Moon Day and More (9-27)

Last Thursday was the Moon Day Festival. For the first time, the government declared it a holiday. So offices were closed on Thursday. As usual, the school made it a three-day holiday with no classes Friday or Saturday. Calling Saturday a holiday day seemed strange until I realized that doing so meant that we didn’t do make-up classes that day. Friday’s classes were made up on Sunday. Since the official holiday was Thursday, we didn’t have to make up those classes. I had thought about going away, but with the week-long National Holiday only ten days away, I decided to save my money, and it seemed like too much effort to go away twice in such a close time.

When I asked people what the Moon Day Festival is about, I was told that they eat moon cakes and look at the moon—when it is visible and not cloud-covered like it usually is here. The festival is on the day of the full moon in this lunar month, which is usually in September. The round moon is special in China. One story is that a woman drank a special drink her husband had stolen from a goddess and found herself floating up to the moon, where she stayed. The school president compared the day to Thanksgiving, as it’s a day to spend with one’s family. Another person said the holiday is about family and friends.

On Thursday the waiban invited us to another special lunch with the deans in the school’s banquet room. Again we had more than twenty dishes. 

We agreed that these were better than the last banquet because there were fewer spicy dishes. 

I think they paid attention to what we ate and ordered more foods suitable for us foreigners. It was a delicious meal. 

The school president opened the meal with a toast and then gave us each a box of moon cakes. The box itself is beautiful and contains eight moon cakes, four different kinds. The message on the box is “May peace, happiness, and good fortune be with you always, and may its blessings lead into the wonderful moment during the festival for you and all whom you hold dear.” 

Then we had a group photo, and the president left.

After lunch, Peggy took us to the party room in the Fine Arts building for a Mid-Autumn Festival Tea Party. The holiday is also called the Mid-Autumn Festival. We were served tea, and fruits, peanuts, and small moon cakes were on the tables. About ten students joined us there. Several of them sang songs for us. Our foreign men also sang a few songs. Many of the students were in my classes last year; so it was nice to see them and chat with them. When we left, we were told to take the moon cakes and fruit with us. It was an enjoyable afternoon.

Moon cakes are only available during this time of year. They come in different sizes and have different fillings. Modern-day ones may have meat, but traditional ones have fruit or bean paste. I now have a good supply that will last a while, since they are individually wrapped and sealed.

On Wednesday, I did my teachers’ training lectures again. This group is meeting for the final time of a three-year training. They are all elementary school teachers. The ones I spoke to individually speak English very well. I enjoyed chatting with them.

We started the teachers’ classes on Wednesday. They ended out with four classes: two elementary level, one intermediate, and one advanced. I am teaching the intermediate level, which suits me well. There are fourteen teachers, two of whom were in my class last year. The books are better; so the class should be more effective and interesting.

Thursday we foreign teachers were taken to see the pandas. The story is that the dean saw Mike drawing a picture of a panda during one of our meetings last week and decided to send us to see them. Mike said he wasn’t drawing a picture or showing one to someone else. Our classes were cancelled for this occasion. It was raining lightly most of the day. So it was rather cool, and most of the pandas were not outdoors. So we didn’t see as many as I saw in March. 

But we saw the babies! Fourteen babies were born at the center. Five were on display in the nursery. 

They are a big attraction; so there was a line—15 minutes—to get into the nursery, and a man hustled us on so we didn’t linger in front of the babies too long. They are now six weeks old. It was fun to see the adults munching on bamboo again. They are cute and fun to watch.

Afterwards we were taken to a nice restaurant for lunch. As usual, Michelle made great selections, and we had a delicious meal. Special—new to me—dishes were shoulder of pork, a mashed potato dish that was almost like a soup, and a green leaf and barley dish.

After lunch, the others were taken back to campus, and Yang and Michelle took Dale and me to the office to apply for our residence permit extensions. This took only half an hour once we arrived at the office. So we went to a mall at the metro stop near the place Dale and I would get the teachers’ bus back to campus. We had an enjoyable time having a drink together. Neither of us was aware of this mall; so it was fun to learn about it. It was really nice to have this afternoon with Yang and Michelle, chatting with them and having fun together.

