Zai jian, China

This will likely be my last blog entry from China since we leave Anqing in two days and China in three. There were times during our experience here when I never thought this day would come and yet I’ve found myself feeling a tad melancholy these past couple of days. No, I won’t miss the pollution, spitting, noise, and feeling lost most of the time, but I will miss the people I’ve met and connected with during my ten months. 


Today was filled with goodbyes. We bid farewell to some close friends during a lunch and dinner and it was difficult. I know that I’ll enjoy returning home, and the luxuries that come with living in the United States (blue sky, drinkable tap water that doesn’t smell like poo, a walled-in shower that doesn’t flood the entire bathroom floor, flushing toilet-paper, eating raw fruits and veggies without worrying about how they’ll affect my insides, etc.), but I’m not quite sure how I’ll feel about China once I’m stateside. 


What will I miss? I honestly don’t know because I haven’t figured out yet what this experience has meant for me. I certainly feel changed (who wouldn’t?), but I think it will take some time to process everything -- the good, the bad, and the bizarre. So far, I think that I appreciate my life much more than before; man I’ve got it good -- a loving family, a good education, great friends, a healthy savings account, a car, promising job prospects, enough food to eat, a computer, my travel experiences, the freedom to voice my opinions without worrying about repercussions, clean air and water, and the list goes on! In the coming days, weeks, months, it will be interesting to see the other ways I’ve changed. 


On Saturday I had my final day of teaching and I wish it could have gone a little more smoothly. The last class I taught was too excited about playing Jeopardy that they wouldn’t be quiet long enough for me to explain the directions. I gave the group a couple of warnings about their behavior and informed them that if they couldn’t listen to me when I asked them to, we wouldn’t be able to play the game. Unfortunately, they didn’t follow directions and I had to stop the activity and show them Mr. Bean episodes instead. Three students came up to me to ask if I would give them a second chance, but I refused to budge because the class had demonstrated to me that they couldn’t handle themselves (and this wasn’t the first time that I had problems with them). I was already taking a risk by playing Jeopardy, and the activity required a certain amount of maturity that the group of students didn’t possess. After a little while, I stopped Mr. Bean, explained to the class why they didn’t get to play the game, and told them that they had made the decision to refuse to listen to me so that’s why I cancelled the activity. Though they were unhappy, I think some of the students understood my actions.


A teacher arranged a going away party for us for the next day, but at the last minute the school informed him that he would have to attend parent-teacher conferences at the time of the event. This meant that we were on our own with students for about two hours, which caused a considerable amount of chaos because the kids didn’t know how to host a party. We didn’t know what was happening either, because the teacher hadn’t told us his plans. The students decided to rent a karaoke room, but it wasn’t big enough to fit everyone comfortably; the sound system was having problems and made intermittent, deafening screeching noises; three or four teens were hogging the microphone, so some of the other students wanted to open a new room; and many of the kids were unhappy with the party and left early, while others hinted that I should pay for the karaoke room (I ended up playing stupid and didn’t have to shell out the cash). Eventually everything got straightened out (we were never supposed to do karaoke originally) and we ate some lunch with a couple of students and some adult friends. Though uncomfortable at times, it was an educational and entertaining experience.


It’s getting late, so I should head off to bed! Our sleep schedule has been so out of whack lately because of interviews and late-night (or early-morning) calls to schools that I’ll be happy when it gets back to normal. Wait! It won’t for a little while because soon I’ll be dealing with jet lag. Oh well, at least I’ll be able to eat fish and chips and cereal soon (not together!) so I won’t complain. 


Thanks for being so supportive of us during our China Adventure! Your love, kind words, and cyber hugs kept us going through some difficult times and we can’t thank you enough!

Jeopardy and Feedback!

Sorry that it has been ages since I last wrote. I don’t really have any elaborate excuses to provide, other than that we’ve been busy applying to jobs in the US, planning our European Vacation, and finishing up our time here in China. We still don't know where we're going to be next year, but we have some promising leads.


Starting today, I’ll be conducting my last three days of teaching English in China. On Saturday, I decided to take a calculated risk and try playing Jeopardy with my students; I’ve got to say that I’m proud of my decision. The students are thrown off when they walk into the classroom because I’ve moved all the desks and arranged the chairs into six circles -- it’s funny to see their expressions as they take in their new surroundings. Noise levels are high during the game, but the students are quick to become quiet when I raise my hand to ask for silence. Surprisingly enough, everyone is engaged and interested in participating. Group work isn’t something used here often, so I think that the students enjoy experiencing something new.


