厦门 (Xiamen) Part II

The last two weeks have flown by so quickly that I really haven't had anytime to catch all of you up on everything that happened on my travels to Xiamen and Nanjing. It seems that there are endless things that I could share with all of you, but I will have to give you the condensed versions of them all.

鼓浪屿, 福建 (Gulangyu, Fujian)

On our second day in Xiamen we decided to head over to Gulangyu. Gulangyu is a little island that sits off the coast of Fujian next to Xiamen. The island is famous for two things mainly: (1) pianos and, (2) Zheng Chenggong (a famous military leader). While we didn't really see too much of either - mainly because all of them cost money none of us were willing to part with - we did walk all over the island admiring not only its natural beauty but wonderful architecture that seemingly blankets the entire island. Of course, there was the added bonus of not having to compete with automobiles as the island does not allow any vehicles on it - making it incredibly quiet and peaceful.

After being in Nanchang for so long - where there are not many foreigners and nothing really for tourist to come and see - it is really strange to be caught in the cross-fire of vendors trying to sell you their wares as if you were fresh for the taking. Being a foreigner in China really brings on a set of interesting assumptions about who you are based upon your skin tone. Being white, most Chinese assume that I am: (1) rich, (2) can't speak the language, and (3) don't know how to use chopsticks. The last one really provides comical relief, but it is true. Come to China and eat with chopsticks, you will continually astound the locals. Having been here before I didn't feel any need to buy any of the trinkets, but just took in the beauty and amazing weather that Fujian seems to enjoy in the winter.

Our walk around the island only took us a few hours, but rendered us some pretty amazing views. It is the constant juxtaposes of China's wealth and poverty highlighted by its race to become modern that one can catch shots like this.


The rest of my trip was spent relaxing and sitting in a coffee shop, albeit not the one I had hoped for. On my last day, I managed to make it over to Dr. Jay's apartment for a visit and talk to him about teaching English and living in China. It was so different to be back in that place after 2 years. It, however, was good to talk with him and get some ideas for dealing with cultural stresses, teaching, and language learning.

Moving on.....

Airline Ticket Problems

Amusingly enough, our trip to Nanjing was not without some interesting complications. The night before leaving Xiamen I managed to communicate with lady at the desk in enough broken Chinese to say that I would like a wake up call at 5 am and that we would need a taxi to pick us up at 5:30 am (I just have to say that is a lot harder than it sounds). The next morning we took the taxi to the airport and that is when things got interesting.

Upon arriving at the airport we thanked the taxi driver and walked inside to get our bags checked in and wait to board. We made it through the line and were being helped when during checking our bags in the lady asked us if we had our teacher identification cards on us or anything that showed that we were teachers at Blue Sky University. We responded that we did not, but that Xiamen Airlines had made copies of our identification cards back in Nanchang. She told us to wait a minute while she went to talk to her boss. Eventually her boss came over and told us that if we could not present any form of identification that we were going to have to buy new tickets for our flight to Nanjing.

We were floored and couldn't hardly form a response to such a statement. I figured if we couldn't present any form of identification that showed we were teachers that we would just have to pay the part we had discounted off. Alas, this was not the case and no matter how we reasoned with the airline they were insistent on having us pay for 3 new tickets at full price. Thankfully, Shannon decided to call our foreign affairs assistant Amy to help us and talk to the airline so that they might be brought to reason and let us get on our flight. Amy managed to persuade the airline to let us on the plane provided that she would fax them a copy of all of our identification cards. Without Amy we would never have made it out of Xiamen....

厦门 (Xiamen)

It has been over a year since I have been in this beautiful city and I can't express the emotions that I feel just walking through its streets again. At the same time everything just seems so different. Furthermore, it is a stark contrast compared to the city (Nanchang) where I have been living for the last 4 months. I wish I had a better way of explaining it, but the best I could do would be to say that it would be like living in Boise and then visiting Seattle.

Upon arriving things went every way we didn't expect them to go; however, as I have been taught "One must always be expected for the unexpected in China - and flexible". So after wandering around for about 15 minutes and asking a group of Chinese people we finally found our "hostel". We walked in, handed them our reservations, and that is when things started not to work out too well. We noticed - somewhat strangely - that this place had no computers and that it was staffed in what - to us - appeared to be a peculiar manner. After about 5-10 minutes of the lady looking at our reservations and asking about rooms she told us that they didn't have any record of our reservations.

