Tomorrow, October 1, is National Holiday here in China, and the country celebrates by taking a week off of everything and travelling. So, I'm doing the same. No school next week and then tomorrow, myself, Dave and Valerie (another CTFer from Huijia) are heading to the bus station to try our best to get to Taiyuan, another city in China home to a few of our CTF friends. From there it's our plan to head on to Xi'an, the ancient capital, to take in such sites as the famous terracotta warriors. Should be a fun trip, assuming we leave at all. Since the whole nation pretty much travels, it's pretty busy to say the least. We already couldn't get train tickets, so I'll let you know how we get off.
On Wednesday night, our school took us to see some Peking opera at the Forbidden City Concert Hall. Actually, it was the Beijing Symphony tribute to Peking opera, which was definitely a good introduction to the whole thing. Peking Opera, if you haven't heard of it, involves huge, colorful costumes, lots of overdone makeup, and lots of loud, crazy instruments and crazier singing. I've heard a few hours of it is basically torture, so while we got to see some actors perform, it certainly wans't the whole deal. For this I am glad. Though, the whole deal was interesting.
The show was a presentation for "foreign experts" such as my self, so there was English translation throughout, and without that I never would've been treated to my favorite part of Peking opera: the lyrics. The whole thing is so melodramatic and ridiculous. For example, possibly my favorite lyric of the night went like this: "Finishing reading the plenary meeting communique, I feel so excited" a girl sang. Songs praising the "ardent enthusiasm" of a recent Communist convert and a stalwart daughter of a revolutinary who vows not to give up til the last "wolf" is dead. Stuff like that. A lot of intense nationalism comes out around National Day, and this has been interesting to see, as well.
I have more thoughts about Peking opera (I was so interested I actually took notes) and if you're interested, ask me some time. Oh, tonight I FINALLY secured a copy of Batman Begins and spent--ta da--the equivelent of $1.20 for it. Watched it just now and loved it. I also got Brothers Grimm for the same price. I haven't seen that one since it came out since I left for China, so I'm curious. Looks good. Hope all is well back home. By the way, I've been falling behind on emails lately and will be out this next week now, so sorry for slacking on the keeping in touch. Consider this an IOU to all of you who've been sending stuff on to me. I'm glad so many people are reading this and I hope it's giving a good glimpse into my life in China. If you ever have any questions, shoot me a comment or an email. Maybe I can do a Q&A post or something like that sometime. Every week there are a million things I could post about, but never enough time.
Anyway, everyone have a great first week of October at home, and think of me travelling! Hope to get back in touch with you all later next week. I'll say hi to the terracotta warriors.
September 30, 2005
September 27, 2005
Some more kiddos
Let's see, this first picture is of one of my sweetest students, and not just because his name is Tiger. He chose Tiger because it denotes strength. No joke, he told Mrs. Paula that (she speaks pretty good Chinese). Today, he carried around the peanut bag and made everyone promptly deposit their peanuts in the bag. If I held on to some peanuts too long, he looked right at me and said in a firm voice, "Mr. Jon." Then I would drop the peanuts in and he would say, "Thank you, Mr. Jon." Hilarious. Next up are some boys whose names I don't know. The boy in the middle's favorite English word is "marker" and he likes to say it a lot. I guess I deserve it, I don't know his name. Next up is a girl whose name I don't know either. Oops again. Rhoda's picture is fourth. Rhoda is super cute and I think I wrote about her earlier. She likes to say hi to me and sometimes she wears these super style white-frame glasses. Last but not least is another boy whose name I don't know. He broke the root off the sweet potato and wanted to show me.
I thought I should add, like I was saying they were all serious about digging. I definitely got bored with the whole thing WAY before they did. We dug for almost two hours maybe, and I was done with the whole digging thing after about 15 minutes. They might've dug all day. Is that normal? Is that sad? Thankfully the peanuts were slightly more exciting.
Slightly.
