Blogs from China, Asia - page 2275

The abilities of the children vary wildly within classes, let alone between classes and grades. Some of the first grade students have better English than some sixth graders could ever hope to achieve. I had a particularly enthralling English conversation class with quite a weak fourth grade class, who all successfully leaped the hurdle of asking my name and age - several times, to check I wasn’t falsifying information. Then they seemed a bit stuck, so I asked them their favourite animals and colours for about three hours, then they reverted to the text book. Their current lesson is ‘what do you want?’, which was asked several times. Then one kid got adventurous, and asked me ‘what does the goat want?’ Luckily, I had flicked through the lesson about 5 seconds before the class started (and ... read more

nach vielen erholungs tagen in lhasa und einigen tagesausfluegen ging es mir wieder bestens! wir sind dann noch mal richtung samye, aber diesmal sogar mit eine einstuendigen faehrfahrt. in samye angekommen ging es weiter mit einem lkw. ich durfte als einzige vorne sitzen und fuehlte mich voellig wohl so als truckerbraut:) die anderen, sprich daniel und 3 nonnen sassen hinten auf der ladeflaeche. die strasse ging ab in die berge eine absolute dirt-road. echt unglaublich! das letzte stueck wurde dann auch noch matschig, so dass gar nichts mehr ging und wir samt gepaeck zu fuss weiter laufen mussten. nach 30 min. standen wir vor dem ersten kloster. was ein toller anblick. ein heiliger berg gefalastert mit gebetsfahnen die im winde wehten. hier blieben wir dann auch erstmal ueber nacht. was eine bleibe. nachts wurd... read more

Let me precede this by saying when one is drunk all of their inner feelings are spilled out on the table in a crazy mess just like pick-up sticks. This is exactly what happened to me on Monday night. It all started out with a really great party at Las Tapas - a great Spanish restaurant. (This hurts to write about so it may take me a little bit.) It was Laura's birthday and everyone was there with bells and whistles on. I was sitting at an end table with Natalia, Adam, Kelvin, Cat and a new woman named Sandy who is from Tennessee. Adam and I were having a nice friendly eating contest to try and eat everything on the table and in the midst of it I realized that I really liked the wine ... read more

Since this class is about industry and spring break is coming up, I thought this would be fun. If anyone happens to go to a place where you can only purchase things through bargaining, then this blog is going to useful. I recall the time I was in China which was in 2001. Prices of everything was significantly low compared to the prices that we pay here in America, it makes me wonder after all the import/export taxes that we pay here along with government sales taxes, how much are stores really profiting from us? Meanwhile if they purchased many products from China at really low prices, they could profit by over 100%. I'm trying to remember my bargaining skills since I was last there in 2001...... Beijing, China - Bargaining Tips Bargaining is a part ... read more

We went to see Ljilijana, Stevan's mom in China. She has been living in Beijing for the past few years. It was great to spend some time with her and see Yunnan province, which we did not visit during our first visit in May 2002. Our first visit was much easier than our second, mainly because we had Chinese-speaking friends in Hong Kong and Beijing who really helped us get around. Ljiljiana has picked us quite a bit of Chinese, but we still had problems communicating. Many Thais and Cambodians speak a bit of English, so it was easy to communicate in those countries. This is not the case in China, where even our efforts at hand gestures were ineffective, though they did seem to understand when I pantomimed a chicken and an airplane. We traveled ... read more