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...
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
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.
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.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
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.
==================
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
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.
==================
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
Thursday, November 30, 2006
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.
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!
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
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!
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
D - In the Home Stretch
Wow, it's been awhile, but I promise we haven't been taken to prison or anything. The easy part of my schedule is over now and I am in the midst of the final push to the end of the semester. It's currently week 14 of 17 at DMU, so we're moving closer to our return to the US (which we are rather excited about).
The new apartment is good. If you're curious to see what it looks like, check out our photo album. Try to ignore the handsome fellow wearing long johns to keep warm. In reality though, we are plenty warm now. Turns out our air conditioners are also heat pumps that can warm the place up. And obviously our internet is working now. It's odd, we have much bigger apartment in China that we did when living in New Jersey. Of course everything here has the tinny quality you come to expect in China. You look at the faucet fixtures and they look pretty normal, but you touch them and something is just off. The handle is loose, the silver finish flecks off, it feels like it's going to break. This is the way for most things in China that are not carefully purchased. Everything has an overwhelming cheapness.
I want to relate an interesting story about the move. The FAO indicated that some student volunteers and movers would show up Saturday at 10am. They did and the moving was quite efficient. Within two hours we were pretty much moved to our new place. The method of moving surprised me a little bit. If you've seen a picture of our refrigerator in the photo album, you know it's not a full American style fridge, but neither is it a dormitory fridge. It's a sizable and heavy piece of equipment. Well the Chinese movers handled it as follows. One man stands in front of the fridge and pulls it on to his back. One of the the others helps him push it fully on to his back. AND THEN HE CARRIES IT ON HIS BACK DOWN FOUR FLIGHTS OF STAIRS. Likewise, when arriving at the new building, again he carries it on his back up 5 flights. I might add that we're not talking about Yao Ming here. This is a 5 foot 7 Chinese guy that can't weigh more than 145 lbs. They also carried our TV and our washing machine in this manner. To be honest, my heart was a little sick. A few days of that could ruin your back forever, and they probably do it every single day.
When the moving was over for the day, the movers had taken care of two foreign teacher apartments. The moving crew included 4 underlings and a boss. How much were they paid for their trouble? 160 Yuan, about $20 for the 5 of them. How ridiculously cheap. And I am quite sure they are happy to have the job - how many other able bodied Chinese men would take their position? Let's say that they make 30 Yuan per day in their moving job. That's only 900 Yuan per month, less than I take out from the ATM at one time.
I have one other new apartment anecdote for this post. Unlike our old apartment, our washing machine will not be in our bathroom. Every 2 floors they have a designated laundry room. The rooms have the requisite equipment - namely pipes to supply water and drains to accept the waste water. Unfortunately our Chinese friends made a critical error when designing the laundry room. The drains were elevated! The Chinese washing machines have a hose that you lay down on the floor to release the waste water. This means for the machine to effectively drain, the drain must be (at highest) on the ground level with the machine, and preferably at a lower level than the washer. But in our new laundry room it was the opposite. Luckily, they finally figured this out and put a BRICKS and MORTAR ledge in the laundry room, which they are then covering with tile. When placed on the new ledge, the machines should be able to drain properly. But why was the room so poorly designed to start with?
The new apartment is good. If you're curious to see what it looks like, check out our photo album. Try to ignore the handsome fellow wearing long johns to keep warm. In reality though, we are plenty warm now. Turns out our air conditioners are also heat pumps that can warm the place up. And obviously our internet is working now. It's odd, we have much bigger apartment in China that we did when living in New Jersey. Of course everything here has the tinny quality you come to expect in China. You look at the faucet fixtures and they look pretty normal, but you touch them and something is just off. The handle is loose, the silver finish flecks off, it feels like it's going to break. This is the way for most things in China that are not carefully purchased. Everything has an overwhelming cheapness.
I want to relate an interesting story about the move. The FAO indicated that some student volunteers and movers would show up Saturday at 10am. They did and the moving was quite efficient. Within two hours we were pretty much moved to our new place. The method of moving surprised me a little bit. If you've seen a picture of our refrigerator in the photo album, you know it's not a full American style fridge, but neither is it a dormitory fridge. It's a sizable and heavy piece of equipment. Well the Chinese movers handled it as follows. One man stands in front of the fridge and pulls it on to his back. One of the the others helps him push it fully on to his back. AND THEN HE CARRIES IT ON HIS BACK DOWN FOUR FLIGHTS OF STAIRS. Likewise, when arriving at the new building, again he carries it on his back up 5 flights. I might add that we're not talking about Yao Ming here. This is a 5 foot 7 Chinese guy that can't weigh more than 145 lbs. They also carried our TV and our washing machine in this manner. To be honest, my heart was a little sick. A few days of that could ruin your back forever, and they probably do it every single day.
