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Godsgirl80
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Name: Ai Hong
Country: China
Metro: Zhenjiang
Birthday: 10/11/1980
Gender: Female
Interests: Reading, sleeping, eating, Pepsi, chocolate, coffee, Starbuck's, massages, friends and family, shopping, movies, email, IM, cooking, hanging out with friends, music, travel, shopping, church, and of course Dad and His Word!
Expertise: Wasting time...see, I'm doing it right now.
Occupation: Education/training
Industry: Nonprofit
Message: message meEmail: email me
AIM:  godsgirl101180
MSN: jamiegadberry@hotmail.com
Yahoo:  jgadberry80@yahoo.com
Member Since:
2/19/2004
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| Why is it that I can’t think of an interesting status and then I come up with four at once? Should I keep changing it every few hours and pretend that’s my current status? It’s fun to see what sort of responses you will get. Last night I went to bed early, I was excited because my TA had gotten me train tickets (she knew I was wanting them and her father happened to be at the train station) which saved me from having to go to the station after work. I was so excited because that meant I could sleep! I came home from work with my ESL book and the thought of writing a letter to my children’s parents…but really I knew I’d be asleep. I’ve recently noticed a difference in the mornings of which I have had adequate or more than adequate sleep and the mornings which I don’t. It usually means going to bed much earlier than I am accustomed to. For some reason I can “go to bed” at 5:00pm, but 8 or 9 is more difficult.
So anyway, back to going to bed early last night…I woke up around 1 am, hungry, so I grabbed some chocolate (see, I am my father’s daughter after all) and turned on the computer. Of course I had to check Facebook, which led to the changing of the status, which then led to having a few choices of what I could insert in the box which led to me wondering why I could think of multiple statuses (stati?) then and none at other times. As I later laid back down to go back to sleep the different options were going through my head and I knew I would want to write about it. I kinda wanted to get up and write it down (sad, isn’t it, that I find this that interesting), so that I wouldn’t forget, but I didn’t and I’m afraid now I have.
It’s Friday and my weekend is planned…I’ve even planned sleep (always a priority). I’m going to spend some time with Chinese people (for a change!) at a bbq/outing with the English study on Saturday and then on Sunday I’m going to ZJ for the day (Woohoo!). I’ll get to see Elyse! Then we have four days of school and then a school trip and then we are off for a week! Double wahoo! I’m hoping to make it to Shanghai during that time to see Roz (finally, after a year).
Anywho, the clock is ticking and I’ve got to finish getting ready for school. I’ll write more later if anything interesting happens at school today.
Love ya’ll,
Jamie | | |
| There is an English Bible study at one of the churches in town. It is for Chinese people to practice their English. Some of the people that I know from the international fellowship attend as the English speakers. One of the ladies that I work with has been going for quite awhile and I asked her if they needed more people. She said yes, so last week was my first time to attend.
Today I was planning to go again but I got a slight headache and just really was not in the mood to go. I figured that Satan just didn’t want me to go. Then I waited for about half an hour for a taxi. I would think “I’ll wait until such and such time and if I don’t get a taxi by then, I’ll go back inside.” Finally at five minutes till seven (and the study starts at 7:00 I got a taxi. I was 20 minutes late when I arrived.
They start the evening with a song. Usually someone will teach an English hymn or praise song. By the time I got there they were singing the second song. I saw that the first one was a real oldie, but a goodie. I was happy to see it as I hadn’t heard it in a long time. It’s cool to be reminded of old songs that were once so dear. The song I am particularly speaking of goes:
I will call upon the Lord
Who is worthy to be praised
So shall be saved from my enemies
I will call upon the Lord
Hosanna (huh) (my recollection is the line goes ‘the Lord liveth”
And blessed be the Rock (huh huh)
Let the God of my salvation be exalted.
They announced that tonight would be a time for testimonies and had us leave the big room (full of pews) for a room with chairs and tables, with snacks set up on the tables. As I went into the room, someone stopped me. She looked (and sounded) very familiar to me. She remembered me from when I taught at Southeast University , she said I was with another woman (Kay) and she also mentioned meeting my brother (now this confused me because Andrew came to visit during my second year, and we only went to Nanjing for a weekend). But anyway, she remembered me and she was so familiar to me, but I just couldn’t place her. So frustrating!
