So as I've been here for about a week now, I have been adjusting to the Chinese life and culture, and I still seem to find hidden treasures every day. Here are some that I found to be quite great and note worthy, enjoy.
1. Babies don't wear diapers, where the poop and pee goes is still a mystery to me. A man was carrying his baby in our stairwell last night and when they started climbing the stairs after passing me, I noticed the baby's bum was bare. There is just a little flap on all of their clothes that the parents lift up when their child needs to do their business, how they know it is that time, another mystery.
2. I fall asleep and wake up every morning to the beautiful and serene sound of loogy haucking. I get to enjoy the whole process as well: the flemy cough, the deep build up in the throat, and finally the climactic sound of it finally exiting one's mouth. Dreamy, right?
3. Toilet paper is not a must have in a restroom. In fact, I have yet to find a bathroom with toilet paper in it. I had to go and buy a bunch of miniature tissue packets to stick in my purse to have on hand when I'm in public and need the restroom.
4. We got jackets from the company that sponsors our program today, and sizes are quite different. Our native coordinator ordered a large for me, and I ended up fitting into a boy's in our group, which was a double XL, talk about a drop in self esteem. Americans are big, end of story. Also, these dreamy jackets are bright orange, so we not only stand out for our looks and obnoxiousness, we are now loud and obnoxious people in matching neon jackets.
5. My hair here grows horizontally, not vertically. It is so stinkin' humid here, and no matter what I do to it, put in it, etc., it always turns into a fro within the first hour I'm outside. Jenna actually compared my hair to Hermione Granger from Harry Potter the other day, if that helps give a better visual.
6. Almost every moving vehicle you see here is either a bus or a scooter. Everyone drives scooters. They also drive them into convenience stores, yes, we witnessed it. Also, they should win an award for most people fit on a scooter. On our ride into the city, we saw a family of five cruisin' through town on one scooter, it's not an uncommon thing here.
7. The Chinese believe that if someone you are speaking to would not approve of or like the truth you're speaking, that it is ok to tell them a "white lie" in order to better the outcome and keep the peace. It's actually called "Saving Face" and we have had many encounters with this, actually. Kind of hilarious.
8. Cars DO NOT stop for you if you're crossing the street, there is no yielding to pedestrians, pedestrians have the right of way thing here. Fortunately, I always look both ways, but two other girls in our group nearly got taken out the first night we were here. Yikes.
9. Every time we see a quote that has been translated into English, by either a Chinese person or maybe an online translator, the words are all correct, but the semantics are off. One we see everyday in our supply room says, "Used to change the fate of the details of life cast". Another favorite is, "Cooperate to explore the universe widely learn persistently work".
10. You can find cool hidden surprises in your food served in the cafeteria sometimes: chunks of bone, slabs of fat, fish bones still in the fish, etc. However, I think that the winner of all the surprises was the duck bill that another teacher in our group found today. He found nostrils, teeth, and all that tasty goodness wrapped up inside.
Hope that you enjoyed that :)
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Day 6: I Hold a Special Place in my Heart for the Naughty Ones
Teaching today was seriously like 100 times better than it was yesterday, not that yesterday was bad, it was just really new and overwhelming. Today, we had a much better sense of what was going on, who to look out for, how to keep the kids' attention, etc. It really gave me hope that I can improve my teaching skills because already by the second day, I have improved significantly.
Today in class, I started with the younger of the two kindy groups and began my teaching games. I had a really fun lesson plan for the day, so it was easy to keep the kids' attention. However, as we did our rotations, Jenna said that one of her students hit her on her face, so he sat in the Chinese Chair for the rest of the lesson. It's kind of funny that at the first mention of the Chinese Chair, all the kids straighten up and resume proper behavior for class. I listened to her comment but mostly just went on with my teaching and rotated the other teacher, Tyler. He had gotten Jenna's previous group and he had similar experiences with the one little boy, Marcus, who was being really naughty to Jenna. Apparently, he had ripped up Tyler's teaching props and wouldn't stop speaking in Chinese, which is one of the main rules the kids are to follow in class. Naturally, when it was my turn to teach this little one, I was kind of scared for what was to come.
As I was teaching my lesson, Marcus kept getting closer and closer to me and really just had a mean look in his eyes. I could just tell he wasn't enjoying the lesson and he wanted to be in control. So, I re-vamped the lesson and made it more fun for him. However, since he had been in the Chinese chair for the past two lessons, he had a pretty bad attitude for everything that was now coming at him. He got upset with me because I didn't give him the right ball to throw into the basket, and he walked to the Chinese Chair and began crying. As the rest of the kids broke off for a milk break, little Marcus just sat there with big tears in his eyes and his body sulked into the chair. The sight of such a sad little boy seriously tore my heart apart. I picked him up and sat him on my lap, and he just leaned his head against my chest. I held him for a few minutes, he calmed down, and then asked for me to stand up with him. I just held this sweet little four year old boy in my arms and he leaned on my shoulder, still kind of whimpering. I couldn't believe this boy was a "naughty" one, I just loved him. I think he may have just needed a little positive attention and loving.
As I walked Marcus into the other classroom to get his milk with the other students, the Chinese teacher saw me holding him and kind of laughed. I got the sense that in their culture, it isn't normal for teachers or people, who are not their parents, to caudal the kids when they are sad or hurt. They are very by the book and if one is crying, they ramble something quickly in Chinese and the kids perk up instantly. Our cultures are very different, but I am glad to be learning more about theirs, it's incredibly interesting.
Today, Jenna, Lexi, Chloe, (other teachers) and I took a trip to the supermarket and bought probably ten different flavors of these little treats called pocky sticks. They are these long skinny sesame cookies dipped in a flavor of yogurt, and are actually quite tasty. We decided we wanted to get every kind and try the flavors and host a "pocky party". Some of the flavors included blueberry cheesecake, strawberry, chocolate, key lime pie, cheese flan (which really just tasted like cheese), chocolate fudge with vanilla ice cream, carmel, shrimp, garden salad, mango, etc. Some were rather delicious, some, I could have done without. Jenna kept saying, "try this one" and all I could think to myself was, "hmm, betta not". The majority of our group joined in on the festivities and we hosted quite the pocky party in our room. I must say, it was a good day.
