Around the end of April, beginning of May, I was having a hard time. It just seemed that a bunch of very frustrating things happened all at the same time, and I came down with a bad case of “China-itis.” One of the reasons for this, and the reason I haven’t blogged in a while, is because my computer cord broke and I had to give it to the school to be fixed. They said it would be a week- 5 ½ weeks later and still no cord. China is great until you need something resolved, and then its a pain because NOTHING happens quickly. I’ve been having to borrow charges of other people, which restricts any prolonged time online. I’m sorry for being such a bad blogger! Another thing that happened was the building I was teaching in was deemed unsafe because of a large construction project going on next door, so my classes were squeezed into the old building of the school- in classes like the music room and art room, which are normally meant for half as many students as I have. It was awful. The very next week, my favorite co-teacher had a spat with the school and was threatening to quit. She has been a teacher at the school for nearly 8 years, and is the one who keeps me sane and helps me so much. I was distraught! Thankfully, we got moved into some better classrooms, and my co-teacher did not quit. Another thing that happened was another one of my co-teachers was suddenly fired, and replaced by a girl who is a mute (not literally). She’s like a shy little rabbit that hides in the corner while I have to do all the teaching and disciplining. This is the 3rd co-teacher this class has had this year, and it’s really affected them. Their grades have gone way down, and they’re completely out of control. Other than those things, I was just bored. The work seemed to be close to nothing, and without a computer I found myself sitting around twiddling my thumbs a lot. I’m someone who likes a busy schedule and I hate having nothing to do. Also mixed in to this whole scheme of things was a bad case of food poisoning, my second since being here. But things have improved the last few weeks, and now I can’t believe that I only have 4 weeks left teaching! To make up for not posting for a while, I’ll attach some pics of things I've been up to recently. I have some good videos too, but the internet here makes it nearly impossible to load videos.
A few of my fellow foreign teachers have a band here and have been playing at various venues in Wuhan. This was a show they did at a local shopping mall, and we all went to watch!
My friend got me a ticket to the kickoff of the Chinese soccer league game- Tianjin U. vs. Hubei U. I got invited to this tea house for a tea ceremony (very common here). It ended up being group called "Cha Dao" which means "The way of tea". They meet almost every night and drink tea, sing songs, and feel energized by the tea's 'energy'. We now call this group the "tea cult"- it was an interesting experience to say the least.
The kids at the kindergarten I work at put on a show, and I even got to be in one of the dances! It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen!
I just returned from a weekend trip to Huang Shan, or “YellowMountain” in English. I was really excited to go because it’s claimed to be one of the top 10 places to see in China, and this long weekend was the perfect opportunity. I went with my friend Pip, one of the other foreign teachers I work with.
Our trip began Friday evening when we boarded a sleeper bus to make the 9 hour journey to Tunxi, a town near the mountain. This town is a bit remote, so not trains went directly there, making bus our only option. The “sleeper” we received was a 5 ½ by 2 foot bunk bed on a bus with no suspension. The head of the bed was tilted up a bit to make room for the next person’s feet. I was on the top bunk, and a few sharp turns up the windy road and I was bracing not to fall out, while Pip was on the bottom bunk with a man with no bed laying on the floor next to her and elbowing her. 9 ½ hours later, 4 am, we arrived in Tunxi, and hopped on another little bus to get to the base of the mountain. We opted to climb the difficult route up (15 km) and save the easy route for coming down the next day. After buying our bus ticket to get on yet another bus to get to the mountain, where we could buy our entrance fee (nothing in China is a one step process, and EVERYTHING requires an entrance fee) we began our hike…and were winded after about 5 steps. As the sun rose though, it turned out to be a clear day, which we were incredibly lucky to experience because Huang Shan only gets about 100 of these a year. We were expecting rain and snow, and came with all the essential warm clothing that we ended up lugging in our bags the whole way up. We made our way up slowly but surely, taking many stops to eat and enjoy the view (or so was our excuse to get a rest). 