C - in sickness and in health

A few minutes ago, D headed out for an evening on the town with some of the other foreign teachers. I didn't share his desperate need to escape the apartment, though, because I recently caught a cold and have been feeling really lousy. I didn't expect D to stay home and watch his wife Sniffleupagus blow her nose into her shirt all night, but tonight is "a dark and stormy night" if there ever was one, and the wind is rattling our apartment door in a way that is, if not unsettling, certainly far from settling. This rattling door combined with my plugged-yet-somehow-dripping nose are pretty much guaranteeing my inability to sleep tonight, and if D were here, I would probably feel a little bit better/calmer/safer etc. But I will instead spend time with our little blog here and my quickly-dwindling box of Kleenex. (And no, that isn't an instance of a brand name being substituted for a generic one -- I really do have Kleenex® brand tissues!)

I slept so little last night that I asked D to cancel my 8:00 am and 10:00 am classes for me, since he was going to the be teaching one room down the hall at both of those times, but I finally managed to get myself up and teach every class scheduled today. The 8:00 class isn't my favorite group of students, but I got through it okay, and consoled myself with the fact that my 10:00 class is much, much better. I wasn't prepared for how much better they actually would end up being, though; they had written "Happy Teachers' Day!" on the board in perfect English, and on top of that, they gave me flowers and applauded for me.




















Needless to say, all of that made me feel a great deal better! The 2:00 class went on forever, though, because a random graduate student decided that he will be auditing my class for the semester, and he talked with me for what felt like an eternity after class about Jack Welch, how I should teach bible stories (???), and maybe we could go out to dinner some time! Sigh. How I would love to have just ONE female student!

D - China: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Well, C and I have had a good start to life in China. We are definitely adjusted and in the flow of our classes and our daily activities. We're both being tutored in Chinese by a student at DMU. In addition, I've ordered another economics correspondence class to continue to my college education I neglected while at RIT. I never took undergraduate econ, which I found out will hurt me when I apply to grad school for a MBA or MA someday. Between Chinese, economics, lesson planning, and our daily lives, time is filling up! But I thought I would take some time to summarize a few of our experiences with CHINA: THE GOOD, THE BAD, and THE UGLY.

CHINA

THE GOOD:

Cheap chinese food around the corner. It's not obvious from previously posted pictures but there are 3 medium sized apartment buildings directly south of the DMU campus. Ours is pink and the other two are a dirty white. In the downstairs of all three buildings, there are various shops and restaurants. At first I was a little reluctant to try the restaurants but now that we've developed a repetoire of dishes we like, it's becoming a joy. And the food is CHEAP. And good. The 西红柿炒鸡蛋 (scrambled eggs and tomatoes) are delicious. C and I can have a great meal with 3 different dishes for only 15 kuai (about $2). Even on our teacher's salary it would be manageable to eat out locally every day.

Learning Mandarin Chinese. Although learning Chinese is very difficult, it's actually a real joy when you can practice something like that and then go out and talk to real people. For example, our tutor taught us a dialogue for ordering a large bottle of water for our cooler (you can't drink from the tap here). I was definitely nervous but the next day I called and was able to order the water successfully. Yes, it was a little hairy here and there but she repeated my order back to me and lo and behold the water was delivered the next day as requested.

Watching a talented girl learn American speeches. Our Chinese tutor is also our student. In exchange for her help, we read her english compositions and give suggestions. We also help her with pronunciation. Just last week she was required to read Martin Luther King's "I HAVE A DREAM" speech. I wanted so much to try and explain the significance of the speech. I felt so proud to be American when she was reading it. I wanted to inspire her to change China as much as MLK changed the US

Note that I could list many more "GOOD" things here, but this will probably become a regular feature, so no doubt I'll share more positives in the future.

THE BAD:

Squat toilets. Yes, they are more sanitary, I'll grant you that. I have been forced to use them a few times so far and it's nice to know you're not sharing the same porcelain as Dirty Harry. However I've yet to master the gymnastics required to really get my money's worth. Probably not what you wanted to read about in this blog I'm sure, so I'll stop there! Oh, I should note that our apartment has a nice western toilet, so this is not a daily issue.

The English obsession.EVERYONE here wants to learn English, which is laudable. I wish Americans shared the same passion for the languages of others. Of course it's easier for them to want to learn English because you can use it to speak to Americans, Brits, Swedes, Africans - almost anyone. If you're a native english speaker, it's harder to choose but these days Chinese wouldn't be a bad idea. Anyway, so why is this bad you ask? Well, within the past few days we've been inundated with people trying to come to our classes, talk to us on the street, or knocking on our doors. Some of our Chinese friends keep trying to introduce more and more people. To a degree, this is flattering and I certainly hold no grudge against them for trying. I'm quite impressed with the quest for knowledge. It is hard for us to say no however because we don't want to be rude. Sometimes enough is enough!

THE UGLY:

Spitting. I think spitting is putting it very mildly. I saw people spit on the sidewalks in New York. I found it gross there as well. But I think China would win the gold medal. When the guys here spit, they reach deep within. It's the throat clearing to end all throat clearing. Even in our apartment, we can hear them outside. It's not a big deal, I'm being a bit childish for blogging purposes but it can certainly make one cringe!