杭州 Day 22-27

Monday, October 6, 2008: 杭州 Day 22 (Teaching Day 7)
中国 Day 25
Asia Day 28

• Went to sleep really late (3am!! UGH) and woke up really early (7:30am). Now, why would I do that? I was still worried about the monkey bite, I suppose. Oh, and yesterday, all of a sudden, it got cold. I carelessly used a thin blanket to cover up at night, when I should have used something thicker.

• Taught a class in the morning - did a lot of listening exercises today. The funniest thing to happen in the morning class happened during one of the listening exercises. I had three students draw pictures of things that happened in my story.
• It was an interesting story about a king named Tamerlane. Whilst he was away fighting battles, his youngest, most beautiful Chinese wife built him a mosque. However, the builder had fallen in love with the young wife. Since the builder did not finish the mosque and would not continue to build it unless the Chinese wife allowed him to kiss her, she let him kiss her. However, the kiss was so strong that it left a mark on her face. The builder was killed and king Tamerlane wanted all women to wear veils, lest they tempt men with their beauty.
• One student drew a building and a W.C. (restroom) next to it. I had the drawers select someone to interpret the drawing and retell the story. The student said something about how a man once had to use the W.C., but realized it was out of toilet paper. Then, he fell in love with a girl who gave him toilet paper to use. Then, she kissed him. The other two people who drew had wacky interpretations of their drawings, but not as crazy as this one.

• I went back to nap/rest for three hours. I put on long sleeves/pants and snuggled under the thick comforter. Sigh. I woke up and it was still chilly...

• Minor setback in second class. The key lady told me that the key was upstairs with the cleaning lady, so I went upstairs with the mic. I went upstairs to find that the room was still locked. So, some students went to find the janitor lady, while I whispered for my students to be quiet and to huddle in the corner near the door. Well, it was only minutes later that the janitor lady rushed over and said sorry as she hurriedly unlocked the door.
• The afternoon class was a little less attentive. I caught a student sleeping and another student was not paying attention (he was writing in his book). I asked him what he thought of the story and he said it was "interesting." One of his classmates sneered, "Interesting 你的屁！ 你根本没听。。。" (Interesting? Yeah right, you didn't listen to the story!) The non-attentive student said, "Shut up!" and then I told them to behave -_-. By this time, because I was reading to the class, my throat was getting quite dry. Kept reading to the class, as the speed on the audio tape seems a bit fast.

• Came back and felt like doing nothing. Honestly, I just went online, read a bunch of articles/news, checked email, and just sat on my ass. I didn't feel like eating or doing homework.

• Went to bed really, really early - 8:30pm.

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Tuesday, October 7, 2008: 杭州 Day 23 (Teaching Day 8)
中国 Day 26
Asia Day 29

• Woke up several times during the night. Finally got up at 8am to blog. Finished in three hours. Also needing to journal...

• Went to class today and there was a minor technical difficulty. Well, there were several. I didn't know there was a switch for the mic, so I thought the mic was broken. I ended up reading the text again (lucky students, for me having to waste my breath). Well, the computer also wasn't working, so again, I read...
• I felt a bit annoyed today. My students usually converse in Chinese because they are not skilled in English. They would lose their main mode of expression for group-work, if it weren't for Chinese. I don't know quite what to do.
• Also, I went around to ask some students questions based on the listening exercise. Most of them had this nonchalant attitude as they said, "I don't know." I felt like I had to grill them for understanding. I asked why they didn't know and tried to decipher ways for them to actually KNOW or UNDERSTAND the exercises done in class. There's a lot of stuff that's just translated to them via friends, which hurts part of the cause and helps the other part. Anyway, some of them claimed they didn't know because they weren't listening. C'mon male students, do you think I WASTE my breath so you can whisper to your friends and pretend to listen? I'm a sick woman here...and I'm not getting paid to read you some fairy tales. Well, perhaps I am, but if it were up to me, I'd rather have you use your breath than have me waste mine. Others didn't really understand, due to my reading pace or their own lack of English knowledge. What are you in the class for, then? Why don't you go back to your lower levels so you can learn the basics? I tried to slow down my reading pace, so that the students could understand. Another factor that I can't control is the student's past experiences with other accents - because they got used to the fobby Chinese accent for beginning levels (most likely), they copied this and this bad English proliferated into an uncontrollable level that teachers like me are struggling with right now.
• However, not everyone is a terrible student. For the most part, the female students, while shy, are very, very attentive. Most understand what I'm saying. I'm less frustrated about this. Shyness can be overcome with encouragement.
• At times, though, I don't feel like a very encouraging person. Heh. I should encourage and compliment more in daily life.

