First Teaching Re-cap of 2011!

(I saved the best for last in this blog post. Just be patient!)

This first week of classes went great! I actually have 3 of Stan’s classes from last semester! I didn’t know until I got there because… well, I can’t read much Chinese these days. So when I got to class and recognized the students, I was actually a bit afraid because I thought, “Oh no! I’ve got to think of something new to do for this first day because these students have already heard this class on their first day last semester.” But, thankfully they were Stan’s students and although they knew me, they hadn’t heard this class nor seen the pictures I would show them. They loved seeing the power point of pictures of my parents, sisters, and my husband. The moment his face was on the screen, they laughed because they obviously know him, haha! They also loved seeing pictures of my new nephew Lucas! And they laughed when I told them his name too. At first I didn’t understand why they laughed and I just let it go because sometimes it’s more work than it’s worth to get an answer out of the students. But I eventually asked one of the classes and they said that there is a famous movie star couple in Hong Kong who named their new-born baby Lucas. Apparently it’s very common for the parents in Hong Kong to give their children a Chinese and English name. And the Lucas in Hong Kong was just recently born as well, so they found it funny!

(Really... I mean it! Just keep reading. The best is yet to come!)

Anyway, after introducing my family, I gave the students a task to do. I told them to tell me two things. 1. Tell me your English name. 2. If you could be an animal or a color what would you be and why? Thankfully, they found the humor in this and we had a fun time listening to all the students answers. I just now realized I didn’t tell them what I would choose. Now, I don’t really know what I would choose... but I sure didn’t tell them! haha! Anyway, it was funny to me that there was an overwhelming majority of students who chose 1 of 4 things. They chose the color blue, a bird, or a fish. The reason for all of these was because the sea and sky is blue and they are free. The bird and fish are full of freedom and can do anything they like. Now I don’t wanna read too much into this, but it WAS most of the students. I don’t know if a lot of them feel trapped by their parents, or schoolwork, or their country (unlikely). Whatever it is, they have this need to feel free because they presently don’t feel it. The fourth most popular thing that the students chose was the color red. Red is ALL over China. It is a symbol of pride for their country, and that's the reason they gave for choosing this color. I have nothing to make of it, other than they are proud of their country!

My favorite part of this blog post!!

Also, on the first day I normally ask the class if they all have English names. They choose these names for themselves or ask someone to give them an English name. If they do not have an English name, they have the choice to choose one by the end of class or by the next week. Most of my students already had one. Here are some of my favorites:

Holiday, Celery, Vaccine, Peel, and Mess, YYT, Calcever, Lento, Luffy, (This comes from a Japanese video game character) Mercury, Raining (yes that’s right. As in falling from the sky) Love (boy), Voodoo (He didn't know what it meant and when I asked him if he wanted me to tell him what it meant, he said, "No I just want to have this name" and continued to talk) Duck (because she likes ducks), Egg (This girl actually thought it was funny that she named herself Egg, when most of them don’t), Milk (she thought it was completely normal to name herself a beverage) Ehome, Lonoy, Fisher, Mount, Lovydan (pronounced with a silent “v”).

I love Mess. The person and the fact that he named himself this. He's a quiet, nice boy who didn't seem to understand why I found it humorous he named himself this. *sigh* Oh well... Some of these, I have no idea where they came from, but they sure are funny!

I hope you enjoyed reading all the crazy names my students (and some of Stan’s previous students) chose! I sure did! Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Back to Business!

Before we left for our trip to Vietnam, we were given our schedules for this term's classes. This was surprising to us because in the past, we have been given our schedules the day before classes started. Along with our schedule, would be the books we were to use for the semester. Yes, a day, one day before we were to be teaching, we would receive the book - oh yeah, and we are to teach 70% of the book.

Yeah, so anyway we were given our schedules and here is mine:



What was more surprising about this schedule than the fact that they gave it to us so early was that is didn't change. When they gave it to us before the Holiday, I thought, "Ok, thanks. But this'll change." But it did not! And here we are...

Luckily, I have seen something like this long enough that I know what it means. "You know how to read that" you say? OH No! I just know what day is in what block, and I know that that number is the class number, and that number is what room I am in, etc. etc.

