Life Thus Far...

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There is this semi-conscious sort of sleep that for a frequent commuter is important to perfect. You see it all the time on buses and subways, people who have honed this skill to the art of sleeping while upright, able to drop off at a moments notice and awaken again perfectly timed upon arrival at their destination. Your body becomes used to the curves and stops to the point where your brain manages to shut off and charge itself, though the true transit pro never loses all lucidity. - I was musing over this as I was making my way over to a voice recording gig after completing a days work at school. I was bone tired (we've had a brutal amount of "end-of-year" paperwork due) and not overly enthusiastic over delaying my relaxing couch time to make the hours trek out to the studio and work for a few more hours. I had been lucky enough to snag a seat on the subway (a feat damn near impossible during rush hour) and was drifting into a lucid coma when I noticed the head of the fellow beside me begin to seesaw. Now this guy didn't give a hoot over maintaining any form of consciousness, and soon enough I found his head nestled right in on my shoulder. Through weary lids I noticed this cuddling up of Chinese male/Western female was garnering plenty of attention from the commuting crowd. Now I am so used to personal bubbles not being an option here (and I was dead tired) so I hadn't thought twice of it. I sympathized with that sleep of the dead and admired his ability to truly throw inhibition to the wind and allow himself total and utter sleep. He had completely let go. (Note: most traditional Chinese tend to avoid Westerners a bit, and certainly don't wish to touch us . I've strangely had seats beside me on crowded buses never taken and if accidentally bumped into by a bobbing drowsy head, been met with horrified stares... this from a population that will poke each others bits of pudge and scrape the sweat from each others faces). So we "slept together" for nearly an hour, until I had to disembark. I managed to shift his head so his sleep was not disrupted and had a good laugh over the situation.

School has closed for summer vacation. We have a month free until training and setting up for the new semester begins. I had hoped to use this time to travel China a bit, but as I am not earning money, and two trips to Hong Kong and one to Canada is not cheap by any standard, I am forced to hit the streets again to seek temporary employment. I hadn't heard back from any of my applications until yesterday. Yesterday afternoon I received a phone call from an English camp coordinator informing me that I have indeed secured the position and will report to camp on the 24th. I have been supplied no information regarding curriculum or what my co-Chinese teacher will be teaching... all I know is I am responsible for 16 lessons for Level 1. "Bahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!" I've been teaching preschool for so long I admit I am very nervous to be taking on this camp. Will I remember how to teach teenagers? The money is great for eight straight days, but I simply detest doing anything where I am unsure if I can provide a valuable service. I want to feel that I am giving my students something worthwhile and not wasting either of our times. So pray that I be given inspiration for these lesson plans. At the moment I feel hideously unprepared. This weekend I found myself judging a speech contest at the local QingHua university. Students aged 4 - 18 from all over China came to the university for the Finals Competition. It was pretty entertaining work (though a long day with over 600 participants) with many children dressed up in outlandish costumes and crazy "stage" parents setting up lighting and background music. The parents were quite intense and would try and cheat miserably during the question portion of the contest. It's incredible to me how these kids can memorize and eloquently deliver a speech over say, "How Colors Effect Our Mood", but then you ask basic comprehensive questions like, "What is your favorite color?" and they just stare at you blankly like you have cucumbers growing out of your head. Most forgo any attempt at comprehension and focused on winning as many possible points for the "Expression" and "Performance" categories. Thus the heavy make-up, wild costumes, and background music were in full force. Also many considered passion and expression = volume, so many speeches were judged with kids screaming at the top of their lungs a mere three feet from us judges. One boy sang and danced his entire speech (which obviously struck the musicals chord in me and received high marks). We found out later that some parents cried over our "low marks" for their children (which is crazy because we weren't allowed to grade lower than 8.5 out of 11, which is a very respectful mark). My cheek muscles have yet to recover after posing for hundreds of photos with endless families and contestants. For many of these out of province groups foreigners are still quite a fascinating sight.

The weather has finally brightened again! We had been experiencing a gloriously clear and hot summer, but then had the past few weeks be "cold" (22 degrees) and depressingly grey, which are very uninspiring and depressive surroundings, luckily the skies have cleared, temperature has risen and general feelings of contentment have flourished. Bike rides continue to bring much joy to my days and I now zip around seeking out fruit stands and filling my fridge with bags of mangos, peaches, nectarines and lychee. Stuffing myself silly with (finally) cheap fruit has also been a source or great delight.

Visa update: I went into the Exit/Entry Administration Office to sign for my work permit, so if all goes well (cross fingers) I should be legal and official in 10 working days. (Pleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease!!!!!)

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Comments

[Leanne Wereschuk]

Loving It
Lindsie, I just love the way you write. If I was a good writer I would have said it with so many descriptive words and made it all sound funny as you do. You definetly have a talent here and maybe one day it might turn into something with $ signs but until then I will keep reading your blogs and see Bejing and Hong Kong through your wonderful words. I'll keep my fingers crossed regarding your visa. Have fun this summer. Auntie Leanne