Last week I played Mr. Bean for the students so I could talk with some of them individually to get some feedback about the class and my teaching. During the “interview” I got some interesting responses to the following questions:


Question #1: What was something that you enjoyed about this class?
Answers (NOTE: I’ve complied these answers to reflect general trends)
“The movie, cartoons, and Mr. Bean.”
“I like to relax myself in this class. It very fun.”
“You very funny. I like you very much.”



Question #2: What was something that you didn’t enjoy about this class or that I could have done better as a teacher?
“Class was very loud. We talk a lot.”
“More talking.”
“Nothing wrong. You very good teacher.” 


Question #3: What was something that you learned in this class?
“I learn spoken English and American culture.”
“You show me a new world. I learn about things outside of China.”
“I learned about western culture.”


Question #4: What do you think is one major difference between the United States and China?
“America is more open.”
“American students are more free. Chinese students have to study so much, but American students can do more fun things.”
“Classes in America are more fun. Chinese classes are very strict.”


Question #5: Do you have any questions?
“Why you come to China?”
“Will you come back to China?”
“Do you like China?”
“What you do when you get back to America?”
“Will your husband go back to America?”
“Why you leave China?”


Departure Countdown Clock: 10 days!

Greetings

Here's an amusing interaction I had with a student before class the other day:


A male student walked up to me, took a deep breath, made a concerted effort to stop for a few seconds, and said, "Hi! How are you? I'm fine, sanks. Goodbye."


During the entire "exchange", I had a bemused look on my face, but didn't have the opportunity to respond to the greeting because the boy quickly walked away after he finished his piece. 

Chinese students make me laugh

Unfortunately, I guess I’m starting to make a habit of only writing once a week; I think I’ve been too stressed out lately to take much time to keep track of exciting events. Also, most of what I’ve been doing lately is filling out job applications, preparing for interviews, worrying about finding work, trying to get my mind off the employment search, and attempting to get caught up on sleep.


Jean-Jaques had a late-night interview last Saturday at midnight and he knocked it out of the park. Despite the late hour, he was enthusiastic, energetic, and had some wonderful answers to the questions. We should hear from them by the end of this week.


We didn't get much sleep Saturday night because of the interview and the fact that we had to wake up early Sunday morning to participate in an activity for “Children’s Day”.  (You know you’re in a Communist country when you have “Women’s Day”, “Children’s Day”, “Worker’s Day”, etc.) Like most activities we in which we participate here, we had no idea what to expect from the day and there is no possible way that we could have foretold how it would all unfold. 


It started out with a private car ride to a spot where we met up with three buses. (We had to wait about a half an hour in the wind and rain for the third bus to arrive, but that’s nothing abnormal for China.) Once we had all boarded the buses (Jean-Jacques, a local Canadian named Stephen, and I all had to ride separately to fairly spread out the “foreigners”), we took a half-an-hour-long ride to a “natural” compound filled with fun activities for Chinese to amuse themselves with -- outdoor karaoke, a BBQ area, a ropes course, plants, artificial outdoor fishing, bike riding through vegetation, biked-shaped paddle boats, etc.  (During the bus ride, I sang “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” through a megaphone to a busload of screaming children.)


Once we arrived, we quickly trudged to a portion of the compound to set up residence where there were two covered concrete areas; the kids continued munching on snacks that they had started consuming on the ride to the park. During our time at the park, chaos reigned. There weren’t any specific activities arranged for the children, but many participated in tug-of-war, jump rope (and got whacked on the head a few times because they were in the way of the rope’s swing), eating, and just running around being kids. Sadly, most children don’t have the opportunity to relax much, so it was almost too much excitement for them to handle.


My ears will never be the same since I had to survive a constant barrage of shrill, screaming Chinese students. I had a good time, though, and it was worth the pain to have a hilarious story.



Today was hilarious on the student front. We’re finishing Stardust this week and if the two classes I had today are any indication of what this week will be like, I’m in for a treat. My students were laughing so hard that they almost fell out of their seats; were so thrilled when bad characters were killed that they clapped and whooped and hollered; and were so angry when I stopped the movie at the end of class that they screamed at me to keep playing it. Their antics caused me to spend most of the class period with a smile on my face, and I had the occasional outburst of laughter when the students were particularly effervescent with their reactions.  


