The Wig

Proof of why I should never have this color hair. Apparently, wigs are a pretty big deal in China. When you pass a wig shop, you might not be inclined to step inside or even consider buying a wig. At least that is how it was for me. But after going into a few in search of a wig for "Treasure Island", I realized that I would probably buy a wig for myself. There are so many cool hairstyles. If it wasn't freaky to change the length and style of your hair everyday, and so strange to put fake hair on my head, I would probably do it. Natural is best...but some of those wigs are really tempting! Believe me, this wig looks 100 degrees better on the young lady who is supposed to wear it.

~julie

Rambling

Every day that slips by brings us closer to opening night for "Treasure Island". I've started having the worst nightmares about "Treasure Island". I think these dreams are made worse because of all these pregnancy hormones. Last night, I dreamed that all of these people from different schools (which are non-existent in reality) kept coming to sit and watch our rehearsal on Saturday--I couldn't get anyone to leave, no matter how much I yelled and screamed into a microphone that wouldn't work. I wouldn't generally mind people watching, but there were over a 100 people and they were being very loud and rude. We couldn't even practice. After two hours, we had only gotten through 2 minutes of the play. I kept trying to kick people out and then resorted to charging them 20 kuai to stay. It felt very real.

Now that I am awake, I have to keep reminding myself that "Treasure Island" will be a great show. There's so many more people helping out this year--some people I haven't even met yet. There is still a lot left to do--but I think it can be accomplished....

Adam has been playing a lot of video games this Chun Jie break. He has borrowed "Mass Effect 2" which is a sci-fi game that allows you to "become" a character and build relationships with other characters. Not a lot of fighting--mostly talking, collecting elements, and trying to solve the mystery. It's like an interactive movie and very addicting. Hopefully he'll get this kind of game out of his system--it is break after all--and once our baby comes the 360 will hopefully become less and less of a priority.

The Green Bay Packers won the Super bowl! I'm such a bad wife--I didn't watch the game (I don't understand the rules). Adam was up bright and early to watch his team. I was happy for him that the Packers won. He wore his Packers jersey all day.

I was just thinking about how fast the school year is slipping by. I will probably stop teaching a few weeks before school is out in order to fly to America before I am too far along in my 3rd trimester. We also have spring break in April....so after Chun Jie break is over, I think that I will only have to teach for 13 more weeks. I have a lot more to do with these kids before they're ready for 4th grade! They are still so cute and small that I can hardly imagine that they are ready for 4th grade! Hopefully the grow taller and more mature over the next few months.

~julie

How to Create Work For Yourself

Be very careful when working with 8 and 9 year olds, because if you're not, you'll end up making promises. Their cheers and nods of approval are very satisfying, but then the reality sets in and you realize that you've just created more work for yourself. However, it's not until after you actually start fulfilling your promises that you realize how much work you're in for.

I generally try to stay far away from project promises. It's not fun to follow through with these little work projects and it is ultimately unnecessary. The only person it pushes is the teacher--and the teacher has no time or sanity for carrying these tasks through. Throughout the whole month of January, we spent approximately 75 minutes working on poetry everyday. You can imagine that a lot of poetry was produced....and you are right.

The vain promise: "I will type all of your poem into a document before Chun Jie for you so that you can have your own poetry collection to keep forever".

Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

A high school student who comes to my classroom twice a week to aid started to help the process get going. But after she had worked about 6 hours on typing, the collections were still unfinished. So, I started pitching in as well--after 10 hours of me working on the collections, they were still unfinished. There goes the "before Chun Jie" clause. There was no way that it could be finished!

So. Not only do I have to read all their poem and write feedback on their drafts, I have to put their grades into our online portal AND type them into a document. This is taking forever! Each student has dozens upon dozens of different kinds of poems and responses.

During Chun Jie, I have continued plugging away at this mindless project and now have collections for each student that are over 30 pages long each. I wonder how many hours were spent on this altogether? Who did this directly benefit educationally? Not me. Not my aide. Not my students (even though they can have a fun keepsake now). So, how could it be improved for the future--because I still like the idea of making collections. Third graders can't type fast enough and stapling their drafts together is not the most attractive concept.