I thought I should add, like I was saying they were all serious about digging. I definitely got bored with the whole thing WAY before they did. We dug for almost two hours maybe, and I was done with the whole digging thing after about 15 minutes. They might've dug all day. Is that normal? Is that sad? Thankfully the peanuts were slightly more exciting.
Slightly.
"Maybe the children are sleeping"
Translation: music to my ears, or more simply, class is cancelled. I'm supposed to be teaching my toughest class right now, but thanks to nap time, class time is, as they say here in China, "game over." The reason for the nap and also the #1 reason I like teaching Kindergarten: field trips! Today, me and the Kindergarten loaded onto some buses and headed out into the countryside to work the fields, digging with plastic shovels for sweet potatoes and peanuts--all of which we got to keep at the end of the day. Though, unfortunately, not the shovels.
The Chinese countryside is different than say, America's heartland, for one big reason. In China, all the farmwork is still done by manpower in China--not because they don't have the technology here, but because they do have the men. Manual labor is cheap, and in a country of 1.3 billion people, people are never hard to come by. So the fields are smaller and have a lot of different crops. It's cheaper for workers to pick all the different crops than for one big combine or something to pick a whole big field. So you just don't see a giant corn field, for example. I suppose that's true because two different people told me that. But that's beside the point.
We dug for sweet potatoes and peanuts, and though these were the rich, city kids down in the dirt, they got into the task--though admittedly not quite as much as the Chinese teachers did. It was the three Americans there who showed the least interest in the task at hand--myself, my fellow foreign teacher Mrs. Paula, and her son Daniel who is a student at the Kindergarten. Daniel was more interested in the bugs. Mrs. Paula in taking pictures, and me in playing with the kids and distracting them from their work. It's amazing the kind of fun you can have when the extent of your conversational skills is what mine and theirs are. Although one student today yelled out a window to me: "Wednesday Happy!" I'm not sure what he meant, but I figured it's a step in the right direction.
One poor little boy couldn't find any potatoes, though. Mrs. Paula asked how many he had found, and he replied "mayo" which means "I don't have any." So if you ask a Chinese person for some Miracle Whip, don't be surprised if they respond, "Mayo mayo." If so, keep looking.
Interesting discovery today by me: I haven't the slightest clue why, but my kids can play Rock, Paper, Scissors in perfect English. All of them. The ones who can't say "hello" can say "rock, paper, scissors... go" and then proceed to smash my scissors or cut my paper with perfect accuracy. So while that was weird, I also found out that little kids are really easy to trick. I successfully hid a peanut in my sleeve from some kids and pulled it out from behind their ears like a million times without them ever catching on. Sometimes they know the weirdest English, I think. Mom, you'll be happy to know they all can say, "wash your hands." They just don't do it :)
Here are some pictures of my kiddos... let's see... first picture are some girls in my Big Purple class, the one in the front on the left is named Kelly, and the other ones I can't remember. I remember Kelly because she speaks pretty well. The second picture is of a little girl named Lisa who can't speak much English, but loves Rock, Paper, Scissors and always wears pigtails. The third pic is a girl named Amy who also speaks pretty well. She's in Middle Pink and likes to yell out the answers. Next is Angel, also in Middle Pink, she's probably four if I had to guess, and likes to laugh when I fall off my chair or sit down and almost miss it (which is often because it's seriously like 6 inches big--I use the same chair they do). She's a cutie. And last is a boy, I think his name's Jonathan. I know there's one boy named Jonathan and I think it's him. Regardless, he's a nice kid.
P.S. Gotta give a shout out to Sweater Cuts, the Mickey's of the East (meaning the place I now go to get my haircut). Not only is it this crazy tacky, over-the-top colorful barbershop that I would never set foot in in America, but they give head/shoulder massages, a shampoo, and a decent cut for a grand total of $5. We call it Sweater Cuts because all the employees wear these identical red sweaters. The place is amazing.
