Lost in jINhua

So. I have kept this little secret since I have been in Jinhua. The only people who know about this secret are the ones who have been living with me here in China. This is kind of a new thing for me, and I'm not proud of it, but tonight, this new little secret, turned a girl who was ready to go home, into a girl who is excited about living here for the next six months.

You ready? Dying to hear this dirty little secret I have been keeping. Okay. Here it is. I lose stuff. Yes. I loose things. My wallet. My bank card, my pin number, my phone, my keys, my bus ticket, my hair ties, my bike, my bike key, my sweater, my earrings, seriously, the list does not stop. I LOSE THINGS!! All of the time. This has never been a problem before. Seriously. (unless my mind is playing tricks on me, then please let me know if I have lost these many things before). Until tonight, I had figured that this was just a new development in getting older. My mom says that she cannot remember things, maybe I am just starting to loose things (I am turning 33 soon).

So. Christmas Eve. Just like any other day of the week, well not really it is Christmas Eve. So, know one from work wants to go out, I decide to go out on my own. I have no idea where the night will lead, which is so exciting right!. I meet up with some people I had met before, everything seems very normal.  We go to this new bar I have never been to, called The Red Door. (at least I think it is called that...). We have fun, drink some beer, meet some people, and then it happens. I'm in the cab, on the way home, and, cannot find my phone. Again.  SO LAME, I think. Not again. In all honesty, the phone is a piece of S*%T! so I am not too worried, I decide that I will ask one of my co-workers who sings at this bar to text and see if I happened to have left it there....duh duh duhhhhhhhhhhhh......

I know. The anticipation is killing you right now. Turns out my phone is at the bar!! YEAH!!! The problem is, this bar is located in an awkward part of town that is impossible to explain in Chinese, let alone English, so I decide to wait until someone else can bring it to me, this part of the story is not that important, what is important is that today I decided to find the phone on my own. (may not seem like much of a big deal, but it really is!)

I get the directions to this place, not before I ask our secretary Harriet to call and find out when it opens, if my phone is there and to write down on a piece of paper that I am looking for my phone in Chinese, and decide to head into town-on the bus. I would like to remind you, that in Canada, all you would have had to do is call the bar, get in your car, and drive there, pick it up and DONE. But anyways, I digress...I go to Danny's Cafe first, because I am hungry and really want some foreign food, and to my amazement, Danny is there! Yeah! Danny is the wonderful owner of Danny's Cafe, and it is always awesome to see him there.

This is where my time in Jinhua turns around. I arrive, wet (because it is raining) and unsure if I will actually get my phone back later in the night. When my food comes out (I ordered a pesto chicken panini) it comes with a piece of BRIE!!!! AND THE MOST YUMMY HOMEMADE POTATO SALAD I have ever tasted. These things don't normally come with the food, apparently I just have some sweet connections with the owner. This is a BIG deal here in Jinhua. CHEESE! I know I don't eat much diary, but I have a soft spot for BRIE!! Danny, his girlfriend and I get to talking, and he says, "Melanie, we are your friends here, text, call, we always go out for drinks or dinner after ten when the restaurant closes, we would love to hang out with you."

Insert Melanie's heart melting and getting very excited at the prospect of having friends in Jinhua. He then made me a cup of coffee, flavoured with vanilla because I had told him about the coffee my Mom had sent... (which you may think is not a big deal, but coffee is a rare commodity here in China!) and with a heart filled with love and happiness, (and maybe some wine - GOOD wine!) I was then on my way to find my phone. Heart Happy, and ready to find this bar that is impossible to explain.

I arrived at The Red Door with relative ease.  I walk in, and say in English, that I am looking for my phone - THEY UNDERSTAND!! Not only does the owner understand, but after she graduated high school in Jinhua, she went to school in New Zealand, so she understands English, and is absolutely wonderful to talk to.  The owners are kind, thoughtful, and I'm pretty sure I am going to have her in as a guest speaker in my classroom  - I FOUND A GUEST SPEAKER FOR MY STUDENTS IN CHINA!! AWESOME.  And the part of the story that is least important now, they had my phone.

I realize I have picked up a serious habit of losing things here in China. I'm not sure why, or what the purpose of all of it is, but tonight it was clear that losing my phone put me out of my comfort zone to go out and find it, to explore and take a chance, meet new people, make new friends and even if they hadn't had my phone, an ordinary Thursday turned into an extraordinary Thursday.  I made new friends, just at the time when I needed it most. The Universe has a way of giving us what we need, and I needed today. So Cheers to trusting your intuition, following your heart, and taking a chance, because all I really wanted to do at the end of my day was curl up under my heating blanket, with my hot water bottle, and the heat on and sleep - if I had done that, I would have missed out on the opportunity to meet new people, make new friends, and oh- find my phone ;).

