the conversation and Obechikwu, Lisa, Trevor (a friend of mine from Southern California), and I began talking about what we believe. It was very interesting hearing their beliefs and I really enjoyed the conversation. Essentially what came out of the conversation was that my two friends both believe and are active in pursuing their faith (such as talking and reading the Booke), but they have certain habits they don't want to let go of. I would really appreciate if you guys could "talk" to "Dad" about them. Talk to him about removing lukewarmness and opening their eyes to his love. Last night I experienced my first night out in Beijing. First I went to an acrobatics show and then out to dance! On the way we to the acrobatics show we got caught in traffic, a very common occurance in Beijing, and one I thought I would be used to from Atlanta. False, the trafic here is an entirely new species from that I have ever see in the U.S. We were gridlocked for a solid two hours and moved at an average of 5 miles an hour about every minute. After crawling all the way to the other side of the city for two and a half hours we got to the show. We were late and only saw the last 15 minutes, but I think it was worth it. We saw three quick acts. One act consisted of muscle heads using each other as jungle gyms doing static holds such as hand stands, planks, etc. (with like one point of contact to the other man they were working with). The second act was a bunch of Chinese women riding bicycles. From handstands to piling 15 people on the same bicycle these women had definitely mastered the art of bike riding. The final act we saw was a bunch of men doing flips and other jumps through tiny hoops, somtimes as high as eight feet above the ground. The acrobatics show was awesome. Someone made the comment that they were all probably the regect gymansts from China's gymnastics team. hahaha I thought that was a plausible explanation for their ability. When we got back from the show we went out to dance. Following seeing all rules of the road defied by our taxi driver and then getting stuck in more grid lock traffic we got to where we wanted to be. In our efforts of trying to find the club we saw many very needy people begging for money. After giving to all of the people we saw we saw one man in incredible need. Lisa started talking to him in Chinese as her Chinese is very good, and about an hour later she finished talk to him and could explain what was going on to me. This man was crippled, and in a great amount of need. Lisa had asked him what he needed immeadiately. While he said he didn't really need anything, he went on to tell her his story. He was sick as a child and became crippled. When he got older his mom and dad both died. He then tried to start his own businesses on the street but the police shut him down most likely because he wasn't registered with the government. After years of pain and poverty he decided he want to kill himself. After many failed attempts some people who believe helped him. He became a believer because he said after trying to commit suicide so many times, God must not have wanted him to die. So, this is where Lisa comes in. The man needs a way to a "place" on sunday. So she's going to help him get there and has asked me to help. If you could "talk" for this man it would be much appreciated. While he has a home and some money to eat, he wants to die again within the next month. So if you could fight for this man it would be much appreciated. I hope everyone is fantastic back home and I love you all. I find out about my homestay today!!! So I'll update about that next time.

The pictures at the buddhist looking temple are from the Llama temple. The picture in front of the little fire pit looking things is where I burned 3 incense and "talked" to "dad's" son instead of buddha. The picture up in the air is of Seoul, South Korea, gorgeous place, I'm going to have to visit one day. The picture in front of the massive brick gate looking thing is the front gate to my University. The picture of the little girl was just precious so I had to show you and the picture at the table is of my lunch at a mongolian place with my orientation group. That food was so good!!

First days...

Hey guys! I'm all settled into my dorm for the next week before I hopefully get put into a home stay. There is one more home stay application than families to host. So one guy won't get to live with a family. Hopefully that isn't me. haha My flights here went well. There were no delays or complications and other than being really freaking tired I enjoyed them. Watching three movies and sleeping over 14 hours isn't so bad. haha When I got here there were two IES people waiting for me. One of them is going to be my teacher and she didn't speak any english to us... It was just a little bit intimidating. haha Yesterday we started orientation. We had three speakers over the course of the day, a tour of campus in the pouring rain, oral language placement tests, advisement, and a mixer/ pizza party at the end of the day to help get to know everyone. The highlights of the day would be buying an umbrella for 15 kuai, equivalent to about 2 dollars, and buying a cell phone and sim card for 258 kaui, between 40-50 dollars. Two things that I am not a fan of so far are the mattresses in the dorms being rock hard and not being able to flush toilet paper down the toilet. I have a greater appreciation for Fred and Wilma Flintstone following my last two nights sleeping on bed rock. haha The toilet paper we use in the restroom must be thrown in a small trash basket next to the toilet.... Something I'm definitely not a fan of. Last night I went out with some of the other students to get beer, except I don't drink. haha So I was literally the only student at the place we went to who didn't have a beer. hahaha For those of you who enjoy beer, China may be a pretty good place for you though. The beers here are at lest two times larger than a normal one back in the states. They're also approximately 50 cents. hahaha Hopefully someone will notice that eventually and ask me why I don't drink! Could be a great conversation starter! The walk to and from our dorms to the place everyone got drinks was very interesting as well. I was warned and showed what brothels look like here. Apparently barber shops open at 2 am with colorful lights and skimpy dressed women in them are not reputable establishments.... hahaha We also saw a man peeing in the bushes along side of the side walk. Supposedly that's relatively normal. I also had my first Chinese meal yesterday. We went to a restaurant with our orientation group. It was family style so all of the food was in bowls in the middle of the table on a glass rotating thing so that everyone could take stuff out of the bowls and put it on our plates. Sorry if the way I wrote this was a bit confusing. I'll get better at describing my experiences as time goes on. Well, I miss everyone from back home and I hope you're all doing great!!!

Hello!

Hey! So this is going to be the blog I will keep while I am in China... Pretty cool! If you've even made it as far as looking this, thank you. haha I'm not sure if I would find me or what I do interesting enough to read this myself. So, I have pretty much all of my paperwork done and submitted. The only major thing left is to receive my visa back from the Chinese government. Like I said, thank you so much for having even an interest in what I'm doing next year. I'm really excited and I can't wait to see what God has in store for me. If you guys want to pray for me, that would be incredible! For now I guess the big prayer request I would have would be that God would prepare my heart for next year, that he would fill me with a passion to love the people over there that I haven't even met yet. Also I really want to be able to find some sort of fellowship over there before I ever get there. So if you'd like to pray about those two things that would be incredible. Well, so long for now.

- Colton