I have learned something about myself I think I would rather not have ever learned. It all started on a normal day. It was cloudy, warm, and peaceful—a perfect afternoon for a jog through the countryside, or so I thought. At first everything seemed normal, but they were there. Waiting. I didn’t think they would cause me any trouble; I could just run on by minding my own business, and they could keep on doing whatever it is they do. But they wouldn’t let me go. They stood in my path. A gang of them. Fierce, stubborn and angry. They blocked my path. There was nowhere else to go. There was only one way back to the school…and it was through them. I took all the courage and energy I could muster, found a small opening near them, and sprinted through with them honking and snapping their orange mouths after me. That’s right. This year I have discovered….I am afraid of geese. But these geese are relentless. They puff themselves up big, make a line almost impenetrable, and bore through into my soul. Twice they have tried to attack me, and never is there a friendly farmer around to protect me. It’s become my reality—how to avoid running into the geese. I feel like a wimpy kid trying to avoid the neighborhood bully on the playground. But I have decided to live with my embarrassment and fear rather than face my aggressors. I have since found a path to avoid them. At least the ducks are still afraid of me! (actually that is quite a funny story. I was running and ahead of me were some ducks in the bushes. When they heard me approach, they jumped a mile high and went sprinting as fast as their little webbed feet could carry them, peeing and pooping as they scurried away. My conclusions: 1. Ducks don’t run very fast; 2. I never thought I would ever scare the poop out of something. It is a strange feeling—sad, empowering, and funny all at the same time).
Other than the terrifying geese, my second year teaching in China has started out better than the first. I am already familiar with the school, some teachers, and my students from last year, so it was a matter of starting where I left off. Last year, I was stared at constantly and didn’t know anyone or where anything was. This year I have had students jumping out from corners screaming my name, giving me near heart failure, so that they can say “Hi! How was your summer?! I missed you!” Very sweet, but I wish they would find a calmer way to greet me.
This year is also different because Janice and Mark are gone, but replaced by Jiangyou’s 2nd Peace Corps volunteer. I mentioned her briefly in my last blog, but have since gotten to know her a bit better. She is very kind. I spent the first week showing her around, taking her to Wal-Mart, and filling her in on the things-to-know. It’s weird being in that position. I feel like I haven’t been here long enough to be the senior foreigner at the school, but I guess I am. Her personality is the opposite of mine, which complements things nicely. Whereas I am more quiet and shy around people when I first meet them, she is very outgoing and loud. She likes big crowds and thinks the more the merrier. I like small intimate crowds. She sends her students to me to for sports and I send my students to her to learn American cooking and to get more grammar help (I know some grammar very well, but in other areas I have learned I am very weak at explanations). So it works out really nicely. One thing I appreciate about Mary is her willingness to speak up about things. I tend to let things go too easily, but she will ask more questions and persist to get things done. I hope some of this trait can rub off on me by the end of the year.
Mary and I plan to work on 3 secondary projects together. The first is the English Resource Center. I have written to Darien Book Aid (a wonderful organization that sends books out to those that need it most. They send books to schools in the US, other US groups, and US groups working abroad) and this organization has already sent me a package of books weighing 20 pounds. I have also been working on a Peace Corps grant to get money to really jump start the Resource Center. So that plus the books Janice left and the ones my mom brought with her will make a decent size resource room. I am currently just waiting for the school to provide a space. Once I get the room, it should be a matter of days before it is up and running with students borrowing resources and coming for English help. Depending on the size of the room, Mary and I hope to have office hours there and possibly to host clubs there. But that is in the making, so stay tuned!
Next, Mary is helping me with English Corner. We had our first English Corner of the year last week, and the turnout was better than anything last year. I think Mary did a better job of advertising and encouraging her students to attend than the other foreign teachers did last year. At one point I think we had nearly 90 students show up. The ending number was around 70 students. It was crazy, but the students seemed to have enjoyed it. Since it was the first one, we just played some games and focused on the students having fun. Hopefully students will continue to join during the rest of the semester. I will have to rely on Mary’s strong vocal cords during future English Corners because my voice was strained. I had to drink a lot of tea afterwards to recover it. I should find my rape/storm whistle or whatever the purpose is of the whistle Peace Corps gave us.
The last thing Mary and I are working on together are the monthly teacher potluck dinners that I started last year. Mary immediately took to the idea of reaching out to the teachers, as well as the students. This year there are a lot more new teachers, many of whom are English teachers. Mary and I have been working hard to meet and introduce ourselves to them. Last weekend we had our first potluck at my house. There weren’t as many teachers as we had hoped, but there were 4 new people. A few couldn’t make it at the last minute but hope to join in next time. It was an interesting potluck, though. First, Mary was quite late because her stuffed peppers were taking longer to cook than she anticipated. So we were all chatting while we waited. There was one male teacher who came with two female teachers. He is an art teacher and new to the school. His contribution was beer and snacks, which I thought was humorous. Almost every time I invite a male colleague to a potluck, they bring beer. Anyways, the “interesting” part was when one teacher, who brought her 5 year old son along, let her son drink some beer. It took all my will-power not to say something. I told Mary later, and she said she might slyly bring it up in the future. Anyways, as you can imagine I was shocked. Everyone else just laughed at the concept of this 5 year old drinking beer, and the male teacher even toasted him! Later I asked Vivi if this was a common occurrence in China, and she assured me that it wasn’t but that she thought the beer didn’t have much alcohol in it and it was more like drinking juice. Since Vivi is my good friend I had no issues telling her my opinion about that statement. Anyways, regardless of this, the potluck went okay, and I hope that more teachers are able to participate in the future. The next one will be in October, and we are thinking of having a barbecue on the roof of our apartment building (should the weather be nice). Maybe with a Halloween theme?
Other than these secondary projects, I have a few which I plan to start on my own. The first is a women’s group. Many of the women in China (not only girls) haven’t much idea about women’s health or women’s issues. I hope to bring these up in an intimate women’s group. I have already had some success speaking with small groups of students about issues they face, as well as women’s concerns and women’s health topics. This Friday I will have an interest meeting, but I plan to have an application and only choose 15-20 girls. I want something small where the girls can get to know each other and feel comfortable discussing various issues and topics that they most want to discuss. The application will consist of 6 questions:
1. Why are you interested in joining a woman’s group?
2. What are some challenges facing women today?
3. How do you feel about being a woman?
4. Who do you think is the greatest woman (or women). Why?
5. What are some topics you would like to discuss in a women’s group? What are some activities you might want to do?
6. What is a good day and time for you to meet for a women’s group?
Based on their answers I will choose the girls. The ideas I hope to cover are health, stress relief and pressures facing women, international women’s issues, and more. And the activities I am thinking of doing are watching films and having discussions, reading articles and discussing, doing sports together, having a young man as a guest speaker or several young men, and more
The next idea for a secondary project is having a culture club. Many students are interested in the culture of western countries, but they have limited opportunities to study it. This club will be open to anyone who wants to come. I am waiting for Kerry to find me a room that I can use regularly, which also has technology (so that I can use PPT and videos). I will take into consideration topics that students want to talk about, but the topics I have considered thus far are: school, holidays, etiquette, dating, marriage, and more.
Other than that, many teachers and students have been interested in running with me in the afternoons, so I have been going to the track every afternoon that I have free time to run with those that want to run. Also I have been trying to be more active in doing activities and inviting students over. It is my goal to do something with all of my students, but we shall see. I have been having groups of students over to watch movies, which is the easiest and most relaxing thing to do. Also students have come over to play cards, cook, and show me things on the internet (mainly their pictures).
My first of the semesterweekend, Mary and I both had students come over to my house to eat. It was the Mid-Autumn Festival (which meant that I had tons and tons of delicious moon cakes from students and friends) and many students couldn’t go home. So we invited a small group of our students to share lunch with us. First we went shopping together downtown. Then her students cooked at her house, while my students cooked at mine. Then everyone met at my house to eat and play cards. It was really nice for the students to interact like that, since there isn’t much mixing of departments. Most of Mary’s students are in the preschool department, while most of mine are in the English department.
That weekend was also Teacher’s Day. Last year there was a performance. This year there was no performance, but the school gave all of the teachers cooking oil. Also some school leaders took Mary and me out for a banquet one weekday evening. That was interesting. It consisted of a lot of drinking, a lot of smoking, and a wee bit of throwing up. What?! Yeah, all Chinese banquets have drinking—that’s a given, but this year we took it up a notch. After most of the leaders were drunk, they decided to smoke. Last year I was saved by the fact that there was a baby in the room (Janice and Mark’s son), but this year with no baby, the smoking was brought back. Imagine a small room with no ventilation and 9 lit cigarettes. I thought I was going to be sick. They also insisted that I take one. Well I took it and let them light it and immediately proceeded to put it down. No one seemed to be offended that I didn’t smoke it. Some tried to push me to take another or to smoke it, but Mary helped to stand behind me that I didn’t want it. I help her that she doesn’t want to drink, and she helps me that I don’t want to smoke. Anyways, it was fine and like any other banquet, minus the smoking and minus our waiban throwing up in the corner and in the hall. Oh what a night! And Mary’s first banquet, at that.
I seem to have forgotten something. Oh yeah, my classes. My schedule this year is as follows:
Monday 905-1045 and culture club
Tuesday 905-1045 and 130-215
Wednesdays 905-1045, 1105-1150, 130-215, and 320-405. And English corner 530-630
Thursdays 905-1045, 1105-1150 and 130-215 and women’s club
Fridays 1105-1150 and 225-405
I am mostly teaching second year English majors this year, which gives me the opportunity for more interesting things in class since their level is a bit higher.
