I was just sitting here in my living room, munching on some peanuts and writing an email, when I heard a loud knock on the door. I glanced at the clock and immediately knew that it was a student … and that I had no intention of answering it. After a long day of teaching and a busy week ahead, I just wanted a break, and standing around feeling my way through a conversation with some kids I didn’t know just didn’t sound very appealing.

Against all logic, I still got up and answered the door. I figured that I could at least flash a smile and tell the kids that I’m busy ( even then, sometimes they don’t get the hint and they try to walk right past). When I opened the door, however, I was stunned … eight students who I had never met before were standing there with a four-foot artificial Christmas tree, decorated to the hilt with shiny Chinese things! I couldn’t believe it … I had been looking for a tree like that for weeks but was convinced that they didn’t exist in Loudi!

The moral of the story? When living in China, don’t be surprised by surprises. Here are some other recent things that have left me wide-eyed:

• Bill, a junior three student, and Amy, a junior one student, invited me to have dinner with their families. When I went over, I was delighted to find that they were not only wonderfully down-to-earth people, but they also wanted to teach me how to make dumplings … the hard way! It was a blast and I really enjoyed the conversation.
• After my first class today, I got a call from my liaison … she said that I needed to come to the school immediately for something. I unwillingly strapped on my shoes and jaunted over … only to be greeted by an entourage of people from the government of Loudi! They had come to specifically wish me a Merry Christmas … and they presented me with a giant bouquet of flowers, a nice card, and a ton of fresh fruit. I told them, through their interpreter, that “Christmas is a very important holiday for families in America. It’s wonderful to have a family in China during this time too!”
• After seeing my reaction, my principal decided to invite all of the English teachers in my school to a special dinner tomorrow for Christmas … and I’m really looking forward to it!
• Several students invited me to their English school last Sunday to hang out and see what they’re learning. It turned out that most of the other kids there were also my students … and we had an awesome time joking around and learning “I Will Follow Him” (from Sister Act) together.
• Jose, Graham, and Ron … the three foreign teachers at the college in Loudi … have been going out of their way to include me in their lives here and be gracious with their time and resources. We have dinner every Friday at the Brazillian all-you-can-eat joint, I take Chinese calligraphy lessons with them every Monday, and I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with them on several other occasions too. Basically, it’s just been nice to have some local friends.
• Ron (the Canadian mentioned above) and a Tibetan student named Tennom came to one of my classes on Tuesday to help me teach. It was fun … they introduced themselves, told about their homes, answered some questions, and got a good taste for what a junior one class is like.
• Rose and Candy, two junior three students, invited me to visit the local park … we had a great time seeing the sights and they even brought me some tasty traditional Chinese candies!
• Daisy, a student at the college in Loudi, came over and taught me how to make several Chinese dishes. A week later, I returned the favor with some American food (grilled cheese and spaghetti). Two junior three students, June and Bill also came over to my place and taught me to cook fried rice. I, in turn, taught them how to make my tried-and-true grilled cheese … I think we both won on that one.

The list goes on and on … but I’ve gotta stop blogging and get busy on some things. Have you had any recent surprises?

Posted to webeldotnet on Wednesday, December 20th, 2006 at 9:12 pm EST in China & My Life (comment feed). If you refer to this post on your blog, please trackback. Thanks!