Terra- Cotta sweetness!

Hey everyone!

I hope you are all tremendous! For I am pretty tremendous myself. It is been a great week or so since I have posted my last blog.

I finished my 4 finals. So I have one final, 2 presentations, and a paper separating me from finishing all of my undergrad school work. Pretty crazy isn’t it? Time flies. But I hope that it is not the case in China. Again I am really enjoying it here. I am learning so much and and I feel great here. It’s not that I don’t miss those of you at home or cannot wait to bite into some Smugala’s pizza while watching the Cards crush the Cubs, it’s that I am happy and content in my present state.

So the weekend before finals we decided to go pretty crazy. Friday night we went to Karaoke with some Chinese friends. It was my first time going to Karaoke period and I did not know what to expect. In China it is a really big deal. What I pictured was a scene kind of like off of the episode of How I Met Your Mother, “Like Among the Gorillas,” where it was an open room and everyone was watching you sing. But it was much different. We had our own private room. Almost like a VIP club room or something with our own bar counter, stools, couches and a huge tv in front of us with a sound system and lights to boot. So it was out own private karaoke club for about 15 people. We sang anything from Gaga, to Taylor, to The Beatles, to Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. It was never one person either. It was usually about 8 or so of us in on the action. Such a great time!

The night after, I went to my first club. And it was in China of all places! Pretty sweet! We went to about 2 clubs before we settled on our final location. In China you kind of just hang out in the clubs instead of doing a lot of dancing so we went into one club where it was absolutely packed and their was music going but not much dancing so we moved on. We moved onto a club called, Honey. It was as large as a Dave and Busters but it was what I would picture a Las Vegas club to be like there were so many crazy lights, glass and designs everywhere it was absolutely crazy and the energy was very high. However like Vegas the only dancing going on was the half-naked ladies on stage with numbers on them where I suppose people would vote on them. Who knows we did not stay long enough to figure out what was going on. All we knew is that we wanted to be doing the dancing. So it’s about 12:30 and we decide to go across town to a club we heard about. It was a winner. It was called 1801 and upon entering the dancing commenced. It was pretty much all techno so just lots of craziness amongst being cramped for the first 45 minutes it was lots of fun then some intoxicated fellows started taking noticed to the girls we were with. So us guys had to start breaking them off of the girls so after 15 minutes or so we realized we had gotten our full of dancing so we left.
Such a fun time! Ill have to go when I am back to the states. Hopefully it is the same experience.

The following week after finals. We were to go on a service project and teach elementary students english in a school sponsored by the YMCA. The school is sponsored by the YMCA because these students are the children of migrant workers. Let me explain. When you are born in a county you have the right to go to school there but once you move you can no longer be schooled into the county you move. Migrant workers move into the city for work but since they have moved their students no longer have the right to free schooling. Its a stupid and terrible system but it exists. However these kids were so excited to see us. Upon entering the compound their was immediate screams of jubilation which excited us all. However we did not know what we were getting into. We taught for 3 hours each day and it was rough about 70 percent of the classes we taught in were pretty unruly. We cannot speak the language that well so it was difficult telling the kids to sit down and be quiet so we could teach them. It was also difficult because it was 2 of us in classrooms of close to 50 students. It was cramped and noisy. Luckily we brought the guitar and they were amazed by it. We taught the kids animals and then we would sing about it. I created a song about animals and I am pretty sure I will sell it to PBS when I get back. I started play and I think I can thank Improv for giving me the skills to speak without thinking. So the song would go, “And then there was a dog, ruff! ruff! ruff! ruff! ruff! ruff!, D! O! G!” Then we would proceed to do that with several animals. Thank God they liked it and caught on because it helped us teach them and they were able to keep still, listen and participate. It was a great week but it was truly exhausting. Jenna Guarino, I do not know how you do it everyday. My respect for you has more than doubled for what it already was for you.