I thought this is kind of strange and not too good. We spent the next half an hour or so debating back and forth about whether or not we had reservations and the issue of having made a deposit with their company. At the mention of money being exchanged they called someone who begin a conversation between me and the person at the front desk by handing a cell phone back and forth. The debate came to the conclusion - that is our conclusion - that the company lost the reservation and/or our booking agent that we used failed to send along the information or pocketed the money. At any rate, the people were very nice and arranged for us to stay at another hotel called the Easy Inn, which was actually cheaper and somewhat nice. So it pays to smile, nod, and be patient when dealing with the unknown; that, of course, and send some thoughts up to the Father every once in awhile.

After booking our room, getting settled, and refreshing ourselves we hit the town to get out and do something else besides stay indoors since we had been in a train for some 18 hours. We walked around and marveled at our rather modern surroundings that appeared surreal to us having come from Nanchang. As Shannon commented, it looked like we were hanging out in some large theme park. We walked for about 1 mile or and found a ferris wheel and large ship in the middle of a huge shopping center that was oddly enough deserted.

I must say, though that the large ship was much more interesting and overall more intriguing. I mean who walks into a large shopping area expecting to see a huge ship parked right in the middle of it? I, of course, had no choice but to be as tourist-like as I could and take a picture of it so that I could show it to you. Below is a picture of the ship.

After checking out the mall area we headed over to an international bookstore that happened to have some amazing coffee! Shannon and I couldn't believe that there was actually place that had real coffee with real espresso. The place we went to made hazelnut lattes for 12元 a piece, which is about equivalent to $1.80 for a 12 ounce latte. It was so ridiculous since we usually pay about $3.00 a "coffee" at Dio, which is usually not even really coffee but some kind of substitute. I have to say that was really cool!

I should note that I was able to have dinner with a good friend of mine named Wang Yue this evening and catch up on everything that has been going on with her. Tomorrow we will be going to see Xia Da and Gulongyu, so I will probably have some more pictures for you tomorrow!

(Andy, Shannon, Jonathan, and Laura making fish faces)

Student Christmas Party - 2008

So we are a merry bunch, I am not going to lie. If you don't believe I have proof - just look at this.

I mean seriously, how can you not laugh at that? So yeah, this is what a pre-warm-up looks like to a student Christmas Party that could potentially have 800 students when there are only 7 American teachers. But seriously, what would you do if you were hosting that many students for 8 hours? Albeit we invited all our classes to come at different hours and only for one hour each. The turn-out rate made it enjoyable, but not overbearing. Plus, we had had training in Zhengzhou during their Halloween Party in which everybody and their neighbor - it was crazy!

To give you a little insight into our party strategy we broke it down into 3 separate activities with some transition time to give us a buffer between different student groups. Our first activity was the "Dizzy Bat Santa Relay", which I watched over for a good part of the day. Our second activity was Christmas caroling and drinking apple cider. And lastly, our third activity was the Christmas story via dialogue by the students with some clarification and narrating by the teachers. So all in all, it was a pretty cut and dry; just executing it would have to be seen.

So the hour came for our festivities to begin. Jonathan and I made sure to dress in our dashing CTF green shirts with a red santa hat and stand guard outside our dorm building. We were blessed that day to recieve back-up by our friends from the old campus who helped to fill in the gaps in our ranks when we were greatly outnumbered (which was pretty much the whole time). We begun by having the students do the "Dizzy Bat Santa Relay", which I must brought me more joy than I could have thought. Despite the weather not entirely working in our favor and being a little brisk (as my friend Katie would say), the students willingly participated, even if slightly hesitant at first.

Jonathan and I worked together to explain to the students that they would need to put on the whole Santa Clause outfits - which we had obtained from somewhere as well as had - as fast as they could, run to where people were holding "bats" (which was actually one bat with a piece of a broom as you can see in the picture above), and put their heads to the bat and run around in circles 5 times. Of course, the Chinese were a little taken aback at first, but found our game somewhat humorous and must have written it off as something that only Americans would think of. At any rate, we lured hundreds of Chinese students into playing our game and it was great. I mean its not everyday that you can have hundreds of Chinese Santa Clauses running haphazardly, almost tripping over themselves, and jumping up and down.


