Change of Perspective -- Wow!

The other day, I had to go to the bathroom while we were in town, so I ran into KFC real quick. When I came out, this conversation seriously happened:

Me: "Oh my gosh, that was the fanciest squatter ever!"
Kammi: "Oh, I know. The Pizza Hut bathroom was fancy too."
Me: "Yeah, it had toilet paper and everything!"
Kammi: "Did it have an automatic flush, too?"
Me: "Yes! And there was soap!"

It's funny how two months ago, in America, I would come home from work and just stick my hands under the faucet of my bathroom at the house fully expecting it to turn itself on because basically all bathrooms at Disney World are automatic and I was so used to using them. And yet, here, just a short month or two later, I'm ecstatic that the bathroom actually provided toilet paper! Despite the fact that it was still a squatter.

What a good life!

Snake Snack; Oh Look, an American!

Random Stories:

One of the first days we were here in Guiyang, I noticed some people riding by on a motorbike. Three Chinese people were crammed on there. Dumbfounded, I jokingly made the comment, “Haha, how many Chinese people can you fit on a motorbike?” Daisy overheard me, which I wasn’t expecting, and responded, quite seriously, “Oh five.” I looked at her shocked and amused and she continued, “Yes. You put one in front of the driver, and three behind. Maybe you can fit six, if you have a baby in a backpack.”

We were eating a fancy meal for the Teacher’s Day celebration. There was a new food that looked like a rice krispy treat except the “krispies” were these long thin round things shaped sort of like worms but they were light tan. I asked Daisy what is was and she responded, “It’s a sort of snake from Taiwan.” “This is a snake?” I asked, grossed out, and rethinking the bite I just took. “Yes, yes, a snake.” I started looking for the head, because Chinese people tend not to cut the heads off of their animals, when Kammi clarified, “Wait… there’s a snake inside this?” Daisy thought for a second and then said, “Ohhh, snack. Snack. I’m sorry. I meant snack.”

When we’re in a taxi on the way somewhere, we like to keep an eye out for the kids on the busses. When we’re stopped at a red light or something, a kid will look out the window and see us sitting in the taxi. Then they turn to a parent or friend and say something in Chinese, and soon both are looking out the window straight at us, staring. We can pretty much assume what they’re saying in Chinese is, “Look mom, an American!” We were just walking down the street just the other day when a little boy did that. I could see it in his face, as soon as he turned around and saw us. He grabbed his dads hand, pulled him close, and said something to him. Sure enough, just a second later the dad turned around and looked at us, smiled, and then continued walking.

Travails of a Primary School Teacher

I’ve been having quite a bit of trouble with one of the second grade classes lately. I mean these kids have been absolutely terrible and were spiraling downhill, quickly. It’s really sad when my first grade students behave better than second grade!

I finally told the teachers about this class and asked for help. Yesterday I went in and the kids actually apologized to me. The one boy who was the worst behaved kid in the class was actually much better. Still not “good” but definitely better. As long as the Chinese teachers were in there, the kids behaved very well. But then, after they left, it took about ten minutes for them to be bad again. One boy I sent out of the class and he was climbing the walls outside the classroom and opening the back door, messing with the kids, and then running away as soon as I started towards him. Of course, I didn’t even begin to chase him, but it was incredibly annoying, not to mention disruptive. Terrible. If I stood by the back door, he'd go in the front or bang on the door. And the kids don't pay attention as well when I walk around the class (which is funny cuz I always heard that teachers should walk around the class to keep attention).

Another issue with these kids (and it has happened in all my classes, including fourth grade) is that about once a day I end up with a student in tears. Sometimes they're crying that they miss their moms and dads, and sometimes the're crying because another student hurt them somehow. But sometimes, and this is most of the time, I seriously have absolutely no clue what they're crying about. One girl in my first grade class has done this twice now where she starts crying, and then that gets these two other girls crying. And I don't mean quiet crying, I mean loud sobbing wailing. And I have no clue what sparked it or what to do with it. But if I give them attention, I lose the rest of the class. And I can't leave to find a teacher because it'll take too long and I can't leave a class of forty 6 year olds unattended for that long. And I have no way of asking them what's wrong. So usually they just sit in a corner and cry. Which still disrupts the calss because everyone is staring and pointing, and sometimes running over to her for words of comfort (which is really sweet and I sometimes allow it, but sometimes that gets the whole class thinking they can run over and "help" and I lose everyone).

