6 weeks left

I am notorious for counting down till major, or minor, events. Now we have 6 more weeks till exams are over, and i've already begun reflecting on the semester. Part of the reason the semester has gone by so fast is the fact that Mom, Jim, and McDowell came for a visit a few weeks ago. It was a good visit: We packed in Hong Kong, Hengyang, Yangshuo, and Macau all into 8 days. We took planes, trains, automobiles, and even boats. I THINK my family liked China, for the most part, but you'd have to ask them for their genuine response. I planned for them to be in Hengyang only 1 day, which turned out to be enough because of the lack of English spoken in the shops. Jim expressed his frustration at not even being able to communicate with the shopkeeper enough to be able to buy a drink. I suppose not being able to communicate does present its problems, which is why we quickly moved on to Yangshuo and Hong Kong, where most everyone can speak at least a little English. Yangshuo was beautiful, and we enjoyed a delightful bike ride in the countryside with mountain terrain views. We also took the boat ride down the Li River, which was gorgeous, too. Our last day together was in Macau, where we hiked to the highest point in the city, went to the (fascinating) History Museum, and yes we did stroll through the Lisboa and Wynn casinos. Good trip.
So now our students are watching The Blind Side and putting together skits for class this week. Among others, I know that one of the highlights of these final few weeks of the semester will be spending time with Tina, one of my more outspoken freshmen, and another sister, who is very enthusiastic about influencing Tina. The three of us have studied together once so far, and will continue to do so weekly. I just love our time together.
I hope I can put less energy into counting down and more energy into making the most of these final weeks!

Don't sing when it's that time of the month.

I got a funny email from my friend Brooke, who lives in Beijing, the other day. She wrote the following story about a conversation she had with her Chinese friend:

"I made tacos and it was the first time she'd eaten anything like that. When she realized we weren't going to cook the lettuce and vegetables, she told me she was having her period, so she couldn't eat cold food. I hadn't heard of that before, so thus began a discussion about our cultures' period dos and don'ts. We microwaved her taco, so she wouldn't mess up her body's balance with cold food. She also needed hot water, which is common for most Chinese people. I told her my mother always puts ice in her water and she said, "Even during her period?" and I said yes. "Really? And she's okay?" Yes again! (you're okay, right, Mom? : ) ). My friend brought some jiaozi (like potstickers) for us to eat too and we each ate a whole, raw clove of garlic with it for our women's health.

Later, we were reading the Book and she showed me that she brought her Chinese fellowship song book. I couldn't read the Chinese, and I asked her to sing one for me. She furrowed her brows and whispered, "Do you think I'll be okay?" "What?" , I asked. "Women are never supposed to sing when they have their period.", she said, "That's not the same in America either?" "Nope!," I said, "I sing all the time!" Apparently, it's really bad for your throat to sing while on your period. Her teachers all throughout school always told her that. After we discussed other things (mostly involving staying warm during your period), she said, "So, American women just do whatever they want during that time of the month?" "Basically", I said. I wasn't sure whether to be proud of our freedoms or ashamed that we apparently take such poor care of our fragile bodies. All this is to say, we didn't sing tonight. : )

As she got ready to leave, I told her I'd make spaghetti for her next week. Then I remembered she once told me she doesn't like tomatoes. So, I said I wouldn't make it after all. She said, "Oh! I like to-may-toes. I don't like to-mah-toes." Seriously, ladies, I had the humorous privilege of saying...."To-may-to, to-mah-to. They're the same thing." (like the song...let's call the whole thing off!)."

As my mother pointed out, Brooke's friend is probably telling all of her Chinese friends how weird we are, too!

