jenlaoshi

This year, 2009, marks the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. This holiday is known as National Day and it is celebrated on October 1 each year. In addition to the elaborate banquets, huge sales at appliance stores and countless Chinese flags, to honor the day, the government gives the people a holiday from work and school. This year it was a longer holiday than usual because it was combined with China’s Mid-Autumn Festival, which usually warrants another separate long weekend. However, this year, they fell during the same week, so China had off from October 1-October 8. Yes, China had off. This means that almost every company that is not retail or food related is closed during this time. The government is definitely closed, as well as embassies and banks. ... read more

In addition to my Chinese classes, I started going to an optional Chinese painting class (Zhong Guo Hua’r Ke) once a week. Essentially, I go and listen to an old Chinese teacher/painter talk in mumbled Chinese for about 45 minutes, as he demonstrates painting something, then we make an effort to do it ourselves for 45 minutes. Apparently, today he was talking about how we swirl our wrist to make the brush do what we want, but joked that his hand was unsteady because he is old and has drank too much! Too bad I only get it through translation, but at least someone told me. Good to know our Laoshi (teacher) has a sense of humor. So, last week we just practiced brush strokes, but this week we started to actually paint a scene. So ... read more

So, on my first day of classes I ended up going to the market with my friend and classmate, Paula, before going over to her apartment to do our homework and study. Well, she wanted to make chicken curry for dinner and needed to buy some chicken. The market we went to was a huge semi-outdoor one with at least 50 different vendors selling everything from carrots to cow tongue to cashew nuts. The options for chicken for Paula’s dish were many. She had frozen chicken pieces, fresh butchered chicken (half chicken or whole chicken) or fresh live chicken (technically hen…I think). After perusing the options, she decided to go with a live chicken! This was a new experience for me, as I had always bought my meats already butchered and wrapped in saran wrap at ... read more

My language classes begin on September 1. Since the scholarship students were asked to arrive a week early, we have spent the this time in between running errands including registering for classes, getting our internet set up in our dorm room, shopping for items to make our room more livable, visiting the visa office and getting medical exams prepared for our residency permits. We also have been exploring the area around our campus, the city and discovering new places to feed ourselves. The routine tasks that accompany starting at a new school are usually time-consuming and frustrating. Add the lack of effective communication, convoluted logic and plain misunderstanding into the equation and you have the life of a new student in China. Given all of these things, our first few days here have been fairly straightforward ... read more

In the spring of 2009, I applied for a full scholarship through the Chinese Government to study Mandarin full time at a Chinese university. Less than a month ago, I found out that I got it. A whirlwind of a month later, I left my friends, family and job, bought a one-way ticket to Shanghai and I am sitting in an apartment on the campus of the school I taught at in Shanghai 3 years ago typing this blog to share my story with you. My scholarship is for one year of full time study at Yunnan University in Kunming, China. That adventure starts tomorrow. For now, I arrived in China on Thursday for a 5 day stopover in Shanghai to catch up with friends here and satisfy some of my food cravings that I've missed ... read more