At least I will be able to print out their collections, bind them nicely, and hand them out next Monday morning so they can start illustrating.

~julie

Thanks, Lauren!

Last year, one of the most stressful jobs for me in pulling "Secret Garden" together, was looking for all the props we needed. Some had to be made, others were bought, and some were borrowed. It's not very easy to find period props around our city, where there are no thrift stores, second hand shops, or antique places around. A much different strategy is needed, and it exhausted me! This year we are working on a production of "Treasure Island" and there are a lot of props and fake weapons to buy.

My good friend Lauren has been a hero--she came on board as the prop finder and she has done a great job! She has committed herself to working the crazy market scenes on the weekends and accumulating random weapons during the week on China's version of Ebay. She has organized our prop room and made it easy for all the 28 students to find and put their props away quickly. I could definitely not do this without her! She's saving this tired, crazy lady a lot of stress in the prop division!

Lauren hard at work, bargaining at Wu Ai.

~julie

Baby Daddy

I think that Adam has always been good with kids, although babies might intimidate him a little bit. Lately, he has been such a good playmate to the babies on our team--preparing for our little baby that's on his/her way!

Such a sweet baby girl! She bounces and "claps" her feet together when she's excited and happy. Lots of excited feet clapping when rolling the basketball with Adam. :)

This little boy is learning how to laugh and smile so readily! Our friends have been taking care of him for the last few months.

~julie

War Zone

Before the post starts, here are some pictures from last year.

Last Year [Chun Jie]
Adam bought several firework boxes and needed to blow them off before they became "illegal". So, we went out to the frozen river and watched them fizzle away. Because it was the last night to blow off fireworks, there was lots of noise that night.

A different night with a different box.

See Mao in the center of that roundabout? He is actually quite a giant statue.

This Year [Chun Jie]

It is somewhat surprising when you come from a State that doesn't allow the average person to buy fire crackers to see what people can get their hands on in the street stalls for Chinese New Year. Last year, Adam bought several fairly large firework boxes. They are "relatively" inexpensive, especially in comparison to their American counterparts. This year, Adam has been good about not buying any fireworks. As his mom said, now is not the time to be blowing up money. Plus, everyone else in our city of several million seems to have bought fireworks of all kinds, so it's not like we have to pitch in order to have a spectacular New Year. This has been really hard for Adam, as he's had to avoid the temptation of many firework stands. These fireworks are special to him because I don't think they would be legal in America. They are much to big and explosive. They are closer to professional grade than anything, and are not your normal 4th of July experience.

Chinese people seem to have a set tradition for celebrating New Year. Some have to work on Lunar New Year's Eve, but usually by mid-afternoon they are all with their families, eating food and celebrating with each other. For some families, this might be the only time in the whole year that they get to see each other. They watch CCTV together for a few hours. I tried watching the variety shows put on by CCTV this year and last year, but I think its an acquired taste. It also helps if you can actually understand what they are singing. It's basically one fantastic musical number with extravagant costumes after another. There's a large audience sitting at tables, watching the spectacle, and I wonder how much you have to pay to be there. Probably hundreds of millions of people are watching this broadcast to celebrate New Year, so I suppose it's the booking to get if you are a performer of some kind. Chinese people might light off smaller displays throughout the day, and lots of noisy firecrackers too. Around 9 or 10 pm, they start lighting off the big guns and then take a break at midnight to eat jaozi which they prepare together that day. Yum!!! Jaozi is another word for pot stickers, which some people in America have eaten before at different Asian restaurants.

During the whole day, lots of noisy fire crackers are lit of on sidewalks and in the streets. They make a lot of noise, and leave a lot of debris and smoke. This Lunar New Year was not a very good year for taking pictures because it was such a smoggy day. Before the fireworks even started, the air was already filled with pollution and a thick layer of clouds.

People shooting firecrackers out their apartment windows. Doesn't seem like the best idea ever--we saw a few fire trucks come our direction.

Can you see how smoggy it was?