I should also mention that as China is a collective cultural in contrast to us, we decided that it might be a good idea to encourage the other students to help their teammates get all the Santa apparel on. This worked out well in many ways: (1) It allowed a lot more people to be participating at once, (2) Students were some times able to help each other dress faster (if not it just brought joy to everyone else watching), and (3) to help Santa make it back to the line as sometimes students became so dizzy that they fell, hit walls and fences, and/or simply had to be carried back to the finish line. Ultimately, the whole ordeal was just really funny and I could spend some much more time than I have had talking about everything that happened in relation to the "Dizzy Bat Santa Relay". So instead I am just going to post a series of pictures to express what I can't say in words.

(Jonathan and I instructing the students)

(Student nearly tripping and falling)

(Student going around the bat 5 times - kind of)

(Students running away and taking the bat with them)

The rest of the party went well too. My students came in force and brought me great joy. Those kids are so funny. I am looking forward to spending more time with them next semester. Well, I would write more, but I would just ruin it at this point.

The Orphanage: Unforeseen Blessings

A few weeks back our team was able to go visit and help out - if "help out" means playing with the kids - at an Orphanage just outside the main part of Nanchang city. It was truly a blessing to have such an opportunity to go visit those young kids, and I think they gave us a much greater gift and blessing than we could have ever given them. It is amazing how such experiences can open up and shape you despite your ignorance and/or blindness to such places. It is almost like our Father knows just when to spring surprises of this nature on us and bless us with such compassion and love that we might not otherwise know.

The Orphanage that we visited was set up - in what seemed a unique fashion to me - so that all the kids lived with a "mother" who was in charge of watching and/or caring 8 young kids each. In this manner, each kid was given a rather stable environment to grow up in, instead of just being put all together without any family structure at all. By all means, I must admit that I am rather ignorant to the way that orphanages are run. Perhaps, this method of placing children without parents would be similar to the way that Foster Parents act in the States.

Nonetheless, we arrived around 2:30 in the afternoon and were welcomed by 30 or so young children ranging from 5 to 14 years of age. At first, both the groups - kids and us - weren't exactly sure how to interact. On a good note though, our girls had been bright in thinking ahead and had prepared sugar cookies for the kids to put frosting on as well as sprinkles. This activity, while approached tentatively by the kids at first, soon took hold of their attention as well as their eyes and allowed us to interact freely with them.

The younger ones were perhaps most trusting and curious in figuring out what these strange foreigners had brought that looked like food. With some help from the director in encouraging the kids to come over to our tables of cookie-making-operations, the kids lined up rather methodically and with discipline that it would have seemed somewhat peculiar to the Western eye. Bundled-up in Chinese like fashion they hovered quietly around us waiting for instructions. We awkwardly begin to demonstrate how to spread the frosting over the sugar cookies and fumbled intermittently between English and our poor Chinese to engage the kids so that they might make their own cookies.


At first, I have to admit, it seemed like we were making their cookies more so than they were. However, after the first two groups kids had gone through the process, the rest started to get the idea and begin to experiment and/or direct their peers and younger sibling in how to put frosting on as well as how to use the sprinkles. In addition, by the time that seconds were offered most of the kids fears and inhibitions about being around the foreigners had faded. In true American like fashion the girls had over-prepared and had made 80 some cookies - so there was more than enough for the kids to have seconds. On the other hand, perhaps it was eating the cookies that heightened their conversational skills and willingness to interact with us. Furthermore, there is something about watching children's eyes light up that seemingly breaks down ones' guard and attempts to be reserved when interacting with these little kids.


An hour into visiting with the kids we were starting to make friends and finding little kids attached to our arms and legs. We decided that we should play some games with them and "Duck, Duck, Goose" was suggested. So after making a short attempt of it inside, we headed outside and found it to be a great success with the children. More specifically, the game drew-out the younger and older boys who were incredibly reluctant to interact with us, let alone speak. Within in half-an-hour we had most of the young boys and some young girls laughing and playing it, even if they created some unique and distinct cultural adaptations to the game.

