I forgot to mention one thing about the Thanksgiving weekend. I travelled with Angel from Mianyang to Neijiang. This was quite the experience and I am surprised I had forgotten it until now. The bus we were taking is supposed to leave at 9am, so we get there about 8:40. Angel asked an attendant where the bus to Neijiang is, since we didn’t know the characters for Neijiang. The attendant told us to wait a bit since the bus wasn’t there yet. We wait and then it is 8:50 and we get a bit nervous thinking the bus should definitely be there by now. Then all of a sudden we hear that the bus to Neijiang is leaving, so Angel runs over to see what is going on and they tell him the bus that has been in front of us this whole time is in fact the bus we should be on! So we load our things and get on, but the bus is packed and there is only one seat. Angel tells me to sit and I said that we can switch at the half-way mark of this 5 hour bus trip. But then this lady gets on and tells Angel to follow her off the bus. When he gets off, the bus I am on starts pulling out! I start to say wait but it doesn’t look as if they are going to wait for me. I sit back down and Angel has sent me a text to stay on the bus because they are putting him on a different bus and if things get too weird try and meet up in Chengdu at the North Bus Station—I say okay but am really hoping this doesn’t happen because I always get a bit lost in Chengdu. We travel for a bit on the bus and then the bus pulls off on the side of the road and the driver tells me to get out. I was starting to get really nervous but then I saw Angel was standing on the side of the road too. As long as we are stuck in the same boat together I figured things couldn’t be too bad. So what happens is this- lady that first took Angel off of the bus flagged down a bus for us and three Chinese people and we all got on and made it to Neijiang. Just have to have fairht and trust. That is one thing I have learned about China. If you let someone know where you want to go you will make it there, even if it’s not the way you originally thought.

For example I took the train to Mianyang the day before leaving for Neijiang and I mentioned to these nice Hunan people sitting next to me that I was getting off in Mianyang and they told me when to get off the train. They were also trying to force this teenage girl to practice her English with me which completely appalled her. Instead I practiced my Chinese with them.


Back at school there was a hip-hop dance competition between our school and 9 other colleges. It was quite interesting. I had a few laughs watching it as the boys were trying to be gangsta and the girls were trying to be sexy—with ripping their shirts off and pretending to fire guns. Some of the dancing was actually impressive—though far short of So You Think You Can Dance. Our school got first and second place, which wasn’t surprising considering how much time is spent dancing here.

One evening I was asked to teach a group of students to make fruit salad. I said it wasn’t difficult—just cut up some fruit and put it in a bowl. But the main reason was that the students wanted to communicate with a foreigner. And also they meant Waldorf salad. I came and said that I think Waldorf salad isn’t eaten that much by westerners I know, and that I didn’t think it was tasty; so we should just cut the fruit and put it in the bowl, but if the students want to try waldorf later I would write the recipe on the board. When I first came into the classroom I was slightly overwhelmed because it was a large group and they were just waiting for me to "do something". Finally the students settled on me singing a song to start. The Chinese have this bad habit of treating foreigners like they are circus performers. Anyway I taught them two children’s songs (head shoulders knees and toes and If you’re happy and you know it). Then I let them ask me questions. At one point Janice came into the back and I made her join me at the front, but she left as soon as we started making the fruit salad. I showed them but said it really doesn’t matter what fruit you include and how it is cut up. Afterwards we played some games. The first game was that you were asked some questions by a ‘host’ and you had to answer quickly without using pronouns or saying um. It was rather difficult. It was all in Chinese but I still participated but they had to ask me the questions slowly and I responded even slower. If you used one of the pronouns you had to do a performance of some sort—song, dance or something else. Then we played another game that was a mixture of hot potato and truth or dare. If the ‘potato’ stopped on you then you must answer a question without using any pronouns and if you did then you must choose truth or dare. I used a pronoun on my turn and I chose dare and they made me do a dance, so I did the I’m a little teapot dance. When it was time to go back I discovered that I had been spending my evening with the English Club. I had no idea that there was an English Club. It is a student-led group that is interested in English and improving their English skills and knowledge of English speaking countries.

The next week there were several sports competitions, including ping pong and volleyball. I was asked to participate in the volleyball match. I am terrible at volleyball but it seemed I wasn’t the only one and anyways I was filling a space. It wasn’t very much fun since I don’t like volleyball but I was being apart of the department which was good. Our department won, but we won out of the losers. It was just for fun, though. In the middle of the game Kerry asks me if I am going to watch a movie that evening at Janice and Marks. Since I had made Skype plans with someone I said no. He said oh well then I should tell you now that the leaders said that you must be finished teaching this week and have exams next week and turn your grades in before Christmas. Well last I had heard we were to finish at the end of December and I had already made plans for exams taking two weeks and told my classes that day this. So I had to change my plans and track down the students I had already told my original plans to and give them the new plans. Apparently this happens every year and every semester. I can’t understand why they cannot figure out the dates earlier than they do. Oh well. I will make a mental note of this for next semester.

Lunch can sometimes be quite interesting. This time Kerry turns to me and starts asking me all these questions about Christmas trees. Is it true that you put real trees in your house? What kind of trees do you use? What do you do with the tree after Christmas? Do the trees in the school or the trees at the mountain we went to (more than a month ago) look more like Christmas trees? It turned out that Kerry had this crazy idea to go to the nearby mountain and cut down a tree to bring to his house for Christmas and then to keep it on his porch for the rest of the year. This is not a good idea—so us three foreigners thought. Luckily it didn’t work as he hoped and he bought an artificial tree. Actually his home was

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is easily my favorite holiday and this year proved to be no disappointment. Thirty-five Peace Corps volunteers, a crazy guy from Singapore with a hyper Chinese freshmen, an energetic Kiwi, a Danish guy, tons of delicious food and all of the beer from the little convenient store down on campus and you have the recipe for a good Thanksgiving in China. Many of the volunteers in Sichuan and Chongqing met in Southern Sichuan to celebrate the holiday. The volunteers in Chengdu found a real turkey and cranberry sauce at the foreign store (rarities in China), and the rest of us brought and cooked a massive feast. Many great cooks succeeded in making stuffing, cornbread, pumpkin pie, Dutch apple pie, macaroni and cheese, more stuffing, mashed potatoes, apple sauce, tuna noodle casserole, cakes, dumplings, corn, green bean casserole and I am probably forgetting something. I made banana bread and chocolate peanut butter cookies which I must say turned out surprisingly well in my little toaster oven. Since there were so many of us and just two volunteers in small apartments we all stayed in a hostel on campus. It was…pretty gross, but the company made up for it. While we were there a few of us visited a Buddhist temple that was around a 1000 years old. It turned out to be quite nice and this lady came from nowhere and gave the three of us standing together a lesson on Buddhism and Buddhist necklaces. There was also a fierce dog behind a door that all too much made me think of the three-headed dog from Harry Potter. I thought it was going to break down the door. Another kind man working at the temple opened a closed section of the temple for us foreigners which was rather nice.

This Thanksgiving experience also included us visiting a club. It was fun to watch these middle-aged Chinese men dancing on a stage and even more fun to watch some of our guys follow them and attempt their dance moves which involved much flailing of the arms and high kicks. Returning from the club to the hostel my friends and I witnessed a street fight. Not as dangerous as it sounds. It was on the other side of the road, and these two men chase this taxi and start kicking it. The cab slams on its breaks and about 7 Chinese men pour out of it and start yelling at the group of men on the street. The 2 women are trying to calm the men down. Then they start slapping and kicking each other and that’s about it. It was rather anticlimactic.

Back in Jiangyou there was an art festival all week. The students had been preparing all month with dancing, singing and drawing. Janice made a smart comment to say that if the college devoted as much time and money into academics as it did performing the school would be really good. Regardless the artwork and dancing were fantastic. I missed the musical show. I wish I had taken pictures of the students’ art which were quite talented and worthy of sale but this is annual so I will just catch it next year.

I missed the musical show because I told a student that I would have dinner with her. This student is a senior high school student that has taken to me. Before I went to dinner I ran with a freshmen student that speaks English quite well. But before we started running she said that she would be joining me and Lisa for dinner that night. I was surprised because I couldn’t figure out how she might have known Lisa (it turns out that Whitley was talking with another student about me and Lisa overheard and approached her about me and they formed a friendship based off their mutual acquaintanceship with me). I was pleased by this because Lisa speaks almost no English. During dinner Whitley translated that Lisa has been having a terrible time with her roommates. Apparently they smoke all the time in their room, stay up to really late hours, never study, and have put indecent photos of another roommate on the internet. Lisa wanted to know if she could live with me. She can’t of course but I told her she can come over to study or get away. Lisa had also started practicing her English by chatting with this American man on msn and wanted my opinion about the conversations she had with him because she was feeling a bit weird about it. I read through it and, yes, this man is a creepy and inappropriate man and I told her not to talk with him anymore. Then she was worried that he’d be able to find her since he said he was coming to China next year but I assured her that he wouldn’t be able to as long as she doesn’t give him her address and that even if he did that I would protect her at school and her dad can protect her at home. Whitley and Lisa came over for dinner Sunday evening which made Lisa almost flip with excitement. Janice and Mark said when they first came to the school the parents of their students thought they were lying when they said they had foreign teachers, and a few of the students that I talk with still have this issue. One student made me talk with her mom on the phone because she didn’t believe that she was sitting in the home of a foreigner. Funny.

Better news this week is that one of the girls in my running club passed her running exam in p.e! She was quite nervous about it since she had already failed it previously but in running club I had everyone run a fast 800 meters (which is their PE test) and I quickly discovered why she kept failing. She was going out really fast and then crashing the second lap. With my advice she was able to get through it. Funny that across the world I am still coaching.

This past weekend I went to Mianyang to have an early Christmas celebration at Angel’s. When I was at the bus station catching a bus to Mianyang a young Chinese woman approached me and asked where I was going. I told her and asked where she was going—which was the same as me. Then she wanted to know if I was Chinese. When I said I was American she said oh I can speak English! For the rest of the trip I chatted in English with twenty-three year old (same as me) Mia who works in administration in Jiangyou but whose family is in Mianyang. I told her that we can hang out sometime in Jiangyou since she just moved there and still doesn’t know many people there.

