Hot-Pot Lunch

After leaving the lecture and escaping the storm of students wanting to take pictures, I was treated to lunch: 火锅 Hot-Pot. I am not sure if I have described this type of dinner before, but in case I haven’t I will do it again. I also think this would be a great opportunity to discuss some of the differences in Chinese dinner etiquette and traditional meal customs.

First, let me describe the meal.  火锅 Hot Pot it a traditional Chinese eating method where there is either one large hot pot of soup placed in the center of the table or many small/ individual pots of soup placed in front of every person at the table. ---These said tables are either in a general dining room of the restaurant, or for more privileged guests, in private rooms on the second floor of the restaurant.--- Under each pot is some sort of heating mechanism. Some restaurants have gas, others have electric induction burners. The soup in the pot is not really soup, but rather water with various spices. I prefer to have mine medium spicy. Next, the guests order from the menu the food that they would like to cook. Various meats as well as vegetables, fungi and noodles are the typical choices. Once the soup is hot, the servers will bring out the raw meat first. This meat is sliced very thin.

At this particular restaurant we had individual pots with electric induction heat. Every person would choose the food that they liked and add it to their pot. After a short time, the meat would be cooked and could be plucked out with chopsticks and eaten directly or dipped into sesame sauce first. Later the vegetables and fungi would come and the same procedure as the meat would be repeated: add, wait, dip, and eat. Finally, the noodles would be brought out and allowed to cook in the soup. By this time, the water has absorbed the flavors from the meat and the vegetables and the noodles are quite tasty. In all, this whole procedure, combined with socializing and drinking, takes up to 2 hours.

On top of the actual cooking procedures, there are several cultural considerations to also be considered. There is tremendous focus put upon the head host and the “honored guest.” In our case, the host was the headmaster of the school and I was the “honored guest.”

Seating: at a round table in a private room, the seat of honor is the one facing the door. This seat is normally reserved for the most important person at the table or in the case of having a guest: for the guest. I was aware of this custom, but we had arrived before the headmaster and I was instructed to sit down first. However, I was not informed where to sit down. I did not want to be presumptuous and assume that I was the most important person at the table, so I humbly chose a seat at the side of the table. When the headmaster came, he had me stand and move to the seat of honor. He then sat down directly to my right, a position of equality. This was the first, and probably last, time that this had happened to me. I was greatly honored.

Eating order/Hospitality/serving the guest: Traditionally in China, the most important person or guest always eats first, or is served first. Since most meals, especially hot pot, are served family style, this means that the food goes to this person first. In the case of having a guest, the host will actually put the food onto the plate of the guest. With hot pot, this means that the headmaster began by loading generous portions of meat into the simmering spicy liquid in front of me. This is not a one-time thing either. If the guest seems to have finished or neared finishing the things on his plate, then the host will add more. For me, as I pulled the cooked meat from my pot, the headmaster immediately added more! In all, Chinese people are very generous and gracious hosts.

Toasting/Drinking: Alcohol is a traditional staple of all official Chinese dinners. Usually this means 白酒 Bai Jiu (often translated as “white wine” but it IS NOT WHITE WINE!!! I cannot stress this enough! Bai Jiu is more like really bad and cheap vodka with a bit of an anise/black licorice flavoring. I is also about 50% ABV, stronger than most liquors in the states) Consequently, I told my hosts that I do not drink Bai Jiu, and that I prefer beer. After the cups are all filled, the toasting starts. First the host (headmaster) gave a toast and then we all say 干杯 gan- bei which people tell me means cheers, but is directly translated as dry cup and I think it would be more close to the English: bottom’s up. More toasts follow throughout the meal.

Also, it is polite for the host to never let the guest’s cup become empty. So, he would often top off my glass even after I took a small sip or two. This, combined with the continuous toasting, can lead to quite a lot of alcohol consumption. Fortunately, the alcohol percentage in Chinese beer is about half that of American beers: about 2.5%. Unfortunately, this extremely light beer goes right through me.

In general, this was a wonderful meal and I really like hot pot! It was a great end to a good weekend. After finishing the meal, we got back in the car and headed back to Kaifeng. We did, however, get lost no less than 3 times on the way back…

Saturday's lesson

We arrived at the school at almost exactly 9 AM. The car pulled up to a lot in the campus of the school, and there were already many students, ranging from 12 to 17 waiting outside for me to arrive. I should probably mention that the vast majority of these people had never seen, much less had the opportunity to speak to a foreigner before. As I got out of the car, the teacher told me that I should go up to them and attempt to communicate. I approached a small group of students, who were all visibly shy and nervous, and said good morning. Before they had a real chance to reply or engage in dialogue, a girl comes running and screaming across the lawn. She runs right up to me and shouts “Hello!” I respond only “Hi, good morning.” She immediately shouts back “I really like you!” I said “Wow! I really like you too!? --- How old are you?” “Uh, Uh, 十四um, uh fourteen!” I smile and complement her on her English and her courage to come and talk to me. No sooner, I am whisked away into the school and brought to the room where I will give my lecture.Following the teachers and administers, I navigate through the wide hallways and up four flights of stairs on the way to the room, all the way I am tailed by a sea of eager dark haired pupils chatting nervously and excitedly. I turned around a few times on the way just to smile and admire my shy audience.

This classroom was bigger than the one the night before and more and more students were packed in. I think, realistically, closer to 250 people overfilled the space. The seats were quickly occupied and only standing room remained, but was soon also taken up. I began my lecture talking about and showing pictures of my hometown, Akron ---I call this my hometown when I am away from Ohio, because North Georgetown just doesn’t seem to cut it---. It soon became apparent that I was not going to be able to speak above this large crowd without the help of a microphone. So, the speaker system was set up and I was handed a mic.

It took about 20 minutes to tell about my home but then I encouraged students to ask me questions again. Since this was a new group of students, some of the questions were the same, but I was pleasantly surprised and pleased with the wonderful questions that these students asked. My favorite this time, was a student asked me about the political relationship between China and the US. Being right up my alley, I was overjoyed at this question… However, I was careful to answer it in the least political manner and still be honest at the same time. I said “that for the benefit of China and America, as well as the rest of the world, it is best for our two countries to engage in a friendly relationship of mutual respect and transparent engagement.” This statement of course had to be translated. Although, this could definitely be a sugarcoated answer from me, it still reflects my ideas and still seemed to placate the teachers and officials that were listening.

After the first round of questions, I talked a bit about the major holidays in America: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and the Fourth of July. I talked about the origins, the tradition celebrations and then my own personal celebrations. This also took up about 20- 30 minutes and was followed by a shorter round of questions. Then I  concluded by talking about my lifestyle as a high school student in America. The students and teachers were surprised and shocked by this. In China, the students’ sole purpose is to study. There is no chance for the students to participate in sports or extracurricular activities, much less have a part time job. Students are at school from 7 AM to about 7 PM and often study until 11 PM in order to complete all of their assignments.

After about two and a half hours of talking, I had become quite tired and I think this became apparent to the teachers who said that we would wrap up there. However, it was not really over. When the students were dismissed, some came up to ask if they could take a picture with me. Others asked me to sign my name and leave them an inspirational message. When the rest of the students saw this happening, they immediately thought it was a great idea, so for the next 20 minutes, I signed innumerably autographs and posed for countless pictures. Being foreign in China, especially rural China, is a strange kind of celebrity. My only claim to fame is that I am different: White. To my credit, however, I do have a heroic beard and a shiny bald head which makes me that much more interesting to look at. 

The dam and breakfast

I woke up at 6 AM the next morning and took a particularly disappointing cold shower… Lance stayed with me (separate beds, don’t get too excited!) and we went to meet his uncle at 7. Before going to the school that morning, he wanted to take me to see some things in the city. Wugang has a giant and beautiful reservoir flanked and backed by picturesque mountains. Unfortunately, there was a great amount of fog on the lake that morning and we were unable to see across. The air was cool and clean, however, and I did not mind that we couldn’t see across. Actually it was strange to see the body of water like this. Because of the fog, the water seemed endless and appeared as if it could be the banks of an ocean.  After standing at the shore for a few moments, we proceeded to the dam, several kilometers down the road. Lance and his uncle were pleased because the damn was open and was letting water out! They said that this rarely happened (maybe 2 days per year) and that we were privileged to be able to see it. I have to admit it was pretty cool!