The Chinese countryside is different than say, America's heartland, for one big reason. In China, all the farmwork is still done by manpower in China--not because they don't have the technology here, but because they do have the men. Manual labor is cheap, and in a country of 1.3 billion people, people are never hard to come by. So the fields are smaller and have a lot of different crops. It's cheaper for workers to pick all the different crops than for one big combine or something to pick a whole big field. So you just don't see a giant corn field, for example. I suppose that's true because two different people told me that. But that's beside the point.
We dug for sweet potatoes and peanuts, and though these were the rich, city kids down in the dirt, they got into the task--though admittedly not quite as much as the Chinese teachers did. It was the three Americans there who showed the least interest in the task at hand--myself, my fellow foreign teacher Mrs. Paula, and her son Daniel who is a student at the Kindergarten. Daniel was more interested in the bugs. Mrs. Paula in taking pictures, and me in playing with the kids and distracting them from their work. It's amazing the kind of fun you can have when the extent of your conversational skills is what mine and theirs are. Although one student today yelled out a window to me: "Wednesday Happy!" I'm not sure what he meant, but I figured it's a step in the right direction.
One poor little boy couldn't find any potatoes, though. Mrs. Paula asked how many he had found, and he replied "mayo" which means "I don't have any." So if you ask a Chinese person for some Miracle Whip, don't be surprised if they respond, "Mayo mayo." If so, keep looking.
Interesting discovery today by me: I haven't the slightest clue why, but my kids can play Rock, Paper, Scissors in perfect English. All of them. The ones who can't say "hello" can say "rock, paper, scissors... go" and then proceed to smash my scissors or cut my paper with perfect accuracy. So while that was weird, I also found out that little kids are really easy to trick. I successfully hid a peanut in my sleeve from some kids and pulled it out from behind their ears like a million times without them ever catching on. Sometimes they know the weirdest English, I think. Mom, you'll be happy to know they all can say, "wash your hands." They just don't do it :)
Here are some pictures of my kiddos... let's see... first picture are some girls in my Big Purple class, the one in the front on the left is named Kelly, and the other ones I can't remember. I remember Kelly because she speaks pretty well. The second picture is of a little girl named Lisa who can't speak much English, but loves Rock, Paper, Scissors and always wears pigtails. The third pic is a girl named Amy who also speaks pretty well. She's in Middle Pink and likes to yell out the answers. Next is Angel, also in Middle Pink, she's probably four if I had to guess, and likes to laugh when I fall off my chair or sit down and almost miss it (which is often because it's seriously like 6 inches big--I use the same chair they do). She's a cutie. And last is a boy, I think his name's Jonathan. I know there's one boy named Jonathan and I think it's him. Regardless, he's a nice kid.
P.S. Gotta give a shout out to Sweater Cuts, the Mickey's of the East (meaning the place I now go to get my haircut). Not only is it this crazy tacky, over-the-top colorful barbershop that I would never set foot in in America, but they give head/shoulder massages, a shampoo, and a decent cut for a grand total of $5. We call it Sweater Cuts because all the employees wear these identical red sweaters. The place is amazing.
September 20, 2005
Bread noodles, bowling, and the rest
OK, thoughts from the past few days… let’s see, first a recap of what I’ve done:
Saturday we made a trip out to Huijia, another CTF school to visit two teams out there--both all-girl teams. We ate at this noodle place in this little Chinese village like I haven’t seen yet—a lot more like I pictured China. Very evident poverty. In China the income gap between the urban population and the rural is 5 times the international norm, and getting worse. Even the gov't acknowledges this as the country's biggest problem. In the restaurant, there were these two little barefoot, dirty kids crawling around on this dirty floor, but the place served the most amazing bread noodles I’ve ever had (not that I've had a lot of bread noodles, but if I'd had, these would've been the best). I’ll include a picture of Morgan—I call her Morgan because it said Morgan on her pants. She was a cutey.