The Christmas gathering was nice and small. It consisted of all the foreign teachers at their college and one Chinese teacher. Three of us were Peace Corps, one was a Peace Corps volunteer a few years back but returned as a paid foreign teacher, another was just an American that came to teach, and the last foreign teacher was an Austrian woman that teaches German at the school. The Austrian woman said she was disappointed in my drinking ability and that I should train before going drinking with her again. I cannot compete with an Austrian! Maybe if I harness my Irish background. We were only joking with each other of course. The food was good and Angel gave us all small gifts which was incredibly nice. It was nice to have the celebration as an opener to the season. I did have one interesting conversation with a Chinese teacher that was with us. Jeff, Angel’s site mate, and I were talking with her about foster care in America earlier that evening. She had some more questions concerning the system. I gave her both scenarios of good foster homes and bad ones. In Tallahassee it is a bit nicer than in Chicago where Jeff is from. Foster kids get swept under the rug far too often but I think it is more so in places like Chicago, New York and Detroit. She said that it was nice that we have the system even if sometimes it fails because there is nothing like that in China.

The day I returned I met with Jane and her roommates to shop for cooking items because they were coming over to cook. They made dumplings, a soup, two vegetable dishes and a tofu dish. It was very good but there was so much food! Jane, Danny and I just helped fold the dumplings because we didn’t know how to cook the foods and were just in the way in the kitchen. After eating Jane and Danny did the dishes. They wouldn’t let me help with anything! When things were cleaned we watched a movie. It was quite relaxing. I continued to work on my knitting. Yes my knitting. I used to knit in college but stopped. It is quite popular here and I have picked it back up. I am currently working on a scarf. While I am here I want to try and get better and attempt things that aren’t squares—like hats and gloves, but we’ll see how into it I get. My students can only do scarves. Janice is the one I need to ask if I want to try something more difficult—she actually cast on for me because I’d forgotten that necessary step.

It is weird for me to think that this semester is almost over. In two weeks I will begin to give finals and at the end of this month I will turn my grades in for my first semester teaching in China. I have begun to reflect on my teaching and have made note of some big improvements that I need to make. I am going to ask my students to evaluate my teaching and we’ll see how it goes. Chinese students don’t like to say anything negative about their teachers, but hopefully I can convince them of the importance of evaluating my teaching.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and things are looking merrier these days!

1st Birthday in China and 1 Busy Week

Last Sunday I took my good friend Vivi out for dinner since she was leaving Wednesday for a little over a week to visit Nanjing, the former capital of China (near Shanghai), to attend some meetings concerning preschool education, along with her husband who is studying for his PhD in education at a university in Chongqing. When we finished dinner I decided to accompany her to see to her students. Vivi is a head teacher for about 125 students. As a head teacher it is her responsibility to see to the needs of the students, to grant them leave, and to notify their parents should they miss school. The students must also sit for evening class on Wednesdays and Sundays at 7pm and Vivi must take roll, give announcements, and occasionally lecture on some topic. So you can imagine she is quite busy. On this occasion I decided to accompany her since I had nothing else to do and Vivi said the students would be teaching about some things, including Thanksgiving. The students led each other in songs, discussions, and gave a short performance. The entire meeting was in Chinese, of course, so I did my best to listen and pick out words here and there and figure out what was going on. At the end of the meeting I was getting drowsy, maybe, and was paying less attention to what was being said, so I missed when I was introduced, but soon realized when Vivi elbowed me and I glanced up to see over a hundred students looking at me. It seemed that they wanted me to come up and say something, which I did. I gave them a short lesson about Thanksgiving in America and what my family does on the holiday. It was certainly a surprise, but I know most of her students which made it okay.

Monday one of my students gave me a birthday present. When I got home I opened it and it was…wait, what is this? It was green and something to wear, but I couldn’t figure it out. I decided to wait and ask Eliam when she came over to teach me Chinese this afternoon, but she didn’t know either! Together we figured out that it was a stylish scarf that hung loosely on my neck. It was very pretty once I knew what it was. My tutoring went okay and afterwards I awkwardly asked Eliam how much she might like to be paid, but she said she would prefer it if I taught her English and American teaching methods as a return for her teaching me Chinese. Yes, that I can do and I am glad I don’t have to deal with paying a friend money. After my lesson Media asked if I would like to accompany her to buy vegetables downtown and then she made both of us dinner. She said she wasn’t a good cook, but I thought it was delicious (spicy green peppers with dried pork, a green leafy vegetable cooked with garlic, and porridge—watery rice (I like it, though many foreigners don’t). While eating we came on the topic of the Chinese zodiac and who knew—we are both rabbits (which really excited Media). This means as much to me as being a Scorpio, which is nothing.


Tuesday Vivi invited Allie and me for dinner (lotus roots, eggs and tomatoes, fried potatoes, and a green leafy vegetable and tofu, and rice). Vivi invited me to listen to a speaker earlier that day and we were planning on going after dinner to the library. As we were leaving, though, Vivi said it was a student singing contest. I said okay. The conversation that follows is rather interesting and worth mentioning:
Vivi: what’s it called the person that comments on a performance?
Me: a judge?
Vivi: yeah! A judge.
Me: so who is the judge for this contest?
Vivi: um…we are
Me: what?!
Vivi: okay, let’s hurry; we’re late!
Then she grabbed my arm and we rushed to a library classroom where Vivi, me and two music teachers proceeded to judge 37 student singers. Vivi and I were wholly unqualified, but her students asked her and then asked if I would since there might be some students singing English songs. Well there were 3 English songs out of 37, but at least Vivi didn’t really know what she was doing either. After the contest a student flagged me down because she wants to be my friend. So my newest friend is Whitley, a student of Kerry’s from Chengdu who likes running and is just slightly goofy (the latter two sound like me a bit. Haha!). Later on Friday morning she ran me down on the track when I was running to give me some instant coffee—maybe she knew it was my birthday.

So I am often taken aback by this juxtaposition of old and new in China. Pedi-cabs maneuvering around BMWs, horse and ox pulling carts down the road next to construction trucks, and meat sellers with their pigs’ feet hanging from hooks outside the new mall. This week I was slightly amazed to see a farmer strolling down the road beside the school leading his massive pig with just a slight swish of his stick while I stood inside my tiled apartment having just finished my lunch. Life here is certainly fascinating. I hope I do not soon lose that feeling of astonishment of living in China.

Thursday I was pleasantly surprised to see the results of a homework assignment that I gave my sophomore classes. Last week we had discussed the topic of TV and computer, and I asked the students to create a 5 minute mini TV show and the results were quite entertaining. I wasn’t sure what they might come up with and I was very impressed with their creativity and the time they put into the assignment. There was a talk show, talent show, and dating show. The dating show was probably the funniest. There were 5 female contestants, the host, and one "guy" (it’s an all female class). First the women introduced themselves and why they were on the show. Then 'Peter' came on and introduced himself and why he was on the show. Then the host asked the women to decide if they liked him (which they did by putting their water bottles down for no or kept it up for yes). One girl put hers down and the host asked why and she said because he was too old. Then the girls were allowed to ask Peter a question. After the questions they could choose again yes or no (two more said no and gave reasons). Then Peter could ask the girls a question. In the end Peter chose between the two remaining girls. Then the rest of the class who were the audience shouted kiss kiss kiss! So they pretended to kiss and the host wrapped up the show.

Thursday afternoon I went to watch a jump rope contest after two students told me about it. It was really fun to watch so I took pictures. Then I went with one student to join two teachers playing Ping-Pong. They let me try for a bit, and I wasn’t as bad as I thought I might be. I wasn’t good or even okay—I was pretty terrible, actually, but I thought I wasn’t even going to be able to hit the ball which I did. When 5:30 rolled around this student and I went over to the center of the school for English Corner. Instead of having an icebreaker activity I had some questions to ask the students that my correspondence class ( a middle school class) in America had asked me this week but to which I didn’t know the answers. The following are their unique questions with my students’ answers:

1. Do you do Kung-Fu? A. No. Every student said no, but this doesn’t mean that they don’t do it in China. Many of the students at my school prefer dance to kung-fu. Kung-Fu is taught at the school, but it is an extremely serious and disciplined sport. Media told me that in order to be able to major in Kung-Fu you must start at an early age and continue throughout your school years. She remembers that the Kung-Fu students in her middle school had to rise at 5am and do Kung-Fu before school and these students were very limber and could lift their legs above their heads while standing.
2. Do you listen to hip-hop? All said yes
3. Who are some famous artists in China? Jay Chou (the most famous amongst students), Jorin, Lee Hom
4. Are there gangs in China? If so, what is the name of a gang? ‘of course’ was a student’s answer. They gave two names: Chen Shui Bian and Li Hung Zhi
5. Do you play any online games against people from other countries? Yes. AU
6. Do you celebrate anything like Thanksgiving in China? No
7. How old must you be to drive in China? 18
8. Any famous American artists travel to China to perform? They couldn’t think of any, and I’m sure that those that do probably only perform in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.
9. Are their any Chinese rappers? Yes, Pan Wei Bo

When they had so kindly answered these American middle school students’ questions the Chinese English language students split into 5 groups with a student leader and practiced their oral English. Every group was doing well except one that kept speaking Chinese every time I went over to see them. I kept trying to get them to speak more but I realized that it was their student-leader who is a bit shy, so I will remember this and put more outgoing students in her group to further the conversation along.


Friday, nothing special. Just kidding! It was my birthday! All morning I received messages from my fellow volunteers and students wishing me happy birthday, and many emails from friends and family back home saying happy birthday (thanks!). At lunch Kerry informed me that the school found me a TV and some students brought it to my apartment later, so now I can have students over to watch movies, which is great! And Mark and Janice had an extra DVD player that they said usually works, which I took back to my apartment along with a few movies I borrowed to watch with some students tonight. Friday afternoon I went running with Jane who apparently failed her running exam in PE and wanted me to help her improve. While I was heading to the track hundreds of students were pouring out—mostly my freshmen students. There was a sports game day at the field and they were participating. Two students ran up and gave me some balloons. Jane saw me wandering around amidst the crowd and called me over. First we played badminton with her two friends. I said I wasn’t any good because I hadn’t played since I was a child in Miami, but it turns out I have a natural talent for it. Then we ran a few laps, rested and ran some more. The PE test requirement is to run 800 meters in under 4 minutes which Jane couldn’t manage, so we just ran distance. When we were leaving a freshmen student of mine ran up to give me a card she made for me. It said Happy Birthday (in Chinese), then had a painting of a panda with a poem that she wrote:
I am a lovely Panda.
Im very popular in China.
I have good luck, happiness, and so on.
I have the world’s good things.
Now I give them to you!
Because I hope you’ll be the happiest person in the world!