By this time, it was about 7:30 and we were all getting hungry… Lance wanted to go to his parent’s house for breakfast! So we began to drive out of the city and into the country side and into the small village. I was really happy about this because I had wanted to check out a farm-style house since I arrived in China and this was my first chance. In China, the countryside is not like that in America. Instead of being spread out like our farmers who tend their own vast fields with modern machinery, those in China live together in clustered villages and the farmers go out to tend the fields mostly by hand. The houses are all made of brick and are all relatively small…

Going through this village, it occurred to me that in all likelihood, I was probably the only foreigner to ever set foot on these stone and dirt paths. I feeling of pride and privilege welled up inside of me and I happily waved the many smiling faces that stared at me with such curiosity. After walking through some back streets and small paths, lined with drying corn stalks and dodging chickens the whole way, we arrived at Lance’s home at the edge of the village.

His parents were happy to see me and they escorted me into the “living room,” where I was encouraged to sit down while they prepared the remainder of breakfast. Lance’s father, who speaks no English and an incomprehensible Chinese dialect, pealed an apple for me and proudly pointed out the wall behind me which was plastered with the awards and accomplishments of their son, my student. I checked them out for a bit then was beckoned back to my seat as the father handed me the apple. At this time, the grandfather limped into the room. He might have been the happiest man that I have ever seen; he grinned as he extended his hand to me and smiled even brighter as I shook it.

Not long after, breakfast was brought into the room: homemade dumplings and steamed bread. The dumplings were delicious and I heartily enjoyed them. My hosts, in traditional Chinese fashion, continued to fill my bowl with more and more dumplings. I, in traditional mid-western American fashion, politely smiled as I attempted to clean my plate. Although the breakfast was delicious, I ate entirely too much and had to eventually refuse their attempts to keep feeding me. I do think that they were pleased that I enjoyed so much.

Before I left, they presented me with a gift: a bag full of raw peanuts. The gift in and of itself was stranfe, but what was even more peculiar was the bag in which they presented it to me: a Summit Racing bag from Tallmadge, Ohio. I have absolutely no idea how this humble family of peasant farmers would have happened upon this bag, but it was certainly surprising. I unsuccessfully tried to explain that the company was near my hometown and then inquire as to how they got it, but I think the message was lost. It was about this time, that grandma made her first appearance. Like her aging husband (they are both approaching 90), she was also pleased to see me. She wasn’t impressed by the fact that I was foreign as much as the fact that I had a beard! We all gathered together for a picture and then we went on our way. (I am in the process of obtaining these pictures)

The first night

When we finally arrived in Wugang around 5 PM (2 hours later than originally expected), the first thing we did was to take pictures in front of the large city sign that read 舞钢欢迎您! (Wugang Welcomes You). Although pictures usually are not my favorite thing to do, I was not annoyed this time as the surroundings were quite beautiful and a pleasant change from Kaifeng.

---The teacher had informed me on the way to the city that we would be going to the high school that evening. He would give an English lecture to his students, I would be asked to participate in the lecture, then invited to make comments at the end of the lesson critiquing his teaching style, ability and English proficiency. The reason for all of the formality was because the local news station was going to be there, along with all the heads of the school. Before the talk, the uncle told me that he would like me to critique him on style, design, confidence and ability. He also said that I should say “good things” as to give him “confidence in front of his students.” I thought that this would go without saying, but I felt a little strange being told that I should say good things. Therefore, going into this I was a little uncomfortable that I all but had words put into my mouth. ---

After the picture-taking session, we proceeded into the city, which was as beautiful as the surrounding countryside. Strangely enough, the thing that I was most pleased about was that the city was NOT FLAT! There were hills and valleys! It’s strange the things that you will miss about home. I hadn’t realized how much I missed hills until I saw them again. Living in Kaifeng has been the longest I have ever gone without seeing real hills!!! --- It’s like the Kansas of Central China---

More than 100 students and teachers as well as the news staff attended the lecture that evening. To my delight, the teacher giving the lesson was quite excellent! He used English throughout the entire lecture, only reverting to Chinese to make sure that the students understood the definitions of new words. He also went outside of the textbook and used multi-media AND he encouraged lots and lots of student participation. A feature that I found particularly striking is that he not only asked students to provide answers, but also asked them to vocalize and support their opinions. (A feature, that I had assumed was dead in Chinese education--- I am still informed that his teaching style is more than nonconventional)

He asked me to join him in a part of his lecture where he had the students guess a new word from the lecture based on its definition. I provided the definition. The students did quite well and were able to follow almost all of what I said. After the lecture, I was indeed invited to critique the teacher’s performance. Because of the quality of the lecture, I was able to give my honest opinion and not feel guilty about regurgitating the words that he put into my mouth… I complemented him, but he wanted me to tell him something that he did wrong… I told him that maybe he could organize the students into groups and encourage them to speak and discuss answers within groups. This way they would get more practice with speaking to each other and not just answering the teacher’s questions in English. He seemed to be quite pleased with this answer.

When the lecture was over, I was informed that there was still time remaining and I was allowed to open the floor for questions… This was by far my favorite part! At first the students were very shy with only one or two students brave enough to ask questions. Then they finally warmed up and asked me questions about my home, my life, my ideas and my hobbies and the like for the better part of an hour! (this time flew by because the students kept it interesting) I think my favorite question was by a boy in the back that stood up and bravely, and nonchalantly asked “What do you think of Chinese girls?” with the most serious look on his face. Immediately, the whole room burst into laughter, as did I! I thought for a minute about what kind of satisfactory and flattering answer I could give without being too provocative or too uncomplimentary. I finally decided to say that “Chinese girls are kind, friendly and thoughtful.” I really hoped that this would make them all happy. I think it did, but I could tell that boy that asked the question had a different idea in mind (he wanted me to comment on appearance). However, instead of allowing him to prod any deeper, I turned the question back on him and said, “Now, what do YOU think of AMERICAN girls?” The classroom was once again filled with laughter and applause! Everyone was satisfied with this question, but I could tell that this caught him more than a little off guard. Without much delay, however, he quickly responded “American girls are all tall strong and brave.” I told him that I would carry that message back to the states with me!

After everyone had left the classroom, many of the students came up to greet me and take a few pictures with me… Not too long after, I was approached by the reporter and her camera man and asked to make a few comments. She wanted me to speak in Chinese. But, still unable to adequately communicate in this language, I opted to comment in English and allow Lance to translate. I simply said “I am happy to have this opportunity to visit your city and meet with the capable teachers and eager students.” I was not sure at that time whether or not or when this story would air, but I got a text from the teacher later in the week saying that I had been featured on both the local morning and evening news!

By the time we left the school it was already after 9 o’clock! I was exhausted! On the way back to the hotel, however, I was informed, for the first time, that I would be required to give a 3 hour lecture the next day on American Culture and lifestyle… I stayed up for an hour in the hotel trying to think about what I could possible talk about for three hours, and finally decided a few things and opted to wing the rest… 

The trip to 舞钢Wugang

***These next several blogs will be about/related to my weekend trip to the high school in 舞钢 (Wu-gang literally translated: dancing steel)

It was decided that I would meet my student at noon on Friday and we would go together to his city. His uncle was going to pick us up in a car and drive us to the city. The journey there was strange from the first moment. On my way to the south gate --- our designated meeting spot--- I received a phone call from Lance (the student) who told me that he was on his way and he would meet me in a moment. This was not a problem, I had my iPod and the weather was not unbearable, so I was content having a few moments to myself while I waited. Lance showed up after a song or two only to inform me that his uncle had gotten lost on the way and that he was currently on his way from 郑州 (Zhengzhou), the provincial capital- about an hour away.

