Wednesday, June 24, 2009

P-A-R-T-Y!

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Chinese students are vastly misled about the life of a foreigner. During the past month students have shown me what Chinese money looks like, asked me how I buy things in the grocery store (the easiest of all shopping experiences), and asked me why I was out alone when they saw me around town. I’ve been asked these types of questions all year, but it was surprising to me that they never stopped. The students really have no idea that I lead a semi-normal life in China, despite being an outsider. They must think that I’m ushered around by a translator all the time or have spent the entire year holed-up in my apartment. An entire year of this ignorant curiosity made me want to do something to help the students understand that I’m not just a foreigner, I’m a human too.

At the same time, I wanted to do something for the better students in my classes. These kids have been a source of information for me, helped translate the few times it was necessary, and have been very good students on the whole. I couldn’t just bring in gifts for a few students in the class; that would look horrendous. And I couldn’t host a party at school, as the students’ schedules are packed during the school day.

What to do, what to do? I’ve set them entry up in a way that, I imagine, leads you to discover the solution I came to: host a party at my apartment on the weekend for a select group of students.

This past Sunday, about 35 students came over to my apartment for a small party. Although 35 sounds like a lot, it was really hard to start with about 1000 students and narrow it down to only 40 – less than 5% of the students Kelly and I teach. We chose some of our best and most helpful students to come to the party and explained where they should meet us.

Kelly and I spent all day Sunday making over 40 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, three different kinds of Jell-O, and two kinds of cookies, cutting up a humongous watermelon and childproofing my apartment. Twenty minutes before the party was scheduled to start we went to the designated meeting place to find over 15 students already waiting for us. Once back at my place, the students took a few minutes to take a tour of the Zhuzhou Museum of Ashley. The rest of the party was spent eating American food and playing games (both spontaneous and planned). I think everyone had a good time, I know I did.

I’m really glad Kelly and I had the party. I hope the students enjoyed themselves and learned something about my life outside of school.

Monday, June 22, 2009

The Great Packathon!

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An image like this can only mean one thing, the great packathon as commenced. I've been collecting and sorting through all the things I hope to bring back to America all night and now I can only hope they'll all fit in my luggage. Some things that came with me won't be making the trip back and, naturally, a few things will be immigrating to the States in my bags. Cross your fingers that it all makes it safely, soundly, and, perhaps more importantly, underweight.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Sorry!

I just want to take a moment to apologize for my distinct lack of posts these past few weeks. Things in Zhuzhou are coming to an end, which means there are a million things to wrap up. To add insult to injury, not only am I running low on free time, but Blogger is still blocked, so I can't upload videos like I want to. I have a few really great videos of the students that I'll have to share with you once I'm back in non-blocked-internet-country.

Monday, June 15, 2009

一月

In exactly one month, my plane should be touching down at BWI airport. Where did the time go?

What happens when you let 60 Junior 1s play with buckets of water?

This.

Playing with Water

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Zhuzhou in the News Again

He Jianma Pulls 9-Ton Bus

Zhuzhou was recently in the news again, though this time to note a much happier occasion. Zhuzhou resident, He Jianma, made his mark on history by pulling a 9-ton bus with his hair! While I was not present for the exciting event, a Guinness World representative was on hand to certify the new record.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

History Comes to Zhuzhou, Or Almost Did

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Those of you who have seen Disney’s 2001 film, Pearl Harbor, may remember the America’s retaliation raid on Japan led by Lt. Col. Doolittle. Like the bulk of the movie, the depiction of this raid, which was executed on April 18, 1942 by 80 members of the US Air Force, is based heavily on the reality of the actual raid.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 21, 1941, the US government and military began to plan a retaliation attack to be carried out as soon as possible. The planning committee quickly discovered that it would be impossible for US planes to take off from the closest American landing strip and fly safely to the Japanese homeland. Plan B dictated that pilots be trained to fly B-25B bombers off of air craft carriers. This was a feat had never been attempted before and was planned to allow the planes to take off only 400 miles from the Japanese coast, much closer than the nearest air force base on land. After bombing several targets in Japan, the pilots would then fly on to China, with little remaining fuel they had.

On the scheduled day of the attack, everything was going according to plan until the USS Hornet, which was carrying 16 B-25B bombers 201 pilots and crew members got within 650 miles of Japan, 250 miles from the intended take off location. The ship and those escorting her were spotted by a Japanese picket boat, which radioed a warning to land. Rather than risk the entire mission, Lt. Col. Doolittle ordered planes take off immediately.

The operation went well and all the intended targets in Japan were successfully hit. However, because they were forced to take off 250 miles too soon, the air men were unable to reach their intended landing location and were forced to land in rice patties throughout the Chinese countryside. The Chinese people were very helpful to the lost US pilots and most were able to return to America unharmed. The mission was considered hugely successful, and although it did not do a substantial amount of damage to the Japanese targets, it boosted American morale greatly. Furthermore, the attack shocked the Japanese government and public and caused the Japanese military to recall several fighting units back to protect the homeland.

The real shame of the story is that the US Servicemen were unable to reach their planned landing site: Zhuzhou! American history almost made its mark in this city all those year ago.

***


I was happy to learn about the raid’s planned landing site from this article on Coloradodaily.com, which is itself an interesting read. The article provides far more details of the Doolittle Raid from a pilots who survived the raid himself.

Friday, June 5, 2009

It's Not Too Late

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I recently had the honor of visiting Lingyuan, a city in the Hunan countryside, with my friends, June and Rock. The visit was billed as the opportunity to visit Meishan Dragon Palace, a cave near June’s hometown, but my favorite part of the trip was far less exciting for everyone else.

Hundreds of years ago June’s ancestors began work on a family compound that still stands today. The large, traditional home was build so that there would be adequate room for the entire, extended family to live comfortably together. June’s family must have been wealthy when the home was built, as it is very intricate and ornate. Each door is adorned with a carved relief depicting some aspect of daily life. Carvings were used to decorate other parts of the home as well. Needless to say, the home is beautiful.

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Time, however, has definitely taken a toll on the home. During the Cultural Revolution, Mao’s government demanded that the heads be removed from all the reliefs and so nearly every door has been defaced. Additionally, many of the other carvings have been exposed to the elements for sometime and show considerable wear.

Years ago, the Chinese government purchased the home from June’s family to protect and restore it. The family hadn’t actually lived in the home for some time, so they were happy to sell it. Unfortunately, the government hasn’t actually done any of the promised restorations. A 300 year old, traditional bed is simply sitting in a moldy, dusty room, more than likely on its way to ruin. Other aspects of the home and quickly falling into disrepair and likely won’t last much longer.

Like many other historical relics, the Chinese have fallen far behind on their upkeep. During the Cultural Revolution, many beautiful and time-honored Chinese buildings and temples were lost forever. Therefore, the Chinese can’t afford to lose any more of these pieces of history. If the government doesn’t quickly step up and take action, we could have nothing left for future generations to enjoy. As I don’t see government and popular opinion changing anytime soon, this is a real fear. But it's not too late, a change could still happen.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Do a Deer...

This Sunday my students participated in a singing competition sponsored by the school. Each class sang a common song as well as an additional song of their choice and was conducted by a fellow classmate. To separate themselves from the other classes, some classes chose to incorporate choreography or dancers into the act. Below are a few photos from the day. I’d love to share some of the video I took during the competition, however, due to current blockage of Blogger by the Chinese Firewall, I am unable to.

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Singing Competition

Sunday, May 31, 2009

吸管

Oh, and for those of you who are interested, the Chinese word for straw is 吸管 and is pronounced "xīguǎn". I'll have to see if that will work as well for me the sucking sound has. Somehow I doubt it.

创造力. Creativity. Die Kreativität.