Yours sincerely,
Yang Li
And she was so nervous writing it she said that she wrote the wrong month, but I still thought it was lovely. After running Jane and her friends and I went to dinner at a restaurant by the school gate which they treated me to on account of my birthday. Then I ran to a shop to buy some soda and snacks for the students coming over to watch a movie. About 7 students came over and we watched 27 Dresses and ate snacks. It was relaxing and fun. They also brought some snacks and a cake for me and some mittens as a gift! Very nice. As usual they cleaned everything up within the blink of an eye when the movie finished and they left quickly since they were tired and didn’t want to impose, but I enjoy the company of these students very much so it was no bother.


I find it just slightly irritating that the track cannot keep the same hours every week. I woke early, but not too early, Saturday morning for a jog and it was closed. Later I went at 5:30 and indeed it was open, but it closed soon after. Oh well! Now I know.

After my not-running, Sharon stopped by to use my internet and to chat. It turns out that on Friday she was observed by the dean of the department, since she is a new teacher, and he gave her a bad review. She said she was heartbroken over it yesterday, but then with some consideration she has come to terms with it. Some of his qualms over her teaching didn’t make a lot of sense to either of us, actually (i.e. she walks around the classroom too much; he didn’t think she was prepared (when really she was but her computer was having issues—however I must side a bit with the dean on this because I never assume technology will work and always have a plan B (thank you Dr. Froelich for that sound advice). We’ve touched this issue before and really her heart desires to return to school to earn her PhD and to work in a university (preferably in Chengdu where her family lives). If I hadn’t mentioned this before I teach at a junior college, so I don’t think anyone working at this school has their PhD, though several have masters. Like I tell everyone, both in China and America, the most important thing is to be happy (not money or a good job) but happiness in waking up and going to a job you enjoy or feeling satisfaction in your accomplishments. I suppose for some this is easier said than done.

Saturday afternoon I went with a student to lunch and then walking which was pleasant. Then I answered the myriad of letters that I received from my correspondence school in the States. That took forever! After my short evening jog I hurried back because Jane and her friends were coming over to see a movie. It was 5 girls this time. We watched half of Eat, Pray, Love before the movie stopped working because of a huge scratch in it. Since it was too late to start another film, two girls played chess and I taught the rest ERS and spoons, which they liked. We also enjoyed the cake that the students brought for me yesterday, but we forgot to eat. It looked great, tasted so-so, and later hurt my stomach. This explains why the Chinese do not eat many baked items. So the movie was great before it stopped (you should see it if you haven’t) and it was really cool for the girls to see other parts of the world, the culture, and the foods they eat. They loved seeing all of the delicious Italian foods—as did I. I taught them a little about the other countries that were represented on the movie (Italy and India—we didn’t reach the Bali section, but I know nothing about Bali anyways).

Sunday was the big party. Well I am not sure big is a good description, but it was the teachers potluck/ joint birthday party for Kerry, Media and me. I had no idea how many teachers were planning to come, but I was hoping for at least 7 and we had 8 so it was quite nice. Everyone brought food and I provided drinks, snacks and fun. Fun? Yes, I taught everyone beer pong! It was very funny. Later Kerry taught us a Chinese drinking game. Kerry drank quite a bit, but most of us shied away. Janice had a cake that she bought, and it tasted a bit like angel food cake with a whipped topping. We also had gifts. I gave Kerry a picture frame with a picture of himself in it that I took before and I gave Media a mug with candy. Media gave me hand cream because she knows my hands crack terribly from using the chalk, Allie gave me some sleeve protectors to wear over my sleeves to protect it from dirt, and Janice and Mark gave me a hand warmer and bookmark. It was really nice but when they left it was double-time cleaning because Monday my site manager, China country director for Peace Corps, and a person from the US Embassy in Beijing were visiting me!

The visit went well. Mark Lambert from the embassy was extremely nice and Bonnie (country director—i.e. head of China PC program), and Wang Laoshi (site manager—i.e. head of Sichuan volunteers) were very nice as always. They came to my house at 10, we talked and I showed them my apartment, a little of the school, and my office, and at 11 they observed one of my classes. After my class we accompanied Kerry, the dean of the foreign affairs office at the school (very nice man), and the president. They took us to the nicest hotel in Jiangyou and the food was okay but we sat outside because the weather was really nice. When we were leaving Mr. Lambert gave me the nicest compliment which was to say that he was impressed with what I have done thus far and that I make him proud to be an American. WOW! And he knew everything, too including that I taught the teachers beer pong (which while walking to the car on the way to the restaurant Kerry decided to ask me in front of them if I was hung over from last night. No Kerry! But apparently he was a bit. Haha! Mr. Lambert and Wang Laoshi laughed but Bonnie is very serious, so…she didn’t think it was funny) and that I am a proud Seminole and Southern! He respected the southern pride since he said his mom was from Alabama, but as an Oregon alum he couldn’t appreciate the Seminoles. And he didn’t seem at all offended when I teased him about the US Embassy in Beijing stating that the pollution in Beijing has gotten “crazy bad!” Well anyways, another interesting week of life in China has gone by and I welcome the start of another.

The following is an email I sent to the Peace Corps China Country Director thanking her for her visit.

Hi Bonnie,

Thank you for coming to visit me in Jiangyou. I hope it was a nice trip for you. I wish I could have shown you more of the school, but I understand that time is limited. I wanted to share with you a conversation that took place this afternoon. In the evening I asked a student from the class that I had missed today to join me in playing pingpong. Later when we were walking I apologized again for missing class. She said that it is okay; that she understands, but that we meet only once-a-week so she finds the time with me very precious since it is so limited. She also said that she was surprised when she came to this school that there were foreign teachers because the school is not good and she thinks that foreign teachers must only go to the better universities. She said that it made her very excited to think that a foreigner might teach her. This brings me to one last point, which is a conversation that I had with the Canadian teacher about a month ago in which she said that solely because we are teaching at this college we have improved our students' chances of getting employed by quite a lot. Our students can go into a job interview and just mention that they had a foreign teacher in their college and this will impress the employer enough to possibly offer them the job. So, I know I mentioned this morning about wanting the "Peace Corps experience," but I sincerly see my purpose of being at this college and in China more and more clearly with each student and teacher I meet, as well as the more I learn about this unique country. I hope all of our volunteers can see the impact they are having in their schools like I have begun to see this semester. Thank you for this opportunity and especially thank you for whoever decided that Sichuan Preschool Educator's College was a good choice for me because they hit the nail on the head.

I hope you had a nice trip back to Jiangyou, and you are welcome in Jiangyou anytime. I was wondering about one more thing, and that is if I can have the email address of your friend Mark Lambert so that I may personally thank him for visiting Jiangyou. It meant a lot to me, my counterpart (Kerry Long), and the school that you and Mr.Lambert could make the trip out to Jiangyou. Kerry and I discussed that we were both rather nervous about the two of you visiting because we hoped that we could impress you both. I know the school felt the same way as they were very particular about where they would take us to lunch. If I cannot have his email, please share with him my gratitude and appreciation.