Learning Chinese hasn’t helped. I learned phrases like “be quiet” “listen” “stop” “repeat after me” etc. But the kids don’t respond to that. At first I thought my accent was just so bad they couldn’t understand. But every adult I’ve said things to says it’s fine. So I think the kids just aren’t expecting me to be speaking Chinese or something.

Today I finally had success with these kids though. Mostly. I never had to send a single kid out of the room which is kind of a big deal for this class. I did a lot more TPR exercises (total physical response, I’ve been reading about it online). Getting them to stand and sit and turn around. They still don’t get “Simon Says…” yet, but once they do I’m sure it’ll be a hit.

And I’ve learned that the kids LOVE it when you pick one of them to stand at the front and show the rest how to do it (stand, sit). I used to just stand up there myself, but it’s way more fun to pick a kid. Then I had some bouncy balls that I was throwing around the room getting kids to answer questions. “Would you rather have the big yellow ball? Or the small red one?” It worked well for a while. Until a kid stole one of the balls and chucked it at my head. I didn’t see who threw it either, but I could certainly narrow it down to two kids. We stopped playing immediately, unfortunately. That was the only notably bad behavior the whole class though which is a huge improvement!

As people usually tell you when things are hard, "It'll get better." This job will get easier, at least that's what I'm banking on. And as for the food tasting better? Well... I'll let you know if that ever happens. I did find some rice cakes that taste pretty good, though! (yep, you read it right, I've resorted to rice cakes as the best tasting food in this country. well, that and Pizza Hut)

Queuing -- Chinese Style

I think it's some sort of Chinese thing, but when I have activities that require students to raise their hands (which is all the time), my kids think it's okay to jump out of their seats and yell, "Let me try!!!!" in order for me to choose them. I'm pretty sure this behavior is reinforced in their Chinese classes, as it seems to be the Chinese "way" to be aggressive in order to get your way. That's why people don't bother waiting in lines, push ahead to get on the bus, drive over yellow lines, and allover don't understand the concept of taking turns and being patient.

 

Anyway, I've been working on unestablishing (word?) this behavior, as it's extremely annoying, gets the class very rowdy, and makes it so I can't hear anything. I refuse to call on students who are yelling and only choose the ones who are quietly, patiently, putting their hands in the air. I explain to the loud ones why I'm not choosing them, make the class be silent, etc. etc. You'd think that after two weeks of this the kids would get the hint. But no. In fact, some are getting worse. And today I almost burst out laughing in the middle of class as a student, who was so desperate because he really knew the answer, stood on his chair yelling louder as I ignored him, "Diannaaaa! Let me try! I looooove youuuuu!!!"

 

That got all the students started. "Dianna. I love you! Let me try! I love you!"

 

I had to turn around to keep them from seeing me laughing. As much as I love being told "I love you" (and I almost caved and chose him because, seriously, how cute is that?) I pointed at him and said "Thank you. I love you too. Be quiet. An jing! Then I can let you try."

 

I love these kids!

Hills, Kids, Miao Tribesmen, & a Recalcitrant Doorlock

Yesterday was incredible.  Possibly the best day I’ve had in China so far.  Actually, yeah.  I’d put it right there at number one.

It’s amazing how, every day, I can tell things are feeling more and more normal.  The homesickness is subsiding more and more.  And then, every once in a while, I take a step out of my life and think, “Oh my goodness!  I’m in China!  This is whack!” (yes, I did just use the term whack)

Well, the food still sucked at the cafeteria.  But my little students are getting progressively harder to deal with, so yesterday I began a new approach to get them to behave.  This included even MORE positive praise, changing activities every 8 to 10 minutes, printing out pages for them to color/write on, and switching between group work and pair work every 8-10 minutes.

This is one of the "courtyards" at the school.  More specifically the one for the Primary aged kids.  Remember that saying about Guizhou, "No more than 3 feet without a hill?" Well, you're looking at one, there in the background of the right side of the photo.  When there's a hill where they don't want it they simply dig it up and put it somewhere else.  They got halfway through this one and decided the rest of it could stay.  That happens a lot too.  There are trucks everywhere here though moving dirt around trying to get rid of the hills.  Hill-arious!