My syllabus:
Grade distribution:
30% notebook (new words/ phrases, listening practice, homework/class work)
35% Test 1
35% Test 2
Expectations:
1. Every week you need to bring a notebook and pen and write down the new words, homework, and activities.
2. You must participate and attend every class. If you miss class, you must do the homework and write the new words from the class you missed (ask your classmate)
3. You must participate in class and help your classmates
Weekly Schedule
Week1: syllabus/class information
Week2: Group assignments
Week3: structure of a conversation/ expressing opinions
Week4: conversation topic 1: hobbies
Week5: conversation topic 2: entertainment
Week6: conversation topic 3: health
Week7: conversation topic 4: dating
Week8: conversation topic 5: travel
Week9: conversation topic 6: stereotypes/gender roles
Week 10: conversation topic 7: dreams
Week 11: conversation topic 8: environment
Week 12 and 13: Test 1 (part 1: listening: week 12; part 2: speaking week 13)
Week14: telling a story
Week 15 and 16: Test 2
Week17 and 18: interviews; evaluations; review
Classes are good so far, but it is only the third week.
And last, but not least, (drumroll please) I have an impacted wisdom tooth! Yay! So next month I will take a trip into Chengdu to have it removed. I am super excited. If you didn’t know I have never had a wisdom tooth removed. I am quite a bit nervous, but, thankfully, Leo should be there that weekend to help take care of me. I have no idea what is in store for me. Any helpful advice?
Monday, September 19, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Summer Part 4: Chengdu
Exhausted, slightly disoriented, we arrive in Chengdu just in time for me to check into the hotel room Peace Corps has saved for me, grab lunch, and get to a meeting. Post meeting, I discover that I have checked into the wrong hotel, and must take all my stuff to a completely different hotel. No worries. After a good night’s sleep, I, along with Wendy, another volunteer, give a talk to the newest Peace Corps China volunteers about a subgroup within Peace Corps China called PPS (professional peer support), which focuses on giving teaching assistance to volunteers (by way of lesson plan ideas, activity ideas, Power Points, assessment, and other items associated with teaching). It went fine. The best part of this was that I got to meet my site mate. This year another Peace Corps volunteer will join me in Jiangyou. I was curious to meet her and find out about her. We ended up having a quick lunch and we mainly discussed Jiangyou and the school, so I don’t know much about her yet. Here is what I do know. Her name is Mary. She is 50 years old, and was an English teacher in Korea for 8 years. She has her degrees in elementary education, early childhood education, and special education. She enjoys cooking and baking. She is from the Tampa area and is Catholic. So already we have a lot in common. She seemed nice and a bit spunky. She wants to help me with the English Resource Center I plan to develop further this year, and help me host potlucks and dinners that I did last year for the teachers that live on campus. So I am sure this year I will mention more about Mary in my blog, but for now that’s all I know.
Leo also joined me in Chengdu, and during this time he was able to attend a speech/gathering with Vice President Joe Biden. Did you know that Joe Biden went to China recently? Apparently Joe Biden is doing an Asian circuit. He was in Beijing meeting with Chinese officials and decided to stop off in Chengdu for a day or two before leaving for Mongolia. All of the new China 17 volunteers were able to attend, but only 3 volunteers from my group. Leo was one of the lucky 3 chosen. Leo said the speech was good, but almost entirely directed at the Chinese officials that were there. In case you aren’t aware, China isn’t very happy with America right now, mainly due to the debt crisis we are in. America being in economic crisis affects the rest of the world, especially China (who has the 2nd largest economy in the world right now). Anyways, Biden did say thanks for the volunteers and what we are doing over here, but it is too bad that he couldn’t spend more time with the volunteers. After the speech most of the volunteers were able to shake his hand, but that’s about it. Apparently security was really tight. Nobody knew where it was going to be located until right before, no one could bring their cell phones or cameras, and you weren’t allowed to leave the room once you’d entered. But Leo thought the Vice President did a nice job with his speech, which is good.
So now I am back in Jiangyou, and trying to catch up on work and readjust to life here. My first evening back was good because I got together immediately with my two friends Sharon and Vivi plus I was exhausted. But Monday and Tuesday were difficult. It was so quiet and lonely. I had to keep music or a TV show on to block out the silence. After 2 months of being with someone constantly it was weird to be by myself again. Now it is Thursday and I have been busy responding to emails, lesson planning, posting pictures, writing this blog, and other things, so I think I have adjusted myself to life here again. Once classes start I will be busy again and probably will miss these moments alone that I am having now, but that time will come. Classes begin on September 5th. I have no idea who or what I am teaching, but I have a general idea, and I think my lesson plans should fit in well with what and who I think I will be teaching, but I shall know soon enough.
Wow, over a year has passed. Looking back on it I feel I have done so much, grown so much, and seen so much. I am curious and excitedly awaiting to see what this second year will bring. I am sure some days will go slowly and seem monotonous, but most days will probably go by too quickly and will seem all new and fascinating. I am excited to meet my new students, see my old students and friends again, and to introduce Mary to this warm and inviting community. I am anticipating the secondary projects I plan to start this year (a Woman’s club, Culture Club, English Resource Center, and English Corner). I am hoping that I can improve as a teacher, learn and grow from the mistakes I made last year and will inevitably make this year. And I am interested to see where life takes me. What things will I experience? What will I see, taste, feel? What struggles will I face? What will the future hold? I guess we will all have to wait and see.
Leo also joined me in Chengdu, and during this time he was able to attend a speech/gathering with Vice President Joe Biden. Did you know that Joe Biden went to China recently? Apparently Joe Biden is doing an Asian circuit. He was in Beijing meeting with Chinese officials and decided to stop off in Chengdu for a day or two before leaving for Mongolia. All of the new China 17 volunteers were able to attend, but only 3 volunteers from my group. Leo was one of the lucky 3 chosen. Leo said the speech was good, but almost entirely directed at the Chinese officials that were there. In case you aren’t aware, China isn’t very happy with America right now, mainly due to the debt crisis we are in. America being in economic crisis affects the rest of the world, especially China (who has the 2nd largest economy in the world right now). Anyways, Biden did say thanks for the volunteers and what we are doing over here, but it is too bad that he couldn’t spend more time with the volunteers. After the speech most of the volunteers were able to shake his hand, but that’s about it. Apparently security was really tight. Nobody knew where it was going to be located until right before, no one could bring their cell phones or cameras, and you weren’t allowed to leave the room once you’d entered. But Leo thought the Vice President did a nice job with his speech, which is good.
So now I am back in Jiangyou, and trying to catch up on work and readjust to life here. My first evening back was good because I got together immediately with my two friends Sharon and Vivi plus I was exhausted. But Monday and Tuesday were difficult. It was so quiet and lonely. I had to keep music or a TV show on to block out the silence. After 2 months of being with someone constantly it was weird to be by myself again. Now it is Thursday and I have been busy responding to emails, lesson planning, posting pictures, writing this blog, and other things, so I think I have adjusted myself to life here again. Once classes start I will be busy again and probably will miss these moments alone that I am having now, but that time will come. Classes begin on September 5th. I have no idea who or what I am teaching, but I have a general idea, and I think my lesson plans should fit in well with what and who I think I will be teaching, but I shall know soon enough.
Wow, over a year has passed. Looking back on it I feel I have done so much, grown so much, and seen so much. I am curious and excitedly awaiting to see what this second year will bring. I am sure some days will go slowly and seem monotonous, but most days will probably go by too quickly and will seem all new and fascinating. I am excited to meet my new students, see my old students and friends again, and to introduce Mary to this warm and inviting community. I am anticipating the secondary projects I plan to start this year (a Woman’s club, Culture Club, English Resource Center, and English Corner). I am hoping that I can improve as a teacher, learn and grow from the mistakes I made last year and will inevitably make this year. And I am interested to see where life takes me. What things will I experience? What will I see, taste, feel? What struggles will I face? What will the future hold? I guess we will all have to wait and see.
Summer part 3: language study
Immediately after summer project Leo and I hopped a train to Lijiang in Yunnan Province (just south of Sichuan). It is one of the most beautiful provinces in China—the sky always being blue, the air fresh and unpolluted, and the weather spring like almost all year.
Lijiang is located on a mountain at a higher altitude, I think 3000 meters or maybe 3000 feet. It was pretty high. The first couple of days I had a little trouble breathing, but by the third day it was easier. The weather was amazing, though. In Dazhou it was humid and in the 90s F then in Lijiang I needed a sweater in order to be comfortable.