Pictures:
#1: Since I reference toilets a lot, I thought this toilet picture would be rather appropriate. These are the toilets our kindergarteners use, they are so cute and tiny. Why is it that if something is made smaller than the original that it is cute? Weird, but so true.
#2: Lunch is served, CHICKEN FEET!
#3: It's no myth, the Chinese eat these, and love them. I tried it, and couldn't handle it. Take notice that the fingernails are still on there. We were instructed to spit them out as we ate it :/
#4: The sun, visible in China. Beautiful, and amazing that it was there.
#5: Our scrumptious pocky sticks.
Today in class, I started with the younger of the two kindy groups and began my teaching games. I had a really fun lesson plan for the day, so it was easy to keep the kids' attention. However, as we did our rotations, Jenna said that one of her students hit her on her face, so he sat in the Chinese Chair for the rest of the lesson. It's kind of funny that at the first mention of the Chinese Chair, all the kids straighten up and resume proper behavior for class. I listened to her comment but mostly just went on with my teaching and rotated the other teacher, Tyler. He had gotten Jenna's previous group and he had similar experiences with the one little boy, Marcus, who was being really naughty to Jenna. Apparently, he had ripped up Tyler's teaching props and wouldn't stop speaking in Chinese, which is one of the main rules the kids are to follow in class. Naturally, when it was my turn to teach this little one, I was kind of scared for what was to come.
As I was teaching my lesson, Marcus kept getting closer and closer to me and really just had a mean look in his eyes. I could just tell he wasn't enjoying the lesson and he wanted to be in control. So, I re-vamped the lesson and made it more fun for him. However, since he had been in the Chinese chair for the past two lessons, he had a pretty bad attitude for everything that was now coming at him. He got upset with me because I didn't give him the right ball to throw into the basket, and he walked to the Chinese Chair and began crying. As the rest of the kids broke off for a milk break, little Marcus just sat there with big tears in his eyes and his body sulked into the chair. The sight of such a sad little boy seriously tore my heart apart. I picked him up and sat him on my lap, and he just leaned his head against my chest. I held him for a few minutes, he calmed down, and then asked for me to stand up with him. I just held this sweet little four year old boy in my arms and he leaned on my shoulder, still kind of whimpering. I couldn't believe this boy was a "naughty" one, I just loved him. I think he may have just needed a little positive attention and loving.
As I walked Marcus into the other classroom to get his milk with the other students, the Chinese teacher saw me holding him and kind of laughed. I got the sense that in their culture, it isn't normal for teachers or people, who are not their parents, to caudal the kids when they are sad or hurt. They are very by the book and if one is crying, they ramble something quickly in Chinese and the kids perk up instantly. Our cultures are very different, but I am glad to be learning more about theirs, it's incredibly interesting.
Today, Jenna, Lexi, Chloe, (other teachers) and I took a trip to the supermarket and bought probably ten different flavors of these little treats called pocky sticks. They are these long skinny sesame cookies dipped in a flavor of yogurt, and are actually quite tasty. We decided we wanted to get every kind and try the flavors and host a "pocky party". Some of the flavors included blueberry cheesecake, strawberry, chocolate, key lime pie, cheese flan (which really just tasted like cheese), chocolate fudge with vanilla ice cream, carmel, shrimp, garden salad, mango, etc. Some were rather delicious, some, I could have done without. Jenna kept saying, "try this one" and all I could think to myself was, "hmm, betta not". The majority of our group joined in on the festivities and we hosted quite the pocky party in our room. I must say, it was a good day.
Pictures:
#1: Since I reference toilets a lot, I thought this toilet picture would be rather appropriate. These are the toilets our kindergarteners use, they are so cute and tiny. Why is it that if something is made smaller than the original that it is cute? Weird, but so true.
#2: Lunch is served, CHICKEN FEET!
#3: It's no myth, the Chinese eat these, and love them. I tried it, and couldn't handle it. Take notice that the fingernails are still on there. We were instructed to spit them out as we ate it :/
#4: The sun, visible in China. Beautiful, and amazing that it was there.
#5: Our scrumptious pocky sticks.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Day 4&5: The School is Alive
I didn't have a chance to document Monday's experiences because it's been so crazy busy. We spent nearly the entire day training and making lesson plans for the week. Our head teacher, Amanda, also said that our lesson plans were due for the next week every Thursday prior to that week, so we had four due yesterday and have another five due Thursday. Needless to say, we've had our hands full.
At first, I didn't think making a lesson plan would be that difficult of a task. However, there is so much that goes into each lesson, and I found myself struggling in hitting every aspect for each lesson. We have a different targeted concept that each lesson needs to hit: we need to title it, have it match the assignment we have been given (I've been given games for the next four weeks) and have 8-12 objects incorporated, along with 16-20 different tasks, that you do, not say. When this was all getting explained to me, I was about as lost as I was trying to find my way through the city the other day. As we worked as a group, however, we seemed to grasp the idea of how to make a proficient lesson plan as the time (and by time, I mean hours) went by.
Our native coordinator Marine is in charge of the kindergarten, or "kindy" as they call it, and she gave us a tour of the classrooms Monday before we taught. I can't even begin to describe how cute this school is. It's almost entirely outdoor, but at the same time not. It kind of reminds me of the set up of the Gateway mall in Utah, if that helps better describe it. As soon as you walk in, there is this giant play center with that rubbery like surface, almost like a track, with teeter totters and other things in it. Then, right next to the play center, there are a set of spiral stairs that take you up to the third floor where we teach.
We found out on Monday that this is basically a week long school where the kids stay overnight and go home on the weekends. I had no idea until I walked into the classroom and attached to the class was a room full of beds. They were all so uniform and tiny, I just loved them. Also, their bathrooms were so organized and each of the kids has their own cup and toothbrush with their name on it. Kind of precious I thought. Everything else in the classroom was so well organized and just perfect. It almost looked like a little doll house magnified, a tiny bit.
