因为在神没有一件事是不可能的

I throw away food.

Let me rephrase that.

I throw away a lot of food.

(I know over 800 million people will go to bed hungry tonight because they couldn't afford one meal today. If I could give them my food I would. But I can't.)

Maybe being from an extremely obese country has made me think this way, but if you're full stop eating!

Most of the time I buy my own food. It's my food and like anything else I own I can choose to do whatever I want with it.

If I buy a pen that I don't end up using I don't have a second thought about throwing it away. If I buy something that doesn't work properly it ends up in the trash.

If I have food that tastes bad I don't eat it.

If someone else buys, or I'm at someone's house, I'll eat as much as I possibly can. I'm not rude, I'm just not a glutton.

However, when the school I work for begins placing guards by the tray depository to make sure everyone is finishing everything they are given I get a little pissed.

Especially when half the lunches they serve deserve to be thrown away before they reach any creature's mouth.

I understand their logic. They want to make everyone eat everything.

After forcing kids (and apparently teachers also) to stuff themselves silly for a couple day they think that the over stuffed people will learn to take less.

If everyone takes less food the school saves money.

In theory.

But I don't think it will work.

This is obviously an idea cooked up by the administration.

These people never talk to the students.

Student's study all morning. By the end of the 4th period there isn't a student that isn't complaining about being hungry.

Most of them always have and always will take too much food.

What will happen is that the average weight of the student body will rise.

I don't really care, I just think that applying this rule to teachers is a bit degrading.

I'm not their child.

New rules passed down from the boss this semester. All us foreign teachers must be involved in a club. They say involved, but they mean in charge of.

Last semester I got stuck being in charge of the English Newspaper club, which was the worst thing I've been forced to do. Even worse than M1 in CCBC.

This semester they asked me to do it again. I politely explained that I would gladly put the paper together, but would not be involved in the club meetings because I was going to start a guitar class. They were actually a little excited about that and totally agreed.

Now I have to deal with room full of students making noise on guitars for two hours every other Friday. What have I gotten myself into...

As you all know I was asked to play guitar at the school festival. The art teacher was taking some photos and he told me that a couple were put up on the school website. He has a lens I'm totally jealous of. So beautiful, this lens is. These are the first pictures I have of me playing guitar. I'm glad they're nice

Literally. They're broke. This new building put them under by a lot. I think they had two fund accounts one for building and one for general things (salary and the like). The building funds ran out and they had to start taking from the general funds. Whenever that happens it's a bad sign.

I think they thought that the Korean exchange rate would be in their favor also, but Korea's economy is going down too. The exchange rate is half what it was a while ago.

This has led to the school being late on construction payments. And since the construction company is connected with the electricity company our electricity is not very reliable. It will be shut off at 12 today. It went out yesterday also and we got to go home early because of it. Today they told us to pack lunches.

If you think of it, pray for our poor school.

This weekend went by far too quickly! Here's a run down of basic events (With photos!)

On Friday our school had a huge field trip to Happy Land. Yes, it's actually called Happy Land. And surprisingly enough it does not live up to its name. Though we did have some fun.

I made some delicious sandwiches to bring. I had never made a Monte Cristo before, but it came out really tasty.

Here are some photos:

Carrie and Lex.

Clan, one of my old students.

There was a little singing competition. This is my student Dolry.

I don't know his name, but he could go places as a rapper and entertainer. Very talented.

Two of my top students, Vanessa and Sally.

A really sad bear.

Dogs should not be in zoos. I wanted to take him home, so big and sweet.

On Friday night I had to play guitar for a guy who will judge the competition I'll be in later. The audition was on Sunday so I couldn't go to that, but he agreed that if he thought I was good enough I wouldn't have to audition. Of course it wasn't a problem. I'm actually going to see him tonight to jam together. So maybe I'll have some original songs in Chinese soon!

Saturday was pretty busy also. I had to get up early (9:00) to teach one of my students guitar. You know, it's easier for me to teach something I'm not particularly interested in (English) than to teach something I love (guitar). In any case, she practices and seems interested so I won't be the first one to back out.