My first class was absolutely horrible.  They’re my worst class though.  Seriously, I could hardly keep their attention for the first five minutes.  I also decided to ignore the kids who were not paying attention, as long as they weren’t disrupting the class.  By about halfway through I had a grand total of 6 of my 40 students paying attention to what was going on up front.  The rest were distracted by coloring their pages with animals (although I was proud that most of them got that I wanted the black and white animals to have circles around them and the green ones to have squares and the fish needed a triangle around it) (that came after I went around the room and told them in little groups of about five though).

Above:  Some of my second grade kids.  They act like they just love me before class and want nothing more than to speak to me.  But then class begins and suddenly they're totally into each other or their pencils... I've started going around the room and collecting everything that's not put away by the time class begins)

Anyway, as terribly as that class went, my later classes showeddefinite improvement.  They actually did extremely well.  And my fourth graders are always my favorites.  I taught them to answer questions like “Where do you live?” and “What grade are you in?”  I was surprised they didn’t know those questions, which is why I decided to teach them that.  They had a lot of trouble hearing the difference between “Where do you live?” and “What do you like?”  I think that’s cuz all last week was spent talking about “What do you like?” though.

I know I'm not supposed to have favorites, but in my Class one, grade one class, Jack is definitely, by far, my favorite kid.  He is just so cute and smart!  He's easily the smartest kid in my class and the best at English.

Moving right along, school went great and my older kids came to see me in my office and I spoiled them, of course.  Then, Daisy told us that the school was paying for us to see a play!  It was called “Wind of Colorful Guizhou.”  We met at 6:30pm.  The car that they normally reserve for us had an emergency, apparently, so we had to take taxis.  Daisy usually puts Saebra and I in one taxi and tells the driver where to take us.  Then she goes with Adam and Kammi in a different one since we all won’t fit in one.

The theater was kind of far away.  About ten minutes into our ride, our driver pulled off to the side of the road.  As I turned to get out he turned around and put his hands up in a ‘T’ and then pointed outside.  “Ummm, we go out there?” I asked.  “Mei yo,” he responded which I was surprised that I actually knew that that means “No” (or it’s actually one of their many forms of the word “No.” “Bu” is usually the accepted form).  Then he said “WC!” which I know from my students means bathroom break.  He promptly got out of the car and ran over to the toilets that were just around the corner.  Saebra and I sat in the taxi.  Slightly petrified.  He had left the keys in the ignition, it was a creepy part of town, and the people kept walking by and peering in the windows.  We talked about how someone could literally up and kidnap us right there.  Fortunately they didn’t, and we were back on our way in no time.

We got to the theater and took some pictures.  I bought a Lusheng.  It’s a musical instrument created and played by the Miao and Dong tribes here in Guizhou.  It’s really cool, but I can’t figure out how to get more than one note out of it.

Above:  Me, Saebra, Kammi, and Adam.  Daisy wanted to take our pictures by some of the Miao tribe.  (That's the tribe there on the right.)

The show was absolutely, completely, totally phenomenal.  The best show I’ve ever seen in my life, and I live in Disney and have seen plays in London, plus I saw an acrobats show and a Kong Fu show in Beijing.  This beat them all out!  It had a little Kong Fu, a little bit of Acrobats, lots of dancing, incredible music, unbelievable effects, it was funny (although most of the funny we didn’t understand) and it was just pure awesome.  And it was definitely unique to anything I’ve ever seen before.

After the play, Daisy took us down a market street to grab a snack.  At first she wanted to take us to this incredibly spicy fish place.  But Kammi and I don’t like spicy much, and Saebra’s not a fan of fish.  We talked Daisy instead to taking us to a BBQ place.  Nothing like American BBQ, of course, but still good.  It was the first time in China that I actually had Chinese food that I legitimately liked okay.  It was no hamburger, but it was still pretty good.  We had about ten different kinds of food and just sampled everything.  We had this weird watermelon slushie with peanuts, some eggplant with copious amounts of spices (primarily garlic) on it, a weird thing that we dubbed the name “jellyfish” but apparently was some sort of plant (weirdest texture I’ve ever put in my mouth), all manner of pork, beef, chicken, rabbit, and duck, (the rabbit was actually really good), green beans (nothing like American green beans, they’re enormous here!), lotus root, zucchini, cabbage, and two kinds of soups with weird clear jelly type stuff inside that I can’t really describe.  Some of the food was good, some was terrible, but it was a lot of fun to taste it!