After seeing our classrooms, there was an overwhelming sense of excitement and anticipation to finally meet our kiddos. Marine gave us the student profiles that included a picture of the student, as well as a description of each student that the last head teacher had left behind. The way teaching and divvying up students works is that there are 6 ILP teachers in the kindy class and there are six different areas that we teach: shop, arts and crafts, drama, gym, games, and kitchen. We each have one of these teaching areas for the first four weeks, to get the hang of the teaching method and to get used to how things work, which is pretty nice I think.
Within those groups, each of us have a "home group". This group is the group that we will be spending the most time with and we are in charge of keeping track of their tokens they earn in class, writing notes in their student profiles, etc. Naturally after receiving my home group student profiles, I wanted to take a look and see what I was in for. The kids were all so cute and most of the reports were so positive, until I got to Samson. His read, "He was an absolute nightmare in class..." and "he is the leader of the black market token trading, he always has more than the other students and he is sneaky!". I got kind of concerned about this little one. However, I did get really lucky to have one little guy named Alex. He is only five years old, but I swear he is nearly fluent. He can spout off English words with no hesitation and is just so smart. He really helped me out in my lesson today and really helped clarify the other kids' names for me. Star student potential right here.
I'm not going to lie and say that today was easy, it was actually pretty overwhelming and stressful rotating through 50 different kids and trying to learn their names, especially when kids like "Jeremy" would insist his name was "Jelemy" or "Marcus" was "Amalichius". It was tricky, but thank goodness for those student profiles. I've got my work cut out in just memorizing those names for both class and the scheduled parent's meeting, this Thursday, yikes.
When I was teaching, I would often ask for help from the kids, because it naturally draws more language out of them. Whenever one of them would want to help, I instantly got the same response from almost every kid, "teacha teacha, I been good, teacha teacha I wan try". I couldn't help but laugh, these kids were well trained! They would fold their arms and raise their hand, but not like we raise ours. They raise their hand by raising their right hand and putting their right elbow perpendicular to their left hand, it looks so official. They are just so stinking cute, their funny little mannerisms just crack me up. Also, when I was done teaching and was leaving the kids' tables, they would say in unison, "Goodbye teacha Kasey (or Krasey, or kayyyyssssseeeeeyyyy or kay kay or kiki, there was quite a variety of names I was called today). I absolutely loved it.
By the end of the six lessons I had taught, I was beat. It's a lot of work keeping five and six year olds engaged and continuing to initiate opportunities for them to continue speaking english for each lesson. However, I really like what I'm doing and can't wait to improve so my teaching techniques will be more organized and be more language based. I struggled with that today, because all I wanted to do was play with these cute kids like I have been doing these past three months I've been at home through my many nannying jobs.
We have a little bit of downtime right now before we go to dinner and continue our training. We are pricing all of our "store" items this evening so the kids can begin receiving tokens and saving them to get prizes, a little motivation always helps with the cause! It's been so good so far and I can't wait to see the crazy little ones tomorrow.
Pictures:
#1: My freakin ankle, I am so dumb. It's getting better though.
#2: A cool fruit Jenna and I tried. Still have no idea what it is, but it was derishious.
#3A: Our kiddos little beds. So cute right?
#3B (since 4 is bad luck): Some of my home group -- from left to right: Alex, Jason, Coco, and Karen. Such fashionable little ones they are.
#5: Lexi, Chloe, myself, and Jenna in our teaching aprons, we keep the kids tokens in these babies.
At first, I didn't think making a lesson plan would be that difficult of a task. However, there is so much that goes into each lesson, and I found myself struggling in hitting every aspect for each lesson. We have a different targeted concept that each lesson needs to hit: we need to title it, have it match the assignment we have been given (I've been given games for the next four weeks) and have 8-12 objects incorporated, along with 16-20 different tasks, that you do, not say. When this was all getting explained to me, I was about as lost as I was trying to find my way through the city the other day. As we worked as a group, however, we seemed to grasp the idea of how to make a proficient lesson plan as the time (and by time, I mean hours) went by.
Our native coordinator Marine is in charge of the kindergarten, or "kindy" as they call it, and she gave us a tour of the classrooms Monday before we taught. I can't even begin to describe how cute this school is. It's almost entirely outdoor, but at the same time not. It kind of reminds me of the set up of the Gateway mall in Utah, if that helps better describe it. As soon as you walk in, there is this giant play center with that rubbery like surface, almost like a track, with teeter totters and other things in it. Then, right next to the play center, there are a set of spiral stairs that take you up to the third floor where we teach.
We found out on Monday that this is basically a week long school where the kids stay overnight and go home on the weekends. I had no idea until I walked into the classroom and attached to the class was a room full of beds. They were all so uniform and tiny, I just loved them. Also, their bathrooms were so organized and each of the kids has their own cup and toothbrush with their name on it. Kind of precious I thought. Everything else in the classroom was so well organized and just perfect. It almost looked like a little doll house magnified, a tiny bit.
After seeing our classrooms, there was an overwhelming sense of excitement and anticipation to finally meet our kiddos. Marine gave us the student profiles that included a picture of the student, as well as a description of each student that the last head teacher had left behind. The way teaching and divvying up students works is that there are 6 ILP teachers in the kindy class and there are six different areas that we teach: shop, arts and crafts, drama, gym, games, and kitchen. We each have one of these teaching areas for the first four weeks, to get the hang of the teaching method and to get used to how things work, which is pretty nice I think.
Within those groups, each of us have a "home group". This group is the group that we will be spending the most time with and we are in charge of keeping track of their tokens they earn in class, writing notes in their student profiles, etc. Naturally after receiving my home group student profiles, I wanted to take a look and see what I was in for. The kids were all so cute and most of the reports were so positive, until I got to Samson. His read, "He was an absolute nightmare in class..." and "he is the leader of the black market token trading, he always has more than the other students and he is sneaky!". I got kind of concerned about this little one. However, I did get really lucky to have one little guy named Alex. He is only five years old, but I swear he is nearly fluent. He can spout off English words with no hesitation and is just so smart. He really helped me out in my lesson today and really helped clarify the other kids' names for me. Star student potential right here.
I'm not going to lie and say that today was easy, it was actually pretty overwhelming and stressful rotating through 50 different kids and trying to learn their names, especially when kids like "Jeremy" would insist his name was "Jelemy" or "Marcus" was "Amalichius". It was tricky, but thank goodness for those student profiles. I've got my work cut out in just memorizing those names for both class and the scheduled parent's meeting, this Thursday, yikes.