8 hours of hiking later, we reached the summit. We knew that lodging and food was scarce at the top, so hotels and restaurants take advantage of this and charge you an arm and a leg, because they can. We came prepared by packing all our own food, and calling ahead to reserve a dorm at a small hotel. We figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask around at a few other hotels though, just to see if we could bargain a better deal. The first one we walked in to said they could give us one for 130 kuai (about 4x what I normally pay for a bed at a hostel), which we knew was a good price and said we’d look at it. The woman walked us to the hall, and pointed to a row of bunk beds set up just outside the bathroom, IN THE HALLWAY! We both looked at each other, and then asked her “so this is what the bed looks like…inside the room right?” She said no, there are no more rooms left. We said “OK, this can be plan B” and left with our mouths still hanging open. We continued on to find the hotel we made the reservation at, beginning to feel our legs turn to spaghetti noodles. We found it, and the man led us to the building which we previously thought was the bathroom facilities, and in to our “room.” It was a tiny, cement floored room with 2 sets of bunk beds and no heat. We both agreed that this was the best we were going to get for our budget, and paid the man. I sat down on the bed, looked at the sheets and said “I hope the beddings at least clean” and Pip responded “Oh I’m sure it’s not.” I leaned down and smelled it, and was reassured that she was in fact right. She then replied, being a more experienced traveler than myself, “ya…smelling it is never a good idea.” It was only about 4:00 when we arrived, which gave us some time to kill and we really didn’t want to do it in the prison cell we paid to sleep in, so we walked over to the 4 star hotel across the way and sat in their restaurant, paid 10 kuai for hot water, and ate our instant noodles. We also used their bathroom facilities to brush our teeth, etc since ours made me want to be sick. By about 6, we were ready for bed. We went back to our room, and by then the sun was setting and it was very cold. We put on every piece of clothing we brought, one to keep warm and two to avoid having to have skin contact with the bedding. Luckily I brought a beanie that covered my ears, so if I positioned myself just right on the pillow I didn’t have to touch my face to it. Every time I woke up in the night, which was a lot since the wooden planks covered in a foam mat I was sleeping on was giving my tired legs and hips bed sores, I was very consciece that the comforter was not anywhere near my neck or face. When we woke up the next morning, I was so ready to get out that room and get outside where it was clean and beautiful. We did just that, and began climbing down the steep and crowded easier route. This route wasn’t as scenic, but we were happy that we saved it for the second day when we were tired. 3 hours later we reached the bottom, and booked it to the Best Western hot springs! They were a little spendy, but totally worth it! We soaked in a number of different small pools including the red wine, green tea, milk, and coffee pools. We also got to experience a pool that had small fish in it that swarm you and eat all your dead skin, by far the weirdest feeling ever (sorry I didn’t get any pictures)!! We stayed there for a few hours, and then got on another sleeper bus back to Wuhan. My legs are like jelly and I probably won’t be able to walk normal for quite some time, but it was still a great hike and I’m so happy I got to see it!
There’s one quote that I’ve found continuously to be true as I travel, and this trip was no exception. It is “No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang
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I recently received this e-mail from someone who found my resume online. I don’t know if it’s just the teacher in me, but this thing is almost painful for me to read! Misspelled words, incorrect grammar, etc etc etc!! I don’t know if I was this anal before, but these things drive me nuts now! Going on facebook is a daily struggle to hold my tongue (or “fingers”) and not correct every English mistake I read…and there are a lot. I’ve been thinking lately- has our educational system gone down, or have we just gotten lazy? My 4th graders here know the difference between their, they’re and there- yet more than 50% of the time it seems that Americans do not. And I am especially surprised that that is the case because new technology makes it so easy to spell and grammar check just about everything we write! Now I am not claiming to be the best speller around…we Molans are good at many things- spelling is not always one of them ;) As embarrassing as this is to admit, I get called out on spelling mistakes I make on the board during class quite often- by both my 4th graders AND my 1st graders. Talk about humbling!But it just reminds me of how important it is to know, first and foremost, my own language! I’m actually learning a lot of things about English that I never knew. When subjects like “when to use ‘more’ and when to add ‘er” (i.e. more important vs. importanter) I have to look it up because I don’t know the rule off the top of my head. Today I was teaching plurals to my 4th graders and I was thinking “this language is so crazy! Why would the plural of ‘box’ be ‘boxes’ but the plural of ‘ox’ is ‘oxen’. Sometimes I just have to contend with telling them “I don’t know why this is- it just is!”
