Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Exams.... kaishi!

It's exam time and this is why I've been seriously slacking at blogging.  I have two weeks of final exams because I split my classes into two.  It's just easier that way!  Imagine listening to 24+ partner dialogues in 1.5 hours... it's just too rushed.  Each week I have about 10-12 groups of two or three students presenting their dialogues to me. 

Each dialogue needs to be seven lines long, no notes, no book.  They have about 20 minutes to prepare after I give them the topics.  I've been really happy with my results and I think they are proud of themselves too.  They definitely couldn't do something like this when we started! 

Here are some of the topics they had to choose from:
  • Help a Westerner order Chinese food at a Chinese restaurant
  • Discuss the differences between Chinese and Western food with a friend who just got back from America
  • Order at a coffee house, but the order comes out incorrectly
  • Order at a bar, receive very bad service
  • Help a foreigner take a taxi to a tourist location in a city
  • You are taking a taxi somewhere and they go the wrong way
  • Your friend loses his/her wallet in a mall after buying some new clothes
Grading my nearly 500 students is taking a tremendous amount of time.  Each class takes about one hour to grade.  Then add the time that I have to take to readjust the scores and enter them into a computer.  I easily have a total of twelve hours of exam grading to be done.  I'm half done with grading my classes, but still have a long way to go once I start to adjust the grades based on participation and classwork.

In true American fashion, I camp out at Starbucks to get my work done with a large mug of coffee (Americano, please).  It's been a busy one and this past weekend my good friend Max and his friends from college were also in Qingdao. 

In other news, I'm in complete denial that I am leaving next week. 

Thursday, June 17, 2010

World Cup



It's actually kind of interesting being in another country for the World Cup, especially since America is well known for its apathy regarding "the Beautiful Game."  People in China are very mixed about it and I do find a significant number of people that are genuinely interested in watching it and will stay up all night watching their favorite teams.

Qingdao also has more Europeans than it does Americans, so all the bars are constantly playing the matches.  The timing ends up being at 10PM, 12AM, and 2AM so it really works out for the bars here.  I've actually ended up watching a lot of games by simply being out during the weekend.

This is the theme song that you may (or may not) have heard, but I hear it all the time: on the radio, on the bus, on the TV, etc.  It's pretty catchy so listen away!

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Fake weekend

Why am I working on Saturday and Sunday?  Because next Wednesday is the Dragon Boat Festival, a national holiday for which all businesses are closed.

Since this year the holiday falls on a Wednesday, most businesses have decided to close Monday and Tuesday, instead shifting these workdays to the weekend before.  This has resulted in a massive 7-day workweek for us, followed by three days off, a two-day workweek, and another regular weekend.

I'm just annoyed by it and would really appreciate a bit of a break from teaching.  I even have to work on Monday because the classes I teach on Saturdays at Joe's have been rescheduled.  Essentially I have gone from Friday, to Monday and Tuesday, then to Saturday.  Then I guess Saturday again?

Dragon Boat Festival Traditions

As the name indicates, there are boats that look like dragons that are raced on bodies of water.  I have no idea if this is actually happening in Qingdao, but I do know that my friend Max is going to be racing a boat with his office in Shanghai.
Chinese people also eat 粽子 (zong2 zi) basically boiled rice with fillings wrapped in a bamboo leaf.  It smells really good and there are many flavors of zongzi available, including peanut and red bean.  
They are also made into pyramid shapes and wrapped with string or a rubber band.  These little guys are being sold on pretty much every block and shopping establishment this week.  They have a very strong and delicious aroma, so it's kind of nice to be smelling them instead of sewage, body odor, or sausages.

This is the reason why I am working on a weekend and am unable to go see the England v. US match tonight... don't even get me started about how irritated I am about this whole thing.  This is my fake weekend and I will continue to complain about it until I have my massive break that will be next week.

It's exam season, kiddos.  Just when you thought I was getting soft on you, I'm going to pull the sudden death final exam.  Only the strong will survive!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

GLP's tour of campus

I've been a little obsessive about this dog in the recent months and play with her almost every day. 
I fear she has somewhat imprinted on me because whenever I pass her home she runs towards me and won't let me move too far without playing with her.  She does this by jumping all over my feet, rendering me unable to walk too far without tripping on her or, worse, stepping on her. 
No food there, little fox!  
The other day I wanted to take pictures of campus in the sprummer and the little dog hopped around with me the entire way, so this is more of her tour of campus than mine. 
This is one right past the classroom buildings and where the students' dorms start.  There is another larger block of dorms on the East side of campus, but I live in the very farthest building to the West of campus. 
You can clearly see her gimp leg in this photo and she kind of hops around on the functioning three.  This is the entrance to Building B, where most of my classes are taught.  The groundskeeper man who is in charge of giving me the computer keys for each classroom actually laughs at me on Tuesdays because I end up visiting him three times in one day.  I don't mind though, because it is the closest academic building to my dorms!
This is one of the main roads on campus and the one I shuffle down to leave and go to my bus stop. 
This is a random statue on campus.  I have no idea what relevance dolphins have to hotel management, Qingdao, or my students.  Maybe it is a happy reminder about the abundant population and successful reproduction program of the Chinese river dolphin!
After hopping around campus, little fox was tired so she decided to take a rest under the shade of a tree.  Behind her, you can see the library and the pedestrian walkway that runs through campus.  There is nothing like seeing thousands of students during passing period walking along this pathway.  It's even more incredible when it's raining and they all have pastel colored umbrellas (they seem to only make umbrellas in pastels here).  This is also right across the main gate to campus so I left and took the bus into downtown Qingdao. 
It takes me about an hour by bus to get into downtown Qingdao, about 20km away.  I take two buses: one into LiCun, and one from there downtown.  The first one is a kind of crappier looking bus with no A/C, lots of dust, an engine in the front that the driver has to poke with a stick sometimes, and some seats with no actual seats.  I ride this for about 20 minutes and then switch over to a much nicer bus to take into town, but one that still does not have A/C. 

