Finding my way in a Strange place.

Going on two months in Jinhua, I am now having that uncontrollable urge to pack up my bags and head somewhere with clean air (where the sky is blue), easy access to transportation and children who wear diapers.  It would be great to walk the street and run into people who do not spit at your feet,  where excuse me, please and thank-you, and at least polite staring (as oppose to the blinking competitions I have with the locals, I usually win) are something of the norm.

Clean water out of your tap, access to Soy milk, Kraft Dinner, Hot Dogs, Spaghetti, Avocado and all sorts of other random things I really didn't think I would be missing so quickly into my 10 months in China. Erin's cooking, my little bunkey on the lake, Halloween parties with friends, seeing little baby Santiago do all of his firsts this year, Katie's love notes, hugging your Bestie (or 's) whenever you want, or just sitting at home watching t.v eating popcorn, knowing that your Mom is sitting at the kitchen table playing Bubble Witch on Facebook.

I am well aware that when travelling you hit your ups and downs, that sometimes, you just want some normalcy, a bit of back "home" in your life.  This is where I am at.  How do I find my place in a strange city, with very few others to keep in contact with, and still learn and grow for the next 10 months, after all that is what travelling and teaching is about right?

After some reflection, maybe a few wobbly pops and some discussions with new friends, I have found a way to start feeling at "home" in Jinhua.  For those of you who know me, you know I have many different homes, and I try to make wherever I am living, home.

So, step one, make my living space somewhere I want to be. So, I purchased plants, some lamps, speakers for my computer, bath matt to keep my toes warm after a shower, some propane for the stove, an extra duvet comforter, and a yoga matt.  Adding these comforts to my home has made the biggest difference.  This gives me a space that feels comfortable and welcoming.

Next, do not eat fried food anymore, including that from across the road from the school, which is so good.  My stomach issues over the past few days have not been pleasant, but it wouldn't be an authentic experience if I hadn't had some time on the porcelain throne right?

Journaling, getting outside, spending time doing yoga, and blogging have all been ways to make this space my own, to find a way to be Melanie in a place where three million people live in such close quarters, a city that is never quiet, and nature that is hard to find.

For all of the things I miss from Canada, there are many things that I love about China.  Those are the things I remember when I'm feeling down.  Dumplings, spicy food, the kids, teaching, and skyping with friends, receiving letters in the mail and experiencing this new country. Heck, everyone has a bad day right?

I know that I am fortunate to have this opportunity and although some days I just want to get on a plane to somewhere new, I am enjoying my time here, I am learning many things about myself, about a country that I have very little knowledge about, and most importantly about their youth. I am learning the challenges they face and what their goals and aspirations are in a country that gives them limited options, but they somehow they find a way to be who they are, despite higher powers continually trying to take those away from them.

So. There it is. Confessions of a foreign teacher in China.  It is not easy admitting that there are some shitty days here, trying to stay positive all of the time is hard, so I've decided to accept the bad days, and learn from them, move forward and do the best I can, where I am with what I have.

The English Language....

"I think teaching comes from your soul anyway, you are more of a guide through a pile of boring materials unless you make people see the fun that they can have in a book, or while learning new words that mean the world to them."
~Andrew Robinson

A friend of mine wrote me this quote last month when I was feeling particularly disheartened by moving to China, and trying to be a "good" teacher.  I  appreciated the quote, (even put it on facebook which makes it real right?) but did not fully understand it until reading this particular article today.

http://www.raptitude.com/2009/12/chop-wood-carry-water/

I'm not sure the article is is anything out of the ordinary, but the words in the article grabbed my attention. I have been reading "chinglish" from my students for almost two months now. After reading this article I was thinking how unfortunate it is that I cannot give this article to them, and have them understand it on the first read. They would not be able to grasp the idea of this article.  I would have to deconstruct the hard vocabulary, talk about its meaning, and really pull apart the entire article. It really takes away from the "mood" of reading.

