P-A-R-T-Y!

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.