杭州 Day 15-19

Tuesday, September 23, 2008: 杭州 Day 15 (Teaching Day 4)
中国 Day 15
Asia Day 15

• Woke up early (okay, 10:30am is NOT early, but still, early for me -_-). Went to class to teach for two 90-minute periods back-to-back. Nothing super-noteworthy today, but a few tidbits are to follow.

• One of my students fell asleep in class and then I was telling the other students to be quiet until the end of the class period. I also wanted the students to leave quietly...but sleeping beauty woke up during the second half of the class.

• Something went terribly wrong with lesson plans. It was strange because I wanted them to do a listening section, but apparently, it wasn't working out because the dialogue was 1) too fast and 2) students could not pick up the specific words. I asked for input from both classes (although many students were reluctant to say anything). In the first class, I played three listening exercises. Very few people fully completed the exercises. In the second class, as a test-run, I ran through one dialogue three times. It was strange because when the bell rang, there were about 10 people in class. Then, in clusters of 5-8 people, the students kept trailing in. So, some students heard the dialogue once, some of them heard it three times. However, there was a similar result. They could not fill in the blanks because the talking speed was too quick!
• In the first class, I only had time to call on students once (during my discussion activity). My first class was almost perfectly timed (2 minutes left). My second class was a disaster in terms of time. Because I cut off the listening exercises, there was an extra twenty minutes left in class. I spent 40 minutes in a discussion with students - it was actually a chance for me to learn everyone's name. We discussed two different things - favorite Chinese hero and a superpower the students would like to have. I called on almost everyone twice in the second class.
• Favorite (Chinese) Heroes: When I asked one girl her favorite Chinese hero, she said, "Wu Zetian," one of the female "emperors" of China. Everyone in class cracked up. Lots of other people said random people I didn't even know. Some mentioned Yao Ming, some mentioned Jacky Chan (Cheng Long). Quite a few said Mao Zedong. Once, one student said, "Deng Xiaoping," and I didn't really hear what he said, so I said, "Who's that?" People laughed. OH MAN.
• Namely, Names: I saw a lot of my students' English names for the first time on paper today. Let me name some interesting ones: Rainman, Sky, Cloud, King, Hamber, Zero, Shine, Zeus, Abobo, Tank, Carrot, Apple, Mutombo, Peace, Ice, Dinnes (supposed to be Dennis, but different), and Moon. I saw "Mutombo" on my sheet of paper and asked to know who that was - apparently, that student knew that it was an African name. Haha.
• There was also a student who didn't have an interest in anything. I would ask him questions and he would have no opinion. It was like, "Hey, what is your favorite Chinese Hero?" "I don't have one." "Hmm, how about your superpower?" "I don't know." C'mon man, step up to the creative plate! Stop hitting strikes.

• After class, I was so tired that my brain just wanted to shut down. I'm not sure why. Even then, I decided to go to Vanguard to buy some buns that I could steam for the upcoming potluck. (At Vanguard, I was also buying some pre-made buns; it was curious because I would always see bakers bake a huge wad of brown, round bread...and I wouldn't see it packaged. No idea how one consumes the large bread.) I returned around 6:45pm and started to prepare for the meal. I placed a tray of water into the baking oven and placed buns on the grill above it. Then, I waited for it to steam. Also brought up a package of mochi upstairs to Jessica's room.
• Everyone except one person eventually showed up to the potluck. Jamie's friends also joined us (Estelle, Frank, and Aaron). We had Winter Melon Soup, buns, cucumber bits, a special Zicheng dish, yummy mini-chicken drumsticks, and the mochi and brownies for dessert. Jamie mentioned going to a special Guangzhou trade fair that was crowded one year and sparse during the year of SARS. He and the others concurred that it was the perfect place to go shopping, since you could ask for free samples. Funnery.
• Quoteable: Jamie - "Shoes? They're like feet prison."

• Came back and chatted/journaled/blogged ^^.

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Wednesday, September 24, 2008: 杭州 Day 16
中国 Day 16
Asia Day 16

• Nothing exciting happened today. I woke up early (9am-ish) because the phone in the living room was ringing off of the hook. The first time it rang, it rang perhaps 8 times. Then, five minutes passed and it started to ring again. I reluctantly got out of bed to pick it up. It was the mailman, who said he got my package. This was all in Chinese. He asked if I could understand Chinese, to which I said, a little bit. Then, he used English to tell me I got a package and asked for my cell number (but I couldn't understand what number he was asking for). I asked him to say it in Chinese...which was when I finally understood. Har har. I had a slight headache, so I went back to sleep and woke up three hours later...at noon.