These students experience this every day in their English language classes.  They read something I give them, (currently we are reading Tuck Everlasting as our Novel study) and instead of not understanding one or two words that we as foreigners can just look up on google, they have to underline it, find the context clue, and if that doesn't work, then go find a dictionary to understand the word or words.  Once they have done that, they must then go back, re-read the paragraph and then summarize what the article is saying, in order to fully grasp what the author is trying to say.

Worst of all is imagery. (which by the way, is most of the book Tuck Everlasting, what the heck was I thinking?!)  This is such a hard concept when it is all context.  How do you explain the sights and smells of fresh mountain air, when that has never been experienced.  How does the reader understand words that are meant for North American readers?  These are all things I am learning about English Language Learners. First and foremost, find a Novel that they can relate to, with cultural references that are easier to understand.

Words that are written on a page, whether it be in English, Chinese, or Japanese are meaningful.  They evoke powerful emotions, visualizations and meanings that are different to every reader.  When what you are reading is not in your first language, it takes away that suspense, the excitement, and easiness of reading a novel for pleasure.

Every day I work with my students to help them understand a novel that is at a sixth grade reading level, when they are 16 years old.  If this novel was in Chinese they would be laughing at me for even suggesting they read such a Juvenile novel.

This is where  I am reminded of Andrew's quote, it reminds me that although what I am teaching may be at the Elementary level, the meaning they make of this novel, the "real world" connections they can make, relating this novel to current day issues, media and technology, these are the ideas that can be Everlasting.

My students have so many ideas and thoughts that they cannot express in English and I want to hear those thoughts,  through journaling,  community circles, and working every day on communication, I hope that these young adults will be able to enjoy a novel, in English or Chinese where they can critically think about it, understand it, fall in love with a story and "learn new words that mean the world to them."

Kindergarten in Jinhua....

So, the students at our Jinhua High School need to collect volunteer hours, just as they do in Ontario.  Today's volunteer hours were spent in a Kindergarten classroom in Jinhua.  I'm not entirely convinced the kids are Kindergarten age, it feels much more like a day care, either way, I have been told, this was Kindergarten.

When we arrived at the "Kindergarten", the children were in the process of waking up after nap. The difference here however, from Canada, is the students sit in chairs and watch the girls get their hair done during their "wake up" time. Yes. Get their hair done. Each girl comes to the front of the class, and the teacher makes her look "pretty" after nap.

Once the girls have had their hair combed and made beautiful, (and by this time the students have been sitting for about 15-20 minutes) each student receives a warm facecloth to wipe their face (to rid of all the sleepies in their eyes and boogers in their noses..I think this is a practice we should adopt in Canada!). 

After wake up, our students were to give a presentation. Normally, when we do a presentation for young students in Canada, they sit on the floor. Not in China. Sit on the floor? No way! (this could be because they mop the floors with the water from the urinals). These kids bring their chair with them! Tiny little people lugging their chairs up to the next floor was impressive, a little funny and made me feel a little bit bad.  What these kids don't know is they will continue this ritual for years to come, for example, when there is an assembly at CTC, (Canadian Trillium College) the students must carry their chairs from their classrooms, across the campus, to the gym and then back again after the presentation.


Now is time for the fun to begin.  Our Canadian Trillium College students have prepared some activities for the students to learn.  Today they are learning the English words for sunflower, family, grandparents, grandma and grandpa. I have no idea what the connection is, I did not plan the trip, regardless they made it happen.

Our CTC students were AWESOME!!! They brought candy to bribe the children to answer questions, and be "good".  They facilitated an art activity where each of our students were at the children's level, helping them make a sunflower.




Our students even recognized that the kids needed to have more creative ability, and not copy the sunflower they showed them, but create one of their own! It was fantastic.





It was a wonderful adventure to finally get outside of the school and see my students feel comfortable making a presentation, because it was in their first language, Chinese.  I was able to see another side of my students, witness young adults about to embark on an overseas journey to Canada, students who just want to be able to use their cell phones, check their email, have a crush on the boy or girl next door. Things that our youth in Canada take for granted.

*Side note - one of my students has been suspended for seven days for using his cell phone on campus, and another two have been suspended for ten days for sneaking off campus without parental consent to go to the "net bar".  (this is a whole other can of worms). 