So after that week we flew to the ancient capital of Xi’an on Saturday and have been here since. The north is very different then the south. One, of course its colder, two its dryer and much dustier because of the desserts to the north of us, and three the food is also different. It is much spicier and more noodles. The largest difference is the architecture. If I didn’t feel like I was in China before I do now. The buildings are amazing and the ancient architecture is very impressive. I will have to show you photos when I return. For instance the bell tower that is in the center of town surrounded by the 50 foot ancient wall (not exagerating, if anything I am underestimating its huge, cant wait to see the great wall.) is incredible. The purpose for the bell towers existence is to actually keep the giant dragon that lives under the city from escaping. Trust me we are more then glad. Those dragons can be pesky. Sunday after we arrived we went to see
the terra-cotta soldiers. It was the oldest man made objects I have ever seen. It was incredibly impressive and it was nice to check off the 8th wonder of the world off the list. If you don’t know what the terra-cotta warriors is just google it. Their is plenty of info on it or if you have questions just shoot me an email.

I am saddened by the earthquake in Japan. Terrible how those things can happen. But for those worried, though I am in the region I am safe. We were told to stay indoors during a rain should the nuclear waste from the plant in Japan be leaking radiation into the atmosphere. However, even that scenario is highly unlikely we are very far inland and supposedly the greatest danger for the acid rain is for the Philippines and Thailand. So pray for those people as well as the people in Japan.

Thanks always for reading. If you have anything to tell me about your life or any questions feel free to email and sorry I do not have any new pics and that I have not posted in a while. I am trying to get better.

Remain Blessed!

Caleb

With A Little Help From My Friends

Hello everybody. I sincerely apologize for not putting up a new blog. It is a mixture of busyness and the fact that I cannot readily access my blog because it is blocked. So nothing personal.

I am not going to drone on an on about how tough learning Chinese and other homework has been. I honestly haven’t posted a blog because I felt for awhile that all I was doing was homework and I had nothing interesting to post. But what I came to realize even the small moments are important to tell you about.

So the reason for the title is because along with the guy roommates I have that I have become brothers with I have made a lot of new friends. But first my guy friends in the program have been a God send. We have gotten past all the B.S. of just going 1st level with each other because we know this living situation is temporary. We have moved beyond that. We challenge each other, whether that is spiritually or getting each other out of our comfort zones. It’s a blessing. Why on earth should I have settle for complacency while in China. I need these challenges like these to realize what it is all about and that life is very short, it just takes eye-opening to realize it (which is pathetic on it’s own but lets save that lecture for another day). So I want to thank these guys. They have made the experience transcend just going on a trip. They have turned it into a true life changing experience where your life isn’t changed because you went to China and saw how the other side lived but you went to China and realized how you should live.

Along with those guys in my program I have met many other people while in China. One place is at the international Church of Xiamen. Along with meeting internationals at the university I have met some internationals at the church, each with a story. Side note, again, any time you meet a new person make it a habit to ask them about their life story and testimony. Just shut your mouth suck up your pride and desire to talk about yourself and just listen. Just for instance my friend Innocent. This man is just one name and face that I have talked to that made me realize my worries are so pathetic. Innocent is from Cameroon. He loves his country. Ten years or so ago he wanted a change in his country. He started  “Friends of America International.” In his society they would work to strive to have a system that cared for its people. The country of Cameroon is rich in resources but it is being taken advantage of by it’s own government. Have you heard of the expression the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? That is Bull Shit in the U.S.! We have a system that encourages people to strive for the American Dream. In Cameroon the rich get richer because the government is the rich and they own everything. The U.S. is a lazy athlete in a race that finishes first because it can and Cameroon is a handicapped athlete that still runs the race even though it finishes last every time. It’s ridiculous.  Anyway Innocent would write western nations for donations and they would supply him medicine and food for the needy in his country. Just the idea of property rights is so overlooked in our nation! In our country it is a non issue. of course what you own is yours. Innocent had to settle a dispute where a woman’s husband died and another man kicked her off her property because she did not have the means to tell him no and there was not a system that could tell the strange man that was not his property. Innocent settled the dispute and regained the land for the widow. Anyway, Innocent’s society taught it’s people to strive to gain freedom and rights (again a non factor in the U.S. but something another government does not freely give) for example the rights of women. In a meeting a man was sent to kill Innocent ,but as Innocent would say, “God is good”, the man who was sent to kill him dropped the gun out of his pocket right in front of Innocent. So soon after Innocent received an anonymous letter telling him to shut down the organization. After additional threats were made on his life he fled the country. Innocent has been teaching English in China for a few years now raising money so he can afford to continue to study law and find a way to help his people.