Daisy kept asking me what the name for the meal after dinner was.  I told her sometimes we have dessert, but this wasn’t sweet.  Then we finally settled on “midnight snack.”  But we explained how that was different, too.  Chinese people really do snack quite a bit.  That’s probably one of the reasons they’re thinner in general.

Well, Daisy’s parents live right by the market street, and she was planning on spending the weekend with them, so she just put the four of us in a cab back home.  We said goodbye and I called Daisy when the cab dropped us off to let her know we got home safely.  Then, Saebra and I split off from Adam and Kammi to go home (our complexes are a few minutes walk away from each other).

Well, Saebra and I got to the door to get into our complex and found it shut.  We’d never gotten home late enough for the door to be shut.  Fortunately, we knew that our little card key could get us in.  But, when we swiped it, it didn’t let us in for some reason.  We scanned it like ten times and I pulled on the door in many different ways but it just wouldn’t budge.  Slightly worried, we called Daisy and told her the problem.  Fortunately, Daisy has nine roommates, and they all happen to live in the same complex as ours.  She called one of them to get us in while Saebra and I waited out front.  A while later (it felt like an eternity), two of her roommates came downstairs to open the door.  Only they couldn’t get it open either.  They pushed the button on the inside and yanked and pulled and stood on chairs and looked for locks.  Nothing.  As they started to make some phone calls, and Saebra and I talked about maybe just staying at Adam and Kammi’s, three policemen came over from across the street.  There are policemen everywhere in China.  Usually just randomly standing up and down the street hanging out.  The one policeman came up, pulled out a card, scanned it, and the door opened right up.  He told the girls something in Chinese and they said, “You just have to scan your card to get in.”  We tried to tell her that we knew that and that our card didn’t work, but we couldn’t get the message across and we were already in the first elevator so we couldn’t show her how it didn’t work.  Then, we got to our building and we scanned our card to get in and it did work!  Cuh-razy!

Anyway, we made it home safe and had a heck of a day.  It was incredible.  I can’t wait to have more adventures.  But I do hope that next time we get home a little more quickly than last night!

Yes, I'm Still in China! And happy, too!

Here are some random stories since the last post.

Sunday was Teacher Appreciation Day.  We were to "perform" for the other teachers of the school.  We only had a few days notice, and they didn't have a piano, or any other sort of "normal" instrument.  And none of us really know how to sing.  So we ended up deciding on Cotton Eyed Joe, since we're not really the best dancers either. 

Well, long story short, the act before ours was teachers performing Kung Fu (so that's how they keep the kids in check!).  We turned to Daisy and made sure she was aware, "You brought us to China to teach... just so you know.  Not to perform!"  She assured us we'd do great.  Well, we got up there and danced our little hearts out.  Monday, the school gym teacher came to our office to learn the dance and today, Thursday, I saw kids dancing to it in the gym.  Yep.  We brought good ol' Cotton Eyed Joe to China.  They wanted an easier routine, so we introduced the Macarena, but they didn't like that one.

Two boys in my class today cried.  The ... whole ... time!  Well, at least the whole first ten minutes until I just couldn't take their disrupting my entire class of first graders anymore and made them go outside.  Fortunately, another teacher was out there and she took care of them.  They missed their moms.  I wasn't really hard on them at all because it's hard to be a six year old taken away from mommy for five days a week!  (This is a boarding school -- remember?)  I felt terrible for them, but really, I didn't have any control whatsoever of the class when they were in there, basically.

I also had a girl in my class eat her ink pen.   Yep, you read that right.  She ATE her pen!  I just looked over and she had blue all over her face and dripping out of her mouth.  What the heck!?  I'm aware ink is supposed to be poisonous, but I also know that I ate ink when I was in second grade and I'm still alive.  Although it did scare me at the time when I finally did learn it was poisonous.  The girl is still alive too, for the record.

We wanted to go to Pizza Hut last night, but were too embarrassed to ask Daisy for the address since this would have been our third time in two weeks.  So we resorted to asking the 13 year old students to write down "Pizza Hut" in Chinese on a piece of paper so we could give it to the cab driver who would, hopefully, take us there.  We trusted that the students translated it accurately (and didn't play a practical joke on us!) -- and apparently they were good, because we made it there all by ourselves.  Yep, we're basically awesome!

