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So here I am living 2 almost 3 weeks into the Chinese lifestyle. The past week or so has been a time of observation for me. Elijah and I have had a bit more time apart to do our own things. It's harder to observe my surroundings when he is around because I drift into lala land so easily with him. no complaints. 


First things first, I have to swallow my pride and tell you how I came to this valuable time to write this new blog entry. It is currently 8:12pm Wednesday night. I taught my 4:00 class and then went to the market. When I got home I tried to unlock the front door. And to my not so pleasant surprise... The door wouldn't unlock. Sooo, here I am waiting in the dark of my cold apartment complex with the lights flickering on and off above me. Vission the begining of a scary movie! I have a bag of groceries so I've been munching and now writing. I hope Elijah gets here soon. Lets just say God has taught me patients. It's quite pleasant to be powerless and understand patients. You HAVE to learn patients in this culture. Things never work according to plan and the plans always seem to change. The only problem is, I really have to pee. Not sure where the lesson in that is hidden. :) 


One thing I have observed is the amount of men walking around with their sons.  It's very surprising. All times of the day I see dads walking with their sons. Usually the age of the son is around 5-10 years old. If I can, I try to listen into their conversations. Children speak such clear mandarin! When I'm in inspector gadget mode and try to translate what they are saying. The one thing I can make out very clear is their love for one another. They share so much laughter back and forth. I have also seen a few times the two of them playing a tag game where the dad will hit the son and hide behind a tree. I have seen it more than once. It is interesting to me how common it is for a father to be "hangin out" with his son in the middle of the day. It's beautiful to me. I'm not sure if it's cultural or not, but it sure is a quality of life that I pray my children and Elijah will have. Observing all of this sure makes me think of my dad. Even though I grew up in a divorced family and of course went though ups and downs like all families do, I have so much love and respect for my dad. So much of the free spirt within me is from my dad. Thanks dad!


I have so much to write about. I suppose that means I should be blogging more frequently. I don't want to give it to you all at once because then things get missed. I will have to write again soon in the next couple of days. P.S it's 8:34 and Im still locked out. I may just pee my pants. 

I never thought I would be one of those people. Sheets for curtains, empty bush light beer cans, half eaten 2 week old pizza falling out of its soggy Dominos box and of course so many dirty stacks of bundled up clothes that you almost wonder if that's a person lying there or just 2 sweaters, a pair of jeans, and ash stained swiss cheese looking socks in a ball. Well, I assure you my apartment doesn't look like that, but I do have the sheets for curtains. Ahhh, so tacky. Why do I have such a "ick" feeling about that? It's always been a pet peeve of mine. Going against that clear loud voice screaming "No, No, NO sheets in the window!" I disobey and cave into my desire for a dark bedroom instead. 


Elijah and I went to the 5 story market looking for curtains and fell short of luck. The only thing we could find were sheets. We looked everywhere! So we settled on this neat looking blue and yellow blanket that I folded up and hung in the window. I may be exaggerating a bit on the tackiness. It doesn't look that bad, but then again, denial can come in handy sometimes;)
Life has settled into its crazy place. I have always been a person of routine. Don't get me wrong, I am an adventurous soul, but I like to have balance of routine as well. I like having a morning regimen, a pretty steady work schedule and a nightly regimen. It's almost as if I use my routines to plan for my adventures. Either way, I have always lived like that. Now, facing a direction I have never faced before and living a lifestyle I have never lived has gotten me on a high I can't begin to articulate. 


I wake up when my mind and eyes are ready which is usually about 7am. I eat, get ready and somewhere in between then Mr. Wang will call me and tell me when I work. " uh, hello, Jes? Can you come here at 10am? You have student, girl. She is very smart 6 year old. Ok Jes? Ok, see you then, have good morning. See you soon. Ok? Bye bye Jes." Only if I'm lucky, am I able able to fit in a whole "Yes, ok Mr. Wang, I'll see you then". Usually I just get in a "yes". Mr. Wang is one of those people that every time you go to talk you end up talking at the same time as them because there is never a "silent" moment. Anyway, after the phone chat I continue on with my morning. Ring ring!! "Hello?" its Mr Wang again. "uh, hello, Jes? Hi Jes, no more class at 10am, she cancelled. You have new student now at 10:30am. Uh, also Jes, you have another student at 1pm to 2pm and 3 students at 5pm to 6pm. Is that okay Jes? Also, you and Whaley (Elijah, they call him Whaley) come over for supper tonight? Ok Jes, see you soon, bye bye!"  


This is a daily routine. If it even deserves the description "routine". I get a schedule of 2 to 3 classes a day and by the end of the day 1/2 have canceled and more classes added. In other words my life is all but organized with a comfortable routine. I love it!!!! It has forced me to live in the "now" and I love the "now". Elijah and I do what we want when we want it and still manage to be more productive then if we were to have a strategic plan. I believe this is the way life is to be lived. I still manage to fit in my nightly routine which I won't budge. Other than that, I eat when I'm hungry, read when I have down time, cook when Elijah is busy doing his stuff, play guitar when I'm bored, work when Mr. Wang calls and drink lots of tea. I have grown to love Mr. Wangs phone calls. It's like having a secretary personally tell you what your doing for only a few hours a day and getting paid $20 an hour cash. He is such a sweet man too. 


