SUNDAY SNAPSHOT

Merry Christmas!

I miss being home for Christmas, yet I was still filled me with joy as I celebrated with friends over here. I spent it with the other foreign teachers at my university and some other close foreign and Chinese friends. We went to a wonderful dinner at noon the Shangri La Hotel and then walked along the banks of the frozen Songhua River.


On the banks of the Songhua River.


Me and my friend, a student from Canada, ON the frozen Songhua River.

COOKIES, CARDS, & CAROLS

So... my apartment is a mess of card clippings, sugar, flour, and chocolate, and things are really hectic with planning finals, grading, teaching. But, since I don't have a class to teach tomorrow morning, I thought I'd share with you all a little bit of the fun that I've been having in the midst of all this busyness.

I've been throwing Christmas cookies, cards, and carols parties for my students last week and this week. ... Right now I've had 5 groups of 11 over (on 5 different nights). I've got 6 more parties to have before next week.

Here some students in the process of making and decorating cookies:

You can hear one student, frustrated with sticky icing, saying (in Chinese), "Chopsticks are better." ... Chopsticks actually do work well for icing cookies! We tried it last night.

Most have my students have never baked before, or cooked very much for that matter, but the cookies have turned out very well! As you can see from the picture.

Before we eat them, we must take a photo!

And this is what it look like 3 minutes later:


And now it's time once again to clean up. ... I guess I'll just HAVE to lick all the spoons covered in chocolate.

p.s. Is it just me, or was the turn-around between Thanksgiving and Christmas abnormally fast? I really feel like Christmas has snuck up on us this year!

SUNDAY SNAPSHOT

Before Thanksgiving, I had one of my smaller classes (this class actually started at 30 something, but is now down to 8 because it is an ungraded course) over to my apartment to bake apple pie and apple turnovers.

Some reactions to apple pie: "It's so big!" "It's sort of like making a dumpling." (referring to the apple turnover) and of course... "Mmmmmmm."

And no, I have not forgotten about the turkey story yet. I don't think I'll be able to write it up until after the holidays though. These next two weeks are going to be a whirlwind of baking cookies, having parties with students, teaching, writing my finals and giving them. I'll be done with the majority of my classes on the 23rd, but I give one final on January 2nd.

I can't believe it's already December. Oh, and yah, it's cold here. Last Friday, the high temperature was 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-18 Celsius). Today it warmed up to 20, and it felt good. ... It's not even winter yet though. ... and I think the sun went down at 3:30 today. ... I sorta like the cold though, when you're wrapped up in layers and your down coat, you feel cozy. I'll post a picture soon of what I normally look like when I go outside.

SUNDAY SNAPSHOT

It's hard to find turkey in China ... so when some other teachers and I happened to spot 4 live turkeys near our favorite Korean restaurant, we asked the man who owned them if he'd sell one to us. He said they were his pets, but that he would sell. (I think he was really being a smart entrepreneur.)

We had to chop the turkey into pieces to fit it into our mini-ovens. Here's a picture of my team with the turkey re-assembled. (You can also see it on my blog.) Let's just say it was quite an adventure ... i'll post a full story when I get the chance!

I'm thankful for all of you, and for turkeys!

SUNDAY SNAPSHOT

Harbin has the most of these kinds of buildings out of any other city in China, so I've heard.

"YOU SHOULD WEAR MORE CLOTHES"

Recently, I've had a few students and friends tell me "You should put on more clothes." No, I am not dressing indecently! It is probably the first thing you'd think of if someone said that to you in America, but here in China I know that is not what they mean. They are merely expressing their concern for me and my health.

One text message I got said: "the weather forecast reported that it will reduce the temperature recently. so put on more clothes. please." She's so sweet! And tonight, a girl was walking with me back to my apartment from English Corner (a club for speaking English) and told me, as we both shivered against the wind, "You should wear more clothes." I kindly replied to her "You should wear more clothes too!" "Oh, yes, I will," she replied. ... I will, too, though right now I'm holding off on the down coat. 30 degrees seems balmy when compared to what it's going to be later on this winter!

FIRST SNOWFLAKES!

Today it suddenly turned cold. Well, not exactly suddenly. Yesterday, after having 70-degree weather for two days straight, a big rain and wind storm blew this cold-front (or should I say, season) in. I was beginning to get worried that global warming would keep the cold away this year! And today, as I was walking to class, through the wind, my eyes caught a glimpse of little white things swirling with the yellow leaves .... snowflakes!

The heat in my apartment has come on just in time! It was turned on two days ago. So things are nice and toasty inside.

I stayed warm today by eating a big meal of traditional north-east Chinese food with five of my freshmen students. One of the homework assignments that I've assigned my freshmen is to have lunch with me. Despite my insisting that we would follow American customs and "go dutch," each pay for our own meal, these girls somehow ended up paying for me. It's the Chinese custom, they insisted. To this I replied, "next time we'll have to 'go dutch,' I insist." Or maybe next time I will pay.