As it starts to get dark, the noise making fire crackers are blown off less and less, and the big show starts--lots of fireworks purchased by families, businesses, and everyone else that has a few hundred kuai saved up for New Year. As foreigners, it's our duty to observe in surprise the sheer number of explosions that fill the sky. To be outdoors during Chun Jie means that you are surrounded by loud explosions and thick odors...gunpowder. I suppose that the Chinese deserve to fill their atmosphere with gunpowder--they discovered it after all.

Adam and I stayed in a hotel with some friends and watched the firework display from the 10th story windows of our rooms. We played games and went out for dinner. It was a fun way to celebrate---we also made it to Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. Yum!

Our hotel room--relatively cheap for how nice and large it was!

We had a very nice bathroom in our hotel room and a walk in closet...I wish we had a walk in closet in our apartment! The baby and I--this shirt disguises my bump very nicely.

Eating dinner with our friends in an "irish pub". We had to wait for our food for a while, but we used our time well and played banangrams while we waited. I had a little guacamole with my food--oh so good and hard to come by!

It's hard to explain the smells, the sounds, and the sights of Chun Jie until you've experienced it for yourself. For me, it's like a town's 4th of July show, times several hundred, and it lasts until the wee hours of the morning....and then continues for the next several days. One of the nice things about staying in a hotel is that the walls are a little more soundproof, so I was able to sleep through all the noise. In our apartment complex, if someone lights of a box of fireworks in our courtyard it echoes through our whole building. In the morning, in the afternoon, and especially at night, we hear lots of fireworks. I think at a certain point, fireworks are not allowed to be shot off anymore. There is a deadline to the merriment. Young and old love their fireworks in China!

Our good Shenyang friends.

Starbucks in Shenyang...you can order in English.

Have a cup of prosperity! Happy New Year!

~julie

Week 18

Starting with usual list of complaints: back pain; exhaustion; sleeping poorly; dry skin and eczema....However, Wednesday morning I awoke very early on account of some uncomfortable pains. It was hard for me to fall asleep again after that because I became paranoid and worried. There were no other accompanying symptoms, so I decided to just hold tight until later on. Several hours later with the pain still bothering me, we called our doctor who was very reassuring. It's hard to know what is "normal" sometimes, no matter how much you read and experience pregnancy. I'm sure that it's just the ligaments around my stomach getting cramped as they stretch over my cantaloupe sized uterus.

Other than that little episode of paranoia, everything has continued to progress well and the baby and I are both healthy. I think that we might be able to find out the gender of our baby in the next few weeks--so that's exciting!

This week, our baby is growing a lot--but I was amazed to read that finger prints and toe prints are developing now. So cool. Adam and I were just talking about how interesting it is that people track their pregnancies by weeks now instead of months. Our culture is inundated with the desire to know what's going on exactly, all the time, as much as possible. You can get all sorts of trackers to put on your desktop that remind you of how many days you are pregnant and what's happening with you and your baby right now---you can get on email lists that will do the same thing. And there's no end to all the material online. Gone are the days when people would ask an expectant mother, "how far along are you" and she would respond "about 4 months".

~julie

Week 17

I haven't updated our blog in such a long time. I have some really good excuses this time.

1. Treasure Island is consuming me.
2. Pregnancy is exhausting me.
3. Inflexible parents are preoccupying me.

So, let's talk about these three excuses for a dead blog.

"Treasure Island" is coming so close to production I can hardly believe it! I think that we are in a good place with everything right now. Since our Chun Jie break is now beginning, I feel like I can rest knowing that different facets are being taken care of by others or are already well underway. There are so many details to orchestrate and remember. Right now, the paint is being ordered, props are being searched for, the program is being made, and the costumes are being sewn...while I sit at home! It's so wonderful to have help--I think that it makes for better show and a less frazzled me.

