Each year, China has a national holiday at the start of October. This is to celebrate the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. I know it's 1949 without looking it up simply because this year is being advertised as the 70th anniversary of the founding.
Anyway. Having a week off of classes, and feeling rather bored and dull with life at home, and realizing that most people are going to be taking vacations and I'd be here predominantly alone, I decided to throw a virtual dart at a virtual map. To do this, I used a site I found called skyscanner, which lets you input a starting location and look for flight prices to basically anywhere.
In this list, China was (of course) first, with Thailand, Singapore, and Phillipines being close after. Several countries weren't listed, among them Vietnam - you could click through to get prices, but you had to bounce a site or two to find them.
Somehow the idea of checking out a country no one in my family had visited seemed like the right decision. So off I went.
Vietnam has some very complex history recently. It goes beyond the American War (as they call it, for obvious reasons); my tour guide said that since 1859 when the French occupied Vietnam (colonized, really, in an effort to rival the British empire), Vietnam has been involved in several wars. The ones I can recall right now are French (for independence), American (on the process of unification under the communist government), Cambodian (newly unified Vietnam invading), and Chinese (in response to Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia). They're in a period of relative peace at the moment, and it's allowing them to grow as an economy and a culture. Rebuild their identity and such.
The visa process for an American is fairly simple. Submit an application to visit, wait a couple days for an approval letter, print that out, and show up with that and your passport and two passport photos (which can be taken on-site for an additional fee). Wait in line until they put your visa on your passport (full page thing, similar to my Chinese visa and residence permits). In you go. The ease of access is largely thanks to Bill Clinton, who in 1994 ended an embargo enacted after the war, as well as increased efforts from the US to repair relations since. I hadn't realized that the conversations were quite this recent, actually, with Obama being involved in efforts to clean up the continuing issues cause by Agent Orange (more on that later).
Broad strokes: my trip to Saigon (also known as Ho Chi Minh City) was quite educational and interesting. Vietnam is...short. The food is good, though I feel I didn't try as much as I would have liked due to simply not having time. One advantage of traveling with someone else is sharing things you try. Vietnam is hot and humid, being in the tropics, and when I returned to Harbin's chilly <10 degree weather I was happy as a clam (meanwhile, everyone else transferring from the plane to the bus was groaning, and some were shivering).
I flew from Harbin to Xiamen early on Monday morning. Short layover before flying to Saigon, got a short-term SIM card, and caught a taxi to my hotel. The elevator has this quirky sign with #5 being one of those Engrish examples. Their lobby had a neat map of the city. Their rooftop (up a short staircase) was an open seating area with a nice view. The room itself was pleasant and more spacious than I'd anticipated (partly from my experience in Japan). There were a few neat hints of the hotel's character, including a note about guests and a really thoughtful extra. After settling in, I went on a quick walk, had a yummy dinner (did I mention Vietnam is small?) and found a convenience store with something interesting, something unique, and this old friend (which was made with real sugar or a modified recipe, and wasn't how I remembered it, but was still pleasant to have again). I'd also seen this on the way back from the airport. Two interesting things here - first, for reference, $1 US is about 23,000 Vietnamese Dong, the national currency; so the Hawaiian Whopper is about $2. Alternately, a full combo would be about $1.50. Also, they deliver. This isn't unfamiliar per se, since McDonald's and KFC both have their own delivery service in China. But it was still noteworthy to me.
I packed in for the night. In the morning, I tried the hotel's breakfast, which was pretty good. Then it was down to the lobby for my pickup to tour the Cu Chi (pronounced "goo chee") tunnels. Along the way, we stopped at a place operated largely by the government, where victims of Agent Orange were employed making art pieces and souvenirs by hand. These are unfinished examples but give you an idea of how beautiful the finished pieces are. These were sold in the same building, but photography wasn't allowed there.
A major part of the success the Viet Cong had against the Americans (and the South Vietnamese for that matter) was the geurilla tactics they were able to employ. Part of this was constructing a tunnel system in the hard clay ground between and around Saigon and Cu Chi to the north. These tunnel systems allowed the Viet Cong unrivaled stealth and mobility without being detected. The tourism area around it is beautiful.
Really.
The tunnels are...very small. Uncomfortably small, by design. The guide told us that tunnels like that one are actually expanded for tourists, and showed us this one that's more accurate to how some of them are sized (particularly the choke points used to catch 'tunnel rats,' those small American soldiers trained to get into the tunnels; think about that next time you complain about your job). The tunnels had entrances every 20 meters or so, and we had the opportunity to get in, lower ourselves down, and close the lid on top of us for a few seconds. This kid tried it too, as did this unfortunate fellow who couldn't quite fit and had to settle for above-ground. After I climbed out, I turned to the group and said, "Let's play Spot the American," which got a good laugh.
The Viet Cong also employed some really nasty traps. For example, this spike pit with a cover that would spin when stepped on, both injuring soldiers and often trapping them as well. Several others existed, and I'll link them here without trying to build them into sentences, as it's hard to find unique things to say.
https://i.imgur.com/9fbOpMZ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/1pGrme1.jpg
A picture of traps being made.
Aside from shelters in the jungle itself, the Viet Cong used these tunnel systems for weapons and explosives manufacturing. This cross-section actually shows more of the different kinds of rooms built in these tunnels, effectively forming entire encampments underground (though of course, that's a demonstration, not a literal example - the vertical stress would be too much and the tunnels would cave in). But you can see, left to right: VIP tunnels (triangular and reinforced), meeting rooms, underground wells (given the rivers were often poisoned), cooking and eating areas (you can see small chambers of smoke going to chimneys that were built away from the room to avoid danger if the smoke was sighted). Also medical rooms, munitions depots, and even sniper roosts. Some exits led to the river (far bottom right) for escape, with doors to block the tunnels if the water started flooding in, and traps to prevent tunnel rats. Different tunnels were built at different depths. Not pictured is an example even deeper - apparently that picture didn't get saved.