I also stayed warm today by making a batch of oatmeal-chocolate-almond-butterless (butter is expensive here) cookies for some students that were coming over to visit the foreign teachers this evening. One of the students came an hour early, so I invited her in to help me bake/experiment. I say experiment because I was not exactly following a recipe, and when baking cookies on cake pans in a tiny oven that is partially broken, you can never be certain of your results. But, they must have turned out well since they are now all gone!

Oh, and of course, I stayed warm by teaching (I usually work up a bit of a sweat with all the moving around the classroom, calling on students, writing on the board, etc.) both in the morning, a class of 20 freshmen english majors, and this afternoon, a class of 50 non-english majors.

So though it was a cold and windy day outside, my day was full of warmth.

SIGHTS: ST. SOPHIA

AND THE TOTAL IS .... 238!

That's the total number of students that I teach. That's also the reason I haven't posted for the past two weeks.

238 doesn't seem that big in comparison to what I know some teachers have had to teach ... but it sure makes it hard to remember your student's names or pick them out of the crowd. I think I'll just assume that if a student says hi to me on the street, I probably teach them.

I teach three kinds of classes. One is for freshmen English majors, one is for upperclassmen who have elected English as their second major, and the last type is for anyone who wants to take an English "training class" with a foreign teacher and this last one is ungraded.

I sorta feel like the freshman course is my main focus. It's the one that I have to do the most planning for, and I am the sole teacher for this course. There are four classes of it total, and each class sees me once a week. Below is a picture of one of my classes. As you can see, these classes are a good size, I feel like it's actually possible for me to get to know four groups of twenty students. (The classroom was already decorated like this when I started.)



The classroom for this course is on the seventh floor of this building. It's huge, isn't it!?!?



Luckily, there are two elevators. Otherwise, it would take me probably ten minutes to climb the stairs and walk down the long hall way to get to my classroom. Almost every time I ride the elevator, it's always a guessing game about how many people and how much weight it will hold. Don't worry too much though ... it comes equipped with a sensor that tells you when it's over weight and it won't go until someone gets off. ... But maybe you should worry a bit, since one of the other teachers said that some of her students got stuck in the elevator last week and had to climb out. I think it was the one of the left, so I've been trying to take the one on the right.

I don't have to ride the elevator for my other courses ... there isn't one in that building. I actually like climbing the stairs to the fifth and sixth floor, where those classes meet - it'll help me keep in shape when the weather turns cold and we can't go out as much.

There are only two classes of second majors; I teach one, and one of the other American teachers teaches the other. It's a bigger group, of 40 plus students, and harder to keep track of, since some have been switching which day they come to the class.

The training classes just started last week, and though these were huge classes (40 one day, 42 the next) they were actually quite enjoyable. They're so much more relaxed than my freshman ... I suppose that's because they're not being graded. They're actually more willing to ask questions and speak up.

I'm quickly adjusting to the routine for lesson planning and teaching. I planned my lesson for the freshman class this week on Saturday. Tomorrow I'll pull together the things for the second majors and the training class.

I hope that I can quickly adjust to having 238 students, too!

FOOD TV: MOON CAKES!

NEW FRIENDS

Two posts in one day! This will not be a usual thing once classes begin next week.

This morning I finished the majority of things I have to do for lesson planning for next week. So, having reached that goal I decided I wanted to explore the city some. I was chatting with two of the other American teachers here and somehow knitting came up. One of them mentioned that she knew of a yarn market, but had never been. I brought my own knitting needles here to China (I love to knit, mittens especially), but didn't bring any yarn since I knew I could buy it here ... so when she mentioned a yarn market I jumped at the chance to go!

After lunch and a 15 minute cab ride we entered a building that had a couple of signs in Chinese and bad English (i.e. Knttng Marker) pointing to the fourth floor. We climbed the stairs and found stalls and stalls of yarn, pre-made sweaters of all styles, and lots of good thick long underwear! After wandering for a bit, we settled on a stall that had a good selection of yarn and a young woman working there. She was extremely helpful and patient, especially when I tried to explain to her in my broken Chinese that I had no idea how much of the yarn that I had picked out I wanted to buy, but I wanted to make (insert an action for "mittens")and how much did she think I needed? After I settled on 8 liang (a Chinese measure of weight), I asked if she had a business card, that way I could come back when I wanted to buy more yarn. She didn't have a card, but offered to exchange cell phone numbers, so that way if I return and couldn't find her, I could just call her! We parted as "new friends" 新朋友.

This little story is all to say two things: I'm finding people here to be very friendly, and relationships are extremely important in this culture. To get things done, even the simplest of things, it's always best to do it through people you know.

