Hello Friends and Family,
Sorry we've been slow-posters. Its been a busy week, getting ready for our trip to Hong Kong this weekend. We're actually on our way out the door right now, to lunch, then one more class, then we catch a taxi to the airport. But we wouldn't to give you our structured, but flexible itinerary for the weekend:
Friday:
Morning-Take bus to Aberdeen and explore harbour and city
Lunch-Take boat ride to floating restaurant in Aberdeen
Afternoon-Head back to Hong Kong central and take peak tram to top of Victoria Peak
Evening-Explore Victoria Peak and watch sunset, then dinner in Soho or Central Hong Kong
Saturday:
Morning-Explore Hong Kong Park, St. John's Cathedral and Central
Lunch-Downtown in Central
Afternoon-Ferry to Tsim Sha Tsui and explore Promenade, Avenue of Stars, Golden Mile
Dinner-Restaurant on Tsim Sha Tsui
Evening-Watch Symphony of Light from Tsim Sha Tsui then take ferry back to Central
Sunday:
Morning-Go to 43rd floor of China Bank Tower for view of city, Explore Central
Lunch-Sheung Wan
Afternoon-Explore Sheung Wan, Back to Hong Kong University to explore and pack things
Dinner-Sheung Wan area
7:00-Catch bus to Shenzhen airport
11:00-Fly to Nanning
There it is. We look forward to getting some pictures up. Have a great weekend and we'll talk to you soon!
Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson
November 14, 2007
November 8, 2007
Hong Kong Here We Come!
Ryan and his Friday class
Hello Friends and Family,
As the title of the blog suggests, its true! We just bought two plane tickets to Hong Kong! Actually, we're flying into a city called Shenzhen, then taking a bus over the border to Hong Kong. The president of the college's daughter goes to school there and she helped us arrange coming here when we were still in Oregon and she has invited us to stay with her on the campus of Hong Kong University. We are going to fly out next Thursday and stay through the weekend. We are looking forward to seeing a big city of China and such a famous international place. If anyone has any recommendations on things we should see (or gifts to bring back), let us know!
We had a good time this evening together. Celia, Joe and Amy invited us for dinner called 'hotpot'. Similar to fondue, but any kind of vegetable or meat or tofu is thrown into a boiling stew and you eat as you go. It was fun trying different kinds of mushrooms, tofu and vegetables and they are always fun to talk with. Amy, the five year old daughter, even let me play her little kid electronic game so I could practice my Chinese.
Celia and her daughter, Amy
After dinner, the high school students here where we live were having a English performance and speech competition. Each class sang two songs, one in English and one in Chinese. Popular English songs were, "Loving You', 'You are my sunshine', 'Venus', You raise me up', and 'I can be your hero'! Then, different students would give speeches about friendship. We helped judge the competition and we were supposed to give scores from 1 to 10. So I gave scores of 7.35976, just for fun (hehe) It was fun seeing some of the students we have gotten to know here at the school a little bit. At the end of the competition, some sweet break dancers did a little number that was phenomenal!
On our way up to our apartment, we were ready for some Oreos and to watch the Unit. But you have to be on guard in China, because the second you relax, something crazy will happen. Our porch light was out, so we tried to open our door and we could see the keyhole. After fumbling around, Kealy asked me to try and I thought, in my manly pride, that I could rescue the day and get us into our apartment. Instead, I broke the key off inside the lock and the handle to the outside of the door fell off! We had a good laugh and Amy and Celia came up and laughed at me too, a humbling, but fun lesson. Amy even used the broken door handle as a phone and we talked in Chinese/English for a little while. Anyways, hope you have a great day. talk to you soon.
Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson
November 7, 2007
Silent Night
Hello Friends and Family,
Its Wednesday here and Wednesdays have become our 'date night'. We try to have a night to ourselves once a week out on the town where we can explore. So tonight, we took the bus downtown and stopped at McD's for dinner, then went for a walk and wound up at Wal-Mart. We came back to the school and the whole block was pitch dark. The power had been out since this afternoon so all we saw were a sea of orange candles glowing. We decided to go for a walk around the block, since our apartment would be dark and we didn't have candles. After negotiating the rocky road, we stumbled upon a park where there were men and women dancing to music. Someone must have had a portable stereo, so we sat and watched people dancing in the middle of China on a silent night and looked at the stars, pretty unintentionally romantic! We have had a busy week here testing our students. It has been tedious, but fun too, sitting down with each of our 400 students each and learning how we can better teach English to them. Most of them just need more work on their pronounciation. They don't use gender distinictions in Chinese either, so a lot of the students call their father she's and their mother he's, but they are getting better. This past weekend was very low key, we went to a french restaurant with Americans in China on Friday. Quite the international night and the food wasn't half bad, no french fries, though! We're hooked on the show 'The Unit' now, after finishing Prison Break in two weeks. This weekend we are thinking about doing some more shopping at the bird and flower market and maybe even going to the zoo here in Nanning. Supposedly they have dolphins! We'll keep you posted. Have a great day.
Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson
Its Wednesday here and Wednesdays have become our 'date night'. We try to have a night to ourselves once a week out on the town where we can explore. So tonight, we took the bus downtown and stopped at McD's for dinner, then went for a walk and wound up at Wal-Mart. We came back to the school and the whole block was pitch dark. The power had been out since this afternoon so all we saw were a sea of orange candles glowing. We decided to go for a walk around the block, since our apartment would be dark and we didn't have candles. After negotiating the rocky road, we stumbled upon a park where there were men and women dancing to music. Someone must have had a portable stereo, so we sat and watched people dancing in the middle of China on a silent night and looked at the stars, pretty unintentionally romantic! We have had a busy week here testing our students. It has been tedious, but fun too, sitting down with each of our 400 students each and learning how we can better teach English to them. Most of them just need more work on their pronounciation. They don't use gender distinictions in Chinese either, so a lot of the students call their father she's and their mother he's, but they are getting better. This past weekend was very low key, we went to a french restaurant with Americans in China on Friday. Quite the international night and the food wasn't half bad, no french fries, though! We're hooked on the show 'The Unit' now, after finishing Prison Break in two weeks. This weekend we are thinking about doing some more shopping at the bird and flower market and maybe even going to the zoo here in Nanning. Supposedly they have dolphins! We'll keep you posted. Have a great day.
Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson
November 1, 2007
Aye, Aye Captain!
Hello Friends and Family,
Hope you had a safe Halloween! The weather continues to feel more and more like home each day...cold and rainy! Its more like a drizzle, of course, just like Oregon. We are not sure if it will continue or not but we are enjoying it while it lasts. So today we stayed inside and wore sweatpants and sweatshirts, drank hot choclate, and finished season 2 of Prison Break! Then tonight, we went to our weekly English corner at the college. We are always so nervous and not that excited to go, but every time we go, we have a lot of fun. It is tiring and a little intense with 20-30 Chinese students surrounding you for two hours, but we are learning to concentrate on one person at a time and really feel like we are developing some good relationships and they are asking good questions. We are also getting a lot of the same students each week which is great for building deeper relationships. We always look forward to a cold bottle of water afterwards as well. Two of Kealy's students we have become particularly fond of. They have given me the nickname 'captain' and everytime I see them, they stop and salute and say 'Aye, Aye Captain!' Its quite funny.
Tonight we were talking with the same studnets about bus etiquette in China and how, when the bus is crowded in China and a woman or elderly person or a foreigner gets on the bus, young men will get up and give them their seat. So Wei Ching, or Cola (his english name) told us a funny joke we thought we would share with you:
There was a young Chinese man sitting on a crowded bus in China. A young foreign woman got on the bus and was standing up, as there was nowhere to sit. At the next stop the man tried to get up and the woman put her hand on him and kept him from standing up. Five minutes later at the next stop, he tried to get up again and the woman put her hand on his shoulder and kept him down. A third time, five minutes later, the young man tried to get up again. The woman put her hand on his shoulder and said, 'where I come from, men and women are equal!' The young man replied, 'Hey lady, I've been trying to get off the bus for the last three stops!' (HaHaHa)
The other funny joke we've heard from a couple of Chinese students is, 'what is the only thing with four legs that Chinese won't eat...a table!" or, the alternative from Paul Lopez...two americans!