According to a recent study, I may just be more creative than you for having lived abroad.

I came across this interesting post in the Economist’s Business Travel blog, Gulliver, a few weeks ago and wanted to share it with you. According to the blog article and the referenced study, living abroad seems to make people more creative.

I can’t say for sure that I’m more creative than you, but I can say that China has made me think outside the box more often when communicating with non-English speakers than I’ve ever have before. For example, every few days or so I decide to treat myself to a soda after school. China is super dirty and as a result, you won’t see me touching the rim of the can to my mouth. Chinese people feel the same way, so every small shop has a bunch of straws for the people who buy canned beverages. Sometimes the straws are located on the counter and I can just take one myself. Other times, however, they are stashed under the glass counter and I have to ask for one. The problem is I don’t know how to say straw in Chinese. I could look it up, but I’ve just never done it. Instead I’ve developed a motion that means straw. I say, “have not have” in Chinese and then hold the can up and make a sucking sound with my mouth. It hasn’t failed me yet. The shop owner always knows that I want a straw. My friend, Caroline, has developed her own system for getting a straw that involves a different hand and mouth motion that also works. There are many many non-verbal ways to get a straw.

I’m not saying this is the most creative thing I’ve ever done, but situations like this one come up on an hourly basis in China. As my time in China is drawing to a close, many of my American friends have begun to talk about what it’ll be like to be back in an English speaking country. In China, I’ve danced around the store to get what I want, baked banana bread in a rice cooker, and used hair bands to fasten countless things closed. In only a few months, none of this will be necessary. How strange it will be to have things I want and to be able to communicate with the public using words! I just hope my creativity doesn’t wane.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

The Chew of Hunan

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During the first week of orientation in China we were sent on a scavenger hunt all around Changsha. Armed with one group member who spoke Chinese, 100 RMB, and a list of items to find, we were let loose on the unsuspecting public. There were many things on the list that were easy to find: a Chinese flag, a Chinese knot, Beisha beer, KFC ketchup, a picture of a younger Mao, and a business card. There was, however, one thing on the list that no one in my group had the slightest idea what it was. It was something called a betel nut. We searched high and low to find that stupid nut. We tried to translate it into Chinese. We asked countless bystanders if they knew what it was. In the end of the game, we never did find out what a betel nut was.

Now, over nine months since that fateful day, I can barely imagine a time when I didn’t instantly recognize the look and smell of the betel nut. Also called the areca nut, the betel nut is chewed daily by any self-respecting Hunanese male. The nuts are harvested from the areca tree in the tropical pacific, packaged, and sold in large quantities in Taiwan, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Hunan. Oddly enough though, it is rare for betel nut to be found in any other Chinese city out side of Hunan and Taiwan.

The nuts are chewed for their effects as a mild stimulant, causing a hot sensation in the body and slightly heightened alertness. Like chew, betel nut is a carcinogen, which releases its drug through the walls of the mouth. According to Wikipedia, the effect of chewing betel nut is relatively mild and could be compared to drinking a cup of coffee. Betel nuts have created an entire generation of people who have ruined their teeth and gums.

I’m not sure what got into me a few days ago, but I decided to try a betel nut for myself. I figured that since it’s only chewed in this area of China, I will likely never live in a place that chews the nut again. And being relatively exotic, I guess I though it would make a good story. I had heard that the nut was minty and “not delicious,” and I’d have to agree. Though I gave it a good go, I was unsuccessful at chewing the nut to it’s fullest extent due my gag reflex getting in the way. I’m not sad that I tried it, but I’m certain that I’ll never need to do it again.

If you, like me, are interested in trying a betel nut for yourself, let me know and I’ll bring a pack back to America. They are an uncontrolled substance in the states and can be purchased at many Asian grocery stores if you can’t wait that long or mine get taken away by Customs officials.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Zhuzhou from Space

I went on Google Maps to look at Zhuzhou for the first time today. Google's satellite images are really quite amazing and I thought I'd share them with you. It's just too bad that there was some mild cloud cover the day the photos were taken.

Below is a picture of Yandi Square and a portion of the campus of Number 2 Middle School, where I live. The orange arrow is pointing to my apartment building. You can also see the top of the tower that I mentioned in my post on December 20th, 2008 about pollution.

Google Image of Number 2 Middle School

This is an image of the area surrounding Jing Yan Middle School, where I teach. As you may have guessed, the orange arrow points to the school. In the center you can see the "playground" where you've witnessed students "exercising," playing basketball, and putting out fires.

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Saturday, May 23, 2009

This is a test of the emergency evacuation plan. This is only a test.

During my time in the Hempfield School District we had a fire drill once a month, tornado drills twice a year, and a yearly intruder drill. I imagine the goal was to have all students be prepared for whatever emergency might face us. The one time we did have an actual emergency (a tornado in kindergarten) everyone remained safe the entire time thanks to the hours the district had spent teaching us what to do.

Naturally schools in Hunan want their students to remain safe during an emergency as well. They have, however, adopted a very different system to ensure the students know what to do in the event of a fire or earthquake, like the one that shook Sichuan Province just over one year ago.

The drill at Jingyan Middle School stated with a 45 minute lecture given by some type of school authority and a military official. All 1000 junior 1 students brought their chairs into the “playground” (ie: basketball courts between the academic buildings) to listen to the talk, while the other students “listened” over the loud speaker. At some point during the lecture I heard the soldier say weiguoren several times in quick succession. Meaning foreigner, weiguoren is one of a handful of Chinese words that almost always catches my ear. I asked one of my Chinese friends if he was talking about “my people” and she said that he was telling the students that foreigners know how to deal with emergencies better than Chinese people and that the Chinese should learn from them. As one of the resident foreign experts at Jingyan, perhaps they could have asked if I had anything to add. They didn’t and I would have.

Following the lecture two students were selected from the group to come over to a burning trash wheel-barrel. The school leaders had lit a small fire in the barrel and it was the students’ job to put the fire out with fire extinguishers. After a quick fire extinguisher lesson, the students were let loose on the fire, which they put out with ease.

Fire Safety

Next the military representatives brought a gas tank to the stage area and proceeded to set it on fire. A soldier was successful at extinguishing the tank with a wet blanket after about five tries, several of which almost burnt him. Naturally, at this point a student was called up to give it a shot. The student happened to be one of the most outspoken students in class 5, named America. Thankfully, America was far better at putting the fire out than the “expert” and walked away from the demonstration unharmed.

Fire Safety

All the students then went back to their classrooms to prepare for the drill portion of the day. A school official somehow produced fake smoke, that I doubt anyone except me actually saw, which signaled the beginning of the drill. A voice came over the loud speaker telling the students to begin coming out of the buildings. Teachers were stationed a different points along the way, yelling at the students to run. And run they did. The students bent low and covered their faces while they ran from the buildings as quickly as possible. They reported to their morning exercise positions in the playground. Many feigned joy at safely escaping the burning building while they waited to be told they could go home for the day. It took only a little over five minutes for all the students and staff to get out of the buildings. Pretty good for over 3,000 people.

I’m not actually sure how prepared the students are. In the case of an actual emergency I imagine several students would be trampled by a stamped of their frightened classmates, while others are injured by burning or flying debris falling from the buildings only feet from where they’re standing. Whatever its faults, I believe the students are better off for having practiced rushing out of the buildings than had the school never run the drill.