ALSO ABOUT NATIONAL DAY...

Last Saturday, the government of Heilongjiang province hosted a banquet for all the foreign workers and students in the province. I can't believe I forgot to post a story about this earlier! Here's a synopsis now:



The banquet was in one of the best (probably THE best) hotels in the city, you can see from the photos it was quite luxurious! One of the top three leaders of the Heilongjiang government gave a speech, which was also translated into English. The other American teachers from my school and I had arrived shortly before the speech, and we were standing fairly close to the platform, unaware that a speech was soon to be given. During the speech the cameras you see in this picture turned around and go our picture. ... So I may or may not have already been on Chinese TV! At the time, the other teachers and I thought to look in the local paper the next day... but sadly we forgot.



And since I know some of my readership is interested in what food I'm eating over here... here's a snapshot of the buffet! Just to clarify: this was only a one-time thing. Maybe it'll happen again next year? But who knows if my school will attend. They didn't last year, I guess I just lucked out this year!

HAPPY NATIONAL DAY!

Today was China's National Day, the day that marks and celebrates the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st, 1949. This is the second National Day that I've in China for, and I can't help but notice a sharp contrast between the two experiences.

On October 1, 2005, I was a couple weeks into my first trip to China and had only studied Chinese for about a year. Since we had the day off classes (or maybe it was a weekend, I don't really remember) my classmates and I thought it'd be a good idea to tour one of the parks in Beijing, go out to eat at a nice restaurant, and visit Tian'anmen square at night. It was so busy that day in Beijing that when we were trying to get from the park to the restaurant, we couldn't find a real taxi and had to squeeze into the back of a pedicab (a seat built onto the back of a motorcycle/tricycle). And then visiting Tian'anmen at night, I don't think I'd ever seen such a huge place so packed and so noisy with people!

Today, October 1, 2008, was probably one of the quietest day I've ever had in China. I stayed on my university's campus, here in Harbin, while it seems that most everyone else, students, and other teachers, have gone home or elsewhere. There were plenty of other people out and about when I took a walk through the forest near my campus, but things just felt quieter. Maybe it felt quieter today, too, because there wasn't a high school sports competition and marching exercises on the track and field stadium that's next to my apartment at 6:50 AM to wake me up (the past two days before this there was).

Knowing that quiet is hard to find in this place, and remember my first National Day experience (which was a fun adventure, but also quite tiring), I decided not to venture far away from campus today. Rather, I stayed near home and began planning my lessons! Countdown until first class: 5 days!!! I think I'll be really eager to teach then ... having this week the prep has been good, but waiting also makes me more anxious about the first class.

SNAPSHOTS

I'M IN HARBIN

I made it to Harbin yesterday around 2:30 PM. It was a nice, short 2 hr flight from Beijing. My teammates (the other three American teachers at my university) met me at the airport along with a driver from the school and the man who takes care of our housing.

I sorta like being on jet-lag. I woke up at 5:30 AM this morning and was very productive rearranging my room and unpacking my suitcases, though I already broke something :( ... but it's fixable.

Today I'll be getting things for my apartment and settling in. Later tonight I get to go judge a speech competition with the other American teachers! We have no clue how to judge it, but it should be fun. I'm excited to meet some of the students here, too!

I'll post pictures of my place and the campus later when I get the internet on my own computer set up.

<3

MOVING DAY(S)

So today is(are) my travel day(s). Hopefully, if all goes as planned, my luggage and I will land in China sometime on the 25th! All my luggage weighs as much as I do, but I guess that's what happens when you're moving continents to a place where you have to wear lots of sweaters.

I think I figured out that I'm losing a day (most of the 24th at least) but I'm gaining a year! In China, when you're born, you are considered a one year old. Therefore, when I set foot in China, I will be one year older, but I will have lost a day in transit. My brain hurts when I think about it.

Here's a few photos of where I've been for the past month. Looks pleasant, but you can't stay outside too long or else you'll be baked in the 100 degree weather. It's made me look forward to fall in Harbin even more.

Mountains without trees! They look so bare!

What am I doing here? This landscape is even more foreign to me than China.

This is actually what I've seen daily: the well-watered desert outside our hotel/home. And beautiful fruit trees by the side of the road!

... And coming soon: Photos from my new home in Harbin.

STILL STATESIDE, BUT NOT FOR LONG!!!

So it feels like I've been in California forever ... but tomorrow I fly to China!!! Can't believe I'm actually going. I think it feels more surreal now then it did when I left home.

WHERE I AM...

IN ABOUT FORTY-FIVE DAYS I'LL BE HERE:

It looks really far north, but in actuality it's at just about the same latitude as New Hampshire where I spent my last four years.

But before I go here, I'll be spending a month near Palm Springs, California taking classes to prepare me for my job: teaching English to university students in China!