With all these Mandarin lessons, I've been trying to go out on my own a little more, interact with the Chinese, and be a contributing member of society, aka shopping! I have failed every single time.
Shelly and I were browsing a store about a block away, but I wanted to wait to make a decision. When I went back later and described what I wanted to order, and when I would be back to pick it up, he go the totally wrong impressions. I ended up calling someone to translate, and then he called someone to translate, it was just a mess, and I ended up coming back with Shelly the next day to make the purchase.
Shelly actually seems to save the day a lot. I was heading to RT Mart (grocery store) to pick up a couple of things, and I asked her if they had eggs there. The Chinese are a little iffy on dairy so it was a legit question. She then offered to accompany me. It turns out, eggs are sold like fruit, but they have an employee bag how many you want, and put them on the scale for you before check out. Then, I actually needed an RT Mart card to purchase them. Shelly didn't know she was going shopping with me, so she didn't have her card on her, and she ended up asking the guy at the next register if we could borrow his.
Thank goodness for Shelly and the random stranger buying groceries next to us, or I would never have been able to make brownies!
Also, it's almost time to leave so I went to the bank to withdraw money in USD to bring with me. It's cheaper than transferring :) Before I went, I thought I was clever, I had Lisa write down in Chinese characters a message that said I had come to withdraw from my account and the amount I wanted in USD. Lisa then asked me, "you have everything, right?" Then I learned, in order to make a withdrawal, I have to have my passport, my foreign Chinese resident document, my pay slip and my tax slip. Woah. And it turns out, the bank requires not just one pay slip, but all my pay slips for the money I wanted to take out. I have to prove that I deposited that money, and that I was paid legally. It's not enough that the money is in MY account, I have to prove that I earned it. NER.
Well I have one more glorious day of school, and then I'm home free! So I'm signing off for now. More blogging to come January 7th.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Raising a Nation of "Little Emperors"
I'm finding myself a little peeved with the way the parents and grandparents spoil their children here in China. They:
- put on their shoes, socks, and zip up their jackets for them.
- spoon feed them all meals
- pull their pants both up and down to go to the bathroom
- and give in to pretty much anything if their child is screaming.
It's not a hard fast rule, but I notice a HUGE difference between my Chinese nationals, and my foreign students in terms of independence. My foreign students can figure out buttons and zippers on their jackets. My national students still haven't figured out velcro shoes. It hurts a little inside!!
My assumption is that, since the One Child policy was instated, China is raising a generation of "little emperors". Nothing is too expensive, no whim or want too small. They do EVERYTHING for their children here, because they only have one child, one opportunity to show their love. And that child is precious to them. I understand that, but does China really understand the type of people they are raising? An entire nation of entitled emperors will likely cause problems in the future. Just saying...
One entertaining interaction in the block center - My ELL and I were busy building racecars. I guess my racecar building skills/knowledge aren't quite up to par.
Me: "That looks like a fast racecar."
Elf: "No. That one fast racecar. This one is slow."
Me: "Why is that racecar faster than this racecar?"
Elf: "Because it ate pretty flowers."
Me: "Oh, I see."
Elf: "Yours is not a racecar. Please?"
Me: *I offer him my 'non'-racecar*
Elf: *Proceeds to take apart the racecar I built, put it together in a different way, and offer it back to me* "Now it's a racecar!"
At snack time, the kids eat the weirdest looking things to me. Seaweed is actually very popular. At first, I thought I understood why the kids don't eat at lunch time. I wouldn't eat that either! It looks funny! But if I pick up the fork, they open their mouths expectantly. Oh little emperors! Anyways, whenever I see something new or different, I ask the kids what it is. Sometimes they give me the Chinese name because an English name doesn't exist. But that doesn't mean we can't try ....
Me: "What's that called?"
Elf: "So yummy."
Me: (I double check just to make sure I heard right) "Oh, that's called, 'so yummy'?"
Elf: "Yes." *devours snack*
At recess, I watch over the whole early years program, so sometimes I help negotiate problems the that kindergartners encounter. Wendi has taught them the High/Scope way of solving problems, and I only step in if things get off track. I was watching 3 kinders discuss who the red ribbon belongs too (end-of-the-world problem solving here!) when the discussion got quite heated so I stepped in.
Elf 1: "It's mine!"
Elf 2: "No, it's mine!"
Elf 1: "No it's mine! I found it!"
Me: "Okay [Elf 1], if it's yours, where did you find it?"
Elf 1: "I found it in Elf 2's hand."
Me: ................................. *uncontrollable laughter*
Check back tomorrow for tuctuc adventure pictures. I meant to post them here tonight, but it appears I forgot my sim card at school.
- put on their shoes, socks, and zip up their jackets for them.
- spoon feed them all meals
- pull their pants both up and down to go to the bathroom
- and give in to pretty much anything if their child is screaming.
It's not a hard fast rule, but I notice a HUGE difference between my Chinese nationals, and my foreign students in terms of independence. My foreign students can figure out buttons and zippers on their jackets. My national students still haven't figured out velcro shoes. It hurts a little inside!!
My assumption is that, since the One Child policy was instated, China is raising a generation of "little emperors". Nothing is too expensive, no whim or want too small. They do EVERYTHING for their children here, because they only have one child, one opportunity to show their love. And that child is precious to them. I understand that, but does China really understand the type of people they are raising? An entire nation of entitled emperors will likely cause problems in the future. Just saying...
One entertaining interaction in the block center - My ELL and I were busy building racecars. I guess my racecar building skills/knowledge aren't quite up to par.
Me: "That looks like a fast racecar."
Elf: "No. That one fast racecar. This one is slow."
Me: "Why is that racecar faster than this racecar?"
Elf: "Because it ate pretty flowers."
Me: "Oh, I see."
Elf: "Yours is not a racecar. Please?"
Me: *I offer him my 'non'-racecar*
Elf: *Proceeds to take apart the racecar I built, put it together in a different way, and offer it back to me* "Now it's a racecar!"
At snack time, the kids eat the weirdest looking things to me. Seaweed is actually very popular. At first, I thought I understood why the kids don't eat at lunch time. I wouldn't eat that either! It looks funny! But if I pick up the fork, they open their mouths expectantly. Oh little emperors! Anyways, whenever I see something new or different, I ask the kids what it is. Sometimes they give me the Chinese name because an English name doesn't exist. But that doesn't mean we can't try ....
Me: "What's that called?"
Elf: "So yummy."
Me: (I double check just to make sure I heard right) "Oh, that's called, 'so yummy'?"
Elf: "Yes." *devours snack*
At recess, I watch over the whole early years program, so sometimes I help negotiate problems the that kindergartners encounter. Wendi has taught them the High/Scope way of solving problems, and I only step in if things get off track. I was watching 3 kinders discuss who the red ribbon belongs too (end-of-the-world problem solving here!) when the discussion got quite heated so I stepped in.
Elf 1: "It's mine!"
Elf 2: "No, it's mine!"
Elf 1: "No it's mine! I found it!"
Me: "Okay [Elf 1], if it's yours, where did you find it?"
Elf 1: "I found it in Elf 2's hand."
Me: ................................. *uncontrollable laughter*
Check back tomorrow for tuctuc adventure pictures. I meant to post them here tonight, but it appears I forgot my sim card at school.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Routine Routine Routine
Between school, mandarin, and weekly planned outings, I'm getting a really good routine down. Just in time to come home for the holidays:
Hair Washing Friday!
It's only 10 kaui, which is maybe $1.50 ish to get your hair washed with good smelling things and hot water, your head massaged, and some fun curls. Such a relaxing way to end the work week and start the weekend! This time around however, there was no shyness. The guys openly walked up and just started touching my hair and playing with it. My hair stylist this time was not amused and he kept glaring at every guy who approached. It cracked me up. I took this picture trying to show the pillow in the hair washing bowl, but Alice and Shelly and the hairwashers immediately started laughing uncontrollably the moment they saw my camera. I feel like a silly tourist, but so many of you have been asking for more pictures. So, this one is for you.
Muslim Noodles Shop:
I'm still trying to find a local restaurant that doesn't make me feel sick. The Muslim Noodle Shops are the most popular. They're like a starbucks for Seattle. There's 4 on Shin Da Road alone. And they're popular with the teachers at the school. At the closest location, their menu is posted in pictures on one entire wall. And one of our school board members translated other basic requests like "extra rice" and put them up on the wall too.
Alice was a little disappointed in the "simple" noodle dish that I chose to order. I asked her if she could request no bones in the chicken. Usually they just slice the chicken, bones and all, and you just have to spit out the bones as you find them, but sometimes they're willing to scrape the meat off for you before they cook it. By the looks of the conversation between Alice and the waiter, they were not willing to meet this request. But then at the next table over, 4 gentlemen started talking to the waiter. The waiter looked very frazzled and indignant. It got worse when the next table down, another 4 gentlemen, started talking very sternly to the waiter as well. Of course when I go anywhere in China, everyone knows that a "lao wai ren" is present, and apparently they were all arguing on my behalf. Alice was giggling and told me they were all telling the waiter to have the kitchen staff suck it up and give me boneless chicken! I asked Alice to tell him not to worry about it and just switch it for lamb, which already comes without the bones.
Mandarin:
- On Tuesdays, I work with June at Cup of Joe for about 2 hours. She's been insisting for weeks and I've finally givin in. I'm learning the Chinese characters. She keeps telling me it will be easier than "pinion" which is the phonetic spelling of Chinese words using English letters... we'll see. I'm memorizing 6 a week. She's given me a work book that most 1st graders use. Awesome.
- The general way to say Christmas is "Sheng Den", but another way to say it is, "Ping An". "Ping" is a root word meaning safety, but it's also a root in my favorite word "ping guo" meaning apple. Hence, on Christmas Eve, many Chinese friends give each other apples as a way to wish their friends good safety and show that they are important to them. Consequently, apple prices also skyrocket around Christmas time.
- Even though the Chinese don't technically celebrate Christmas, there are Christmas displays everywhere. They always get so excited when they see a tree, or a reindeer, but no one seems to know the name of Santa Claus. They always ask me his actual name, because they just call him"Sheng Den Lao Ren", which literally translates to, "Christmas Old Man".
- Similarly, the Chinese also have a name for the logo guy on KFC. They call him, "Ken De Ji Ye Ye", Which literally translates to, "Kentucky Grandfather".
- KFC brings me to the family names, like grandfather. Grandfather is "ye ye", but that would be your dad's dad. Not to be confused with "wai gong", which also means grandfather but that would be your mom's dad. It starts getting more complicated when you talk about your mom's older brother's wife, who really should just be your aunt, but it's a different name than your dad's younger brother's wife, who should also just be your aunt. Ner. Don't get me started on the cousins. Depending on whose side of the family, and their parent's age, and their own age, your cousins will have different names. There is no generic, "Hey there cousin! That would be too easy :)
- Also, at some of the Mandarin lessons, the Chinese have been showing up to learn more English and Western Culture. I don't remember how it came up, but we got to explain the phrase "Go dig to China" to them. I'm not sure a reverse joke from this side of the world seems as funny.
Hair Washing Friday!
It's only 10 kaui, which is maybe $1.50 ish to get your hair washed with good smelling things and hot water, your head massaged, and some fun curls. Such a relaxing way to end the work week and start the weekend! This time around however, there was no shyness. The guys openly walked up and just started touching my hair and playing with it. My hair stylist this time was not amused and he kept glaring at every guy who approached. It cracked me up. I took this picture trying to show the pillow in the hair washing bowl, but Alice and Shelly and the hairwashers immediately started laughing uncontrollably the moment they saw my camera. I feel like a silly tourist, but so many of you have been asking for more pictures. So, this one is for you.Muslim Noodles Shop:
I'm still trying to find a local restaurant that doesn't make me feel sick. The Muslim Noodle Shops are the most popular. They're like a starbucks for Seattle. There's 4 on Shin Da Road alone. And they're popular with the teachers at the school. At the closest location, their menu is posted in pictures on one entire wall. And one of our school board members translated other basic requests like "extra rice" and put them up on the wall too.
Alice was a little disappointed in the "simple" noodle dish that I chose to order. I asked her if she could request no bones in the chicken. Usually they just slice the chicken, bones and all, and you just have to spit out the bones as you find them, but sometimes they're willing to scrape the meat off for you before they cook it. By the looks of the conversation between Alice and the waiter, they were not willing to meet this request. But then at the next table over, 4 gentlemen started talking to the waiter. The waiter looked very frazzled and indignant. It got worse when the next table down, another 4 gentlemen, started talking very sternly to the waiter as well. Of course when I go anywhere in China, everyone knows that a "lao wai ren" is present, and apparently they were all arguing on my behalf. Alice was giggling and told me they were all telling the waiter to have the kitchen staff suck it up and give me boneless chicken! I asked Alice to tell him not to worry about it and just switch it for lamb, which already comes without the bones.
Mandarin:
- On Tuesdays, I work with June at Cup of Joe for about 2 hours. She's been insisting for weeks and I've finally givin in. I'm learning the Chinese characters. She keeps telling me it will be easier than "pinion" which is the phonetic spelling of Chinese words using English letters... we'll see. I'm memorizing 6 a week. She's given me a work book that most 1st graders use. Awesome.
- The general way to say Christmas is "Sheng Den", but another way to say it is, "Ping An". "Ping" is a root word meaning safety, but it's also a root in my favorite word "ping guo" meaning apple. Hence, on Christmas Eve, many Chinese friends give each other apples as a way to wish their friends good safety and show that they are important to them. Consequently, apple prices also skyrocket around Christmas time.
- Even though the Chinese don't technically celebrate Christmas, there are Christmas displays everywhere. They always get so excited when they see a tree, or a reindeer, but no one seems to know the name of Santa Claus. They always ask me his actual name, because they just call him"Sheng Den Lao Ren", which literally translates to, "Christmas Old Man".
- Similarly, the Chinese also have a name for the logo guy on KFC. They call him, "Ken De Ji Ye Ye", Which literally translates to, "Kentucky Grandfather".
- KFC brings me to the family names, like grandfather. Grandfather is "ye ye", but that would be your dad's dad. Not to be confused with "wai gong", which also means grandfather but that would be your mom's dad. It starts getting more complicated when you talk about your mom's older brother's wife, who really should just be your aunt, but it's a different name than your dad's younger brother's wife, who should also just be your aunt. Ner. Don't get me started on the cousins. Depending on whose side of the family, and their parent's age, and their own age, your cousins will have different names. There is no generic, "Hey there cousin! That would be too easy :)
- Also, at some of the Mandarin lessons, the Chinese have been showing up to learn more English and Western Culture. I don't remember how it came up, but we got to explain the phrase "Go dig to China" to them. I'm not sure a reverse joke from this side of the world seems as funny.
Friday, December 9, 2011
You Could Win a (one way) Trip to Thailand!!!!
In order to improve tourism, foreigners living in the greater Ningbo area are being asked to submit their blogs to the Ningbo government for the ultimate blogging competition! Theory being ... if we're telling all our friends about it, they will want to come live in Ningbo too. They advertise many benefits for entering the competition: not only will I get a wider audience for my blog, but if my blog is interesting and popular, I could win a trip to Thailand or one of the other 26 grand prizes. Too bad I'm using an illegal website ... like many other foreigners. We're wondering if they're trying to catch those of us using VPNs and send us on a way trip out of China. The prizes kinda sound good ... but I am avoiding anything and everything to do with the Chinese government. Kyla's only request was don't cause an international incident, and I'm proud to say that today, I am honoring that promise :)
The Elves:
- The elves call me Ms. L since Ms. Lanham is hard for them to say. But this morning we read a book about owls. One elf told me I look like an owl. I said why is that? He said because Ms. L is like Ms. Owl. And the way they pronounce it, it's totally true! I am now Ms. Owl.
- Elf 1 offered Elf 2 some "cheese" that he made. Elf 2 wasn't interested. Then Elf 1 offered me some cheese. I said okay. But I had to follow him to the home center to eat it. That made sense, we have a kitchen and a table for a restaurant in our home center. But when I arrived he grabbed my hands and said, "Got you! I eat you now. Yummy. You dishous! (delicious). You taste like turkey!" So now I have cannibal children. Better yet, he started cooking mushrooms because he says they go good with turkey. Once he had me "tied up" and the mushrooms cooking, he went around to the other elves and TAs saying, "Cheese? Anyone, cheese?" I don't remember the full story of Hansel and Gretel, but it sounds VERY similar. Just minus the bread crumbs.
- We have a poster that shows the faces of many different emotions. As you know, "I'm angry" remains the most popular, though sometimes I question if they understand what they are saying. This morning when I pointed to the jealous face, one student asked what jealous means. The best I could come up with was, "If another student has a toy that you want, but you can't have it, then you are jealous of that student". Later that day we had to walk to the cafeteria with our umbrellas. We were short umbrellas today so several students had to walk with a TA and two students had to share one. One elf didn't get to hold an umbrella. He folded his arms up, gave the two students sharing an umbrella the evil eye and said, "I'm jealous!" He was so upset, but we were all so happy he was able to apply what jealous is!
- As we were walking back from the cafeteria, I felt the first raindrop. Within about 10 seconds, everyone had felt one raindrop. One elf pointed up at the clouds and said, "Oh no! It's broken!"
- When we laid down for nap time, I noticed the car horns from the highway were particularly noisy today. One of my students sat up, and said "Outside, too loud. That's not okay." Then he looked very sternly towards the noisy honking and said, "Calm down!"
