Last Things...

Last night in my apartment...
Last day at EF...
Last class at EF...
Last service at COGS...
Last gathering with friends...

Several "Last Things" have occurred over the past several days. I have been tempted to write about each of them but thought I would wait and gather my thoughts into one entry.

Early Wednesday evening, my coworker Lloyd came by my apartment to pick up my chair and mattress that I bought over the year. It made the apartment look empty, especially since everything else was packed in my bags. Then I was left at the mercy of the mattress that the landlord provided- I had forgotten how bad this thing was. After a restless night the landlord appeared to do the walkthrough and discoverd that the mattress was actually broken which had led to its discomfort. It was the way it always had been though; i thought it was supposed to be like that! After some bargaining, my realtor got her down to a charge of 200 kuai, leaving me a good refund of 3800. It was time to leave.

On Saturday, it was my last day at EF. EF has its problems and I am sure I have contributed my share of complaints over the year, but truth be told, EF is a fun place to work and one I will miss greatly. My coworkers and students have more than made up for any of the company shortfalls; I can't believe how many cool gifts I have gotten from students. (How will I get them all home? hee hee) I only had three classes that day: 2 face to face, and one game club- here is a view from the 2nd floor of my final class:



Games club is just what it says it is- we play games. This week we played Taboo, the game where you have to describe a word without using the five common words listed on the card. It is really fun but you have to modify the rules somewhat. Since they are not native speakers of English, you gave to get rid of the rule that requires losing a point for every word you have to pass on. How many Chinese people do you think know who George Burns is (or American kids today for that matter) or what a pressure washer does?


With My Last Class

Sunday morning was one of the moments I was dreading the most- my last church service at Congregation of the Good Shepherd (COGS). After spending almost three years searching for a church in Corinth, I finally found one. Then the opportunity to go to China arose! Would I find a church anywhere near what I had here? Do they even have churches there?

Several searches of the internet proved that churches do indeed exist here. There are house churches which meet in secret (which I knew about but for obvious reasons never got to attend (they are secret and hidden well in addition to being illegal),government approved churches that have complied with all laws and meet openly, and churches led by foreigners for foreigners. I perused the websites of 2 of the foreign churches and finally decided to email Pastor Dan Sandifer-Stech at COGS. It was a smaller congregation and their worship description sounded like my Corinth church. This church has been a real blessing. It is so different to worship with people from all corners of the world each week. Christianity should have a global focus but often does not except for sending money to missions overseas. Here we are involved in service projects to help the local Chinese and we are a "house of prayer for all peoples" Racism does not exist in this church. Neither do we argue or focus on the divisive issues of the western Church- we are about worshipping Jesus Christ and representing him in our daily world.

I was given the departing gift of a peace candle holder- every other Sunday we pray for peace specifically and light a candle to symoblize God's light of peace. This will be a great reminder to me in the future to stay globally focused.

I am very thankful for the friendship of my fellow COGS parishoners and Pastor Dan and his family. Pastor Dan had me over his house for Christmas dinner- he will probably never know how much that simple act of kindness meant to me to have a family to spend that special day with here in Beijing.

One special friend at COGS has been Sue from the U.K. Sue also works for EF in another school and each Sunday before the service we have attempted to solve all the company's problems:



At 7:30 lastnight I headed out with a group of teachers and students for my going away party. We started out near the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium where they have opened a carnival. At first we rode this swinging pirate ship thing that went completely upside down. My former student Aaron lost his phone with it falling out of his pocket. He found it later, in working condition but with a broken screen. Sorry Aaron! I am sure that new salary you are making at the bank will get you a new one though! After that it was time for the big ferris wheel, unfortunately it was too dark so my pics of the spectacular views of the Beijing cityscape didn't turn out. Ending up this part of the evening, my friends Karen, Nadine, and Aaron joined me for a ride through Demon Castle, a haunted dark ride with spring loaded monsters popping out of coffins and mannequins being tortured. It was very cheesy, which is the point of dark rides, but still fun.


Karen and Fred Waiting In Line

Closing the evening out, we headed to Jin Ding Xuan Cantonese restaurant for dim sum. We ordered so much food but somehow managed to eat it all. We had a lot of fun playing games led by our Chinese students (okay let's go around the table and share one adjective that describes Tim- charming, cute, chubby, teacherly, and on and on) Later one of my students, Cooper, the former singer of a punk rock band and whose English name is based on Alice Cooper serenaded me with a going away song. After all the students left, the teachers stayed around until around 1 in the morning (the restaurant is one of the few in Beijing open 24 hours) talking and enjoying just being around each other.



And while I don't enjoy beer, it is customary at a Chinese banquet to consume large quantities of the libation. While I stuck to Kekou Kele (Coca Cola) I am glad to say we kept with tradition as well:


100 bottles of Yanjing on the wall, 100 bottles of Yanjing...

