An Eclectic Mix of Wonderful

A day with Jason

So, for the remainder of this past week, I spent time getting better and doing lesson planning for the upcoming week. On Saturday I had planned to do a lot of lesson planning, but one of my oral English students caught me at the cafeteria at breakfast fresh after my morning run (sweat still dripping slightly on my brow). He wanted to know if we could practice his pronunciation right then and there (he talked with a third-year student who told him that his pronunciation is really bad, so now he is a bit over-worried about the issue and wants SO much practice). I told him it was no problem but that I really wanted to take a shower first! So, I finished my porridge and baozi and went quickly back to my apartment, showered, and returned in record time (15 min.). So, we went to my office and studied for about an hour. He then asked what I was doing for the rest of the day. I told him that, among other things, I needed to go downtown to the Computer City to buy a replacement charger for my MP3 player (I jumped on my other charger, which was in an unfortunate location during an in-apartment aerobics session!). So my student offered to accompany me. We ended up spending the major part of the day going to the Computer City, then walking the grounds of Sichuan University, having lunch, and then returning by bus. It turned out to be a great day. We talked about so many different things. Especially interesting were some philosophical things we talked about--this student in particular likes to talk a lot about what true happiness is and how responsibility in ones life is one of the key elements of true happiness. He also talked a lot about his renewed dedication to his studies in this term. He wants so badly to be successful at university so that he can secure a good job and support his parents. He is from a rural area in Hunnan province. His parents are both farmers and very poor. He was the first in his town to go to university. For him, being happy means being able to support his parents and make them happy and comfortable. I told him that I definitely share his view. For me, too, I told him, my family is so important in my life, and I want to be able to be able to take in and support my parents as they grow older. He also talked about his sister who is now in middle school. He said she is a very hard working student and may be able to get into a Tier 1 school (Chengdu University is Tier 2). He also talked about his choice not to have a girlfriend. He said that he thinks having a girlfriend might distract from his studies. I think one of the things I admire most about Jason is his passion for all things around him. For example, maybe because he is from the countryside he is fascinated by tall buildings. Once in downtown Chengdu, he commented on some of the buildings he liked most, saying, "Oh, so wonderful." Then, when we were walking around Sichuan University, we came to this huge sports complex building that I think looks like a cross between a giant blue shark and a space shuttle. When walking through Sichuan University it has always just been an odd-looking landmark for me when trying to find the north gate. But when Jason saw it (he hadn't seen it before), he went crazy--he just couldn't stop exclaiming about it. So we had to go and actually investigate. We climbed up the stairs leading to it and then explored a bit. Around the first corner of the building is the stadium that looks over the track and football field below. From that point there is a pretty good view of the city, and he liked this view, too. We walked back from this point and Jason commented a lot on the skill of whatever architect designed the building, from the iridescent blue mirrored glass covering much of the building, to the pyramid support system for the parts of the building that arch down like huge shark fins, resting on only several metal bars that are buried in the small pyramid support. We also investigated the siding of the building, which looks like solid steel, but is really some kind of light-weight metal material. After this, we climbed down the stairs and headed out the north gate toward the 97 bus and then home.

Giving ping pong a try

Well, a little background information first. Previously, in the U.S., in my dad’s basement I would sometimes go for a couple rounds of ping pong with my brother or my dad just for the heck of it. I have to admit that I might not have been taking the whole thing very seriously, but at the same time I lack a little skill with sports that require eye-hand-ball coordination (that’s why I run). Anyway, my notorious lack of skill in ping pong specifically has drawn the comment from my dad: “You play ping pong like Marylyn Monroe.” A comment my mom brought up when she heard I was going to play ping pong with my friends. My dad reiterated his prior comment during our Skype chat. When I excitedly typed to him that I was meeting my friends at 8:30 a.m. the next morning to play, he playfully asked, “Do they know how bad you are?” I said, “Yes, I told them that I’m not very good.” “That is an understatement,” he responded. So, you get the picture…I’m not what you would call “a natural” at ping pong. But, setting this aside, I was greatly looking forward to playing ping pong with my friends and learning a few things. So we met on Sunday morning. It was so early that the tables were still covered with water, and we used several packages of tissues drying them off after wiping sheets of water of with our hands. But then we started. My friend Jeff is awesome at the game; he’s been playing since the age of six, and last semester he would play for five hours at a time. His girlfriend is so-so, a bit better than me, but much poorer than Jeff. So, Jeff practiced with me for a while, giving me tips, etc. The first thing I changed was my hold on the thing you use to hit the ball (what do you call it? I don’t know!). This helped a lot. Secondly, I was taking it seriously, so my skill level was better. Things I still need to work on are being more forceful with my striking of the ball, hitting out and down as opposed to up (I had many air balls), not hitting the ball off the table (lose points this way), and also just moving around more while playing. But, just in the two hours we played, I made some improvement, so I think that I can avenge my current U.S. ping pong reputation upon my return.