Leo and I joined our good friends Katie and Richy (remember from our Vietnam trip in the winter?) and two other volunteers (Kate, who teaches in Guizhou Province, south of Sichuan, and Aftan, who teaches north of Sichuan in Gansu Province) for two weeks of Chinese language study. It was…a bit of an adventure, to say the least. Getting there was a nightmare. Leo and I took two 8 hour nightmarish bus rides. The first was from Yibin to Kunming (the capital of Yunnan). For some reason there were no trains going from Yibin to Kunming. The train was long, hot, cramped, and stifling. We were so relieved to arrive in Kunming. We spent one night of recovery in a hostel, and planned to take, what we thought, was a short bus ride to Lijiang. Well, no. It was another 8 hour bus ride, in a hot, cramped bus with a crazy driver that was speeding around the mountain passes. At first I thought we might die. Then I was too nauseous to even think. Why I didn’t bring the Dramamine my parents brought me from America, I have no idea, but I was quite sick after that bus ride. But, alas, we arrived. It was a cute little school on the edge of the old city (a nice touristy area of Lijiang with old stone-paved streets, shops, pedestrian walkways, and other touristy things of interest). Lijiang is a favorite place for Chinese people to vacation. Many of my Chinese friends that have been there say it’s the best place they have ever been, and those that haven’t gone dream of going. It is nice. There are many things to do, and see. There are fun mountains to climb. The Tiger Leaping Gorge is only a day trip away, too. Most foreigners would say that Dali (4 hours south) is much better. It is quieter, more relaxing, peaceful and easier to navigate. I much prefer Dali to Lijiang. Dali was Leo, Katie, Richy and my first stop during the winter vacation.
Anyways, so we were all in Lijiang to study. I said the school was cute. That’s about it. It was a brand new school and they had very little experience teaching foreigners, particularly foreigners in our situation. What situation might that be, Katie? Well, the fact that we have been in China for one year and have a fairly decent speaking vocabulary, and even better listening comprehension, but a limited knowledge of characters (i.e. reading and writing). Katie, Richy and Leo have a better character vocabulary, so they were put in one class together. Aftan, Kate, and I have nearly none, so we were put in class together. Kate, Aftan, and my teacher (Stephen) was willing to listen and adapt the teaching to meet our needs, however he just graduated from university and didn’t really know how to teach. Leo, Katie and Richy’s teacher was accustomed to teaching Chinese students Chinese and was less willing to adapt her lessons, but was quite knowledgeable about Chinese grammar, pronunciation, and everything Chinese (but she didn’t know any English and could only explain these concepts in Chinese). The other issue plaguing our language study was that the teachers didn’t know how to teach a multilevel class. Katie, Richy and Leo are all at completely different levels. Also I ended up joining their class the last 2 days because Kate and Aftan left early and it was a bit of a struggle to understand all the grammar points she was making. Both teachers were very nice and willing to help us, but not being used to our Chinese studying methods, found it a bit difficult teaching. But how do you teach people that can speak and listen at an intermediate level, but read and write at a beginner’s level? How do you teach a class with 2 intermediate-high level students and one advanced student? It is a conundrum, but a situation that all foreign English teachers face in China. Every English class in China is multileveled because it is easy enough to pass to the next level not having learned anything. Oh and this isn’t a problem, just funny. Katie, Richy and Leo’s teacher laughed nonstop. For some reason she thought everything was funny. I don’t think I have ever met anyone that laughs as much as this woman laughed.
Problem two facing us during language study was that the volunteer that planned everything for us (the pricing, the classes, etc.) had something come up and wasn’t able to come. Then when we arrived there was a big misunderstanding about the pricing. The one volunteer told us the price would be one thing, and the people at the school said another. The issue with the pricing is that Peace Corps will only reimburse us a certain amount of money for summer language study, so naturally we wanted the pricing to fall under that umbrella. Everything ended up okay in the end. We ended up paying more than the volunteer originally said we would, but less than too much.
It wasn’t all bad. We got to spend two weeks in a great city, and practice our Chinese. It also motivated us to study so that, hopefully, all of us return back to our sites and study up on our Chinese regularly. During the two weeks we spent nearly every afternoon in a restaurant drinking coffee and studying Chinese. It was quite perfect actually. We also had some fascinating adventures while we were there. One night we decided we wanted to eat western food. Katie remembered that there was a hostel with decent prices (called Mama Naxi—Naxi is a minority people in China that mostly live in Yunnan. The Naxi people are a matriarchal society, with the women running the businesses, calling the shots, and leading, while the men follow. Anyways the owner of the hostel is the sweetest old Naxi woman who calls herself Mama Naxi). So we meander our ways through the confusing old streets of Lijiang Old Town and find ourselves at the doorstep of Mama Naxi’s greeted by two little dogs. The food was amazing and cheap, but that wasn’t all. The night we decided to go to Mama Naxi’s for dinner also happened to be the night of her grandson’s 17th birthday, and guess what? We were on the guest list! She insisted that we stay and sing happy birthday to her grandson and join in the festivities, so we did. There was a big cake, and lots of fruit. I wonder if it is strange that her grandson celebrates his birthday with a bunch of random foreigners that he doesn’t know, but he was sweet. I think his grandmother particularly liked us (maybe because we could speak Chinese) because she kept taking pictures of us with her grandson.
Our favorite restaurant to go in Lijiang, which we visited at least 5 times, was a little Korean restaurant. Katie and Richy had lived in Korea for 1 year prior to joining Peace Corps and insisted Korean food was really good. Well they weren’t lying. It was better than good. There was one dish served in a hot pot with rice, vegetables, meat, one egg, and hot sauce. It is sizzling when it arrives, and you stir it so that the egg, and vegetables cook together by the heat of the rice and bowl. Then there is another dish which was a cold soup with barley noodles, cucumbers, a boiled egg, watermelon in a spicy vinegar broth. Maybe it sounds weird, but it was amazing. It is so fresh. Chinese food can be really oily, but the Korean food wasn’t oily at all. Another reason we frequented this restaurant was because there was the cutest little white dog that the owners kept. His name in Chinese is “xiao bai gou” or “little white dog.” He was so cute. The 2nd to last time we came to the restaurant, she offered to let Leo keep it. As tempting as that was, we had to say no.
My last food story for this trip. One afternoon Katie, Richy, Leo, and I are just wandering around the Old town, stopping here and there to check things out, then all of a sudden I see a sign! A sign?? A sign. What kind of sign? A sign for pizza. Yes, there, on the edge of Old town, there was a pizza restaurant. But that's not all. The pizza was cheap. The cheapest pizza price we’ve ever seen in China. So what else could we do, but stop and eat some pizza. It was mediocre at best, but amazing.
One morning Leo and I were taking a jog and we happened across this magnificent hidden lake. It was obvious that it was just for the local crowd because of its location. Later that day we returned with Katie and Richy. In the morning there was no one there. We thought it might be a great place to study and get fresh air, rather than another restaurant. However, when we get there it is packed with Chinese people (mostly men) swimming. It is the local swimming hole. If only we had known and brought our bathing suits. Well that isn’t going to stop Leo and Richy, who jump in and race each other to the other side. Meanwhile Katie and I set up a nice area for us to relax and study, with the few snacks we brought along from the bakery. It might have been a nice area for us to relax if it weren’t for the creeper that started walking back and forth behind us. At first we thought nothing of it, just some middle aged Chinese man walking around. But then we suddenly realize he is in his underwear, and they aren’t exactly hugging him where they should be hugging him. We keep a mind to just stare straight in front of us and not pay him any attention, since it is obvious that is what he was craving. That doesn’t seem to be working out for him, though, so he start stretching and waving his arms, and proceeds to sprawl out on a nearby bench to stretch. Out of the corner of my eye I see that he has taken his manhood out of his underwear and pointed it in our direction! I don’t make any moves that I have noticed (I am wearing sunglasses, so that is easy enough to manage), and notify Katie of what is happening to our right. Without looking around she picks up her phone and calls Richy and tells him that he and Leo need to return, which they quickly do. The fact that Katie took out her phone scared the creeper enough so that he was gone by the time the boys returned. Gross.
After language study ended, Leo, Katie, Richy and I stayed two extra nights in Lijiang while we waited for Richy’s sister and fiancé to arrive. Remember Mama Naxi? Well we ended up staying at her hostel. It was decent, but remember that I was saying that I was having stomach issues? Apparently when my stomach hurts during the night I have a tendency to talk in my sleep, or so my friends told me. One night Katie said she woke up because she heard a Chinese woman in our room, but when she looked around she didn’t see any Chinese woman. Instead she saw me, talking with perfect Chinese. She said I was saying “qing zuo” or “please sit.” I wonder how it is I can have good pronunciation in my sleep, but when awake, my Chinese pronunciation is terrible. Any guesses? There was also the funniest teenage Chinese boy working at the hostel that talked to us one night. We ended up giving him an English name (Lee Young—it resembled the sound of his Chinese name, which coincidentally enough was Lijiang. Anyways it turned out he was a Bai minority (fyi, there are 56 recorded minorities in China, and in actuality there are even more that the government doesn’t recognize) and in school his name is Lijiang. He doesn’t go by his given Bai name.). Anyways, this Lee Young wanted to know how to say love lines in English so that he could say them to foreign girls he sees. So Leo wrote down “You are more beautiful than a flower, and also the moon.” This was good enough for him. Then this Korean girl that we had gotten to know from the Korean café next door (another prime study spot), came into the hostel and was hanging out with us, and Lee Young proceeded to interrogate her on how to say hello and I love you in Korean. Funny, funny boy.
Leo and I left Lijiang a little earlier since I had to be back in Chengdu to give a talk to the new volunteers. Since it was such a long trip back, we stopped overnight in Dali. If only we could have stayed longer! But the next morning we left for Kunming and our 18 hour overnight hard seat train ride to Chengdu. That’s right. 18 hours, overnight, on a hard seat. It was uncomfortable. At most I slept 5 hours, but we made it. It wasn’t unbearable.
Lijiang is located on a mountain at a higher altitude, I think 3000 meters or maybe 3000 feet. It was pretty high. The first couple of days I had a little trouble breathing, but by the third day it was easier. The weather was amazing, though. In Dazhou it was humid and in the 90s F then in Lijiang I needed a sweater in order to be comfortable.