• After my classes today, I went home and munched on peanuts and then went up to Jessica's for the potluck. I brought dragon eye and grape juice. It was a good time.
• Jamie is so hilarious. He said, "You know, the walls were so close that you could hear them change their minds." He also said (of Foster's Australian beer), "You know what the truth is? With native beers, they don't export it...they DEport it."

• Sigh...time to do homework, even though I don't want to...*whine*...make-up classes tomorrow, as well...

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Wednesday, October 8, 2008: 杭州 Day 24 (Make-up Teaching Day 9)
中国 Day 27
Asia Day 30

• Got up so late because I slept 10 hours. Went to take the bus at 12:20pm. I was freaking out a bit because it was already bordering on 1:20pm and I saw some of the teachers who work on my campus getting off at the first stop. I hurriedly followed them and then called to ask Michael if he knew if there was more than one Xiasha East stop. Well, the minivan ended up going to the East campus. I was so relieved. The hardest part of the day (transportation) was taken care of...by the admin.

• For the makeup schedule, I had my second class first. Patricia was next door. I began to stress out. Why? The guys with their little girlfriends and some guys in the left corner...would not stop talking! It would not bother me as much if they talked in English, but it was all in Chinese. I had to shout a few times to get them (those talkers) to be quiet. To add to that, the microphone would not work in my room. There were also some students who didn't understand the words that were coming out of my mouth. Sigh. I don't know why...or HOW they got in that class. Some of them look at me with faces like, "DURRRH?" Sigh. I was extremely annoyed and my voice had wasted away.

• I went to wait for the bus around 4:50pm. When it didn't look like the bus was coming, I called Michael. Later, I found out that there were no buses running on Wednesdays because teachers usually didn't have classes. Well, Michael tried to hail a cab to bring me here (a supervisor of his would cover the fee up to 80块, but there were no taxis to hail). Thankfully, I got back to Xiasha via university car. Michael and I had dinner in the student cafeteria (not too bad, about 5块) - was just two sides and rice. At 6:30pm, I took the bus back to Wenyi.

• I did all the lesson planning whilst I was waiting around. When I got home, I did a lot of nothing. Ate some more food/fruit and then read for the rest of the night (whilst chattin'...heh).

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Thursday, October 9, 2008: 杭州 Day 25 (Teaching Day 10)

中国 Day 28
Asia Day 31

• Wow, I've been in China for a month (really hasn't felt that long). This morn, I woke up at 7:30am so I could arrive on the Xiasha campus bright and early. I caught the 8:40am bus and arrived around 9:40am. Michael met me at the hospital, where I had a second opinion on my monkey bite wound. (Actually, the wound scabbed over a long time ago and it fell off today!!)

• The female doctor that examined me took a brief look at my wound, while Michael explained to her what happened to me. He asked her whether I should consider getting rabies shots and she replied, "It's best if you do." Later, we went upstairs to see the male doctor. Michael explained the same things and then the doc touched my green-tinted bruise as I exclaimed, "Eh? It's gone..." I think at his point was when I noticed my scab was gone. Thus, this male doctor thought there was nothing to worry about. He said something about drawing blood and seeing if there was anything in the blood, but Michael explained that they wouldn't find anything if the virus had not already spread. From this conversation, I could see that I was more well-versed in rabies than he was.