I wish I could take pictures of all the things I see on my bus ride into town.  I see shacks, factories, construction sites, piles of rubble (where the local government has demolished the shacks and wants to build high-rises), high rises under construction, empty high-rises, and lots of day laborers with hand-painted signs advertising what kind of work they can do.  Unfortunately I cannot and these things will just have to be in my mind on my journey back to America. 

On a slightly less sentimental note, I seem to have caught some sort of infection and my lymph nodes/ glands are all swollen as of yesterday.  This has been a great health week over here because on Monday I am pretty sure that I ate a giant clump of MSG at lunch.  I felt dizzy, tingly, and light-headed and spent a lot of my day totally out of my mind.  It might have been a sort of migraine as a result of my MSG overdose.  So thanks, China.  Let the China-rage begin!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Qingdao Sprummer

 Even though its early June, I still feel like it's Spring because of the mid-70's weather during the day, light breeze, and blooming flowers.  Qingdao really is a beautiful city and here are some photos of what I've been up to the past few weeks:

My parents, Mark and Shauna came to visit me in Qingdao!  Here is a photo of my parents sitting on my couch amidst all my teaching junk.  
It was a great weekend and there will be more pictures of their visit to follow, once everyone gets back to the US of A.  Mark and Shauna are still in Hong Kong or Macau and my parents are on the plane back to Amurrrrica as I am typing this post. 

I barbequed outside with some other teachers at a restaurant near the beach.  Yes, it was outdoors and under a tent that was actually made of PVC and metal pipes with plastic tarp strung up to make walls and a roof. 
We roasted all sorts of meat, seafood, vegetables, and bread on the wire pit and the Korean-style pan.  It was a great Friday night and a very Qingdao experience.  Plus, we had beer in a plastic bag.
So that is my spring-summer-sprummery life as of late.  Basically trying to spend as much time as possible outside and enjoying the seaside resort town lifestyle.  One month left until I leave this beautiful city.  Sigh.

Monday, June 7, 2010

"I like soft music"



I have previously posted about my students' lack of taste in good music and their affinity for boy bands, love ballads, and Michael Jackson.  The Chinese also love Elton John and various slow piano music like this one called "Kiss the Rain."

I hear it on the streets, in stores, in class... basically anywhere that music can be played.  I'm pretty sick of this song by now and have had just about enough of it. 

Enjoy.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

The little things

After a week of solidly crappy weather, today was really a beautiful day.  Qingdao had clear blue skies, a light breeze and a temperature in the mid-70s.  I even got to enjoy an Americano at Starbucks downtown... outside!

This is the reason I've wanted to be in Qingdao all along and it's really too bad that the weather is only this perfect during my last few weeks here.  I guess it's for the best though because I will have a beautiful memory of a fine city instead of the frigid temperatures that some *cough Jenna cough* left in January. 

I'm pretty over teaching right now.  I'm sick of the lesson planning, the reviewing, the grading, and the constant stream of work.  I just wish I could go home and not have to think about work constantly, but this is all part of the job.  I understand that any line of work comes home with you, but with teaching there is always more lesson planning and more grading to be done at home.  To all the teachers out there -- you are so amazingly hard working and dedicated.  Seriously.  Hats off to you.

I'm going to miss Shandong food.  I just wish I could really learn how to cook the foods I eat here but know it won't taste the same because I lack:

- a large vat of MSG
- peanut oil
- a well seasoned wok
- a huge flame to put aforementioned wok on
- crazy/ yelling/ joyous restaurant owner
- dirt-under-the-nails chefs

My stream of sentimental end-of-semester blog posts have started.  Andd.... 开始!

Monday, May 31, 2010

Woah there.

One month left?! You gotta be kidding me. 

My parents, Mark and Shauna were here this weekend and it was a lot of fun.  We walked around the seaside and May 4th Square, the Old German town, the Qingdao pier, and went to the Qingdao Beer Factory Museum.  And of course, ate a lot of seafood and drank a lot of beer. 

It was a fun weekend and now it's back to the last three weeks of teaching before I start exams. 

Plus, Matt gets here in 34 days (yes I started a countdown) and I cannot wait!

This is all very bittersweet though, because as much as I love to complain about China and its crap (my apartment smells strangely like sewage right now...), I do really like being here.  I'm excited for Matt to come but also at the same time a little sad because it indicates the beginning of the end of Mission: China 2k9-10. 

One of my students was crying during class today because she found out that because she landed the internship at The Beijing Hotel (an awesome 5-star hotel in downtown Beijing), she has to leave next week to start work.  She was just so upset that she had to leave a month earlier than everyone else and miss all the end-of-term parties and hoohah. 

I got a little sad too because I realized that would be soon too. 

So here's to enjoying my last few weeks here with some awesome people, good food and beer, and fantastic students. 

My apartment still smells like sewage and korean seafood though, and that sucks a lot.

