ddotTodd

K: Lonestar Pie goes to Beijing

This past weekend we made a quick trip to Beijing for my halfway prenatal appointment at the International Hospital there. I have visited the hospital here in Yinchuan once this semester just to make sure that everything was going well and though we're considered remote China and going to the hospital is a little bit like being on a scavenger hunt (pay this money here and take this ticket there where they will take your blood and give it back to you. Then take your blood around the corner and come back here with the results...), I was actually pretty impressed with the care. But it's absolutely impossible to get anyone to tell the gender of the baby out here even with a foreign passport. (It's illegal for Chinese in China to know the sex of a baby before it's born because of the national gender imbalance. The country doesn't want parents to decide that if they can only have one baby, then they will abort if it's not the desired sex.)

We get enough ambiguity in our lives, so we decided that we would like to know what sort of baby to expect. Hence, the trip to BJ. We had an appointment on Friday and found out that Lonestar Pie is healthy and... shy. When the doc moved to find the gender, all we saw were the bottoms of two tiny little crossed feet. Bummer.

We spent the rest of the weekend eating western food, hanging out with good friends who work in BJ, shopping at IKEA for LP's nursery, and relaxing at the Mac (our organization's headquarters). We had a great weekend, but were still pretty bummed that we didn't get to find out LP's gender. So on Monday morning, N turned on the charm and called the hospital asking if there was anything we could do to get that information (for free). We were quite surprised to be told to come on back in at our convenience, so we hopped on a bus for the 1.5 hour ride across town to the hospital... Beijing is on the big side for a city. =) We might have been at the hospital for all of five minutes. We got to the office where they took us right in. I hopped up on the table and the doc had barely started the ultrasound when he announced, "It's a boy." Huh? He froze the screen and swiveled it around and sure enough, you didn't have to be a doctor to know what you were looking at. Lonestar Pie is a boy!

Immediately after we left the doc's office, we were sending out text messages to announce the news when I started to feel really dizzy. N said he felt it too and then a minute later, it stopped. We didn't know it, but we were just in our first earthquake. Beijing is in northeast(ish) China and the epicenter of that quake was in Sichuan in western(ish) China. 1300 miles away. Imagine how big that quake must have been for us to feel it all the way in BJ. Yinchuan is closer to Sichuan so our teammates and students and friends were shaken even worse than we were, but thankfully nothing was damaged and no one was injured where we live. Remember the folks in Sichuan these days as they're dealing with the aftermath of great devastation.

N: Midterm Exams

As some of our friends who work at universities in the states are preparing for graduation, we here in China just gave midterm exams.  As foreign English teachers in the Chinese education system, we have a slightly difficult time with the reputation that has preceded us.  Stereotypes of a foreign English teacher usually include student thought such as:

“The teacher always plays games.”
“The teacher likes to make exams easy.”
“All we do in class is talk and have discussions.  We don’t do anything.”

The last one I think is quite interesting considering we are, in most situations, asked to teach oral English.  The students might be missing something in that case. 

There is truth to some of those things that are said by native students and teachers alike. We are fighting the idea that foreign English teachers don’t prepare lessons, that we are unprofessional, and that we don’t care about grammar.  Games can be educational, but perhaps the purpose of the game, the lesson learned, and the skills practiced should be expressed explicitly.  The completion of our Masters’ degrees will help a little in their view of our commitment.

I’m sorry.  This is not some diatribe meant to make you think sad thoughts about our teaching situation.  We love working here.  We love being challenging teachers and destroying those stereotypes.  In fact, K and I just wrote a killer exam for our sophomore extensive reading class for English majors.  KILLER.  We did not intend for the exam to be difficult.  We intended for the exam to be challenging and not easy.  I think we succeeded.  We have been practicing skills in class and every section of the exam was in a format that was very familiar to them.  We told them that a portion of the vocabulary that we had been studying would be on the test. They were set up for success.  I think we only had 3 As in our 150 students.  Don’t think that that is a bad thing.  A “C” is truly average in China.  So based on that, an “A” is something that is amazing and extraordinary.

Do you want to see what sort of exam is challenging for our sophomore reading students? Here is your chance native English speakers!  I have attached the exam to this post.  Feel free to take the exam on your computer.  You can print it out if you like, but know that it is 10 pages.  If anybody ends up taking the exam, I’ll send you the answers.

Download extensive_reading_midterm_a.pdf

Happy testing.

K: 18 Weeks

We didn't tell our students or Chinese friends that we are expecting. We wanted to let them discover it for themselves. Finally, last week people started to ask and I have begun to collect advice. The first piece of advice I got was that I shouldn't clean the blackboards because the chalk dust is bad for baby. And the second was that I should eat more pork blood... assuming that I ever eat any?

