from slow motion for me, to more than a feeling.

I started this week thinking that I seem to be getting into a real rhythm in regards to my work schedule. I am starting to become a little bored with the classes and routine of it all. Thank god the National Day holiday is just around the corner. I think it will serve as a source of reinvigoration and when I come back I can work with the same gusto I had upon my arrival when everything was still new and fresh.

That being said I had a great time teaching my first geography class of the semester. My teaching partner and I are offering two sections of the class a week. The first is on Wednesdays and is for the Senior 1 students (the students with less English), and the second section on Thursday for the Senior 2 students (the students with more English). I taught the Senior 2 class and it was awesome. These kids have a great vocabulary that they like to show off which is different for me. I only teach Senior 1 normally and its like pulling teeth trying to get those kids to talk. Because of their vast vocabulary I was able to speak at a pace which is more conversational. Although it is not an English class many of these kids are in the class to be exposed to English at a higher level. I told them that if they want to study at an American university they will be taking classes on subjects they know little about and the teacher will not be speaking at a snail's pace either. So they loved that explanation and all paid attention for the rest of the lesson.

I started the lesson by presenting pictures of places to which I have traveled. They had to guess where the pictures were taken. They were good at that exercise. So then we got into an in-depth conversation about each country I had pictures of; Greece, Canada, US, and New Zealand were all extremely interesting places to them. We talked about everything including, but not limited to, culture, natural features, native peoples, and climate. I had one girl who had spent one year at a high school in Tilden, Texas. I can't imagine going from Beijing to Tilden. What a culture shock. I spoke with this girl after class and we discussed her experiences in the USA. She told me about her host family and how all the family members were shocked to find out she didn't know who Jesus was. That sounds like a hilarious situation to me, hell even she was laughing as she recounted the experience. She ended up traveling all around Texas and even got to go to Prom...with a boy!! She showed me a picture of her and her date that she keeps in her wallet. I told her that we will try to incorporate her experiences into a class on American youth culture.

Today is Friday and I can't even understand the boredom I felt earlier in the week. Everyday I see something on the street that is amazing (or shocking, whatever the case may be). Like last night, I saw about 20 or 30 old women with wooden blocks. They were singing traditional songs and banging out the rhythm on a street corner, amazing. Earlier this week I ate seahorse on a stick, shocking.

Just talking to people and seeing things through their eyes really reminds me of why I came. I'm not really here to teach English, that is not my passion. I came here to learn, understand, and participate in a culture where I am an outsider. Every time I eat something new or talk with someone about traditions, views, or even just sports I am renewed with an overwhelming sense of satisfaction and peace. Oh, to be a stranger in a strange land.

Feed Me

Food is very important to Chinese culture. The colloquial term for hello actually translates to 'have you eaten today'. Every time I speak at length with someone they invariably ask, 'Do you like Chinese food?' I do, and they love that. Tonight I had traditional Mongolian Hotpot. I had this upon my arrival to Beijing but this was the best I've had so far. Hotpot is quite the spectacle. It is a pot filled with broth and set over a gas stove in the table. The broth has hot peppers and is accompanied by a sesame dipping sauce. When you order hotpot you get various meats and veggies to put it in the broth. It is kind of like fondue but much more flavorful and with chopsticks. The meats and veggies and not really what you think. I had cow esophagus, cow stomach, greens and veggies of various unidentifiable sorts. All sound strange but are actually not unlike anything you've ever had.

The best food can be found in the street. There are many different kinds of buns, dumplings, noodles, and rice available where ever you go. They say the street food is somewhat unclean and I can't argue. The conditions in the 3 walled restraints where I eat are less than clean. But the food is so good and hot that I don't think twice about it. Sometimes when I am eating in such a place I imagine my mother being horrified. When there are so many people doing the same thing, and I've done it so many times, I know its ok. Here are some pictures of Kevin, Cindy, Vivian, and I at our Hotpot dinner. Hope all is well.

Teacher's Day Weekend Activities

Sunday in China was Teacher's Day. It is day when all are to honor teachers across the nation. For the historically informed the dubious nature of the holiday is obvious. Because I was told that the discussion of the events of 1960-1970 will be censored I can not get into specifics here. Consult your history books please. Here at LuHe we celebrated the day in style.

In class on Friday the students all wished me a happy teacher’s day and acted especially good for me. The teachers were invited to a function at the school that evening. We were told there would be fruit and carrot cake. It seemed informal enough. Wrong.