Hopefully those brightened your day. All the students were amazed to find out tonight that Kealy and I dated in High School, and even more surpised/shocked to learn that we got married in college! It is not allowed in colleges in China for men and women to get married, they have to focus on their studies or be 21 if they are not in college. Though they do have girlfriends and are quite silly about dating. One student told Kealy tonight, 'I have been struck by Cupid's arrow!' But he was too shy to tell her the name of the girl he liked. "She is one of your students," he said. When Kealy asked for the girl's name, he leaned in and said, "All in good time, Ms. Kealy."
Have a great day. Here's some pictures of Kealy teaching. Talk to you soon.
Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson
Kealy with the college behind her
Kealy and one of her classes
Hope you had a safe Halloween! The weather continues to feel more and more like home each day...cold and rainy! Its more like a drizzle, of course, just like Oregon. We are not sure if it will continue or not but we are enjoying it while it lasts. So today we stayed inside and wore sweatpants and sweatshirts, drank hot choclate, and finished season 2 of Prison Break! Then tonight, we went to our weekly English corner at the college. We are always so nervous and not that excited to go, but every time we go, we have a lot of fun. It is tiring and a little intense with 20-30 Chinese students surrounding you for two hours, but we are learning to concentrate on one person at a time and really feel like we are developing some good relationships and they are asking good questions. We are also getting a lot of the same students each week which is great for building deeper relationships. We always look forward to a cold bottle of water afterwards as well. Two of Kealy's students we have become particularly fond of. They have given me the nickname 'captain' and everytime I see them, they stop and salute and say 'Aye, Aye Captain!' Its quite funny.
Tonight we were talking with the same studnets about bus etiquette in China and how, when the bus is crowded in China and a woman or elderly person or a foreigner gets on the bus, young men will get up and give them their seat. So Wei Ching, or Cola (his english name) told us a funny joke we thought we would share with you:
There was a young Chinese man sitting on a crowded bus in China. A young foreign woman got on the bus and was standing up, as there was nowhere to sit. At the next stop the man tried to get up and the woman put her hand on him and kept him from standing up. Five minutes later at the next stop, he tried to get up again and the woman put her hand on his shoulder and kept him down. A third time, five minutes later, the young man tried to get up again. The woman put her hand on his shoulder and said, 'where I come from, men and women are equal!' The young man replied, 'Hey lady, I've been trying to get off the bus for the last three stops!' (HaHaHa)
The other funny joke we've heard from a couple of Chinese students is, 'what is the only thing with four legs that Chinese won't eat...a table!" or, the alternative from Paul Lopez...two americans!
Hopefully those brightened your day. All the students were amazed to find out tonight that Kealy and I dated in High School, and even more surpised/shocked to learn that we got married in college! It is not allowed in colleges in China for men and women to get married, they have to focus on their studies or be 21 if they are not in college. Though they do have girlfriends and are quite silly about dating. One student told Kealy tonight, 'I have been struck by Cupid's arrow!' But he was too shy to tell her the name of the girl he liked. "She is one of your students," he said. When Kealy asked for the girl's name, he leaned in and said, "All in good time, Ms. Kealy."
Have a great day. Here's some pictures of Kealy teaching. Talk to you soon.
Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson
Kealy with the college behind her
Kealy and one of her classes
October 31, 2007
Happy Halloween--Its finally winter!
The whole group wishing you a Happy Halloween!
Hello Friends and Family,
Well, I think today was the first day since we've been here that it was below 70 degrees! It was a beautiful 'Oregon' day. Cold with a constant drizzle! We felt right at home. So we celebrating by hopping on the bus downtown and walking about a mile to McDonalds (we figured we would exercise before we ate fast food) and we had a wonderful day wearing long sleeve shirts and sweat pants. Hope you all have a safe Holiday. Here are the promised pictures from last night.
Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy
SuperLee and E.T. performing a song for everyone!
A whole lot of smiles--Kealy and her students
The Tough Boys!