Then I had to run some errands, buy some food for dinner, get a new sim card for my phone, nothing special.

At 5:00 a few friends were supposed to come over to my house to play. (Alright, I realize a 23 year old talking about playing with friends is strange. However, I've gotten used to saying it because it's used so commonly in Chinese.) They were late. Really late. But with a legit excuse, they were at the hospital because a friend broke a tooth... or something.

Then they finally call me and for me to come meet them at the gate. So I go meet them. We walk back to my apartment and I realize that I locked myself out! I usually carry two keys. One on my key chain and one in my wallet because I never leave the house with one or the other. Well, almost never.

So I pay 150 RMB for some guy to come open the door. I'm totally embarrassed because this is the first time for me to meet two of these people. They are my friend's friends. But we all have a good laugh.

I make some pasta, the girls make some fruit salad and after our delicious meal we play card games for a while. Over all it was good fun.

A better one of Zounan.

They went home at 9:00 and I went to Prince Coffee to meet some friends that came from Penglai for the weekend. They didn't have a place to stay so they were going to go to an internet cafe and stay there all night. Instead I got them to come crash at my place.

Look at me being all hospitable!

And that was the end of Saturday.

Sunday rolls around and I finally get to sleep in. Wake up at 11:00. You know, I love being able to sleep in on Sunday and not miss church. Best of both worlds.

It was my week to teach, on top of leading worship, and I've been going through James. This week we went over 2:14-19. All about faith and deeds being inseparable. It stuck me how practical our faith is. Following Jesus is a very hands-on experience. Some people would like to limit it to completely invisible, spiritual, things. But when it comes down to it, who's more spiritual: the guy who gives food and clothes to someone in need, or the guy who prays that God would give food and clothes to that person?

So what? We should pray less and do more! Not really, but you know what I mean. If someone is going through a tough time don't just pray for them, do something about it!

I really miss being a student. I met some students on Sunday. They are studying Chinese at Yantai University. One of them is Japanese, the others are Korean. We all could only communicate because of Chinese. Well, the Japanese girl actually speaks fantastic English, but the Koreans couldn't so we stuck with Chinese.

It made me miss student life so much because they seemed so carefree. Talking about their homework, what teachers they liked and didn't like, helping each other with homework. Where as I have all these responsibilities. It made me really sad. I want that again.

Then I was thinking about what I would do if I ever were to go back to America. I have no skills, no degrees (worth anything), no training in anything! In China I'm an expert. But in America I'm nothing! How would I live? The real world is so harsh!

Suddenly I had this crazy thought. I have this golden opportunity. I'm living in China making a lot of money and my Chinese sucks. I make enough in 6 months of teaching (at my current job) to take six months off and still be able to to afford all my living costs on top of tuition if I live simply.

But at that rate it would take 8 years for a B.A. So I need another way to make it work. But I'm seriously considering not renewing my contract and going back to school. I live right across the street from the University and my house is paid up for almost a year from now. If I don't live on campus I think tuition is pretty cheap. So I'm going to look into it.

The only down side is that it would take a lot away from my winter travel plans. I would probably find some part time work or something and have to give up traveling.

My point is that if I ever decide to go back to America I would have a very good skill if I had a degree in Chinese with the fluency to go with it. Translation, teaching, whatever. Maybe even study some business and go into something like that... I don't want to be stuck digging ditches if I ever go back.

That said, I probably won't ever go back for more than a visit.

This semester is even worse than last! I'm teaching just as many hours, but with more responsibilities.

I have totally different classes, so just when I figured out all my kids I have a whole new lot. I'm glad to be rid of some, I miss others. Overall I don't mind having different classes, but it's the other things I have to do that I'm not too thrilled about.

On top of all my classes I'm stuck with the English school newspaper club. It's a lot of extra work. I have to think of articles for them to write, organize the whole layout, put it all together, get it printed, all that stuff. What a pain! I know the kids enjoy working on it, and I know it will be fun in the end, but man is it going to be exhausting.