Take care,

Katie D'Souza

First week of November 2010

I am a bit behind on blogging and I need to go back more than a week to the Friday before last. On this day I first went running with a student of mine. It was the first time that I had hung out with this student outside of class and I found it really nice to get to know her better. We talked of various things that were interesting (like the Chinese educational system), since she is one of the more advanced speakers of English in my class. After running and dinner I went back to my apartment because another student and her friends were coming over to play English games. Jane wondered how many of her friends could come and I said there was no limit, so about 12 girls came over. I taught them chess and they picked up very quickly. I am not a very good chess player, so it came as no surprise when I was beat. To save a little face I should mention how I guided them against making bad moves and it was more like a draw than a full on win. But nevertheless I was impressed with their quick learning of the game and their ability to strategize. But the best part of the evening was when my friend back home came on Skype to meet the students. The girls were so excited to meet an American guy and actually it was the first thing they brought up when they came over at 6:30 (when will we meet your friend?). I should have foreseen the questions they might ask and warned my friend. Most of the girls crowded around my laptop in my office and were quite giggly. It basically went: ‘you are so handsome! You have beautiful eyebrows! You look very cool! Do you have a girlfriend? What do you think of Chinese women?’ Then...’is that your dog? What’s your dog’s name? Can we see your dog?’ Then they introduced themselves to him one-by-one. I found the entire experience quite funny. They of course welcomed him to China as they are all very friendly Chinese girls. So if any of you want to get on Skype and meet some students, let me know. Keep in mind that with the east coast during daylights savings time there is a 13 hour difference.
Saturday I got up early to go with Kerry and about 30 of his students to a nearby mountain to go hiking. I thought it was just slightly cold and wore a light coat but as seems to be normal in Sichuan it got progressively colder during the day and I was shivering by the end. The experience can be summed up in one word—random. It was a random mountain in the middle of nowhere. First we took the bus from the school and got off at the wrong stop and walked. Then we hailed 3 random buses going by and got dropped off at a random street. We walked through some farmers’ fields until we came to a random path that appeared out of nowhere. We walked for almost an hour up steep slippery rocks and at the top was a random Buddhist temple. This is where we stopped and ate snacks. Supposedly Li Bai the poet was inspired at this mountain so Kerry did some teaching about Li Bai. One of Kerry’s former students was randomly at this mountain, too and there was a reunion. The way down was interesting due to the steepness (during this time I slipped and crashed to the ground). The students gasped and said be careful. Kerry laughed and said he wished he had his camera. Thanks Kerry.) After walking down it a bit we found a different less dangerous way down. We needed to ask a few farmers for directions throughout but we made it back. Walking back I was able to practice my Chinese with the students a bit which is nice. When we were waiting at the bus station Kerry called me over to a meat stand to show me something. Did you ever wonder what happened to all of the chicken feet in America since Americans don’t eat it? Well for the Tyson chicken company they freeze it and ship it to China apparently because that was what Kerry showed me: a Tyson brand bag of frozen chicken feet straight from the Arizona company.
Later that night I was chatting with my parents on Skype when I get a text from this senior high student that I have been helping with English. This student’s English skills are very low so I usually cannot understand her texts. This one said teacher help. I sent a message back to say maybe tomorrow I can help, thinking that for some reason she needs English help at 8:30 at night. She then tries to call but I reject it and message her to say I am speaking with my parents. She then sends a message saying help over and over. Thinking maybe it is serious I end the call with my parents and call her back. I cannot understand and she is speaking mostly Chinese and is in near hysterics. I hear the words bad student and KTV (which are karaoke bars in China) and I became nervous. What is going on? I tell her in Chinese to call her Chinese teacher because I cannot understand but she insists that she cannot. I try my friend downstairs to see if she can talk with this student but she is busy. The student comes over and is freaking out about what I am not sure. I call Kerry and say there is a distressed student at my house and she doesn’t speak much English. He talks with her about 5 minutes and then tells me that she might stay with me for a bit but doesn’t tell me why or what’s going on. When I turn around the girl is in tears. I comfort her and calm her down while she cries and speaks in Chinese and English to say what’s wrong which I still can’t understand. At one point she says that her mother doesn’t love her and I am like a mother to her and I am her best friend and she loves me. What?! Anyways she leaves about 10:45. The next day I ask Kerry and he said it was a dispute between her and a classmate. Really? Yes.
Well the next day in the afternoon I agreed to help her with English which I did and have done several times since. I also tutored two of her classmates with no English ability the next weekend. And no means no. we started with hello. How are you? My name is…
But also that Sunday I went to my friend Allies house to make and eat dumplings with her, Vivi and a dance teacher. It was fun and reminded me of making dumplings with my host mom and her friend in Chengdu. It also gave me more Chinese practice. I might get better at the language yet!
Monday evening I…bought a rice cooker! It was very exciting. Well exciting is not the word but it was really nice and now my life is just a bit easier. I went with Media which was more to chat with her than that I needed assistance. I have learned the ways of the supermarket and don’t feel like I need help, but the company is nice. That evening Vivi told me that there was to be a broadcast film about AIDS. Seriously? For those that don’t know sex education in China is…nonexistent. Naturally I was curious so I went to see. It was difficult to read the English subtitles beneath but the video taught these college students about AIDS in what appeared to be a musical. Interesting. They were showing a movie afterwards so many students were there to see it.
Wednesday we had English corner because Janice’s brother was visiting and this day was better for them. The English Corner centered around Canada and Janice’s brother which was a really great opportunity for the students to learn more about Canada and to speak with a native speaker who was not their teacher. After English Corner I went out to dinner with Vivi to a restaurant by the school gate owned by the mother of a dance teacher at the school. The food was delicious, the restaurant clean, and his mother was so nice. I am definitely going to return there. Also there was the cutest boy maybe 4 years old who kept walking up to me and saying hello. It was very cute. When we finished dinner I went with Vivi to see her class that she is the head teacher for (about 125 students). I began teaching them English Children’s songs since they will all be preschool teachers when they graduate. I taught them: Old McDonald, Two versions of 5 Little Monkeys, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, The Wheels on the Bus, I like to eat Apples and Bananas, the Hokey Pokey, The More we get Together, Bingo, Two versions of the Days of the Week song, The Eensy Weensy Spider, if you’re happy and you know it, Mary had a little lamb, Shake my sillies out, Ten Fingers, Five little ducks, and Teddy Bear. My voice was hoarse by the end. They knew a few before like The More we get Together. Their favorites were Five little ducks, Adam’s Family Days of the week, the wheels on the bus and the hokey pokey. I plan to teach it again to other classes since it is really good for future teachers to have these songs. And anyways it is fun to teach.
Thursday night there was a school performance that resembled a chorus concert. The songs were about the history of China. It was good. I sat with some students in the back who explained the songs to me. Some of my students were in it, as were Vivi and Kerry. It was also a competition. There were 4 third place winners and they each got 300 Yuan (our department was in this category). There were 2 second places with winning 400 Yuan and 1 first place winner with 500 Yuan. Our department leader used the money to take the teachers that performed out to a nice dinner on Friday. It was disappointing that Janice’s brother didn’t get to see a typical performance with dancing and curious costumes.
Friday morning a student of Kerry that I met last weekend wanted to chat with me. First I edited her speech but then the real reason came out which was that she was thinking of breaking up with her boyfriend and wanted my advice. This is a bigger issue for them then it is for us because they do not casually date and do not date often. I basically said whatever makes her happy but think it over a week or so before making a decision she might later regret making. She seemed to already have made up her mind but you all don’t want to hear the woes of an 18 year old anyways.
All during the day Friday I was getting messages from students wishing me happy birthday. I kept saying thanks though I was confused. Finally I told a student that it wasn’t my birthday until next week and why did students think my birthday was this week. It turns out that when Kerry signed me up with QQ he put my birthday as November 12 instead of November 19. So in China I guess I will celebrate the same birthday as my dad because it might be too confusing to change it now maybe I can change it in the summer and students won’t remember the different days. But a really exciting thing happened Friday morning and that was my host mom and later my host brother from Chengdu called to say Happy Birthday and that my host parents will visit me in Jiangyou sometime in a couple of weeks. Very exciting.
Friday was the last night that Janice’s brother would be in Jiangyou so Janice and Mark treated the English teachers to hotpot and KTV. There were maybe 8 of us for dinner but more stopped in for KTV. I sang some Lady Gaga (Just Dance) with her brother, Madonna’s Vogue was my solo debut, and Allie asked me to sing a duet with her of Celine Dion’s My Heart will Go On ( a favorite in China). Overall it seems that the westerners prefer to be silly and sing fast and upbeat songs and the Chinese take it seriously and sing slower songs. It was fun. The teachers celebrating the performance stopped in and got their own room. The men had been drinking quite a bit it seemed before getting to KTV. We left at 10:45 and at this time I was happy to be a foreigner because Vivi and Sharon had to stay until the leader of the department decided to leave, though they wanted to stay. I was tired and not held to the same expectations and thus left with Janice and Mark and the teachers not in our department.
Saturday I tutored some students in the morning in English and then a student came by to chat with me about some issues she is having and then a teacher brought me some soup (which I found to be stomach churning but I ate it anyways because she was watching me eat it) and sat down to chat about some things. I remember when I was first starting college I was at a crossroad , in which I considered getting a degree in psychology and later a masters in counseling, but then I chose teaching because teachers sometimes need to be a counseling ear for students. Nowhere is this more true than in China. These students seem to find me to be a better listener than their friends or Chinese teachers. Other empathetic foreign teachers also have this experience. I wonder if it is because we can take their secrets with us back home and maybe we come across as more understanding or willing to listen because we have such different experiences. Either way I don’t mind being a ready ear for my students and fellow teachers. I find this aspect of my Peace Corps experience to be quite rewarding.
I will end this blog entry with a poem I wrote for the Sichuan Rice Paper, an electronic newspaper put together by Sichuan volunteers and distributed once a semester. The editors, Obi and Leo, are also volunteers. The paper consists of anything under the sun, from essays to poems and recipes to advice. It will come out maybe in December. But below is my poem about being a foreign (waiguoren) teacher in China.

Woes of a Waiguoren
A series of limericks
By Katie D’Souza

There once was a Waiguoren named Mike
Peace Corps wouldn’t let him ride a motorbike
So he walked all day
And his students asked if he wanted to play
So it was with Mike because the other teachers, Mike, they didn’t seem to like

This is about a foreigner named Jane
Who thought she was just very plain
But the Chinese stare whenever she goes
Maybe she doesn’t wear enough glitter and bows
She thinks sometimes being foreign is such a pain

This is the laowai story of Ben
Who had a student who called herself Pen
Everyday in class Pen would giggle and turn red
Until one day Ben made a bad joke about a panda being dead
And soon Pen found a foreigner with whom to giggle named Ken

Last, but not least, was the waijiao called Kay
Whose own English seemed to get worse everyday
She spoke Chinglish with her students in and out of class
And heard Sichuanhua wherever she passed
So that Kay might need an English tutor by May

*laowai is a polite title for a foreigner. And waijiao means foreign teacher.

