Day in pictures

I still haven't become brave enough to take photos of everyday people and scenes around Jinan. I tell Josh its because I am trying to blend in. "If I take out my camera, people will know I am not from around here." He doesn't buy it. Truthfully, I am afraid of giving the impression that I have never seen poverty before and want photograph it for all my rich friends back home. I am not sure what you can officially call "poverty" and whats just considered uncomfortable by American standards.
I also have a new-found respect for privacy. It certainly is an experience to be stared at everywhere you go. People point you out to their friends and a whole group may turn around to look. Now, if I see a photo of Jennifer Aniston on the beach, I feel like I can relate to the lack of anonymity. Of course nobody knows anything about me, but they think they do. I don't like to go to the store in my sweats, and I am aware that people are watching what I pull off the shelves. A couple of weeks ago, I was in the checkout line at the supermarket and two men in line behind me were having a conversation about what was in my grocery cart. I knew thats what they were talking about because they were reaching over and pointing at items in my basket. I think its comical most of the time.
There is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed foriegn teacher who has been here for 2 or 3 years. She doesn't care for the pointing and staring so much and finds clever ways to show it. She points right back or looks behind herself with an over-the-top intrigued facial expression as if to say "what are you looking at? whats back there??" when she knows full well its her. I think thats funny too.
Maybe I should throw caution to the wind and give the attention right back by taking photos. They are already looking in my direction anyway. I just need to learn the Chinese for "Smile!". Nevertheless, here are a few more photos of Jinan taken carefully so as not to intrude on people.




Early morning walk to work.





Candied crab-apples for sale.





















Check out those electrical wires above the bikes. There are some you have to duck to get under. Thats not a bike store--just the "parking lot".

One more day of work until we are off for National Day holiday. Nine days off! We are heading out to the ocean-side city of Qingdao.

Mao meow

This little guy comes to check in on us once and a while. We have been told his name is Cocoa and he was fed by the woman who lived in this apartment last year. There are a lot of skinny cats like Cocoa that stalk around and make hideous noises in the night.
On Thursday night, Josh and I went to a restaurant that we really enjoy near the north gate of campus. It specializes in baozi (up until now, I had been spelling that 'joudza'--how it sounds, and how I thought you spelled it in pinyin) and something else that we call potstickers. They are larger dumplings that have been pan fried, so they are crunchy on the bottom. You dip baozi and potstickers (must learn Chinese name for those) into a sauce of minced garlic, vinegar and soy sauce. Delicious. We came home and watched The Polar Express. I couldn't fall asleep right away that night because I was convinced it was Christmas eve and I was so excited for morning to come. I kept telling myself the sooner I could fall asleep, the sooner Christmas would be here. That movie sure put me in the holiday spirit.
Friday's weather was stunning. The sky was blue, the air was crisp and refreshing (like Pepsi). Josh took me to Baotuquan Springs to walk around for the morning. It was enchanting! Afterward, we went to a Korean restaurant for lunch. They gave us a picture menu, so we pointed at a picture of sushi and at a picture of something that was a reddish brown pile of shredded meat/seafood. (?) It turned out to be shredded pork with veggies in an Indian curry sauce. An outstanding choice. The risk paid off.
We got home in time for a lesson with Sharon. Rumor had it that a foriegn teacher who just moved back to the USA left a great new bike in the shed. Sharon translated for Josh in order to explain to Ms. Liu that he wanted to trade his heavy old bike for the new one. He now floats through traffic and hops up onto curbs gracefully. At the moment, he can't get enough of riding that bike. Oh, and since the last time I wrote, we have mastered "couple riding" (not just for couples)--its not easy with tall people. As my brother would say, our CG is too high. Am I right, Jake? We also found out that its illegal to have two people on one bike. Hmm, you sure wouldn't know it looking around here. After Sharon left, we decorated our cabinets, doors and walls in the apartment with flashcards. Each one has a useful word or phrase that we are commited to learning. The idea is that before you can open the fridge/go to the bathroom/turn off the light/turn on the computer you have to practice the phrases taped to the door/wall/switch/monitor.
Friday night, we dined at the same restaurant again as part of an initiative to become regulars. This time, we went with Philip, the Australian, and Sean, Josh's friend from Michigan.
On Saturday, I paid an early visit to a nearby vegetable market while Josh was at work. We now have a fridge full of mung beans, soy beans, fresh tofu, slimey mushrooms, egg plant and cabbage.
We joined most of the other foriegn teachers for lunch at a 5 star hotel downtown. I think it may be a French chain called Sofitel or Accor. I have seen them in New Zealand and Europe. The setting was lavish, and the food was familiar. There were multiple salad, hot food and desert buffets with food from all around the world creatively displayed on serving platters. There was also Brazilian BBQ circulating and fresh squeezed juice to order. Naturally we ate four times as much as we needed to; it was all too irresistable----and outrageously expensive... by yuan earners' standards! I have been in China for one month and a $7 meal (58 yuan) raises my eyebrows. We walked home in order to downgrade from blimp-like to stuffed. The whole way
we groaned "Wo chi baole" (I am full) multiple times, amused that it was one of the 6 phrases we now know in Chinese.
Many of my students have requested that I spend some time talking about the life of an average American, so thats what I'll do for part of class this week. Mostly baseball, BBQ's, freedom of speech, and apple pie, right?