We went to Wagner Hall (a glorified gymnasium) where there were tables lined up along the east and west wall and at those tables were 100 teachers and grapes galore. It was a real reception. They had several speakers and a special translator for us. The speakers were followed by a special (extremely tame) entertainment session. The Korean teachers sang a Korean song, the dance teacher did an interpretive dance to mark the day, the eldest teachers put on a ballroom dancing exhibition (ballroom dance is a common hobby among the aged here). Then came the karaoke. The science department sang, the headmaster sang and then they poked and prodded until the la wei sang (la wei is the term for foreigner and one of the few words I know and can pick out of a conversation, its cool that I know when people are talking about me on the subway or in the bank). Many of you know that I have a real weakness for karaoke so you will also know that it took very little coaxing for me to sing. Bryne and I sang Love Me Tender. We were awful but they loved us for attempting it. Our horrible performance was followed by a music teacher playing a traditional Chinese instrument. It was kind of like a 5 string guitar held upright and played with 5 finger picks. It was incredibly amazing. It was by far the highlight of the evening. After her came the accordion player (not as good), and then disco. They played one song and immediately everyone formed a conga line and marched around the room. As quickly as the dancing had started it ended and everyone returned to their seats. They closed with the performance of an old song that I was told was a tribute to Mao. All in all it was a strange evening but extremely satisfying despite the lack of the promised carrot cake.

That evening a few of us went out and continued our karaoke antics at a bar here in town. We were the only customers and ended up singing 10 songs, a veritable concert of humiliation had there been anyone else in the bar.

The next day there was a knock on my door. It was one of the Chinese English teachers. She said she was here to pick me up to go to the farm with her mother. I was confused but complied because I was told that invitations to outings are rare and should not be refused if you ever want to receive one again. So me, the teacher, and her mom went to "the farm". It was cool. I thought of Garry Seltzer as we walked through the acres and acres of grapes, peaches, sunflowers, pears, and peanuts. I even ate the lotus. They had a small pond so the mother and I harvested a lotus pod, opened it and ate the seeds inside. It was a lot like a peanut and if I ever get my computer to comply you can see the pictures.

After the farm the three of us headed back to their house where the mother proceeded to cook me a feast for lunch. It was a very traditional Chinese household. The mother lives with the daughter and the daughter's husband. The three of them together. It is common so I guess mothers in law and sons in law have a VERY different relationship here, or else it is hell for both. On the menu were dumplings, pumpkin porridge, and stir fry vegetables. I was told that the more I ate the more likely I was to be invited back so I loosened my belt, took a deep breath, and packed it away almost to the point of illness. It was delicious.

That night all the teachers were treated to a special performance by the Chinese National Opera. I don't know how familiar any of you are with Beijing Opera, I know I knew nothing of it before I came, but its very interesting. There is extensive makeup and face paint and elaborate costumes to denote each character. There is something like 20 main archetypal figures in Beijing Opera. The music is generally not pleasant to the western ear. Lots of high, shrill singing accompanied by loud bangs that occur at seemingly random intervals. It is very hard to really convey the musical chaos that occurs. The banging and piercing sounds were contrasted by singing solos in a very high pitch that were accompanied by beautiful string music. The costumes, acrobatics, and face paint were amazing though and worth putting up with the music.

Today I lesson planned most of the day and really reflected on what it means to be a teacher in China. I have it good here. Most of the Chinese teachers can barely eek out a living and work much longer hours than I. The conditions are rough for them but they do a great job despite all that. Hats off to them. Happy Teachers Day.