We spent the afternoon with the gals, played the game Spoons with chopsticks, and even went bowling, yes, real bowling… they’re lucky enough to have a bowling alley on their campus. I bowled a 130 and a 135 and reached 33 km/h on the radar gun on each lane. Sweet feature. Then we climbed “Huijia Mountain,” a hill made of moved dirt behind their school that from the top you can see Beijing and the TV tower just a couple kilometers from my school—very cool. Side note: I’m not turning metric on you over here, I realize that was my second reference in this paragraph alone, it’s just all I have to go on. Later in the evening we went out to this Russian restaurant and I got pizza--my first good pizza in China.
Sunday we went to fellowship and returned home where I began watching the first season of the TV show Lost. I am officially hooked. I’m through five episodes by now, but believe me it’d be more if the tape I borrowed wasn’t just episodes 1-5. I'd heard so much good stuff and it was all true. Reminds me so much of our own "Beastie," 404. Sunday night was also Mid-Autumn Festival Day, a holiday here in China where pretty much you go outside, look at the full moon, recite this ancient poem, think fondly of your hometown and eat a mooncake (this completely disgusting dessert). I went outside, recited a really bad paraphrase of the poem in English, thought fondly of my hometown, and went back inside. A joyous celebration indeed.
Monday I taught, fairly successfully, and caught a cold.
Tuesday I sniffled all day, took some drugs (they helped), and sat in on a 2-hour Chinese history lecture (by an ELI lady, in English) that was really fascinating. I realized how much I’m missing intellectual stimulation and this class was a big help in that regard. The Kindergarten building, while stimulating in many ways, does nothing for my brain still used to essays and lectures. I never realized how much college got into me until tonight when it felt like night class and I was on the edge of my seat. Makes me wonder if I couldn’t do grad school someday...
Other thoughts… (I realize I’m pretty much just spitting them out), China is still great and I'm learning so much about life every day... from teaching to being a stranger in a foreign place to just seeing His calling so directly lived out in my life—that he brought me to this place for a very specific purpose, one that's a joy to be living out. Keep thinking of me back home, specifically as I work to develop relationships, to love my students, and to serve him faithfully here. Lift up my daily time in the Word and in my interactions with my team, which are all going well so far. I'm eating good, need a haircut, learning a lot, and am excited about the next nine months here in Asia.
And I'm excited for my next episode of Lost. If you've watched it, please no spoilers.
Saturday we made a trip out to Huijia, another CTF school to visit two teams out there--both all-girl teams. We ate at this noodle place in this little Chinese village like I haven’t seen yet—a lot more like I pictured China. Very evident poverty. In China the income gap between the urban population and the rural is 5 times the international norm, and getting worse. Even the gov't acknowledges this as the country's biggest problem. In the restaurant, there were these two little barefoot, dirty kids crawling around on this dirty floor, but the place served the most amazing bread noodles I’ve ever had (not that I've had a lot of bread noodles, but if I'd had, these would've been the best). I’ll include a picture of Morgan—I call her Morgan because it said Morgan on her pants. She was a cutey.
We spent the afternoon with the gals, played the game Spoons with chopsticks, and even went bowling, yes, real bowling… they’re lucky enough to have a bowling alley on their campus. I bowled a 130 and a 135 and reached 33 km/h on the radar gun on each lane. Sweet feature. Then we climbed “Huijia Mountain,” a hill made of moved dirt behind their school that from the top you can see Beijing and the TV tower just a couple kilometers from my school—very cool. Side note: I’m not turning metric on you over here, I realize that was my second reference in this paragraph alone, it’s just all I have to go on. Later in the evening we went out to this Russian restaurant and I got pizza--my first good pizza in China.
Sunday we went to fellowship and returned home where I began watching the first season of the TV show Lost. I am officially hooked. I’m through five episodes by now, but believe me it’d be more if the tape I borrowed wasn’t just episodes 1-5. I'd heard so much good stuff and it was all true. Reminds me so much of our own "Beastie," 404. Sunday night was also Mid-Autumn Festival Day, a holiday here in China where pretty much you go outside, look at the full moon, recite this ancient poem, think fondly of your hometown and eat a mooncake (this completely disgusting dessert). I went outside, recited a really bad paraphrase of the poem in English, thought fondly of my hometown, and went back inside. A joyous celebration indeed.