Back at Hempfield, students are likely still “quickly walking” out of the buildings during their monthly drills, entirely ignorant of how to put out a burning gas tank. While I have my opinions on who is more prepared for an emergency, I’ll keep them to myself and let you decide on your own.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Yup, They're All Mine

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Can you believe all the munchkins within the red box are my students? I barely can!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Diaster in Zhuzhou

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Last night Kelly messaged me and asked what I thought “You knew our here has had a bridge to collapse?” meant. Maybe you understand severe Chinglish better than we do, but we both had little idea what the student was trying to say to her. Obviously it was something about a collapsed bridge, but there were still many questions to be answered. We got a few more details from the student, but still were unable to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

This morning my friend Bridget sent me a message about a collapsed bridge in Zhuzhou. Only then did I understand the message from last night. It turns out the first urban flyover in Hunan, which was built in 1995, was located in Zhuzhou. It was 200 meters of this viaduct that collapsed over Hong Qi Square around 4:30pm on Sunday, May 17th. According to the Xinhua News Agency, the death toll has reached nine, with another 17 people still in the hospital. It’s amazing that it wasn’t more. The few times that I visited Hong Qi Square, it was always bustling with hundreds of people walking or driving beneath the bridge at any given moment.

The interested people that we are, Kelly and I went to the site to take a look at the damage this morning. In the bus on the way we saw over 18 military trucks lined along the road, each loaded with an estimated 40-50 soldiers. It appeared that they had just finished up their work and were getting ready to head out after a quick lunch. At the disaster site, a strong police presence was milling around, keeping people out of restricted areas. Apart from the few people who were snapping pictures with and of Kelly and I, the rest of the population hurried past the wreckage, simply going on with their lives. It was surprising how normal everything seemed to be, only 20 hours after the collapse.

This link leads to an article that includes four pictures of the site shortly after the collapse. And this leads to a YouTube video from the AP entitled “Raw Video: Viaduct Bridge Collapses in China”. As you may know, YouTube is blocked in China, so I haven’t been able to view the video myself.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

It's For Your Safety

After months and months of fabulous luck, the powers that be have decided to block Blogger for my safety and the safety of the Chinese public. While I appreciate the thought, I’d rather be able to post and edit blog posts without the hassle of being forced to use a proxy server and an image hosting site. Blogger is just one more to fall in a long string of recent blocks. YouTube has been dead to me for several months.

I can’t really complain all that much as the internet has been rather “free” this year. Leading up to the Olympics China unblocked a great many sites for “the benefit of the visitors.” Unfortunately, the rolling block-outs began again during the winter, taking out many websites that are disruptive to the public good and many that are not.

I imagine that the current blockage of Blogger will continue until I leave in a few short months, so I’ll just have to learn to live with the change. Though I am able to post text with relative ease using a proxy, it seems that the proxy cuts out all the frills of Blogger that I’ve grown accustom to. Rather than relying on the makers of Blogger to know all the HTML codes to do things I want, I have to figure them out myself. So far I’ve figured out how to post pictures using an image hosting site and how to add links. Take that Net Nanny!

The New York Times has written some informative articles on this topic over the past few months. Here are the links to two:
China Is Said to Restore Blocks on Web Sites
Surveillance of Skype Messages Found in China

Friday, May 15, 2009

May Madness at Jing Yan

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The Junior 1 classes are in the midst of a very serious basketball tournament. This tournament is one of the more organized things I’ve seen Jing Yan do and personally, I’m pretty impressed. The students took the tournament to another level by getting NBA or CBA jerseys personalized for the event. I’ll keep you updated on the status of the tournament as things progress.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Be Prepared

I used to joke that I allot over an hour for a 25 minutes commute because I can’t ever been sure that a spaceship won’t land on the bridge I take the get to school. While this is an exaggeration, it isn’t far from the truth. In China, I need to be prepared for absolutely anything to happen.

There are two main reasons for this need. The first is that I can’t read or understand Chinese. A few weeks ago I noticed a piece of paper taped to a wall near my apartment. The other people living in the community all took a quick look at the paper before moving on with their day. All I knew was that obviously it contained some information that I should probably know about. The following Saturday, I woke up and went about my business. I put a load of laundry in my washer and was about to brush my teeth when I realized that my water was off. I called two of my friends who live in the apartment complex. The both confirmed that they too, had no water. From my best guess, the water was turned off from 10:00am-8:00pm. Perhaps the water had been halted for repairs (though I didn’t see any), but in all likelihood, had I been able to read the posted sign a few days before, I would have been aware of the fact that my water supply was going to be cut off for ten hours the following Saturday. Unfortunately, I could not. Luckily this was all not a big problem. It just meant that I had soapy clothes sitting in a washer all day and that I smelled.

The second cause for my cluelessness is that for some reason, Chinese people don’t share information as readily as I might like them to. I have a liaison, named Amy, whose job it is to help me with my life in China and tell me what’s going on at school. It’s not that Amy’s malicious or mean, in fact I really like her a lot and I know that she does the best that she can to help me, but she often doesn’t clue me into to changes to the school schedule or activities going on at school until the last possible minute or at all. A few weeks ago I showed up to school in time to be ready for my 1:45 class. Everything was going normally until at exactly 1:36 Amy told me that the entire afternoon schedule would be pushed back 30 minutes for the rest of the school year. Rather than having 10 minutes until my class began, I had 40. (Better that I was too early than too late, I guess).

10 minutes warning was actually not all that bad. Just yesterday I asked Amy if there was anything I should know about this week. She said that nothing at all special was going on this week. Only a short while later I found out that in fact there was something special going on that very afternoon. My students let me know that they would be competing in a basketball tournament starting during the 8th period. 2 hours since I asked, 1 thing it might have been nice to tell Ashley. This morning I woke up to find out that today is the anniversary of Sichuan earthquake the killed hundreds of students last year. At 2:28pm there was to be a moment of silence to remember all those who lost their lives. 22 hours since I asked, 2 things it might have been nice to tell Ashley. We’re at about 36 hours since I spoke to Amy about this week’s schedule. We’ll have to wait and see how many more things will end up surprising me.

After almost 10 months in China, these things hardly bother me anymore. I’ve gotten completely used to having little to no warning. If I ever get asked in an interview if I’m a flexible person, I’ll just have to answer that I’ve had a year of full time flexibility training and wouldn’t have a problem working around a spaceship in the office.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Welcome Summer!

Yep, that was the actual temperature at 19:18:29 today, May 10th, 2009. Let me assure you that it was much hotter in the afternoon when the sun was actually out. It's so hot, the weather widget felt that it needed to add the little cactus to help all of you understand just how hot it feels when you add 90% humidity into the mix. I guess this is just pay back for all the times I wished for warmth during the winter.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Wedding Shots

Here's the link for an album of pictures from the wedding. You know the deal. Enjoy!

A Traditional Chinese Wedding!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

A Traditional Wedding

A few years ago I watched a show on HGTV about a western couple who paired up with an Indian-American couple to plan a traditional Indian wedding. The Indian-American couple had recently got married themselves, so they were able to walk the American couple through the wedding process. They helped them pick out saris, get the bride’s hands hennaed, and plan the procession. At the time I thought the idea was kind of cool, but something that I would never do.

This past weekend I attended a traditional Chinese wedding in Zhuzhou. A friend of a friend’s cousin was getting married and some how the invitation got passed down the line to me. I had close to no idea what I was getting myself into when I went to Shen Long Park on Saturday morning at 8:00 am to meet Katie, our Chinese friend.

In typical Chinese fashion, we all waited along side the road for the wedding procession to appear. The group was made up of a band of traditional Chinese instruments, the groom on a horse, and a group of men carrying a sedan chair. Everyone was dressed in red and yellow clothing. After taking a number of pictures, we joined the procession and walked to the bride’s house to pick her up. No Chinese event is complete without fireworks, so a number were set off. At this point the groom entered the bride’s house to meet her for the “first time”. (Although this was a traditional wedding ceremony, courtship and engagement, were not. Apparently the couple had been dating for several years.) The groom led the bride out of the house with a red rope and she got into her sedan chair. We then processed with the bride and groom to the groom’s family’s house.