Tomb Sweeping Festival

Today is Tomb Sweeping Festival in China. That means that families go to their ancestors' graves and honor them by giving food, burning candles, and burning paper money. My students also say that they pray to the ancestors for good luck and good grades. It's a little like the Day of the Dead in Mexico, according to my mother, except in Mexico there's also music and dancing. Isn't it ironic that while Mainlanders celebrate Tomb Sweeping Festival today (we get Monday off), people in Hong Kong get a 5 day holiday for Easter! Two TOTALLY different faiths, operating in the same country next to each other. Oh, that more people in all places would know the resurrection power of Jesus...

different culture norms

I knew it. I had always observed that Chinese men were different from American men in several ways, but yesterday's class confirmed my thoughts completely: Chinese men are generally more effeminate by Western standards than American men. Put another way, Chinese men value different things than American men.
We started class with a friendly discussion of students' hometown, school, and family life. Then we started talking about the differences between Chinese men and women. This came up because of some exerpts in their textbook from the pop psych book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, by Dr. John Gray. The students were asked to comment on whether they identified with the descriptions of life on Venus or Mars. According to this book, life for men on Mars involves doing things to prove themselves and develop their power and skills. Life for women on Venus, on the other hand, involves valuing love, communication, beauty, and developing harmony in relationships. Despite the fact that all of my Oral English classes are 94% female, the males in the class are a very vocal minority. Interestingly, the men in my class strongly identified with life on Venus (the women planet) along with all the women. Many of the students, males and females both, objected to the value of attaining power on any level for any human, and strongly related to developing harmony in relationships for both men and women. I knew this to be a cultural value for my Chinese students, and wasn't particularly surprised when Marvin, the most vocal of the students, finally concluded that "American men must be different from Chinese men" because of the ideas expressed in the article about men being preoccupied with things that can help them achieve power and results. Granted, Dr. Gray's ideas are highly controversial even on an American college campus. But I would have been hard-pressed to find anyone to have an inkling of agreement with Dr. Gray on his opinions about life on Mars for men. Once again, I felt like I was on a different planet than all of them anyway.

back from vacation

Back from vacation. In January, my mom and I took a tour through Vietnam, which was incredible. This picture is of me in Halong Bay, Vietnam. Looks kind of like Guilin, doesn't it?
My next stop was in Chiangmai, where ELIC holds a conference for its teachers every year. Again, it was an incredible week.
After that, I went to Phuket with 5 other ELIC teachers. We did some snorkeling, swimming, sunning, and took a boat trip to Phi Phi Island, where The Beach (Leonardo Dicaprio) was filmed. (See other picture.) I definitely hope to go back to Phuket.
Now I am back in Hengyang, waiting for the semester to start at the beginning of March. So thankful for a good vacation, and happy to be safely at home now.

a good joke

This week I gave my students an opportunity to ask me any question they wanted. Most of them asked questions like, How do i improve my oral english? Or, What is your hometown like? But today I found a true jokester. Or maybe it was a riddle, I thought. She asked, what is the difference between a man jumping out of the third floor and a man jumping out of the thirtieth floor? (hmm, interesting question.) I told her I didn't know, and she said the answer is, one man yells AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! and the other man yells AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! Apparently there's a whole slew of Chinese jokes like this one. I laughed so hard at her joke that the class had to ask me if I was alright. This job only gets better.

second week teaching

This is my second week teaching, and the students are delightful. The monitors are giving me the class lists of names, which are delightful in themselves. For some reason, Chinese students pick very strange English names. The most memorable one so far was chosen by a female student who wanted to be called "Dracula". I told her she couldn't be called Dracula, so she chose the name Cherry for herself. Other student names include Echo, Jarry, Yosmine, Anky, Luna, and Chitty. And those are all from one class. The delimma: do I make ALL of them change their names? Sure, Dracula definitely needed to change her name. But I hate taking away their identity so quickly. I just need to find a way to be able to call role with a straight face somehow....
Another delightful part of teaching these precious students is the comments they wrote about themselves on a notecard I assigned them to fill out. For example, Diana writes, "People will remember me easily, even though we are the first time to meet. Why? Because of my short stature: I smile everyday. I have a motto: my stature is short, but my power is endless. If you have unhappy, call me, my telephone is right here waiting for you. If you have something delicious, please! Don't forget me. That's me, I just do myself."
Sarah writes, "I'm a sensitive girl. A girl like the winter. I like the sentence that from Sandra Cisneros: Until then, I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor. I think it's like me."
Phoebe says, "I'm an optimistic and outgoing girl. I like to making friends. I wish everybody is happy."
I could go on, but I won't. Let's just say that I consider myself very fortunate to have this job.