I love that the Google Chrome  browser has a "translate" button.  I think that alone has converted me to Chrome as my browser. 

Due to the squatters here... I've had more conversations on bathroom habits in the last few weeks than I think I've ever had in my entire life!   (Hint:  squatters aren't people who live where they shouldn't... squatting has to do with the fact that bathrooms here don't have toilets, but rather have a single drain hole in the middle of the bathroom's tile floor.  Squatting.  Enough said.)

But still, I've learned a lot comparing the way I use these toilets compared to how others get along with them.  Again, enough said.

Other cultural "shocks" that aren't shocking to me anymore: 
 
Random explosions on the street are basically normal here.   For real.

So are groups of random policemen marching around randomly and practicing their formations or whatever it is they do. 

We've also seen all kind of kites on the square in the city, and at night they're decorated with lights.  Just beautiful! 

People honk their horns all the time and are just generally loud. 

Old people sit around and play card and board games in the streets. 

People go on walks in the morning, clapping their hands together every few steps.  I have no clue what they're doing. 

There's this one guy who stands outside all day (at least, he's there in the morning on my way to school, and he's always there at night when I come home) playing with this yellow "juggling' type thing.  It's like a yellow disc on a string that he swings around.   Kind of a horizontal yo-yo I guess.

The weird things about this place are beginning to feel normal.

The only thing that isn't is the food.  It's only gotten worse.  It is getting harder and harder to put things in my mouth that my body says, "Uh, no, that doesn't go in here.  Keep it out!"  Not only do I not recognize the PARTS of the animals I'm eating, I don't even recognize what kind of animal it is that the parts came from.   

Except that we had chicken legs for dinner tonight!  The first familiar thing I've had since I arrived!  And I ate six (6!) of them.  I would have eaten even more, but I felt like people were already staring.

 Don't get me wrong, though.  I love it here.  I really, really do!

China Journal Post 13 - Beijing Photos Set II

Here is the Forbidden City from the top of the hill where the Buddha statue was.  It’s seriously enormous!  We walked from one end to the other.

 

 

And the picture below you may have seen on a post below.  This is Saebra and I eating our ice pops in the Forbidden City.  They were banana flavored, sort of, and only cost 1 yuan which is less than 20 cents!  I didn’t particularly like them, but I have forced myself to at least taste every new food that comes my way on this trip (unless is has tentacles or eyeballs).

 

 

I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the English translations here.  I’ve seen signs on the road that warn not to follow too “clowsely” and even a T-shirt that read “Knowledge likes pants… invisible, but very important.”  I still regret not buying that T-shirt, actually!

But the translations in the museum drove me crazy.  It would have a jar with decorations of dragons on it and the translation would say “Ancient jar with dragon decorations.”  Just look at this Yellow flag with clouds above.  And the English translation?  “Yellow Flag with Colorful Clouds.”  Yeah.  Thanks for that.  I couldn’t tell.  To be honest, I really am grateful that they even bother with English in the first place.

This next picture was taken in the gardens part of the Forbidden City.  I love the sign.  In case you can’t see, it says, “Perilous hills, no climbing please!”

 

Here’s another view of those “perilous hills.”

 

It was certainly an exhausting, yet wonderful first day.  We closed it by going out to dinner at a fancy-ish restaurant.  This is Sabrina trying desperately to grab some fries with her chopsticks.  The ladies that the table behind her actually got up and “helped” teach her how to go about it.  Everything else on the table really was legitimate Chinese food, though.

 

 

Saebra and I tried to stay up, but I’m pretty sure I fell asleep around 8 or 9 that night.  It was certainly a rough day, but I enjoyed every minute of it.  In fact, I can probably say that about my whole trip up til now.  It’s been rough.  But I’ve been enjoying almost every minute of it!  I am so grateful for this experience.  I’m on top of the world delighted that everything has gone so smoothly for me.  I couldn’t be happier or more excited for what these next few months have in store.  Of course, I’m scared too.  But I’ll take the fear and the troubles if it means this much happiness and excitement in the end!

 

 

China Journal Post 12 - Beijing Photos

Here are just some more random photos I took.

These guys seriously need to work on their rock art work.  These are supposed to be animals, I think.

The picture below is just inside the Forbidden City.