Oasis

A slice of heaven right in the middle of Jinan.

Current Condition

Temperature: 67° F/19° C with light showers















We went for a walk around campus and discovered this huge granite ball.

Kiwiana

This email from Claire pumped a healthy dose of New Zealand back into my blood. If you haven't been to NZ and you plan to go, my advice is to pack with the expectation that you may never want to return home.
In many ways I think New Zealand is the inverse of China. So far, I love them both.

"Saturday afternoon we went for a dive and Amie came and sat in the car round red rocks. I wasn't in for very long but it was so beautiful. The water was so clean and I saw a big stingray and a HUGE school of herring. Its the most magic feeling sitting in the middle of so many fish that aren't scared of you. Then we came home and went out for dinner at Cinta with a whole heap of people. Then we went to ,........FLY MY PRETTIES! Oh Bets, I wish you could have been there, It was everything and more. They sang some oldies and goodies but heaps of new songs, really great new songs. this girl Holly Smith, she stood out. Her voice is a mixture between Alicia Keys and Joss Stone but I would go as far as to say better. She writes amazing music and plays lots of instruments...my new NZ idol. ANyway, so I won't rub it in but it was great, it was the last night of the shows and they all got encored back on very loudly. Guess what they played? SInging in my Soul! It was so so so cool, with the guy with the lithp.And then they got encored back on again, and so the drums guy comes out and starts up this awesome beat, a few minutes later the bass comes out and joins him, and so on until they'll all back on playing this really funky tune which had the entired theatre up dancing (it was a sit down concert). Then they all slowly went back out in reverse order till it was just the bass and the drums and they had this massive jam session that just rocked. Finally, after ages they got really close to each other, looking really intense and found a beat and 'BANG: it was all over. Sigh, really great.
Now, what made the night cathartic is that we thought we were in the process of electing a National government. Amie was receiving texts every few minutes during the concert with the updates. Labour started out 11 points down but slowly slowly crawled back up. 90% of the vote was counted and we get a text 'sorry lv, looks like we've lost it.' Oh god, it was very depressing. Then next thing we here we're up 20,000 votes nationally which meant we'd won. AAAh, and Greens had scraped in with their 5%. So the night ended utterly victoriously, exept for the fact that there are still 218,000 special votes to be counted and the whole thing is soooooo close that those could change everything. We haven't sighed with relief yet but I must say, I felt so proud to be a NZer that night, after that concert. It was funny cause half way through the concert, one of the guys came out and updated us...he was like....Winston Peters is out In Tauranga......everyone erupted in applause. he then told us Labour was neck and neck and we erupted again.....he said 'sorry if you're a national supporter but hell, you're at a fly my pretties concert, what did you expect.' "

Taxi!

Late last night there was a loud and flashy thunderstorm! It was still going strong at 5:30am when I woke up this morning. I decided I would take a taxi to work and sleep in a little. At 7:15, I strolled out of the house with my Nature Conservancy umbrella displaying some great illustrations of wild-eyed birds! Taxis usually wait right outside the university gate, but today there wasn't a taxi in sight. I started to walk thinking I would encounter a taxi down the street. On any given day, when I am walking on the street, taxis will slow down and pull up beside me. I say "Bu yao" (don't want) and shake my hand, then off they go. I think they must assume foriegners don't like to walk. I can see where they get that idea; most of the foriegn teachers around here take a taxi if the journey is over a half mile. Most days, every taxi in a 50 meter radius from me slows down or stops until they are sure I am not looking for a ride. Anyway, as you can probably guess, today every taxi that drove past me--splashing gallons of gutter water up onto me-- was full! Before too long, I gathered that I would be travelling to the S. Campus on foot in about half the time that I usually give myself. Anyone who has moved on foot with me knows that I am no slow poke. My normal clip is a speedy 3.5 miles per hour. In order to make it to class on time, I knew I would have to step my canter up to a trot. I arrived to class five minutes late soaked to the bone! It made for an exciting story for the students and I was able to introduce vocabulary like "flustered", "soaked" and "splash".
Today, we integrated short class discussions about stereotypes with segments of a movie called Crash. I was really pleased because they liked to speak up about the topic of stereotypes, and ultimately I am here to faciliate the speaking of the English, so it felt like a successfull day of classes. They were very amused when I told them that a common stereotype of Chinese is that they all know martial arts, play violins, and are good at math! And I was rather shocked where I heard some of their stereotypes of Taiwainese and Japanese. The important thing is that we all agreed assuming makes an ass of you and me.
On the way home, I took a different bus that would deliver me to the Carrefour. We needed another weeks supply of tofu and I wanted to surprise Josh with some chocolate frosted donuts he was eyeing over the weekend. They even have sprinkles. Afterward, I discovered an enormous flower market. It was, needless to say, heavenly--and the best part: it smelled sensational! I think I may pay it a visit every other day. I came home with both fists full of flowers--some of which I will give Mei tonight for her birthday, and most of which I have arranged around the apartment. I imagine that if I had purchased that amount and those kinds of flowers in the US, it may have cost me near a hundred dollars. Here, I paid about $2.50---20 yuan. I really have to stop with the converting business and drill it into my head that my salary is yuan, not dollars!! In any case, they were well worth it. After I put some on the coffe table, I was inspired to take some updated photos of our living room.


















