Sunday, June 29, 2008

little raisin

Our last party of the year finished an hour ago. The occasion was for Sarah's birthday, but it ended up being a zombie theme party, largely in part due to lots of recent talk about zombies and the undead - I've been reading a lot of the Zombie Survival Guide for one reason or the other. It's also been interesting comparing the differences between Chinese zombies and Western zombies. As if there weren't many cultural differences already present, our conceptions of zombies are also quite dissimilar. The Chinese zombie (jiang shi) has red eyes and doesn't walk but jumps upwards of five meters in order to travel, and holds its arms straight out perpindicular to the body. The word "zombie" doesn't translate that well either, as in most dictionaries its listed as "ma mu bu ren de ren" which means someone who is apathetic and uncaring, but has nothing to do with being risen from the dead. And by the way.... -> No, not all we do is party in Nanchong. And when we do party, it's a cultural exchange; the goal is not to get inebriated. We invite all the Chinese people we can. People who can't speak English are encouraged to come. No one is ever denied admission, even if they don't have a costume. At our last party we raised 400 yuan for the earthquake disaster relief. <-

Anyway, I dressed up in my old security guard outfit that I don't think I've worn since '06. Coincidentally, the first Peace Corps party thrown in Nanchong was a Halloween party that Sarah and I organized. I wore the guard outfit then as well. It's strange how it all comes full circle. Not many people came to the party unfortunately. It was organized more or less last minute, and all of my students were either busy studying for exams or had already left. Li Jia Li also had to study, but stopped by for ten minutes or so to say hello.

The previous week, I visited Xi Chong with Sarah at the request of a student of mine, Mariska. Mariska called me and asked me to find a foreigner who could teach an oral English class at her parent's summer school for one week. I told her I would try, and when I wasn't able to find one, I said I would do it, and being the super Peace Corps volunteer team we are, I invited Sarah to come along. The road leading to Xi Chong is largely unpaved and large sections of the road are under heavy construction. Traveling in Mariska's father's rickety van took more time than it should have, because going fast just meant hitting the pot holes and loose rocks with more speed. Finally Sarah and I got there after around an hour and a half of bumping up and down and were immediately escorted in through the front door of the classroom to an uproarious applause from 25 middle school students.

We hadn't really prepared much in terms of teaching content, but then again, it's much easier to teach kids than it is to teach college students. The level of English proficiency is higher at a university as opposed to a primary school. Naturally its rewarding when a teacher can have a dialogue with a student about something a tad bit more relevant than numbers or greetings. In return, however, it takes more time to create ideas for such classes, especially when the number of students exceeds 40. For me it was actually a relief as a change of pace to be able to go to a new classroom with new students and be able to use material that would not necessarily be intellectually challenging but stimulating simply because it was fun.

It was difficult getting into teaching mode after getting out of the car. I had initially expected a short walk to the school and then a brief chat with another teacher perhaps followed by lunch and then our class time. What happened was the van door was opened, Sarah and I were herded out and paraded into the classroom where the students were already waiting for us. As the classroom was one room and open to the outside street, we had barely a few seconds to murmur our plans as we stood in the front of the class. We went with "Simon Says" for our first activity, then taught and sang "If you're happy and you know it".

Mariska had said that the English level of the students was quite low, some not even knowing the ABCs, but in fact most already knew the body parts we were teaching them for Simon Says. The more difficult vocabulary we taught them were "feet" (as opposed to foot which they knew) and "eyebrow". It was a good thing Mariska was there with us because as good as Sarah and my Chinese is, it would take a long time to explain how to play Simon Says in Chinese. Mariska more or less acted as our teaching assistant/translator as Sarah and I explained directions in English and had her say them to the students.

After class was over, Sarah and I went with Mariska, her parents, and another owner of the summer school to eat lunch at an upscale restaurant nearby where we had just taught. We were offered remuneration for coming out to Xi Chong and having the class, but being Peace Corps volunteers we politely declined and explained that as volunteers we can't accept money for something like this. I suggested giving the money intended for us instead to the earthquake relief, and I can only hope that it will be used as such, but in all likelihood it probably will just be pocketed.