Kealy and the girls making 'jiao tze' (dumplings/potstickers)
October 30, 2007
Dinner for 15-A night with college students
Hello Friends and Family,
Tonight we had 12 of Kealy's students over to our apartment for DINNER! We always loved having people over to our apartments in the states, but we were a little nervous about tonight, to be honest, hoping they would like the food we cooked, that we had enough, what would we talk about, what we do, etc. But the night was a complete success! We had one of our best times in China so far and so many hilarious things happened they are too many to count. It was relaxing and fun and the students were so kind and even brought some food and cooked some dumplings for us and with us. They said that this is what families cook together so we are family now! A Chinese tradition is cook two coins into two of the dumplings and if you bite into your dumpling and you have a coin, then you will recieve good luck. A little risky, but fun nonetheless. Kealy and I cooked them spaghetti with meat sauce, potatoes and eggs, and we introduced them to apples dipped in peanut butter! They loved the peanut butter. One student stole the bowl at the end and ate the rest, he liked it so much, his chopsticks were covered with peanut butter. We also taught them UNO and had fun playing a couple of rounds of UNO. Some students showed Kealy their pictures and we showed them pictures on our computer of you guys! We took a lot of pictures and video and they even sang some songs for us while one of them played a guitar. They sang us, Enrique Inglesias 'I can be your hero!' and Avril Lavigne, two popular artists here in China, and the girls also sang a beautiful Chinese song to us. We all laughed a lot and had a great time. Kealy and I also sang them a song...'Lean On Me'! We bought some Chinese candy for the evening to celebrate Halloween and we were explaining to them how kids dressed up in costumes and went around to people's houses asking for candy. Kealy rushed out the door with something in her hand and shut the door. She knocked and I opened the door and this is what we saw:
Kealy shouted 'trick or treat!' and all the students laughed for a long time. They also brought Kealy some special necklaces as gifts of appreciation for teaching them English and inviting them to our home. One necklace is for safety and the other is for everlasting friendship.
We're having some problems getting some pictures onto the web right now! Chinese internet! We'll try to get some other pictures from tonight later.
They were all so kind and it was so much fun to hang out with them outside of school. We had a great time together! Hope you have a great Halloween! Be safe, talk to you soon.
Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson
Tonight we had 12 of Kealy's students over to our apartment for DINNER! We always loved having people over to our apartments in the states, but we were a little nervous about tonight, to be honest, hoping they would like the food we cooked, that we had enough, what would we talk about, what we do, etc. But the night was a complete success! We had one of our best times in China so far and so many hilarious things happened they are too many to count. It was relaxing and fun and the students were so kind and even brought some food and cooked some dumplings for us and with us. They said that this is what families cook together so we are family now! A Chinese tradition is cook two coins into two of the dumplings and if you bite into your dumpling and you have a coin, then you will recieve good luck. A little risky, but fun nonetheless. Kealy and I cooked them spaghetti with meat sauce, potatoes and eggs, and we introduced them to apples dipped in peanut butter! They loved the peanut butter. One student stole the bowl at the end and ate the rest, he liked it so much, his chopsticks were covered with peanut butter. We also taught them UNO and had fun playing a couple of rounds of UNO. Some students showed Kealy their pictures and we showed them pictures on our computer of you guys! We took a lot of pictures and video and they even sang some songs for us while one of them played a guitar. They sang us, Enrique Inglesias 'I can be your hero!' and Avril Lavigne, two popular artists here in China, and the girls also sang a beautiful Chinese song to us. We all laughed a lot and had a great time. Kealy and I also sang them a song...'Lean On Me'! We bought some Chinese candy for the evening to celebrate Halloween and we were explaining to them how kids dressed up in costumes and went around to people's houses asking for candy. Kealy rushed out the door with something in her hand and shut the door. She knocked and I opened the door and this is what we saw:
Kealy shouted 'trick or treat!' and all the students laughed for a long time. They also brought Kealy some special necklaces as gifts of appreciation for teaching them English and inviting them to our home. One necklace is for safety and the other is for everlasting friendship.