That is just one story. I have heard probably over a dozen about great acts of faith and  the human desire to do good. It is encouraging there is light still in the world and it challenges me in many ways. By the way for those Denominational obsessed people out there, Innocent is Catholic so get off your high horse and start accepting men and women from every denomination. Its ridiculous we fight against each other over how to practice your faith when we could be fighting for the basic human rights of others.

I have been able to meet many Chinese people as well. We have a thing called English corner every Tuesday and Friday night where Chinese can come practice their English. My friends and I go to hear about these peoples lives and gain perspective on their country as a whole. It has been a great experience making friends and learning about them. It bums me out that I have homework and I can’t do stuff like that all the time.

Back to my soapbox, haha. The subject of pride is something we all struggle with. It is a huge issue of an international in China and a huge thing I have come to realize about myself while being here. You are immediately shown attention just because of the color of your skin. It’s so easy to have the attitude like you own the place because you come from such a great country and they don’t. Here in lies the problem. Is our pride leading to some of the downfall of other cultures. It is quite an audacious thing to consider but let’s think about this. Anytime we (the west) came to a country in the 1700’s and 1800’s it was for our own gain. We claimed we were trying to “spread christianity and civilize the masses.” By this time we know how backwards this claim is, that the people came and operated in the very opposite way into which we are called. Taking advantage of others for your own personal gain because your way is so much better then theirs is pride. We export our movies to other cultures and these cultures are starting to honestly believe that their way is worse and our way is better. You can see it in the way this Chinese generation is so westernized. Then we observe them and think “ok good you are conforming to our ways, because they are much better.” It is happening even today. We may not be directly causing it but isn’t our attitude achieving the same thing? There are ways that we do things better ,for instance government, but culturally we our becoming more and more hollow. The Chinese idea of family is so much stronger then ours. It extends out to people who are even not their family. We have lost this notion of doing things for the whole instead of for yourself. These are the things that are at risk of being lost. I guess what I am challenging you to think about is evaluating how you think.
 It has been hard but the guys and I in my group have had to fight this same pride while being here. Getting googley-eyed by every Asian woman in the vicinity is nothing but a stroke of the ego. Looking at Asian guys playing basketball and thinking, “man we are so much better then them at that.” When has our society’s way of thinking turned into a "I'm better than you" mentalility. Comparisons are only for the weak who do not see everyone as an equal. So again reconsider how you think about others. Look into their eyes and see them for equals for which God has blessed them with being a unique individual.

For those that have stuck by this long and read all this, I thank you. I also apologize for my strong language at points. It is just a way of speech to open your eyes and for you to consider the seriousness of the things I am writing.

So besides meeting new people we have been seeing some sites. This weekend we had a guys weekend and traveled to a city an hour and a half away with a 1000 year old temple and a 1200 year old tree. It sounds stupid but it was freaking cool. We had quite the adventure getting there and back that I would love to tell you about when we get back.  We had a great day yesterday. After class we went to the beach and played some volleyball and football. Afterwards we climbed a mountain that overlooked the city and sat and talked about life and China for a couple of hours.

I can’t think of anything else to tell you at the moment. Thanks always for reading. Keep me in your prayers I have finals this week for three of my classes. After that we will be going to a camp for a week to hang out with migrant worker’s children. I am really looking forward to it.

As always you can reach me by email spartan3489@gmail.com.

God Bless.

