Class activity

I had my students write a story together.  Each was allowed to write three words on the chalkboard.  Here are the results from one class:

 

American Breakfast

Today I invited some friends over for a typical American breakfast, except that I invited them over for dinner because who eats real breakfast in the morning anyway?  Actually, I do. This semester I only have one morning class on Thursday so I have time to make a real breakfast.  In fact, I often eat a prebreakfast while making breakfast, which is closely followed by brunch.

Anyway, for dinner tonight I wanted to treat George, my old boss, who has treated me countless times to KTV, movies, or dinner.  He brought his friend Rainbow and Vivian, who is an old student of mine.  We made crepes (pancakes are too difficult in a wok on a hot plate) and a potato dish (not sure how that's breakfast) and pizza :).      

As we were sitting down, Vivian was struggling to choose a seat.  I was confused until she asked me, "It is custom in your culture that this is the host chair?"  I laughed and said I had no idea but it made me think about all the customs we study before we come to China and our customs that they expect when they are invited to an American's apartment for dinner.

I rarely think of such things anymore.  Sometimes I'm not even sure anymore which customs are Chinese. In China you always offer your guest something to drink the moment they step in the door.  Is that American too?  Because to me it feels so natural and even necessary.  But I am not good at fighting to pay the bill and now I'm wondering if I should have walked my guests to the gate, even though they told me it was too cold to go outside.  It's funny how fighting is polite.  I think people here must just be programmed to always consider others' needs.  I have to fight with a student to keep her from carrying my bag of groceries for me.  When students buy fruit, they buy a lot, because they're buying it for all their friends to share.  And if they just happen to run into you, they'll give you some of it!  They say, "It is just the Chinese way."

      

Lessons learned in China #10

There's nothing like some sweet and sour pork with sprinkles on top.   Mmm...

Lessons learned in China #9

You can buy yogurt from a vending machine!  :)

Lessons learned in China #8

You never know who you will meet and when.

It may be dark and you may be in the woods on a path hiking towards your hostel but unsure of which path to take when the most nimble old man appears and guides you to the road and helps you find a taxi.

You may on a train with a sick friend when you meet a women with a baby who speaks very good English and is willing to do anything she can to help you.  And when it's 2AM and you don't speak the langauge and your friend probably has food poisoning, knowing that you can "dial a translator" means a lot to you.  It is even more incredible when you find out that she is also a Sister.  And you are reminded once again that there is One who helps us so much, sometimes in little ways, sometimes in big ways, and his power has no limits or borders.    

Lessons learned in China #7

A guide book, despite being large and cumbersome, can be very useful in certain settings. Say for example that you are on a 12 hour train ride.  It's 2AM and you still have about six hours left and your friend has been rushing for the bathroom every half hour for the past 5 hours.  If you have a guide book, you find an available hostel at the next stop.  But calling ahead and letting them know that you are coming is only possible because of lesson #8....

Lessons learned in China #6

This is pretty accurate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wjZ_QcGlk4

I am trying to learn a little bit of Chinese.  Most of what I can say, can be more easily gestured (left! right! I want this one!), but I can ask someone where they are from.  I can also say that my friend is very sick and throwing up. This was surprising useful on one unfortunate train ride, which brings me to lesson learned #7....

Lessons learned in China #5

I guess those yellow lines are "more like guidelines."

Lessons learned in China #4

Chinese food is delicious.  Even "black fungus" and tofu!

Black Fungus (bottom right), also a favorite, though
the texture does take some getting used to.

 Green tea cakes (top right) - one of my favorites.  :)

Lessons learned in China #3

Cooking with friends is great!

Huang Shan and I cook together about once or twice a month.

A XiaoBaiCai inspired dish on the bottom
and a dish with potato, carrot, green pepper and pork.  

My favorite dish to cook is probably Xiao Bai Cai, which is a type of small Chinese cabbage.  We often make it with mushrooms.  This time is was sort of a soup.

Purple sweet potato and corn.  :)

Lessons learned in China #2

Always, always, always, check the peas before you eat them.

Good

Not so good. Yuck.  

Lessons learned in China #1

Always look both ways before you cross anything that at all resembles some sort of street, sidewalk, or really anything.  In fact, don't just look both ways; look all the ways.

Wedding in the Country

Wedding decoration

Weddings in Jianli, Hubei last two days.  The night before the wedding celebration begins, a stage and tent is constructed.  Then a large, red blow-up gate is placed in front and inflated the following morning.  

The first day begins early with loud music blaring from the speakers on the stage.  A troupe of country performers has been hired to sing all day and entertain in the evenings.

Cooking large quantities

Family and close friends spend all morning washing and chopping vegetables.  There’s no wedding cake or sparkling champagne on the menu.  Instead special food delicacies like turtle and chicken feet will be served and the commonplace vegetable dishes will all be replaced with expensive meat dishes.  And these same foods will be served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next two days. 