One boy’s action was especially humorous. I have a picture of a crab shell posted for when the students walk into the classroom; before we start the movie, I ask the class what the picture shows. During one section today, a boy in the back of the room decided to play charades and act out the word. He made his hands into the shape of “claws” (think Spock making the Vulcan sign) and made them pinch the air. Undoubtedly, he was thrilled by his acting and had a huge smile on his face when I acknowledged him. 


So, I’m excited to see what other hilarious events this week inspires.

Catching up

This past week I taught a lesson about Hispanic and Asian Americans. We watched some Spanish-language music videos, learned a little Spanish (when my students see me around campus, they have been calling out “hola” lately and it makes me laugh because they are very excited about it), learned a little about the history of Asians in the US, and discussed famous Asian Americans. I was surprised by how well the students did with the lesson and how engaged they were with the content. One of the highlights for them seemed to be the section where we learned a few Spanish words and phrases. In China, the only language high school students study is English and they have no choice in the matter. Many of the students haven’t learned much about the Spanish-speaking world, or even heard the language much, so I think they enjoyed being exposed to something new.

To further enhance the new cultural experience, I showed them a music video from a Mexican brother-sister guitar duo named Rodrigo y Gabriela. Many of the students watched in complete silence (which is something rare here) and one of the classes even clapped when the song was over; I also noticed that many of the kids wrote down the name of the group so they could listen to the music later.

Believe it or not, we’ve got five weeks left in the PRC. It’s strange that our time here is winding down. I’ll be happy to eat pizza, cereal, and fresh fruits and veggies again, but I’m going to miss China. I’m not sure how to explain it. China can be dirty, disgusting, and the most frustrating place on Earth, and yet, somehow, it gets under your skin and endears itself to you. It’s so outrageous and completely different from anything I’ve experienced before that it forces you to love and be charmed by it. Yes, there have been many times that I’ve wanted to get on the next plane and leave because of frustrating cultural differences, but once you take a step back (and realize that there are multiple ways of looking at the universe), things get easier. My experiences here have taught me that our history and culture have shaped us in ways that we don’t fully understand until we are confronted by people and situations that cause us to challenge our ingrained assumptions. What might seem like a simple logical thing to me could appear completely insane to a Chinese person and vice versa.

Take the government, for example. Westerners often have a difficult time understand how the Chinese Communist government has been in power for so long, but now that I’ve lived here for a few months, I understand the situation a bit better. Historically, China has been ruled by dynasties and there hasn’t been the strong push for the individual freedoms that we have seen in the West. Many aspects of the culture (a strong desire for harmony for example) make it such that strong leaders are admired and even desired by the people, so, in many ways, the society is set up for a strong central government. Yes, this is a simplistic overview of the situation, but it does provide a good example of how people from different cultures view life and their roles in it.

Before I sign off, I do have a funny story from this weekend. Yesterday, Jean-Jacques and I stopped by a store that sells Western food items; we've been to this shop a couple of times, but we haven't established a deep connection with the owner. As we were paying for our goods, the proprietress decided to give us some smoked fish from her lunch. We tried to refuse, but she insisted and fed us with a toothpick. The food was good, but I did feel a little bad about taking about a quarter of her lunch -- she didn't seem to mind much, though.

A Chinese Cinco de Mayo!

It’s strange to think that it’s been so long since I last wrote. There hasn’t been too much happening daily to warrant constant reporting, so I’ll give a brief overview of this past week’s activities. To celebrate May Day, or Communist Day, we took our friends out for dinner and I gave them the baby blanket. We had fun conversing with them and learned some fascinating local news. In the past three to four weeks, five people have died of unnatural causes here in Anqing. One student from No. 1 Middle School probably committed suicide because he didn’t score well on a national science test, a man killed his girlfriend of eight years and himself in a near-by restaurant because she broke up with him and he couldn’t take the rejection, and two students drowned in the river when they went swimming.

The topic for this week’s lesson has been animals and biomes. The students seem to really enjoy the content and have a fun time learning about various animals, biomes, and seeing clips of Plant Earth and hilarious animal outtakes. (The British have a bizarre, but hilarious sense of humor. There is a show where people take clips of wild animals and add funny voice-overs; the students get a kick out of it, even though they don't fully understand what's being said.) One girl told me yesterday, “Your class is very popular. Your class and art are only places where we can relax.”

