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Published: September 29th 2009
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I suppose we should have said this earlier, but, as you know, all foreigners carrying fresh coffee beans, dark chocolate and size 11.5 shoes are rushed through customs with 1st Class treatment. And, it just so happens that we have two apartments here at the school. Our second apartment is currently home to our two bicycles and the box that held our mini fridge. But! If one was to drop in for a visit, they would, without a doubt, have a free, clean apartment complete with a western style toilet and AC as well as easy access to really, really cheap Chinese food. Come on ya’ll, drop by for a visit!
This past week I was drop-kicked into the wildly energetic culture of middle/upper class 3rd graders and all of their excitement for the new school year. I always thought my energy level could only be tamed with daily installations of distance running, but as it turns out, teaching five, 30-plus-kid, classes per day seems to do the trick too. For any of the nay-sayers out there who think teaching is an easy gig, I am here today to say those people are flat-out wrong; those darn kids can smell
it if you aren’t on you’re A game for even a moment. And when they smell it, they will destroy you…
The teaching has been fantastic overall. For the most part, the kids are really excited to learn and if they sense a sticker about to be doled out, they become especially amiable. So far we have reviewed colors, weather, food, and greetings. Next week we will dive into the depths of preposition land. Where is Garfield the cat? Oh yes, that’s right… on top of the box, next to the box, and under the box. It is amazing how many different places Garfield can be when pictured with a cardboard box.
Tomorrow will be the first day of classes for Elizabeth. At 6th grade, all the students, regardless of pretty much any excuse imaginable, go through a mandatory week of military training. For the past week they have been parading around campus like boy scouts in their ill-fitting camouflage outfits and flip-flops. Yesterday was their graduation and the principal called an all-school assembly to congratulate a whole new class of little red book readers.
We’ve been learning bits and pieces of the language - trying to
Brick Hauling Man 2
The entire town of Yangzhou has an overall elevaton change of maybe five feet -- everything easily* rolls to it's destinaion spend one hour, daily, on the subject. The vocabulary is very literal and simple upon first glance. Every written character has a short sound, usually no longer than four letters, and from this sounds are strung together to form multi-syllable words. For instance, the word for earth is 土 or tu. The word for bean is 豆 or dou. Put the two together, 土豆, and shizam! You get earth-bean or potato, pronounced tudou. How about them beans!?
The tricky part, however, is that the spacing remains constant from one character to the next, regardless of the length of the word or the overall sentence. It would be like me wri ting one syl la ble at a time. The other trick is that each word has a minimum of four different meanings based on the tone of voice used. For instance ma said with a down tone means “to wipe.” Ma said with a down-up tone means “horse”. Ma with an up-tone adds a “?” to the end of a sentence, and ma said flatly means “mother”. Simple, right?
The first few days of teaching I learned my numbers - thanks to our friend Mao. Somewhere along the
line, he heard that if you do special eye exercises your eyesight will remain strong or potentially even get better. At a predetermined hour every day, the children drop whatever it is that they are doing and for a solid ten minutes rub the muscles around their eyes with their fingers. First, while counting to ten, rub in a counter-clockwise direction around the eye. Then, counting to ten, massage those eyebrows. Then, while counting to ten, work the outside corner of those eyes. Wash, rinse, repeat. I have no qualms -it helps me hone my number skills. Thanks Mao.
The weather has been stiflingly hot here. Humidity stands around 90-odd percent, and the only reasonable time to be out running is during a short window between 5:30 -6:30 am. Yesterday I registered us to run in the Beijing Marathon which will take place in the third week of October. No world records are anticipated, but we will get to finish inside the famous Bird’s Nest from this past year’s Olympics. That said, we have been out running nearly every day and one of our favorite things to do (I’m sure this is a mutual feeling for the observed) is
to watch people. Our Chinese friends people exercise in throngs. Every morning hundreds of people make their way to the public parks and dance in unison. We see many out playing bad mitten, flying kites, practicing martial arts, jogging, walking, or simply stretching. If the aforementioned doesn’t seem pertinent, one could simplify the activity and hit things too. No kidding. Many stand in the park and gently palm-slap trees, light posts, boulders, arms, legs, necks… anything. Also, the elderly walk backwards and clap their hands. Men and women alike can be seen everywhere in the early mornings walking backwards in the bicycle lanes, walking and talking like any culture does, only backwards and clapping too. Apparently they believe it helps them to maintain their balance. On an interesting note, my grandmother, who recently partook in physical therapy to strengthen her balance, was been instructed to walk backwards and toss a small ball from hand to hand. Perhaps the physical therapists have been tapping into ancient eastern medicines; it seems like a remarkably similar exercise to what we have been observing over here on the other side of the world.
And now, I present to you the greatest Asian invention,
aside from the wheelbarrow and the abacus, of all-time. Nap hour. Yesterday we took our bicycles out on the town to do a bit of exploring. We rolled around through the markets and had noodles and some green tea and then, as we locked up our bikes and began strolling, we noticed a general lull setting in. City-wide. We knew it happened here on campus (nothing happens between 12:00 and 2:00 pm) but had no idea as to the scale of this daily ritual. We westerners are quite familiar with afternoon drowsiness and combat it on daily basis; usually around 2:00 pm and usually with an afternoon cup of coffee or a diet pepsi. Asians, on the other hand, embrace it. Every street vendor, restauranteur, carpenter, tailor, and scooter repair man takes the softest item they have on hand, lays it out on the ground, and passes out. And not for a quickie ten minute nap either - this is the real deal and only one tick shy of taking off their pants and crawling under the covers. They are in it for the long haul. One hour minimum. Many have bamboo lawn chairs - you know, the three piece
jobs that everyone in the States has folded up and hiding in the depths of their garage - set up right behind their small stand. Sort of like a city-wide quiet time. Imagine a 10’ x 20’ shop (typical of this area of town) with four carpenters, all grown men mind you, curled up on their respective scraps of cardboard on the floor of their shop (still completely open) and out for the count. The traffic cools to less than half of normalcy and it is a great time to get around on bicycle. Forget trying to catch a taxi though; they are all snoozing too.
Until next time, zàijiàn.
Kelly and Elizabeth
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