The tunnels were ventilated by bamboo poles built into piles of mud and plants made to resemble ant hills or termite mounds. The tour guide explained that as the war progressed, these became strategic chess games all their own: as Americans began to pick up on these ventilation holes, they'd destroy them, so the Viet Cong would build decoys. Then the Americans got dogs to sniff out which ones were real and which weren't, so the Viet Cong would put black pepper and chili in the pipes to repel the dogs. Then the dogs got used to those and would sniff past them, so the Viet Cong took soap and uniform parts from fallen soldiers and would put those into the holes, so the dogs recognized it as something friendly and ignored it.
Random bonus pictures: an American tank that was destroyed by a mine. A pretty flower (that looks like a pine cone) that grows in the jungle. And someone who would have had no trouble navigating the tunnels.
Every so often, the jungle would boom with the echo of gunfire; as part of the tour, there was a firing range with era weaponry. You could buy ammo and try out weapons like an AK47 or an M-80 machine gun. I think it was.
I have no idea if I hit anything. The gun was so low that I couldn't adjust my glasses to see down the sights effectively. But it was a kick.
On the way back from the Cu Chi tunnels, I saw several of these cemeteries. Nothing to say about them, just thought they were interesting.
After a shower, I went on a quick walk to find dinner, stumbling across an ironically-named store and a familiar name along the way.
That night, I went to a water puppet show. Water puppetry dates back to the 11th century, when farmers in flooded rice paddies would entertain each other with wooden puppets on bamboo poles. They often reflect mythology and a blend of simple life and royalty, and had some common characters and themes. What struck me about this is how universal many things are - entertainment through slapstick, bright colors, and silly situations; pursuit of goals and desires; a complex relationship with those in higher social stations/wealth brackets than ourselves, and so on. The whole thing was performed with the puppeteers hidden behind the pagoda and screen, with a small orchestra of six musicians and actors providing both the music and the voices/narration for the skits. I'll list these as numbered pictures to save space, cuz there's a lot of them, and I don't have much context for who the characters are or what it all means. They're mostly in random order as well, since I don't recall the sequence of skits.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
And videos:
1 2
One of the groups who saw the show arrived in style.
The next day I had a more in-depth tour of Saigon itself. This started at the Saigon Opera House, in an area of the city that still has indications of the French occupation/colonialism that began ~1859. A couple was getting their wedding pictures taken outside that morning.
Then we went up to the Saigon Post Office (which is a tourist attraction with plenty of souvenir shops as well, for some reason, but again shows the French influence), a brief look at Notre Dame Cathedral, Independence/Reunification Palace (having two names for...well, obvious reasons), the War Remnants Museum, Pho 2000 (where Bill Clinton famously had lunch when he came to visit when ending the embargo), Ben Thanh Market (a large building with independent stalls and merchants who will almost badger you to buy things), and a Chinese temple in the Chinatown district of Saigon. Like the water puppetry part, I'll just number the images below each one, because it's a lot and not much requires or justifies context. Unfortunately, the Reunification Palace tour was long enough with enough rooms and information that I don't remember the order of things very well. Imgur didn't keep my picture order when uploading (this post probably took 3 hours to write and organize), so a lot of the detail and sequencing is gone. Sorry!
Reunification Palace:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Reunification Palace is actually rebuilt, as the original palace was destroyed. The seat of government is now in Hanoi, in the north of Vietnam, so this is just a historical site.
War Remnants Museum
**WARNING**
So, this is obviously going to be the Vietnam War from the perspective of the Vietnamese, namely the Communist Party that is currently in power. As such, not only will there be some slant, but a lot of the narrative will be strongly anti-American. However, more important, this is reflection on and aftermath of a war, so there's some pretty graphic imagery in here, as well as descriptions of torture and suffering. I'll try to sort them accordingly and label properly, but still. Proceed at your own risk.
Arms and ordinance:
1 2 3 4
The world in solidarity with Vietnam:
China Europe
An exhibit on torture
1 2 3 4 5 6
There was an exhibit about the protests in the US. I was actually kinda pleased to see this here, even if it's fairly common knowledge that the Vietnam War was a major turning point in public opinion and government confidence. Seeing an entire room dedicated to exploring internal strife around this event within the US, showing that not all Americans wanted to be there...it was kind of reassuring, in a way. Still, it was not without it's own slightly unsettling narrative.
Agent Orange (History Channel link)
This exhibit spanned a full three rooms, as there was a lot to explore - from initial use, to lasting effects, to current clean up efforts. A lot of it is pretty awful to look at, but I think it's important to be aware just how messed up it was and how long-lasting the effects are. There's a reason chemical weapons are no longer an acceptable part of warfare in the civilized world (is that seriously a phrase?)
1 2 3 4 5 6
They had several quotes from American policymakers and such, justifying or defending the war, and a photojournalist's broader perspective. Suffice to say, after a while, I was just kinda too tired to take any more pictures. And knew, also, that there was little point. Y'all don't need or want to see even this much, I imagine, much less more.
Chinese Temple
As with most religious structures, almost everything here was very intentional and had some meaning or significance. I'm sure you won't blame me for not remembering a lot of it, as this was the last stop on a very information-dense tour.
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==========================================
Thank you for reading. I know this was...really entirely too long, and had more pictures, frankly, than I'd want to go through in a week if I hadn't taken them myself. Even if you didn't look at all of them, I hope you found it interesting.
