Hot Pot For Everyone, Hot Pot Party...

Lastnight after work, the EF staff went out for hot pot. It was a going away party for 2 of our staff, Austin and Lunar, and a welcome party for me. Hot pot was one thing I was really looking forward to trying and while I don't think I would make a habit of it, I am glad to have had the opportunity.

Basically, hot pot is a traditional style of dining where you cook at your table. In the middle of the table are two steaming pots of broth, one spicy (and I mean really spicy) and one mild. Servers bring out various plates of raw meats and vegetables: pork, beef, lamb, tripe (that's cow stomach) mushrooms, bamboo, seaweed, cabbage, etc. You then put the items into your hot pot and wait for them to simmer. Once they are done, you serve some onto your plate. Chinese cuisine is always centered around community and family and this is one of the best examples of this concept.

Above: A Chinese Hot Pot Table- The Red Broth Is Very Spicy And The White Broth Is Mild

You know you are in for a spicy meal when each table has an individual air conditioning unit. They also bring out hot wet towels at the beginninng, presumably for you to wash your hands with but I found a second purpose for them. When they cool off, you can use them to wipe the sweat from your face!

Some more pictures from the party:

Above: My co worker Lloyd surrounded by Chinese women.



Above: Sephyr, head of sales for EF.

Above: The white man with glasses is Austin, the
teacher who is moving to another school. I think
the Chinese people must work in sales.With the
exception of Carol, the Chinese lady next
to Austin who is our lead teacher, I don't
know any of them. It was the first time I had
seen many of these people.

Above: The man in the center is Laurie from the U.K.,
my director of studies (boss). He plans our
schedules and is the direct supervisor of
the teachers. Again, the Chinese people
were people I had seen for the first time.

Above: More of the friendly people from sales
and a teacher or two.

And finally, myself enjoying a bamboo shoot
cooked in spicy hot pot broth.

Bus 109...

Today, for my day off, I decided to explore the city a little bit. I did this by getting on Bus 109, on of the buses that loads in front of my building and riding for its whole route. Here are some things I found:



an open air Chinese marketplace- I spent a little bit of time wandering around, reminded me some of Ripley, MS.



a really cool and well stocked bootleg DVD store, must come back when I have more money.



Beijing International Christian Fellowship's Haidian District Location- it is just five bus stops away from home- good to know there is a good expat church close to home.

And finally, just three bus stops away from home I stopped to pick up dinner to bring home. It has been difficult to find good food here, there is plenty but difficult to go across town to a good restaurant on your lunch break. I have had my fill of Bruce Lee's Kung Fu fast food places. Mcdonald's and KFC abound, but here was a place I had not seen yet in China. It made for a really good dinner:

Yes, they deliver AND speak English. It will be very convenient to order up lunch specials to the office.

Finally back online...

After a week with no internet access, I am fully moved into my new apartment in Beijing's Haidian district. I will post some pictures soon. If you have been checking this blog, expect more frequent updates now that I can do it from my apartment.

Intersting Story:
This morning at 4 am I woke up to discover that my electricity was not working. Everything in China is done on a prepaid card, so I knew there was nothing I could do until daylight. I had to go to the apartment management office (where they don't speak any English, strange since my apartment is owned by an Austrailian company!) and put money on my card. The prepaid amount that was already on there had run out at 4 am! After that, I had to insert the card into my electric meter and like magic, the electricity was back on. I guess it makes sense in a city of 15 million to save on postage and not send out electric bills. Apparently, this system is quite common in the rest of the world. My British coworkers could not believe that a country still exists where electric bills are sent through the mail.

Congregation of the Good Shepherd...

I attended church for the first time this Sunday at the Congregation of the Good Shepherd. Following is a review of the experience in the style of The Mystery Worshipper from the U.K. website http://www.ship-of-fools.com/

The church: Congregation of the Good Shepherd, Beijing, China

Denomination: Non-denominational. (There are no denominations in China.)