Pregnancy is finally getting to those "enjoyable" stages I've heard about. Morning sickness has all but vanished and I am left with an insatiable appetite for everything. I ate Chinese food at home for the first time in over two months. Adam was very happy about that. Previously, the thought of ordering Chinese made me want to hurl. The baby and I both seem to be fairing well and staying healthy. That is a miracle to me, especially when you work with such germy little kids all day. I'm used to getting sick at least once a month, but since being pregnant, I haven't had any serious colds or sinus infections. I'm hoping that it stays this way! I'm so relieved to not be sick in the morning, the afternoon, or the evening anymore. Besides being hungry all the time, I am really achy in my muscles and joints, especially my back. Usually by the end of the school day I can barely walk home---once I walk through our front door I'm done acting and ready to just die.

Sleeping is all I ever want to do. Waking up feels like being hit by a truck or being heavily drugged. I hate waking up so much. Nine hours isn't enough. Ten hours isn't enough. I'm not sure any amount of sleep would be enough because I'll want a nap later on anyway. It's a good thing that teaching keeps me going non-stop during the day. There's usually no time to think about my back or my drowsiness or my hunger.....never mind on the hunger part, I am always hungry! My students usually drop off little offerings on my desk, "for the baby" they say. I normally would reject the random muffin or oreo, but these days I devour all food in my path. Despite eating frequently throughout the day, I don't seem to be gaining too much weight--in fact, I've lost weight according to the scale. It's so strange to me because my stomach is growing quite large. I feel like I look bigger than other women at this stage of pregnancy. Maybe it's because I've never stuck out this much before, or maybe because I'm short.....I don't know!

Right now we are on break for Lunar New Year. I'm so relieved! Last month we were on break for Christmas--and I was so sick and tired. Now I'm thankful for the break because it eats up time. I only have to teach for another 13 weeks or so, which is such a relief in many ways. I love my students. I love teaching. I love working with their parents. I love reading the funny things my kids say and marveling at their interesting questions that never cease. However, I've had some challenges with a few parents this year. If you could lift that up specifically, this is the are in my life that is causing me the most stress right now. It's so much worse that dealing with teaching and planning a play at the same time. I would rather direct two plays than have to smooth things over with these few individuals. Without giving away any details, my general feeling is that I'm being run ragged. It's like I'm silk that's been rubbed by sand paper too many times.

We're watching Project Runway season 7 right now. I love the creativity and innovation that comes out of these episodes.

So, that's a quick update. We're saving up for a baby! Almost half way until we get to meet him/her. We'll hopefully find out the gender within the next month! :)

~julie

Merry Christmas from the Johnsons!

This year marks our 4th Christmas we have celebrated together. I think we must be growing up or something, because our gifts to each other were very mature. For Christmas this year, we bought dressers for each other. Very useful, needed, wanted, pined for, and finally owned! We bought them on sale at IKEA--which means two things: decent price; assemble on your own. As Adam was working on putting together our new pieces of furniture, he commented, "IKEA is for the lego generation". And it's so true! I had to laugh, because with this new perspective in mind, Adam looked a lot like a little kid putting together a lego project or knex creation--all the pieces spread around him--following the picture only directions.

I think he had fun putting the dressers together--and I am so thankful that he enjoys this type of job because it looked way too complicated for me to figure out.

Christmas Eve!

Because we did not buy any small gifts for each other, under the tree would have been a very bleak place if not for our families. The Johnsons, Kangs, Hinzes, and Koedykers are very generous when it comes to sending packages to China. This Christmas we received 7 packages! We had so many thoughtful gifts under the tree this year! I can't remember the last time I was given so many gifts for Christmas!!! We were truly blessed by our families who have used the US post office as an avenue of love and thoughtfulness. The last of the packages arrived just in time too--Christmas Eve!

Look at all those presents!

Adam's brother, Luke, sent him an interesting wardrobe choice.

Looking at a little book of cookie recipes...thinking about what ingredients I have on hand.

My mom sent a murder mystery dinner party game--this will be the 4th one that I've gotten to participate in, and the 2nd that I will get to host! Adam already knows which character he wants to be--the WWII fighter pilot. It's set in Paris in the 1940's--so it should be lots of fun!

I'm also really excited about this gift--it's a shower curtain!

Adam's Grandma sent us several fancy soup and dip mixes--we're excited to eat these gourmet foods! :) Nothing like this in China...