We get the China Daily every few days.


Mei's birthday dinner was lovely. Liam and Wong, the two students who showed us around Jinan when we arrived, came along. We ate sweet and sour chicken, oyster soup, and dozens of delicious joudza.

Mooncake!

Hmm, I think thats the red bean paste one. Above are corn, egg, and date. To borrow from Jake Burt--they are like thick fig newtons!

Confucious say...Happy Moon Festival

What a week this has been....la da da duh da da. Yesterday at 8:30am, I was one of 19 foriegn teachers ranging in age from 22-67 (and one son, aged 11) who boarded an air-conditioned bus. Destination: Qufu--the home of Confucious. Our guide, "Lucy" entertained us with jokes about stopping to use the "happy house" and informed us of Chinese family planning laws over a microphone on the 2 hour journey up. Our Chinese bus driver maneuvered the bus in such ways that demanded applause on several occasions. At one point, our lane ended with no warning. We had to reverse on a six lane motorway ---and we served as the warning for the oncoming traffic! Our driver then had to angle the bus through concrete blockades spaced about 12 ft apart dividing all three lanes on our side in order to get us into the middle lane. Not too slowly, but very surely we narrowly missed all concrete blockades as traffic inched up on the back of the bus. It was a very impressive move. In Qufu, we were quite the spectacle. I imagine the place attracts a lot of tourists, but this was the first time I had seen Kaleel and his Mom, Aneeka, who are African-American followed and asked many times to pose in photographs. They politley declined on all but one occasion when Kaleel had had quite enough and not-so-politely declined. I sure didn't blame him. He was stocked to a certain degree. I found it amusing that our group was more of an attraction to than the place itself according to some folks who watched us curiously. A couple of times, someone will come up very close and listen to your conversation. Maybe some folks are just that eager to learn English, I couldn't quite figure it out. I thought about switching into Spanish to through a curve-ball. Lucy told us snippits about Confucious' life. We visited his mansion, a beautiful forest, and his burial site. We had lunch in front of a stage at "the only 3 star hotel" in Qufu. On the stage, four beautiful Chinese women in costume danced and tip-toed around to loud music. Sadly, Josh had to work, but I brought him home this cultured and classy souvenir:




Today is the Moon festival, and we will celebrate later by sampling some mooncakes!
"The most famous legend surrounding the Moon festival concerns its possible role in Chinese history. Overrun by the Mongols in the thirteenth century, the Chinese threw off their oppressors in 1368 AD. It is said that mooncakes - which the Mongols did not eat - were the perfect vehicle for hiding and passing along plans for the rebellion. Families were instructed not to eat the mooncakes until the day of the moon festival, which is when the rebellion took place.
Today, Chinese people celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival with dances, feasting and moon gazing. Not to mention mooncakes. Roughly the size of a human palm, these mooncakes are quite filling, meant to be cut diagonally in quarters and passed around. A word of caution: the salty yolk in the middle, representing the full moon, is an acquired taste. More elaborate versions of mooncakes contain four egg yolks (representing the four phases of the moon). Besides lotus seed paste, other traditional fillings include red bean paste and black bean paste. Unfortunately for dieters, mooncakes are rather high in calories."
"...Mooncakes may be filled with everything from dates, nuts, and fruit to Chinese sausages. More exotic creations include green tea mooncakes, and ping pei or snowskin mooncakes, a Southeast Asian variation made with cooked glutinous rice flour. Haagen-Daz has even gotten into the act by introducing a line of ice cream mooncakes in Asian markets." That little tid bit of info came from http://chinesefood.about.com. So there you have it! We were given a box of mooncakes from the University. When Josh gets home from work, we will slice 'em up and have taste!

