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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

The run down

Who?  

 My students are 19 to 20 year old Chinese college students in their first year at a technical school for hotel management, hence the name Qingdao Hotel Management College.  All of my students are hotel management majors but the school also offers cuisine, tourism, customs reporting, business English, and exhibition majors. 

90% of my students are from the Shandong province and the rest are from as far away as Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, and Hunan. Of the Shandong students, 25% of them are from Qingdao and the others are from other cities of varying sizes including Heze, Jinan, Weifang, and Zibo, but there are also many students from smaller towns and villages. 

This is a public university and the tuition is about 6000RMB per semester (so I hear).  This isn't expensive, but it isn't cheap.  I am more often than not, the first foreign teacher they have ever had and one of the first for them to speak English with. 

What?  

I teach oral English which pretty much means that I have free reign to do anything.  I do have a book that I loosely follow, but for the most part it is up to me to fill an hour and a half with "The Alison Show."  Here's a rough format of my classes:

- Attendance (10-15 minutes): I may or may not ask them a question to answer when I call their name.  This week I did "If you had 300RMB what would you do?"
- Read the dialogue (20 minutes)
- Create your own dialogue (20 minutes): They do this with their partners
- Performances
- Sing a song/ Game:  This week I played a number writing team relay game where I called out a large number or price and they had to write it correctly on the board to earn their team a point.  Girls vs. boys was a riot!
- Movies: I showed them "Twilight" last semester and am going to show them "The Notebook" next month.  I will probably show another movie towards the end, but I try not to use movies too often unless as a reward for doing something huge like a midterm.

When? 

I have nine classes a week consisting of 50-60 students per class.  My earliest classes are at 8:00 - 9:40 am (with 10 minute break) and my last period is from 3:20 - 4:50 pm (no break, poor kids).  I also take my own Chinese classes downtown three times a week for two hours at a time.  Besides going to classes and teaching classes, I also go to the gym nearby frequently to pretend I'm not in China. 

On the weekends I also have two side-jobs.  I teach a 14-year old daughter of one of my bosses's friends that I basically do whatever random English assignments I want to do with.  Her English is nearly fluent and she is from a very wealthy family.  My other side job should be starting soon and I am helping a coworker with his own private students and assisting with middle school students.  I'll let you know how that goes...

Where?

Qingdao Hotel Management College in Qingdao, Shandong province.

Why?

I'm still trying to figure this out too... Ok, kidding.  I studied abroad my junior year of college in China and have wanted to come back ever since!  I enjoy China, meeting Chinese people, and learning the language, so it seemed only natural to return after graduation. 

How?

I don't know how I manage to teach this many students.  It's frustrating and rewarding at the same time and involves speaking very, very s-l-o-w-l-y, repeating myself, and creativity to figure out how to keep them entertained week after week. 

So that's my life as I know it right now.  I'm pretty settled back in to my life here, having just finished my third full week back in China, and am looking forward to a full semester of teaching.  I can't wait until it gets warm and I can finally enjoy the beaches and outdoor activities that I came to Qingdao for! 

I should be used to this by now

 (clam farms in Qingdao, I think)

Words/ phrases I hope to never hear again after leaving China:

- That is lovely
- "just so-so"
- It is so interesting
- delicious foods
- "and so on..."
- What a pity!
- Nice to meet you.
- play with my friends

This list will probably grow longer as my second term progresses, but I am kind of sick of correcting the same mistakes over and over again.  Plus, I can't correct flat out awkward or old-fashioned English.

Otherwise, my weekend was fun because I met another English teacher and we went to "hike" around the 石老人 ("stone old man") area of Qingdao but ended up climbing a random rock.  It was a really windy day but was a nice change from winter -- it was great to be outside again!  We did wander across a strange "Bear Performance Park" where we took photos like this:

 I think this park is some sort of zoo meets Banjo Kazooie ride -- pretty scary, huh?  I also treated myself to a latte from Starbucks on Saturday before coming back to my apartment.  America!