I have finished my term plans for the two classes with books. I did a survey of the students in the Business Management class to learn what they are interested in. That helped me get a feel for what to do with them. And I’ll do basically the same thing with the Elementary Education class. So I can get that project done soon.

Next week is the National Holiday. This is a one-week holiday, and the school was nice and gave us the weekends before and after the week, too. We don’t have to make up classes on those weekends. The National Holiday is like Christmas in that thousands (millions?) of people travel and prices for rooms and flights went up significantly. But April and I will travel together by bus; so sharing the cost of the hotel helps us both.

In addition to being “beautiful and brilliant,” I have been told that I am cute. Several students have told me that I am very kind, like their grandmother. That’s sweet. Another girl tells me she loves me on the way out of class every week. I have also been told that I am a very good teacher. Since they have seen me only once or twice, I hope I can keep being a good teacher most of the time.

Classes Start (9-15)

Our classes started this week. My first two classes were for non-English majors, and no one showed up. Their teachers had forgotten to tell them that they have a new, extra class. The others had that happen, too. The English majors all showed up, of course. In general, their overall English level and level of participation at the beginning is higher than that of last year’s freshmen.

In general, students seem friendlier, too. Many smile and/or greet us when we pass each other on campus.

Tuesday was Teachers’ Day here in China. Not much happens at this level, but I did receive several text messages wishing me a happy Teachers’ Day. When I went to see Peggy (She has decided to change the spelling of her name because this way is the normal way.), Kelly gave me a flower that her students had given her. In the evening, Roger came to visit and give Dale and me a flower and card. That was really sweet. He said that in secondary and elementary school, students give teachers notes or cards with something nice written on them.

Tuesday was also the first English Corner. It has been moved to the area in front of the library, which is more visible. Since it was the first one, all six of us went. In the future only three are required to participate each week. Also, since it was the first one, all of the freshmen English majors were required to attend; so there was a huge crowd. 

When Dale and I arrived, students were excited. They immediately started taking photos with us. Then the other four—notably the three men—arrived. Everything stopped and the whole group gasped. When I asked the group around me if they had had foreign teachers, only one girl had. I’m sure seeing so many foreigners together—and especially the young men—was a novelty. This year we will have topics to discuss, which helped get the discussion started. But this first week, the students mostly wanted to ask me questions. Many told me how much they like me and want to talk to me every week. When we finished, one girl told me I am brilliant and beautiful. Hard not to like that. As we were breaking up, a few girls from my last term’s classes came to chat with me, which was nice.

Also on Tuesday, Peggy called to ask me to go to her office after lunch. I guessed that this might be the time for Kiki to give me the gift for doing the lectures for her teachers’ training in July. And it was. The department supervisor talked to me and presented the gifts. He told me, with Kiki translating, that the teachers’ liked my lectures and thought they learned a lot. When he gave me the bags, Kiki told me I could look at the gifts. I think she wanted to see them as well. They are two beautiful, silk scarves. One is red and white brocade. The other is white with a hand-embroidered peony and butterfly. They are truly beautiful. They came in large, silk-covered boxes that are also beautiful. Chengdu and Sichuan province are famous for silk products.

The teachers’ classes are a work in progress. Dale and I had two meetings to discuss the textbook. The first one on Tuesday was with Mr. Zhong in the waiban, with Yang translating. He gave us a few books he had and said they needed a decision by Thursday. We decided that book could be used for spoken language. Then we returned to the library and found another that could be used for advanced teachers and added it to our pile. The second meeting on Thursday included the waiban people and the dean from the foreign language department, with Peggy and Yang translating. They needed the books that day. We still didn’t have library cards; so we hadn’t been able to check them out. Mr. Huang said it takes a long time; so that wasn’t going to happen soon enough. After an hour of discussion, they agreed on the first book and sent an intern to the library with me so she could check out the book we had decided to use so that they could evaluate it. Peggy called to talk to me again after they looked at the book. I guess it was agreed on, since she didn’t call again. All of this is without knowing the levels of the teachers who will attend the classes other than what I know from last year. 

Now the three levels are advanced: teachers who are preparing to teach their classes in English, intermediate: teachers who want to prepare to go abroad, and elementary: teachers who need to improve their spoken English. They will place themselves in a group.

