It seems that I am procrastinating. It's now March and I suppose Spring fever of sorts is setting in. I realize that I haven't been writing a lot and many of you are worried or concerned but don't be. I don't write when I'm happy. It's a weird sort of tick. That doesn't mean that I'm not happy right now, I'm writing right now because I'm waiting for a power point to download and it's taking a ridiculously long time.
The big question. No, I still don't know whether or not I'm coming back to China. I will tell you when they tell us which I'm sure won't be for a little while. If I come back I come back, if I don't I don't, I'm not exactly worrying about it right now. I have other things to think about.
To take a page from Calvin and Hobbes "these days are just packed" so it would seem, and packed in good ways. I have 78 days left after tonight turns into tomorrow. Which means 13 more lessons to plan (actually multiply that by two because I teach both Junior 1 and 2 and they're not always the same lessons.) When I'm not teaching I'm running around Bao'an with Brendon or Li Shuai Qiang and getting up into mischief, or cooking or taking injured friends to the hospital or watching them dance at the Guangchang or avoiding certain Chinese people.
Brendon and I have decided that 95% of Chinese people are annoying. The other 5% are cool. In those 95% are people who want to you to teach them English, take you out to dinners constantly (which are awkward), ask you about business propositions, introduce you to other Chinese people (who are usually just as annoying) or go out drinking. And now recently we have a guy who needs to borrow some cash, which Brendon and I are a little leary of doing. The other 5% are some of the people I'm friends with at the University, my boyfriend (of course, I wouldn't date him if he was in the majority), and a few teachers. I'm not trying to sound like I'm complaining it's just it gets on your nerves sometimes. Chinese people like to assume that they are your only and best Chinese friend and you should always make time for them even though there are 800 other Chinese people out there that you know that are vying for the same attention. Well, at least Brendon has it worse off than I do, haha.
There are emails that are floating around about people who have been stolen from and we realized that nearly every person in this damn program has either A. been mugged/burglerd B. been attempted stolen from (i.e. me) or C. lost their cell phone in either (bathroom, taxi, hole, i dunno). People this is sad. This is just lack of common sense. Yeah I know China is not the safest place in the world but there is no reason why EVERYONE has nearly had this happen to them. And no I won't hear the defense's case because I have SEEN girls hang their purses over the backs of chairs in stead of tucking them behind them or on their laps. I have seen money sticking out of loose hoodies or ipods or cell phones for that matter. Or wallets in back pockets. I have seen people just abandon their items in bars in the good faith that the barkeeper will watch it. I dunno where everyone is from of course. And while me and my brother live an hour from detroit and not actually IN the city, we're not stupid. I'm not saying that the people who've been mugged or lost cell phones are dumb, maybe careless. Of course I say this and watch tomorrow mine will fall down a china hole or something. Whatever I needed to talk about it cuz it was bugging me. Everyone?! Psh. Ridiculous.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Lil homesick
Yellow maple leaves
Hungry Howie's pizza and coke in the afternoon
Driving around late at night listening to Fall Out Boy
Sitting on the dock at Hubbard Lake and skimming my feet in icy water
Being excited about wearing new clothes to school
Digging feet into the sand while sitting on a towel at the beach and letting the body drip dry
The smell of mom's spaghetti and meatballs and dad's spare ribs and homemade french fries
Granma's piano and color coded keys and oreo cookies
Matt putting water in the wine bottle and thinking it would pass
Scrub pants being the most comfortable uniform in the world
Small talk with patients and the way the ultrasound department smelled
Walking around campus in the fall and sleeping in the library
Hungry Howie's pizza and coke in the afternoon
Driving around late at night listening to Fall Out Boy
Sitting on the dock at Hubbard Lake and skimming my feet in icy water
Being excited about wearing new clothes to school
Digging feet into the sand while sitting on a towel at the beach and letting the body drip dry
The smell of mom's spaghetti and meatballs and dad's spare ribs and homemade french fries
Granma's piano and color coded keys and oreo cookies
Matt putting water in the wine bottle and thinking it would pass
Scrub pants being the most comfortable uniform in the world
Small talk with patients and the way the ultrasound department smelled
Walking around campus in the fall and sleeping in the library
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Daily life
- My salary is not able to be picked up yet, this makes me irked. Cuz they don't tell me to pick it up and then they tell me to and then I go and there's no money. wtf.
- I just got a text saying "skyou" this is Li's version of "Thank you" He also says "sr" for sorry. It's like he's two, uber cute.
- I treated myself to TWO mini Hagendaas ice creams last night from rainbow mall, vanilla and strawberry. They were divine.
- My streets literally flooded yesterday afternoon. They had to put a ladder on the ground so the kids could cross this HUGE puddle. China is weeping but I couldn't be happier.
- I watched two movies yesterday "The Hours" and "Ponyo by the cliff by the sea" "The Hours" was touching and depressing and one of those oscar worthy films while "Ponyo" was a sweet story about a little fish who falls in love with a boy and wants to be human causing huge reprucutions in the process. The films were good contrasts to each other although I think I watched them in the wrong order.
- Sunday is women's day. This is a day that is supposedly international and yet we don't celebrate it in America. Why the hell not??!?! Here I got a rose and chocolate and apparently have a half day vacation on some day. C'mon America, figure it out. Women deserve a holiday. Men do not, every day is men's day.....ya brats.