The building: The church is located in the Capital Athletic Club, the clubhouse of a very large apartment complex in the Beijing Chaoyang District.

The church: The congregation is an organization of ex-patriate Christians (Christians living outside their country of citizenship) from around the world. The worship is liturigical and encompasses a multitude of Christian traditions.

The neighbourhood: The Chaoyang district is near the Central Business District and is home to much commerce and trade as well as many foreign embassies.

The cast: Pastor Dan Sandifer-Stech as well as several lay leaders.

The date & time: Sunday, 2 June, 2008 10.00 am

Name of Service: Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Size of Congregation: Aproximately 60 or so, Pastor Dan informed me that the congregation was quite smaller during the summer as many ex-pats return home for vacation.

Did anyone welcome you? Pastor Dan handed me a bulletin, hymnbook and bible at the door and then spoke to me briefly later.

Describe the Sanctuary: Typical hotel ball room with padded green chairs. A temporary pulpit and altar was set up on a small stage at the front.

Pre-Service Atmosphere: Quite chatty bunch, piano prelude played in the background.

Opening Words of the Service: Good morning, let's have some announcements!

Books Used: New Revised Standard Bible, United Methodist Hymnal, Service Leaflet With Liturgy and Readings Printed

Musical Instruments: Piano

Distractions: Quite a few restless children as children's church is on summer hiatus.

Worship Style: Traditional, Mainline Protestant, not unlike most Methodist orPresbyterian churches in the U.S.

Sermon Length: 15 minutes

On a scale of 1-10, how good was the preacher? 7, Short, academic, unremarkable, but informative.

Sermon Topic: Conflict between Sarah and Hagar in the book of Genesis. God heard Hagar's cry for help and sent an angel. God is waiting to hear our cry if we will just call to him.

What part was like being in heaven? The welcoming atmosphere of the congregation during the peace and the prayer request time. This congregation is really focused on praying for each other and the world at large.

Anything you didn't like? Not really, it was a little hot in there though.

Did anyone speak to you after the service? I didn't have time to find out as I had to catch a cab to work on the other side of Beijing. People were very friendly during the passing of the peace (meet and greet time for my Baptist friends) so I can only assume that would have continued.

After Service Coffee? There was some, but I had to get to work so did not stay.

Would you make this your church home? Possibly. There aren't many options here for foreigners so after I try a couple more, maybe.

Did this service make you glad to be a Christian? Yes

What is one thing you will remember most? The heartfelt prayer time.

Whew...

I am exhausted! I just got into work and am finally able to relax! This is a really laid back office. Here are some random thoughts from the last several days:

The EF office is going to be a really fun place to work. The staff are all young people around my age. There are teachers from England, China, South Africa, and the United States. It is a very diverse group. I will spend the next few days observing classes and will start teaching on Wednesday of next week after I undergo the mandatory tranining Boot Camp.

The lessons are already planned for me. All I have to do is find the appropriate file on my office computer, personalize it to my teaching style, print the appropriate handouts and head off to the classroom. I observed one class last night and the teacher, who was from England, taught a very entertaining lesson on Phrasal Verbs. I did not know it was possible to make a lesson like that fun. Maybe I can post some video of the classes if they will let me.

The teacher intoduced me to the class and told the students I had culture shock. On the way back home lastnight on the bus, one of the students who was in that class approached me and asked what culture shock was. I think she thought I had some sort of exotic American disease.

Never, Never, Never get a Bank of America credit card. I came up short on cash when paying my landlord and after two hours on the phone with Bank of America, found out I could not get a pin to access cash. The agent assured me it was only for my protection that they would not release my pin. A quick call to Discover card had me a pin in minutes after answering a few questions to verify my identity.

I went to the ATM this morning to access cash and was successful until the machine kept my card out of security. I had to show my passport to get it back, but I hope to not have to use my credit card at an ATM again. Thank God this bank had ONE English speaking teller who was able to assist me.