• Later, I was explaining to Michael that I did some obsessive research on rabies, that I knew if I got shots, they would have to be in different intervals. He was amazed I knew so much, since the first time he heard that was when he called the clinic recently. Indeed, there was a moment where I said, "Yeah...if I don't get the shot..." And Michael continued, "...you are dead." HAHAH. I also mentioned to him how males just shrug off stuff like this, while females seemed more concerned. My point was proven when Michael called his lady boss and told him the situation (that he wanted to go with me to the clinic to get the shot) and she sounded very concerned. Yes, I will get my first shot tomorrow (and I need to be prepared to get sick from the shot, sigh).

• After getting prescriptions, we went to the library for a bit and perused books. There's quite a few finance books. I also found the English classical novel section...I'm hoping to maybe read "Journey to the West" if I have any time available. After going to the library, we went to the teacher's cafeteria. Even though teachers are thought to be more civil, it was mayhem. Teachers didn't line up to get food - rather, they crowded and grabbed at what looked delicious. Lunch this time was 7.6 块. Of course, this is cheaper than eating out. I got rice, tofu and various veggies, fish (with smallish bones -_-) and white carrot dish, and three fried dumplings with a wrapping-covered sticky rice thing. I already forgot what it was called. Lunch was pretty good. Had a fun conversation.

• There was one point where I was complaining a bit about the student's attitudes and Michael reminded me, "Remember what I told you - if you can teach this group of students, you can teach ANY group..." Those are inspiring words. I really want to help the students...but guess what. Hah, none emailed me yet! WTF.

• Went to class and did a lot of listening exercises today. Honestly, I've been a bit sicker than usual since Monday, so I didn't want to talk more than I had to. Avoided straining my voice further by using a lot of listening exercises. In the first class, the students are more well-behaved. One of the students, though, said he wished there were films shown in class. I said I'd consider that, but I wanted those at the lowest levels to be able to understand it at first. Then, this student commented that one could turn on the subtitles. The phrase he used specifically was, "Chinese words on the bottom."

• In my second class, because of the fallout from yesterday, I felt like a dictator. The lights were off for most of the class because I had the projector on. I went over the vocabulary somewhat quickly. I tried to make sure people knew what was going on. Afterward, the students did some listening exercises. Two people fell asleep! Unacceptable! At the end of class, one of the better students passed me a note saying: "Can we have some interesting things like watching flims. pictures or listening musics next week. The class seems a little boring. Thank you." I received it and didn't know what to make of it. Of course, I want to make the class as student-centered as possible, but I also have to follow a syllabus. I have to admit, maybe I made it more listening-exercises-oriented this week due to fatigue/illness, but I will try to engage the students a bit better for next week. The class turned out to be a bit quieter because I threatened to move students. Plus, I patrolled the area that got loud. One audacious kid kept listening to his music from his phone. I walked over because he looked asleep, just to find him listening to his stuff...I walked away, and a few minutes later, he was doing the same thing. Then, he felt embarrassed and had this expression like, "Okay, okay, I give up." At that point, he put it away for good.

• I rode the bus back and got back in time for dinner with Jason, Romain, Vanessa, and Jason's friend and former HDU teacher Jackie. Pretty good dindin, though some dishes were quite spicy :/...

• Went on a random-reading spree. -_-. Wasted over 5 hours reading articles having nothing to do with my life. Mostly crime mysteries...

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Friday, October 10, 2008: 杭州 Day 26

中国 Day 29
Asia Day 32

• In the morning, I woke up at 7:45am, when I went to sleep around 3:30am (because of my reading spree). I was super-tired.

• Michael met up with me around 8:30am so that we could go to the disease control center for my first time. Thus, we took a taxi to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (疾病预防控制中心 [ji2 bing4 yu4 fang2 kong4 zhi4 zhong1 xin1] or 疾控中心 for short). We went to the clinic for animal bites and scratches (动物咬伤门诊), where I registered via telling them my name. Then, the doctor recorded what happened to me, whilst Michael talked about all of it. The little girl before me got bitten by a dog.
• There were three types of shots - first two were made in China, whilst the last one was made in Germany. The first one was cheap (~200 Yuan), the second one was stable (~250 Yuan), whilst the last was manufactured out of the country and stable (~630 Yuan). I chose the second one...heh. Well, I had to pay 53 Yuan for each shot (a series of 5 shots) and 1.5 Yuan per needle (yes, clean). My school insurance MAY cover it...hooray?