Christmas in Jinhua!

Aside from missing my family like crazy - the students made this Christmas in China a very special one.   It all started when I walked into the classroom and they had given the very plain classroom a very MERRY CHRISTMAS makeover. AWESOME.  Not only are their notes in the advent calendar some of the most special warm fuzzies I have ever read, they then took the time to make this Christmas decorating very imaginative, and related every decoration to our inside jokes with our class. One of my most favourite Christmas presents.

To Ms. Killens, Merry Christmas, You're not alone, were here with U, like a circle!

We then skyped my parents, and Ashley opened her Christmas present from me, what I was not expecting were the tears to start flowing in front of the students. Ashley on the big screen, crying, me in the classroom, and the whole fam jam there to support.  It was wonderful.  The students understood, and I'm pretty sure it made them love me more. ;)

If it weren't for these students, this Christmas might have been a pretty lonely affair, BUT it wasn't.  We had a staff Christmas dinner, a little gift exchange, and most importantly, lot's of love was felt from everyone around.  It is not the same as Christmas at home, or Christmas in Banff, where there are so many of us there, who love and know each other so well, but the students did their best, and I love them for that.

Thinking back to my time in Africa, there was no skype, there were no phones (that we could use), and most of the time we had limited access to email.  This time, being so far from home, I have so much access to various forms of communication with people in Canada - and all over the world that it is hard to keep up!  I got to spend Christmas Eve and  morning with my Mom, Dad, Ashley and Dan, Christmas dinner with my brother and his family and even spend some time in Nelson with the Walker's! It is absolutely wonderful to have the ability to see everyone via skype, it makes the loneliness around the holidays a little easier to cope with.

Ten years ago (I cannot believe it has been ten years since I travelled to Africa!!) I didn't have this luxury, maybe that was a part of travelling that made the moments with family more precious. Don't get me wrong, I definitely do not want to give up Skype for any reason, but I think it is important to remember that it wasn't that long ago that finding a way to communicate from overseas was really hard, so treasure those moments with friends and family, embrace the time you have with them, because well, you never know when one day, when the Chinese government decides to shut down the internet, I will be back to the old school way, letters and phone calls.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone, please enjoy the photo's of some of the most creative, thoughtful students out there. I love and miss you all! xoxo

This is what I walked into Christmas Morning!! Beautiful!!

My Homemade Advent Calendar

So, I know I have yet to blog about Shanghai, but it has taken me the entire week to recover from the copious amounts of.....ummmm, water I drank on the weekend. Right. Anyways. This week my friend Adrienne sent me this amazing online advent calendar, it is super neat, and I showed it to my students.  I was pretty sure they were not as excited as I was about it, but I showed them anyways ;).  I also explained to them what and advent calendar was, well our version of it, where you get to open chocolates every day for the month of December, and that the 24th is an EXTRA large chocolate because it is Christmas Eve.  I told them that this was my first year without one because it is much to expensive to send one of those in the mail - although I know my Mom is dying knowing she cannot send one.

The next day (today), I come into class, and two of my students show up at my classroom door.  The class has made me a HOMEMADE Advent Calendar.  CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?!! AMAZING!! AWESOME!! I'm pretty sure I had tears in my eyes.

Yes, it is backwards, my camera is broken, so I took it with my Mac Book...isn't this just AWESOME!

This isn't just any calendar, this calendar has notes from students in each of the days leading up to Christmas.  It also has chocolates, and if you notice, the 24th, is extra big with a SNICKERS bar!! Just when you think the students don't listen to what you are saying....
This, made my day, week, month.  I cannot describe how thoughtful this is, I have only opened one note so far, and you know what it said? 

"Ms. Killens, No matter what mood your in, no matter what kind of day you had, or where you are SMILE" ~ I hope you enjoy your first Christmas in China."

GAH!! They've hit me right in the heart these kids.  And I love it.

So, for all of those bad days, we know we have them, for the tests I have to write, for the exams coming up, the unit tests I will be marking, I will look at this calendar and remember that these students care, they are thoughtful, and they listen. I hope I can continue to do the same for them, because all we want in this world is to know that someone, somewhere is listening, and has heard what we have to say.