Many of them so greatly desired to be picked that you would constantly hear "Gei Wo (给我)" or "Give Me", which I guess roughly translates into "Pick Me". Anytime someone was picked it usually just ended in the kids laughing and rolling on the ground as it also usually ended in unfair match-ups. At which point, the whole group was good in making sure that the level of playing field was evened out - this took form in older kids being joined by youngers in ensuring that the person was either stopped from catching the other too fast and/or getting away and having no chance of catching them.

We played with the kids for a total of about 3 hours, which was such a blessing. We were loved on more than I could possibly share with words, unless you had some time to sit down and talk about it. The kids latched on to us like we had known them for years and rested their little heads on our shoulders. It was perhaps one of the most endearing things that I have experienced since coming to China. I hope that we will have an opportunity to go back and visit those little urchins and entreat them to another game of "Duck, Duck, Goose".

Teaching English

My students are all great and bring a lot of joy to me. It is funny to think that I have already taught "Business English" for about 3 months or so now. I would admit to you that teaching is not necessarily my gift, but something that I am learning how to do as well as adapting to. It challenges me more than most things, and I feel it is something that would keep my attention longer than most jobs.

Teaching English: Who would have thought?!?

Teaching English at a university in China isn't really something I pictured myself doing after college. Plus, it just doesn't look anything you or I would really have pictured if somebody had asked us to come and teach English to university students in China. Sometimes I think to myself "How did I get here?" and who really trusts me to teach some 200+ students English. Mrs. Bjur - my English teacher in high school - would be shaking her head if she knew I was in charge of instructing others about English. Monday to Friday I walk into class and there are 40-50 students who say, "Good Morning Mr. Aaron." My BE1+2 class is the most enthusiastic of them all - 54 girls and all. Not a single boy exists in that class. If he did I would know when he was late or didn't show up everyday.

(BE1+2 in full force)

During this last semester every week was the same old saga for me: Behind and wishing I had more time. I have to admit that I have a slight bit of perfectionist in me and I can drag out some of the most mundane tasks that many of you would balk at me for doing. In addition, I have this obsession with organizing everything that comes into my possession and everything has to be in its place or I just freak out. It's kind of sad. At any rate, the learning curve for teaching is humongous and I have to say that it is going to be awhile before this guy really understands everything that is going on in the classroom. Creativity is not something that i was gifted for and to be honest there are many aspects of teaching that I just don't see unless someone else points it out.

Going to watch my teammates teach can be intimidating and scary. I fear that if I go watch them teach I will find out just how bad of a teacher that I am. Then there is my competitive edge that tries to tell me that it is just better not to know and learn things on my own and overcome all the unknown obstacles that I am facing. The truth though is that I need to watch others so that I can be a better teacher and learn from their strengths and weaknesses. I am hoping to go watch more of my fellow teachers next semester as well as some of the Chinese teachers so that I might learn from them.

(Left to Right: Pauline, Becky, Jody, and Danielle)

Grading is definitely a challenge and I can advise you to pay attention to the importance of assigning homework only when needed and making sure that it really measures what you think it does. I spent the better part of the last month grading some 800 papers that I decided to collect as a way to give my students some accountability and responsibility in studying English. You can't just have your students think that they can come to class, do nothing, never study, and pass your class. However, I am a big push-over and need to make idle threats to keep order.

(Juicy...yes that her name)

My classes are kind of intense and thrive on lots of energy. Sometimes it appear to the outsider that my class in near complete chaos, but that it just the way I like things. However, I have two classes that are a little low on energy and seem to zap mine in trying to get them motivated and excited. I tend to approach everything in life with lots of energy and when it isn't reciprocated I tend to lose heart and be drained of my own energy. I tease my students daily telling them that they don't smile enough and look like they are dead when they are in my class. I tend to use myself as most of the examples and my willingness to make a mockery of myself usually is enough to gain my student's attention, but when that doesn't work I am left to guessing. I must admit that I have given my students lectures and chided them for not paying attention and/or not doing what I have asked them to do. Overall, keeping student's attention and control over a class is a delicate thing.