Leo and I joined our good friends Katie and Richy (remember from our Vietnam trip in the winter?) and two other volunteers (Kate, who teaches in Guizhou Province, south of Sichuan, and Aftan, who teaches north of Sichuan in Gansu Province) for two weeks of Chinese language study. It was…a bit of an adventure, to say the least. Getting there was a nightmare. Leo and I took two 8 hour nightmarish bus rides. The first was from Yibin to Kunming (the capital of Yunnan). For some reason there were no trains going from Yibin to Kunming. The train was long, hot, cramped, and stifling. We were so relieved to arrive in Kunming. We spent one night of recovery in a hostel, and planned to take, what we thought, was a short bus ride to Lijiang. Well, no. It was another 8 hour bus ride, in a hot, cramped bus with a crazy driver that was speeding around the mountain passes. At first I thought we might die. Then I was too nauseous to even think. Why I didn’t bring the Dramamine my parents brought me from America, I have no idea, but I was quite sick after that bus ride. But, alas, we arrived. It was a cute little school on the edge of the old city (a nice touristy area of Lijiang with old stone-paved streets, shops, pedestrian walkways, and other touristy things of interest). Lijiang is a favorite place for Chinese people to vacation. Many of my Chinese friends that have been there say it’s the best place they have ever been, and those that haven’t gone dream of going. It is nice. There are many things to do, and see. There are fun mountains to climb. The Tiger Leaping Gorge is only a day trip away, too. Most foreigners would say that Dali (4 hours south) is much better. It is quieter, more relaxing, peaceful and easier to navigate. I much prefer Dali to Lijiang. Dali was Leo, Katie, Richy and my first stop during the winter vacation.
Anyways, so we were all in Lijiang to study. I said the school was cute. That’s about it. It was a brand new school and they had very little experience teaching foreigners, particularly foreigners in our situation. What situation might that be, Katie? Well, the fact that we have been in China for one year and have a fairly decent speaking vocabulary, and even better listening comprehension, but a limited knowledge of characters (i.e. reading and writing). Katie, Richy and Leo have a better character vocabulary, so they were put in one class together. Aftan, Kate, and I have nearly none, so we were put in class together. Kate, Aftan, and my teacher (Stephen) was willing to listen and adapt the teaching to meet our needs, however he just graduated from university and didn’t really know how to teach. Leo, Katie and Richy’s teacher was accustomed to teaching Chinese students Chinese and was less willing to adapt her lessons, but was quite knowledgeable about Chinese grammar, pronunciation, and everything Chinese (but she didn’t know any English and could only explain these concepts in Chinese). The other issue plaguing our language study was that the teachers didn’t know how to teach a multilevel class. Katie, Richy and Leo are all at completely different levels. Also I ended up joining their class the last 2 days because Kate and Aftan left early and it was a bit of a struggle to understand all the grammar points she was making. Both teachers were very nice and willing to help us, but not being used to our Chinese studying methods, found it a bit difficult teaching. But how do you teach people that can speak and listen at an intermediate level, but read and write at a beginner’s level? How do you teach a class with 2 intermediate-high level students and one advanced student? It is a conundrum, but a situation that all foreign English teachers face in China. Every English class in China is multileveled because it is easy enough to pass to the next level not having learned anything. Oh and this isn’t a problem, just funny. Katie, Richy and Leo’s teacher laughed nonstop. For some reason she thought everything was funny. I don’t think I have ever met anyone that laughs as much as this woman laughed.
Problem two facing us during language study was that the volunteer that planned everything for us (the pricing, the classes, etc.) had something come up and wasn’t able to come. Then when we arrived there was a big misunderstanding about the pricing. The one volunteer told us the price would be one thing, and the people at the school said another. The issue with the pricing is that Peace Corps will only reimburse us a certain amount of money for summer language study, so naturally we wanted the pricing to fall under that umbrella. Everything ended up okay in the end. We ended up paying more than the volunteer originally said we would, but less than too much.
It wasn’t all bad. We got to spend two weeks in a great city, and practice our Chinese. It also motivated us to study so that, hopefully, all of us return back to our sites and study up on our Chinese regularly. During the two weeks we spent nearly every afternoon in a restaurant drinking coffee and studying Chinese. It was quite perfect actually. We also had some fascinating adventures while we were there. One night we decided we wanted to eat western food. Katie remembered that there was a hostel with decent prices (called Mama Naxi—Naxi is a minority people in China that mostly live in Yunnan. The Naxi people are a matriarchal society, with the women running the businesses, calling the shots, and leading, while the men follow. Anyways the owner of the hostel is the sweetest old Naxi woman who calls herself Mama Naxi). So we meander our ways through the confusing old streets of Lijiang Old Town and find ourselves at the doorstep of Mama Naxi’s greeted by two little dogs. The food was amazing and cheap, but that wasn’t all. The night we decided to go to Mama Naxi’s for dinner also happened to be the night of her grandson’s 17th birthday, and guess what? We were on the guest list! She insisted that we stay and sing happy birthday to her grandson and join in the festivities, so we did. There was a big cake, and lots of fruit. I wonder if it is strange that her grandson celebrates his birthday with a bunch of random foreigners that he doesn’t know, but he was sweet. I think his grandmother particularly liked us (maybe because we could speak Chinese) because she kept taking pictures of us with her grandson.
Our favorite restaurant to go in Lijiang, which we visited at least 5 times, was a little Korean restaurant. Katie and Richy had lived in Korea for 1 year prior to joining Peace Corps and insisted Korean food was really good. Well they weren’t lying. It was better than good. There was one dish served in a hot pot with rice, vegetables, meat, one egg, and hot sauce. It is sizzling when it arrives, and you stir it so that the egg, and vegetables cook together by the heat of the rice and bowl. Then there is another dish which was a cold soup with barley noodles, cucumbers, a boiled egg, watermelon in a spicy vinegar broth. Maybe it sounds weird, but it was amazing. It is so fresh. Chinese food can be really oily, but the Korean food wasn’t oily at all. Another reason we frequented this restaurant was because there was the cutest little white dog that the owners kept. His name in Chinese is “xiao bai gou” or “little white dog.” He was so cute. The 2nd to last time we came to the restaurant, she offered to let Leo keep it. As tempting as that was, we had to say no.
My last food story for this trip. One afternoon Katie, Richy, Leo, and I are just wandering around the Old town, stopping here and there to check things out, then all of a sudden I see a sign! A sign?? A sign. What kind of sign? A sign for pizza. Yes, there, on the edge of Old town, there was a pizza restaurant. But that's not all. The pizza was cheap. The cheapest pizza price we’ve ever seen in China. So what else could we do, but stop and eat some pizza. It was mediocre at best, but amazing.
One morning Leo and I were taking a jog and we happened across this magnificent hidden lake. It was obvious that it was just for the local crowd because of its location. Later that day we returned with Katie and Richy. In the morning there was no one there. We thought it might be a great place to study and get fresh air, rather than another restaurant. However, when we get there it is packed with Chinese people (mostly men) swimming. It is the local swimming hole. If only we had known and brought our bathing suits. Well that isn’t going to stop Leo and Richy, who jump in and race each other to the other side. Meanwhile Katie and I set up a nice area for us to relax and study, with the few snacks we brought along from the bakery. It might have been a nice area for us to relax if it weren’t for the creeper that started walking back and forth behind us. At first we thought nothing of it, just some middle aged Chinese man walking around. But then we suddenly realize he is in his underwear, and they aren’t exactly hugging him where they should be hugging him. We keep a mind to just stare straight in front of us and not pay him any attention, since it is obvious that is what he was craving. That doesn’t seem to be working out for him, though, so he start stretching and waving his arms, and proceeds to sprawl out on a nearby bench to stretch. Out of the corner of my eye I see that he has taken his manhood out of his underwear and pointed it in our direction! I don’t make any moves that I have noticed (I am wearing sunglasses, so that is easy enough to manage), and notify Katie of what is happening to our right. Without looking around she picks up her phone and calls Richy and tells him that he and Leo need to return, which they quickly do. The fact that Katie took out her phone scared the creeper enough so that he was gone by the time the boys returned. Gross.
After language study ended, Leo, Katie, Richy and I stayed two extra nights in Lijiang while we waited for Richy’s sister and fiancé to arrive. Remember Mama Naxi? Well we ended up staying at her hostel. It was decent, but remember that I was saying that I was having stomach issues? Apparently when my stomach hurts during the night I have a tendency to talk in my sleep, or so my friends told me. One night Katie said she woke up because she heard a Chinese woman in our room, but when she looked around she didn’t see any Chinese woman. Instead she saw me, talking with perfect Chinese. She said I was saying “qing zuo” or “please sit.” I wonder how it is I can have good pronunciation in my sleep, but when awake, my Chinese pronunciation is terrible. Any guesses? There was also the funniest teenage Chinese boy working at the hostel that talked to us one night. We ended up giving him an English name (Lee Young—it resembled the sound of his Chinese name, which coincidentally enough was Lijiang. Anyways it turned out he was a Bai minority (fyi, there are 56 recorded minorities in China, and in actuality there are even more that the government doesn’t recognize) and in school his name is Lijiang. He doesn’t go by his given Bai name.). Anyways, this Lee Young wanted to know how to say love lines in English so that he could say them to foreign girls he sees. So Leo wrote down “You are more beautiful than a flower, and also the moon.” This was good enough for him. Then this Korean girl that we had gotten to know from the Korean café next door (another prime study spot), came into the hostel and was hanging out with us, and Lee Young proceeded to interrogate her on how to say hello and I love you in Korean. Funny, funny boy.