Also luckily, I am nice enough to translate for you. But I won't bore you with the details, I'll just let you know what days and time I am teaching. This semester I have it a little different than last semester. If you remember, I taught a lot of AV classes last semester, and that 1 pesky Culture class. But this time, I only have Oral English. This means it is much less stressful on me because I have to do only one lesson plan a week, as opposed to the prior 4 lesson plans a week. (Yes, I was pulling my hair out, but I've moved on) :)

Alright, so here we go:

Monday: Nada
Tuesday: Nada
Wednesday: 8:00-11:35 (lunch break!) 1:30-4:45
Thursday: 10:00-11:35 (lunch break!) 1:30-3:05 (dinner break!) 6:00-7:30
Friday: Nada... until the 12th week. (8:00-9:35)

For the last 6 weeks of school, I must double up on some classes. "Why" you ask? Oh, ok I'll tell you. I have absolutely no idea! That's just the way it is. I have to teach 2 different classes 3 more times than regular. Weeks 12-14 I am doubling up on one class and weeks 15-17 I am doubling up on another. No reason has been given to me, and I don't really mind... just doesn't make sense. So, from May 8th, (Mother's Day) on to the rest of the semester I will be teaching Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

The cool thing about this semester is that mine and Stan's schedule is pretty close together. He teaches mostly on Wednesdays and Thursdays too! He has two classes on Mondays, but that's pretty much the only difference! So, that's pretty cool!

We've learned a lot from last year and last semester, and we're happy to put it into practice! Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Vietnamenglish

Yes, that's right my friends. It's Vietnamenglish time. I know the suspense is just killing you. Really, I know. Because this is the blog of your lifetime. You've been waiting for a long time now, and didn't even know it. Ok, for real now...

There were some signs we came across while in Vietnam that resembled some signs we have seen in China. However, I was able to tell a difference in their English because of their first language. Learning languages is so interesting and I love learning Chinese. Yes it is very difficult at times, but fun and challenging! We also tried to learn some Vietnamese while we were down there! I didn't get very many pictures, but I hope you enjoy them all!!


I thought the child was supposed to be in the car...


Steralzed?


This might have been a typo, but it's still funny!






This is supposed to say "Gucci"



**Disclaimer** The purpose of these Chinglish blogs is purely for fun. The purpose is in no way to make fun of the Chinese language. I feel some comments in the past have led some people to believe I think the Chinese language is not as good as English. I believe no such thing! Me and my friends see the differences in culture and appreciate them, meanwhile they are funny and ironic. I hope these blogs do not offend any people of any culture. :) Thanks for reading and I love you all!

Vietnam!

Hello friends! It’s quite difficult to write one blog about the entire month we spent in Vietnam. I tried to blog as much as I could, but some things I just left out. I will try to fill in the gaps here. We began our journey on a plane to Nanning on January 9th.

Sorry, the picture is a little blurry...


This city is in the southern part of China. Last year when we arrived in Nanning we were able to shed a few layers and be much more comfortable than we were in Hangzhou! This year was quite different. It. Was. Cold.! The bad part was, we were preparing for warmer weather on previous experiences of it being warmer! We weren’t wearing enough clothes. (or “closes” as my students like to pronounce it. ☺ ) Pause! At this point in the trip my sister had a baby! My mom texted me this picture on Words with friends:




And we got to talk to Elise before she had the baby!

You might have already seen pictures, but here he is: Lucas Lee McLemore!!



Anyway, we got our visas (30 day visas) to go down to Vietnam from Nanning and got on a bus! We made the 8 hour trip down to Ha Noi, Vietnam. It was still cold. We had reservations at a hostel in this city and made our way there, hoping to find warmth. We got to the hostel and we were shown our room. We asked for the heat to be turned on. The reply? “No heat. [pointing to the bed] Just blankets. Very warm.” Ok, so Kevin got under the covers to try it out. The beds themselves were freezing and it did not look promising to have a restful, warm night. So, we decided to hightail it out of there. We paid for half of the room (a whopping $2 a person) and scheduled a bus for the next city south. We decided it would be better to be cold on a bus all night heading somewhere warmer than to be cold and not going somewhere warmer!
And it WAS cold on the bus, as evidenced by Stan's pea pod look. lol



We made our way down, bus by bus stopping in each city to change buses. We left Nanning, AND Ha Noi on the same day. So starting on Tuesday, January 11th at 8:00 AM until Thursday (2 days later) at 2:00 PM we were on buses. They were sleeper buses the whole way. No showers, same clothes and cold. We finally arrived to warmer weather at our last stop: Muine! It was so nice to be sweating after being sooooo cold for about 4 days straight with no relief!