• Later, I was planning to go out to buy a bike, as well as run some errands. I get lazy sometimes...such as today. Well, at the moment when I was going to go out, it started to storm and rain...lightning flooded the sky and thunder ravaged my ears. I decided to stay in after all. Webcammed and chatted. Did some homework. Read some texts. Cooked some ramen with sausage and pork wonton. Planned my lesson.

• The following incident happened in Chinese. Baba called several times today to check in with me about my flight. It was quite funny because he told me to hold on after I asked if he booked the flight for Sunday or Monday. Well, he called the agency back and found out they booked the wrong date. I was on the other line listening to him hassle the agent because of her poor customer service. I heard him shouting loud and clear on the other line. He was cracking up, saying to the agent, "dude, I booked it today and they told me September 28, but when I called back, you changed it to September 29. I never said September 29." Then, after the flight was resolved, he hung up from that phone and went back to his cell phone. I asked him if I should have hung up and he said, "Nah."
• Baba asked, "Did you eat dinner yet?" I replied, "No." He asked me when I was going to eat, to which I replied, "Oh, I'm just going to cook ramen..." Then, Baba said, "EHHH?? You can't just eat ramen, my obedient girl [乖女儿]...Don't worry, when you come here, I will cook some 'good food.' Yeah, I ate a chicken today, but I couldn't finish it. If you were here, we'd finish a whole chicken." When I quoted "good food," all I meant was...those were the only English words he used, lol.

• OH, great news! I have a week off. This is strange. I'm teaching Thursday and I have Friday off. Then, next Monday's and next Tuesday's classes are canceled, but they're moved to Saturday and Sunday. Thus, I have to work Saturday and Sunday! WEIRD. I have vacation Monday, September 29 to Sunday, October 3.

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Thursday, September 25, 2008: 杭州 Day 17 (Non-Teaching Day...)
中国 Day 17
Asia Day 17

• Woke up to the sound of my alarm. During this time, the phone in the living room rang about 6 times (but again, I was too lazy to pick it up and get it). After I came out of the bathroom, my door buzzer rang. I picked it up and let whoever it was inside. It was the libraryman/mailman (since the mail can be picked up at the library's first floor). He gave me my package of "fruit juice."

• Hangzhou, China - A package from the U.S. ends up in Asia, though not all in one piece (well, their respective pieces).

Late last week, an Asian woman from California sent her lovely daughter a package containing acai fruit juice/gel. The package arrived Monday and the daughter was called to pick it up from her school's library. When the daughter did not pick up the package, the package was delivered to her apartment.

This daughter opened the package and was surprised to find that some of the juice packs had exploded in transit. She looked at the package with angst. Gel was everywhere. She sighed and washed each gel pack. She imagined a headline, "Juice Gel Flight Leads to 7 Dead." Within a package of about 40 juice packs, 7 had leaked entirely onto the other packs. Remains were splattered all over the bag. Now, this daughter's sink is full of acai seed (or whatever those little bits are called).

• Something terribly embarrassing happened. It was a learning experience. Today, I was supposed to teach in the afternoon. I got on the correct bus to the main campus. However, I took the wrong minibus, on the way to the East campus. I didn’t notice this until awhile later. I felt that this bus ride seemed abnormally long, when Michael called me and asked if I had gotten on the bus, since it just arrived. I realized I was on the wrong bus and Michael asked me to hand the phone over to another bus patron. Everyone (including the driver) was alarmed that I had gotten on the wrong bus. The bus driver dropped me off on the corner of North Huancheng Road [环城北路] (midway between the campus I live on and the main campus) so that I could take a bus back to the campus. I was looking for the B-1 bus stop, when Michael called to ask if he should have the classes canceled for the afternoon; I wanted to teach at least one class, but I told him that I would call him back when I found the correct bus stop. Once I got to the correct bus stop, I spoke to him on the phone again, only to find that both of the classes in the afternoon had been canceled. Despondent and disappointed in myself, I waited another 10 minutes to hail a taxicab toward my campus.
• Yes, this is the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to me this year. The administration considers it a trivial accident; after the National Holiday, the administration wants me to make up these two classes, so that’s not so bad.
• I learned a valuable lesson: Do not assume you are going to a certain location via public transportation – please make sure you ask (lest you end up in a similar situation as me).