Leo and I left Lijiang a little earlier since I had to be back in Chengdu to give a talk to the new volunteers. Since it was such a long trip back, we stopped overnight in Dali. If only we could have stayed longer! But the next morning we left for Kunming and our 18 hour overnight hard seat train ride to Chengdu. That’s right. 18 hours, overnight, on a hard seat. It was uncomfortable. At most I slept 5 hours, but we made it. It wasn’t unbearable.
Summer part 2: summer project
Saying goodbye to my parents was difficult, but easier than the first time. I didn’t have time to dwell on their departure anyways because the next phase of my summer was upon me. Summer project. Summer project consists of volunteers teaching teachers in various rural locations in our provinces. Since I live and work in Sichuan province, my summer project was also in Sichuan. There were 4 cities in Sichuan for summer project, and Peace Corps staff split us into groups of 5-6 for each city to teach for 2 weeks. I, along with Leo, Joel, Tamarae, Aaron, and Warren, were chosen to go to Dazhou. Dazhou is a relatively small city (in terms of China) with a population of, maybe 600,000 people (we could never get a sure number). The city is in northeastern Sichuan, bordering the municipality of Chongqing.
Living: we all had our own rooms in the same hall of a school “hotel.” I put it in quotes because it was like a hotel, but just one separate floor of a dormitory. So it was a one hall hotel. It was really nice having our own rooms and a floor to ourselves, especially since we were spending a great amount of time each day lesson planning together. The only downside was that we were not allotted keys. Multiple times a day we had to knock on the first door in the hall (which was the apartment of this lady and her family). This lady would then go around and open our doors for us. At least four times a day this lady had to open the doors for us (after class, after lunch, after an activity, after dinner). But apparently the school thought this was a better system than having individual keys, and as long as she didn’t mind us knocking on her apartment door several times a day, it was fine with us.
Teaching: We each had our own class of about 50 primary and middle school English teachers in the Dazhou community. Most of the teachers were from the rural countryside (some never having left Sichuan province). Some of them were fresh from college, never having taught before, while others have been teaching longer than I have been alive. All of them were required to attend the two week training session by their schools. Some had no background in English and could barely say anything to me in English. Others had taught other subjects, but their school decided they would teach English the following year. Most of the young teachers were really energetic and interested in being there and getting information, while, and I don’t blame them, most of the older teachers stopped attending classes by the middle of the first week, or if they did come to class did not participate. It was frustrating at times dealing with teachers that didn’t want to be taught, but there wasn’t anything I could really do about it. All of us tried our best to make it interesting and worthwhile for them. We spent hours every day formulating our lessons, and preparing materials and PPTs. I tried not to get too frustrated with those uninterested because there were always a group that was really engaged and every day stayed after class to ask questions and copy our PPTs.
In the mornings we taught our own classes for 3 hours. The six of us volunteers decided that we would lesson plan together and have the same basic outline of the lesson, but that we could each decide on our activities and teaching style on our own. Joel, Leo, and I did extra lesson planning together and our lessons mirrored each other. At the end of the first week, Joel’s projector stopped working and he asked if his class could join with mine and we could team teach. It turns out that Joel and I have similar teaching methods and we taught really well together. Our students really liked the vibe of the class with us together, and after that we taught every lesson together.
In the afternoons we gave team lectures (so two of us would give a lecture together). The first 3 days I lectured with Warren on the American classroom. Then the last 2 days of the first week I lectured with Aaron and Tamarae on technology in the classroom. The second week I lectured the first 3 days with Leo on Chinglish and body gestures (Chinglish is the botched English that many of our students speak—common errors that they make as a result of direct translations; example: Happy Everyday, I very like you; I ever went there; etc.). The 2nd to last day we all lectured the same topic (creativity in the classroom) because the last day of lectures were cancelled.
What we were trying to accomplish through summer project was giving the teachers real things that they can take back with them to the classroom and use with their students. One issue that is facing China, and that China’s Ministry of Education hopes to change with the help of Peace Corps, is that Chinese students study English from primary school through high school and even into college, and most of them cannot speak English. How can that be? Well because they focus entirely on reading, writing and grammar. Most of their teachers don’t speak English to them, and some of them can’t even speak English themselves. As a result, students can’t understand spoken English very well and have difficulty in speaking English. If I write a word on the board my students all know it, but if I say it they are confused. I remember one time I said a word to a Chinese friend of mine, and she wasn’t sure what I was saying so she asked me to spell it. Once I had spelled it, she immediately knew the word. Her response was, “oh that’s how you say that word. I never knew.” Wow! So you see the dilemma? So during summer project we focused on giving these teachers useful speaking and listening activities that they might integrate into their classroom and give their students more practice with these two skills. I just hope they actually do.
Activities: No Chinese teacher trainee program is complete without activities. Every other day we had a different activity to take part in with the teacher trainees. The first was like a meet and greet. All of the teacher trainees, school staff, and volunteers got together for snacks and drinks and getting to know each other. Not one of the volunteers was able to eat anything. It was a drinking, toasting, and picture taking extravaganza. I can’t think of a hobby Chinese people love more than taking pictures. It started with my class calling me over to have a toast with them. Then my class pulled the other volunteers over. Then they wanted to have a class picture. Then everyone pulled out their cameras and cell phones and wanted individual pictures. By the end my cheeks hurt so much I could barely open my mouth. But that wasn’t the end. One goofy teacher from my class started this dancing activity (I think he might have been a bit drunk at this point), but anyways he had this really complicated dancing game that he got us all involved in. The meet and greet was fun, but extremely exhausting.
Activity two was an evening at a local water park followed by a hotpot dinner. Only a few teachers came since this activity cost money. It was really fun, though. Oh I forgot to mention earlier that the school officials gave us this senior student that worked in the foreign affairs office to help us during our two weeks with whatever we needed. She was sweet, and her English was good. She was really innocent and hadn’t done very much in her life, so the first thing we got her to do was go down these water slides. The water park isn’t anything like you would see in the States. Even the smallest water park in the States is at least twice the size as this one, but it was still fun. There were 3 water slides, and they could only operate two at a time since there were only 2 lifeguards working at the time. There was also this wave pool, and then the craziest thing of all. At one point while we are in the wave pool these 3 girls in a sexy outfit get on the stage at the back of the wave pool and start dancing. It was one of the most random things I have ever seen, but moderately entertaining.
When the water park closed around 7, we walked around the corner to this Communist Hot Pot Restaurant. Literally, the theme and name of the restaurant was communist hot pot. It was pretty good hot pot. None of the teachers joined us for hot pot, so Susie asked what kinds of foods we might want in the hot pot. One of the biggest issues I have with hot pot is that they always put weird foods inside, like blood, stomach, neck, river eels, etc. but this hot pot wasn’t bad since we chose mostly vegetables and meat that we are more accustomed to eating (i.e. the muscle portion of the animal).
Activity three was supposed to be a mountain climbing adventure on our one day off teaching, but most of us respectfully declined since we were spending all of our lunch break and evenings lesson planning. We were hoping to spend the day off catching up and getting ahead on our lesson and lecture plans so that we didn’t have to exhaust ourselves during the week.
Activity four was a Ping-Pong competition! Woah! All of us, but Aaron, got out on the first round. Everyone that participated got a prize, though. Those that were eliminated in the first round got umbrellas, and those eliminated in the 2nd round received nice mugs, and the winner got a knife set I think. Many teachers didn’t participate because it turns out that participating cost quite a bit of an entrance fee.
The fifth activity was a BBQ. BBQs in China aren’t like barbeques in the States. In China, you go to a restaurant and the food is cooked BBQ style and brought to you. It was nice, though. We ate a really good fish dish, and many teachers came and we all ate, drank, and took many more pictures together. The best part was that one teacher brought his daughter with him and she was one of the cutest babies any of us had ever seen. She kept blowing us kisses. Then we started a game with her in which we copied whatever she was doing (if she put her hand on her head, we put our hands on our heads), anyways she found this hilarious and kept playing the game over and over. She was too cute.
The last activity was a banquet. We all went to a nice buffet restaurant and ate and drank and took more pictures. Seeing the trend? It was a nice way to say goodbye to everyone, and a nice way to wrap up our two weeks in Dazhou. It would have been even nicer if I could have managed to eat more than I did. The entire 2nd week I was sick with some weird stomach issues. Never in my life have I had as many stomach ailments as I have had in China. Oh well, it was also fun for us because Leo decided to announce to everyone that it was Tamarae’s birthday (which it was a couple of days later), and the students surprised her with a cake, party hat, and a round of Happy Birthday. It was pretty funny.
Oh and we decided to add our own little activity into the mix for our own enjoyment…a water balloon fight. We had taken a trip to Wal-Mart to buy supplies for our lectures and lessons, and what did we find? Water balloons. Of course we had to buy them. So we had the best water balloon fight ever! Well maybe not ever, but it was quite fun. During our 2nd week teaching in Dazhou there was simultaneously a kids’ soccer camp. When the kids heard the shouting and laughter they ran down from their dorms, and stared at us. They didn’t join in the water balloon frenzy, but when our water balloon supply was exhausted we involved them in a game of keep away. I don’t know that they’d played that before, but they seemed to enjoy it. Us foreigners and Susie were on one team, and all the kids were on another. Unfortunately for them, our energies were depleted a lot faster than theirs, and we returned to our rooms while they still ran around.