The Elves:
- The elves call me Ms. L since Ms. Lanham is hard for them to say. But this morning we read a book about owls. One elf told me I look like an owl. I said why is that? He said because Ms. L is like Ms. Owl. And the way they pronounce it, it's totally true! I am now Ms. Owl.
- Elf 1 offered Elf 2 some "cheese" that he made. Elf 2 wasn't interested. Then Elf 1 offered me some cheese. I said okay. But I had to follow him to the home center to eat it. That made sense, we have a kitchen and a table for a restaurant in our home center. But when I arrived he grabbed my hands and said, "Got you! I eat you now. Yummy. You dishous! (delicious). You taste like turkey!" So now I have cannibal children. Better yet, he started cooking mushrooms because he says they go good with turkey. Once he had me "tied up" and the mushrooms cooking, he went around to the other elves and TAs saying, "Cheese? Anyone, cheese?" I don't remember the full story of Hansel and Gretel, but it sounds VERY similar. Just minus the bread crumbs.
- We have a poster that shows the faces of many different emotions. As you know, "I'm angry" remains the most popular, though sometimes I question if they understand what they are saying. This morning when I pointed to the jealous face, one student asked what jealous means. The best I could come up with was, "If another student has a toy that you want, but you can't have it, then you are jealous of that student". Later that day we had to walk to the cafeteria with our umbrellas. We were short umbrellas today so several students had to walk with a TA and two students had to share one. One elf didn't get to hold an umbrella. He folded his arms up, gave the two students sharing an umbrella the evil eye and said, "I'm jealous!" He was so upset, but we were all so happy he was able to apply what jealous is!
- As we were walking back from the cafeteria, I felt the first raindrop. Within about 10 seconds, everyone had felt one raindrop. One elf pointed up at the clouds and said, "Oh no! It's broken!"
- When we laid down for nap time, I noticed the car horns from the highway were particularly noisy today. One of my students sat up, and said "Outside, too loud. That's not okay." Then he looked very sternly towards the noisy honking and said, "Calm down!"
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Cold Snap
We finally had our cold snap last week. Summer/Autumn is officially gone, just in time
for December! The weird thing was it happened mid day. I checked the temp before I left for work, it was 70°, perfect skirt and Tshirt weather, and that was 7:30am. One could only expect it to get warmer. But by 1 pm, the temperature had dropped to below 50 degrees and windy! Now 50 isn't bad, but we were just so unprepared for it. Now I never leave for work without a good winter/rain jacket and mittens. My building isn't heated very well so I wear them all day. And back in the apartment, I finally have my heater figured out. I treat it like the washer. Just push buttons until I get what I want, since all the buttons are in Chinese.
Saturday I got a biking tour of Beilun.
- We found a neighborhood that looked like Mexico to me, if the homes hadn't been so gray. They were all attached, with clothes lines, and shattered glass on top so no one could climb them.
- The zoning was weird. Skyscrapers turned into farming fields that turned into dead
streets that turned into bustling shops. The next block was always totally unpredictable.
- I was surprised to find a really nice gym, and an amusement park.
Saturday night a dinner was held for all the expats" (or foreigners) at a fancy hotel.
- Some of the entertainment provided included dancers, magic, mask changing and sand art. The mask changing guy totally scared me. He came out into the crowd right up to me, stared me down, I blinked, and he was wearing a different mask. I was a little too freaked out to take video at that time, but I got some a minute later. The picture is of the sand art. It was really cool because the image would only be there for about 10 seconds before the artist would manipulate the sand into a new image. And he would use the shapes from the current image to create the next one. I wish I had video of this too!
- The awards and honors were given out in Chinese. The Ningbo government wanted to
recognize foreigners who have come to be a part of the community. Our music teacher got an award :)
- I was a little embarrassed by our table, they were very chatty, but I was listening to the Chinese, and I recognized the name of our school in Chinese so I got to shhhh everyone and tell them that Elaine was being announced.
Saturday later night, a group of 7 of us played Sardines in the apartment complex. For those who don't know, sardines is reverse hide-and-seek. One person hides and everyone else tries to find them. The trick is, once you've found the hiding person, you have to hide with them! So not only do you need a good spot to hide yourself, but you want to include at least 5 other people! We left the apartment doors open and played with 3 apartments on the 17th, 19th, and 21st floors. That was a lot of stairs for a reverse game of hide and seek!
Sunday was by far the best day ever. Dana, Matt, Julie and I biked to the base of Jiufeng"Mountain", which for all intensife purposes is actually a foothill, and we hiked up for about 45 minutes. The whole trip took about 3 hours. After we got back, I ate an entire large pizza by myself, and then I went and played soccer. The guys were a little miffed that I ditched on soccer early for the knitting club, but I was spent. And my new yarn from Tao Bao (online shopping) came in the mail!
Elves:
- At nap time yesterday, for some reason we could hear the car horns out on the interstate particularly well. I'm wandering if there was an accident or a traffic jam. One of my students sat up, and said "Outside, too loud. That's not okay." Then he looked very sternly towards the noisy honking and said, "Calm down!"
- Today as we were walking back from the cafeteria, I felt the first raindrop. Within about 10 seconds, everyone else had felt at least one raindrop. One elf pointed up to the clouds and said, "Oh no! It's broken!"
for December! The weird thing was it happened mid day. I checked the temp before I left for work, it was 70°, perfect skirt and Tshirt weather, and that was 7:30am. One could only expect it to get warmer. But by 1 pm, the temperature had dropped to below 50 degrees and windy! Now 50 isn't bad, but we were just so unprepared for it. Now I never leave for work without a good winter/rain jacket and mittens. My building isn't heated very well so I wear them all day. And back in the apartment, I finally have my heater figured out. I treat it like the washer. Just push buttons until I get what I want, since all the buttons are in Chinese.
Saturday I got a biking tour of Beilun.- We found a neighborhood that looked like Mexico to me, if the homes hadn't been so gray. They were all attached, with clothes lines, and shattered glass on top so no one could climb them.
- The zoning was weird. Skyscrapers turned into farming fields that turned into dead
streets that turned into bustling shops. The next block was always totally unpredictable.
- I was surprised to find a really nice gym, and an amusement park.
Saturday night a dinner was held for all the expats" (or foreigners) at a fancy hotel.- Some of the entertainment provided included dancers, magic, mask changing and sand art. The mask changing guy totally scared me. He came out into the crowd right up to me, stared me down, I blinked, and he was wearing a different mask. I was a little too freaked out to take video at that time, but I got some a minute later. The picture is of the sand art. It was really cool because the image would only be there for about 10 seconds before the artist would manipulate the sand into a new image. And he would use the shapes from the current image to create the next one. I wish I had video of this too!
- The awards and honors were given out in Chinese. The Ningbo government wanted to
recognize foreigners who have come to be a part of the community. Our music teacher got an award :)
- I was a little embarrassed by our table, they were very chatty, but I was listening to the Chinese, and I recognized the name of our school in Chinese so I got to shhhh everyone and tell them that Elaine was being announced.
Saturday later night, a group of 7 of us played Sardines in the apartment complex. For those who don't know, sardines is reverse hide-and-seek. One person hides and everyone else tries to find them. The trick is, once you've found the hiding person, you have to hide with them! So not only do you need a good spot to hide yourself, but you want to include at least 5 other people! We left the apartment doors open and played with 3 apartments on the 17th, 19th, and 21st floors. That was a lot of stairs for a reverse game of hide and seek!
Sunday was by far the best day ever. Dana, Matt, Julie and I biked to the base of Jiufeng"Mountain", which for all intensife purposes is actually a foothill, and we hiked up for about 45 minutes. The whole trip took about 3 hours. After we got back, I ate an entire large pizza by myself, and then I went and played soccer. The guys were a little miffed that I ditched on soccer early for the knitting club, but I was spent. And my new yarn from Tao Bao (online shopping) came in the mail!
 |
| Hiking up Jiafeng. We left our bikes in the valley. |
 |
| And coming back down. Those are some serious stai. |
 |
| I just love the language of this sign. |
Elves:
- At nap time yesterday, for some reason we could hear the car horns out on the interstate particularly well. I'm wandering if there was an accident or a traffic jam. One of my students sat up, and said "Outside, too loud. That's not okay." Then he looked very sternly towards the noisy honking and said, "Calm down!"
- Today as we were walking back from the cafeteria, I felt the first raindrop. Within about 10 seconds, everyone else had felt at least one raindrop. One elf pointed up to the clouds and said, "Oh no! It's broken!"
Saturday, December 3, 2011
"Cultural" Experiences
This week I finally started going out with my "local" friends, who all work at the school of course. No one else here speaks English. But that means I got to do some very fun, typical, Chinese "things to do".
The first was KTV. It's a major chain in China for karaoke. You can rent a room for about 8-10 people, complete with a huge TV, a touch screen computer, two microphones and who could forget the tambourines and the maracas?
- Alice, Jean and Helen are all TAs in my building. Shelly is one of the Mandarin teachers. All of them are in their young 20's. Bless them, they tried to speak as much English for me as possible.
- First, these are girls I've only seen at work. At KTV they are crazy happy. I've never seen many of the smile. But Jean was
so excited when I arrived she bear hug tackled me, linked arms with me, and dragged me into grocery store.
- One important thing with karaoke is the food. KTVs have grocery stores inside them. We were also brought a fruit platter, and a couple of the girls disappeared and came back with KFC for all of us. So much food!!
- I had to clear up one misconception really quick. Just because the song is in English, doesn't mean I automatically know it. Most of those songs were written before I was born.
- The only song I did pick to sing was "Footloose". I felt it was important for their American education :)
- Other favorites that the girls picked out included: You Are My Sunshine, Jingle Bells & Jingle Bell Rock, I learned Alice is a big fan of Linkin Park, of course some Backstreet Boys, Kelly Clarkson ... and others I can't remember at the moment.
- All the Chinese songs sounded the same to me. Same pretty melody. And very similar dramatic, sad music videos about star crossed lovers in beautiful old Chinese dress in a serene, mountainous setting.
- French Fries came from KFC. Shelly picked up a packet of ketchup, looked at me and said, "tomato?". Then she looked confused and said, "potato?" ... then she went back and forth, "tomato ... potato ... tomato?" Then Alice grabbed the packet from her, looked at her meaningfully and said very slowly "kkkettchhhupp!"
The next day, Alice and Shelly took me to the hair salon. Another very Chinese thing to do, especially for the women, is to get your hair washed. Don't you love the feeling when you go to the salon to get your hair cut and they wash your hair and massage your head? Well the women here go every week just to get it washed and styled! No hair cut necessary.
- The women who work at the salon are the ones who do the hair washing. It's actually VERY comfortable. You get a full reclining seat complete with leg rest, and your head isn't in a bowl, it's more of a cushy water proof pillow that drains the water on the side. Very nice!
- It was very comfortable until the men figured out that I was in the salon. The men who work at the salon are the ones who do the styling. They must have heard a mei gua ren was in the salon, because I was relaxing with my eyes closed when I heard a HELLO! and opened my eyes to find about 6 guys leaning over me and staring at me hair. *Fantastic* The same "hello" guy told me I was very beautiful when I sat up with my hair wrapped up in a towel. Really? Not laying the flattery on a little thick there? My hair is in a towel!
- Of course there was one "lucky" guy who got to dry and style my hair. This took about 40 minutes. And during those 40 minutes EVERY guy would eventually saunter over, and here is what would happen:
First he makes jokes with my hair stylist.
Then he pretends to be very interested in the styling techniques, but I can see him slowly giving in.
Finally, he gets up the courage and touches my hair. Then he asks me if it's real. Of course I don't know what he's saying, so I stare at him blankly, so he asks Alice if my hair is real. Alice translates and tells him there is no coloring in my hair.
He looks confused, touches my hair again, and gives it a little tug. Yes, my hair is actually attached to my head!
Only a couple reach this step, they ask Alice if I'm looking for a Chinese boyfriend. If that question has to be translated, I'm sorry but it's probably not going to work out!
The Ningbo Focus:
This is a magazine that the city of Ningbo puts out every month. Usually it includes monthly news, interviews with new business and restaurant owners, and pictures of all the festivals from the last month. It's very popular so the magazine can be found anywhere, but I normally find it at Cup of Joe. Here were some interesting stories I found.
- Next year, the smart phone app for tracking public buses is coming to Ningbo. Cool! If only I had a smart phone ...
- There was an article about Erich (owner of Cup of Joe). He hosted a party with a "traditional pig roast" for a new business owner in Ningbo. Also in the November issue we saw pictures of people we met at the Halloween parties. Kinda cool that people submit photos to the magazine and you get to see people you know, or parties you went to!
- Beilun has been named the "Seed Breeding Base of Rhododendron of China" or ... more eloquently "Rhododendron Hometown in China". This is kinda cool, because Rhododendrons are my favorite flower. And flowers are still in bloom here in Beilun, but I'm confused because I've never seen a Rhododendron here. I'm thinking maybe there is a factory that exports the most Rhododendron seeds ... Not as cool.
- There was an article about the Ningbo Sinology School, which is cool because our elementary school is taking a field trip there this Friday. It's a hundred year old school that teaches the new technology but also the old traditions of China. So our students will be getting lessons in the old calligraphy :) Kinda neat!
The first was KTV. It's a major chain in China for karaoke. You can rent a room for about 8-10 people, complete with a huge TV, a touch screen computer, two microphones and who could forget the tambourines and the maracas?
 |
| Alice, Helen, (Me of course!) Shelly, Jean |
- First, these are girls I've only seen at work. At KTV they are crazy happy. I've never seen many of the smile. But Jean was
so excited when I arrived she bear hug tackled me, linked arms with me, and dragged me into grocery store.
- One important thing with karaoke is the food. KTVs have grocery stores inside them. We were also brought a fruit platter, and a couple of the girls disappeared and came back with KFC for all of us. So much food!!
- I had to clear up one misconception really quick. Just because the song is in English, doesn't mean I automatically know it. Most of those songs were written before I was born.
- The only song I did pick to sing was "Footloose". I felt it was important for their American education :)
- Other favorites that the girls picked out included: You Are My Sunshine, Jingle Bells & Jingle Bell Rock, I learned Alice is a big fan of Linkin Park, of course some Backstreet Boys, Kelly Clarkson ... and others I can't remember at the moment.
- All the Chinese songs sounded the same to me. Same pretty melody. And very similar dramatic, sad music videos about star crossed lovers in beautiful old Chinese dress in a serene, mountainous setting.
- French Fries came from KFC. Shelly picked up a packet of ketchup, looked at me and said, "tomato?". Then she looked confused and said, "potato?" ... then she went back and forth, "tomato ... potato ... tomato?" Then Alice grabbed the packet from her, looked at her meaningfully and said very slowly "kkkettchhhupp!"
 |
| Singing to Linkin Park with Alice. This is one of the first times I've seen Jean smile. |
The next day, Alice and Shelly took me to the hair salon. Another very Chinese thing to do, especially for the women, is to get your hair washed. Don't you love the feeling when you go to the salon to get your hair cut and they wash your hair and massage your head? Well the women here go every week just to get it washed and styled! No hair cut necessary.
- The women who work at the salon are the ones who do the hair washing. It's actually VERY comfortable. You get a full reclining seat complete with leg rest, and your head isn't in a bowl, it's more of a cushy water proof pillow that drains the water on the side. Very nice!
- It was very comfortable until the men figured out that I was in the salon. The men who work at the salon are the ones who do the styling. They must have heard a mei gua ren was in the salon, because I was relaxing with my eyes closed when I heard a HELLO! and opened my eyes to find about 6 guys leaning over me and staring at me hair. *Fantastic* The same "hello" guy told me I was very beautiful when I sat up with my hair wrapped up in a towel. Really? Not laying the flattery on a little thick there? My hair is in a towel!
- Of course there was one "lucky" guy who got to dry and style my hair. This took about 40 minutes. And during those 40 minutes EVERY guy would eventually saunter over, and here is what would happen:
First he makes jokes with my hair stylist.
Then he pretends to be very interested in the styling techniques, but I can see him slowly giving in.
Finally, he gets up the courage and touches my hair. Then he asks me if it's real. Of course I don't know what he's saying, so I stare at him blankly, so he asks Alice if my hair is real. Alice translates and tells him there is no coloring in my hair.
He looks confused, touches my hair again, and gives it a little tug. Yes, my hair is actually attached to my head!
Only a couple reach this step, they ask Alice if I'm looking for a Chinese boyfriend. If that question has to be translated, I'm sorry but it's probably not going to work out!
The Ningbo Focus:
This is a magazine that the city of Ningbo puts out every month. Usually it includes monthly news, interviews with new business and restaurant owners, and pictures of all the festivals from the last month. It's very popular so the magazine can be found anywhere, but I normally find it at Cup of Joe. Here were some interesting stories I found.
- Next year, the smart phone app for tracking public buses is coming to Ningbo. Cool! If only I had a smart phone ...
 |
| Cup of Joe. The green store front to the right is Hemingway's. Cup of Joe delivers coffee and wine to our apartment. Hemingway's delivers pizza :) |
- Beilun has been named the "Seed Breeding Base of Rhododendron of China" or ... more eloquently "Rhododendron Hometown in China". This is kinda cool, because Rhododendrons are my favorite flower. And flowers are still in bloom here in Beilun, but I'm confused because I've never seen a Rhododendron here. I'm thinking maybe there is a factory that exports the most Rhododendron seeds ... Not as cool.