We're having some problems getting some pictures onto the web right now! Chinese internet! We'll try to get some other pictures from tonight later.
They were all so kind and it was so much fun to hang out with them outside of school. We had a great time together! Hope you have a great Halloween! Be safe, talk to you soon.
Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson
October 28, 2007
A Trip to the NEW Bird and Flower Market with a crowd of white people
Hello Friends and Family,
Just wanted to continue to keep you update on our weekend activities. We had a good day today, it was beautiful weather and we could actually see blue sky! Pretty rare in the humid and cloudy south. We had the chance to go to lunch with our pizza hut friends plus a couple more at a restaurant in an area of Nanning that we had never explored before; a new bird and flower market with shops and restaurants in ancient Chinese style buildings. When you got to eat with large groups in China, you can get your own private room so you don't have to compete with the noise. So we had a nice air conditioned room where the kids could play (five of them) and we ordered different kinds of food like fried rice, sweet and sour chicken, pork and eggplant, which kind of tastes liked mashed potatoes. We had a nice time and I even got to hold the pizza hut baby, the 10 month old daughter of our pizza hut friends. She likes to dance on my lap and buzz her lips, its pretty cute:
Me with the pizza hut girl and our other new friend
After lunch we walked around the different shops and even found a shop which sold some really cool stuff for cheap, stuff we would like. We bought a wall tapestry made by a minority people in Yunnan that we both really like. Hopefully most of you will recognize the scene being depicted. It holds special meaning to us.
Also, we found two wall pictures that were written in Chinese that were scripture verses so we bought two; 1 Corinthians 13 (the love chapter or ai -pronounced I-in Chinese, which means love) and The Beatitudes (fu-blessing in chinese).
A beautiful girl in front of the beautiful new bird and flower market
We came back and hung the pictures up and cleaned the house. Tomorrow will be a busy day of teaching and we will be preparing our students for their conversational mid-term next week, where they will meet with us one and one and we will choose a topic and discuss it with them for two minutes. We are also going to share with them about Halloween and finally, we are going to have a pretend Business Expo, as the real ASEAN-9 country expo is in town this week. Hopefully we'll get a chance to go down and take a look. We'll try to get some pictures from that on here too. Hope you all have a great Sunday! Talk to you soon.
Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson
Just wanted to continue to keep you update on our weekend activities. We had a good day today, it was beautiful weather and we could actually see blue sky! Pretty rare in the humid and cloudy south. We had the chance to go to lunch with our pizza hut friends plus a couple more at a restaurant in an area of Nanning that we had never explored before; a new bird and flower market with shops and restaurants in ancient Chinese style buildings. When you got to eat with large groups in China, you can get your own private room so you don't have to compete with the noise. So we had a nice air conditioned room where the kids could play (five of them) and we ordered different kinds of food like fried rice, sweet and sour chicken, pork and eggplant, which kind of tastes liked mashed potatoes. We had a nice time and I even got to hold the pizza hut baby, the 10 month old daughter of our pizza hut friends. She likes to dance on my lap and buzz her lips, its pretty cute:
Me with the pizza hut girl and our other new friend
After lunch we walked around the different shops and even found a shop which sold some really cool stuff for cheap, stuff we would like. We bought a wall tapestry made by a minority people in Yunnan that we both really like. Hopefully most of you will recognize the scene being depicted. It holds special meaning to us.
Also, we found two wall pictures that were written in Chinese that were scripture verses so we bought two; 1 Corinthians 13 (the love chapter or ai -pronounced I-in Chinese, which means love) and The Beatitudes (fu-blessing in chinese).
A beautiful girl in front of the beautiful new bird and flower market
We came back and hung the pictures up and cleaned the house. Tomorrow will be a busy day of teaching and we will be preparing our students for their conversational mid-term next week, where they will meet with us one and one and we will choose a topic and discuss it with them for two minutes. We are also going to share with them about Halloween and finally, we are going to have a pretend Business Expo, as the real ASEAN-9 country expo is in town this week. Hopefully we'll get a chance to go down and take a look. We'll try to get some pictures from that on here too. Hope you all have a great Sunday! Talk to you soon.
Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson
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