When I was teaching, I would often ask for help from the kids, because it naturally draws more language out of them. Whenever one of them would want to help, I instantly got the same response from almost every kid, "teacha teacha, I been good, teacha teacha I wan try". I couldn't help but laugh, these kids were well trained! They would fold their arms and raise their hand, but not like we raise ours. They raise their hand by raising their right hand and putting their right elbow perpendicular to their left hand, it looks so official. They are just so stinking cute, their funny little mannerisms just crack me up. Also, when I was done teaching and was leaving the kids' tables, they would say in unison, "Goodbye teacha Kasey (or Krasey, or kayyyyssssseeeeeyyyy or kay kay or kiki, there was quite a variety of names I was called today). I absolutely loved it.
By the end of the six lessons I had taught, I was beat. It's a lot of work keeping five and six year olds engaged and continuing to initiate opportunities for them to continue speaking english for each lesson. However, I really like what I'm doing and can't wait to improve so my teaching techniques will be more organized and be more language based. I struggled with that today, because all I wanted to do was play with these cute kids like I have been doing these past three months I've been at home through my many nannying jobs.
We have a little bit of downtime right now before we go to dinner and continue our training. We are pricing all of our "store" items this evening so the kids can begin receiving tokens and saving them to get prizes, a little motivation always helps with the cause! It's been so good so far and I can't wait to see the crazy little ones tomorrow.
Pictures:
#1: My freakin ankle, I am so dumb. It's getting better though.
#2: A cool fruit Jenna and I tried. Still have no idea what it is, but it was derishious.
#3A: Our kiddos little beds. So cute right?
#3B (since 4 is bad luck): Some of my home group -- from left to right: Alex, Jason, Coco, and Karen. Such fashionable little ones they are.
#5: Lexi, Chloe, myself, and Jenna in our teaching aprons, we keep the kids tokens in these babies.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Day 3: We Have Arrived!
We're here, we're here! When we got off the plane and walked through the airport, I can't even begin to describe how excited we were. Everyone was reiterating that we were in China and would say really ordinary things like, "I'm going to use the bathroom" or "I am waiting for my bags" but would add "in China" after everything, and it sounded just that much more authentic and exciting. Also, when we said "we're going to use the bathrooms, IN CHINA," we had no idea what we were in for. Even in the airport, which is the most Americanized I feel like, there were squatters. No seat to sit on, no handle for you to flush with, etc. There was just a porcelain toilet looking seat sunken into the floor. Jenna and I walked in, noticed the squatters, and walked out. We weren't quite ready to jump that far into the culture yet.
We drove about an hour and a half from the airport to our school and dropped the three other groups at their schools. It was suprising to me how large the city was, there are four different schools here and all but Kaiyin and Sirqui are a pretty good distance away. When we finally pulled up to our school, we were amazed. I pictured kind of a smaller school, probably not the best of quality, etc. Boy was I surprised. Our school is huge, and beautiful. There is a gate with Chinese dragons on it and guards standing outside of it that allow people to enter the school. There is a separate building for Kindergarten and Elementary school, they have a massive cafeteria where we will eat with the kids, a little area with these sculptures of different things like a globe, a caterpillar, a bunny, etc. Also, probably my favorite feature about the school is the "jungle gym" workout place.
As we passed the track and the swimming pool on the side of the school, we noticed these bright yellow and blue machines by the side wall of the school. Naturally, our group went to take a look and see what they were. We discovered these little stationary bikes, a good representation of a non-electronic eleptical machine, a metal version of an ab lounger, etc. It was inncredible! I recognized most of these little machines, but some were so new and neat. We tried all of them and decided we would have little gym workout sessions as a group on our kids' playground to stay fit while in China.
Our apartments are right across from the school, literally. Such a wonderful convenience that only our school has recieved, we are incredibly lucky. This building is unique because it houses only teachers that teach at the Kaiyin school, kind of neat I thought. Also, we are on the fourth floor, but because the Chinese are superstitous of the number four, we are on the floor, "3B", "3A" is directly below us and the fifth floor is right above, kind of a funny little cultural fact.
Jenna and I share a room, there are two people per room, and its quite nice actually. We have our own little mini kitchen, our own full sized beds, a balcony that renders a beautiful view, a spare bed (that we use to hold all of our luggage, we have yet to unpack it all), a bathroom, and a TOILET! Jenna and I were pretty excited that we wouldn't be squatting for the next four months.
After we all got settled in our apartments, we got to go to lunch in the cafeteria and meet our native coordinators: Gloria and Marine. They are the cutest things. They were wearing fuzzy collared shirts, tight skinny jeans, and really large studded platform shoes. Fashion in China tends to be really outrageous, I've noticed, I love it. I'm sure it will become normal to me eventually and maybe I'll conform to their ways of fashion. Since we were all at a loss for communicating, with pretty much everyone, Gloria and Marine taught us some simple things to say, like, "I'm sorry", and "thank you", and "hello". We all felt really great that we could say these, so we typically over use them and try to use them in any situation as much as possible. When we start teaching (which is on Tuesday!), we will have the opportunity to sign up for Mandarin classes, along with karate classes, painting classes, etc. We are really treated well here.
We all got our Teching assignments for the semester today, and I will be teaching the Kindergarteners, ages 4-6! I am so thrilled. There are two ages that we could teach, the other being 7-9, and I am just so excited to be working with little little ones. I have always worked with younger kids back home, like in swimming lessons, in volunteering in preschools, etc., so I hope and think this wlll best suit me for the time I'm here. Also, I have a wonderful teaching schedule, I work from like nine in the morning to noon, and the afternoon is ours for the taking. That is the time where we can take our classes and also participate in ELE, I don't excatly remember what this stands for, but I know it's when we go into other Chinese classes where the kids are not signed up for the ILP program , and we teach them english for forty five minutes alongside another Chinese english teacher.