Chinglish: This stuff is great! I am not even lying.

So in grading my homework and/or tests I begin to notice that my student's attempts to translate their ideas from Chinese to English were running into some slight problems. For the most part, the grammatical structure of Chinese in comparison to that of English is rather different and cultural differences - especially common sayings - do not help. Thus, we have what many like to call Chinglish. So in some of my spare time I started recording many of my students sentences and thought that I might share them with you. Below is a list of the top 10 that I have collected.

1. I’m hot in this field. (a student explaining why he should be hired)

2. I am here waiting for you. (a student ending a Cover Letter)

3. I have wishful thinking that we should study hard at Blue Sky University.

4. You don’t cheat old people. I stand corrected.

5. If you are not high. Your parents also not high. You are runs in the Family.

6. I déjà vu to you.

7. Bad friend wants to have what you have and he is horrible.

8. If you want to change yourself the chance is coming.

9. Is you broken my cup? Yes, I did it. I feel very sorry about it.

10. When I see Lily, I think she is a boy, but she is a girl. That I stand corrected.

Christmas Cards:

During one of the last weeks of school I taught my students about Christmas and traditions that we carry out every year when celebrating Christmas. So I decided to teach my students about making Christmas cards after seeing the amazing results of my friend Jodi with her class. I didn't have much in the way of making Christmas cards, but I was well supplied with index cards and color markers so I thought I would take a shot at it. Making Christmas cards might have been the highlight of my teaching career thus far (I am not sure if that is a good thing though).

I showed my students how to fold the index cards (3x5 cards) in half so that the lines were inside and encouraged them to decorate the outsides of the cards with whatever they wanted. I told them that it would probably be a good idea to say something like "Merry Christmas", "Happy Holidays", and "Best Wishes" and reinforced that idea by writing those common sayings we greet each other with during the holiday season on the chalkboard. I also told them that I had friends back in America that might see these cards and that they should try and write message and/or questions to them. Apparently my instructions were lost in the excitement and out of some 200+ Christmas cards only 25 questions were written. Furthermore, once my students saw colored markers all was lost and near chaos broke-out.

I realized later that most of a Chinese student's education in his/her early years is as intensive as what we might do during college and that most students had never had the opportunity, let alone time to color. As Americans, many of us would just think drawing and coloring are a natural part of growing up, but as a quickly figured in my classroom it isn't. At any rate, here are some of students cards.

(by Jill)





(by Amy & Joana)

A Delinquent Blogger's Update + Thanksgiving

So it has been quite awhile since I updated my blog and I am so glad that time has been afforded me to sit down and write to all of you about everything that has been happening over here for the last month. I have to admit that it was a very busy month and that almost all moments of relaxation we spent doing mindless tasks and/or staring off into space. Nonetheless, I am going to slowly but surely begin catching all of you back up. I am hoping that it might take a few blogs that way all of you who kept on checking and finding nothing new will actually be excited to find something new once again :) .

Thanksgiving

Well, shortly after I posted my last entry about coffee we quickly headed into the great season of Thanksgiving. Everything was hectic, but our team - especially our girls - managed to make an amazing dinner with what seemed like very little time to do everything since we were all still putting together lessons and grading mid-terms. We invited as many of our fellow Chinese colleagues over as possible and had a great time eating together. It was one of the few times that the cultural challenges actually were swapped from us to the Chinese as they tried to figure out how to use a fork and knife. They were slightly confused on where exactly to begin since we set it up buffet style and encouraged them to go first since they were our guests. However, once they started eating they moved about with greater ease, but it was still funny watching each newcomer try to figure out how to eat. In fact, our friend Stephen at mashed potatoes and gravy with chopsticks (to your left).

Our Filipino and Japanese friends came over too, which was fun since they drink coffee with Shannon and I at work. Here is a picture of them too. Takao and Tomoka always love to drink the coffee that I make in the office and it brings me joy to do so for them. Takao is an older gentlemen who often talks to me in broken Chinese and English. Ern and Christina are a married couple from the Philippians and teach both at the new and old campus. Ern has taken us out to eat a couple times and is rather hilarious, although he sometimes has some questionable humor and then I have to remind him that I am a minor.