When the moving was over for the day, the movers had taken care of two foreign teacher apartments. The moving crew included 4 underlings and a boss. How much were they paid for their trouble? 160 Yuan, about $20 for the 5 of them. How ridiculously cheap. And I am quite sure they are happy to have the job - how many other able bodied Chinese men would take their position? Let's say that they make 30 Yuan per day in their moving job. That's only 900 Yuan per month, less than I take out from the ATM at one time.
I have one other new apartment anecdote for this post. Unlike our old apartment, our washing machine will not be in our bathroom. Every 2 floors they have a designated laundry room. The rooms have the requisite equipment - namely pipes to supply water and drains to accept the waste water. Unfortunately our Chinese friends made a critical error when designing the laundry room. The drains were elevated! The Chinese washing machines have a hose that you lay down on the floor to release the waste water. This means for the machine to effectively drain, the drain must be (at highest) on the ground level with the machine, and preferably at a lower level than the washer. But in our new laundry room it was the opposite. Luckily, they finally figured this out and put a BRICKS and MORTAR ledge in the laundry room, which they are then covering with tile. When placed on the new ledge, the machines should be able to drain properly. But why was the room so poorly designed to start with?
Sunday, November 12, 2006
D - Movin' Out
We have moved into new digs here in Dalian. The old foreign teacher building has been under renovation for several months now and they finally finished the work. Unfortunately, the DSL in the new apartment isn't up and running and probably won't be for several days. We came back to our old apartment this morning to use the internet (and watch Tennessee get waxed by Arkansas). Hopefully this will be the last outage! The new place looks nicer. It has better fixtures and nicer furniture. It's also cleaner and so far seems to be inhabited by fewer bugs. Unfortunately it's also freezing. Our old apartment isn't exactly cozy but for some reason seems to retain heat better. Well, that's all for now. Hopefully we will return to regular posting in a few days when all is well in the new foreign teacher building.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
C - it's the most wonderful time of the year
Lately it's been pretty cold here in our apartment, and D and I have both been frustrated that the heat has not yet been turned on. Yesterday it snowed, and I thought "Ha! They'll HAVE to turn the heat on now!" But no such luck.
With our apartment so cold, I've been spending most of my free time in bed under my very warm comforter. I get in bed with the intention of reading, studying, or grading papers, but of course, I always end up falling asleep. I haven't taken afternoon naps since I was a junior in college, and I'd forgotten how much I hate the feeling of waking up in the evening when it's dark. Sunset time here is quite early -- around 4:45 pm -- so I've experienced this uncomfortable feeling more often than I'd have liked to this week. Today was one of those days.
On top of the fogginess produced by my indulgent afternoon nap, I've got a mountain of paperwork to do for my students, since three of my seven classes are taking their final exam this week. It mainly consists of answering comprehension questions about the movie "Walk the Line", and I was amused to see that the students must have found the Wikipedia entry on the movie. (Incidentally, China just granted access to Wikipedia a few weeks ago, to which I alerted them -- the timing couldn't have been better for my students.) Some of them got the question "What causes Johnny Cash's interest in Folsom Prison?", to which they've all responded "A B-movie called 'Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison.'" I then asked them "Do you know what a B-movie is?" They, of course, did not. But I'm pleased to see them researching things on wikipedia. They haven't found the Chinese-language version yet, thankfully -- that would've made my final exam a lot easier!
With our apartment so cold, I've been spending most of my free time in bed under my very warm comforter. I get in bed with the intention of reading, studying, or grading papers, but of course, I always end up falling asleep. I haven't taken afternoon naps since I was a junior in college, and I'd forgotten how much I hate the feeling of waking up in the evening when it's dark. Sunset time here is quite early -- around 4:45 pm -- so I've experienced this uncomfortable feeling more often than I'd have liked to this week. Today was one of those days.
On top of the fogginess produced by my indulgent afternoon nap, I've got a mountain of paperwork to do for my students, since three of my seven classes are taking their final exam this week. It mainly consists of answering comprehension questions about the movie "Walk the Line", and I was amused to see that the students must have found the Wikipedia entry on the movie. (Incidentally, China just granted access to Wikipedia a few weeks ago, to which I alerted them -- the timing couldn't have been better for my students.) Some of them got the question "What causes Johnny Cash's interest in Folsom Prison?", to which they've all responded "A B-movie called 'Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison.'" I then asked them "Do you know what a B-movie is?" They, of course, did not. But I'm pleased to see them researching things on wikipedia. They haven't found the Chinese-language version yet, thankfully -- that would've made my final exam a lot easier!
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