Advertisement
Published: February 25th 2011
View from bedroom window
Thought I was hallucinating waking up on my first morning at my new place-only had two snow days so far=major drought One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
Walking up to Shiyan Elementary School for the first time with my TA Elena, I noticed a nice concrete statue of two kids playing in the center of the entrance courtyard, with a typical Chinese flag waving high and proud behind it. The Chinese are happy and proud people, and that sentiment is shown for example by many tying red bandanas/rags underneath the back of their cars; red being the color of the country of course. Defeating the Japanese’ onslaught of attacks back in the late 30’s prior to Pear Harbor was a victory current generations still talk about.
With ten minutes to go before class starts, we walk toward the five-story building where our two 35-minute English classes will take place. As all the kids are playing typical schoolyard games like basketball, Red Rover, tag and playing on the jungle gym, suddenly music from the schools PA system starts playing, symbolizing ten minutes until class.
Being the first week back since the month-long Chinese New Year holiday, I am reviewing numbers, colors, and animals with the 3rd graders, as well as adding some additional vocab words that relate to our lesson plan, and
Australia Day
Shane English School teachers celebrate the book doesn’t covers. My TA Elena begins to crack the metal ruler on my table-sized podium to get their attention. They quickly respond, and I introduce myself and give some simple classroom rules, respect for the teacher and each other being my main rule. I recognize three students from my classes at Shane, who are in my class.
So as my first lesson/class culminates, as piercing sound comes over the classroom speaker, and I quickly discover that it’s, wait for it, the ‘Jingle Bells’ melody! Yes, Jingle Bells in February, and in China, where they don’t celebrate Christmas. Anyway, I quickly start singing and dancing to the song, riding a sleigh like it’s a horse, ‘laughing all the way, ha ha ha’… It’s great, and the kids obviously love seeing their teacher act so silly, especially in first class. After the song concludes, another melody starts to play and the majority of kids sit in their sits and begin to massage their eyes, and the Jack Nicholson hit “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest” suddenly comes to mind. The PA system, institution, has taken control of the classroom, and school.
After the eye/ brain break and massage, all 30
kids exit the classroom and gather in one of three courtyards to start exercise time, and soon begin running as classes in large circles with music playing over PA system, and the ‘PE teacher’ talking over music to say when to run, stop and walk, then start running again. With their primary teacher leading and running with them on the side, boys and girls, big and small, fast and slow, winter jacket and no jacket, all are running in order like soldiers marching thru Tiananmen Square; but not that organized of course, they’re just kids. But you can see an aspect of it that relates to the sophistication and institutionalization that the country is known for. So there are three groups of 7-10 classes running in three large circles using all the courtyard space on the campus. It’s a site to see, with music pouring out of the PA system, in every classroom all over campus, too loud to be enjoyed. But if it was a little quieter, it might be enjoyable; but that’s just one of those Chinese things. We escape to a small room in another building for a twenty minute break until the next class starts.
My
Having fun with local kids
Sharing in the magic of lighting fireworks second class of 30 starts well, and I know four students in the class, who are in my classes at Shane English School: Michelle, Richie, Cherry-Pie, and Jim. I obviously already have favorites in both classes, and now even more responsible for their English understanding and knowledge! We are reviewing same things we did in first class, and I discover a ping pong paddle on one of the kid’s desks. Like a kid in a candy story, I pick it up and begin miming playing ping pong. Then, every kid in the class pulls out their own paddles, and I’m like what?! Elena tells me this is a Ping-Pong class, so they practice and play ping-pong 3-4 days a week during school, which their parents pay more for, as they do the additional English class taught by a native speaker. Shane has contracts with two public schools to provide English lessons by native speakers. The kids who don’t pay for additional English class have an English course taught by their primary teacher, which I hear can be tough with pronunciations etc.
Anyway, this class flies by and Jingle Bells comes on so ‘I do my little dance’ and then we
are finished with public school for the day. As much as it’s only two 35-minute classes, it’s much more tiring then that with kids always coming up to you saying hello, keeping the kids in-line in class (which Elena does as we work as a team, I am the fun teacher and she is discipliner and it’s balances out well-she doesn’t like to be mean to kids but knows someone has to do it in order to keep a somewhat sane classroom environment), listening to piercing sound coming from PA system, and dodging kids in hallways etc. It’s a lot to take-in, but sure I’ll become used to it soon as I will be at Shiyan two days a week, on-top of my Shane classes.