  

Friday evening a Chinese major Dale and I had met earlier called to invite me to have dinner with her and her friend. She has met with Dale several times; so it was a surprise when she called me. Dale, April, and I joined the two of them for a traditional Sichuan dish. 

It was a dish cooked in a pot in the table. The ingredients are ordered and layered in the pot to cook. When she asked about foods, April and I said we don’t eat pork or chicken. She then asked, “What about rabbit?” Not a question one would have thought about in the U.S. or Britain. Since the answer to that was also “No,” she ordered chicken and vegetables. The chicken was wings that had been cooked and just needed to be heated in the pot. The dish was a little too spicy for me. It was just at the edge of what I can eat and over the edge of what I can enjoy. So I was eating mostly to be polite. Usually when I eat such dishes, they are one of several; so it’s OK. Since this was the only food, I couldn’t eat much and didn’t really enjoy it. But it was nice to be with them.

Saturday when I was reading on a bench at the river park, I glanced up at a young woman approaching and then continued reading. She walked past me. Half a minute later, she returned and gave me a CD. It looks like it’s about a dance group.

Last week when I was walking, a man called out to me and then stopped to talk to me. He is looking for part-time English teachers and had heard that there are foreign teachers on this campus. He has a new agency that hires foreign teachers and places them in local schools. After explaining that I am not allowed to work for pay or at elementary and secondary schools (Peace Corps regulation and special regulation in China), I agreed to ask the British teachers if they are interested in meeting him. Three of them were; so Bruce came to meet with us. April and Mark were initially interested in part-time work but then decided that it would be too much now when the term here is beginning. Sunday he called to invite us to meet a new teacher who had just arrived and is working for his agency. He said he would take us around. April and I agreed to do that. It was another experience that wasn’t what we thought it was going to be. The new teacher is a young woman from Tunisia. A Chinese student, Phyllis, was along, too. Bruce drove us to the other university campus and Phyllis took us to a drink shop where we had a drink and snack and chatted. So he didn’t really take us around, but we had an enjoyable time chatting with the two young women. Before we left, a student from Tunisia and her mother joined us. The girl will study Business Management at the university in classes for foreign students given in English. Interesting.

  

I’m having a hard time getting motivated to plan the classes. The book for the English majors is OK and has a good structure that can be adapted and used. The one for the English Education majors is a compilation of dialogues, some of which are humorous, with questions about them and a few related exercises. There is no continuity or structure to the book. It’s just random dialogues. I have read through them and noted ones that have teaching potential. There is no book for the non-English majors. The latter two are the ones I’m having difficulty feeling motivated to plan, but it will get done. I have a hard time with the administrative attitude that it doesn’t matter what foreign teachers teach the non-English majors, since it’s an extra class for the students that doesn’t count and they have Chinese teachers who also teach listening and speaking and have a textbook.

Weather has gotten warmer again. So the blanket and jacket are back in the wardrobe.

Back to School (9-6)

 Students started returning last Friday. Staff returned on the weekend. I sat on a bench outside the library and read and watched students arriving. It was fun to watch them and it made me start to feel ready to get back to teaching. I chatted with Peggy, which also helped me feel excited about starting. I gave her several suggestions to help orient the new foreign teachers more smoothly than I was oriented last term. It’s her second term to be in charge of us; so she’ll do better. Not that she was bad, but it was rough sometimes because she was new and didn’t know how to deal with foreigners on a regular basis.

I ran into one of the boys in a freshman class last term. I was walking along and he called out to me. This was a surprise, as he and I didn’t have a special relationship and hadn’t interacted much. He’s a sophomore now and wanted to know if I would be teaching them again. He was also in Peggy’s office when I was there. I told him that sophomores won’t have Oral English; so I won’t be teaching his class. He said he’d miss me a lot. That was touching. It goes in the “you never know what effect you have on people” category. Another boy stopped to chat and tell me he was disappointed not to have Oral English and that he liked me a lot. A few girls responded the same way. That all felt good.