I have a great new respect for teachers everywhere!
Besides critiquing the English language, here are some other things I've been up to lately:
BBQing at a park with some of my co-teachers. This was unlike any BBQ I had ever been to in my life!
The food was amazing though!
A teacher's field trip to plant trees!
One of the co-teachers at my school's wedding. The photographer in the big puffy red coat kept getting in all of my pictures!
My first couple weeks back at work have been a lot better than I expected. For some reason, I was really nervous about my first day. I think I had it in my head that it was going to be just like my first day back in September, when I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. But amazingly, I walked in March 1st and just kind of picked up where I left off. I can’t even explain how much more comfortable I am with teaching than I was 6 months ago. I’ve got the flow down now. I know my kids and I know what they’re capable of. I know when I can push them, coddle them, lecture them, and laugh with them. I still get a little bit nervous before each class, and I don’t really know why. The only way to explain it is that it’s like putting on a play everyday. Even if you’ve done it a thousand times, you can still get stage fright. Teaching isn’t one of those jobs that you can just hide out behind your desk when you’re having a bad day…the show must go on!
We just got our official end date: June 25th! I can’t believe I only have 3 ½ months left here…plus we have a few long weekends between now and then, which means some more opportunities to travel! In a way I’m really excited about returning home. This has been a hard year, and I miss people and food and just the little conveniences of home. But on the other hand, I’m stressing about going back. Life here is virtually stress free…no bills, no money problems, 3 hour work days…you get the picture. When I go home, I have to start paying all my own bills for the first time, I have to get a “real” job, and technically be an adult. No more 5 week paid holidays, no more free afternoons to do whatever I want, no more being cooked for everyday. But I guess it had to happen eventually, and I think coming here was a good transitional period from college to the “real world.” And if anyone wants to hire me when I get back, I’m great with Microsoft Office and IMC tools :)
Well, I just returned from my 5+ week holiday. It began the 22nd of January and I started work again on March 1. I had a wonderful time and feel so lucky to have been able to see so many new things! It would take me quite a long time to explain all 5 weeks to you, so I thought I would do it in pictures instead (that's more fun anyways). I'll do my best to explain as much as I can under each pic and recap my journey with you. Enjoy :)
I began my trip in Nanjing, where I met up with my friend Tiffany. This town was very pleasant and calm, and steeped in Chinese history. The famous "Nanjing Massacre" took place here by the Japanese, and there is a memorial that I visited. These 2 pictures are from Purple Mountain, and the Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum. Mausoleums are as plentiful in China as cathedrals are in Europe.
Next Tiff and I went to spend some time in Shanghai. We met up with our other friend Theresa there as well, and did things like biking, eating out, shopping, visiting the Bund and so on. It was nice to take it easy for a few days, as I didn't realize how tired I'd be at the end of the semester. Shanghai's a cool city, but was also a bit dead due to the nearness of Chinese New Year (everyone goes home to the countryside). Next stop, the Philippines!
The unbeatable white sand and sunsets on Boracay Beach, Philippines. This was my second visit to Boracay, and my first visit to the Philippines since my exchange there 6 years ago. It was so sureal being there again, and made me realize just how much I love that country. I feel like I had a special connection with the Philippines that I haven't felt with China so far. The people, the beaches, the culture, I miss it so much! Tiff, her friend Jake and I escaped the cold and spent 6 days here.
Back in the cold! Tiff and I went strait from the Shanghai airport upon our arrival to Suzhou, a small-ish town only an hour outside Shanghai. I loved it! It still has so much of the old Chinese architecture that was destroyed by the Communist party in most other parts of China. It's known as the "little Venice" because of the waterways, and it has beautiful gardens (behind me in picture 2). Hangzhou, known as one of the most beautiful places in China. Apparently, also one of the wettest. It rained on us all three days we were there, which meant a lot of Starbucks visits and early nights. But it was fun to imagine how beautiful it is in the spring. This is a picture of the famous West Lake.