Being the flexible guy that I am, I said “Hey, no problem! We’ll just go get lunch while we are waiting!” In traditional Chinese style, Lance suggested that we go to a fancy, and thereby expensive restaurant, because he was going to treat me to meal. I really wasn’t in the mood for a large or fancy meal, so I suggested that we simply go to one of the small (and cheap) restaurants that are plentiful outside of the south gate. Unable to adequately phrase his objection in English, Lance reluctantly and awkwardly agreed. The lunch was simple, but I think I threw him off a bit, because while he stepped out to take his uncle’s phone call, I paid for the bill- 15RMB (about $2.50). He was shocked and insisted on paying me back. I was going to have nothing of it…

As we stepped out of the restaurant Lance told me that his uncle was unfamiliar with the city and without a GPS and detailed directions was unable to come meet us at campus and therefore was waiting for us on the other side of the city. We would have to take a bus over there to meet them… A bus and a short taxi ride later (Lance himself got lost, but was redirected by me) we finally met up with his uncle on the west side of Kaifeng… He was a very eager man and from the phone call that I had received only a few days before, he was exactly as I expected. Although he was happy to meet me, I got the feeling he was more interested in talking in English and asking me about words than actually listening to things I had to say, a quirk that became quite irritating by the end of the trip.

Finally, by 2 o’clock ---two hours after our original departure time—we were on the road. Judging by the number of times we got lost on the way there, you would never have been able to guess that they had just come from our destination… Still, this did not bother me as I was happy to be able to get out of Kaifeng and see new places… As we left the city, the haze that is ever-present in Chinese cities began to give way to blue skies and the cluttered urban streets to farmland.  

As I looked out the window, I appreciated the sights that reminded me of home: fields and trees… Although the fields were flat and mostly tended by hand, they would be indistinguishable from ones found in the states. As I began to pay more attention to the trees, however, a strange thing became apparent to me: all of these trees are all the same relative size and in perfect rows. I asked my host about this and he informed me that all of these trees had been planted some years back to prevent soil erosion. This does not seem that strange of an idea, but it is the vast scale on which these trees were planted that is shocking… All of the trees were planted like this: entire forests, for miles upon miles. What would at first glance appear to be a nature grove of trees was just one of the countless deliberately planted and carefully tended (according to my host) stands that dotted the countryside… I know it seems simple, but it left a strange and lasting impression on me.

The speech competition

Earlier last week, (short) Ben approached me and asked me if I would be interested in joining him to judge an English speech competition. The college of economics (at the new campus) was holding a speech competition and they wanted to have two foreign teachers as judges. I thought that this would be great fun and immediately agreed to go. Our contact for this event was a boy named Ke, who I first met last year through the Akron-Kaifeng forum that I participated in while back in the states. I have had met him once since arriving in China, but had not kept in contact...
Ke met us at the new campus as he came to join us in our Thursday afternoon game of Frisbee. Afterwords he ordered a cab for us to go to the new campus. I suggested to Ben that we take this thing seriously and put our suits on. (actually it was just an excuse to wear the suit that I had gone through so much trouble to bring, but had no opportunity to wear) Anyway, Ben, Ke, and I go to the new campus to judge this speech competition.

we were ushered into the large classroom where the competition was to occur and we were automatically greeted with a standing ovation. we proceeded to the judging table where a bottle of water, a pen and the evaluation sheets were awaiting us. Having received no instructions for how to actually judge this competition, Ben and I spent the waning minutes leading up to the competition trying to decipher the evaluation sheets that were primarily written in Chinese, but included awkward English translations. Unable to figure it out with complete certainty, we opted to discuss the scores between contestants and try at least to have uniform evaluations.

There were three parts to this competition: The speech, the question section and the talent section. There were a total of 9 contestants, broken into groups of three. Each one of the three would go on the stage and give their speech, then all three would come up and be asked one question each by the judges. (We didn't understand that we were to be the ones asking questions until the microphone was thrust at us in the beginning of this segment) We both managed to ask fairly intelegent, if not extremely difficult, questions. One of the girls gave a speech about the importance of following your dreams and cited Arnold Schwarzenegger as an example. My question, in more or less words, was "given the recent news of a Arnold's long-term affair producing an illegitimate love child, should he still be used as a role model?" I was surprised that she was able to understand it, let alone give a satisfactory answer: "we all make mistakes, but we can use his achievements as an example and not look to model his lifestyle."

This process was repeated two more times for the remaining 6 contestants. The speech portion was worth 40 points and the question section was 20. Finally, the talent section, worth 40 points, was upon us. Being an English competition, I was not actually sure what to expect with this "talent portion" I expected English singing and poetry and the like, but was pleasantly surprised to see a variety of acts including Soprano Sax, Piano, dancing, singing and English story telling!

The winner was a boy who gave a speech on English as the International language and for the talent told a tragic story about how gays are repressed in China. His English was near flawless and his dramatic story telling skills definitely stole the show.

Ben and I were asked to award the prizes and after the competition, we posed for photos and talked with the contestants, teachers and hosts. In all this was another great experience. Afterwords we told Ke that if he heard of any other competitions, that we would be more than happy to judge again

A phone call and a strange proposition

The other day when I was at English corner, I got a phone call from an unknown number. This being at about 9 o’clock PM, I assumed that it was probably Anissa, who would be getting ready for her day, and I answered by phone by saying “Good morning dear, how are you?” To my surprise a male voice spoke back to me saying “Good evening is this Adam?” I said “Yes, can I help you?” This man, who I by this time had determined was probably not a student, proceeded to tell me that he was an English teacher in a city called Wugang and that his nephew, one of my students, had approached me to ask if I was interested in going to his school to give a lecture. The purpose of the call was to determine my answer.

Unfortunately, I did not remember being approached by anyone asking me to go to their school to give a lecture. I tried to politely tell this to the man on the phone without telling him that he might be mistaken, but the conversation had already taken an awkward turn as he began complementing me on how natural my spoken English sounded. At this point it became obvious that this man, although he is an English teacher, had never spoken to a foreigner before. He told me how meaningful it would be if I could go to the school and talk to and meet with the students. I have to admit he was quite persuasive, but I was a little turned off by the fact that the school is a three-hour drive away from Kaifeng. I ended the conversation by telling him that I would talk to his nephew about it and make my final decision as soon as we had discussed the details.

To make a long story short, I talked to the student and decided to go. I have been staying in Kaifeng the entire time that I have been here. I have spent every night in this apartment. It was time for me to get out and see another city. this would be a great (paid) opportunity to do it! This trip will be described in forthcoming blog posts.

William’s bike accident, and the lottery

Several days ago, William was having a bad day. He said "Nothing seems to be going well for me today. Its just been an awful day." He was telling us this as we were walking to dinner across the street. Little did any of us know at that time, but it was about to get worse. In previous blogs, I may have described the craziness that is the traffic in this city: cabs, bicycles, cars, trucks, motorcycles, pedestrians and buses all trying to use the same street. there are no rules. no lines. no traffic lights. no stop sights. just chaos. On this day, the traffic was no lighter than normal as we attempted our everyday death-walk across the street outside of south-gate. "stop, look and listen" is a bit of an understatement when it comes to crossing the street in this country. "Duck, dodge and dive" is probably a better description of what needs to happen. Anyway, as we were crossing the street, a small woman on an e-bike swerved to avoid hitting me (a good choice, who do you think would have been more damaged by that?) and instead clipped William's leg. He cussed and limped off the road and we proceeded to dinner where all of our food arrived on time. All except William's.

During dinner, (short) Ben said to me "Hey, haven't you been wanting to go check out that lottery place down the street?" I said "Yup!" Will chimed in "I'll go too, my luck can't get any worse!" so we walked a block down the street and found two small shops that Ben informed us were "for the lottery" one was the "sports lottery" and the other was the "welfare lottery" (named after where the revenue goes). Ben said that we should support sports, and I said "Yeah, why not."