Friday, May 14, 2010

What I learned today

The Chinese word for "jeans" is 牛仔裤, which literally translates as "cowboy pants"

I don't know how I didn't know this before.  Yet another reason why I love learning Chinese so much. 

Who the !#%(@ is Da Shan?

This guy.  
He's basically the most famous white-person in China but completely unknown outside of the country and despised by most, if not all, foreigners trying to learn Chinese in the country.  He even has a ridiculous name: 大山, Da Shan ("Big Mountain").  You have to be kidding me, Mark Henry Rowswell. 

He's really famous because he hosts a show on CCTV-9 (English channel) teaching foreigners how to speak Chinese.  Many Chinese even believe that he speaks more clearly/ better than most Chinese. I have to admit that this is true, but is quite remarkable for the Chinese people to say this too. 
His TV segments are kind of "The Wiggles" meets "Mr. Rogers" meets China CCTV.  He sits at a desk or on a stool wearing solid color shirts with the overlay boxes displaying the sentences he's teaching and repeats them slowly and articulately.  Then there are little role-plays that he introduces which are followed by another Da Shan teaching minute. 

Apparently he has all sorts of TV performances and skits, of which I've never seen because after all the "Learn Chinese" shows I've seen, he really makes me cringe. 
"The Chinese people immediately fell in love with his big eyes, sexy hair, expressive facial features and aura of cleverness."
He was even allowed to carry the Olympic Torch in 2008 in a city that granted him honorary citizenship and that he considers his hometown.
Da Shan is the ultimate symbol to China of a Westerner being fascinated by the Chinese culture and fully immersing themselves in the culture (which we are always reminded is the oldest civilization in existence) and pretty much giving up living in the Western world to live in China.  Not to mention speaking ridiculously good Chinese. 

So thanks, Da Shan, for making the rest of us Chinese students look like idiots.  But on a larger scale, fueling the Chinese desire to essentially take over the West and the belief that Chinese culture is unquestionably superior over the rest in the world. 

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

What I learned today

Apparently the Chinese have a little custom that if they burn their hands on a pot or scald their fingers on a mug of hot water, they touch the tips of their ears because it is the coldest part of the body.

Why don't we have anything like this?

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Sometimes you just need an America Day

I had an America Day today.  It was kind of accidental, I promise I didn't plan it to be a whole day affair.  The teachers at my school and I had planned to go and eat Chinese for lunch and introduce the newest teacher to the local clams that Qingdao is so famous for.  But when I woke up, there was a motion to go downtown to The Diner and eat lunch there, so I ended up eating a veggie omelette, hash browns, and mini-pancakes complete with a complementary coffee. 
Then I had a nice day outside drinking coffee and working on my Chinese homework.  I also put together my lesson plan for the week. 

I was originally going to meet Derek at The Diner for dinner, but ended up meeting him and some of the WECL teachers at Luigi's.  I was still full from lunch so basically had a bottle of beer and a chocolate sundae from McDonald's for dinner.  Hooray for America Day!  Oh, but there was also a sandstorm in the evening.  Thanks, China.

Project America

Since so many of my students asked me to tell them more about life in America and I decided that I shouldn't be the only one to show them, I decided to ask many of my friends to help me.  The first friend up is my dear Erica Shafer, just because she had the most number of pictures (51, holy crap!) and a pretty long bio about herself.  I'm excited to see what my students think of this little project.  This is going to be a mini-series in my classes that might last until the end of the term.  I typically only spend about 20 minutes on each activity or topic in each class, so this is why it is going to span several weeks. 

So, dear readers, if you would like to send me pictures of your life in America, feel free!  Just think that I am going to make a powerpoint out of it and some sort of commentary and biographical information is good too.  Remember to take pictures of the boring stuff too, especially food, living quarters, and your school and/or job! 

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

FMCL and MCLIG at the same time

Today was a great day for the following reasons:

1- I got paid.
2- I watched movies with my students all day.
3- I got not one, but TWO care packages!
4- I also received Matt's graduation announcement.
Mail crazy funtimes!

I have to say, I was just thinking last week about how much I missed Cheetos and actually screamed when I opened Kendra's box to find a bag of Cheetos Puffs and a huge box of Cheerios!  She also packed me some peanut butter, clif bars, and some nail polish.  The best part, though, is the magazines that I received from her and Sarah!  English magazines are hard to find here and once you get them, they tend to be really outdated and very expensive.

So thanks, ladies, for being some of my best friends and for staying closer than ever across the world from me! 

Goodbye, Tian Laoshi

Fifteen minutes before the end of my Chinese lesson on Friday, Tian laoshi asked me how long I had been his student.  I was pretty taken back by this question and answered, since November, so I guess about five or six months.  Then he told me he was leaving the school. 
That's right.  Leaving.  
I was in so much shock that I didn't believe him for a while and thought I had misheard him (which I didn't) or he actually meant he was going on vacation (he's not).  He's actually getting a job at a trade firm in downtown Qingdao because he's only 25 and still has time to pursue a career.  I don't blame him.  I mean, I'm not a teacher by training either, but enjoy it at the moment.  God bless those who teach as a career, though! 

I asked him when his last day was and he said it was this Thursday to do some paperwork, but I was actually his last student.  Now that was the real kicker.  We agreed that we'd be friends but he also joked that if he saw me in the future, my Chinese better be improving or else he'll be angry. 

So that's the end of Tian laoshi.  I guess I'll just be referring to him as Tian Jian from now on.

