The Lucky One

I have to keep reminding myself that I am the Lucky One. Or I guess "a" lucky one would be more appropriate, as I know that there are other people around who also consider themselves pretty damn lucky.
I don't know where to start, but, for a social studies teacher, micro to macro seems to make the most sense. I suppose you could say this post is a response to my lesson plan for this week -- "the Generation Gap" supplemented with a little "How do we show our parents we love and appreciate them?" discussion in observance of Mother's Day, which believe or not, is upon us.

How could it possibly be May already?

Lucky. Micro. I have a great family. I really don't like to brag, but my unique family structure (both immediate and extended) is something I ponder on a daily basis, if not because students are asking me questions about my life in the U.S., then it is because I am just thinking about missing them. I try to explain my family/hometown (because they are essentially one in the same) to people I meet (both Chinese and other foreigners) and usually people think I am making it all up. All I can do is offer that they come and visit when I return, so they can see it (and meet all the characters) for themselves.

My students often talk to me about the pressure they face, mainly from their parents, who want them to study hard so they can get a better job. They ask me how I deal with pressure from my parents, to which I have to admit that my experience is really different from theirs. Sure, my parents want me to be successful, but I think they would probably put happiness above money. Right, Mom?
Money is something my students also talk a lot about, as they see it as the golden opportunity for their future, which includes taking care of their parents and their own family.

At this point in the conversation, I am again forced to recognize my fortune. Mainly in the form of opportunities. Americans really do have so many opportunities! The very fact that I can take 2 years out of my career-earning years and pick up and move to China. This is something most of my students can only dream of doing.

So, even though I am going to miss seeing my crazy family on yet another holiday (and not bake my mom a Lemon Supreme Pie), I realize it is a minimal sacrifice. I will soon again be eating Lemon Pie in Albertville, and I should try to focus more on the opportunities I have in China.

Happy Mother's Day!

After an extremely long week, I am spending a weekend trying to relax! Lessons to plan, midterms to invent, and, of course, meals to cook! I have invited some students to come over to my apartment for some Western cooking fun. They are curious to know what Americans eat -- most are convinced that we eat at KFC and McDonalds everyday, and that vegetables don't ever appear on American dinner tables. I suppose I have found my calling as a PCV in China! Food education!
I am planning on making chicken fajitas with the students, including some Spanish rice and beans. I will be sure to let you know whether or not they approve. I will also try to remember to take some pictures.

The picture I posted with this entry was taking last weekend (3/21) on an outing with my school. My school is wonderful -- they arrange transportation and meals for a field trip/outing once a month for the foreign teachers. This includes all the people who are teaching English, in addition to the 2 PCVs. I love it because it gives me an opportunity to see more of the countryside that surrounds Chongqing. Last weekend we visited Hechuan, which played a substantial role during the Song Dynasty in defending the area against Mongol invaders.
Very exciting!

Until next time -- I miss you all!

Is it March all ready?

I can hardly believe it. I am nearly finished with my second week of teaching. Things still feel really hectic, though. Students still have the option to drop and add classes until the 4th week, which makes it a little tricky to plan for things like how many copies to make and planning various activities. I look forward to the point where I will settle into a routine.

I wish I had some exciting news to share, but I am having a really difficult time thinking of things. I spend most of time planning for the semester, coming up with lesson plans and activities without having the slightest clue about whether or not they will be successful. Usually I end up saying to my PCV friend, "Either this is going to be really wonderful or it is going to completely flop." And usually I am proven wrong, as I was this past week. I tried a "jigsaw reading" activity, with the intention of trying to encourage as many students to speak as possible. It was neither a success or failure, as it was the first time most of my students had tried such an activity, and therefore I spent a great deal of time explaining the directions and defining and redefining the goals and intentions. I think I will have to try it at least 2 more times in order to really call it a success or a failure. And suddenly I recall...This is something I should have anticipated, something I learned 3 years ago when I was student teaching. Oh, well. My excuse is that being in China has thrown me off my guard.