- There was an article about the Ningbo Sinology School, which is cool because our elementary school is taking a field trip there this Friday. It's a hundred year old school that teaches the new technology but also the old traditions of China. So our students will be getting lessons in the old calligraphy :) Kinda neat!
 |
| At Cup of Joe you get to choose your mug. You can have rockwith your name placed in your spot so people know the mug isreserved. This is my favorite. I'm told someone else likes this one too, but it's always been available so I'm choosing to be adult share instead of reserve it :) |
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Lost on Planet China
Okay, so everyone knows I'm not really into a big hoopla about birthdays. Today more than ever reassured me that NO ONE IN CHINA WILL EVER KNOW MY BIRTHDAY!!!! Today is Wendi's birthday. It turns out that all of the parents of the Early Years were in cahoots on a big celebration that happened in the cafeteria in front of everyone. As scary as that idea is (the thought of being surrounded by hundreds of people singing Happy Birthday), the scariest thing was just the presence of the parents. I lose all authority when the parents are at school, because the kiddos know mom will take care of any woe as long as they scream loud enough. You can imagine the amount of crying that happened because EVERY student's mom came to lunch. And worse, the moms are force feeding their kids. I've learned the reason several of my kids don't eat at lunch is because they expect an adult to spoon feed them. If no one is spoon feeding them, they will literally sit there and stare at their food for all of lunch time and just not eat. No no no no no no way! NOPE! I'm not spoon feeding each of my students. Luckily they're figuring out that with me, crying will get you NO WHERE and NOTHING. Yesterday here's what happened (a couple of you have heard this story, but I wanted to share it with everyone):
I'm watching Elf 1 and Elf 2 playing in the block center. Elf 1 notices that a block from his airplane is missing. He opens his mouth and I see him just about to wail the most high pitched scream that I know all of them are capable of, but then he sees the look on my face and freezes, mid-cry. He knows that if there is a problem, he has to talk to me. With me, crying will not get the stolen block back. Elf 1 quickly points at Elf 2 and motions a swift and speedy take-away.
Me: "I notice your airplane is missing a block. Did you see [Elf 2] take it?"
Elf 1: *Shakes his head*
Me: "Okay, well let's look for the missing block. Maybe we can ask [Elf 2] if he knows where it is."
Elf 1: *stands up to talk to Elf 2* and sure enough, Elf 1 was sitting on the missing block the whole time.
Now this teacher would not have been a happy teacher if there had been a lot of screaming and tears shed over a stolen block that wasn't even stolen.
We are working on talking about our problems, as evidenced above. Phrases like "excuse me" and "please stop" should be used before any crying or pushing occurs. Of course my hope is that talking about the problem will make it so that crying is no longer necessary, again, as evidenced in the story above. My little Korean elf still seems determined not to pick up any English. Or so I thought. It turns out that what I thought he has been saying this whole time, "ping tu da", is not Korean at all, but in fact an attempt to say "please stop".
"Lost On Planet China" by J. Maarten Troost
I've been reading this book that Ariana gave me. It's a guy who just travelled China and wrote about it. He seems to exaggerate a lot, but I found two quotes to be particularly insightful:
- "As I delved into 'Chinese for Dummies', I couldn't help but conclude that the Chinese language is the Great Wall of languages, a clever linguistic barrier erected to keep outsiders out .... take the issue of Chinese characters. There are 20,000 of them. Fortunately , you don't need to learn all 20,000, just 7,000 should you wish to understand what an educated Chinese person is talking about".
- "But then, remembering that human beings cannot produce 20,000 unique sounds, even if you were to include belching and hawking great globs of phlegm (which I think counts in Chinese), the linguistic powers that be - whoever they are - threw in tones, possibly to ensure that no foreigner over the age of thirty would have any chance whatsoever of understanding the Chinese language".
- At least with the English alphabet, I only have to memorize 26 characters. And each of those characters has a typical sound, making it easy to read. Chinese characters are in no way phonetic. Two words that have the same characters are actually pronounced completely differently.
My Struggles with Mandarin:
- My TAs have been encouraging me to speak Mandarin with them. I'm careful to do it when the students aren't around, to make sure they're learning the most English possible.
- Yesterday morning I saw my TA Jean who doesn't speak English. I told her "Jin tian xing qi er", which means, "Today is Tuesday". I know it's not very conversational, but it's something I can say in Mandarin. She just started giggling, and held both her hands up in peace signs, so excited I am starting to speak Mandarin :)
- One of my elves wanted more rice at lunch. And in an effort to keep her seated, since the kiddos tend to wander when they get out of their chairs, I offered to take the bowl for her. On my way to the kitchen, Alice stopped me, looked me in the eye, and said, "You can do this, you will order the rice in Mandarin!" Success!
- I love how they create adjectives. They combine the word for "very", which is "hen" (3rd tone), with a verb. For example:
Very eat = Delicious, "hen chi"
Very look = Beautiful "hen kan"
Weird, huh?
I'm watching Elf 1 and Elf 2 playing in the block center. Elf 1 notices that a block from his airplane is missing. He opens his mouth and I see him just about to wail the most high pitched scream that I know all of them are capable of, but then he sees the look on my face and freezes, mid-cry. He knows that if there is a problem, he has to talk to me. With me, crying will not get the stolen block back. Elf 1 quickly points at Elf 2 and motions a swift and speedy take-away.
Me: "I notice your airplane is missing a block. Did you see [Elf 2] take it?"
Elf 1: *Shakes his head*
Me: "Okay, well let's look for the missing block. Maybe we can ask [Elf 2] if he knows where it is."
Elf 1: *stands up to talk to Elf 2* and sure enough, Elf 1 was sitting on the missing block the whole time.
Now this teacher would not have been a happy teacher if there had been a lot of screaming and tears shed over a stolen block that wasn't even stolen.
We are working on talking about our problems, as evidenced above. Phrases like "excuse me" and "please stop" should be used before any crying or pushing occurs. Of course my hope is that talking about the problem will make it so that crying is no longer necessary, again, as evidenced in the story above. My little Korean elf still seems determined not to pick up any English. Or so I thought. It turns out that what I thought he has been saying this whole time, "ping tu da", is not Korean at all, but in fact an attempt to say "please stop".
"Lost On Planet China" by J. Maarten Troost
I've been reading this book that Ariana gave me. It's a guy who just travelled China and wrote about it. He seems to exaggerate a lot, but I found two quotes to be particularly insightful:
- "As I delved into 'Chinese for Dummies', I couldn't help but conclude that the Chinese language is the Great Wall of languages, a clever linguistic barrier erected to keep outsiders out .... take the issue of Chinese characters. There are 20,000 of them. Fortunately , you don't need to learn all 20,000, just 7,000 should you wish to understand what an educated Chinese person is talking about".
- "But then, remembering that human beings cannot produce 20,000 unique sounds, even if you were to include belching and hawking great globs of phlegm (which I think counts in Chinese), the linguistic powers that be - whoever they are - threw in tones, possibly to ensure that no foreigner over the age of thirty would have any chance whatsoever of understanding the Chinese language".
- At least with the English alphabet, I only have to memorize 26 characters. And each of those characters has a typical sound, making it easy to read. Chinese characters are in no way phonetic. Two words that have the same characters are actually pronounced completely differently.
My Struggles with Mandarin:
- My TAs have been encouraging me to speak Mandarin with them. I'm careful to do it when the students aren't around, to make sure they're learning the most English possible.
- Yesterday morning I saw my TA Jean who doesn't speak English. I told her "Jin tian xing qi er", which means, "Today is Tuesday". I know it's not very conversational, but it's something I can say in Mandarin. She just started giggling, and held both her hands up in peace signs, so excited I am starting to speak Mandarin :)
- One of my elves wanted more rice at lunch. And in an effort to keep her seated, since the kiddos tend to wander when they get out of their chairs, I offered to take the bowl for her. On my way to the kitchen, Alice stopped me, looked me in the eye, and said, "You can do this, you will order the rice in Mandarin!" Success!
- I love how they create adjectives. They combine the word for "very", which is "hen" (3rd tone), with a verb. For example:
Very eat = Delicious, "hen chi"
Very look = Beautiful "hen kan"
Weird, huh?
Monday, November 28, 2011
Christmas Music on Pandora Time!!!!
So many good stories from school!!! But first I just have to say that I'm now listening to my Christmas radio station on Pandora, even though it is 75° and sunny today!!! It seems so counter-intuitive. Especially since the first song was, "I'm Dreaming of a White Christams". I most certainly am! And the next song was "Let It Snow". Really? I need some temporate climate Christmas songs! Are there any English speaking countries close to the equator that would produce more appropriate Christmas songs for my current climate?
And second, I have to tell an embarassing story:
Today when I walked into my apartment building, I found that the lobby had been remodeled. I was really impressed. I know the construction they do here happens in less than a day, it's a little scary how fast buildings go up, but I thought it was strange I never saw them working on the lobby. They are that fast! I went up to Ariana's floor to pick something up, and when I got out, I found that on the landing there were lots of bikes and new welcome carpets. One of our families just moved in across the hall from Ariana, so this was new and different, but not totally out there. Then I rang Ariana's doorbell and this cute little 12 year old Chinese girl answered. I was super confused, but looking past her I saw lots of plants in the apartment. Ariana's apartment is practically a garden, so it looked like she got some new plants, but the girl didn't seem to know who Ariana was. I stared at the apartment number, which was the correct number, and again back in the apartment, but the girl kept shaking her head. I went back down the elevator super confused. I was about to walk across the lobby to go up my elevator, but then I decided to walk outside just to check ... Yes, I definitely walked into the wrong building. Whooops.
And now, all about my little ELLs! (Elves):
At the beginning of November, I started teaching the calendar. We've been crossing off each day as it happens but there are very few days left this month. I asked the students what they think will happen when we run out of days to cross out. I then pointed at the empty square that will be December 1st.
- One said, "Stay home, no school."
- One said, "Uh oh!" and just pointed in shock at the empty square, as if this was the first time it occurred to her that we would run out of days to cross out.
- One made the motion and created the sound effects for an exploding bomb. Apparently the world will end.
Our High/Scope Early Years program strongly encourages students to identify problems and work together to solve their own problems. So I wasn't surprised when one day at recess, two of our 5 year olds called for a "classroom meeting" to discuss a problem. Apparently the box they had been using to gather fall leaves to make giant leaf piles had been converted into a mini dumpster by some older students.
Student responses: "Ewww!" "Gross!" "Yucky!"
3 year old: "What to do, what to do???"
5 year old: "I know, we need CCTV camera. Up there! We will see who did this!" (CCTV is the national news network)
One of my elves is an expert chef. He makes all sorts of creations at lunch. At first I was a little freaked out, but he always eats everything he makes so I haven't stopped him yet. Still, the only acceptable combination I've seen is yogurt poured over banana slices. Other concoctions include ketchup on bread slices, fruit juice in chicken soup and many, many others.
Pop Culture References - I've had two other crazy moments in class. One was a Harry Potter Puppet Pals moment when two of my students were shouting their own names back and forth at each other, and then another student walked up and said her name just like: Snape - Harry - Snape - Harry - Snape - Harry ...... Dumbledore! The other moment happened on the playground where my students have been particularly interested in pretending to be kittens. I had one crawl up to me, sit down, say "meow" and point at his open mouth, JUST LIKE SIMON'S CAT!!! I'm trying to figure out where these students have seen these youtube videos!! Because youtube doesn't work here!
PS, Also now that I'm thinking about it more, after my last blog post, I swear I've found a zillion more Mandarin words that include some tone of "shi"! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
And second, I have to tell an embarassing story:
Today when I walked into my apartment building, I found that the lobby had been remodeled. I was really impressed. I know the construction they do here happens in less than a day, it's a little scary how fast buildings go up, but I thought it was strange I never saw them working on the lobby. They are that fast! I went up to Ariana's floor to pick something up, and when I got out, I found that on the landing there were lots of bikes and new welcome carpets. One of our families just moved in across the hall from Ariana, so this was new and different, but not totally out there. Then I rang Ariana's doorbell and this cute little 12 year old Chinese girl answered. I was super confused, but looking past her I saw lots of plants in the apartment. Ariana's apartment is practically a garden, so it looked like she got some new plants, but the girl didn't seem to know who Ariana was. I stared at the apartment number, which was the correct number, and again back in the apartment, but the girl kept shaking her head. I went back down the elevator super confused. I was about to walk across the lobby to go up my elevator, but then I decided to walk outside just to check ... Yes, I definitely walked into the wrong building. Whooops.
And now, all about my little ELLs! (Elves):
At the beginning of November, I started teaching the calendar. We've been crossing off each day as it happens but there are very few days left this month. I asked the students what they think will happen when we run out of days to cross out. I then pointed at the empty square that will be December 1st.
- One said, "Stay home, no school."
- One said, "Uh oh!" and just pointed in shock at the empty square, as if this was the first time it occurred to her that we would run out of days to cross out.
- One made the motion and created the sound effects for an exploding bomb. Apparently the world will end.
Our High/Scope Early Years program strongly encourages students to identify problems and work together to solve their own problems. So I wasn't surprised when one day at recess, two of our 5 year olds called for a "classroom meeting" to discuss a problem. Apparently the box they had been using to gather fall leaves to make giant leaf piles had been converted into a mini dumpster by some older students.
Student responses: "Ewww!" "Gross!" "Yucky!"
3 year old: "What to do, what to do???"
5 year old: "I know, we need CCTV camera. Up there! We will see who did this!" (CCTV is the national news network)
One of my elves is an expert chef. He makes all sorts of creations at lunch. At first I was a little freaked out, but he always eats everything he makes so I haven't stopped him yet. Still, the only acceptable combination I've seen is yogurt poured over banana slices. Other concoctions include ketchup on bread slices, fruit juice in chicken soup and many, many others.
Pop Culture References - I've had two other crazy moments in class. One was a Harry Potter Puppet Pals moment when two of my students were shouting their own names back and forth at each other, and then another student walked up and said her name just like: Snape - Harry - Snape - Harry - Snape - Harry ...... Dumbledore! The other moment happened on the playground where my students have been particularly interested in pretending to be kittens. I had one crawl up to me, sit down, say "meow" and point at his open mouth, JUST LIKE SIMON'S CAT!!! I'm trying to figure out where these students have seen these youtube videos!! Because youtube doesn't work here!
PS, Also now that I'm thinking about it more, after my last blog post, I swear I've found a zillion more Mandarin words that include some tone of "shi"! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!!!
Yes, I did get to celebrate Thanksgiving here in China. Yes, it was wonderful. No, it did not look like the pics I saw of the Squire/Shabro Thanksgiving. I think that means I get double rations of grandma's rolls at Christmas! An American/Canadian family invited all the teachers to their home. Of course all the Americans went, many of the other foreign teachers also came to check out what this crazy American holiday is all about, and many of the Chinese TAs came. So it was a huge, loud, and happy affair. There were kids tables, the whole house smelled of turkey and pie, and it did take two hours, but in the end every guy was sitting in front of the TV watching a pre recorded football game. A very typical Thanksgiving :)
All about the language
- Xie xie is "Thank you" in Mandarin. Elaine helped me bargain for something at the night time market, and as I was leaving I said xie xie to the lady I had just bought something from. Her face got SUPER excited and she just started babbling in Mandarin to me, apparently all impressed that the foreigner can speak Mandarin. Too bad at the time the only word I knew in Mandarin was xie xie.
- There are SO many homophones. "Shi" is the most common word (in my opinion). Mandarin in a tonal language, so it's all about how you say it. There are 4 different tones, so that should just be 4 ways to say "shi", making 4 different meanings for "shi". BUT if you combine shi with other words you get a completely new word and a new meaning.
"shi" 4th tone = the verb "to be"
"shi" 2nd tone = the number "10"
"lou shi" 3rd tone and 1st tone = "teacher"
"zhe shi" 1st tone and 4th tone = "cheese"
"shi wu" 2nd tone and 4th tone = "food"
Confused already? Me too. The possibilities are endless. And even sometimes you say the same tone, but when you write it, it's a totally different character and a totally different meaning. Kind of like to, two, and too, but x 50. I strongly dislike the word "shi".
- I had an epiphany the other day, thinking about the tones. How is it possible to sing in Mandarin? Or is talking just singing in itself? Because all the different tones do sort of make a melody when you're speaking. I learned Spanish by listening to Spanish music. But when I listen to the Chinese radio, I can't tell which tones are being sung. I asked my TA Alice how she understands the singing on the radio. She looked confused at first, then she understood my question and just started laughing, shrugged her shoulders and said, "We have to guess what the singer is saying" Kind of like context clues. But you have to figure out which tones for all the words creates the sentence that makes the most sense.
- When you answer the phone, you're supposed to say "Wei". I'm not sure about the exact translation, but people are always talking loudly on their phones with a bit of attitude. So when they yell "Wei" into the phone, the way they actually pronounce it and say it, it sounds more like their yelling "What?!", which is exactly how I affectionately answer the phone whenever my sister calls me :)
My Visa:
- It expired. Whoops.
- I came prepared with everything I needed to turn my temporary 30 day visa into a year long working visa, but they needed more pictures to put on the 18 or so documents I had to submit.
- Even if I did manage to find the picture taking place by myself down the back road, I would never be able to tell them the specifications for the pictures needed for the visa applications. Thank goodness Wendi came with me.