I started writing those couple of blogs while we were in Muine. We had originally planned to stay at the same place we stayed last year, Hong Di. But when we got to the place, the lady in charge had bumped up the prices on the rooms because she added flat screen TVs. On top of that, the only rooms she had available were the ones that face the street, no bungalows. I know, I know, it sounds like I’m complaining we got to go to the beach, but couldn’t have the best room. But we knew we could get that, we would just have to look around. So we stayed there for 2 nights while we looked for a cheaper place to stay. We found a place that was a little cheaper, and had more perks: We got a bungalow which was only 40 steps from the beach and the people were much nicer! We loved them! The new place was called Hiep Hoa. “Hiep” and “Hoa” were two people’s names. They were joint owners of the hotel.

This was our little bungalow! It's connected to some other rooms above us, so there's the staircase to the right of our bungalow.


The second to last day we were at the beach, was the 9th of February. We were swimming in the ocean and Stan said, “ We are staying here for a month, and our visas are only for one month, and it took 2 days to get down here. AND, we still have 2 more days before we go back to China.” We couldn’t remember what day we had arrived in Vietnam. So we went and looked at our passports. We had arrived in Vietnam on February 11th, and we were planning on leaving on the 11th of January. Our reason for leaving on January 11th was because that’s when we could find the cheapest flight out! So it worked out perfectly!! And obviously we didn't end up staying there for a whole month. Just so you know we aren't complete idiots when it comes to math. :)

Here are a few pictures of our journey! Enjoy!

These kids were playing "Chicken" on this palm tree. It was funny!



We found this gold mine shack restaurant right on the beach. They sold any kind of sea food you wanted, but our favorite was the scallops!



Stan is obviously posing for the picture, but this is where he stayed most of the time. He didn't care anything about getting a tan. :)



This little girl was one our friends at a restaurant we passed every night while walking. We got to be pretty good friends, as you can tell. She's sitting in my lap and she thought it was so cool that she could see herself in my phone camera. Haha!



Isn't she just beautiful!?



Then Stan went kite surfing! That's his instructor, Vanessa. She was from some remote Island in the Caribbean or something like that. She was pretty cool anyway.



Just learning how to do it. There are some boring parts to it.



But then it's fun! You may not be able to see it, but that's Stan out there!


I had to get a close up of the action. This is him coming back up the beach after he went out!


And then I got this really cool Vietnamese style purse. I bought it for my birthday! :)



I have sooooo many more pictures, but I'm planning on uploading those to facebook soon! This was just a sneak peak! Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Chuck E. Cheese

February 10th is a day when in the past, me and Stan have celebrated our first date. We went to Chuck E Cheese! And it was so fun! That has been a tradition of ours for years. Last year we didn't get to celebrate this tradition because #1: We were no where near a Chuck E Cheese, and #2: We were traveling. Such is the case this year. Actually, on the 10th we will be on a bus for a good part of the day. It's coming up soon, and it got me thinking. I start off with that situation because it is the closest one to us right now. There have been many traditions which have been broken during our time in China. For example, all the things we usually do in the Fall, we didn't do. At Thanksgiving, we weren't around our family like we normally are. We didn't have all the Thanksgiving foods we are used to having because everyone pitched in and cooked something different. We didn't have our traditional Christmas the way we do in the States. We didn't eat what we traditionally eat on Christmas. We weren't even in America. Stan's parents came, but for the past 2 years, I haven't seen my family on Christmas. I am not complaining by any means. Now that I re-read that, it sounds like I am. I am just hoping to drive the point home to you that my life of tradition has been challenged, and I think, for the better! My reason for writing about tradition is because a lot of people hold on to it, dearly, as if it would kill them to let it go. No, it's not fun to be away from family and tradition, but that's not what this is about. Whether it be in church, holidays, or family functions, people dearly hold on to tradition. I think it's a shame actually, because I've learned that you don't need it. It has helped keep me open minded about life in general. I'm not saying you should forget all the traditions your church or family has. In fact, I'm not saying your should do anything at all. This is just me thinking out loud.

We've been able to do some traditions still, but because we have not gotten to do some of them hasn't turned our world upside down. Sometimes we made new traditions, and at times we've just lived together and loved each other, and did what was best or felt right (considering the circumstances). Too many people hold so tight to tradition that it becomes more important than the people around them. That's why I think it is a shame. I am not saying I have a better understanding about this than anyone else. I just have a different understanding because of my personal experiences. And like I said, I'm not saying you should do anything or think a certain way. You can disagree if you like, but before you do, come to China for 2 years. ;) (winking emoticon: symbolizing sarcasm, if you didn't know) Anyway, I just wanted to log that in the "Things I've learned on this adventure" category. I just want you to know I didn't write this blog for people to comment things like, "I'm so sorry you don't get to keep your traditions" and the like. That's the complete opposite of what I want. haha! Well, that's all I've got! Thanks for listening! I love you all!