Other than teaching, I spend the rest of my time cooking and inviting people over for dinner. In short, my life in Chongqing is essentially the same as it was in Minnesota. Really.

The food (most recently, lentil soup) usually comes out tasting a little different, as the ingredients I have to work with are different (in the case of lentil soup, which called for leeks, I had to improvise!). But it always seems to be edible.

Until next time...

a review

And so the second semester begins. I think I find great comfort in the structure of my Peace Corps experience. Serving in China as a University TEFL volunteer comes with a built in schedule. This is imperative for me, as it provides a very clear picture of what I need to do and when I need to do it. I know other PC countries operate on very different schedules, or no schedules at all, which leads me to believe that PC China is really ideal for me.

I start teaching again on Monday, February 23rd. I have been on “vacation” since just before Christmas, so getting back to the routine of the semester is going to be yet another transition. So what exactly have I been up to? After the holidays, I went to Chengdu, where I met with all the volunteers in China for a 4 day in-service training. It was wonderful to see other volunteers, the 14s I trained with last summer, as well as the 13s, who have been here since summer 2007. After training, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go back to Minnesota for 2 ½ weeks. I got an awesome deal on a flight, and although I returned to MN just in time for the most frigid temperatures of the year, it was more than worth it. Being able to see my family and friends and step back into my old life was fantastic. Although now it all feels like a dream, like I imagined the whole thing. I came back to China at the end of January, in the middle of the Chinese New Year celebration. My campus was completely deserted. I mean, not one person was around. It was extremely lonely! The festival usually lasts for 15 days, so with a lifeless campus surrounding me, I decided to take a trip to a southern province, Guangxi Zhuang. I visited the cities of Guilin and Yangshuo, both famous for their landscape of karsts. It was beautiful. I went with 3 other PCVs and the experience definitely got me interested in exploring more of China. Now I am planning for summer travels!
Since coming back to my site, I have been spending most of my time relaxing and visiting with other volunteers. And suddenly my campus has come to life again. The students have returned, and a few new foreign teachers have arrived for the next semester.

It is beginning to warm up as well. I am trying to enjoy these mild, spring-like days, as many students have warned me that the scorching, humid, summer comes early (like the end of March). Something to look forward to, I guess.
Hope everyone is doing well!

Merry Christmas!!

Where to begin? I have certainly made some unforgettable memories for my first Christmas in the Middle Kingdom. This past month has been a whirlwind of activities, not to mention the roller coaster of emotions that generally define my daily life in China. I finished teaching about a week ago, but I have felt just as busy during this past week as I did while I had classes. My school has planned several events to celebrate any and every occasion. The end of the semester, the New Year, and, yes, even Christmas. There has been everything from parties and dinners to phone calls and text messages. Last weekend, people who work in several different departments (the School for Foreign Languages, the Foreign Affairs Office, and the International Business School) organized at wonderful event called “Night of China.” Basically formatted like a variety/talent show, everyone involved in the University had an opportunity to display their talents, foreign teachers included. We were asked to sing some Christmas songs – Joy to the World, Jingle Bells, Auld Lang Syne, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. If you look at the picture you will see me holding a toy keyboard, as I somehow was appointed Choral Director. Another foreign teacher bought some garland and made some fashionable headwear for the women to sport. Really, though, I enjoyed the party, and it was a very entertaining evening.

To celebrate Christmas Eve, I decided to stay in for the evening. Apparently there is a major celebration in the city center, Jie Fang Bei. I have heard (and seen pictures from the past) that people fill up the square and beat/hit one another with plastic/blow up hammers and mallets and spray silly string all over. (I have also been told they do this because it is a “Western” tradition…) As intriguing and fun as that sounds, several people warned me that a foreigner would be the most sought after target. It didn’t take long for me decide not to go anywhere near the area. Instead, I made some Chicken Wild Rice soup and bought one of my beloved baguettes and enjoyed both while watching Love Actually. I wish I would have had It’s A Wonderful Life. The movie was constantly interrupted by phone calls and text messages from students wishing me a Merry Christmas. I wondered whether I should wish them a Merry Christmas in return. Most of my students don’t celebrate Christmas in the religious sense, but have recently invented their own unique way to mark the occasion (see above story). Christmas is like a novelty in China, I guess.
Maybe next year I will be brave enough to go and check out whether the stories about silly string and hammers are true.