Once we got to the second home, the bride and groom went into the house, while the guests waited in front. There was a drum show and then a dragon dancing show for the guests to enjoy while the couple and a few close family members changed their clothes and took a rest in the house.





At some point after this, Katie told us that the wedding was over. It was incredibly interesting to watching this ancient ceremony take place. There was no exchanging of rings or wedding vows. The act of picking up the bride at her house and transporting her to her new home served the same purpose that the ring and I dos do in western weddings.

Years ago, when I watched that show on HGTV, I thought that I would never want to have a traditional wedding from another culture that my husband and I don’t belong to. I thought about all the western couple was giving up; the white dress, the church ceremony, the white cake. After going to this Chinese wedding, the idea seems a lot more interesting. I guess I’ve just started to think about all the cool things you gain; in site into another culture, an amazing story, the ability to open your guest’s eyes to something new. It could be something I want to look into when it’s my turn to get married. I just need to find a husband first.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Whore of the Orient and The Most Beautiful City in the World

For those of you who are visual people, here are a few pictures of my recent trip to Shanghai and Suzhou. Enjoy!

Shanghai!
Suzhou!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

On My Own

Before coming to China I wouldn’t have called myself independent. I know, you might be thinking, “You went to China alone, that’s pretty independent”. But truth be told, I preferred doing things with friends to doing them alone. If someone was going to the supermarket, I might have just gone along to spend time with another person.

Living in China on my own hasn’t done much to support this habit. Although I do have a site mate who lives four floors below me, I live alone. I do my grocery shopping alone, I take the bus alone, and I cook by myself for myself. And beginning last weekend, I also travel alone. Though I knew that I would inevitably become more independent during my time in China, I would never have guessed that I would take such a step.

I had hoped to be able to travel to Shanghai this year; a year which is quickly coming to a close. Due to the odd scheduling of midterms this semester, Kelly and I had different days off and so could not travel together. After taking a quick glance at my calendar, I realized that I could either go to Shanghai while my students were taking the midterms by myself or not go at all. I thought about it for a few hours and decided that “The Paris of the East” was a good city for my first solo trip, so I went.

Thanks to the miracle of Facebook, I sent a message to my Chinese teacher, Beibei, who recently moved to Shanghai. I told her that I would be coming and that I hoped she would have time to meet with me. I hoped that she would be interested in grabbing lunch one day, but she had something entirely different in mind. Beibei and her boyfriend, Steve, were so kind as to put their entire weekend on hold to show me their new city. They took me to the Bund, the French Concession, Old Town, and the Shanghai Museum. Before leaving for the trip I was a little worried that I would get bored of myself after spending four days alone. Thanks to Beibei and her friends, I didn’t have time to find out if my fears were valid. We spent 4 great days together.

While writing this entry I’ve begun wonder if this trip should even counts as my premier solo travel experience. I spent so much time with my friends in Shanghai that I was barely “solo” the entire time. I’m going it to leave you to make up your own mind, but I think I’m going to count it. People who have traveled with me know that the worst part of traveling together happens before we even leave. I get nervous about everything and anything. I went through that whole process alone, thinking I would be traveling alone. I bore all the fears I had about being by myself, which for me is the most awful part.

So, no, I don’t think that I would like to travel around Europe for two months alone like other people I know, but I can travel to an unfamiliar, Chinese city by myself with far less fears than I have imagined having. Take that independence!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

My favorite hero is...

The student seem to really enjoy handing in their work on the smallest paper they can find. While I only received one assignment on legal sized paper, I received plenty more on pieces of paper just as small as this blue one.

The list of favorite heroes continues with these gems:

My favorite hero is Bill Gates. He is from USA. He has a golden hair. He is smart. He is my favorite hero, because is the Microsoft CEO.
My favorite hero is Hu Jintao. He is kindly. He is friendly. He is my favorite because he love Chinese people.
My favorite hero is Zhou Enlai. He is from China. He is tall. He is kind. He is my favorite hero, because he is like country very much.
My favorite hero is Aishily. She is very lovely. She has golden long hair. She is a good teacher. She is my favorite hero, because she is kind. I love her!
And the kicker and my personal favorite…
My favorite is Martin.Luther.King because he is very great! He always help others. He is the first president of U.S.A. whose, skin is in black.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Happy National Karaoke Week!

Celebrated during the last week of April, National Karaoke Week is a time to let lose and belt out your favorite songs.

Every week is National Karaoke Week in China. Karaoke, or KTV as it's called, is a rather popular past time, but unlike karaoke in the US, KTV is done at businesses set up specifically for this purpose. There must be hundreds of KTV places in Zhuzhou alone. Upon arrival at a KTV club each party is ushered into their own private KTV room, which is outfitted with two mics, a plasma screen TV, several couches and a computer from which you select the songs. Luckily for us, there are many establishments that have a significant number of English language songs from which my friends and I can choose.

As my Facebook “say something” box can attest to, I love KTV, no matter which friends I go with. The experience, however, is very different depending on who is in the group. The Chinese place the focus of the KTV on the quality of their singing. They like to lean back on the couches and simply sing the songs as beautifully as possible. On the other hand, in my experience, Westerns tend to believe that their performance is most important. Vocal quality, therefore, often suffers. We stand in the center of the room and put on quite a show. In our opinion, the couches should only used for holding our bags and coats and maybe resting between songs. This makes for a very interesting time when a KTV room contains “mixed company.” The Chinese think the Westerners are crazy and the Westerners think the Chinese are too placid. No matter though, a fun time is always had by all.

When I leave China, KTV is definitely something I’m going to miss. I may just have to invest in a karaoke machine and host KTV parties in my own home. How else am I going to be able to celebrate National Karaoke Week?

Friday, April 17, 2009

When was the last time you wore 9 shirts at once?

In the last post I mentioned that the weather has really warmed up over the past few weeks, which has been a humongous blessing. It’s really hard to describe the effect the temperature had on my life here. It was all pervasive and every present. I was cold a majority of the winter and therefore wore an obscene amount of clothing. (Disclaimer: I think it’s safe to bet that I wore more articles of clothing at one time than my western friends living in Hunan. I think they would say that I took layering to an extreme. While it is mildly embarrassing, I’m not going to apologize for trying to be as warm as possible.)

In order for you to get a better idea of the volume of clothes I’m talking about, I created the following visual image for you.

The pile on the left contains items that I wore to bed on one night during the deepest of winter. The pile includes: 2 sweatshirts, 3 long-underwear shirts, 2 long-sleeved shirts, 1 cami, 1 tee-shirt, 2 pairs of long-underwear pants, 2 pairs of pajama pants (though one only served as a way to keep the other from sticking to the sheets and was not meant for warmth), and 3 pairs of socks. The other item in the pile is my hot water bag. This cloth and rubber bag contains some sort of gel that remains hot after it is warmed by plugging it into an electrical outlet for ten minutes or so. I would warm it up and throw it under the covers before I got into bed to pre-heat the bed.

The pile on the right contains items I wear to bed now and is much easier to explain. It includes a tee-shirt and a pair of pajama pants.

Needless to say I’m happy to say that the weather has warmed up and I no longer feel the need to look like a marshmallow. Thank God for the spring!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Describe Your Hero

This week my students and I are talking about heroes and superheroes. The lesson idea was created by my friend, David, and he's been so kind as to let me borrow it. The students really love talking about their favorite action figures like Kung Fu Panda, Pikachu, and Kobe Bryant. At the end of the lesson I ask the students to write 5 sentences about their favorite hero or superhero. While I'm sure to have more funny ones as the week progresses, I thought I'd get the ball rolling with this one. The following is the work of a student from class 11.
My favorite hero is Deng Deng Juan. She is my classmate. She is 12 years old. She has a fat face. She is a good student.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Springtime for Hitler Zhuzhou 1

Springtime in Zhuzhou is a welcome relief from the winter cold and brings with it many new, bright colors. The flowering of the “trees with pink flowers like they have in Japan,” known to most native English speakers as Cherry blossoms, has been the talk of the town for several weeks. Students began talking about the trees in late February and a few trips to Shi Feng Park, in the outskirts of Zhuzhou, were scheduled and then canceled before the trees actually bloomed.