In gratitude for getting down here, I thought I'd convey something amusing I learned about Vietnamese. The word "Phuc" (I believe it's pronounced Fook) actually means blessed or blessing. So it's very common on business names. Which, given it's English phonetic pronunciation and the word implied by it, leads to some amusing combinations.
Zaijian,
-L
Friday, October 4, 2019
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Student writing
So recently, we found from some test reviews and data collection that our students' weak areas are reading and writing. Having weaker areas is, of course, totally fine. It provides an idea what to work on and can even inform how precisely to go about it (increased spelling test frequency and focus, or sentence structure teaching, or what have you). Depending on the issues, they can be addressed with just some minor tweaks in teaching approach, or even something as simple as homework assignments.
This is all fine and good. But it dovetailed with my recent project to update some of our unit tests to be in line with the activities and demands of the Cambridge Young Learner Exams (YLE), sort of a gold standard of English learning assessment. As I've been comparing the YLE writing tasks to those found on our tests, it turns out we're actually pretty far ahead of those tests - where the YLE only asks for words and a couple full sentences, we expect a full paragraph on every unit test (and on some, two). The expectations are higher because if you set the bar above your goal, even falling a little still results in success.
So we find that our students' writing isn't quite where we want it to be. This, unfortunately, is where the trouble begins. Because there is only one way to work on writing, and that is by writing. And yeah, the same can be said of reading, listening, and speaking. But listening, speaking, and sometimes reading can all be done in active, engaging ways. There are relatively few ways to make writing anything but a slow activity.
A major part of classroom management is energy balance, or what I tend to call 'orchestration.' My term draws from theatrical directing, where orchestration refers to the highs and lows of a scene, act, or production. Good orchestration can keep an audience's attention because it allows both times of tension and times of release - not quite relaxation, but a kind of rest nonetheless. Classes need this same orchestration; a common industry term is 'stir and settle,' where an activity will bring students up and get them moving (physically if possible), and another will allow them to lower back down. If you've ever sat through a meeting, sermon, lecture, or speech where you were yawning, nodding off, or just generally losing focus, it's because of a lack of these elements. With lectures, of course, there's little you can do to get your audience physically active without risking some attention loss when you settle again. But a lecture will also be dealing primarily with adults.
Classrooms of children need that active element, that 'stir' side, because without it they get tired, restless, distracted, or frustrated. Sitting for forty minutes is torture to a child.
Long story short (I think I'm well past that by now), my next task is to work out how to include more writing practice, as well as direct instruction, into my classes while still maintaining a good stir/settle orchestration. Which means finding more stir activities that can still support my lesson objectives. When I first arrived, full of energy and lacking particular experience and such, I had a lot of ideas. Trying many of them resulted in a dampened enthusiasm and creativity, unfortunately, as most of them flopped for one reason or another. Add in a heavier class load and some very persistent insomnia, and I find I can't come up with anything especially interesting lately. And since I'm lacking good stirs, I'm hesitant to add more settles.
The challenges of a teacher, I suppose. I have a goal, though, and that's a pretty crucial step.
Zaijian,
-L
This is all fine and good. But it dovetailed with my recent project to update some of our unit tests to be in line with the activities and demands of the Cambridge Young Learner Exams (YLE), sort of a gold standard of English learning assessment. As I've been comparing the YLE writing tasks to those found on our tests, it turns out we're actually pretty far ahead of those tests - where the YLE only asks for words and a couple full sentences, we expect a full paragraph on every unit test (and on some, two). The expectations are higher because if you set the bar above your goal, even falling a little still results in success.
So we find that our students' writing isn't quite where we want it to be. This, unfortunately, is where the trouble begins. Because there is only one way to work on writing, and that is by writing. And yeah, the same can be said of reading, listening, and speaking. But listening, speaking, and sometimes reading can all be done in active, engaging ways. There are relatively few ways to make writing anything but a slow activity.
A major part of classroom management is energy balance, or what I tend to call 'orchestration.' My term draws from theatrical directing, where orchestration refers to the highs and lows of a scene, act, or production. Good orchestration can keep an audience's attention because it allows both times of tension and times of release - not quite relaxation, but a kind of rest nonetheless. Classes need this same orchestration; a common industry term is 'stir and settle,' where an activity will bring students up and get them moving (physically if possible), and another will allow them to lower back down. If you've ever sat through a meeting, sermon, lecture, or speech where you were yawning, nodding off, or just generally losing focus, it's because of a lack of these elements. With lectures, of course, there's little you can do to get your audience physically active without risking some attention loss when you settle again. But a lecture will also be dealing primarily with adults.
Classrooms of children need that active element, that 'stir' side, because without it they get tired, restless, distracted, or frustrated. Sitting for forty minutes is torture to a child.
Long story short (I think I'm well past that by now), my next task is to work out how to include more writing practice, as well as direct instruction, into my classes while still maintaining a good stir/settle orchestration. Which means finding more stir activities that can still support my lesson objectives. When I first arrived, full of energy and lacking particular experience and such, I had a lot of ideas. Trying many of them resulted in a dampened enthusiasm and creativity, unfortunately, as most of them flopped for one reason or another. Add in a heavier class load and some very persistent insomnia, and I find I can't come up with anything especially interesting lately. And since I'm lacking good stirs, I'm hesitant to add more settles.
The challenges of a teacher, I suppose. I have a goal, though, and that's a pretty crucial step.
Zaijian,
-L
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Ice and Snow
So my grand intentions for festival posting faltered. It's amazing how little you can want to do when you have almost nothing you have to do.
But I did finally make it to the Ice and Snow World. Because I have 64 pictures from it, rather than the in-line link format I've previously used, I'll just dump the link here and you can peruse at your leisure.