 

Below is a view from the Forbidden City towards the hill we climbed.  That pavilion thing at the top is where the Buddha statue is (no pictures of the statue we allowed). 

Below is Elizabeth and I… with a door.  It’s a cool door, okay?  Notice the “threshold” by our feet.  It’s said in Chinese culture that if you go to Hell when you die, you come back as a ghost to haunt this world.  So, when you die, they tie your feet together.  Then they build doors with this threshold thinking that you can’t jump over them as a ghost with your feet tied together.  So when you see these step things, you know that only good things are able to get inside.  Girls are supposed to step over them right foot first.  Boys use the left.  We asked why and the answer was simply, “tradition.”

 Then "Fiddler on the Roof" got stuck in my head.

China Journal Post 11 - Arrival in Beijing

We got in around 10:30 at night.  During the drive to our hostel I was introduced to the severe lack of a driving system in Beijing.  If I wasn’t so tired I probably would have been frightened.  Three lane roads turn into four lane roads, magically.  Lines on the road are more guidelines than actual rules.  Blinkers and signals are just pretty lights for decoration.  And the horn is a fun musical instrument!

We arrived, in one piece, to our hostel where I was pleasantly surprised by our room (which had a Western toilet!).  And very nice beds. Well, they actually felt like wooden planks, but it felt great after thirteen hours on a plane!  The view out our window wasn’t exactly glamorous, but hey!  It’s a hostel!  I also got to finally meet Saebra, the girl with whom I’ll be spending the next four months teaching English with. (Yes, I am aware I just ended a sentence with a preposition… I’m teaching spoken English, not grammatical stuff!)

 

 

We went straight to sleep, of course.  We were to begin at Tiananmen Square bright and early the next morning at 7:45am.  It sounds early, but I was bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5am.  Since we had time, we decided to run to the shop across the street where they told us the night before we could buy water! 

 

 

Looks like a pretty normal/cute little shop right?  Well, we went inside, and just as I was going to ask the lady for some shui (water), I heard a grunting just next to me.  There was a naked man sleeping on a bed inside the shop!  I don’t even know which part of that to not italicize!  (PS, look carefully through the window to the right and you’ll see him.  And this picture was taken days later!)  Yep, what a good welcome to China!  ACK! (I left this picture big for your enjoyment)

Well, we did buy our water.  And water is surprisingly cheap here.  Only 4 yuan for a big bottle (you can see them on the ground to the left).  That’s less than a dollar! 

 Then we continued on to Tiananmen!  And the Chinese History Museum (I don’t remember the exact name of it, but all those “National History Museums” basically have the same name).  And we visited the Forbidden City and after that, those who wanted to (which included myself along with my aching tired feet) could climb the hill/mountain to view the Forbidden City from above and see a giant golden Buddha.

 

 

The picture above is me in Tiananmen Square.  Behind me is the entrance to the Forbidden City.  Note the sky.  And the solid gray color.  The smog in Beijing is disgusting.  Always just a solid gray sky.  No clouds.  No bright sunlight.  Just gray.  It’s not always overcast in Beijing as some will tell you.  It’s just smoggy.

China Journal Post 10 - The Flight Over

Remember, these posts are being made by my dad, from material I (Dianna) send him.  He has a tendency to ad lib a bit, too, and since I can't access Blogger from China, I can't edit or censor his, um, poetic license.

You know that saying, a picture is worth a thousand words?  Well… I could easily write a thousand words about each of the pictures I’ve taken here.  And then some!  There is just so much amazing stuff here! I’ll try to keep things interesting to read, but I just want to document everything, even if it’s just for my future self.  I never want to forget the amazing things I’m doing and seeing here.  That said, I will begin.

The thirteen hour flight was very long, obviously.  But very fancy.  I had my own private entertainment center.  This little doohickey had numerous movies and TV Shows to choose from, games to play, and an up to date forecast of how our trip was going. This was particularly nice because despite most everyone in the group flying on the same plane, our seats were not together.

Nearer the end of the flight, I suddenly smelled something horrible.  It smelled as if the guy next to me just had terrible breath and just breathed my way.  Disgusted, I looked away and tried to hold my nose until the smell passed.  Unfortunately, it didn’t.  Moment later I discovered that that horrible smell was to be our dinner.

The food hasn’t improved since.

Yes, I’ll admit.  The food has easily been the worst culture shock I’ve encountered here.  I’d almost say it’s the only one that’s really affected me for bad.  But that’s a different rant for a different time.