Monday I taught, fairly successfully, and caught a cold.
Tuesday I sniffled all day, took some drugs (they helped), and sat in on a 2-hour Chinese history lecture (by an ELI lady, in English) that was really fascinating. I realized how much I’m missing intellectual stimulation and this class was a big help in that regard. The Kindergarten building, while stimulating in many ways, does nothing for my brain still used to essays and lectures. I never realized how much college got into me until tonight when it felt like night class and I was on the edge of my seat. Makes me wonder if I couldn’t do grad school someday...
Other thoughts… (I realize I’m pretty much just spitting them out), China is still great and I'm learning so much about life every day... from teaching to being a stranger in a foreign place to just seeing His calling so directly lived out in my life—that he brought me to this place for a very specific purpose, one that's a joy to be living out. Keep thinking of me back home, specifically as I work to develop relationships, to love my students, and to serve him faithfully here. Lift up my daily time in the Word and in my interactions with my team, which are all going well so far. I'm eating good, need a haircut, learning a lot, and am excited about the next nine months here in Asia.
And I'm excited for my next episode of Lost. If you've watched it, please no spoilers.
September 19, 2005
Tug of war
More coming, but here's a link for now (this is my school's web page). Scroll down and check out the crazy tug of war action.
http://www.21ces.com.cn/Get/xiaoyuanxinwen/001815358.htm (Thanks for the heads up, anonymous.)
http://www.21ces.com.cn/Get/xiaoyuanxinwen/001815358.htm (Thanks for the heads up, anonymous.)
September 15, 2005
Zangus
I think we all know and love Brandon Zangus, so (sorry Zeke), I had to include the text of this email I got from him this morning. It read, simply:
Does this work?
Yeah, Brandon, it works. Love ya, man.
Does this work?
Yeah, Brandon, it works. Love ya, man.
Rain
It's raining in Beijing! Reasons why I'm happy about that:
1. It reminds me of home.
2. Fall is coming.
3. I like rain (especially at night).
4. Bike jackets. I wish I had a picture to show you... they're the coolest things. Sort of like parkas that cover your bike as well. Everyone in China has them and they're amazing.
5. A rainy day in Beijing is almost always followed by a "blue sky" day, thanks to the rain clearing all the... stuff... out of the sky. And believe me, there is a lot of stuff. So a clear, sunny day tomorrow would be awesome--a great start to the weekend.
Today was a good day. My classes went pretty well... Kindergarteners love to draw, handing them a piece of paper and a crayon is like a free ticket for a relatively quiet 40 minutes. I definitely recommend it. Anyway, today we colored the classroom objects we've been learning this week, for example:
Myself: First, class, we will color the scissors.
Class: SCISSORS!!
Then they color.
See, it's pretty simple :) Tomorrow should be more of the same, although one of my cooperating teacher's requested a story, so I'm thinking Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but we'll see. Also, tomorrow at lunchtime we foreign teachers are planning a get-together to say hello to the Chinese English teachers we'll be working alongside for the year. Hopefully that'll be a fun time, and it oughta be for sure if my "blue sky" prediction holds true.
Saturday we're travelling to another CTF school in Beijing called Huija that has two teams, who we'll hang out with for the weekend. Rumor has it they have a bowling alley on campus... I hope this rumor is true. It's looking like I might travel over October holiday (first week in Oct.), maybe to a city called Taiyuan to meet some other CTFers and then on to X'ian, the ancient capital where they dug up the terra cota (sp?) warriors a few year's back.
Seriously, it's a beautiful night here--so peaceful and blue. Mellow. Rain is awesome. I'm gonna go back to enjoying it.