As of this coming week, I will be teaching 14 classes for a total of 25.5 teaching hours per week. So my posting rate here will, sadly, not be improving much. It's a manageable, but very substantial work load.
Zaijian,
-L
But I did finally make it to the Ice and Snow World. Because I have 64 pictures from it, rather than the in-line link format I've previously used, I'll just dump the link here and you can peruse at your leisure.
As of this coming week, I will be teaching 14 classes for a total of 25.5 teaching hours per week. So my posting rate here will, sadly, not be improving much. It's a manageable, but very substantial work load.
Zaijian,
-L
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Beidaihe
Be warned: this whole post is a heck of a photo dump.
Belated greetings from Beidaihe (bay die huh)! My school's annual conference took place here, at a Club Med resort.
Which sounds a bit better than it is, mostly because all the activities and interesting things take place during the day while we're in meetings and meetings and speeches and so forth. Still, you can't deny there are some lovely views, rather lovely sunrises, and of course the beach with all it's beachiness.
This, too, sounds a bit better than it is. After all, it is still winter in Northern China we're talking about here. The formations made by salt water and ice are pretty interesting though, and being a balmy 0 degrees C means the beachfront is pretty open...very few people out enjoying the surf (or lack thereof) and sun (and lack thereof).
But I found this really interesting seashell, which has almost a cave painting-like design. Nifty!
Still, it is a Club Med, which means they have lovely amenities with relaxing luxuries. There's also this neat little theater where movies were playing on a pretty large TV. I didn't take the time to try it out, but the idea of a giant pile of bean bags serving as seating for a little movie nook is kind of alluring. In a fun, I'm-an-adult-who-wishes-he-could-play-in-ball-pits kinda way.
And then there's the food. Dear lord, the food. So much food. The primary dining choice here is a buffet, which has several offerings that stay the same (lamb chops, steak, fish, salad, bread, etc) and many that change from day to day (too many to name). Here, I got to see more of my favorite thing in China: attempts to translate various things from Chinese to English with varying degrees of success. I didn't get a picture, but there was a roasted potato dish of some kind with the placard "That's a small potato."
And of course, some desert options. China in general isn't as big on desert as the US, but they did have some pretty decent ice cream. I get the feeling they knew their audience too, and were kind enough to provide us with shovels.
The conference covered topics ranging from the history of our school, to current trends, to corporate partnerships for sales, academics, assessments, and staff recruitment. Informative, if a bit dry, and mostly just sit and listen and maybe take notes you'll forget on the table so they get thrown away but that's ok you didn't need them anyway.
I'm not in a place to complain. This is one of those moments where I feel like this school really is special - the meetings and speeches and whatnot could have been given anywhere. They chose to bring us here to show how much they value us as the staff of the school. They cancelled all classes for nearly the whole week for this. It's a great school to work for, and I'm glad I landed here.
Now that we're back, it's time for our winter Additional Course (ADC) offerings. These are mostly phonics intensives that students in multiple levels attend for an hour each day, four days a week, atop their normal class schedule. My understanding is that Chinese public schools are out of service until mid-February, after Spring Festival. During the Festival, the school will be closed as well, which means I'll have about two weeks without any classes to teach. Which will be a relief, especially after ADCs.
My 'typical day' for the two weekdays when I'm teaching is as follows:
Wake up around 6:30-7AM. Be at the school around 8:30-9AM. Teach a class from 10-11. Plan the next class, which I teach from 12-1PM. Downtime for about three hours. Teach my evening class or classes. Get home around 7:30-8:30PM.
My Saturday/Sunday hours are roughly the same - 8AM-8PM most of the time. But two days of the week being 12 hour days, that's pretty easy to handle. Four of them is getting a bit tiring, and we're just at the end of the first of three weeks. When the school lets out for Festival, I'll be fairly glad for some rest.
I've mostly finished covering other peoples' classes now that they are back from holidays, which means it's time to take on my own. Which is to say, taking classes from other teachers who are either leaving soon or just have a heavier load than is necessary now that I'm here. So far I'm still getting oriented to most of them, but I'm guessing I'll be teaching around 11-13 classes over the course of the week. It's manageable, especially once ADCs wrap up and I have more of my mornings to myself.
Hopefully during Spring Festival I can hunt down some actual Chinese lessons/classes, and get my History Bites more updated. I'll certainly have the time.
Zaijian,
-L
Belated greetings from Beidaihe (bay die huh)! My school's annual conference took place here, at a Club Med resort.
Which sounds a bit better than it is, mostly because all the activities and interesting things take place during the day while we're in meetings and meetings and speeches and so forth. Still, you can't deny there are some lovely views, rather lovely sunrises, and of course the beach with all it's beachiness.
This, too, sounds a bit better than it is. After all, it is still winter in Northern China we're talking about here. The formations made by salt water and ice are pretty interesting though, and being a balmy 0 degrees C means the beachfront is pretty open...very few people out enjoying the surf (or lack thereof) and sun (and lack thereof).
But I found this really interesting seashell, which has almost a cave painting-like design. Nifty!
Still, it is a Club Med, which means they have lovely amenities with relaxing luxuries. There's also this neat little theater where movies were playing on a pretty large TV. I didn't take the time to try it out, but the idea of a giant pile of bean bags serving as seating for a little movie nook is kind of alluring. In a fun, I'm-an-adult-who-wishes-he-could-play-in-ball-pits kinda way.
And then there's the food. Dear lord, the food. So much food. The primary dining choice here is a buffet, which has several offerings that stay the same (lamb chops, steak, fish, salad, bread, etc) and many that change from day to day (too many to name). Here, I got to see more of my favorite thing in China: attempts to translate various things from Chinese to English with varying degrees of success. I didn't get a picture, but there was a roasted potato dish of some kind with the placard "That's a small potato."