Halloween

Monday Janice, Mark, and I hosted a Halloween party at my house for some students and teachers and it was so much fun. It was the first time any of them had celebrated the holiday and it was fun to watch their reactions to the games and festivities. The evening started with Mark scaring the girls as they came to my house. The students entered my darkened apartment to the sounds of Michael Jackson’s Thriller to help set the mood. Once all of the students had arrived everyone introduced their costumes in a “fashion show.” Two students were dead people, one a children’s talk show host, another a rabbit, a witch, a rich person, and a student. Janice was a butterfly holding Charlie as a puppy. Mark was a TV star and I was Li Bai the poet. I started the evening carrying a cheap bottle of baijiu until it slipped from my belt and shattered on the floor filling my apartment with the stench of strong liquor. Why the alcohol? Because Li Bai was known to be a drunk. Mark and I chose a winner of the costume contest (the witch) and her prize was…instant noodles.
Next we played ‘pin-the-nose on the pumpkin’ which was my variation of ‘pin-the-tail on the donkey.’ This game caused an eruption of stifled giggles as the students meandered all over my apartment blindfolded. Following this fun activity we bowled. I had partially filled bottles of water at one end of my apartment and using Mark’s soccer ball the students attempted to bowl. Then came the real fun. Trick-or-treating. Janice and I sought some teachers that lived on campus to hand out candy (Kerry, Vivi, and Media). We taught the girls the trick-or-treat song “Trick-or-Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat” which they chanted at each door. The teachers had just as much laughter and joy as the girls, with Kerry choosing to scare them and Media handing out some fruit that she bought. The last apartment was Mark and Janice’s (Mark detoured the trick-or-treating and went home to hand out candy) and then we headed back to my place with the teachers to have the second half of the party.
For the second half I read everyone an Arthur book on Halloween so that they could better understand the holiday. Then we had a piñata so nicely made into a pumpkin by Janice. She made it extra strong so that everyone was sure to have a few swings at it. During the party there were plenty of snacks of peanuts, sunflower seeds (two must-haves at all Chinese parties), pumpkin seeds, oranges (which I drew faces on), cookies (one homemade by Janice and which resembled fingers), dried fruit, bananas, lollipops made to look like ghosts, coke, juice, and the favorite of Mark, Janice and me…hot apple cider! It wasn’t the greatest cider—just apple juice and cinnamon but it tasted great to us.
After the piñata was destroyed I brought out the bell peppers. For what? Why for carving, of course. It is rather difficult to find pumpkins like we have in China. They have pumpkins, but they look different and aren’t good for carving. It would also be a bit expensive to buy multiple whole ones. Instead I got a bell pepper for everyone to carve. The teachers were appalled that I was wasting perfectly good peppers, so I told them that they could take them home and cook with them if they preferred which many of them did. The students made really nice carved peppers and Janice had tea candles for them to put in them and we turned the lights out and it was a beautiful site. Be sure to check out the pictures at Windows Live.
We finished the evening by me telling a story in which they had to touch weird items but I said it was body parts. They found it rather strange but after a bit they got into it. I added the story to the end of this blog entry and the items I used. When the party was over the students helped to pick up the trash and Janice stayed to help a bit more since the next day the Peace Corps doctor was coming to visit and would be coming to my apartment!
Dr. Gao came by around noon Tuesday to see me. First my apartment, which was clean. But it turns out that she was mainly looking to see that I kept my medicine in a clean, dry area. Check! That my water filter was working. Check! That my fire/CO2 alarm was in a proper location. Bu hao! (not good). I had to move it to a different location. Then she proceeded to ask me some questions to gauge my physical and mental well-being. I seemed to have checked out there, too. One question she asked was “on a scale from 1-10 how would you rate your happiness level in Jiangyou. 1 is depressed, 10 is content.” I said 9. Later she said she was surprised how happy I am here. I’m not sure what that means.
When we finished the questioning and viewing the apartment section of the visit we met Kerry and Eliam to have lunch downtown courtesy of the college. I thought it was going to be a little lunch, but no. It was a really nice lunch with tons of delicious food. We had some time to kill before the tour of the Jiangyou People’s Hospital so we drove around Jiangyou and I saw places I had yet to see. The tour was boring for everyone but Dr.Gao. Basically she got a layout of the facilities and determined whether it met basic standards. If there is anything seriously wrong with me I will go to Chengdu, but for emergencies or lab tests I will go to the hospital in Jiangyou—let’s hope I never do, though.
Other things this week…there was this student that kept texting me constantly (how she got my number I do not know) and her English was atrocious. I got that she wanted me to help her and her friends with their English, so I said fine meet me at my office. They met me and I took them to my apartment to look at some English books. I had them read a Berenstein Bear book which they struggled through and then they borrowed some English books with Chinese translation in it. At one point I was wondering what was wrong with these students that were extremely hyper and fidgety. One question found me my answer: “How old are you?” “we are 15” well that explains a lot, but it doesn’t explain how the 15 year old middle school students that go to this college got my phone number. Oh wait, I gave it to them! Nevermind.
So this week and next week are midterms for my two sophomore classes. They are all so nervous! I have been getting texts and messages on QQ since I gave them the rubric last week. The first class mostly did well. A few did terribly but I am going to give them a makeup of sorts in which I ask them a some questions and they answer and if they can then I will increase the grade some. Because I believe the students were just very nervous or didn’t understand the directions. The rest of the class ranged from 70-100 with most students earning around 80. They were asked to speak with a partner about a trip they will go in the future. They must ask and answer questions, use at least two idioms correctly, and cover the topics discussed in class (transportation, packing, reservations, directions, different meals, and restaurants). The second half of the semester for the sophomores will cover the theme of fun (sports, TV, computers, parties, holidays, music and movies). I have yet to decide on a final. The freshmen will only get through the travel theme and their final will be the midterm of the sophomores.
And we had the second English corner this week. The student-leaders chose topics from this book that I borrowed from the Peace Corps library called Conversation Inspirations. They chose three topics: 1. what is an ideal age to get married. (Answers were around 25-30, as soon as possible, and I don’t want to get married); 2. What is the best way to discipline a child (answers were across-the-board on this from beat them to well I will treat my child like a friend with respect and discuss the mistake with them); and 3. What was your favorite toy as a child (most of them were in Chinese so not sure. One girl said she only had one toy. And many said they like bears or wished they had a bear). The time in English corner certainly gives me a chance to learn more about my students and China.
Also this week a student stopped by the office and asked me how she should interview for a job. She was seeking a part-time job teaching English at a preschool. I said she should mention how she will teach the kids. She then asked how she should teach them. I suggested making it very engaging and to sing songs. She said she didn’t know any English children’s songs, so of course right there in the office I taught her some. I taught her “head shoulders knees and toes,” 2 different five little monkeys songs and the hokey pokey. What was funny to me was that during this time not one teacher looked up from his/her desk while I was singing and dancing in the office with this student. It made me smile. I figured that they either didn’t notice or what was more likely that they have grown accustomed to the strange new foreign teacher (me) and decided this was just one more odd thing I decided to do. But I didn’t realize the students didn’t know any children’s songs in English, so I think I will have a lecture on it before the end of the semester since all of my students are preschool and primary school teachers-to-be. So if you have any suggestions of songs I can teach the students please send me an email. I would love to hear what some of your favorite songs were from childhood—namely those that teach something.
Finally, I am now the proud owner of a washing machine! Well I don’t own it, the school does, but it is in my apartment and I can now was my clothes and sheets in it for the next two years which is very exciting. That is just one more thing I can check from my list. I imagine it will take me the entire first year to get my house set up. The next thing to do is figure out the heater in my bedroom which I will try to accomplish this weekend.

Last week October 2010

Monday and Wednesday this past week there were no classes since we taught Mondays and Wednesdays classes on Saturday and Sunday. Of course this made little sense to me since we weren’t teaching the freshmen at this time, but that’s what it was and now those freshmen classes can just be a bit behind. During these days off I spent some time with some students. One student has become my stalker or something because she calls or texts me everyday and almost every time I leave my apartment I run into her—I don’t have this with any of my other students. Her English is pretty low and she is dedicated to trying to improve it which I admire. I visited her dorm to meet her roommates who spoke even less English, but this gave me an opportunity to practice my Chinese a bit. Before I left they wanted to take a picture with me and to get my autograph. Well, they didn’t say autograph but they wanted me to write my name in their books which seems very much like signing a yearbook to me.
The other students I met up with were some of my freshmen. I visited their dorm and one wanted to know how she might improve her reading ability in English. I suggested reading lower level English books, but they are limited to what they have available so I suggested that they accompany me back to my apartment to take a look at the English library. They were really just excited to see the foreign teacher’s apartment and ended up not taking any books. So we played some cards, they looked at just about everything in my home, they asked me to sing some Celine Dion (My Heart Will Go On), and they wrapped up the afternoon by checking their QQs on my computer since they do not have computers readily available to them. They also took some pictures of me, but this time I got a picture of them, too.
This week there was also a school performance to welcome the new students. I sat with Janice and Mark during the show and we commented on it throughout, which made it more interesting to see. As usual there was singing, dancing and interesting costumes. One notable performance was very Chinese we decided. First three students dressed as pandas rolled out across the dark stage, then when the lights came on many girls ran out with what seemed like pom-poms and they all danced (the pandas even had these little tails which was very funny). About half-way through the performance this one girl comes out in a salsa dancing outfit and dances to Shakira. When she finished the pandas and pom-pom girls came back out to finish the act with more tail shaking action. There were a few piano acts (some good), terrible break dancing, calligraphy, and a wedding show. What’s a wedding show? Basically some students in wedding dresses and tuxes came out with their hair and make-up all done up and modeled. Two of the girls in this show were my students and one of the guys was the boyfriend of another of my students so it was interesting to see. The show had a very Christmas show feel to it or so Janice and I felt due to the decorations, the piano acts, and the cold.
Oh the cold! Maybe Tuesday this week it started out a little cold and got progressively colder throughout the day and the week. I am now wearing my winter jacket, Vivi bought me a scarf to wear (as an early birthday present), and a student bought me some gloves. And oh what gloves they are! They are bright blue and pink with smiley faces on the fingers, and a giant stuffed Hello Kitty on the back of each hand which makes it impossible for me to stick my hands in my pockets. Since she got them for me I must wear them but that doesn’t I cannot lie when I say that I am awaiting her graduation so I no longer must wear them. Vivi’s scarf is more my style, but of course she knows me better than my students do. It is brown and red plaid. Oh and the funny thing is that I brought gloves and a scarf with me from the states; I was just waiting for it to get a bit colder before I took them out. Oh well. It is only in the low 50s or high 40s but it feels much colder because it is damp, there’s no sunshine, and there is little escaping it because none of the buildings are heated. I can heat my living room but not enough to take my coat off and I am still figuring out my bedroom. For now I just wear a lot of clothes to bed and wrap myself like a cocoon in my blanket. I am not the only one, though. It is nice to see the status of my fellow Peace Corps volunteers on Skype so I know I am not the only one dealing with cold. It is worse for my friends north of me in Gansu where it is started snowing this week. In Gansu the buildings have heat, but, according to a friend, they have yet to turn it on—I suppose to conserve electricity. My waiban said that this winter is supposed to be the coldest in a century. I really hope his sources are not good. I can only wait and see. I don’t know how the students deal with the cold—their dorms are without heat and usually their windows are open to dry their laundry.
Speaking of laundry, my washing machine has never worked, but I managed to inform Kerry and he was trying to get it fixed this week. It turns out that the machine cannot be fixed, so the school was trying to find one not in use in the school and couldn’t. What does this mean? The school has to get a new one! I cannot believe how lucky I am. I will have to wait another bit, but at least this guarantees me a working machine in the future and for the rest of my service. Very cool.
This weekend I am teaching again and not teaching Monday and Tuesday so the students cannot participate in the demonstrations that are on the weekends. Apparently the demonstrations have continued to grow against the Japanese because other volunteers are also teaching this weekend as a result of it. This only changes the Halloween party to Monday, otherwise I am getting used to teaching Saturdays and Sundays.
Lastly I had a strange cultural lesson this week. I was taking a walk with my stalker and she asked when I would eat dinner. I said I wasn’t sure and asked when she would have hers. She also said she wasn’t sure. So I said we could just eat together and maybe her roommates might want to come if they hadn’t eaten yet. Of course they wanted to eat outside the school gate which they could only do in my, a teachers, company since the schools is in lockdown with the demonstrations. I went with six of them to a restaurant (that later made us all sick but that’s not related to this tale). At the end they were waiting for me to pay. What?! I only brought enough to pay for maybe half with expectations to just pay for myself. I became so embarrassed that my face turned bright red (later I ran into Vivi and Allie—another teacher—and they laughed and asked if I drank alcohol during dinner). I tried to ask my stalker to pay half which she did (and later I paid her back) but to keep it between us (which she didn’t). I told her it wasn’t in my culture for this to happen and maybe I didn’t understand Chinese customs. Well others I talked with also didn’t think this was Chinese culture but that maybe the students assumed I would pay because I was a “rich” foreigner. There is a misunderstanding of what it means to be a volunteer in China. Students and teachers are always shocked when they hear that the school doesn’t pay me but isn’t that what a volunteer is, I ask. Oh well, just one of many weird moments I will undoubtedly have these next two years in China.