(Left to Right: Christina, Ern, Me, Takao, Jodi, Tomoka, and Laura)

( Left to right: Billy, Mr. Lee, and Amy).
Our friends from the Foreign Affairs also came over and it is also kind of funny when they come since it is an odd bunch to be honest. Billy is kind of like our Boss and has a very interesting if not questionable sense of humor and just does things that you wouldn't necessarily expect. Mr. Lee is our driver and pretty much awesome, although he doesn't really speak any English. However, there is some great suspicion that he might know more than he is letting on to (lol). And lastly, there is Amy who is a recent graduate of Blue Sky University herself and sligtly younger than me.
They all make sure that our lives here run smoothly as possilbe, but it is funny to think that they all sit together in the office during the day working together.

I figure I would leave off this blog with a group picture that we took together with all the Chinese teachers for you.

Coffee: French Press Style

So I decided that I would dedicate this post to coffee as it is something that is dear to my heart as well as something that I crave nearly every day of the week. It is also something that just allows you to ease into the morning and your lesson plans for the day. However, as it is a precious commodity here in China it must be used sparingly. Thus, my teammate Shannon and I have it about twice a week (Monday and Wednesday).

If you look at the picture to the right you will see our French press and the little pastries we have found to accompany them when we go to work. I must admit that finding pastries to go with your coffee is not entirely something that is easily done in China. Thankfully, we have found two good little snacks to pair with our coffee: Muffins and Chocolate Egg Rolls. I would say that we tend to buy the muffins more often as they are a little healthier and filling, especially when drinking coffee on an empty stomach.

I actually sent my French press and 3 lbs of coffee from Starbucks before I left for training back in August so that it would be in Nanchang by the time I arrived mid-September. I had thought for sure that I a few individuals on my team would like to drink coffee for sure, but I was mistaken. Upon arriving at training I was quick to realize that only two people - including myself - liked coffee. Moreover, of the two people that liked coffee both of them had worked at Starbucks. At first I was kind of shocked, but then I was like well that just means more coffee for Shannon and I.

I keep a stash of all the little goods that are needed for coffee mornings at work. However, I only bring our coffee supplies in on Monday and take them home on Thursday or Friday. It actually requires forethought and preparation to bring all this in as I have forgotten and slightly felt the wrath of Shannon :)
What you are looking at is actually the lower left-hand side of my desk. In it - as you can see - is a box of Nescafe (used only in emergencies), half a pound of Sumatra from Starbucks, a water boiler, a grinder, and the top to our French press. What you do not see that is usually in here is: the rest of our French press, cups, muffins, and whatever chocolate we have at the time. What does it bring: Joy to me every week!

To be sincere though, I would actually say one of the coolest things about having coffee at our office is our ability to share it with our fellow Japanese teachers from time to time as well as get to know them better. Besides having Shannon to drink coffee with, I would say that building relationships with our Japanese friends has been a really blessing.

Today, I told them that I would make them some coffee as Tecao (I am sure I spelling this absurdly wrong)is always hinting at Starbucks and having a real cup of coffee. However, I didn't get back as soon as I thought I would from lunch and only got back to catch them leaving for class. So I asked Temocha (this too...) and Tecao what rooms they were teaching in and begin making a French press as quickly as I could. I don't really think they thought I would make and bring them coffee, but in 10 minutes or so I had steaming hot coffee ready and I set about getting coffee to take it to everybody. I took coffee to Shannon first - she wasn't surprised - and then went and delievered coffee to Tecao and Temocha who were both surprised that I brought them coffee. Tecao was so happy he grabbed me and introduced me to his class, all the while wearing that great smile of his.

I have invited him up for coffee this weekend and I am looking forward to hearing more about Japan and anything else.

Well, to end this post I thought I would finish it with a picture of my friend Shannon telling me that I needed to be quiet and get back to work. Too much coffee aparently keeps me jabbering a little more than is pc appropriate - what can say? Shannon is trying to teach me time management, but it is a little slow catching. Then again, it was never really something that I could say that I specialized in, let alone had. In the end, I don't think that coffee and time management go together....or something like that....yeah.