Life in American
Hello to all my friends back in China.
As promised I am going to post some pictures of my life back in America.
But first I have a few more pictures of my last days in China.
Here I am having lunch with my good friend Gary and his family.
And you can see Mr. Fishbird has joined us.
Here is Gary's girlfriend Angel and his mother.
They all thought my beard made me look old.
On one of my last trips into town I took this shot of a girl riding on the back of a bike.
Most people travel like this in Changxing.
It's common to see someone riding on the back of of a bike like this.
Reading a book or messing with an I-Pod.
Young and old alike.
I've seen 90 year old ladies and 2 year old babies riding side saddle on bikes like this.
I decided to leave Changxing a few days before my flight was due to leave.
Thought I would spend some time in Shanghai one last time.
Shanghai is such a huge city.
I've heard the population is between 17 and 19 million.
I also heard that within and hours drive outside of Shanghai there were up to 100 million people.
My favorite area is here along the Bund.
I consider this the center of Shanghai.
With a couple of days to kill I decided to take a cruise along the river.
They have lots of different deals for tourist to go sightseeing.
I met a few other foreigners on board.
A guy from San Francisco.
A woman from Australia who was on a trip around the world.
And the couple in the back, he is from the Netherlands and she is from Sweden.
Here we are.
This was there first time in Shanghai and they didn't know how to get across the river to go up in the towers.
Since I've been to Shanghai several times before, I offered to give them a free tour of the areas that I was familiar with.
New skyscraper going up.
I even met a fellow Hoosier while up in the tower.
(For my Chinese friends...a Hoosier is someone from Indiana)
At night we walked around and did a little shopping.
I've gotten pretty good at haggling and was able to save them a few bucks on a few things.
I want to take this moment to thank Keith Curran and Journey East for a great year in China.
I had no idea what to expect when I came here. But having a support team like Journey East really made me feel safe and gave me people that I could rely on for issues that needed to be handled.
Nothing is flawless. You have to take the good with the bad and remember, this is China.
Some people that have come to China to teach just don't get the fact that this is not America. Things seem similar in some ways, but are very different in other ways.
Sometimes you just have to go with the flow and remember, this is part of the experience that is China.
Put your best foot forward and make the best of bad situations.
Don't cry about every little thing that doesn't make you happy.
For example, "The classes are to big" or "The kids won't listen".
Hey, kids are kids!
We have great apartments(for China) and people that are willing to help us if we need.
We make 3 times as much as a Chinese teacher and work 16 to 20 hours a week while they are at school from 7am till 9pm.
Believe me, in my year in China, I have had my share of things that happened, that really pissed me off.
But I didn't make a big deal of them (or even mention them on my blog).
I let the crap slide right off my back and didn't look back. With a smile on my face, I should add.
Come to China. Have an experience that will last you a lifetime. But come with the right frame of mind. You'll be meeting people that have never seen a foreigner before...from anywhere!
Have a little understanding about their feelings.
Be polite, your an ambassador for wherever you come from.
You don't want them telling people,"Oh, I met a girl from Oregon, America and she was the rudest person I have ever met in my life".
Gives Oregon a bad name, let alone America!
So come to China, if your lucky you'll get a chance to teach in Changxing.
And if your really lucky, you'll get to teach at Changxing Experimental Middle School!
Back home in Indiana.
This is my mothers house in Morristown In.
Her and her husband Dave have about 30 acres of mostly wooded land with a small lake on it. They have lots of small boats called "kayaks" and some canoes.
This is where I am staying for the next 5 weeks or so with my kids.
We spend a good amount of time swimming and fishing.
This is Sydney in a kayak.
Here Sydney is giving Jimmy a ride.
My brothers kids have been visiting too.
This is Caleb on the left and Jimmy on the right.
Like I said these kids spend a lot of time in the water.
And they are great swimmers!
While I am keep a watch on them in my kayak.
After a week or so at moms house we went to visit my father and his wife in Mississippi.
They live about 11 miles from the ocean.
In there spare time they like to put puzzles together.
Here they are in the puzzle room.
It rained a bit while we were there but that didn't keep us from going to the beach.
Here Sydney is feeding the sea gulls.
One day, when it was sunny, we took a boat to an island called "Ship Island".
The water was clear, warm and had lots of fish and hermit crabs.
We even saw some dolphins swimming right off the shore.
Here is Sydney on the top deck of the ship.
Some dolphins joined us on the way out to the island.
They would swim right out in front of the boat.
Seemingly racing with the boat.
Here's Jimmy on the bottom deck looking for more dolphins.
And here he is enjoying a peanut butter and jelly sandwich inside the boat.
While Sydney makes a few new friends.
Back at grandpa's house, Sydney gets to practice her driving skills with grandpa's off road 4 wheeler. It's called a Mule. She's really a good driver (for a 9 year old).
That's my car behind it.
After a week or so in Mississippi we headed back to Indiana.
It's about a 12 hour drive from Mississippi to Indiana.
We got back just in time for the Morristown annual Soapbox Derby Days.
This is where kids build a small car with no motor and race it downhill.
They have a parade and rides for the kids.
The people on the floats would throw candy out to the kids as they went by.
This is one small town.
Real, small, hometown America.
We had catfish corn dogs and French fries...that's one big French fry!
The kids had lots of fun on the rides.
This one lets you bounce on a trampoline with bungy cords and helps you to do flips.
Sydney was great at this!
She did more flips than anybody there.
I'm gonna sign her up with the circus.
Pony rides
Little cowboys.
And face painting.
After a while we went to the bottom of the hill to watch the action at the derby.
Here is my mom, her husband Dave and the kids watching the race.
This is what the cars look like.
At the top of the hill they have a starting ramp.
They are released at the same time and coast down the hill.
They weigh the exact same amount to make it fair.
Here are a couple of shots of them at the finish line.
Jimmy decided to have a go at the trampoline.
No flips from him.
Well that all for now.
I'll post some more pictures later.
Jim