And of course, some desert options. China in general isn't as big on desert as the US, but they did have some pretty decent ice cream. I get the feeling they knew their audience too, and were kind enough to provide us with shovels.
The conference covered topics ranging from the history of our school, to current trends, to corporate partnerships for sales, academics, assessments, and staff recruitment. Informative, if a bit dry, and mostly just sit and listen and maybe take notes you'll forget on the table so they get thrown away but that's ok you didn't need them anyway.
I'm not in a place to complain. This is one of those moments where I feel like this school really is special - the meetings and speeches and whatnot could have been given anywhere. They chose to bring us here to show how much they value us as the staff of the school. They cancelled all classes for nearly the whole week for this. It's a great school to work for, and I'm glad I landed here.
Now that we're back, it's time for our winter Additional Course (ADC) offerings. These are mostly phonics intensives that students in multiple levels attend for an hour each day, four days a week, atop their normal class schedule. My understanding is that Chinese public schools are out of service until mid-February, after Spring Festival. During the Festival, the school will be closed as well, which means I'll have about two weeks without any classes to teach. Which will be a relief, especially after ADCs.
My 'typical day' for the two weekdays when I'm teaching is as follows:
Wake up around 6:30-7AM. Be at the school around 8:30-9AM. Teach a class from 10-11. Plan the next class, which I teach from 12-1PM. Downtime for about three hours. Teach my evening class or classes. Get home around 7:30-8:30PM.
My Saturday/Sunday hours are roughly the same - 8AM-8PM most of the time. But two days of the week being 12 hour days, that's pretty easy to handle. Four of them is getting a bit tiring, and we're just at the end of the first of three weeks. When the school lets out for Festival, I'll be fairly glad for some rest.
I've mostly finished covering other peoples' classes now that they are back from holidays, which means it's time to take on my own. Which is to say, taking classes from other teachers who are either leaving soon or just have a heavier load than is necessary now that I'm here. So far I'm still getting oriented to most of them, but I'm guessing I'll be teaching around 11-13 classes over the course of the week. It's manageable, especially once ADCs wrap up and I have more of my mornings to myself.
Hopefully during Spring Festival I can hunt down some actual Chinese lessons/classes, and get my History Bites more updated. I'll certainly have the time.
Zaijian,
-L
Monday, December 31, 2018
Holidays away from Home
Anyone in my family can tell you, I'm not an especially sentimental person...or at least, when I am, it's a bit atypical. Excellent example: I don't really care about holidays. Haven't for many years. A lot of this probably stems from working retail and customer service jobs so long that I've missed most of my adult holidays...but part of it is just not feeling the magic anymore. Not since before I graduated high school.
I'm not bothered by this, it just is.
This is my first year away from my family in quite some time, and certainly my first holiday season where I was across the world. And while I still don't really feel attached to, or miss, the trappings (christmas presents, thanksgiving dinner, and so on) I find I really miss the time together. The laughter, the conversations, all of that. That's been the only real reason it's been hard this past week or two, in terms of homesickness. Knowing how much more time we make for each other than usual, and how I won't get to be part of that.
I still wouldn't change my decision to come here.
Work has been weird lately. Last week, Christmas Day fell on a Tuesday, which meant all the international teachers had their classes cancelled and the day off. This week, New Year's Day is on a Tuesday, and that means the school is closed and all classes are cancelled. Also, I assume because of Christmas or something, Chinese public schools had a full day last Saturday, which meant basically all classes were cancelled that day.
Short version: I've had two unexpected days off in the past week, and will have another tomorrow.
It's all rather odd. It has me a bit off rhythm.
Anyway.
Yesterday I gave an orientation lesson for a class that's moving from one level of our curriculum to the next. It meant going through the book we would be using and making note of all the vocabulary and grammar/structural content the students would learn so that I could write it up on the board during the orientation. It was interesting how this gave me a somewhat broader perspective on the whole level - I felt like I could kinda see how things tied together and where it was all headed. I mentioned to one of the more senior international teachers that this was a neat experience and that we should have all our new teachers do it for every level. She said, "That's a good idea...I just didn't think about it because it was something I did when I got here, all on my own."
So maybe they'll implement that, maybe not. Next week, we're getting a new international teacher, and I'll get to see if any of my feedback on the onboarding process was incorporated.
I'm still trying to find my groove here in general. I dismantled my PC before I left, and brought most of it with me in parts. My new case and power supply should arrive soon, and I bought more RAM to make it run a bit smoother. So I'm expecting my computer will be rebuilt and I'll be off my laptop within the next week or two. I don't think it'll impact my posting here, but it'll doubtless improve my feeling of "living" here, of it being mine. My computer has always been my link to the world, and in some ways my link to myself, and I can imagine that once it's back up I'll realize just how odd I've felt without it.
Or maybe I won't, and I'll be out a few thousand yuan. We shall see!
As always, I end with a few pictures. Today, we have quite a few, as I've been taking somewhat more to share with y'all. The Harbin Snow and Ice Festival, which is often the main thing you'll find when you search for Harbin, is approaching (some things are already finished, I hear). You can see pieces of it around the city (sorry for the bad quality, took this on the bus); these are little pyramid things of ice with lights run through them.
I found this...interesting decoration at IKEA a few weeks back. Not sure anything else needs be said there.
My inner Millennial was happy to see this (if you don't understand the connection, avocado toast is one of those stereotypical millennial foods, and is sometimes cited as the reason we can't afford x or y or z). I also had an interestingly-packaged cola with some delivered food, and this stuff in a soup. My local co-worker informs me that it's "you yo juan," or squid roll. Surprisingly tasty, in a soup spicy enough that it made me dizzy. That was kind of a new experience.