• So...I glanced over to my right and saw the nurse stab the needle into the little girl, who cried for about 30 seconds before she realized it didn't hurt anymore. That was a bit traumatic for me, since I didn't know whether she would stab me, too. Well, when it was my turn, she put iodine on my right arm and then stabbed the needle into it (>_<). It didn't hurt too much, but I could just feel the intense pressure of stabbery. Afterward, she talked of disinfecting the wound, but I told her it was in the arm that was just stabbed...and she looked like, ?_?, since I also told her...oh, heh, it's GONE.
• Nursey lady spoke to the next customer, as Michael told them I'm a foreign teacher. The nurse lady was talking to me like I was a kid! "Ni zai na ge xue xiao...XUEEEEE XIAOOOOO...jiao shu?"/"你在哪个学校。。。学校。。。教书？" I told her Hangzhou Dianzi Keji Daxue. She was impressed I could spit those words out that quickly. I fumbled my words a bit when she asked where I was born. She then said to the next customer, yeah, her Chinese isn't THAT great. T_T...grr!!

• Five Days of Rabies Shots:
1: Friday, 10/10
2: Monday, 10/13
3: Friday, 10/17
4: Friday, 10/24
5: Friday, 11/07

• After going to this clinic, I went to a drugstore with Michael. He told me, "I have to go to the drugstore to buy some medicine to kill crocodiles." I initially thought, hmm, didn't know there were crocodiles in Hangzhou. Then, he corrected himself and said, "Oh, I meant cockroach." We had a little laugh.
• Then, I saw a sign and asked Michael what the words were. It said fu4yin4 (复印), but I thought it said, xia4yin4 (夏印). As you can see, the words look the same. We had another little laugh.
• Michael was chuckling, and I was asking him if he was still laughing about the crocodiles...and he said, no, I'm still laughing at xia4yin4.

• After I came back, I went on the computer for awhile, then took a nap. When I woke up, I read some more random articles...and that was basically my day. No Friday night parties, nope.

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Saturday, October 11, 2008: 杭州 Day 27

中国 Day 30
Asia Day 33

• I read so late into the night last night that I woke up really late today. It was about 2pm when I got up. I started doing my Ethnography homework (watching television and recording the types of ads that were shown on television). Honestly, some of this time was wasted. I watched a dumb teeny bopper show about some kids going to try on new fashions and going to karaoke. I could neither relate to this nor understand what was going on. I saw a news report featuring only four main stories. I turned off the television for a bit and then started to do more homework. Blahhh...I watched more television and this time, it was more interesting. I watched a television drama featuring a man who had divorced his wife and now he lives with her new husband and his ex-wife. Something like that. After that, I watched a talk show.
• The talk show was pretty colloquial and easy to understand; it featured the main characters from that drama I was just watching (omg, the middle-aged manly actor was hawt). The lady had asked her co-worker actor why he had gotten into film, since he was not good looking. She commented about his bravery, since he has small, not-film-worthy eyes. I thought it was hilarious. Only on Chinese television can one say this.
• Later, this lady talked about her son and how she raised him. Now, he's 18 and in college. She said, "I gave him life and wings to fly. I told him, 'from this day on, you will be able to take care of yourself. I will no longer be responsible for you, you can do whatever you want.'" It was really inspiring because she talked about the years she spent teaching him, raising him, letting him know what's good/bad and right/wrong. Basically, she gave him all the tools he needs to survive in the world and now he can spread his wings and fly. After this, I turned off the television.

• During my television watching, I noticed an ad that played two times. It was mysterious and interesting! I think it was a detective ad. The guy was using his magnifying glass to examine some details that were out of place. The show is on Friday evenings at 10pm or so...and I don't want to miss it!

• Also, I wrote down many vocabulary words that I want to learn. Some of them are used in common language, so I want to make sure I know what's going on the next time I hear such words.

• I briefly worked on a report and replied to two discussions. Went to bed around 3:30am. I was planning on going to West Lake early next morning...