Though I know the weight gain is important, this pregnancy thing can be a bit hard on the ego. N and I went into the Old City last week (which we do much less frequently now that we live on the other side of town) and saw some of our regular vendors and shop owners. Without fail, their excited greeting was, "Oh, you've gotten fat!" What do you say to that? Yes, thank you for noticing. Our response was of course, "Yes! We're having a baby!" Their enthusiasm to that news, the reminders to bring baby in to see them, and concern for me almost made up for the greeting.

In other news, I think I am feeling little Lonestar Pie trying out all those appendages. That's been a fun new development in the last couple of days, though it makes N jealous because of course he can't feel it yet. In other news? Let's face it, there really is no other news.

N: P.E.

Physical education was one of my favorite classes.  As a kid I just needed that time in the day to be able to run and play and make noise.  It was a necessary component to the day.  Especially if my teachers needed me to behave.  Once I hit college, P.E. no longer existed in a formal form.  In my freetime I was able to run and play and make noise.  Mostly soccer, rock (similar to Bocce ball, but only requires rocks), crazy jet fighters (one man throws 3 or more frisbees at the same time to an equal number of people, everybody needs to catch one for there to be success), or frisbee golf.

In China, P.E. class continues to be a required course in college.  Students are frequently seen in uniform or sports clothing on their way to class.  Students can choose what they will study.  Badminton, ping pong, soccer, basketball, and volleyball are just some of the more familiar subjects students can spend a semester studying the rules, learning strategy, and developing an appreciation for.  Other subjects are Chinese Wu Shu or Tai Chi.  Wu Shu is Kung Fu. Tai Chi is Tai Chi.  Both are forms of martial arts.  Wu Shu has a number of different forms that they study through the semester.  Classes will focus on traditional forms and their roots in culture, sword technique, and forms involving spears.

In the morning, one can wake early and see any number of older folks doing morning exercises.  Stretching, tai chi, walking, backwards walking/running, derriere slapping, arm slapping, leg slapping, calf raises etc etc.  Surrounding the basketball courts near our home there are a few exercise machines.  These machines are very standard for most playgrounds and sports areas.  We had some friends visit these past weeks and they managed to snag a couple pictures.  One of them made a quiz for two of the machines.

Any guesses on what you do with some of these?

N: Two Bits

K and I celebrated my birthday on Monday.  We decided to go to a Japanese Sushi place that is near where we used to live last year.  It had been a good while since we had made a trip to the Old City (we now live in the New City, but they are both part of the same city) and it was fun to go to one of the places that our team enjoyed going to last year.  It was pretty chill and I made sure to order whatever I wanted, I mean, it was my day right?  Video games followed dinner at the arcade in the same area.  Another great birthday?  Check.

I also decided to shave.  I think it has been about a year since I have been clean  shaven.  Now, for those of you that knew me without ever having facial hair, not a big deal.  However, my students and most of my current teammates have only ever seen me with a beard.  I guess I was just checking to make sure I still had the appearance of a 12 year old when clean shaven. 

K is continuing to incubate my child. :) She is doing a great job but still gets occasional sickness at any hour of the day.  We are thinking that we will be taking a trip to Beijing in the next month or so to visit a western style hospital and find out the gender.  That will be pretty exciting.  In the picture, K is sportin' clothes that our Colorado fellowship was able to pass along to us.  She loves them. 

Dad continues to call Lonestar Pie Baby Hadassah.  I see his vote for the name.  I've never heard of a Hadassah pie though.

N: Lonestar Pie

This picture has been my landscape for the past 8 or so weeks.  I guess I would prefer that view to the one K has.

K is 13 weeks pregnant.  :)
We found out when we were in Dali (I told you I would talk about Dali again).

Due date is September 20.  We plan on having the baby in the states.

We call him/her Lonestar Pie.  It sounds ridiculous, I know.  Lonestar was initially the name, in salute to where we were both raised and where the child will most likely be born.  Pie comes from our teammate from last year who declared after hearing our options for names “They could both be pies!”

N: Homeroom

Middle school was a time that I did not enjoy very much.  It was fine.  The other people in my grade didn’t pick on me, it was those that were in the grade ahead of me that saw me as an easy target.  Can’t blame them too much though, I would’ve picked on someone too if they were younger, cooler, better looking, and a real athlete (cross country and soccer.)  :)

Every morning a group of about 25 of us would meet in a room on the 10th floor for about 20 minutes.  A teacher would facilitate the time by taking roll, passing along any announcements, and sharing with the class a devotional.  Homeroom, we called it.