Summer Project ended up being an okay time. We 6 got to know each other a bit better than we did before, had a good time in a new city, got to know some really nice Chinese people, and hopefully made some sort of difference. I doubt any of us will be back to Dazhou anytime soon, but one never knows. One teacher did ask if Leo and I would give a lecture at his school. I said maybe, so we shall see if an email comes our way during the semester.
Living: we all had our own rooms in the same hall of a school “hotel.” I put it in quotes because it was like a hotel, but just one separate floor of a dormitory. So it was a one hall hotel. It was really nice having our own rooms and a floor to ourselves, especially since we were spending a great amount of time each day lesson planning together. The only downside was that we were not allotted keys. Multiple times a day we had to knock on the first door in the hall (which was the apartment of this lady and her family). This lady would then go around and open our doors for us. At least four times a day this lady had to open the doors for us (after class, after lunch, after an activity, after dinner). But apparently the school thought this was a better system than having individual keys, and as long as she didn’t mind us knocking on her apartment door several times a day, it was fine with us.
Teaching: We each had our own class of about 50 primary and middle school English teachers in the Dazhou community. Most of the teachers were from the rural countryside (some never having left Sichuan province). Some of them were fresh from college, never having taught before, while others have been teaching longer than I have been alive. All of them were required to attend the two week training session by their schools. Some had no background in English and could barely say anything to me in English. Others had taught other subjects, but their school decided they would teach English the following year. Most of the young teachers were really energetic and interested in being there and getting information, while, and I don’t blame them, most of the older teachers stopped attending classes by the middle of the first week, or if they did come to class did not participate. It was frustrating at times dealing with teachers that didn’t want to be taught, but there wasn’t anything I could really do about it. All of us tried our best to make it interesting and worthwhile for them. We spent hours every day formulating our lessons, and preparing materials and PPTs. I tried not to get too frustrated with those uninterested because there were always a group that was really engaged and every day stayed after class to ask questions and copy our PPTs.
In the mornings we taught our own classes for 3 hours. The six of us volunteers decided that we would lesson plan together and have the same basic outline of the lesson, but that we could each decide on our activities and teaching style on our own. Joel, Leo, and I did extra lesson planning together and our lessons mirrored each other. At the end of the first week, Joel’s projector stopped working and he asked if his class could join with mine and we could team teach. It turns out that Joel and I have similar teaching methods and we taught really well together. Our students really liked the vibe of the class with us together, and after that we taught every lesson together.
In the afternoons we gave team lectures (so two of us would give a lecture together). The first 3 days I lectured with Warren on the American classroom. Then the last 2 days of the first week I lectured with Aaron and Tamarae on technology in the classroom. The second week I lectured the first 3 days with Leo on Chinglish and body gestures (Chinglish is the botched English that many of our students speak—common errors that they make as a result of direct translations; example: Happy Everyday, I very like you; I ever went there; etc.). The 2nd to last day we all lectured the same topic (creativity in the classroom) because the last day of lectures were cancelled.
What we were trying to accomplish through summer project was giving the teachers real things that they can take back with them to the classroom and use with their students. One issue that is facing China, and that China’s Ministry of Education hopes to change with the help of Peace Corps, is that Chinese students study English from primary school through high school and even into college, and most of them cannot speak English. How can that be? Well because they focus entirely on reading, writing and grammar. Most of their teachers don’t speak English to them, and some of them can’t even speak English themselves. As a result, students can’t understand spoken English very well and have difficulty in speaking English. If I write a word on the board my students all know it, but if I say it they are confused. I remember one time I said a word to a Chinese friend of mine, and she wasn’t sure what I was saying so she asked me to spell it. Once I had spelled it, she immediately knew the word. Her response was, “oh that’s how you say that word. I never knew.” Wow! So you see the dilemma? So during summer project we focused on giving these teachers useful speaking and listening activities that they might integrate into their classroom and give their students more practice with these two skills. I just hope they actually do.
Activities: No Chinese teacher trainee program is complete without activities. Every other day we had a different activity to take part in with the teacher trainees. The first was like a meet and greet. All of the teacher trainees, school staff, and volunteers got together for snacks and drinks and getting to know each other. Not one of the volunteers was able to eat anything. It was a drinking, toasting, and picture taking extravaganza. I can’t think of a hobby Chinese people love more than taking pictures. It started with my class calling me over to have a toast with them. Then my class pulled the other volunteers over. Then they wanted to have a class picture. Then everyone pulled out their cameras and cell phones and wanted individual pictures. By the end my cheeks hurt so much I could barely open my mouth. But that wasn’t the end. One goofy teacher from my class started this dancing activity (I think he might have been a bit drunk at this point), but anyways he had this really complicated dancing game that he got us all involved in. The meet and greet was fun, but extremely exhausting.
Activity two was an evening at a local water park followed by a hotpot dinner. Only a few teachers came since this activity cost money. It was really fun, though. Oh I forgot to mention earlier that the school officials gave us this senior student that worked in the foreign affairs office to help us during our two weeks with whatever we needed. She was sweet, and her English was good. She was really innocent and hadn’t done very much in her life, so the first thing we got her to do was go down these water slides. The water park isn’t anything like you would see in the States. Even the smallest water park in the States is at least twice the size as this one, but it was still fun. There were 3 water slides, and they could only operate two at a time since there were only 2 lifeguards working at the time. There was also this wave pool, and then the craziest thing of all. At one point while we are in the wave pool these 3 girls in a sexy outfit get on the stage at the back of the wave pool and start dancing. It was one of the most random things I have ever seen, but moderately entertaining.
When the water park closed around 7, we walked around the corner to this Communist Hot Pot Restaurant. Literally, the theme and name of the restaurant was communist hot pot. It was pretty good hot pot. None of the teachers joined us for hot pot, so Susie asked what kinds of foods we might want in the hot pot. One of the biggest issues I have with hot pot is that they always put weird foods inside, like blood, stomach, neck, river eels, etc. but this hot pot wasn’t bad since we chose mostly vegetables and meat that we are more accustomed to eating (i.e. the muscle portion of the animal).
Activity three was supposed to be a mountain climbing adventure on our one day off teaching, but most of us respectfully declined since we were spending all of our lunch break and evenings lesson planning. We were hoping to spend the day off catching up and getting ahead on our lesson and lecture plans so that we didn’t have to exhaust ourselves during the week.
Activity four was a Ping-Pong competition! Woah! All of us, but Aaron, got out on the first round. Everyone that participated got a prize, though. Those that were eliminated in the first round got umbrellas, and those eliminated in the 2nd round received nice mugs, and the winner got a knife set I think. Many teachers didn’t participate because it turns out that participating cost quite a bit of an entrance fee.
The fifth activity was a BBQ. BBQs in China aren’t like barbeques in the States. In China, you go to a restaurant and the food is cooked BBQ style and brought to you. It was nice, though. We ate a really good fish dish, and many teachers came and we all ate, drank, and took many more pictures together. The best part was that one teacher brought his daughter with him and she was one of the cutest babies any of us had ever seen. She kept blowing us kisses. Then we started a game with her in which we copied whatever she was doing (if she put her hand on her head, we put our hands on our heads), anyways she found this hilarious and kept playing the game over and over. She was too cute.
The last activity was a banquet. We all went to a nice buffet restaurant and ate and drank and took more pictures. Seeing the trend? It was a nice way to say goodbye to everyone, and a nice way to wrap up our two weeks in Dazhou. It would have been even nicer if I could have managed to eat more than I did. The entire 2nd week I was sick with some weird stomach issues. Never in my life have I had as many stomach ailments as I have had in China. Oh well, it was also fun for us because Leo decided to announce to everyone that it was Tamarae’s birthday (which it was a couple of days later), and the students surprised her with a cake, party hat, and a round of Happy Birthday. It was pretty funny.
Oh and we decided to add our own little activity into the mix for our own enjoyment…a water balloon fight. We had taken a trip to Wal-Mart to buy supplies for our lectures and lessons, and what did we find? Water balloons. Of course we had to buy them. So we had the best water balloon fight ever! Well maybe not ever, but it was quite fun. During our 2nd week teaching in Dazhou there was simultaneously a kids’ soccer camp. When the kids heard the shouting and laughter they ran down from their dorms, and stared at us. They didn’t join in the water balloon frenzy, but when our water balloon supply was exhausted we involved them in a game of keep away. I don’t know that they’d played that before, but they seemed to enjoy it. Us foreigners and Susie were on one team, and all the kids were on another. Unfortunately for them, our energies were depleted a lot faster than theirs, and we returned to our rooms while they still ran around.
Summer Project ended up being an okay time. We 6 got to know each other a bit better than we did before, had a good time in a new city, got to know some really nice Chinese people, and hopefully made some sort of difference. I doubt any of us will be back to Dazhou anytime soon, but one never knows. One teacher did ask if Leo and I would give a lecture at his school. I said maybe, so we shall see if an email comes our way during the semester.
Summer part 1: end of the semester, parents’ visit
It is surprising to think that I have already finished my first year teaching in China. Some days it seems I have just arrived, and that I still haven’t any clue about China. Other days I feel as if I have been here a while and I am quite familiar with Chinese customs. The end of the semester brought with it a few changes. We all had to say goodbye to Janice, Mark and Charlie as they were returning to life back in Canada. It was difficult to say goodbye to them since they were a big part in my feeling acclimated to life in Jiangyou, but they were just one chapter in the open book of my life. One chapter closed and another one yet to be started.