- Not sure if the news has reached everyone so I might as well post on here. I'm one of the group who have applied to come back next year. Don't be sad, don't you be sad. It is so much better over here, especially job-wise whereas I would be ridiculously hard pressed to get a job in America, here they fall into my lap because I am white, a girl, and a native English speaker which makes me a prime teacher/tutor candidate. (It's true many times they specifially ask for female tutors) And I'm happy. I don't think I've been this happy in a while.
- Chinese teachers have no idea what's going on. It's so frustrating, the one in front of me always talks about how many problems why have with their students not "preforming to expectations". This is stupid because the "chinese expectation" is that every student be good at every subject no matter what. If they're not then there's something wrong with them. This is stupid. I try to tell him over and over again that some students are better at some things while others are better at other things. It's incredibly rare for a student to be great at everything, but that is what they want. They get frustrated and put more pressure on the students who feel discouraged and in turn do poorly on tests, only to receive more scolding. This is the vicious cycle.
- I on the other hand stick up for the bad kids if they are good in my classes. As long as I don't have to yell at them, they're good in my book. I have one boy in junior 1, class 1 who I see in the office, on average, twice to three times a day. I was approached by his head teacher with him in tow after teaching his class this morning and I spefically told her that he is good in my class. I don't have to yell at him. All he did today was make a paper airplane, which I took and promptly put back on his desk. Yeah, this was a little my fault because we were doing an activiy and I gave them all paper, but he didn't do it after that. She told me that his intention was to give it to his friend farther up the row because it was his birthday. I said that was FINE but do it after class. Other than the airplane incident he was a good kid, participating, keeping to himself and relativley NOT making my life hell, which I highly approve of. So I stood there and explained to the teacher in English and then made her translate to him what I said. She mostly did. I just wanted him to hear SOMETHING besides yelling for once.
- My apartment needs cleaning, uber cleaning. It's frightening. I think I will do that next period and then go downstairs for lunch.
- I showed my students a picture of Matt the other day in one of my junior two classes. I asked them to describe him. One student said he looked like Michael Jackson. Class dismissed. haha!
- I just got a text saying "skyou" this is Li's version of "Thank you" He also says "sr" for sorry. It's like he's two, uber cute.
- I treated myself to TWO mini Hagendaas ice creams last night from rainbow mall, vanilla and strawberry. They were divine.
- My streets literally flooded yesterday afternoon. They had to put a ladder on the ground so the kids could cross this HUGE puddle. China is weeping but I couldn't be happier.
- I watched two movies yesterday "The Hours" and "Ponyo by the cliff by the sea" "The Hours" was touching and depressing and one of those oscar worthy films while "Ponyo" was a sweet story about a little fish who falls in love with a boy and wants to be human causing huge reprucutions in the process. The films were good contrasts to each other although I think I watched them in the wrong order.
- Sunday is women's day. This is a day that is supposedly international and yet we don't celebrate it in America. Why the hell not??!?! Here I got a rose and chocolate and apparently have a half day vacation on some day. C'mon America, figure it out. Women deserve a holiday. Men do not, every day is men's day.....ya brats.
- Not sure if the news has reached everyone so I might as well post on here. I'm one of the group who have applied to come back next year. Don't be sad, don't you be sad. It is so much better over here, especially job-wise whereas I would be ridiculously hard pressed to get a job in America, here they fall into my lap because I am white, a girl, and a native English speaker which makes me a prime teacher/tutor candidate. (It's true many times they specifially ask for female tutors) And I'm happy. I don't think I've been this happy in a while.
- Chinese teachers have no idea what's going on. It's so frustrating, the one in front of me always talks about how many problems why have with their students not "preforming to expectations". This is stupid because the "chinese expectation" is that every student be good at every subject no matter what. If they're not then there's something wrong with them. This is stupid. I try to tell him over and over again that some students are better at some things while others are better at other things. It's incredibly rare for a student to be great at everything, but that is what they want. They get frustrated and put more pressure on the students who feel discouraged and in turn do poorly on tests, only to receive more scolding. This is the vicious cycle.
- I on the other hand stick up for the bad kids if they are good in my classes. As long as I don't have to yell at them, they're good in my book. I have one boy in junior 1, class 1 who I see in the office, on average, twice to three times a day. I was approached by his head teacher with him in tow after teaching his class this morning and I spefically told her that he is good in my class. I don't have to yell at him. All he did today was make a paper airplane, which I took and promptly put back on his desk. Yeah, this was a little my fault because we were doing an activiy and I gave them all paper, but he didn't do it after that. She told me that his intention was to give it to his friend farther up the row because it was his birthday. I said that was FINE but do it after class. Other than the airplane incident he was a good kid, participating, keeping to himself and relativley NOT making my life hell, which I highly approve of. So I stood there and explained to the teacher in English and then made her translate to him what I said. She mostly did. I just wanted him to hear SOMETHING besides yelling for once.
- My apartment needs cleaning, uber cleaning. It's frightening. I think I will do that next period and then go downstairs for lunch.
- I showed my students a picture of Matt the other day in one of my junior two classes. I asked them to describe him. One student said he looked like Michael Jackson. Class dismissed. haha!
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