Christmas

I feel fortunate to be here for the year, watch the seasons change and milestone events come and go. This past week marked the winter solstice, which is celebrated as an important holiday in Suzhou. Families and friends get together for a big meal and make toasts with special Chinese wine in the spirit of gratitude and to honor the sun and the longer days that lie ahead. At least this is what I understood as my students' interpretation of the holiday. Sometimes things are lost in translation, but for the most part I think we communicate quite well.

The students seemed a bit chagrined while I was answering their questions about the American winter holidays and told them that we get two weeks vacation this time of year. Even though this is a fairly significant holiday time for them, they have to wait until February for a rest. I tried to console them by saying their break is even better than ours because it's three weeks long instead of two; this response was met with little satisfaction.

Despite the long days, tests and pressure that make up their lives, many students still find outlets for some fun. A phenomenal group of Senior III (12th grade) students have created an English Corner of which I feel honored to be a member. Knowing that Christmas is the biggest holiday on the western calendar, and with a passion for glitter, lights, decorations and food, they decided to throw a Christmas party for the group. You have to understand the extent of planning and thoughtfulness that went into preparing such an event, despite the fact that they have very little time for this sort of thing, in order to fully appreciate their efforts. Below are are some shots of the fun that was had...

These kids are truly inspiring! So far, I've found teaching here to be challenging and rewarding in so many ways. I've even found myself doing things I would never otherwise do, like singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for the group. Well, this happened during one of the games they played at the party. You see, the stuffed animal landed in my lap as the music stopped, and since I was unable to answer the riddle I chose, I had to do a performance. Luckily, most Chinese are apparently tone deaf, at least when it comes to singing because no seemed to flinch when I sang out of key. No matter what it sounds like any attempt at singing seems to be always well received.

Other highlights this month included the Bilingual English-Language Drama performances. It was a lot of fun to see them on stage and running around the way teenagers will. One big cultural difference I don't think I could ever get used to though, is how they behave as an audience. There's no such thing as focusing only on the efforts of those performing on stage. The audience is loud and talking and moving around throughout the entire show. I sat in the front row and just couldn't let myself look back. Below are several photos from the day's performances.

With festivities such as these and the new Chinese friends I've found, this Christmas promises to be a great one. The weather has turned cold and there are signs of the holiday all over town. I see all kinds of festive and entertaining sights as I walk through the streets of Suzhou.

It won't be a white Christmas like family and friends in Denver are experiencing, but it's one I'll always remember!

Wishing all a Happy Holiday!

Mid-term exams are behind us. For me that means vacation's over for a while. For the Senior 1 students it meant five days of military training. Training started on Saturday after the last test and ended on Wednesday. The students then had to go back to school for the rest of the week. From what I understand the training consists largely of political theory and is required of all Senior 1 students throughout China.

To continue what's been developing into a good relationship with my Senior 1 students, I decided to play some games and keep things light with the few classes I saw this week. We practiced English with tongue twister races and talked about the NBA, one of their favorite subjects. Yes, it's amazing what you'll learn when you want to teach it; I now know how many teams there are, their names and locations (thanks, Jessie).

I also shared with them some tales of adventures that I got to have while they were busy furthering their education. Most students haven't had a chance to do much traveling yet, and they seemed relatively interested in hearing about my experiences in the fascinating country that surrounds them.

The first weekend was spent in Nanjing. Jessie and Dave traveled overnight on a hard-seat train for twelve hours, and Bret and June traveled two hours by bus for an impromptu reunion of sorts. Tony, a former student of one of the Chinese English teachers and a current student at a University in Nanjing, was kind enough to meet me at the train station and act as a tour guide and tourist with all of us American teachers. Tony was good fun to have along and definitely made taking the bus, ordering meals in restaurants and just getting around much more enjoyable. We spent Saturday taking in as many of the famous historical sights as we could in an area located just outside the city's center, known to tourists as 'Purple Mountain'. This is where modern China's founding father, Dr. Sun Yatsen, has his mausoleum. We were really lucky to visit during the late fall, having perfect weather and fewer crowds. The weekend went by quickly and throughout the day Sunday we all dispersed back to our home cities.