Merry Christmas to everyone! I certainly miss spending the holiday with my family and friends!
圣诞快乐!!!

To be a teacher

As my first semester teaching in China comes to close, I can't help but look back and think: Did my students learn ANYTHING? One of the biggest struggles I have encountered during my first few years as a teacher is trying to answer this question. I suppose it would be make more sense to phrase the question as "What did they learn?" as they had to have learned SOMETHING, even if that something is merely my name.

As difficult as it was for me to gauge student learning in the States, it feels at least ten times more difficult to assess it in an entirely different system of education. Yikes. What have I gotten myself into? I am already thinking about next semester. What should I do differently? And by this question I am referring to essentially every aspect of the classroom (topics/content, delivery, activities, behavior, expectations, and on, and on.) It never ends. And trying to answer these questions in China is really hard. I look to other PCVs and foreign teachers, only to realize that everyone who is teaching here is really just doing whatever they think is best, and every Spoken English class varies greatly. Classrooms lead by foreigners entirely determined by the individual and singular desires of the teacher.

Wouldn't you like to be a Chinese student?

A Day in the Life

I sometimes have a difficult time trying to think of what to write and post for all of you to read. A part of me knows that I could write anything I wanted to, and that even the really mundane things would at least be something to let you know that I am indeed still alive. Well, I am alive; there is no doubt about that. Daily life in China has strangely become “normal,” and believe it or not, I sometimes forget that I am so far away from Minnesota and the life I used to lead. Perhaps this is just another stage on the Peace Corps experience, settling in, getting accustomed to the culture, and the whole transition phase wearing off. I don’t really care to put a label on it, I guess.

Having said all that, my days in China still include their fair share of surprises, excitements, and difficulties. I am writing to you from my apartment, wearing a scarf and winter jacket as there is no indoor heating. The air temperature doesn’t get nearly as cold as MN of course, but the temp. has dropped to around 50 degrees during the day and the low 40s at night. I have a portable heater, but I have to be careful about energy consumption. When you live in a neighborhood that has around 2 million people [yes, I am talking about my “neighborhood” district, not even the entire city] you have to be especially conscious of what you consume, which means I usually only use the heater around dusk, when it gets really cold in my apartment. Teaching class wearing my jacket is somewhat of a new experience as well. Although I do recall a time last winter when the pipes or something in my classroom in Big Lake froze, and I did actually wear my scarf, gloves, and several layers of clothes to keep warm. When I recall memories such as that, I can’t help but thinking it was in preparation for what I would face in China.

The semester is almost over, and I have to say I am looking forward to the break. I look forward to next semester as well, mainly because I can put all the things I learned this semester to good use. I have had a lot of fun with my students and slowing learning more about the Chinese culture. My language skills feel like they are still seriously lacking. I study with a private tutor, but I find that I too afraid to make a mistake, so I hesitate to use the spoken language. (It is a bit ironic because I spend a great deal of time with my Oral English students trying to convince them their mistakes don’t matter and they just need to TRY…) I have been trying to learn the characters, and I do find some fulfillment when I go out into the city and can read part of the signs/billboards/advertisements.

By the way, I will be posting some new pictures on Picasa. If anyone would like to view them, email me so I can send you a link/invitation! The picture I posted with this entry is of me and Margaret, another foreign teacher. We were at a buffet/reception sponsored by some student volunteers.

I know I always say this, but I will try to write again soon. I hope everyone is doing well! I miss you all!