1. It reminds me of home.
2. Fall is coming.
3. I like rain (especially at night).
4. Bike jackets. I wish I had a picture to show you... they're the coolest things. Sort of like parkas that cover your bike as well. Everyone in China has them and they're amazing.
5. A rainy day in Beijing is almost always followed by a "blue sky" day, thanks to the rain clearing all the... stuff... out of the sky. And believe me, there is a lot of stuff. So a clear, sunny day tomorrow would be awesome--a great start to the weekend.
Today was a good day. My classes went pretty well... Kindergarteners love to draw, handing them a piece of paper and a crayon is like a free ticket for a relatively quiet 40 minutes. I definitely recommend it. Anyway, today we colored the classroom objects we've been learning this week, for example:
Myself: First, class, we will color the scissors.
Class: SCISSORS!!
Then they color.
See, it's pretty simple :) Tomorrow should be more of the same, although one of my cooperating teacher's requested a story, so I'm thinking Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but we'll see. Also, tomorrow at lunchtime we foreign teachers are planning a get-together to say hello to the Chinese English teachers we'll be working alongside for the year. Hopefully that'll be a fun time, and it oughta be for sure if my "blue sky" prediction holds true.
Saturday we're travelling to another CTF school in Beijing called Huija that has two teams, who we'll hang out with for the weekend. Rumor has it they have a bowling alley on campus... I hope this rumor is true. It's looking like I might travel over October holiday (first week in Oct.), maybe to a city called Taiyuan to meet some other CTFers and then on to X'ian, the ancient capital where they dug up the terra cota (sp?) warriors a few year's back.
Seriously, it's a beautiful night here--so peaceful and blue. Mellow. Rain is awesome. I'm gonna go back to enjoying it.
September 12, 2005
Hello Mr. Ju-on
So apparently this blog is pretty popular because I'm sure hearing it for not posting for a while. I have a job over here, people! No, I'm just kidding--I really do want to keep up with it more, and hopefully I will. Teaching has been going well... no more cryers, and on Friday I even got some hugs. The kids continue to be a big encouragement.
Typical Kindergarten conversation as occurred today between myself and a really adorable little girl named Rhoda:
Rhoda: HELLO MR. JU-ON!
Myself: Hello, how are you?
Rhoda (after a long pause and a confused stare): RHODA!!
Myself: Hi Rhoda, where are you going?
Rhoda (triumphantly): I'm going to the bathroom!
Myself: Okay, see you later.
Rhoda: See you later Mr. Ju-on!
So cute. Along with my Kindygartners, one of my favorite things over here so far is this park that surrounds a 700-year old pagoda, maybe five or six stories tall, just down the road from my school and apartment. It’s sort of like a hidden treasure of our neighborhood—there and back is maybe a 45-minute walk that takes you down a “real China street”—one with all the smells and sights you could ever want. On the way back from the park the other night we passed a group of maybe forty middle-aged women performing a fan dance with traditional Chinese instruments accompanying them. Crazy cool.
Currently I'm wirelessly connected to the world wide web--in my apartment--a new feature which has me pretty stoked. An ELI person living next door set it up and doesn't mind if I use it as well. Rad and a half.
Let's see, pictures... the first is from the Botanical Gardens, this place our school took us to as a special Teacher's Day outing this past Saturday. It was nice but the trip also began at 7 a.m.--a little too early for me to take many pictures, but this was one cool one. The statue isn't Confucius as I hoped, some famous Beijing writer instead. The second is back from training--the girl in the picture (Brae) just sent it to me. I bought that sweet shirt in Qinhuangdao, and she had the same one from the Gap in the states. So we decided to, as the Chinese would say, "make a photo." Buying t-shirts could very well occupy a lot of my time over here. I'm currently wearing a really cool Mao t-shirt--he's in the middle of a golden sun with his magnificent Mao rays shining down on smiling communist workers.
China is great. Hope you're all well at home, and I'll try to post again soon. By the way, I've gotten all the comments people have posted on here... thanks for them! Take care and long live Chairman Mao!