I was finally able to see the Sakura with a few student a few weeks ago on a rainy Saturday. The students were exceptionally excited to have their photos taken with the trees, as were dozens of other Chinese people. Though perhaps it would have been more beautiful under different weather circumstances, the trees were striking. The photos below are documentation of the experience. 2, 3


1 The title is a reference to the Mel Brooks' musical, The Producers. As you may have guessed, the fifth song in the second act is entitled Springtime for Hitler.
2 I think the center picture is really interesting because it highlights what modern day China, especially in Zhuzhou, is really like. No matter where you go or what beauty surrounds you, an air-polluting factory is not far away.
3 The students pictured in the bottom left photo, from left to right, are Crystal, Cindy, Beryl, and Sherey from Junior 1, Class 16.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter!

Friday, April 10, 2009

I'm illiterate and so are you!

It’s true. We’re all illiterate in all but one, maybe two, of the world’s languages. The difference is that it doesn’t have an impact on your everyday life the way it does on mine. I’ve gotten used to walking down the street and being able to understand or even pronounce very few of the signs I see. I go to the grocery store and pray that there are either photos, drawings, or broken English on the packaging so I can figure out what I’m about to buy. Luckily, the images and random English words haven’t failed me yet when it comes to the difference between rat poison and human food.

Months ago, while I was still living in Changsha, a fellow volunteer mentioned how odd it was that her conditioner lathered up when she conditioned her hair after washing it. I told her that I hadn’t noticed this difference between American and Chinese hair products and that if it was true, it would be very strange. The next time I washed my hair I noticed that what she said was true, the conditioner did suds up in my hair. It looked and smelled like what I would label as regular conditioner. I was satisfied to simply chalk it up to being some kind of weird Chinese preference.

This past weekend, while staying with two friends in another city, I took a shower at my friend’s house. I hadn’t planned on showering during the short visit, so I didn’t bring any toiletries with me. My friend offered to let me use hers and I was surprised when her conditioner behaved like an American conditioner would. I inspected the bottle to be assured that the product was purchased in China; it was. I figured that it must just be the brand of shampoo and conditioner that I was using. I mentioned the difference to my friends, both of whom thought I was crazy. Conditioner doesn’t foam up in China, they said.

A few days later I asked a gathering of a few other American girls. None of their conditioner acts any differently than what we were used to before coming to China. It’s just me. After a few minutes of research, we discovered that I must be using two-in-one shampoo/conditioner, rather than regular conditioner. I have been unknowingly double washing my hair for over eight months because I can’t read!

I haven’t checked the product placement at the store since this revelation, but I assume that the shampoo and two-in-on shampoo must be placed next to each other on the rack and the conditioner somewhere else. Because two-in-one has the same pearly color as conditioner, I guess I just assumed it was the conditioner all those months ago.

Oh, if only I could read the 20,000 characters required to be a literate Chinese speaker!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Size ≠ Development

I got off the train in Hengyang, Hunan and immediately searched for a taxi, as I would in any city in China. I found, or should I say was accosted, by several taxi drivers attempting to “earn” my business. I told them I was headed to “Xin Yi Zhong,” and haggled over the price before my selected driver led me to his car. He opened the front door and as I got in, I saw that there were two other people sitting the back seat of the car. While this would have bothered me in many other places around the world, I didn’t give it a second thought, because I knew that this is a normal occurrence in Hengyang.

Hengyang is a city of 9 million people located an hour and a half train ride south of Zhuzhou. It has been the Chinese home of two of my fellow foreign teachers for the past year, which is why I was visiting. While Hengyang is larger not only in population than Zhuzhou, but also in land area, it is less developed. My friends and I have a very sophisticated system for measuring the development of a Chinese city. A city must pass a three question test to be labeled “developed.”
1. Is butter available for purchase in said city?
2. Can one buy peanut butter without selling a bodily organ?
3. Is cheese, in addition to the Kraft Singles variety, accessible at select supermarkets?

The cities are then branded using the following scale:
0 yeses: Not developed.
1 yes: Shows some signs of future development.
2 yeses: Is on its way to development, but needs improvement.
3 yeses: Is officially a developed Chinese city.

Here are the results of several cities: Wulingyuan: Not developed. Changsha: Developed. Zhuzhou: Needs improvement. Hengyang: Shows signs of future development. Hong Kong: Off the charts (but that’s a different story).

All joking aside, the structure of taxis in a city is an indicator of development in China and good example of my point. In Zhuzhou taxi drivers always use the meter. One needn’t ask; they put it down automatically. Most taxis are equipped with walkie-talkie like radios and I haven’t heard of a driver attempting to drive more than one party at a time. Hengyang is a different story. Haggling over the price is a must, as it is impossible to get a driver to even consider using the meter. The claim that the trip will be more expensive with the meter only means that the driver will run you around until it is. And packing people into cars like sardines so that the driver can get even more off the meter money is commonplace.

In America, the size of a city is a good gauge of its development. A town with 250 people likely has fewer things for sale than a city of several million. I think that both my very refined quiz and the "taxi test" prove the same in not true in China. As with so many other things here, you just never know what you’re going to get.

Friday, April 3, 2009

On Baking in China


Like many things in China, baking can be a real challenge. Historically the Chinese don’t bake, so ovens are a completely unnecessary appliance. Therefore, I, like my neighbors, don’t have an oven in my kitchen. Luckily, I have a small toaster oven in my apartment. It works well for toast, garlic bread, cookies, and other small toasting needs, but falls far short of all of my oven desires.

Baking is one of my hobbies in the US and, due to my lack of an oven, I spent the first several months in China baked good-less. Sure, I enjoyed a steamed cake now and then, but when I say baked good, I mean baked good. Recently, however, I discovered the joys of the rice cooker, an appliance that, believe it or not, is common in Chinese kitchens. I’ve used it to make a Rachael Ray rice cooker meal (the recipe for which can be found here) and, more interestingly, a lovely Neapolitan marble cake (here’s that recipe). The cake was a real long shot, but it worked out amazingly well.

Baking in a rice cooker is a real guessing game. First of all it’s hard to find all the ingredients necessary for baked goods. Vanilla, for example, is nowhere to be found. And just forget about icing. Secondly, I have absolutely no idea what the cooking temperature is. The temperature options on my rice cooker are “warm” and “cook rice,” which aren’t as descriptive as, say, numbers. As a result, I just throw the batter in and hope for the best. Finally, the cooker switches from “warm” and “cook rice” at will. If it detects that there is no longer water in the pan “cooking” the “rice,” it shuts itself down to “warm.” And although I can wedge a clothespin under the switch, it ends up burning the underside of the cake if I do. I found it’s just better if I let the temperature vary greatly during the cooking, rather than burn the entire bottom of my cake. So after pushing the button up and it popping down, me pushing the button back up, it popping back down again several times, the cake finally bakes the whole way through.

The problems don’t end when the cake is finally thoroughly baked. Good luck finding a cooling rack. Thus, as you see in the pictures, chopsticks step up and fill the void nicely.