Chicken feet

(I never did see anyone eat any turtle meat.  I’m not sure that it exists.  I guess the bones flavor the broth and tofu-noodles.  )

Fish

Turtle soup

Neighbors wander in and out all day and eat and sit and watch the singers.  Since my friend is the sister of the groom, we can get up on stage and sing karaoke whenever we want without having to pay. 

They didn’t have any English songs but, of course, Candy has “My Heart Will Go On” and the lyrics on her phone so we sing that.  I could load songs from my mp3 player and, though I didn’t have the lyrics, I was still able to muffle through “Bridge O’er Troubled Waters” by Simon and Garfunkel and “The Call” by Regina Spektor.  When you’re a foreigner, everything you do is a little strange anyway. 

Neighbors and family members

On the second day of the wedding the groom and his family go to get the bride.  I’m not sure what exactly they do.  I think they eat, visit, and get the bride ready.  Then they begin the wedding procession.  Both sides of the family pile into cars and vans and make their way to the groom’s house.  The first car is decorated with flowers and ribbons and the bride and groom ride in it.  When they’re about a mile away from the groom’s house, they are greeted by a wedding band, friends, and firecrackers.  

Fire crackers

In fact, this entire section of the road is lined with firecrackers and the groom’s friends race around in front of the car lighting them.  The whole point is to make a lot of noise.  Noise is equal to celebration in China and the louder, the happier.  At this wedding, the band at was just a snare drum and baritone but I’ve also seen a wedding caravan being followed by a small parade that even included a Chinese dragon. 

The arrival of the wedding caravan

Wedding band

When the bride and groom arrive at them home, the groom must carry the bride all the way up to their new room.  Everything in this room is new.  The parents and groom have been preparing it by purchasing a new bed, wardrobe, desk, mattress, sheets, curtains, night stand, quilts, garbage can…everything in it is NWT.  The bride brings nothing with her from her old home- not even shoes.  The living room was also new: new couch, AC/heating unit, TV, coffee table, even the light fixtures were new.  Weddings are expensive.

The bride and groom

Bargaining

Confetti showers the bride and groom as he pulls her out of the car and carries her to the door, which his friends have all barricaded with wooden benches.  Now begins the interesting part. 

Candy with the lucky money

The groom must give out red envelopes stuffed with ‘lucky money,’ to anyone who asks.  Most have ¥4 or ¥5 and some have as much as ¥20.  The grooms ‘friends’ do not let him pass until they have reached an agreement about how many of these envelopes he has to give out.  They bargained with him all the way up the stairs.  Apparently, the more they argue, the more memorable the wedding is. 

After that, is lunch.  The close family eats upstairs in the brand new living room and everyone else eats downstairs and outside.  Then the bride’s family leaves.  During dinner, the country singers give another performance with singing, dancing, skits, and a little bit of opera similar to Beijing opera.  It’s similar to the previous night but with different material.

The next morning, everyone packs up and picks up.  The stage and blow up disappears and it’s back to the fields and cotton.

October Holiday

Candy's neighbors

In the first week of October, I spent seven days living in the countryside.  A friend of mine invited me to her brother's wedding and I was thrilled at the chance to meet her family, watch a Chinese country wedding, and experience daily living in the country.

More neighbors

Every October in China, everyone gets a week off to celebrate the Chinese National Day. (Except that they don't really get a whole week off.  The holiday is only three days and then the other two days are made-up on other weekends.)  This year I went with my friend Candy to her hometown.

Details on that trek are found here (http://chatsfromchina.blogspot.com/2013/10/countryside-where.html)

It’s funny to me that they call it a town.  It seemed much more like a very spread out neighborhood, though it is possible that I never even saw the actual town.  China is funny because in the countryside there are still neighborhoods.  It isn’t like the U.S. where living in the country means living miles away from your nearest neighbor.  In China you may live hours away from a real town but you still have a large village surrounding you. 

The main road

Candy’s family was very hospitable.  The moment I would enter a room they would say ‘sit!’ and hand me a glass of water.  But that’s also just a huge part of what you do in China.  In the U.S. I’m used to saying, “make yourself at home” and then showing someone where the glasses are but here they say “make yourself at home” and never let you pour your own drink.   In fact, if I even glanced at food or a drink, I would soon have some forcibly offered to me. 

The country life was interesting.  Candy’s mother did the laundry by hand every morning and rinses the clothes in a nearby lake.  (In the winter they use their aunt’s washing machine). Everyone knows their neighbor, even those that are far away.  They help each other out when they need it.  Farm equipment is sometimes cows, sometimes people, and sometimes machines.  When cotton is in season families sit around a table separating the fluffy cotton from the bolls or shells by hand. 