This was definitely an experience worth describing. As we approached the slitted sheet of plastic, that often serves as a door here, a man, not able to see out, opens the slit and spits a great loogie on the ground in front of us. This might have made the fainthearted turn around, but we were determined to go inside and buy some scratch off tickets. Upon entering we were immediately greeted by an older gentleman who said "Good evening, how may I help you?" in perfect unaccented English. This of course shocked us, and we later found out that he had been a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan some years back. This was quite unexpected. We bought our tickets. Ben and I each bought a 5 Yuan scratcher (about 80 cents) and William took my advice and bought a strip of Five 2 Yuan scratchers. Ben scratched first and won 20 yuan! I went next and lost... But then William scratched his 5 tickets and the one in the middle was an 80 yuan winner! his luck had finally changed! Although I had lost, we were all quite pleased. We walked into the lotto-shop and spent 20 Yuan (less than 3 USD) and come out with 100 (closer to 20 USD)! what a great time.

On the way home we joked that William should have more bad days so that we could play the lottery more often. I even went as far as to volunteer to run over him with my own bike.

the ultimate frisbee accident

As mentioned in yesterday's post, we have been playing frisbee on a weekly basis. between the organized competitions, we often like to just toss the frisbee around near our apartments, which you can see from earlier pictures have several obstacles including trees and buildings. These obstacles had been fun to throw around and we would make jokes when the disk got caught in the tree and call it "tree-fense" (a play on words from defense- in case you didn't catch the joke) Recently however, the tree turned a little offensive and decided to redirect the disk into Will's eye. I threw a hard, fast one to him and he attempted to catch it, but at the last second when he tried to grasp it, it nick the tree and got redirected into his eye! Instantly, his eye swelled in a greyish-brown puffball about the size of my pinky finger!

What does Adam have cold in his room that might reduce some swelling? Beer of course!

luckily I keep one in the freezer at all times

Yay the swelling has gone down

Ultimate Frisbee

I have no idea why I have waited three months to talk about Frisbee!!! We have been playing twice a week since I got here in August!
Before I came to China, (small) Ben informed me that they play a lot of ultimate frisbee in China, and that it might be a good idea to buy some professional frisbees to bring with us since they are difficult to find and expensive here... So, I found some on Amazon and bought a pack of six, not knowing at that time that I would be getting such great use from them.
Every Thursday and Sunday at 3:00 pm, we meet at the west athletic (most neglected) field on the opposite side of campus.All four of the foreign guys and several Chinese students show up every week to play a spirited game of ultimate frisbee, a game that one could describe as a mix between frisbee and American football. for more information check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_frisbee

This has been a great experience and through it I have been getting very good at throwing and catching the disk.. Also, I have a bi-weekly opportunity to run around and burn off some steam!

万仙山 the mountain of 10,000 immortals

2 weekends-ago I went on a trip with the group of Australian teachers that are here (Tim is one of them but the other 16 are all in their late 50's or early 60's) we ventured up to 万仙山 (Wan Xian Shan). This name is something close to the mountain of 10,000 immortals. Unfortunately, the weather was a bit overcast and we were unable to fully take in the beauty of our surroundings... when the clouds cleared for a moment, the view was indeed breathtaking! Here are a few pictures... 

the river running thought the middle of the park

A small peek of the peaks that were all around us... 

we knew that rock structures like this were all around us the whole day, but  due to the  heavy concentration of dew, we were unable to obtain decent visibility of more than about 100 yards... tragic 

the path winding around the cliff... pretty luxurious conditions for a hiking trail in a poor province

Toby, Our German friend. In his bag is a GOOD camera. As I am writing this blog, I have been texting him to pester him about getting some of those pictures.... hopefully there will be some good pictures forthcoming (he assures me that he can manipulate them to make them more clear...

the way down. Yes, it is as steep as it looks! and yes, it was wet!

Care (survival) Packages!

A week ago I got a long awaited package from home containing some awesome essentials including coffee and some American foods that I cannot get here. This package was from Anissa and my parents. To them I say thank you! the coffee itself has been a lifesaver and the microwave mac n cheese has been a delicious treat and a welcome change from my normally cheese-free Chinese diet. I plan on using some of the other ingredients when we prepare our thanksgiving meal next week!

This Monday I received another package: a total surprise: From my grandmother... Inside was a large slice of heave: homemade and very very delicious cookies! WHAT A TREAT! I couldn't help but immediately eat one or 4... But to save me from myself, I have resolved to share. The best way to do this is to save these treats until thanksgiving when the other foreigners can also enjoy them. I also will be able to have a little part of my family there with me on that day. Also in the box was a shirt that has to be one of the funniest I have ever seen.. Its black with white writing on it that says "there, their, they're not the same" The perfect shirt for an English teacher! I showed it to the other English teacher who all instantly became jealous! Thanks grandma for the wonderful and thoughtful gift!!!

Crazy Sunday Part Two: New Bikes

Preface: relevant background

Since adopting the bicycle that I found under the stairs of the neighboring apartment, I have continued to have several problems with it... First I replace the tires, then I replaced the seat, then the chain kept falling off. For a while it was falling off every time I rode it, I would fix it and then ride cautiously and pray that it would not fall off again. Finally one time when it came off, the chain snapped and came apart. So,,,, I had to go get the chain fixed... Then the peddle broke, I had it replaced, a week later, it broke again, I had it replaced... Finally when I thought I had everything in order, the chain started having problems... Needless to say, I have become quite sick of it... 

Since arriving, I have been going through withdrawal from not riding my motorcycle. Furthermore, I have been fascinated by the electric bicycles that many people are riding around. I thought, wow It would be cool to get one of those. In the back of my head for the last month or so, the desire to get an E-bike has been slowly growing! After discussing my desire to get an E-bike with Tim, he said "Heck Yes! Lets Do it!" so we did!

Crazy Sunday continued:

We left the hotel and jumped in another cab and headed to the new campus to meet with a friend of mine (Aaron), who had told me that he would help me buy an E-bike if I wanted to get one... After finding him we jumped on a bus and went to another part of the city where there is a street with about 10 E-bike shops right in a row... We did some shopping and found some bikes that we liked. Aaron was sure that he would be able to bargain the price down a little bit, but we would have to go through a little bit of theatrics first... We had to pretend that we were not interested and we had to pit two neighboring shops against each other.. After it was all said and done Aaron cut the price from 2200 RMB to 1800 (280 US) a savings of about 20%

Let me tell you... these things are cool! it is about the same size and style as a small bicycle, but in addition to peddles, it also has a battery. On battery power only, the bike can do a max speed of about 30 mph and go a range of about 25 miles on one charge!!!! it is easy to remove the battery and bring it in for charging or to simply plug it in while it is on the bike. --- It sure is a fun and convenient way to travel around the city. Since getting the bike, I have been riding around the city a bit more and checking things out... My only regret is that I did not get this baby the moment that I got here and that I waited 2 months before giving in to my desires!

Crazy Sunday Part One: Breakfast

For the past several weeks, Tim had been bugging me to go with him to the 5-star international hotel at the other side of the city to eat the continental breakfast buffet that he claimed was just excellent. Finally, last week I gave in and woke up at 7 (entirely too early for a Sunday) to go to check the place out... We took a cab to the hotel and the moment we got out, a doorman handed us a card. It had a number on it and it said in English and Chinese: this is your cab number and company, if you are dissatisfied with your service from the cab, please let us know and the hotel will complain on your behalf...

We walked through the revolving doors and into the immaculate lobby. Instantly the odors of a western breakfast filled my nostrils: sausage, potatoes, eggs and.... BACON!!!! Tim and I continued toward the smell and descended the winding staircase to the restaurant area where we were greeted in English and taken to our table. The dining area as beautiful... The one wall was completely glass that overlooked a garden with reflecting pools and flower arrangements. Beyond the garden lies a large lake..

the food itself was also stupendous! Everything that Tim had promised and more! He and I feasted on delicacies of meat, important cheese and western pastries and sipped juice and coffee for the better part of two hours before we finally had our fill. We paid the bill: 70 RMB per person (high for China but cheap for America: about 10 USD) and left the hotel where our day would become more and more interesting...