See ya when I see ya, Peace!

My First Day.. updated

I arrived in Beijing on time at 9:30 lastnight. After a long wait to get through customs, I immediately met up with EF Representative Rose Ding. She took me to my hotel, The Beijing Courtel. It is situatated at the front of a residential hutong, a traditional Beijing neighborhood. There is a beautiful park that runs in front of it. I took a walk through the park awhile back and came upon an informal gathering of Chinese people playing instruments and singing, not unlike picking and grinning on the square in Corinth, and saw many families out enjoying the park and walking their dogs. (yes, they do more than just eat them here.)

This morning, after a traditional Chinese breakfast of steamed dumplings, I was off to EF. There was a miscommunication and instead of someone picking me up, I had to navigate my way there myself. Thanks to Wei Wei Fu and her excellent directions, I made it just fine navigating the subways and streets. After a brief orientation, I signed my contract then it was off to a welcome lunch with Michael, another new EF teacher, Wei Wei, and Rose. Wei Wei is the teacher life coordinator, which means she takes care of meeting our needs. Rose works closely with Wei Wei although I am not sure exactly what her title is.

After lunch, I went to the school I will be working in. It is in the Haidian district. This is the part of Beijing where the universities and colleges are. I am glad to be here as this is the part I had hoped to work in.

Here are pictures of the days activities:

Walking To School Subway Station

My Bowl of Shrimp and Wonton noodle soup- Yes that is a serving for one person!

We also ate several types of Dim Sum, steamed dumplings, as well as some vegetables. One was a stir fried mix of of mushrooms and a very spicy cabbage, excellent! The other looked like a pile of wet grass and that is exactly what it tasted like! Otherwise, the meal was excellent. If you like Chinese food in America, you will love it here.

One question I have been getting quite a bit is: "Do you have culture shock yet?" and I must answer no. I am sure I will at some point but right now this doesn't really feel like a foreign country. There is so much American culture here (except for on the TV, thank God for itunes!) that it just feels like an area of the US with a very large Chinese population. An example of the American culture that transcends the language barrier:

By the way, if you are a reader of this blog and have Skype (if you don't what's stopping you?), I am beijingtim1 on there and would love to talk with you.

My first day...

My first day at EF Beijing was great! I will post some pictures and a longer article later.

In Tokyo...

Just made it through security in Tokyo, my plane to Beijing boards in about 15 minutes. It is 5:52 PM here, my computers clock says 3:52 am back home.

The Journey So Far...

I am sitting in the NWA worldclubs lounge in Minneapolis, MN. (unlimited Dr. Pepper, I feel like Forrest Gump!)I am here until 3:05 PM when my plane leaves for Tokyo. After a minor security issue in Memphis this morning (my 8 tubes of deodorant raised a few eyebrows and my bag had to be opened and searched. Deodorant is not available in China so I wanted to make sure I had plenty on hand!), the first flight went over very smoothly. Next step is about 12 hours on a plane to Tokyo.

Here are some pictures of the trip so far: (more to come later today, keep checking!)

Above: My last view of the American South for a year!

Above: A couple of pictures of the NWA world club lounge.

A Blurb From The Local Newspaper...

The following blurb appeared in Purely Personal, a gossip and current events column written by Lisa Denley McNeece in the Calhoun County Journal (my hometown Bruce newspaper):

Timothy Parker, native of Bruce, is headed to China this week for a year of teaching.

Timothy, the son of Quincy and Martha Parker, has been teaching English at Corinth High School for the past few years.

He will be going to Beijing as part of the "English First" program where he will teach English as a Second Language.

Timothy said he will be teaching adults in a "total immersion" program. The students have had some exposure to the English language, but he will only speak English to them.

Timothy will be blogging about his experience on blogspot, and promises to keep us updated on teaching and life in Beijing, which is the site of the summer olympics this year.

Timothy is a graduate of Calhoun Academy.