- 2 weeks later they said they needed more pictures. But for one reason or another no one could come with me and the delay caused my visa to expire. So basically it expired because I'm a woos and didn't want to go by myself.
- TJ took me down to immigration during the school day. We talked to the front desk for about 10 minutes before she would allow us to go back and see the uniformed guy in charge. Then I checked my clock. TJ argued and persuaded for a full 30 minutes before the guy would even look at my documents.
- In the end, after an hour of fairly heated conversations of which I only understood the words "this", "that", "teacher" and the verb "be", TJ wrote up an apology letter that I had to sign basically stating it was all my fault.
- It was a little nerve racking, but afterwords TJ and the top guy were smiling and laughing. Later TJ told me our school has a very good relationship with immigration and that there was never anything to worry about. That was a lot of show for nothing to worry about!
Shin Da Lou:
- "Lou" meaning "road", Shin Da Lou is the only street I know. It's the one I walk down to get to the grocery store, which is about the only place other than school that I feel confident enough to go by myself.
- I asked Matt where he got his voltage converter so I can finally charge my camera battery. He gave me directions down Shin Da Lou, but then offered to go with me. Thank goodness, I would've never found it.
- Since we can't describe what I want, and we can't read any of the boxes of electronics, Matt called Jackie, one of our Chinese IT guys at school and handed the phone to the shop owner. The owner picked out a box and when I got the phone back Jackie told me the owner wanted 170 kuai, but then Jackie told me to give the owner 150. Normally there is a bargaining process, but again, my Mandarin is not near sufficient for this. When I gave him 150 kuai, the shop owner looked suspiciously at the money, then back at my hopeful but silent face, and then just started laughing and waved good bye.
- After hearing my visa story, and figuring out how little of Beilun I know, Matt has decided that we're going to start planning things so I actually get to leave our gated community on a regular basis. Most of the teachers are in their second year here, and last year when everything was new and exciting they used to go out all the time. This year Matt says they've all gotten "old". But hopefully this means I'll have some more stories and get to go exploring more often. I've just always had a host family or basically a local who is designated to take me where I need to go. And I've always had a good grasp of the local language in case I want to go out on my own. So I'm a little embarassed that I don't seem to be as fearless here in Beilun.
All about the language
- Xie xie is "Thank you" in Mandarin. Elaine helped me bargain for something at the night time market, and as I was leaving I said xie xie to the lady I had just bought something from. Her face got SUPER excited and she just started babbling in Mandarin to me, apparently all impressed that the foreigner can speak Mandarin. Too bad at the time the only word I knew in Mandarin was xie xie.
- There are SO many homophones. "Shi" is the most common word (in my opinion). Mandarin in a tonal language, so it's all about how you say it. There are 4 different tones, so that should just be 4 ways to say "shi", making 4 different meanings for "shi". BUT if you combine shi with other words you get a completely new word and a new meaning.
"shi" 4th tone = the verb "to be"
"shi" 2nd tone = the number "10"
"lou shi" 3rd tone and 1st tone = "teacher"
"zhe shi" 1st tone and 4th tone = "cheese"
"shi wu" 2nd tone and 4th tone = "food"
Confused already? Me too. The possibilities are endless. And even sometimes you say the same tone, but when you write it, it's a totally different character and a totally different meaning. Kind of like to, two, and too, but x 50. I strongly dislike the word "shi".
- I had an epiphany the other day, thinking about the tones. How is it possible to sing in Mandarin? Or is talking just singing in itself? Because all the different tones do sort of make a melody when you're speaking. I learned Spanish by listening to Spanish music. But when I listen to the Chinese radio, I can't tell which tones are being sung. I asked my TA Alice how she understands the singing on the radio. She looked confused at first, then she understood my question and just started laughing, shrugged her shoulders and said, "We have to guess what the singer is saying" Kind of like context clues. But you have to figure out which tones for all the words creates the sentence that makes the most sense.
- When you answer the phone, you're supposed to say "Wei". I'm not sure about the exact translation, but people are always talking loudly on their phones with a bit of attitude. So when they yell "Wei" into the phone, the way they actually pronounce it and say it, it sounds more like their yelling "What?!", which is exactly how I affectionately answer the phone whenever my sister calls me :)
My Visa:
- It expired. Whoops.
- I came prepared with everything I needed to turn my temporary 30 day visa into a year long working visa, but they needed more pictures to put on the 18 or so documents I had to submit.
- Even if I did manage to find the picture taking place by myself down the back road, I would never be able to tell them the specifications for the pictures needed for the visa applications. Thank goodness Wendi came with me.
- 2 weeks later they said they needed more pictures. But for one reason or another no one could come with me and the delay caused my visa to expire. So basically it expired because I'm a woos and didn't want to go by myself.
- TJ took me down to immigration during the school day. We talked to the front desk for about 10 minutes before she would allow us to go back and see the uniformed guy in charge. Then I checked my clock. TJ argued and persuaded for a full 30 minutes before the guy would even look at my documents.
- In the end, after an hour of fairly heated conversations of which I only understood the words "this", "that", "teacher" and the verb "be", TJ wrote up an apology letter that I had to sign basically stating it was all my fault.
- It was a little nerve racking, but afterwords TJ and the top guy were smiling and laughing. Later TJ told me our school has a very good relationship with immigration and that there was never anything to worry about. That was a lot of show for nothing to worry about!
Shin Da Lou:
- "Lou" meaning "road", Shin Da Lou is the only street I know. It's the one I walk down to get to the grocery store, which is about the only place other than school that I feel confident enough to go by myself.
- I asked Matt where he got his voltage converter so I can finally charge my camera battery. He gave me directions down Shin Da Lou, but then offered to go with me. Thank goodness, I would've never found it.
- Since we can't describe what I want, and we can't read any of the boxes of electronics, Matt called Jackie, one of our Chinese IT guys at school and handed the phone to the shop owner. The owner picked out a box and when I got the phone back Jackie told me the owner wanted 170 kuai, but then Jackie told me to give the owner 150. Normally there is a bargaining process, but again, my Mandarin is not near sufficient for this. When I gave him 150 kuai, the shop owner looked suspiciously at the money, then back at my hopeful but silent face, and then just started laughing and waved good bye.
- After hearing my visa story, and figuring out how little of Beilun I know, Matt has decided that we're going to start planning things so I actually get to leave our gated community on a regular basis. Most of the teachers are in their second year here, and last year when everything was new and exciting they used to go out all the time. This year Matt says they've all gotten "old". But hopefully this means I'll have some more stories and get to go exploring more often. I've just always had a host family or basically a local who is designated to take me where I need to go. And I've always had a good grasp of the local language in case I want to go out on my own. So I'm a little embarassed that I don't seem to be as fearless here in Beilun.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Sunday Night on the Town!!
First, just some logistics ...
- Elaine (Chinese TA) and I checked out a dance studio. As far as I know, they teach belly dancing and jazz, but at least it's something! Lessons start next week. Our TAs are the best!!!
- Monday through Friday I am taking Mandarin lessons, with 4 different teachers! My head is spinning. When I don't feel brain dead I will definitely have some good language stories. I just know that Mandarin is all about the word pictures, which I'm sure eventually will be helpful, but right now it's very confusing. So "angry" is actually made up of 3 different words. It literally translates to "have big fire". But I need to know basic words like have, big, and fire, in order to figure out how to say angry.
Knitting Club:
- Sunday afternoons at 4 down at the Cup of Joe, about 5 other teachers and myself get together to gossip and knit.
- I've learned a couple of new stiches, so I should be able to branch out and make gloves, leg warmers, and hats!
- We're getting the supplies from Tao Bao, meaning, "Hidden Treasure". It's Chinese Ebay but better, with next day delivery! So I'm also getting to work with a new type of yarn!
- The club consists of 3 Washingtonians, a Colorado-an, a French Canadian, and a Chinese woman. While we were busy knitting away, two Scottish men just having a beer were recounting stories about how their grandmothers used to knit, and they suddenly burst into old Scottish tunes that their grandmothers used to sing in their knitting clubs. Foreigners .... for some reason we just congregate and bond, no matter how strange the circumstances.
- Erich (the owner) made some off hand comment about the scarf I was wearing, saying eventually I could make something like that. He looked at my face and said, wait, you made that?!?!?!
Chinese Restaurant Dining:
- Elaine (Chinese) and Line (French Canadian) and I went out to eat. Thank goodness for Elaine, she ordered!
- It was all Chinese food, but thai food style, so they brought us 6 different dishes, you get your own rice bowl, and you just dish up! The total was about $10 for the 3 of us.
- As my friend Levi already told me, when they cook the chicken, they just kind of chop it up, bones and all, so as you eat you have to spit the bones out. I'm not very good at that. But trying to get the the meat off the bone with only chopsticks was even harder.
- Elaine coached us on simple etequitte, like laying your chopsticks on the plate instead of sticking them straight up in your rice bowl :). It's also considered more polite to hold the rice bowl with your opposite hand (mine was resting in my lap so I slyly moved it up to the table but Elaine noticed and giggled at me)
Nighttime Market:
- We walked the night time market, just a collection of food venders, trinkets, and shops, all in pursuit of a good pair of boots!
- Line said she didn't want anything with rhinestones, fur, or leapard print. That eliminated every shoe in every store.
- The last store Line and I both found success. Mine have little bit of bling, but I think I can handle it.
- Walking back I was about 1 lane across a 6 lane street before I realized that Line and Elaine didn't cross with me. My first reaction was to turn back, but then I remembered I'm in China. Line saw my momentary hesitation though, because I heard her yell at me, "DON'T STOP!!!" I may have mentioned before, crossing the street in China HAS to be a constant and fluid motion. Stopping, speeding up, or slowing down could get you hit. I remembered almost immediately though and I kept moving.
At School:
The boys in my class have been recently very fascinated with making messes while they brush their teeth. When they rinse their mouths out, they've been spitting the water on the mirror, the floor, on themselves, just everywhere. And then they get upset with me because we go straight to nap time and their sweaters are all wet. Apparently no one likes to sleep in a wet sweater. So I actually had to have a specific lesson on how to brush your teeth without getting yourself all wet. I wish we had fake flies for them to aim for, but each boy actually has their own drain in our trough of a sink, so I gave them each their own drain to aim for spitting. The next day, this is what happened.
Elf: *Rinsing mouth, points to mirror, shakes his head, points to the drain, nods his head, and then spits all the water right into the sink*
Me: "Perfect! You know exactly where to spit the water so you don't get yourself wet!"
Elf: *Smiles excitedly, takes another sip, points directly upward (They like to spit directly up so that it splashes themselves on the way back down), shakes his head, points to the drain, nods his head, and then spits all the water right into the sink*
Me: "You did it again! All by yourself. You are becoming a champion at brushing your teeth!"
Elf: *Even more excited takes another sip, points to another student, shakes his head, looks at me and sees my wide eyes because thankfully none of them have ever come up with the idea of spitting on each other, at the look of horror on my face, he almost bursts into laughter which would have completely sprayed me, and dives his head for the sink and just lets it all out.*
We all just crack up after that. Gotta have a good laugh over brushing your teeth :)
- Elaine (Chinese TA) and I checked out a dance studio. As far as I know, they teach belly dancing and jazz, but at least it's something! Lessons start next week. Our TAs are the best!!!
- Monday through Friday I am taking Mandarin lessons, with 4 different teachers! My head is spinning. When I don't feel brain dead I will definitely have some good language stories. I just know that Mandarin is all about the word pictures, which I'm sure eventually will be helpful, but right now it's very confusing. So "angry" is actually made up of 3 different words. It literally translates to "have big fire". But I need to know basic words like have, big, and fire, in order to figure out how to say angry.
Knitting Club:
- Sunday afternoons at 4 down at the Cup of Joe, about 5 other teachers and myself get together to gossip and knit.
- I've learned a couple of new stiches, so I should be able to branch out and make gloves, leg warmers, and hats!
- We're getting the supplies from Tao Bao, meaning, "Hidden Treasure". It's Chinese Ebay but better, with next day delivery! So I'm also getting to work with a new type of yarn!
- The club consists of 3 Washingtonians, a Colorado-an, a French Canadian, and a Chinese woman. While we were busy knitting away, two Scottish men just having a beer were recounting stories about how their grandmothers used to knit, and they suddenly burst into old Scottish tunes that their grandmothers used to sing in their knitting clubs. Foreigners .... for some reason we just congregate and bond, no matter how strange the circumstances.
- Erich (the owner) made some off hand comment about the scarf I was wearing, saying eventually I could make something like that. He looked at my face and said, wait, you made that?!?!?!
Chinese Restaurant Dining:
- Elaine (Chinese) and Line (French Canadian) and I went out to eat. Thank goodness for Elaine, she ordered!
- It was all Chinese food, but thai food style, so they brought us 6 different dishes, you get your own rice bowl, and you just dish up! The total was about $10 for the 3 of us.
- As my friend Levi already told me, when they cook the chicken, they just kind of chop it up, bones and all, so as you eat you have to spit the bones out. I'm not very good at that. But trying to get the the meat off the bone with only chopsticks was even harder.
- Elaine coached us on simple etequitte, like laying your chopsticks on the plate instead of sticking them straight up in your rice bowl :). It's also considered more polite to hold the rice bowl with your opposite hand (mine was resting in my lap so I slyly moved it up to the table but Elaine noticed and giggled at me)
Nighttime Market:
- We walked the night time market, just a collection of food venders, trinkets, and shops, all in pursuit of a good pair of boots!
- Line said she didn't want anything with rhinestones, fur, or leapard print. That eliminated every shoe in every store.
- The last store Line and I both found success. Mine have little bit of bling, but I think I can handle it.
- Walking back I was about 1 lane across a 6 lane street before I realized that Line and Elaine didn't cross with me. My first reaction was to turn back, but then I remembered I'm in China. Line saw my momentary hesitation though, because I heard her yell at me, "DON'T STOP!!!" I may have mentioned before, crossing the street in China HAS to be a constant and fluid motion. Stopping, speeding up, or slowing down could get you hit. I remembered almost immediately though and I kept moving.
At School:
The boys in my class have been recently very fascinated with making messes while they brush their teeth. When they rinse their mouths out, they've been spitting the water on the mirror, the floor, on themselves, just everywhere. And then they get upset with me because we go straight to nap time and their sweaters are all wet. Apparently no one likes to sleep in a wet sweater. So I actually had to have a specific lesson on how to brush your teeth without getting yourself all wet. I wish we had fake flies for them to aim for, but each boy actually has their own drain in our trough of a sink, so I gave them each their own drain to aim for spitting. The next day, this is what happened.
Elf: *Rinsing mouth, points to mirror, shakes his head, points to the drain, nods his head, and then spits all the water right into the sink*
Me: "Perfect! You know exactly where to spit the water so you don't get yourself wet!"
Elf: *Smiles excitedly, takes another sip, points directly upward (They like to spit directly up so that it splashes themselves on the way back down), shakes his head, points to the drain, nods his head, and then spits all the water right into the sink*
Me: "You did it again! All by yourself. You are becoming a champion at brushing your teeth!"
Elf: *Even more excited takes another sip, points to another student, shakes his head, looks at me and sees my wide eyes because thankfully none of them have ever come up with the idea of spitting on each other, at the look of horror on my face, he almost bursts into laughter which would have completely sprayed me, and dives his head for the sink and just lets it all out.*
We all just crack up after that. Gotta have a good laugh over brushing your teeth :)
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Oh Substitutes....
So it was finally my turn to be sick. It seems like everyone on staff has had at least 1 sick day in the last 3 weeks. The weird thing is, it seems very popular to go to the hospital for every little woe. I figure a fever or a cold, give yourself a few days before you go on drugs stronger than tylenol. Sure enough, when I told my one and only local friend that I was at home sick, her response was, "Oh, my god! I think maybe you have go to the hospital"
While I was gone:
- Subbing in our building is a little weird: other teachers will cover the sick person's class during their planning periods, so to cover one class may require 5 subs in one day. I lucked out with 3. But the poor teacher that brought them in from recess ... my students changed their shoes, ran inside the classroom, slammed the door, and locked it. Yup. That's right. With the sub still outside. At least I know that if my students are ever in any trouble, they know how to stage a coup. (Thank goodness this doesn't happen to me, but I already know how to break into my classroom since I don't have a set of keys).
- Apparently while I was gone, just from reading the notes sent home, my elves were also little terrors for nap time. It's taken me some time to figure out that my little instigator has a sensory issue. So if I put a little pressure on his back and legs, he feels more comfortable, kind of like a swaddled baby and falls straight to sleep. He's the leader of mischief so without him, the others fall asleep straight away too. I guess the last two days were a little chaos because I failed to explain this to my sub(s). Today as I was sneaking out of the nap time room I ran into Wendi. She looked at me, surprised, looked at her watch and said, "wow, 10 minutes!!!" :)
It's great to be back at school:
- All of the hugs, and the "I missed you"s, and from somewhere one of my students picked up "long time no see!"
- At lunch time today, the kindergartners were super curious about my lunch (crackers and peanut butter of course). They asked why I eat the same thing every day. I explained that even though I will try lots of foods, when it comes to actually eating food for a meal, I am very picky. One student asked, "Where is picky?" After some clarification, I figured out that he thinks that picky is the country where crackers and peanut butter come from.
International Quiz Night:
Dana, Daniela and I formed a team. The 3 Amigas. I wasn't feeling so great about the questions, but the last one came up and I just had a sense of relief.