All of the Sudden I Miss Everyone

Greetings everyone,

My apologies for not updating my blog recently. Blogspot is blocked so for the time being I am going to have to email my blog updates to my mom and then she and her  very good heart will post them for me.

 The title of the post might worry you about my psychological state but I want to put that worry to rest. I do miss all of you but I am very happy here. The reason for the title is because I have been listening to a lot of the band called Explosions in the Sky. For those not familiar with the band it is great ambient rock that makes it an ideal sound to do homework too, which I have been doing so much of. My favorite album by them is entitled “All of a sudden I miss everyone” It was a appropriate because at the time of writing this I do miss you all and am very concerned with how you are doing. So if anything is new in your life please feel free to email me at spartan3489@gmail.com I would love to hear about it. I figure it would only be polite since you are having to go through the torturous act of having to read someone’s boring blog.

Ok so where do I begin. I have been in Xiamen for almost 2 weeks now. Here is where I will be studying while I am in China. The program breaks down like this: 12 credits of courses will be in 6 weeks here in Xiamen and then a history trip up to Xian, Shanghai, and Bejing for 3 weeks then returning to Xiamen for 4 weeks to do an internship in a Chinese business. If you care to check out where I am studying its called Xiamen University. Google it and it will pop up for you. I’ll try to get pictures up sometime soon, I’ll let you know.

Sooooo Xiamen.... It is amazing here! I love it so much more then Hong Kong. Here we are in the International dorm so we are already getting to meet plenty of students from everywhere on earth. It was the Chinese new year celebration this week so this is when Chinese students have their break. It is the biggest holiday in China so we  expect the campus to be buzzing with Chinese students in about a week when they get back from break.

The food is great. We have been blessed enough that the food is cheap and it has allowed us to eat out every night and still stay in budget. My American crutch is McDonald’s 1 dollar sundae’s haha so good!

The campus is beautiful. When in session it enrolls 30,000 students on campus so the buildings are much larger and much cooler then what I am accustomed. (I am sure Hogue Hall was cool before it was demolished, Greenville folks). Anyway its fantastic. I am sharing a dorm with 3 other guys in my program. The guys are great so it makes living here all that more enjoyable. We share a bathroom but it is not the typical style where the bathroom is between our two rooms. The bathroom is in my room and the other two guys come through a door connecting our rooms to go to the bathroom. The shower is literally the whole bathroom. Its very interesting. My roommate boasted earlier today that he was able to brush his teeth and use the restroom all while showering. Impressive, but I don’t know if I am ready to try that out. Haha. Or if I do I will have to “one up” him by taking out my contacts and flossing.

Even though it is break we are having classes in our group. The business students started our International Business in China class and it is very interesting. The professor teaching is Chinese so he gives a real and honest perspective on the culture. He is very cool, kind, and encourages us to ask questions (which is unlike typical Chinese professors).

As far as this week goes it has been pretty hectic. The program is much more difficult then to what I am accustomed because we are trying to pack a full semester in 6 weeks. It has me studying and reading so much more. I like it though. It is teaching me discipline and allowing me to really soak up what I should be learning while here. So its great learning about intercultural communication and then practicing what we learned when we meet Chinese students. Just today me and some guys joined about 9 other Chinese in a pick up game of Soccer. It was soo much fun and though it was difficult, we were still able to communicate. It was New Years Wednesday so the town was busy celebrating and all the internationals were invited to a 14 course meal on the college with the president of the college. That was sweet and very interesting.

I love the group I am with, we bond so well. Another reason why I have been busy is because us guys are sharing our testimonies and life stories this week. So that is soaking up 3 hours of time each night but its awesome. I wouldn’t have it any other way.   One wise person once told me that for now on anyone she would meet she wanted to sit down and ask them their life story or testimony. I highly suggest it.  If you want to show someone you care for them and learn more about them. Shut up sit back and just listen. Very few things show more love then an attentive audience listening to your life and what drives you. It is incredible to see the transformation in our relationships since beginning to do this.

The college is located on a beach front so its fantastic getting to walk on it too and from class. (My dorm is ocean view, “Like a boss!”) For New Years we went out and watched a firework show. So Asian life is pretty awesome.