I met my mom at the Shanghai Airport after Hangzhou, and we flew to Wuhan to spend a few days. She got to see where I live, work, eat, etc. We also went to the Yellow Crane Tower (above) which is a tourist attraction that I hadn't seen yet. It was nice to have a bit of a break after traveling for 2 weeks, and before doing another 3!
We flew to Guilin, Guangxi Province (Southern China), and took a bus to the small but bustling town of Yangshou. This was once a village that got discovered by Chinese and foreign tourists for its natural beauty and outdoor activities. We stayed here for 5 days and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was nice to experience what old China might have been like in some of the 600+ year old villages, and see that China does indeed have natural beauty! Here's some of the things we did:
Night cormorant fishing. We rode in a boat beside the fishing boat and watched the fisherman fish with cormorants. He had a string tied around their necks so they couldn't swallow the fish they caught.
We spent 2 days bike riding through the villages, with our bike guide Melody, a local farmer woman. For 100 yuan (about $18 US) a day, she led us around all day, and even took us to her own village where her relatives made us lunch in their farm house (see pic above, probably the most authentic experience I've had thus far in China).
Bathing in a hot spring inside the water caves. The caves were cool and we actually got to shed our coats for most of the time, a nice change! We took a cooking class too! First we went to the farmer's market, where we saw some of the most disturbing "meat products" I've ever seen, and then we went back to the cooking school and cooked and ate and cooked and ate. We learned to make dumplings, stuffed tofu and mushrooms, beer fish, Kung Pow Chicken, Chinese veggies, and eggplant. It tasted so nice I couldn't believe I made it! We went to see a show that was directed by the same guy that did the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. A great Chinglish sign at Moon Hill On the way to Ping'an, I came out of the bathroom to find these women hounding my mom after she bought something. Her line "oh yes, they're very beautiful but I just don't think I need any right now" didn't do much for convincing them. We had a good laugh! Ping'an, a mountain village north of Guilin and Yangshou. It's famous for its rice terraces. This is a picture of some of the native women selling sweet potatoes.
The women in this village only cut their hair once when they're 17. They keep the ponytail they cut off to twist in with their bun. They wear their hair down until they get married, and then they wear it up. When they have a child, they add a bun in the front. This woman offered to take her hair down for us for 5 yuan, and she also has her ponytail twisted in to it.
We flew to Xi'an where we got to see the Terrakota Warriors, 8th wonder of the world! And boy were they! We really were in amazement.
Xi'an has one of the 2 panda reserves in China. These were the babies at the reserve and they were too cute!
The transportation of choice in China, sleeper train! We were pretty unlucky with getting train tickets with it being Chinese New Year, but we managed to score one from Xi'an to Beijing. In front of Tianamen Square, the day we had to part ways. It was an unforgettable time!
One of the greatest sources of comic relief in China is the large amount of Chinglish (Chinese-English) products. With everything from detergent to clothes, if it was made in China and has English on it it’s usually a little off. The best are the shirts and sweatshirts though. People here love English on their clothes, and they either don’t understand what it means or they don’t pay attention. Here has been some of the best I’ve seen: “I’m going to knock some secret into you” “Every little make a mickle” (a sign in my classroom) “The best d*** green thing” (worn by a teacher at my school) “Fake” (under a Channel logo) “Verybody makes mistakes” (A Brittney Spears shirts) “Kennedy Funneral Home” (Sweatshirt) “NEKI” (With a Nike swoosh) “Faint the town red” “camp THE blue” (my new favorite sweatshirt I bought)
Speaking of Chinglish, I recently judged an English competition for Elementary students. Competitors were from all over Wuhan, and it was a huge deal. Kids at my school had been preparing performances, reciting stories, and writing essays for weeks. The competition was an absolute riot the first 6 hours…after that it got pretty mind numbing. These kids were under so much pressure from their parents and they were so nervous! Some of them, to get an edge of the competition, decided to “dress to impress.” Monkey suites, boys wearing makeup, and 5 year olds in wigs and fake eyelashed were not uncommon. It felt like something strait out of a Little Miss Sunshine pageant But I did write down my favorite answers to some of the questions I gave to 4th-6th grade competitors: Question: Pick a number between 1 and 15 (so we could read them that number question) Answer: No, I’m sorry I cannot.