After we finished our meeting, we were told that we were going to go to the supermarket to get some of our basic needs and whatever treats we wanted. I forgot my purse at the apartment, along with Jenna and a boy named Cameron Garlick, so they told us to run back really fast to get them. We had to catch a bus to go there and it was due soon for arrival, so we needed to book it. Anyways, I thought it would be a good idea to skip down the stairs, as I do basically anywhere I go, and after the third flight, I ate it down the porcelain steps. It was quite embarassing and pretty painful, but funny at the same time. I rolled my ankle pretty nicely and wanted to laugh/cry. I tried hobbling back up to continue running, but definitely didn't happen. I stayed there and waited for the rest of the group while Cameron and Jenna ran back to get their wallets. My ankle has swollen up a bit around my shoe, but let's just cross our fingers that my lack of common sense won't try and put a damper on this trip for me!
We got to the supermarket and I have never seen such a bright building. Just as you entered, there were signs of just about every color, and were located in just about every place you could possibly put them. Everyone in the group wandered around and gathered what they would need for the next four months (laundry detergent, toilet paper, etc.) and we all sat in the aisles trying to mathematically convert yuan into American dollars. It was so difficult to try and figure what everything converted into, every little item we chose we were doing math equations in our heads to try and compare prices as to what you would pay in America. Eventually, we hope to just get a hang of this and not make it such an ordeal to buy some toilet paper. Also, when I went to checkout, I paid 81 yuan, which equals out to be 13 American dollars. I had so many things too, purchasing these things in the states would probably be arounf fifty dollars, so I think I can get used to this.
We decided to skip eating dinner at the cafeteria and go out on the town for dinner as a group. We really wanted to try the whole, "point at a picture and order it" idea that previous ILP people had talked about. I sat at a table with our head teacher Amanda (such an amazing girl by the way), her husband Preston, and another teacher named Courtney. Courtney and I are pretty similar I think; I really got placed in such an amazing group that is drama free and up to do anything. We decided to share three dishes: two orders of dumplings and some kind of soup with dumpling looking things in it. Still after eating these dishes, I can't even tell you what was in them. All I can say was that they were both incredible! Whoever was telling me that real Chinese food was terrible was quite wrong. I haven't had a lot of it, but so far I was liking what I was tasting.
With the dumplings, we got a side of this brown looking sauce that we weren't quite sure what it was. I dipped my dumpling in it and it was PEANUT BUTTER! It was amazing with the dumplings, I have no idea why but it was so tasty. When we went to pay for all of these, the total came out to be just a little over a dollar, for three dishes! Everything here is so cheap, it seriously blows my mind! I could seriously get used to this, I might have a hard time coming back to America and paying like eight dollars for a generic sandwich.
After dinner, we explored the city a little bit and got to visit a few little shops they have along the streets. They have pet shops (with a lot of brown poofy dogs, they're everywhere here, they must the rest), cute little pastry shops, dry cleaning places, a piano lesson shop, karate training facilities, etc. Everything is so easily accesible and so close to our apartments, it's incredible.
Our city, school, apartment, native coordinators, etc. are all phenominal. It is so surreal being here and actually living my life in China. We have more training tomorrow before we begin teaching, but I can't wait to learn more about what we will be doing. I love it here already, I can't get enough of it.
Pictures:
#1: At the airport with our massive bags
#2: Our humble abode for the next four months
#3: Their version of a washer, no dryer folks. Yay for old fashioned close lines!
#4: This, is our school. Amazing, right?
#5: Bean bread. Jenna and I thought they were raisins, but no, they're like sweet sugary beans. It's easily the best bread I've ever had (sorry Mom). It's so addictive, who would've known.
#6: Me in front of our school!
#7: The jungle "gym" that I explained, this might help give you a better idea of what I'm talking about.
#8: They have oreos, in so many flavors. We all have been missing out for so long, and we didn't even know it.
We drove about an hour and a half from the airport to our school and dropped the three other groups at their schools. It was suprising to me how large the city was, there are four different schools here and all but Kaiyin and Sirqui are a pretty good distance away. When we finally pulled up to our school, we were amazed. I pictured kind of a smaller school, probably not the best of quality, etc. Boy was I surprised. Our school is huge, and beautiful. There is a gate with Chinese dragons on it and guards standing outside of it that allow people to enter the school. There is a separate building for Kindergarten and Elementary school, they have a massive cafeteria where we will eat with the kids, a little area with these sculptures of different things like a globe, a caterpillar, a bunny, etc. Also, probably my favorite feature about the school is the "jungle gym" workout place.
As we passed the track and the swimming pool on the side of the school, we noticed these bright yellow and blue machines by the side wall of the school. Naturally, our group went to take a look and see what they were. We discovered these little stationary bikes, a good representation of a non-electronic eleptical machine, a metal version of an ab lounger, etc. It was inncredible! I recognized most of these little machines, but some were so new and neat. We tried all of them and decided we would have little gym workout sessions as a group on our kids' playground to stay fit while in China.
Our apartments are right across from the school, literally. Such a wonderful convenience that only our school has recieved, we are incredibly lucky. This building is unique because it houses only teachers that teach at the Kaiyin school, kind of neat I thought. Also, we are on the fourth floor, but because the Chinese are superstitous of the number four, we are on the floor, "3B", "3A" is directly below us and the fifth floor is right above, kind of a funny little cultural fact.
Jenna and I share a room, there are two people per room, and its quite nice actually. We have our own little mini kitchen, our own full sized beds, a balcony that renders a beautiful view, a spare bed (that we use to hold all of our luggage, we have yet to unpack it all), a bathroom, and a TOILET! Jenna and I were pretty excited that we wouldn't be squatting for the next four months.
After we all got settled in our apartments, we got to go to lunch in the cafeteria and meet our native coordinators: Gloria and Marine. They are the cutest things. They were wearing fuzzy collared shirts, tight skinny jeans, and really large studded platform shoes. Fashion in China tends to be really outrageous, I've noticed, I love it. I'm sure it will become normal to me eventually and maybe I'll conform to their ways of fashion. Since we were all at a loss for communicating, with pretty much everyone, Gloria and Marine taught us some simple things to say, like, "I'm sorry", and "thank you", and "hello". We all felt really great that we could say these, so we typically over use them and try to use them in any situation as much as possible. When we start teaching (which is on Tuesday!), we will have the opportunity to sign up for Mandarin classes, along with karate classes, painting classes, etc. We are really treated well here.