As I stroll to my office at about 7:30 each morning here in Yinchuan for my 8-o-clock classes, the college classrooms already have a slight buzz to them.  Students are studying, prepping for the day, practicing dialogues, and working on homework in a classroom that has been assigned to them by the school.  There aren’t enough classrooms for every class to have a “homeroom” so Juniors and Seniors are on their own, responsible for finding an empty seat in whatever classroom they choose.

Classes that have been given a room for their use often decorate it with signs and posters.  In the English department, many classes choose English slogans or phrases to encourage them in their learning.  Sometimes they will use materials from one of their classes to put on the wall.  Remember K’s book class?  For a final review last semester, she gave each student a picture from a Children’s Sunday School book.  Each picture was colored by the individual student and then the student had to stand up and tell the story.  30 pictures = 30 stories.  Lots of review!  Those students chose to put the pictures in chronological order on the wall of their homeroom. 

I snapped a couple pictures of some of the student decorations.

N: Snowsports

Before the previous semester ended and while we were preparing for our time away from the school, our team made a decision to have an outing together.  Going out as a team can be pretty fun, but just the logistics of getting all 12 of us to the same location limits how often we make plans for off campus fun.  We went sledding. 

Even though our city has a climate similar to Grand Junction, CO, moisture is considerably lacking, and   finding a patch of snow to slide down can be difficult.  We didn’t worry too much though.  About 30km away from us and towards the mountains, there is a postage stamp sized area of artificial snow.  We have our very own ski slope.  Now this ski slope is limited to a rope tow, toboggan run, hill for sledding, and something very similar to a small bunny hill.  It was an afternoon full of awesome.  We were the only ones at the ‘resort’ for about an hour and a half and had the whole place to ourselves.  No lines!

The video is about 14 seconds of the toboggan run.  You could really get some good speed!  The employees put down some mats in the run to slow it down so that people wouldn’t get thrown out of the chute on turns.

The weather is getting considerably warmer.  Spring will be here any day now.

DAY 3-5: DALI (backpost)

Second week of January:

We had taken an overnight train from Yinchuan to Xi’an.  After arriving in Xi’an we took a cab from the train station to the airport.  From there we flew to Kunming, Yunnan province which is in the south of China.  Traditionally when people think of the south they have images of Guangzhou or Hong Kong or someplace in the southeast.  Kunming is more southwest China and topographically is situated near the Tibetan plateau.   Last year we visited the two cities of Kunming and Lijiang.  Lijiang gets a good bit of traffic because of its proximity to Tiger Leaping Gorge.  That is precisely the reason we had decided to go there last year.  This year we decided to check out another city that also gets some foot traffic because of its beauty but is just slightly off the well beaten path.  We had briefly mentioned to some teammates that we were thinking of visiting Dali to which they immediately put us in contact with some people they knew who were located there.  Quick quick quick we had our plans together.

We arrived in Kunming on Jan 7 and immediately went to the train station to procure tickets for the next overnight train.  Train stations aren’t places to hang out.  Not in the sense that you’re gonna get mugged or that there are violent perpetrators looking for their next victim (that may exist though) but more in the sense that they are crowded and regardless of whether you are holding a ticket or not, people feel that if they don’t push to get to the front of the line, your spot won’t be waiting for you.  While waiting for our train, N got some cards and a couple bowls of noodles for the train.

We arrived in Dali the next morning about 6 A.M.  We had booked a room at a local’s guest house and made our way there.  Next door to the guest house lived our teammates’ connection.  We touched base with them and they took us into town to show us the place.  Bike rentals, wood-fired pizza, local ethnic products, coffee shops, etc.  All stuff that we were looking for in a tourist place.

The family that hooked us up with the tour of the city and that lived next door to the guest house really helped make the trip relaxing.  This family of 10 told us we could use their internet if we needed, invited us over for dinner, and even entertained N one afternoon while K was napping.  In N’s free afternoon he challenged them to a Tetherball Tournament of Champions.  Not only did he lack the necessary skills to beat a 13 year old, but also managed to stop the ball with his face.  The wound wasn’t large, but he was certainly proud of it. (“K!  Take a picture!  This is awesome.  I’ve never been wounded by a tetherball.  Soccer ball , yes.  But a tetherball??  Awesome…”)

We only actually spent one night in Dali but because of the early train arrival and our late night departure, we had a full two days.  We’ll share a little more about the trip in a future post.  Next up: Return to Kunming for a night and then off to Chiang Mai, Thailand for classes.

New Photo Album

We put together a photo album of pictures from our travels.  It's posted on the left side of this page.  Enjoy!