There is such a special bond between language teacher and student, partially because there needs to be a certain level of friendship in order for the language to be learned well and in a fun manner (bad relationship = miserable class, we've all been there).  The other half is that with a language teacher, you can talk about anything and it still counts as learning so the teacher learns all sorts of crazy stuff about the student and vice versa. 

I'll definitely miss him as my teacher and I know that my next instructor will have some metaphorically big shoes to fill (because I'm almost as tall as Tian). 

Labor Day Weekend... China style

I went out for pizza with Derek and Wes and drank my sorrows at losing yet another Chinese teacher.  Then we went to New York Bar, listened to a Filipino band play Beatles and Lady Gaga covers in Alice in Wonderland costumes and called it a night. 

I spent my Saturday and Sunday teaching my younger students at Joe's and tutored Helen at my place.  I lead an exciting life. 

Monday I headed out to Fu Shan (浮山) with Brian, Derek, and Wes to enjoy the first summery day of the season.  The hike was pretty nice and the view would have been great had it the city and sea not been covered with a thick layer of smog. 
We failed at finding the hidden tunnels underneath the mountain, but did have a pretty great time outside. 
This old guy BAMF was scaling rockwalls with only a wooden stick.  Seriously.
Then towards the end, the hacking began and I was unable to fully inhale without coughing up a storm.  When I got back to my apartment, I saw that the Air Pollution Index (API) for Qingdao was around 108... meaning that the air was "slightly polluted" but not really measuring exactly which cases were making it polluted that day. 
So thanks again China, for shortening my life.  Also for a memorable ending to my attempt at enjoying a seemingly wonderful summer day outside.  FMChinaL... My China life is great.

Friday, April 30, 2010

This sums up so much

Here is a picture of Xiyangyang and HaiTaiLang (Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf) at Zhongshan Park last week.  Allie and I wanted to take a picture with them but it would have cost us a whopping 10 kuai to snap a photo with my favorite Chinese cartoon characters.

Then we turned around and saw them on a smoke break and being served strawberry ice cream by some little fellow extortionist.

My First Communist Holiday
Taken from The China Daily, "Model workers' receive honors in Beijing"

This weekend is the Workers' Day Holiday and we have Monday off from school.  Many other businesses and schools are closed between 4-5 days and I feel pretty ripped off.  This is not celebrating my labor, Communist Party.

I have also changed my weekend job schedule and now teach on Saturday mornings and afternoons, leaving my Sundays free (yippee!).  Otherwise, I've been pretty busy this week listening to my students' midterm exams, meeting with real(?) Canadians, and pretending I am in America by sitting at Starbucks.  Nothing terribly interesting, but I am also really tired right now... yawn.  Goodnight, residents of the free world.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Three day weekend

three day weekend...

three day weekend...

 three day weekend...

come faster, please!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Hello there, Spring

Yesterday afternoon I went over to Zhongshan Park with Allie to see the cherry blossoms which are now opening up.  It was a perfect day, 60 degrees with clear blue skies and a slight breeze.  It was also a Friday afternoon so there weren't too many people out there.

And by "not too many" I really mean this by China standards.  It was still super crowded by American terms and resembled DC during the peak times of the Cherry Blossom festival.  Another thing reminded me of DC too:
wedding photos with the cherry trees!  We saw several couples posing, but this couple was probably my favorite on so many levels.  That pink!  The poof!  The hair!  His bad mariachi band outfit!  Damn, like seriously.

Then there are the Chinese girls who take photos with the blossoms with little-to-no expression on their faces but with some important body placement.  Lots of leaning against trees and smelling the flowers, not to mention the couples wearing matching outfits in front of the trees.
When in Rome, right?  入乡随俗.

I also went out to dinner to celebrate my friend Anna (from Poland)'s birthday with some of her other friends.  We had some really yummy Korean barbeque and then finished it off with a XiYangyang cake.
We all went out to Le Bang for drinks and dancing, so I sent Tian Jian a text message and he showed up with his drunk friends.  It was a really fun night!  Here is a photo of Anna, Tian, Kana (from Japan), me, and Chris (from the UK). 

Overall, Spring is here!  It's finally here!  I could not be happier for its arrival.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

The good and the bad

Follow-up to the Day of Mourning

As usual, the Chinese government always manages to make even the most solemn of days and turn it into a propaganda campaign.
Domestic media coverage has been tightly controlled, with reporters instructed to focus on the heroism of rescue workers and to avoid stories about the thousands of Buddhist monks who dug through debris or handed out food from the trunks of cars. 
(The New York Times' article can be found HERE.)

I'm not shocked that they did this, but I am still embarrassed and saddened that this happens in a country that I am living in and helping to educate.
In an interview on Wednesday, Woeser, an influential Tibetan blogger who is in frequent contact with people in the earthquake zone, said several monks told her that they had been ordered to leave Jiegu in recent days, although such accounts could not be immediately confirmed. 
Whenever the Tea Party "activists" or any other similar protest group in America claims to be suppressed by the government, they should be reminded that in other corners of the world there are more drastic measures taken to suppress any unsavory opinions and viewpoints.  Being in China (both times) has made me really proud to call myself an American and proud to be living in a country of freedoms.