To be continued....

The International Band

Recently, I have been spending a lot of time with Tim, the Australian teacher from another department. I found out a few weeks ago that he plays guitar and that he is indeed pretty good. A few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to see for myself. Near new campus, we found a music shop that also has practice rooms in the back of the shop, in one of the rooms, there is a a complete band set-up including a drum set, amplifiers and microphones. Someone was practicing in there at that time, but we managed to convince them to let us come in and mess around for a little bit... I sat behind the drums and Tim picked up the guitar. Toby (the German), who was also there, picked up the bass. What happened next was magical... Tim fingers moved majestically and the intro of Sweet Child of Mine started blaring through the speakers.... I picked up and followed him and we rocked out for a few minutes. It had been almost 3 years since I played with a guitarist and the first time since Korea that I played with studio equipment. IT FELT GREAT...

To make a long story short, we have since resolved that we will start and an international band we already have an American, an Australian and a German, now all we need is a Chinese singer!!! I think that we are planning to play every Thursday and maybe prepare something to perform in the future!

Catch Up Time: Halloween Party

First of all, I would like to apologize for the massive lapse of time since my last my blog post.... I have been super busy lately (I will talk about this in later posts, that I will type now but schedule them for coming days) Right now I will catch you up with what has been going on in the meantime...

I believe that I left off with the lead-up to the Halloween party... Wow, that was more than two weeks ago! (Sorry) We had the party in the zoo behind my apartment. before the party, Ben and I strung some Christmas lights out of his window and looped them through the trees and around the fence... This was quite a difficult endeavor and actually took the better part of an hour to accomplish because of faulty strands and an accident with a strand being sliced in two by a slammed window.. (small) Ben's fault, not mine. (sorry Ben)

for the actual party we each decided that we would invite only 4 Chinese in order to keep the number low and manageable. This worked out pretty well and we had about 40 in attendance. The teachers were the only ones that took the idea of costumes seriously and most of the students showed up with only masks. For party activities it was decided that each person would take charge of one game or 'event.' We had bobbing for apples, pin the face on the Jack-o-lantern, mummy wrapping(mine), guess who I am (pin a name on someones back and they have to ask questions to figure out who they are) and scary story time... I also played some music and encouraged the students to dance, which was quite a challenge.

--- What's funny is that in China, everyone loves to sing and is encouraged to sing, even in public. Everyone sings and it very often I am asked to sing in class or at English corner. Even if the performer is awful, as I am, they feel no self consciousness and just belt it out. However, when I ask people of they like to dance, they say "no, I can't dance, I am embarrassed! I want to say "You can't sing either, but do it anyway!"---

Anyway, we foreigners had a great time and I believe that the students did as well... Although the Chinese Halloween experience was completely different from the last four I experienced at Akron, it was still a great time.... Whats odd is that I had never bobbed apples before coming to China... I found out that it is extremely difficult, but after holding my breath and dunking my head completely under the water to wedge the apple against the side of the basin, I was able to succeed!

Birthday Party

I am sorry for not updating my blog as much as I should have lately... I just have not been keeping you updated... That doesn't mean, however, that nothing has been happening! Actually, this has been a pretty eventful week! I will try to break it up by activity. Today's blog post:

My Birthday.
As you many you of you may know, October 24th was my birthday, my first birthday in China. (not my first in a foreign country since I spent my 20th in South Korea) I wanted to do something fun so I suggested that we foreign teachers should all go to Lazy Cat Pizza for dinner... Lazy Cat is a pizza place near downtown Kaifeng they say that they serve authentic New York style pizza. Although it is not perfect, its pretty close to a pizza that you could buy in the states... The price is expensive compared to other food in China. One pie ranges between 45 to 80 RMB. (remember i can get a good and filling individual meal for less than 10). The actual currency conversion from USD is about 7 to 12 per pie... Not too bad...

There were 10 of us in all that went: 8 American teachers an Australian and a Chinese student.. We feasted on Pepperoni, Bacon, BBQ Chicken and Margarita pizzas as well as onion rings, french fries and potato skins! We washed it all down with some Coca Cola! A small taste of America on my Birthday... Like usual, however, I neglected to take pictures... So I will have to try to get them from others that did and I should be able to post them in the near future...

Kissinger: On China

I have recently completed the book that I have been reading for the last couple months: Henry Kissinger's book On China. Of all of the books that I have read on China and Chinese politics, this one is probably one of the best and certainly unique. The book starts with a couple chapters framing the history of Chinese politics and political culture through the imperial times and into the 20th century. This part is not to bad, but it was nothing that I did not already know... The most interesting contribution Kissinger gives in this section is comparing Chinese strategy in foreign policy to the game of Wei Qi... (I think we call the game go-- it is similar to Risk and involves encirclement of the enemy and massive strategy) He continues this metaphor throughout the remainder of the book and uses it to explain Chinese reaction to such things as American involvement in Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam...
The best parts of the book are when Kissinger quotes the various leaders and characters from both sides of the US-China dialogues that he has been directly involved in over the past several decades... This is where I learned a lot and where I will be drawing much of my information if I use this information in forthcoming papers...
The chapter Tienanmen, is my favorite chapter in the book... I have read extensively about the build-up to and the actual events in the Spring and early Summer of 1989... (If you are interested, but do not want to spend a lot of time, Check out the PBS Frontline documentary: Tank Man) Instead, Kissinger goes into detail about the problems and debates within the US about how to handle the issue... Here he explains how the first Bush Administration had to walk the thin line between Realism and Idealism... On the one hand, he (Bush) knew that a harsh reaction would not be beneficial to either China or America in the medium to long term, but he was forced by an angry public to do something....
Above all. this book gives an excellent portrayal of Sino-American relations since the 1970's... this 550 page work helped me to better understand this complex relationship between our two countries... Furthermore, it served to solidify my passion for this field and inspire more active research (I am in the beginning stages of 2 major essays that I will be working on throughout the year and eventually attempt to get published upon returning to the states)

Marta

This weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting Marta. She worked at Henan University two years ago and taught English here...She came to visit William and other teachers from Beloit College, her Alma Mater. When meeting here, I found out that she used to live in the apartment that I now live in. It must be weird for her seeing someone live in the place where she spent two years of her life! she came in to see what it looked like and to take a small trip down memory lane... When checking out the bookshelf, she was pleased to find that many of her books were still here... She then proceeded to ask me if she could borrow a couple.. I said "sure, they're yours anyway!"
Last night, Marta told us of a bar that a friend of hers had just opened downtown and she invited us all tog o check it out... This bar was on the 4th floor of a newly built facility and was the only place open in the entire building... Despite being not busy, it is really nice! half of the bar is a large patio with awesome murals and other artwork as well as dance-lights! the inside bar area was also very nice; comfortable booths and lounge chairs were everywhere.. Unfortunately, the small group of foreigners were the only ones there, but we stayed and talked until about 11:30...
The beer was warm, but the people and the atmosphere were pleasant... I am not sure that I will be frequenting though... Just not my scene... 

The Others

Today I met two more foreigners who are teaching at Henan University: Tim and Toby... Tim is Australian and is teaching on the same campus as me. He teaches English to students that will do their later years of their program abroad in Australia. Toby is German and he is the German teacher on the new campus. He also teaches in the international Education college to students who will study here and then eventually go to study in Germany.

He has been here since we have (about 2 months now) and until this week he thought that he was the only foreigner in Kaifeng! (the new campus has no other foreign teachers) He was so excited to be able to communicate with people (he speaks flawless English).