And of course, no post would be complete without the questionable translations. Today, we have two for the price of one!
Zaijian,
-L
I'm not bothered by this, it just is.
This is my first year away from my family in quite some time, and certainly my first holiday season where I was across the world. And while I still don't really feel attached to, or miss, the trappings (christmas presents, thanksgiving dinner, and so on) I find I really miss the time together. The laughter, the conversations, all of that. That's been the only real reason it's been hard this past week or two, in terms of homesickness. Knowing how much more time we make for each other than usual, and how I won't get to be part of that.
I still wouldn't change my decision to come here.
Work has been weird lately. Last week, Christmas Day fell on a Tuesday, which meant all the international teachers had their classes cancelled and the day off. This week, New Year's Day is on a Tuesday, and that means the school is closed and all classes are cancelled. Also, I assume because of Christmas or something, Chinese public schools had a full day last Saturday, which meant basically all classes were cancelled that day.
Short version: I've had two unexpected days off in the past week, and will have another tomorrow.
It's all rather odd. It has me a bit off rhythm.
Anyway.
Yesterday I gave an orientation lesson for a class that's moving from one level of our curriculum to the next. It meant going through the book we would be using and making note of all the vocabulary and grammar/structural content the students would learn so that I could write it up on the board during the orientation. It was interesting how this gave me a somewhat broader perspective on the whole level - I felt like I could kinda see how things tied together and where it was all headed. I mentioned to one of the more senior international teachers that this was a neat experience and that we should have all our new teachers do it for every level. She said, "That's a good idea...I just didn't think about it because it was something I did when I got here, all on my own."
So maybe they'll implement that, maybe not. Next week, we're getting a new international teacher, and I'll get to see if any of my feedback on the onboarding process was incorporated.
I'm still trying to find my groove here in general. I dismantled my PC before I left, and brought most of it with me in parts. My new case and power supply should arrive soon, and I bought more RAM to make it run a bit smoother. So I'm expecting my computer will be rebuilt and I'll be off my laptop within the next week or two. I don't think it'll impact my posting here, but it'll doubtless improve my feeling of "living" here, of it being mine. My computer has always been my link to the world, and in some ways my link to myself, and I can imagine that once it's back up I'll realize just how odd I've felt without it.
Or maybe I won't, and I'll be out a few thousand yuan. We shall see!
As always, I end with a few pictures. Today, we have quite a few, as I've been taking somewhat more to share with y'all. The Harbin Snow and Ice Festival, which is often the main thing you'll find when you search for Harbin, is approaching (some things are already finished, I hear). You can see pieces of it around the city (sorry for the bad quality, took this on the bus); these are little pyramid things of ice with lights run through them.
I found this...interesting decoration at IKEA a few weeks back. Not sure anything else needs be said there.
My inner Millennial was happy to see this (if you don't understand the connection, avocado toast is one of those stereotypical millennial foods, and is sometimes cited as the reason we can't afford x or y or z). I also had an interestingly-packaged cola with some delivered food, and this stuff in a soup. My local co-worker informs me that it's "you yo juan," or squid roll. Surprisingly tasty, in a soup spicy enough that it made me dizzy. That was kind of a new experience.
And of course, no post would be complete without the questionable translations. Today, we have two for the price of one!
Zaijian,
-L
Saturday, December 15, 2018
Sick Shocked
I got really sick this week. I think I mentioned when we Skyped that I'm considering surrendering Second back to the rescue because my allergies are making my life needlessly difficult. Well, Monday afternoon sometime things got worse. Tuesday I was in rather bad shape, but still went in to work. After my classes I couldn't even get my eyes to focus. Fever, worse-than-usual cough, sinus crap, and fatigue. Wednesday I took sick leave. Thursday I went in for a little bit to get a handle on my weekend, was only in for about two hours or so. Friday I only had my one class, but I went in early to plan my weekend classes (which, of 7, only two got any work done...which was enough, hopefully). After that one class, I couldn't even stand up for a while. Boss called me a taxi and I went home and passed out. Today I got up, had one class, did a brief rehearsal with some kids for the christmas play, and went to the hospital.
[infomercial voice] But wait, there's more!
Harbin stepped up coal burning this week, starting around Tuesday mid-day, late evening. Hard to tell really, I've been wearing my mask outside at all times for a week or so anyway. I learned the unfortunate way that my apartment's main room windows leak really, really badly. So I came home to a bit of a coal smell in my apartment. Passed out anyway. But by Wednesday, it had gotten so bad that I was wearing my mask inside, and was unable to sleep (either in the mask, or without it). Thursday after my little bit of weekend prep, I got one of the admin folks, Molly, to take me to get an air filter, which has worked splendidly.
However, Thursday night I got some orange juice. Drank some pretty late at night, just before I went to bed. Was not very tasty. Woke up 30 minutes later absolutely drenched in sweat that smelled like bad orange juice. My sweat has smelled like orange juice for the two days since, though I think it's mostly getting better. The result was that despite being utterly exhausted, I had to go down on Friday night and buy a new blanket because I had to wash the one I had, and my washer wasn't big enough, and there certainly wasn't anywhere to effectively dry it.
Hospital was an interesting experience. We went to a desk to pay to see a doctor (13y, really nothing terrible). We waited in a line (not on chairs) to talk to a doctor who listened to Molly's explanation and ordered a chest x-ray. So we went back to the desk to pay for that. Went to get the x-ray, waited about an hour for processing, and back to the doc. He looked for about three seconds, pointed at something on my right lung, and said I needed medicine, preferably from an IV drip. So we went to a clinic with an Rx, where we paid 1y to see the clinician, who ordered a blood test as well. The doc had asked if we needed a blood test, to which I'd said "I don't think so." Internally, I thought "um. Aren't YOU the doctor?"