To bring this blog to an end, (finally!), summary of the story is, I love my students.  They teach me something new every day, and I can only hope that I am teaching them something meaningful as well.

Please enjoy the photo's of my first school trip! 

Are there any words needed? Amazing.

This is Bubble

Ted, recently, in a last ditch effort to get into their Chinese Classroom,  Ted decided that the best option would be to break down the door. Leaving everything they have in their classrooms unprotected.  I'm sure Ted learned his lesson ;).

Matthew. It was a ten minute bus ride, definitely time to catch a wee nap.

Bubble

Intense!

See! My students are awesome!

Sherlock, engaged! I think so.

Ayemos, inspiring creativity!

Roy

Ted! He is quite the artist, and one amazing teacher to these young kids.

Tina is engaged!

Yeah Jeremy!

Sue, I put her picture in here, although she begged me not to have it on my blog. I'll show her in class, she'll be happy. 

Ayemos and Eleanor (she'll be happy I got her name right)

Just when you think...

Just when you think the kids don't care much about what you are saying, that the little things you do don't really matter, you receive an email from one of your students:

Dear Ms killens,

Thanks for your present.When I just started with our foreign teachers,I had wondered if teachers would say "happy birthday"to us.At that time,teachers asked us to write down our birthday,so I hoped that I could receive  the wish from teachers.However it was not happened.You gave me a really surprise.I am really excited and happy,so I decided to write this mail to you.You also give me some suggestions about study.I will try to make me better.

I knew that this presentation I did looked a little bit mess.My persenality is not outgoing.Sometimes I am really silent.I still want to try to push myself out of my comfort zone.Maybe I am not the best one in our class,but I want to do my best.

I'm pretty sure this note made my month. I have been doing some Outdoor Education things with the students, talking about comfort zones, how to set goals, you know, procrastinating on the stuff the Ministry says we have to do. The students haven't provided much feedback, so I've been trusting my intuition, that although they don't mention it, I know that I am making a difference. This particular student is very quiet, I haven't heard much from her in class.  The other day I finally got around to making birthday cards for all of the people whose birthday's I have missed, and her's was one of them.  

So Cheers to all of the hard work we do as teachers, and most times have no idea if we have reached our students, until one little note arrives in your inbox and makes all the difference.  

       "Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am." 

~Parker Palmer, ‘Let Your Life Speak’

Thank-you Nick for sending this quote my way!

Captain Morgan

When living in Jinhua, finding alcohol from home is not easy. Well, certain types are not easy to find anyways.  On two previous trips to Wal Mart, I was unable to find my Dear Captain Morgan. (although I found his girlfriend, Bailys). BUT, while riding my bike into town last night, success looked like this:

1. Putting my bank card in the bank machine, and it was the wrong one, or didn't give money, or was for something else, not sure what this machine was for, BUT,  everything was in Chinese, my card was in the machine, and I forgot my phrase book (which actually has the words, "my bank card is stuck in the machine"). Success was looking at the photo options and one resembled getting my card back, pressed it, and VOILA! Hello BMO card.

2. I rode my bike successfully (obviously or I wouldn't be writing this blog) through the two crazy intersections, twice. I rocked it actually. Once I crossed the intersection, no joke, I cheered out loud YESSS!! and then threw my hands up in the air. (cause I'm a rockstar and can ride with no hands).

3. Cruising through Wal Mart, looking for a hair dryer, and decided to give one more look for Captain Morgan. I walked up to the counter slowly, peeked and saw Baily's, and there it was. Sitting on the shelf as beautiful as ever.  I pointed to the Captain Morgan, gave a big smile and said again, YESS!!. The staff giggeled , knew exactly what I wanted and brought it over.  They were either laughing because they realize I have a problem when success is finding your favourite alcohol, (because there is now way there are Pilly's here) or because I'm talking to myself and they cannot understand a word I am saying.