Question: Who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia? (multiple choice)
Me: Oh thank goodness
Daniela: What, what is the answer?
Me: *Shock*
Daniela: What? I don't read, okay? I just watch the movies!
Me: *Dies a little inside* That's like saying you only watched the Harry Potter movies and never read the books!
Daniela: Yeah. Same thing! I never read those books either.
Me: ............................................................................
Daniela is from Ecuador, and it isn't really culture in Central/South America to read like we do in the States .... but still.
While I was gone:
- Subbing in our building is a little weird: other teachers will cover the sick person's class during their planning periods, so to cover one class may require 5 subs in one day. I lucked out with 3. But the poor teacher that brought them in from recess ... my students changed their shoes, ran inside the classroom, slammed the door, and locked it. Yup. That's right. With the sub still outside. At least I know that if my students are ever in any trouble, they know how to stage a coup. (Thank goodness this doesn't happen to me, but I already know how to break into my classroom since I don't have a set of keys).
- Apparently while I was gone, just from reading the notes sent home, my elves were also little terrors for nap time. It's taken me some time to figure out that my little instigator has a sensory issue. So if I put a little pressure on his back and legs, he feels more comfortable, kind of like a swaddled baby and falls straight to sleep. He's the leader of mischief so without him, the others fall asleep straight away too. I guess the last two days were a little chaos because I failed to explain this to my sub(s). Today as I was sneaking out of the nap time room I ran into Wendi. She looked at me, surprised, looked at her watch and said, "wow, 10 minutes!!!" :)
It's great to be back at school:
- All of the hugs, and the "I missed you"s, and from somewhere one of my students picked up "long time no see!"
- At lunch time today, the kindergartners were super curious about my lunch (crackers and peanut butter of course). They asked why I eat the same thing every day. I explained that even though I will try lots of foods, when it comes to actually eating food for a meal, I am very picky. One student asked, "Where is picky?" After some clarification, I figured out that he thinks that picky is the country where crackers and peanut butter come from.
International Quiz Night:
Dana, Daniela and I formed a team. The 3 Amigas. I wasn't feeling so great about the questions, but the last one came up and I just had a sense of relief.
Question: Who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia? (multiple choice)
Me: Oh thank goodness
Daniela: What, what is the answer?
Me: *Shock*
Daniela: What? I don't read, okay? I just watch the movies!
Me: *Dies a little inside* That's like saying you only watched the Harry Potter movies and never read the books!
Daniela: Yeah. Same thing! I never read those books either.
Me: ............................................................................
Daniela is from Ecuador, and it isn't really culture in Central/South America to read like we do in the States .... but still.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Quarantined
Lack of updates can be attributed to the fact that I'm sick, and not spending any time with my little elves. I'm a little worried, they've been through so much chaos, me being their 4th teacher this year. I assured the parents some consistency from now on.
Cup of Joe saved my life this morning though. I was out of town this weekend so my apartment wasn't exactly stalked with food. Erich delivered breakfast and REAL orange juice!!! Vitamin C - ing it up here in the apartment!
Cup of Joe saved my life this morning though. I was out of town this weekend so my apartment wasn't exactly stalked with food. Erich delivered breakfast and REAL orange juice!!! Vitamin C - ing it up here in the apartment!
Friday, November 11, 2011
Poppy
Thankfully, most of my kiddos, or as my mom calls them, elves (for ELLs), are picking up English very quickly. I have one however who will repeat any gobbledegook he hears, no matter what language, without actually understanding the meaning of what he is saying. He's my little parrot. So this is happened.
Elf: "Book?" *Points to book with cars on it.*
Me: "Yes, this is a racecar book. The cars are in a race to see who will win."
Elf: "Please?" (read me the book)
Me: *Reads the book while elf watching pictures*
Elf: When the book was done, he's so excited he prances around holding up the book saying, "Racecar, racecar, racecar!"
Parrot: *Grabs a world atlas and follows the elf* "Racecar, racecar, racecar!"
Me: "This is a book, say 'book'"
Parrot: *Offers me the book to read* "Racecar!"
Awesome.
This is our classroom monster named, Poppy. In the spirit of classroom management, students tend to get along better when they create something together. And while we're singing "Head, shoulders, knees and toes" we might as well get something out of that vocabulary. So I had them create a monster. They decided how many eyes, hands, legs, and the expression Poppy should have on his face (angry of course, their favorite word). Then I had them create where Poppy lived, apparently under the sea with the sharks. The most amazing thing is that they LOVE Poppy. So I actually got them to play Simon says with the version, "Poppy says ... " And Poppy is also our moral compass. "Would Poppy be running in the classroom?" ... So it's turned into "What would Poppy do?"
And now on a completely unrelated note ... it is finally time for me to possibly try plugging in my camera. It's about to die, but I've been holding out for this moment because I don't want to fry it in the socket. Then I would have no camera at all (same result if the battery dies I guess). So I was talking to my TA and she said she'd look at it to see if she could tell if the voltage would be compatible. Wouldn't you know, she starts cracking up and shows me, "Made in China". Of course it is. But will it work in China ... ????????
Also, as a sign of how much I would REALLY like my body to adjust to the time zone difference, yesterday I tried putting body wash in my hair as conditioner. And this morning I tried to put my contacts in while still wearing my glasses. Time to adjust and no longer be groggy!!!
Elf: "Book?" *Points to book with cars on it.*
Me: "Yes, this is a racecar book. The cars are in a race to see who will win."
Elf: "Please?" (read me the book)
Me: *Reads the book while elf watching pictures*
Elf: When the book was done, he's so excited he prances around holding up the book saying, "Racecar, racecar, racecar!"
Parrot: *Grabs a world atlas and follows the elf* "Racecar, racecar, racecar!"
Me: "This is a book, say 'book'"
Parrot: *Offers me the book to read* "Racecar!"
Awesome.
And now on a completely unrelated note ... it is finally time for me to possibly try plugging in my camera. It's about to die, but I've been holding out for this moment because I don't want to fry it in the socket. Then I would have no camera at all (same result if the battery dies I guess). So I was talking to my TA and she said she'd look at it to see if she could tell if the voltage would be compatible. Wouldn't you know, she starts cracking up and shows me, "Made in China". Of course it is. But will it work in China ... ????????
Also, as a sign of how much I would REALLY like my body to adjust to the time zone difference, yesterday I tried putting body wash in my hair as conditioner. And this morning I tried to put my contacts in while still wearing my glasses. Time to adjust and no longer be groggy!!!
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
The Ghetto Blaster
So the ghetto blaster, they weren't kidding!! Up here on the 12th floor with the windows closed, I can hear the music. And I can understand the lyrics in English!! It's like 90's pop music.
I think everyone knows that the Chinese stare at us foreigners with our very white skin and our very different hair. But one day when Dana and I were walking through the apartment complex, there was a man walking backwards about 20 yards ahead of us. I know they like to look, but this seems a little extreme. Apparently, he wasn't actually doing it to stare. Dana says a lot of the Chinese in our complex go for evening walks in the gardens, but they have this thing with balance. So on the first half of the walk, they walk normal, and on their way back, they just reverse the whole process.
The school made me 2 giant stacks of business cards. So I am now official! I just don't know what I would do with business cards ...
I taught one of my TAs the words "cranky" and "grumpy" today because some of the kiddos have been way oversleeping nap time, and I get the unhappy consequences. She finally told me that I've been coming in to wake them a full 15 minutes before they're used to. This has been going on for a week and a half!!! Whoops ...
Today was just too perfect. This morning at work time, two of my kiddos decided to dress up as a police officer and a firefighter. They then proceded to hold hands and skip around the classroom. Enter our damsel in distress. My little chica dressed as Snow White noticed a centipede in the classroom and said "Uh oh!". My TA Alice tried squeamishly stepping on it five times, but to no avail. The thing still wriggled. So she went to fetch my other TA. I took the hard police hat (riot police maybe???) and put it on top, like trapping a spider, and waited for my superhero TAs. At first my little firefighter was very upset that his police officer buddy didn't have a hat and he kept trying to pick it up. But then he followed my lead and stood guard over the hat and directed students around it like a traffic cop. Jean came back with a broom and dust pan, and all 3 of us adult women (Alice, Jean, and I) jumped and squeaked everytime Jean made an attempt to sweep the centipede up. Maybe we would've felt braver if we had police and firefighter costumes.
 |
| The "ballroom" dancers. Kind of like Zumba. I'm not sure where the ghetto blaster is. |
 |
| Beilun at night. You can see the dancers on the bball courts. |
The school made me 2 giant stacks of business cards. So I am now official! I just don't know what I would do with business cards ...
I taught one of my TAs the words "cranky" and "grumpy" today because some of the kiddos have been way oversleeping nap time, and I get the unhappy consequences. She finally told me that I've been coming in to wake them a full 15 minutes before they're used to. This has been going on for a week and a half!!! Whoops ...
Today was just too perfect. This morning at work time, two of my kiddos decided to dress up as a police officer and a firefighter. They then proceded to hold hands and skip around the classroom. Enter our damsel in distress. My little chica dressed as Snow White noticed a centipede in the classroom and said "Uh oh!". My TA Alice tried squeamishly stepping on it five times, but to no avail. The thing still wriggled. So she went to fetch my other TA. I took the hard police hat (riot police maybe???) and put it on top, like trapping a spider, and waited for my superhero TAs. At first my little firefighter was very upset that his police officer buddy didn't have a hat and he kept trying to pick it up. But then he followed my lead and stood guard over the hat and directed students around it like a traffic cop. Jean came back with a broom and dust pan, and all 3 of us adult women (Alice, Jean, and I) jumped and squeaked everytime Jean made an attempt to sweep the centipede up. Maybe we would've felt braver if we had police and firefighter costumes.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
The Apartment
As promised, pictures of the apartment. But first, I just have to brag a little bit. I was soooooooooooooooooooooo excited when I heard that one of my TAs was spreading some good news about the nursery. I guess she was talking to one of the parents who knew the class, and said the kids had a really good day and she was very impressed, things are improving.
I'm SOOOOOOO excited.
It's nice to get good feedback because these kids have been labeled as trouble makers who are on the verge of getting kicked out of the school. Which should so not be the case. When we went into the school production of Cinderella, the headmaster told me no one would think badly if I had to sneak the kids out in the middle of the performance, if they couldn't handle it. Boy did he have the look of surprise when he saw me walking out with them at the end of the performance with everyone else :)
And Ariana gave me the best compliment ever, the kiddos were so quiet in the theater, she didn't even know that we attended. That's right, we're that sneaky and quiet!
Okay, it's not perfect. It's not as clean as I'd like. And yes, I know I need some artwork for the walls and stuff. But here goes ...
This is my living room. The far window is where Skeeter, my new bug friend, is supposed to live. As far as I know he's still hiding behind the air conditioner in the corner.
Another view of the living room. Pinochle cards just waiting to be played with!! The far two doors are the guest bedroom and 2nd bathroom.
The dining room table. It's still full of miscellaneous things that Dana and Ariana left for me. I just haven't had the chance to go through it all.
The study. I'm not really sure what to do with this room.
The kitchen :) with the baby oven, the first year the teachers have had ovens in the apartments. Too bad no one bakes here and I can't even find flour! I did find a substitute pan for the brownie mix though!
My gigantic bed. I've only ever had a twin size, or dorm beds. So I feel like I'm swimming in this one.
Bathroom and mini closet situation. I love the full length mirror that pops out of the closet. You can't see the bath tub.
I'm SOOOOOOO excited.
It's nice to get good feedback because these kids have been labeled as trouble makers who are on the verge of getting kicked out of the school. Which should so not be the case. When we went into the school production of Cinderella, the headmaster told me no one would think badly if I had to sneak the kids out in the middle of the performance, if they couldn't handle it. Boy did he have the look of surprise when he saw me walking out with them at the end of the performance with everyone else :)
And Ariana gave me the best compliment ever, the kiddos were so quiet in the theater, she didn't even know that we attended. That's right, we're that sneaky and quiet!
Okay, it's not perfect. It's not as clean as I'd like. And yes, I know I need some artwork for the walls and stuff. But here goes ...
This is my living room. The far window is where Skeeter, my new bug friend, is supposed to live. As far as I know he's still hiding behind the air conditioner in the corner.
Another view of the living room. Pinochle cards just waiting to be played with!! The far two doors are the guest bedroom and 2nd bathroom.
The dining room table. It's still full of miscellaneous things that Dana and Ariana left for me. I just haven't had the chance to go through it all.
The study. I'm not really sure what to do with this room.
The kitchen :) with the baby oven, the first year the teachers have had ovens in the apartments. Too bad no one bakes here and I can't even find flour! I did find a substitute pan for the brownie mix though!
My gigantic bed. I've only ever had a twin size, or dorm beds. So I feel like I'm swimming in this one.
Bathroom and mini closet situation. I love the full length mirror that pops out of the closet. You can't see the bath tub.
My New Friend
Dad can attest to how loud my scream was. We were skyping when I noticed him crawling on my pillow an inch from my arm. He did not stay on the window sill according to our agreement to peacefully live in the same space! Once I had collected myself I found him on my purse. I think it was too much commotion though because he has finally retired to the corner behind my air conditioner. Thank goodness. I was worried when he crawled inside the purse that I would never have access to my keys again! You know ... until I found a nice security guard to come up here and take it outside.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Logistics
My apartment is so big, I can't say this enough. I found a closet in my bedroom today that I never knew I had. Woah.
I have a new friend, he needs a name. He's a gigantic bug. I think he's a cross between a beetle and a spider. I don't know how he got in, but he lives on my living room window, and as long as he stays there, we're going to get along just fine :)
Mandatory firework photo. There are always fireworks going off. ALWAYS. These ones we set off for the 4 person birthday party. They exploded about 5 seconds apart and I was so skiddish, I jumped everytime.
Everyone has an IE. That's what I'm calling them. In Mandarin it literally translates to "aunt" but the position is actually more like nanny or maid. But when people say the word, it sounds like they're just abbreviating Internet Explorer. I can't imagine needing a maid to pick up after just me, though maybe I'll hire one just to teach me how to clean (I can't read the the labels to remember all the cleaning products I bought!)
Utilities: I have mini credit cards for my Hot and Cold Water (separate I think) and Gas Stoves. When the water doesn't come out one day, I can swipe my card on the water meter on the landing outside my apartment for a 3 day emergency supply, then I have to go reload the card at the store. Same goes for the Gas Stove. Electricity I haven't figured out yet. My culligan water thingy I have to order once it gets low. I guess an IE might order it for me, which would be nice because English is still very much my primary language. It all makes sense now. TJ pointed out the hot and cold water meters to me on my first day, and his face told me it was very important. But I was still thinking, why would I need to know where the water meter is?!?!?!
First solo grocery shopping trip to RT Mart:
- The grocery store is an assembly line. You enter and immediately go up an escalator ramp. The isles are set up to go through the whole upper floor before you reach a different escalator back to the main floor. Then in the back of the main floor you finally reach the check out. After check out you're let out into a mall at a completely different point from which you entered.
- A little boy was chattering away to his dad as they passed me. The boy must have been seriously distracted because just as he's passing me, out of the corner of my eye I see his whole body stop, I hear his voice stop, and his mouth just drops. I'm not sure how long he stood there staring at me.
- At check out I was prepared for all of the questions and the order they would come in. The, "Do you have an RT Mart card?" I shook my head. The "Would you like to pay for a bag?" I showed her the grocery bag I brought with me. The "How will you be paying for this?" I gave her my fancy Wall of China credit card. She was giggling at me. I could tell she knew I couldn't understand what she was saying, but that I just knew the process. What I did not expect while she was ringing everything up was for her to ask me a question and hold up the sack of oranges. I shrugged my shoulders. I got no oranges. I later learned there is a person in the fruit department that weighs them and puts the price tag on them before checkout.
It is still sooooo hot! I thought we were having our cold snap, just like the rest of you, but no. It's still hot enough for the a/c, though I stoutly refuse to use any of the 4 in my apartment (partly because I don't know how to work the remotes to run them and partly because I'm anti a/c). I'm ready for winter :) I want to bundle up in some scarves, fuzzy socks, and blankets.
Quiz Night! Ariana is our quiz master and she hosts a bimonthly international trivia night at Cup Of Joe's for 20 rmb. Dana, Torsten and I formed a team. Dana and I expected to get 4 questions right between the two of us, but Torsten (from Germany) pulled through and we got 25/30 and won the pot! The losing team gets french fries ... the others, well, try again next time!
Friends at the pig roast for 4 person birthday party. Liz, Julie, Ariana, Dana, Erich and Torsten. EVERY foreigner within a 20 mile radius was there :) All of our school families were there so it felt like one big school party. Except my favorite part was probably the guys who brought the blue culligan jug full of homemade sangria!
On Friday I saved one of the milk/yogurt boxes that one of the kids took but never opened at lunch. Later at snack time, it was up for grabs but I forgot to grab the straw that normally pokes through the lid. When I peeled the top off for one of my students to drink it, (which they're not used to), he went off on me in Korean, pointing at the lid. It took me a moment, but then I realized his babbling must be international kid language for, "I would like to lick off the lid". Sure enough when I held it back out to him instead of throwing it in the garbage, he stuck his tongue out excitedly. See? We can communicate just fine!