I start Chinese lessons again this week and it's finally warming up just a little.  There was a giant storm on Sunday, complete with thunder, lightning, and flash flooding.  Considering that I am on a coastal town in the north, I didn't know this was possible.  It's nice to get back into a routine of things here, but I am eagerly awaiting my first long weekend vacation!

An Almost White Christmas

Yes, that is a groundskeeper sweeping the snow away.

Probably made by some couple cuddling or making out in the park.

 

And then I got attacked by Hong hong, the little gimp legged puppy that one of the groundskeepers owns.  He's really cute and loves to play.  He also enjoys eating my shoes.

So even though this was about three days late, this is kind of my white China-tastic Christmas, complete with a gimp legged puppy and snow sweepers.

Have a safe trip back from where ever you are and hope you had a Marry Christmas!

What's that song?

Today I heard Akon's "Smack That" blasting from the speakers of street vendor selling fried chicken strips.  Possibly the randomest song I've head on the streets, considering I hear some really weird ones every day, but this one had me bent over laughing. 

Oh China. 

Why is there always a line?!

Saturday evening I tutored Helen, a 14-year old girl who is the daughter of my program director's friend.  I'm still not sure if private tutoring is allowed, but I'll take it since they pay me and it came from the director herself.  More about this story later, it's actually quite funny.

Wan Sheng Jie (万圣节）

Halloween in China is when the Americans all get dressed up and go to expat bars to pay for overpriced alcohol and/or cover charges.  This being said, it is a lot of fun.  When I was in Beijing, we forked over 100RMB for tickets to a sold-out warehouse rave party downtown.  It was a blast and I don't know if I'll eve be able to have a better Halloween.

This being said, my expectations were pretty high and I just had to get over myself and realize that I wouldn't be able to replicate the Beijing experience at all.  Costume shopping proved to be difficult but I managed to throw together the Chinglish version of an 80's costume, complete with bright purple tights, a horrible purple scrunchie, and my own Chucks.

It was a fun night overall and the other teachers and I had a good time dancing and drinking those overpriced Tsingtaos.  I actually said "真的吗？！" ("Really?!?!") to the bartender when he said my small bottle of Tsingtao was 30RMB.

Sunday Adventures

The other teachers and I stay at a hostel when we go out in the city over the weekend because it is only 25RMB for a bed there and it is about 45RMB to take a cab back to our school.  Plus, this way we can wake up on Sunday and do more adventuring downtown before taking a bus back to our school.

Sunday morning I got up and walked down the alley from the hostel to get a yummy 包子 for breakfast and the lady let me take a picture of her.

I like her veggie and egg baozi's a lot and she also does a pretty great youtiao (fried dough).  I enjoy walking around alley markets because there is always so many things to look at, like live seafood, fresh vegetables, and made-to-order food.

I also walked over to the Old German Cathedral, that was built in the early 20th century by the Germans (Qingdao was a German colony until the Sino-Japanese war), destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, and rebuilt in the 80's.  I also attended Catholic Mass in Korean, complete with drum performance right after communion.  It was an interesting experience!

I also went to TaiDong, a shopping center in Qingdao and bought some things, mainly at Wal-Mart, funnily enough.  Jenna was with me and we had a conversation like this:

Jenna: You know what shopping in China is like?  Black Friday.
Me: Or preparing for the zombie apocalypse.
Jenna: Yeah, you know, there's people pushing and shoving... terrible lines... and even worse service.
Me: Yeah, it is pretty much Black Friday every day.  Why are we here again?

This is a picture of Tai Dong street from the escalator (yeah, not kidding) bridge that connects it to the other side of the street.   There are just so many people in China it never fails to amaze me.  I forget that there are 1.3 billion people in this country and they have to be somewhere.  This means more of everything: hair cutters (at least 2 on each block), mini-marts (probably 3 on each block), cell phone stores (5 on each block), restaurants (oh man...), and shoe repair men/ ladies who etch sparkles on your cell phone (everywhere).  I don't think I will ever get used to the sheer numbers of people here. 

As you can see, I have a proxy server that allows me to post to my blog, finally.  I no longer have to pay Matt in Chinese jiao (10 cents) and day old rice to post for me.