We made it to East Asia! …Jetlag and all!

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Yes, I would never imagine that I would ever experience the bizarre feeling of the complete time change, but it is real and it is obnoxious!  Being 13 hours ahead of you guys certainly nips our regular sleeping habits in the butt!  You all should go through this sometime, it’s kind of surreal.  When we’re merely starting the day, everyone back home is getting some good shuteye (and vice versa).  The sun rises about 4:30, which is the time that it has been waking me up, and it starts setting at about 6:30 or so.  

I apologize that it has taken a while to get this post uploaded!  I’m afraid that my blog server does not work in this part of the country, so my sis Lizzy has been helping me out!  What would we do without family?!  

There are so many things that could describe this place!  The city has its similarities to Dallas or Houston, but there are quite a few differences in the reckless transportation, unique food, people, and language.  Culture shock has honestly not set in; it just seems like I’m in any other big city in the States.  The language barrier is a major difficulty in the sense that I may never be able to comprehend it, but we have received amazing help and direction from alumnus of the previous years, our personal leaders, and the school’s/program’s leadership. 

It hit me today that I am so thankful for the structure of this trip.  Having a group of people I know, I came with, and are leaving with maintains a very important level of accountability and fellowship amongst us all.  It is really needed.  I would walk through the halls on the way to my class and realize that it would initially be very difficult to go through this without others with me.  This may be my first trip out of many or the last, but I am gradually recognizing the importance of encouraging one another as brothers and sisters and as a body of say-ers and do-ers of the Word.  

I know you all want to know what it’s like here!  Well, the transportation is one thing that will certainly catch you off guard!  The people drive CRAZY!!!  I swear I’ve almost seen 10 people almost die while zooming across oncoming traffic riding their rickety old bikes.  Every time we get in a taxi, our lives are completely in the driver’s hands… and His :-)  I actually witnessed a woman almost die from our cab and a large truck.  She just walked out right across the street as our Taxi took an unprotected right turn (without looking for oncoming traffic to say the least) as a 12-wheeler came from the opposing street.  It’s certainly adventurous to say the least, and we have a great deal of freedom throughout the school we are teaching at and the city itself.  

We are at a very beautiful school!  My classroom is quite the looker, one of the nicest actually!  I’ve got dark wood flooring and many windows that act as a nice breezeway whenever we want them open (and we have an AC unit that prevents heat stroke ☺).  MY KIDS ARE SO GREAT!!!  And… I WANT TO ADOPT AN ASIAN BABY!!!  Haha, that one might change, but it would definitely be something that I would consider in the future.  So, back to my kiddos!  I am teaching English to a lower fluency group of 3rd graders, and I have 15 kids: 4 girls and 11 boys.  Yes, 11 boys!  They’re a hoot!  We have methods of rewards and discipline in our class and I had to implement the first strict measure of discipline on Friday.  One of my boys ran away when our class was on our way to lunch.  When we came back to class he had to sit in the “thinking chair” where he wrote about what he did and state that he will never do it again.  All I can say is that the blue ink on
the paper smeared a bit from his little 5 year-old tears ☹.  Poor kiddo, but now  he understands his actions and he was really well behaved from then on.  Despite the minor tasks of keeping order, it is really wonderful being able love on these kids and to treat them with respect.  I don’t know if they get it often, but I know that I’m called to do it!  

I really look forward to the rest of this trip.  There are so many things that I would love to tell you all, but I am afraid that I need to hurry and send out this blog (I’ve been accumulating it this whole week, oy!).  I should be able to write more soon ☺

Joyfully,
Miss Joan [tee-chuh= teacher in 3rd grade Asian language :-)]

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