Cooking has actually taken over and has become a big part of my "entertainment". I am having a blast learning how to cook Asian food. I actually only eat mostly veggies, fruit, nuts and grains anyway so I haven't had to change much of my cooking. I don't mean to sound cocky, but I have come into my own style of cooking and dang, it is good! Elijah is my validation. I always know when I cook something good because he says, "oh man Jes, tilts his head back just a tad, closes his eyes ever so slowly and chews with a nice deep steady hum." By the end of the meal he will say, "Man, you deserve a massage!" and he gives me one! Now, you see my motivation to cook amazing food:) It is pure satisfaction to please Elijah AND get a back rub!!!


Next week, I plan to go to one of the venues about 20 min away from my apt and book some shows. It's called the Ant's. It's a really neat place. Most of the bars, coffee shops and nice restaurants are on the second floor of buildings so it's such a fun entrance. Oh how I love that mysterious walk up the stairs and the anticipation towards the first glimpse to where I am actually going.
I'm looking forward to playing shows. I have been so stimulated that I haven't had much time to play. I'm starting to get the itch! 

Wowza! After an agonizing 8 hour layover in Chicago added on to my 14 hour flight from Chicago to Beijing, I finally made it to China. Even though I arrived looking and feeling like a zombie risen from the dead, I had never been so happy. Stumbling down the walkway drownded by my luggage, I was delighted to see that beautiful face again smiling at me. I couldn't walk fast enough to be in those arms again. Finally, I was with the love of my life again, Elijah. 

It didn't take but a few minutes for us to start joking, laughing, and loving on each other like I had seen him yesterday. 3 months drifeted away into the past almost like they never even egsisted. After a 45 minute cab ride, I experianced my first walk through the door of my new apartment in Beijing. Elijah and I celebrated our January Christmas. I must say, I reieved the best gift ever! Elijah proposed. It was perfect! Our journey begins!

So, now not only am I living in a different Country and one of the biggest cities in the world, I am also engaged! 

It has been very natural falling into the grove of things. The apartment is fully stalked with food now and the necessities like my blender, pots and pans, guitar, and blow dryer! I live on the top floor of my apartment building. I have a beautiful skyline of hundreds of other buildings to look at. It's like being at a theater to stare out of my giant livingroom windows. You can see into dozens of other apartments. It's crazy how many people you can see stuffed into one apartment. I still haven't gotten blinds yet, so I have to remember they can see into my apartment too. There have been a couple times I have walked around and thought "oops" while running into the bedroom. Haha.

Last night was Chinese New Years. It was quite the experience . Let's just say it comes to no suprise that China is the mother to all the fireworks in the world. It is tradition to start lighting off fireworks 2, 3, sometimes even 4 days before the actual "New Year". Elijah and I were waking up to fireworks going off at 6am! Oh yes, and that was just the beginning. At midnight last night there were so many fireworks it looked like the city was being bombed. They went on for hours and hours. People lit huge fireworks at eye level to the apartment building and only a few yards away. We began the evening over at Mr. And Mrs. Wangs house for dinner. Elijah and I ate the devil of all foods (mummies chicken I call it). Here, for their main dish, like us they have chicken. However, there chicken isn't quite the same. You buy the chicken already cooked and dehydrated. It looks like a mummified chicken! Head, guts and all. The only thing missing from the chicken is the eyeballs which they tie a string through and stick a price tag on it. How they cook it is soak it in water and bake it until plump again. When they served the chicken it was all torn apart into separate body parts in a broth like substance mixed with Chinese mushrooms and garlic. It is very inappropriate to deny food, so Elijah and I dug right in eating chicken toes and all. I watched Mr. Wang grab the head and bite into it like it was an apple. Little bones went all over the place. I had to force myself to keep my eyes on my own plate to stomach what I had already eaten! The Chinese feed you like you are 60lbs ready to die of starvation. If you aren't "chewing" at all times, they will put more food on your plate. Not only do you have no say in what they put on your plate, but you must eat it to be polite. So, competivly I kept eating and eating so I wouldn't end up with a chicken face on my plate. Haha. Elijah wasn't so lucky! 

I played a few songs for the family, then we all watched the Chinese New Year program on the tv. The Wangs are the most wonderful people. They are so kind and lovely. Given the fact that there was only a very small amount of English spoken in the 5 hours we were there, I still felt like we had great conversation. It's so amazing to be in the company of good souls.

I will start teaching in a couple weeks, I am training now. I am so excited. It is something that I know I will enjoy. I plan to use music in a lot of my teaching. I'm in the process of brainstorming my teaching strategies now. 

 

China here I come!!!

As you know, the love of my life has been living in China the past 5 months. Outside of that being a huge inspiration for my music writing, it has also opened up doors for my music career. With in seconds of arriving in China, Elijah met Mr. Wang, a retired director of a University in China. Since then he has developed a great friendship with him and his family. Mr. Wang currently is the director of an English teaching program. He hooks up Chinese natives with English speakers to learn Western cultures, and language. Mr. Wang also has many contacts in the music world out in China. He heard my CD "Bloom" and loved it. Right away he asked if I would perform at a string of Universities.He would set up the shows and also put together a backup band for me.We are currently in the process of putting those shows together. All more to back up the saying that "music" is the international language! In order to fully absorb this experinace, I decided to just pack-it-up and go. Its the best of both worlds. I get to live coser to Elijah (2hrs away), perform my music, and also teach English to children. I am open ears to any creative ways to teach English. If you have any ideas please feel free to email me at jeswintermusic@gmail.com. Please stay posted to my blog and send me a comment on any questions etc. Looking forward to the adventure. Departure date is January 17th :)

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