Typical Kindergarten conversation as occurred today between myself and a really adorable little girl named Rhoda:
Rhoda: HELLO MR. JU-ON!
Myself: Hello, how are you?
Rhoda (after a long pause and a confused stare): RHODA!!
Myself: Hi Rhoda, where are you going?
Rhoda (triumphantly): I'm going to the bathroom!
Myself: Okay, see you later.
Rhoda: See you later Mr. Ju-on!
So cute. Along with my Kindygartners, one of my favorite things over here so far is this park that surrounds a 700-year old pagoda, maybe five or six stories tall, just down the road from my school and apartment. It’s sort of like a hidden treasure of our neighborhood—there and back is maybe a 45-minute walk that takes you down a “real China street”—one with all the smells and sights you could ever want. On the way back from the park the other night we passed a group of maybe forty middle-aged women performing a fan dance with traditional Chinese instruments accompanying them. Crazy cool.
Currently I'm wirelessly connected to the world wide web--in my apartment--a new feature which has me pretty stoked. An ELI person living next door set it up and doesn't mind if I use it as well. Rad and a half.
Let's see, pictures... the first is from the Botanical Gardens, this place our school took us to as a special Teacher's Day outing this past Saturday. It was nice but the trip also began at 7 a.m.--a little too early for me to take many pictures, but this was one cool one. The statue isn't Confucius as I hoped, some famous Beijing writer instead. The second is back from training--the girl in the picture (Brae) just sent it to me. I bought that sweet shirt in Qinhuangdao, and she had the same one from the Gap in the states. So we decided to, as the Chinese would say, "make a photo." Buying t-shirts could very well occupy a lot of my time over here. I'm currently wearing a really cool Mao t-shirt--he's in the middle of a golden sun with his magnificent Mao rays shining down on smiling communist workers.
China is great. Hope you're all well at home, and I'll try to post again soon. By the way, I've gotten all the comments people have posted on here... thanks for them! Take care and long live Chairman Mao!
September 5, 2005
Day one and done
Today was the beginning of what looks to be the CRAZIEST year of my life. So far so good, although teaching Kindergarteners is just plain nuts--bear in mind they don't speak English and I don't speak Chinese... so you can imagine the craziness that ensued, and looks to ensue on a daily basis. Thankfully I only made one boy cry. I asked him harmlessly (I thought), "What's your name?" Apparently he interpreted that as something very sinister and didn't appreciate my hostile advances. So he cried. A Chinese teacher in the room with me swooped in to the rescue, otherwise my feeble "Don't cry, it's ok" made have been interpreted as something even more worthy of a good cry. Sometimes, though, you just gotta let it out, ya know? Don't worry too much for me, though, most students speak more English than not, and they are all super cute--even when they're crying. Hopefully I'll have some pictures of the munchkins sooner than later.
By the way, I still don't know the boy's name :)
China, as you can see, is the Official Land of Unintentional Comedy. Everywhere you look there's some "Chinglish" gracing some sign somewhere that makes me chuckle. This is one of my favorites so far, found inside a grocery store that was trying to tell me they're open all the time. I got it, but it still made me sad.
Beijing so far is amazing. A dynamic, international city that is modernizing by leaps and bounds. Everything you could ever want is here... except maybe for three rivers, a couple of inclines, and Primanti Bros. Say hi to Pittsburgh for me, and I hope all is well.
By the way, I still don't know the boy's name :)
China, as you can see, is the Official Land of Unintentional Comedy. Everywhere you look there's some "Chinglish" gracing some sign somewhere that makes me chuckle. This is one of my favorites so far, found inside a grocery store that was trying to tell me they're open all the time. I got it, but it still made me sad.
Beijing so far is amazing. A dynamic, international city that is modernizing by leaps and bounds. Everything you could ever want is here... except maybe for three rivers, a couple of inclines, and Primanti Bros. Say hi to Pittsburgh for me, and I hope all is well.
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