Went back to pay for the blood test. Went upstairs for a quick blood draw, 10 minutes for results. Then they took me over to a row of chairs with IV stands, inserted the needle, and let the medicine drip in for probably an hour and a half or so. I have to go back tomorrow and Monday to repeat the IV.
Harbin stepped up coal burning this week, starting around Tuesday mid-day, late evening. Hard to tell really, I've been wearing my mask outside at all times for a week or so anyway. I learned the unfortunate way that my apartment's main room windows leak really, really badly. So I came home to a bit of a coal smell in my apartment. Passed out anyway. But by Wednesday, it had gotten so bad that I was wearing my mask inside, and was unable to sleep (either in the mask, or without it). Thursday after my little bit of weekend prep, I got one of the admin folks, Molly, to take me to get an air filter, which has worked splendidly.
However, Thursday night I got some orange juice. Drank some pretty late at night, just before I went to bed. Was not very tasty. Woke up 30 minutes later absolutely drenched in sweat that smelled like bad orange juice. My sweat has smelled like orange juice for the two days since, though I think it's mostly getting better. The result was that despite being utterly exhausted, I had to go down on Friday night and buy a new blanket because I had to wash the one I had, and my washer wasn't big enough, and there certainly wasn't anywhere to effectively dry it.
Hospital was an interesting experience. We went to a desk to pay to see a doctor (13y, really nothing terrible). We waited in a line (not on chairs) to talk to a doctor who listened to Molly's explanation and ordered a chest x-ray. So we went back to the desk to pay for that. Went to get the x-ray, waited about an hour for processing, and back to the doc. He looked for about three seconds, pointed at something on my right lung, and said I needed medicine, preferably from an IV drip. So we went to a clinic with an Rx, where we paid 1y to see the clinician, who ordered a blood test as well. The doc had asked if we needed a blood test, to which I'd said "I don't think so." Internally, I thought "um. Aren't YOU the doctor?"
Went back to pay for the blood test. Went upstairs for a quick blood draw, 10 minutes for results. Then they took me over to a row of chairs with IV stands, inserted the needle, and let the medicine drip in for probably an hour and a half or so. I have to go back tomorrow and Monday to repeat the IV.
I still don't actually know what's wrong, of course, since Molly wouldn't know the medical terms even if the doctor told her, and I can't read x-rays. But I have them with me. Maybe I'll take a picture and post them on Reddit where you can get basic medical advice, see if anyone can guess what is up. It's not cancer, it's naht a tumoh, seems to be pretty easily treatable. But I'd still like to know.
As if all that weren't enough.
My coworker Jo tells me that culture shock can actually manifest in more complex ways than I thought. Depression is a fairly common symptom. Well whether prodded forward by getting sick or just by being here two months, I think that hit this week too. Though of course a marked lack of sleep, perpetual exhaustion, and a maddeningly persistent cough and schnoodlenose will all lead to a bout as well, so it's hard to be certain.
So. Very, very difficult week. I'm not quite through it all yet, but after tomorrow I have a day off and a fair bit of medicine working on the problem. Hopefully I'll be at least able to finish a day without feeling dead by Wednesday.
So. Very, very difficult week. I'm not quite through it all yet, but after tomorrow I have a day off and a fair bit of medicine working on the problem. Hopefully I'll be at least able to finish a day without feeling dead by Wednesday.
Zaijian,
-L
Thursday, December 6, 2018
God, I miss cheese
The title has little relevance to anything, but it's true nonetheless. Cheese is basically nonexistent in China, despite dairy products not being uncommon (yogurt is actually easier to find than normal milk, but both are plenty easy to find). Food with good cheese is even more rare. Next person to visit me from the US, bring me some Annie's Mac n Cheese and I'll love you forever.
I had some bacon and cheese smothered french fries today. They were ok. Nothing with melted cheese and bacon should be just 'ok.'
...ahem.
More and more of my classes, or more accurately the classes I'm covering for teachers on holiday leave, are becoming 'mine,' in that I am teaching them without anyone else in the room. I have a really good rapport with two of them, somewhat higher-level students with whom I can have some fairly advanced interactions. In one of these classes, we read the story of Paul Bunyan. As an in-class activity to practice fluency, I had us do a pass-it-around story about a new unusual character. I started it out by providing a name, Ben.
Me: "Ben was as small as a..."
Class: "Rabbit!"
The first student took the story immediately in a dark direction wherein Ben was stepped on. I started it over, asking them through some laughter to be nice to Ben. The second student said Ben was eaten by a cat or something.
"Ok, listen. Be nice to Ben, or we're having a spelling test."
The loud chorus of "Nooooooo!" assured me that Ben would be ok. So we started again. The details are fuzzy, since this was over a week ago now, but here's the basics. Keep in mind, each sentence was provided by a different student, and all in their second language.
Ben was as small as a rabbit. One day he ate some germs. So he went to the hospital. But he was ok, because he works at the hospital. Then, he drank some beer and grew as tall as Teacher. Then, he didn't drink and became as small as an ant. Then, he drank again and grew as big as a shopping center. A star fell and he caught it and threw it back into space. He was a hero. But the star hurt his hands, so he went back to the hospital. He got as small as an ant, and he ate the world. It took many days.
This quickly became my favorite class. When I taught them again the other day, they begged me to let them make another story. I may have some trouble getting them under control now and then, but I've already seen that knowing I can have fun and knowing we can all laugh together means they're almost always paying attention, and as long as I can balance my activities well, classes are going to go great.