I think Jean-Jacques and I have finally figured out the best strategies for teaching here: be willing to accept a lot of classroom noise (students here talk, but it’s usually about the exciting content we’re covering in class), use humor to discipline (remember that, in some ways, the students are as mature as third graders), and keep the lesson moving quickly (attention spans can be short, so you have to be an energetic-circus-clown type of teacher). In class “quizzes” that encourage participation are great for getting students engaged and they love having the opportunity to shout out their answers to you. Also, don’t take things too seriously or you’ll just get frustrated.

It’s amazing to watch the kids’ reactions to the clips we see from Planet Earth. Nature and beauty is an important part of the Chinese soul; I think an appreciation for the natural is deeply entrenched in the culture as well. When the cherry blossoms were out, I saw countless people flipping out their cell phones to take pictures with and of the flowers. The same thing is happening with the roses in the courtyard here at No. 1. One day, I saw students take time to observe how the sunlight lit up leaves. So when we watch some highlights from the series Planet Earth, there are many sharp intakes of breath and choruses of, “Wow!” It’s heartening to see them enjoy nature so much.

It's a little strange for me that I've been out of the country for two major events in American history. Ten years ago, when 9/11 happened, I was in the middle of a study abroad in Chile. Almost a decade later, I was absent from home again when the news about Osama bin Laden's death started circulating the internet, radio, and TV. I've been asked by a couple of students what I think about the death and this has been my response, "I think it's good that he's gone. I wish he would have been willing to be taken alive for a trial, but he wasn't going to do that. I find it sad that so many people are celebrating his death, but I do think it's good he's gone. I think it's always sad when someone dies." The students contemplate this for a bit and sometimes nod.

On a slightly happier note, my explanation of the word “howl” by giving a howl myself causes many of the classes to erupt into clapping. I mean a full fifteen-seconds of awe-inspired gratification from the audience. It always makes me laugh.

Hope all is well for everyone! Until next time...

P.S. Here are some photos of the completed baby blanket.

A break in the frenzied storm of productivity

Don’t worry, we’re not dead, just busy. This week has been insane. We’ve been working on job applications, planning our summer trip, rescuing/watching kittens in a nearby yard, and teaching. Last weekend we made a spread sheet of web links to the employment information for all the school districts in Washington, since there isn’t a specific place where schools post job openings. In Oregon, the districts use a website called EdZapp, but there isn’t a standard system for Washington. So every few days we go through the list of two hundred and ninety-seven districts to see if any have posted jobs. Needless to say, it’s a time-consuming process. 


We’ve also been planning our post-China summer trip. Here’s the plan so far: we’ll leave Shanghai on June 19, fly to London and spend five days there; take a train from London to Nantes, spend two nights, pick up a car; drive to Vannes, spend two nights; drive to Quimper, stay three nights; drive to Normandy and enjoy three weeks in our rental; and end the trip by taking a couple of days to see Paris before flying back to Seattle. It’ll be a packed vacation and we’re really excited about it since there will be distinct portions of the trip and we’ll enjoy getting to know the northwestern part of France well.  It took a painfully long time to decide our itinerary, and there were many versions before our final draft, but we’re thrilled to be spending so much time in Brittany and Normandy. At first we were thinking about going to Provence, but if we stay in the northwest, there won’t be as many tourists as there are in the south of France, the weather will be cooler, and we won’t have to spend so much time on the road. Plus, we’ll have plenty to see to keep us busy.


A litter of kittens inhabits a yard of a nearby apartment complex that we can see from our window. There is a wall that keeps most of the kittens from exploring the outside world, but a few days ago one of the kitties escaped from the safety of the enclosure. We were worried about it, so I tried to rescue it two times before Jean-Jacques successfully returned the little feline to its home. (We can easily see the yard, but there are walls that prevent us from getting to it easily, so it takes about a five minute walk to get there.) However, not many hours passed before the little one escaped again. We’ve gave up worrying about it; the mama cat went to it frequently, so we knew it was getting food and would probably be OK until it grew a little more and could jump the wall back to home. And guess what? Today I saw it safely back with its brothers and sisters. 


I think we get a three-day weekend. No one from the school has officially said anything about it, but some students have assured me that we get Monday off to celebrate May 1, which is May Day or Communist Day. We don’t currently have any special plans, but something exciting might pop up.


Here are some photos I recently took of some roses at No. 1. Enjoy!

Yes, it"s a bit cliché, but I had fun working on the editing