I have a new friend, he needs a name. He's a gigantic bug. I think he's a cross between a beetle and a spider. I don't know how he got in, but he lives on my living room window, and as long as he stays there, we're going to get along just fine :)
Mandatory firework photo. There are always fireworks going off. ALWAYS. These ones we set off for the 4 person birthday party. They exploded about 5 seconds apart and I was so skiddish, I jumped everytime.
Everyone has an IE. That's what I'm calling them. In Mandarin it literally translates to "aunt" but the position is actually more like nanny or maid. But when people say the word, it sounds like they're just abbreviating Internet Explorer. I can't imagine needing a maid to pick up after just me, though maybe I'll hire one just to teach me how to clean (I can't read the the labels to remember all the cleaning products I bought!)
Utilities: I have mini credit cards for my Hot and Cold Water (separate I think) and Gas Stoves. When the water doesn't come out one day, I can swipe my card on the water meter on the landing outside my apartment for a 3 day emergency supply, then I have to go reload the card at the store. Same goes for the Gas Stove. Electricity I haven't figured out yet. My culligan water thingy I have to order once it gets low. I guess an IE might order it for me, which would be nice because English is still very much my primary language. It all makes sense now. TJ pointed out the hot and cold water meters to me on my first day, and his face told me it was very important. But I was still thinking, why would I need to know where the water meter is?!?!?!
First solo grocery shopping trip to RT Mart:
- The grocery store is an assembly line. You enter and immediately go up an escalator ramp. The isles are set up to go through the whole upper floor before you reach a different escalator back to the main floor. Then in the back of the main floor you finally reach the check out. After check out you're let out into a mall at a completely different point from which you entered.
- A little boy was chattering away to his dad as they passed me. The boy must have been seriously distracted because just as he's passing me, out of the corner of my eye I see his whole body stop, I hear his voice stop, and his mouth just drops. I'm not sure how long he stood there staring at me.
- At check out I was prepared for all of the questions and the order they would come in. The, "Do you have an RT Mart card?" I shook my head. The "Would you like to pay for a bag?" I showed her the grocery bag I brought with me. The "How will you be paying for this?" I gave her my fancy Wall of China credit card. She was giggling at me. I could tell she knew I couldn't understand what she was saying, but that I just knew the process. What I did not expect while she was ringing everything up was for her to ask me a question and hold up the sack of oranges. I shrugged my shoulders. I got no oranges. I later learned there is a person in the fruit department that weighs them and puts the price tag on them before checkout.
It is still sooooo hot! I thought we were having our cold snap, just like the rest of you, but no. It's still hot enough for the a/c, though I stoutly refuse to use any of the 4 in my apartment (partly because I don't know how to work the remotes to run them and partly because I'm anti a/c). I'm ready for winter :) I want to bundle up in some scarves, fuzzy socks, and blankets.
Quiz Night! Ariana is our quiz master and she hosts a bimonthly international trivia night at Cup Of Joe's for 20 rmb. Dana, Torsten and I formed a team. Dana and I expected to get 4 questions right between the two of us, but Torsten (from Germany) pulled through and we got 25/30 and won the pot! The losing team gets french fries ... the others, well, try again next time!
Friends at the pig roast for 4 person birthday party. Liz, Julie, Ariana, Dana, Erich and Torsten. EVERY foreigner within a 20 mile radius was there :) All of our school families were there so it felt like one big school party. Except my favorite part was probably the guys who brought the blue culligan jug full of homemade sangria!
On Friday I saved one of the milk/yogurt boxes that one of the kids took but never opened at lunch. Later at snack time, it was up for grabs but I forgot to grab the straw that normally pokes through the lid. When I peeled the top off for one of my students to drink it, (which they're not used to), he went off on me in Korean, pointing at the lid. It took me a moment, but then I realized his babbling must be international kid language for, "I would like to lick off the lid". Sure enough when I held it back out to him instead of throwing it in the garbage, he stuck his tongue out excitedly. See? We can communicate just fine!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
The Classroom and Dancing
Naturally the most important update :)
My Classroom:
- One student grabbed my hand, pulled me over to the art table, pointed, and said, "Ewwww!" I could see eraser shavings sprinkled all over the table, so I grabbed a garbage can and helped her sweep them off the table. Then I showed her how the eraser, when used, will make the shavings. She took the eraser out of my hand and threw that in the garbage too!
- The nice thing about Chinese culture is that there isn't a personal space bubble, which is a blessing when I have little ninos that haven't quite figured out how to control their growing bodies and are constantly bumping into each other. But here, that's just normal life. There is such a problem of overcrowding that in the supermarket no one bothers to say excuse me, or sorry to bump into you, because you'd just be saying it all the time. Same goes in the classroom. Such a turnaround from last year when a light brush would turn into, "He hit me!".
- I already said umbrellas are serious business. But seriously? We have a classroom set for both the early years and kindergarten. Each student got an umbrella to walk maybe 30 yards to the main building so we could watch the school production of Cinderella. On the way back, I skipped the umbrellas because it was only a drizzle. The kids complained to me in their respective languages and pointed to the rain drops on their clothing. My response? Deal with it. Then, one mom came to pick her kid up, she changed him into rainboots, put him in a full on ladybug poncho AND gave him an umbrella. My kids are either witches, or made of sugar.
- At first I used to take in every detail while I walk on the streets. But now, since I don't understand the Chinese characters, I've started to tune them out. I just realized I barely notice them anymore. My eyes just skip over them. So I'm really hoping that's not how my students feel about the English alphabet! I am teaching many lessons on the the letters, so hopefully that will be the difference!
- For those of you who don't have facebook, I also posted this story: I'm not sure why, but all my little ELL's favorite word in English is angry. It cracks me up because they love the word so much, they're almost always smiling when they say it. So I shouldn't be suprised when I wished my class a very Happy Halloween this morning and one student replied, "No, Angry Halloween!"
Dancing:
- There are groups like "Swing Beijing" and "Shanghai Swings" but that's as close as I can get to the swing scene.
- I did find a ballroom in Ningbo, but when Ariana asked our taxi driver, he told us it's either a massage place, or a gentleman's club, so I'm glad I didn't go checking that out on my own.
- Ballroom Dancing, is apparently called Jiaoyiwu literally translating to “Friendship Exchange Dancing”
- The "ballroom" dancing they're talking about is actually more like zumba style, just different music. It's organized in public squares and parks. I actually have a good view from my 12th floor of the park across the river, I watch sometimes.
- My research on China's culture site revieled this fantastic quote: "Usually there is an organizer who brings along a huge ghetto-blaster, in goes a tape, and everyone is dancing under one or two good dancers' teaching or guidance."
Fun Tidbits:
- The two food items I have most difficulty tracking down are good chocolate and cheese.
- So you know all the gigantic streetsweeper vehicles play "It's a Small World After All" over the loud speaker? Today a man was trying to buzz into the apartment by calling one of the units. The ringtone was "Jingle Bells".
My Classroom:
- One student grabbed my hand, pulled me over to the art table, pointed, and said, "Ewwww!" I could see eraser shavings sprinkled all over the table, so I grabbed a garbage can and helped her sweep them off the table. Then I showed her how the eraser, when used, will make the shavings. She took the eraser out of my hand and threw that in the garbage too!
- The nice thing about Chinese culture is that there isn't a personal space bubble, which is a blessing when I have little ninos that haven't quite figured out how to control their growing bodies and are constantly bumping into each other. But here, that's just normal life. There is such a problem of overcrowding that in the supermarket no one bothers to say excuse me, or sorry to bump into you, because you'd just be saying it all the time. Same goes in the classroom. Such a turnaround from last year when a light brush would turn into, "He hit me!".
- I already said umbrellas are serious business. But seriously? We have a classroom set for both the early years and kindergarten. Each student got an umbrella to walk maybe 30 yards to the main building so we could watch the school production of Cinderella. On the way back, I skipped the umbrellas because it was only a drizzle. The kids complained to me in their respective languages and pointed to the rain drops on their clothing. My response? Deal with it. Then, one mom came to pick her kid up, she changed him into rainboots, put him in a full on ladybug poncho AND gave him an umbrella. My kids are either witches, or made of sugar.
- At first I used to take in every detail while I walk on the streets. But now, since I don't understand the Chinese characters, I've started to tune them out. I just realized I barely notice them anymore. My eyes just skip over them. So I'm really hoping that's not how my students feel about the English alphabet! I am teaching many lessons on the the letters, so hopefully that will be the difference!
- For those of you who don't have facebook, I also posted this story: I'm not sure why, but all my little ELL's favorite word in English is angry. It cracks me up because they love the word so much, they're almost always smiling when they say it. So I shouldn't be suprised when I wished my class a very Happy Halloween this morning and one student replied, "No, Angry Halloween!"
Dancing:
- There are groups like "Swing Beijing" and "Shanghai Swings" but that's as close as I can get to the swing scene.
- I did find a ballroom in Ningbo, but when Ariana asked our taxi driver, he told us it's either a massage place, or a gentleman's club, so I'm glad I didn't go checking that out on my own.
- Ballroom Dancing, is apparently called Jiaoyiwu literally translating to “Friendship Exchange Dancing”
- The "ballroom" dancing they're talking about is actually more like zumba style, just different music. It's organized in public squares and parks. I actually have a good view from my 12th floor of the park across the river, I watch sometimes.
- My research on China's culture site revieled this fantastic quote: "Usually there is an organizer who brings along a huge ghetto-blaster, in goes a tape, and everyone is dancing under one or two good dancers' teaching or guidance."
Fun Tidbits:
- The two food items I have most difficulty tracking down are good chocolate and cheese.
- So you know all the gigantic streetsweeper vehicles play "It's a Small World After All" over the loud speaker? Today a man was trying to buzz into the apartment by calling one of the units. The ringtone was "Jingle Bells".
Monday, October 31, 2011
The Weekend Update
On Sunday morning, around 10 am, I was excitedly searching hulu for the new SNL episode ... and it took a moment, but when I couldn't find it, it occured to me that it hadn't even happened yet. Oh time difference.
Metro!!!
On Saturday morning the school organized a trip to the Metro in Ningbo (45 minutes away). The best I can compare it to is Costco. It felt like my first trip to Safeway with Jess our freshman year. It took an hour and a half, zig zigging through all the isles. I think I covered enough total walking distance with that cart to get me back to Beilun.
Exactly what we need to find right before Oktoberfest, the International Wine Festival, and we were the token internationals. The people would take pictures of us sampling their wine, and one of the hosts hovered around us, switching out our glasses, and he had a box of tissues :) we're not sure why.
And another thing we need, a guy in a suit that is typically used to attract children to an event. Ariana and Dana with the wine guy.
Oktoberfest!!!
- I went to my first Oktoberfest ever! Which I'm thinking was probably not like normal Oktoberfest considering all the Chinese food, probably Chinese beer, and Chinese people.
- There was a German band that played some classics from Germany, some songs in Mandarin, and some good old YMCA, Beat It, and Mama Mia ...
- I was most surprised by the amount of children. This is an unlimted beer party. And there were parents proudly taking pictures holding their babies with the band in the background. This year's Christmas card??? Or I suppose maybe their Chinese New Year card?
- I learned to count to 3 in Mandarin. (Before every chugging contest there was a countdown)
- Connie, you were right, except it was the guys that were fascinated with me, and it took about 4 beers before those inhibitions disappeared and they came up to touch my hair and take pictures with me. The ones who still wouldn't come near me pointed and laughed like 5 years at the ones who did. Then one handed me his cell phone and said, "Talk to my friend!!" ..... really??? I mean, really???
- Our server was a sweetheart, and she spoke very well in English. She asked me if I'm German.
- Afterwards we went to Lao Wai Tan, which means "Foreign Land", so all the international restaurants and pubs, and to my pleasure, other internationals! Which is good, because somehow Ariana's phone got left there, and the dimwit who picked it up and decided not to leave it with the bar staff actually spoke English, so we were able to call Ariana's phone and track him down.
First Solo Trip to Ningbo!!!!
- Mr. Wei is one of the private drivers (like Mr. Fan), except he speaks English. So I called him and told him that I needed a ride to Ningbo. He was not available so he called one of his friends to meet me.
- I have a handy dandy Ningbo taxi guide that has every location I'd ever want to visit in English and the address in Chinese. So even though the friend didn't speak English, I was able to point at my destination in the book, and off we went!!!
- I'm feeling pretty confident at this point, I can get around, no problem :) !
- When we came to the junction for the interstate to go to Ningbo, my driver stopped the car and started asking me questions in Mandarin. He pointed at the road signs, and then looked back at me ... waiting ... I realized, somewhat mortified, that he must be asking me, "Which way to Ningbo?" I swear, it's a straight shot. It should be named "Beilun to Ningbo Hwy". There's no messing this up. So I pointed to the onramp, he smiled and hit the gas, and off we went again! Me, super freaked out. He should be able to actually read the signs!! Apparently that was the only direction he needed and that was the only turn I knew along the way, thank goodness.
- When we pulled up to my destination in Ningbo, my driver asked what I assume was, "When should I come pick you up?" Ariana had showed me where I could catch a bus from Ningbo back to Beilun, and I wasn't as time pressed for the way back, so I used my fantastic pictionary skills to draw a bus. Success :)
First Solo Trip Back to Beilun!!
- I gave up on the bus plan super quick, and just got a taxi to go back. Here's how it went:
Me: "Beilun, yi bai qui?" Which means, "Beilun, 100 rbm?" I can now say 1, 2, 3 and 100 in Mandarin. I knew the taxi was going to cost more than 100, but I just wanted to make sure that we had the same idea for how far I needed to go. If I didn't say Beilun with the right tones, I wouldn't get home.
Taxista: Pointed up to indicate more expensive, and nodded for me to get in. (Sweet, he knows where I want to go) Then he RAMBLED in Mandarin for like 5 minutes, each minute he got more and more urgent. And I heard him say Beilun several times.
Me: I started flipping through my handy dandy Ningbo taxi book, hoping to find an advirtisement for a restaurant in Beilun that I could point to. I ended up finding my school address, perfect!!!
Taxista: Looked at my school, and shook his head. Five phone calls later to his taxi buddies and he knows where to go.
Me: Relief! ... Except I started looking around at that point (I'd had my nose in the book) and realized ... I didn't know where I was. Remember that straight shot on the interstate? I didn't think I could get lost. So ... not relief?
Taxista: SUPER curious about my book. He looks through it at every stop light. Then, he found Li Ren Gardens, my apartment complex, and he pointed to it.
Me: WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, take me there, take me there!!!!
Taxista: DETERMINED to have a conversation with me. I keep shaking my head. But it's an hour long taxi ride (the road was dirt and full of potholes), and he just won't give up!
Me: I break down and call Dana and ask her for some key words like "teacher", "United States", "China" and "1 week" to hopefully let him know that I'm not a complete idiot, I've just only been here for 9 days.
- When we arrived, I was soooo tired, hungry, car sick, and just relieved, that my gigantic smile just turned into laughter. Which cracked up the taxi driver too. I think he thought it was an much of an adventure as I did.
Important detail: Apparently there is a second road to Ningbo, it's a little dinky piece of dirt, and it's not a toll road. So my first driver to Ningbo was actually asking if I wanted to take the cheap way or the toll way. My taxi driver on the way back took that road without asking, which is why I'd never seen it before and I thought I was lost, but I still arrived safely :)
Metro!!!
On Saturday morning the school organized a trip to the Metro in Ningbo (45 minutes away). The best I can compare it to is Costco. It felt like my first trip to Safeway with Jess our freshman year. It took an hour and a half, zig zigging through all the isles. I think I covered enough total walking distance with that cart to get me back to Beilun.
Exactly what we need to find right before Oktoberfest, the International Wine Festival, and we were the token internationals. The people would take pictures of us sampling their wine, and one of the hosts hovered around us, switching out our glasses, and he had a box of tissues :) we're not sure why.
And another thing we need, a guy in a suit that is typically used to attract children to an event. Ariana and Dana with the wine guy.
Oktoberfest!!!
- I went to my first Oktoberfest ever! Which I'm thinking was probably not like normal Oktoberfest considering all the Chinese food, probably Chinese beer, and Chinese people.
- There was a German band that played some classics from Germany, some songs in Mandarin, and some good old YMCA, Beat It, and Mama Mia ...
- I was most surprised by the amount of children. This is an unlimted beer party. And there were parents proudly taking pictures holding their babies with the band in the background. This year's Christmas card??? Or I suppose maybe their Chinese New Year card?
- I learned to count to 3 in Mandarin. (Before every chugging contest there was a countdown)
- Connie, you were right, except it was the guys that were fascinated with me, and it took about 4 beers before those inhibitions disappeared and they came up to touch my hair and take pictures with me. The ones who still wouldn't come near me pointed and laughed like 5 years at the ones who did. Then one handed me his cell phone and said, "Talk to my friend!!" ..... really??? I mean, really???
- Our server was a sweetheart, and she spoke very well in English. She asked me if I'm German.
- Afterwards we went to Lao Wai Tan, which means "Foreign Land", so all the international restaurants and pubs, and to my pleasure, other internationals! Which is good, because somehow Ariana's phone got left there, and the dimwit who picked it up and decided not to leave it with the bar staff actually spoke English, so we were able to call Ariana's phone and track him down.
First Solo Trip to Ningbo!!!!
- Mr. Wei is one of the private drivers (like Mr. Fan), except he speaks English. So I called him and told him that I needed a ride to Ningbo. He was not available so he called one of his friends to meet me.