As always feel free to leave questions or comments on here. They are always appreciated and well received. I hope they get sent to my email for me to check the comments but if you are worried they won’t make it feel free to email me at the address above.

Thoughts and prayers are with you all. Please keep my work load in your prayers and that the protesting in Egypt will become peaceful and no more people are hurt and killed as the Government transitions power.

 Zai Jien and God Bless!

Cheerio from China!

Sunday was a full day. We went to Evangelical Community Church of Hong Kong for Church. It reminded me exactly of Kirkwood Road Christian Church (my parents home church) so I felt right at home. Minus everyone leading the service was asian. But they spoke English so it allowed for us to follow along. After Church we went to the Hong Kong Space museum. It was awesome and also great to see how much The US dominated in space travel. (U-S-A! haha) I got to go on a machine that simulated the gravity on the moon. So I obviously had to take advantage of the occasion and Moonwalk just like MJ. There are photos and a video I can show ya later. After the Museum we went back and picked up some baked goods. (Their bakeries are fantastic!) Then hit up the market and got dinner for 3 bucks.

Monday we set off for the Botanical Gardens and Zoo of Hong Kong on Hong Kong Island(the financial district). It was beautiful and they had plenty of monkeys and two very frisky turtles (yes we watched two turtles get in on). After that we took another stab at going to Victorias peak. This time we succeeded and I am so glad we did.

At the bus stop we met a group who worked with the St. Stevens society. What happened was a girl in out group from California saw this guy out of the crowd who she knew from her school. Small world, right? For the rest of the day our groups bonded. The group was 5 people 2 guys from California, a guy from the Phillipines, a girl from Australia, and a guy and a girl from the UK (hence the title of the blog post). The group was there with St. Stevens society. What they do is they work with drug addicts and pray over them to help them recover from their addiction and then plant them in a trade so they can work their way back in society as a “brother.” The philipino guy is a brother who is now helping in the program. It was so encouraging talking with them and hanging out all day. We compared our american society to Australia and the UK all day as well as mocking each others accents and way of calling objects. The girl from Australia called candy Lollies....so funny. We all took the bus up to the mountain and spent two hours talking about life and observing the beautiful skyline of all of Hong Kong. After leaving the group prayed for us and we were on our way.

Thanks always for reading. I will post pictures on Facebook. It is my last day in Hong Kong (Tuesday) so we are just relaxing and getting ready for the plane ride ahead of us to Xiamen on Wednesday morning. I will not have Facebook so I set up a Flickr account fro you to look at Pictures on.



I am not really sure how Flickr works but do a google search of Arbitrary photos Flickr and it should pop up.


Thanks for reading!

When you wish upon a starrrr....

Again my apologies for not having a video. I tried posting one and it didn't post all of it. Anyway I'll try to keep it brief....

Yesterday we had our first "class" we got filled in on mandarin its origin and how to identify characters. It's pretty sweet cus we can identify some around the city. Unfortunately there is an infinite amount of characters so it will make learning the language difficult. The advisor informed us that the business students would be doing their internships the last 4 weeks in Chinese companies. He said if we are doing it right it should be one of the most stressful things we ever encounter. Its a 40 hour a week job but it should really push what I can do. It will be interesting. After class we went downtown to try to go to Victorias peak to overlook Downtown and the nightly light show. However we got lost. We took the wrong bus and it took us to the very opposite direction we needed to go. Speaking Cantonese would have been handy. (Side note, In Hing Kong they speak Cantonese where as most of mainland China speaks Mandarin. It is as similar as dutch is to english so our earlier mandarin lesson and language books were useless for this occasion.) Getting lost could have happened to anybody. No worries we made it back safe and sound but unfortunately we never got to the top of the mountain.

Today,  me and two others journeyed to Hong Kong Disneyland. It was very awesome! I havent been to a Disney theme park since I was ten so it was a happy time. The pics of it are all on Facebook for ya to check out. If you have questions about how it was different or the same, just ask I would be happy to answer your questions.