Question: Describe what you see in this picture. Answer: This boy looks sad. Maybe his mother bit him last night.
Question: What do American children do on Christmas day? Answer: Maybe they go to the library
Question: What day is Halloween? Answer: Maybe it’s September 13.
Question: What is your father’s job? Answer: Can you say it in Chinese please?
Through my Chinese lessons and my interaction with my students, I have come to appreciate the vast differences between our languages. They are hugely different and therefore make it very difficult for one to learn the other. Most of the time, you can’t just translate the words directly from Chinese to English and have it make sense. For example, the other day my co-teacher came up to me and ask if it’s correct to say “I am so angry at you I could spit blood.” I looked bug eyed at her and said “why on earth would you want to say that?!” She told me that that is a common phrase used in Chinese, and she wanted to say it to the students when they’re being loud. I explained to her that we never use that phrase. I could go on and on with examples of these kinds of differences between the languages. The Chinese language is laced so tightly with their culture that it’s hard to experience one without the other. I’ve started to try and learn characters, because I feel that I am missing out on so much by not being able to read anything around me. I know that I won’t be able to get very far in the next 5 months, but I’m enjoying learning the common characters and then getting excited when I see them and I know what they mean. My goal is to learn 5 new characters a week, 100 by the time I leave. I’m still really struggling with learning the spoken language. I came here saying I wouldn’t use the excuse “Chinese is very hard” not to learn the language, but it honestly is sooo hard! Partly because of the reasons I just explained, and partly because our western tongues just don’t like to make those sounds! The tones are a killer…I can’t hear them and I can’t say them! Every other country I’ve visited…I’ve noticed that you can kind of say the words brokenly and people will understand what you’re saying. But not Chinese…if you have the tone wrong they won’t understand you! Sometimes I’ll hear my co-teacher say a word or phrase over and over in class. I’ll ask her about it after, and she’ll have no idea what I’m saying. I’m thinking “how could you not understand? You just said it like 10 times!” Then when she finally does know what I’m talking about, she’s repeat the word back to me. I’ll of course reply with “ya, that’s exactly what I said isn’t it?” After being here for almost 5 months, I can finally get a taxi driver to understand my home address about 90% of the time without having to wip out my hand notebook. I’m really trying to keep my spirits up when it comes to learning this language…I’m taking lessons and studying outside (that’s the key I’ve learned), and hopefully it will click very soon!
I apologize that it has been so long since my last post. It seems that life got so busy in December…but in a good way. The highlight, of course, was my Christmas trip to Hong Kong to visit one of my closest friends Jeanette, who is from there but is currently teaching English in China, and also my friends Alyssa and Matty who are also English teachers in China. It was a great “reunion” and I was so happy to be able to spend Christmas with close friends! The school gave all the foreign teachers Christmas Eve and day off, and I took an extra day to be able to make the trip. It was a busy trip full of shopping, eating, and catching up! Hong Kong is an amazing city and I couldn’t help but wish that Wuhan was a little more like it. It’s very Chinese, but also very western at the same time. It’s much more civilized then China (NO spitting…amazing!) and English is spoken there and very well. You’ll be walking down the street and hear Chinese teenagers speaking perfect English to each other, and then throw some Cantonese in there. The city reminded me a lot of China town in San Francisco. The downtown is full of skyscrapers and little shops all packed in tightly. And then the outskirts of town is very green and has some beautiful beaches and mountains. I loved every moment of my time there and would go back in a second!
Jeanette and I by the bell tower
Hot Pot! A Hong Kong specialty.
