Beards, Birthdays, and Consolations at 5:20 AM

So, about 2 or 3 weeks ago, I wrote some sad sappy email about how I'm basically devoid of human contact and happiness for the month of January. This has turned out to be totally false. And I'll tell you why.

1. I grew a Beard and it was awesome.
I have never grown out a beard. Before my mission, I didn't have enough facial hair power points. I tried to grow one, but failed dismally. During my mission, I had to be clean cut and clean shaven, so even if I could have grown a beard, It wouldn't have mattered. It was the same at BYU. Then I came to China. Where not only was it ok, but the other teachers encouraged me to have a beard. So I tried it out. I basically didn't shave for the month of December and I loved it. I really don't know if it looked presentable, but it was really fun. It was mostly blond and red and it was surprisingly comfortable.

Don't worry Mom/girls in general. I doubt I'll ever let my beard just grow like this ever again. Since I took these pictures I've trimmed it up quite a bit, and I'll shave all of it off completely when I go to the temple in Hong Kong in a few weeks, but it made me really happy to try it out for a short time. Plus Luke Liu says it makes me look more manly and my students said I looked very "fashion". I love China.

2. I had a Birthday.
I've never needed big birthdays. All I need is to see a few friends and have some time to think and I'm happy. Which is what I had. The random picture of the guy with the card is Matt Carter. I spent the day before my birthday with him, his wife, and the Rygg family in Dong'an (a local city) and it was really fun. We didn't even do a whole lot, but they're good friends and it was a great day to spend a birthday.

3. I got some love in the mail.
My family sent me hot chocolate (and other things), which a couple weeks ago was exactly what I needed. During December and January, it was really cold in my Lingling (my city). Not just cold, I mean really cold.
Here are some ways you can know I'm not being a sissy-
   A. I got used to not being able to feel my feet.
   B. I couldn't sleep in my bed, cause the heater in my bedroom didn't work to well. (slept on the couch in the front room, I don't trust the floor in China)
   C. China doesn't have insulation. So if it's cold outside, it's cold inside. So instead of going from a warm apartment to a warm car, to a warm classroom like I did in college. Here I go from a cold apartment, to a cold class room. I honestly don't know how my students handle it.

This sounds like a horrible winter, and it was. But for me it was fine, because I had hot chocolate. =) Thanks mom.

4. I learned a lot of Chinese
I got a lot of studying done the last few weeks. Not nearly as much as I'd like to, but I'm still improving so I'm happy.

Now, I'm 26. I finished my last month of classes before the winter holidays, and it was great. Onward with Vacation. Hoorah.

Kiss Loneliness Goodbye at 10:44 PM

Well, to be honest, I haven't kissed anything goodbye lately, or anything at all, but that's not the point! The point is, I wrote some long whiney email about how January was going to stink because the other foreign teachers left and because I'd be alone at my school. That was true for about 1 week. Which really wasn't that bad because my students visited me a lot and I learned loads of Chinese. After that week. The Rygg family moved in with me! Talk about killing loneliness. The Rygg's had some troubles with their school and all parties thought it best to change the year long contract into a one semester contract, which meant the Rygg's were heading back to America. The problem with this was they had 2 weeks down time from when the contract was changed, to when their plane flight left China. Answer? Move in with Sam! So I had Jon and Deborah Rygg, and their two children. This = 1 week of pure happiness. (With lots of children crying mixed in.)

After some stressful times at their last school, it was nice for them to just come chill for a week. And it was nice to me because I always came home to a house with people at the end of my day of teaching. Overall great arrangement. The Rygg's headed to Hong Kong on Sunday night, which is perfect, because today I started teaching my last week of classes. Now I'm just cleaning up and getting ready to go on my winter vacation. Rough life I know.

Anyways, I added some pictures of John and Deborah and their kids Alice (Blonde) and Lilian (Baby). We joked that Alice (2yrold) was just a continuation of my dating life in America because sometimes she would run to me and hug me she was so happy to see me, but more often she would tell me to go away.  Like literally, those are some of the few words she can pronounce correctly. Lilian(6 mo.) is probably the best baby in the world, she only cries when things are wrong, and she always wanted to hang out with me. John and Deborah have turned into really good friends. I think it's amazing. No matter how good your friends are, it seems like the Lord always has one or two more in store just around the corner.

Last Thing, I got a new Camera, and I've been playing with the settings. Hence the pictures with only one color in them. I'm pretty happy with the camera to say the least. The one with just Deborah Lilian, I call, "Mother Contemplating Remaining Nap Time"

So basically, I take the Lonely blogpost back, and will replace it with one another blog post tomorrow about how much I loved and still love this month in China.