We all got our Teching assignments for the semester today, and I will be teaching the Kindergarteners, ages 4-6! I am so thrilled. There are two ages that we could teach, the other being 7-9, and I am just so excited to be working with little little ones. I have always worked with younger kids back home, like in swimming lessons, in volunteering in preschools, etc., so I hope and think this wlll best suit me for the time I'm here. Also, I have a wonderful teaching schedule, I work from like nine in the morning to noon, and the afternoon is ours for the taking. That is the time where we can take our classes and also participate in ELE, I don't excatly remember what this stands for, but I know it's when we go into other Chinese classes where the kids are not signed up for the ILP program , and we teach them english for forty five minutes alongside another Chinese english teacher.
After we finished our meeting, we were told that we were going to go to the supermarket to get some of our basic needs and whatever treats we wanted. I forgot my purse at the apartment, along with Jenna and a boy named Cameron Garlick, so they told us to run back really fast to get them. We had to catch a bus to go there and it was due soon for arrival, so we needed to book it. Anyways, I thought it would be a good idea to skip down the stairs, as I do basically anywhere I go, and after the third flight, I ate it down the porcelain steps. It was quite embarassing and pretty painful, but funny at the same time. I rolled my ankle pretty nicely and wanted to laugh/cry. I tried hobbling back up to continue running, but definitely didn't happen. I stayed there and waited for the rest of the group while Cameron and Jenna ran back to get their wallets. My ankle has swollen up a bit around my shoe, but let's just cross our fingers that my lack of common sense won't try and put a damper on this trip for me!
We got to the supermarket and I have never seen such a bright building. Just as you entered, there were signs of just about every color, and were located in just about every place you could possibly put them. Everyone in the group wandered around and gathered what they would need for the next four months (laundry detergent, toilet paper, etc.) and we all sat in the aisles trying to mathematically convert yuan into American dollars. It was so difficult to try and figure what everything converted into, every little item we chose we were doing math equations in our heads to try and compare prices as to what you would pay in America. Eventually, we hope to just get a hang of this and not make it such an ordeal to buy some toilet paper. Also, when I went to checkout, I paid 81 yuan, which equals out to be 13 American dollars. I had so many things too, purchasing these things in the states would probably be arounf fifty dollars, so I think I can get used to this.
We decided to skip eating dinner at the cafeteria and go out on the town for dinner as a group. We really wanted to try the whole, "point at a picture and order it" idea that previous ILP people had talked about. I sat at a table with our head teacher Amanda (such an amazing girl by the way), her husband Preston, and another teacher named Courtney. Courtney and I are pretty similar I think; I really got placed in such an amazing group that is drama free and up to do anything. We decided to share three dishes: two orders of dumplings and some kind of soup with dumpling looking things in it. Still after eating these dishes, I can't even tell you what was in them. All I can say was that they were both incredible! Whoever was telling me that real Chinese food was terrible was quite wrong. I haven't had a lot of it, but so far I was liking what I was tasting.
With the dumplings, we got a side of this brown looking sauce that we weren't quite sure what it was. I dipped my dumpling in it and it was PEANUT BUTTER! It was amazing with the dumplings, I have no idea why but it was so tasty. When we went to pay for all of these, the total came out to be just a little over a dollar, for three dishes! Everything here is so cheap, it seriously blows my mind! I could seriously get used to this, I might have a hard time coming back to America and paying like eight dollars for a generic sandwich.
After dinner, we explored the city a little bit and got to visit a few little shops they have along the streets. They have pet shops (with a lot of brown poofy dogs, they're everywhere here, they must the rest), cute little pastry shops, dry cleaning places, a piano lesson shop, karate training facilities, etc. Everything is so easily accesible and so close to our apartments, it's incredible.
Our city, school, apartment, native coordinators, etc. are all phenominal. It is so surreal being here and actually living my life in China. We have more training tomorrow before we begin teaching, but I can't wait to learn more about what we will be doing. I love it here already, I can't get enough of it.
Pictures:
#1: At the airport with our massive bags
#2: Our humble abode for the next four months
#3: Their version of a washer, no dryer folks. Yay for old fashioned close lines!
#4: This, is our school. Amazing, right?
#5: Bean bread. Jenna and I thought they were raisins, but no, they're like sweet sugary beans. It's easily the best bread I've ever had (sorry Mom). It's so addictive, who would've known.
#6: Me in front of our school!
#7: The jungle "gym" that I explained, this might help give you a better idea of what I'm talking about.
#8: They have oreos, in so many flavors. We all have been missing out for so long, and we didn't even know it.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Day 2: Last Day of Travel
Let me just begin by expressing my love for the people of Korea. Seriously, they are the greatest: such wonderful flight attendants, so kind and patient (until you go through customs, they're a bit crankier over that way), so accepting that we Americans are pretty loud and obnoxious, typically more than willing to help us fix our (many) mistakes, etc. Needless to say, they're great.
We had a wonderful night in Seoul and got to see the city a bit, because our hotel was about a twenty five minute drive from the airport. It was dark outside when we drove there, so we mostly got to see the brightly illuminated buildings as we passed by. The architecture in Korea is so different than what I am used to seeing in the States; it's so modern looking and it has lights, everywhere. It was funny to drive past some of the businesses because some of the names were written in Korean, and the others, very broken English. I think I saw a place called, "Very Yummy Taco". I wanted to take a picture, but the shuttle man was on a serious mission to get to the hotel, he was hauling lots of luggage and a loud group of Americans.
When we got to the hotel, we got into pairs of two to get room assignments. Ms. Jenna Neeley and I got assigned to room 1107.I am only noting the room number because we got to be on the eleventh floor, of 20, in the hotel and the room had a phenomenal view of the night sky. The buildings were lit late into the night, and the massive windows opened up to a remarkable sight of the city. This was a dream in itself to stay in for the night.