Alyssa and I by the Stanley Beach
Being away from my family during the holidays wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, because it never really felt like Christmas. I mean, there were Christmas decorations around Wuhan, and people talked about Christmas (it’s more of a shopping holiday in China than anything else…lots of things go on sale), but it never quite felt like Christmas. I’m ok with that though…after 21 amazing Christmas’s, I can handle one that’s a little different. Plus, in about 3 weeks I have a 5 week (paid) holiday! How cool is that? It’s for Chinese New Year. The first 2 weeks I am going to travel with my friend Tiffany, who is currently living in Beijing, and her friend from school. We’re going to do a week of Shanghai, Nanjing, and the surrounding areas. Then, we’re going to spend a week on the white sand beach of Boracay, Philippines, which I’m stoked about because I’ve been there and it’s amazing! Then, my dear mother will be flying in to Shanghai and we will travel for 3 weeks! We’re going to spend a couple days in Shanghai, then take a train to Wuhan and show her around my hometown. Next, we’ll take a train to the Southern province of Guangxi, where we will see some of the beautiful (and hopefully warmer) sights and explore rural villages (put my Chinese to the test). Then we are hoping to fly up to Xi’an, where we will see the famous Terracotta Warriors, and perhaps make our way to Beijing so she can get a look at that little wall thing before she leaves for New Zealand to see my sister. I am overly stoked about this holiday. The only problem is that, and anyone who’s worked in China will tell you this, Chinese people cannot plan ahead for the life of them. We have been pressing them to give us the dates of our holiday all semester, and we just got the date of finals this last week (3 weeks in advance). Now we’re trying to get them to tell us when we need to be back after the holiday, and they cannot tell us. You would think that as big of a school as they are, they would have the dates of the biggest holiday of the year set out before the school year starts. But they don’t think that way. And they don’t understand that we have to book flights and make plans. The other day I asked my co-teacher what she is doing for the holiday. She told me she hasn’t planned anything because it’s too far away to think about it. I planned the trip with my mom off of what I thought was going to be our starting and ending date of the break, and now it’s a little bit different but I’m just going to have to tell them that I already made these plans in absence of them giving me any information. That’s just kind of how to you have to do things here. I feel like I’ve built up enough repor with the school and with my co-teachers too that they will understand.
And speaking of my co-teachers, I’ve been wanting to tell you all about them. They are the Chinese women who co-teach my classes with me. I have 3 of them for 4 different classes, and they are all VERY different. We see each other every day, both in and out of class. The class I teach with them is “foreign teacher class”, which means I run the class. Then they teach their own class with the same kids as well, which they run. Working with someone from another culture and with limited English has been very challenging at times, but I also feel very blessed that I got put with them….most of time that is :) I sort of see my relationship with them like a marriage. I have one who I teach grade 1 with, and we’re like the married couple that lives in the same house but have completely different lives. We rarely talk…I just go in and do my thing; she translates when necessary and tries to keep the class under control. Then I say goodbye and leave. That’s about as far as our relationship goes. Then I have a co-teacher that I teach grade 4 with…we are the couple constantly in a power struggle. She always wants to do things her way, which wouldn’t be a problem except that I don’t agree with many of her teaching methods. For example, she will interrupt me in the middle of the lesson and tell the kids to do something in Chinese, so I can’t understand. She does this because she knows I would tell her I don’t want to have them do it if she asked me first. This leaves me in a very awkward position, because I’m standing in front of the class and have no idea what’s going on. I’ve been very upfront with her about these things and have had take the reigns in that class, and we’re doing better. And then I have a co-teacher who I teach a grade 1 class and a grade 4 class…and we have a very healthy marriage. She is a really good teacher and I trust her a lot. She gives me her suggestions (which I trust because she’s a good teacher with a lot of experience) but ultimately lets me teach my class and steps in when I need her. She’s very strict and keeps the class extremely tame, which helps me SO much! She always defends me when the students gripe about an assignment or something, and I trust that when I’m not there, she’s not doing something I wouldn’t like. I guess you could say she has my back. We also enjoy just chatting, and sometimes we’ll just chat away while the kids are working on an assignment. I’ve learned a lot from her, and I’m really going to miss her when I have to leave.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain
A few of my fellow foreign teachers have a band here and have been playing at various venues in Wuhan. This was a show they did at a local shopping mall, and we all went to watch!
My friend got me a ticket to the kickoff of the Chinese soccer league game- Tianjin U. vs. Hubei U.
I got invited to this tea house for a tea ceremony (very common here). It ended up being group called "Cha Dao" which means "The way of tea". They meet almost every night and drink tea, sing songs, and feel energized by the tea's 'energy'. We now call this group the "tea cult"- it was an interesting experience to say the least.
The kids at the kindergarten I work at put on a show, and I even got to be in one of the dances! It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen!