OMG RU 4 REAL?!?! NOWAI

I taught my students slang this week using dialogues that Matt and I co-wrote this weekend.  Here are the dialogues that they had to read:
(calling on the cell phone)
A: What’s up?
B: Not much, you?
A: Nothing really, just hanging out with my friends.
B: Oh that’s cool.
A: Hey wanna meet up after class?
B: No, I can’t. I’m swamped with homework.
A: Bummer. I want to go to the new coffee shop. Catch you later!/ See ya!
B: Alright, later!

(at school after a test)
A: How was the test?
B: Oh my gosh, I think I bombed the writing section.
A: Seriously? You’ve been studying your butt off!
B: Yeah, I totally froze and forgot everything.
A: That sucks.

(after seeing a movie)
A: That movie was awesome!
B: Yeah it was pretty tight. / Yeah, it was really legit.
A: What did you think of the actor?
B: I thought he was really hot.
A: Truth, but the dialogue was pretty lame.
After hearing 55+ students repeat "that sucks!" and "seriously?" I realized that I might be teaching them to sound like valley girls and bros.  I nevertheless found this pretty funny and I think that they had fun learning more informal words rather than stuff from a formal textbook.

I also taught them about IM (they knew we didn't use QQ but thought we used MSN... weird, right?), AIM and Gchat.  I also listed out some nice little words for them to use when IMing me or their friends, such as nm, brb, h/o, ttyl, gtg, thnx, and jk.  Many of the ones that they use online are numbers.  For example, they type 886 because the numbers "ba ba liu" sound like "bye bye le."

What was even better was when I drew an upward arrow to explain the levels of laughter online.  I listed the ones I use most frequently: hehe, haha, HAHA, lol, lmao, and lmfao.  They have all sorts of weird ones here, including "嘻嘻“ (sounds like 'shee shee') which is somewhere between haha and HAHA to them.

One of my students was IMing me tonight and actually typed "ttyl" to me and I was so excited that he (a) remembered what I taught her on Tuesday and (b) put it to good use.  Success!  Being a teacher means finding fulfillment in the little things like this.

Tomorrow I will go see the cherry blossoms downtown with my friend Allie.  Hopefully I'll also get to meet up with Anna, a Polish girl I have met at my Chinese school, and go out.  I love warm spring weekends. 

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Qinghai Earthquake

Today has been declared as the National Day of Grieving for the earthquake in Qinghai.  After class I went to visit my students' lobby coffee shop and witnessed them have a moment of silence.  It was really touching and I said a prayer for all the victims and victims' families of the earthquake.  Even Baidu (a music downloading site and google equivalent) and Google Music are shut off in silence to show their support for Qinghai.

So please take a moment out of your day to think (or pray) for the people of Qinghai , a region that most people didn't even know existed until this terrible disaster.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Fratting?

Is it considered fratting with the enemy if I hung out with the dog's owner?

I should give a quick update first about the chubby, gimp leg puppy though.  She is no longer tied up to the fence.  Apparently it was only for a day or two and lately she's been running around like before.  Hopefully they don't do it again, but they have put a makeshift collar on her made out of old plastic coated electrical wire.

After class today, I helped coach some of Joe's Tourism major students.  They are headed to Nanjing tomorrow to take part in a National Tour Guide Competition and have prepared these awesome speeches about various historical sties in China.  They were really sweet and I hope they win!

 Joe and I went to dinner at a restaurant across the street that I had never been to before.  We ordered so much food, including fish, eggplant, egg fried rice, and these strange cereal covered sweet potato balls.  I was feeling pretty guilty because I knew that Joe was treating me to dinner, but it turns out that the owner of the restaurant was his former student.  So we had a huge dinner for free and even got some leftovers to take home.  Sometimes I do love the whole Chinese 关系 ("relationship") concept.

My class fifteen is doing their "practical training" this week and are basically set up to say "Good morning/afternoon/evening" at the entrance of the Hotel Management building from morning to night.  They also have to bow at various doors and man a makeshift convenience store in the lobby.  We teachers have started to notice that each class is setting the bar higher and higher and I can only imagine what it's going to be like at the end of the semester.

This is my first class up to the challenge though and I am like a proud mama!  They have set up a cute little coffee lounge in the lobby (music was added a few weeks ago by another class).  I went to visit them this evening and bring them some snacks because I had way too much food from dinner.

On the way back, the dog ran towards me as always and I picked her up and brought her back to the shack she lives in.  After greeting the 阿姨 ("auntie") she invited me into her house and we sat down and chatted.  She showed me her collection of foreign bills and we ate oranges while talking about random subjects.  I was having a lot of issues understanding her husband (?) because of his accent so she ended up translating a lot for me.

And during this entire visit, her dog was sitting on my lap and not moving.  Then when I tried to leave, the dog tried to run after me and had to get chased back to her house.  Oh dear.  If she "mysteriously" disappears they will totally know it was me who stole her.

Oops.  Otherwise, I had a very busy, but normal day in China.  It is finally warming up and it was a solid 60 degrees today in the middle of the afternoon!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Identity crisis, the sequel

Today at lunch I met a Chinese English teacher who teaches most of my classes Hotel English.  He was really nice even though his English was spotty and probably worse than my Chinese.  I was glad to meet my Hotel English counterpart and I think he was glad to meet me because my students had been telling him about me.

I asked him what they thought of me, forgetting how blunt the Chinese can be at times, and was told that some of the students think that it is a "pity that [I] am not a blonde eyed, blue haired American girl."
Well, um, gee, thanks for the compliment?  
I understand that the students would ideally like a "blonde eyed, blue haired American girl," but I'd like to think that after my students' initial period of time when they were trying to figure out what exactly an Asian-American was, that they now see me as an American.  At the beginning, it was almost as if I was a lost Chinese girl who was shipwrecked on the far away island of Singapore, was shipped to America in a box by accident, and has finally returned to the motherland, the Middle Country, the Peoples' Republic of China.  Now my students forget I actually speak Chinese and have no questions that I am American.