Monday the new TTC people arrived. There are four of them this term: three men and one woman. The men are young (23 to mid-30’s). Two want to stay in China or Asia to teach after this experience; one is a paramedic who has taken a leave-of-absence to do this. The woman is Chinese-British and is about 50. She speaks Cantonese and Mandarin and is here to get experience so she can get a job and stay here to improve her Mandarin. She wants to be certified as a translator. All are nice people, and we get along well. Dale and I were left to orient them for the most part.

It has been interesting to watch reactions of students and staff to all of us foreigners. When we were at Peggy’s office one day, two of the teachers there were surprised to see so many foreigners, since this is the first time the school has had so many. (We don’t get officially introduced to the other foreign language teachers; so they probably all know who we are from a distance but we don’t know who they are unless they speak to us.) When we walked to a meeting together, I felt like we were like the teams—police and lawyers—seen on TV walking in step together. Students gawked, possibly because they’ve not seen so many foreigners at one time. And because there are four men. The men are getting a lot of attention from the female students and staff. Dale said some girls watching them playing ping pong stopped and sighed.

We will have a class for teachers again. Since teachers complained about the book used last term, Dale was told that we should find a different book. Like they think we can magically produce an appropriate book. We went to the library, and there are a few textbooks, but most are geared for students. We picked out a few that we can use parts of to put something together. When we tried to check them out, we couldn’t because we didn’t have a card. A student I knew from English Corner last term was working at the desk and helped us. He kept the books for us until we can get a card. Dale had been told that they needed the book by Friday, but that couldn’t happen.

The teachers will be divided into three classes by levels based on an assessment we will create. All six of us are to teach them. When I asked how that would work—two in each class, perhaps, they didn’t know. We’ll find out later.

Friday we had the official welcoming for the new teachers with the university president, the waiban/Foreign Affairs Office dean, and the dean of the Foreign Language Department. We went to the room at 11:00 and waited almost an hour until the president and waiban dean arrived. While we waited, we chatted with Dean Qiu. We learned that the university has 12,000 students this year and 6000 teachers. There are 10 departments that have 4-year programs leading to a Bachelor’s degree. I had thought that all students were now 4-year students until I learned earlier in the week that only some are while the rest are in a 3-year associate’s program. The Foreign Language Department has about 300 students and 60 teachers.

When the president arrived, he gave a fairly long greeting talk. We were each given the school’s USB like the one I got last year. After the meeting, we were taken to the dining hall for lunch. Yang had said we would go to the canteen for lunch. So we thought we were going to the regular, cafeteria-style lunch and were pleasantly surprised when we were taken to a special banquet room. I think it’s new this year, since we were taken to a restaurant last year and Yang didn’t know about the special room. 

The banquet was, of course, quite nice. We had about twenty dishes, including several specialties of the region: tongue, cow’s stomach, eel soup, soup with frog, 

turtle, 

and a soup with mushrooms called Buddha jumps over the fence. There were also some other meat dishes, several vegetable dishes, noodle soup, and fruit.

After lunch we returned to the meeting room to get our schedules. Dale and I will teach the English majors along with a couple classes of non-English majors while the others will teach only non-English majors. This term they have grouped the latter by their majors instead of having mixed classes. Actually, the English majors are grouped by their specialty, too—such as translation and business. The non-English major classes will have 60 students. I know I shouldn’t, but I did speak out about how this is not effective for oral English. But the mentality is that everyone should have a bit of foreign teacher. It doesn’t matter that having so many students deletes the effectiveness of the experience. It’s all about the university looking good by providing foreign teachers and giving as many students as possible a little exposure.

I will teach six classes--four for English majors and two for non-English majors. All are Oral English, which is what we all teach with the exception of Dale's writing class for Business English majors. Peggy had asked if I wanted to teach that, but, since it's not my favorite, I let Dale have it. The English majors in the four-year program have one textbook and the English Education majors, which is a three-year program, have another. And there is no book for the non-English majors. Keeping the three groups separate in my mind and remembering who is doing what will be challenging. 

We were told to focus on speaking and listening because the latter is very important for the CET. However, there is no book for the non-English majors. Dean Qiu told us again, as he did last year, that foreign teachers have special ideas. (We don't.) It’s like we can magically create a program that will improve student’s English. We are to have a plan in two weeks. There is no consistency or continuity. Everyone does their own thing. I have a hard time with this mentality. Peggy did send us Megan’s plan for last term.

