Dear Friends,

Wow! Time flies so quickly. I have been longing to sit down and write you all an email for about a week now and have just now had the chance. So many things have happened since I visited Thailand with my sister. I was also finally able to install an internet shield on my computer which allows me to access all the sites normally blocked here.

After Liz and I left Thailand, we were able to visit Beijing. Liz was so excited to visit the Great Wall and I was so excited to IKEA and an amusement park called Happy Valley. We had a great 5 days there and she hopped on a plane about 3 days after we got back to Qingdao to go back to America. I miss her very much, but I’m so glad she was able to go home and get into her sophomore year of college.

After Liz left, all of my time suddenly became a rush of events. The new staff arrived at the end of July bringing about 10 new and wonderful people. All of the time I wasn’t spending helping them get adjusted was spent getting my classroom ready for a new class. I was so excited to begin the new year feeling confident in my abilities as a teacher…plus, I only had a slight adjustment from the year before from 6 students to 9 this year. I had my class set up and I was preparing nametags when I received the final class list…I suddenly went from 9 students to 14! I was surprised, excited and shocked. We had so many new students apply for second grade…including a set of identical twins whom I am still having trouble telling apart. I quickly ran back to my room, made more copies of everything, rearranged again, and took a deep breath. My room, which was comfortably full with 9 desks, was now jammed full with 14 desks…and I hate rows so I couldn’t do that. J I finally settled on an E shape on the second or third day of school.

The first day of school came and I found myself a little nervous and very, very excited. My students arrived and we made it through the first day, but I could tell after just the short half day that these students were going to challenge everything about me as a teacher and a person. Last year my class was very calm, relaxed, and artistic. This new class is extremely high energy, bores easily, is not artistic, and is highly (or rather extremely) tactile. I also have everything from a student with special needs to several students who struggle to control there actions to a student who reads as well as a student at the end of his third grade year. I have already fallen in love with every single one of these children and I wouldn’t trade them for the world…no matter how often they make me crazy. I almost feel like a mother 14 times over. J

This year is also bringing an exciting event to my city. Every year our company hosts a Women’s Retreat. Last year I traveled up to Shenyang for the retreat and all the women could talk about was going to QD next year. I felt the Father’s prompting to volunteer to plan this event and after a little resistance on my part…this is no small task…I agreed to head up this event. We finally have started planning now that everyone is back home from the States and other places around the world and I am so excited to see what this event will bring. A group of about 15-20 of us are working together very hard to make this event a success…luckily we have until March to plan and organize it.

This year definitely plans to be adventurous and exciting and then I’ll be home for the summer! I will also be traveling home for Christmas to see a favorite uncle who has gotten leukemia and may go home to the Father before the summer returns. Would you please think of these things for me as the year goes on? And please feel free to email me or comment on this blog anytime you want to talk. I miss you all so much and I cherish you as my beloved friends. Thank you for all you have been and done in my life. I am blessed to have you!