I had just enough time to get myself ready for a three-day/four-night excursion to Huang Shan (Yellow Mtn.). Rita and I stumbled off the overnight train in this far away city and proceeded to get accosted by taxi drivers and tour guides just waiting for fresh tourist blood. As we were trying to make our way to the main street, I was silly enough to ask one of the taxi drivers to point us in the direction of a restaurant, Mr. Hu's. I had just read about it in an old guidebook. I quickly learned that the restaurant was about an hour's drive away in the mountain town of Tangkou. So we just kept moving away from the hordes of local help and found a nice young woman who directed us to the bus station where we knew we could take a 12 yuan bus as opposed to a 100 yuan taxi. We took the local bus to Tangkou and were quite surprised when Mr. Hu hopped onto the bus to greet us and escort us directly to his restaurant. I guess the taxi driver I asked wasn't kidding when she said, "I know Mr. Hu, he's my friend." We went and ate some breakfast at Mr. Hu's rat-infested breakfast house (I guess guidebooks should have an expiration date), and then we wandered around the small town wondering exactly what to do with our day and how to get to our hotel destination a little further up the mountain. While we were walking about, the magical Mr. Hu appeared once or twice and wanted to know if he could help arrange transportation for us. Eventually, we realized he was our best contact in this town and took him up on the offer. For 150 yuan (about 20.00 USD) we had a mini-van and a driver for the afternoon which took us to one of the local ancient villages and then, indirectly, up to our hotel. First we had to stop at the local mechanics and have the door of the van worked on, then we had to drop off another passenger he had decided to pick up along the way. Surviving the drive on the winding mountain rodes and finally making it to our hotel that night was excitement enough for me.

The next day we hiked the steps all the way up to the top of Yellow Mtn. and then down the steps on the other side. Actually, we took the cable car up the west side and then I hiked down the east, which amounted to a perfect eight hour day on the mountain. Along the way we passed large tour groups of Chinese people, and all the local help who keep the hotels and restaurants supplied by carrying everything up on their backs. The steps and hotels that have been built into this mountain are amazing, a feat that's maybe comparable, in ways, to building the Great Wall on top of a mountain ridge. The area is beautiful and it was well worth the trek.

We spent our last Huang Shan day in style and had a 'limousine' that took us on a spectacular drive through the mountains and countryside and to three other ancient villages in the area. I decided to make official arrangements the night before using the tourist agency that booked our hotel online. The day worked out perfectly, after seeing the sights our driver took us to downtown Huang Shan and we got to have some Chinese food and a drink before heading home on an overnight train.

It was so refreshing to get into the mountains and see the beautiful rural landscape hiding not too far away inland. Seeing people live with the land and how it's used for growing tea unique to the region are images that will stay with me. But once I got home I was ready for city life again, so I went and spent a couple of days in Shanghai. Lucky for me Courtney was up for some company; we had a fun night out on the town. Shanghai is a city that holds something new each time I visit. This time it was an antique market near the posh Xintiandi district. It's pretty entertaining looking at all the revolutionary paraphernalia that's there to be bought. Anybody want a Chairman Mao watch that will wave to you?

Thanksgiving is this week. I hope this finds everyone happy and healthy and enjoying time with family and friends. Though I won't be with my usual family of friends this year, I feel really fortunate knowing I have everyone's support with me as I continue this journey. Thanks!

The First Months

Halloween is around the corner and I've been living in Suzhou for almost two months now. Of course, moving out of my house in Denver, and saying good-bye to Mia, family and friends was completely traumatic, but since my arrival I've found many great distractions and am happy to be living and teaching in China for a year.