A week of huai le

So this past week had some interesting things occur—well, interesting to me. First it was a week of huai le (broken) like my water purifier and fire/CO2 detector (I’m more concerned with the latter). Sunday I was carelessly peeling an apple with a knife (because I either peel fruit and vegetables, boil them, or scrub them with soap—for an apple I think peeling is the best way to go). Well I sliced my finger and blood started going everywhere. I quickly ran to get my handy-dandy Peace Corps Medical kit and let it explode all over my bed in an effort to find something to constrict the blood flow. Two bandages and medical tape later I felt good about blood not being able to seep through. It actually was not a bad cut, but the next day I took the bandages off and it was still bleeding. I sent the medical office a casual email inquiring about stitches in the hopes that they wouldn’t get concerned and call me. Of course they are good doctors and nurses and so I received a call. It did not require stitches like I thought, but I have come to take a little extra care here since I do not want anything weird to happen to me in China. And I certainly never want to have to go to a hospital here if I can help it.
Then this week I have been sick with a head cold. I had some interesting cure suggestions from my students and fellow teachers, including drink something hot, wear more clothes and the general take care. I guess there isn’t as much advice for colds as, let’s say pregnancy. Janice told me all the interesting advice and care her students and fellow teachers took with regards to her pregnancy last year. One, her fridge was full of eggs. All of her students brought her eggs since, supposedly, she should eat a lot of eggs during her pregnancy. They also gave her lots of sugar. Whenever she went out her students would never let her carry anything and would say what she should and shouldn’t eat for the health of her baby. After she had her son they gave her different foods that she should eat after having a baby to bring good health and return of a good body. Very interesting. I am glad that I will not have to deal with that here. I don’t know what Janice did with all of those eggs!
So I am not sure how much of this has made it over to Western news sources, but there have been some extra bad feelings with regards to Japan over here. As you all know the relations between China and Japan are not good. Recently, though, there have been some territorial disputes between the two countries. In response to this there have been some student protests/demonstrations in Chengdu and Mianyang. Students have been in marching the streets and they destroyed a store that sold Japanese products smashed anything that is from a Japanese company (like Toyota, Nikon, etc.) and got into a few brawls with police leaving several injured. The demonstrations have been more pronounced in Chengdu than Mianyang, but my school was concerned the students might do something they shouldn’t, so they put it in lockdown. The students have not been allowed to leave the school all week. This past weekend we had classes so the students were forced to remain on campus. But every student I’ve talked with has no intention of demonstrating. Many are irritated by Japan, but they were not considering doing anything to anger the police. And one student I talked with was seeing it my way in that these students aren’t hurting Japan, but are hurting Chinese people by destroying their shops and belongings. The excitement of it has already died down, at least over here (not sure about Chengdu).
This week I was able to visit the primary school with Vivi and it was a whole different world than the preschool. It looked like my high school. There was no playground. It was five stories and enclosed. We watched one first grade class that took place in a lecture hall. The students were engaged during their math lesson but it was just so different than a western first grade class. Plus there were maybe 50 kids in the class. We did chat with some first grade students who were very energetic and quite willing to engage us in conversation. Vivi asked them what time the school day ended and they could not come to a consensus, though they’d been in school for about two months. Some said 4:30, another 4:40, and still a third said 5. It just made us laugh.
Another day I received a package from home which was really exciting! My parents sent me some books for students, hot chocolate and chili packets for the approaching cold weather, videos about preschool in the US for Vivi and a dog calendar for Kerry. Kerry loves dogs! When I gave him the calendar he was so excited and started showing everyone in the office the pictures. It was so funny.
Besides giving a gift and receiving some from my lovely parents, I received some meat this week. Yes, meat. One of my students went to Mianyang to visit her mother in the hospital and brought me back a bag of cooked meat that is apparently special for Mianyang. I also received some dried meat from Media after her trip to her family’s home in a different province when she went to honor her father in the one year anniversary of his passing.
One thing that was rather interesting when I met up with Media was something she told me about the teacher standards in China with regards to health. She was on her way to get some medical tests done in order to obtain her teaching certificate. What kinds of medical tests I wanted to know. Blood tests, chest x-rays, no facial or physical abnormalities, and no diseases. These are some of the guidelines for teaching in China.
Speaking of teaching in China, there is a student who has attached herself to me. Her name is Xu Fanya and she messages and calls me, I think, everyday. I see her almost every time that I step foot from my apartment. Her English is very poor I am afraid to say, but she is motivated to improve. She is also very sweet and I often go walking with her so she can practice her English with me. One evening as we were walking another student who I do not know says Hello Katie. I ask her if she wants to join us, which she does. This student’s name is Jane and her English is very good. More than this, she is actually an interesting person who pays attention to the news and is informed and curious (she asked me what the difference was between using no more vs. not more and I had no idea—any ideas back home?) I really enjoyed chatting with Jane and we have made plans to play badminton one day soon. Is it bad that I prefer to hang out with some students over others? I never turn down a student that wants to talk with me, but I enjoy my time with some more than others. I think that’s only human.
On a similar note about teaching I also had my second Chinese tutoring lesson. We covered more about food, but Eliam left some books and I copied all of the vocabulary I didn’t know so that I could study later. I mostly prefer to study vocabulary alone, but I seek Eliam’s assistance in pronunciation and correct sentence structure. Hopefully in the coming weeks we can speak more Chinese and practice my listening and speaking.
Later this week Janice and I had the first English Corner. Since it was the first one we led it instead of the student leaders. There were maybe 50 students that came, but we are expecting these numbers to multiply in the coming weeks. Since it was the first meeting and we were interested in getting students interested in returning we simply played some icebreaker games. First, as students were coming we played telephone, which was hilarious. I made the first sentence intentionally long (the red balloon floated over the purple elephant on the green grass). It ended completely wrong. Then we had the students introduce themselves. Later since there were more students we split into two groups and played again. This time I chose a student to make the sentence. The sentence, which was wrong at the end but not by too much, was ‘he’s just not that into you’ because the student had recently seen the movie. The next activity we paired the students and they had to talk about themselves until they found three things in common with each other (and they were not allowed to use obvious things like we are both from Sichuan—where 99% of the English students are from). The last activity was “I am going on a picnic” in which we were again in two groups and each person had to say what they were bringing to a picnic that started with the first letter of their name (i.e. my name is Katie and I am bringing a kite). The next student must say the name and item of the people before her. So the last person must say every persons name and item. This last one was a bit difficult for some and Janice and I could see some of the better English speakers (like Vienna and Jane) getting annoyed with some of the students whose English was not as proficient, which if they are to become teachers they need to learn how to deal with.
During English Corner there was a small earthquake (maybe 4. something), but I missed it! I mean that I didn’t feel the earth shake. I was too preoccupied with what I was instructing the students, but Jane had stopped me to say there was an earthquake. At first I didn’t believe her but then I saw students pouring out of their dorm, so I knew it was true. I wonder how often earthquakes occur in Sichuan. I just hope there is no repeat of the 2008 earthquake that happened in Sichuan. This reminds me of when I had dinner with a student of mine this week named Monica and she was talking about the year 2012. Many Chinese students believe that the world will end at that time because of this movie. Monica said she was 50/50 about it. I said I didn’t care.
Other than English Corner we have also set up an English library in my apartment. Janice and Mark had all of these books in their apartment from their organization and they were in desperate need of space. Their organization agreed that they could donate the books, but we found out that it is very inconvenient for students to borrow books from the library. The desire was for students to be able to read English books at their own pace and to be able to take them as they wanted, so that is where my apartment came in. My office space is now a makeshift library for students and teachers to come and borrow books. The library is divided into fiction, nonfiction, magazines, English help, teaching resources, music (for piano practice), and movies/games. As I am writing this three teachers and a student came by to have a look and they all left with at least one book. I have no limits on how many books the students/teachers can take, but I ask them to leave their name, number, book title and date they checked out the book. They can keep the book until the end of the semester and must return it then. The library will be open Fridays 1:30-4:30, but if there is another time the student/teacher wants to come by they can just call ahead to be sure that I am home. I think this will be a good thing.
And the last thing to occur was that Vivi had never seen American money until I showed her some. I happened to have a one, five, ten, twenty, quarter, and dime. Strangely enough I had no pennies. I let Vivi keep a dollar and a quarter, and I also showed her the other contents in my wallet—the most intriguing to her being my library card. It turns out that there are no public libraries in China. Vivi was shocked that we are able to borrow books for free in America. She was also surprised when I said that there were really no limits to how many or how long one could borrow a book. She said it makes her all the more interested in visiting America in the future. But I think that eventually China will adopt the public library concept. Maybe. All I know is that my life and childhood would have been drastically different without public libraries.