There are so many things about the US that are able to be recreated in central China with a little creativity. The longer I’m here, the more I’m able to do. On one hand, it makes me sad when I realize that I’ll only be here for a few months. On the other, I remember how much easier, and more delicious, all of my baked-goods are going to be back in North America and I get excited. Muffins, icing, cupcakes, breads, cakes, cookies, baked macaroni and cheese here I come!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Monday, March 30, 2009

School Schedule

Like many other things, the daily schedule of Chinese schools is rather different from their American counterparts. While students arrive around the same time, the Chinese kids stay at school much later. The trade off, however, is that the Chinese munchkins get an hour and forty minute lunch/rest break. I spent a pretty long time translating the schedule into English for your enjoyment, so without any further adieu here it is.

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6:50 Wake up call
7:00-7:10 Wash face and brush teeth
7:10-7:20 Early Morning Exercises
7:20-7:40 Breakfast for Boarding Students

**Commuting students begin to filter in**

7:45-8:00 Breakfast
8:00-8:20 Monday Flag Raising
8:20 Prepare for class
8:25-9:05 Period 1
9:15-9:55 Period 2
9:55-10:20 Morning Exercises
10:20-11:00 Period 3
11-11:05 Eye Exercises
11:15-11:55 (Junior 1 and 2) Period 4
11:15-12:05 (Junior 3) Period 4
11:55-12:35 (Junior 1 and 2) Lunch
12:05-12:50 (Junior 3) Lunch
12:50-1:20 Noon break *
1:20 Prepare for class *
1:25-1:40 Time to read newspapers aloud, sing, and share school news *
1:45-2:25 Period 5
2:35-3:15 Period 6
3:15-3:20 Eye Exercises
3:30-4:10 Period 7
4:20-5:00 Period 8 (After class students are responsible for tidying up their classrooms, including taking out the garbage, realigning the desks, and sweeping the floor.)

**Commuting students begin to filter out**

5:30-6:00 Dinner
6:40-7:00 Evening Reading time
7:10-7:50 Self study period 1
8:00-8:40 Self study period 2
9:30 Get into bed and lights out

*It seems that boarding students and students who live close to the school are permitted to skip these activities to either nap in their dorms or eat lunch at home with their parents. (Lucky kids – the cafeteria food is barely edible.)

-----

Chinese teachers are required to be at school between 8:00am and 5:00pm. Because my sitemate and I are “VIPs”, we are permitted to come and go as we please as long as we’re present and prepared to teach our classes. It's a good deal.

Can you even imagine having such a schedule like this one in the US? I'd like to see it tried.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Dear Obama:第二个

I got some late letters submissions that I’d like to pass on you now.
Dear Abama,
Hi! My name is Harry. James. I am twelve years old. I am from China. China is a very beautiful country. There are so many “flowers” in here. So our young people certainly are the “flowers”. My hobbies are writing, listening to music, watching TV and running. So I am writing well and running fast. I am a clever boy. So I like math. It’s my fevourite subject. But I want to be a writer, because I love every word.
I give best wishes to you.
A Chinese Children.
Harry. James

Dear Abama,
I’m a Chinese girl. I’m a student of 12. I live in Zhuzhou Hunan. It’s a beautiful country. I have some friends, they’re from Japan, Singapore, The UK and Australia. And I like make friends to each other. I want to make friend with you. Ok? Now, let me introduce myself to you.
I’m a girl of 12. I study in Jingyan Middle School. My name is Xie Ziling. I also have an English name, it is Angel. It’s very interesting, right? I like reading. Because it can broden my view, widen my knowledge, increase my eyes, open my horizon and improve my language. I can know about different culture. And I can also gain education which is mot available in the school and which is most importance to our future career.
There’re 4 seasons in a year but I know summer best. Because summer is very hot, I can eat many ice cream and big green watermelon. Swimming is my favorite soprts.
I hope we can make friends.
Yours,
Xie Ziling

Dear Abama,
I’m a Chinese boy. I’m 12. I’m a student of Zhuzhou Jingyan Middle School and I’m Evan. I like to play basketball. Do you like it? It’s a good sport. It can make me strong. I don’t have any penpal and I want a penpal in America. Can I make penpals with you, thanks.
Now. Let me tell you something about mine.
I have a small family, but I think my family is happy. There are four people in my family, my father, my mother, my brother and I. My father is a manager. He is good at work and he likes working. My mother is an accounting and she is a good cook of my family. My brother is a student in university. He is a good student. He can speak some language in English and a little French. We are happy together.
My school is the best of ZhuZhou City. I have eight classes in day. But I like English class best, because I like English very much. So, I learn English every weekends. I join in English club in school. I think I can speak English well, But only a little.
What about you? Can you tell me? Please write to me soon!
Best wishes for you.
A Chinese boy,
Evan

Dear President Obama,
My name is Zhang Siyi. My English name is Vicky. I’m 12 years old. I’m a Chinese girl. I’m study in Jing Yan Middle School. My hobbies are listening to music and drawing pictures.
I know you for a long time. You’re president of America. I think you’re very marvelous and successful. You’re famous in China. So, I want to ask you some questions:
1. When is your birthday?
2. Please introduce you by yourself.
3. Are you happy every day?
4. What do you think of China?
5. Do you like China?
I should be very happy if you favour me with an early reply.
I hope America can get along with China forever.
A Chinese Student,
Vicky

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Dear Obama

During last semester and the beginning of this one I taught a small class to a group of select English students called English Corner. While this class was the bane of my existence at times, I generally enjoyed working with a group of kids that really wanted to work on their English skills. A few weeks ago I taught them about the structure of a letter and then I had them write one to me. The letters were mainly all the same, telling me their favorite color and asking what mine was. At the end of that class I told them the next week we would be writing letters to President Obama. The students were super pumped! They have heard a lot about Obama through the Chinese media and he is generally liked among Chinese populace.

Unfortunately, by the next week English Corner had been permanently canceled, to be replaced by an even more disorganized "English Club" and we were never able to write our letters to the US President. One student, however, took it upon herself to write a letter in her free time and gave it to me. She asked if I could still send it to him, which I will, but I decided to pass the letter on to you before I do because it is just so darn cute.
Dear Obama,
Hi! I am a lively Chinese girl, and my name is Kacie. It’s a great joy to write to you. Now, let me tell you something about myself.
I’m a thirteen-year-old girl in Junior One. Although my spoken English is not so good, yet I try my best to transtale some sentences. In class, I’ve a very good friend, who is warm-hearted and helpful to the weak. Therefore, I’m very proud of her. Oh, she has a lovely Chinese name as well, Yang Chunzi.
Would you like to know more about myself? Write to me soon, please!
Kacie
While I doubt very much that Obama would write back, I really hope that my students might get a form letter back from the White House. I’m waiting a few days to see if any other students write letters and then I’ll send theirs and Kacie’s to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. hoping to receive something as soon as possible.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Zhuzhou Children's Institute


(A volunteer attempts to console a resident of the Zhuzhou Children's Institute)

Every year over 8,000 Chinese babies are given US visas when they are adopted by American couples. For every baby who moves to America, thousands more are left behind to grow up in Chinese orphanages. Ironically, a majority of these orphanages are located in the Hunan province and since Zhuzhou is one of the largest cities in the province, it is home for thousands of orphaned children.

My friends and I have been trying our best to visit one of the children’s homes in the area, but thing after thing just seemed to get in the way. Finally, last Sunday we were able to coordinate our schedules, the kids’ illnesses, and public holidays to allow us to visit the Children’s Institute of Zhuzhou.

I’ve never visited an orphanage in any country, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I imagined nightmares of the hundreds of children in tiny cribs, cramped in small, dark, damp rooms who were all crying at the same time. I’m happy to report that the Children’s Institute didn’t resemble my delusions in the slightest. The building was light and airy, with pictures decorating the walls and colorful blankets on the beds. There was a large, bright play-set in the courtyard for the kids to slide and swing on. It seemed like a very enjoyable place for the children to live.