Not only was the view incredible, a soft and cushy bed had never felt so good. My tailbone was seriously so sore from sitting on the plane for so long yesterday, and it was glorious to not sleep upright with your head cocked to the side. I think one of the coolest features in the room was probably the toilet, weird, I know. This thing was incredible! It had a full remote with instructions of the many different options to choose from (all in Korean, so we just pushed them all to see what each did). I found one that heated the toilet seat, no more sitting on a cold potty! Also, it was a buhday (unsure how to spell that one) where water shot up from the toilet and sprayed you off. I can admit, I was quite surprised by this and jumped off of the toilet as soon as the freezing water touched my skin, only for the spraying water to continue spraying into the air, making a huge mess all over the floor and toilet seat. After that, I was done toilet experimenting.
Jenna and I decided to begin listening to a chapter of D&C each night of our trip come bed time. Let me tell you, last night was incredibly successful. I think we were both completely out by about verse three. It was a long day, we tried. We will get better and more accustomed to the time zone eventually. (cross your fingers)
We woke up this morning bright and early, well I guess not very bright. It was dark still when we woke up; we have been really thrown off by this whole light when late, dark when early, time switch thing, it has been taunting us all day. We did in fact get to see a South Korean sunrise, however. I can't even explain how remarkable this was. The sun slowly crept up over the mountains and behind the sky scraping buildings off into the distance. It was almost as if the sun was a perfect circle with swirling colors of pink and orange emerging from it. It was brilliant, and a wonderful way to start off our day of travels.
When we got to the airport, we had thirty minutes to get through security, customs, immigration, and find our gate. It is a much more difficult task to do when you are in a group of fifty, in a foreign country, where no one knows where they are going. A Korean man eventually noticed that we were struggling quite a bit and acting as a human road block, to just about every entrance (there are a lot of us). He so generously gave us some direction by taking control and showing us where we needed to be. It was like he was herding sheep, we were hopeless.
I got through all the checks and balances, only to notice that I had then lost track of my group. Fortunately, the Korean airport is marked in both English and Korean, which saved my life. I met back up with the rest of the group by our gate and was ready for our next four hour flight to Guangzhou, China. From there, we plan to catch a bus to our final destination. It still doesn't feel real, that I am this far away and that it nearly took two days to get here. It has been quite an adventure already, I really look forward to what the next four months hold in store for me.
Pictures:
#1: The view from Jenna's and My room
#2: The beautiful sunrise we witnessed this morning
#3: Cute and such intricate cookies we found in the Korean airport
#4: Airplane food, say what? We had fish, rice, tofu, Lychee, a roll, and individually packed water for lunch on our flight today.
#5: Our precious flight attendants, can't help but love them, right?
We had a wonderful night in Seoul and got to see the city a bit, because our hotel was about a twenty five minute drive from the airport. It was dark outside when we drove there, so we mostly got to see the brightly illuminated buildings as we passed by. The architecture in Korea is so different than what I am used to seeing in the States; it's so modern looking and it has lights, everywhere. It was funny to drive past some of the businesses because some of the names were written in Korean, and the others, very broken English. I think I saw a place called, "Very Yummy Taco". I wanted to take a picture, but the shuttle man was on a serious mission to get to the hotel, he was hauling lots of luggage and a loud group of Americans.
When we got to the hotel, we got into pairs of two to get room assignments. Ms. Jenna Neeley and I got assigned to room 1107.I am only noting the room number because we got to be on the eleventh floor, of 20, in the hotel and the room had a phenomenal view of the night sky. The buildings were lit late into the night, and the massive windows opened up to a remarkable sight of the city. This was a dream in itself to stay in for the night.
Not only was the view incredible, a soft and cushy bed had never felt so good. My tailbone was seriously so sore from sitting on the plane for so long yesterday, and it was glorious to not sleep upright with your head cocked to the side. I think one of the coolest features in the room was probably the toilet, weird, I know. This thing was incredible! It had a full remote with instructions of the many different options to choose from (all in Korean, so we just pushed them all to see what each did). I found one that heated the toilet seat, no more sitting on a cold potty! Also, it was a buhday (unsure how to spell that one) where water shot up from the toilet and sprayed you off. I can admit, I was quite surprised by this and jumped off of the toilet as soon as the freezing water touched my skin, only for the spraying water to continue spraying into the air, making a huge mess all over the floor and toilet seat. After that, I was done toilet experimenting.
Jenna and I decided to begin listening to a chapter of D&C each night of our trip come bed time. Let me tell you, last night was incredibly successful. I think we were both completely out by about verse three. It was a long day, we tried. We will get better and more accustomed to the time zone eventually. (cross your fingers)
We woke up this morning bright and early, well I guess not very bright. It was dark still when we woke up; we have been really thrown off by this whole light when late, dark when early, time switch thing, it has been taunting us all day. We did in fact get to see a South Korean sunrise, however. I can't even explain how remarkable this was. The sun slowly crept up over the mountains and behind the sky scraping buildings off into the distance. It was almost as if the sun was a perfect circle with swirling colors of pink and orange emerging from it. It was brilliant, and a wonderful way to start off our day of travels.
When we got to the airport, we had thirty minutes to get through security, customs, immigration, and find our gate. It is a much more difficult task to do when you are in a group of fifty, in a foreign country, where no one knows where they are going. A Korean man eventually noticed that we were struggling quite a bit and acting as a human road block, to just about every entrance (there are a lot of us). He so generously gave us some direction by taking control and showing us where we needed to be. It was like he was herding sheep, we were hopeless.
I got through all the checks and balances, only to notice that I had then lost track of my group. Fortunately, the Korean airport is marked in both English and Korean, which saved my life. I met back up with the rest of the group by our gate and was ready for our next four hour flight to Guangzhou, China. From there, we plan to catch a bus to our final destination. It still doesn't feel real, that I am this far away and that it nearly took two days to get here. It has been quite an adventure already, I really look forward to what the next four months hold in store for me.
Pictures:
#1: The view from Jenna's and My room
#2: The beautiful sunrise we witnessed this morning
#3: Cute and such intricate cookies we found in the Korean airport
#4: Airplane food, say what? We had fish, rice, tofu, Lychee, a roll, and individually packed water for lunch on our flight today.
#5: Our precious flight attendants, can't help but love them, right?
Friday, February 22, 2013
Day 1: The Adventure Begins
Thursday/Friday February 21st/22nd (We Crosssed the International Date Line!)