Military Training

YI ER SAN SI! (One two three four!) This is what I have heard all day every day since Saturday and will continue to hear until next Friday. I first hear it at around 6:45 in the morning along with a steady rhythm of marching feet making their way around campus until 9 at night when the students sing their patriotic military chants. This is compulsory Chinese military training. In China students are required to have two weeks of military training the first year of middle school, first year of high school, and first year of college. So currently at this college that I teach at every freshman is decked out from head-to-foot in camouflage and is taking directions from a handful of young male soldiers. But what is happening around me is probably not what comes to mind when you think military training. These students are not learning military tactics nor are they doing difficult military maneuvers, and actually these students are not even brandishing anything close to a weapon (though my friend Vivi said that when she did her military training in her undergrad they were allowed to fire ten shots from an automatic rifle—she says hers went everywhere other than the intended target). No, these students are practicing marching, saluting, turning, chanting, doing tasks in unison, taking commands, and squatting. The purpose is to teach the students discipline, hard work, teamwork, and obedience. Some students really enjoy this experience (usually they have a gentle soldier leading them), whereas others get on QQ in the evening and tell me how miserably tired they are and how much they do not like their leader. I am sure they will all gain something from this experience, though what I am not sure.
Due to the military training my days have almost limited free time since 12 of the 16 hours I teach in a week are freshmen classes and they are not in class during their training. Luckily, though, I have found work for me to do (mostly I am catching up on my laziness that I have had with studying Chinese during September, which was studying…nothing). I have also managed to plan my lessons for the rest of this semester which ends the first week in January. Ambitious? More like a preventative to boredom which is a slow killer amongst our species.
I have also managed to start pillaging my way through Janice’s book collection. My current repertoire of books to read consists of only Chinese fiction and nonfiction. I yearn to indulge myself in as much Chinese culture, history, and politics as I can in order to better serve and understand this world in which I now live. Currently on the reading agenda include two Pearl S. Buck books (but alas we do not have The Good Earth), one Anchee Min book (Katherine—what a coincidence that the book is about a foreign English teacher named Katherine, though this teacher is nothing like me), China Road (nonfiction about this guy’s travels throughout China), and an Amy Tan book (The Bonesetter’s Daughter—and if you have never read The Joy Luck Club, please do). I am hoping that these books can take me into November at least. All of those literature classes at FSU turned me into a speed-reader.
Although I wasn’t teaching very many classes my week did consist of some interesting events. On Monday I gave my students some discussion questions and they really got into it, which is really pleasing for a teacher. The question that they particularly liked was ‘describe the qualities that make a perfect husband/wife.’ In the afternoon I had my first tutoring session with Eliam. We basically decided on my goals for learning Chinese. She assessed my needs and my ability. We practiced my pronunciation and she gave me cards with fruits and vegetables on them to study (which I did. Go ahead and ask me any fruit or vegetable and I will probably know it). Afterwards she joined me to play basketball with two students. One of the students was the girl that I met on the train to Yibin. I taught them the games Horse and Around-the-World. It was fun.

On Tuesday I went for a walk with one of my students named Vienna. She bought me a present when she was on vacation during National Day in Yunnan Province and said that it is supposed to bing my love and a bopyfriend. Haha! I will post some pictures. She also got a similar one for Mark and Janice, but theirs is supposed to bring them a happy family life. While we were walking I received two calls. One was from a student and the other was from another volunteer. Vienna, whose English skills are one of the better in this college, could not stop laughing when I was on the phone with the student. Apparently my face showed much confusion and I was speaking quite deliberately and slowly, as opposed to when I was talking with the other volunteer and I spoke at a normal speed. She found it interesting, to say the least, how I spoke differently with students and with native speakers. During the walk she also told me about how this 50 something year old Russian man was talking with her in Yunnan. She thought it was nice and a good way for her to practice English. At the end of their conversation he asked for her number and she gave it to him. But then she said it became weird and he would message her all the time and say how beautiful he thought Chinese women are, etc. She was struggling to find the word to describe him and said “he’s a p…p,” and I offered “pervert?” And yes, this was the word she was looking for, and based on her description, I would have to agree, so I told her she should be careful and not to answer his messages any longer. What kind of 50 year old man asks a 20 year old for her number? Finally she asked me why I don’t go out with students very much. I realized she was right, so during November I am going to make more of an effort to hang out with students during free time.
On Tuesday afternoon I had my running club, but when I got out there I saw that Mark was trying to get a soccer game started but few students had come. Well not many students came to running club, so I rounded those students up and signaled to a few students on the track to join soccer. Mark had asked all of his classes during the day to play soccer and only a few showed. Later he asked his classes why they didn’t come and they said that they didn’t know how to play. Exasperated he told them that was the point in playing—so they could learn. The following week a few more showed up, but still very few. It takes time. They get really nervous for some reason to join in sports with us. Well when we were about to start our game we noticed we were one player short. I noticed a girl leaving the basketball court. I ran over and asked her in Chinese if she spoke English. She said yes in English. I then asked her if she wanted to play soccer. She became really flustered, so I asked her again in Chinese if she wanted to play soccer. She was trying to find the words in English to say that she couldn’t, but became rather distraught about the whole thing and walked away banging her fist against her head. I think this might be the last time I try to engage a student I don’t know in English. I think she was really embarrassed about her English skills, but she had to have noticed my Chinese skills were equally appalling. But in the end we managed a small game and Mark taught them how to kick better. Towards the end of the game, two students came by to give Mark and me a present from their vacation during National Day. Mine was a green bean cookie that was the most dry, oddly flavored cookie I have ever eaten in my life, but it was very sweet of the student to give me.
Wednesday afternoon Mark and I met Kerry and invited some students to play Frisbee. We started with passing it around and teaching them, including Kerry, the basics. Then I decided to teach them all ultimate. They all had a lot of fun with ultimate and I saw them getting more and more into it, and a little more aggressive and competitive (which is awesome, since this is rarely displayed amongst Chinese girls). Then I guess because some people were getting tired Kerry decided to teach us all a frisbee drill. Well, everyone was confused. His game/drill made no sense. I would explain it but I can’t because it didn’t make any sense. I think he might have lost a little face, but we all tried to do his game. We went back to ultimate a bit more, then tossed it around before everyone had to disperse. Kerry plans to teach the game to some teachers, and hopefully we can all play again.
In the evening Vivi invited me to help her judge some students her were interviewing for a temporary English teaching position at a local middle school. The permanent teacher became pregnant and I guess there are no substitute teachers. The interview consisted of the students giving a mini English lesson in front of us and their classmates. 10 students participated and Vivi and I judged. After they all went, with varying abilities in English and teaching, Vivi asked me to give them all some feedback on their teaching. I thought it would have been better one-on-one, but she asked and the students said it was okay in front of everyone. Then Vivi and I discussed who the best was, but we had already come to the same decision. We had both picked the same person, so there was no need for discussion. This student had both good English and teaching ability. And what is funny is that this student will make more money than I make in a month. I am not complaining because, as a volunteer I get as much as I need, it’s just funny.
On Thursday afternoon I went with Vivi to visit a preschool in town. We just observed the class, and I took some pictures which I posted online. There are not any big differences with their prek and ours, except class size and length of time they are there in the day.
On Friday evening I had dinner with Janice, Mark and some students that we asked to lead English Corner which is starting the following week. We just discussed when (Thursdays 530-630), who (any students), what (discussions and icebreaker activities), and how to get students to come (poster). Janice and I agreed to do the first English Corner and to lead all the opening icebreakers and the students would lead small group discussions.
On Saturday I went on a picnic with some teachers, but a Chinese picnic is not like a Western picnic. First we hiked two hours to a nearby mountain, and then the men got huge stones to cradle the pot and wood for the fire. Next some water was brought to a boil and Kerry made a soup on the mountain. It was a lot of fun; the soup was good, and the environment pleasant. Janice also taught the Chinese about roasting marshmallows, but I think the westerners were the only ones who enjoyed them. The men bet cards, and the children fought over candy, while Mark, Janice and I secretly threw our chicken feet snack in the woods (as Mark so nicely put that the woods hold all secrets). At one point Kerry mentioned to me that he was hung over. Well I had to explain that unless he went out drinking last night he was in fact not hung over, but that he could possibly be a bit tipsy from the one beer Mark gave him. He said, oh then I am not hung over. No Kerry, you were not hung over. The pictures online can better describe the festivities I think.
Other news, Peace Corps was mentioned on NPR (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130550616). The BBC has an entire section of its website devoted to China which if you want to know anything about Modern China you should check it out (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/asia_pacific/2004/china/default.stm). It has anything you might ever want to know about China.
And most importantly, Peace Corps Niger has lost one of its volunteers. Please keep Stephanie Chance and her family in your thoughts during this difficult time. They are unsure of the exact cause of death but believe it to be natural. She was in her late twenties, and started her service the same time as me.

