C - an unusual Chinese New Year celebration

Who would've guessed that a great Italian meal could be had in Dalian, even during the height of Chinese New Year? We've been eating pretty sparsely at home, with peanut butter, oatmeal, and yogurt being our staples, but last night had a feast at a restaurant called Olive Garden (not the Olive Garden, however.) I had discovered through Dalian XPat that this restaurant was open all week despite it being Chinese New Year, and talked D into going there over the Paulaner Brauhaus.

Our Danish friends were interested but the lady of the house was ill, so just one of them, our retired professor friend, came along. Nearly the first thing he said to us was "I'm so glad you came back!" (Apparently some of the other teachers have abandoned ship over the holidays). But the real bombshell came next -- he said "You've scored yourselves a free dinner!" and then explained "I found out an hour ago that I'm going to be a grandfather!" He was all smiles and had obviously been crying a few happy tears not long before. So we were of course elated for him, and enjoyed celebrating the great news with food and wine and the non-stop fireworks of Chinese New Year.

The food was good indeed -- our friend had an Australian steak that was done perfectly to his liking, D had a margherita pizza that smelled wonderful, and I had a salmon cream penne pasta dish that was so good that I had the leftovers for breakfast.

My movie binge has kicked off again. We bought five DVDs at the grocery store on Saturday: Casino Royale, Borat, Crank, Pan's Labyrinth, and The Last King of Scotland (all illegally copied, of course).

So our Chinese New Year has consisted of 1. lots of sleep, 2. lots of movies, and 3. Italian food. But hey, I'm trying:















"福" essentially means that we wish the best for all of you in the coming year. And we do!

D - Eating our way to China

Home sweet home! Well, sort of. We are back in Dalian China after an epic 29 hour journey. After many days of uncertainty when we would return, we finally picked February 15 as our departure date. To make the trip to China a little more pleasant, I decided to utilize some of our Continental miles to upgrade from Economy to their BusinessFirst class. They had previously denied the use of the miles for reserving a one way flight, so I was amazed when they said we could actually do it.

Despite having never experienced Business or First class on my previous 4 international flights, I was pretty sure what to expect. We'd get big cushy seats that almost lie flat, lots of free drinks, and a half decent meal. The seat is worth its weight in gold. You can adjust almost every aspect from an extendable footrest to lumbar support. If you're like me though, you can't sleep unless you're totally flat. So "lie-flat" (which is really at an angle and not entirely flat) is not flat enough for me. The most interesting thing though was the huge amount of food we got.

Some examples of the food:
Appetizer of pork and lobster
Mesclun Salad
Champagne with lunch
Steak as the main course
Port wine and chocolate for dessert
Second meal of chicken noodle soup (more like chicken noodle stirfry actually)
Third meal of fresh fruit, omelette

Interestingly, I found the food passed the time more than movies or my futile efforts to sleep. The first 6 hours breezed by thanks to the initial meal service. The flight attendants were a little nicer in BusinessFirst but I still wasn't overwhelmed by the service. I guess it's hard for anyone to sound pleasant repeatedly asking "Coffee, Tea, something to drink?" 500 times a flight. Oh and I don't recommend the Oscar nominated film "Babel". I'm a sucker for artsy make-you-think kind of movies but I just didn't get it. It's also over the top depressing, which probably isn't the best choice for people who are trapped inside a small cylindrical shell for 13 hours.

After our cushy 13 hour flight to Beijing, the less pleasant part of the journey began. Primarily it consisted of waiting in lines for everything. It took forever to get through the customs line. We had to wait 5 hours for our connecting flight to Dalian. The plane was packed. Getting out of the baggage claim in Dalian was an exercise in human osmosis. The taxistand was a mad house. But finally we made it back to Dalian Maritime University. Note to self - try not to travel on the verge of Chinese New Year again.

Upon waking up the next morning, we decided to go looking for groceries. Normally we get basic things like water, coke, oatmeal, and snacks at a variety of "little stores" on campus. Being Chinese New Year however, this place is a ghost town. Around every corner I keep expecting to see a creaking saloon fluttering in the breeze and a cow skull half buried in the sand. Fortunately international capitalism came to the rescue in the form of Trustmart (a large Chinese grocery chain, now owned by Walmart). It's not in reasonable walking distance but it's not far on the bus so we were able to get our groceries there.

After a taxi back to the apartment and carrying a couple gallons of water up 5 flights of stairs, we had a lunch of peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Then we promptly took a nap, which lasted from 3PM Saturday to 4AM Sunday morning. And that's why I'm writing this blog entry at 6AM our time. Needless to say we caught up on our sleep, but I am not sure we're adjusted to the time zone just yet. My next mission is to avoid going to bed at 6PM!

D - One more time

Our vacation in the US is over. A major benefit of teaching english in China, at least in our university is the ridiculous amount of vacation we get. We left China after finishing semester 1 on December 16. We're flying back tomorrow (February 15) but we don't actually start the new semester until March 5!