The aftermath of opening our gifts...Thank you family! Your gifts were so great, we loved them all! Thank you for remembering us and making us feel so special and loved! :)

However, the greatest gift of all, and something that Adam and I are extremely excited about, is something that has made me pretty sick the last several weeks. Our family is growing, and this will be our last Christmas as spoiled, boring adults. Our baby will be joining us in July 2011!

Here is a picture of my baby bloat. That bump is not really the baby yet, but I'm growing a lot. I wish I could say that I was sticking my gut out for this picture. Apparently, I have no where to grow except out--and I am very thankful that all the maternity clothes I ordered from the Gap will fit me! Thanks for sending those, Mom! I'm feeling a little better lately, and very thankful for the break from teaching. The baby is quite well--we just had our 12 week check-up and everything is progressing nicely. Ok--the weird thing about my recent appointment was that I hadn't gained a single pound since my 6 week check up--looking at my stomach....how is that possible?

12 weeks

Not a very clear picture--the ultra sound machine is not the best--but you can sort of see the baby!

Merry Christmas to you all!

~Julie

Christmas Banquet

This year's middle school Christmas Banquet was quite impressive, and probably impossible to top. This could be due to the location, a swanky hotel called the Crowne Plaza, or maybe it's because the hotel's manager has two kids in SYIS' middle school. Regardless, it was a fun night for the students, as well as the teachers. I think everyone was shocked by the splendor that awaited us. First of all, the Christmas tree lighting ceremony was going on in the lobby downstairs--carols could be heard from the balcony where we were being served appetizers, and cocktails (sparkling apple cider in champagne glasses). The students looked so cute! The guys were dressed up in suits and ties, while the girls were wearing dresses with fancy Asian accessories and clutches. It was funny to see some of the 6th grade girls wearing mascara and lip gloss. While we were still enjoying our "cocktails", the students had an opportunity to get their pictures taken--at the end of the banquet, the hotel staff gave us printed copies of all the pictures they took at the beginning. What a sweet idea!

Because Adam is the sponsor for Student Council this year, he had a front row seat of all the planning that went into this event. He helped his 6th, 7th, and 8th grade representatives meet with the hotel manager and staff to set up the details of their banquet. He sent out the invitations, permission slips, and made the seating chart. He did a good job promoting the event, while allowing the StuCo kids feel like they had full control of the event. It was precious to watch the StuCo kids manage the banquet--the staff went to the kids if they had questions or instructions to pass on--they felt very important and responsible! They looked so grown up, giving announcements, and discussing behind-the-scene details with the staff--decked out in their dry-cleaned suits. So cute.

Some of the yummy delicacies---very seafood themed, unfortunately for me. I don't like my food to have eyes or raw parts. It's too fancy for me.

Some of the middle school teachers that Adam works with, getting the picture taken.


More fancy appetizers. I was unsure what half of the options were.

Inside the banquet room, we took our seats as the live band began to perform Christmas music. The band is a Filipino group, that is very enthusiastic about dancing while singing. They were able to get several of the students onto the dance floor to dance--which was hysterical if you knew how shy and reserved 100% of the students are.

Adam, making sure everything is set before sitting down. He loved how the hotel's staff went to the StuCo kids to discuss details and timing.

Our first course--some type of fancy salad, which included a ton of beef.

I didn't get a picture of our second course, because I was distracted by the entertainment. I laughed so hard that I cried, watching the middle school students dancing to Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, and that Beiber kid...they were singing and dancing and looking so awkward, precious, and funny at the same time.

Our third course included cranberries, roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and brussel sprouts. Everything was tasty except the sprouts--I'm not a fan of those tiny cabbages.

The whole room was decorated in blue and silver, at the StuCo kids' request.
Some of our middle school teachers dancing.

Our dessert! Look how creatively our mousse was presented to us.

After the gift exchange, we passed out the pictures from the beginning of the banquet, grabbed our coats, and boarded the school bus. What a fun evening! The kids felt so grown-up and special--and it was a privilege to attend. On a side-note, Adam had to help the 6th grade boys know which utensils to use--they were very confused by all the silverware! :)

~julie