At first I was asked things like "Why is your hair black?" and "Are your parents Chinese?" which seem pretty obvious to us, but to many Chinese people there is no concept of the hyphenated Asian-American.  I thought most of my students had gotten over this by now.
I guess they haven't. 
I'm giving my students the benefit of the doubt, though, since I do have so much direct contact with them and face-to-face time with me speaking American English and absolutely no Chinese.  The way I walk, dress, hold myself, and even write my number '6' (a constant war between me and my students) is completely different.  Maybe it was just this one teacher who did not expect the 'foreign teacher Alison' to look so Chinese.  Perhaps he himself has more prejudices than my students and would not learn English from me, but rather a white person even if they are an uncaring and overall crappy teacher.

These are the frustrations I have faced almost every day here.  I am an Asian-American.  I am Chinese.  I am a U.S. citizen, have voted in the past two elections, hold a drivers license, and have completed thirteen years in the American educational system.

The thing is that China is so very homogeneous.  There may be fifty-one minority groups, but most (92% according to Wikipedia) of the people you see are Han.    There is no Korean-Chinese or Canadian-Chinese.  Only Chinese.

The plus side is that there is a word in Chinese "华人“ (overseas Chinese) which indicates I am of Chinese decent, but my family settled in Singapore all those decades ago.  Step one, check.  Step two is to explain how I can be both American and Chinese at the same time.
Cue shrill sound of a bomb dropping and exploding.  
And that's where the logic ends.  So here I am, somewhere between fully American and fully Chinese to the, um, real Chinese?  Cool.  Thanks guys.  I appreciate it.  I'm just going to continue to teach you American English with some hopes that you too one day will go to America, and possibly even have your own little Asian-American children yourself.  That will be the day.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Anonymous question time

Last week I let my students write me questions and suggestions anonymously just to see what they were thinking.  I was kind of apprehensive at first, especially with the students who have also had me last semester.  I was getting told that they were bored and sick of my little routine of making dialogues and reading from the book, so I decided to ask them what they suggested we do. 

I got some really helpful suggestions:

- At the begining of class, you can make serve several topic to us. We can discuss them.
- I suggest you use computer to teach.
- You can show us some news about USA by English newspaper, TV pictures, I like this way of teach.

Some expected questions:

- I want to know more about the USA, can you let me know more?
- I want to watch more movies ^_^
- Will you let your kids learn Chinese culture in the future?
- What's your favorite food in China?
- What's your QQ number?
- Do you like China?
- What do you think of China football?

Some that broke my heart:

-I have a dream that one day I can go to USA, but I don't know how and when I can make it true.  So will you give me any suggestion?
- I want to ask you a question.  I know you and your boyfriend in the different place.  I want to know how do you improve your feeling?  Do you think it's bad for your feeling in the different countries. Thank you. ^_^
- In your eyes, we're children, yes or no?

And some weird questions:

- I think we can have a party. invite several foreign teacher take with every student.
- Do you want to have a baby? Why?
- What's do you think about Christopher Emmanuel Paul?
- How many boyfriend would you have?
- Do you have any view for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the 201 World Exposition in Shanghai
- I want to see Can you dress on a skirt next week later someday this summer?
- what kind of men do you prefer?
- What do you think TaiWan's question?

Overall, I found this to be pretty helpful and it gave me ideas for class.  I was getting pretty bored too and frustrated with simply reading from the book and making silly dialogues.  I ended up making a photo slideshow to show them my life in America because there were a ton of questions about my family, friends, and life.  A few also just wanted to see pictures of Matt, my family, and my friends.

It felt really weird to do it because I knew that some of the slides would result in a huge "oooh!!" or "wahhh!!" by 55+ students.  I also kind of enjoyed a sort of distance with my students but I guess it's better in the long rung if I do this now.  They still don't know how old I am though. 

No, I did not tell them what I think about the "Taiwan question" and I have no clue who Christopher Emmanuel Paul is. 

It was a pretty fun week though, just to figure out what exactly they were thinking about me and have a more laid-back class that wasn't so academically driven.  This next week we'll be preparing midterm dialogues and I have a powerpoint about slang and how we use IM.  I'm excited to teach this lesson plan, a feeling I haven't had in a while.   Change is good. 

It is still cold here in Qingdao but this weekend we actually broke 60 degrees and I actually felt warmth outside!  I also stopped wearing my puffy coat last week, so I'm very excited for the beginning of what is sure to be a short spring leading to a beautiful summer. 

Friday, April 16, 2010

FAIL

I know this is completely unrelated to China, but I had to share this with any other blog viewers out there. 

Monday, April 12, 2010

I promised myself I wouldn't, but I'm afraid I've fallen in love with a little dog here in China.  She lives on my campus and is owned by a grounds keeper woman who has a little hut on the school grounds.  Jenna and I met her as a puppy last term when she was just a little thing with a gimp leg and now she has grown into a full grown 15-lb dog with a gimp leg.
I really love animals and it's always such a comfort to me to play with one.  I've refused to give her an English name in my head but have all sorts of nicknames for her (1st Violation).  She waits for me when I'm walking past her home and runs to greet me to quickly roll over so I can give her a belly rub.  If I try to walk away, she gets up on her hind legs and asks me to carry her (2nd Violation).
I've been trying to resist, but I actually looked up how to bring a dog back to America last night (3rd Violation).  I know that I couldn't do it because firstly, she kind of has an owner and secondly, my mom would throw both of us out.