We had a lovely time in our homeland, traipsing from Doylestown to Buffalo and back. We've spent a wonderful amount of time with our families, but we are definitely ready to have our own place again. The absence of family is really what makes you appreciate it the most. In July, when we return, we will be overjoyed to come back. But after a great visit, it's time to begin the adventure again. A few weeks ago I was inclined to stay in the USA. A part of me thought about breaking our contract (or buying it out) but in recent time I've experienced a renewed sense that there is more for us in China. We have more to see and more to learn. And so we begin our trip tomorrow morning on an icy, cold day in Pennsylvania, and will finally end it in Dalian, China about 29 hours later.

See y'all on the other side

D - Livin' in America

C and I are alive in well in Buffalo, NY but it's been awhile since we wrote, so let's recap since December 16 (our most recent day in Dalian).

We left on a snowy December morning in Dalian. What started out as a light dusting appeared to be turning into a full blown blizzard by 6:30am (our flight was to Beijing was scheduled at 8am). For a few worried hours we gazed out the windows of our gate watching Chinese men in camoflauge form a giant shovel and dig out the planes. In the US, you would see snowplows doing this in work, but in China it's more efficient to throw manpower at almost any problem. To be fair, snowplows were clearing runways, but I assume that's only because runways are so long. Anyway, our flight was delayed from 8am to 11am, but it wasn't a problem because our flight from Beijing to Newark was at 5pm. Both flights were uneventful and a lot easier than the trip over to China. Let's face it, going back home is a lot easier than throwing caution to the wind and hitching a ride to a foreign country.

First stop on our US journey was my parents home in southeastern Pennsylvania. We spent December 16 to December 28 there and had a great time.
Highlights of PA part 1:
-Indulging my sentimental side and watching Rocky Balboa with my brother
-Playing with our dachshund Cody, who turns from jolly socializing to teeth-bared growling when he gets ahold of a rubber steak toy with a squeaker. In this state of mind he is referred to as "Fang".
-Gaining at least 5 lbs feasting on Western cuisine. Pizza. Hamburgers. Baked Beans. Grilled Salmon. Coffee. Did I mention pizza?
-The usual antics representative of our family dynamics. Difficult to describe but I love my family to pieces and wouldn't trade it for anything.
-A bed not featured on "World's Most Infamous Prisons" (our China mattress is a little stiff)

From PA we have now traveled to C's stomping grounds in Western New York state, up in the Buffalo area. It was a quick flight from Newark and now we are enjoying the company of her family.
Highlights thus far:
-Seeing C's cousin's 10 month old child. Her cousin moved to Spain a number of years ago to teach english and ended up marrying a Spanish girl and becoming a permanent resident. Their offspring is incredibly cute
-Tonight's euchre game with her father. Euchre is a card game played principally in Western New York and the rest of the midwest - places where German ancestry has traditionally been prevalent. Of course it's also quite popular on Yahoo! games, which I don't have an explanation for.
-Anticipation of chicken wing consumption at one of Buffalo's traditional establishments (e.g Duff's or Anchorbar).
-Chowder making on New Year's Even. C's father has since 1982 (I believe) been making what people outside of WNY would call "thick soup" - but it's a rather large injustice to do so. It's an all day extravaganza of cutting carrots, potatoes, celery and grinding meat, followed by standing in the cold and stirring the chowder in a 30 gallon drum. There are always large numbers of people that stop by for a bowl or two (31 in 2006).

Tomorrow we are going to Rochester to catch up with some old friends and watch a RIT hockey game. RIT of course is my alma mater. Next week we are driving to Chicago to check out the city and visit the law school, as that's C's next stop on the life express. Towards the end of January we will return to Pennsylvania for another week or so and then it's back to China in early Februrary. From there we have many possibilities for travel but we would like to get a good view on the Chinese New Year.

Anyway, that's the story from the City of Lights. Til next time...

C - on traveling 7000 miles just to watch movies

One good thing that's come out of our little China adventure is me overcoming my inability to sit through entire movies. Perhaps this has happened because I often feel the need to escape from this place and movies offer a way to do that. I've watched the following movies in the past month or so:

Thank You For Smoking
Walk the Line
The Shawshank Redemption
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
A Beautiful Mind
Bridget Jones' Diary
Honey
Mission: Impossible
Groundhog Day
Snakes on a Plane

(The movies are ranked in the order in which I enjoyed them.)

Ten movies! In just a month! I typically watch only a handful of films per year.

Anyways, about my China funk. Some might think "Why are you unhappy? You seriously disrupted your and your husband's life after having the desire to do this for over two years -- why aren't you enjoying it?" Well, I don't know. I never thought of this trip as any kind of vacation. I guess living abroad is something I've always expected of myself, sort of in the same way certain countries require all of their young people to spend two years in the military. It was just something I had to do, and with China being a "hot topic" and a country I already had some level of interest in/experience with, it seemed like a good choice. But I'm sure it's odd to see someone struggling with something they have only a self-imposed obligation to do.

D - Letter from a Student

Below, I have pasted an email I received from one of my students. His class will be finishing up shortly so he sent me a note. I have removed personally identifying materials. I should also mention that C has also been getting thoughtful emails and text messages thanking her for her class. I suppose it's possible they are buttering us up for a better grade but I think it's highly unlikely. Most of these students are in line for As anyway. They are just appreciative of having encountered a different teaching style.