I also found out that I'm an assistant homeroom teacher for a 7th grade class. That won't be much work as long as the homeroom teacher doesn't get too busy. At least the 7th graders are good kids, for the most part.

I will also be responsible for putting many of the English tests together for middle school and high school. This means getting all the foreign teacher to write questions for their classes, compiling them into one test, and checking them to make sure they are all reasonable questions for the student's level. It doesn't sound like much, but I will be staying late (Not to mention the occasional Saturday!) when midterms and finals roll around.

Any who knows what school festival things I'll get stuck with. It could be nothing, or several things. I don't know yet, but I know some of the students want me to help them with different projects.

Here's to another busy semester!

I'm back to 100%! No bad food can keep this little train from chugging along. Here's the recent happenings:

• I'm working on getting my visa renewed. It's a bit more troublesome than I expected. I needed to get letters from my old work that I honestly didn't expect they would give me. But I'm still on good terms with the boss so it wasn't too much trouble.


• Then I figure out that it's pretty hard to get a residence permit if I continue live in Kaifaqu. It will cost me about 2000 yuan more than if I lived elsewhere in Yantai. So I opted to move. That is a mixed blessing. It will be a little more expensive, probably a little larger also. It's much closer to work, but much farther from church. Closer to some friends, farther from others. I should buy a car...


• Only two more weeks of school. One week of tests and another week of nothing. We'll sort of teach, but the students won't want to do anything knowing that the tests are over. It'll be a lazy week. Then summer school starts. I think I'm going to do that. It's only three weeks and it's decent money. It'll make up for the money I will have spent on moving.


• I forgot how silly high school drama is. As I get closer to my students I find out some pretty ridiculous things their girlfriends do. I'm so glad those days are past.


• I've written a couple more songs. I'm planning on recording them this weekend. I don't know what will actually happen though.


• One of my student's had their electronic dictionary stolen right before class. I was pissed off. I nearly took some kids heads off! Not really... I was able to track it down in about an hour. I couldn't find the culprit though. The girl was so happy. She told me that if she had just told her homeroom teacher nothing would have happened. I don't know how they could just let a student be violated like that and do nothing! I nearly had every seventh grader in the school empty their bags and pockets. Luckily I found where the little punk hid it before it came to that. I don't think the parents would have been to happy if I searched their children.

All semester we've been giving students tests, giving students homework, marking tests, organizing projects, grading speeches, etc. Now we come to find out it was all for nothing.

Why?

No student can get a grade in English below 70%.

How fair it is to have a student that puts everything they can into a class only get 30% higher than a student that comes late, does nothing, and disrupts the class?

And I thought my last school was a joke.

EDIT: Last night (6/2/08) I dreamed that I was in one of Hitler's concentration camps moving loads of dirt from one spot to another. Then back again when we were finished moving it. That about sums up how I feel about all the work I've done up to now. There's nothing like doing loads of work to find out it was for nothing.

That said, I still love all my students, and life is always getting better and better. So no worries.

One of the teachers pulled a runner after payday. Just never came back to work. He didn't seem like the type that would do that. I guess he couldn't cope with the complete lack of discipline in this school. The students are insane.

Because of that we've all had to pick up his classes.

On top of that I planned tests all last week and this week. So massive amounts of paperwork.

I stayed late Thursday to catch up on paperwork and prep Friday's classes. I had 6 classes on Friday — no time to prep. Thursday was a 13 hour day.

Then I'm told on Friday that I have to come in on Saturday to administer a mock TOEFL test. I ended up having to stay late Friday also to prep for the TOEFL test. Another 13 hour day.

Then I had to catch the bus at 7:30 this morning, give the test and grade it, and starve because they didn't bother to make lunch for us.

And this month will continue going down. I've got classes opened for other teachers and staff to sit in on. Other classes that parents will be allowed to sit in on. I detest that kind of thing. There is no respect for the foreign teachers in this school. It's like we're some kind of animal that they can blame thing on when they make mistakes.

That said, I do love my job and all the students.