Outside the classroom buildings there are a number of chalkboards that have been decorated with motivational sayings.  

Weather has been rainy and cooler. Temperatures have dropped to about 65^o at night; so I have had to get out my blanket and to wear a jacket when walking in the evening. It seems early for that; so we’ll see what happens next.

Home Again (8-30)

When I arrived in Jishou from Fenghuang, I had to wait a few hours for the train.

Train ride one was uneventful. At Huai Hua, I had an hour between trains that turned into two hours. Getting onto the next train to Chengdu was an experience. People were getting onto the cars at both ends. Since my seat was a lower number, I went to the farther end because the lower numbers started at that end on the previous train. Mistake. On this train, the higher numbers were at the far end; so I had to walk back through two-thirds of the car. This was while others were heading my direction because they had higher seat numbers and got on at the other entrance. The narrow aisle had room for only one person; so there was a lot of pushing as people—and their luggage—made their way to their seats. It took twenty minutes to get to my seat. When I found my seat, a man was there, but he got up when I showed him my ticket. A French man was behind me, and he put my larger bag on the rack. I was just glad to be in my seat.

The journey to Chengdu was twelve hours, starting at 11:15 PM. I had a seat, not a sleeper, because that’s all that was available when I bought the ticket. At least it was a soft seat, even though it curved in such a way that it wasn’t really comfortable. And, fortunately, I had a window seat; so I could lean against the side with my neck pillow and rest a bit. The seat was for two people, but a third person used the edge to sit. There were three people across from us. People were standing and sitting in the aisle. It was noisy with chatting people for a few hours, and the lights never went off. So I was awake most of the night. I did manage to sleep for half an hour four times during the trip. Many people got off in Chongqing in the morning, and the car wasn’t so crowded after that. No one was standing and it felt much better.

I arrived in Chengdu at 11:15 AM. Then I took the metro to the bus station (40 minutes), then the bus to Wenjiang (40 minutes with the wait), and then the bus to the university (30 minutes). Finally, I walked the 15 minutes to the apartment building, arriving home 24 hours after I left the hotel. It was a long day. I thought about how it took about the same time it takes to fly to the U.S. and I slept less than I do on planes.

As always, it was good to be home again even though the holiday was wonderful.

Now I’ve been home for a week. As I often do, I spent the first two days relaxing in my apartment without going out. This was possible because Katy and Megan had left me some instant soup. In fact, I spent most of the week in my apartment, venturing out a few times to go to the market and to go swimming.

Dale, the new PCV arrived on Thursday. He’s younger, but at 40 not young. He has taught in Japan, Korea, Belguim, and Poland. He has a PhD in criminology and has worked in criminology with the Miami police for the last few years. So he has a lot of experience. I think his education and experience and the fact that he is a strong personality are why he was sent here instead of paired with a young volunteer. I won’t be intimidated by him, as a younger, less experienced person might be. He’s a good person and we’ll get along well.

Friday I went to the PC office to pick up meds and a bicycle helmet. I found a more efficient way to get there, so it only took two hours and two buses, which I was pleased about. After stopping at the office, I went to the River View Park along the river nearby. It’s a really nice park. 

Part of it has cultural relics: a pagoda and several pavilions. 

Part of it honors a female poet from the Qing dynasty (1800’s). 

Another part is an open area where there are a few tea houses and lots of tables where people were playing mahjong. Since I needed something to eat, I stopped to purchase a snack. Then I saw a bottle of tea and decided I should get that. When I told the man I wanted tea, he got out three baskets with little packets of tea for brewing. I decided that hot tea would be OK and sat down. The cup of tea came with a thermos of hot water; so I had many cups while I relaxed and read for an hour. 

On the way out, I enjoyed the bamboo part of the park. There are several types of bamboo trees, which I enjoyed a lot. In one building, there are bamboo carvings that are exquisite. 

After arriving back in Wenjiang, I walked through the river park that I enjoy and hadn’t been to since I returned. Being there made me feel at home again