- I have a handy dandy Ningbo taxi guide that has every location I'd ever want to visit in English and the address in Chinese. So even though the friend didn't speak English, I was able to point at my destination in the book, and off we went!!!
- I'm feeling pretty confident at this point, I can get around, no problem :) !
- When we came to the junction for the interstate to go to Ningbo, my driver stopped the car and started asking me questions in Mandarin. He pointed at the road signs, and then looked back at me ... waiting ... I realized, somewhat mortified, that he must be asking me, "Which way to Ningbo?" I swear, it's a straight shot. It should be named "Beilun to Ningbo Hwy". There's no messing this up. So I pointed to the onramp, he smiled and hit the gas, and off we went again! Me, super freaked out. He should be able to actually read the signs!! Apparently that was the only direction he needed and that was the only turn I knew along the way, thank goodness.
- When we pulled up to my destination in Ningbo, my driver asked what I assume was, "When should I come pick you up?" Ariana had showed me where I could catch a bus from Ningbo back to Beilun, and I wasn't as time pressed for the way back, so I used my fantastic pictionary skills to draw a bus. Success :)
First Solo Trip Back to Beilun!!
- I gave up on the bus plan super quick, and just got a taxi to go back. Here's how it went:
Me: "Beilun, yi bai qui?" Which means, "Beilun, 100 rbm?" I can now say 1, 2, 3 and 100 in Mandarin. I knew the taxi was going to cost more than 100, but I just wanted to make sure that we had the same idea for how far I needed to go. If I didn't say Beilun with the right tones, I wouldn't get home.
Taxista: Pointed up to indicate more expensive, and nodded for me to get in. (Sweet, he knows where I want to go) Then he RAMBLED in Mandarin for like 5 minutes, each minute he got more and more urgent. And I heard him say Beilun several times.
Me: I started flipping through my handy dandy Ningbo taxi book, hoping to find an advirtisement for a restaurant in Beilun that I could point to. I ended up finding my school address, perfect!!!
Taxista: Looked at my school, and shook his head. Five phone calls later to his taxi buddies and he knows where to go.
Me: Relief! ... Except I started looking around at that point (I'd had my nose in the book) and realized ... I didn't know where I was. Remember that straight shot on the interstate? I didn't think I could get lost. So ... not relief?
Taxista: SUPER curious about my book. He looks through it at every stop light. Then, he found Li Ren Gardens, my apartment complex, and he pointed to it.
Me: WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, take me there, take me there!!!!
Taxista: DETERMINED to have a conversation with me. I keep shaking my head. But it's an hour long taxi ride (the road was dirt and full of potholes), and he just won't give up!
Me: I break down and call Dana and ask her for some key words like "teacher", "United States", "China" and "1 week" to hopefully let him know that I'm not a complete idiot, I've just only been here for 9 days.
- When we arrived, I was soooo tired, hungry, car sick, and just relieved, that my gigantic smile just turned into laughter. Which cracked up the taxi driver too. I think he thought it was an much of an adventure as I did.
Important detail: Apparently there is a second road to Ningbo, it's a little dinky piece of dirt, and it's not a toll road. So my first driver to Ningbo was actually asking if I wanted to take the cheap way or the toll way. My taxi driver on the way back took that road without asking, which is why I'd never seen it before and I thought I was lost, but I still arrived safely :)
Friday, October 28, 2011
Professional Development Day!!!
Today was a PD day, so no kids. And the lovely thing about being the nursery teacher is that none of it applies to me. You can talk about the 6 traits of writing all you want, but my 2 and 3 year olds can't even hold their pencils. So I got to spend the day setting up the classroom and lesson planning. Such a relief!
I couldn't get the tacs to stick in the walls while I was putting up a long string of posters (the alphabet), so I went into the storage room and looked under "h" for hammer. Instead I found a gigantic mallet. When I came back into my classroom, all the lights were off cause I was just using the natural sunlight today, and of course there are Halloween decorations up :) So the classroom was really dim and I came through the door holding this mallet and I freaked out all the TAs! They were so quiet I forgot they all sought refuge in my room, watching a Taiwanese animated movie. Whoops!!
I did get a chance to look up more of the tombstones of the other staff. And they really cracked me up. My two TA's:
Miss Alice - Died from a broken back, picking up fighting nursery students, crying nursery students, dirty tissues, toys, snack, wet pants, and the collapsed nursery teacher.
Miss Jean - Died from being mobbed by the nursery students while carrying in morning snack. (I can see this actually happening)
There was also one for our Headmaster: Died strangled by staff for too many committee asignments. (I think whoever wrote that one was gutsy, cause I've actually heard some very upset people talking about the mass time commitment of the committee meetings.)
I couldn't get the tacs to stick in the walls while I was putting up a long string of posters (the alphabet), so I went into the storage room and looked under "h" for hammer. Instead I found a gigantic mallet. When I came back into my classroom, all the lights were off cause I was just using the natural sunlight today, and of course there are Halloween decorations up :) So the classroom was really dim and I came through the door holding this mallet and I freaked out all the TAs! They were so quiet I forgot they all sought refuge in my room, watching a Taiwanese animated movie. Whoops!!
I did get a chance to look up more of the tombstones of the other staff. And they really cracked me up. My two TA's:
Miss Alice - Died from a broken back, picking up fighting nursery students, crying nursery students, dirty tissues, toys, snack, wet pants, and the collapsed nursery teacher.
Miss Jean - Died from being mobbed by the nursery students while carrying in morning snack. (I can see this actually happening)
There was also one for our Headmaster: Died strangled by staff for too many committee asignments. (I think whoever wrote that one was gutsy, cause I've actually heard some very upset people talking about the mass time commitment of the committee meetings.)
Thursday, October 27, 2011
My New Home
These are the school grounds. And in the background, the tallest building is my apartment building. More pics of the apartment to come! I just don't think it's presentable yet ...
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Settling In
Interesting Tidbits:
- At least here in Beilun, they are OBSESSED with umbrellas. It's like an essential item. You leave the house with your cell phone, wallet, and an umbrella. It's funny, I never use an umbrella because I don't want to be a tourist, and I don't melt in the rain, but now I'm a tourist because I refuse to use an umbrella like the locals. It's only a drizzle!
- Free stuff. Anytime you buy something it comes with some free trinket. So when I got my cell phone, it came with a dual water bottle that the employees very excitedly draped around my neck, Miss America style. I waited til I was out of window sight to give the bottle to Rosalee. She promptly started inventing a way for me to have coffee in one side and cream in the other, and if I pour it at just the right angle out of the two spouts, I'll get the perfect ratio for my morning blend.
- There are one inch stairs everywhere. To get into the lobby, when you change rooms, anytime. Connie, I need you to come visit and trip more often than I do :).
- I've spoken more Spanish than Mandarin since I got here. Which I know has to change ... but it's a nice comfort.
Beilun from my bedroom at almost sunrise. Most of the buildings you see I swear were half as tall when I got here.
My apartment:
- Ridiculous-ness with the elevator. I live on the right side of the building, and a lot of teachers I like to visit live on the left side. So I have to go to my elevator, take it 12 floors down, walk across the lobby, and take the other elevator 19 floors up. When I went to visit Ariana the other night, I know I wasn't really "in public", but I think I should've rethought wearing sweats, that's a very American thing to do. I got the once over look AND the evil eye by this one couple, very disapproving of my public attire.
- The doors to the lobby are a lot like the doors at Kayla and Connie's apartment. Which I didn't realize at first. I knew I had to scan my ID card to get in. But when I tried to leave once, the door wouldn't open. I kept gently nudging it and shaking it, til I heard the guard giggling behind me. He walked up, and in a very exaggerated motion touched the button next to the door and held it open for me to pass, as only a true gentleman would, except he was still cackling his head off.
This is my aparment complex from my kitchen window. My building is like the one on the right. About 3 buildings to the left is where the school is located.
The Classroom:
- Now I actually only have 4 kids. One got moved up into kindergarten because she shows more maturity than the others. And she doesn't have that attention span of a bat.
- I have 2 Chinese, 1 Korean, and 1 odopted Chinese who's mom is from Spain. And them speaking English? Total lie. I have two TAs who speak Mandarin so that is super helpful.
- I'm a little worried I'm going to be the wicked witch for awhile. The students have never had an established routine or established expectations. They just kinda run everywhere and do what they want. But thus far, each time I've enforced a tough love policy, at least after the tantrum, they hug me or hold hand. Hopefully this means they know that I care and that is why I'm not putting up with any of their antics. There has been sooooo much crying though. Wendi says it's the most organized she's seen the class, but I feel like every other adult is silently screaming, child abuse!
- I'm tackling expected behaviors one mountain at a time. Today was walking in a line. (Normally the trip to the cafeteria is a screaming/running free-for-all) So I got a rope, idea being that they all stand on one side of the rope, and with one hand they hold onto it. Bam! Straight line :) I had my TAs model how to use the rope to line up and walk together. Then I gave each student the opportunity to model how to walk very quietly, in a straight line, while hold the rope with the TAs. As one student modeled how to walk with the TAs, I was describing and praising each thing he was doing right when he shhhhed me! Apparently my praise interfered with how quietly he was walking.
The PTA decorated the whole front lobby of the school for Halloween, and they made each teacher a tombstone. (If you click on it, the photo will get bigger so you can read the tombstone) I think they had a little too much fun .
Street Noise:
- I'm honking because ...
I'm about to cut you off.
You're moving too slow so I'm going to pass you
Notice me! I'm in your blind spot.
I'm not going to slow down
- As in many other countries I've visited, the car horn is not rude, just an announcement, often a polite one. It says, "I'm here! Please don't hit me.", and when the other driver honks back, it says, "I see you, I won't hit you". Since they're constantly breaking the typical driving rules, the car horn is a VERY FREQUENT/almost constant announcement, informing other drivers of the fact that you simply refuse to choose a lane, etc.
- Contstruction. As I said things go up fast. And there is mass building here in Beilun. As the second deepest port in the world, once the subway and super highway to Shanghai are completed, they're expecting a lot of traffic to come through here from the cruise ships. The building is constant. Part of me doesn't want to adjust to the jet lag because it is sooooooo peaceful when I'm awake at 3 am.
- As I'm walking down the street, I hear this melody, and I finally place it as the "It's a small world" song. I start looking for the ice cream truck, which frankly I'm surprised an ice cream truck would exist here. It's the myth of many Chinese mothers that cold things will make your child sick. That's why the drinking water is luke warm, and they never have ice cream. So with that logic ... it's not an ice cream truck that is playing the most annoying melody in the world. And it's not. It's a street sweeper. All street sweeping monstrocities play this tune over a loud speaker. NO CLUE WHY.
:(
- OJ is not OJ, and milk is NOT milk.
- At least here in Beilun, they are OBSESSED with umbrellas. It's like an essential item. You leave the house with your cell phone, wallet, and an umbrella. It's funny, I never use an umbrella because I don't want to be a tourist, and I don't melt in the rain, but now I'm a tourist because I refuse to use an umbrella like the locals. It's only a drizzle!
- Free stuff. Anytime you buy something it comes with some free trinket. So when I got my cell phone, it came with a dual water bottle that the employees very excitedly draped around my neck, Miss America style. I waited til I was out of window sight to give the bottle to Rosalee. She promptly started inventing a way for me to have coffee in one side and cream in the other, and if I pour it at just the right angle out of the two spouts, I'll get the perfect ratio for my morning blend.
- There are one inch stairs everywhere. To get into the lobby, when you change rooms, anytime. Connie, I need you to come visit and trip more often than I do :).
- I've spoken more Spanish than Mandarin since I got here. Which I know has to change ... but it's a nice comfort.
Beilun from my bedroom at almost sunrise. Most of the buildings you see I swear were half as tall when I got here.
My apartment:
- Ridiculous-ness with the elevator. I live on the right side of the building, and a lot of teachers I like to visit live on the left side. So I have to go to my elevator, take it 12 floors down, walk across the lobby, and take the other elevator 19 floors up. When I went to visit Ariana the other night, I know I wasn't really "in public", but I think I should've rethought wearing sweats, that's a very American thing to do. I got the once over look AND the evil eye by this one couple, very disapproving of my public attire.
- The doors to the lobby are a lot like the doors at Kayla and Connie's apartment. Which I didn't realize at first. I knew I had to scan my ID card to get in. But when I tried to leave once, the door wouldn't open. I kept gently nudging it and shaking it, til I heard the guard giggling behind me. He walked up, and in a very exaggerated motion touched the button next to the door and held it open for me to pass, as only a true gentleman would, except he was still cackling his head off.
This is my aparment complex from my kitchen window. My building is like the one on the right. About 3 buildings to the left is where the school is located.
The Classroom:
- Now I actually only have 4 kids. One got moved up into kindergarten because she shows more maturity than the others. And she doesn't have that attention span of a bat.
- I have 2 Chinese, 1 Korean, and 1 odopted Chinese who's mom is from Spain. And them speaking English? Total lie. I have two TAs who speak Mandarin so that is super helpful.
- I'm a little worried I'm going to be the wicked witch for awhile. The students have never had an established routine or established expectations. They just kinda run everywhere and do what they want. But thus far, each time I've enforced a tough love policy, at least after the tantrum, they hug me or hold hand. Hopefully this means they know that I care and that is why I'm not putting up with any of their antics. There has been sooooo much crying though. Wendi says it's the most organized she's seen the class, but I feel like every other adult is silently screaming, child abuse!
- I'm tackling expected behaviors one mountain at a time. Today was walking in a line. (Normally the trip to the cafeteria is a screaming/running free-for-all) So I got a rope, idea being that they all stand on one side of the rope, and with one hand they hold onto it. Bam! Straight line :) I had my TAs model how to use the rope to line up and walk together. Then I gave each student the opportunity to model how to walk very quietly, in a straight line, while hold the rope with the TAs. As one student modeled how to walk with the TAs, I was describing and praising each thing he was doing right when he shhhhed me! Apparently my praise interfered with how quietly he was walking.
The PTA decorated the whole front lobby of the school for Halloween, and they made each teacher a tombstone. (If you click on it, the photo will get bigger so you can read the tombstone) I think they had a little too much fun .
Street Noise:
- I'm honking because ...
I'm about to cut you off.
You're moving too slow so I'm going to pass you
Notice me! I'm in your blind spot.
I'm not going to slow down
- As in many other countries I've visited, the car horn is not rude, just an announcement, often a polite one. It says, "I'm here! Please don't hit me.", and when the other driver honks back, it says, "I see you, I won't hit you". Since they're constantly breaking the typical driving rules, the car horn is a VERY FREQUENT/almost constant announcement, informing other drivers of the fact that you simply refuse to choose a lane, etc.
- Contstruction. As I said things go up fast. And there is mass building here in Beilun. As the second deepest port in the world, once the subway and super highway to Shanghai are completed, they're expecting a lot of traffic to come through here from the cruise ships. The building is constant. Part of me doesn't want to adjust to the jet lag because it is sooooooo peaceful when I'm awake at 3 am.
- As I'm walking down the street, I hear this melody, and I finally place it as the "It's a small world" song. I start looking for the ice cream truck, which frankly I'm surprised an ice cream truck would exist here. It's the myth of many Chinese mothers that cold things will make your child sick. That's why the drinking water is luke warm, and they never have ice cream. So with that logic ... it's not an ice cream truck that is playing the most annoying melody in the world. And it's not. It's a street sweeper. All street sweeping monstrocities play this tune over a loud speaker. NO CLUE WHY.
:(
- OJ is not OJ, and milk is NOT milk.
Monday, October 24, 2011
I'm Here!!!!
Hello all!! :) So as my first update this might be a long one. Especially because it took me a bit longer to get internet access than I originally thought. And as it turns out, Google and China still don't get along, so I might be rethinking the gmail account. It just takes longer to load. So that's why there haven't been any emails.
As always on my travels, I like to divide things up, so read what you like!
The trip:
- Getting over here had zero hitches! Everything went so smoothly. WOOT!
- I was immediately pegged as a teacher in Seatac by other passengers who asked me about my trip, and again on the flight. I got a travel buddy who taught me some Mandarin and helped me navigate the Beijing airport.
- It was entertaining once I got to the domestic terminal in Beijing, and I knew that no one else spoke English. I would bet all my luggage that all the airport officials are swearing in Mandarin as I approach because they know that no one can help us communicate.
- The first flight, Seattle to Beijing, left a little after 4pm Seattle time, and got in a little after 6pm Beijing time, so for 11 hours ish we basically just followed the sun accross the sky. The entire trip it was perpetually almost sunset. Cool.
- I thought I had defeated jetlag. I have heard that the secret is staying awake during the trip, picking a flight that arrives at night so you can get a good night's sleep, reset your internal clock, and wake up in the morning local time. I stayed awake for as much of the trip as I could. I definitly konked out in Beijing for a few hours, but other than that I made it to the hotel in Beilun at about 2:30 am. I slept til 9 am, got picked up at 10 and moved into my apartment. That day, I also got a tour of the school and TJ (my interpreter) took me shopping. For the first day, it worked. Everyone commented on how refreshed I looked. I thought I was golden. Til the next morning, I woke up at 1 am, again feeling refreshed .... shoot. I fought it. But there was nothing to do, I was wide awake. This morning I woke up at 2am. Adjusting one hour at a time! I was so awake I just started my morning routine. I made coffee :) and finished unpacking and setting up my aparment. Momma always says I have issues sleeping because I drink coffee regardless of the hour. I can just picture my her reaction at the thought of me, awake at 2am, sipping coffee in bed and reading a good book :)
Pleasant Surprises:
- Water pressure!!!!! I have a hot shower with REALLY good water pressure. YES!! I was so not expecting that. (Though later I'll tell you how I keep that hot water flowing. So weird)
- I have my own classroom and it's all setup for me! Woah! Ask my parents what it was like setting up my last classroom in the High/Scope style. Those were many late nights. Sometimes 10 pm trying to label everything.