Josh rode to work this morning and I am anxious to hear how it went!! I'd say a third of the bikes rolling around here have two people on them. One person jogs along side for a few moments while the rider gets up a little speed, and then the jogger hops onto the back to ride side saddle with one hand on the riders stomach. Josh and I had many unsuccessful attempts at this. We wobbled and crashed like it was our job. It was a great laugh.

Qufu

At the mansion...

Mei in front of the main temple.


"Hello, hello...looka, looka!"








Taken moments before the flower lurched forward and bit the tip of my nose.






Whoops, camera is still in close up mode. Can you spot the bottomless pants? Her Mom was collecting empty water bottles.

Children playing near the burial site of Confucious.

English Corner

Yesterday evening, Josh and I met Karen and Mei for a long anticipated hike up Qianfo Shan (1000 Buddhas Mountain). It was a 30 minute of zigzagging up a mini-shan on sheer rock stairs with opportunities to buy a red wish ribbon (which you can see some of a photo) or eat some fried squid on a stick along the way. This was a special place, there were signs that said "Please no spitting, relieving yourself, or littering cigarette butts that are possibly lit". Once at the top, we had quite a view of both sides of Ji'nan (check out the photos in "1000 Buddha Mountain" entry). After the hike, we found a great restaurant. We have to learn the Chinese writing for 'bitter-melon' so that we NEVER order it again. Its like eating a leaf. We also discovered winter-melon last night, which was absolutley delicious.
While Josh was working this morning, I decided to go for a wander down some main streets I had never really explored. (Heping Lu and Whenwua Lu for Jake and Elizabeth). I was nearing a crowd, so decided to cross the street and see what the performance was. As I got closer, I heard a familiar language over the speakers...a familiar voice....Josh! There he was with a microphone participating in something called English corner. He was leading a whole crowd of children and onlooking parents in an activity called 'Making Rain'. Afterward, an American woman sang "If you are happy and know it" and then the the kids got a chance to go ask questions to their favorite English speaking celebrity. Josh, with his red and gold sash, was quickly surrounded. I wandered over to eavesdrop. "Do you like houses?" "Do you like music?" "Do you see a blue cat?" It was adorable.
Afterward we went out to lunch and had Sichuan hot pot. A woman brought out a black bag hung on a scale to show us that the fish we ordered weighed two kilograms. Our lunch was in the bag flopping and jerking around. He was shortly delivered to us in a bowl of boiling oil surrounded by mouthnumbing peppers and bean sprouts. Josh spent an hour on the hotpot carefully extracting a dozen tiny fish bones from his mouth after every bite. I trolled for bean sprouts. It was just too boney for me.
Tonight we are headed out for some Chinese Barbecue in the Muslim district with Harmony and Willacox. Harmony is from Southern California and Willa is from Canton. They are a fun, young couple that Josh and I have a lot in common with, so I really like getting together with them.

1000 Buddha Mountain

My blisters are all taped up. It still hurts too much to wear shoes.

That is in fact pollution, not fog. It doesn't look this bad when you are down in it.

There were hundreds of these red wish ribbons on every tree.

Many Americans are _______.

Well, whoever it was that said you can only accomplish one thing per day in China would've had to eat their words today. We worked until lunch, got bicycles in the afternoon, and recorded audiotapes tonight before dinner.
We were picked up at the campus by two nice Chinese men and briefed about the script in the car on the way over. We walked into Jinan's broadcasting building, shook hands with more Chinese men and then took our seats in a recording studio. We sat at a table with microphones stretching in from overhead, bottles of water on the table and bright desk lamps. The room was cool, dark and quiet with a big window where a technician, a translator and the 'man in charge' sat watching us. Josh did some great impressions of Ted Koppell while we waited nervously for directions. I should have known right then that this would be his calling. With his perfect pronunciation, good flow and emphasis on the right words, they kept telling him he was "wary eggsellent" and that his voice had "magnetism". We read 14 pages of directions, dialouges and short essays. Some we read "like actors" and some at an amusing slow and unnatural speed. We glossed over several grammatical errors and one made-up word because it was getting late and they wanted to go exactly by the script. I read one sentence that said "They dad invited another woman to the dinner." Josh was told to re-pronounce 'looking' as 'luke-ing'. It was quite an experience. We finished at 8:30pm with 800 quai (US$100) in our pocket. Thats enough money to go out for joudza every night until Christmas. We won't do that, of course, but you get the idea.
Right now, Josh is watching Lawrence of Arabia. We found a place with boxes full of DVD's for US 85 cents. I picked out Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and I think that price fit the product. Absolute rubbish!