Chinese people have a very different view of keeping a pet than we do in the West.  Dog's aren't revered as "man's best friend" and most people are actually kind of scared of dogs, even the tiniest "punt" ones.  The woman that owns this dog has another huge German Shepherd who is actually kept in a cage all day and it breaks my heart.  I also think I might be the only one to love on this little dog!

Well, I walked to class this morning to play with her (4th Violation) and found her tied to a fence behind the house with a 6 foot long chain.  She just looked so sad that I want to buy a wire cutter and hide her in my apartment until I go back to America.  This really breaks my heart and I don't know if i I can talk to her owner!  So this is my latest dilemma and it's really been bothering me all day.  I miss my dog at home, Albert, and can't wait until I can actually get a dog of my own.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

My not so 老 老师

I was really excited that 田老师 invited me to his apartment for a party and had a fleeting thought that it might be his birthday.  Turns out I was right!  I had a really fun Friday night but it was not without its own strange occurrences and funny stories. 

不好意思, Holy !#%@& I am embarrassed

I thought that I had 田健 (my teacher's name is Tian Jian)'s phone number because he had been texting me off and on over the past few months.  So yesterday afternoon I texted him to figure out how to get to his apartment and this is what happened (all in Chinese, this is a translation):

Me: How do I get to your apartment?  Which bus do I take?
田老师: What are you talking about?
(incoming phone call)
田老师: Eh, Wu Laoshi (my Chinese name as a teacher)?  Foreign Teacher?  Do you remember me?  Did you send me a text message incorrectly?
Me: Oh god.  I am so embarrassed.  I am sorry, I do not remember who you are!
(text messages)
田老师Haha, it's okay. 
Me: I am so embarrassed, my Chinese teacher's name is also 田老师!
田老师: Haha, no problem. Next time I can teach you Chinese. =)

At this point I am:
(1) laughing because so many Chinese people have the same last names,
(2) embarrassed because I had mixed up my own Chinese teacher with someone else who decided to text me and
(3) mortified because I have an unknown stalker of sorts. 

I know that this other mysterious Tian laoshi has to be a teacher on my campus somewhere and there are only a few that I've given my number to, so this narrows it down quite a bit.  The problem is that I don't remember what any of these teachers look like!  I try to keep my head down here on campus because I hate being asked to teach other people English.  My life is so awkward. 

Happy Birthday, 祝你生日快乐田健!

I finally got myself over to 田健 (Tian Jian, my Chinese teacher)'s apartment and was greeted by many of his students.  They were all Japanese except for myself and Anna, a Polish girl who also studies at the school but isn't technically Jian's student.  It was really nice getting to know other expats who are not from Western countries and their children were just too cute for words!
Tian Jian and his roommates cooked us a big dinner which was delicious and really made me want to learn how to cook Northern Chinese food.  They claimed it was simple, but I doubt it and I think it's also great that these men know how to cook up a storm!  We had some classic dishes including eggs and cucumbers, mushrooms and pork, and the local specialty, Qingdao gala (clams).  Tian Jian even cooked up 酸辣土豆丝 (vinegar chili shredded potatoes) which were really good, but I joked that if we got 拉肚子 ("pulled stomach" or indigestion) tomorrow it would be his fault. 
Then Tian Jian toasted to his 25th birthday, to his friend the chef, and to all of us his students.  He said that an important part of teaching is to actually like your students and to feel happy when going to teach class.  Not only is studying well important, but also a special friendship between teacher and student and that it is fate that we were all brought together. 
It was really touching, and as a teacher myself, I couldn't agree more!  To me it is also important to have a close relationship with my Chinese teacher and to feel comfortable asking questions about anything and to make stupid mistakes during class.  I could not be more appreciative that he feels the same way and I am so glad that I have him as a teacher. 

And, well, after this touching moment occurred, the debauchery broke out in the form of beer and sake.  We did a lot of 干杯 ("empty cup", cheers, or bottoms up!) and he had to go around and drink with everyone.  I also had to hold up my own honor and "face" as an American and drink a lot just because I am from the US of A, the land of binge drinking.  Thanks a lot, Hollywood. 
Then there was a birthday cake complete with birthday torch candle that played "Happy Birthday" over and over again.  Let me tell you, Chinese cakes are delicious.  They are made with real cream frosting and the cake is perfectly moist and spongy.  It's also great because they're not overly sweet and you don't feel like you're going to develop Type II diabetes after ever single bite. 
Plus, they come with a paper crown, which should really be a part of every birthday party.  The down side of birthday parties in China is that the Chinese have this strange idea that it is normal to have a food fight at parties and smear icing all over your friends for luck. 
I didn't get too badly covered and only got a bit on my cheeks and a schmear or two in my hair by his roommate.  Also note the giant bottle of sake next to the mirror that was given as a gift by one of the Japanese students.  Needless to say, Tian Jian was tucked into bed by his roommates before midnight and left sleeping on the floor under a pile of blankets (but with a bucket!).  This was also before midnight and the friends then proceeded to leave the apartment to celebrate his birthday... without him.
Way to go, friends.  I'm just glad that's never happened to me! 

