TIC - "This is China"

So outside the street, across from Cup of Joe, there's a steam vent, kind of. That's the best way to describe it. It very consistently makes a rattling noise. And as Line and I were walking by ... she said something like, "That smoke is making noise!"  But I was totally unpreturbed. TIC, "This is China". I just started giggling. Things like that happen all the time. It wasn't until later when I was mentioning it to Erich that I was VERY preturbed, because he said, "Oh yeah, that's where the water lady gets her water."
 ................................... Say what? The lady I buy my supposed clean drinking water gets it from the rattling smoke vent?!?!?! But what he meant to say, is that is where she gets her own personal drinking water, not the stuff she sells. I don't think that makes me feel any better.

Reading "Living Happily in China"
- It reminds me that I need to live in a culture and I need to respect that at times.
- First, in Mandarin there is a very common way of asking questions, I've been learning about it in my grammar book. For example,
"Shi, bu shi" means "Is it, is it not?" and if it is, "Is", the reponse is actually:
"Bu, shi." meaning, "No, it is." Confused yet?
This is important when I'm checking for understanding. I ask if it's okay to scribble, and my little Tawiwanese kiddo says, "Yes, it is not okay." .... I start to understand why he says that.
- The other thing I forgot about is eye contact, and luckily I just read that chapter. I have always expected the elves to look at the speaker, especially when we're working on solving a problem in class. I have one who loses focus very easily. (The one who can lose focus at the urinal and hit his own pants instead, or he walks to the clean up station at lunch and realizes when he gets there that he actually left his tray back on the table.) So now I'm trying to figure out if it's a It-is-impolite-to-look-a-respected-adult-in-the-eye culture thing, or if it is a I-lost-my-focus thing.
- In China, there is no hand shaking, hugging, or a kiss on the cheek when you meet someone new. Instead they exchange "name cards", or what you would likely call business cards. Name cards are exchanged by giving one with both your hands, and receiving one with both your hands. They're considered very precious, and should be kept somewhere safe to avoid disrespecting someone by accidentally leaving their name card on the table. I very fortunately read this chapter not one day before exchanging my first name cards with a local.. A dropped name card would signal dishonoring, and the fact that you don't care for the person. The two handed grab signals great care and indicates that you are important to them.

School:
-  The number of words this kiddo says in his native language his mother tells me is zero. The words he says in English are: please, thank you, my turn, excuse me, race car, angry, and snack time. Until today ... when I saw him this morning, and he pointed to the cup in my hand and brightly said, "Coffee!"
- There are a lot of quick fixes in China. Sometimes it is difficult to see the logic in the Chinese way of thinking, and it's easy to become quite frustrated. There has been an ongoing battle this week between the heat in our rooms, broken doors, termites in the nap room, and it appears that our illegal satellite TV company was discovered by the government and shut down (I'm told this happens about every 6 months) so we naturally just switched providers. They came Friday, and we were supposed to give the keys to our apartments to TJ. I guess one teacher forgot to turn over a key, because as a post note on one of the emails sent to all staff it said, "[teacher] you can give you key to TJ and you could find him in #46 somewhere around." I couldn't help but laugh. Our building is 26 floors ... and has two separate halves with their own elevators. That could take hours to find him.
- We've had so much indoor recess that even though the ground was still a little soggy, the moment the slides and swings were dry I took the kids outside. It turns out, these elves that are typically dressed in knee high rain boots, ponchos AND umbrellas do not like to be dirty or wet. One of my elves started to cry when he got mud on his hand. I had to teach him how to wipe it off on his pants. This is why I shouldn't have to wear my nice clothes to work. But a little while later when the soccer ball got dirt on it, he insisted on going inside and washing the ball off in the sink. Sheesh. You're not a kid unless you've gotten a little dirty. That's what washing machines are for!

Soccer:
- After a big play, I heard, "Next time, just take her out!" ... There's only one person he could've been referring to. And I heard that!
- Matt was in goal and there was a guy attacking, so I stepped in front of the shot. Matt said, "Nice block!" But after the guy left, I said, "I didn't block anything, he never hit the ball, he kicked my ankle!" Matt was a little surprised and asked, "Oh, then what happened." ..... Well, it hurt!!! Playing soccer again, I'm beginning to find all those new bruises .. the ones I remember getting .. and the ones I don't.

Some of you are aware that I had a slightly emotional day, and I'm very lucky to still have a complete support system here, no matter the problem.
- Ariana from Whitworth, for whenever I miss Whitworthy things.
- Julie and Matt from Bellingham, for whenever I miss Bellinghamster things.
- Dana and Line are my snuggle/hug/nuzzle team, for whenever I miss anything else.
Today, (I'm sure she's said it multiple times), but today was the first time I heard Bree say my name. Kyla pointed the video at Bree, and she looked at me and said, "Hi Kari!" She also blew kisses, something she has mastered for about a year now, and she attempted to hug the screen.