My best meal in China

So, as you might remember, I had planned to have homemade Chinese dinner at my friends’ apartment last Wednesday, but food poisoning postponed the affair. So, last night we got together for the dinner. We met at 3 p.m. at our designated meeting spot (near the police depot), and then went to their apartment. We first worked on Jeff’s TEM4 studying for a while (working on grammar and vocabulary exercises and then a listening dictation). I feel frustrated that I cannot help him more with the grammar cloze. I never had a good foundation in grammar (if any!) before Monterey, and although the Structure of English class at Monterey was very helpful, there simply isn’t time in a semester course to teach all of English grammar. So I am helplessly unprepared on that front. My “Grammar Book” (the TESOL teacher’s Bible) is of help, but I’m so busy that I don’t have time put in my daily study of it as I should. But trying to explain to Jeff why one answer is right and the other isn’t shows me just how unprepared I am to explain grammar. However, what my favorite professor at MIIS told us was that the important thing isn’t to know all the grammar rules, but to know how and where to find the answers and then be able to explain them—this I can do. So, anyway, after TEM4 study, we played Fight the Landlord for about 45 minutes and then set off to the open marked to get the ingredients for dinner. They wanted me to choose the vegetables I wanted. Jeff’s girlfriend also knew that I love tofu (not the moldy food poisoning kind), so she asked her elder brother for a recipe (he’s a great cook, they said). So, in addition to many vegetables, we also bought a square of tofu. She also picked out some special spices and pickled peppers. Jeff’s girlfriend would choose the vegetables and then the vendor would bag them and then Jeff would carry them. I asked if I could carry some of the bags because I felt like I was just standing around. But Jeff told me to look around in the market. He said that the girls pick out the vegetables and the boyfriends carry the bags. Quite interesting. On the way back Jeff’s girlfriend stopped to choose some pea vines. Here in China they use the pea vines as an ingredient in soups or to top noodles. They’re very good! Then we headed back to the apartment, goods in hand (Jeff’s that is). Once at the apartment, we set about cleaning and preparing the vegetables: picking the old shoots off the pea vines, pealing back the outside skin on the baby onions (cong), washing the cucumbers (huang gua), pouring boiling water over the tomatoes (fanqie) so that we could peal the skin off, washing and nipping the ends of the green beans (dou) and another root-type vegetable that I we don’t have in the U.S. Jeff’s girlfriend also chopped ginger (jiang) and the peppers (lajiao). Jeff also washed the rice and then started cooking it in the traditional way (as opposed to in the rice cookers which all the restaurants here use). They explained to me (in English and Chinese) that in the countryside people often make a soup from the boiled rice water (you have to use extra water). The extra water results in a kind rice water soup (I dubbed it “mifan” (rice) milk…and they got a kick out of this). So, Jeff’s girlfriend cooked away busily, preparing the different sauces for the dishes, slicing the tofu and dropping it into the hot oil, slicing the cucumbers, making the sauce for the root-type vegetable. Smoke was billowing up from the hot oil and both Jeff and I had to momentarily retreat to the other room. The infusion in the air of hot pepper had given me a sneezing attack. After a few minutes though, it was safe. Jeff’s girlfriend chided him that this was the first time he’d helped in the kitchen. Usually, she told me, he watches TV while I do this. He explained that when he grew up, his mother had told him that it wasn’t important for boys to know what to do in the kitchen. He said that this had resulted in seriously simple meals for him and his father when his mother was away. His girlfriend said, you see now that she was wrong. Jeff replied that he also played an important role during our cooking session since he is often the link between the broken communication between me and his girlfriend (my poor Chinese and her poor English). So, after much preparation, all the dishes were ready. The dishes were: the tofu dish (simply the best tofu I’ve had EVER), the green bean dish (si ji dou), the fried cucumber dish, the root-type vegetable dish, soup with tomato and pea vine, traditional style rice, and rice soup (mifan milk). It was simply phenomenal. I praised her skills again and again and ate heartily (although I eat less rice than Chinese people—she had five bowls and Jeff had three or four). Jeff said that we had to try to eat all the food because otherwise it would have to be thrown out (they have no refrigerator). We almost did the job, but there was some leftover which I swore shouldn’t be thrown out. I took the remaining tofu-wonder back to my apartment that night. By the time we’d finished dinner, a downpour had started, and we launched directly into Fight the Landlord. We played intensely (I had many wins!) until about 10 p.m. At that point, the rain showed no intention of letting up, and I simply had to get back because I had my Chinese tutor appointment the following morning at 8 a.m. They wanted to walk be back, but I said that given the downpour outside, it was simply out of the question. They hemmed and hawed, so I finally agreed to let them see me to our police depot meeting spot (very close to their apartment). So, they lead me there and lent me an umbrella to make it back, my treasured tofu dish in hand. I got back home and spent about an hour doing some lesson planning for my British culture class, but after having taken a Melatonin straight in the door (I’ve been having serious sleeping irregularity), I was tanking fast by 11 p.m. There was no choice but to go to bed. I fell fast and woke up fresh just before 6 a.m. I had to get up early to do my running before my tutor came and also do a little refreshing on my Chinese (I’d studied during the week, but not on Sunday). And, I have to admit…I finished off the divine tofu cold before going to bed (even divine cold…I’m telling you, the best tofu ever!)

That’s all she wrote

So, now things are up until the present. I just finished at 11:30 a.m. with my tutor, then went and got some noodles for lunch (I’ve discovered a gem of a little noodle shop right inside the campus gates by the boy’s dormitory where I can get these great spicy cold noodles for 1 RMB!). So, now, I wanted to get this entry up before I get started on the rest of my crazy day. Next week is the start of my new oral English class for non-English department teachers, and I still have planning to do for my British culture class (a continuing challenge for a gal who knows nothing about the subject she’s teaching!). So, more to come soon.

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