Other tidbits:
Last Sunday I got a call from our School Manager Maggie saying my landlord had just called her and the repair man was coming to fix the broken bed and toilet seat in my place. With it being Sunday night (Sat and Sun being busiest days for us), I said tonight (it was 8:00 pm) would be tough because all of us teachers were at BBQ enjoying ourselves, but he could come anytime
Monday. So we agree on 11:00 am Monday. I am chilling around the house that day and look at clock and its 11:45 am. So I text Maggie, where is he? Then I realize it’s her day off so I say, don’t worry, we’ll take care of it later (I have another bed and toilet I use anyway). Wednesday night, Maggie calls me from school and wants to go out for dinner since her husband is out with co-workers (which is so so common is China- you always see men out together for lunch, dinner and late at night; eating, smoking and drinking) so I say yes. I meet her at school and we go ouo one of the nicest places I’ve been to, and we’re talking and I mention, ‘the repair man never came when you said he would’. Alarmed and puzzled, she picks up the phone and calls my landlady (whose kid goes to Shane and when I see her at school usually in elevator, I jokingly bow-down to her). When she gets off the phone, she explains the repair guy is in trouble with authorities. Being only 20 or 21, he has impregnated a girl and he
Chinese checkers
Right on sidewalk next to busy roadway,lots of traffic is too young to have done that, especially not being married. Supposedly, the authorities were after him and so they may have caught him just before he was to fix my toilet and bed. Maybe I should have gone home Sunday night to have repair work done and or, he knew it was only a matter of time before he’d face authorities, so he was finishing off jobs and even odder times of the day, like repair work at 8 pm!
Maggie explained to me that most Chinese girls do not have sexual intercourse until they know it’s the one they will marry. So it doesn’t for a high percentage of them until they are in their mid to late twenties.
Random and large fireworks displays still shine the sky on various nights even though the New Years celebration is over, and kids are back to school, adults back to work, and all the local stores and restaurants back open. But instead of firecrackers waking me up now, there are chickens who hoot in the morning now that wake me up. It reminds me of when I lived in Costa Rica for five months with a family and work up
to their 10-15 chickens every morning. Good thing for me is I am an early riser, and not that big of a sleeper anyway.
Besides all-day Saturday and Sunday classes, my other classes are scattered throughout the week (with two days off) which gives me ample time to begin learning Chinese with Rosetta Stone, watching classic movies like Top Gun, Major League, Semi-Pro, Old School, Best of SNL- Farley and Ferrel, going out to eat and take walks, and cleaning house. So it’s a great work week schedule for those of us who like to entertain and teach children English.
We had a delicious lamb feast the other night in honor of two teachers departing the school. The farmer who had killed and prepared the lamb that day, marched in the restaurant with this 15-20 lb. cooked lamb and put it right on the table for us. So like Kings of the Gilded Age and savages, one by one we went getting nice slices of the fresh meat to eat. All we were missing was pepper!
I am going to setup a bank account with Bank of China today before I teach a class this evening. Then, we are going
Workers Stadium
Events site to Beijing Olympics, next to a Outback Steakhouse and two of the night clubs to Tsingtao (yes, as in the beer) for our days off next week to stay on the beach and at this really cool hostel, the Observatory (http://www.hostelz.com/hostel/81773-HI---Qingdao-Tsingtao---YHA-Old-Observatory-Hostel) . It supposedly has incredible panoramic views of the bay, and site of the first observatory in China ironically. Besides Beijing, I haven’t visited many historical/tourist spots yet, so definitely looking forward to some western delights (hear they have some amazing Italian chefs), meeting some English speakers, and seeing the water! It’s always fun to be able to look forward to something, and to work even harder because you know what’s ahead!
Hope this email finds you better than the foreigners stuck and or fleeing Libya’s unrest right now. The news is just capturing the second group of Chinese natives flown back by Air China from Libya. It seems like Barrack is always a day or two late responding to situations like that and New Zealand, but that is probably because the time difference and or many other issues at hand for the most powerful president in the world. The news over here is much less bias than the media-controlled stories we get at home. It actually is fair and balanced, and
never seems to be taking sides on any stories. The news here covers much more of whats happening in the world, and I feel so much more informed with what’s happening from Israel/Palestine clashing again, to the turmoil brewing between Japan and Russia, Libya’s president blaming bin Laden and unrest causing a surge in oil prices, and gold prices soaring. It seems after Egypt overthrew their leader, other Middle-East and Northern African countries unhappy with their regime are trying to do the same. Watch out for the ticking bomb that is N. Korea and Kim Jung Il as well. Our news shows events in N. Korea and the last one I saw, behind the man speaking to a large crowd, a big visible sign that said ‘Blame the USA’ was just behind him. It’s a crazy world out there!
Anyway, I have TA’s calling me and I need to go prepare for demo’s and classes this weekend. All my Best.
PdMAC
Advertisement
Tot: 0.101s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 54; dbt: 0.0603s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
jmcarthur
James D. McArthur
Very informative Blog!
Thanks Peter for the update; believe it or not, Dad joined the Blog so I can keep up with your busy and fascinating life in China. The Northern Trust Open has ended and Aaron Baddeley ("Badds") was the winner; I received a nice award as Volunteer of the Year. The living room is being totally remodeled at 1638. Michele is going to Ventura on Sunday to see Grandson Braiden. It's very cold this Friday and weekend with temps in the 40's and snow down to the 1,000 foot level; I'll be tooling around in my new car with the heater on. Looking forward to warmer days next week so I can get back to golf. Keep up the Good Work and lots of Love from Michele and Dad.