Classes have been going really well. Today, I brought in some articles that I clipped from the China Daily and passed them out to groups of five with some provocative discussion questions attached to the article. Each group picked a spokesperson who summarized the article and addressed the attached questions. These articles were about marriage, children mimicing their parents' bad behavior, the US in Iraq, and Yao Ming's (famous NBA star from China) salary. This brought up lots of fun vocabulary words. I tried to explain 'flipping a coin' and 'is the glass half full or half empty?'. The term 'custody battle' came up. I acted the parts of the child, the judge, the parents and the lawyers in a little impromptu skit. Great fun. Getting the students to volunteer an answer to a question is like trying to pull eye teeth, but getting them to laugh is like taking candy from a baby.
For the last ten minutes of class today, each group had twenty seconds to complete the sentence: Many Americans are ____. We talked about their answers and feelings towards America/Americans.
Many Americans are....."independent thinkers", "open minded", "don't like saving money in the bank", "indulgent" (that was a vocab word from earlier in the class), "humourous", "homeless".

Did I mention that I rode a bike yesterday? Yep, to the vegetable market. I was petrified to give it a go, but now I think its as safe as being a pedestrian around here. In fact, I think it could be pleasurable if there weren't taxis and buses four inches behind you blasting their horn for six seconds at a time. I had so much fun that I suggested to Josh that we try and lay our hands on some loaner bikes for the year. With a little help from Josh's friend, Sean, we communicated with our land lady, Ms. Liu, and she took us to a graveyard of bicycles from foriegn teachers' past. We washed a couple with soapy rags, pumped up the tires and parked them on our balcony. We just might even ride them tomorrow!

Time to go to bed, so I can get up tomorrow and do it all again. Happy Birthday, Ede!

sock hop

We caved in and bought a DVD player this afternoon. Showing clips of American movies and discussing whats happening will be useful in the classroom, so we thought we ought to be able to watch the movies ourselves and decide which clips are culturally educational. I bought the VCD (cheaper version of a DVD) 'Big' with Tom Hanks at the supermarket. I remembered how much the part where he was in that awful motel room with the sirens and screaming people outside his window scared me years ago, though it lightens up with joyful scences of giant keyboards and baby corn faux pas.

I wore some new boots to work today (black ones from NZ). They were fine for the first hour of my walk to work, but then I started to experience some pain and before I knew it, I was in misery! I could barely make it to my class. My feet were worn raw at the heels, big toe and pink toe! It was excruciating. I shuffled to the bus stop after work with only my tippy toes pushing the boots along from the inside, and was so grateful that I found a seat on the bus. The whole ride home, I was consumed with pain and thought of nothing else besides how much I was dreading the walk from the busstop to the apartment. If I have not given you an idea of the magnitude of pain I was in yet, this ought to do it: (but first, recall that the streets and sidewalks in Ji'nan are filthy--spit, oil discarded from street vendors, children with bottomless pants who squat on the sidewalk whenever nature calls) I took off my boots and walked home sock footed! I was even more of a sight to see than usual. I couldn't have made it otherwise. I really liked those boots, but I think they must have been closer to Claire's size than mine!

Josh again

My last post must have been adequate because I've been asked back for a second installment. I'll try my best to do this day justice, but it was a big one. I might not be equal to the task. We taught real honest to goodness people today. These were full-grown, talking, thinking, university students---graduate students no less. They were nothing like the little nose-pickers I'm used to working with in the states, except for the fact that some of them picked their noses...in class. A number of them were several years my senior and I would go as far as to guess that one or two have children my age. Some were no doubt already accomplished in their fields and could teach classes of their own at the University. For the five minutes leading up to class I was all nerves and feeling pretty unprepared and unqualified. Regardless, once I was in front of the group I just treated them like sixth graders and it was great.
For my lesson plan I borrowed extensively from my big brother, Jacob. In keeping with proper little brother etiquette, I didn't ask first and I won't give it back. After the standard introduction and class overview we played a get-to-know-you-game where each student had a list of values such as "Has traveled overseas" or "Can roll their tongue" and they had to walk about the classroom asking their classmates if they fit any of the values. The students' job was to fill their list with names without repeating any. It was delightful to see 40-year-old Chinese men showing that they could indeed fit the "Can wiggle their ears" category. The students seemed to enjoy it a great deal as well.
We next divided into pairs and did some personal interviews to assess speaking and listening ability. Then I finished class by giving an essay with their choice out of two prompts. I borrowed one prompt from Jake: "If water is clear, why is the ocean blue?" and added one of my own "If you could be a superhero, what would your name be and what would be your super powers?" I've read both sets of answers and they're wonderful, if pretty poorly written. For a number of students, the superhero question seemed to hit a nerve from childhood. First sentences included "I have dreamed (sic) of this question many times as a boy." and "I remember thinking of this often." Some chosen names were "Bubble Baby", "Heart-er", and "Bud".
After class we went to our first Western restaurant in China. It was Pizza Hut (near Chinese Walmart a couple blocks north of Silver Plaza and Spring City Square) and though the pizza still came in those deep dishes with the cork mat on the bottom that's where the similarity ended. There were marble slab floors, ultra- moderne interior design, and door attendants. Over the music system there was mambo playing the whole time and at the salad bar we were introduced to the Chinese art of stacking. Apparently with salad bar you're only allowed one trip and the Chinese like to get the most bang for their buck so they stack. Artfully, they will create a wall of 7 or 8 rows of cucumbers around the outside of the plate, followed by 2 or three rows of melon. The interior will be filled with lettuce, grated cheese, etc.etc.etc. until the arrangement is pushing about a foot in height. Lord knows if they eat it all. Like the art teachers say "The end is in the process."
-Josh Burt