• The embarrassing incident above caused me to feel a bit lost and speechless. I didn't know what to say to the bus patron when I wanted to hand her my phone. While looking for the bus stop, I looked for any discernible signs that would lead me to my destination (I found a map, which was great).

• First Time Alone in Taxicab: Even hailing a taxi was a bit of a challenge. I had never hailed one on my own before (let alone sit in one ALONE), and I was in this busy intersection with nary an idea which place was the safest to hail. I kept changing locations and made some observations. Taxis that are not full may drive on the lane closest to the potential customer. That would be best because they could stop at some upcoming entrance or even at the roadside. I waited for a taxi near a turn, but that yielded nothing. I didn't want to get into a gold or red taxicab; I'm not sure whether they charge more. I saw some opportunistic Chinese people run after some taxis that were dropping people off. Finally, two taxis pulled up into the side lane near where I was waiting and I got into one of the cars. I told him where to go (twice). I found that I had to enunciate my words because I couldn't speak it flowingly (I guess in other words, fluently). I don't feel comfortable slurring my words. Hah. Well, the driver was so random. He said a few things aloud (maybe he was trying to start a conversation with me?), but I didn't really respond (or know what the heck he was talking about). Then, he saw a set of keys on the floor and picked them up, chuckled to himself, and said, "万担啊！" Of course, I wasn't familiar with that phrase, but I thought about it later, in relation to the context, and I think he meant something to the effect of "This person is screwed without their keys." I looked it up a bit later and found the phrase to mean "doomed/out of luck." Before I paid for the cab, the cabbie asked me where I'm from, as my Chinese sounds different from other people. I told him I'm American and Cantonese...hahhh. I guess he was kind of amused. Eh, I guess I was on survival mode (and still have been ever since)...

• I read 70+ pages for "The World is Flat"...I'm somewhat caught up for this week's reading for that specific book.

• This is strange, but I think a mosquito bit my fob mark. Now, that bump on my arm has gotten a bit more swollen.

• Mom called and dug up the silly incident and I felt a bit worse. She yelled at me and advised me to tell my students why I couldn't have class. I retorted, "Why should I tell them? Won't that make ME lose face?" Then, she said, "Ohh, like not showing up to class hasn't already made you lose face. Just tell them and you can laugh it off and have a good time." After consulting with more people, I felt a bit better about the whole incident.

• Crapload of homework this weekend. Must be done ASAP.

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Friday, September 26, 2008: 杭州 Day 18
中国 Day 18
Asia Day 18

Another day of plain NADA-ism. What'd I do today? Nothing. I read articles and wrote a discussion post, read chapter one from one of my textbooks while taking notes, and read a bunch of other random stuff (mostly financial and political news). Oy, I have work tomorrow in the morning. Lesson plans will be done soon (as well as more homework, yuck)...

...

Saturday, September 27, 2008: 杭州 Day 19 (Teaching Day 5)
中国 Day 19
Asia Day 19

• This is a little weird. I'm working on a weekend (well, that wasn't so weird when I worked at a nonprofit and did extra hours for weekend events)...but this is school on a weekend...for the university crowd. Haha...ha. Sigh?

• Again, today's classes are the classes that aren't caught up (my Monday classes). Because my software wasn't working at first, I read the script for one of the videos we were to see...but then I found out students did not understand what it was about (maybe I read too fast, or my strange intonations did not make sense to them). I finally got the equipment to work and I had the students watch it again. However, some students still did not know what was going on. Oy. I went around the room for my morning class and subdivided based on region. Memorized (or tried to memorize) names in two different rows, followed by other rows. I was looking at my attendance sheet from Monday, which had some freaking funny stuff on it. Students' names were normal enough, but there's a student named Pedro. I also asked some of the students to describe themselves using two adjectives; there were seven students that wrote "warmhearted" and "understanding" in a row; the one after the last student wrote "hot-hearted" and "understanding"...well, points for creativity, at least. However, I should probably watch these students closer during tests.

• I tried to tell a joke in my classes today. OH...and it failed miserably! People just stared. No one giggled. I guess American humor is different from Chinese humor (or they just don't get it). Eh, not a fan of English puns, are they?? However, the joke worked a bit better in my second class (they nodded their heads).

