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.

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. 

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?

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! 

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.