4. Finding badly translated English, always makes me laugh out loud, this one in particular is awesome.

Another success I should mention is that there were no fireworks this morning. Lately, or every day, at random times of the day, oddly mostly in daylight they put off fireworks.  That might sound awesome for about five minutes, until you hear them ALL the time.  Unfortunately fireworks have lost their appeal for me.  BUT today, none.  With the help of Captain Morgan, sleep was a success and woke up before my alarm.

Until next time....

What I have Learned so Far...

I have been in China for just over a month, can you believe it?! Time is flying right now. Which got me to thinking...

Every day so far, I have done something new and for the first time.  I find myself pushing my comfort zone by the new adventures that are out there for me to take advantage of every day. For example, going into town, taking a train to Hangzhou, meeting new people, taking a cab, taking a bus, going to the market, going out for lunch, ordering food, purchasing food, riding a bike, riding an e-bike, eating street meat, and I hadn't really thought about all of the things I have learned so far.

These are the things I have learned:

Food

• eating street meat at 2AM is AWESOME
• eating spicy food in the evening means being near a toilet in the morning
• food in China is great. Tasty. Spicy. Shared. And always a new experience (so far!)
• rice is always available
• ordering food is usually pretty easy, and the best part is, I usually get what I ordered and it is better than I could have hoped for
• KFC = great for a hangover
• so far, eating dumplings is China's best present to me!
• if you haven't noticed, I LOVE THE FOOD.  
• The alcohol could use some more, well, alcohol, but I'm down with the seven dollar cases of beer!

Transportation

• riding a bike is always an adventure, and as long as you do not hesitate at an intersection, you most likely will make it through!
• taking the bus is cheap, crowded and allows you to touch people inappropriately without getting in trouble
• if people do not pay to get on the bus, the driver will LOCK the doors, hold us hostage until somebody pays up
• taking the train requires preparation, someone to help you purchase the ticket, always have somebody write down in Chinese where you are going when you get off the train and always have money on your phone incase of an emergency
• always carry your translation book 

 

Public Toilets

• years of peeing in the bush did not prepare me for the squat toilet, you would think, growing up on Manitoulin Island that I would have been able to squat without peeing on my shoes. Nope. Not able to do it.  There is a technique, I asked my neighbour. You've gotta squat low.  We don't do this in the bush in fear of getting poison ivy on our special parts, here, you just have to worry about getting somebody else's pee on your pants, or worse, something crawling out of that hole you are peeing into, ahhhhh the joys of learning how to pee in a squat toilet  (after a month, I am still having trouble getting this one down...) haha, down, get it
• KFC has some of the cleanest toilets, with fresh toilet paper and a place to wash your hands with soap
• taking from the above sentence, most places do not have toilet paper, a place to wash your hands, and are generally pretty smelly
• so far, somehow the Universe has guided me to the best toilets (except the one in the sketchy bar in Hangzhou, ugh, it was the smelliest one of all)
• I actually don't like when there is a Western toilet in an establishment, generally there is pee all around the toilet, on the toilet seat and are much dirtier than the squat toilets. In summary, I am kind of liking the squat toilet idea, and growing used to carrying hand sanitizer and toilet paper in my purse every day

The People

Something that amazes me about the people here is they don't seem to get mad at the things that would drive people crazy back home.  In Canada, if you were honking at me, spitting by my feet, and your baby was peeing on the side walk, or taking a poop because they do not wear diapers, that would not be normal, nor would people accept that as okay.  Here, living with so many millions of people has shown some sort of tolerance that we could use in Canada.  People honk their horns at each other all of the time, although not in anger, just letting you know, I'm coming up behind you, move out of the way! Being in a crowded place means being touched, pushed, grabbed, and not in a mean, or inappropriate way, it is because there are so many people that it would be impossible not to be touching each other.  People don't get angry about that here. I get frustrated. I start to feel anger, so, I put on my ipod, listen to some chill music and go on my way.  

I am missing the space we have in Canada, but I'm only here for another 9 months, so I've found a way to be okay with the crowdedness of the city.  Music helps. People stare, take photo's and wonder what were all about I guess.  So, why not indulge? Take my photo! I'm beautiful! ;).

Oh, and of course Teaching...That is what I am doing here right?