Work It

There is a strange phenomenon that takes place in China. It is called hard labor. I am constantly shocked by the speed with which seemingly monumental construction projects are completed and with the most rudimentary of tools.
For example, there is a long walk way that crosses the campus. It is about 600 yards long and 10 yards wide. When I arrived workers had already began laying cobblestones and repaving the entire stretch. On August 27th they had completed 1/10th of the first day of school on the 4th of September the entire project was completed.
This is especially amazing considering not one electric or motorized tool was used. All the concrete was mixed by hand; stones were laid by hand with out the aid of a level. The old concrete was removed not by jackhammer or air hammer but by pick axe. I am no engineer but the finished product looks beautiful. Only time will tell us about the quality of their work.
Most of the workers are imported from rural areas. They are provided with at large tent which they set up on a corner of the campus. There they lived for the duration of the project. Once the project was completed a large bus came and took them all away.
Last weekend some of us were returning from a night out on the town in Beijing by taxi. Our car was diverted from the main highway due to construction. Construction! At 2:30 a.m. there were about 100 workers welding, pouring concrete, and doing whatever else it took to build an extra level to the highway.
All around China this scene is replicated on a daily basis. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week people are working to prepare this place for the future, not just the Olympics, but for China's entry into the pantheon of world powers. There is a general sense of pride in all of the things these people do. Even the guy who massaged my back while I was urinating was proud to be doing it and was giving his best effort.
There are many jobs that seem unnecessary to us in the States. There is a lady who has a microphone and a loud speaker and sits at the front of the bus. All she does is tell people to be careful when exiting the bus. She also tells people to back away from it as it slides into the bus stops. This is the extent of her job. That’s all she does. There are ladies at the subway station who tear tickets. They have machines that do the same job in the same station but only 2 of them, not enough to handle all the traffic. I've seen these ladies eyeing these machines. Looking at them and possibly wondering how long they will keep their jobs.
I saw something amazing the other day. If only I had my camera. I saw a homeless man, lying on his pad of colleted cardboard with his sheet of tattered cloths, talking on his cell phone. His cell phone! This is the kind of stark contrast and inconceivable incongruence that is extremely common here.

Classes Begin

Monday marked the first day of classes for me. While you were all enjoying the Labor Day holiday (and I hope you all did) I taught my first Conversation class. It is really a misnomer because it is just 55 kids piled high in the class room and me at the front commanding things and trying to get 55 kids to speak in English leads to chaos. I was well prepared and the kids were enthusiastic and well motivated. Our first lesson was about Labor Day. They felt sorry for me that I had to work on my holiday, nice of them. As the class started my nerves melted away and I relied on the material the other teachers and I prepared beforehand and things went swimmingly.

One thing that is required of the kids in English classes here is that they pick an English name. They rarely pick conventional names and that makes for a lot of fun. Here are a few examples of what I'm talking about: Cyclone, King (a girl), Milk, Arm, Smell, Hot Sauce (like the And1 basketball player), and last but not least Allen Iverson. I have Allen Iverson in my class. He wont let me call him just Allen or just Iverson, but the whole thing all the time. I really get a kick out of it. I think it is kind of awful that they are forced to change their name. They do it so that the foreigners (in this case, me) have an easier time addressing them. I encountered this in the classes I taught in St. Louis and was somewhat horrified by the reasoning for it then. I thought that maybe I should get a Chinese name and make everyone refer to me by it, but I think its better to not rock the boat.

My FEC class is a whole lot more intimate with only 18 kids. These are the kids I'll see every day until spring festival break in early February. I have some Korean kids in this class and they have excellent English skills when compared to their Chinese counterparts.

As I said before my schedule is pretty light. I have 5 FEC classes a week. Today I have to present my idea for an elective course to be taught by me and my teaching partner. We are going to submit a curriculum for a geography class. Props to Larry, Rachel, and Lee Hamilton for supplying me with a plethora of books on the subject. That class (should it get approved) will meet once a week and will be comprised of kids who have elected to take an extra class of their choosing. This should be a lot of fun because they will want to be there and should be pretty excited about the material. They don't know much about life outside of their home towns let alone across the planet. They want to know all about the US and my family and friends. I have prepared a lesson using pictures from home of all of you, so whether you like it or not these kids are writing essays about you. It should be fun.

Observations and Notes:
I have seen very few birds here. It seems that the birds have been replaced by bats. Bats everywhere, its almost surreal.

The weather is gorgeous here now. Initially it was very hot here but now it is very nice, blue skies too.

My teaching partner's name is Brynne (brin). He's from Hull in England. He is hiella. He loves the NBA so lets start thinking about Fantasy Basketball again. He has me doing fantasy soccer. Should be interesting.

Soccer is on TV all the time here. Premiership, Euro 2008 qualifying, local leagues, men, women, under 18, whatever. Badminton is also on and as you all may or may not know I love badminton. There are courts all around my campus populated constantly by kids and teachers alike. Fencing was on TV the other day. Now that I think about it there are many Olympic type sports on TV here. Either they always follow these sports or this is a warm up for the people ahead of the games in '08. Sports are hiella.