     

 The back yard is a garden and all the land in sight is growing something.  The first floor of the house is kept open all day.  It’s kind of a like a common room in an apartment or dormitory.  The walls are bare except for an ancestor shrine and a portrait clock.  Candy’s grandparents and parents both live on the first floor.  The kitchen is outside but has an attached wall.  Food is cooked on a wood stove.  Candy’s mother cooks while her grandmother feeds the fire, sometimes feeding it the cotton bolls or trash.  The ‘refrigerator’ is a shelf dangling from the ceiling.  It catches a breeze and the food is protected from flies by a cardboard tent, which is usually left open.  The screenless windows are also usually left open.  One room in the entire house has AC/heat.  The house is brick, the windows are thin, and there is no insulation, but this is just a way of life.    It seems that all the houses are like this.  You just wear a lot of clothes in the winter.

Chicken in cotton

The third floor of the house is for storage and on the second floor are three more bedrooms, a second bathroom, and a living room with TV and cable.  The bathroom does have hot water and a shower.   The rooms are large with big windows but don’t include anything built in.  My friend keeps her clothes in her two nightstands, her desk, and her parents’ wardrobe, but she also hasn’t lived at home since she went to stay at school when she was about thirteen.  This is pretty common.  

Floor plans for Mom- rough sketch - 1st floor

But before that her parents went to work in Shenzhen and she stayed with her aunt so she maybe hasn’t ever lived in this house because her family built it not that long ago.  The only people that live in the house are the grandparents.  But now that my friend’s brother and wife are expecting, they will also live there.

rough sketch - 2nd floor

 It’s funny because I would want heat and insulation but the things they want are better phones or scooters and a better life for their family, whatever a “better life” is.  Everyone works so hard but it’s usually for someone else.  The grandparents work in the garden and save money; the parents leave and move to the city to work and work in a factory so their kids can have an education, their parents can have a new house, and their grandkids can have good doctors and be spoiled rotten; and the kids work so they can travel but also for their parents, their children, and their grandparents.  There's no social security and when times get rough, you simply must rely on each other: on your family and close friends.  I think its different at the core but similar on the outside.  China has a deep culture, ninety-percent of which I don't understand.  :)

Countryside - Where?

Where is Jianli?  Good question.  Getting there was a bit of an adventure in itself.  I certainly could not have found it on my own, and, of course, I didn't have to.  My friend Candy joked that she was my 'guide' and she was.  :)

To arrive at Candy's house, you first ride the train to YueYang, which takes about 2.5 hours.  After that you take a city bus and then walk to where you catch the boat.  Once you board the boat, you wait until it's full enough, and then begin down the Yangtze River and get off at the last stop.  

We didn't ride in any of these boats but I enjoyed
watching them 'dock.'  One would pull into a space
and then ram into all the other boats to shove them over
and make space for another.  Those tires are very important.

Candy and her cousin.  We became friends and I taught her 'high-five!'

Inside the boat on the return trip.
These are Candy's classmates and neighbors.
They also go to school in Wuhan.

But this doesn't actually take you to Jianli.  This is somewhere near it; I'm not even sure that I was ever in a city called Jianli.  

After you get off the boat, get ready for a twenty minute scooter-cycle ride.  But be sure to pack light; I think three adults, a four year old and a small carry-on is close to max capacity.  

September Update

Language camp in Yangshuo

Language camp was incredible.  The location was spectacular, the people were wonderful, and every day I was able to spend time with friends and study Chinese.

Ping'An

Ping'An

Yangshuo is a beautiful place.  We enjoyed biking beside rivers and mountains, swimming, and cave exploring.  On one weekend we were also able to skirt up to Ping’An, where there are gorgeous rice terraces. 

We also met many interesting people including a tour guide from Holland, a handle of rock climbers, and a lady from S. Africa, who came to China for the same reasons we did.  One of our teachers was a sister and we got to visit a Chinese group who were dedicated to studying our book every week.  I love meeting people from such different backgrounds and cultures who still have the truth that we have.  It’s encouraging to know that it can be found in many places.

Xing Ping

Moving in

Thanks to Bonnie, Laura, and Matt, I was able to move almost everything from my old campus to my new one in less than three hours (despite dropping a bottle of soy sauce which splattered and shattered all over the floor).  We only had to take two taxis! 

I’m still cleaning and organizing though, so I’m not exactly settled.  Due to certain circumstances, we did not return to Wuhan until Friday afternoon so I’m a little behind on planning lessons and cleaning.  My new apartment is awesome though.  When I’m finished putting things away I’ll post some pictures.

Teaching

On Friday or Saturday last week, I found out that my classes don’t start until the 10^th, which is great.  (Most classes start on the 2nd).  I’ll be teaching five writing classes each week, two on Tuesday and three on Thursday.  Two of the other foreign teachers, Mary and Abby, are also teaching the same writing classes and I am really excited about planning lessons and tests with these two.  Mary and her husband Ed have been in China for years and I think they are both outstanding teachers so I have the opportunity of learning from some of the best. J   

I was able to catch up with one of my students from last year and was excited to learn that she has been continuing to read our favorite book!  This week I hope to catch up with some others.  It's still only the first week back for them so everything is a little hectic.  :)