So, this whole time change deal has already thrown me off, significantly. Jenna and I are on hour ten of the twelve hour flight to Seoul, Korea. We were just debating whether or not it was Friday the 22nd, or Thursday the 21st. We asked our cute little flight attendant, who hardly speaks English, what day it was and she explained that it was in fact Friday, and two o'clock pm (eleven o'clock US time). I feel like this day has gone on forever, because every time someone opens a window, it's still light out, just wondering if that'll change anytime soon!
My dear mother dropped me off at the Salt Lake City airport this morning, at six am, and I dragged (and really struggled doing so) my two fifty pound bags into the airport. One tipped over as I tried to get it over the bump into the door, and well, I went down, bags and all. I decided to wear a maxi skirt to the airport, and that proved to be an obstacle in itself when getting back up. (Rocky, you were right, I apologize, You're smart, I'm dumb, and there's nothing I can do about it). The flight from Salt Lake to Seattle was painless and quick, I slept the entire time. We arrived in Seattle and then had a three hour layover and got to know the other individuals we would be teaching with in Zhongshan, China for the next four months. There are four different schools that are in Zhongshan; it's a pretty decent sized city I guess! Our school, Kaiyin, has the most teachers (16 to be exact) and the only one with boys, holla. Even though we are banned from dating anyone (fellow teacher, Chinese man, noodle vendor on the street, etc.), it is still nice to have them around to travel with and teach with, I really think it'll add to the successfulness of this volunteering experience. Also, as I got to know the others that I would be with, I could instantly tell that I am in for quite an adventure. We have already discussed skydiving, going on a slide off of the Great Wall, maybe scuba Diving, camping on the Great Wall, etc. I've been put into the perfect group: adrenaline junkies always seeking new adventures.
As we boarded the plane for Korea, we saw the flight attendants board right before us. Typically when I fly in the US, the flight attendants are dressed in some navy blue buisness-like suit and tend to be quite sassy. I was not expecting them to be perfectly groomed with perfectly pressed neck ties, little chopstick things in their hair, and the kindest/most polite individuals I have ever met. These ladies were seriously perfect. Since we are on a twelve hour flight, the attendants served lunch and dinner. For the first meal, the flight attendant came to Jenna's and my row and asked us if we wanted beef, chicken, or Korean style. Naturally, Jenna and I chose Korean style (not having any idea what it was, but hey, we are trying to be adventurous). I can't even explain to you how excited the cute Korean flight attendant was that we ordered that. She set up a tray in front of us, and gave us instructions on how to prepare it; Jenna and I weren't quite ready for this, but we were thrilled to try it. This Koresn dish was called Bibilama, and it turned out to be quite delicious, actually. Who knew airplane food would be the least bit appetizing, let alone pretty tasty. Korean's know how to do it right.
As we prepared this little meal, we tried to mimick the Korean man in front of us, he seemed to know what he was doing. As we finished prepping it, the flight attendant, who so excitedly served it to us, came back and asked how we liked it. She was so sweet and so happy we were branching out from chicken and beef and trying something from her country. We were also served a bowl of seaweed soup, alongside the Bibilama. Jenna and I were skeptical about this, but we decided we would at least try it. An American man sitting next to me, who claims to live in Korea and slept almost the entire flight, said to us that it was a delicious soup and that he only gets it on occasion. I thought the "on occasion" comment was because it was such a treat and that he only gets it every so often. However, we were unpleasantly surprised by this "delecacy". We each took a large spoonful of soup and took in every bit of the rank tasting concoction. If I were to explain the taste, I might compare it to something like drinking a big gulp of seawater with dead fish with wet, slippery seaweed inside of it. As you can tell, it was exactly the treat we had expected. We eventually did choke it down though, we didn't want to let those around us down. Besides the seaweed soup, everything else was surprisingly deish and we enjoyed our experience of branching out.
I think I have watched a total of four movies on this flight so far. Fortunately for us, they have all these new releases and they're FREE! What!? Nothing on airplanes is ever free these days, but not here. It seriously is quite a dream. I managed to watch The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Wreck it Ralph, Liberal Arts (horrible by the way, don't waste your time), and of course, Pitch Perfect. This kept me occupied for quite some time, but movies got old; I am anxious to get to Seoul and take a shower. Sitting in this seat for hours on end does not bring about the most desirable feeling or smells around you (and maybe on you).
Throughout the flight, our beloved flight attendants (seriously, I love them, and am kind of obsessed with them) brought us little treats like bananas, brownies, peanuts, etc. throughout the entire flight. They also brought us extremely hot towels, to either wash our hands with or place on our faces. Due to the attendants lack of English, Jenna and I weren't quite sure what they were for, or that they were scalding hot when they handed them to you (with tongs I might add, we could've and should've assumed they were hot, but it didn't cross our minds). After we grabbed them, we each kind of burned ourselves and then quickly held them only by a corner to let them cool off a bit. They were actually quite refreshing to use after such a long time; not only were we given hot towels, each passenger got a pair of slippers, a travel toothbrush, and a canister of toothpaste. Fancy livin', we have arrived.
About halfway through the flight, Jenna and I got kind of ansy, so we went to the back of the plane, where we disovered a large stretching group. There was this old man getting his stretch on and others, and myself, decided to join in in the little waiting room area. We all discussed what we were doing in Korea and where our final destinations were. The older man explained that he was going to Mongolia, with 10 others, to build schools. We then went onto telling him that we were traveling to schools in China to teach children English. He was so excited and happy for us, such cool opportunities there are for all kinds, types, and ages.
We are approaching the last hour of our flight, and I can't wait to get off. As much as I love the attendants and their sweet presence, my booty is becomming (slash has been for the last two hours) numb and I think I need more of a walk than to the back of the plane. We are staying the night in the Seoul, Korea and taking off for Hong Kong tommorrow morning. After that four hour flight, we will then be driving to our final destination, Zhongshan, China to school number one, Kaiyin! I have anticipated this for months and really can't believe that it is finally real life. We will spend the weekend settling in and learning more teaching techniques. Then, the plan is to begin teaching our sweet children on Monday/Tuesday! I can't wait to meet these little ones, I feel as though I have a connection with them already. Ok, enough talking for now. I am going to re-organize myself and take these awesome slippers off before we land. Ahn Yung (Korean, since we're not quite to China yet. :)
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