She asked where I live and it turns out that she lives on the same street as I do! Coincidence?! No way! Remember it took me about 25 minutes in a taxi going through traffic to get to the church (so it’s not real close). She actually lives just a few blocks down from me. She had come to the study with a guy who lives in the same area and also mentioned another lady at the study who lives in the same complex that I do. Hopefully we can carpool in the future. But more than that, I’m excited to have met someone who lives in the same area of town as me.
I was so glad that I had went tonight. Someone didn’t want me there, SOMEONE else did.
A testimony was given about a trip taken to Henan province. In the 1990s many people in Henan province sold their blood. They would use the money for education, food, and clothes. Unfortunately clean methods were not used and someone in the thousands that donated had the HIV virus. The virus was spread to thousands of people. Now there are many orphans (whose parents died from Aids) who are living with grandparents/aunts/uncles. These people are very poor, barely able to provide for themselves let alone taking a child in. The lady who was telling the story told about a program that Amity has where they give money for school supplies to the grandparents/aunts/uncles.
Another story was told about how Amity has trained some village people to be “doctors” (not real doctors, but someone who has some medical training). She told about one doctor who lived in a dugout cave with his parents and wife. Amity has a program where they donate money for the doctors to build a clinic. This man was able to do this and he now has a daughter. His daughter is 3 ½ and so will begin school in a couple of years. The closest school is 5 km away. That may not seem far but they are so far out that cars can only go so far and then you have to walk. A friend of his who works in a nearby city says he can get this doctor a job and so the doctor is torn: go to the city so that his daughter can have a better education or stay and help those in the village.
Be blessed (and thankful that you are),
Jamie | | |
| So we completed the first week of school. Starting with 9 kids is different than starting the year with 2. It’s hard to remember what I did last year. This year I have so much more material. I feel like I should get started but the kids don’t understand much of what I say.
One of my students was named Lion (remember he’s Korean and so has probably just picked something in English that he likes). I told him mom this wasn’t appropriate so now Lion is Bryan . He was writing his name last week and I noticed he was writing Blyan. The “r” sound is very difficult for Korean students. When they say it, it comes out sounding like an “l” sound. So I also have a student named Robin and another named Rose. When they say their names it sounds like Lobin and Lose (long o).
They really are cute. I want to get some pictures of them this week.
On Saturday I went to Ikea with a couple of friends. We’ve been looking forward to the opening of this store for quite awhile. When I was at Kay’s in Washington we went to Ikea a couple of times and I had found some things there that I was hoping to find at our store. I found some cheap but cute decorative stuff. It’s been fun making my little place more homey.
After Ikea…and remind me never to go on Saturday again, sooooooooo crowded, we went to Metro which is kinda like a Sam’s club as they sell things in bulk. We go there for certain school supplies as well as western food. I’m proud to say the only thing I bought was butter (which can be found at other stores, but I was looking for a particular kind) in addition to a couple of school supplies (not my money!).
After Metro we waited and waited for a taxi and finally decided to walk towards the intersection (carrying all of our stuff). A man in a car waved me over, I could tell he was going to offer to take us, so I asked how much. His price was much better than the lady in the van who had already tried to give us a ride (wanting us to pay 40, then 30 yuan). So yes, we got into a perfect stranger’s car after agreeing to pay 20 yuan for him to take us to our apt complex. My friend phoned her husband and jokingly told him we had gotten in a black car with a man with dark hair and dark eyes (EVERYONE has dark hair and dark eyes).
It’s almost You zi time (pomelos!). I’m excited for them to come out. The other day I tried another fruit, of which I am trying to find out the name. It’s a small round green and brown fruit that is crunchy like an apple, but not very juicy (Kim, do you or Jace know what I am talking about?). It’s pretty bland, but fun to crunch on. I also just discovered what I am calling the Chinese version of a popcorn ball…same idea only puffed rice instead of popcorn and not such a high concentration of sugar.