NOTE: I didn't correct the mistakes in the mail, but I am not leaving them in to ridicule my student. I couldn't even come close to writing something like this in Chinese. He is a very good student and I enjoyed having him in class.
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Dear David：
　　 I am a student of yours ,in Class10 Maritime Engineering. Yes I am XXXX who is interested in both you and your lesson.Since you know ,I always used to sit in front of classroom. Although,I am not good at English ,especial spoken English,I can grasp the main ideal you espressed at lesson .I have leared more from you ,which I can never gain from any ohher place ,for instance ,the accent of American ,the form of expression ,the culture of westerner ,and so on .On this point ,all of my classmates should express great gratitude to you ,think you very much,David.

I do not know how do you feel about our class .In the process ,some of my mates were not earnest,and not all of us were punctual,and so forth ,which allways made you at loss .Some times you had to make us be quiet .I know ,all of this bad phemenomenon or perfonrmance made you felt disappointed ,to a foreign teacher ,especially you as a new comer ,that might be a kind of disappointment or a chellenge of your job in China. But in fact,almost none of us do not like you or your tuition.You are our first foreign teacher,so you are particulliar.Comparing whit our former Chinese English teacher ,the class you tought is very interesting .To say the least ,I am a loyal fan of you. Approaching to the end of the semester ,I feel relucktant to say farewell to you and your excellent class .Once so many times ,I had made up my mind to make friends with you, so as to helped you and learned smothly spoken English from you ,but I never expressed this mind to you for no apparent reasons.

Well ! I will never meet you and communicate with you after the final exam.Which is a kind of grief to me in a sense. In one"s life ,a person will come to so many people,but the person will only can keep few of them in his\her mind. I belive you will be one of those who are kept in my mind untill the day I disapear from the world ! Nest monday ,obviously,is the end of the course ,but not the end of the motion ,as well as the relationship between us. Whenever and wherever you can resort to me when you are in trouble ,on the piont you belive I have the ability to offer what you need ! Lasterly ,resly think you for your teach !The years will obscure what teach me ,but not you -David my first foreign teacher !
Best wishes

D - Examining the Chinese Mind

17 days until we return to the US for a couple of weeks. Almost there! In the mean time, class has been keeping us busy. In this post I wanted to talk about some of our past lessons and how we're doing examinations.

As an Oral English teacher, one of the dilemmas is deciding what the final exam should be. We've worked on a broad array of different topics - from directions to music to job interviews. The primary focus is on pronunciation and on-the-fly creation of english. The problem is that testing someone's speaking, while not difficult, can take some time. Our classes are 1 hour and 30 minutes, and each class has about 30 students. To examine a student for even five minutes would take 2 and a half hours. There are no classes during lunch here, so for exams my classes will get extended into eating time. Pity the poor students that catch me at 1pm when I haven't eaten since 8:30am!

I have two sets of students - 3rd year marine engineers and 1st year automation students. I haven't decided on an exam for the freshmen yet but for the marine engineers I am going to have them use phrases from our "For and Against" lesson.

Each students will get one of 8 proposal.

• Providing Free University Education
• Voting for Government Officials
• Paying Government Officials More Money
• Requiring China College Entry Examination
• Giving Money to the Poor
• Banning Smoking in Public Places
• Creating high taxes on alcohol
• Allowing Women in the Military

The students have to say if they are "for" or "against" the proposal and why. I will prod them with some additional questions to make them prove they aren't just going from memorization. I also gave them a general rubric describing how I will evaluate their performance. I'm expecting a pretty normal distribution, although the only students who will fail are probably those who haven't been coming to class and getting their attendance grade. I decided to do "For and Against" because 1) We did it in class 2) Opens the door to using a lot of different words and 3) I want them to develop opinions. Chinese people are so uninclined to have strong opinions so by discussing even mundane or previously-decided questions, I think there's some value.

What else have we been up to? Well C and I have been showing movies to our freshman classes. Allowing them to see how real people communicate in English is beneficial and helpful to their listening abilities. We turn on the English subtitles because their reading is far past their speaking. C has been showing "Walk the Line" (The Johnny Cash story). I showed that once but I have also shown "A Beautiful Mind". The students really seem to like both movies overall. Yesterday C noted how the Chinese are somewhat obsessed with the fact that a native Chinese person from the People's Republic of China has never won the Nobel Prize. There's a massive inferiority complex that results in the PRC thumping its chest whenever possible. "A Beautiful Mind" of course is about a schizophrenic mathematical genius who eventually wins the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994. C commented that the movie would no doubt increase their Nobel fever - "Look, even crazy people in our country can win this award! What's wrong with China??"

I think "A Beautiful Mind" is a good movie for them to see. It demonstrates that in America, despite the odds, even a mentally ill man can meaningfully contribute. I don't have any knowledge about the Chinese mental health system but somehow I too many John Nash's have been allowed to escape.

I feel like this has been an exceedingly boring entry. There have been many moments I wanted to report but you really have to write them down while they are emotionally fresh. This blogging thing is not as easy as it looks!