Not the Acupuncture Video...

Note: Should you experience any kind of seizure from watching this video (most likely in your occipital lobe) please contact Dr. Kev (also known as K-Dog) at Abbott BioResearch about obtaining a prescription for Depakote!

Acupuncture!!

My friend Vivien getting acupuncture!

You know... to prove I was there :)
(I know... I'm a dork)

The electromagnetic lamps above her...

The actual needles. Some looked rusty...

This was apparently the most painful part

She had to lay like this for an hour... notice the wires attached to some of the needles! When he turned that little box on some of the needles started wiggling around a bit!


A pretty good friend of mine asked me to come along to her acupuncture session with her. She was really nervous. However, she was more than willing to be a model and said we (my friend Jen went too) could take as many pictures as we wanted. Hope you enjoyed!

By the way, there is also a video if anyone is interested...

Shawn and I taught at a middle school in Yong Ning this Friday. It's an extremely poor school. Shawn taught one other time at this school, but it was the first time I had been there. This time they had called in all of the English teachers and education leaders of Yong Ning to come have a "meeting" and then observe our teaching. Shawn had to give a speech. The hilarious part is that this guy wrote the speech for him. "China is such a great country... Kong Fu is so wonderful... I have always dreamed of coming to the great country of China... This school is so great... The headmaster is an excellent leader.. etc." You get the idea. Shawn changed a few things in the speech when he read it that were the furthest from the truth, but we're pretty sure they got translated as he was supposed to read it not as he spoke it. There were also TV cameras and newspaper reporters there taking photos and interviewing Shawn and some students. It was quite the ordeal. Then they took us out for dinner and taught us some new Chinese games. It was exhausting. The kids were wonderful though. It was the leaders and the interviewers that took the most out of us! It's rough being practically famous!

I am going to be so attention starved when I get back...

Well... looks like we have an apartment!

So... a few days (weeks?) after Shawn decided to go to Marquette we found out that another couple I was very good friends with while at WLC was also moving to Milwaukee. So we started to explore living together to save on rent, etc. and not have to deal with finding an apartment while in China.
Well, they (we) found a place!
There is a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment in Milwaukee that we will be moving into with Mike and Amber (Gallun) as soon as we get back. They'll be living there a month or two before we get there, but that will be nice so not everyone is trying to get settled all at once. We're actually quite excited about the arrangement. We'll be saving a ton on rent, won't have the headache of finding a place, and it sure will be nice to live with someone while my husband is spending the majority of his time at school. They're a really fun couple who I adore. Shawn and I went to spend a day or two with them last summer while we were home and he gets along with them quite well too.
I'm sure we'll meet our challenges, but considering the circumstances this situation sure takes a lot of current major concerns out of the way! We're very relieved that we don't have to deal with finding a place while in China. I'm also super excited to be living with such a fun couple!

So... there's news for ya!

Here's the link to see the house, we're the lower level: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=3014+N+Pierce+St,+Milwaukee,+Wisconsin+53212&sll=43.05597,-87.915344&sspn=0.061837,0.154495&dirflg=w&ie=UTF8&ll=43.074264,-87.902362&spn=0.007727,0.019312&z=16&iwloc=A&layer=c&cbll=43.07331,-87.902734&panoid=ATKNgDX7HsK2k6v-hpkL0A&cbp=12,96.98139355941969,,0,-6.900000000000036

The address is: 3014 N Pierce St.

Yay for having a place!

Easter Party Take 2!

We got home Sunday night from Yinchuan, and decided to plan an Easter party for my English majors. Unfortunately, my English majors have their class with me at 8am on Monday morning. Well, I did it anyway. I boiled about 40 eggs, whipped up some brownies, and even busted out the jello jigglers. Sure some of my students came to the house at 7:30am because they woke up early, but it was a blast anyway!

Happy Easter!!

Out for Roast Lamb on Good Friday

The Lamb

Sharing the Brain

At the Easter Party

Shawn has no problem making friends

My Army (see below) playing Egg Toss

On Good Friday we all got together and had a service and then went out to a special restaurant and had an entire roasted lamb. It was a little awkward because they brought it out whole (skinned of course), but it was in a sitting position and the eye sockets were... staring at us. Teeth bared... the whole nine yards. Then they did a little ceremony, sang a song, took it away and cut it up! It was pretty delicious. Except the brain... the brain was gross. Shawn is convinced we're all going to get mad cow.

Yesterday Tim and Jen had their Easter party which we were allowed to bring friends to since no one is going to come to a party all the way out in Yong Ning... anyway. It was a blast. We played egg tosses and egg bowling, had an egg hunt, colored eggs, and more egg things. We had a little devotion and had them watch the end of a movie about Easter. I wasn't sure how many people from our study would come to the party, but of the 36 total attendees we had 18 from our Saturday class. We divided the group into two since the group was so big and Mr. Wei said, "Jes, your army is strong!" It was awesome. I got to play the egg toss game with Tony the dance instructor. He kept threatening to throw it really hard at my face. It was a good time. The party was really fun.


Also:

"Da Shan (Shawn's Chinese name),
You are so handsome and humorous. We should spend more time together to let us know more about your excellency!! Miss you!
Berlinda, Nancy, Christina"

There was a part of the note for me, too... but it wasn't nearly as interesting!!

Happy Easter! Can't wait to see you all!

Awesome Day!

In our afternoon class in the new apartment we had almost twice the students we usually have! Everyone keeps bringing their friends, siblings, dance instructors (Latin and ballet), coworkers, etc. It just keeps growing and growing! It's awesome!

After our kids class we went out with the Wei family for dinner and it was so much fun! Afterwards we went to visit their home, which is surprisingly close to where we stay every weekend and has gorgeous ceilings. Mr. Wei works at the TV station in Ningxia and is an incredibly gifted and intelligent (and hilarious!) man! His wife is really sweet too. His 11 year old daughter played us a Mozart piece and a Bach piece on the piano, allowed us to look through her very impressive sketch book, and introduced us to her hamster Pang Pang (fat-fat). Our favorite part about the night may have been when we walked into their apartment and it was not clean at all. It was messy (cluttered as opposed to unsanitary) in the "we're too busy making the most of life to clean" kind of way, and it was fabulous. We can't wait to go out with them again. I must say I love the Wei's so much I may not keep up this cleaning streak that I've been on. 

We have off school on Monday because it's the 'burn money to honor your dead ancestors' holiday. Of course it doesn't matter to Shawn because he never teaches on Monday and the 2 hour class I teach is my favorite one. We're still happy though. A day off is a day off!

Happy Birthday Anna! 

MILWAUKEE!!

Well, you should all know that I already found the perfect apartment and a perfect job for next year in Milwaukee!! Of course it's the beginning of April now and the job and the apartment will probably not be available in July, but I e-mailed them anyway. You know, just in case.