...for the three or so weeks that I still teach them before their normal teacher returns. I have a feeling they're going to miss me, and I'm sure I'll hear about it.
My other classes aren't nearly as interesting, don't make as good of stories, but it's all part of a larger whole that has so far left me with no regrets whatsoever. I don't think teaching is my calling, or something I plan to do for many years to come, but if the past couple weeks are any indication, I should do just fine for a while.
A note, dear readers, before the requisite random photo dump. My posts here have not been as deep or detailed as I had wished when this all began, largely because I've been rather drained from everything I have going on with classes and training and learning to live in another country. That said, I know I have many people following this blog; people who care about me personally and professionally, and people who are just interested in reading about someone's experience. If there's anything you want to know, anything you want me to talk about more, or anything you'd rather I keep to myself, let me know. I want this to be informative and interesting, and to provide insight to what my readers want to see.
With that out of the way:
It's fairly well known that the rapid industrialization of China, along with a long stint in a lower economic rung, have led to a country with a serious pollution problem. On some days, it looks a bit like this. You can compare this to my earlier photo (assuming I posted it in this blog, it's been a while since I arrived); while it's not the same place, it's the same city. The pollution is bad enough that filter masks are fairly standard-issue. I have one in my coat pocket at all times, and while I don't often use it, having it handy should the air quality dip like that is certainly wise.
Perhaps not as well known as the pollution problem China has, is its fascination with Christmas. Maybe it's the shared coloration (red and gold being iconic to both China and Christmas), or maybe the commodification of Western culture that's fairly common in the East. Whatever the case, it's no small event. Christmas music began two or three days before Thanksgiving in the shopping mall nearby; around the same time, this...interesting installation was erected. I kinda dig it, really; I've always been intrigued by art that uses familiar things in unfamiliar ways, always coveted the creativity that requires. Just never quite my strong suit.
And of course, no casual post in this blog would feel complete without a questionable translation result to show that cutting corners on your language interpreting doesn't end well.
Zaijian,
-L
I had some bacon and cheese smothered french fries today. They were ok. Nothing with melted cheese and bacon should be just 'ok.'
...ahem.
More and more of my classes, or more accurately the classes I'm covering for teachers on holiday leave, are becoming 'mine,' in that I am teaching them without anyone else in the room. I have a really good rapport with two of them, somewhat higher-level students with whom I can have some fairly advanced interactions. In one of these classes, we read the story of Paul Bunyan. As an in-class activity to practice fluency, I had us do a pass-it-around story about a new unusual character. I started it out by providing a name, Ben.
Me: "Ben was as small as a..."
Class: "Rabbit!"
The first student took the story immediately in a dark direction wherein Ben was stepped on. I started it over, asking them through some laughter to be nice to Ben. The second student said Ben was eaten by a cat or something.
"Ok, listen. Be nice to Ben, or we're having a spelling test."
The loud chorus of "Nooooooo!" assured me that Ben would be ok. So we started again. The details are fuzzy, since this was over a week ago now, but here's the basics. Keep in mind, each sentence was provided by a different student, and all in their second language.
Ben was as small as a rabbit. One day he ate some germs. So he went to the hospital. But he was ok, because he works at the hospital. Then, he drank some beer and grew as tall as Teacher. Then, he didn't drink and became as small as an ant. Then, he drank again and grew as big as a shopping center. A star fell and he caught it and threw it back into space. He was a hero. But the star hurt his hands, so he went back to the hospital. He got as small as an ant, and he ate the world. It took many days.
This quickly became my favorite class. When I taught them again the other day, they begged me to let them make another story. I may have some trouble getting them under control now and then, but I've already seen that knowing I can have fun and knowing we can all laugh together means they're almost always paying attention, and as long as I can balance my activities well, classes are going to go great.
...for the three or so weeks that I still teach them before their normal teacher returns. I have a feeling they're going to miss me, and I'm sure I'll hear about it.
My other classes aren't nearly as interesting, don't make as good of stories, but it's all part of a larger whole that has so far left me with no regrets whatsoever. I don't think teaching is my calling, or something I plan to do for many years to come, but if the past couple weeks are any indication, I should do just fine for a while.
A note, dear readers, before the requisite random photo dump. My posts here have not been as deep or detailed as I had wished when this all began, largely because I've been rather drained from everything I have going on with classes and training and learning to live in another country. That said, I know I have many people following this blog; people who care about me personally and professionally, and people who are just interested in reading about someone's experience. If there's anything you want to know, anything you want me to talk about more, or anything you'd rather I keep to myself, let me know. I want this to be informative and interesting, and to provide insight to what my readers want to see.
With that out of the way:
It's fairly well known that the rapid industrialization of China, along with a long stint in a lower economic rung, have led to a country with a serious pollution problem. On some days, it looks a bit like this. You can compare this to my earlier photo (assuming I posted it in this blog, it's been a while since I arrived); while it's not the same place, it's the same city. The pollution is bad enough that filter masks are fairly standard-issue. I have one in my coat pocket at all times, and while I don't often use it, having it handy should the air quality dip like that is certainly wise.
Perhaps not as well known as the pollution problem China has, is its fascination with Christmas. Maybe it's the shared coloration (red and gold being iconic to both China and Christmas), or maybe the commodification of Western culture that's fairly common in the East. Whatever the case, it's no small event. Christmas music began two or three days before Thanksgiving in the shopping mall nearby; around the same time, this...interesting installation was erected. I kinda dig it, really; I've always been intrigued by art that uses familiar things in unfamiliar ways, always coveted the creativity that requires. Just never quite my strong suit.
And of course, no casual post in this blog would feel complete without a questionable translation result to show that cutting corners on your language interpreting doesn't end well.
Zaijian,
-L
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