Knackered

Forgive me if this entry is written in simple English. I have been speaking it all day, and fear I may return home speaking it. I have learned to cut out everything I say that is unnecessary and possibly confusing. I had two classes full of computer scientists today from 8am-12pm and they went great. Most of the students were shy when introducting themselves, but not at all in their writing. Today we did introductions so I could gauge the average speaking level and at the end of class, they wrote a few prompted paragraphs and turned them into me. It has been a pleasure reading what they wrote. I think being a teacher is going to be like being the ultimate student. I will have to be supremely organized. I already have over 60 short essays to keep track of. I wish I had thought ahead to bring a gradebook from home. Its funny how slowly things occur to me sometimes. For example: I didn't realize I was going to have to teach English. You may be thinking that sounds crazy. And it does. Somehow, I guess I thought my presence in the classroom would somehow magically transfer the English language. Today, I was speaking and looking out at a sea of blank stares when it suddenly dawned on me: Wow, there is a lot of English learning that needs to take place here this year! I want them to get good grades on their end of year exam....and its up to me to be a successful teacher. Gasp!
I am up for the challenge.
In other news, I am crossing streets like a pro. And I will never it again--as I think I filled up three detailed entries with the topic early on. I just wanted you all to know that these days, I cross like I've lived here all my life. I walked back from work on the South Campus today. It took me about an hour. I met a tall read-headed Israeli who is here looking for work with his wife. We met crossing the street. (okay, that was honestly the last time). There is an unspoken langauge between foreigners here. Obviously, we all stick out. The question is do you smile and say "hello" because you have spotted each other, or just walk on by. Some foreigners who have lived here for a while, I assume, make it clear that they don't want to share a knowing glance with you simply because we are laowai--- outsiders. They do this by keeping their head down when they pass. Others, maybe new to China and still in shock, will make good eye contact and say a releived "Hi there". I try to be discrete about looking at other laowai. I don't want to look anxious for a hello, yet I don't want to seem unwelcome to the idea of a hello. Do you follow? Didn't take me long to slip back into my convoluted English ramblings, did it?
I was minding my own business, acting oblivious to the fact that I was next to a tall red-headed white man admist thousands of Chinese when Noam, the Isreali, made some comment about pesky road construction and then asked me if I was teaching or studying here. We stopped at a Newsstand on the way home so he could buy an Anime magazine and I was positvely jealous listening to him have a conversation in Chinese with the woman at the newsstand. I am becoming deflated in my efforts to learn the language. Everytime I think I have mastered a phrase and try it out on someone Chinese, I get a bewildered look in response. Arg! I have cancelled my lesson with Sharon tomorrow until I have more time to practice what we went over Friday.
I am exhausted, but need to go out in search of a grade book and red pen. Where has the day gone?

BBQ photos

Kaleel is a teacher's son. He has been living here for year. He is 11 yrs old--Josh's new best friend.

Josh found a shirt at the supermarket that says "Pity kid, you just a cannot fly cock." (???) An outlined yellow pig is talking to a rooster flattened on a brick wall.

BBQ'ing in the courtyard with chairs borrowed from the hotel dining room.