We tried to go to an old foreigner favorite here in Nanjing for lunch today, a Chinese restaurant with an English menu that is famous for taking your picture and hanging it on their wall after you have eaten there several times. There weren’t any empty tables so we went to another place nearby. The food was great and it was cheaper! Guess we’ll be going back there! | | |
| Some info below about a holiday that is coming up here in China …I found it interesting that one of my favorite fruits here (pomelo) is used in some celebration. Also, that the province that I live in, Jiangsu , cultivates pomelo (guess I’m living in the right place).
Mid-Autumn Festival
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Mid-Autumn Festival
The Mid-Autumn Moonfestival is also celebrated in Chinese communities such as the San Francisco Chinatown
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese:
中秋節
Simplified Chinese:
中秋节
[show]Transliterations
Japanese name
Kanji:
月見
Kana:
つきみ
[show]Transliterations
Korean name
Hangul:
추석
Hanja:
秋夕
Vietnamese name
Quốc ngữ:
Tết Trung Thu
Chữ nôm:
節中秋
Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations in Victoria Park, Hong Kong.
Mooncake is often eaten during the festival.
The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, is a popular East Asian celebration of abundance and togetherness, dating back over 3,000 years to China's Zhou Dynasty. In Malaysia and Singapore, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival.
The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar (usually around mid- or late-September in the Gregorian calendar), a date that parallels the Autumn Equinox of the solar calendar. This is the ideal time, when the moon is at its fullest and brightest, to celebrate the abundance of the summer's harvest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the two most important holidays in the Chinese calendar (the other being the Chinese Lunar New Year), and is a legal holiday in several countries. Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally, on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomeloes together. Accompanying the celebration, there are additional cultural or regional customs, such as:
Eating moon cakes outside under the moon
Putting pomelo rinds on one's head
Carrying brightly lit lanterns
Burning incense in reverence to deities including Chang'e
Planting Mid-Autumn trees
Collecting dandelion leaves and distributing them evenly among family members
Lighting lanterns on towers
Fire Dragon Dances
Shops selling mooncakes, before the festival, often display pictures of Chang'e floating to the moon.
Pomelo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Pomelo
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Plantae
Division:
Magnoliophyta
Class:
Magnoliopsida
Subclass:
Rosidae
Order:
Sapindales
Family:
Rutaceae
Genus:
Citrus
Species:
C. maxima
Binomial name
Citrus maxima
Merr.
The pomelo (or Chinese grapefruit, pummelo, pommelo, Lusho Fruit, jabong, boongon, shaddock, limau bali, Balinese Citrus, or suhabaungon), Bhogatae, Citrus maxima (Merr., Burm. f.), also Citrus grandis (L.), is a citrus fruit, usually a pale green to yellow when ripe, larger than a grapefruit, with sweet flesh and thick spongy rind.
Contents
[hide]
1 Cultivation and uses
2 Production
3 Gallery
4 See also
5 External links
[edit] Cultivation and uses
The pomelo is native to Southeast Asia, and grows wild on river banks in Fiji, Tonga, and Hawaii. It may have been introduced into China around 100 BC. It is widely cultivated in southern China (Jiangsu, Jiangxi, and Fujian Provinces) and especially in central Thailand on the banks of the Tha Chin River; also in Taiwan and southernmost Japan, Nepal, Bangladesh, southern India, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Tahiti, and the Philippines. It is also grown commercially (on a limited scale for ethnic and specialty grocers) elsewhere, particularly California, Florida, and Israel. Because of this limited production, pomelos typically sell for about 2 dollars apiece in the USA . In the UK they sell for around £1.20 a piece (July 2008). | | |
| So yesterday I went to Shanghai with the Prenevost’s (neighbors, co-workers and friends). They have been in the process of adopting two Chinese girls and needed to have one last meeting with the social worker to finish up one of the adoptions. So that I would not have to miss school later in the year I decided to go yesterday to get my passport renewed. We had a fast train in the morning, leaving our complexes (our complexes are across the street from each other, they live in the same one that Kim and Jada lived in) at 6:50 am and getting to the station with plenty of time. So the morning trip was only 2 hours and 10 minutes. After a short night, staying up late, getting up early, I took advantage of the two hours on the train and got some extra shut eye.