National Holiday

October 1 is the National Holiday in China, which is the introduction of the Communist Party in China and the founding of The People’s Republic of China. In honor of this holiday all schools and government workers had a week off. The college cancelled classes Thursday afternoon and Friday so that students could have a head start on travelling because this holiday is one of the busiest for travelling. The train stations and bus stations were packed with people heading home or out to the country to relax or into the city for fun. The trains themselves were full with many people standing and squished on the seats. I waited until Saturday morning to travel and I took a train because it was cheaper and I thought more convenient. Luckily, though, my ticket included a seat. I was hoping to leave Friday but the tickets were sold when I went to buy them, but some students were sweet enough to buy them for me and I paid them back and taught them chess.
My train was for 756 Saturday morning and it arrived in Chengdu at 1136. I then had another train at 1236 and I arrived at my final destination at 8 Saturday night. For those who did not do the math while reading, that’s 12 hours! 12 long and uncomfortable hours on a train. From Jiangyou to Chengdu was an okay and fairly quick ride. One person talked to me for a short time. She asked if I was from a particular region in China and I said no, that I am American. She was surprised to hear that I was American and asked me if I spoke Chinese. I said I only spoke a little and that’s where the conversation stopped.
From Chengdu to Yibin, however, the story is a little different. I was smushed in the corner with a woman across from me that kept putting her putrid shoeless feet on my seat so that the rotting smell that erupted from between her toes wafted up to my nose throughout the majority of the trip. Besides that there was a young girl of maybe three sitting behind me that was attempting to spit on me for half the ride. I desperately looked in my Chinese-English dictionary for the word spit so that I could tell the mother of this child what an awful brat she was being, but alas it could not be found and I dealt.
I’ll admit, the train was not all wretched. During half the ride to Yibin there were two university students from Chengdu sitting next to me that practiced their English with me and taught me some Chinese characters. Then during the second half (after these girls had gotten off) I heard “hello Katie” and it was a student from my college! It was actually one of Vivi’s students. She had bought me a drink and then sat with me the rest of the trip. Her English was rather poor and she was really shy, but she was very sweet and tried hard to communicate. Another great thing was that she told the smelly feet lady to put her nasty odorous feet back into her shoes (well…I’m sure she didn’t say it like that). When I got off the train I called my friend Leo to say I had gotten off the train only to hear him say “I hope you meant to say bus.” But no I was not smart enough to take the bus this time, so neither of us knew where I was. Just then this lovely student walks by with her brother and asks if I found my friend (who I was still on the phone with). I ended up handing the student my phone and the two of them talked in Chinese a bit and the student helped get me into a taxi and to the place I needed to be.
Yibin was great—well worth the miserable train ride to get there. Along with me, also came Katie, Richy, and Amy from Chongqing on their 3.5 hour bus ride. We spent the time catching up, relaxing, and visiting Leo’s site along with his site mate Chris and their new Chinese friend/student Alex who spoke phenomenal English for someone whose major was not English. It was a time of laughter, good conversations, and interesting discussions (especially with this Chinese student who had all of these interesting ideas about what America and Americans are like. I blame media). We saw a mountain, ate famous Yibin food called ran mian, saw where the Yangtze River formed (although this became a source of controversy throughout our trip with Alex and Richy claiming it wasn’t true), inhaled polluted air, and enjoyed a banquet with Leo and Chris’ waiban (in which he held back trying to get us foreigners drunk. He had been lectured in previous years by our former medical officer on not getting us pcvs drunk). Overall it was a pleasant trip and we were all sorry to say goodbye. The way back I took a bus straight from Yibin to Mianyang and another bus to Jiangyou. It took 6 hours. 6 hours! That’s half as long, but the price was twice as much. I think I will just use my money wisely and take the bus from now on because that is a bit ridiculous. Oh and I heard that many of you happy readers were worried about my passport. I guess I was a little vague in my last post because Kerry had returned the passport to me before I left so I had my passport during my travels. No worries!
During the remainder of the holiday I scrubbed and scrubbed my apartment, made my bathroom nicer, and bought a comforter for my bed so my apartment is so much nicer than it was before. I will wait until next month to do more to it and then I might post new pictures of my progress. So until my next China adventure unfolds…

Week 5 in Jiangyou

Saturday night Sharon came over to talk about boys. It is so interesting how the emotional maturity level of Chinese differs from that of westerners. They are not immature by any means (actually in some regards they are more mature than Western youth), but because the Chinese spent so much of their youth behind books and so little time entering into social relationships (particularly with those of the opposite sex) they tend to act a lot younger than Westerners of the same age. So picture this 26 year old woman blushing uncontrollably while she tells me about this man that she has had a crush on for years and how I am the first person that she has ever told. Very interesting.

Sunday I taught all day or I was supposed to teach all day. After going to my third class that day where there were no students I got more than a little confused. I texted my waiban, who informed me he was in another city and had no idea why my students were missing from class, but he was nice enough to call the dean of the department that my students are in and discovered that Freshmen Preschool Education Classes 1-5 and 12 will not be in class on Sunday and Monday and Freshmen Preschool Education classes 6-11 will not be in class on Tuesday and Wednesday because they will be doing observations in a kinderschool during these days. Good to know, especially because all of the freshmen classes that I teach are in the Preschool Education department. Oh well. Sunday night I had a gander at one of the tv/movies websites that one of my students told me about and I watched Disney’s Peter Pan (oh reminiscences). It was quite pleasant, and, oh, the website also had the trailer for the new Harry Potter movie which comes out on my birthday! I am super excited even though I won’t be able to see it.

Monday I went with Kerry to Mianyang to get my visa sorted out. Well the officer working on it had never dealt with a volunteer visa before and didn’t know what to do. We ended up leaving (without my passport, which makes me a bit nervous) and this guy would discuss it with his superior. As long as everything works out, I really don’t care, but I cannot help feeling nervous at the fact that I don’t have a renewed visa yet (which expires September 30) and now I am without my passport. When we got back to the school Kerry and I had dinner, in which he ordered something that was like a spicy French fry (which was amazing!). Then Janice came over in the evening and brought me….cinnamon rolls! She is absolutely amazing. We are also scheming about a Halloween party to throw together. We are just not sure if it should be a teacher get-together or a student get-together.

Tuesday morning I went to go by my train tickets for my weekend trip during National Holiday this weekend. Sharon was nice enough to write everything out for me in Chinese, but when I got to the train station I discovered that all tickets were sold except for ones leaving Thursday morning when I have class or arriving at my destination very late which I didn’t want. Later two of Vivi’s students (Emma and Anna) bought me a ticket for a different day. These two girls are also in my running club and came over to my apartment after the club so I could pay them back and I taught them chess, which they found very interesting once they started picking up on the rules. Other things that happened today include a bird careening into the window of my classroom as I was teaching which scared the living daylights out of me. The bird was okay except for a few feathers it lost.

Tuesday evening was running club, but only two students showed up—faithful Anna and Emma, who didn’t even really want to run, only talk. After Janice left the girls came to my apartment so I could give them the money for the train ticket they bought for me earlier. They were so funny! They were in awe of being invited into my apartment since they said they’d never been in a teacher’s home before. When they sat down Emma pointed to my chess set and asked what it was, so I taught them chess. It was quite fun. They picked up on the rules fairly quickly, and when one made a mistake the other yelled at her in Chinese like best friends do. That evening I watched Whip It (Drew Barrymore’s roller derby movie) on a website a student suggested. Quite a relaxing close to the evening.

Wednesday I taught all day on a wonderfully sunny day with blue skies—such rare sight in Sichuan. I took a leisurely walk after lunch to soak in some vitamin D, and ran into a student of mine that told me I should take care to watch the sun. It will be a battle that I will fight all two years I am here—I know you care Chinese women, but I like the sun. I will not hide under an umbrella when the sun is out. I like being tan and not pale-skinned. I will not succumb to your ideas of feminine beauty. I may even venture forth to sit in the grass on a particularly sunny day and let the soft rays of the sun envelope me in its warmth and comfort of turning my skin brown. Okay I am done with my ranting about the sun, which has since disappeared today behind the typical dismal cloudiness which is Sichuan Province. Wednesday afternoon I went with Sharon and Janice to shop and pay my landline phone bill (which I cannot pay until next week). In the Mall-Mart (yes, Mall-Mart I did not misspell it) I found…canola oil! I was shocked. Canola oil in Jiangyou. It’s absurd. It came in only a large size, but I bought it and it will last me probably all two years that I am here since I will only use it for baking.

So in case you were interested, the following are a list of items that cannot be found in Jiangyou: (some of these items I can find at a bigger city like Mianyang or Chengdu, and some I cannot find anywhere in China, except maybe cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, which I labeled with an *)

• peanut butter comes and goes in Jiangyou, and many times when it is available it has chocolate swirls in it
• all-purpose flour* (there is flour in Mianyang and Chengdu, but not all-purpose)
• hand sanitizer
• fabric softener*
• potato masher (if I really want to, an IKEA opened in Chengdu where I can buy it)
• Spices (some avail. In Mianyang)
• Butter
• Cheese
• Hot chocolate sometimes (always in Mianyang)
• Ground beef (I think this could be all of China. There’s beef, of course, but not ground)
• Turkey
• Ground chicken
• Tampons (pretty sure all of China)
• Deodorant (Mianyang has a spray on type)
• Chocolate chip pieces for baking (*I think)
• Sprinkles*
• Applesauce*
• Different kinds of noodles, like macaroni
• Rolls*
• Bacon (Mianyang stocks this)
• Many kinds of bread



That is all I know of right now. Most of these don’t even matter to me, like when do I ever eat bacon in the States. It’s just interesting. Next time I will do a list of things found in China that are not found in the US.

Thursday I just had two morning classes since the afternoon classes were cancelled for the holiday. After my 11:00 class two of my students approached me and asked if they could ask me a question. I said of course, anything. They looked at each other and I thought, oh boy what are they going to ask me. Their question was: “If Mickey’s girlfriend is Minnie, who is Donald’s girlfriend?” It took every ounce of internal strength I had not to laugh, and I responded quite seriously “Daisy Duck.” Oh my students make me laugh. They often say things to me that really make me laugh, but most of them are errors in English and I soon forget them. in the afternoon I went shopping with Janice which was a bit of a mistake because it was the first day of the holiday, so the store was packed! I was looking for sugar and peanut butter. I got the sugar, but the peanut butter I got my first week in Jiangyou seems to no longer be for sale, instead I found a Chinese version called peanut sauce. I decided I would be brave; the worst that could happen is I throw it all back up. After shopping Janice loaded me up on some books from her library which should last me at least until the end of October since there were 6 of them, all about China which I am trying to learn more and more about. I find that the more I learn about China, the less I really actually do know of this mysterious country.

Friday…success! I succeeded in baking for the first time in my brand new toaster oven delicious chocolate peanut butter cookies! I of course tested the cookies out on myself before offering some to Janice and Mark and taking some to my friends in Yibin. Okay so they are not the greatest cookies, but they are cookies nonetheless and they are alright. I think they would have been a bit better if I had peanut butter with the chocolate swirls which is what I planned to buy instead of the mysterious Chinese peanut sauce. Next time.

Other things for Friday include me meeting Vivi’s husband! I ran into her on my way back from the market downtown, and she was waiting for him at the bus stop by the school. I had dinner with them and another teacher that evening to celebrate the National Day. There was a special on TV with live performances that depicted China. The special program took place in Shanghai and was put on for many dignitaries from around the world as a part of this year’s World Expo which has been in Shanghai and will finish sometime this month. The program was interesting and reminded me of programs that we have in the States during the New Year celebrations.

Hopefully my blogs do not bore you, but if you have any questions about me, China, Peace Corps China, or Peace Corps in general do not hesitate to shoot me an email (katied3461@hotmail.com)—that is what I am here for, to bridge the gaps between two cultures.