#10 by Jake

I am loving a song from a mixed C.D. that my brother, Jake, gave me. (This is Betsy--I also have an older brother named Jake). I don't know the name of the song or the artist so I call it number 10 by Jake. I am hoping that he will figure out which song I am talking about it and "comment" on the blog what song it is, so that others can enjoy. It's the one that starts out "Its 16 miles to the promise land..." and there are multiple people singing in the chorus. Do you know the one, Jake? I've got it on repeat.
So, tonight was the great foriegn teachers BBQ. There were quite a few of us out there, lots of new faces. Ed organized lots of food and a keg of beer. We had mostly Americans, but we also had an Aussie and an Irishman. The Australian man brought a female Chinese friend who's internet boyfriend had just arrived in China from New York. He was experiencing culture shock and really enjoyed the ease of speaking English, I think. His Chinese girlfriend, who he has been communicating with for months, but just met a few days ago speaks limited English.
Josh and I helped Ed put all the meat and veggies on skewers. Ed tried to get charcoal going, but wasn't having much success. Luckily, he had two former Nature's Classroom members nearby who were happy to make that fire roar, teaching the onlookers that it needed...oxygen!
Before Josh knew it, he was in charge of all the grilling that took place. He had chicken breasts and kbobs going all night. I haven't seen Josh eat meat in the year that I have known him until we got to China. It's as if all his years of vegetarianism have prepared him for a meat eating frenzy here. Yesterday he ate mutton and bacon, and today he was not only eating chicken but grilling it for the whole party of 40. All night, people were coming up and asking for meat. It was difficult for Josh to keep track of who had asked in what order. When it would occur to him, he would say "oh, sorry, I promised you one, didn't I?" A German woman was hovering nearby with her empty plate. She hadn't really made it known that she was wanting some meat, but she heard Josh mention these "promises" to people for kbobs. Finally, she came over and said in a thick German accent "To whom do you promise??". I thought she might be kidding until I saw her face. Josh just stared with his mouth open ready to join in laughing when she smiled. But she angry. She put her plate down and left. We never saw her at the party again. She lives two floors above us.
There were about three retired couples out tonight from the American midwest. They were very friendly and talkative. I believe they are also here to teach through a Christian organization, as about 70% of the Foriegn teachers I have met are. We also got to meet a lot of people our age who are here independantly. Most of them have been here for two or more years and speak great Chinese. Its so fun to listen to them. Hopefully, we will be seeing more of them.

Guest Editorial

Dear Friends,
It's with great pleasure that I've accepted this opportunity to post on Betsy's blog as it seems to be the perfect sort of mid-level step for someone who isn't quite equal to the task of launching their own. In watching Bets keep this thing up, I can't help but admire her pluck at keeping it going with almost daily posts. A lesser person would no doubt get bored at some point and let the blog go by the wayside or at least alienate a number of friends or relatives with indelicate posts. I'm not sure if I was put in the same position that I'd be nearly so responsible. Nonetheless, I'll take a stab at it. If successful I might one day have a blog of my own. Who knows, if I can handle a blog Bets might even let me have a puppy. Sky's the limit.
The big news around the apartment block is today's foreign teacher's barbecue. Held in the little courtyard just outside our door, we've been told that a pretty respectable guest list of 38 has been assembled. The whole shebang is organized by Ed: the doctorate 20 year veteran of ESL instruction, and ex-World Cup rugby referree. Incidentally, he's originally from New Jersey if any of you can sense that one out. For those of you who've been following these posts Ed's also the one who took us to lunch yesterday. He then fed us enough meat and green beer to keep our stomachs reeling still 24-hours later. I ought not have ate so much but it was being served Brazilian style to us off skewers by guys wearing blue-jeans and cowboy hats with the Chicago Bulls logo on them(?). This seems to be Ed's idea of a good time (meaty, beery, and strange) and it makes me a little apprehensive about how my stomach will feel after this party.
Well, the party draws near and I've taken too much of your time already. Thanks for your tolerance and if anyone is familiar with Thurber's "My Life and Hard Times" I would love the exact wording for a quote that reads roughly: "No man was ever born in Columbus who was posessed of an adventurer's spirit." Here here.
Joshua Burt