Mariska wanted to take us around Xi Chong city, with a population of ~600,000, and show us some "beautiful sites". Sarah and I both agreed and we walked around the enormous square, saw a local high school, and then walked to Mariska's home. It was a nice house within a primary school campus. It was actually one of the most comfortable Chinese homes I had ever been inside. Almost everything was made from wood, including the walls and cabinets. The sofas were soft and plush, and after having ganbei'd several times at lunch, it wasn't difficult at all to fall asleep and take a nap. We ended up playing many games of Dou Di Zhu before deciding to head back to Nanchong. Mariska's mother had offered us a place to stay for the night and suggested we go back to Nanchong the following morning, but we had to return (for something very important) that evening.

On the way to the bus station in Xi Chong, I managed to again leave my phone in a taxi. I now lay to rest the fourth phone I have purchased over the past two years here in China. The taxi we were all in was such shit too, the door wouldn't close, it had no rear view mirrors, and the springs were popping out of the backseat cushions. The driver was a real asshole, too, and asked Sarah and me for money, even though Mariska was paying, when he refused to give us change for a 50 kuai bill. No wonder when I left the cab and got on the bus and realized my phone was gone, it had already been turned off (presumedly by the cab driver) in order to prevent myself or a friend from calling it. Asshole... It's not even the phone that matters, it was really the phone numbers that the phone had inside. I lost a few contacts that I'll have to wait for them to get in touch with me before I can call them back.

The real problem was getting a new cell card with my old phone number. Thankfully when you lose a cell phone the thief will just sell the phone and trash the cell card. In Chile when I lost my phone and got my old number back, people continually called me thinking they were going to get in touch with whomever had stolen my phone. Because my phone card was opened by a student of mine from two years ago, I had to get in touch with her and prove that I was indeed the owner of my phone card and not a crazy foreigner who likes to steal girls' phone numbers. Forget the fact that I was able to supply the last numbers dialed from the phone and times, China Mobile required me to get the ID number of the student who opened the account for me. Also forget the fact that for some reason when I lost my phone the previous three times I never had to get in touch with the student. In the end I tracked her down and got my phone number back. All is well.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Google

Talking to some students about Bush the other day. Someone had a joke book with some good Bush jokes in it.

Wasting time on YouTube.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABli2MT3-r8&feature=related
I think is my favorite.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

formal party

The formal party was a huge success. In all we raised nearly 400 kuai for the earthquake relief efforts. I was initially worried that the party would be misinterpreted by colleagues or other Chinese people living in my building given that the previous week extracurricular activities were canceled schoolwide and three days of national mourning were in effect. We Nanchongren organized a schedule of activities for the party in which we'd be raising money and entertaining at the same time.

Here's how it went down:
7:45 - Moment of silence followed by candle lighting
8:00 - Start of sale of tickets for raffle and candy giveaway. Raffle for two CDs. Candy giveaway entailed people guessing how many candies were in a plastic bear jar. Closest person won. Raffle and candy giveaway tickets were each one yuan.
8:30 - Raffle giveaway. Loopy and Jason each won
9:00 - Candy giveaway announcement. Total number of candies was 51. The candy was split between two people, one of whom guessed 50 and the other 52. The extra candy was given to the person who guessed the furthest from the actual number, one of my students, Peggy; a guess of 140.
9:30 - Magic trick. I rocked the floating cigarette. If you're curious what the floating cigarette is, check my youtube for a practice show before I did the real thing. It's not an easy trick, and there are still some fine points I'm honing, but I think the overall reception was good. A few of my students asked me why I don't teach them this in class. Some of Durf's students were unimpressed, however.
9:35 - Fashion show. Guys and girls walk down the dance floor to music and strut their best moves. Congrats to Bo Tao and Sarah, winners of the male and female parts respectively.
10:30 - Announcement of the final money count ~ 400 yuan.
10:45 - Departure to roof to light fireworks. The blasts were so loud that car alarms on the ground floor were set off.
11:00 - Departure to Tian Shang for post party.

Great night... Oh, and who made such a cool invitation for the party? I do that for free, too. Anyone need an invitation made?