Tonight Ben, Mal, Tim, Toby and I went to get dinner together, after dinner we were walking back and came across some sort of concert that was being set up in the middle of campus. Tim thought that maybe some of his students were involved in this so we walked in for a closer look. As soon as they caught sight of us, some official looking man grabs a hold of Tim and guides the group of us to the front row (mind you there is probably about 4,000 people here). We sit down in our seats where there is already a bottle of water waiting for us... The show begins (completely in Chinese.) It was some sort of variety show with singing, dancing and other types of musical performances... Between acts the cameraman would always put the camera on us foreigners as we clapped... (I am fairly certain that we will be on  TV somewhere) After the show, we were ushered onto the stage to have our pictures taken with the performers.... CRAZY STUFF 

Following the show, which lasted until about 9, I decided that I would have Tim and Toby come to English corner with me... Since this was their first time there, Tim and Toby were quite the hot topic as the students asked them many things about Australia and Germany. for some reason they were not able to comprehend that only one was German and kept getting confused thinking they both were... By far my favorite question of the night was directed at Toby: "Do you like Hitler?" Toby, being a very humorous guy (and perhaps the craziest that I have met) says "Of course, he's my best friend." The other foreign teachers were able to laugh at this, but then Toby quickly explained that this was not the case and that the German people do not like Hitler or the Nazis...

I think that we will be having a lot of fun in the coming months together!!!

Mashed Taters and Cheesy Broccoli!

On a lighter note from my last blog, i want to catch you up a bit on what I have been eating...
I still frequent the same places outside of the west and south gates but I have also been doing a little cooking lately with Ben (short ben). What we have been making is: mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli!!! Its like thanksgiving dinner without the turkey and stuffing!!!! I never thought that something so simple would be so good!

Ben had the foresight, when was back in the states over break, to buy some necessary things that are not available in the states... one of these things was a potato masher! Potatoes are easy to find here but most of them just get cut up and served in various Chinese dishes. Nobody mashes them! But we did!!!

Ben has a double steamer pan and he discovered if he takes out the lower steam plate that he can boil potatoes and steam broccoli at the same time!!! While the potatoes are being mashed we put some strips of American cheese on the broccoli and cover it to let it melt a bit... YUMMY We did this for the first time last week, and we made it a full 4 days before we repeated it again this week! its cheap, quick and easy! i think that this will be a regular tradition!

Suicide Tragedy

This morning I opted out of going to get breakfast at west gate... ( I have been eating peanut butter and jelly for breakfast) I told Ben the night before that I would probably sleep a little bit later and not be going with him to west gate at 7.... Around 7:35 as I am preparing my final materials for class, Ben knocks on my door... He tells me that he decided not to go to get breakfast at west gate because he had been told that a girl jumped from the dorm adjacent to the gate... He proceeded to tell me that the girl was a junior... I immediately got a sick feeling in my stomach as I realized that I have 6 classes of girls that live in that building and that 3 of them are juniors... I was on my way to one of those classes at that time...

I hoped and prayed that it was not one of my students, and I took Ben's advice and decided to act as if I didn't know anything about it and proceed with the lesson as normal... I got to class and all of the students looked miserable. Sara, the class monitor, told me at the beginning of the class what happened. She explained that the girl was NOT an English major and that the she climbed from the 4th floor to the 6th and jumped... I am not sure whether or not she died immediately, I can only hope that her suffering was minimal. This occurred at 11 PM last night... She went on to say that police and investigators were there until about 3 AM... Most of the class had barely fallen asleep by the time they had to get up for class...

I tried to go on with class as normally as possible. I was my bright and exciting self... But at the end of class I told them: "If you need anything, any help with any classes, to talk about anything, any problems whatsoever, you can talk to me." I couldn't bare it if this would have been one of my students... They seemed in better spirits by the end of the class and this also made me feel a little better. I think that I am also connecting with them on a more personal basis, which should make this year much better for all of us...

My thoughts: youth suicide seems to be quite a problem here. I think that it is because students receive so much pressure from all angles: society, family and themselves... Sometimes they just crack and see no way out... I am not sure that there are many outlets for them either... As I am writing this, I wonder if there is any psychiatric help made available to the students... This is doubtful, but I will be looking into it... a life cut short is always such a tragedy...

Education (Part two)

the second major problem with the Chinese education system that I have identified may be a product of or stem from the first problem... The second fault is the complete stifling or lack of creativity... Due to the fact that success is determined by a students ability to regurgitate some memorized information, no attention is paid to whether or not a student can think for him/herself... This, I think, is completely tragic... Not only is it sad, but it is also detrimental to society... No creative youth= no innovation...

this week, I witnessed this plague first hand... I collected my first writing assignment this week. It was only a journal entry with the topic: "who is your favorite writer an why?" To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect... prior to assigning this, i had done a brainstorming and outlining activity with the students to show them how to come up with and organize ideas... (I used JK Rowling, since i thought they might also know a little about her Harry Potter Series) I told them that I would not require them to follow the model that I gave them and encouraged them to write freely...

What I received was anything but free writing... The majority of the students chose to write biographies of their chosen author. Most of these entries were either directly or partially copied from articles on the internet! STRAIGHT PLAGIARISM! This completely shocked me. At first, I did not recognize it for what it was. After grading several journals, I began to realize that most of the students were giving me really detailed and really well written backgrounds of their authors... When one entry read like a wikipedia article, I got suspicious. I decided to type the first two sentences into Baidu (Chinese google) to see what would happen. I found that the article was copied verbatim from baidu zhidao (like a Chinese wiki)... I was so upset... It ruined my whole day (this was last Monday)

Later, I was able to pick up on the plagiarism more easily when students would use difficult vocab or complex sentence structure, I was immediately tipped off! But somewhere in the middle of 250 journals, I became a total pessimist: I would think that any coherent sentence or well-though out analysis must be plagiarized... This is terribly sad. I don't know how I am going to deal with it... I do not have the time to look up every sentence that I think might be copied! It already takes me about 5 hours to grade one class of journals (I have 5 classes with 50 students each and a 300 word assignment-- do the math!)! I would not be able to sleep if I tried that... So I am not sure what I am going to do...

I have, however, resolved that I will give a lecture on plagiarism next week in class and hope that resolves some of the problem... But I am doubtful it will... The idea of internalizing the right idea is so endemic in this country (what better way to show that you know the right answer than to copy) , that a lecture on composition ethics is unlikely to reverse it... 

I just hope that I can make a small difference in the lives of these students... I hope to not only help them improve their English skills, but also help them open their minds and encourage them to think for themselves... In a country with 1.3 billion people, there is no doubt that the creative potential is here, it is just that it is being crushed by the system... So tragic... If you were to ask me what the difference is between American and Chinese education (and many people have asked this), I would say: "In China, students are taught what to think. In America, students are taught how to think!"

The Problems with the Chinese education system (Part One)

As promised previously, I will rant about the problems in China's education system... Their are two main problems... I will talk about the first one today: The emphasis on memorization of the "right answer"

Chinese classes are all lectures. there are very few if any discussion classes and within the lectures there is no discussion.... I think that this is terrible... I don't feel as though this is an effective way of learning and frankly, I think that this is a waste of time... If you are just going to class to be talked at, then why not just read lecture notes or watch a documentary... If you want to actually learn something, then I think that is important to be an active participant in your own education... This means asking questions and thinking about the topics and issues... Not just trying to ingest and memorize them, which is exactly what students are expected to do here in China. For example, English instruction for these students starts in middle school, at about the age of 12... By the time they get to college, they have had at least 6 years of formal English Education... But most of them can barely express themselves. This is due to the poor quality of the system and NOT for lack of effort on the students..

Chinese students are very hardworking... Probably the most hardworking students on the planet... They are always studying... When I wake up in the morning and walk across campus to get breakfast at 7 AM, the students are already everywhere studying: the library is already full and the empty classrooms are littered with students pouring over their books and notes... they will also do this late into the night and then get up the next day to do it again... You would never see an American student with this dedication (at least not me!)