Unfortunately my parents never were able to meet the Bergens, since they left prior to my parents’ arrival. The day before my parents’ arrival I busied myself cleaning, buying extra pillows, extra towels, extra mugs, and other conveniences that I had neglected to buy during the course of the year. I was quite nervous about them coming. I was worried that they would find it boring and uncomfortable living in my apartment. The night they are expected to arrive I am sitting, anxiously awaiting the time I would have to leave with my school official to pick them up in the neighboring city, when I receive a call from an unfamiliar number. I answer it and hear the sound of my mother’s voice. I am quite taken aback by this, and then become concerned as I hear the worry in her voice. It seems that their flight from the States to Beijing was late in arriving, so they missed their connecting flight into Mianyang. They would have to stay the night in Beijing and take another flight the next morning. Naturally this really concerns me, since my parents aren’t familiar with the country or the language. Luckily, they are in Beijing where enough people speak English, but I am still worried about their safety, as well as getting ripped off.
However everything works out fine. They are able to arrive safely into my city the following morning, and get settled into my apartment. They tell me an interesting tale about how the toilet in the hotel didn’t work properly and how they had to navigate their way in the dark to get to their bedroom because there were no light switches. This actually wasn’t the case at all, but they were unfamiliar with the Chinese method of preserving electricity by placing your hotel room key in the wall in order to activate the electricity in the room. The toilet, however, sounded similar to the toilet in my apartment (the flushing button just needs to be held for a while).
During my parents stay in Jiangyou, my mom was brave enough to give a lecture on preschool education in America to nearly 100 students and teachers. Everyone thought she did a good job and she was able to answer all of the questions they normally ask me but am unable to answer (since I don’t have any background or experience in preschool education). My parents were also kind enough to go to our weekly English corner, which had closer to 40-50 students attend this time. My dad talked about life in India, as well as immigrating to the US and taking the TOEFL exam (something many Chinese students are interested in taking), and my mom talked briefly about multiculturalism in the US.
The most interesting time in Jiangyou was taking a day trip to a temple in Mianyang. It is a gorgeous temple by the roadside that I have passed several times. Every time I see it I have told myself I must visit it. It was nice to have the chance to visit it with my parents. While meandering through the temple one elderly Chinese man started talking to my dad. My mom and I were slightly ahead when I realized what was happening. My dad looked very confused and was trying to tell the man that he couldn’t speak Chinese. I walked over and asked the Chinese man what he wanted. He wanted to know where my father was from, as well as where we were from and what we were all doing in China, and whether or not we all liked China (the usual conversation with strangers in China). When I mentioned that my dad was from India he became very excited and said over and over “hao pengyou” or “good friends.” This surprised me a bit since I know that India and China have a bit of a rivalry, but it is nice to know that the average Chinese person likes their neighbors to the west.
So time in Jiangyou was filled with lectures, travels around the city (including Wal-Mart) and dinners with friends and students. Everyone, obviously, liked my parents and was happy that they had the chance to meet them. Hopefully now my parents have a better idea about my life in China, so that when I mention a certain person or place they can say “oh yeah! I remember that.”
After a stressful last day trying to get my students to sign their names to their role sheets so that I could turn my grades in, we were off on a train to Chengdu. Taking a train is the most convenient method of travel from my city to the provincial capital, but can sometimes be a hassle. Typically for such a short train ride, I don’t have any issues. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case when I was travelling with my parents. The train was really crowded and there were two really old people in the seats my mom and I were supposed to have. I just told my mom to sit somewhere else because they weren’t moving after I asked once. But at the next stop this man gets on that is supposed to be sitting in the seat my mom is currently occupying and he gets really angry and starts yelling at us. I tell the man that the old people in front of us are sitting in our seats and he can tell them to move first. He doesn’t want to hear us and just yells again. Well my mom and I don’t appreciate his attitude, which is obvious in any language, so we choose to ignore him. He eventually gives up and finds somewhere else to go.
Chengdu was a nice trip, minus the torrential downpour one night. I think the nicest area we went was Jinli Street. Jinli Street was an old street full of shops, knickknacks and other things of interest (so basically really touristy, but still nice). In Chengdu my parents also met many people. Our 2nd day in Chengdu I had to go to the Peace Corps Office to help the medical staff tape a skit teaching about STIs with a few other volunteers. I played the part of the doctor in the skit, fyi. It turns out the STI skit was nixed in the end, but that’s a story for another day. Anyways, while there my parents were able to meet some of the staff, and the other volunteers that were helping with the skit.
We also had a night out with my host parents. My sweet boyfriend Leo also joined us, which made everything easier since he can speak Chinese far better than I can. I was hoping with Leo’s help to bridge the gap between my parents and my host parents. It turns out my host dad just wanted to chat with Leo the whole night, whereas Leo just wanted to chat with my parents. In the end Leo succumbed to talking with my host dad, occasionally translating between my host dad and parents, while I translated back and forth between my parents and my host mom. It was nice, though. My parents were able to experience the famous Sichuan hotpot. My dad seemed to like it, since he really likes spicy food. We had a scare at one point when my dad ate something that might have had shrimp in it (which he is seriously allergic to), but nothing happened, so whew. The frustrating part of that evening, though I should have foreseen this, was that my host parents ended up treating us to dinner. My intention, and my parents’ intention, was to treat my host parents. This is one frustrating aspect of Chinese culture. Sometimes it can be impossible to treat Chinese people to anything. They always want to do the treating. I argued with them for a while, but then I gave in and let them pay. They insisted that because it was China that they should pay, and when they visit us in America that we can pay. We agreed, however it is hard to say if we will ever see them in America, though nothing is impossible.
Leo was frustrated that he didn’t get a chance to really get to know my parents, so the next day we all went together to the Panda Research Base. We got there a little later than we should have, because the lazy pandas were just sleeping. Basically fat pandas lie on their backs for 23 hours of the day, and maybe move around 1 hour (usually in the early morning). I might be exaggerating a little, but I don’t think so. One volunteer that lives near the panda base said that one time he went to see them and saw one panda poop lying down, and then didn’t move! He just sat in his own poop! I can’t figure out why these lazy animals are the face of China. I can’t understand either why we are bothering to keep them alive. I will probably get kicked out of China for saying all this against pandas, but come on, Darwin’s survival of the fittest. We are going against nature and natural selection here with these pandas. They are incapable of breeding on their own. Almost all pandas have to be artificially inseminated. I think that’s nature saying that they shouldn’t exist anymore. Am I right? Okay, enough about pandas, or at least the fat ones. Did you know that there is such a thing as red pandas?! They are much more interesting than the fat pandas. They move around, they climb trees, apparently they fight each other, and they have tails. Much more interesting. Actually I am not sure why they are called pandas, since they look more like raccoons than anything else. But there were more of them and they were a lot more active than the other pandas. They actually look somewhat like ewoks (remember from Star Wars?). Anyways, check out my pictures at windows live so you can see the red pandas. I also had a couple of pictures of fat baby pandas, which are actually cute.
The best part of my trip with my parents was Beijing. Blue skies, no stress, people that can actually speak Mandarin—it was great! In Beijing we were typical tourists, hitting all of the major tourist spots, Tiananmen, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, and The Great Wall. My favorite part was The Great Wall. We took a tour group there, since it is pretty difficult to get there. It really blows your mind. The Wall goes on forever! The air is so fresh, and the views spectacular. The surprising part was the steepness of the Wall. You have to hold on tight! At one point I slipped and slid for a good 2 or 3 meters. Since we were with a tour we had about an hour to visit, but that was adequate. I wanted to see if I could reach this tower, so I ran off ahead, while my parents took it slowly and enjoyed the view and the experience of actually being on The Great Wall. I think one highlight for my dad was that there were 3 Indian men on the tour with us. They became fast friends and were joking and laughing about India, missing eating with your hands, struggling to use chopsticks, and the differences between China and India.
Now I am not one for shopping, but the shopping in Beijing was much better than any of the shops that I have seen elsewhere. Leo, who lived in Beijing for a year, suggested we try and visit Beijing’s famous hutongs (or alleyways). Beijing is full of old alleyways, many of them that are filled with interesting shops, restaurants, and cafes. We couldn’t find the ones that were the most famous, and no one seemed to be able to tell us how to get there. Frustrated and just about ready to give up going to these alleyways, a nice young man from America (but has been living in Beijing the past 3 years) saw us looking confused and came over to see if he could help us. He suggested a completely different alleyway but said it is easy to get to and that most people are familiar with the street and can point us in the right direction. We managed to get to it, and it was worth it. We just walked around and looked in the shops. My mom found a nice scarf, and my dad bought some stamps.
During my parents visit I realized that I find it very stressful to have other people rely on me for directions, communication, and decision making. The communication aspect of it is fine, but my directional skills are poor in any country and any language and I am also quite inept at making decisions. I much prefer to be the follower rather than a leader, but the world is made up of leaders and followers. If everyone was a leader, we would have even more wars than we already have, and if everyone was a follower than nothing would get accomplished, right?