I didn't think I would miss home this soon and if I didn't go to Disenyland I don't think I would. But walking around listening to disney music can only make a person miss the friends and family they would rock out to this music too.  I am fine no worries I am not jumping off any buildings. I just wanted to let you all back home you are missed. So yes disney songs have been in my head all day. Its great.

Love and Prayers from Hong Kong! 上帝保佑!

China Crash COURSE!

Greeeetings Everybody!

First I would like to apologize that this post is not in video form and if this first sentence has already bored you I will not be offended if you go to another page...... 

Second thought if you are bored, Facebook is legal in Hong Kong (which is where I will be for a week) but when I travel to mainland China I will not be able to go on. Sooo I posted some pics if ya wanna check them out.

For those of you who have stayed, thank you. The reason I am not posting in video is because I do not have the proper lighting in the place in which I receive wifi to do a video. A video recording would require me to walk back across the place we are staying at to go indoors...(thats right I am outdoors and blogging) The place where Wifi is best received is outdoors I will explain soon....

Before I continue there is no reason to how I think so if you are confused at all about what I am saying I apologize. I am not one to regurgitate my thoughts eloquently. Also, Dad I apologize if my punctuation or sytax makes no sense at all you will have to deal and you can explain to everyone reading this that you did educate me better then this and it is not your fault. Blame it on the jetlag/culture craziness that brings me to write to you this way....

Anyway where shall we begin...

Flight- Awesome (there was tvs in the back of chairs where I could choose from a list of movies, tv, and games. I watched Social Network and Despicable Me. Great choices!)

Group of new friends- Awesome

Today we got off the flight and journeyed to the YMCA camp in Hong Kong. Not the greatest living conditions but its awesome because we are surrounded by a bunch of kids at camp. I just talked to some kido's (via their good english and my crappy way of communicating with my hands) who want a soccer rematch tomorrow.  I am looking forward to that!

After we got settled into camp we showered and headed to our first info meeting. There Jay (our program leader) filled us in on some stuff about Hong Kong. We received our Octopus card. For those of you who are interested on what that is..it is essentially a reload able debit card you can use anywhere, Subways,etc. Its great!

By the way at anytime you have a question post a comment and I will do my best with what limited knowledge I have to answer.

After we got our cards we headed off for downtown. On our way we passed so many many tall skyscrapers. Every one of them was apartment complexes. It is incredible. There are 100's of these buildings and everyone of them is much much taller then the Millenium in downtown St. Louis. As you approach downtown you would see the business buildings for the most part it was housing. The area of downtown we were at was in the tourist area. It was right across the river from where the British originally colonized. Therefore, when you looked across the rive you saw business skyscrapers just as ginormous and impressive as Manhattan. It was foggy but you can see some of these pictures on my Facebook. We walked around a but then we headed back.

Our 1 hour subway ride brought us back to our terminal. The terminal where we are staying near is located in a huge mall. These malls are insane so packed and squished. (and if I havent mentioned it yet, the Chinese move so much faster and are so much more stressful to be around. I though the US was bad.) One level of the mall would be normal stores then the other was a third world meat market just a floor below. That is where I chose to dine. As a gentlemen was slicing heads off creatures he was preparing my pork and rice. It was greasy and delicious. No second thoughts. The girls were grossed out while walking around observing live fish being cut in half then sold right away. The Chinese reallly like it fresh. 

We finished up that craziness hit up a store to buy water, bananas and breakfast bars. Now I am back at the YMCA camp in crash mode with my mind about to melt into putty.

Love you all who read. Hopefully I can post soon. It is nearing 9 pm and it is sooo bedtime. Talk to you soon.

P.s. If someone sees Dave Burns tell him I saw Asian version of him walking in the Airport today.......

Also, if Dave Burns was not at school today it is very possible he is doubling as a Chinese Spy. It was the same person. 

Toodles!

D-DAY!!!!!!

Hey Folks! Last post before I leave!