All of the children at the Zhuzhou Children’s Institute were mentally or physically handicapped in some way and were a joy to spend time with. The seemed starved for male attention, so they attached themselves, the boys especially, to all the guys who came with us. We spent some time with the older children outside around the play-set, before going inside to see the younger ones. It was heart breaking to see the children who are completely unable to sit up and so spend their days lying in a small crib-like bed with a bedmate. I can’t imagine what they must be thinking. They seemed all unable to talk even though they were five and six years old. The walls and ceiling of the room were stark white, so my friends and I are devising a plan to make mobiles to hang from their beds or affix brightly colored shapes to the ceiling to give them something to look at.

While we were at the Institute there were about twenty Chinese volunteers visiting as well. I’ve talked to several Chinese people who were all completely unaware of the presence of a single orphanage in Zhuzhou, so I imagined that there would be a bleak lack of Chinese volunteers in the children’s lives. I’m happy to have been wrong. Most of the volunteers were college aged people who spent time singing children’s songs with the older residents. It looked like a good time was being had by all. While foreigners, like my friends and myself, can spend time with the children, we can’t sing songs and talk to them all that much, so it was good to see that someone was able to do that.

After my visit I felt happy and tired; happy to see the children being cared for so well and tired out by all the excited kids. The visit is definitely one I hope to repeat many times in my last few weeks in Zhuzhou.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Sunday, March 15, 2009

What Is Rude?

If I walked up to you, tapped your stomach, and said, “you’re a little fatter than you were,” I’m sure you’d think I was rude and I would have to agree. When a Chinese person does and says the exact same thing, they do not consider themselves rude. In the Chinese culture, excessive bluntness is not considered impolite in any way, so things that I consider offensive are said to me and my friends almost daily. It’s moments like these that I remember that what is and isn’t considered rude has changes not only from time period to time period, but from culture to culture as well. And it’s not that one is more right than the other, they’re just different.

I’m not going to lie; there are times that this specific aspect of Chinese custom really gets on my nerves. Most days, however, the “rude” things people say are just make me laugh. Here is a quick list of such comments from the past week:

1. Your nail polish is strange and ugly.
2. Do you think you are a little fat?
3. The class you teach is a joke.
4. Spoken English is broken English.
5. The pork is very hard.
6. He said that he thinks you are fat.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Working Hard or Hardly Working?


As I mentioned in my post about student janitors, the students "occasionally" take a break from their duties to have some fun. As I was walking down the stairs to go home today, I happened to catch a few boys creating a game with a ping-pong ball and their brooms.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The Grubes of Jing Yan



Speaking of the few employees hired to repair school equipment, I saw two of them hard at work on my way up to the office today. I'm sorry the above photo is a little blurry. I actually did get a clearer shot, but I thought this one illustrates life in China a bit better. As you may have noticed, the first man is welding a chair while smoking a cigarette. He has tossed his welder's mask aside, so that he can more clearly see what he is doing. I guess that's a good idea, because he is welding about 2 inches from his colleague's foot. The photo doesn't show that all of this is happening about 5 feet from a classroom full of about 60 students.

Maybe it's a good thing these guys aren't responsible for more around the school.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Student Janitors


At Hempfield High School, there is one man who has become somewhat of a fixture in the lives of the students, staff, and faculty alike. Now in his mid 80s, Grube has been working for the school district for as long as anyone can remember. He can been seen all throughout the building, pushing carts full of papers, drinking coffee, and chatting with the secretaries. As a member of the janitorial staff, Grube and his colleagues are responsible for the cleanliness of the school building and grounds. They repair desks, install TVs, and clean the building every single day. American schools, like Hempfield, would be left with quite a shock should the janitors fail to show up one day.

Chinese schools, however, are used to an absent janitorial staff. In fact, they do not even employ people to tidy up the school. How does the school get cleaned, you ask? The students do it. About three times a school year, on a rotating cycle, each class is excused from their studies for two days to clean the school. They pick up leaves from the basketball courts, mop the hallways, sweep the stairs, dust the handrails, and do mild landscaping in the school garden.

The students tell me they like cleaning, but I suspect it’s more likely they enjoy being able to walk around the school with a broom almost unchecked. Though the head teacher of the class assigned to cleaning duty is probably responsible for his or her students, I rarely see them checking up on them. Therefore, it is common to see boys fighting with the mops rather than actually removing dirt from the floor or see girls adjusting their hair with the help of their friends. This is, however, not to say that the school doesn’t actually get clean. The tile floors of the building where my office is located is mopped every single day, as are the stairwells and hallway floors. I just have come to believe that the students are skilled at messing around just enough that there is still enough time to do their assigned task.

I’m not sure if the students are learning anything about hard work or household management through being responsible for cleaning the school grounds, but I’m certain that they enjoy the much needed pause in their breakneck schedules. And I’m sure their parents enjoy the lower tuition cost that is a result of the school needing to only employ one or two repair people, rather than the entire janitorial force needed in US schools.

While this system works in Chinese schools, I highly doubt it would function even reasonably well in the halls of Hempfield High School, or most other American high schools. Looks like Grube’s job is safe.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Drink Hot Water

Certainly no matter where you are around the world, people will have suggestions to offer on how to cure a cold. In the US, I believe the most common pieces of advice would be drink more, take some type of cold medication, and get as much rest as you can. As many things are different than that of my home country, it’s not surprising that the Chinese have very ‘unusual’ suggestions on how to cure the common cold. The following list is a collection of suggestions which were either given to me or people I know.

1. Drink hot water.
2. Drink hot water with honey in it.
3. Drink hot water with medicine in it.
4. Drink hot water with lemon in it.
5. Drink hot water with salt in it.
6. Drink hot water with tea.
7. Don’t drink hot water.*
8. Don’t drink tea.
9. Drink room temperature water.* (You would have to microwave water to get it to “room temperature,” as the weather here is so cold that room temperature water is actually rather cold.)
10. Drink cold drinks.
11. Don’t drink cold drinks.*
12. Drink juice.
13. Only drink water.
14. Eat meat.
15. Don’t eat meat.
16. Eat spicy foods as long as your stomach feels ok.
17. Don’t eat spicy foods, regardless of how your stomach feels.
18. Take a rest.
19. Eat oranges, but not too many because they give you acne.
20. Eat some vegetables, but not too much eggplant because it makes you skin darker.
21. Make sure to keep the doors of your classroom open to protect against the flu.
22. Go to the hospital where they will most assuredly give you an IV.

* The stared suggestions were offered to one of my students, who was so sick that she was crying in my class. Rather than send her home or let her rest in her office, the nurse (the medical professional employed by the school to assist over 3,000 students) told her these things.

Clearly old wives tales persist in China. It is amazing the number of contradictory suggestions I received this week, most of them dealing with the temperature of my beverages and what should be in them. Several people encouraged me to visit any type of medical professional. And one other person suggested a mystery medication that is put in tea. The rest would just have me drinking some type of fix all drink, though what exactly that is varies. This all leads me to believe that world wide study on the topic of the common cold would be incredibly interesting.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

A Friend Who Knows How We Feel!

Being a foreigner in China poses a unique set of problems that not many can relate to. As I mentioned in this post back in early December, Mickey Mouse is one of the few that can. You can, therefore, imagine my surprise when my friends and I came across him and his girl, Minnie, while walking around Zhuzhou this morning. As we are both often photographed, we decided to get a quick shot together!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Hello South America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East!