Love,

Amy

My dearest friends,
Please forgive me for being out of touch for so long. The end of the year went so quickly and China blocked blogspot…Life here is forever interesting. However, I am now in Thailand on vacation so I will finally update. ☺
So much has happened since I posted last in February. In my class we finished our unit on penguins and also studied space, important people of the world, and weather. The kids had wonderful fun with each of these and I grew so much as a teacher in presenting each of these new ideas. It is so wonderful to be able to look back over this last year and see not only how much my students had changed and grown, but also how much I had changed and grown. I hardly remember the scared young woman who moved to China sure that she would fail and damage the children in her class somehow. It is such a blessing to see that not only do my students know more than when they began the year, but they are also better people…and I was able to have a hand in that. I never realized before what a blessing teaching is…you get to help raise children to become all that they can be. It is truly an amazing calling.
Other things have also happened outside the classroom. One of my roommates, Kayla, got very sick and we are still trying to get her well. Thank you so much for your thoughts for her as she is going through this. She seems to be doing better and she has just returned from a month long hiking trip with several students and she has more life and energy then I have seen in her in months. My second roommate, Karen, had a rather hysterical incident when her family came to visit just 1 week ago which had them quarantined in their home for four days because they might possibly have swine flu….Thankfully they did not and she was not only able to spend those 4 days with her family but they were also able to make it to Beijing where they are now enjoying her vacation.
However, I must tell you that though these two girls have come to mean so much to me I have moved into another apartment. One of my friends left Qingdao to get married and her roommate, Kristen, and I have decided to try being roommates. I officially moved into her home about 2 weeks ago. I am so excited to get to know her better after she returns from America. I am also excited to be able to continue to grow my relationship with Karen and Kayla within our small family of staff. That is one thing that I truly love about working in this school. When I moved to Qingdao last year I immediately inherited a wonderful and extremely diverse family. I love them as if I had been born into this family and I will never forget them as long as I live.
For more recent news, the school year ended with no problems and much excitement. However, no rest was to come yet. School ended on Friday and early on Monday morning I began 2 hours of Chinese study each day. Plus my family had come to visit the week before school ended. My mother stayed for two weeks and my sister is still here with me. I found out quickly that trying to show my mother what my life in China was like and show her a good time was more exhausting than teaching school! We had so much fun together though and I enjoyed showing her my passion for this place that I have come to love so much. After she left Liz and I were comatose for a few days before we started to explore again. It is amazing how quickly the four weeks of Chinese study filled up. And I was so happy to find when I came to the end of my Chinese study that I am finally starting to understand. I can’t say very much yet, but I am now able to do a little more than just communicate my needs. I have also found that what everyone says about learning a second language is try…I understand so much more than I am able to say. I have found myself having 20 minute conversations with taxi drivers that don’t consist of much more than saying yes, no, introducing myself, and haltingly sharing what little else I have learned. I am so amazed at the patience of most Chinese people though. They don’t seem annoyed by my slow and confused speech…which I am sure has a very strong English accent…rather they get excited and seem to enjoy listening to my try so much that they keep trying to talk to me though I say “I don’t understand” over and over. It truly makes each day an adventure worth experiencing. ☺
I have also discovered something very interesting about myself this summer…before the summer began I knew that I could possibly be a too devoted to my work but I never thought of myself as a workaholic. I now must honestly say that I truly am a workaholic. In the four weeks since school ended I have planned 2 new units and begun revisions on the ones that are already planned…all this in addition to doing other work in my class, attending and doing Chinese homework, and spending some time relaxing. It has been a lot of fun and yet when my sister and I left for Thailand a few days ago I felt myself excited at the prospect of not being able to and refusing to do work for the next two weeks.
Now Liz and I are in Phuket, Thailand where we will enjoy the next week lying on the beach, snorkeling, canoeing, and hopefully many other fun activities. I can’t wait to see what Thailand has to offer. I’m already enchanted by this beautiful and tropical place. I’ll make sure to put some pictures here and on facebook before I leave. After enjoying Thailand, Liz and I are planning to spend a few days in Beijing and see things like the Great Wall before she goes home at the end of July. What a beautiful vacation it is going to be.
I love you all and I hope you are having an excellent summer!

Wow, it has been a very long time since I have posted anything and much has happened. I'm sorry I haven't been better about keeping this blog up.
During the last month my class has been studying penguins. Everything has been penguins. We finally finished up the unit this last Friday and had a penguin party and took a penguin field trip. For the field trip the other second grade teacher and I took the kids to a place called Polar Ocean World. Here the students got to see penguins up close and personal. They loved it and there was much screaming.

Last Monday we started a unit on space. The kids have been so excited to learn new things. I have had the opportunity to very briefly introduce discussions about molecules, solar energy, and other difficult topics. It is very hard, but very fun to try and explain to kids why the combination if helium and hydrogen atoms makes the sun hot. However, I am really looking forward to continuing to feed the curiosity of such bright children.
Outside of school things have not been quite as smooth, but still worth the experience. Over Chinese New Year break my roommates decided to paint our apartment. We spent 6 days on this endeavor between the three of us and painted four rooms in our house. It looks so much more like home now. I love it. Here is a couple pictures of our work.
Here is my newly redone room.
Here is our living room.Here is the other wall in our living room.Here is a picture of Kayla's room. I don't know why, but I have no completed pictures of Karen's finished room. Her room is sea blue and the same brown in the above picture. It also looks excellent.
The past month has also not been without its bumps and bruises because I found out yesterday that my favorite aunt, Aunt Theona, has gone to be with our Father. I'm not sure what to do with the news. In normal circumstances I would head home and be with my family during this hard time, but being in China has made that option essentially impossible. I am very encouraged by the support of those around me as I keep trying to just stand and go about life. Please be talking to Dad for my family. They need your thoughts right now.
I'll post more later, but now I have made myself cry. I love you all!

A Lesson in Life

Today I learned a very important lesson in 2nd grade...
Being the teacher makes you the automatic target in a snowball fight with your students.
My students were all so excited when it started snowing this afternoon. I quickly gave up on holding their attention and we spent a total of one hour outside playing in the snow. (Not all together...I promise...) What a lift to the spirits snow is... :)
Oh, and just so you know....It is hysterical to watch children try to make snow angels and snowmen in about 1.5 inches of snow...They promptly gave up on those ventures and started lobbing snowballs...gotta love it!