Usually

Yesterday, China smelled really lovely. In rained until lunch and the afternoon air was cool, clear and smelled of hot food. We had a good day. After lunch, Josh and I met Ryan, who took us to Shanda Uni Education leaning center. This was the nicest building I have been in so far. We walked through the offices past framed posters of Auckland, Sydney, Bristol, and Canada and waited in a comfortable conference room. This company helps students brush up on their English before heading out on an exchange. Eventually, the manager came in and interviewed us. He asked about our education and experience and why we had come to China to teach. He seemed very interested and asked us if we would also be willing to record audio tapes in the future. Defintely! So, we will wait to hear from him about other teaching jobs. He said he may want to send me to Shanghai for training in an upcoming weekend so that I could teach children on weekends. Josh is currently at his second job working for an Australian Camp teaching 8-12 yr olds. Last night, he came up with some neat ideas and songs--Simon Says, Head and Shoulders. He will teach there for two hours Saturday, and four hours Sunday.
Last night, after we got home, a few exciting things happened. I let the television re-tune itself and now we have CCTV9, the English news channel all about China. Sharon came over to tutor me. She was a little unsure of where to start since I don't speak any Chinese at all, so we practiced tone pronunciation over and over, and then went over some phrases. She is a Party member and had to spend the whole weekend giving presentations. Sharon has never been to an English speaking country, but her English is impeccable. She sounds like an American, right down to the occasional insertion of "like". I have not yet met an English speaking Chinese person who can properly say 'usually'. It comes out as 'urally'. Sharon says 'usually' like a pro. Very impressive.
When we were eating our steamed buns, watching CCTV9, I answered a knock at the door. It was an unknown undergraduate student. He held out a document and said "I am applying to graduate school and would like you to revise my this letter I have written. If you are too busy now, please tell me when I can come back." Wha..? So, naturally, I said "sure, leave it here with your phone number and I will call you when I am finished".
Josh said I should have turned him away, that I may have encouraged what could turn into a stream of undergrads coming to apartment 103 (not students of ours)for free proof-reading. Whoopsy. In college, I knew a woman who would revise all my Spanish essays so I wanted to keep up the good karma. After all, I was just sitting around watching a British man read Chinese headlines. Plus, its good practice for whats to come, I think. Many of his sentences really needed some help. He had picked some very odd word choices. I wish I had it in front of me to give you an example; he came back last night and picked it up. Off to finish FBIB, so I can finally start being productive.

German BBQ

Last night, after we arrived home from dinner, my bag was waiting in the living room! It made it! I now have my phrase book/dictionary and have put it to a lot of good use today.
We got up early today and went to the supermarket with Ed, another foriegn teacher who has lived in England, New Zealand, Czech Republic, and numerous other places. He coached international rugby, taught English in Africa right up until the civil war, and has been in Ji'nan for a year now. Ed is quite an interesting individual. He is hosting a party tomorrow night for the foriegn teachers. We went out to get beef and fruit juice. With the help of about 7 eager shop attendants, Josh and I picked out a rice cooker (recommendation from Jake and Elizabeth). We got lots of fresh vegetables, and some bleach to wash them with and picked up some mantou--buns that we will steam in our rice maker.
We took a taxi both ways, which was really nice. It was a little rainy out, and I think that is the way Ed always does it. It only cost about $1 each way. After shopping, Ed took us to his favorite Westernized restaurant. It claims to be "Germany BBQ" and says "Happy Every Day" in big letters on the wall. The waiters wear Chicago Bulls cowboy hats, jeans, and cowboy boots. They come around with skewers full of hot mutton, shrimp, squash, roastbeef, bacon, corn...and on and on. They cut it and put it on your plate. We got some really premium treatment at this place. They are known for their seaweed beer, which we had to try. After every sip, the waitress was over with the pitcher to top off our mug. As we looked around, we were the only ones served beer in large mugs. The Chinese were all drinking out of short glasses. The stream of hot meat seemed to come directly to our table first, and when I got up to use the restroom, three ladies accompanied me all the way to the door. We spent maybe three hours in the place listening to Ed's stories. Once we were ready to leave, two Chicago Bulls clad Chinese opened the doors for us, and then scurried in front of us to hail a taxi. They told the taxi where to take us (about 10 minutes walk down the road) and we were off. I felt very spoiled.
Josh and I are just headed out to another interview set up by a Chinese friend of Jake's. Josh's schedule is fairly full already, but I could use some more hours. Tonight at 6, I have a tutor coming by for an hour and then we plan to steam some rice and finish our books.

Slow Day

Today started off slow for me. Josh had a meeting with another teacher and is now at a second interview for teaching English to 8-12 yr olds on the weekends. I took some documents to Mr. Guo so that he can get us working visas. Good news: my bag arrived at the Ji'nan airport yesterday and Mr. Guo is sending a car for it. Sometime this afternoon, after hours of reading FBIB (sooo good), I decided it was time for me to take a little outing by myself. I was all the way to the University's south gate by the time it occured to me that that would mean crossing the street by myself. But I pressed on. I developed an obvious technique. There are always lots of people out, though fewer in the hours after lunch when many are sleeping in vans parked on the road or wherever they can find a place to rest their head in folded arms. I scout out someone crossing in my direction and go stand beside them (about a foot away). Instead of watching the cars, I watch their feet, and mimic their every step and stop. I look like a very conspicuous mark, so I have to laugh at myself while I do it. I know I will need to learn to trust myself to watch the cars/bikes/buses eventually.