Who knew my little blog was being read in so many incredibly interesting places? Saudi Arabia, Russia, India, Sweden, and Argentina! I don't even know anyone who lives in these countries and these are only my last 20 visitors. Crazy.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Eye Exercises

Back in December I started a series about school life in China. You may think that the series was canceled after the pilot episode, as I seem to have dropped the idea. This, however, is not the case. That time of year was busy with other activities to post about, as well as a major trip to plan. Now that that’s all over, I want to get back to the work on the posts that I had planned.
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Each country and culture has its own way for students to relax during the school day. During my time in Germany, I learned that students believe that it is beneficial to open the windows (no matter the weather) between classes to clear their heads. In the US, students take recess and “passing time” as down time between classes to relax and talk to their friends. Likewise, Chinese students have a 10 minute recess type break between each class, during which they enjoying playing basketball and jumping rope. These break periods are vital as the students remain in the same room throughout the day and it is the teachers who do the moving.

The Chinese, however, take de-stressing during the school to another level. Two times per day (or three times for the boarding students) the students do eye exercises. The exercises are lead by the recording of a women which comes over the loud speaker. She starts by instructing the students on what exercise they will begin with and then counts to eight eight times. I imagine she says something like, “Alright students, now we’re going to rub our eyes for the next five minutes. Don‘t roll your eyes at me! Here we go. Yi, er, san, si, wu, liu, qi, ba. Er, er, san, si, …” She then goes onto the next exercise; there are four in all. The students don’t actually need to be reminded what exercise they should be doing, as they’ve done them in the exact same order multiple times a day for the past 6 years of their lives.

While a majority of the class is stroking their faces, one or two of the students are patrolling the classroom with a notebook, making note of the students who are not showing the exercises the seriousness they deserve. Yet another group of students comes around to each classroom to ensure the monitors are doing their job to report misbehaving students. Should the individual classroom monitor be caught not reprimanding their students properly, he or she would be severe punished. The Chinese are certainly not creating a society that encourages citizens to spy and tattle on their neighbors with this discipline method. How could you even think that?

Well, now that you’ve read my description of what eye exercises look like, why don’t you watch for yourself? If your eyes are feeling the strain of a hard day’s work, feel free to join in. Just follow the students and listen to the soothing music.



According to this article in the New York Times, it appears that the Chinese might be on to something with their multiple breaks and eye exercises. Who knows, maybe American students will spend time massaging their faces as well in a few years.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

This week I have been teaching the students about body parts. This consists of me singing “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” 72 times, leading 12 rousing games of Simon Says, and allowing the students to draw on the board. Like twelve year-olds in any other country, they find it exceedingly funny to draw a pig nose and vampire teeth on the stick figure on the board. Some of the bodies actually came out pretty well, so I thought I’d let you take a look at one.

Welcome to the middle school classroom in China! (Notice the claw-like fingernails and bearded stick-person who is also wearing a skirt. Perhaps it's a kilt.)

Sunday, February 15, 2009

For You Viewing Pleasure

At long last, here are the links to the photo albums containing photos from my recent trip. There are 486 photos in all, so try not to wear yourself out looking at them all at once.

Hong Kong, China
Bangkok, Thailand
Auytthaya, Thailand
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Mekong River Cruise, Laos
Luang Prabang, Laos
Vientiane, Laos
Si Phan Don, Laos
Siem Reap, Cambodia

Kompong Khleang, Cambodia
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Hanoi, Vietnam
Halong Bay, Vietnam

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Careful When Using the Crosswalk

During the past several months Zhuzhou City has been on a campaign to curb (pun intended) jay walkers. There are elderly crossing-guards posted on every corner poised to give you a 20 RMB (about $3.00) ticket for crossing the street where you shouldn't. I've been complaining about how ridiculous I thought this was because the crusade is not coupled with the requirement that drivers in turn respect the crosswalk (or follow any traffic laws at all it seems). Today that fateful day arrived; the day I was proven correct. On my way to school today I heard the sound of screeching tires come to a stop and saw everyone on the bus stand up to look at a women on the ground in front of a taxi in the middle of a crosswalk. I'm glad to see these new laws are protecting the citizens of Zhuzhou. Oh, China!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Spring Festival Overview

Numbers:
# of days traveled: 31
# of countries: 6
# of currencies: 7
# of visas: 3
# of passport stamps: 14
# of extra pages added to my passport: 24
# of US Embassies visited: 1
# of cities: 13
# of times stranded in a city we did not intend on visiting: 2
# of UNESCO World Heritage Sites: 6
# of long distance buses: 5
# of buses missed: 1
# of trains: 7
# of flights: 4
# of unplanned flights: 2
# of boats: 2
# of days spent on boats: 4
# of elephants ridden: 1
# of bikes rented: 2
# of times ripped off by taxi/ tuk-tuk drivers: 10+
# of hotels: 12
# of bungalows: 1
# of animals found it the bungalow: 3 + bugs
# of insects willfully consumed: 1
# of fruit shakes: 21
# of bug bites: 50+
# of sun burns: 2
# of temples visited: too many to count
# of mosques visited: 2
# of random run ins with friends: 2
# of miles biked in Siem Reap: 45
# of things lost: 4
# of things broken: 6
# of times we did laundry: 2
# of times we had no idea what was going on: incalculable
# of people put into their place after they tried to rip us off: many
# of times we wanted to burn the LP: millions
# of books read: 4
# of scarves and bags purchased: an embarrassing number
# of dollars saved with our super bargaining skills: countless
# of dollars spent nonetheless: too many
# of dollars spent on visas: $108
# of pictures taken: 2186
# of new friends: dozens


The Best:
Meal: Chiang Mai
Fruit Shake: Chiang Mai
Street Food: Bangkok
Bus: Vientiane to Pakse
Train: Vietnam to Hengyang
Hotel: Siem Reap
Temple: Angkor Wat
Buddha: Bangkok
Bathroom: Hanoi
Airport: Hong Kong
Public Transportation: Bangkok
English: Kuala Lumpur
People: Kuala Lumpur
Tour Guide: Chiang Mai
Foreign Friends: Halong Bay
Knock-off Goods: Kuala Lumpur
Mall: Kuala Lumpur
Market: Bangkok

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Oh, please, no! Not more delicious tropical fruit!

During the Vietnam War, hundreds of US pilots who were downed in the northern Vietnam area, including Senator John McCain, were detained in Hao Lo Prison, which is located in Hanoi. The prison was originally built by the occupying French to hold political prisoners. The Vietnamese who were imprisoned in Hao Lo were no doubt treated poorly and suffered extensively. Today, portions of the prison remain and are on display as a memorial and museum.

The curators of the prison did a very good job of showing how horrific life in the prison was during French occupation. The food, bathroom facilities, and living spaces were clearly inadequate. Leg braces, a guillotine, and prison uniforms are all on display for visitors to get a better idea of how terribly the prisoners were treated.

The curators were, however, a bit less detailed when it came to the US soldiers housed in the prison. According to Lonely Planet, Southeast Asia on a Shoestring, Senator John McCain is unable to lift his arms above his head due to torture he experienced at Hao Lo, where he tried to commit suicide twice. This aspect of life in Hao Lo was – how should I say it – “overlooked” when the exhibit was being designed. Instead the displays show pictures of happy inmates decorating a Christmas tree, singing songs together, and attending Christmas mass. Brand new-looking clothing, which was “worn” by one of the many US soldiers who “enjoyed” their time in “Hanoi Hilton”, as the prison was known during the war, is on display is several cases. Another case shows a letter which was allegedly sent back to America by one of the inmates tells of the delicious tropical fruits he ate, the songs about his home state that he sang with his friends, and the many other fun things he had been up to.

The account of Hao Lo clearly varies greatly depending on the source. Since obviously neither source is lying or exaggerating, I think we have to assume that the torture that John McCain speaks of must refer to the delicious tropical fruits. Lifting juicy pineapple, papaya, and jackfruit to one’s mouth day after day could permanently hurt the arms. Let that be a lesson to you. Be careful about the amount of delicious tropical fruits you eat, it could permanently scar you.