Today is my last day in Beijing so I am gonna get up from the computer and go out to enjoy the city one last time!

Hotel Ibis...

After moving out of my apartment yesterday, I moved in to the Hotel Ibis in Chaoyang district, an area I spend a lot of time in so wanted to spend my last few days there. Here is a review in the style (and sarcastic wit) of the guys over at the Cheapo Travel websites:

It's like a Motel 6- on a space station!

From Accor Hotels, the same people that bring you Motel 6, comes Hotel Ibis, a budget friendly European style hotel with sufficient service. Not much about it makes it special but it is a clean place to lay your head at night and is cheap considering all the Hiltons and Kempinskis in the same area.

Room Quality- Basic, small rooms. Rooms are done up in a modern IKEA style that seems to be so popular these days. They really do make good use of the size of the rooms proving that its not the size that matters but how you use it! There is a big bed, a small flat screen tv, desk and chair and wardrobe built into the wall. Lights can be turned on from beside the door or beside the bed, making things very convenient for when you want to do a little late night reading and don't want to make the 4 foot trek back across the room to turn the lights off. Very comfy bed but it takes up most of the space in the room so don't plan any big parties here. The bathroom looks like something you might find on the space shuttle (or a porta john with a shower) small, compact and convenient. They are an enviromentally conscious chain (read: cheap) so they have lo flo toilets for using less water but after having their breakfast buffet I needed more than one flush to get rid of the evidence so that sort of defeated the purpose.





Service Quality- Very basic, they expect you to take care of yourself for the most part. There is a vending machine for basic supplies but it doesn't work so you will have to get the desk clerk to open the machine to get your tube socks, shower caps, underwear, razors, and Jissbon brand condoms. Laundry service is available but you have to turn it in and pick it up at the front desk yourself. You won't wait long at the service desk as the manager makes sure those waiting in line get waited on by opening up additional counters quickly, he must have studied management under Mary Weeks from Bruce!

What you get in the bathroom- toothbrush and toothpaste, mini soap and shampoo. There is no sewing kit so if you see me walking around Sanlitun with holes in my pants you know where I am staying.

Clientele- budget travelers from overseas and Chinese business types, mostly a younger type crowd who are constantly broke like me.

How's the pool?- What pool? I did see a big pothole down the street that was collecting rainwater but I wouldn't swim in it unless I wanted tetanus or herpes.

The food- They have a decent but gutbusting breakfast buffet for 20 kuai (about 3 bucks) that includes things like noodles, steamed buns, fruit and cereal. Expect to spend some time in the space age porta john after eating here. There is also an overpriced bar serving food and beverages. Walk down the street to 7-11 for your drinks though, 25 kuai for a bottle of water is exorbitant when the 3 kuai water is just as good. Besides, 7-11 is Japanese owned and they will bow when you come in making you feel like a king, well at least you'll feel a little better about being a cheapskate.

Entertainment- there is a game room with a dart board and a computer area or bring your own computer to watch bootleg dvds on in your room or use their free internet service. If you want really funny entertainment get into a cab and listen to the driver cuss in Chinese as he tries to find this hotel, has to be in one of the hardest to get to spots in Beijing!

Overall, not a bad place to stay, just don't expect much.

Ba Nian School...

Ba Nian School is a school in downtown Beijing for children of migrant workers. Being a migrant worker poses some unique challenges: your children are too far away from their home towns to go to school everyday and not having a Beijing hukou (residence certificate) means you can't attend the Beijing schools. This is where migrant schools come in; these schools are sponsored by various groups.

Ba Nian School is located in a hutong alley neighborhood a little off the beaten path. Once inside the school is bright and modern despite its rather dismal surroundings. There is also the sound of laughter coming from the hallways and an enthusiasm for learning like you have never seen!

I volunteered tonight as an English tutor there. The English program is run by an American lady. We started in one large group where the students sang songs. After that they split up by age group. Myself and Vasmarca (a fellow church member from the island of Fiji) were assigned to a high school class. Under the leadership of their teacher, a Chinese lady who spoke English and Chinese, we began by telling them about ourselves. One student asked if I had been to the Great Wall. I was able to pull up my blog and show them some pictures on the big screen as well as pictures of my dogs, Clark and Chloe. Clark and Chloe are now celebrities in China!

Afterwards the students were divided up into groups to work on their talent acts that they will be presenting in a video conference with a school from Inner Mongolia next week at the American embassy. My group was rehearsing an English drama of the three little pigs. I listened as they read through it, helped with pronunciation, and helped them learn appropriate movements to use on stage. The teacher picked them as best performance of the evening!

I wish I could have been doing this volunteering all along, but otherwise am glad to have had this experience. Hopefully I will get to go back next week. I will save my preaching for another time and just say I hope my American students in Arkansas have half as much enthusiasm for learning as these kids did. (Although I am not holding my breath as my Arkansas students will probably be spoiled Americans like me!)