It took about a full week to recover from the jetlag and whirlwind orientation tour in Beijing. Luckily, when I arrived in Suzhou I was told that I would have the first week of classes off to get my bearings and prepare my lessons. The week passed quickly and visiting the gardens and exploring town felt like vacation. While it was certainly nice to have the time, it was also a little nerve-wracking as it prolonged the anxiety I was feeling about stepping foot into the Chinese classroom. By the middle of the week I had to ask for an opportunity to observe a lesson. They obliged and then I was even more nervous...but at least I had a vision of where I was headed.

Six weeks, or lessons later, I'm really starting to have fun with the students. It's hard to complain about much here...the campus where I teach is gorgeous, my schedule is heavenly, and the students, in all my classes except one, are eager to learn and practice their English. I'm teaching the equivalent of 10th, 11th, and 12th graders and have 15 classes per week. The students' schedule is rough...they start at 7:30 a.m. and have nine, forty-minute lessons throughout the day. There's an hour and 45 minutes in the middle of the day for lunch, a nap on the desk, and a start on the homework. They finish at 4:45 and then usually have 3 - 4 hours of homework. They also go to school on Saturday's from 7:30 - 11:30. The teachers have to be at school the whole day, but have a nicer schedule than this, they generally teach two to four lessons per day and spend the rest of their time in an office with other teachers from their grade level and correct papers. Sometimes they take a nap if they need to, the office where I have a desk even has a cot in it.

I've offered to help grade papers and try to spend time in the office with the Chinese English teachers, but I guess because they have a lot at stake with the test scores they never take me up on it. I make myself useful by giving them somebody to practice their English with. Actually, one of the Chinese teachers is teaching me Mandarin three times a week. Mostly we all just get a good laugh out of it, but hopefully I'm learning something as well.

Students take their classes and homework very seriously. I've had a few conversations with both students and teachers about how they're not very happy with the education system. Everything boils down to one final test which determines if they'll get into University. I've been told that in Key schools like No. 10 there are over 1000 students applying and maybe 600 or 700 will get accepted. They take loads of exams along the way and everyone knows exactly where they stand in terms of class ranking based on test scores - it's a lot of pressure. But they've also told me that they still manage to find time to do the things teenagers around the world seem to love: surf on the internet, play basketball and computer games, and listen to music.

A couple of weeks ago a group of eight Senior III students invited me to their English Corner, a club they put together to practice speaking English. I was so impressed when I showed up and they had prepared presentations to share and discuss. One of them had a dvd of award-winning t.v. commercials from around the world; they discussed the message and the humor in several of them. Lots of them were beer commercials, and I kept feeling like maybe I was doing something wrong watching commercials which promote alcohol in a classroom with teenagers.

Are they reckless, or are we overly cautious? Maybe this question only slightly pertains to the beer commercials...but I wonder this a bit in many ways. I don't see much in the way of saftey standards. As I ride my bike in the streets of Suzhou I'm just amazed at how people get to and from work each day in one piece. There's sort of this understood rule that everybody keeps moving and just gets out of the way of whatever's in front of them. I'm pretty much a spectacle when I remember to put on my bike helmet before I leave home.

On the travel end of things I haven't had too many adventures yet. I've made it Shanghai a couple of times, and I'm proud to say it's not such a scary, solo train ride for me anymore. I also ventured to Hangzhou by bus on my own. Traveling on the new highways here is a great way to see the countryside of China...and the way livestock is transported on its last journey.

Hangzhou is a beautiful city. There's a saying that Hangzhou and Suzhou are paradise on earth. Suzhou has its appeal in its classical gardens and culture. Hangzhou is newly built up and renovated and rightly boasts of West Lake. I hope to go back and spend more time there.
I'm finding many challenges traveling, living and teaching in China...many things are a mystery and I just have to go with the flow. Going to a restaurant, mailing a package at the post office, and paying the phone bill all have become challenging projects to accomplish in a day. I went to mail Mom's birthday package yesterday, after they rifled through all the little things I was sending they picked out the L'Ancome face moisturizer I had bought in a knock-off market in Shanghai, and said 'no.' Apparently that one's staying with me, sorry Mom! Protesting or asking why just wasn't an option, and that's the way it is with many things here.

Here's to the big and small mysteries in life!