Unfortunately, they are doing it ALL WRONG.... Instead of thinking critically about the material, they try to memorize it verbatim. Instead of analyzing how material relates to other ideas and can be applied practically, they just try to memorize... THIS DOES NOT WORK... You CANNOT learn this way! sure it might be good for taking in some facts, but not for retaining them or applying them.... China is breeding a country full of encyclopedias!!! I think that it is much more useful to learn HOW TO APPLY INFORMATION and not the information itself! Information these days is so accessible, it is not useful to memorize a fact if you can simply look it up!

To combat this problem to the best of my ability, I am dedicated to teaching my students SKILLS and not FACTS... Yes building vocabulary in a foreign language is important, but without the proper ability to utilize that vocabulary, it is useless!

Sorry for the rant... Just had to get that out... tomorrow, I will go into the other major problem with the educational system..

Writing Class continued

As I have been preparing for my classes and grading homework.... I have been asking myself why they chose ME to teach this class... I mean why me over a qualified Chinese teacher that may have a PhD in composition??? I know the common answer is because, I am a native English speaker, but I have no formal training in composition (beyond English Comp I and II in college) and I have no teaching experience.... The writing class that I teach is the highest level of English writing that these students will take before they graduate with a degree in English!!! This is a huge responsibility and burden on me and have been bothering me quite a lot lately... part of me feels as though someone with a formal background in writing should be teaching them... so I still ask myself the question: Why me?

the closest thing that I can come up with to convince myself why I am doing this is NOT to teach them, but rather to guide them and to help them... As I mentioned above, I feel that I am unqualified as a formal instructor, but what I am good at is being a natural English speaker.... This also means that I have been exposed to natural English writing and I can easily recognize it... SO I tell myself that I am more of a coach than a formal instructor... Rather than worry myself with presenting them with the best type of instruction, I will concern myself individual improvement.... Therefore, I want my classroom to be more like a discussion than a lecture... I will also implement the Socratic Method into my teaching style... With this, I will put a tiny dent into what I believe to be a huge problem of the Chinese education system... (tomorrows blog topic.)

Catching Up: My Writing Class

Due to "internet problems," I have been unable to update my blog for quite some time... I am sorry and I will flood you with a bunch of daily blogs in order to make up for it!

This week I gave a lesson in my writing class on effective introductions, effective conclusions and proper use of transitions! Yes it is just as boring to teach about as it is to study... However, I think that I did a pretty effective job. Unfortunately, I was not provided with a textbook with which to teach the course and I was told that I am not allowed to assign one... this means that I have to provide them with materials for every lesson that I teach...
I also have to make my own curriculum and set my own requirements... My teaching assistant, the Chinese grad student who is supposed to give me guidance, has not of been of any help... he has only told me that I need to teach writing and that I should prepare my own materials...

I teach 5 writing classes with about 50 students per class... (I know, way too many) 2 of these classes have been at Henan university since they were freshmen... They have had several foreign teachers and their listening and expression is quite good... I am able to teach them quite easily and they follow me very well...

The other three classes are transfer students made up of students that have the equivalent of associate degrees in English... Many of these students have never had a foreign teacher and their comprehension and expression has suffered because of it... on the other hand, others have had foreign teachers and their English skill is on par with my other two classes... as can be imagined, this type of class is very hard to teach... if I talk at a natural speed, the students who have good English skills are able to follow me while the others are confused.... If I slow down, I might be able to pick up a few more students who have poorer listing skills but I lose the better students to boredom.... I am not sure what I am going to do... I think that I will meet in the middle with a moderate speed...

Just like my two classes differ from the transfer classes in listening ability, their writing ability is also drastically different.... SO... I am not sure whether or not I am supposed to have the same expectations for ALL classes??? I feel as if I hold the good classes to higher expectations, then this will be unfair to them and the other class as well.... I think that I am only going to grade by improvement... If students heed my suggestions and make improvement through the year, then their grades will reflect this positively. However, if they make no effort, then this will only hurt them....

Ducks and Dogs

Outside of the west gate (where I often go to eat my street food) there are two animals that I always see... The one is Mr. Duck. The first time I saw Mr. Duck, he was being carried out of a restaurant by a worker who was holding him by the neck... She proceeded to place him inside a very small fenced in area where he wanders around and we have been seeing him there ever since. Actually, we are not sure if it is the same duck, it might actually be a new duck everyday... Either way, we like him, if we approach the fence, he comes up and quacks at us. I tried to feed him some bread this morning, but he wouldn't have anything to do with it... 

Mr. Duck

The second set of creatures are the puppies... In a cage below the newspaper stand are two baby doggies... About twice a day, I have to walk past these precious little creatures and NOT buy them. This is heartbreaking. If I knew for sure that I was allowed to have one AND that I could bring it home, I would certainly buy it... If Anissa was here, I would already have the dog I am sure...

Making Pizza

for the last several weeks, we have been amassing the necessary ingredients for assembling pizza... we had to  by the mozzarella and pizza sauce in Zhengzhou, we didn't even try to find pepperoni... The crust on the other hand and how we were going to be able to bake an entire pizza in Ben's small oven was another problem. Malory suggested that we should by some flat bread from one of the street vendors and and use that to make individual sized pizzas! What a wonderful idea! it worked perfectly.  the sauce was already prepared in a bag but the cheese had to be shredded. Luckily Ben thought to bring a shredder from the states! each person made their own pizza and we were able to cook about 6 at a time on the two racks in Ben's oven...

If you want to see pictures of this adventure, Ben is uploading them to facebook and should be tagging me in them

Fancy Dinner

Has anyone ever heard of Groupon or Living Social? well if not, in short, they are internet coupons where someone buys in essence a gift certificate for less than full price... Ben and one of our Chinese friends found a fancy dinner gift certificate at a western style steakhouse- coffee shop marked down 80% ( YEAH 80%) 

so of course all of us that were offered the opportunity jumped at the chance to get a 155 Yuan meal for 28! 

On Tuesday we decided that Wednesday would be the day that we would go... Wednesday at lunch, I suggested that we should all dress up for dinner: shirt, tie, jacket, the whole thing!!!

So this is how it happened: 

6 PM, five very well dressed foreigners  and 2 Chinese people get on bus number 33 outside of the south gate of campus.

6:01 PM, the strange looks from the locals is intensified by our clothing. They had to be wondering who we were and where we were going, and wherever we were going, why the heck were we taking public transportation and not riding in a black sedan.

6:30 our bus arrives (well at least the stop closest to the restaurant) Since we are still several blocks from the eating establishment, we decide to hoof it... the spectacle continues as the foreigner parade marches through the new part of town toward the cafe.. 

6:45 we arrive at our destination... A very (very very) fancy restaurant with a well dressed wait staff and fountains, a coy pond, table linens, everything... we are escorted to our tables, and due to the large size of the group, we were instructed to split up into two groups.

6:46 we are sat down and served a plate of watermelon seeds (yeah the things we spit out in the states) We could not figure out how to eat them, so we settled for sucking the salt off of the shells

6:48 the waitress begins to ask Alexis (our resident Chinese interpreter) about how we want our steak cooked (yeah, I said steak) apparently, in china instead of rare, medium rare, medium etc, they rank the done-ness on a scale from 1 to10. one being the rarest and 10 being the most well done. I thought I'd be safe with a 4 since I tend to go for medium rare in the states, I should be fine with a more medium than rare cook.

6:52 each person is given a small cup of espresso. (I think it was just really strong coffee) I was happy just to have some coffee for the first time in over a month... It was pretty good

6:55 our soup and bread arrives.. it wasn't to bad. the soup was just some kind of lukewarm sweet corn/milk porridge. The bread, on the other hand, was not so good. it was like toasted sweet bread. but it wasn't sweet. just weird. 

6:56 (only one minute later) the meals arrive... Each dish is on a personal skillet type of dish and covered with a metal lid. after the server lifts she lid she proceeds to pour gravy all over the steak which is also served with a sunny side up egg and a poor attempt at Italian Pasta. The gravy, I am convinced was just black pepper and water... SPICY! The steak seemed way more well done than even medium let alone rare, but hey, meat is meat! (I even think it was beef!)