- Business cards. Everyone has business cards. Which at first, I have the ???? reaction. They're obsessed. But until I get enough Mandarin under my belt, the cards are actually super useful. I just need to show the taxi driver the business card of my favorite restaurant and that's that. No lost in translation-ness.
- Cup of Joe. My new home. The husband of one of the teachers here opened an American coffee shop last spring about a block from my apartment. YES.
Things I'm already used to:
- The stares. I really want to learn "Watch the road!!!" in Mandarin. They have these amazing electric bikes here, and all the people seriously turn 180 degrees just to look at me, while driving! Wendi says some of the bikes have crashed into trees while staring at her. I'll keep a tally if this actually starts happening :)
- Driving tactcs. I actually think the Chinese are amazing drivers. Sure they break all the rules, but there are no sudden movements. No sudden braking or accelerating. Everyone drives sooooo smoothly that you can anticipate the other driver's intentions and avoid collisions. And while I'm talking about no sudden movements, same goes for crossing the street. Choose a steady pace and just start crossing. It's almost like playing frogger, except the cars have enough time to adjust their speed based on whether or not they can beat you or go behind you. I'm told running across will likely get you hit. Fender benders do happen here, they're called "kisses" and you just pay the other driver in cash on the spot for any damages.
Things to get used to:
- Not understanding what the people say when they stare. I'm used to eavesdropping on the Spanish. It's a little weirder not knowing what they say about me. Though I'm guessing it's all the same stuff.
- Blue toilet water. I don't know why.
- No dryer for the clothes. I like it when my jeans shrink. And I totally spaced on bringing a belt, now that everything is air dry.
- Light switches are outside of every room. I've seen this done before with bathrooms. But it's EVERY room. It took me the longest time to figure out why the lights I turn on are never for the actual space I'm in. More often it's for the room I just left.
- It's warm!! Maybe 70 degrees I think. I want my tank tops!! But no one wears them here, Winter is coming and everyone is wearing their fall jackets and boots, which is super unfortunate since they don't believe in deodorant here.
Shopping:
- The carts are designed to slip on all four wheels. They have no traction. Which at first is super annoying, but apparently they're designed for peak times and being able to navigate mass crowds.
- TJ took me shopping that first day for a few essentials. His English isn't the best (when we were going over the inventory for my apartment, he said "buffet" table phonetically), but I can usually guess what he means and we've had no trouble communicating all day. Til I ask for sugar. I brought 3 pounds of Starbucks coffee, a coffee grinder, a french press, and my favorite mug (one that Kyla painted for me) and I totally forgot sugar. I can't drink straight up black coffee. And TJ just stares at me blankly. I cannot believe this is the only word he doesn't understand all day. It is soooooo essential!! I tell him it's for my coffee, and he shakes his head. His first suggestion is chocolate, and I say, yes it does make chocolate sweet, but that's not it. Then he leads me to the cereal, and as I think about it, the way he says sugar totally sounds like cereal (the Chinese espeically have difficulty with the r sound). I'm getting a little exasperated when I say, "TJ, don't you EVER bake cookies???" And that's when I finally get the right reaction.
- Shopping with Wendi, Rosalee, Carol, and Mr. Fan. (Note that Mr. Fan is actually pronounced Mr. Fun) Mr. Fan is our Chinese driver and he takes us into Ningbo for bigger shopping, he's slowly learning English. Carol is the headmaster's wife. She's from the Philippines, but her exuberant personality reminds me of Adriana, my Mexican master teacher from student teaching. Carol's English is a step up from Mr. Fan's but still not crystal clear. Wendi is from Michigan, she the kindergarten teacher, and Rosalee is her 3rd grade daughter adopted from China. Rosalee's primary language is English, but she has the ability to pronounce all the Mandarin like a native. With everyone in the car having at least elementary English and elementary Chinese, What a car full we made! We hit all the international stores, yes including Starbucks, no I didn't get any. I'm trying to limit myself to essentials this first month. Rosalee and I immediately bonded, she holds my hand when we go shopping and translates for me. She's a total goofball, but I think she's adorabe. Until she asks what's all over my face. "Rosalee, you've never seen freckles????"
My apartment:
- It's huge!!! No really. I mean it. HUGE. I know I've been politely inviting you all to come visit me, but I'm dead serious. I need to fill this space.
- I have 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (including the master) a living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry room, extra sink room (??), and a study. These are not small rooms either. I don't even know what to do with my king size bed. I only like to ever sleep on the edge. The rest of bed feels like a waste. Also, one of my sofas folds into a bed. I think I could comfortably sleep 5 extra people here, no problem. Which is perfect because I have 6 dining chairs. So I was going to have a sign up for visitors, but I don't think that's necessary anymore :)
- I've tried closing the doors to the spaces that I don't use, like the extra bedroom and the study, and definitely the extra sink room. It'll just make me feel less whatever the opposite of claustrophobic is, but I haven't figured out the door stops here. So the doors are stuck open til I have a moment of intuition (though I'm beginning to feel that these little contraptions were never meant to be figured out).
General China Oberservations:
- There is a distinct smell here. Not good or bad, it's just the smell of China. My travel buddy asked me if I noticed it the moment we stepped off the plane in Beijing. It's totally there. Especially in my apartment.
- Buildings go up FAST here. I wish I had taken a picture of the skyline from my apartment on Friday when I first got here. I'm not sure if I noticed it Saturday, but this morning there is a noticable difference, I think there are 8 new buildings blocking my view of the mountains. Ariana said she went to Shanghai one weekend, 3 days was all it took. By the time she got back, there was a corner store mini mart, which by the way is super handy. I'm told shops disappear as fast as they go up, so I'm hoping that mini mart stays.
- Marriage is controlled by the govenrment. They can decide when/if you get married. They can ask you to wait two years. And they even have incentives for marrying after 25, like getting 6 weeks off for the planning and honeymoon. We saw several marraige processions in Ningbo on Saturday so I had to ask about them.
- At least in Beilun, no one speaks English. The kids are starting to pick it up, but it's a very new thing. People are starting to enroll their kids in English because of the obvious economic ties with the US. (I thought this was already a trend, but it's just now hitting Beilun) But what I think is more interesting, is that they are also learning Spanish because they hear that Spanish is also a prominant language in the US.
- Fireworks. No joke. You can hear them all the time. As I'm writing this I'm watching some from my window.
- You can't get away from Taylor Swift music. Our first night out at a restaurant, they were playing a full playlist from all of her albums. But don't worry, after about an hour they switched over to Lady Antebellum :) Cup of Joe's plays oldies, which only makes me want to dance.
:( unhappy face:
- Plug ins. :( I've managed to fry everything I've plugged in, which is a short list. My clock no longer works. And the coffee grinder started smoking. I may have unplugged it in time, if I get a voltage converter it just might still work. My laptop also sparked and produced a burnt smell, but so far it's doing okay.
- I know you're all thinking that food should be on the :( list, but I happen to live on International Row in Beilun. Along with Cup of Joe's there's also a good pizza place that delivers, a wine shop and a pub! Plus Cup of Joe's will order and deliver from the Costco in Ningbo, or even KFC for me. I did go on an adventure with Wendi and Rosalee, Rosalee ordered for us and I ended up with some type of spicy cabbage. So we went back and tried again. This time it was pork, potatoes, rice and carrots. That I can handle. I tried using the spoon they provided but the chopsticks were WAY easier.
Okay, I think that's quite enough for now. I start teaching this week!!! But the last week in every month is also a shortened week with meetings and professional development :( Still, I'll try and get some good classroom stories.
As always on my travels, I like to divide things up, so read what you like!
The trip:
- Getting over here had zero hitches! Everything went so smoothly. WOOT!
- I was immediately pegged as a teacher in Seatac by other passengers who asked me about my trip, and again on the flight. I got a travel buddy who taught me some Mandarin and helped me navigate the Beijing airport.
- It was entertaining once I got to the domestic terminal in Beijing, and I knew that no one else spoke English. I would bet all my luggage that all the airport officials are swearing in Mandarin as I approach because they know that no one can help us communicate.
- The first flight, Seattle to Beijing, left a little after 4pm Seattle time, and got in a little after 6pm Beijing time, so for 11 hours ish we basically just followed the sun accross the sky. The entire trip it was perpetually almost sunset. Cool.
- I thought I had defeated jetlag. I have heard that the secret is staying awake during the trip, picking a flight that arrives at night so you can get a good night's sleep, reset your internal clock, and wake up in the morning local time. I stayed awake for as much of the trip as I could. I definitly konked out in Beijing for a few hours, but other than that I made it to the hotel in Beilun at about 2:30 am. I slept til 9 am, got picked up at 10 and moved into my apartment. That day, I also got a tour of the school and TJ (my interpreter) took me shopping. For the first day, it worked. Everyone commented on how refreshed I looked. I thought I was golden. Til the next morning, I woke up at 1 am, again feeling refreshed .... shoot. I fought it. But there was nothing to do, I was wide awake. This morning I woke up at 2am. Adjusting one hour at a time! I was so awake I just started my morning routine. I made coffee :) and finished unpacking and setting up my aparment. Momma always says I have issues sleeping because I drink coffee regardless of the hour. I can just picture my her reaction at the thought of me, awake at 2am, sipping coffee in bed and reading a good book :)
Pleasant Surprises:
- Water pressure!!!!! I have a hot shower with REALLY good water pressure. YES!! I was so not expecting that. (Though later I'll tell you how I keep that hot water flowing. So weird)
- I have my own classroom and it's all setup for me! Woah! Ask my parents what it was like setting up my last classroom in the High/Scope style. Those were many late nights. Sometimes 10 pm trying to label everything.
- Business cards. Everyone has business cards. Which at first, I have the ???? reaction. They're obsessed. But until I get enough Mandarin under my belt, the cards are actually super useful. I just need to show the taxi driver the business card of my favorite restaurant and that's that. No lost in translation-ness.
- Cup of Joe. My new home. The husband of one of the teachers here opened an American coffee shop last spring about a block from my apartment. YES.
Things I'm already used to:
- The stares. I really want to learn "Watch the road!!!" in Mandarin. They have these amazing electric bikes here, and all the people seriously turn 180 degrees just to look at me, while driving! Wendi says some of the bikes have crashed into trees while staring at her. I'll keep a tally if this actually starts happening :)
- Driving tactcs. I actually think the Chinese are amazing drivers. Sure they break all the rules, but there are no sudden movements. No sudden braking or accelerating. Everyone drives sooooo smoothly that you can anticipate the other driver's intentions and avoid collisions. And while I'm talking about no sudden movements, same goes for crossing the street. Choose a steady pace and just start crossing. It's almost like playing frogger, except the cars have enough time to adjust their speed based on whether or not they can beat you or go behind you. I'm told running across will likely get you hit. Fender benders do happen here, they're called "kisses" and you just pay the other driver in cash on the spot for any damages.
Things to get used to:
- Not understanding what the people say when they stare. I'm used to eavesdropping on the Spanish. It's a little weirder not knowing what they say about me. Though I'm guessing it's all the same stuff.
- Blue toilet water. I don't know why.
- No dryer for the clothes. I like it when my jeans shrink. And I totally spaced on bringing a belt, now that everything is air dry.
- Light switches are outside of every room. I've seen this done before with bathrooms. But it's EVERY room. It took me the longest time to figure out why the lights I turn on are never for the actual space I'm in. More often it's for the room I just left.
- It's warm!! Maybe 70 degrees I think. I want my tank tops!! But no one wears them here, Winter is coming and everyone is wearing their fall jackets and boots, which is super unfortunate since they don't believe in deodorant here.
Shopping:
- The carts are designed to slip on all four wheels. They have no traction. Which at first is super annoying, but apparently they're designed for peak times and being able to navigate mass crowds.
- TJ took me shopping that first day for a few essentials. His English isn't the best (when we were going over the inventory for my apartment, he said "buffet" table phonetically), but I can usually guess what he means and we've had no trouble communicating all day. Til I ask for sugar. I brought 3 pounds of Starbucks coffee, a coffee grinder, a french press, and my favorite mug (one that Kyla painted for me) and I totally forgot sugar. I can't drink straight up black coffee. And TJ just stares at me blankly. I cannot believe this is the only word he doesn't understand all day. It is soooooo essential!! I tell him it's for my coffee, and he shakes his head. His first suggestion is chocolate, and I say, yes it does make chocolate sweet, but that's not it. Then he leads me to the cereal, and as I think about it, the way he says sugar totally sounds like cereal (the Chinese espeically have difficulty with the r sound). I'm getting a little exasperated when I say, "TJ, don't you EVER bake cookies???" And that's when I finally get the right reaction.
- Shopping with Wendi, Rosalee, Carol, and Mr. Fan. (Note that Mr. Fan is actually pronounced Mr. Fun) Mr. Fan is our Chinese driver and he takes us into Ningbo for bigger shopping, he's slowly learning English. Carol is the headmaster's wife. She's from the Philippines, but her exuberant personality reminds me of Adriana, my Mexican master teacher from student teaching. Carol's English is a step up from Mr. Fan's but still not crystal clear. Wendi is from Michigan, she the kindergarten teacher, and Rosalee is her 3rd grade daughter adopted from China. Rosalee's primary language is English, but she has the ability to pronounce all the Mandarin like a native. With everyone in the car having at least elementary English and elementary Chinese, What a car full we made! We hit all the international stores, yes including Starbucks, no I didn't get any. I'm trying to limit myself to essentials this first month. Rosalee and I immediately bonded, she holds my hand when we go shopping and translates for me. She's a total goofball, but I think she's adorabe. Until she asks what's all over my face. "Rosalee, you've never seen freckles????"
My apartment:
- It's huge!!! No really. I mean it. HUGE. I know I've been politely inviting you all to come visit me, but I'm dead serious. I need to fill this space.
- I have 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (including the master) a living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry room, extra sink room (??), and a study. These are not small rooms either. I don't even know what to do with my king size bed. I only like to ever sleep on the edge. The rest of bed feels like a waste. Also, one of my sofas folds into a bed. I think I could comfortably sleep 5 extra people here, no problem. Which is perfect because I have 6 dining chairs. So I was going to have a sign up for visitors, but I don't think that's necessary anymore :)
- I've tried closing the doors to the spaces that I don't use, like the extra bedroom and the study, and definitely the extra sink room. It'll just make me feel less whatever the opposite of claustrophobic is, but I haven't figured out the door stops here. So the doors are stuck open til I have a moment of intuition (though I'm beginning to feel that these little contraptions were never meant to be figured out).
General China Oberservations:
- There is a distinct smell here. Not good or bad, it's just the smell of China. My travel buddy asked me if I noticed it the moment we stepped off the plane in Beijing. It's totally there. Especially in my apartment.
- Buildings go up FAST here. I wish I had taken a picture of the skyline from my apartment on Friday when I first got here. I'm not sure if I noticed it Saturday, but this morning there is a noticable difference, I think there are 8 new buildings blocking my view of the mountains. Ariana said she went to Shanghai one weekend, 3 days was all it took. By the time she got back, there was a corner store mini mart, which by the way is super handy. I'm told shops disappear as fast as they go up, so I'm hoping that mini mart stays.
- Marriage is controlled by the govenrment. They can decide when/if you get married. They can ask you to wait two years. And they even have incentives for marrying after 25, like getting 6 weeks off for the planning and honeymoon. We saw several marraige processions in Ningbo on Saturday so I had to ask about them.
- At least in Beilun, no one speaks English. The kids are starting to pick it up, but it's a very new thing. People are starting to enroll their kids in English because of the obvious economic ties with the US. (I thought this was already a trend, but it's just now hitting Beilun) But what I think is more interesting, is that they are also learning Spanish because they hear that Spanish is also a prominant language in the US.
- Fireworks. No joke. You can hear them all the time. As I'm writing this I'm watching some from my window.
- You can't get away from Taylor Swift music. Our first night out at a restaurant, they were playing a full playlist from all of her albums. But don't worry, after about an hour they switched over to Lady Antebellum :) Cup of Joe's plays oldies, which only makes me want to dance.
:( unhappy face:
- Plug ins. :( I've managed to fry everything I've plugged in, which is a short list. My clock no longer works. And the coffee grinder started smoking. I may have unplugged it in time, if I get a voltage converter it just might still work. My laptop also sparked and produced a burnt smell, but so far it's doing okay.
- I know you're all thinking that food should be on the :( list, but I happen to live on International Row in Beilun. Along with Cup of Joe's there's also a good pizza place that delivers, a wine shop and a pub! Plus Cup of Joe's will order and deliver from the Costco in Ningbo, or even KFC for me. I did go on an adventure with Wendi and Rosalee, Rosalee ordered for us and I ended up with some type of spicy cabbage. So we went back and tried again. This time it was pork, potatoes, rice and carrots. That I can handle. I tried using the spoon they provided but the chopsticks were WAY easier.
Okay, I think that's quite enough for now. I start teaching this week!!! But the last week in every month is also a shortened week with meetings and professional development :( Still, I'll try and get some good classroom stories.
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