If my parents were in China longer there were a couple of other places I would prefer to have taken them; places that are much more relaxing, a little less touristy and busy, but equally interesting to visit, but this possibly being their only opportunity in China, we had to see the typical sights (Chengdu and Beijing). If you want to hear more about the trip, feel free to ask my parents (especially my mom who kept a journal with her during the trip). Also check out the pictures (especially the ones of the Wall)
Unfortunately my parents never were able to meet the Bergens, since they left prior to my parents’ arrival. The day before my parents’ arrival I busied myself cleaning, buying extra pillows, extra towels, extra mugs, and other conveniences that I had neglected to buy during the course of the year. I was quite nervous about them coming. I was worried that they would find it boring and uncomfortable living in my apartment. The night they are expected to arrive I am sitting, anxiously awaiting the time I would have to leave with my school official to pick them up in the neighboring city, when I receive a call from an unfamiliar number. I answer it and hear the sound of my mother’s voice. I am quite taken aback by this, and then become concerned as I hear the worry in her voice. It seems that their flight from the States to Beijing was late in arriving, so they missed their connecting flight into Mianyang. They would have to stay the night in Beijing and take another flight the next morning. Naturally this really concerns me, since my parents aren’t familiar with the country or the language. Luckily, they are in Beijing where enough people speak English, but I am still worried about their safety, as well as getting ripped off.
However everything works out fine. They are able to arrive safely into my city the following morning, and get settled into my apartment. They tell me an interesting tale about how the toilet in the hotel didn’t work properly and how they had to navigate their way in the dark to get to their bedroom because there were no light switches. This actually wasn’t the case at all, but they were unfamiliar with the Chinese method of preserving electricity by placing your hotel room key in the wall in order to activate the electricity in the room. The toilet, however, sounded similar to the toilet in my apartment (the flushing button just needs to be held for a while).
During my parents stay in Jiangyou, my mom was brave enough to give a lecture on preschool education in America to nearly 100 students and teachers. Everyone thought she did a good job and she was able to answer all of the questions they normally ask me but am unable to answer (since I don’t have any background or experience in preschool education). My parents were also kind enough to go to our weekly English corner, which had closer to 40-50 students attend this time. My dad talked about life in India, as well as immigrating to the US and taking the TOEFL exam (something many Chinese students are interested in taking), and my mom talked briefly about multiculturalism in the US.
The most interesting time in Jiangyou was taking a day trip to a temple in Mianyang. It is a gorgeous temple by the roadside that I have passed several times. Every time I see it I have told myself I must visit it. It was nice to have the chance to visit it with my parents. While meandering through the temple one elderly Chinese man started talking to my dad. My mom and I were slightly ahead when I realized what was happening. My dad looked very confused and was trying to tell the man that he couldn’t speak Chinese. I walked over and asked the Chinese man what he wanted. He wanted to know where my father was from, as well as where we were from and what we were all doing in China, and whether or not we all liked China (the usual conversation with strangers in China). When I mentioned that my dad was from India he became very excited and said over and over “hao pengyou” or “good friends.” This surprised me a bit since I know that India and China have a bit of a rivalry, but it is nice to know that the average Chinese person likes their neighbors to the west.
So time in Jiangyou was filled with lectures, travels around the city (including Wal-Mart) and dinners with friends and students. Everyone, obviously, liked my parents and was happy that they had the chance to meet them. Hopefully now my parents have a better idea about my life in China, so that when I mention a certain person or place they can say “oh yeah! I remember that.”
After a stressful last day trying to get my students to sign their names to their role sheets so that I could turn my grades in, we were off on a train to Chengdu. Taking a train is the most convenient method of travel from my city to the provincial capital, but can sometimes be a hassle. Typically for such a short train ride, I don’t have any issues. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case when I was travelling with my parents. The train was really crowded and there were two really old people in the seats my mom and I were supposed to have. I just told my mom to sit somewhere else because they weren’t moving after I asked once. But at the next stop this man gets on that is supposed to be sitting in the seat my mom is currently occupying and he gets really angry and starts yelling at us. I tell the man that the old people in front of us are sitting in our seats and he can tell them to move first. He doesn’t want to hear us and just yells again. Well my mom and I don’t appreciate his attitude, which is obvious in any language, so we choose to ignore him. He eventually gives up and finds somewhere else to go.
Chengdu was a nice trip, minus the torrential downpour one night. I think the nicest area we went was Jinli Street. Jinli Street was an old street full of shops, knickknacks and other things of interest (so basically really touristy, but still nice). In Chengdu my parents also met many people. Our 2nd day in Chengdu I had to go to the Peace Corps Office to help the medical staff tape a skit teaching about STIs with a few other volunteers. I played the part of the doctor in the skit, fyi. It turns out the STI skit was nixed in the end, but that’s a story for another day. Anyways, while there my parents were able to meet some of the staff, and the other volunteers that were helping with the skit.
We also had a night out with my host parents. My sweet boyfriend Leo also joined us, which made everything easier since he can speak Chinese far better than I can. I was hoping with Leo’s help to bridge the gap between my parents and my host parents. It turns out my host dad just wanted to chat with Leo the whole night, whereas Leo just wanted to chat with my parents. In the end Leo succumbed to talking with my host dad, occasionally translating between my host dad and parents, while I translated back and forth between my parents and my host mom. It was nice, though. My parents were able to experience the famous Sichuan hotpot. My dad seemed to like it, since he really likes spicy food. We had a scare at one point when my dad ate something that might have had shrimp in it (which he is seriously allergic to), but nothing happened, so whew. The frustrating part of that evening, though I should have foreseen this, was that my host parents ended up treating us to dinner. My intention, and my parents’ intention, was to treat my host parents. This is one frustrating aspect of Chinese culture. Sometimes it can be impossible to treat Chinese people to anything. They always want to do the treating. I argued with them for a while, but then I gave in and let them pay. They insisted that because it was China that they should pay, and when they visit us in America that we can pay. We agreed, however it is hard to say if we will ever see them in America, though nothing is impossible.
Leo was frustrated that he didn’t get a chance to really get to know my parents, so the next day we all went together to the Panda Research Base. We got there a little later than we should have, because the lazy pandas were just sleeping. Basically fat pandas lie on their backs for 23 hours of the day, and maybe move around 1 hour (usually in the early morning). I might be exaggerating a little, but I don’t think so. One volunteer that lives near the panda base said that one time he went to see them and saw one panda poop lying down, and then didn’t move! He just sat in his own poop! I can’t figure out why these lazy animals are the face of China. I can’t understand either why we are bothering to keep them alive. I will probably get kicked out of China for saying all this against pandas, but come on, Darwin’s survival of the fittest. We are going against nature and natural selection here with these pandas. They are incapable of breeding on their own. Almost all pandas have to be artificially inseminated. I think that’s nature saying that they shouldn’t exist anymore. Am I right? Okay, enough about pandas, or at least the fat ones. Did you know that there is such a thing as red pandas?! They are much more interesting than the fat pandas. They move around, they climb trees, apparently they fight each other, and they have tails. Much more interesting. Actually I am not sure why they are called pandas, since they look more like raccoons than anything else. But there were more of them and they were a lot more active than the other pandas. They actually look somewhat like ewoks (remember from Star Wars?). Anyways, check out my pictures at windows live so you can see the red pandas. I also had a couple of pictures of fat baby pandas, which are actually cute.
The best part of my trip with my parents was Beijing. Blue skies, no stress, people that can actually speak Mandarin—it was great! In Beijing we were typical tourists, hitting all of the major tourist spots, Tiananmen, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, and The Great Wall. My favorite part was The Great Wall. We took a tour group there, since it is pretty difficult to get there. It really blows your mind. The Wall goes on forever! The air is so fresh, and the views spectacular. The surprising part was the steepness of the Wall. You have to hold on tight! At one point I slipped and slid for a good 2 or 3 meters. Since we were with a tour we had about an hour to visit, but that was adequate. I wanted to see if I could reach this tower, so I ran off ahead, while my parents took it slowly and enjoyed the view and the experience of actually being on The Great Wall. I think one highlight for my dad was that there were 3 Indian men on the tour with us. They became fast friends and were joking and laughing about India, missing eating with your hands, struggling to use chopsticks, and the differences between China and India.
Now I am not one for shopping, but the shopping in Beijing was much better than any of the shops that I have seen elsewhere. Leo, who lived in Beijing for a year, suggested we try and visit Beijing’s famous hutongs (or alleyways). Beijing is full of old alleyways, many of them that are filled with interesting shops, restaurants, and cafes. We couldn’t find the ones that were the most famous, and no one seemed to be able to tell us how to get there. Frustrated and just about ready to give up going to these alleyways, a nice young man from America (but has been living in Beijing the past 3 years) saw us looking confused and came over to see if he could help us. He suggested a completely different alleyway but said it is easy to get to and that most people are familiar with the street and can point us in the right direction. We managed to get to it, and it was worth it. We just walked around and looked in the shops. My mom found a nice scarf, and my dad bought some stamps.
During my parents visit I realized that I find it very stressful to have other people rely on me for directions, communication, and decision making. The communication aspect of it is fine, but my directional skills are poor in any country and any language and I am also quite inept at making decisions. I much prefer to be the follower rather than a leader, but the world is made up of leaders and followers. If everyone was a leader, we would have even more wars than we already have, and if everyone was a follower than nothing would get accomplished, right?
If my parents were in China longer there were a couple of other places I would prefer to have taken them; places that are much more relaxing, a little less touristy and busy, but equally interesting to visit, but this possibly being their only opportunity in China, we had to see the typical sights (Chengdu and Beijing). If you want to hear more about the trip, feel free to ask my parents (especially my mom who kept a journal with her during the trip). Also check out the pictures (especially the ones of the Wall)
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