Beware the Jabberwocky

I also saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D tonight with Althea and it was pretty good.  It was a different interpretation of the story than the cartoon version and it was a lot trippier.  I kind of liked it and loved Johnny Depp's performance.  This was my first legal movie watching experience in China and it was kind of fun to actually go to a movie theatre again. 

Spring is arriving quickly and I no longer have to wear a puffy coat or tights under my jeans.  Yippee!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

No word for 'bored'

I've been a bad little blogger recently.  I've just been so busy with my new schedule and such that I've neglected to share my witty comments and random banter about my life over here. 

This is my life, basically:
1- I have no weekends because I teach.
2- I have no life because I teach on the weekends.
3- In my spare time I plan out what I am going to teach.

I'm not complaining, though.  I do still really love my students and my job, but I feel like I might burn out earlier in the semester than I expected I would.  I've already started making plans to turn my Cooperation classes into "Gossip Girl" class where I teach them oral English, idioms, and casual speech using the show.  And well, for selfish reasons too.

Laowai or Old China Hand?

Last weekend my friend Cathy came down to visit with a large group of abroad students who are doing the same program I did two and a half years ago.  It was really cool to hang out with them and show them around Qingdao.  We ate a lot of seafood, drank a lot of fresh "raw" (not quite sure what this means, but it is good!), and shivered our way through the weekend. 

This is when I will continue to complain about the weather and lack of warmth in Qingdao.  It is still cold and very, very windy here.  On a good day, the temperature gets up to 60 but at night it is always in the 30s and 40s.  With huge winds, too.  And no heat in my apartment because it was turned off two weeks ago. 

On the plus side, I feel like I have finally hit my stride with the Chinese classes, almost a month into taking classes three times a week.  This excites me to no end because I no longer feel like an idiot that is unable to read and put together words. 

I feel like I'm accomplishing a lot now.  I finally got QQ this week, because my students begged me to get one.  I was also invited to hang out with my Chinese teacher at his party this weekend.  Woo!

没有意思

This roughly translates as "no meaning" but can be used in many different ways, including:
- not intersting
- no meaning
- boring

I find this interesting that in Chinese there is no real concept of calling something "boring", but instead that something that just lacks meaning.  This may be worse than just being boring, actually now that I think of it. 

I will blog more, I will blog more, I will blog more.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Life lessons

This weekend I started another side-job with a coworker who gives English lessons out of his home.  I taught two classes on Saturday: one group which consisted of three 13 year olds and another group of nine 11 year olds.  It was definitely a change of pace from teaching college students!  I also taught another class on Sunday which had three 14 year old girls, who cracked me up the entire time.  I am really looking forward to seeing them next week. 

Basically I did things like "The Hokey Pokey", "Never Have I Ever", "Categories", and this activity where I cut pictures out of magazines and the students had to tell me how to move my body to make myself look like the model in the photo.  This is not a hard task when you are speaking in your second language.  Directional words and propositions really trip students up! 

Alas, I have lost my weekends to even more teaching, but at least I am getting paid extra money and really enjoy the experience of working with pre-teens. 

我住了在德州/ I lived in Texas!

Today in my Chinese class, 田老师 asked me if there were many 杀人 (murderers) in America.  I paused, grumbled a bit, and asked him why he was wondering.  Then he said that there were towns (plural) in America where people were killed by 电链锯 (electric chainsaws). 

Turns out he watched The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and now thinks that there are places in America where people are murdered by Leatherface. 
This is exactly what America needs in the minds of people around the world.  I wish I had something witty to comment about this, but I think the conversation stands alone.

ROAR!

I was Skyping with my adorable 3-year old nephew, Alex, today when he decided to put on his dinosaur costume.   He calls me "E.E." the name for "mother's sister" in my mom's dialect.
Alex: EE, where is your dinosaur costume?
Me: I don't have one.
Alex: It's okay, you can look at mine.
Me: Yes, it is really cool, little dude!
Alex: Why don't you go and buy one?  You should buy one.  Mommy, I told EE to buy a dinosaur costume.
Me: That sounds like a great idea!

Moral of the story: I need a dinosaur costume and it should be more acceptable for anyone to walk around as a dinosaur saying "roar!"

Saturday, March 27, 2010

It's a trap!

Today I was going to get some dinner and I purchased this winner of a 帽子 (hat):
I also bought this one because it was just too good to pass up:
I purchased both for 31 kuai, or slightly over US $4.  I'm still a little miffed that she wouldn't lower it more, but I was cold and hungry.  And well, really wanted the hats. 

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Current addictions

- NPR podcasts: The Diane Rehm Show, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me, Fresh Air, This America Life, etc.
- White Rabbit Candy: It might be dangerous and possibly poisonous but, damn, is it good. 
 - 红烧茄子 (hong shao qie zi): braised brown sauce eggplant, an addiction I have fueled since Summer 2007
- My VPN
- Studying Chinese with 田老师
  (borrowed from Liuzhou Laowai)
- Pretending I am in America
- Starbucks in China, pretending I am in America while studying Chinese
- Rob's copy of The Economist that is sent to him from Singapore and passed on to me
- Pretending to DJ for my students during break:  I am determined to make them like more than just sappy love ballads and pop groups from the 90's. 
- Yogurt: The yogurt I get here is so freaking good.  Probably because it's made with whole milk, but I also like to think that since I buy the Mongolian milk brand, it's a little tastier. 

to be continued...