• The gist of the joke is: a foreigner goes to the restaurant because he is hungry; he looks at the menu and orders “Chicken surprise.” However, when the waiter brings the food over and leaves it on the table, something strange happens. The pot’s lid opens a bit, revealing some beady little eyes. Then, the lid closes. The foreigner cannot believe what he’s seeing, so he asks the waiter for help. The waiter asks what he ordered, to which he says, “Chicken surprise.” Then, the waiter apologizes profusely for giving the patron “Peking Duck” (Beijing Ya), i.e. peeking duck. The great thing about this joke was that I integrated some of the vocabulary words into the joke.

• Entertaining tidbits: I told my afternoon class a few funny remarks from the morning class.

1) I asked the students if the nameless Hero who did not kill Qin Shihuang did the right thing by not killing him; one student said, “he did the wrong thing because he didn't have enough skill” (and therefore should have killed him, but he sucked at throwing the sword).

2) I asked the students about their favorite Chinese heroes, and one girl replied, “Liu Xiang is my hero because he was the first man in China to run fast.”

• Another thing – my plan to play a game somewhat failed. Because one of the other discussions had to do with heroes and superpowers, I had the kids play the “stupid ninja game.” I never thought explaining that game would be so hard! Honestly, I had to explain it 4-5 times for groups to get it – first, I explained two times in front of the class, then I explained another 3 times to individual groups. First, everyone chooses a “word” to associate to an “action” – in this case, one chooses a superhero action and pairs that action with a word describing it, such as “punch” and punching with both arms. Then, after everyone chooses an action, they call their own action and call someone else’s, and this continues until someone messes up. It’s actually really fun, but the students were slow at it. Maybe we’ll play next time, or I can streamline details of the game…

• At times, I can understand the students' remarks to each other, so they hassle each other (about why the student doesn't know anything, or the answers that are given). Sometimes, I will reply in English to a question that was asked in Chinese…and the student will say, “?_? 哦，会听中文？”

• When I asked the students to name their Chinese hero, this one student named three heroes (can you say...overachiever?); he also mentioned "everybody" as a hero and implied I was one, too. Thankee, sire.

• The student who said his English is poor didn’t show up today. That made me a bit sad – he’s missing out on this English-speaking opportunity!!

• Some students are well-spoken in Chinese, but don't know very much English. Sometimes, they start talking, but ask their friends how to say a certain word. Then, they ask me, "可以用中文来说吗？" (they want to use Chinese to speak), but I tell them, no. Heh. I evil :/

• In between classes, I was extremely tired, so I napped for most of the time. May have dabbled in some political news, as well.

• During class, Michael called and texted me, but I didn’t look at it until classes were over.
The text from Michael said: "Hi, when your majesty will come home? I got passport back to you" (LMAO…ZEDONG! >;D)

•I told Jessica about the above and she said, “HE TOTALLY LIKES YOU.” -_-

• I did homework until 6:30pm, when I met up with the others for dinner. Walked to “Grandmother’s Kitchen” (外婆家) with Zicheng, Jessica, Romain, Vanessa, Jamie, and his friend Zhang Yong/Aaron. Zicheng ordered a lot of good dishes (tofu, fatty pork with fish, veggies, bamboo shoots with peppers, and a bunch of other good stuff. I tried Wahaha Brand’s Iced Tea (娃哈哈凉茶). Dinner was 30块. Another instance of “HE TOTALLY LIKES YOU” happened again at dinnertime.

• While walking home, Zicheng helped me practice Chinese. It was most hilarious. I giggled incessantly because speaking Chinese makes me nervous, at the same time that Zicheng said the most ridiculous things. I was like, “Hey!” or “So…” and he replied, “’Hey’是什么？’So’不是中文字。” I thought it was hilarious and tried to think of ways to express myself in Chinese. Then, we had this discussion about milk tea and I asked him if, because of the milk crisis, I could still drink milk tea. He said, “那，我也不知道。。。研究一下。” I asked, “研究是什么意思？” Then, he walked after Jessica and said, “我研究她怎么走路。。。mo2fang2。” I asked him the meaning of mo2fang2, so he showed me that he was copying her moves. Later, we had a discussion about the meaning of “哎哟” (aiyo). Zicheng said, “你如果吃很好吃的东西，就掉在地上，就是哎哟的意思。” I said “哎哟” has a similar connotation as ”可惜” (sad, in a pathetic way). Was so amused by the content of the conversation.

• Later, I briefly spoke to Aaron, or Zhangyong. His English is good and he only started in middle or high school. He isn’t a native (Zicheng also taught me “本地人” = native).

• At night, I did some homework and went to bed.