After arriving in Shanghai we went to purchase our return tickets, thankfully getting tickets, unfortunately not on a fast train (they were sold out), more about that later. Then we went to the Subway and bought tickets. The Prenevost’s destination was on the same subway line as mine, but farther down, so we continued to travel together. I got off at my stop, and with a business card in my hand asked a couple of stranger’s where the location on my card was. They pointed me in the right direction.
It was around 11am and I thought I remembered the Consulate closed at 11:30 for lunch (and I was thinking that they didn’t reopen until 1:30) so I was kinda in a hurry. The Consulate is located on the 8th floor of a mall. I didn’t see an elevator so took escalator after escalator up and up and up and finally reached the Consulate. I was kinda nervous, and not expecting them to be very nice (I’m not exactly sure why I felt this way) but to my pleasant surprise they were very nice and helpful. I was outta there before 11:30 and found out that I don’t have to make a return trip to pick up my new passport. I can send my old passport with a friend who is going…which is nice because if I had to go back myself I would have had to miss work.
The Prenevost’s had told me which subway stop they were getting off at and that they would be at a Carrefour. So after leaving the Consulate I went back to the subway and travelled on down the line to their stop. I looked around hoping to see a Carrefour to no avail. Then I got in a taxi and said Carrefour in Chinese and hoped the driver would take me to the right one. The Prenevost’s had said this Carrefour was in an area of town where many foreigner’s live. As I looked around I could tell it was a high-end area. I had been trying to text message or call the Prenevost’s but for some reason my phone was not working. I started to get worried, how would I find them? Carrefour is a big store, and why would they be in a store for a meeting with a social worker? The store was also part of a mall, so you would walk into the mall, then go up a couple of levels to Carrefour. Anyway, I walked around outside for awhile, looking for them or a place that sounded adoptiony or like they might be meeting there. I went into the mall and walked around one level, went up a level, walked around, found a pay phone. Yea! Sadly the 3 did not work and it took my 1 yuan. I walked up to the top level and saw a cell phone company store. I went in and tried to ask for a pay phone. Then I saw a man who I thought looked like he might speak English. I asked him if he knew where a pay phone was and he ended up letting me use his cell phone (Yea for kind strangers!). I called the Prenevost’s and found out they were on the first floor, at a restaurant I had passed earlier.
While on the first floor the first time I had seen a place that served Italian gelato. It looked so good, but was so expensive. After the scare of not being able to find them and having to hang out in Shanghai by myself I decided to go for the gelato. Yum! Coffee and Nutella were the flavors I chose. Oh so good, but seriously oh so expensive too.
I met up with the Prenevost’s and after their meeting we went into Carrefour. I was quite impressed with the international food section (there was more than one row!), if only the Carrefour’s in Nanjing had an international section like this! I was also excited to find a type of granola (not in the international section) that I used to buy my first year in China but hadn’t seen in years. After Carrefour and lunch we got in a taxi to head back to the train station, dozing during the long ride (traffic in Shanghai is crazy!). We were nervous for awhile that we might not make our train, but we did and then had almost 4 hours to kill (remember I said it was not a fast train?).
Skip to today…a humid rainy day, ick. When I arrived home last night there was a note on my door saying my package from home had arrived. So today I needed to go pick it up. I went to the post office, not the nearby one (unfortunately all of my packages go to a far one), walking in the rain. I knew it was a big package (60 lb!) and so was hoping I could get someone to help me carry it outside to a taxi. A guy who worked at the post office pushed it to the door for me. I went and flagged down a taxi, then asked a guy outside the post office to help me carry it to the taxi. I messaged a friend who also lives in my complex and asked if he could help me carry it up the stairs. Oh what fun to open the box! All sorts of goodies were inside and now I have another box ready to go to school on Monday morning, filled with all sorts of fun stuff.
School starts on Monday. I have 23 periods to teach. I know nine students is still a small class, but to me it’s big! I’m wondering if I don’t have a normal concept of how much material to cover, since with a super small class last year I was probably able to cover more than normal.
Okay, now that I’ve bored you all to tears… | | |
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