Thuong

I am wondering what you are thinking about the title of this blog post. Is it the name of a city? Is it a misspelled word? Is it a typo? Is it the sound of a sneeze? It is none of the above my friends. It is someone's name. This name is pronounced like the English word "tongue", except you put more emphasis in the word, which I cannot show you by writing in a blog post. So, that will have to do.

Anyway... this name belongs to a girl we met, along with her friend, Phi, pronounced like the English word "fee". We met these girls as we were walking to dinner. They invited us to come into their restaurant, but we never did because we always had something else in mind to eat that night. We would just stop and talk to them, and one night we finally did eat there. One night when we stopped to say hello, Thuong invited us to her house to eat. We set a date to come and that day was yesterday. We started off at 9:00 AM. She met us at the restaurant and we rode to her house on motor bikes. We came to find out later she had left her house that morning at 7:30 just to come pick us up at the restaurant, and then went all the way back! So, Thuong took us to Phi's house and we ate fruit there and met her family. All of the neighborhood kids were running around trying to get a better look at the foreigners! This is a picture of the neighbors house, which looked the same as Phi's house.



After we ate, Phi took us to a market and then we met some of her neighbors. She showed us her family's farm and it was all very beautiful! By the time 12:00 rolled around, we were told by Thuong that now we are going to go visit her family. So we set off to meet Thuong's family. We met her brothers and her parents, and ate lunch with them. Here is a picture of the scenery around her house.




We ate what is considered a really nice Vietnamese meal that her parent's cooked for us. We ate vegetables and meat and fat wrapped in rice paper. It was really good, and spicy! We also learned that Vietnamese people eat from the floor. We all sat down and had our bowls in front of us on the floor and ate merrily! It was very good and an interesting experience. I, of course made a mess of my area and her parents thought it was hilarious because I was making fun of myself the whole time for not doing it the right way. It was a hoot! At one point some food flew out of my mouth and onto the floor, it was pretty funny!

Anyway, after lunch, we all helped clean up (which didn't take much because we just swept and mopped and it was done!) I had to use the bathroom, so I asked to use the W.C. Thuong had asked a friend of hers to come over for lunch, so when I asked about the W.C., Thuong looked at her friend and kind of looked embarrassed. Stan said quickly, "It's just a hole out back. You'll have to get your shoes." Thuong's English isn't the best, so speaking fast makes it difficult for her to understand. That's why he spoke quickly, so I could understand what was about to happen, and it wouldn't embarrass her. I told her I could find it and went outside. I went out back, where all the dragon fruit plants were and found her mother. I made the "I have to pee" face and stance. Mama motioned for me to go pee back where there is more coverage and I wouldn't be seen. So, I just found an area where no one might see me, and used the facilities right there in broad daylight. Oh yeah, no toilet paper... I had to rummage around and find a leaf. I was pretty proud of myself! So, after I was finished I was thinking, "I didn't even see a whole... there must be some sort of miscommunication going on." Obviously. I don't speak Vietnamese and Thuong's mother doesn't speak English. So... anyway, after lunch we "took a break" before the next thing Thuong had planned for us to do. Stan tried to fight off the sleep (really, we all did after that big meal) and Thuong's father brought this out for Stan.


He was gone! Got a quick power nap in!

So, Thuong took us around to meet the rest of her family after we rested. All of her family lives on the same street. Stan was telling her it feels like home because in the country in America, it's the same thing. Her family was oh so nice and was constantly offering us things to eat. The food was sooooo good! But our stomaches just couldn't take anymore! So we kindly declined some of the food, and Thuong helped us by explaining to them we had eaten all day! After visiting with her family, she told us we should make our way back to our hotel because after night fall, we might not be able to remember our way back. haha, so she decided for us. That's Asia!

I had to go to the bathroom again, (I wish girls had the bigger bladders, not boys!) so I psyched myself up for the bathroom situation again, and made my way out back. Thuong followed me to show me the way this time. She pointed to a small out house in the opposite direction I had used the bathroom before. I still don't know why Mama pointed me in that direction before. I had clearly used my body language in the right way. :) Anyway, the outhouse was the hole Stan spoke of. It still had no paper, so I had to go searching for leaves again. I am woman, hear me roar! After that, we got on the bikes and got back to the hotel safely.

All in all, it was a fun trip! We were tired by the end of the day and I went to sleep pretty early! I'm glad we've made these friends. They are so sweet and we are grateful to have met them! There's so much I could write about, but it would be a super long blog post and this one is long as it is! So I tried to shrink it down to a short story for ya! Well that's all I've got! Thanks for reading! I love you all!