Happy Chinese New Year!
I am currently sitting on a bed at a Youth Hostel in the city of Hangzhou (close to Shanghai) where my buddy Geoff and I are visiting one of his students from a TIP summer session. We are in the middle of the Chinese Spring Festival (by far the most important holiday in China) where literally almost everyone goes home to their families regardless of the distance to celebrate Chinese New Year. The student's English name we are visiting is Melody, and both of her parents are Christian pastors! Her father chose the English name Timothy (very fitting!) and her mother's English name is Rose. Although this is only our first night here, we have already experienced incredible hospitality as all three of them came and picked us up from the airport in a 11 passenger church van (Quite funny to think about such a thing in China!). Then, they took us to this hostel where they insisted on paying for our 4 night stay here. After that they took us to their cozy apartment where Rose had already prepared some fresh honey dew melon to eat, Timothy cooked us some wantons for a late second dinner, and they shared Korean candy with us that some of their Korean church members gave them as a New Year's present. They even gave Geoff and I a brand new toothbrush, bottle of toothpaste, and small hand towels to take to our hostel. Unbelievable!
The funny thing about this trip, is that it’s one of the most spontaneous things I've ever done. Geoff posed the idea of traveling here for Spring Festival literally two days ago! We bought plane tickets that were 60% off last night since they were so last minute, and paid about USD$165 roundtrip!
As for an update regarding TIP, I spent all of January developing curriculum for our Mandarin TIP program as well as doing some facilitating with our students. And, ironically, not being in the classroom with 35+ students allowed me to develop some closer relationships with students. I even had time to spend 4 nights (about 2 hours per night) chatting with 5-6 of my favorite male students in their dorm room. One night I brought my computer and showed them some of my pictures from the States, and the next day one of the students said, "Kyle, after you left, we were all very excited and stayed up for a long time talking about your pictures! We did not get much sleep and I'm now very tired!" Overall it was a successful session.
Then, after a short three day break, we started our Mandarin TIP program! It's much different than English TIP in a number of ways. For one, we are all low, low, low speakers, and therefore it's obviously not a full immersion program (yet… the last 4 days we will attempt to have it be full immersion). We also have a pretty great ratio going for us. We have 11 Chinese facilitators/teachers who taught 15 of us. And, while it’s not quite as regimented as our English TIP we do have a packed schedule from 8:30am - 7:30pm with a 2 hour lunch and rest time in the middle of the day. Needless to say, my Chinese is improving and I've already been able to use it with Melody and her family especially since her Mom knows very little English. It's awesome… :)
Finally, we've also decided to Vlog (Video Log) some of this trip, and the first installment can be accessed here at the link below. I'll post again in the next few days! I hope you like it!
Kyle
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or could imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3:20-21
No comments:
Post a Comment