7:20 a plate of fresh fruit is brought out containing watermelon (with seeds), papaya, pear, and some melon. this was a refreshing finish to a spicy meal. 

I think all of us really enjoyed the meal. Although it was no Texas Roadhouse, it was good to have a meal centered around a piece of meat for the first time since arriving. the atmosphere of the restaurant definitely made up for the mediocre food too.

Grad School Applications

As mentioned previously, this week was dedicated to the completion of my grad school applications... I can now say that on Wednesday night, that this has been a success. I have all of the applications filled out, all the transcripts requested, and after a little trouble, the GRE scores sent to all of the schools!!!

I did run into a few problems due to the fact that China is 12 hours ahead of Eastern Time. For instance, some of the application materials could only be accessed during regular business hours... Not a big problem, I just had to look something up after 9 pm... Also, for some reason, the GRE website is no longer displaying which schools I had sent my scores to on test day... I want to clarify this for certain because sending new or additional reports costs 23 bucks each.... I am applying to 5 schools to that adds up fast. What I had to do was call the ETS/GRE service last night and talk to a representative. This was much harder than it would have been in the states because I was calling via skype and my internet connection is very shotty and the all kept dropping. So after about 40 minutes and 5 tries, I finally got the information that I needed. It turns out that 3 of the five schools already had my scores! I only had to send 2! Now, I should be all in the clear.

For those of you who have not been keeping up, I am applying to 5 schools. Niss and I have limited our search to schools/ cities where we can both pursue our graduate degrees. I am applying to the University of California San Diego, University of Michigan, Florida International (Miami), Georgetown University and American University (both of which are in DC) If you ask me what is my top choice, I am not sure that I will be able to answer... All of the programs are good. If you ask Niss, I am sure that she will not want to live through another cold winter so that means eaither Miami or San Diego.... Which is fine, because I am happy to go anywhere!

Speaking of Anissa, I got my first package in the mail the other day: a custom-made calendar of our engagement pictures!!! What a treat! Immediately after arriving here, I realized that I had completely forgotten to bring any pictures! (I know what kind of a fiance am I?) Now I'll have a new one to display each  month!!!

National Day

Yesterday (October 1st) was Chinese National Day. This day marks the anniversary of the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China. Which was established on October 1. 1949... I guess you could say that Oct. 1 is the equivalent of US July 4... The celebrations in China, however, do not seem to match those in the states! don't get me wrong, there are fireworks (but there is always fireworks -- ill talk about this later) but there are not BBQ's or picnics etc... What Chinese National Day means to me is that I get a week off from teaching!!! Many of the other teachers are taking advantage of this time to travel to other cities in China, I have decided that I should use this time to complete my grad school applications.  I think that I will try and travel to a couple of other cities within the province (day trips). I am not quite sure what I'll be doing, but at the end of the week i should have my forms filled out and my apps turned in!

My Bike...

I may or not have mentioned that I adopted a bicycle that I found under the stairs of my apartment. In the last few weeks, I have switched out the tires (both inner tubes and outside rubber, totaling less than 10 USD) and replaced the broken seat... The terrain here is great for riding, everything is flat and paved, no hills and I have been pedaling little bit around campus, but I have been way to scared to try to brave the streets.. The lines on the road are useless in China, as are the traffic lights... People do what they want either way...

Today, Ben finally convinced me that I should try and ride to the McDonald's (Downtown about 1.5 miles). What an amazing/terrifying adventure. in this short distance, I almost killed an old woman and three middle school children AND had to dodge several buses and numerous taxis... I think once i get used to riding here, I will be venturing out more and more!

The route we took (back)

My Beautiful Bike （自行车）

Reading Out loud

I apologize as I am finding it harder and harder to keep up with my blog. I have been very busy this week and cannot figure out when is the best time to designate for writing... This week has been crazy, its the first week where I have had to give full lessons to all of my classes... Teaching is exhausting. (mother, I do not know how you do it.-- However, I think that having 8 classes of 50 is bit more challenging than 2 of less than 30)

Reading Aloud... In class today, I asked my students to read through the dialogue and make sure that they understand it... I had no idea that they would all (50 mind you) begin to read the whole thing OUT LOUD!!! Mind you this is not all at the same time, each was reading at his or her own pace... this also did not happen at low volume. this was LOUD, some where shouting... I was caught completely off guard... after they finished reading, I asked the students how could they possibly focus on what they were reading with their classmates reading aloud and at different paces... Their response was "reading aloud enhances comprehension" and "we are used to it." I do not think that I will ever be able to get used to it...

The classroom is not the only place where one can hear Chinese students reading aloud. Starting in the morning by 6 AM and lasting until around 8 PM, when walking through the campus gardens (pictures are forthcoming) the sounds of hundreds of studious young Asians can be heard as they read aloud from their texts... My favorite is passing by someone who is reading from an English book. She (usually a girl, sometimes males) will have her head buried in her book and I will walk past and say "good morning!" she often just giggles and says nothing in return... I try to do this at least twice a week... I actually met a very nice young man with this approach... at 10 PM, walking home from English Corner, I passed a student reciting King George VI's famous WWII "We are at War" Speech (made popular in the movie The King's Speech)... Nice, friendly guy. He invited the foreigners to pick pears with him this weekend... should be a good time.

English Corner (Part 2) and other random thoughts

A few weeks ago I explained English corner: a place where students meet with foreigners ever night at 8:30 to speak in English... I thought that English corner was such a useful way for students to practice their oral English and listening skills that I required my conversation classes (freshmen- about 150 total) that they would be required to attend once per week... Similarly, the other foreign instructor that teaches freshman classes also decided that it would be a good idea to require the same thing... What does this mean? ENGLISH CORNER HAS EXPLODED!!! Instead of only ten or twenty people coming, our numbers now range around 50 or 60 PLUS! (Mind you that there is only ever a maximum of 8 foreigners there at one time!) The conversations have become more strained too as freshmen with poor English skills vastly outnumber the upperclassmen who can hold a common conversation!!!

It is interesting to see, however, the gap in ability even between the 1st and 2nd years.... I hope that I will be able to make my freshmen improve to such a level by the time I am done here! The first classes with them was a bit strained... they were all very nervous, as I was the first time they had ever spoken to a foreigner... I can identify with with; being from a small town, I was exposed to little or no diversity until college... Their apprehension is understandable... BUT, I do feel as though this week's class with my first years will be much better. I have finished assigning their English names and distributed them back their class leader!

 My biggest mistake was that I accidentally named a guy "Cherry." I quickly changed this to Devin! This is what happened, in the first class I distributed cards and asked students in order to help me give them an English name write their Chinese name and something about them that could give me a clue as to what to name them. i didn't however ask them to specify gender!!!! And in Chinese, I am unable to do that simply by looking at names. So since i only have a few boys in class (about 8 out of 150), i decided that i would just go ahead with all girls names and clean up the mess later... Maybe I'll have a boy named sue!

New Campus

As I may have mentioned before, Henan University has two campuses. An old campus and a new campus. The new campus houses the science type majors and the old campus is home to arts and humanities majors, including English...Recently, I went to the new campus to explore for the first time... About a week ago, I was introduced to Mr. Yu, a friend of my Chinese prof in the states. Mr. Yu works for the University Library system and invited us over to see the library on the new campus... It was HUGE. actually it is the biggest library in the province. Here are a few pictures of only a small section of the new campus. The new campus IS very new... it was completed and opened in 2002!

Some dorms from far away

Really cool round building

the library. It is supposed to look like an open book... I guess I can kinda see it

closer view

round building from a distance

more dorms (from the library 5th floor)

square in front of the library

The new campus definitely has the feel of a large research University with facilities that would compare with many in the states. The old campus, however, has more of a small liberal arts school feel... I really like that Henan University has both!!!