China Journal Post 9 -- Local practices

Everywhere we go, it seems that the local people want to take our picture.  I didn't get why people wanted to take our pictures.  Brad asked, and the Chinese people responded with, "Yes, we see white people a lot, but never this pretty!"  Not sure what that meant.

And about the food, yes.  I've been perfect at actually trying to, at the very least, taste a bite of every single thing.  Even the pig's foot!  And a lot of random unidentified meats they shove my direction.  Although I do make Saebra taste stuff first, usually.  They don't refrigerate milk or eggs here.  The first time I tried milk, I found lots of little chunks in it -- which freaked me out (even though they were supposed to be there, apparently).  I won't be drinking milk anymore.  Plus I don't trust the fresh veggies ... and I can't find frozen or canned.

I may end up losing a lot of weight before this trip is over.

China Journal Post 8 - Day Before Classes Start

Classes start tomorrow.  Tomorrow’s gonna be fun, I can tell!

In less crazy news, I met several of mystudents today and I just LOVE them. They are so little and adorable. I was the only one brave enough to teach elementary school, so I have all students 1-4 years.  Kammi has the 5th and 6th.  Adam has part of 6th and all of 7th, and Saebra has all the 8th graders.  It was funny when they handed us the curriculum books (we’re not teaching out of them, but they just wanted us to know what the kids are learning in their English classes).  Kammi, Adam, and Saebra each got one book.

And then there was me. I got three packages of books complete with toys, DVDs, cassette tapes,and little cardboard cut outs.  So funny!

The Primary English teacher went over them with me, or at least tried to.  But she doesn't really speak English, so we had Daisy translate.  I feel bad that even some of the English teachers don't really speak English that well...  I guess that's another reason why I'm here!

Mom, I was looking through one of the books and they have an entire lesson on saying, "I've got" and "You've got" and it just made me laugh and think of how you said you hate the word "got."

China Journal Post 7 -- Playing Games

You see adults playing games here more often than the children.  The kids in China have it very, very rough.  They are in school or have other responsibilities literally from 6am til 10pm sometimes.  They warned us that our biggest problem with misbehavior would be students trying to do another classes homework in your class because they just have so darn much of it!  (Thank goodness they don't expect foreign teachers to ever assign homework; I'd just feel terrible adding to that load)

Anyway, people are always playing badminton or card games or whatever this sport is.  I kept calling it hacky-sack, but it's obviously not a real hacky-sack.  Meh.  Whatever.  Also, oddly enough, this picture was taken in the Summer Palace.  They paid 10 yuan to get in here, and then all they do is play this game?  Weird... but there were several groups doing it.  And yes, the white guy(s) in this picture are people from our group who joined in.  The Chinese people LOVE it!

China Journal Post 6 -- Settling In...

Beijing was incredible!  Words can't even describe. 

People here really do spit everywhere.  They also pick their noses.  No shame here... none.

 They also stare at us, all the time.  White people really stick out.  We even had people ask to take pictures with us.  That mostly just happened in Beijing though, not so much here in Guiyang.

Babies here don't wear diapers.  They just have slits in the bottoms of their panties and go when they go.  Kids pee in the streets.  Again, no shame.

But really quick I just wanted to fill you in about my city, Guiyang.  Foreign teachers really are treated like gold here.  We had three people pick us up at the airport with a sign that read, "Jean Forham and Ann Muller"  (our middle names, and both were misspelled).  One to drive, one to interpret/translate and one to help carry bags. 

We drove all the way to our apartment building and found out that we're teaching at a private boarding school, full of well-to-do kids and also ones from the poor families who are the smartest ones who took piles of tests... five year olds who had to take tests to get in! 

We live on the 9th floor of a high rise apartment complex and we not only have a Western toilet, but two balconies and a washing machine!  (Um, no dryer, of course, and also no oven, A/C, or heating, but still!) 

It's an extremely prestigious school, and I'm very excited and extremely nervous to begin.
Tomorrow morning we have a meeting with both Headmasters and the other English teachers.  They are "interested in our ideas for American ways of getting the students to retain information."  Yeah... no pressure...  I said repetition, but apparently they want more than that.

Well, more later.  We don't have unlimited reliable internet yet, and even if we did, we don't have a lot of time for social networking.