Shel Silverstien at 1:06 AM

Apparently he also wrote the words to the famous Johnny Cash song, 'A Boy Named Sue.'
I just think he had some awesome ideas.

Also, I'll have a good post on Chinese culture coming up soon. I promise.
--
Samuel Griffiths
BYU MISM Grad

C/O Mr. Zhou Zhixi  
Foreign Affairs Office of No. 1 Middle School of Yongzhou City
Hunan Province, P. R. China
Post Code: 425006

Gadiandi@gmail.com

Epiphany at 1:16 AM

Today, I had a marvelous Epiphany.

I was talking to one of my friends this morning and she made a comment about how I didn't seem my normal happy self. I realized she was right, but I couldn't pin why. I thought about how I've tried to use my time wisely lately. The other foreign teachers have gone back to America so I'm a little lonely, but I figured this was my time to buckle down and study Chinese for the next few weeks until the semester ends. I had kind of a "Let's just get through this" attitude. After I talked to my friend, I decided to go work on my lesson plans for today. I only teach one lesson a week. I just teach it 20 times. I thought the lesson I had made for this week was good, it went well Monday, but pretty poorly yesterday (Tuesday) So I decided to take some time to think of how I could improve it and tried to brainstorm some ideas for new lessons. Then I went and taught three classes, and they went phenomenally. Much better than yesterday. Not only did the lessons go well, but I had a lot of fun with my students and they learned English. When I walked out of my last class I realized that my happiness is tied to how much I give of myself to other people. I know it sounds cheesy, but it's still true. I walked out of that class and it dawned on me that the reason I was happy today was cause I had given part of myself to my students. I also realized that if I don't give myself to my students, and try to be as a good a teacher as i can be. I won't be happy while I'm in China.

Kind of a strange realization. It made me happy to understand this, but it made me sad to think of some of the teachers I had who didn't give themselves to their students more and how unhappy some of them probably were.
When I say give myself, I guess what I mean is that I have to care about my students. If I don't care and I'm just trying to make them learn, it's not really fun, but if I do care, then I try to make good lessons for them, and I think they can kind of feel it, maybe not consciously, but my attitude makes such a big difference in how they behave, it's kind of amazing sometimes.

Anyways, I may be cold, but I'm not lonely. I may have no other foreign teachers or Americans close by, but I have a lot of Rockin' Chinese students, so I'm not really worried about the next few weeks.

1 is the loneliest number.... at 8:38 AM

There's two types of teachers in the program that got me to China. Those who stay for a month, and those who stay for a year. At my school in Lingling there were two teachers. One was staying for a year and one was staying for a month. The one staying for a year(Jason) got deported in November (Long story for another blog, but don't worry he's fine and coming back soon) and the other teacher(Brooke) left 10 days ago. Not only did they leave, but 8 other teachers left too. Leaving me alone in my city, the Rygg family alone in their's (One hour away), and the Carters in their's (2 hours away).
So yep, it's just me, hanging out in Lingling. Yay....

Admittedly I did decide to come to China by myself without friends, so technically, I have no one to blame but myself. But the prospect of a month with out other foreign teachers sounds a lot to me like solitary confinement, or something of that nature. However, I shouldn't complain. I can still go to church, I can still see my friends on the weekends (the one's remaining) and I suddenly have much more time to exercise. (Dad, I'm down to 160 lb, how you doin?)

On a more optimistic note there are three things that make me think it will be fine for the next few weeks:

1. This is probably the best opportunity to study Chinese I'll ever have. I have a great program on my laptop and a lot of time without distractions, so I may not do much else for the next few weeks. Next semester(March-June) more teachers will return, and I bet I'll find myself distracted again from my studies. In other words, this is my time to crack down. If I play my cards right I think I can get a lot of book knowledge for the next few weeks, and then for the last 5-6 months I'm here, I'll know enough that I can actually practice speaking to people, we'll see how it goes.

2. I have skype. Skype is a wonderous program that helps me stay connected to people who can actually speak English. This is a blessing to someone who lives by them self and still craves intelligent human interaction, which I can only get here from Chinese people with good English, since my Chinese stinks.

3. Purpose. I do feel like I'm supposed to be here. So I'll do the best with the time I have and hopefully it will turn to someone's good some day.

We'll see how it goes. If you get a tear stained blog entry in two weeks, you'll know I'm not feeling as good about it then as I am now. At that point, feel free to send me money, candy, classic literature, or expensive electronics....
Here's to Adventure.