Sorry it has been a while...

Here is a letter that I just sent out...in case I missed anyone.

My dearest friends,
I know it has been a very long time since I have written and I am very sorry for that. At the end of September my computer’s hard drive died and I have been using my school computer for basic internet needs since then. However, I was able to send my computer back to America with a friend to be fixed and I got it back when I visited my family for Christmas, but then again, I am getting ahead of myself.
At the end of September our school faculty took a retreat together. We had a wonderful weekend relaxing and getting to know each other better. The next week I got a cold that quickly developed into pneumonia. Dad taught me a lot about patience and admitting my own weakness as I battled pneumonia for the next 4 weeks. It was horrible and all I did during those weeks was sleep, talk to Dad, and watch movies. Luckily I had a companion in my roommate who was just as sick as I was and started going back to school just a week before I did. I was only one of 5 cases of pneumonia within our school faculty and their families.
However, I finally returned to school at the beginning of November and I have never been more glad to be anywhere in my life. I had to take things slowly, but I returned with a passion that I had not had before. That month went quickly as we prepared for Thanksgiving. In our class we did a unit on Thanksgiving and held a very successful Thanksgiving lunch in our class. We had a lot of fun and the parents were a great support.
During Thanksgiving break, the teaching staff went to Hong Kong for a conference. It made the break exhausting, but I learned a great deal. When we got back we did not stop running until Christmas break. In my classroom we began a unit called Christmas around the World. We explored 9 countries and their Christmas traditions during our unit and the kids were very excited to have their very own “passports” to visit each country. During December we also had a Christmas Program, a Christmas Fair, and a Christmas Day. It is the busiest month that we have had all year.
When break came I was more than a little excited for a break. In early September I had bought a ticket to go see my best friend, Anna, in Minnesota. After I got pneumonia my mother also told me that she wanted to see me over break and I traveled there to go see her and my family in New Mexico for Christmas. Spending time in both places was wonderful and exhausting. I finally got over jet lag after one and a half weeks only to come back to China 4 days later. I spent a lot nights that I was unable to sleep talking to Anna until all hours of the night and I did enough shopping to make a person crazy while I was with my sister. You would not believe the shouts of excitement and joy a new baking pan will bring out of someone living in China.
Overall the last three months have been everything was horrible to wonderful but I was very happy to find that when I returned to America I did not find it hard to leave. Now, don’t get me wrong. I already miss my family and friends and I wish they were here with me, but after 5 days in America I found myself missing China desperately. When I got off the plane in Beijing on the way back I almost started crying because I knew in that instant that I was home. I have no idea how a country that I had no intention of loving went from the place I worked the home in just five months, but I know for sure that I will love China for the rest of my life. I hope that Dad never asks me to leave, but if he does then I know it will be for the better.
I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year. How are you all doing? I would love to hear from you!
In Him,
Amy

Thank you!

Dearest friends thank you so much for your thoughts over the last few weeks. I have been so sick for so long that I am rejoicing now that I am finally starting to get well. In all, I spent 3 1/2 weeks at home because I was not strong enough to go any farther. I finally returned to school this Monday and I am pleased to report that aside for getting tired much faster than normal and coughing, I am doing well. The doctor is also pleased with my progress and I will be having an x-ray in 2 weeks to see if the pneumonia is totally gone. Thank you again for your thoughts. I need them so much. :)

Simply Exhausted

So, I know that many of you have already heard about this, but I am coveting all of your thoughts right now.  I'm having a pretty rough time right now.  I started having nightmares last week sometime.  This has been a common occurence since I was a child, but this problem still ruins my sleeping patterns.  By Friday the lack of good sleep combined with a new country and job took its toll and I got sick.  I spend Saturday and Sunday miserable, feverish, coughing, and without a voice.  By Monday all I was doing was coughing and I had no voice.  This morning I woke up with a voice but I had not slept since I got sick and my body was not recovering from the cough like it needed.  Tonight I begged for sleep and here I am 3 hours later having choked and coughed more times than I can count, exhausted, still suffering from nightmares, and desperately just wanting sleep.  Will you all please keep this in mind for me?

My roommate is also really sick and has not been able to sleep either.  She found out today that she has pneumonia and she says that sleeping is like drowning in her lungs.  Can you also keep her in your thoughts?  Thank you all so much!  I'm going to attempt to go sleep...again.