• there is very little resources at my fingertips to help with planning
• the students are AWESOME
• I have quite a bit of leeway to teach the curriculum in the best way for the students to learn
• students do not have much use of computers, making it hard to plan those awesome activities I learned in Rob's Ed Tech Class
• there is huge academic pressure for them to succeed
• I love teaching the team building, tribes, setting goals...but that dam curriculum keeps getting in the way
• marking sucks, and I have to find a way to make it easier on myself
• I hate giving bad marks
• ESL is not my favourite course to teach
• I like when the students get excited about doing presentations (if only they could mark them for me as well)
• the students are very set on going to Ontario to go to school, I will somehow convince at least one to head to the West or the East coast!
• I have mostly learned that I have no idea what I am doing, and I am learning every day.  I'm not exactly sure what the year doing my Bachelor of Education taught me, but trial and error is what is keeping me going.  
• There are little to no resources here for you to look at, guide you or help you in any way make your curriculum.  I have the other English teacher for guidance (I'm sure he is ready to throw me off a cliff with my millions of questions...).

I love teaching. I love the students and I really like my co-workers. I'm learning every day. What could be better than that?

This particular blog was inspired by this video, you should watch it, it is inspirational...

"What I've Learned" by Aja Monet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8byI76vKZwg&feature=related

Hangzhou

WOW! What a trip.  We just arrived back after spending three days in Hangzhou, China, the capital city of the province we live in.  It is currently the Autumn Festival in China, so a lot of people have this week off.  You can imagine, in a country with billions of people, all having the same week off, adds to the insanity of being a tourist.
So why would we choose to travel on one of the busiest weeks and to one of the busiest cities in the province? We are crazy I guess! This was three days of firsts.  First, I took a train! I cannot remember if I have ever taken a train before, regardless, I have definitely not taken one in China.  Thank goodness our co-workers were going on this trip with us because I would have had no idea what I was doing.




Purchasing a train ticket is pretty impossible in Jinhua without having someone who speaks Chinese either go with you to the train station, or we were lucky enough to have our secretary, Harriett purchase it for us.  It was a pretty big realization that travelling alone in this country is challenging and constantly pushing your comfort zone. I was reminded of this when we were heading home from Hangzhou and I could NOT find my train ticket.  I had the one to arrive in Hangzhou, but not the one to get home.  Solomon, Terrance and Colleen were the most calm, supportive people I could have had with me.  After some freaking out, getting a little shakey, and finally finding it in my bag we made the train just in time.  I have no idea what I would have done, on a National Holiday, no idea where to purchase train tickets and in a strange city.  I'm getting stressed just thinking about it!

We arrived at our hostel with relative ease. Hangzhou has some tourist information booths where people speak English.  This is not a luxury we have in Jinhua.  I was actually surprised we made it so quickly.  After finding a bus, being held "hostage" by the driver because someone did not pay to get on, and a bit of walking we found The Four Eyes Hostel.

Colleen and I shared a luxurious one bedroom and to our surprise only found one cockroach looking bug. While eating at the "Western Bar" the bartender killed, with the  help of the menu, the other cockroach that we saw on this vacation. 

Another animal that is notable to mention is this freaky looking cat. Seriously, this thing came near me EVERY time I sat down.  You can't really tell from the photo but this poor cat has open wounds, a growth on its belly, and is generally looking like a walking disease.  People pet these things, feed them and generally keep them in a state of manginess.  Normally I can at least tolerate cats, however, this one really freaked me out. 

There are plenty of photo's I could add to this blog, but I would be writing for days about everything we saw and did.  The main attraction in Hangzhou is West Lake.  It is beautiful, and has thousands of people walking around it.  The city itself is full of Western amenities that are not so available in Jinhua, including cheese.  We took in the night life, ate some great food and generally had a wonderful time.  I am happy that Solomon and Terrance were able to show us around as they have been there a few times prior. We went to a temple, were locked in for being in a place we shouldn't have been, walked more than I think I ever have, went to the market (INSANE!) and generally took in the city.  I hope you enjoy some of the photo's.  Until next time....